Sometimes life is just a wee bit frustrating...

even if I can't quite figure out why I'm frustrated at the moment. I've been feeling grumpy all day. Maybe it's the fact that I didn't feel like being around people and Wednesdays is the day I work, maybe it's the fact that I spent a good 8 hours doing those freaking annoying eyelets by hand (finished all of them too!), or maybe it's the fact that I after an annoying day and a headache I just wanted to go to Alex's place and hang out and play the Scion game he's running. Of course my frustration is quite possibly born from all of them all at once, and yes I know I'm whining, but if you don't like it you don't have to read this. What I really wanted to do today- instead of finishing those eyelets- was start working on the short story idea I had that I plan on submitting to the Writers of the Future contest. Never did get around to that.

And at work the new inventory didn't come in until around 3. *sighs* I hate when it comes in late. It usually comes in around noon- which is nice and slow and gives me the chance to browse through anything new of interest before any people really start showing up. When people started showing up around 5 for Magic I hadn't even gotten 1/4 way flipping through the new WoD Innocents RPG book. It was a good book too, from what little I saw. Yes, I'm a geek. You all know this already. But anyways, I could sew and be social at the same time... so... voila. Here it is at least.

Well what do you know, Tuesday already...

This past weekend one of the things that I was supposed to do was go up to Silver Springs and get some plotting on my costume for Costume Con 2009 done with a friend who's going to be putting her boyfriend in the masquerade with me- she's making the costume and getting the credit, he just gets to wear it. ^^ Well, we were just up 495 near Falls Church when the car started having issues and the engine light came on. Now, we'd just gotten our oil changed a month and a half ago, mind you, and were rather peturbed to find out when we pulled off the road that there was practically no oil in there. Apparently we had a leek. 4 quarts later, we managed to make it home and planned on taking it into the shop later this week. After all, we'd gotten by leeking oil for a month and a half before it gave us a problem, surely it could manage for a day or two until I could drop it off at the shop while I was at work on Wednesday.

Apparently not. Our little leek turned into a waterfall last night, and Seth's taken the day off from work to take it in today. I'm just grateful we didn't have to get it towed or anything. He's been there since 7am this morning, and says they'll be finished around noon and around $600 later. It hurts, especially on top of the new computer we just barely bought, but we can afford it. We are rescheduling our vacation down to Williamsburg until later this summer though, and I'll be post-poning my little shopping expedition to G-Street that I had had planned for today.







Here are the two swatches I picked up of the colors I liked against the silk I got for the poufs. This would be for the doublet and panes on the plunderhosen. The maroon one is actually silk/rayon velvet, and a bit lighter weight than the blue, but the pile is richer and softer too. It's also more likely to get marred since it's more delicate. The blue is a cotton velvet, and a bit thicker and stiffer with a slightly shorter pile. Seth likes this color the best, and it's 54" wide rather than the 45" that the maroon is, so I'll probably end up getting it. However, maybe once I get to adding the trim and decoration I'll use the maroon for a bit of contrast and richness. It really is a lovely color. The camera doesn't do it justice the way it picks up the light.

I was really looking forward to picking that fabric up too, but it'll have to wait. *sighs* Ah well, I have to finish the shirt before I can start on the doublet anyways so I can fit the doublet properly. The shirt's almost done, though I made one wee little mistake. Mistake is a bad word. Error in judgement is perhaps better, though it'll look fantastic when I'm done. To gather the sleeves, instead of sewing the gathers in and making it difficult to get my hands through or cutting a vent, I decided to put eyelets and a drawstring in. Wow am I glad I didn't to this on the neck. It is *such* a pain. I'm not using the little metal punch-in ones. No, that would be too easy and an anachronism in any case. I decided to go and punch the hole with an awl and bind them by hand! *headdesks*



They look great, but they're very time consuming. I spent several hours last night working on them and am still only 1/4 done. The pins mark where I've got to put more in, and I've still got the entire other sleeve too... But hey! It'll keep me busy until I can get that velvet!

And continuing on:

Lunch on Friday was fun. Tina and I went out to TGIF ^^ and then came back here to my place to hang out. Well, time passed a little sooner than we'd expected, and around 4:30 her husband called to see where she was. oops. They invited Seth and I to go out to dinner with them and continue in the hanging-outness vein since every time Tina and I have hung out, our hubbies have been at work and left out. Seth was tired, but he gave in to the lure of dinner and we went up to the Reston town center. I can't remember what restaurant we went to- one of those nice Italian ones. However, I was slightly more occupied with other things than paying much attention to where we were. Like the fingers on my right hand where I shut the door on them right between the joints, and figuring out how to eat left handed.

They still hurt to move a little, but surprisingly they didn't bruise too much and quick application of ice helped keep the swelling down. I wouldn't be surprised if the first two fingers have hairline fractures or something though. At first I was afraid I'd flat out broken them all at first since I couldn't feel them- and then when I could I kinda wished I couldn't again. Still, not too bad now. Typing isn't all that fun, by the way, but here I am.

