Hey friends! Today and probably will be a little bit of radio silence. I found out today that my beloved home, the Great Movie Ride, is closing in only a month. I have worked there for nearly four years and have truly loved it, so I’m having a lot of trouble wrestling with the idea of its sudden closure. In the next few weeks I’m going to have to prepare for the close, find a new work location, and take my final bows as Kate Durango and Mugsi Toccata. I’m a stubborn and resilient human, and I’m sure I’ll be fine and ready to chase my new dream soon, but right now I need to take a little time to grieve. I’ll be back soon! Any kind words and encouragement are super welcome right now.
Author Archives: themetaphorgirl
Coraline
I wanted a simple Halloween costume to wear while I handed out candy, and I’m not even going to lie, I really wanted to include my cat. Luckily, I found all of the pieces for Coraline lying around my house (and also my sister’s cosplay closet).
The sweater was a Forever 21 find on eBay. Sure, it also has airplanes in the print, but it was close enough to Coraline’s star sweater! The jeans were just comfy jeggings (I was sitting around the house watching Hocus Pocus in between handing out candy; I wanted to be comfortable) and the boots are my actual rainboots from Target. The raincoat was also a lucky find at Target and I wore it until the day Hiccup peed on it. Because of course he didn’t pee on the water repellant outside, he peed on the fabric lining. It’s a good thing he’s cute.
The blue wig was in my sister’s wig storage and did not get any real styling done at all. I don’t think I even wore a wig cap with it, but really, this wasn’t a fancy costume. But it sure did look pretty cute for Halloween!
Book Review: Where She Went by Gayle Forman
Where She Went by Gayle Forman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Oh man, this book gutted me. I’ve read If I Stay several times and loved it, even though on occasion I felt like I was reading a path that had already been covered. Where She Went felt like brand new territory. Seeing everything from the point of view of Mia’s angry, bitter, vulnerable, unlikeable and somehow lovable ex boyfriend not only made for a compelling story, it shed brand new light on everything that happened in the previous book and made it seem that more poignant and believable. Now that I’ve read both books, I don’t think I’ll be able to read them separately. The two together make for one solid story and I will absolutely enjoy reading them again.
Ariel’s Blue Dress from The Little Mermaid
So confession time: I didn’t see The Little Mermaid until I was fifteen years old. Sad, isn’t it? I grew up in a very strict religious household and Little Mermaid had three strikes- Disney, witches, and bikini tops. So I didn’t see it until a friend let me borrow her VHS tape sophomore year and I watched it like a million times in one week. I fell in love with the movie in general, but I really wanted her blue dress. It was so sweet and dreamy (and that bow was killer!)
My senior year of college, I decided I wanted to bring that dress to life. And for some reason I decided to make it without a pattern. Why, I’ll never know, but oh well.
The hardest part was matching the colors. Sometimes her blouse looks white, sometimes light blue- I decided to go with light blue. I found the most magical sky blue cotton sateen and bought a bunch of it. The skirt, though, was a harder find, since the blue is just a shade or two off from the blouse color. I ended up buying a royal blue organza to layer over the cotton sateen, making it just a little bit darker and also adding a little bit more of a princess feel. For the bodice, I bought a navy blue suede and used some navy blue cotton in my stash for a lining.
The blouse was easy. I used McCall’s 4948, their Alice in Wonderland pattern, but cut the neckline at a deeper scoop and eliminated the collar. I also took some width out of the sleeves and lengthened them, then added an elasticized cuff. The blouse pulls right on, so no closure. Super easy!
The bodice…not so easy. For some unknown reason, I decided to cut the navy suede into multiple rectangular panels and then take it in to fit. Somehow…it worked. It wasn’t necessarily the most perfect construction, but it worked, right down to the notch at the top of the bodice. I didn’t want to invest a lot of time and money into making the bodice perfect (obviously) so instead of using punched metal eyelets, I used eyes from hooks and eyes and threaded the eyes with narrow blue ribbon. It wasn’t fancy, but it worked!
The skirt was constructed as a very full dirndl skirt. I cut the panels as rectangles and sewed them up in three separate layers- white muslin trimmed in narrow eyelet, the sky blue cotton sateen, and the royal blue organza. Then I stitched the layers together at the top and pleated them onto a waistband made of the same blue suede as the bodice, so it blended nicely. I didn’t use a zipper, just a large hook and eye, since the bottom of the bodice covered the waistband.
