Not at the same time, thankfully.
I've never been a huge fan of clothes shopping. Odd, considering that I like clothes, and like to make clothes. I can spend hours in a fabric store. But rtw clothing stores just annoy the heck out of me. However, it's been (literally) a couple years since I've done any major shopping and I was down to two pairs of jeans with holes in the right knees, my black hippy pants from Belgium, the pair of Agent khakis Seth got me, and a pair of black pants I got to excersize in at BYU. Scary, isn't it. So today was the great and scary trip to the mall and after much suffering, trials, tribulations, and visiting every gosh dang store in the freaking mall, I managed to suppliment my wardrobe slightly and walked away with five pairs of pants and a really cute silvery grey poly charmeuse shirt.
I'm not kidding on visiting every store in the mall. Well, every women's clothing store at least. My complaints about ready-to-wear clothing are many, although you can't beat the convenience and cost. My number one complaint, however is sizing. At some point in history, the number used to identify a size actually meant something. Now it's an arbitrary number that the store clerks fully expect you to know how it relates to you.
I have a 29" waist, 38" hips, and a 34" inseam. These numbers have translated to everything from a size -2 (yes, size 0 was too big for me) to size 16. It's frigging rediculous! And then even if a store has a chart that translates real measurements into their sizing system, their sizes aren't always consistent within themselves! My prime example of the night, although by no means a rare case, was in the Levi Store. A big brand name like Levi should be consistent, right? And they were the only store that labelled women's pants by the inch. I thought I would find something - even if their pants do cost $70. Well I found a pair that was 29"x32" and tried them on. Too short, but the waist fit as it was supposed to. So Seth finds me a pair that's 29"x34", and while the length was right, it was a good 4" too skinny! Yes! FOUR inches too skinny when the waist was supposed to be the same! Who the heck is doing their math? It's a simple measurement of the waist! It can't be that hard to get and label correctly!
Dressy-ish slacks were the easiest to find, but jeans were a real pain. We'd almost given up for the night, but there was one store left so we decided to try it. Delia's. Bless store clerks that don't assume you know their arbitrary numbering system and who actually do their job of helping a customer. She found the right shape of pants for my figure and then pulled a couple sizes for me to try. Then because I got the last pair in the long size on the shelf, she went out hunting in the back until she found a second. Yay! They were even having a buy one, get one half off sale. ^^ So $60 for two. Go me. I ended up spending $175 total, but since I hadn't been shopping in two years, I kinda needed to.
Ok, Ballet. I'm really excited about this. This summer I'm going to start taking it from a company here in Alexandria that holds lessons at Landmark mall across the street from me. I would have liked to take ballroom lessons from the same place, but standard ballroom is a bit intimate and I wouldn't want to dance with anyone but Seth now that I'm married. ^^ Was half hoping Seth would be up for it after catching the celebrity ballroom show on the other night, but he didn't seem too enthusiastic about the idea. heh.
So ballet! It's an adult class, which is nice. I won't be there standing next to little six year olds, and it'll get me out moving and trying something new. I've been watching my weight lately, after I noticed I'd gone from a 30" waist to 32," and started eating better and stuff. Being down to 29" makes me happy. Anyways, I like dancing, and ballet is something that will be fun I think.
And it reminds me of the anime "Princess Tutu" that I watched about a year ago that was really cute. It was based off the Swan Lake ballet as well as other assorted fairy tales. Heck, maybe if I ever get good enough, I'll do a Princess Tutu costume and dance for the presentation half of a costume competition.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Progress!
Got the sleeves on today! Now "all" that's left to do is sew the lining and exterior together, and hem the dang thing! And add buttons or hooks up the back of the top sleevish part. Normally I'd just put one at the very top and let it gape open a bit, but it gapes open just a couple inches too low. Should of thought of that a bit sooner. Was so worried about the front that I forgot the back. *sighs* Maybe I'll make bead loop buttons. We'll see. That's one of the last things I need to do anyways. I also apparently need kidnap someone to help me fit my fitting dummy. It's vaguely close to my shape right now, but still just a bit too big... The dress fits on me, even if it doesn't fit on it quite right.
