After Dark

Night isn't just a different time, it's a different place.

East Coast Trip, Fall 2013

Last weekend I went on a little trip to New England to visit my Aunts and see some east coast universities. I didn't get a chance to take a bunch of photos, but here are a few!

The Boston Common. There were still lots of fall colors out! So gorgeous.

In honor of the World Series win (go Sox!!) Someone put a jersey and a beard on the statue of George Washington in the common!

We toured Maine College of Art, UMass Dartmouth, Rhode Island School of Design, and New England art institute. It was so helpful and enlightening. I'm definitely one step closer to finding the best place for me. Unfortunately, I was quite distracted and didn't get a chance to take a lot of pictures. In fact, I think this is the only one I took!:

Super exciting, right? This was actually pretty cool. In one of the 3D studios at Maine College of Art they were working on wood sculpture.

A mural in Portland, Maine near MECA.

One night in Boston, we went to see the Fierce Styles Fashion Show, a show put on by young, up-and-coming designers. It was really cool!! (except for the bad DJ, but I can get over it!)

Here are some of the looks:

It was so cool to see what young designers (as young as 19!) are up to. They all had so much talent! It was pretty inspiring!

On my last day in Boston, we went to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts to see two of their new fashion exhibits: "Hippie Chic", an collection of 70s dresses and mote that tell the story of how the young and easy-going hippies of the 60s created an entire fashion movement that moved upward onto the runways of the time, and "Think Pink", a collection that takes the viewer through the history of the color pink and its significant social impact.

Here are some pictures form the "Hippie Chic" exhibit:

I love the easy-going, almost costume-y look of "hippie" style. This exhibit really inspired me to make my own wardrobe more eclectic!

This was my favorite piece from the exhibit. That fabric is so amazing! I love the print so much!!

And here are a few photos from the "Think Pink" exhibit:

A men's dress suit from the 17th century and some pink clothing sketches form the 20s-40s

These two children are royal and wealthy boys. It used to be that both boys and girls of a certain social standing wore dresses. I like this painting because it's so androgynous. You can't really tell what gender the children are until you read the description of the painting. I think it carries an unintentional message that is very applicable today.

"Seowoo and her Pink Things" -Another piece that carries a lot more than meets the eye.

A pink baby's bonnet

This exhibit was so cool! It was so interesting to read about how impactful the color pink has been, and its evolution into becoming a gender stereotype.

I wish I had taken more photos while I was there, but it was super busy!! 

I will have a top ten post this weekend, but maybe not on Saturday. Enjoy your weekends everybody!

P.S.-Auntie Betsy, Wendy, and Holly- If you are reading this, thank you so very much for taking me on this trip!! It was so much fun and really I have a clearer view now of what I want to do next year. I can't even fully express my appreciation! Love you!!

Saturday Top 10: Butte Hauntings

This week in honor of the Halloween (I know it was two days ago, but I'm campaigning to make it Halloween year-round)  I decided I'd show you 10 supposedly haunted places in my hometown.

Butte has always been known for its supernatural activity because of it's many historic buildings (and mines) which have been home to deaths, disappearances, and even murders.

1. Dumas Brothel (East Mercury St.)

The Dumas is probably the most famous haunted place in Butte. An active brothel all the way until 1982, this place obviously has some stories. The most famous is that of Elenore Knot, a madam at the Dumas until 1955, when she committed suicide after waiting for a lover who never came. To this day, people claim to see her ghost wandering the brothel's halls. It's pretty dang creepy walking by there. I took a tour once when I was younger and I don't remember it much, but sometimes when I walk by there on my way home from school I get a chill or hear weird static in my headphones. 

The Dumas was the longest running brothel in Butte's red light district, and one of the few still standing today. If you are interested, I would highly recommend checking out it's website, http://www.thedumasbrothel.com/.

