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Work has gotten a bit busy again, which is good and bad. My brain has not been up to the task of organizing this much data but I've had to put on my big girl panties and just do it. But its leaving me exhausted. I'm still a bit beat up from the previous weekend and I hit the gym hard on Wednesday and Friday. I did not woos out on my running on Friday and hit almost 2.25 miles in 35 mins. Not too shabby. Have a coworker who asked me if I wanted to do a 1/4 marathon at the end of March and well, I'm tempted. I'll be slow but it would be good I think. It will be the longest I've ever run but if I get my distances up for the next while I think 6 weeks is a good time to try it...before the dreaded milestone birthday coming up.

Anyhoo...got home, got cleaned up and changed and Mel, Benton and I met Will and Ari for dinner at the Welcome Diner (formerly ChafFins Family Restaurant). Its hipster but the food was tasty and teh drinks were good. Benton at his entire bowl of mac/cheese with bacon and I had a sample and it was good. I had shrimp and bluecorn grits. Got home and got Ben to bed and then Mel and I were both tired. We went to bed early and I slept pretty good. Ben got up early but I made sure to get him breakfast and made pancakes for the family before he and I trundled off on errands.

First we got him a hair cut which he did well with. Then I returned things to BB&B, hit Target for essentials and then picked up Obsidian's ashes. The staff had done a pawprint for us on an ornament and Ben and I were pretty sad after that. I got him ice cream (his first Blizzard) which he ate just a bit of before it went into the freezer. Icka was over for a visit when we got home and after some chit chat I managed oh so slowly to cut out 2 tunics and facings for benton, 2 tunics and facings for Mel and a dress for myself with facings. Seriously, it took hours. I know in that I was helping Benton learn to use his icord maker, I did some laundry, I checked some patterns and did a bit of ironing but still...I finished up jsut a bit after dinner and then by that point mel was going to bed. He'd been sick all week and was just done. I was not in the mood to cut anything else out or sew things like facings so I snuggled up on the couch with a beer and my knitting and watched Sherlock : The Abominable Bride. I never got to watch it. But was glad I did. Cumberbatch did a great job of being Jeremy Brett, my first love, to a tee. I loved all of it and the trippy nature of when things actually took place. So fun. It was good and I hit the hay about 1030 and snuggled in to sleep.

Sunday dawned and I again got up with Ben, got him breakfast, made coffee and tried not to be a lump. I had sewing to do and so I got myself fed, dressed and slowly sewed all 5 facings/necklines before I lost steam and headed out to do errands. I got new knee pads and things at Dick's Sporting goods. I really don't like there store and their selection is meh. They had no elbow pads or any high impact sports bras that didn't include a wire closure or underwires....seriously. sighs. Got home and Ai'sha and Lucian were over working on their bed. I started on sleeves for Benton's tunics and then it was dinner time. Mel was as tired as I was but I managed to get some laundry put away and put away everything related to sewing from the front room so we could have scribble tonight. I did manage to get the sleeves on his tunics and then sewed the pad of my thumb with the machine cause I'm an idiot. It hurts but I'm not injured.

So a few pics and a video:
Ben'd cute Tunics:

Mel's Wheel All done:

Me spinning on the wheel:

Watch on YouTube

Crossposts: http://raventhourne.livejournal.com/963716.html

I spent Friday doing school shopping with the boy. I was completely tuckered when we got home. I didn't craft on Thursday night or on Friday night for cosplay. I worked on the damnable scarf and am very close to finishing it. Mel has been decompressing from work stress and it has been nice to sit on the couch and watch the Olympics.

Saturday I did the grocery shopping and then worked on the lolita. Sunday AM was lolita in the AM/noon and the afternoon was working on the sarees at Ari's.

Benton had some rough spots this weekend. He did not listen well and did not get his reward for good behaviour (eegees) twice. I had to have him do pushups in the stores and he was annoying to the stylist who cut his hair. He did well at Ari's playing with Mason for hours and then he lost the groove. But he was tired and hungry so I can understand. I was tired and hungry too.

On the saree front I made the decision to add the pallau from the saree

uaekiwi got me for my wedding and that I've already gotten trim and a skirt out of. I got the bottom trim all sewn on, the extra fabric and now just need to sew down the top trim and the edge of the extra fabric. The pallau piece has red on it which will go nice with Zatana's cape she wears at times off the back of her tuxedo jacket.

I still need to pattern the jacket/vest/chemise but I think that can be accomplished this week so that I can spend the following week working on SCA clothes for crown and then just working last minute items. Mel goes to Britain Sunday so I want things pretty settled and be at hand work so Ben and I can watch movies and color together etc versus me making yards and yards of trim in my studio.

The Loli is now getting very close to done.
Front:

Back:

I still need to put a bit of trim on the ends of the undersleeve, trim the bottom of the jacket, takeup the skirt piece and make the collar. The entire weekend it was "more floofy, if you think its too much, add more!" and I think I got the asthetic right on the butt bow. I still probably need bows in the front but now I'm thinking I'm going to bustle up the skirt on the jacket to show off all of my hard work on those damnable ruffles.

