asthran | Entries tagged with sewing

Well, I've been at the AZ campgrounds for a month now, and working for three weeks. We've been keeping busy and making a lot of chocolate: 62 batches of mint crunch, 4.5k chocolate covered bananas, 1800 chocolate covered cheesecake slices, 1k-2k each of s'mores, krispy treats, M&M and triple chocolate cups, and about 400 lbs of fudge. We've discontinued our peanut butter cup in light of the salmonella outbreak, and replaced it with rocky road. I'm learning more about managing, and thankfully haven't made any huge glaring mistakes yet. *fingers crossed*

Living in the campground is a lot different than last year. The neighboring land was sold to ranchers, so instead of ATVs we have cattle lowing at all hours of the day and night. One steer has been on the wrong side of the fence for at least two weeks, so my vote is for possession being nine-tenths of the law, and some of these hippies need meat on their bones. And with that one generator that never gets turned off at curfew, quiet land is *not* quiet, which is vastly irritating.

I actually remembered my advice to

ynyr and spent some time writing a journal entry while I was putting off going to bed last night... ( Combichrist, lab coat, consumerism, stolen credit card, Chess Match, and a new tentmate! )

OK... Dr Horrible lab coat, second draft. I'm feeling pretty good about this one so far...

( Excessive detail is for if it takes me another 6 weeks to get to the red coat )

Now that I have a laptop, I guess I should make a post of substance.

I will be spending most of December in TRF this year. I may or may not go up to Sante Fe, NM, around New Years, to work for my sewing boss up there. Then I will head to Arizona in mid January to open up the Chocolate Makers again.

I was supposed to move into a trailer for the time that I'm in Texas, but the owner of the trailer "went to Houston for the day" last week, and he hasn't been back to move out. So, I'm still in my tent. Thankfully, it's supposed to get warmer again, because if I was looking forward to two more weeks of near-freezing temperatures and snow flurries.... I'd probably take my landlord up on his offer of staying in his son's currently vacant room, actually, but I don't want to move into someone else's space for just a few days.

In the last few weeks I made a bunch of reversible sweater hats and muffs (also reversible) for Dickens on the Strand, a Victorian festival in Galveston. People were not scared off by Hurricane Ike, and the hats went over well, and I made the muffs a little too small so they were the only kids muffs there, so they went well too. I took pictures of the two reversible sweater hat and muff sets, and you can see them here.

So, I've been spending a lot of time on my computer (though I am quite glad I didn't touch it at all yesterday until I was done with work). I've been looking for free online games and other such time-wasters, and so far like Pardus and Renaissance Kingdoms, largely because they limit how much time you can spend on them (and because Pardus reminds me of Escape Velocity).

I really need to start thinking of using my laptop for work too, and not just for play. I need to: start organizing paperwork for my taxes, transferring old data to a spreadsheet, and making some forms.

My project for my sewing boss is to make these nifty reversable hats out of old sweaters. For Dickens on the Strand, I also made a bunch of muffs, which ended up 1-2" too small, grr. But anyway, I also combined the projects, and made these gorgeous matched hat/muff sets. I hope the people who get them love them as much as I do! (Especially the one on the left! I love that dark starred pattern!)

Last week, I made some Loki. I used (approximately): 3 cups water, 1 1/8 cup sugar, 1 oz vanilla and almond extracts, 4/5 cup Everclear. It came out pretty well. I think my next attempt is going to be made with honey.

Last week, I also started a mock-up for Dr Horrible's lab coat. I used McCall's pattern #M4529 as a base, and dropped the hem by 8 inches (I need to make that 10 or 12 on the final), made the front into a "cut one on fold" (need to take out an inch or two from the center - it's way too full), shortened-on-the-horizontal the under-front piece, changed the sleeves, and lengthened and shifted the collar a bit (if 10" is "a bit"). Tomorrow I'm going to Houston's fabric district where I will hopefully find some nice material for the red coat. I assume that had the costumer for Firefly realized that Simon's lab coat would be dyed red a few years later, s/he would have used cotton thread, so I will be *gasp* not accurate to the source material in that I will use red thread, not white! It may take me a while to finish the coat though, because...

My weekwork is getting started, finally! It is very promising - she has "a barnful of tuppers of scraps" just waiting to be made into accessories, so it is likely that I will be quite busy for the winter. Also, she spent a lot of time emphasising that she wants me to be creative and not just do production work - if I have ideas for new things, or new touches on existing things, I should go for it. Now I just need to get creative! ... And then crank out tons of product :-)

Still no weekwork today. I get to call the lady again tomorrow. blegh.

Next Tuesday I'll be going to the fabric district in Houston. I don't really have any big plans, though making Dr Horrible's/Simon Tam's lab coat in red is awfully tempting. Anything to relieve the boredom!!!

