I don't suffer from insanity,

I realized I never did post about the chemise dress I threw together. It is based on the Elegant Lady's Closet drawstring gown that I've done like five times now. I added a LOT to the fullness in the front to get the look, and I was kind of going for this, not exactly, but the over-all look:



Next time, I definitely need to do the sash, but over all, I think I nailed it. I love this gown. It's from cotton voile. The bodice is completely hand sewn, as I really love having portable projects. The skirts are less portable, so of course they're not hand sewn. ^_~ The hem is, though. For some reason, my hems always look better done by hand. I've never mastered that hem stitch on the machine. Ah, well.

Originally, I toyed with the idea of dying this gown, but I've changed my mind. I'm going to dye the white on white striped gown that I wore to that first Georgian picnic. That will make it look like a "new" dress. I'll also dye a length of it to make Vee another matching dress. Plus some of the white on that striped dress has yellowed with time, so I think dying it might cover that up? Hope so, anyway! Then I can make another dress out of the stripey stuff and have two different dresses there. LOL. Plus, this chemise gown will be a great base under an open front gown, under a spencer, or under just about whatever I want.

The only images I have from it are from our Bastille Day brunch back in July (thanks jenthompson!):



Before I went out, my hair was all nice and tightly curled and slightly frizzy as per appropriate for the era. Heh. By the time I got into the restaurant, though, my hair was all flat because of the rain. Rain in mid-July. Who could have planned for that? It did make for lovely weather to dress up, though. Only three of us dressed up, but another family showed, so we had quite a nice little gathering.



Oh, if you go to Le Madeleine on Bastille Day and tell the clerk "Happy Bastille Day" they give you a free small dessert. I do think "Vive la France!" would be more appropriate, but hey, what do I know?

I've been so busy! Let's see. What has been going on? Well, my week nights are much as before: Monday/Tues/Wed evenings walk the hound, chores and either WoW, reading or watching a movie. Thursdays are still game nights, and the Serenity game is going well. I've been updating the Wiki, so all my notes are up. Whee! Fridays are more chores, etc. Matt is doing a lot of end of year stuff for the church so he's pretty swamped.

Thanksgiving was awesome. I went over to Mom's on Wed night to help with food prep as has become my normal tradition. We spent the evening visiting and working. Then Thursday had us at my older brother Rob's for the Thanksgiving festivities. I wore toe socks and flip-flops because I knew how much they bothered my brother-in-law (hehe). For some reason he has this thing against toe socks, so I was delighted to exploit that weakness. >:) See, I can be evil! Even though Matt tells me that's not evil, it's just mischievous.

Anyway, We all lazed around and visited and ate wonderful food. Some of Rob's wife's family came, too, which I hope also becomes a tradition, as I love having them there.

On Dec 2nd and 3rd Matt and I went up to the Lake to visit with tempest_sky and Tim. We spent a lot of time visiting, plus our usual golf cart ride (which I still so thoroughly enjoy!!). Tempest Sky is looking so adorable these days, as her pregnancy is really visible now. I so much enjoyed the time we spent there!

Then last week, I spent the weeknights as described above. Saturday morning, I got off my procrastinating shelf and pulled out my 1878 skirt and bodice to do some minor alterations - like finish the hem on the skirt and shift the fasteners around on the bodice. I still need to do some fitting stuff with the bodice, but I'll totally need help for that as I don't have a fitter's form (or whatever they're called). I'm realizing in the course of my sewing that I have SUCH a high waist.

Anyway, I still need to add trim to the skirt and bodice, and I was leaning towards pleats. One of my fellow costumers gave me a pleating tool that looks remarkably like a ruler with some useful bends in it. I think that will help a lot. I'm thinking of adding pleats to the bottom of the skirt and the ends of the bodice sleeves, plus maybe at the bottom of the bodice.

Next up is my pink regency day dress, and apron. I think also this year the costuming guild is working on rococo stuff, so that should be fun, too! We're also going to have a class on steam-punk outfits, which is going to be really fascinating.

Saturday afternoon, we headed over to a friend's house for a pre-Candlelight get-together. It was lovely, of course. I love hanging out with other costumers, as it gets me all excited about sewing again. And boy-howdy do I need the inspiration. I procrastinate to no end, or choose other hobbies (WoW/reading/movies) instead of sewing. Anyway, the party was fun with yummy treats and lots of costuming talk, and then we adjourned to Dallas Heritage Village for their annual holiday Candlelight event.

