The Masquerade hosts a photo shoot before and after the show. Many thanks to Mana Conrad for taking photos at OryCon 41 and posting them on Flickr to share.

We built a little desk for Arianna and it needed a stool for her to sit on. I found something sturdy at Goodwill that would work with a little TLC. A little disassembly here, some paint there, and we have a winner!

There was no way she could fit in this owl shirt any more. It was so well “loved” with paint and glitter on it from preschool that even if she would have let me donate it, it wouldn’t be accepted. Our solution was to turn it into a throw pillow. The stool ended up being the perfect project for the owl shirt. I just added more paint and glitter to make the preschool additions look more intentional. I then sewed it into a pillow with a bit of padding and trimmed with some scraps of coordinating fabric I had laying around. (She really liked the ruffle that was originally on the stool.)

Hunter cut the legs down to the right height (and repurposed the feet into a second footstool for the craft room!). I painted the whole thing matte black and I think it turned out super cute.

OryCon 41 Nov 8 2019 - Nov 10 2019
Maddie talked me into entering the Masquerade Costume Contest and we won Best in Class (Novice). Woohoo! Ari got to bedazzle everyone as a Fire Elemental and be fierce as a Black Dragon. There was crafting and dance parties and Johann Sebastian Joust. Good times had by all!

See also: "Making Of" Photo Gallery for more pictures of how the costumes were made.

Here they are: the OryCon 41 Souvenir Book and Pocket Program are ready for you to read and enjoy.

Getting closer to being done. That big pile of fabric has been turned into a pile of costumes. Everything is getting matched together with the full outfit to make sure we have all the pieces completed and can make a to-do list for the remaining items. Brea's vest was a bit of a challenge for me. I had some pink fabric on hand that was close in color but not quite. I thought just sewing in the details would be enough but that didn't work out so I pulled out the airbrush. I can count on one hand how often I have used this airbrush. But airbrushing the fabric worked! It was one of those "have faith" processes. OryCon 41, here we come!