Grace under pressure

I must be a masochist

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 21:27:23 GMT

Ok, really, if you've known me for any length of time, you *know* I'm a masochist already, but just in case you were still wondering...

Following my buttonholes on fleece project, I've decided it would be a swell plan to finally spin up some soy silk and cashmere blended fiber I have had laying around for ages. Fibers are slippery, fluffy, and short. Ever so very short. Which makes for some challenging spinning. I'm determined though, I can do this. Eventually.

Oh!! And I have a meeting for another part time temp lawyer job tomorrow so think happy thoughts. What with planning 2 weddings, part time work like this is perfect for me.

Sewing annoyance

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 22:26:47 GMT

Fleece + automatic buttonholer = snaps!

Why is it that the practice buttonhole worked, with the exact same fabrics, but the actual buttonhole on the coat refused to cooperate? Why?! Oh well. I think the whole thing was a little thick and sticky...maybe if I used some tear-away stabilizer next time?

Is it just me

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 14:23:06 GMT

or does Outlook crash a lot?

I'd sort of like to beat it with a stick, but somehow I think that might just possibly not be the best solution.

feh

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 15:28:07 GMT

homesick and sulky today, in a pouting-like-I'm-5 sort of way...i think i'll go sew something.

feh

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 14:13:02 GMT

This part of the world is very silly. It maybe, might, may snow today, which around here means a light dusting at best, so they have closed all the schools and courts down. I could see closing things had it actually snowed last night as predicted, but this is just silly.

I and I thought I was a weather wuss.

OMG

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 19:56:59 GMT

I passed the bar!

15 more days

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:11:41 GMT

Till I hear back from the Bar. Gah. I think it's starting to get to me...I haven't been able to sleep through the night in a week...unless I down half a bottle of wine that is, which does nothing for the diet or the quickness of mind the next day.

I also seem to have developed some form of ADD...I can't focus on anything for more than 90 seconds it seems. I think I need to start going to a yoga class or something...

Oh my

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 17:56:18 GMT

So we have no date set, location settled on or anything like that, but me being me, I am of course looking at dresses. Holy mother of God. Who wears half these things? Lots of it looks like tranny wear, which is great if your a drag queen, even more is hung on models who look like they just died of consumption. Forget about the strange things that get glued to the models heads...ugh. At least it's entertaining.

I really don't want to sew my own dress...just once I want couture made for me by someone else. Besides, who needs the additional stress? I've already got to plan 2 weddings, or at least 2 receptions, adding a gown on top of that is a bit much.

It's offical!!

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 13:14:45 GMT

We're getting married! After all of this will he/won't he worry, we went ring shopping yesterday and are officially engaged!

I'm so excited. He's the best man in the world, and easily the best thing that's ever happened to me.

Costume update

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 13:34:34 GMT

I have fabric! When I can find my camera, I will post pictures, but for now here is the plan...

The LYM will get proper pants made from a black light suit weight poly, which is poly, but a very nice one and looks and hangs like wool. It's washable and I don't feel like spending wool prices on something he may or may not ever wear again, and that I may or may not screw up utterly, so this is a good compromise. The waistcoat will be a light green, tan and sort of beige color stripped fabric, shit from a nice light cotton sateen and a probably tan or maybe burgundy cravat, all under a charcoal gray morning coat. All I need to do is fine a top hat I want to pay for and can travel with, and suspenders.

For my new dress, I have a nice burgundy taffeta striped with chocolate brown, tan and some sort of gold color. The jacket will be chocolate brown faille with, I think, black trim and fringe. I've seen brown and black done together before, and it actually looks much richer than the brown trim did. I'm going to make the jacket with a v-neck, so there will be an under blouse in ivory with pintucking, machine embroidery and lace. I decided to do a blouse so I could wear it under a swiss body at some point as well as the jacket, and because chemisettes and separate sleeves can be a huge PITA.

