threadwalker | Entries tagged with projects

We had a great day. The kids were at grandmas for the weekend so we lolled around until 11 am or so. Then there was a very very entertaining lunch and errands and general puttering around. It was awesome to hold hands and wander through Black Diamond Games ... the hubby proving he can walk into a store like that without buying anything and me giving him "the look" cuz I know there's nothing new out that's on his "want" list. snort. He's so cute; thinks I don't see his wiley schemes. But I let him think I'm fooled.

The kids came home after 4pm and I watched my son throw and catch a football with his uncle, which is something I can't do. I sat and cheered with pleasure. My Fashion Diva (dressed in pink plaid skirt and pink "pirate princess" t-shirt) was right there with him working on the same. She can sometimes be so prissy, but she got wacked in the face and quickly said it didn't hurt. I was impressed with her gumption and cheered her for that. I'm so proud of them for so many different reasons. Then I got to putter in my long-neglected garden while Miss E set up her action figures and played nearby. It was utterly enjoyable to listen to her play, enjoy the cool breeze and sunlight, cut back my roses and pull weeds with a backdrop of ruckus in the house where F and N were having a nerf gun battle. The general feeling of wellness in our house sank in and I'm still enjoying the afterglow. The kids are now tucked in bed with my promise to begin telling the tales of Aurora's younger years while in the forest with the fairies (yeah... I make these up on the fly and I usually work in some moral lesson; I need to get the brain juices flowing so that I'm ready tomorrow night to dazzle them with "Sleeping Beauty, the Younger Years").

With the background noise of F in a CoH mission, I'm sitting here next to him at my PC, armed with my "crack" (Diet Coke) and contemplating the bits of thread and embroidery left-overs scattered around my keyboard. The battlefield mess from embroidery death-marches during the month of September. So, armored in my fluffy pink robe, I need to sort out my commitments for the next 6 months.

Ok, now what? ( Read more... )

Edit I woke up an hour before my alarm and then I couldn't get back to sleep because I started thinking about all these fun projects. Heh. So I'm going to work early, which means home early, which means running early, which means Corbie Cave goodness right after kid bedtime instead of after evening run (cuz I've already done the run by then). Yay!

On the Opus front, I spent 90 minutes last night doing underside couching. The piece is 13 cm "tall" and I covered an area that's 0.4 cm wide. Yeah... ZERO Point Four... look at that on a ruler. I have 4 cm left and some back-fill area that looks like about 1-2 cm. So maybe 5-6 cm of underside couching left (or at least 20 hrs of couching depending on whether or not I go blind first).

Oh - plus teaching. I plan on starting up quarterly workshops after the new year. Cuz I don't have enough to do.

We went to lunch at Cesar's in Berk where we were served many tasty items and apparently Olive Oil is a food group. I spent the rest of day feeling bloated and then, from 9 to midnight (drum roll), I was incapacitated. Ugh. Recovery is slow and I still feel delicate today. And I made zero progress on my projects.

My cheering section thinks that I've gotten into such a healthy eating style that the fat-content of my lunch is probaby what did me in. Nothing like pain to reinforce an object lesson about healthy eating. My office neighbor has the opposite opinion; unhealthy eating is good for you. He helpfully reminds me of the "married with children" episode where a bon-bon marathon with Peggy kills Mr Universe because Mr Universe's body could no longer handle junk food.

Um, yeah. Sure. Eat junk food so that it doesn't kill you. The office neighbor has a drawer full of candy bars and his own agenda.

In the meantime, I'm woefully behind on the Dicken's projects. This post is really my "to do" list.

( too much left to do )

Edit: Courtesy of the-one-who-lurks, I have the theme from "Mission Impossible" playing on continuous loop at my work station. It feels very appropriate as I contemplate my personal projects and dig through thousands of pages of test results. bleck.

Find themes from 80s shows at: http://www.tripletsandus.com/80s/tv_theme_wav.htm

Current Music: Mission Impossible

Sleep Score Since November 2:
Nights I've gotten 6 hrs + sleep = 5-ish
Nights I've gotten 4- hrs of sleep = definitely more than 4
Average sleep, 4 hrs.

I'm am so freaking fired up to do projects.

Goal: New duds for the Boar Hunt on Dec 8.
Milestone: get them mostly ready to test drive at Gryphon shindig on 11/17.
The driving force for finishing the white petticoat was so I could have new duds for the Boar Hunt. I've shrunk out of everything I own. I can't find any of the venerable stuff I made 15 years ago. And I'm a wee bit too modest to dress in the Emperor's new clothes. And I had this brocade I was going to turn into table clothes, but then I envisioned it as a ropa... and the rest was fueled by my muse and caffeine.