While I was on break on Sunday, ThatBallGuy overheard one of our customers tell her companion, "This would be great for ritual!" so he asked her what tradition she was part of. She replied, "Pagan-shaman-druid," and it took all he had not to sing the next line of the song. She probably wouldn't have appreciated it.

When I talked to Entheon last night, he said that if he could, he'd wear clothing like the shirt I made him all the time. So that made me feel warm and squishy. As he's been thinking it will take closer to two years for him to get back on the road, I had been thinking about reneging on my promise to make him a second shirt out of a linen-cotton blend (figuring I would get more use out of the fabric than he), but that combined with his newfound determination to get back on the road by next year has made me decide to make him a second poets shirt after all.

Ooh, and I have a lead on someone who has a sewing machine they're willing to let folks borrow. So I might be able to finish my linen sewing before Minnesota! Yay! So now I need to get my fabric cut so I can hopefully do some sewing next week.

HRB looks positive. I'll have 10 on the job training hours this week, and then next week is the start of Peak hours. It looks like I have a good chance of learning the electronic transfer system, and/or working as a "preparer's assistant," basically data-entering W-2's, 1040's, and that sort of thing, leaving the preparers to conduct the interview proper.

I finished my new bodice. I have no slack at the waist, the bust is a little loose, and there're some wrinkles where I didn't match things up just right, but nothing horribly obvious.

I did some awesome new things with my poi. Tali showed me a neat thingy where you spin the poi asynchronously over your head, and occasionally dip them under your arm, and I figured out how to do that, yay! I also was able to spin a bit behind my back!! I can't do anything too impressive yet, but I at least can cross both hands behind at once, and bring them back (ie, a basic X-cross) without hitting myself in the head or calves *too* much.

The drum circle this last weekend was interesting, as I witnessed my first ever almost-fight... ( details... )

- I've wrapped up my training with HRBlock, but my transfer (as the computer system understands it) is not being as speedy as I wish it to be/as it should, so I haven't gotten any hours yet. I should talk to my office manager tomorrow.

- I'm very close to finishing my new lower-middle-class bodice. I need to tip the boning, sew up the bottom seam, and put in the grommits. I need to buy tipping fluid, so I'm waiting to do that until I am earning money. On the plus side, I can buy Tool Dip at Home Depot for a mere $5, as opposed to buying professional dressmaker tipping fluid from Greenberg and Hammer for $20. Woo!

- I'm also feeling the necessity of fixing up my car, but I also feel the need to wait on that until, surprise surprise, I'm earning money. For those who don't know, I spun into a street sign my last day in Minnesota, and took out my driver's side directional light, as well as a good chunk of my front bumper, and I also bent my tire rim. I found a scrap yard here in the Phoenix area with the parts I need for crazy cheap, only about $125 for all three of those, but then I get to try and put them on. Joy.

- I went to the drum jam again on Saturday, all by my lonesome. I chatted with a few people there... scary pessimist and Rocky guy (why are they everywhere? Ahhh!) David, and Gray, whom I like better when he's not constantly hitting on me (although then the encounter is rather less amusing).

- I feel like ... half babysitter/half big sister here in the house I'm living in... very odd. Very different. I've never before had a naked three year old hug me and say "I love you Sarah. Deba. Sorry for calling you Sarah." .... I've now dressed my first three year old. I'm trying to teach her the alphabet and numbers. And I start having weird surreal conversations that would probably only be of interest to other people who interact with lisping three year olds on a regular basis.

- I spun poi at the drum jam. Nothing exciting, but it was a good conversation starter, and I enjoyed it.

Today was a good day, very productive... I woke up around 1, hung out with my old friend Evan for a bit, and then went to Rachel S's to sew... finished

unknownpoet78's hoop skirt and am mostly done with Isabelle's.

Tomorrow I'd like to finish her skirt, change the spark plugs in my car, and then I need to get cracking on packing for AZ... Eeek!

Today was pretty productive. I went home and did laundry, and made progress on the hoopskirts. I haven't heard from Rachel yet, so I'm now at more or less of a standstill (I could make some markings), but today I sewed 7/8ths of the skirts together, using flat-felled seams, 'cause those look so much better. The final seam needs to wait until I get

unknownpoet78's waist and hip measurements, just in case I need to leave in a placket. I also sewed together a ton of the casing for the boning... I just hope I don't need any more.

I got my hair trimmed - about 4-5 inches taken off the back. Less in front, since a couple years ago I made the mistake of getting my hair layered.

Today there's a bit of a Japanese-themed thing going on at

ganuk's place, but when the rest of 'em head out to the Southern Theater, I'm going to stay home and crack out some more. I want to make a little bit of progress on Ivy's epic, and Fri night is usually a pretty busy night with the Knights, so we'll have to see if maybe we can get something fun to happen *grins*.

