cleverly disguised as a responsible adult

Finally, finally my back is starting to hurt less. It's finally getting better every day instead of getting worse. It's still ouchy if I sit still for more than an hour or so at a time, but stretching, playing with kiddos, and advil are finally effective. About damn time.

My Subaru is currently at our favorite car repair shop getting new tires. This is both convenient and inconvenient, since we're heading to Iowa to visit my folks for the weekend. I'm glad that we'll have new tires for the drive, but it means that the Jeep's going to be hanging out in the work parking garage for the weekend. Oh well.

My mom has a jam-packed Saturday scheduled for us - garage sales, nature center, story time, church, walks, park, playing, and probably more. I'm freaking exhausted and really would rather just hand Emi to her for entertainment and go take a nap. Or, thinking way outside the box, leave both kids with them and go see Avengers with Downwood. That'd be spectacular!

I've been hankering for another round of Iron Bulwar-Lytton. It's about as much creativity as I can muster up today.

I inherited a spectacular black bodice (basically view H - http://mccallpattern.mccall.com/m4107-products-1009.php?page_id=493). I'm extremely tempted to make a floofy white shirt and a skirt out of the leftover pink linen from Emi's dress. Then, for faire, tuck the skirt up in my belt, wear my black pirate pants under the skirt, and my tall black boots. I probably won't bring a sword, just because of weight and managing two munchkins. Or I could finish my corded petticoat, make a pink overskirt to match Emi and wear my black skirt and one of my existing chemises. Decisions, decisions.

Re-reading Night Circus again. Dear gods, would I love to run a game in this world.

My giant purple shawl continues to eat up yarn. It's basically a lace doily ramped up with big, chunky yarn instead of thread. It's getting to the point where it's awkward to work on and might be a bit toasty in the car, but I like seeing progress.

Ugh. Lots of free floating anxiety today. Not fun. More coffee should fix it, though, as well as give me an excuse to get up from my desk and walk around. And read a little more of Smoking Ears and Screaming Teeth, which is both interesting and makes me glad that my science career didn't include some of those experiments. Sheesh.

Also, if you save up empty beer bottles for me, I'll return some of them unto you filled with homebrew. Just saying.

Progress!

Progress is a slow thing around here on the project front. Toddlers are not helpful when it comes to tissue paper, sharp scissors, pointy needles, and very hot irons. In fact, these things need to only come out when the toddler is not around. Also, the tendon crap that I have going on in my wrists means I can't use scissors for very long before things start being problematic. But still, there's been progress.

• Downwood - Vest: All fabric cut, all lining cut, all interfacing ironed in. Ready to sew.
  
• Emi - Chef coat: All fabric cut, most interfacing ironed in. Nearly ready to sew.
• Downwood - Giant brown coat of doooom: All fabric cut, all interfacing ironed in. Ready to sew.
  
• Galieth - Shirt: All fabric cut, all interfacing ironed in. Ready to sew.
  
• Galieth - Coat: Fabric located. Most of the pattern cut out, but some pieces remaining.
  
• Galieth - Vest: Fabric located, pattern cut out. Ready to iron, then cut fabric.
  
• Bex - Bodice: Fabric located, pattern cut out. Ready to iron, then cut fabric.
  
• Bex - Skirt: Fabric located, potential pattern proposed. Holding.
  
• Bex - Coat: Pattern located, not yet cut. Fabric not yet located. Holding.

Yikes.

At long last, I've pulled all the How To Make A Ren Faire Garb set of pictures off the camera. I still haven't gotten pictures of the whole thing on Val, but I have hope.

( Below the cut lie many, many pictures. You have been warned )

I made two skirts today, though I have to attach the trim on both - but it's pinned in place already. I have a chemise that's about half done. I also finished a halter top for me, including reinforcing the beaded fringe. I pinned together a bunch of patches for quilting and then added many more rows to the baby blanket that's been on hiatus for a while.

I also gained a level on my 4Ed rogue by killing many, many kobolds. Downwood's now going through the list of feats, trying to find one for me that will let me gain combat advantage more easily. Backstab is my friend.

I'd hoped to get the skirts and chemise fully done AND get a good start on a bodice, but I'll accept what I've got in front of me. We rolled lots and lots of dice and killed MANY kobolds. For serious. The tri-county area won't see any kobolds for at least a couple months. I'm just sayin'.

Chiffon is evil. It's slippery, doesn't stay pinned, tries to escape from both scissors and iron, and floats all over the room instead of being nice, smooth, and unwrinkled when pattern pieces are being put on it.

On the other hand, this is turning out to be WAY more wenchy than I'd anticipated. I knew the fabric was sheer and see-through, but I didn't realize exactly how see-through. To put it another way, there will be no running into the Quickie Mart to grab Gatorade without having either the bodice or some other cover-up to hide the tiny freckles on my ribs from anyone in a 50 yard radius.

Also, each sleeve has enough fabric to make a skirt/suggestion. That is, it would make a fine skirt if the fabric weren't completely see-through. It's not even worth making a slip out of this stuff.