I don't know what I'm going to do about headwear. Stuffing a bonnet and top hat into a suitcase sounds like a bad plan, and I don't particularly want to carry on a hat case, since we're flying out for Christmas and will then have to carry the thing back, along with whatever else we buy/get. I suppose I can always ship the hats back. I'm also having arguments with myself about wearing a hoop. I think it would look better to make a modest hoop, but I've got no idea if something like the TV hoop could be forced into my suitcase.

Now I must attempt to resist all my pretty fabric and sewing plans and actually get some work done. Working out of the house is much harder when there are exciting sewing projects at hand.

Costume question

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 18:37:44 GMT

It appears that the LYM and I will be able to attend at the very least closing day at Dickens Fair this year. Yay!! I'm trying not to get too excited, work issues being what they are nothing is too certain at this point, but that hasn't stopped me from planning costumes. Since the LYM, who is the best boyfriend/whatever ever, got me a spanky new sewing machine for my birthday, even if I don't get to go making new costumes will give me a chance to test out all the new features I have at my disposal.

Anyway, he has a modern morning coat in charcole gray which means that while it isn't perfect I don't have to make a frock coat. Yay! I'll probably buy pants, becasue I hate making pants, and also becasue somehow it turns out to cost less to buy them then it does to buy the pattern, fabric, and all the fiddly bits. I'm making the waistcoat and shirt. For me, I need a new dress. My red and black dishcloth dress that I wore to the last Dickens I was at (in 2006) fits fine, but it's a little too casual to look quite right with his suit. Besides which, I want a nicer day/dinner dress, something in silk maybe. My question is this...how common is it to see differant fabrics for the bodice/jacket part of a dress and the skirt in the late 50's? I found one fashion plate that shows differant fabrics, here but that might just be the way the illustration was colored. I haven't seen any extant gowns made that way, the only other places I recall seeing such a thing is when the jacket is really outerwear. My thought was to do the skirt in a stripped silk and make a solid velvet jacket of some sort, mostly because those are the fabrics I seem able to find in the stores around here and I can't seem to find anything I like in sufficient quantities to do the whole dress.

I survived!

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 13:44:22 GMT

My brain is still mush, but I survived the bar exam and my trip to Japan.

The short version...

The bar exam sucked. But it sucked for everyone so that's fine.
Japan was awesome. Not speaking the language or having a clue about the writing was very scary. The food was great, I got my black belt, the whole experience was really amazing.

I will write more later when I am somewhat more coherent. At least today I woke up knowing what country I was in. :)

Arrggg

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 03:13:35 GMT

I have lost all ability to study and am attempting to learn evidence from YouTube. The sad thing is, this is pretty helpful, if you need to know what hearsay exceptions are anyway.

This one pretty well sums up the last 3 years though...especially the bit about the voices...

Less than 2 weeks...

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:46:20 GMT

Two weeks from right now, I'll be halfway done with the last day of the bar. Agh. Best not to think about that...I have nearly 2 weeks to memorize 22 subject areas of law (including nice, concise, manageable things like Federal Income Tax, cue the sarcasm), pack for Japan, and get my shoulder better after a less than perfectly executed crash into hard wood floor on Sunday.

Had a bit of breakdown/freak out on Monday, but hopefully that's now done with. I've decided to not worry about the whole diet/weight thing until after the exam. As silly as it sounds, that by itself has taken a lot of stress off. Trying to plan meals right now is just too overwhelming. If I find something that sounds appetizing, the last thing I need to worry about is how many calories and grams of fat it contains. I'm making fairly reasonable food choices, I just can't deal with the stress of counting points on top of everything else.

I think I finally managed to get through to the LYM about a few things too...at least I hope I did, and he's not chalking it up to bar related hysteria. Probably my level of anxiety is contributing to my inaiblity to cope with it, but the concerns and worries are still there.

Now I must get back to second half of what I hope and pray will be the last practice exam I will ever take. Please god, let this be the last one...the idea of having to go through this again is really and truly the most horrifying thing I can conceive of right now.