Just for you AnnaMarie
It's now pink, in hopes that It'll inspire me to make some time soon to change the background. But I added a list of what I'm reading just to the side there.
Beading 360
Well work was certainly productive yesterday. I spent the entire morning and afternoon sitting in the store finishing beading the dress. It was nice. Not many people came in (as usual), though one guy that did invited Seth (and me too) to join his group of friends that gets together every week to play 40K. Seth was really happy about that. He hasn't gotten to play regularly since the Warhammar fantasy tournament started at the store on Saturdays. So we'll see how it turns out. The guy -Dave- was nice, does blacksmithing of all things, and interestingly enough is pagan and most of his friends in the group are Jewish. Yep, it should make for interesting religious discussions if nothing else.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Sheer Inspiration
I usually visit the cosplay.com site every day. It's a forum where you can post up pictures of what costumes you're working on, talk about different issues in cosplay with the community, discuss technique, photography, posing so you don't look rediculous while still 'in character.' You need to know something about cosplay or costuming in general? With (literally) thousands of enthusiasts on the boards, you'll likely have an answer to your question within the hour.
One of the other reasons I like going there is to drool over pictures of costumes that I would otherwise never get to see. It's inspiring to see people who have the skills to take on projects that would make me hesitate. And I'm hesitating less and less these days.
So here's a costume AnnaMarie and Dad will at least recognize. Ursala from the little mermaid. I mean how cool is that? I was really impressed by several things with this one- it must have been a technical beast to get just right. The tentacles, first off, both how they attach to the dress and how they're held up with 30lb fishing line and epoxy. It's really quite creative and turned out great. The wig is similarly impressive. It's not easy to get hair - even fake hair - to do something like that and I can only imagine the hours and who knows what materials she must have put into it. I've looked into what it takes to make wigs, and I'll be making one for my costume-con '09 project, but I'm not particularly looking forward to the work it'll take. Body paint is another area of costuming I've kinda stayed away from. It can be messy sometimes if you don't get the really really good (read expensive) stuff and it doesn't always photograph well either. Especially not after a full day of wearing it. But here, she only used it on her hands and face, and somehow managed to match the color of a body suit. (which I will be using in the near future)
The original page is here
One of the best anime I've seen over the past year was Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion, and I'm really looking forward to it coming out here in the US. Definately a series that I want to pick up. It's in the genre of alternate history/fantasy, so probably not anyone else's in the family's cup of tea, but it was really well done! The animation was excellent, the plot tight (although I'm still waiting for season 2. grr.), and they got CLAMP to do the character design which I thought was a good move. I like CLAMP's style even if it's a bit more stylistic than realistic. Or maybe because it is. Anyways. Here's the art vs. the costume.
The original page is here
The last one there, is with another cosplayer of the same character, just wearing the school uniform rather than the full cloak and helmet costume. ^^ I really admire this particular costume because (a) good looking uniforms are dang difficult to pull off - as hard as suits in some regards, and (b) that prop helmet can't have been easy to make... and I'm jealous of it. Well, jealous of the skill that it took to make it. I can sew, but I haven't the skill to really make amazingly awesome props like that. And(c) the picture with the cloak flying up behind him is awesome. I don't think he wired it (well, below the massive collar that sticks up at any rate), which means that the kudos probably go to the photographer, but I can't really tell for sure. Which means that if he did wire it, he did it perfectly.
One of the other reasons I like going there is to drool over pictures of costumes that I would otherwise never get to see. It's inspiring to see people who have the skills to take on projects that would make me hesitate. And I'm hesitating less and less these days.
