By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 2/15/2016
Ah Toy Fair, a riot of plastic, wood, metal, resin and MAGIC! As usual, The Beat pounded the halls of the JAvits Center and beyodnd to bring you only the FRESHEST toys and playthings. The day started at 7 am with the Lego event. As that time of day there isn’t much to remember but […]
By: Jerry Beck,
on 9/25/2015
By: Jerry Beck,
on 5/21/2015
By: Jerry Beck,
on 3/12/2014
Continuing the inexplicable trend of people named Chris directing animated features, Chris McKay, the animation co-director of "The LEGO Movie," will direct the film's sequel, which is currently set for a May 26, 2017 release.
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By: Emily Smith Pearce,
on 2/11/2013
I’m just a teensy bit late with this Halloween post. Our little man just had to, had to be the green ninja from Ninjago. It was a bit of a trick figuring out how to make up the costume, especially the sword-holding thingy in the back, which, according to my son, was absolutely essential.
I bought cheap green jogging pants and used gold fabric paint (the kind you squeeze out) to make the little gold shapes on them. On the figure they’re actually silver but, whatever.
The top is a green fleece I refused to paint on since I wanted him to be able to wear it plain later. I did add black cardboard-and-toilet-paper-roll epaulets on the shoulders, tacked on with thread. These were only semi-sucessful. You can see them hanging off his shoulders. We probably should’ve skipped them.
The headpiece is another simple balaclava I made like the ones for the knight costumes, only with a silver piece sewn on. The green is a thrifted sweatshirt and the silver from the same thrifted sweater that I used for one of the knight helmets.
The black belt is actually Daddy’s bathrobe sash. Ha! And the sword-holder-thingy in back (sorry, no picture) I made by cutting slits in a small cardboard box that I painted black. Four slits for the swords, then some small holes for the ties cut from sweatshirt material. We then tied the ties around his chest to hold the box on his back.
It’s not fancy, but it worked. This is kind of my costume philosophy—-I want them to be comfortable and re-usable but inexpensive and quickly slapped together. Thrifted knits are great for this.
For other low-sew costumes with thrifted parts, check out our fireman suit, knight, and turtle costumes. Oh, and here’s a princess for good measure, with maybe a little more sewing involved.
In other news, I’ve been doing some development work on secondary characters in my novel, using this questionnaire. The questionnaire was originally written for role-playing gaming, but totally works for novel-writing, too. I’ve been surprised at some of the interesting things that are coming from it. Hope I can put them to good use.
Northern friends, I hope you’re not stuck in the snow, or at least if you are, that you’ve got power, food, and board games.
By: Anastasia Goodstein,
on 3/23/2011
New app SoundTracking (allows users to build the soundtrack of their lives by selecting tracks, adding images, and tagging them with locations. Users can then share their soundtracks on Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare. Meanwhile Shazam,... Read the rest of this post
