my little pony | The Plaid Pladd Blog

Posts Tagged ‘my little pony’

BronyCon: Cutie Marks

June 28th, 2012 by pladd

I know the term “cutie mark” sounds a little silly. Sometimes I even use the term “butt tattoo” because it’s slightly cooler. Even if you’ve never watched any iteration of My Little Pony, you probably know what I’m talking about:

Using Dr. Whooves as an example to head off the question of if there are boy ponies

Every pony has one once they come of age, and they’re supposed to symbolize what makes that pony special. Which… sometimes I buy, but other times seems to just be BS.

There are so many better things you could’ve picked to symbolize “teacher”. Cheerilee is clearly in denial about her gardener-destiny

Anyway, since these cutie marks are an integral part of each character design, we have to include them in our costumes!! Rainbow Dash’s looks like a cloud with a three-colored lightning bolt:

Here are the pieces of it I cut out to trace onto the felt!

Then, after some cutting, one memorable Skype conversation with Steven at work where I told him to “borrow a ruler from [his boss] to measure your butt” (for some reason he wouldn’t do this?? I ended up using the pockets on some of his jeans for reference), and some basic applique, this:

Again, Steven was just not willing to put these on so I could take a picture of his butt for the Internet. Weird.

Because I want to be able to wear my cargo pants after this convention, I decided to embroider it on the back pocket instead of appliqueing. It’ll be less noticeable, but I won’t feel weird wearing them to the grocery store in two months. Daring Do’s cutie mark is a compass rose, and I admit to going a little overboard with trying to make sure it was geometrically accurate. In my defense, I’m terrible at eyeballing things.

So proportions and geometry are two things I like. It’s allowed, I’m a scientist now

Also, yes, that is my family heirloom compass, and yes, it has like an old-fashioned pen nib on one end instead of a pencil. Yeah, that’s kind of annoying, but not an insurmountable challenge.

I own this too, what do you want from me?

Anyway, after much travail, I was able to make a guide for myself exactly fitted to the space I had to work with:

Thanks, Mrs. Branch from 8th grade geometry! I’m sorry I doubted you 11 years ago

Then I ended up watching TV while finishing it, so it turned out a little wobbly anyway:

Oh well

Next: Freezer Paper Stencil Shirts

Tagged: bronycon, my little pony, sewing, Steven, things I've made

Posted in Things I've Made |

BronyCon: Costumes

June 27th, 2012 by pladd

Along with 3750 other people, we’re going to BronyCon this weekend!!!

In case you’re not from the Internet, bronies are older-than-the-intended-demographic (usually 20-something male) fans of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Here is an article from The Washington Post explaining the brony phenomenon!! It’s the one with the least amount of baffled condescension I could find. Also, there’s a library in it!

At some point–I’m not sure when this happened–Steven went from watching this show with me to becoming an enthusiastic member of the brony community. At one point a few weeks ago he told me he was “worried I’ll run out of fanfiction to read”. Middle School Patricia screamed “HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE???” but 25-year-old Patricia just said, “Well, clears you should write some of your own”. Yeah, it’s a little bit strange–that so many guys would give this show a chance. I’m not surprised that they like it once they watch it; it’s hilarious and clever and self-aware without compromising its message. I’m also ecstatic that so many bronies feel comfortable owning it, because I think it represents a really great change in gender dynamics. If girls can like monster trucks and superhero movies, there’s no reason guys can’t like adorable ponies learning about the magic of friendship. But if your preconceived notions of masculinity make you uncomfortable with this, whatever, haters gonna hate, that’s not what I’m talking about today.

What I’m talking about is costumes!!!! When Steven first brought up the idea of going to this convention, I was a little skeptical. I’ve never been to a convention, and it’s in New Jersey. But then I remember conventions=costumes and FINALLY A CHANCE TO USE MY SKILLZ!!!! It is basically validation of all the time I waste playing around with fabric and modge podge and reading tutorials about freezer paper stenciling. “Some day this will be useful,” I lied to myself. SURPRISE, TODAY IS THAT DAY!

