Remember that steampunk wedding shoot my Everpatient Husband and I worked on? Remember how I promised to share the video with you?
Well here it is, for your viewing pleasure, direct from the maker himself (my Everpatient Husband, James).
Click the image below to be taken to the youtube video.
One again, you can visit the Gothic Wedding Planner to see the full photoshoot!
Our dear friend James is officially a grumpy old dinosaur. To remind him of his impending decrepitude a surprise party was held in his honour.
I made a cake. A Batcake. it’s like a Bat Signal for hungry metallers.
Mmmm chocolatey goodness….
My Ever Patient Husband called me outside to look at the sky this evening, and I’m so glad he did.
Our camera didn’t do the colours justice.
With the help of my extremely nifty new scanner I’ve been able to upload some of my conceptual sketches – works previously confined to the physical realm. I’ll be adding more of these to the Cog & Compass facebook page when I have a moment.
Some of these sketches are for garments I have completed, some are still conceptual ideas. Either way I hope you enjoy seeing how my designs start out…
So a wee while ago my friend Steff from the Gothic Wedding Planner sent out the call for a team.
A team so imaginative, so awesome, and so darn clever that they could organise, style, stage and shoot a steampunk wedding on a realistic budget .
I was part of that team.
This is our shoot….
My role in this whimsical venture was as a Stylist (making sure people looked dapper and helping the Artistic Director Andrea arrange the picnic in an appropriately charming manner). The venue was the lovely historic Pumphouse in Takapuna, New Zealand.
I also designed a beautiful custom steampunk ring pillow, which you can covet over here.
Visit the Steff at Gothic Wedding Planner blog to sigh over more amazing photos and check out the team!
(There’s also a luscious video on it’s way, I’ll share it when it’s officially released!)
So as I’ve mentioned, my new character has been lacking in both a name and a history.
While a suitable moniker still eludes me, I do have a rough ‘recent history’ imagined.
Picture yourself in a dimly lit saloon. A table of steampunk characters gather by the fire, military folk, airship mechanics and the odd wanderer. All look tired and worse for wear. When asked for her tale, a woman with an armoured limb drinks from her glass of whisky, and begins to speak…
“As with so many of those present, my tale is not entirely pleasant…
I am a designer and seamstress by trade. However one cannot survive this constant warring without some martial ability, so I enlisted as military outfitter and gunner upon a fine airship.
Sadly we were beset upon by a beastly band of sky pirates. In that night of havoc and bloodshed many a good man fell, the weaker spirits among our crew turning against their fellows. I escaped the fight with my life, but the ship, and the use of my right arm, were lost…
…Ah but life goes on my friends… while tending my wounds in an establishment not unlike this, a gentleman approached me. A mysterious fellow clad in a leather apron. ‘The Steamsmith’ he called himself.
He spoke of an armour to return the use of my arm, to improve it even. I was too far in my cups I suppose, and accompanied him to his workshop, although I knew nought of his background and even less of his moral standing.
The Steamsmith was a good as his word. When the fog of liquor lifted, he was already at work. My arm, strapped to a table, was being outfitted with a leather brace and armour – controlled by the very nerves I believed useless. The work continued for some days, the pain almost unbearable as he connected armour with flesh.
Once his work was complete, and the worst of the pain was past, I found his creation worked. The use of my arm is returned to me (along with a somewhat more powerful right hook I must say). soon the Steamsmith will outfit me with a gun, the likes of which have never been seen before. While I long to return to my work and proper society, I have yet to find a crew in need of my skills.
And that, dear fellows, is my tale. I hope it did not bore you, and I raise a toast to our comrades lost to the pirate scourge we battle.”
Winter is setting in. The mornings are crisp, the evenings dark and rainy. While I would prefer to hibernate through the colder months, I appreciate winter for one thing – the glorious comfort food!
Apple dumplings, steamed puddings, crumbles and fruit sponges. Nothing is cozier than a hot, delicious dessert in the oven, wafting the smell of Nana’s kitchen around my house. While I’m not a big fan of traditional bread and butter pudding, I tweaked this recipe to use up some stale fruit loaf and under ripe apples (and make it less milky bland).
So here you have – Jaimee’s “just winging it” fruity bread and butter pudding. The amounts can be changed to suit the dish you’re filling, don’t worry about being too exact, I just bunged it all in and the result was more than satisfactory!
This pudding is super delicious with ice cream or custard, or reheated for breakfast the next day 
Nom nom nom…
Once upon a time, in a land not far from here, I was polishing silverware. The large ornate family heirloom type that seems to take forever.
I don’t know if you’ve ever polished silverware, but somewhere between frowning at smudgy cutlery and getting brasso all over my hands, I ended up looking at myself in the back of a spoon.
I don’t know if you’ve ever seen your reflection in the back of a spoon. It’s fairly amusing when you’ve been inhaling brasso fumes for an hour. Your face gets all stretched and squished like silly putty. I found the Elizabethan-large-forehead-alien look to be most aesthetically humorous. Both for the slight historical context, and the fact it gave me a forehead like Tyyyyra. (See illustration below).
Self Portrait in the Back of a Spoon
So my challenge for you dear reader, is to create your own self portrait in an unusual object. Be it kettle, car window or chrome your mission is to capture your reflection (and hopefully share it with me!).
