Sunday, June 26, 2016

Quiet sewing in the midst of chaos

I've gotten to spend some time sewing for Sylvie's step-up coat. I went to her house last Tuesday and got the main body of the coat lining and one sleeve sewn together. She's concerned that I won't have enough time finish it because of the move and all the packing. Well, our paperwork is still stalled out and the escrow stretches onward. Hubster has taken the majority of our things movable to storage or the garage of the new house. I went to weekly dance practice in San Jose on Wednesday evening. It's a long drive and I took the coat pieces to work on in my laurel's basement if there was a chance. The chance did present itself. She had writing to do for one of her blogs. The fiance hadn't been feeling well and so stayed home but was working from the dining table. I holed up in the basement sweat shop and sewed for three uninterrupted hours in silence (only because I had forgotten my charger for my phone and couldn't stream music). It was very pleasant regardless of the headache I started to develop from an allergy/cold I felt coming on. I don't often get a chance to sew so completely left alone. And when I do usually hide away in my sewing room, I'm often made to feel guilty like I'm abandoning my family when I really am quite available to help out. But I managed to finish the rest of the lining and sew the coat together. I even got two hours into the work before I needed a seam ripper (which is A) nearly unheard of and B) something I had to scrounge for because I apparently packed all of mine and not a single one made it into my bag of stuff*).

I am very grateful I got the chance to sew last week and very sad that my sewing room is mostly packed. I have for decades now used sewing as my escape from responsibility. With the house buying process going so utterly sideways, there are many things I should be doing, but all I really want to do sew.

* - I did have to go buy a seam ripper yesterday morning in a fit of frustration with a sewing mistake, frustration with children already crabby at 10 am, and an odyssey of traffic in town and F-ed up Walmart-ness that would try a saint's patience. But I conquered an oddity of sewing/lining garments that I'll post on later. Just know that I should have gotten a cookie for the damned getting a seam ripper sojourn I went on yesterday. 

Sunday, June 19, 2016

Extroversion?

Had a very introverted reaction to today. Was helping "sew all the things" at a Sylvie's house but there were just so. many. people.
Normally I love a busy household and the chance to have multiple opportunities to converse with a variety of folks. But the crowd, the noise (made a gazillion times worse by my own squealing serger in want of oiling again), trying to process cutting diagrams in the busy atmosphere (when I want to do a really really really good job and not f*** it up since it's for royalty so I'm under pressure). . . it all just led me to feeling completely mentally exhausted. Drained. So strange for me when I'm normally energized by the opportunity.
I guess my mind was just on other things today; honestly there was someplace else I would rather have been. When I think about it, spending the day in bed feels like it would have been the most enjoyable activity I could have chosen. Like I said, a very introverted reaction which I'm not used to. And I'm not sad I went. I'm just overwhelmed I think. Need a bit of quiet reflection time (which is also not happening because I got home to one grumpy child and then my mom coming over to help pack/toss stuff for the upcoming move.
And the house? Still haven't gotten word on closing status yet. Lender mentioned on Friday we wouldn't hear anything until Monday (tomorrow). Job interview from Friday? Went pretty good and the principal really liked me (I left feeling like they would be a great group to work with), but he can't actually give me the job. HR has to do their work and then offer me employment. What were they doing on Friday? Oh the district office is closed on Fridays so I won't here anything until at least tomorrow.

See, my mind is definitely other places and being around so many people was exhausting.

Saturday, June 18, 2016

Because...love (or how we combat hurt feelings by being kind to others)

On Monday night, I got out of the shower after driving for hours to take care of loan stuff. The Hubster was awesome. He's been so positive about the house purchase and staying optimistic. Me? Not so much. Anyway, he had packed several boxes while I was gone and had made a delicious dinner, had wine ready, and even bought me a pint of ice cream. But while getting showered off last night I had a distinct sadness come over me.

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

quick mid-June update

And this is how I find myself a bad blogger who doesn't regularly update. I haven't been doing any projects and I feel like no one really wants to hear about other events so I haven't posted since the 6th.

The house purchasing problems continue to plague us. We're at 2 weeks until we have to be out of our current home and we still haven't closed escrow on the home we're buying. Argh. That being said, a lot of my sewing room has been packed away. No progress on the list. Progress on the house purchase is that yesterday I made an unscheduled drive to Santa Rose to get signatures on the initial loan disclosures from our cosigners (my brother-in-law and his wife). They hadn't consented to e-sign documents and so that meant all the docs have to be signed the old-fashioned way and we were looking at maybe only getting keys on the 27th of this month. But Haley, you said you had to be out in two weeks. Yes, I did. You see the dilemma. That literally gives us 2 days to move out and turn around on the house. So driving out and getting their signatures so I could drop the loan paperwork off to my loan officer in hand yesterday evening? Well that moves the timeline up to the 23rd for keys. That gives us a week (including a weekend so we might get some moving help from friends).

It was suggested that my $10 Latchet shoes might make a good class (thank you Hubster - you're smart and encouraging). I like the idea of teaching a class that is very hands on and that you can leave with something period-oid for SCA as soon as you leave the class. I will definitely consider it.