So here's a costume AnnaMarie and Dad will at least recognize. Ursala from the little mermaid. I mean how cool is that? I was really impressed by several things with this one- it must have been a technical beast to get just right. The tentacles, first off, both how they attach to the dress and how they're held up with 30lb fishing line and epoxy. It's really quite creative and turned out great. The wig is similarly impressive. It's not easy to get hair - even fake hair - to do something like that and I can only imagine the hours and who knows what materials she must have put into it. I've looked into what it takes to make wigs, and I'll be making one for my costume-con '09 project, but I'm not particularly looking forward to the work it'll take. Body paint is another area of costuming I've kinda stayed away from. It can be messy sometimes if you don't get the really really good (read expensive) stuff and it doesn't always photograph well either. Especially not after a full day of wearing it. But here, she only used it on her hands and face, and somehow managed to match the color of a body suit. (which I will be using in the near future)
The original page is hereOne of the best anime I've seen over the past year was Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion, and I'm really looking forward to it coming out here in the US. Definately a series that I want to pick up. It's in the genre of alternate history/fantasy, so probably not anyone else's in the family's cup of tea, but it was really well done! The animation was excellent, the plot tight (although I'm still waiting for season 2. grr.), and they got CLAMP to do the character design which I thought was a good move. I like CLAMP's style even if it's a bit more stylistic than realistic. Or maybe because it is. Anyways. Here's the art vs. the costume.
The original page is here
The last one there, is with another cosplayer of the same character, just wearing the school uniform rather than the full cloak and helmet costume. ^^ I really admire this particular costume because (a) good looking uniforms are dang difficult to pull off - as hard as suits in some regards, and (b) that prop helmet can't have been easy to make... and I'm jealous of it. Well, jealous of the skill that it took to make it. I can sew, but I haven't the skill to really make amazingly awesome props like that. And(c) the picture with the cloak flying up behind him is awesome. I don't think he wired it (well, below the massive collar that sticks up at any rate), which means that the kudos probably go to the photographer, but I can't really tell for sure. Which means that if he did wire it, he did it perfectly.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Monday, March 17, 2008
Beading!
So I've started on beading the dress today. It's going to be a lot of work and I'm really hoping it doesn't look utterly rediculous when I'm done. I started on the zipper, using a techinque I'd seen in the Threads magazine that had looked pretty cute. It's sewing the zipper in by hand, and taking a tiny backstitch with a bead. In this particular case, I'm taking a backstitch every half centimeter. I'm liking how it's turning out so far. ^^ Now I just have the other side of the zipper to do. Should be able to get that done tonight
I'm also taking a little inspiration from one of my current favorite deviant art artists.
Anima: fencer girl by *Wen-M on deviantART
I couldn't resist throwing that up in here. I love the detailed style of clothing he gives his drawings. If anyone ever wants to commission me to make one of his outfits, I'd jump at the chance just for the challenge they pose. But I digress. He also draws tattoos for people, so I found one that has a bit of a flowery shape to it, and I'm going to use it for as a pattern for the rest of my beading endevor. Hopefully I'll get a lot of that done on Wednesday while at work. Although rather than calling working at the Complete Strategist work, it's really more like sitting around with not much to do for several hours. Or getting paid to read, write, sew, paint, or whatever else I bring to occupy my time.
I'm also taking a little inspiration from one of my current favorite deviant art artists.
Anima: fencer girl by *Wen-M on deviantART
I couldn't resist throwing that up in here. I love the detailed style of clothing he gives his drawings. If anyone ever wants to commission me to make one of his outfits, I'd jump at the chance just for the challenge they pose. But I digress. He also draws tattoos for people, so I found one that has a bit of a flowery shape to it, and I'm going to use it for as a pattern for the rest of my beading endevor. Hopefully I'll get a lot of that done on Wednesday while at work. Although rather than calling working at the Complete Strategist work, it's really more like sitting around with not much to do for several hours. Or getting paid to read, write, sew, paint, or whatever else I bring to occupy my time.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Iron: 2, Marianne: 0
So I lost another argument with my iron yesterday. I wanted to iron the bodice pieces after interfacing and sewing them all together. The iron was set a wee bit too high and wanted to scorch my interfacing. *sighs* I didn't have enough interfacing to cut a new panel either. SO! This morning before I go in to work I'll be making a quick little stop to get new interfacing- one with a cotton instead of poly fiber content.