I sat down after dinner last night and finished up our hair bows for the Hydra Cheer squad, though I need to figure out how to use the cyber dreads I bought. I also cut out the fabric for the bun covers but I need to dig out my cotton batting to make them bigger and smoother, plus add more lace.

So, lots of progress and things are falling into place nicely. Just need to get through the next few days before school starts and then we can get back into a normal routine.

I also finished Venom in the same series I've been reading by Estep. Kev didn't give me the fourth book in the series so I started in on The Better Part of Darkness by Kelly Gay.

I slept like utter crap last night and its now been a monday with computers, late sleepers etc. Sighs.

( To Do List )

Tuesday my work motivation died about 2pm. I got hit by the afternoon tireds and was zonked even after another cuppa. Well, this being productive thing is taking its toll. Oh, well.

Picked up Benton after waiting at the dojo for class to finish. The AC was partially out so I was hot, tired and a bit irritable when I got home. But I tried not to have that affect my mood. Got changed into comfy cooler clothes and made tuna salad for dinner. Exciting but cool. We at dinner while watching Animaniacs and then a storm started rolling in. Ben was uber awesome the entire evening and uber cute. I sat down listening to the weather moving in and turned on youtube to get caught up on all of the trailers that dropped at SDCC.

After that I finished reading a real world probable MCU which was cute and then started in on the sewing.

I pieced in sections into the sleeves to open them up for me...they are probably a bit big now but they are comfy. Then I attached the flounce to the lower sleeve piece 3 different times before I got it right. I was being lazy and sewed the hem of the white fabric with black thread and it looks like ass so I will have to tear that out tonight and attach the lace after I finish the second sleeve. I got the first sleeve attached to the jacket top and did a new technique to me which was using gathering stitches to futz the fit around the top of the sleeve arc. I think it looks great and then I put in the the gathered stiffener to hold the "pouf" of the sleeve and it looks really good. That all took me 2 hours but now I can do it much quicker on the second sleeve. I hope to get that done tonight so Thursday I can work on trims for it and finish cutting the gauzy ruffles. I just didn't want to start a new thing when I had the sleeves to finish.

Mel got home in the middle of things since practice got rained out. All good. He sat on the back porch drinking a beer and watching the rain/lightening. It was pretty cool.

I got a shower and then headed to bed where I slept hard. I was dreaming about how I'm going to make the dickey for the lolita...basically its going to be a sleeveless chemise but I'm toying with collar ideas etc. I think it will depend on how I trim the jacket of how fancy the top will be. I think a simple collar and maybe a cute little bow will work. Not sure yet.

( To Do List )

Well, the weekend was full of stuff......
Friday managed to get up, get kiddo to school and hit the chiro before working on projects and seen Ant-man. Fun movie as long as you ignore some physics and the whole Titanium thing.....seriously, ugh that hurt my engineer self so bad. Seriously. The end cut scene which almost everyone I know missed was awesome and now I have to think about what that means for future state of all things Winter Soldier. Go see it and have fun.

Ben had a really improving week at school. He's learning and he's starting to listen and get with the program. Friday was his best day with lots of smiley faces on his report.

I sewed a lot, I cleaned my studio to use it and purged more things out of the house. I got my dress for crown almost completely done by Sunday night and am still figuring out what to do with trim pieces 5&6. Le Sigh. But I'm happy with the overall look of it and it fits nice and makes me feel pretty which is more to the point. In between sewing and reading we had visits by Wander, Sa'id and Jessie. All good. Hanging out with Jessie most of the night recalls many convos over college nights. So good. Course that also meant that most of the weekend I thought that 1 am was a good bedtime. Le sigh.

So, dress picts:

Front Trim layout: Top bands are still in the "figure it out" stage but the other 4 are sewn on.

So, here is the google drive link to the little project bag I've been doing.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B36nsFPf5nFIRm1tN25RVVVrbEU/view?usp=sharing

its a pdf and you print it out at 11x17" (tabloid paper) and it will be just shy of a fat quarter in length.

Enjoy!

The impetus for purging continues, especially after Michigan and now with us having to replace the dishwasher. That was a cluster on Friday AM. The fix that 6 or so years ago on the cabinets that

richarddbrewer did was pushing on the counter top due to a brace. So, I had to unloade the entire glass cabinet, helf the installers get the countertop lifted up off of the old crappy dishwasher and then they could see if it would fit. it didn't since the counter top had sagged over 12 years and they left and mel came home to fix it. He ended up driving a wedge up and got the countertop to be level and set and then the guys came back to install it. Its shiny, pretty and so quiet it has a red light to tell you its on!

Yay!