The fabric for Hubster's doublet arrived this morning in the mail. Part of me wants to dive dive dive into this project immediately. See aforementioned issue with having half of my sewing packed for move. Frankly it should all be packed at this point.2 WEEKS PEOPLE!!! We have to be gone in two weeks!!! But it's a 7.1 oz linen from Fabrics Store in cobalt which is a lovely dark, but not quite navy, blue. He loves blue. It will be very nice for the doublet. Yes I know there are no real examples of linen doublets. But I'm gambling with my husband even wanting to wear it. And it gets hot here in the Sacramento/Nor Cal events. He's one of those guys that thinks one must wash every article of clothing after a single use (which to be honest is kinda necessary because boys are cute - but smelly) and I just can't do that with wool. So this will be a very simple, very "easy-going" doublet. And I'll feel better about doing it in linen anyway as it's my first time and if I royally screw up, well I didn't spend $20+ per yard on it. Plus, he's getting the striped mock-up as the lining and that just rocks.

We made a snap decision to go to June Crown tournament in Tres Pinos. It was our first time at that site. I had a really great time. I wasn't committed to doing anything "responsible" except for one shift of trotting along behind the Lady of the Swan (our soon to be Princess of Cynagua) and attending to her needs. I didn't go to any meetings. I didn't take any classes. Vittorio wasn't fighting for me so I didn't need to consort for him. I actually spent a large part of my time in the Publick House gambling with borrowed monies and drinking. And it was relaxing and fun to be so low-key. Shhhh I didn't even go to Court in the evening. And I never skip court. By the way, the awesome news is that my new friend Sylvie (go check out her blog - she's one of the ones I follow along with) is the Lady of the Swan. Her husband, Fearghus, and she will be stepping up as Prince and Princess of our area in July and they've asked me to be on their court. I am very excited. I like to be on court a lot. I declined the offer during this most recent reign for two reasons; I was worn out after serving on the last 3 consecutive courts and the most recent one I had been on had felt very stressful and socially awkward. But that worked well because I instead got to know the current Princess, Katherine, socially and in a crafting way. I got to just hang out with her. That was nice.

Okay, now I'm totally digressing on the point about Sylvie and Fearghus...this weekend at Crown, Her Excellency asked if I would serve as a Princesses Artisan! What?! Holycow!!! And she totally did it in the best way too. She's already cleared it with my Laurel (and my grand-Laurel happened to be standing right there waiting to talk to her about artisans too) AND she told me to only consider it if I didn't have too much on my plate with the house-moving and the no job thing. I've asked to at least wait until I've signed my home loan paperwork to consider, but I'm totally totally honored. This is the first time anyone in Cynagua has considered me worthy of being an artisan. Dah schucks [scrapes toe in the dirt]. I still have to think long and hard about it though because there are a lot of steps/tasks that we are being asked to do as part of the position and I know me. . . I want to do them perfectly and completely. And I don't want to take on a job that I know I'm only gonna half-ass.

Anyway, tonight is business meeting for my Shire and since I'm the one in charge of that circus, I better have some notes to talk to my monkeys about. Right now, the Shire is a huge source of anxiety with me. More on that later (or not at all because I don't know how comfortable you are with hearing about my mental issues). The quick update ended up being a little longer than I expected. But that's a good thing I guess.

Monday, June 6, 2016

$10 latchet shoes

Yes, period-oid passable 16th century shoes for $10 (or less!).

So, in case you haven't noticed, in the SCA I tend to hang with the late-period folks. Some of them are particular sticklers for HA (historical accuracy)*. One of them is a stickler for shoes. I knew he was a shoe guy before I really got to know him, because that's what he was laureled for. (In the SCA a Laurel is a person who has done tremendous work in the arts and sciences of medieval studies. It's an equivalent learning/study/teaching level to being a Knight. In the modern world, have you ever heard the phrase "rest on one's laurels"? Yeah, some people have put in near PhD level work on their medieval studies so they're really good and knowledgeable on this stuff...bu I'm digressing from my point about the shoes).

I know that a particular peeve for many reenactors can be the wrong shoes. This doesn't just hold to SCA folks. It can be the CivWar folks, the living history museums, lots of folks really. But I'm not a leather worker and I don't have gobs of cash to spend on accurate footwear made by someone else. This also makes me sad because who wouldn't like to have gobs of cash to spend on fabulous shoes. Have you seen my shoes in real life? I'm not a purse gal, I'm a shoe gal. But I also have to be practical when it comes to buying shoes. I wear mine to work. I have to get MILEAGE out of them. (funfact - my first year of teaching I was voted "teacher with the best shoes")
The patent leather candy corn heels. Because...candy corn. 

Last May, I decided I needed to make something more appropriate. Here's some examples:
From a Holbein sketch.

Cows Mouth shoe and last from https://northamptonmuseums.wordpress.com/category/shoes/shoe-history/


a sketch by Lucas de Heere
 
The "Virginia" shoe available for purchase at American Duchess
Actually, American Duchess has a gorgeous raised heel shoe that is de rigeur in footwear for 16th century reenactors. I don't have the $200 to drop on a shoe I will only wear to a few occasions each year. I know the designer. I have seen the prototype in person. But alas, it just wasn't meant to be last May (or right now for that matter). So I got crafty.

See the photo journey after the jump...