Candlelight was so much fun, too! We wandered around as a guild, and shortly after we arrived there, my sister annawick and mom saintvickery and the Lex, too, of course, saw us and wandered around with us. Annie and Mom were dressed up, too, so they blended well with the rest of us crazies. ^_^ Err... Eccentrics! We're not crazy, we're eccentric. Anyway, Annie's dress looked particularly good and made me definitely want to make an actual bustle, she looked so sharp!

The Heritage Village was absolutely lovely. It was a little warm at first (I think it got to 80 F / 26.6 C that day!), but cooled off after the sun went down to a very nice comfortable for Victorian clothes 60 F / 15.5 C. I still love touring those homes - some are very ornate and elaborate, and others simple and charming. Plus the candle-lit (go figure) roads really enhanced the atmosphere. This year there were a lot more people dressed up, too. I think some of the guild's members passed out guild cards, which was awesome. We drew quite a bit of attention as everyone looked really awesome. Hooray for dressing up!

Things at the new job are going well. I had my one month review, and the boss had a lot of positive things to say. So, if things continue as they are, I guess I'll get to stay. ^_~ I'm hesitant because there's this six month probation thing that the University does, which since they fired the person before me makes me less confident than I would be otherwise. Luckily, the work itself is not difficult and my co-workers are all pretty awesome. So aside from missing my friends at the Shop (Mir and Kev especially!), over all things are well.

I'm finally adjusting to the early schedule, too, although I do find myself getting drowsy at 10 PM, which seems so terribly early. Bleh. I do miss my late evenings and late mornings! Oh and no traffic. I do miss having no traffic. I do like the extra two hours with the husband, though, since we are able to carpool. Anyway, if things work out here, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Matt and I looked for a house in Richardson or Carrollton in a few years.

Yesterday I put up some minor Christmas decorations - a wreath on the door and some lights, garland and a nativity set in the living room. No tree though. I think it's buried somewhere in our garage. Plus it takes us like three months to take the thing down (one year we took it down in JUNE), so I don't think we'll do a tree this year. Our living room still looks Christmasy, though, with the lights and the nativity scene.

Ok. Lunch is almost over, and I'm still unsure as to the policies on internet use for my office. My desk is in the front office (very public) and I'm in the student lounge, so I'll sign off for now.

Until later!

Round Eared Cap, from Kannik's Korner Pattern KK-6602. Made using cheap white cotton muslin and cotton thread.

Review-wise, the directions for this cap were very good! This cap is good for any ladies' day outfit from 1740 to around 1820-ish, according to the pattern. There were detailed images of the stitches and each step was straight forward and easy to follow. I learned a ton of new information. ^_^ Oh, it would be easy, of course, to sew by machine, too.

( For larger images, right-click and 'view image' on any photo: )

Cross-posted to my own LJ and regencyclothing

Thu 9/6: The Thursday group started up a Serenity game, which will be loads of fun, as usual. The premise is that we're carnies, heh. So there's a built in reason for travelling the 'Verse. My character concept: Carnival fortune-teller. Sometimes the fortunes are eerily accurate. Other times, she keeps the truth to herself. Her secret? She's a natural psi-talent and experiences visions of the future, never predictable, in vague flashes at times and with gut-wrenching graphic accuracy at others. Fun, fun!

Fri 9/7: Friday morning, work as always. After work, we headed out to the farm, as we had chores to do for Matt's mother. We took the hound and he had a blast running around off-lead in the one acre (or bigger?) yard. It was fun to watch him come to the realization that he was off-lead. Zoom!! We went to bed early. ZzzZZzz...

Sat 9/8: Saturday morning we woke up early, early so we could get started on the chores before the heat. While Matt fixed the lawn mower, I did some work on her roof. Then while I mowed the lawn, Matt did some work on her roof, too.

We headed out at 11am to go to DFWCG hat making class. I learned a lot, because I'm a total n00b at hats. There was such a good attendance! I do hope we recruited some more people! ^_^ After the class, we headed to Justin for Matt's Star Wars game. We wrapped up a story line and paved the way for an intro for my new character (and Yvonne's, too). Yay!

Sun 9/9: Sunday morning I got up and prepped the lesson. It was on Gifts of the Spirit and Charity. Those are some of my favorite chapters in the New Testament. After church, my mom and I went to visit my granddad. Grandpa was in the hospital after suffering a hemorrhagic stroke in August. Unfortunately, he wasn't very responsive - he has no feeling on the right side of his body and was verbally incoherent. :( We chatted at him and I told him I love him. It was sad to see him there after all his liveliness and orneriness. However, I did get some real quality time with my mother on the drive.

