Dots, dots, dots...

I was going to post a picture of the current project in progress, but the camera decided to not play. (I changed out the batteries- it's definitely the camera and it's dead.) So here's a picture of what I started from- a pair of mid-twelfth century Limoges enamel boxes. On the front of both boxes is a woman wearing a dark blue dress that it polka-dotted all over, with maunch sleeves. (And on the box with the handle, the fellow next to her is wearing matching hose!) I decided that the presence of two different examples of this dress meant that I _had_ to make it, right? I had a good-sized chunk of dark blue sueded rayon. And I had a round paint pouncer sponge. A short trip to Michael's and I had gold fabric paint...

All of the dots are painted on. Tomorrow I get to heat-set the paint with the iron, and then I can do up the side seams. It'll be laced up on both sides, and I'm doing the loop thing instead of sewing eyelets. Mind you, I don't have a figure like the girls on the boxes, but I think it'll be a fun dress anyway. And certainly nothing like I've seen anyone do before!

In other news...

Past few weeks I've been feeling pretty crummy. Sleeping a lot. Having a hard time with pain management. And contributing to it (or maybe in consequence of) all I'm really having a hard time with the depression right now. I've sort of run out of options on the med front, but clearly what we're doing now is not working. And I really don't know what to do. The prospect of living like this for the indefinite future is... not a happy one.

When I can stay awake, I'm reading a lot. And I guess I've been doing other stuff. I caught up on some of my backlog in the sewing room. I'm running The Survey again here in An Tir and should be wrapping that up soon. I got the robes for Malia Obama done and mailed off, hopefully in time to be there for her birthday. And I'm planning to go to the midnight show of the new Potter movie.

It should keep me out of trouble. Maybe. ;-)

I iz sewing Wizard Robez!

See, a certain First Daughter is having her 11th birthday on July 4th, and of course she'll be getting her letter, right? I figure that security concerns will keep her from going to Diagon Alley for her school things, and as 'Madam Elaine's Elegant Emporium' makes robes... ;-)

I'm madly trying to get them done so I can put them in the mail, leaving time for them to wend their way through security, and hopefully get there in time for Malia's birthday, and certainly in time for the next movie! (Less than a month now!)

I made a leap of faith and am making them Ravenclaw robes. I read what I could find about Malia online (which isn't much- her folks are doing a pretty good job of keeping her out of the limelight), and apparently she takes after her dad a lot. And her dad is soooo Ravenclaw it ain't funny. She's a bit bookish, a good student, and does her homework on Lincoln's desk. I figure Ravenclaw is a pretty safe bet. Now if I only knew if she's right or left-handed...

In other news... there ain't much. I went to 3M Defender's tourney Saturday, with Arlys. It was a nice, if smallish, event. Otherwise, just staying home. Haven't been feeling well. This weekend I'm headed south, and will be day-tripping Summits Investiture from James' place. TRMs will be there, which will be nice. And I finally finished up a bunch of my old to-do pile in the sewing room, so I can hand Bera her stuff and give James his Mickey-Mouse braies. Silly boy. :-)

Now isn't that Special...

I wrote the author of that piece on bridal bouquets do correct her notions about medieval bathing habits. She wrote me back:

Hi Laura,

Thanks for writing an informative and interesting email about the origin of bridal bouquets.

While I appreciate everything you said, I'm a humorist, not an historian. You're the first reader in many years who thought otherwise.

If I ever write a serious piece about the subject, I'll know where to go for the facts.

Thanks again.

Cheers!

Maggie Van Ostrand

Well! So I went back to the article and found... that no, she did not edit it or add anything to it. I guess 'humor' is more important than facts...

HMPH!

Yes, Medieval folk were all wet!

Yet again, someone online has resurrected that awful old viral email and published part of it- 'of course it's true! I saw it online!'

Here's the linky: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maggie-van-ostrand/common-scents-why-brides_b_209397.html#postComment

Yeah, sure. Brides carried flowers because they hadn't bathed in a month. Say again??? Supposedly this author is an award-winning columnist. No awards for her research in this direction, that's for certain!

I will admit that I was pretty cheezed still when I hit the 'comments'...

In other news:

Well, I didn't go to Crown, but I did go to Egils. The weather was GLORIOUS. The dinner parties went well. The only real problem I think was the terrain- we were camped on the end of the loop with all of the holes. Mike stepped in one Friday night and spent the rest of the weekend wincing and insisting that he was fine. (Men!) And it was clear and cold at night. James and I discovered that the slats on the bed don't insulate as well as the flat plywood surface- we were getting cold air from underneath. I need to figure out something to do about that. And I'm making a change to the poster bed- adding a board on one end so we have a headboard. Otherwise our pillows keep popping over the end of the bed all night. I got the lumber at Home Despot the other day, as well as a decorative moulding board to trim it with (the kind with the vines). Rich cut them to length for me when he was over to mow the lawn the other day. Some time this weekend I need to sand them and glue them together and then paint them and put the hinges on.

This week I've been upstairs sewing a lot. Got a whole bunch of things done that have been in the to-do pile for a looooong time. I plan to get started cutting out Wanda's pavilion soon. Also going to see if I can get Malia's Hogwart's robes done this week- need to get them done and sent off as the security goobers will be drooling on them for who knows how long and I want them to be there in time for her birthday.

Stephen's birthday was the 2nd. He's 23. Hard for me to fathom sometimes. I dream about the kids fairly often and they are usually little in my dreams. But he's six feet tall now, and not a little kid...

Just popped over to HuffPo and found that they borked my initial cranky post in the comments. I toned it down a bit- have to see if the moderators will let it through now.