My brain is trying to kill me.

I woke up with a saying I like on my brain. I like it and it starts my day on a positive note: "Make no small plans. They have no power to stir men's souls." Antoine de Ste. Exupery THen I got up to make coffee, and my barin throws at me "Get on mah horse, I'll take you 'round the universe/ And all the other places. I think you'll find that the universe pretty much covers ev'rything. SHUT UP WOMAN GET ON MAH HORSE."

It's trying to kill me with the whiplash, y'all.

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B is home today - it rained last night and then froze on the road and *then* turned to snow so it's beautiful outside but deadly. This county is directed to stay the heck home if not w/ emergency services, basically. Three day weekend for B, wewt! That's good, for one thing there's a few hours of double XP weekend on Aion and Rose is napping early with the head cold she's fighting off, and we made some awesome headway on cleaning in here yesterday but I want to make more. I have a powerful urge to really go through our things and winnow them way the hell down. This may result in a post here about selling some of the fabric in my personal stash if y'all are interested.

http://www.aurorasilk.com/fabrics/silks_shiny/ALLSILKVELVET.html

I'll just go and get a mop bucket to catch the drool.

And water. Must remain properly hydrated.

My living room smells of lavendar! Yay! I bought lavendar and rosemary oils yesterday for putting in the Ziploc bags with the wool-containing yarns.

GOD, I love how my living room smells right now. I breathe deeply every time I walk through the door or in from the hallway.

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I have silk. Dusty lavendar and a pale seafoam. Laton-style jacket and petticote, and if my math is right, there should be enough for a bodies of some kind, so I might make a silk kyrtle. We'll see. I'm feeling all inspired and enthusiastic again. Kinda nice.

It's made of awesome. Awesome awesomeness.

Case in point this morning: I opened the house up first thing, and because it was yet a bit nippy, I put on a thin wool sweater (Old Navy number, v-neck, three-quarter sleeves navy blue, fits like a glove because - well, let's just say there's a reason that I wash the wool in this house, and not Mr. "Waitaminute when I put this in the dryer it was five yards long!" B). Rose needed a change, and the mail lady delivered my shipment of Snappis, so I put her pink wool soaker on the baby girl.

Now to make sure y'all know what's going on, during the day, we alternate the breast with the bottle of richer-than-directions formula. When she gets the breast, Rose spits up rarely. Like maybe once in a week, and more recently, once every ten days or so. Comes right off of *everything*, and I mean everything. Formula, though. Different matter. She spits up more and formula spit up is notorious for staining. The only thing that makes worse spit-up stains is soy formula, I am here to tell you. This morning, after we're both changed, she gets a bottle. Well, little Miss Rose now has a nice, strong back and can switch sides if mom's not really paying attention. I thought she'd already finished spitting up on the please-don't-use-me-for-real-diapering cloth diaper on my right shoulder. Nope!

Spit up, left shoulder. A good one, too - left shoulder, and making a line heading for my waist. And on the baby: right shoulder, and dripped down to her wool soaker. Argh!

Right? Nope. Came right off. No stains - well, I say that. There's not a stain on the *wool*, but her cotton onesie is showing it. :)

WOOOOOLLLLL IIIIIISSSS YOOOOOOOUUUUURRRR FRRRRRRIEEEEEEENNNNNND.

Yeah, that's what today has been renamed. I could have spent all day in bed, and I'm not like that very often. I woke up, had a little yogurt, and demanded cuddles with the husband. He was more than willing, and I fell asleep. I woke up around eleven, and ravenously ate a big portion of vegetable lasagne, then there was showering and more cuddling, followed by getting ready for going to Harry's bday party. Meg had a blast and Bill and Pam kindly brought yummy veg, cheese, meat, and olive snacks for the grown ups. After that as we were on our way out Bill mentioned that they were having a party tonight, and we were invited if we wanted to come. We wanted.

Then El Tap. Where I was *convinced* that I was hungry to go, and ended up bringing away a prettty hefty take-home box. And fell asleep on the ride home. And then I got out of the car and everyone got in the house. And B promptly tucked me in bed again. I still feel logy and kinda crappy, so even thought we want to, we won't make B&P's party, unfortunately.

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Wiggle Time is a pretty neat place, Meg enjoyed herself a lot, and might have picked up a play date sort of thing if we can manage the vehicle situation - they homeschool, too, and Meg struck it off well with the older daughter. The problem is the vehicle situation and the fact that the gas to get there would necessarily make it a rare occasion.