After visiting Grandpa we went to visit annawick. Seeing my sister is always good, and both my mom and I needed the cathartic medicine of happiness that a perpetually cheerful three-year-old can bring. Lex is good for the soul.

Mon 9/10: Monday morning had me back at work (yes, there's a pattern there). I'm still doing tai chi on Mondays and Wednesdays with Anne. I'm pretty proud of us. I also have a new goal for cleaning and hopefully I'll stick to it. After chores, I played some WoW and then Matt and I stayed up until all hours of the night talking about the philosophical differences between Epicureans and Stoics.

I'm definitely a Stoic, heh. Especially after a little research and locating of some quotes:

Epictetus:

"Man is disturbed not by things, but by the views he takes of them."

"If, therefore, any be unhappy, let him remember that he is unhappy by reason of himself alone."

Marcus Aurelius:

"Get rid of the judgement, get rid of the 'I am hurt,' you are rid of the hurt itself."

Tue 9/11 and Wed 9/12: Tuesday, work and my weekly lunch with efkelley. The evening, chores and WoW. Wednesday much the same, with a break for tai chi with Anne.

So I've been remiss in updating! I don't feel bad though since not much happened (as you'll see by the very short entry) and hardly anyone else updates weekly either. ^_~

Anyway, mostly things go as usual, interrupted by cool stuff on the weekends. Lessee. On Friday Aug 13 and Sat Aug 14, I babysat the Lex. Much fun was had by both of us, I hope! I had a blast chasing him around, playing on the computer (really just him pushing buttons), etc. We took a long walk, too. Fun fun!

Last Thurs we did a one-shot installment run by winterwolf_tx which was a blast. It's our Hero High game, and we did a very comic-booky venture into a very bleak future, then to the past to save our regular time line. I do believe much fun was had by all.

This past weekend I went to a midnight Harry Potter book release with Matt, my sister, and arioch1970. Me, Annie & Matt all dressed up, and the weather was very accommodating at a nice 85 degrees (29.4 C). My sister's costume the most complete of the three of us. She did a generic Hufflepuff student, complete with tie, sweater and awesome robes that she made. Matt was a generic Griffindor with tie and sweater. I was a generic witch and just wore my vintage 1920s black crepe dress, a witch hat, some yellow and black striped stockings (Yay, Hufflepuff), and my pseudo-Victorian boots that I bought from an equestrian supply place.

We hooked up with one of our DFWCG friends (shameless plug for the site - Matt just updated it and it looks awesome). She did Professor Trelawney and her costume was perfect, and she deservedly won first place which earned her first in line and a free book. Awesome!

And here we are in our geekiness....



And that catches us up to the present. Tomorrow, Hero High game. Friday, Matt's game. Saturday, shooting in the morning then more gaming at my older brother's house. Whee!

I had a wonderful weekend. The weekend started off with playing Matt's game. It started out a few months ago as a low-fantasy d20 game in a setting that Matt cooked up but we've now fully switched over to GURPS in the Conan setting. Heh. There's a learning curve for all of us since it's been so very long that we've played, but I'm pretty pleased with the system change over all, and we've kept all the important elements of Matt's original setting, too. Oh, and welcome to kalar who has joined the game, too! ^_^ (PS Even though my character didn't warm up to yours right away, I'm glad you're playing!)

Friday night went into Saturday morning and Matt and I went home about 4am and promptly collapsed. My sister called Saturday morning to inform me of her plans shifting and that she wouldn't be able to make the rest of the day's events. T_T However, we rescheduled our stuff for Sunday afternoon, so all was well.

After annawick called, we slowly got our engines going so we could head out to Fort Worth for the day's activities. First we went to the Japanese Gardens, where we met up with several others from the DFWCG and wandered around and took pictures. Matt and I were total slackers (plus I forgot about my ninja costume) and didn't dress up, but jenthompson and Dawni looked fabulous. After feeding the coi and taking pictures, we headed over to the Kimbell Art Museum to check out their Drama and Desire: Japanese Paintings from the Floating World exhibit. Talk about some beautiful paintings! I was going to pick up the exhibit book, but they were sold out. T_T

Matt and I seem to take a long time in exhibits. Ah, well. After finishing up there and saying our goodbyes to the other DFWCG-ers, Matt and I headed over to the Mercado Juarez in Dallas and had some awesome food. Then we went to the Cinemark at Vista Ridge and watched Wild Hogs. Thanks so much for the recommendation, lance_work! It was a hilarious movie, just like you said it would be, heh.

Sunday was a nice, lazy morning, and then a nice mellow day at church. I had to take the 14 and 15 year old class, too, because the teacher's wife just had a baby, but they're good kids too, so everything went smoothly. After church, my sis and the Lex came over to play. Much, much fun was had. I mean, he was fun before, but now he's almost intelligible. It was cute. We drove up and Annie was already there waiting. I leaned in to get Lex out of his car seat since he was half asleep. His eyes opened up and he looked at me for a sec, groggily trying to figure out who I was. Then this little smile crossed his face and he said, "Jay!" My heart melted. What a cutie! Plus I got to hang out with my sister, which is always a bonus. We watched a dinosaur movie, chased the kid around, and chatted a whole lot.

Then, I went to bed and woke up this morning refreshed. What a great weekend!

I had a very busy September, and am having an equally busy October, heh. Lets see. What have I been up to?

(Oh, yeah. This is a LONG entry)

*reaches over and flips the calendar back to September...*

Weekdays are all the same more or less. Some hanging out with the hubby watching movies, some World of Warcraft, some hanging out with friends, some reading. And of course, work. Always work.

Oh, and Thai lessons every Tuesday evening. Dude. That language is tricky, as I knew it would be. Time to make massive amounts of flash cards. Our class sessions are somewhat amusing, although of course very instructive. The teacher speaks about as much English as I speak Thai, so our lessons involve a lot of pointing at images and then saying the word. Since I'm learning kindergarten stuff, like the alphabet, it is definitely sufficient, and for the most part, when there's something to explain, Matt's there to interpret for me. Heh.

Anyway, at least the alphabet is semi-phonetic (with 40-something consonants, 30-something vowels and five tonal markings), which simplifies the learning process somewhat. I mean, once I'm literate, I won't have to guess which tone to try since it's marked right there on the word. I'm going to so butcher that language and cause myself all kinds of embarrassing situations. Good thing I like to laugh at myself!

(No, no! I meant Orange Juice, not Toilet Water!!)

Now the calendar:

Sep 16: Matt and I were back in Cleburne for some more Cowboy Action Shooting. Whee! This time, my sis came with us and we had a blast. I am really digging this new hobby. I need to make some more clothes. :D That evening we got together with Glen and Jeanette who were in town for the weekend and did some character creation. Well, everyone else created characters and I played with Aleis. I miss those girls!

Sep 21: tempest_sky came down that Thursday and stayed til Friday afternoon. Thursday evening we hung out and discussed Werewolf characters and what direction we want the chronicle to take and tied up a lot of loose ends from the old chronicle. I'm digging our characters and am looking forward to our first real gaming session. Friday was a wonderfully mellow day (I took a vacation day off) shopping and chatting. I miss Tempest_Sky, and can't wait til our next visit (Whee! Soon!!).

Sep 23: The following Saturday, I went with the parents, sibs, and sibs spouses and kids to the Texas Civil War Museum. That was a lot of fun. Heh. The film was a pretty good "Go, Texas!" kind of propaganda that I thoroughly enjoyed. They also had about thirty Victorian era dresses out on display, all of them in near-perfect condition. I'm going to have to scan the pictures my sister was able to take of a few of them (she ran out of film). My most favorite was a gorgeous royal purple silk taffeta bustle gown from the early 1880s. I did clean my finger prints off the glass protecting the display. Really.

Sep 29: The weekend starting Friday myself, sandrayln, our friends Kaity and Laura went to TRF for Sandrayln's bachelorette party. We left Denton around 9:30 pm and drove to Houston to start our fun. We rented a hotel room in the Woodlands and on Saturday morning took a shuttle to the faire. I dare say much fun was had by all. ^_^ One thing to note is that there was one sword shop down in the pirate area that has a raffle and auction towards the end of the day, at which there are some really good deals on costume weapons. Neat! Saturday evening we had dinner at the sushi bar which was in walking distance from the hotel and got the royal treatment from the owner, who could tell none of us knew what to do. Heh. Sunday morning Laura woke us up (cruel!!) and we headed back home.

Oct 5: On Thursday, we all got back together again for the wedding rehearsal. We ran through the wedding twice, but our parts were all easy enough. The hardest part was the walking up the aisle at a freaking snail's pace. The wedding coordinator was quite the martinet about that detail. The first time I went really, really slow, which wasn't slow enough, so the second run through I went even slower. I could have fallen asleep I was walking so slow. After the rehearsal, though, we cornered the bride and made sure she was ok with us going just slow. Yay! Of course, I have no complaints, because Sandrayln has been great, and I hope we did well for her, too.

