A well-timed break
Mar. 31st, 2010 07:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
threadwalkerSometimes I think that Satan created my schedule to torment me into failing. Then I remember that 90% of the things on my schedule are things that I put there. Does that make me my own private Satan? Probably. Personal insights are so illuminating.
I hit a wall Sunday night and spent the last few days sorting myself out. F picked up the latest Dresden Files book and very specifically did NOT read it before me and/or disappear it into his mountain of reading material; he left it in the spot where my mail goes so I'd have something nummy to read. Last night I left it in a spot for him so that he'd know I was done and it can officially be eaten by the growing book monster.
Mini-Side Rant: I really dig that series. I'm tired of beautiful heroines (waif or hourglass shaped, blonde or brunette or red head... ALL of them) who are tough-as-nails yet eye-catchingly feminine and in dysfunctional relationships with drop-dead gorgeous men who are vampire/werewolf/mage, etc. I like my heroes/heroines flawed, with human-like weaknesses, and with something worse than bad hair-days going for their appearances. Where is the Fat hero? Where is the dumpy heroine who can't match her socks or who wears running shoes because she RUNS! And why can't they be hooked up with regular men who talk while eating or burp or have sandwich wrappers in the foot well of their car? Maybe I'm commenting too much on the men I hang out with.
Anyway, the Dresden Files satisfied my need for light enjoyable reading while using time doing something for me (other than running) that benefited no one but me was really satisfying. Of course, to make that happen I didn't cook dinner, make lunches, do laundry, or do anything else that looked the least like a chore. (I pre-emptively planned for this inevitable kitchen strike over the last year and the kids have been taught how to make PB&J without leaving a mess). I keep flashing back to a conversation I had with Brynne a year or two ago about how we (working moms) don't have enough time to navel-gaze and digest our days, leading to internal stress build up, etc.
Maybe part of my problem is that I work too hard at work. I'm the contractor who became an employee so I'm always thinking in terms of being on the clock and squeezing work out of every minute of the day; there's no time for pondering or socializing or catching my breath. I dialed back my intensity this week and between that and some personal bubble time reading, I feel great. Almost unstoppable. I definitely feel more in tune.
Sewing: I'm sewing. Why don't I blog more about that? Everyone else on the planet does some variation on dress diaries, but the idea of writing about how I spent a few hours in my workshop just puts me to sleep. I do a lot of hand finishing which is slow and super not-fascinating ... zzzzzzzz! And seam ripping is riveting... not.
But here's a rough sketch: 1560-ish Venetian. Monotone brocade, purple with red tones. Under the gown is a kirtle which won't be visible when worn. It's made out of deep blue-green twill wool. The wool is a freaking pain in the ass because it loves to stretch. But I love the texture and the color, so I am soldiering on. I completed a band of embroidery for the neckline of chemise. The partlet will be made from a piece of lace.
Technical tid bits:
Kirtle: This is doing most of the support you'd expect from a corset, only it's not boned. It's twill wool lined in heavy linen and shaped in two pieces, front and back. The bodice has side lacing which is not meant to close all the way, which is not a problem since it's not meant to be seen. The front piece has 2 layers of linen lining for support. The skirt is unlined. No sleeves.
Gown: brocade reddish purple lined in heavy linen. Cut in two pieces, left side and right side. Open up the center front and closing with ladder lacing and trimmed in metalic braid. Super-lightly boned with plastic boning, which is mostly placed in the front to encourage the bodice to behave nicely. Sleeves are set in. Sleeves have three diagonal slashes with silk pulled through the slashes and lace at the cuff. The skirt is pleated to the bodice and the hem is padded.
I've been working on this since Mid-February. The embroidery sucked up quite a bit of time and then there was fabric hunting. But 6 weeks of sewing summed into 2 paragraphs... definitely not blog-material.
oh - here's a side story about the shed. There are 2 tracks of lights, one hard wired to a switch and one (for the vaulted roof) remote controlled. Someone nearby has a similar frequency to my remote control because it keeps randomly turning on and off. So there I am, puttering away and suddenly "click" and one of the tracks of lights turns off. That's okay until I'm watching "Hell Boy" out there after midnight the spook-factor is increased 100-fold. Or I look out the window before going to bed and the shed is all light up even though I shut everything off when I went to bed. I like to imagine fairies are cleaning up my mess at those times.
