Well we're almost ready for you Dad! The couch is here and super comfy. We've also got a cot on order for the third girl and plenty of pillows for everyone thanks to you! Seth's going to call his Dad today and see about getting that bed down here this week or at least before you come, though if he can't, we'll be putting in a quick order for this guy. It's not fancy, but it's solid wood and metal construction, has good reviews, and is in our price range for this month. It also doesn't need a box spring so that saves us some money as we'll be getting this guy to go with it. We have the King Size of that mattress for our bed and it's still one of our best overstock purchases. Very comfy, good firmness and it doesn't bounce around when you roll over either.
I'd prefer to get something like this eventually, but that's a lot of money. Well the guest room is big enough for two twins, so maybe I'll get one of those eventually too!
Monday, March 28, 2011
Hmm...
There's been a periodic metallic rattling in the house these past couple of days. If we were in the old apartment I'd assume it was construction on the metro line half a mile away or so. (The jackhammers were that loud) As it is, I found out what it is this morning! ... There's a woodpecker attacking the metal cap on top of an exhaust vent on the roof...
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
Progress!
So life moves on and things have actually gotten done! Yay! With Dad and the girls coming up to visit us in a couple weeks, Seth and I have been getting ready for that, and getting the house ready. Our goal is to have the guest bed for Dad and a couch in the family room by the time they come. Seth's Dad has a twin bed he's going to bring down, but I saw a furniture ad in the paper for a red twin/full bunk bed that looked kinda like the one in the red room at home on a super clearance sale for $150. That'd be pretty sweet and then we'd have bunks for guests if we needed 'em so I went over to look at it. Unfortunately, the bed was apparently made for midgets as there was only 2 feet of clearance between the lower bunk and the upper. No exaggeration either. It was kinda scary to lay down on. So we skipped getting that. No worries, the bed from Seth's Dad is still coming.
However, I also sat on a few couches while I was there, and lo and behold, a near exact replica of my favorite couch in another store... for $700 less. The colors are different. Black, grey, and cream instead of tan and browns, but wicked comfy.
Also, it's huge, seating 4 comfortably. At least one, possibly two of the girls will be able to sleep on it when they come over. Depends on how tall they are. We're going to get an air mattress or maybe one or two of these suckers. I think that would hold up better over time than an air mattress. Also, don't be scared guys, but we do have the occasional common house spider that skitters across the basement family room floor. They're harmless, but peace of mind will probably be higher to be off the floor with the cot. Heh.
Also, Michael and Caroline! Want to move back to Utah? I wouldn't mind the $5K for referring a software developer to Overstock. If you know anyone else who'd qualify for the job I'm sure you wouldn't either!
Ok, so other stuff that's seen progress. I continue to putter away the Plunderhosen project. The Pants have been fit and are currently in the construction phase. The Most Impressive Codpiece in the World™ is shaping up to also be the most complicated part to construct. Because I obviously don't need a codpiece, I've had to do some extensive work on the shape of this. Mainly this involved making it slightly less... well, the emphasis will now be on the poofs of silk spilling forth rather than the, er. shape of the codpiece. Unfortunately, Janet Arnold neglected to mention exactly how the slashes were finished. They look like they were bound in a self-bias, though that would definitely be a pain in the behind to do on as small of a scale as these slashes are. With that in mind, I decided to simply create them as large bound buttonholes/ miniature bound pockets. This is a modern technique, but creates a beautifully finished slit that's wide enough for a lot of silk to come through without stretching the shape of the codpiece and has the added benefit of being pretty simple to do too. Very detail oriented, which is why I spent 3 hours doing half of the codpiece and will probably spend another one (going faster now that I know exactly what to do) to do the other side.
Once the codpiece is put together, I can sew together the pants. The pants come in roughly four layers. From the skin out they are: the lining, the foundation breeches, the poofy silk, and the panes of velvet. The lining and the foundation are pretty much the same thing. The only part that is actually visible of the foundation pants are is behind, which is why when you look at the picture below, there's velvet sewn in odd shapes on it. Also, this pants pattern is the most bizarre and annoying to fit ever. I've never seen any other type of pants cut like this, probably because it doesn't make any sense to do it this way whatsoever. While sizing it to fit me, there were many frustrated howls of "Who designed this thing!?" heard coming from the sewing room.
