lj specific summary of the week, or two ;)

Today: I am still tired but filling myself up with hot tea, some paracetamol and diclofenac so I can start making use of my swish new camera and get some recordings of my work. I am selling off some fabric and costumes too. FB and LJ get first dibs. If You are on lj and want the FB page access I'm now able to accept friends more easily as I think I have my settings at the happy balance of "people with whom I need to sort ideas through" and everyone else 🙂 FB is not a blog, it is not LJ and I have been using at a mix of both 🙂
https://www.facebook.com/michaela.de.bruce and
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Michaela-de-Bruce/152637694808851?ref=hl&ref_type=bookmark

Also I have two dolls on their way to me 🙂 The super pretty Disney exclusive and the SDCC exclusive which also went on sale online right on the dot of 10amEST. Which was 2am here. So I am catching ip on sleep and hoping to resettle it tomorrow. But today! I clean and take photos. As a hint, Reinette, Liara, my silver court gown fabric (cry!) and some full width lace and some 68cm by 1.1m wide pieces of heavy leather- suede back but plastic coated. I'm checking the plastic coating to see how well it comes off.

The following are excerpts of the Maleficent progress. and health in more detail.

Currently snoodled up in a leopard print dressing gown;

As yesterday was an adventure and fun but it was definitely not part of the plan for the week and so after two hours of verticality today there may be some napping going on again.

The day started with an early morning blood collection. Six vials so out came the big gauge needle. And I had to check my name and date of birth on each, which is not normally an issue except early morning are crappy and are the reason behind the need for all that blood.

Then I went to the CBD and saw Maleficent at the theatre to catch a few last costume details.

Then up to The Fabric Shop just in case their sale was still on. Three of the black rolls of velvet were very definitely panne (flat pile, not crushed, not velour, just with a very distinct direction) so that was no. I think they were excluded from the sale anyway. So I did finally find a roll that looked like it had about 10m and there was and it was $2/m cheaper and there was another meter that was too crshed to sell and it was not one of the velvets excluded! So hooray :) Tabbard fabric has been got :)

Today is beautiful but not looking like I’ll get much done. Still not being really easily able to balance everything but I’m not feeling so depressed about it now. It’s yet another set back and literally so- pain and fatigue have already ruled out ever being in the theatre again and now this on top is putting a lot of other activities on the “wait and see” list. I may do well switching from prednisone to hydrocortisone so as to not have peaks and troughs of the stuff.

My fabric arrived, bliss 🙂

So perfect!

http://www.mjtrends.com/products.Stretch-Black,Matte-Vinyl,Fabric#.U829YPmSyao

It really is stretchy and it really does have that texture :) Very good vertical stretch in fact more stretchy than horizontal :)

I’ve been a fan of their product for years, and have used it for all my Shiny Butt catsuits:

Catwoman, Witchblade, Mara Jade, Blood Dragon, Shae Vizla., Regina/Maleficent stunt costume.

As a comparison:

http://arts.nationalpost.com/2014/05/31/magnificent-maleficent-high-fashion-costume-design-for-angelina-jolie-in-disneys-dark-new-film/

So not the exact match but close and really good. I think there is some hue and contrast shift here, and the colour of the stretch vinyl is a warm black. Not charcoal, not raven black but still on the warm muted side of the richest deepest black.

Not iron, not B12, but cortisol. Bugger.

So I don’t have a proper diagnosis yet but I did get the results back from my various blood tests. All were normal except the cortisol and synacthen tests.

These may be suppressed due to the current steroid use (as in we can’t separate the long terms effects from what prednisone does while still on it) or could be something else or even another auto immune issue related to my RA.

The blood result doesn’t explain my daily fatigue but it does have implications for a flare up of disease activity (which I knew) and when ever I have an infection (which I keep forgetting about except in line with my sinusitis) and stress (which I really did not associate it with.)

There is a risk of an adrenal crisis in those situations so I have in fact been really flirting with disaster for the last few years. I knew I felt bad, but I didn’t really associate it with being treated by more steroids.

So my reluctance to use higher doses may be having a deeper impact than I realised.

This does mean I’m going to have to put a plan in to action because my “crashes” I have experienced not only look too much but now have a little bit of blood work to support the idea that they are in fact serious. With my iron and B12 being good (OMGYAY!!!! Fortified foods FTW!!!!) there isn’t really much left to look at.

The registrar I saw was wonderful. Seriously lovely and she had clearly really looked in to my case history and even contacted my specialist, and I will have to see him in the next few weeks. Basically I need to go off my steroids for as long as possible and repeat the synacthen test. If I can. Also getting ACTH levels checked and serum aldosterone. I think I may be lucky that this is all not at crisis levels but like I said I have not been accounting for this in high stress situations, at least not enough, and I’m not sure how often I can do that.

Meanwhile I have been put in the system for a a rhuemy and endochrinologist.

So tonight is a bit of planning and finding some solutions. Basically I don’t want to get into a crisis even if I may have really flirted with is a few times. Like at D*C or WellyGeddon last year and even after WellyGeddon this year. The registrar said I should just go to hospital when I feel like I do in a “crash”. I kind of sort of knew this but kept telling myself it was probably low iron/B12 so while horrible to deal with not actually very serious.

So. Pants.

But on the upside I have found a level of medication that helps me avoid anxiety stress, and reduces muscular pain as well, so at least I’m not going to cry myself to sleep.

Maleficent notes

July 13, 2014

The DVD cover has been released so hopefully it will be out soon enough to use for references!
Just some sketch notes, I do line art rather than full sketches so as to clearly define seams and edges. Inext stage is to get more specific in terms of exact position. The detail page of the back is for when I see the film again and get proper notes. The lower back is very poorly documented in current publications so I’ll have to hope the doll is accurate or that I can get those costume details from the big screen 🙂
The DVD cover has been released so hopefully it will be out soon enough to use for references!

I am glam 70s rocker

Armageddon 2014 Well

PVC and feathers!

So I need a pair of coveralls desperately. I finally tossed the pair that were basically held together with old resin.

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