Somehow over dinner Seth was talking to Tina and I was talking to her husband, and both of our conversations turned to talking about the church. When Seth and I compared notes later, it was kinda funny. They're both really good people, and I while I know that the church would be great for them, I think that they might actually be interested in learning more. The craziest part was that after dinner when we were leaving the restaurant and out in the parking lot on the way to the car two missionaries were riding past on the their bikes and stopped to talk. Tina and her husband had apparently talked to missionaries in passing in the past who weren't nearly as smart or well trained or something as these two. They handled all the questions like pros- saying almost exactly the same things as Seth and I in some cases, and one of the elders- an Aussie, no less, with that awesome accent- bore a really beautiful testimony. I don't know about anyone else, but I certainly felt the spirit. Tina and her husband accepted Book of Mormons from them and later said that they wouldn't mind coming to church with us- if they didn't have to get up to come to our 8am ward. ;) Can't really blame them there. Heck, I wish I didn't have to get up for our 8am ward. We went to coldstone for desert to top off the night, but their freezers had broken and the ice cream was very quickly going soupy. But hey, it was still cold and solid enough to make great shakes!

Again, need to get going. Seth isn't feeling well so I'm going to go pick him up from the metro in a few minutes here...

Just one of those weeks-ish

Because I've decided that chronological order is overrated, I shall kick off this little log of events entirely at random. Do try to keep up.

Yesterday was a beast for Seth. He left for work at 7, got into the office at 8, and stayed until 10:30. *sighs* We were going to go out somewhere nice for dinner and get some steaks or something, but by the time he got home at 11, we ended up with Wendy's. C'est la vie, but sometimes I'd like to kick the politicians who dump all the work on Seth in one day and keep him from coming home.

Last weekend was Jessie's wedding at the DC temple. It was beautiful, of course. Jessie just about glowed, and the both families were there in their entirety for going to the temple the day before and the day of. I put some of the candid shots we took up here. My dress turned out great, and everyone really liked it so I was happy about that. :) The reception was held at the bishop of their old ward in McClean's house. His very nice house. It was a lot of fun meeting all the people from Seth's old ward too. They all kept wondering when we were going to move back to the McLean ward. ^^;

Well I just got a call from a friend so I'm going to go out and get lunch or something. I'll continue this later...

Well right now it looks kinda like a choir robe...

But once I sew up the sleeves and add cuffs, and do a bit of blackwork embroidery, it'll look more shirtish and less choir robe-ish. Though I'm half tempted to rip out the fixed collar I just spent an hour sewing in and making it a drawstring instead. hmmm... what to do, what to do. The cartridge pleats that form the collar now are a lot more dense than a regular gathered collar would be, which would mean it'd be a lot more difficult to gather closed at the top like the woodcut in the post below is...

What do you all think? Like it like it is in this picture or in the woodcut?

Oooh! Sometimes I just inspire myself.

No outside inspiration needed! ^^ Except when it is. ^^; After the previous post Seth called and told me he'd be working late. I was going to go into DC and meet him and his co-workers after work for dinner and hanging out, but that ended up getting nerfed. *sighs* So I decided that I would be... diligent in my work too. Yes. Diligent is a great word to use. And off I went, skipping to the fabric store. I just got my paycheck from the game store on Wednesday, which money I get to spend however I like on my toys and shinies. ^^ Oh come on, it's not that much. I only work one day a week!

So I decided to get the blue silk that I've got a swatch of below. It pretttty... *drools a bit* I'm really happy with it. Jo-Ann's, miracle of miracles, actually had real linen too! And yes, there is fake linen out there. It's evil though not terribly sneaky. So I got a couple yards of white linen for a shirt to wear under the doublet. I found this pattern:



on another blog. I'm not terribly sure how accurate it is, but looking at a couple woodcuts like this one:



It looks good enough for me! And it's nice and easy. I'd say a one day project, but that's just asking for trouble. A two day project then. I have got to get me a hat like that too... heheh. I'm such a dork.

Stay on target, Stay on target! Ok, so I also got some black linen to be the base of the pants. After all, the ginormous poofs have got to have some structure on the inside. And that's about it! The blue silk for the poofs, the white linen for the shirt, and the black for the guts. I still need to find some nice cotton velvet (probably maroon since I like how that maroon and blue silk looked together)for the doublet, interlining, and then a matching (or mis-matching) lining for doublet and pants. That's all it takes. Et Voila! Plunderhosen! I love that word.