But this meant that the contents of the glass cabinet needed to be gone through and the cabinet fixed but that was for later. I got to work and worked my butt off on paperwork. Got home late and mel and I did a marathon of house cleaning. Benton got sent to his room cause his daily report wasn't good and we had to set up a meeting his teacher and the director. He screamed for a bit but did okay after that. We got the house settled and I even got the front carpet cleaned really well before folks arrived. I made hamburgers and hotdogs since it was so hot. Had a nice time playing Shadow over Camelot> and enjoyed some G&T's. We failed the game but it was good. We had a brief visit by

public_shaylan and Richard and that was nice.

Saturday we got up early pulled weeds and got the kitchen cleaned up, sorted glassware into donate and keep. We got rid of enough that our travel coffee cups/shaker cups all have cabinet space. We also got rid of kidware cause Ben is now old enough to use all of the adult stuff. The new dishwasher is awesome and it cleans uber well. Just still working out how to load it. Its very different. Mel fixed the two cabinets in situ since they just needed bracer blocks put in and screwed back into the wall. He put clamps in to hold things while things dried and I was able to reset everthing in the cabinets. Got that done, worked on a few other things and then Ari arrived with the kiddos to work on clothes. She needed help getting a viking hangerock patterned up and we got that patterned settled, fed everyone and then got into sewing. I finished the two project bags I still had lingering and then started in on the little boy clothes. Back a month or so ago, Wander and I had cut out a lot of clothing for me to make and then I didn't do anything with it. So I know that Ben wanted a new outfit(s) for crown so I got to work on that. I made him a red Tunic with dinosaur trim, dinosaur bag trousers and a starwars tunic. With that I also made a new neckline pattern for him and figured out how to put together the pattern for his tunic that Eithni and others had made him but I'd never actually sewed one together. Weird I know. But this happens when you get a bunch of awesome kiddo handmedowns and reign as K&Q...so, now that he's getting bigger we need more clothes and I'm going against my Commander of the Pilgrim to make him happy and have fun prints etc. Cause every lil' Viking boy needs dinosaurs, star wars, jake and bugs. More cute clothes in a few weeks. By the end of Saturday I got the red tunic done minus the trim attachment and the star wars tunic put partially together. I was smart enough to not cut the neckline until the next morning. (good thing I did, my pattern was too small.) Shanda and Richard stopped by for a good talk and we watched Rocky Mountain Vets which is a pretty cool show. Got to also hear about the winery tours they had done all over Southern AZ.

Sunday AM we all got up early and mel worked in the shop. I got going on sewing and realized my issue with the neckline pattern, got it fixed, updated and started sewing it before we headed to joe's breakfast with Shanda/Richard. Had a great time there and then back to the house for sewing. Ben got outside time before it got heinously hot. Saturday broke the record at 110°F and it got to 106°F Sunday. I got work done in the kitchen on putting dinner in the crock pot, cleaned the stove/counters, made radish quick pickles and handwashed the silverware.

Stacy/Brian stopped by to get more photos of the backyard for the wall/roof plans. All good. Stacy and I chatted while I sewed. Unlike the dino tunic, I worked the entire neckline etc flat. I fidgeted with the binding but it looks really cool with the black. I used some bias tape tricks from Pinterest for the corners and how to start and stop the trim which worked really really well. I got everthing finished on both tunics just before dinner. By this point Ben was "done" for the day. He'd had some tv but was tired and cranky and hot. Poor kiddo. I got dinner finished with grilled curry squash and we delighted we had Wander over for it. The pulled pork turned out great.

Crockpot Awesome Pulled Pork
1 red onion chopped
1 large pork loin
1 can of beer (I used fat tire)
1 can of green enchilada sauce
Ground pepper
Garlic powder
Ground Cinnamon

Place onion in bottom of crockpot, arrange porkloin in crop pot (I cut mine into 4 chunks), sprinkle liberally with spices, pour liquid over, put on lid and cook on low for 8-9 hours. Shred pork with forks. Serve over buns.

After dinner and getting Ben to bed I got the kitchen cleaned up and started work on my crown dress. I have the trim all pinned on it and now its hand sewing. I sat for a while and then got really, really dizzy and hot. Mel was watching Mindcraft videos and they were making me sea sick. I went to bed a bit early and finished reading the Improbable Sherlock Holmes Anthology. I swear I've read more than two books but its really only been that. so I guess that is the second or third book for the year.

Lots of progress and not in a lot of ways. I guess, a lot for the house and the kiddo but not for me. I hope to get my dress finalized this week so I can work on getting the fancy trim on and figureing out what I'm wearing with it.

So, all of the projects finished laid out.

Ben in his pants (beware the cute!) Contrasting buttflap, cuffs.

The dress in progress:

Benton's progress at school after a week, writing his name without prompting.

We had a meeting this AM with his teacher and it went really well. He does great by himself but working in groups is completely new/odd to him. So we need to work on family projects at home more. Plus work on expressing ourselves verbally. We will be getting a report home everyday as we transition but all in all it was a really good talk. We are doing the right things and we know what we as a family need to work on.