The bow was the final touch. Ariel’s bow is very large and very poofy, so I used the cotton sateen and literally stuffed it like a little pillow ! I added tails and stitched the whole thing to a comb that slid right into my hair.
I only wore the outfit once- weirdly enough, to a rehearsal. My university was performing the musical Guys and Dolls (I played General Cartwright) and they scheduled a rehearsal for the night of Halloween. They felt sorry for us, so they let us dress up in our Halloween costumes. So I showed up in full Ariel regalia, complete with Flounder and Sebastian!
Recently, a friend of mine needed a Halloween costume for Not So Scary, so I took in the sides of the bodice and took in the waistband and let her borrow it! It looks super cute on her.
I’d like to go back and remake this costume- at least a new bodice and a new waistband. Maybe I’ll get around to it someday!
Anna Kyoyama from Shaman King
Full disclosure- this is not the first time I attempted this cosplay. No, the first attempt happened when I was a little weeaboo attending her first con (where I had a terrible time). The dress was ill fitting, my makeup was bizarre, and it was raining heavily so my hair was an absolute wreck. It was…not good.
Since then, I’ve mostly outgrown my anime phase. But I still have some fondness for certain shows and certain characters. Shaman King and Anna Kyoyama are prime examples. I still have a special spot in my heart for that show and that character. So when I needed to come up with a quick and simple cosplay for Akaicon 2016, I decided to give Anna another try.
Anna’s standard outfit is very simple- black dress, red scarf (sometimes worn as a bandana), and sandals. She also wears a blue bead bracelet and a white bead rosary. The beads were the easiest- I’d gotten those together for my first version of the costume and still had them in storage. They were both purchased at Claire’s; the rosary was completed with a wooden bead painted gold and a maroon tassel from the home decor section of Joann’s. The red scarf was the sash taken from my Kristoff genderbent cosplay.
Since I was on a time crunch, I pulled the shoes from my own closet. My Blowfish Garens don’t get a lot of love- I don’t wear heels very often- but they really are surprisingly comfortable! Sure, they’re not exactly like Anna’s slide style sandals, but they worked in a pinch.
The dress was ordered off of Poshmark. Anna’s dress is deceptively simple, but the skirt is definitely flared, so I scoured all my usual haunts for a possible contender- eBay, Amazon, Modcloth, Forever 21. On Poshmark I discovered this super cute scuba knit dress from Boohoo with the tags still on, got a great deal on it, and it arrived just in time! It’s slightly too big at the top, so I’m planning to take it in a little (when I remember, which, let’s be honest, I don’t until I pull the dress out of my closet to wear again).
I opted to go without a wig, which, yeah…usually a cosplay no-no. But this was such a simple costume and I was pretty much only wearing it on Sunday for closing ceremonies, so I didn’t mind too much!
Plus I got some pretty cute pictures with the Akaicon mascot, Jackie (who just so happens to be my sister).
Dapper Day Wendy Darling
Oh lord. This dress. This dress nearly killed me.
So for starters, my sister and a bunch of her friends were visiting for Dapper Day, and we decided to do a big Dapper Day Peter Pan squad. I was unanimously chosen as Wendy (because really, have you met me? I’m a Wendy.) I planned my outfit pretty quickly- a sky blue lace dress with a blue sash. Nice and simple, right?
Wrong. I procrastinated. I waited until literally the night before. Oh, and guess what else was also the night before? My first 10k. I was running the inaugural Disney Star Wars Dark Side 10k race, and for some reason I decided to procrastinate.
I used Vogue 2960, which is a vintage reprint pattern, and I’ve used it before to make my Ellie Frederickson dress. I did the same alterations- I cut the front pieces on the fold so that the dress could zip up the back instead of button up the front. I adjusted the shoulders. I checked all my measurements. I cut the pieces from a sky blue lace and a sky blue cotton and had sky blue bias tape to hem the edges.