Sorry the pictures aren't very good. Its better when I take photos in my sewing room during the day, like this one, which displays the fabric selection accurately. Unfortunately since I needed to scrap the work I'd originally done and start over, I didn't have enough of the purple velvet to do the pants and the doublet in it. Fortunately, my friend and co-conspirator in all things costuming, has a fabric stash the size of Alaska and had that blue velvet hiding in one of her boxes. So the doublet will be one in that, with purple trim and the pants will be with purple panes (and behind) and blue velvet trim. It was awesome how well that blue velvet matches the blue silk, eh?
However, I also sat on a few couches while I was there, and lo and behold, a near exact replica of my favorite couch in another store... for $700 less. The colors are different. Black, grey, and cream instead of tan and browns, but wicked comfy.
Also, it's huge, seating 4 comfortably. At least one, possibly two of the girls will be able to sleep on it when they come over. Depends on how tall they are. We're going to get an air mattress or maybe one or two of these suckers. I think that would hold up better over time than an air mattress. Also, don't be scared guys, but we do have the occasional common house spider that skitters across the basement family room floor. They're harmless, but peace of mind will probably be higher to be off the floor with the cot. Heh.
Also, Michael and Caroline! Want to move back to Utah? I wouldn't mind the $5K for referring a software developer to Overstock. If you know anyone else who'd qualify for the job I'm sure you wouldn't either!
Ok, so other stuff that's seen progress. I continue to putter away the Plunderhosen project. The Pants have been fit and are currently in the construction phase. The Most Impressive Codpiece in the World™ is shaping up to also be the most complicated part to construct. Because I obviously don't need a codpiece, I've had to do some extensive work on the shape of this. Mainly this involved making it slightly less... well, the emphasis will now be on the poofs of silk spilling forth rather than the, er. shape of the codpiece. Unfortunately, Janet Arnold neglected to mention exactly how the slashes were finished. They look like they were bound in a self-bias, though that would definitely be a pain in the behind to do on as small of a scale as these slashes are. With that in mind, I decided to simply create them as large bound buttonholes/ miniature bound pockets. This is a modern technique, but creates a beautifully finished slit that's wide enough for a lot of silk to come through without stretching the shape of the codpiece and has the added benefit of being pretty simple to do too. Very detail oriented, which is why I spent 3 hours doing half of the codpiece and will probably spend another one (going faster now that I know exactly what to do) to do the other side.
Once the codpiece is put together, I can sew together the pants. The pants come in roughly four layers. From the skin out they are: the lining, the foundation breeches, the poofy silk, and the panes of velvet. The lining and the foundation are pretty much the same thing. The only part that is actually visible of the foundation pants are is behind, which is why when you look at the picture below, there's velvet sewn in odd shapes on it. Also, this pants pattern is the most bizarre and annoying to fit ever. I've never seen any other type of pants cut like this, probably because it doesn't make any sense to do it this way whatsoever. While sizing it to fit me, there were many frustrated howls of "Who designed this thing!?" heard coming from the sewing room.
Sorry the pictures aren't very good. Its better when I take photos in my sewing room during the day, like this one, which displays the fabric selection accurately. Unfortunately since I needed to scrap the work I'd originally done and start over, I didn't have enough of the purple velvet to do the pants and the doublet in it. Fortunately, my friend and co-conspirator in all things costuming, has a fabric stash the size of Alaska and had that blue velvet hiding in one of her boxes. So the doublet will be one in that, with purple trim and the pants will be with purple panes (and behind) and blue velvet trim. It was awesome how well that blue velvet matches the blue silk, eh?
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Yay for House things
So things with the house have been going pretty awesomely. Seth and I are completely out of the apartment now that it's March. We've still got some miscellanea that was in storage at the apartment in the living room to go through and put away, though that should be done this weekend. We've also got all of our pictures to hang still. Need to get nails and all that. And figure out how to hang an enormously heavy 5'x3' solid wood framed mirror. (Only $5 from an antique store/flea market when we visited Seth's Dad a couple years ago!) Other than that, I'm determined to be organized in this house. I don't have the excuse that we'll be moving eventually to neglect getting proper storage for all my stuff anymore even. The worst culprit for me has been my fabric stash which in our apartment was 'neatly stacked' on the floor of the closet. (It quickly devolved into a random enormous pile of fabric that I couldn't find anything in. Surprise, surprise.) To that end, I hit up Ikea today and....
Ta Da
Ta Da
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