Oh, and that I'm working with Ron again. It's really just for an inventory-recording project, but there I am again, with all the wool.... darn it. ;) He's got in a very nice light pastel pink wool and sundry other popular colors like a near-French blue and a green I happen to love - it's been a while since he's been able to get any in in that color, too. He's also got a large selection of Russian linen whole remnants from 3-5 yards. It's pretty nice stuff, for all it's not Irish, Belgian, or even yet Czech. But there's been enough turnover in his inventory that his website needs updating, and it's a pretty big project. I should keep occupied for a little while, so that's good.

Heh - Donna was mentioning bringing a playpen for the baby (she knows ours has a bassinette insert).... I like them, I really do. Where the else in this region, I ask you, will people who're going to pay you to do *any* job not involving childcare bring up methods of bringing the baby with you to work? Before they've even mentioned things like pay or how long the project will take? And they really mean, it too, so it's not like it's a begrudging concession. It honestly just didn't occur to them that there was any other option - and it went totally without mention that Meg is included, too. Oh, God help me if I darken their doorstep without Meg or a darn good explanation. Ron positively clouds over.

Anyway, I don't know what my sleep pattern will be like tonight, but I'm predicting "completely insane." Last night was so shattered - for no particular reason, B and I would both wake up. The cats were... wow, they were just heinies, so that also woke us up. It was bad. Hopefully tonight we'll all get much better sleep, because I want a cleaned up living room before the weekend is done. I'm going positively batty trying to move through it, as it stands. Er, lies. All over the floor and underneath the little table we've put up in here for Puffy the dwarf hamster, and on the couch, and in front of both bookcases and next to the computer desk and ARGH.

All right. Later, folks.

Has Simplicity finally heard the calls of 'Bethan costumers and Faire goers of lo, these fifteen years and more agone?

The new 3782 actually seems to have the body seams in the right place - and I really love the closed bodies with the fold back collar, too. WANTOMGfortheearlierJaneGreysolidlymiddle16thlookomgomgomgWANT. Oh, and they've definitely got a bum roll in, but it's not that velcroed hip yoke monstrosity of the pattern that I hate. This pattern is also for an actual gown and not separates. So far, me likey.

I won't be buying it, myself, as my Laurel and I had a conversation whose time had come at Gulf Wars, but it is a cheap alternative if someone wants *only* one look.

Damn, I want to go buy one and find out if the thing has negative ease in it like it's supposed to, and if the lines in the front are right - they LOOK right in the pics. I also wonder if they're doing that stupid boned underbodice thing. I'd need to give it to someone, though. Seriously. It's PAST time that I'm drafting my own stuff exclusively, especially my late period stuff - y'know, my specialty - instead of altering (no matter how much) established patterns. I might note that I *can* draft for myself, I've just been lazy and have been making bigass alterations to things like a basic sleeve form or bodies form.

Evidently 3782 is not available in stores here in the States for a couple of months, but it is available with free shipping from the Simplicity website. Bless Andrea Schewe's heart. I've been wondering when they were going to let her do anything earlier than ACW.

Damn. Now I want to work on garb 'cause I'm feeling inspired, but my floor in here is NOT appropriately clean. The kitchen, though.... Hm. That's freshly cleaned as of yesterday afternoon. Maybe after school this morning.

Oh, did I mention I stopped at Sir's on the way back from my grandparents'? I picked up this and this and this. The first is a silk blend. Mmmmmmmm. The second is a medium to heavy weight linen and the last is a linen silk blend which will be something for Meg. She picked it out. Go, my baby!


Who, incidentally can now ride a bike WITHOUT training wheels! :D

All right, off into my day.

My supplier of happyhappy Irish linen has called me back to inform me that they no longer carry the line that I supply to you. I'm trying to decide what to do. Everything on the price list that's the equivalent in quality, width, and weight is expensive enough that I'll have to wait on an order - and it will be more expensive, hitting my table to sell at $15/yard. I can order significantly narrower goods (36" or 45" wide), same quality, same weight and keep it at the same price, AND have it here at the same time.

Let me know what you're interested in - feedback from customers will determine my path in this one.

[crossposted to MMeasure group]

Okay, fabric hounds! I'll be at Menhir tomorrow with:

I have got some LOVELY very fine twill weave, lightweight off-white wool. It's scrumptious - and it's $8 a yard. I'll have ten yards tomorrow, but more is available via ordering. This is a premium sort of fabric, folks, as far as plain woven goods go. I've already had plenty bought sight-unseen.

