So, I've been working on my new posing suit, finally. It's going remarkably well. I have one half of the top nearly done. I started with the hardest thing: the actual dragonfly. I think it turned out alright:( THESE PIX ARE OBSOLETE! SUIT IS COMPLETE! NEW PIX SHORTLY! )

The glue is surprisingly easy to use, though it dries very quickly - or perhaps BECAUSE it dries so quickly. If it gets on something, it becomes tacky right away and you can almost always rub it off. It comes off the hands almost like pie crust dough.

So far, I'm very happy with it. The most difficult part, I think, will be making the dragonfly on the other side mirror the one I've done already. It has to be in the same position on that triangle as this one is.....should be an adventure! Lol! But I'm really pleased with it so far!

EDIT: The suit is nearly finished! Just want to put some stones on the straps, once they're sewn at the size I want (they're pinned right now, but the pin-job it came with fit me very well when I was first coming out of a show, so I'm going to sew them right where they are), then a pattern for the top back, and it will be FINISHED! I can't entirely speak about how happy I am with this suit. It looks like a MUCH more expensive suit than what I spent.

Of course, there are a few places where I got glue on the fabric. *shrugs* I'm not a professional at this. BUT, no one is going to see it unless they have their face 12 inches from my chest, so - no one. Certainly none of the judges will be able to see such a thing from where they're sitting.

And, naturally, my second dragonfly isn't in PRECISELY the same location on left triangle as the one on the right. Again, it isn't bad enough that anyone's likely to notice, so I'm not going to let it spoil my joy. I'm really, REALLY pleased that it's gone so very well! I'll have new pix up if anyone's interested, and eventually, of course, I'll be small enough to fit in the suit again, and THOSE pix will be here AND on FB, I'm guessing. ;)

I'm having issues. I don't feel like DOING anything. I don't feel like doing laundry. (Though I have to, if I want to get packed to go to Ireland.) I don't feel like packing. (Though I have to, unless I intend to walk around Ireland nekkid. And I hear it's cold there.) I don't feel like going to work, and once I'm there I don't feel like DOING any work. It's a struggle to keep myself on task and not let my mind wander. It was easier last week, but only because I was both busy and miserable dealing with someone else's work while she was on vacation. :P

I don't feel like working on my posing suit. Which is sad, because the dress form is done, and I don't think it would take me too long to get the suit done if I'd just BEGIN.

I don't feel like cleaning, or going for a motorcycle ride. I don't feel like going to church. I don't feel like cooking or adhering to the diet.

And I don't feel like working out. I haven't done a single workout all week. I won't be able to on Friday at all, either, since it's Lynn's birthday. Which means I'll be doing one workout on Thursday night, and I might as well plan on spending all damned DAY Saturday at the gym. Posing practice at nine, and I'll just hang out until the place closes at 2pm, I guess. *sigh* But I don't feel like it. :P

Part of the problem is my legs are still sore. Another is that I'm having girl trouble (unusual for me) and lastly, my head is killing me, and I'm sick of all the stupid RAIN.

So, now that you all know my ridiculous reasons for basically being a lazy-ass, I think I'm going to go put the TV volume on low and watch an old Harry Potter movie. *snerk* Don't know if I'll get to see the new one until it comes out on DVD at this rate, but I might as well be prepared. Lol!

On Saturday, we finally got around to making the dress form. (More about Friday later.)

It was interesting, for certain. I think it might even work. Lol!

( See what you think! )

It sort of looks like a bad robocop costume. Once it was on, we cut it off, straight up the back, then taped it back together and now I need to fill it full of packing material - right now I'm trying peanuts, but the instructions call for batting, so I might have to give in and get some.

Overall, I think it will work well. :) I need to get it stuffed, so I can start working on the suit. I'd really like to have at least one dragonfly done before we leave for Ireland.....

Anyone want to change their poll response now that my trainer thinks he won't retire after all?

