2016 – Casa de Berry

2016, candle, holiday, home, house, white, winter, wisconsin, wreath

A little Winter Wonderland

December 9, 2016by casadeberry1 Comment

Now that we live north of the wall, I wanted to have one of our rooms full of sparkling, snowy adornments – and our library is small enough that I could put up a few things and not compete with the red and plaid madness of the rest of the Christmas decorations.

I mean, when your boys look like this while waiting for the school bus
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— aren’t they rocking those double layers? ha — then you have to bring some of that snowy loveliness inside. Just not literally. We have a shoe brush thing my husband built so if you have snow on your shoes please leave that snowy loveliness outside.

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I bought the two glittery deer on the right last year, with the thought of adding some more this year.
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The dignified fellow on the left is from Target, and all three of them spend their days keeping an eye on the neighborhood. Neighbors have left, new neighbors are moving in, they can tell you all about it. The center candleholder we’ve had for years, and I got the white wreath at JoAnn’s to hang opposite the outdoor wreath we have on that window.

I don’t style my bookshelves because we actually read the books we have, but I did have this spot with a huge yellow vase in it.
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The vase got relocated and I stuffed some snowy greenery we had into a Target dollar spot galvanized vase. FYI, those things are NOT waterproof, so my awesome husband had to seal it for me so I could put flowers and not end up with an indoor lake. And then, of course, I went and stuck fake stuff in it for Christmas.

The beautiful houses on either side are part of a collection Steve has, he got them and the others he has from art festivals and renaissance faires, and they’re works of art. They fit perfectly in that spot so I didn’t move them, just added an old little lantern and a fleur-de-lis I found at WalMart, and a glittery little house from Michaels.

Finally, the spot where I can wait for the school bus in the afternoon – our youngest is only let out of the bus if one of us is waiting for him and these days I’m not waiting outside, so I can hang out with our Cherry girl and knit while I wait.
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Although when I’m sitting there, it looks more like this

The JOY and NOEL signs are from World Market, our Sussex sign is by LulaRue and purchased at Roost. The blue throw, A.K.A. Everybody’s Favorite Blanket, is from ZGallerie, the white birdcage is Partylite and the delicious pear candle inside is from Rosy Rings. The monogram mug is Target and the coffee inside is made in my beloved Nespresso.

We’re having our second annual FriendsGivingMas this weekend so I’ll be sharing some pics next week – have a wonderful weekend!

2016, costume, craft, decor, halloween, holiday, october, parties

Our Halloween Bash

October 31, 2016October 31, 2016by casadeberry1 Comment

This is the first time we have a) thrown a Halloween party, and b) co-hosted an event with another couple. Our friends J & H are pretty awesome people — and she knits, like me, so you know she’s cool — and we decided to combine our party lists and have a joint bash at our house.

If you follow me on Instagram you’ve seen several of the details Steve has made, and it was pretty cool to see our decor “in action” during the party.

Now, let us welcome you to our party:

We chose a pretty iconic couple as our costumes:

Our boys were Sans from Undertale and a (not so) terrifying T-Rex:

Our guests ranged from Futurama characters to the villainous Joker, to Luigi and Diet Coke to Khal Drogo and his beloved Khaleesi. We also had Egyptian royalty, Indiana Jones, Nemo, Harry Potter, mad scientists, Frankenstein and his bride, groovy chicks, Miss Scarlet in the library with the rope, the Tardis, Walter Sobchak, Rosie the Riveter, and many other friends who made our party so much fun.

Word has it that the mysterious Lord Stonehouse, ancient owner of our home, made an appearance at midnight, but it remains a rumor.

Steve worked super hard to transform our home and I think he did an amazing job, and H made delicious food for everyone to fill their bellies – thanks to everyone, friends old and new, for coming to our party!

2016, costume, craft, halloween, husband, movies, october

How Steve made the Gipsy Danger costume

October 19, 2016by casadeberry4 Comments

A few of you have asked how Steve made our son’s costume from the movie Pacific Rim – I asked him to write down an overview of the process.

Disclaimer 1 – he’s not a newbie. He’s been making costumes for a few years now and while some of the techniques were new to him, he’s always been good at putting things together. There is no way I could make something like this. I can sew and knit and make jewelry, but I’ve never made stuff like this.

Disclaimer 2 – he’ll be traveling for work in the upcoming days and won’t be available for any further or more detailed explanation. There are a lot of good tutorials on YouTube for building armor like this out of foam, and some cosplayers are very good at sharing their techniques as well.