Yet somehow, when I sewed the skirt (a gathered dirndl), somehow the bodice was DRASTICALLY longer in the back, making the whole thing droop and making the skirt hang too low. I was devastated. I honestly could not figure out what was going wrong with this stupid thing. And by then it was around nine at night, and I needed to be up at 3 am to run the 10k.
Luckily my friend Kimberly stepped in and offered to do some work on the dress and to finish the sash. I cried my way home (did I also mention I put myself into a panic-induced asthma attack? I’m a quality human.) carboloaded with some pasta from Panera, and crashed.
Somehow, though, I dragged myself out of bed, got to the race, and did a fairly respectable job! My time wasn’t great but it wasn’t terrible, and I felt pretty good about things. When everything was over I drove to where my sister and her friends were staying at the Caribbean Beach resort, showered, and wrestled into this stupid dress. I had preemptively packed my Rapunzel Dapper Day dress from the year before and picked up a blue ribbon as a backup sash,but magically the Wendy dress was wearable! Kimberly had done some magic to raise the waistline in the back and finish the sash. It still wasn’t perfect, but it was going to work, and that’s all that really mattered.
I clipped my beloved cheap eBay weave into my hair and my sister’s friend Torrance styled it into a nice half up-half down for me, and I added my Wendy bow from Ever After Bowtique. I wore black ballet flats from the kid’s section of Target (I wasn’t even going to try with heels) and wore my thimble necklace from Whosits and Whatsits.
Somehow I survived the entire day walking around. I don’t know how. My friends were like “do you want a wheelchair? We can totally push you in a wheelchair” and I was like “I AM STUBBORN I WILL WALK.” I ended up walking 38,000+ steps that day between the race, Epcot, and Magic Kingdom.
And then I crashed. I crashed so hard.
At least I looked cute, right?
(And here’s a closeup of my bow!)
Ready When You Are, CB! My Performances on the Great Movie Ride
I fell in love with the Great Movie Ride at Disney’s Hollywood Studios when I was fifteen years old and went on my second Disney trip (I hadn’t been since I was five!) Who knew that I would start working there as an adult?
I originally trained at the Great Movie Ride as a participant in the Disney College Program. I was only eighteen years old and it was my first job ever (and my first time away from home). It was a huge undertaking, but I loved it so much. In fact, I loved it so much that when I came back to Disney as a part timer, I immediately signed up to cross train there again (I was originally placed at Star Tours.)
I trained for the second time in March of 2014, and have been there ever since. In the past three year and half years (thereabouts) I’ve done probably thousands of shows as a tour guide, a gangster, and a bandit. And within those thousands of shows, I’ve gotten filmed and photographed probably hundreds of times. Sometimes they even pop up on YouTube. It’s a little weird, but kind of cool at the same time!
This is my original tour guide show, before the Turner Classic Movies update. I’ve got to say I miss it! It was a LOT of script to memorize, but I did really love it.
Here’s my tour guide show again, this time after the Turner Classic Movies update. (I also just have to say that it’s always so strange to hear my voice over the vehicle mic! I’ve been compared to Minnie Mouse and Snow White before. And one time a kid just asked “do they pay you to sound like that?” Thanks, kid.)
This is the first video I found of my gangster show! I was gangster trained about a year after returning to the Great Movie Ride. It really was a dream come true- but let’s be honest, it’s super tiring. That’s what happens with you run up and down stairs in heels while firing a gun (and you repeat it every eight to nine minutes).
I trained in bandit about a year and a half after gangster, and it’s SO much fun. The stage show is terrifyingly quick, but still- a lot of fun.
Here’s another take of my bandit show! (Also you can hear me hollering at people. It sucks, but when people don’t sit down or take flash photos, you have to call them out!)
I absolutely love working at the Great Movie Ride (as you can probably tell). I think I have some more videos of my gangster show somewhere, and in a box somewhere I definitely have a video of my very first tour guide show when I was a teenager!
Do you have any questions about the Great Movie Ride or about a job at Disney? Leave your comments below, and I’ll answer them in an upcoming post or a video!