He's found a new specialist who deals with the sorts of problems he's been having. The man told him he doesn't have the disease they thought he had, but is instead suffering from the combined effects of agent orange from his tours in Vietnam and whatever chemical was used on the first Gulf War veterans (he's one of a small number of people who fought in both). The man thinks he can be helped dramatically by the installation of two pacemakers.....if it works, and the shaking and memory loss are helped by these procedures, he intends not to retire after all.

I'm so hopeful on his behalf - he has been struggling so much. :( It would truly be giving him back his life if this works.

Well, it's not looking good for the new figure suit. I e-mailed Amy to ask if she'd had a chance to design anything yet. We'd sent several e-mails back and forth during which I'd made it very, VERY clear on several occasions that I was able to spend $300.

Somehow, though, she has designed me a gorgeous suit for which she expects me to pay $450. This will not be happening. I don't know how I could have been any more clear. *sigh* I e-mailed her back to apologize for wasting her time. She didn't respond. I can taste the disappointment.

I'm wondering, now, if I couldn't just buy an undecorated suit and use her design to make the stonework myself. That feels .... sneaky? It wouldn't look as good as if it were professionally done, I'm sure. And heaven knows what I'd end up spending on the stones, but it might come out around $300......

I'm not sure how to proceed from here. I'm awfully disappointed about it.

( Sketch of Stonework )

EDIT: She says if she removes the scattered crystals and outside clusters, it can be a $300 suit.....but I told her it would look pretty bare without those outside clusters. I love what she did. I don't understand why she'd send me something to fall in love with that was outside the price range I indicated to her repeatedly. :(

EDIT 2: We may have found a compromise we can both live with. The dragonflies and center stonework stay. A connector piece is added between the triangles. The outside stonework goes. I called Lynn to tell him about it, and he said not to decide until Saturday, so I wrote her back to say we were in agreement on how it should turn out, but to hold off making it until I talked to my husband. An obvious ploy, of course, but one that I can't be talked out of. Lol! So, now I just have to wait the requisite amount of time, find out (Saturday morning) when my next show will be, and if the suit can be done in that amount of time, and then decide whether it's worth it to spend the money on a suit I may only wear once or twice more.....

Gosh, when I put it like that, it all seems kinda silly, doesn't it? *sigh* But I WANT it. Lol!

So, I have been wanting a new 2-piece figure suit for a few months now. I found one on e-bay that I've been considering bidding on. It's very pretty.



But the seller says she paid $700 for it and wore it only once, which means her reserve price is going to be around $400, and it'll likely go for close to 5, I'll bet. I'm just not prepared to shell out that kind of cash. Not even for a purple suit with really unique stone work.

So, I did what any American girl my age would do. I went to google and searched for figure suit designers. And I found Amy. Nice little website - compact, no frills. I'll bet she maintains it herself. She's located somewhere in Ohio, and her suit prices are ridiculously low, compared to industry standards. The suit I have now was not custom-designed. It was pre-fabricated triangles of crystals pressed onto the suit all in one swoop. The cut of the suit isn't that great either - but it IS typical of local suit-makers, so I didn't think anything of it.

Amy's suits are visually stunning, even the ones that don't have much stonework on them, and she sets the stones by hand. I contacted her and told her how much I wanted to spend, and she asked me to send her example pix of some stonework I liked. Nearly every design I found online that I liked was on a suit valued 3X what I'm willing to spend, but she didn't seem phased. She said she'd have a drawing for me by next Monday!

What I told her I'm looking for: Dark purple velvet halter top suit with a rio bottom. Crystal center setting to hold cups at a set distance (as opposed to the string that allows the cups to be shifted), and a unique, multi-colored stone pattern.

She was VERY quick to respond to all my e-mails, and very accommodating. I really hope this works out! So far she seems like a great person to do business with - and I'm well-established enough in this area that if everyone adores my suit, I think I'd be able to send her quite a bit of business.