I got the big seams sewn tonight. As my usual habit, I used French seams everywhere I could. I've come to enjoy not having things fray when I wash them. It's to the point where I'm considering taking my yellow skirt apart so that I can do something to enclose the edges. But I probably will only ever talk about doing that because (1) I'm lazy and (2) I have so many other projects to start that I can't really afford the time to go back and work on already finished stuff.

Seriously, I have enough projects with Stuff Already Bought that I shouldn't be allowed in any sort of craft store until, say, 2019. Maybe 2017 if I get really industrious. Maybe.

Since I'm not entirely sure when we'll get a chance to get photos of my new lovely, here's a link to where you can purchase one of your own. Downwood's employee discount is a wonderful thing, which is pretty much the only reason that I have one.

Those who have seen this sword in person know that I speak truth when I say it was designed for hewing through peasants. I could conquer England with this sword.

My problem now? I don't have a thing to wear with it.

Victaar was helping me look up traditional Viking (11th century) clothing last night. I'm leaning towards just making a man's outfit, since the female clothing would not go with the sword at all. I'm also leaning toward something mostly historically accurate instead of going with a Hollywood Valkyrie ensemble.

I'm kind of excited about learning about a new time period and making the garb, but I'm also a little intimidated. It's probably a good thing that I already have four projects lined up and ready to go - if I was jumping right into this, I think I might get in over my head.

Since today at work sucked worse than an amateur crackwhore convention sponsored by Polident, I decided to make a short list of things that are good that have nothing to do with compiling lists of everything I've written or troubleshot for the customer I've had the most to do with.

1. I am strong! Last summer, on the advice of Miss Mona, I bought a copy of Suhaila's Stretch and Tone DVD. It arrived, I tried it, and then I promptly fell over. The pattern of putting in the DVD and promptly falling over continued for several months, at which point I got bored of it and started doing more drills and practicing technique.
   
   I put in the DVD on Friday, did every exercise almost perfectly - my spine doesn't "flutter" like hers - and thought afterwards, "Hm. That wasn't so bad. I could probably do it again, but my quads would be solid KNOTS OF PAIN for the entire weekend."
   
   Dude. It's still challenging to do it all perfectly, but it's all doable! All of it! I don't have to stop in the middle of the lunge series due to the OMG!OW! factor. Hooray!!
   
   
2. In response to Lush raising their prices on my favorite things by upwards of 25% (rat bastards), I've been seeking other products that do nice things for me. With my PayPal O' Survey Answering Rewards, I decided to try a couple of Villainess's Smooches to see how they treat my super dry skin.
   
   I won't be purchasing the Paradise Misplaced scent again. While it gives me the Bathing In Lotion experience that this winter has forced me into and smells like coconut goodness, I really wanted something with more scratchy to it. Thus, I will DEFINITELY be purchasing the Dulces en Fuego again (assuming it comes back in stock eventually). It's a sugar scrub that smells spicy and heats up when you scrub with it! This is AWESOME! And it's moisturizing! Double AWESOME!!
   
   
3. Sometimes, after a bad day, a romance novel makes everything better. A romance novel with Actual Plot and Character Development not only makes things Better but pushes them toward Good. miladygrey's recommendation post made me want to hunt down the book. I found it at Frugal Muse, but of course it's available through Amazon.
   
   
4. When you dump frozen blueberries into a bowl with oatmeal and a drizzle of honey and then drown the whole thing with boiling water, the blueberries plump up, burst a little, and turn the entire bowl a lovely shade of delicious purple. Mmmmm.
   
   
5. Even when life sucks, a half hour spent browsing Renaissance garb sites with an eye toward ideas and new construction techniques will make me happy. Especially when I can read about the floofiest pink dress ever - with collapsible panniers and pool noodles!
   
   No, I'm not planning on making anything remotely like that for faire this year. My feelings on pink are well known. Maybe lavender, though, and switch out some of the lace ruffles for ribbon ruffles. Hm. It bears thinking on.
   
   Notes to Self: This is how you want to make the undergarment for the German dress. This is how you'll make the outside, probably. And this is what you should do with that pretty red brocade.

It's that time of year. Yes, I'm once again throwing myself into fabric and patterns for faire garb. I managed to score all the fabric necessary for two complete sets of garb for under $50 (yay for 50% off sales). I have a problem, however. I want to buy trim for a kirtle and doublet, but I don't have enough picked out to meet the minimum order. At Cheeptrims you can get absolutely gorgeous trim for about an order of magnitude cheaper than you can at JoAnn's or Hancock Fabric. So, is there anyone out in LJ land who wants about $30 of trim from there who will go in on an order with me? Please?

In between drooling over trim, trying to find period portraits for inspiration, and working on my DA progress, I checked my webcomics. In today's newspost, Tim posted a trailer for a game that will convince me to buy an Xbox 360 or PS3. Holy. Crap. So very pretty.