2. Phoenix Building (Park St.)

I don't have a super interesting story about the Phoenix Building, but it's definitely a creepy place. The first two floors are home now to a few art galleries and a men's clothing store, but the rest of the floors are deserted. The bizarre thing is that on there is a bunch of office furniture everywhere up there, almost in pristine condition and well-organized, but super old. It's like everyone disappeared all at once!

3. Butte Courthouse (Granite St.)

Butte was originally intended to house the state capitol so the city built this big gorgeous building for the state legislature. Helena ended up becoming Montana's capitol, so it's just the city courthouse now. A much smaller courthouse used to stand here and it housed the gallows where hundreds were hung. Even after they tore down the old courthouse and built this one, people claimed to have seen apparitions and poltergeists, especially in the basement.

4. Silver Bow Center (Granite St.)

The Silver Bow Center (Formerly the Butte Millionaire's Club) is right next to the Butte Courthouse. It is one of the most expensive buildings in Butte, with a Tiffany glass awning, a gorgeous tile fireplace in the foyer, and beautiful woodwork throughout the interior. It's said that the building is haunted by a 9 year old boy who died decades ago. I have spent the night there a few times with the Montana History Club and although I have never seen said boy, the president of the club a few years ago claims that she spoke to him when she was picking up a key to the building.

5. Mother Lode Theater (Park St.)

In Butte's heyday it had about 15 theaters, but today the Mother Lode is one of the only ones left standing, and the only one still in use. I used to do plays here and sometimes we would have to rehearse on the top floor, which is a super old, run-down ballroom with splintery floors (side note- I once played a part where I was barefoot for the entire play. Needless to say, it was not fun to rehearse up there). One year they had a haunted house up there and now there are random (hopefully fake) bloodstains all over the walls. Also, there are tons of weird props like disembodied mannequin parts hanging around the balcony above the dance floor. I have no stories about it actually being haunted, but either way it is very creepy!

6. Clark Mansion (Broadway St.)

This Mansion was the home of illustrious copper king William Clark one of the most influential men in the state and mining mogul. It is now an art gallery and studio. Maggie and I used to take bellydancing classes in the attic of the house, and our teacher would tell us stories of the hauntings here, namely about a 16 year old boy who died in the house and hangs around in the attic all the time. And then we would work on our belly rolling. (Don't judge!) I was always on-edge and paranoid there and I often felt chills or saw something out of the corner of my eye.

7. Old YMCA (Park Street)

This building used to be a YMCA, and then it was a swimming school thing (which I attended when I was little) and then it was the center for arts in Butte. Maggie and I used to take art classes there on the third floor, and we would heart things all the time, like people coming and going from studios when nobody was supposed to be in the building and the sounds of people running in the old gym. Also, there is a super creepy old elevator that was "operational" (I use that term loosely) and our art teacher used to herd us up to the 3rd floor in it and it would randomly stop and the lights would flicker and it was very traumatizing. I think it definitely contributed to my current fear of elevators.

8. Metals Bank (E. Park St.)

The Metals Bank was originally a bank (obviously) and has since been converted to a restaurant with a few apartments above it. Maggie and I had an actual paranormal (or at least inexplicable) experience here! We were about ten and eleven years old, respectively, and we (along with my mom) were helping our artist friend get some paintings from her studio on the second highest floor. As I mentioned, I have a phobia of elevators so I made Maggie take the stairs with me. We were walking down and we stopped on a deserted floor because we thought we heard something. We heard the sound of footsteps and a click as if somebody was unlocking a door down the hall. As soon as the door started to open an ear-splitting alarm went off. I was sure it was a burglar alarm and so we ran down the stairs as fast as we could. The sound got louder and louder until we reached the lobby and met my mom and her friend. They didn't seem worried, but we yelled over the alarm asking why it was going off. They looked very confused and asked what we were talking about. We looked around and nobody was reacting to the alarm. We realized that nobody else could hear it. My mom and her friend embarrassedly herded us out of the building, apologizing to the huge group of people who stopped to stare at us screaming our heads off. As we walked away from the building the sound faded as if the alarm was still going off inside and Maggie and I looked at each other and, at the same time, asked, "You heard that too, right?"

9. Old Town Hall (Broadway St.)

The most interesting thing about this building is actually in the basement. (Although Evel Knievel, a Butte native, once blew up the men's bathroom on the second floor) Under the City Hall was the old jail, where tons of local legends spent the night, as evident by their names carved into the walls. Fun fact: Robert Knievel actually got his stage name here after serving time with a man named William Knofel. One of the guards remarked that "Evil Knievel" and "Awful Knofel" were both in that night and the name stuck. 

The jail closed soon after a man committed suicide there and inmates claimed to have seen his ghost in the holding cells and around the shower area. Now you can take tours there and it is definitely a chilling experience!

10. Old St. James Hospital

 This place gives me the creeps to even write about. It might very well be the most haunted place in town! It was Butte's hospital until the 50s (I think?) and after multiple attempts to reuse it as housing, offices, etc. it was abandoned. When it was converted into apartments, tenants claimed to hear random hospital sounds and see doctor rushing around the halls at night. That apartment endeavor barely lasted two years.

My history teacher, Mr.Burgman, told our class a very creepy story about his experience there when he was a kid. Long story short, he accidentally walked into the abandoned building thinking it was a doctor's office. He saw that the first floor was totally deserted, but he heard something on the second floor so he went up to check it out. He reached a busy hospital wing and talked to some nuns who tried to help him find the doctor he was looking for. When none of them had heard of the doctor he thanked them and left. Later he went back with his mother, who didn't believe that he had spoken to someone in there, and found the second floor to be the same as the first, completely deserted. Twenty years later he was looking at an exhibit about old hospitals and found a picture of the St.James hospital from 1931 with the same nun that he saw that day staring right at him.


So there are 10 creeeeeepy places in Butte! Whether you believe in this stuff or not, it's kind of fun to hear stories about odd and bizarre happenings. Butte is full of weird stuff like this, and I barely just scratched the surface, so if you are interested I would definitely consider looking into other paranormal stuff here!

Also, I apologize for all of this Halloween stuff coming so late. Last week ended up being really really busy, especially with Ghost Walk stuff (more on that coming soon!)

Anyways, I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween and I wish you a great end of fall!

Happy Halloween!

                                            

                                                        Haunting Halloween Playlist from TheFlyingOkapi on 8tracks Radio.

Thanks to Sowmya for modeling

1. Scary Chinese Movie- Rickie Lee Jones

2. Your Algebra- The Shins

3. Fantasy- The XX

4. No Phone- Cake

5. The Violet Hour- The Civil Wars

6. No Quarter- Led Zeppelin

7. Intro- Alt-J

8. Brain Damage- Pink Floyd

9. The Best Part- El Madmo

10. Ghostyhead- Rickie Lee Jones

DIY Jasmine Costume

     The beginning of this month marked homecoming week for Butte High school. This means a week of dressing up in crazy costumes in order to show our school spirit! (Side note- does anyone actually know what the point of homecoming is?? And how does dressing up show team spirit? Whatever, I'll take any chance I can get to dress up. I love costumes!! This is becoming a very long side note. Should I just end it or go for the 'longest sidenote of all time' record? Is that a thing? Wow, my English teacher would be killing me right now. I'm distracting you from the main idea of the writing, and thus compromising its integrity. But this is my blog, I can do what I want! I could do this all day. Cats.)

     Anyways, one of the themed days this year was "Disney Day" (again, Disney=School Spirit?) and my friend Sowmya asked me to make her a costume of Jasmine from Aladdin. So here's a step-by-step of how I made it:

Materials:

1. A sewing machine

2. About 1 1/2 yards of teal colored fabric-Sowmya picked  this stretchy, silky-ish knit fabric and the pants I made ended up being SUPER comfy, but you can go with a woven fabric like satin if you like.