What would be even better would be if I could sell the two one-piece suits I have on e-bay right now. Blue, never worn. Mint, well-loved. That would pretty much pay for the new one. If anyone knows anyone who might want to compete, maybe you could direct them towards one of these suits.

Sadly, they aren't for bathing, though they WOULD be adorable at the beach. Especially the dark one. ;)

What a fun time! :) For this show, there were seven of us, who all work out with the same trainer. Most of us hung out in Amy's hotel room for a few hours before hand. Here's a pic of all of us:


Taryn, Amy, (not sure of name), Brittany, Eryth, Me, Sharon

Before the show, we all stepped outside and took a few pictures out by the lake. Lynn purchased a new camera just for this, so we were trying it out. You know how it is when you first get a new camera, though. I think we trashed half the pictures due to strange color-temperatures. Lol! But there were a few good ones:

( picspam )

So, that's the first show of the year. In my class (30's, short) I took fourth place.....out of four girls. Lol! But it was still a lot of fun, and I'm already looking forward to the next one. :)

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I'm home! And I'm glad. Reno is not the place for me, it seems.

The hotels are antiquated, which was great. They shined the floors at 5AM every morning - which I know because I was on my way to the health club at that hour. :P But the casinos were full of cigarette smoke, to which I'm allergic, which made it difficult to spend any time in there. Also, I lost $40 gambling. I found that annoying.

We stayed at the Eldorado.

( more )

I skipped my workout tonight, and I had two bites of buffalo chicken dip (which includes cream cheese).

Consequently, I weigh a pound more than I ought to. This strikes me as painfully unfair, as I didn't have any corn chips with the dip, and I only had two little bites. And yet there is no denying that I weigh more today than yesterday.

*sigh*

My show is June 5th. Six weeks away. This weekend, I'll be at Leesburg Bike Fest. The plan? Take a LOT of tuna, made with Vegenaise instead of mayo. And protein shakes for breakfasts. I'll be home in time to go back to work on Monday, where I will be covering for the order entry chick, who is on vacation to attend her daughter's wedding until Wednesday.

Then, Thursday I fly to Reno for a conference concerning the software we purchased last September. Intense training for two solid days and maybe a half, then I fly home.....which leaves me with only five weeks to prepare for a show after two weeks when I will not have completed the whole workout.

And that's IF I manage to behave myself in Reno. If I eat, it's all over. I'll have to aim for a show in July instead.....and I just don't think I can handle another season like 2008, when I missed every show I aimed for. I just cannot be that person again. Made me feel like crap.

I'm sort of exhausted. *sigh*

The show was a lot of fun. There was some drama, but we got passed it and I think everyone had a good time. I think. *shrugs* I was mostly on the outside of it, probably because they KNEW what I'd think of that kind of idiocy. Lol!

One-Piece Pix
Two-Piece Pix

Due to an oversight on my part, I had no camera of my own. So, above are the links to the pictures the professional photographer has put up. I'm probably going to have to order one of the two-piece side poses. We'll see.

For now, though, I'm off to pick up the dog.

PS. Lynn had roses waiting in the hotel room for me when the prejudging was over. :D

I have been working out and dieting since January.
I have been lifting hard and dieting hard since about April.
And yet I have not done a figure competition. I was just too heavy at the beginning, and it took FOREVER to get the weight back off. Even now, I am not truly show-ready. Small amounts of cellulite still remain on my hips. My back is not as muscular as I would like - my arms not as defined.

HOWEVER.

I am bone-weary of the competition season. So I'm doing this weekend's Hurricane Bay Classic in the "Over 30 Short" classification. All the girls I work out with every day are competing in this one, and it'll be the last show of the season for the whole team. I was GOING to wait and do a show at the end of October, but that really isn't fair to my trainer - to make him work a whole extra month just because I got chubby in the off-season. Lol!

So, I've taken today off of work and made an appointment to be spray tanned. Thankfully my neighbor does that, and has a little shop right in town. I called her up just last night and she gave up her lunch hour to work me in.