But I suppose blessings come is disguise sometimes. I was having trouble sleeping last night and didn't manage to fall asleep until about 3am. (another one of those 'blessings' I guess) But in the process, I decided I wanted to add a bit of embellishment to the bodice anyways. So I'll be grabbing some beads this morning as well. Should be fun. I haven't done any beading since my 40K project.
Here's this morning's progress picture. The skirt is just pinned onto the dummy, so it'll definately lay a better once it's sewn up properly, but as you can see, the shantung is no where near as shiny as the tafetta- it photographs much better. And the fabric is nice to work with too! No real slipping to speak of, doesn't wrinkle badly at all, etc, etc, praise, praise. Now I'm happy I bought almost two yards extra :D Well, one and a half once I correct my mistake with the bodice, but still! I can make something else to match or something. A purse or a sash for the dress or something. We'll see how it goes.
As for the background of the blog, I'll get around to changing it when I've got a free day later this week. It took me an entire afternoon to figure it out and since I didn't think I'd be changing it any time soon I didn't bother to try to remember how I did it so it'll take me an entire afternoon again. In any case, I don't have any problem reading it! I get a nice shiny white background upon which to type. :p
But I suppose blessings come is disguise sometimes. I was having trouble sleeping last night and didn't manage to fall asleep until about 3am. (another one of those 'blessings' I guess) But in the process, I decided I wanted to add a bit of embellishment to the bodice anyways. So I'll be grabbing some beads this morning as well. Should be fun. I haven't done any beading since my 40K project.
Here's this morning's progress picture. The skirt is just pinned onto the dummy, so it'll definately lay a better once it's sewn up properly, but as you can see, the shantung is no where near as shiny as the tafetta- it photographs much better. And the fabric is nice to work with too! No real slipping to speak of, doesn't wrinkle badly at all, etc, etc, praise, praise. Now I'm happy I bought almost two yards extra :D Well, one and a half once I correct my mistake with the bodice, but still! I can make something else to match or something. A purse or a sash for the dress or something. We'll see how it goes.
As for the background of the blog, I'll get around to changing it when I've got a free day later this week. It took me an entire afternoon to figure it out and since I didn't think I'd be changing it any time soon I didn't bother to try to remember how I did it so it'll take me an entire afternoon again. In any case, I don't have any problem reading it! I get a nice shiny white background upon which to type. :p
Sunday, March 9, 2008
My dress for Jessie's wedding and other stuff from this past week
AnnaMarie, I'd just like to say that I really appreciate the comments. ^^ Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. Or that could just be the ginormous fleece blanket. Who knows. Things have been a lot better this past week. I got a lot of work on my suit done. Lining the sleeves was a bit tricky, but I finally got the little buggers to behave. Now I just need to ease them into the arm holes. The thing about suit or jacket sleeves is that the sleeve head is actually 2-3 inches larger than the arm scythe. Now logically, that doesn't make much sense, after all, they need to match up, right? Why be annoying and frustrate the heck out of sewers internationally by making patterns where the pieces don't go together like a nice little jigsaw puzzle? Most sewers end up with puckers or gathers that just scream "home-made."