Since Nov 2,
+I finished my white silk Florentine petticoat (1560's).
+I made a new linen chemise.
+I made a new linen partlet w/ standing collar.
+I made an Italian ropa (full length coat).

Boring details
Florentine Petticoat ( one project down, a million more to go )

Italian Ropa( Read more... )

Linen bits( Read more... )

Dickens Faire... The beloved spouse really really wants to go to Dickens Faire and is all set up for clothes. I am not. None of my Victorian corsets fit. (I have at least 3 that I can find). :-P And I can't find any of my dresses despite forays into the depths of the garage. Besides which, they were all 1880s w/ bustle and Dickens should be earlier. Which means... drum roll.. new corset, new hoop, new clothes...

( the muse in one ear and the worrier in the other and the folly of it )

( Sewing for Dickens: New Corset 1.0 and 2.0 )

Dickens Sewing: Kids.( Read more... )

More madness later.

Grumble. ( the problem with worked eyelets and my resources )

yes, I even have time for projects. yay! ( the cure for insomnia )

I was going to warp the loom on Wednesday, but I left the warping pattern at work. (boo!) But realized I needed to "make hay while the sun was shining", so I cracked the whip on another project.

( my boring projects and the Corbie Cave )

( project list )

( project stuff )

(I need a picture of the Mad Hatter, I think)...(voila!)

Wednesday night I hit the road late (like 10 pm), so I was pulling in to Redding at 1 am. What was on my mind? Corset-foo....

By 1:30 am I had the kids unloaded and tucked in bed, the car unloaded and the obligatory phone call to the spouse to let him know I was safely tucked into Motel-X (and he'd get the bill. lol)... Instead of going to bed, I pulled out the offending corset.

Umm.. yes, I was on a trip to visit Great Grandma in Oregon, not on a sewing holiday. What was I doing with the corset? and my sewing machine? and my sewing gadgets?.... I had a wild notion to pack them. No reason, just "madness"....I really had no expectations of having time to sew during the visit... or did I? (squinchy eyes...)

For the last hour of the drive, all I could think of was my project. It ate my brain. And since I was apparently possessed by some precognative force, I had packed my sewing machine as well as every scrap of fabric, trim, ribbon and braid I was thinking of possibly using for this project (except the hook and eye tape... grrr) The "project" gorp easily took up half the space in the back of my car when balanced against the stuff for the kids and I.

At 1:30 am I was hacking off 4 inches from the back of the corset. And the insanity began ... cut for your protection just in case it's contagious ( Read more... )

Current Mood: excited

I have three things I'm investing my energy into right now: two embroidery projects (opus & heraldic hubby stuff) and nightly exercise.

Opus

Going well. I'm thickening up the green. I'm really struggling with the aesthetic. My brain wants more subtle, narrow bands. But the bands in the pictures are broader. I keep the books out and handy to drive this point home to my brain. So I put down the narrow bands of dark shade (five passes worth), leave some space (1/16 inch or so) and then start the next color. That way, when my brain becomes more fully assimilated, I can go back and thicken up the bands without going over something I already put down or cutting something out. I work on this at lunch, before work and after kids go to bed. About 2 hours a day, give or take.

Heraldic pieces

I'm back on. When do I cram it in? I get 2 breaks a day - 10 minutes each. The struggle is to put the pieces down after 10 minutes. I'm so obsessive.

Exercise:
I alternate dancing and yoga-pilates at home. I'm trying to do at least 30 minutes a night.

I keep trying to do my yoga-pilates in the evening before the kids are in bed. The not-a-baby-anymore is thrilled that I'm down on her level. When I'm laying there on my back, she likes belly-flop on my face, place her head against mine (noggin to noggin), and do some sort of open-mouthed drool thing on my neck and cheek. Yes, it's kind of gross and she gets slobber on me, but she's so excited and she's usually laughing with this deep, gut chuckle, that I can't help laughing with her. Needless to say, it makes it hard to follow my tape. Stinky, on the other hand, is trying to do the yoga-pilates with me (which is really cool - I want him to grow up incorporating fitness into his life). She gloms onto him the same way. They usually erupt into some sort of "chase" which ends up with "pile on mommy". I should probably call it "You-go-pila-mommy" instead of "yoga-pilates". heh!

I worked on the opus project last night. I think I may have ruined it. sigh.

I thickened up the dark bands. At first I liked it. This morning ... I'm not too sure. It seems kind of bold for the scale. But earlier I was thinking it was too understated. I suspect that "mastery" will mean striking a good balance of scale. Also, my banding is not all the same size. I have come to suspect mastery may also mean maintaining similar scale throughout.