Makeup Review: Wet ‘n’ Wild Liquid Catsuit
I’ve heard a lot about the Wet ‘n’ Wild Liquid Catsuit liquid lipsticks over the past couple of months, and when they popped up on sale at Target I decided to bite the bullet and try them out. Truth be told, I’m not a huge fan of liquid lipsticks, but they’re incredibly practical for work. When I’m in characters, I sweat like crazy, plus I’m constantly chugging water. When I’m in gangster, I have interference from my Britney Spears mic, and in bandit I wear a bandana over my mouth that gets tugged down. So you can see why I have to have lip colors that won’t smear on me.
I picked up two shades, Give Me Mocha (a warm brown with a hint of rose) and Missy and Fierce (a bright true red). The more neutral color is for bandit, and the vampy red for gangster- I like matching my makeup to my costume.
The tubes are a good size- not too big, not too small- and hold a good amount of product. The applicator feels like a doefoot, but with a little more give to it. Definitely easy to apply (for a liquid lipstick) and easy to control.
The first color I tried was Give Me Mocha. It needed a few swipes before my lips were fully filled in- the color was patchy with just one layer- but with a second it was perfect. The texture was a little tacky for the first few minutes, but dried down pretty quickly and was surprisingly comfortable. I did notice a little flaking throughout the day, but I was able to wear the lip color from the time work started at 9:30 all the way until I got home around seven. Ordinarily I probably would have touched up my color after work, but since this was a test run, I left it alone and still wasn’t completely embarrassed to leave it on my face! I was really impressed that there was absolutely no color transfer onto my bandana, even though it was dragged over my mouth at least twenty times during the day.
I tried Missy and Fierce for my next gangster shift. (I’ve also decided that Missy and Fierce will be the name of my next bluegrass duo band). This time the color went on in a single layer with no patchiness- and most notably, no bleeding around my mouth. However, it did wear off more than Give Me Mocha did. After lunch, the inner corners of my mouth were completely colorless. At least no one could see that unless I opened my mouth really wide!
All in all I would give the Wet ‘n’ Wild Liquid Catsuit lipsticks a 5/5! The formula is incredibly comfortable, the wear is good enough (I personally don’t mind reapplying after a meal), and the colors are beautiful. Plus, at $5 and easy to find in most stores, it’s a steal!
(also, if anyone has a suggestion for an eyeliner that won’t smudge, I will give you my first born child in exchange.)
Princess Eilonwy from The Black Cauldron
So few people remember Eilonwy. It’s sad, but true. The Black Cauldron came out in 1985 and it wasn’t well-received then, and it hasn’t become a cult classic. As a sixth grader I read all of the books and loved them, and was honestly kind of disappointed in the movie. But I still loved Eilonwy, so she popped to mind when I was planning for my first Not So Scary party of the year in 2015!
I started with Simplicity’s saloon girl pattern, 2851 (now out of print) for the bodice. I’d used it once when making my short Snow White dress and thought it would be a good match. I used a sturdy black broadcloth and used red single fold bias tape for the detailing. The sleeves were from a cream cotton and I honestly can’t even tell you what pattern I used. What I can say…is that something went horribly wrong. I still can’t even describe it. One sleeve went on perfectly. The other sleeve turned out to be a demon from hell. No matter what I did, the sleeve was twisted and it made that side of the bodice twisted. I let the sleeve out, I took the sleeve in, I cut down the armscye, I cut down the shoulder…it would. not. work. It was literally an hour before I was supposed to leave, and the damn thing was unwearable. So what did I do? I ran across the street to Walmart, bought a boy’s black tee shirt and new bias tape, cut the shirt into the proper shape, stitched on bias tape, attached the sleeves from the old bodice, and bam! Wearable Eilonwy. It wasn’t fantastic, but it worked!
The skirt, luckily, was much easier. I cut and sewed pale pink cotton into a dirndl skirt layer (with pockets) and then used a rose colored fabric cut into a circle panel over the top, leaving about a two inch gap between the edges of the panel where it was sewn over the pale pink layer. I used the rose fabric to make a casing for an elastic waistband. It works fine, but the fabric is heavy enough to make the skirt slide when it’s worn. I’m either going to remake the waistband to make it fasten with hooks and eyes, or, when I remake the bodice, add snaps so that the skirt can snap into the bodice. Honestly, I’ll probably do both just to make sure they stay in place!