Weekend was nice a productive. The work week was kinda crazy and I was so looking forward to the end of the week. Benton did really good at Theresa’s and we had a nice evening at home on Thursday night. I did some knitting and contemplated my spinning. I really need to order more bobbins for my sidekick. Cause using another wheel to ply is annoying when I mess things up and ply something the wrong way which is what I did on Tuesday. Sighs.
Friday I got up early and got the tires changed on the Fit and then off to a massage. I got some organization stuff at Big Lots/Dollar Tree, including a new ottoman. Its bigger and faux leather and has a tray on the lid which will be nice. Got home and the boys were having fun with legos. Got laundry started, fed the kiddo and worked on getting my studio unearthed. It had become the dumping ground for, well, everything and I got it cleaned up and things put away and I could get to the fabric I wanted to use to make things. I found stuff I thought was lost, I put things away that have been out for over a year and well, just in general tidied. I still need to go through the closet and pull out the SCA clothing that no longer is my favorite or just in general doesn’t fit and get rid of it. I also need to find a way to store the Baroness that isn’t so bulky. No idea on how to do that. But I need closet space. Seriously. I can’t hang everything up in it so its hanging my studio taking up space. Grump.

Wander arrived in the later afternoon and we got the front room converted to a sewing studio complete with 2 sewing machines, 1 serger, cutting table and ironing board.

See the list of things I accomplished:

Patterned/Updated Benton Tunic Pattern

Patterned/Updated Benton Bag Trousers Pattern

Cut out 5 project bags

Sewed 2 project bags that have been cut since last year.

Added Button to hand me down tunic for Ben that now fits.

Took in two Benton tunics that were made for him during the reign and I gave bad numbers.

Sewed 3 of the 5 bags cut out.

Learned new way to do the bags to not have to PIN EVERYTHING!

Cut out red linen tunic for Benton

Cut out Star Wars Tunic for Benton

Cut out Dinosaur Bag Trousers for Benton

Cut out Shark Bag Trousers for Benton

Cut out 2 flannel PJ pants for Mel

Washed so much laundry I’m appalled.

Bought and washed 5 sets of fabric for Mel’s Modern shirts that Wander will make.

Helped Benton putaway all of his books and toys& laundry /reorg his room.

Got apprentice to help with ironing and other things. YAY!

Made grilled peaches (nom, nom, nom)

Plied up the blue merino for Tour de Fleece

Plied up the Everybody’s Weird Colorway for Tour de Fleece

Knitted on my new shawl

Knitted on Benton’s hat.

Shipped off Bunny/Hat to Dana

Shipped off Sox to MIL

Shipped off Books to Nikolai.

Shipped off Presents to Viktor.

Hand delivered Bunny to Mary at Joe’s Pancake House

Figured out my path forward on my crown hangerrock with Wander

So pics of the awesome stuff:
Bags:

Shawl:

Spinning:

Well, was good and got home with the Benton and had a nice dinner and snuggles. Then I made sure to get the dishwasher loaded and things settled before I hit the sewing. Benton was in bed when I got the sewing machine set up in the living room to watch Dirty Jobs and then he got up to go potty which ended up him using up about 1/4 roll of TP and stopping up the toilet. At least he pooped but I hate plunging toilets...ewww. Oh, well, got him back to bed and then on to ruched trim. I had serged the edges the previous night so I turned the edge to sew it down for pretty...(seriously, who is going to look at my trim and notice the serging but the laurel in me was screaming to not cut corners, so meh). If I had a rolled hem foot this would have been easier but I could just sit and let the machine pull in the fabric and held my hands just right to roll the edge over. The thing is the machine pedal started to overheat. So that was good for breaks. Then I had been talking with

danabren and she gave me a huge tip for ruching that involved setting up the machine to baste and pins to hold onto the fabric to grab excess thread.
1) turn off your feed dogs
2) turn off the tension to the pressure foot
3) set stitches to the longest and then sew by pushing the fabric through by hand versus the machine doing it. Its free sewing like in quilting.
4) Every yard, place a pin and then pull some extra thread out to help later in the gathering
5) do this the whole length of trim
6), start gathering by pulling the bobbin thread and then wrap the excess as you go on the pins every yard.

So, here is the in progress and finished ruching.

So tonight when I get home I will be attaching ruffles to the underskirt and then the ruching to the overskirt which will then basically leave them with hooks and eyes to be done and the overskirt waistband. Friday will be working on the jacket completely.

My buttons came in and they are AWESOME!!!! OMG!!!!! SO SQUEEFUL!!!!!! And Epaul accidentally overcharged me so now I have $46 in credit with him. Woot!

The To Do List:
( Read more... )

Lets just say I've been busy...working too much, putting in OT and today I took a mental health day and didn't even have to spend any PTO or comp time...yeah, working too much. Its had me feeling very very guilty about projects for D*C that I have to do and with the Benton. Mommy Guilt has been in high swing with me an I'm not sure what started it but it keeps getting reinforced by Benton, situations with him, comments at his school, my personal struggles with work/life balance, the imp in my head that tells me I'm a bad mom and not suitable for the task, conversations with my husband that make me feel completely inadequate to be a mom etc. I'm sure its all stress etc but its been weighing on my brain something fierce. Nothing like your brain trying to sabotage you.