Oct 6: On Friday evening, we all met up at the Master Grill, a Brazilian style churrascaria, and had a lot of food. Mm. I love that place!

Oct 7: Saturday morning I got up and was at the stylist first thing, but still managed to be ten minutes late for the pre-wedding stuff. Ugh. I felt so guilty. Anyway, then lots of pictures were taken, and then we were all hurried out so that the groom and his people could have all their photographs. Sandrayln looked gorgeous in her gown (of course), and the look on Kevin's face as she walked towards him was particularly sweet. I must admit, though, my favorite part was at the very end. After the preacher announced the married couple, we all walked out to the Imperial March.

After the wedding, I headed to Fort Worth for the Lex's second birthday party. I had fun hanging out with my parents, annawick, spar30, and Spar's side of the family. His parents are super cool. Annie is fortunate in her in-laws. ^_^ I had a lot of fun chasing the little monster around, and just watching him entertain himself with his new toys. I also got a chance to chat some with Spar, which isn't very often. He mentioned some home-building ideas that really sparked my interest, though. I'm going to have to email him and get some more details!

Oct 14: This past Saturday the DFW Costuming Guild met for our business meeting. Attendance was disappointingly low, but we're still getting it up and running, so I suppose it's to be expected. We had a slight juggling of officers, but I think that will iron itself all out nicely. I've been very pleased with the current officers, regardless. I need to submit some pattern reviews to the site. I can think of a few that I've done recently from patterns (Matt's shirt... I'll have to find my notes). I also need to send in my idea for our guild logo. Can't forget that!

After the meeting, Matt and I went up to the shop to play some D&D. It was the first game of this campaign, so we'll see how it goes. I do believe fun was had by all, though.

And now, I just got my sewing machine back from the shop, so I'm going to get started on my Truly Victorian Fantailed Skirt. I'm going to make it without the train, as I'm making a walking outfit. I think I'll use some of my brown velvet as trim. We'll see, but that's what's up next! Tonight I should be cutting out the pattern!

So I put my shirt on backwards on Tuesday. I forgot to mention that. Or maybe I was thinking I didn't need to mention it. But I live to amuse myself, so there it is.

I tumbled out of bed and into my clothes in my rush to take the trash to the curb, and put my pink work t-shirt on with the big red logo across my chest instead of my shoulder blades. Of course, I didn't notice it at all. I was sitting at my computer in my office, working away, when my boss's son came in to chat with me.

After a moment or two of small talk, his brow wrinkled and in a puzzled voice he asked, "Um, Jay. Is your shirt on backwards?" It was almost a statement.

I look down and, suddenly very amused, replied, "Sure enough!"

He shakes his head and goes back to his office and I promptly pull my arms inside the t-shirt and spin it around so that it's on properly. Heh.

My boss's corn plant has flowered. I say corn plant but it looks like a miniature palm tree. Anyway, when she saw that it was going to flower this year, she was so very pleased, heh. Every morning when I unlock my office door, I am hit by the waves of its very sweet, almost cloying scent. I don't have a strong sense of smell so if I can smell it, it must be quite strong. The first day I thought it was my incense sticks, but when she pointed out the blossoms I realized what it was. It is a good thing I don't have allergies, because the pollen content in these two rooms must be insane. I keep the door open for good ventilation. Spreading the love, as it were.

Last night I went to the second DFWCG meeting ever. I signed a paper that will help to make it official, so this is a good thing. We talked about all kinds of different local events we could attend in costume, and that at some point we will start having our own events. We also discussed the website and what features we want it to have. Matt is going to create the site for us. Yay!

My favorite thing about the meeting was gathering with a bunch of weirdos like myself that love to dress up. In things besides normal, boring modern clothing. ^_^ It is just what I need to keep my sewing bug alive.

In other news, the annual convention that my work throws is rapidly approaching with over 100 tickets sold. Our building will be very close to capacity, heh. According to our site, it's only 14 days away, with artists arriving in 13 days. So the summer insanity of conventions is imminent, and oddly enough I feel pretty calm about it so far.

The special edition miniature for this year is completely, absolutely, eye-poppingly gorgeous. She was sculpted by Ridolfi, who I think has a crush on the subject (said subject is fictional, but since she's our mascot there are many fans with a crush on dear Sophie). He translated the 2d artwork so very well! I'm going to get several, heh. I think that she will easily be the most popular sculpt of Sophie done to date.

Faire this weekend. With the weather cooling, it should be quite nice. It may even rain!