I didn’t want to wear a wig for this cosplay- I’ve only worn a wig once for Not So Scary and it was the WORST (thanks for being a swamp, Florida). I bought a set of super cheap extensions on eBay instead. Are they quite the right color? No, but they’re close enough, and I’m rather fond of my cheap eBay weave. I curled the rest of my hair and brushed my hair and the extensions together to blend them a little, and pinned a length of black trim from Joann’s around my head to look like Eilonwy’s black circlet.
My favorite part was the bauble! I bought a clear plastic Christmas ornament from Amazon Prime (and bought another one when the first one was too small, and then forgot to cancel my subscription so after the free trial I still had Prime, oops) and painted it with sparkly yellow acrylic craft paint. On the inside I wrapped a length of battery-operated Christmas lights with yellow tulle and put the whole thing inside the ornament. It was a little bit of a hassle to pop the ornament open and closed every time I wanted to use the lights, but it was worth it!
I brought back Eilonwy for Akaicon 2016 and ended up entering her in the cosplay competition. I didn’t win, but honestly I just wanted more experience with judging and walking in the contest before I entered it seriously. I had a lot of fun, and I’m planning my entry for Akaicon 2017 now!
My Akaicon 2017 Lineup
I do this to myself every year. Every year I swear I’m going to get a jumpstart on my cosplays for Akaicon, and every year I wait until a month before the con and think “oh…I should probably get started.” Procrastination is my way of life, I suppose.
At least I made my selections early on, so even though I’m leaving for the con on August 2nd (yikes!) I’m not trying to pick out cosplays at the last second. It’s a nice balance of cosplays that need minor work and bigger projects, so I’m feeling mostly confident that I can get everything done. Let’s get into it, shall we?
Eleven from Stranger Things
I put my Eleven cosplay together for last year’s con and loved it. It was so comfortable, but I was still immediately identifiable as Eleven. I also didn’t have to do much sewing for it either. While I’m not immediately planning to wear it at the con, I learned my first year how beneficial it is to have a back up cosplay for those days when a cosplay goes wrong or you just need to be comfortable.
General Leia from The Force Awakens
I already wore a version of this before, but never at a con. I made it very quickly, so the tunic could use some work, and I’ll probably make a brand new vest. It’s a simple cosplay, but since the con is sci-fi themed this year I’m anticipating a lot of Kylo Rens and Han Solos to take pictures with. I’ll probably wear this one on Friday to get things started.
Kiki from Kiki’s Delivery Service
I’ve had this cosplay in progress for absolutely ages. Right now the dress is mostly made; it just needs some finishing touches and it’ll be ready to go. I’ve already ordered the red bow, and I have the shoes, purse, and cat plush ready to go. This one will probably be Saturday night, after the cosplay competition when I’m tired and want to be comfortable.
Party Girl Kylo Ren from The Force Awakens
This is another cosplay that I planned for last year but never made. I’ve already purchased everything (including the wig and props) and all of the pieces for the dress are cut but never got around to constructing it. It’ll take a weekend of sewing, but I think I can manage it pretty easily. Party dresses are right in my wheelhouse.
Risqué Alice in Wonderland
This is one that I may or may not do, depending on time. Akai holds a risqué competition every year, and I’ve got a half made Alice cosplay that will never be finished because I cut the bodice wrong. I’ve been toying with the idea of turning it into a tearaway outfit and participating in risqué. I’m saving this project for last, in case I run out of time, so we’ll see how this one goes.
Historically Accurate(ish) Elsa from Frozen
This is it. This is the big one. I’ve entered the cosplay contest two years in a row without putting a lot of effort- I entered cosplays that I enjoyed more for the sake of getting feedback and getting the chance to walk across the stage. More like practice runs than actually competing. This year I’m determined to put my best foot forward, and my dream project is creating an Elsa cosplay that pulls from the correct time period (Frozen should be set between 1820s-1840s) and also draws from Brittney Lee’s concept art, as seen here. I want to make the ice gown as a softer, more historically accurate version. It still won’t be perfect- I’ll probably use zippers and I’m definitely not about to sew it by hand- but I have a specific look I’d like to achieve, and that includes making the proper layers of chemise, bloomers, petticoats, and stays.
So that’s my plan for Akaicon 2017! I feel like I’ll have just enough time to get it all done…as long as I start sewing right this second.
The Metaphor Girl 