Work has been so busy that I lost track of a few projects and now they are in critical paths but everyone understood and its going okay now. I've been doing the work of about 3 people due to vacations etc and yeah...crazy but our hardware is getting shipped out so that is good. We just hope to get as good of results with the next lot. (crossing fingers). Things will not be easy with that lot and I have changes that have to be made and I'm lacking the original design documentation from *cough* 6 or so years ago and may have to call they guy who left the company for info and will probably have to talk to legal to do it. Sighs. Oh well. I also gave one of the best presentations of my life for the customer and our program. I realize that most people don't know I can have a "command" presence or "presentation" presence when standing up in front of the brass and thank the SCA for all of the courtly graces I have learned. It went really well. The Captain was very happy and the program manager kept telling me I did well, even days afterwards. So, feather in my cap on that one.

Benton has been making logic leaps of late. He's learning letters now and can recognize them. This morning I was wearing my new Raven T-shirt and he noticed it was like my Luna Shirt. He's been using the potty okay this week though we had a week of poop issues...not sure what is up with that but I think he's too busy to stop and head inside while playing to go. Sighs. He's picking up some words for reading and has been practicing his letters on my ipad app so he's learning. I just need to have the patience of Job and not scream at him when I'm tired and crabby too.

Books...I finished Victory by Susan Cooper #12 of the year. And I'm waiting for mel to finish the next Rivers of London book so I can read it. I've been keeping up on some fan fiction and stumbled upon a Loki AU that is out of this world. Very awesome. Its called Kingverse and follows items from Thor I in an AU where Loki becomes King with Sif his queen...seems not plausible until you start reading and man are you sucked in!!! So good and in Part 6 they cross into the Guardians of the Galaxy which is good. Interestingly enough SHIELD is not really the "good" guys in many ways but the characterizations are spot on for most of them. So good.

Other than that I've been biking 3 weekends in a row with the Road Boars...though I need to see what we are doing tomorrow. I got my bike repaired after and epic blowout where it took the tire out the previous week and treated myself to new tires, tubes and two new pairs of short since my shorts I had were bought well before I was even pregnant...they were old. New shorts are comfy and a bit longer which makes me happy. Have not made it back to the gym but I've been valiantly and to good result eating better, not drinking much at all and that is helping.

On the D*C front I've got lots of things in partial stages. I hope this weekend can get things to almost finish stages. I'm way behind on the Raven items and still need to start the victorian outer clothes but at least the inner stuff is done. I've also been spinning on the spinning wheel for Tour de Fleece and its going well, I need to spool off what is currently on the bobbin to be able to spin the other half since there is only one bobbin for the Country Craftsman wheel. Sighs.

Had an epic monsoon on Sunday which had huge wind gusts and about 1.3" of rain at the house. Took lots of pictures of it and the damage and our neighbors helping out with storm damage down the street.

2014 Monsoon!

So, that is life in a quick update.

Obviously,

ickaimp has been stealing the awesome in my house with the banner painting. Cause my sewing has taken a dive. I got my studio converted from guest room to studio on Tuesday and then finished up 3 pairs of pj pants that I had intended for Christmas 2011. Yes, 2011. Le sigh. Well, the one's for mel turned out just fine I think (he hasn't put them on yet so maybe they are also jacked) but the pair for me is too short in the crotch and too big in the waist band. Sighs. I can fix it. I just need to undo the elastic waist band and resew it smaller and not have it fold over so much.

On saturday

lferiongave me awesome advice to cut out a prototype dress for my new hangerrock pattern since I was limited by a 25" piece wide of fabric that makes my standard pattern not quite fit efficiently. And since my new dress is out of handwoven fabric I'm really glad I did do the prototype out of linen since I CAN'T ADD. I'm FOUR INCHES TOO SMALL in the chest on this dress. **HEADDESK***

Le Sigh.

So, tonight I will be reworking the prototype by adding in fabric and then reworking my pj's to have some success before working on the fighting tunic and my final dress. I hope.

I will have some help this weekend on things thanks to

swordmage which is good cause man am I running out of time quickly.

Oh, well, we need to fail to succeed properly.

So to succeed I want to point you to this article on why you an your press iron should be the best friends ever for sewing. I had not done a 4 step process to pressing seams, I had only done a 2 step. This is in valuable and really shows why its really important.

A Word from the Pressinatrix.

Well, my weekend was pretty busy. Friday was dealing with the cats and the vet. We've had to make some changes to the girl's litter box setups and I'm not convinced its working. Time will tell I guess. We were all very tired by Friday night. Little boy has been teething hard on his top front teeth and mel is still getting over his crud. Saturday morning mel got up and ready to head to Bumble Bee Ranch for MWW with the Knights of Hrafn and the his squire. Benton and I had a good day where we played I sewed off an on all day. After his nap we had a good time shopping and we picked up a new pair of shoes for him and a new outfit. I had pulled one off the rack and he looked at it and did his happy noise about it. Other outfits he didn't comment on so the one with little blue monster's going "ROAR" came home with us. (You can see a pic of the outfit here.