Well the answer makes sense, but it's still as annoying as all heck. Nicer coats- particularly wool ones, are eased in and the actual fabric of the sleeve head is shrunk those 2-3 inches to fit in smoothly. Very sneaky of them, and fairly time consuming to do. I got one sleeve finally steam-shrunk down to proper size and all pinned together and started to sew it up, and then.... -dum dum dum- I ran out of thread. *headdesks* I'm using a really nice, very specific shade of charcoal grey silk thread that matches the wool perfectly. I can't exactly just substitute in a generic black polyester at this point like I could have it were going to be an internal seam or something. They don't carry the particular shade I needed at Jo-Ann's (my first stop because I was also getting fabric for my dress for Jessie's wedding) and they were out of it at G-Street (my second stop, because Jo-Ann's didn't have any fabric nice enough for my dress for Jessie's wedding.) So the suit coat project is back on the shelf for a while, or at least until after I finish my dress for Jessie's wedding and the curtains for Seth's co-worker.
So my dress for the wedding! I'm really proud of myself here. I managed to get all my fabric for it for only $110. I'm lining it with a nice tafetta, and the exterior is a gorgeous rustly shantung. Polyester, of course. I would have loved to get silk, but alas. $13/yard was in my budget, $40+/yard, no so much. *sighs* I looooove silk. It's so nice to sew on. We'll see how the shantung goes. The tafetta has been pretty good so far. What's really been a pain, however, has been the 12 yards of tulle. Fur now has a friend on the list of fabrics I hate. Fur, meet Tulle, Tulle meet Fur. You're both evil. It's not that tulle is difficult to work with, per say, it's just that there's so dang much of it and it's fairly delicate so you have to be careful not to rip it accidnetly. Oops, did that once when it got caught on a needle. Thankfully it was up near the top instead of down by the hem where it might be visible. No one will be able to find my little patching job unless they decide to go looking for it.
So there it is! My past two days work. That's just the lining of the dress and the tulle should flatten out a bit once gravity does its thing overnight. I'll start cutting into the shantung tomorrow- to which the last 3ish yards of tulle will be sewn (gah) as well as the sleeves. It's nice to know that there are square necked garments, but I'm still going to adjust the neckline a bit just to be sure. Better safe than sorry, right?
Let's see, what else has been going on this week? I really love that bookshelf we got, but it didn't end up making as much of a dent in our library population as I would have liked. *sighs* To be honest, although the books in in are double stacked already, it didn't even make a significant visible difference to the den. I think we need another two. Or three.
Then I melted the carpet this week. I'd just finished ironing a seam or something and went back to my machine to sew another. Seth was sitting right next to the iron and didn't hear or see it fall either. But a couple minutes later I came back and was like. "Hey, where'd the iron go." Brilliantly enough, face down on the carpet in a puddle of polyester. Seth hadn't even smelled it melting or anything, and at least the iron didn't take any damage at all, but that corner of the carpet is toast. After much flipping out, Seth went and talked to the apartment people. Fortunately they can come up and replace just the small area that got ruined rather than making us replace the entire thing. Note to self: when I get my own atellier, it's not going to have carpet. Or it is carpet, it's going to be those squares of different colors that you can pop out and replace as necessary. Darn iron. But in spite of that, this week went pretty well. Go me.
Well the answer makes sense, but it's still as annoying as all heck. Nicer coats- particularly wool ones, are eased in and the actual fabric of the sleeve head is shrunk those 2-3 inches to fit in smoothly. Very sneaky of them, and fairly time consuming to do. I got one sleeve finally steam-shrunk down to proper size and all pinned together and started to sew it up, and then.... -dum dum dum- I ran out of thread. *headdesks* I'm using a really nice, very specific shade of charcoal grey silk thread that matches the wool perfectly. I can't exactly just substitute in a generic black polyester at this point like I could have it were going to be an internal seam or something. They don't carry the particular shade I needed at Jo-Ann's (my first stop because I was also getting fabric for my dress for Jessie's wedding) and they were out of it at G-Street (my second stop, because Jo-Ann's didn't have any fabric nice enough for my dress for Jessie's wedding.) So the suit coat project is back on the shelf for a while, or at least until after I finish my dress for Jessie's wedding and the curtains for Seth's co-worker.