Arrggg!!!

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 15:22:01 GMT

Bar exam is 2 weeks from Tuesday.

Sob.

I just have to keep telling myself that this is not the time to start questioning things, just keep my head down and study.

Need a fashion opinion

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 15:06:47 GMT

I'm getting new glasses tomorrow...are transitions lenses dorky? They seem to work better than they once did, and have to be less dorky than those clip on sunglasses things...

Give me another year out here and someone is going to nominate for What Not to Wear...

Am I nuts?

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:41:02 GMT

Or is it too much to ask that a course for while I paid in excess in $2500 would be able to get their sh*t together well enough that the class would be in a large enough room with functioning power outlets and AV equipment, and would not require us to change rooms 4 times? Please. Don't even get me started on the total lack of parking, flaky "course proctors" (who just have to push a button on a DVD player) or the inconsiderate morons who show up 20 minutes late for *every singe lecture,* including the practice exam.

Maybe I'm totally unreasonable but these seem like things they should be able to work out.

It hardly helps that today is probably their biggest organizational disaster to date, and I'm in pain because of killer Japan wood floor training over the weekend. At least most of the bruises are covered with cloths, that always helps avoid difficult questions. I'm feeling pretty good about the whole aikido thing though. After all the crap I got a couple weeks ago, two (!!) of my instructors finally told me I was making good progress. I'm starting to think I might survive this trip after all!

Book meme

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:11:08 GMT

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed. Well let's see.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've only read 6 and force books upon them ;-)

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - J.K. Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. The Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll (in German too)
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. The Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - A.S. Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web - E.B. White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery (in German too)
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Ick for peat bog fires

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:15:20 GMT

I live in a swamp. Some nearby swamp has been on fire for awhile now, filling the air in my part of the swamp with thick, nasty smoke whenever the wind shifts. For some reason I am having extreme difficulty with the fact that when it rains, the smoke is worse. Does that confuse anyone else?

I wish it would just dump buckets so the the smoldering peat would go out, that would be nice. I'm tired of smelling like peat bog smoke.

Nothing much else to report...they've got me doing break-falls on wood gym floors to get ready for Japan (where we don't get the benefit of tatami mats while being tossed about). There's an odd similarity between that part of my training and the bar prep stuff...I may be getting beat all to hell but the only way out at this point is through, so I shake it off as best I can, apply some arnica, and keep going.

Yay for faire!

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 19:18:04 GMT

Last weekend the LYM and I did make it out to the VA Faire last Sunday, even though it was 100 degrees out with a heat index somewhere upwards of 110. At least there was a bit of a breeze going, it wasn't as bad as it was on Saturday. It's not a large faire, and the heat had knocked a lot of people out the day before, but we had a good time. He actually liked it! He was huzzahing and everything, and even asking if they needed singers by the end of the day! I was amazed. I think it helped though that everywhere we went people were stopping us to tell us how good we looked. It turned out that they had a little costume contest, which we ended up winning (not saying much though, there were only 2 other entrants and they were in Victorian corsets).

Anyway, here we are in our middle class attire. The LYM's turned out pretty well, except for the shoes. I need to make him a better shirt and shorten the doublet sleeves, but I'm otherwise happy with the doublet. My over-gown needs some boning down the front, and I've decided to do hand-bound eyelets down the back of the kirtel rather than lacing it up with sewn in bars. It was pretty difficult to get it closed up all the way with the bars, which is why the front of the overgown is a less than smooth.

Now I must get back to the never ending studying. Thank god we don't have lecture on Monday, I might be able to get mostly caught up!

Just needed a break

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:16:55 GMT

A friend kidnapped me and dragged me out for cocktails, dinner and Sex in the City last night. That was just what I needed. Taking a break while at home is one thing, but actually leaving the house, paying some attention to my appearance, and not having books anywhere in my line of sight really helped.