I will also have black, off-white, dark FOREST GREEN, and violet wool flannel weight. The black will contain a very small bit of acrylic or nylon, but less than the red that flies off of my table. Additionally, one of my suppliers has sold me some much-in demand OLIVE wool flannel, but there is only an extremely small amount, in two pieces - a one-yard piece and a three and a half-yard piece. IF you want it and can PayPal me the money before I leave tomorrow, it can be yours. You must take all of either both pieces or one of the pieces entire. $12 per yard, just like all of my flannel-weight wools. So that's all on the olive, but a bit more of the forest green is available, and there's plenty of the violet, black, and off-white - and incidentally, this is the off-white flannel weight that I testify about so much.

I've got some one hundred percent linen white Czech shirt-weight linen - I'll have ten yards, but I'm pretty sure that my supplier for this one won't be able to sell me too much more - maybe ten more yards, maybe. It's 58" to 60" wide. It's weight is about the save as what I've got in the so-popular linen-cotton blend. It's not the cheap Russian/Chinese stuff, but not as soft straight off the bolt as the Irish.

But for a piece which is a yard and a third long (57" wide) I am OUT of the Irish white linen , as well as the linen-cotton in white, though some other colors (a couple of blue shades, f'r'example) are available in that fabric for orders - it simply won't be on my table tomorrow.

[Edited for availability of Irish linen.]

If you've read here about anything that you're interested in give me a call or an email. Samples are possible of nearly everything.

Margaret

Computer still out. AR:LIRH WELJRHLIBU chwnriol6 bqp9875 b1hy;p yu

Dammit. Haven't heard from the guy, which means that the parts are still on back order.

Except for today, the weekend was successful with regards to anything involving visiting with B's family. But anything else? >.< Oh God, I have not the time here. Little annoyances and failures of occurence stacked on top of one another have made me insane. At least we avoided the staph infection that Mamaw seemed to have contracted. In her eyes. Yay for missed bullets.

I got out to JoAnn's today finally, and used that card that Christi gave me last year - for modern clothing stuff. Gonna make a black wool jacket (or skirt) with embroidered shot taffeta inserts. Found Bemberg in dyeable white, yay! Got a nice trim. Nothing suitable for an outerwear coat like I had in mind, and the card is now empty. So, I'll just save up a bit and get some melton from Ron. He's got a powder blue that could work. At least all of the fabric was 40% off....

Hair is red. Yes. Well, strawberry blonde. It works, especially with curls. Yay, curling set! And hairspray, of which I was surprised to find that I had any amount.

Okay, off to get home in time to meet Meg, then take the cats to the vet to get the feline leukemia shots and Gris's stitches out, then to pick up B at work in C'ville (exams or something for his normal car pool coworker this week, so no carpool).

Flargle. Tired. Okay, more when I can type more. Be well, call me, see you at Magna Faire....

Okay, the judgment announcement for the Iron Dress comp is supposed to happen today/tonight. Cross your fingers for me, folks!

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B's bonus has come, early! Yay! New faucets for every room with such plumbing! A lower water bill! Some savings! Some Christmas present money! ::happybuttwiggledance:: He could be getting a Christmas bonus on top of that, too. :D

I need to write checks to a couple of folks, too. Angel for the bulbs. Doctors for their services in that last unhappy stomach bout. Yay, paying people who deserve it!

Yay, linen order!

We wants it, we do....

Like, I could have taken a hearty nap today of about 4 hours. Or eight. Anyway.

( Fabric, fabric, fabric. Oh, and fabric.Collapse )

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Inspection went as well as we expected. There are a couple very small things for the seller to fix, in accordance with the contract's $200 limit, but everything else is very minor, mostly either disgustingly cheap or cosmetic.

We need to get a survey done for marking off the two acres, but so far all is in line for the April 19th closing! YAYYYYY, a la Kermit E. Frog.

Which really makes me wish I'd not had to spend $72 in canvas tonight, but ::shrug::. This being Fool's War, I should be able to replace that, at the very least, on Monday. Naturally, Meg still needs the smock I worked on but didn't get finished last weekend - all it seriously needs is a neck facing, and sewn up the sides. I also need to make her a supertunic or *something* really easy, because she needs another item of outer garb.

