What year is it?
According to The Daughter, I don’t update enough and it makes her sad. Which I find a little silly, since she lives with me, and knows what’s going on in my life at any given moment. But, I don’t want her to be sad, so I’ll update.
All of my doctor’s appointments at the end of 2006 went well. I’m as normal as I get. I need to exercise more, but that’s nothing new. The Short Man wants to join a gym, since the The Other Half and I have been saying we need to be in better shape.
I ended up dropping out of “National Costume Finishing Month”, since I wasn\’t really feeling much like sewing. So, I still need to update the Italian gown.
Our vacation in January was amazing. We went on an event cruise called “Ships and Dip“. It featured Barenaked Ladies, Guster, Gaelic Storm, and a bunch more bands/side projects/stuff. Harland Williams (the comedian) was on the ship as well, and did a couple of shows, which I didn’t see. Apparently, he’s Kevin Hearn’s (the keyboard/mandolin/accordian/etc player for BNL) cousin. Our port of call was Grand Turk, in Turks & Caicos. Clean white sand and crystal clear water. There are pictures here. We all (except TOH) had some seasickness issues, but apparently the wind was more than a bit stiff and hitting at just the right angle to make everyone really feel it.
I did make my coat that I talked about, and I love how it turned out. I used Vogue Pattern V8346. I made length “B”, but I used the portrait collar from view “D”. I used a black faux fur for the collar, some midweight black wool for the coat itself, and some two tone grey striped lining fabric. I love the lining fabric. I still have about 14 yards of the stuff, so I’ll be using it frequently. I found some fun buttons at Hancock’s, but I’ve already managed to lose the glass stone from one of them. I still need to put a couple more/stronger snaps on for the closure, but I really like my new coat. Pictures eventually.
I’m now working on a mock up of some dress slacks. I have tons of wool suiting, and plan to use it to actually make suits. I hate shopping for suits, because I have to buy different sizes in slacks and jackets, and most women’s suits are sold as a set. So, the obvious solution is to make my own. I’ve got a mockup of the pants done, and need to figure out the fit issues. There’s some wrinkling in the thigh/crotch area that’s bothering me. I bought a book on pants alterations and that’s helping a lot. I have an easier time fitting pants than I do fitting jackets/tops, though. But I am getting better at it. Of course, fitting for DDD cup boobs doesn’t help at all.
I’ve been working on a new necklace for Faire Season. It’s 5mm garnets and 5-6 mm freshwater pearls. Just strung in a G-P-P-G-P-P-P-G pattern, but I’m making it with no clasp, and knotting between each bead, so it\’s tediously slow. I think I’m going to make my blue dress for this season, in a more Tudor style, although I really love the Italian styles. I’ve got 5 months, so who knows.
We’ve finally got the kitchen mostly done. All that’s left is the flooring, because changing the shape of the center island has left a huge gap in the existing linoleum, which we hated anyway. Oh, and we really want to paint it a different color. The current sea green is not a pleasant color.
So, I think that’s Life, In a Nutshell.