I'm about to call to see if we can board the dog (I'm sure THAT will make her happy. We JUST got back from vacation!), and pick up a few last minute things while I'm in town (cash for the entry fee, etc.) And I've got to eat my morning fish. *rolls eyes*

I've been eating fish four times a day all week long. Fish. The WHOLE Fish. And nothing BUT the fish. Well, that's not exactly true: fish and broccoli or fish and asparagus....But I'm still pretty f*ing SICK of fish. The good news is, the meal I'm consuming right now is the last fish I am likely to eat until about NEXT April. :D Talk about thinking happy thoughts! Lol!

So, that's what I've been up to. Oh, and I finished Midnight Never Come, but I can't give you an overview of it because the folks I'm reading it with haven't got to it yet. Instead, I think I'll read Labrynth. It isn't new, of course, so there's little point in me reviewing it - most of you have probably read it already and I'm just slow. (Or I was so Twilight-obsessed that I ignored it. That's been known to happen. Lol!)

But that's all I've got for you. Hope to have some good news to report on Sunday, but it's exceedingly unlikely that I'll place. This is just for fun. ♥

So, on Sunday I opened up a story I haven't worked on in months. And it was actually pretty decent. I tried to write a bit on it and failed again. I think I will need to re-read the books before I attempt to pick up where I left off. I'm only two or three chapters from finished on this story, though, so I particularly want to complete it.

During a T or D game on FB, I was asked to write up my favorite erotic fantasy.....I'm sure I've already written it, but apparently those don't count, I've got to come up with something new. That will appear here when it's finally complete. (Names will be changed to protect the not-so-innocent.)

There is a vendor bringing us lunch today at the office. PLEASE let it be salad, so I can have some. I'm tired of everyone making fun of my diet. :(

And speaking of the diet, I'm living through it pretty well, but the workout is kicking my ass. I pulled something Tuesday, and it seems to be getting worse instead of better. :( My shoulder is swollen and the pain travels to the bottom of my shoulder blade and up into my neck. I'm keeping it iced, but that just makes the rest of me cold. :P I need my chai! But, technically I shouldn't be having that either. Lol! Maybe tomorrow as a Friday treat. What a shame it isn't already Friday....Looking forward to the long weekend. Back to the beach! :D

It's been pointed out to me that I'm neglecting my journal. I suppose this is partially because life is such a boring thing to me just now, and partially because most of my online time is wasted spent buying people on FB. Lol!

Currently, I work nine hours, go to the gym for 2 or 2.5, go home, make dinner, play friends-for-sale, take a shower and go to bed. Every day. Like clockwork. No changes to the routine, and nothing much to break up the monotony.

However, this week has been slightly more entertaining. On Tuesday, I did the official weigh in and discovered that I've dropped down to 16.5% body fat. I started the year at 25%, so that's pretty substantial. I've only lost 8 lbs, but I'm not worried about that. I'm trying to build muscle, so it stands to reason I'm going to be a little heavier than I was during the last competition season.

My first show will be in St. Augustine on July 26th. I was given the specific diet to get me ready for it on Tuesday as well, and it's a lot nicer than last time - pizza once in a great while, or steak.... Most excellent. :D

Also, last night I did twice the cardio I should have. Why? Because our Gold's Gym has Cardio Theater. I don't usually work out in there, as I usually have a book. But they were playing INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE!! I couldn't resist. I watched almost the entire film. Lol!

Additionally, at lunch time on Tuesday I went book shopping. I picked up Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Pirsig, and Skinny Legs and All by Robbins. I haven't started reading them yet, but they sound very entertaining. Recommended to me by Tristan, whom I met on FB.

So, that's all I have to report. Quality over quantity. Oh, and if you're annoyed with me for not writing, and think that the world needs more stories, please just write one yourself and let me know when you post it. :D I'll be glad to be a reader for a while, myself. Writing is exhausting you know! Sometimes my muse needs a vacation.