I hit a wall Sunday night and spent the last few days sorting myself out. F picked up the latest Dresden Files book and very specifically did NOT read it before me and/or disappear it into his mountain of reading material; he left it in the spot where my mail goes so I'd have something nummy to read. Last night I left it in a spot for him so that he'd know I was done and it can officially be eaten by the growing book monster.
Mini-Side Rant: I really dig that series. I'm tired of beautiful heroines (waif or hourglass shaped, blonde or brunette or red head... ALL of them) who are tough-as-nails yet eye-catchingly feminine and in dysfunctional relationships with drop-dead gorgeous men who are vampire/werewolf/mage, etc. I like my heroes/heroines flawed, with human-like weaknesses, and with something worse than bad hair-days going for their appearances. Where is the Fat hero? Where is the dumpy heroine who can't match her socks or who wears running shoes because she RUNS! And why can't they be hooked up with regular men who talk while eating or burp or have sandwich wrappers in the foot well of their car? Maybe I'm commenting too much on the men I hang out with.
Anyway, the Dresden Files satisfied my need for light enjoyable reading while using time doing something for me (other than running) that benefited no one but me was really satisfying. Of course, to make that happen I didn't cook dinner, make lunches, do laundry, or do anything else that looked the least like a chore. (I pre-emptively planned for this inevitable kitchen strike over the last year and the kids have been taught how to make PB&J without leaving a mess). I keep flashing back to a conversation I had with Brynne a year or two ago about how we (working moms) don't have enough time to navel-gaze and digest our days, leading to internal stress build up, etc.
Maybe part of my problem is that I work too hard at work. I'm the contractor who became an employee so I'm always thinking in terms of being on the clock and squeezing work out of every minute of the day; there's no time for pondering or socializing or catching my breath. I dialed back my intensity this week and between that and some personal bubble time reading, I feel great. Almost unstoppable. I definitely feel more in tune.
Sewing: I'm sewing. Why don't I blog more about that? Everyone else on the planet does some variation on dress diaries, but the idea of writing about how I spent a few hours in my workshop just puts me to sleep. I do a lot of hand finishing which is slow and super not-fascinating ... zzzzzzzz! And seam ripping is riveting... not.
But here's a rough sketch: 1560-ish Venetian. Monotone brocade, purple with red tones. Under the gown is a kirtle which won't be visible when worn. It's made out of deep blue-green twill wool. The wool is a freaking pain in the ass because it loves to stretch. But I love the texture and the color, so I am soldiering on. I completed a band of embroidery for the neckline of chemise. The partlet will be made from a piece of lace.
Technical tid bits:
Kirtle: This is doing most of the support you'd expect from a corset, only it's not boned. It's twill wool lined in heavy linen and shaped in two pieces, front and back. The bodice has side lacing which is not meant to close all the way, which is not a problem since it's not meant to be seen. The front piece has 2 layers of linen lining for support. The skirt is unlined. No sleeves.
Gown: brocade reddish purple lined in heavy linen. Cut in two pieces, left side and right side. Open up the center front and closing with ladder lacing and trimmed in metalic braid. Super-lightly boned with plastic boning, which is mostly placed in the front to encourage the bodice to behave nicely. Sleeves are set in. Sleeves have three diagonal slashes with silk pulled through the slashes and lace at the cuff. The skirt is pleated to the bodice and the hem is padded.
I've been working on this since Mid-February. The embroidery sucked up quite a bit of time and then there was fabric hunting. But 6 weeks of sewing summed into 2 paragraphs... definitely not blog-material.
oh - here's a side story about the shed. There are 2 tracks of lights, one hard wired to a switch and one (for the vaulted roof) remote controlled. Someone nearby has a similar frequency to my remote control because it keeps randomly turning on and off. So there I am, puttering away and suddenly "click" and one of the tracks of lights turns off. That's okay until I'm watching "Hell Boy" out there after midnight the spook-factor is increased 100-fold. Or I look out the window before going to bed and the shed is all light up even though I shut everything off when I went to bed. I like to imagine fairies are cleaning up my mess at those times.