Mel got home a bit late and I had sat and worked on Tony's TARDIS mitts. I had ended up frogging them back to the start of the stitch pattern because I couldn't read my own pattern. Lame but true. I'm happy with them now and should be able to work on them pretty well. On Sunday I did a bit more sewing and knitting while mel was in the shop. Benton was a bit crabby by the end of the day and would not take a second nap though he needed it. By the end mel and I were pretty strung out and tired. But little boy has been sleeping good (though a bit of whimpering at night) so that is better than the previous weekend. His walking is much improved and he's been walking across the family room quite regularly. I think all of his effort to move while standing is wearing him out.

Over the weekend I finished #3 book of the year Steal the Dragon and moved on to reading #4 which is When Demon's Walk by Patricia Briggs. I relaly like that these stories are all independent but if you read them all you get a very large at least 40 year history of the area from very different points of view.

Monday dawned early and when I got to work I was working hard when my phone went off to tell me I had a blood donation scheduled. I did my first "double Red" donation. I have to say that is weird and I did not like tasting medical saline all day in my throat. I was really tired afterwards and throughout the whole day. That was normalish but I was wiped. Got home late after working late to make up the donation time and a wonderful lunch with the work husband Pete. Benton was a bit cranky when I got home but it was the "i'm tired" kind of cranky. He ate a good dinner and I guess was out shortly after his bottle. Mel had a nice evening home while I headed to scribble and almost finished a scroll. We all made good progress on things and got to chat with Gael on her new position. The Southern Scribble Hive Mind is weird for lots of people to conceptualize until they see us in action. We all work really good as a team and have a good time doing it. Plus we push ourselves which is also really good.

I got home and mel was getting ready for bed. I was a very good girl and put away my laundry that had been sitting in baskets for a week or so. I need to do laundry again so...maybe I'm not as good as I want to be.

Today is St. Valentine's Day and the Arizona Centennial. Last year at this time I posted this picture :

Of mel at Joe's before he headed off to Estrella. Wow, its been a crazy year since then.

Oh, well, time for some meetings.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: the cubical

Well, the weekend was busy but it was fruitful. It was the final few days of the Tour de Fleece. On Saturday I still had 3 ounces of fiber to spin and then to ply up all 5 ounces. I have to admit that the corriedale wasn't my best spinning but I was more consistent I think. The 2 ply yarn ended up being 12 wpi which is a good worsted weight yarn. I'm good with that. I still need to calculate how much yardage I have and see what I'm going to make with it. The colors kinda muddied out when I plied but we shall see. So, here is all of the corriedale plied up and then all of my yarn I made for the tour.

( yarn pr0n )

Current Mood: dorky
Current Location: the cubical

Well, I've been sewing for 10 years or so. I'm not bad at it..I know I have lots to learn still but I can do most pre-1400s sewing. So, I was very confident that making curtains wouldn't be a big deal. It really hasn't been but its been going slower than I really ever thought it would. I'm not used to things being this uber precise with square etc. I know, I'm an engineer, I should be exacting with things but honestly, I can turn that part of my brain off for some sewing and I can also tell when things are "good enough" to work and still look nice and be functional for a long time. When I was sewing the podling sweater together Becky (knitting guru) said I didn't need to be so precise on the seaming but when I explained I'm entering it in the County fair she understood.

I had my first foible with the curtain over the closet when I cut the first panel too short. I got that fixed...got the lining in and then hung it up on a temp rod to see what I wanted to do. I've decided to split the panel and have buttons to close it and I need to get the rod up today too. Mel told me what saw to use to that shouldn't be too hard. I'm using the same closet rod section that I cut from for the closet rod so it will be easy-ish. I'll probably need help getting the brackets lined up but I'm going to try to get it up today.

I have not found a curtain rod I like yet for the actual window curtains. I'm going to get the curtain panels sewn and have extra fabric at the top to align it correctly once I get the setup. Anna's Linens closed while I was in the store yesterday due to a computer glitch. I'm looking for a wooden set so I might hit lowes and see what they have. Also on the docket today is some cookie baking and making banana bread. The cookies are for the household to nosh on and the banana bread for us to nosh on next week.

The concrete guys are here to pour the slab for the shop so I was up early. I'm going to be good and take good breaks. I've been getting lots of braxton-hicks (practice) contractions if I'm moving too much but other than that not too bad. Though I'm starting to feel uncomfy in general. Podling was moving around a lot yesterday evening with big sweeping movements that had me going "ugh" but I slept way better last night. I think part of that was that obsidian did not sit outside the door and cry for hours. I also stayed cooler than previous nights by just not covering up so much.

Well, time to get cookies on while its cool in the house.

