Maddie Mondays

*If you’re new here, Maddie Mondays are my personal project days, where I don’t work on anything WORK related, and get to do whatever house project I’m currently knee deep in!

The infamous path is finally finished! Well, mostly. The bricks are officially laid, and the grass on both sides has been killed and turned over. On Saturday, I went with my mom and sister to buy some plants for the beds, so, now it’s basically just the finishing touches – I need to “grout” the path with sand to help stop the bricks from shifting over time and stake down the arbor at the end (cause, you know, Arkansas is in Tornado Alley, and not staking it down is just begging a tornado to sweep it away).

As you can see, I didn’t put in a ton of plants, but there are a couple reasons for that: first, I had a limited budget (turns out, flowers are EXPENSIVE), and second, I wanted to test out what does well in my yard (and will survive the winter), so I’m taking it slow and next year we will add to it!

As a reminder, this is where we started:

Also, I started something new this month, and 12 year old Maddie would be SO proud! Summer, the lovely stable owner that we collaborated with on the First Rider’s Call photos back in July, had an opening for horse riding lessons. I took the plunge and signed up! I’ve only had one lesson so far because of traveling and being sick, but just the one lesson is already fulfilling all of my childhood dreams!

Passages

To no one’s surprise, I did not get Differences ready to shoot before Chloe left for college. She’s officially been gone for two weeks (and I am SO sad…seriously, I cried all the way home the last night I saw her), so the earliest we’ll be able to shoot the next series will be when she’s home for the holidays.

I’m not too worried, though…I still have a LOT of work to do on the ballgown, and I haven’t even started on the second costume. Then there are all the paper flowers that I’ll need to make for props, so I’ve got quite a bit to keep me busy for a long while.

I don’t anticipate it taking me the full four months of her semester to finish prepping for Differences, though. As soon as I’m ready to shoot that scene, I’ll move on to choosing, designing, and creating the elements for the next one.

Wouldn’t it be neat if I managed to get two full costumes/set props done, and then we can shoot two full scenes while she’s here? We’ll have Passages editing streams for days this spring!

Green Rider: First Rider’s Call

I’m gearing up for the Sacoridian Waltz photoshoot at the end of month. My community over on Twitch has been highly entertained while they watch me turn truly 80s- and 90s-tastic wedding gowns into elegant fantasy ball gowns.

This has involved everything from adding sleeves, removing big bows or frills, and adding new ribbons and trim. The last step is dyeing…the fabric, that is. Those of you who pledged at the voting tiers helped me figure out what colors they’re going to be.

Also, don’t forget! If you couldn’t decide which add-ons you wanted during the fundraising campaign, remember that lots of them are still available (and will be through the end of the year…Christmas gifts, anyone?)
Check out the add on items here!

 

Other Projects

My husband had to go to Utah this month on business, and I tagged along to take advantage of a chance to see some friends and family. Since I was going to be there anyway, I decided to whip up some quick costumes for a mini-shoot with my nieces. I took some thrifted dresses and turned them into Zelda-inspired couture gowns! It was honestly one of the most fun projects I’ve done to date (probably because my nieces are just so darn cute!).

 

I’ve also decided to start another series (because I don’t have enough going on already, lol) – this one will be my high fashion/couture interpretation of pop culture icons. One of my Twitch friends sent me her wedding dress (yep, her actual wedding dress) and told me I could do whatever I wanted with it.

I told her about the concept for this new series, and she requested Black Panther. So, since I’ll be using her wedding dress, I thought it was only fitting that we do her pick first! I’m excited to get into this one.

Want to hang out with me more?

If you want to join us, follow me on Twitch or join my Discord to be notified when I go live!
Come hang with me on Twitch!

 

Patrons receive perks like this as well as additional behind the scenes content, voting rights to help me name the final images in my Passages series or pick what I do next, and more. Tiers start as low as $1/month, too!
Check out my Patreon here!