So tired. Bed as soon as the pies are pulled out and placed to cool. Buh-bye.

Found fabric.

Linen canvas-weight fabric. White - white-white. Also a nice burgundy cotton duck. These are going into some piece of my garb, likely in the near future.

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( CoH and this eveningCollapse )

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peppermintelf, I did get your message from yesterday - I got it this afternoon. Sorry for not calling back, but that's why. (From now on, leave a message on my cell. I've gotten pretty bad about not remembering to check the land line's voice mail.) B, says, essentially, "Thanks muchly, but not so interested in Oak Ridge." I have to agree with him. I don't really want to live quite so near such a juicy target, call me paranoid. And we have a house in the works.

Damn, I hate vacuuming. It just kicks up so much dust that breathing gets interesting. There're reasons why my floor looks less than wonderful - I hate to vacuum because I like to breathe, my husband doesn't think about vacuuming unless I ask him while I'm away from the house, and I'm rarely away from the house while he's here. Of course, part of the other reason is because I hate housework, but that's actually a tiny little bitty reason - I hate trying to cut fabric on a nasty floor far more than the work required to get it clean. I just find that I'm fonder of breathing, too.

K, bed now. Night.

Second half of [Bad username: &quot;peppermintelf&quot;>]House</i>.

I all but finished the smocks last night. Just need to hem the wrists by hand, since they show. They're both in the dryer right now. Next is attaching the skirt to the bodice, and I think that it's entirely appropriate to do that for this weekend, 'cause dang it's chill today. Yesterday, in the 70s, day before in the 80s. On that day, we hit a record high temp at nine-something in the morning! And frickin' cold this morning.

A came by and bought about 10 yards of wool for the girls - yay! And though I'm now out of blue wool, yay! Money! And it so happens that we need a shower head with a hose for easily cleaning off Meglets' noggins full of shampoo. So later in the evening, after dinner, I went to K-Mart. On our collection of "Funny combinations to purchase at once" now goes the following: Shower heads with hoses, breakfast cereal, and Jell-O.

Back here, where C had come over to borrow our dryer. He brought his TiVo, so we watched The Story of Ron Burgundy. She did a good job, but I had no idea that C. Applegate was in it. It wasn't uproariously funny, but it was also a comedy that didn't take itself seriously at all, which made it oddly funnier. Also, Jack Black is REALLY short. After that, an episode of Bullshit I hadn't seen ("Eat this!"), sharing of nerdy song artists (Y. T. Cracker), then C went his merry way and us to bed. Where I wasn't able to fall asleep before one, I know it. Not positive why, but I definitely need to get sleep tonight.

Well, the Meglet is dropped off, and I seriously need to get started on the skirt I've put off attaching for almost two weeks now, because I don't want to work on it tonight at all - there's the need for going to bed earlier tonight, and on top of that the probable lack of brain power. And I also need to cut off 3.5 yds of loden green linen for someone who especially wanted some - she lucked out that I was able to get any more, and Ron had no problem with my buying the rest of it, but at 7 total yards left he wanted me to get it all. Therefore, if anyone is interested, I have about 4 yards of fabulous loden green heavier linen. Has a hand like a dream. I almost want to keep it for me, but Christmas is coming up and I need to buy more fabric and presents, too.

I'm hoping to buy the Irish hanky linen and/or cambric after Castle Wars, and thereby have it for sale at Magna Faire. It will depend on how much I sell this weekend and have leftover after paying my tax bill for last quarter (about $67 or so), though, so we'll see. We leave tomorrow after B gets home, I hope. We're hoping to pack tonight and get the car at least partially loaded - probably the fabric, as usual. Which reminds me to check the weather for this weekend.

Well, a slightly cleaner house, and I can't tell at all. ::sigh:: We still have too much crap.

( Snippy bits for length - the weekend's accomplishment and eyeballsCollapse )

Well, off to do... stuff.

It's nice to finally have a night to myself to just do costume-y stuff. I've spent a good bit of time online doing some research for a new dress - I got some of the dark plummy wool from work. It's in the dryer on Air Dry right now.

I think I may go with another French bodice, with a much fuller skirt. I *might* pad the pleats, I don't know. Depends on how this will wash up, and it seems, after its first go-through in the dryer, that it will need little, if any. I love 100% wool. :)

I'm going to have to have some wool for this weekend. Saturday in Nashville is supposed to be pretty cool - like in the 60s. Perfect weather to sell wool Therefore, I shall get some - I'd love to get some in some lighter colors, but I can get an almost imperial/murex-type purple and a fuschia, which is highly period and very, very Viking (the event theme), and usually quite popular. I've also got several sets of Germans on the way from Kass. I'll also get a small buttload of that linen-cotton blend, in white, teal, and dusky purple. Maybe something else - it depends on what Ron'll let me have.

