There are certain people in this world who possess a rare and valuable gift; the ability to build and encourage a person, giving them self-confidence and a sense of self-worth.

There is nothing insincere about these individuals. They are kind hearted and generouse, and their interest in you is genuine. You are the centre of their universe, if only for five minutes.

They are the people who tell you that you look good and you BELIEVE them. Not because they are honest, grounded people, but because they know the true secret of looking good - confidence.

It's not style, it's not fashion, it's not "society's" dictatedproforma on what looks hot (who is this "society" anyway?". No, it's all about feeling comfortable in your own skin, having fun and being yourself without worrying about judgment. THAT is what makes you look good. You know how we often say that people would look good in a sack? It's not because the sack is fashionable nor flattering, nor is the beauty of the wearer so much that it counteracts the hideousness.... it's the confidence that the person would wear it with.

So how does being with these people achieve that? It's their interest, their genuine desire to know you better, the way they entertain and hold your attention so that you can do nothing BUT be yourself, all self-awareness stripped away. It's then, in the warmth of your comfort that you learn to accept their compliments and character assertions.

I was lucky enough to spend the evening with not one, but TWO such people last night. They are incredibly warm and funny people who I can't help but open up to.

One of these women I've only met three times (now four) in my life, but it feels like we're old friends. She has such an easy, disarming aura about her.

The other one, much as I guard the phrase and rarely use it,I consider a good friend. Again, we haven't seen much of each other, though we chat regularly (when work and acting classes and fractured skulls aren't involved).

I walked away last night with such a feeling of tranquil self-assurance, founded on the absolution of my Gabit drunkenness, the knowledge that I'm living my dream and the reminder that I've come so far in my journey these past three years.

These people have such a rare and special gifting that more than counteracts the plethora of people who constantly try to wear and break you down, whether it be intentional or not. I just want to take this moment to give thanksfor all the Megyns and Victorias in the world, wherever they are and whatever their names might be.

I'll upload all the pictures of the special project as soon as photobucket decides to work for me. It turned out to be really really pretty and I didn't want to part with it! Pengyn seemed impressed as well.

-------------------------


For those who have been intrigued by my squeeing over the supasekretproject, this is the big reveal. There are quite a few pics under the cut, so although I've kept them small, those on dial up might want to skip this one, or block photos on their browser or something.



For Pengyn's birthday, I dressed two cuddly toy penguins in fatigue shirts and named them Jack and Sam. I then put them in a gift box designed to look like a stargate.



I decided that the real squee worthy bit would be in the detail, so I got some thin gold rbbon and sewed it through the wings of the penguins to look like wedding bands. It took about half an hour to do each wing because although the needle was sharp and fine, it didn't want to pierce the two sides of furry thick material. At this point I made several jokes on Facebook and MSN about Sam and Jack not wanting to get married, followed by a "Sam and Jack are finally married" when the wings gave way. To stop the edges fraying, I used a dab of superglue on the underside of the wing in addition to one or two stitches.



Step Two was the fatigue shirts. Believe it or not, making shirts for penguins is a complete bastard! Once I figured it out though, the shirts were so quick to make....

First of all, I cut two strips of my white doll making cloth and dyed one navy blue and one kjungle green. As I already owned the white cloth, it was cheaper to do it this way than to try and buy the cloth in the right colours. It was also more fun, though I have to admit that my kitchen smelt foul! I did it using a pan of water rather than the sort you use in the washing machine. I was a little bit scared of dye getting into the machine and staining my clothes.

After the material was dry, I then cut it up. To start with, I did a large rectangle for the back of the penguin and two smaller ones for the shirt front. I had to decide how to do the arms, because traditional methods don't work on wings. The way I did it was to make sleeves out of two pieces of fabric, with seams at the front and back rather than top and bottom. I then made two horizontal splits in the back piece of the shirt and sewed the sleeves into them, finishing the body of the shirt by sewing the front rectangles on and hemming the bottom. The collars were done seperately and then added. Sadly I got distracted whilst doing Sam (the blue penguin) because Pengyn had replied to me on LJ, so Sam's collar ended up going on inside out. Whoops!



The dog tags were fairly easy, although I'm slightly disappointed with the quality of the engraving because I've done much better (I engraved a vase with loads of scripture for a friend's leaving present last month). I got a set of metal tags and engraved the name of the penguin on one side, and some details on the other. Each one says
"Blood Type: Penguin
Religion: Shipper
Owner: Megyn"
I attached them to some chain that I had and Ta-Da, instant dog tags.




Each penguin got a set of patches. Because of the size (each patch is about a centimetre in diameter), I couldn't do all the detail like the Earth and stars on the Earth crew patch, but I got the basics. The SG1 patch was fiddle and I'm not happy with it, but you can tell what it is, I guess. I then sewed them onto the fatigues. They are missing the air force patch, I have to admit. I had four attempts at the AF patch (that sits underneath the SG1 patch on the right arm) but I couldn't get it right on that scale, nor anything that looked like it. If I do manage to do one, I'll just take needle and thread next time I see Pengyn and sew them on.



For the box, I got a plain papier maché (cardboard) box like this and drew round a dinner plate on the lid. With a craft knife (but without adult supervision!) I cut out the circle, leaving the rim of the Stargate. I then spray painted this with stone effect paint and varnished it first with glue. Using an image I found on google, I drew the glyphs on the gate. It is, however, not accurate because I could only get 45 glyphs on the gate, not the full 49.



For the kawoosh itself, I got some fine coloured film and some glitter. I sprinkled the glitter between two sheets of film and then ironed it, sealing in the glitter and enhancing the film. Because of the size of the film sheet, I sealed nine squares together tomake the kawoosh. This means that you can sort of see the joins and it's not perfect, but it's effective.



I then sealed the box using clear lacquer that I had for my car.

And here are some pictures of the final project...









So now you know how to make your own shipper penguins!