Plunderhosen

So my dress for Jessie's wedding really just needs a hem now. Easy peasy! I got the hooks and eyes up the back sewn on yesterday and today. My next project is going to be making up a pair of plunderhosen. :D

I've been hesitating a little on this project because the poofs in the pants were originally made of silk taffeta (which is expensive) and the handkerchief weight linen that I wanted to use instead didn't come in the color I wanted (lavender). However, I made a wonderful discovery when I went to Jo-Ann's buy hooks and eyes yesterday. 58" wide silk in home dec section with minimal slubs. Not taffeta, but I'm jumping on it- especially since it's currently 40% off, which brings it down to a very reasonable $15/yard. Here's the swatches I got of my two favorite colors:



It's no lavender, but the red and light blue combination is actually growing on me. There was a gold color there too that I might pick up as well and throw into the mix.

Now, I realize that no one reading this is likely to know what plunderhosen are. If you care to read a bit of the history and details behind the only surviving extant examples of, check out this site. At the very least, it'll make that site a lot easier for me to find later.





I like the design of that second doublet better than the first, although I'll be making the pants from that first picture. I like the doubled poofs at the waist. ^^ If I'm going to go crazy, I might as well go all the way, right? The pattern I bought from Reconstructing History uses the Sture plunderhosen as its basis for the patterns, which I think is awesome. I love working from historically correct patterns.

Anyways, enough rambling for now I think. I'll come back later if I'm coherent again. Must go research Landsknechten colors of preference.

LOLcats

Because they're cute and funny.













And if you're bored and want more, the Time Wasters Guide has a pretty good selection in their thread on the topic.

Staring off into space blankly.

Not much really happening for me right now. Life's just kinda coasting along as I plan for upcoming events and whatnot. Seth's been working hard though, so I suppose I'll start there in a nice, safe, and vauge sort of way. Arbitrarily set deadlines have been keeping him busy lately. It's usually his day off today, but he had to go into work for a presentation for some of the bigwigs. The guys he's been doing a lot of this work for have been really impressed and grateful for his help too. Last week they called him down to their office and gave him a $500 on the spot award- which is the biggest award they can give without going and getting it pre-approved. :) With how much effort he's been putting in for them, he definately deserved it.



He also got to go down and visit the academy as well as their shooting range. Yes, he is indeed holding a tommy gun. How cool is that.



And here's his tommy gun target. Even cooler eh? The hole to the left was his first shot, and hole in the center his second. And third. Yes, look carefully. It really is. He's got a couple other targets he brought home with him, from spraying on full auto and some other guns he tried, but this one is by far the coolest.



They also had this really pretty 9/11 memorial there.

Today I went out and did a bit of shopping. Got the snaps to finish my dress for Jessie's wedding, and on the remant rack I found a half yard of some really lovely silk brocade. Not sure what I'm going to do with it yet. After all, it's only half a yard, but it could make a really lovely shrug or bodice. Maybe I'll get some silk charmeuse and chiffon and make an empire waisted dress or something.





The pictures really don't do it justice. It's a blue grey color, but the camera didn't pick up any of the blue very well.

Abbey's been sick this week, and I got to talk to her for a long time on Wednesday while I was bored at work. I'd brought my dress and sewing box to the store to work on finishing it off, but when I got there I realized that I'd forgotten to bring the black thread. Had every other color under the sun, but my black thread was still sitting on my ironing board from when I'd last used it. *sighs* Anyways. I got to talk to Abbey a lot, which was really nice. I don't talk to the kids nearly as much as I should or would like to since they're usually in school when I have the time to call. So there's something good about getting sick Abbey! Small blessings, right?

She's apparently had trouble finding modest dresses for Mil Ball (which doesn't surprise me) and told me that she'll let me make her her prom dress when she gets back from Japan. Yay! I love sewing formal dresses. They're so much fun and you can do a lot of cool embellishment that would just look silly on everyday clothing. I've got pages and pages of original ideas around here too somewhere, so it'll be awesome to be able to maybe get the chance to make some of them! After all, fabric's expensive and I can't really justify buying yards and yards of the good stuff for a formal dress that's just going to sit in my closet. No real call for formalwear on a regular basis for me, sadly enough. I need more balls and events to dress up to.

DC cherry blossoms

With the cherry blossoms on the mall in their peak right now, Seth and I really wanted to make sure we got to see them this year. Last year we got there a day too late after a storm went through and tore down all the blossoms. This year though, we got there on a perfect day. :)

Monday was our first attempt to go see them. It was foggy and drizzly, but I metroed into the city anyways and met Seth after work. I have an excellent sense of direction and usually have no problem getting where I want to go. However, I was... slightly mistaken... about where exactly the cherry trees were in relation to the L'enfant Plaza metro station. We ended up seeing them from across a highway and a couple of fences. Not exactly the ideal vantagepoint. We gave up and went home to get dry.

Tuesday was much better. Gorgeous weather, clear, bright, warm, and sunny. (For you in the UP still getting snow days from school: bwahahahaha) And we didn't get our directions mixed up. heh. I've got all the pictures up on Michael's website in our random pictures gallery, but here are a few that I really liked.