Now I've just got to get through a morning of miserably inadequate Wills and Trusts lecture, then I'm off to DC for a couple of days of rest and hopefully Faire with the LYM. Yay!

EEeeeee

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 12:54:47 GMT

Freaking out a little today...way behind on bar stuff, have an essay to turn in tomorrow, and just found out I have to do a jujitsu demonstration in Japan. WTF? I don't know any jujitsu. gah.

Course...I think jujitsu sounds less painful than the bar exam at this point...

Would probably be ok stressing but the LYM is on a business trip so reassuring pats and hugs are off the table till Friday.

Doublet update

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 15:25:34 GMT

It worked! The shortening and taking in was a smashing success. I think if I do this again I will be including some interlining of some kind, wool lined with linen is comfy but lacks structure, which I think is needed for a more refined fit on a body not wearing stays. Doing middle class, I think the softer fit is fine, but next time I'm going to have to hunt down some linen interlining. I even managed to make a new set of sleeves. I haven't trimmed them, but they look pretty good plain (and it's class-appropriate) and a million times better than the other set. I can always add the trim later.

The only thing we are missing now is shoes. My old faire shoes got all moldy in my damp SF closet so they never made the move out here. I've not found anything cheap for the LYM either, so we're going to have to wing it (and you can guess how much that bothers me). He's got a pair of black lace-ups that will at least not stick out too much, and I have a pair of clogs that will, again, not stick out too much, so that's ok for now. What I really want are these shoes but I failed to order them when they were in stock, and I think it's going to painful to get the LYM to put them on his feet (he fussed because there's a neck ruff on his undershirt, he thinks it's "not manly").

Now I must get back to learning Virginia civil procedure. Ooof. It seems like it will never end.

Oooof

Wed, 28 May 2008 12:55:11 GMT

8-year olds can really pack a punch...my aikido instructor had me teaching a bunch of them forward rolls last night and as their "reward" for making some progress they all to punch me in the stomach for 15 minutes. I have a bruise. It was a good break from the bar studying though, we're on civil procedure, which in the universe of mind-numbingly boring things is the most mind-numbing of them all. Getting beat up by a ravening hoard of tiny people is a welcome respit.

Hopefully this weekend I can take a day and sew. I need to finish the hem on my over gown and make new sleeves for the LYM's doublet. There's something about the fit and length that's really annoying me. The proportions seem off. I think I can fix it if I shorten the skirting. He's not a tall man, but mostly because he has kind of short legs, and I made no alternations to the skirting pattern (using Margot Anderson), the end result of which is that the doublet makes his torso look freakishly elongated. I think I can take the skirting off, shorten in, and pull in the back a little bit where it's too loose for my tastes, and get it all back together again without too much trouble.I'm a little worried about the finished buttonholes in the front, but I should be able to work with that. It will annoy me less if I fix it anyway.

Happy fun-time bar review

Sat, 24 May 2008 00:45:13 GMT

Bar review got officially underway yesterday and I am already exhausted. I expect to also be overwhelmed and behind by Monday...but that's to be expected, so I am told. So far, I think I'm actually in pretty decent shape, as far as I can tell I started off with a passing score on the multi-state diagnostic test so any improvements I can make in that area with help to off-set my weaknesses with the essay part of the exam.

It's weird though, the number of people who are sitting in lecture shopping for bridesmaids dresses, writing thank you notes, and (inexplicably) reading passages from Genesis instead of taking notes and paying attention to the lecture. It makes me mad actually, I mean, I'm sitting there trying to focus and these people are so brilliant they don't feel a need to pay attention? Please.

Nothing much else going on...I've finished our costumes for Ren Faire, except for the hem on my over dress. I'm pretty happy with how everything turned out, but I'm tempted to make new sleeves to go with the LYM's doublet. I'm not super thrilled with how my old gray ones look now that I have the whole outfit put together. Pictures will be up soon.

In the meantime, here's me just before graduation: