Looking Ahead....

So having completed my diary posts from my trip to Disneyland Paris what's next on the horizon?

Well I would love to say that a transatlantic Disney vacation (either coast...I'm not fussy!) has been booked but alas no :(

As I have said on previous posts taking a family of four, especially when the two 'kids' are no longer kids, is not a cheap affair. And then when you factor in the timing to avoid key exam dates for the kids as well as allowing for my job working in education then our windows of opportunities are limited...and consequently expensive! Our situation at the moment means that I can only dream about getting state-side but until that time arrives I will have to suffice with co-hosting the Disney Dream Girls podcast, watching social media and finding other distractions.

Which brings me to a small trip that we do have planned. Next July Simon and I will be visiting London for a long weekend as we will be attending Star Wars Celebration 2016!

Now whilst I enjoy the Star Wars films it's Simon that is the big fan; he has been a fan since the original was first released and has a ton of books, comics, action toys etc. So not only will we be attending Star Wars Celebration we will be doing so in costume!

Simon is very creative and simply loves the chance to 'make stuff'. So it didn't take him long once the idea of attending Star Wars Celebration had been mentioned to take the next logical step and suggest that 'if we're going we might as well go in costume'. I thought well that's ok we can trawl the internet and find some pretty decent costumes...I'm happy to do that (providing Princess Leia's metal bikini outfit wasn't an option!) but oh no Simon had other ideas!

This was his chance to make our very own costumes from scratch!

We decided to find something that we could both do together and the logical route to take was to become Mandalorian's. Now for those of you not completely up on their Star Wars universe these are a set of mercenaries of which Boba Fett is probably the most well known.

So our spare time is consumed by costume building. We've ordered our 'soft parts' that's the clothing underneath the armour! Simon is busy making guns...I have two small blasters under construction and Simon is now making his much larger blaster! We are making good progress with making our own helmets and are making headway with colour options.

Various stages of helmet construction...lots of foamex (a malleable card), a heat gun, glue gun, super glue and lots of attention to detail!

Not really sure what I'm doing but I'll give it my best shot!

Moulding the foamex after applying heat

Waiting to be filled, sanded and first coat of primer paint

Now this is pretty serious stuff and having chosen to become Mandalorians we have actually joined a group on-line called 'Mandalorian Mercs Costume Club'. This is a worldwide non-profit organisation which came about through fans love of Star Wars and the desire to create costumes based on the films. The club sets the standards for Mandalorian costuming as based on the Star Wars universe whilst still allowing it's members their own creativity. So whilst there are certain elements of the costumes we are making that we have to follow guidelines for there is still scope for a lot of our (well I say 'our' but of course I really mean Simon's!) own creativity to come through. I'm even hoping to get a little Disney in there somewhere....

As our costumes take shape I shall keep you posted.