So my dress for the wedding! I'm really proud of myself here. I managed to get all my fabric for it for only $110. I'm lining it with a nice tafetta, and the exterior is a gorgeous rustly shantung. Polyester, of course. I would have loved to get silk, but alas. $13/yard was in my budget, $40+/yard, no so much. *sighs* I looooove silk. It's so nice to sew on. We'll see how the shantung goes. The tafetta has been pretty good so far. What's really been a pain, however, has been the 12 yards of tulle. Fur now has a friend on the list of fabrics I hate. Fur, meet Tulle, Tulle meet Fur. You're both evil. It's not that tulle is difficult to work with, per say, it's just that there's so dang much of it and it's fairly delicate so you have to be careful not to rip it accidnetly. Oops, did that once when it got caught on a needle. Thankfully it was up near the top instead of down by the hem where it might be visible. No one will be able to find my little patching job unless they decide to go looking for it.
So there it is! My past two days work. That's just the lining of the dress and the tulle should flatten out a bit once gravity does its thing overnight. I'll start cutting into the shantung tomorrow- to which the last 3ish yards of tulle will be sewn (gah) as well as the sleeves. It's nice to know that there are square necked garments, but I'm still going to adjust the neckline a bit just to be sure. Better safe than sorry, right?
Let's see, what else has been going on this week? I really love that bookshelf we got, but it didn't end up making as much of a dent in our library population as I would have liked. *sighs* To be honest, although the books in in are double stacked already, it didn't even make a significant visible difference to the den. I think we need another two. Or three.
Then I melted the carpet this week. I'd just finished ironing a seam or something and went back to my machine to sew another. Seth was sitting right next to the iron and didn't hear or see it fall either. But a couple minutes later I came back and was like. "Hey, where'd the iron go." Brilliantly enough, face down on the carpet in a puddle of polyester. Seth hadn't even smelled it melting or anything, and at least the iron didn't take any damage at all, but that corner of the carpet is toast. After much flipping out, Seth went and talked to the apartment people. Fortunately they can come up and replace just the small area that got ruined rather than making us replace the entire thing. Note to self: when I get my own atellier, it's not going to have carpet. Or it is carpet, it's going to be those squares of different colors that you can pop out and replace as necessary. Darn iron. But in spite of that, this week went pretty well. Go me.
Monday, March 3, 2008
A bit down lately
So Abbey-dabby got her depature dates for Japan! I'm so excited for her and slightly jealous. I want to go to Japan! I'd also like to go back to Belgium and get some real chocolate again. These past couple weeks I've been feeling a little down and Galler chocolate would probably perk me right up again. It would be nice to walk around Liege and see what sorts of things have changed, drive by my old school, pay my respects to the WWII monuments and cemetaries again, and definately go by that 24 hour fritterie in Bruxelles 0again.
But yeah, been feeling a bit bleh lately for some reason. Maybe it's just that the nice weather has brought bad the detestible pigeons on our balcony or the fact that one of my online writer friends of four or five years now is off at some closed-door school thing. Not sure what it is exactly, but he doesn't get online anymore and I don't get to read his writing. *sighs* Which has thrown my own muse off. I haven't written anything substantial in about a month now. Or maybe it's the fact that we haven't gotten together with my usual gaming group to play and I haven't even seen on of the guys, Ben, in several weeks. Is it really so hard to get four people to coordinate their schedules enough to get together once a week? Well, at least this past weekend we got to hang out at Alex's house, met one of his other friends, and all played the Paranoia Mandetory Bonus Fun card game together. It was fun! Maybe this other friend of Alex's (who for the life of me I can't remember his name. I'm so bad about that) will join our little group permanently and even if Ben isn't there we'd at least be able to play something.
