Garden Roses and Indoor Roses

Fancy Pants Miniature Rose - Two months ago

We had our first snow! It's officially winter time in Philadelphia.
It's been cold for a little while now, and all my herbs in the garden are dead, dead, dead. Well, all except the Rosemary, Sage, and Thyme who are somehow holding on.

Fancy Pants Miniature Rose - Yesterday

Also holding on is my beautiful Fancy Pants Miniature Rose. It's incredible. I'm really quite shocked by how beautiful this rose is turning out to be. I purchased it on a whim (From HeirloomRoses.com) and wasn't expecting much. When it arrived it was healthy, a month after planting it was yeilding blooms, but it was still just mediocre to my tastes. However! It seems like the more that this mini establishes itself, the more beauty and tenacity it has! Which is to be expected, but still, shocker! The foliage is now a deep dark purple-green color that is absolutely to die for! And the blooms? Legitimately deep red on the outside petals, and white with blood red tips on the inside. They were not this beautiful before!

Fancy Pants Miniature Rose, pictured on the left.
The pink is actually blood red in person, please excuse the poor cell phone photo! Better photo coming soon!

Additionally, the ground is now covered in snow, making the blooms stand out even more!

And the Gross adult Aphids... :(

Conversely, my indoor rose is not doing so well. I have kept indoor roses before, and never had much problem growing them indoors. However, they are usually miniatures, and I was living in a different climate at the time. This time, I brought my David Austin Charity Rose indoors so that it could establish itself a little more before weathering a harsh winter outdoors. I'm unfortunately experiencing a very large aphid problem.

After reading a lot on the wonderful GardenWeb.com forums, I made a "Garlic Spray" that I will be using on them tonight when I get home from work. From different people online I figured that I could mince (and then mash with the flat of the knife!) a whole garlic bulb, "saute" it in the frying pan with some water, add some spicy pepper (I chose to use ghost pepper powder, though I've read any spicy pepper or pepper sauce will do), and then let it all steep in boiling hot water like tea for an hour. I will then spray it on my roses (currently spending the afternoon on the porch) when I get home. Hopefully this mixture will work, because they're pretty nasty! I also plan on doing some serious pruning this evening.

David Austin Charity Rose - 1 month growth
(Ring for size reference)

David Austin Charity Rose - 6 months later
(The single tall stem has been trimmed all the way down twice.)

Daenerys - Game of Thrones Cosplay - Qarth

So, over the last month and a half I've received a number of emails from a number of different potential clients through my etsy shop. 
They've all been requesting general information about possible costume commissions from HBO's Game of Thrones series - Based on George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire book series, which is really good, and you should go read it. ^_~

Ultimately, not many of these requests have actually panned out. A lot of people want high quality reproductions of costumes from the show (or from other things), but don't want to pay for it. While we're on this topic, let's be straight up here, my work is "super affordable" compared to what it's worth or what's already out there in the market. My work is always as accurate as possible, made with high quality materials that are as authentic as possible, and I can pump out a costume like that in about a week or less. For example, last month's "book-version" Melisandre dress sold for $200, including 3 day shipping, and was probably worth closer to the $350-$400 range. I worked on that dress for about 5 days straight. Keep in mind, that according to articles with the actual costuming staff for HBO it takes a team of them to finish one in three days. That's a pretty good ratio, since I'm a one-woman-show over here. :P

Regardless, I do realize a lot of this, and realized most of this years ago. I accept it as part of the territory that I have to try to work around or find new answers to. So this time? My answer is to simply just make the costumes. It seems that a lot of people will tentatively inquire about a custom made costume, and then shy away when they get answers. I'm hoping if the product is already out there, they'll just buy it and request modifications instead. So.. that being said, my current project is one of the more popular costumes from the show: Daenerys's blue and gold Qarth gown from Season 2. (Pictured above, as featured in Entertainment Weekly)

My silk for the main portion of the gown has been on back order for the last month and a half. However, I finally got it in! I'll be documenting how I do things as I go along, hopefully, or I will do a large update of the process when it is finished.

Some of the materials I'll be using

I will be working out the pattern this evening and tomorrow night (I have a full time job, so it's nights and weekend only sewing!) and hopefully cutting and pinning this weekend. I will be pinning it together in it's raw from to make sure everything is flowing the way I'd like and so I can plan my next steps.
Then, I will be testing scraps of the fabric for different textures, chemical setting wear and pleats, and experimenting with my silk dyes and paints to find the right blue and gold combinations. This process is likely to take up to three days, simply to cover all of my test basis.

And then? The super exciting part. Actually doing the final chosen process to the fabric and sewing it together! ^_~
I'm currently planning on using a very thick faux leather for the belt and shoulder pieces. Which I'm both excited for and slightly saddened by. I do not currently have the space to do that size of metal casting/fabrication like I used to. Wish I did, though! Some day!!

Anyway, stay posted!