Current Mood: content
Current Location: Turtle House Brewery

Well, I'm half way through my calligraphy for the weekend...yeah, I'm a bit behind...but the sekrit project(tm) will get done tonight minus a bit of painting but I figured I'd tease you all with previews of my dress for Coronation.

( Read more... )

So, there you go...off to do more calligraphy!!!

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: Turtle House Brewery

Well, I managed to overcome a rather nasty sinus headache to go riding yesterday..the headache came back after I cooled down though...need drugs. But I got a ride in, go the coronation photos uploaded correctly* and then headed for ari's for kirtle adjustment and scribal.

Well, The kirtle adjustment requires me to redo half of the hand done eyelets...yup, I know what I'm working on tomorrow. The funky curve that we saw in my back pattern of my kirtle pattern from February has now now evened out to more of a straight line.
( kirtle pattern from feb )

So, we took almost 4 inches out of the sides and 2 inches out from under my boobs. Yeah...go me...but having lots of work now to do...and Stefan got sent out to Yellowstone...so I get to work on a few things myself on monday. Probably cast the weekend after that I guess. Anyhoo...there was much amusement during the taking in of the pattern from Ari and I.

Scribal was fun and it was really good to see

ceciliamowebray in attendance. We all had fun. I didn't finish the scroll I was working on...I was almost starting to shade in circles but I stopped and pulled out my A&S stuff and started sketching. I hope to have my sketches done over the weekend so I can start getting things going on that front as well. Lots to do though, lots to do...but at least I got the shapes going for what I wanted and that was important. I can now doodle to my hearts content on the patterns to get them just right.

I woke up at 3am this morning and laid away till about 4am when I decided that I needed more pain killers and a snack. I obviously didn't eat enough dinner yesterday and was starved. The girls were more than happy to follow me around and then when I crawled back into bed they smothered me with warmth and purrs and I fell fast asleep. Course, that made it so I really, really didn't want to get out of bed this morning and I'm still tired. Might see about a nap before the demo but it all depends on when I get out of here and if I can get another ride in. We shall see.

Well, time to get going on things...its gonna be a busy day.

*seriously, why would I have to put things in "manual" mode to make them sort by file name? seriously, someone punch a code monkey!

Current Mood: hopeful
Current Location: the cubical

Well, yesterday was a trial. The eye got better and worse throughout the day..I think it was strained a bit from all of the computer work. I got through my data reduction and got some slides together. Our basic thing...we can't really find a correlation but we could damage stuff so who knows. I think the science experiments will show what our real failure mechanism is ...at least we hope. I've got more work on that front, paper to finish writing...but things are progressing.

Got home about 3pm...yes, I got home early, it was nice and its been a really long time since I've had that. I napped...about 20 mins away to 20 mins asleep for a few hours. The eyes were much better with my laying down. Blood pressure related to the swelling?? who knows. I managed to finally get off of the couch and start to be productive about 6pm. I got out all of the stuff to start trimming the garments for Saturday. I managed to get all of the trim machine attached on the caftan and on the mintan and now I have to do all of the hand work. I have this aesthetic thing where I only machine do stuff you don't see...everything else is by hand. I also got all of my undershirt hems pinned and that still needs to be handsewn. But I felt pretty good about it. I should be able to get the entari trim machined on tonight and be to all handwork for tomorrow. Its lots of hand work but its doable...especially with game night and maybe a bit of help/company from Icka. We shall see.

I'm looking forward to a true "day off" tomorrow and sleeping in with bike ride when we wake up. Its been entirely too long since I've been on my bike. The arm/back shot isn't really hurting...just bruising up very nicely. People at work just stare at me when they notice it...cause you can tell I got hit by a 2" diameter stick. Pretty neato.

Anyhoo..time to work on my report.

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: the cubical

So, I was still feeling pretty icky yesterday. My brain wasn't firing on even half of the cyclinders and it was hard part of the day. I managed to do a few things around the house after breakfast and a costco trip for the stuff for Knight Light. Then I got over to ari's with my box o' fabric and I got a mintan, an entari and a caftan cut out from my new measurements. It was hard for me to think that way for a while but I got it done...and I only cut one thing out weird. Got home and the boys were having fun in the shop.
I took a break from sewing stuff and worked on my laptop for a while and then got the studio converted from glass to sewing. I was uber happy to take my baby lock out. Its been years since I've been able to use that machine and it just hums away! I got the mintan mostly put together...I'm lining it and that always takes me a bit. I'm leaving it as a shell right new before ari and I do a form fit. But I was happy with the progress and if I work hard I should be able to get everything to finish work by Wednesday. I hope.

Things are shaping up to be odd again at work....or maybe that is still odd. Not sure.

Oh, in other news. Dear Taco Bell, if you really think the Volcano stuff is hot...seriously, that could go up a few notches. Now admittedly...maybe my sinus issues are to blame but I wanted something to clear my sinuses out and it just made it a bit loose. Try again TB!

So by the time I went to bed last night I was feeling pretty good...way better than I had been all week. I stayed up a bit to finish reading #20 - The Ghost and Mrs. McClure which has a Sam Spade style gumshoe who haunts a bookstore. Pretty fun, kinda neat premise and I luv all of the 40's talk.