Our apartment is currently in a mess (which doesn't help either) as we're rearranging things a bit in here right now. When we moved in, we'd put our library in the den. Now we got a new bookshelf that's taller than I am! and have put it in the living room. So the books are migrating from the den to the living room which is a huge project. I really don't think anyone in my family really understands just how many books we have now. It's a LOT. Then the couch that's in the den is going to be tossed out and the den is then going to become my sewing room. The dresser that's in there will possibly be moved to in front of half the sliding glass door to the poarch where my ironing board was, in order to make room for ironing board and sewing machine. Then the ginormous mirror we bought at an antique store in PA for $5 is going to be in the den and if there's still room, the cutting table will go in there as well. But that may be stretching it. IF it does fit, we'll finally be able to get a real dinner table in the breakfast nook instead of eating at the coffee table in the living room. Of what I would give for a house of my own with enough room for all our things!
Townhome prices down south of the mixing bowl have gone to $250,000 from $300,000, which is a good start. We're hoping they'll get lower and that we'll be able to afford something north of the mixing bowl. The mixing bowl is where 495, 95, and 395 all meet, and it's evil. Anyone who's read Good Omens knows that I'm not kidding on the evil part. ;) Not to mention the fact that by the time we save up enough for a down payment on a house in the current market conditions - Seth says 10%+ at the very lest. We're doing pretty good with saving, but we don't have $25,000 in the bank. (or even $20,000 if we're hoping prices'll drop to $200,000) We're going to need a couple more raises and several more more years of living in a small apartment I think. *sighs* Someday. Someday.
But yeah, been feeling a bit bleh lately for some reason. Maybe it's just that the nice weather has brought bad the detestible pigeons on our balcony or the fact that one of my online writer friends of four or five years now is off at some closed-door school thing. Not sure what it is exactly, but he doesn't get online anymore and I don't get to read his writing. *sighs* Which has thrown my own muse off. I haven't written anything substantial in about a month now. Or maybe it's the fact that we haven't gotten together with my usual gaming group to play and I haven't even seen on of the guys, Ben, in several weeks. Is it really so hard to get four people to coordinate their schedules enough to get together once a week? Well, at least this past weekend we got to hang out at Alex's house, met one of his other friends, and all played the Paranoia Mandetory Bonus Fun card game together. It was fun! Maybe this other friend of Alex's (who for the life of me I can't remember his name. I'm so bad about that) will join our little group permanently and even if Ben isn't there we'd at least be able to play something.
Our apartment is currently in a mess (which doesn't help either) as we're rearranging things a bit in here right now. When we moved in, we'd put our library in the den. Now we got a new bookshelf that's taller than I am! and have put it in the living room. So the books are migrating from the den to the living room which is a huge project. I really don't think anyone in my family really understands just how many books we have now. It's a LOT. Then the couch that's in the den is going to be tossed out and the den is then going to become my sewing room. The dresser that's in there will possibly be moved to in front of half the sliding glass door to the poarch where my ironing board was, in order to make room for ironing board and sewing machine. Then the ginormous mirror we bought at an antique store in PA for $5 is going to be in the den and if there's still room, the cutting table will go in there as well. But that may be stretching it. IF it does fit, we'll finally be able to get a real dinner table in the breakfast nook instead of eating at the coffee table in the living room. Of what I would give for a house of my own with enough room for all our things!
Townhome prices down south of the mixing bowl have gone to $250,000 from $300,000, which is a good start. We're hoping they'll get lower and that we'll be able to afford something north of the mixing bowl. The mixing bowl is where 495, 95, and 395 all meet, and it's evil. Anyone who's read Good Omens knows that I'm not kidding on the evil part. ;) Not to mention the fact that by the time we save up enough for a down payment on a house in the current market conditions - Seth says 10%+ at the very lest. We're doing pretty good with saving, but we don't have $25,000 in the bank. (or even $20,000 if we're hoping prices'll drop to $200,000) We're going to need a couple more raises and several more more years of living in a small apartment I think. *sighs* Someday. Someday.
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