I haven't posted a whole lot recently, since all I've been doing is playing EQ *hangs head* and EQ2....I'm enjoying myself though, rediscovering how to have fun in the games, and what my play-style is... it's interesting.

Anywho, I finally did some things other than EverCrack...

I've bought and washed some fabric for hoopskirts, and I'm going to focus on those next week. Goals: Cut main pieces, and call Rachel and set up a good time to use her serger. Ideally use said serger as well.

On Saturday I went to the Cappaferro Cast Party - got to watch the preview and an extra for the DVD, and listened to the 80's cover band After School Special. That was pretty fun, and I now need to get the soundtrack to The Passion of Christ. It also put me in a mood for dancing... So kireeonna and I are going to hit Hard Mondays in a couple days, and I've been itching to check out dv8's new night at Ground Zero... I like what I see of his playlists, so we'll see... I just want to find a night that's like Thursday nights at The Church... /drool ... I'm thinking Hard Mondays might have the best chance of that.

Sunday I went to Terp rehersal and danced, yay! I was distressed at how much of Bizzaria d'Amore I'd forgotten/was rusty at, but got through it ok, after many many run throughs. I wish we had males dancing it though, because then I get to flirt and steal someone's hat. Na ja, what are you going to do? Besides get more men in the troupe? *laughs*

After that I hung out with

unknownpoet a bit, played some DDR, and went to the PBS/TPT station to do the pledge drive for MRF. It was actually busy there, for the first time since I've started doing them, which was a nice change. I feel like I earned my 15 food coupon books this time.

Other random stuff.... last week I was involved in some awesome RP with Cor and Fey, and lost the frikken log!!! I stupidly tried to move the file down to my own computer, and didn't leave the original on

ganuk's machine... and now the disk I put it on is not only unformated, but it isn't even formatable any more. Fucking floppies. Grrr.

This week I'm going to try and pry myself away from EQ a little bit, and get some errands done, and sewing. Wish me luck!

Hey, here's a thought! I just might actually write my own LJ entry today instead of just reading my friends... *shock/surprise*

Life updates:

I now have gotten rid of another 4 grocery bags of Goodwill donations, 2 bags of trash, 2 boxes of used books/CDs, and moved all my homebrewing stuff to my mom's basement. Woo! I think next goals will be to ... um... *looks around* Damn. Um, I don't know. I suppose just get rid of more throw-away-able stuff, and then start on the major stuff in a couple weeks.

I am a lazy bum.

There're so many things I've been putting of doing, like... well, now that I think about it... ... there, called a couple people - and

nightjasmine, get off your phone! - and I am now registered for Everyone's Return, the next class I need to take for HRBlock, yay!

*peers over at her stack of dishes* Now... just one more thing... hrm.

I'm making next to no progress on remaking my blue gown for the Renaissance Festival. *sighs* It's just really hard to be motivated when I know I'll need to wear my green gown all the time, for the Chess Match.

Speaking of, I finally started fainting during the puppy-getting-hit-by-a-bus scene! *grins* This is lots of fun - I just need to work on paling a lot more, and *not* hitting my lower back into

unknownpoet78's knee when I go down... ow. Also need to work on the angle so the audience can see me when I faint, but I don't care about that so much. If Dayna says otherwise though, well, then, of course.

Hrm. That's all I can really think of right now.

- Bike riding went well today. I'm getting better at not flailing the handlebars about, and managed to do a couple laps around a ballfield, before my legs practically fell off. *grins* That'll get better with practice.

- I hate my mead. This weekend it's getting dumped. I'm sick of it; It's been a month, and I put champagne yeast into it last weekend, and nothing's going, and it's probably all bacteria-infested anyway, so I'm just going to siphon it down the bathtub drain and call it good. I don't want any more stress in my life, thank you.

- My partlets should be done this weekend, yay! I really only need to put the collars on... *fingers crossed*

- De-accumulation: I now feel like I have about as much stuff in my apartment as I would want if I wasn't going on the road... *laughs* So I'm got quite a ways to go yet. But I'm getting there, I think.

- I went to

nightjasmine's place last night to make my D&D character... dammit, I need to make up a character background... I'll do it, I will! I have, oh, one idea so far.... *blushes* *laughs* But I met the other people who will be in the campaign, and it'll be interesting... I don't think they'll let me play an asexual character. *laughs more*

- I have a room for CONvergence now, yay! I'm feeling ok with my handout - I should be able to get it togetherish this weekend, or early nest week. Won't be spectacular, but what the hey. *shrugs*

- I rediscovered how beautiful the graphic novel/comic booksA Distant Soil is/are. /drool.

- I'm working on my bodhran playing. I think I'm improving a little.

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asthran

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... a deviant path is the only way ...

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