Work today was good. Many orders went out, including the one I felt sort of bad about leaving undone on Thursday, even though not leaving wasn't an option by that time. I just can't - no, wait, I can believe they let that one sit. Nevermind. Anyway, Meg seems to have charmed the socks off Ron (which is an irony by itself if you know him). Matt's been at a show since Tuesday evening, but should be back tomorrow, which is good because I need help with a couple of fabrics back there (must Google to find out wtf color "carhart" is, but even if I knew, I'd need to know which is duck and which is Sunforger).

Yes, I could (and probably will) do something with the worsted blue twill, but for some reason, I want to use something else just now. Maybe it's the turning season. Maybe it's the color. I dunno. What's worse, the blue won't even make a good contrast for this plum. I'll figure out something, I'm sure, and at the very least that blue will be a big ole skirt and a pair of sleeves. Maybe big poofy sleeves. And an outfit for Meg, since there's plenty of it.

Well, now to continue to decide what cut I'll use. I may redraft the bodice I used for the gold dress. I don't know... actually, no. That bodice draft can be used to draft a new pattern, but that's it - I had ended up cutting it too big in the chest girth. So maybe I'll work on that one.

The ravenous food binge *seems* to be over. I'm still eating well, mind you, though my stomach is REALLY not liking anything with grease in, but I don't feel like my stomach's trying to digest itself. Weirdly enough, this time around with the steroids seems to be going much better, perhaps because I had an idea of what to expect added to needing to offer B more support with all the family stuff (evidently his grandmother has decided that she's not supposed to go into any assisted living because Papaw told her that she didn't have to do anything she didn't want to do - problem is, she's not driving, she smokes in the basement in the winter, down steep wooden riser stairs, when she had to have a steadying hand most of the weekend just to walk, much less stand, and even pulling the fuses for the oven will not be enough to keep her from injuring herself. And that's not even going into things like that electric fencing wired across the entrance to the garage. Yes electric fencing. Don't get me started).

Eh. Enough thinking about things we're not going to be able to do anything about. (Like Papaw's thinking that his wife's mind was intact, just fine, in the face of overwhelming evidence otherwise.) On to playing with fabric.

Yay!

I got an appointment for 3:45 this afternoon - and the nurses are pulling the same crap they did with the GI bleed. Yay. I'd like the magical signs and countersigns that get people in the nursing profession who aren't directly related to me to take me seriously when I say "I think I had (another) mini stroke."

Work was work. I came home with at least 10+ yards of pretty lace curtain that he got in a lot with other things - like the white linen-cotton that I got 6 yards of, too - and he sold it to me by the pound. Three bucks for enough lace curtain to make me feel better about sleeping in a 2nd story room facing on the street, and sitting around in the living room that is on the street. Some cheapo white batiste to go behind that would be great, but is later down the road. This'll do for now. I'll be cashing out on Friday with him, instead of getting goods. We need to money.

Sweaty and warm, but at least there was a baby breeze most of the day. I'm fairly sure I smell of outside. But for being little shits, the nurses can just deal. I'll take a shower when I get home from picking up Meg, getting my allergy shots, and visiting the doc. Hopefully that won't take too long, though I expect that they'll set me up with an MRI or CT scan.

And Johanna found saffron, at a decent price! She's getting me 4 or 5 and I'll go pick it up tomorrow. Probably after work and picking up the Tink from school.

Well, off to pick up Meg.

The county to the north of us is out of school tomorrow due to Katrina, but not us? WTF?

Which reminds me - ( parent-teacher conference today.Collapse )

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Cell phone happy. I like having a cell phone. I can tell my friends things like "wow! check this linen out! want some?" The camera is also handy.

Yep. Now I've got access to lightweight linen in lovely, lovely jewel tones - except for that pretty dusky lavender, the "natural" and the light indigo/woad-ish blue and the other medium sky blue. Black, white, dark teal, orange-red, a more blue-valued red, navy. And sooooffft. Lovely lovely stuff. I will definitely be getting some of the white for sale at events. Anyone want some? It's 60" wide.