So, time to get working on the DATA of DOOM!

Current Mood: calm
Current Location: the cubical

So, I played around with some data for the other half of the new team to try to understand everything that goes on with their hardware. Well, the things I learned are 1)if one sides breaks, the other side breaks too and 2)OMG is their data reduction inefficient. But my presentation at my first look at the data was a smash hit and I can now go in and close out a few things and actually make some progress on some tasks. The day was grueling but good. I got home and mel was sleepy and snuggled up on the couch. I changed into my biking gear, filled up my tires (after fighting with the pump) and then road my current 7.25 mile circuit. I only managed 14.2 mph but 1) it was windy and 2) I didn't stop to take any breaks. All good. Got back and got the grill going for steaks, steamed up some broccoli and made a nummy salad. I had to motivate to do some sewing and I got one pair of Rus pants put together...though I need to check on that...they don't seem right and its been a few months since I made any. So, I pulled fabric, made lists of what needs to get made this weekend and I have a game plan for sewing the entire weekend. I hope to get all of the pennsic stuff cut out and sewn and just have finish work left to do which will leave me time to get my armour set up. Seriously, again I wonder where my june went..I had all of these plans and nothing really worked. I then lazed about on the couch while mel combed wool and I finished readng Knit One, Kill Two...now its a fluffy book but good lord...finish the mystery and then not wrap up any of the subplots? Weird. Course it comes with a recipe for cinnamon rolls and a knitting pattern so eh. I'll see if I can pick up the rest used.

I then took a nice shower and curled up in a comfy bed with mel and the cats. I slept well, no weird dreams but none of us but butterfly wanted to get up this morning. Thats okay..its our friday and I'm done at 1230pm. I have a few errands to run and then I will be home to sew and cut out fabric. Dinner is planned out and kung fu is on the evening schedule. So it should be good. Here's to a good weekend.

Current Mood: calm
Current Location: The Cubical

Well, it was an odd weekend. My motivator was properly in gear and I bike both Saturday and Sunday. It was good...I'm a bit saddle sore but that will get better. Saturday I did 5.25 miles, had a nice cool down while talking to my mom and then had a shower and breakfast with the guys and renee. Then I headed over to meg's for her weekend kirtle workshop. Much hilarity ensued between

weavedancer and I trying to get "their excellencies" to be rustled into a kirtle. We left a bit early and headed back to my house so she could play with the indigo pot. I manged to get all caught up on Sheldon and then Ivan and I headed to Thyra's party. Had very nice time there and did some swimming/hot tubbing too. My hips were very happy about that after so much riding. We got home about 1030 and I read and then fell asleep. Mel came to bed quite a while later.

Sunday I got up and biked what I thought was 8 miles but after checking my odometer it was only 7...sighs. But I did it and it was good. I'm still maintaining just under 14mph so not too bad. The new handle bars and positioning are really nice considering I can now post in the pedals and be pumping my way through intersections without feeling like I'm gonna fall off the bike. Got home and cooled down, ate some yogurt and then showered. Headed back to meg's for part 2 of the kirtle class. I did pretty good and only sewed one seam of my kirtle incorrectly. That was easily fixed but I had a borderline migraine going for quite a while and when I had to do a major take in on the neckline I called it quits and headed home to a quiet, cold dark room. Mel was off at a movie with drew so I snuggled up on the couch with the cats and an ice pack. Mel got home and I moved to the guest room for more darkness and finally slept for a bout 2 hours. The girls were piled up with me and I got up about 20 mins before charlie and renee came over for our dinner date. My head was okay..I took more drugs and drank more water to help it. Mel commented that the palo verde's are blooming again and that could be the culprit. Curran stopped by briefly and then left when our guest arrived. We had a very nice dinner of the smoke bbq pork mel did. He made homemade bbq sauce and salad and honeyed carrots. We relaxed back in the family room after dinner and had some drama involving the wash and fire trucks. Our neighbor put out the fire (go rachel) but still had the fire folks come out and check. After showers I noticed the cooler was sounding...off. Mel said he'd check it today. We got up this AM and while packing up I noticed that the cooler was cycling to turn on at 600am. It was warm in the house. Mel listened while it was in its soak cycle and then went outside to see a waterfall off of the roof. I shut off the cooler and he had to put the pulley back on the system and fix the float since it had gotten knocked ascew by the pulley falling on it, thus causing water falls. Course this probably happened last night so we had lots of water loss over night. Sighs.

So, work this week is 8 hour days due to the holiday. I'm stoked to be able to go home, bike 7 miles or so and then clean up the house for scribble. I also need to get my studio up and working for sewing and meg said she'd help with my kirtle. I also need to do laundry. I'm really out of everything and had to wear a skirt today to work. I'm sure the cat calls will ensue when I get on the floor. Other than that it should be a good day.

Current Mood: blah
Current Location: The Cubical