3. A cami or tank top in a slightly different shade of teal

4. 1 1/2 inch to 2 inch wide elastic

5. Straight pins

6. Needle and Thread- You could get matching thread, but I just used white.

Step 1: Making the top

First, cut a long strip of fabric 7 inches wide and about 5 feet long:

Find the center of the strip and hand sew a running stitch down the center line:

Pull the thread tight to make gathers:

Find the top center of your cami. It helps to use a body form, but you don't need it:

Pin the center gather of your strip to the center top of the shirt. Extend the "tails" of the strip on the shirt to find where they hit the straps. Repeat the basting/gathering process here and pin back onto the shirt like so:

Sew the strip down with a straight stitch where it's pinned:

Drape the tails of the strip around the arm of the shirt and repeat the marking/ basting/gathering/sewing process where the tails meet the back straps of the shirt:

*back*

Lay the shirt out on a table and line up what's left of the tails:

Cut off any excess and then sew the strips together, right sides together:

I like the way that this drapes in the back, but if you want you can sew it on at the center back of the shirt.

And you are done with the top! Feel free to add any embellishments. I didn't add any because Sowmya wore gold jewelry with the costume.

Step 2: The Pants
First, you will want to make kind of a sketch of what your pieces for the pants will look like:

This is basically the pattern I made up (not to scale!), which is pretty forgiving for most sizes. This is tailored to Sowmya's height (about 5'1") so you might want to adjust a little for your height or inseam measurement. The fit on the waist will be determined by the length of elastic you use.

You can draw the pattern out full-size on some butcher paper or newspaper, or just draw it right on to your fabric. When you cut out your fabric pieces, they will look like this:

Cut two front pieces and two back pieces right sides together so that they mirror each other! You will have 4 pieces total.

Next, place the two front pieces right sides together. Pin and sew a straight stitch along the curved line (the crotch of the pants):

Repeat with the two back pieces:

Next, lay the front pieces and the back pieces right sides together and line up the two crotch seams:

Pin and sew all along the inseam of the pants:

Next, sew the outer edges of the pants together:

Now you have a super giant pair of pant-type things. Tom graciously offered to model them for you:

For the gathered waist, fold the top of the pants over 1 1/2", pin, and sew to make a casing for the elastic (usually you should do a rolled hem here, but this fabric doesn't fray and I was feeling lazy). Make sure to leave 2" opening in your casing so you can thread the elastic through!

Measure and cut a length of elastic that will fit snugly around your waist. For Sowmya, the elastic was about 22" long.

Put a big safety pin on one end of the elastic. This will help when you thread it through the casing:

Thread the elastic all the way through the casing and sew its ends together.

Sew the opening in the casing shut and the waist is done!

Now for the gathered ankles:

Cut two rectangles of fabric about 10" by 6":

Fold one in half "hamburger style" (the short way) right sides together and sew along the long edge:

Turn the tube you just made right side out and fold in in itself so you have something looking like this:

Repeat on with the other rectangle:

You made cute little cuffs!

Next, sew a basting stitch like you did on the shirt along the bottoms of both legs to make them gathered like this:

*Expert (haha) tip: to get more even gathers, you can sew a straight stitch with your machine on the longest stitch length. Pull on one of the threads and the fabric will gather quite nicely.

Slide the cuff thingy you just made onto the leg opening like so:

Pin the pieces together, making sure your gathers are even:

Sew all around with a zigzag stitch. (note- if you are doing this with non-stretchy fabric, it will work better if you gather the ankles with elastic, just like you did on the waistband)

It will look something like this:

Repeat on the other ankle:

And you are done! Just add a few accessories and you are ready to go. I made this headband with a scrap of the matching fabric and a vintage pin:

Here's the final look:

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and as usual, leave me a comment of you try it!

Thanks for reading :)