Here it goes:

I started the build using a program called pepakura that ‘unwraps’ 3D images into their component sections. There is an artist on http://www.therpf.com which is the Replica Props Forum – a home for cosplay and movie prop reproductions. He ‘built’ the model for Gypsy Danger and I used this to print out the helmet. I printed it on cardstock and assembly was pretty easy with hot glue.

Once I had a basic shape and size for the helmet, I then used EVA foam mats which are the anti-fatigue floor mats that you can buy at Home Depot or Lowes or other home-improvement stores. If you find these on sale, STOCK UP! They aren’t cheap and you will go through them… I cut the foam mats into parts and bits and used hot glue to bond them. Almost all of this was done by eye. I wasn’t going for an EXACT duplicate of the movie, but a close approximation.

Here is someone that did a complete screen-accurate build – http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=191528&p=3267895&viewfull=1#post3267895

I followed many of the online tutorials for cosplay armor of Master Chef (Halo), Iron Man, and a few others. The real key is using a heat gun (not a blow dryer or embossing tool but the actual ~$30 one you buy at the hardware store) to heat mold parts into curves.

For the lights, I bought some very cheap book-lights from a Dollar Store. I glued these in place with hot-glue.

I sealed the foam with a glue wash (50% white glue / 50% water) for some sections and spray rubber (FlexiSeal or equivalent) for other spots that I needed to cover some bad seams with filler. Then I painted the entire thing in a base coat of exterior latex paint. This gives the armor a consistent and smooth coating. Over that, I used auto-body spray paint that had a slight metallic reflection. The movie Gypsy Danger was more of a naval battleship blue, but my son wanted it more metallic.

The visor was a bit of yellow plastic sheeting from the old-school notebook dividers that one uses in primary school – Like these – http://www.staples-3p.com/s7/is/image/Staples/s0204755_sc7?$splssku$

Under the entire suit, he wore a black turtleneck and black stretchpants that I picked up at the sporting goods store. While I was there, I spotted some Lacrosse gloves that were close to Gypsy Danger’s gauntlets, so I grabbed them (most expensive part of this build) and painted them the same way as the rest of the costume.

Also for the chest, I used an old CPU fan and powered it with a 9V battery so it would spin. 🙂

The build took me about 50 hours over the course of 2 weeks and I didn’t finish until the Halloween Morning. But I was learning through trial and error and that cost me a lot of time.

All the best!!!

Steve

2016, handmade wardrobe, knitting

A yarn-aissance in the making

October 15, 2016October 13, 2016by casadeberry1 Comment

I learned how to crochet and knit and embroider when I was very little, around four years old. I’ve gone through periods of making things and moved onto other crafts at times, but I gotta tell you that right now I am in a hardcore yarn-obsessed mode.

I made a few hats and scarves last year but have jumped headfirst into making larger garments – I made my first cable cardi and then vowed I would never do so many cables again. Ha.

I’ve already had the chance to wear my cardi and it is so cozy that I’m sure it will be a staple this winter. Both the yarn and pattern were from KnitPicks, if you’re curious.

Since then, I have made a few shawls, but I do have another cardi in the queue for me, and am working on something for Steve. With lots of cables.

2016, autism, boys, movies, october, Uncategorized

A New Milestone

October 14, 2016by casadeberry4 Comments

Last night our youngest accomplished something for the first time in his ten years of life. He went to the movie theater.

Because of his sensitivity to noise, he was never able to tolerate the loud sound of a movie theater and has had to wait until movies he wanted were out on DVD or available online to see them.

Only one giant, terrifying creature, the King of the Monsters himself, could get Alexander to try this new challenge:

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Alexander has been waiting for this new movie, a Japanese release called Godzilla Resurgence, or Shin Godzilla; has learned to write the title in Japanese, and has made his own video trailers in anticipation of the movie. Needless to say, this was a big deal for him.

The four of us booked our tickets and got ready to support Alex through his first movie theater experience. He was thrilled to see the poster inside the theater and had his picture taken, he kept looking at me and smiling, thrilled to be watching his favorite movie character, and he was polite and quiet during the whole movie.

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This morning, he was still raving about the experience, calling it “the best thing I’ve ever done.”

We’re proud of Alex, and of Aidan for being such a supportive brother, encouraging Alex and reassuring him so his little brother would have a good experience.

And yes, we will be getting the DVD when it comes out.