Steven decided to go as Rainbow Dash:

Because she is 20% cooler

She’s an athlete, the fastest flyer in Ponyville and the only pegasus to ever perform the Sonic Rainboom. Since we live only a few minutes from UNC, it was pretty easy to find him a t-shirt and workout shorts in that color blue. And of course yesterday he did this:

Of course he picks when we’re leaving Carrboro to finally join its ranks of wacky-looking folk

I decided to go as Daring Do, an Indiana Jones parody from Rainbow Dash’s favorite book series:

I mean, mostly for the hat, yeah

Luckily, I already have some explorer cargo pants and hiking boots! Sorry, I’m not dyeing my hair gray and black.

We’re assembling the rest of these costumes kind of quickly through trial and error! Stay tuned.

Tagged: bronycon, costumes, my little pony

Posted in Things I've Made |

VIQVI: Real People Edition

June 26th, 2012 by pladd

I know, usually the vast majority of Vitally Important Questions of Vital Importance that I receive are from my many adoring spambot fans, but lately I’ve gotten a few questions from real people!! Exciting!!

Caitlin M. writes about my last spam post:

How come you get so much spam? I don’t have any. Should I be jealous?

I think one of the main reasons for your lack of spam is that your blog has exciting Captcha technology, while commenting on mine just requires that you type in a (not even necessarily legit) email address. Captcha is designed to keep out just such spam traffic as I am obviously enjoying! Blogger probably sees this as a good design feature–you don’t have to spend time managing your spam folder!–but you are clearly missing out on some vague and misspelled compliments and non sequiturs about handbags.

Also, spambots are apparently way more interested in sarcastic reviews of Sam Neill movies than beautiful pictures of gardens and insightful word-snapshots of life. You just have to provide the content your target audience desires, and if you want to shift your target demographic from thoughtful friends and family to advertising robots, then you’re going to have to buckle down and watch Merlin II like I did. It won’t be easy, but it’s the only way.

Brian R. writes about Ten Years of Journals:

Wonder what a chart of worries over time would look like.

Wish granted:

Look at the sharp decrease in worrying about school right after high school! lol IB and your stress-stomachaches

Rachel K. writes:

I can haz blog post about the crazy new pony hair I saw on facebook?

She’s talking about this:

The blue and purple are maybe too dark to see in this shot

And I WISH I could write a blog post just about this, but ever since he got back from Aveda, Steven has just been working! Like he thinks his job is more important than rainbow hair! What a loser! Anyway, now it’s getting dark, but he promises there will be an amazing rainbow photoshoot tomorrow!

Not to mention pictures of the amazing costumes I am making for this weekend!! You haven’t even seen my new hat yet! I’m not going to say it’s more exciting than rainbow hair, but it’s probably at least 80% as exciting.

Tagged: brian is a weather witch, caitlin, my little pony, questions, rachel, spam, Steven

Posted in Advice |

Cleaning Out my Camera

April 13th, 2012 by pladd

Rainbow Dash embroidery!!

Five balls of yarn, finger knitted

One old t-shirt cut into strips an strung on a hula hoop!

One rug!

Cake from Valentine's Day!

Tagged: my little pony, things I've made

Posted in Things I've Made |

Moving

July 17th, 2009 by pladd

Today as we were driving to the grocery store (Harris Teeter–I feel like I should be wearing a waistcoat and ordering mint juleps instead of buying apple juice and crispix) my Mom said, “The first thing I did this morning was check your blog. There was nothing…” in this disappointed voice, as if she thought I had somehow managed to update my blog while simultaneously moving furniture and unpacking boxes with her over the past few days. Luckily, our apartment now has the Internet! Unluckily, the wireless router is still MIA so the only place to get it is in the corner of the one room that has no furniture. So, that’s where I am, skillfully avoiding figuring out how to hang up my bike in a closet with the use of a stud finder, which, believe me, is not what it sounds like.

Here are the deets of the past few days. Sorry I don’t have pictures yet:
Read the rest of this entry »

Tagged: apartment, Book Reviews, moving, my little pony, roadtrip

Posted in Book Reviews |