social calendar is getting busy
On Friday night it was great to wear my lobster bustle to chastangela's and to catch up with last_chael , cyan_witch , faerie_mistress and more. I didn't manage to steam up my bustle, so I wore it with a mid-calf denim skirt, and my brown boots. Those boots start to pinch my toes after a while :-/ so I should see if I can get them stretched.
I finished the bustle pad from the burda pattern, and did NOT wear it. It looked like I'd stuck a box on my arse, and not in a good way!!!
Wearing it the polonaise looked all wrong, and the waist tabs looked odd. Possibly would look better if it went under a petticoat, instead of on top of my late 20th century skirt. So before I toss it, I'll pad stitch it to make it denser/thinner, plus make the petticoat & skirt I plan to wear with the lobster.
I even put something in the oven to take with me (yes I should have made sure you were seated). Either the stoopid oven wouldn't heat up enough, or the instructions were dodgy (from an internet recipe website so possible) but it took 30 minutes!!!! not 15 for the pastry pinwheels to turn puffy & golden. I'm going to experiment some more, and will probably victimise the stitch & bitch group next Sunday.
What I did get all excited about and decide that I need to try until I get it right is an 18th century cream apple pie recipe. :drools: It's in my Delia Smith cookbook, so it should be a matter of fine tuning the timing/heat in my oven. Aforesaid stoopid oven does seem to run slow or cold, but Friday's effort was much slower than usual. If I can get the apple pie right I'm taking it to the picnic at the end of the month.
Saturday, umm I woke up 40 minutes before my haircut appointment. :ugh: I made it, just. Just a trim n tidy up of the fringe. The rest of the day was spent mostly resting and then going to CrazyCatLady's for bbq dinner and to see her photos of blighty. I'm dead impressed that she tooks so many, and it was great to see some familiar sights & places along with a whole raft of new ones. Her postcard to me still hasn't turned up, and it was of a saque robe in the museum in Bath. NOT FAIR. I so want that postcard :sulks some more:
When I got home, the peeps living above/behind one of the shops on Oxford St were partying, and by 2am I finally found my last set of earplugs. I couldn't figure out which shop they were above so that I could pound on their door at 7am on Sunday morning. I realllly wanted to. Cos they'd have a bell that I could lean on & then they'd have to walk down all the stairs to street level heh heh. I don't care why they'd kept me awake, just wanted it to stop. Even with the earplugs that silenced the noise, I was still disturbed by their drunken cheering at 2.30am. WTF. How loud must they have been.
Sunday found me stumbling from my bed in a zombie state (again) mid-morning and I shuffled around while not one but two coffees filtered through the body. Continued reading Richard E. Grant's Wah Wah Diaries while I waited for last_chael & Matt at central to go wig shopping at Paddy's Market. It was great to catch up, and be an idiot. I found a nylon braid hat *perfect* to use as a base for a regency bonnet. It'll have to be covered in fabric, but it (1) fit, (2) was the perfect shape, (3) cost $3 and did I mention it fit!! Anyway at one point I'd forgotten I'd put it on my head while fossicking in my bag for my water bottle. It wasn't until I saw a couple of would be Paris Hiltons stare at me in horror that I remembered the hat :snicker: so as well as 1>3 above it's (4) supercomfortable. last_chael found an ideal wig ... thank goodness given it was the only day she had to go shopping, and overseas prices are now so radically higher thanks to the exchange rate. It doubles the shipping as well as the goods.
By the time I got home around 5.30 I was ready for a nanna nap but couldn't drift off. So I finished R.E.G's book, which was delightful, horrifying (the utterly incompetent yet supremely egotistical french producer) and so readable. I'm going to have to hunt down his other books.
Then cos I couldn't be bothered watching anything on TV, I kept on reading and finished Double Whammy by Carl Hiaasen. I enjoyed it enough to potentially have another author's back catalogue to stripmine. When you read multiple books in a month, you need multiple good authors. Most of mine don't write enough. Or the other way to view it is that I don't have enough good writers on my list. So this weekend I can add 2 more to the list.
I finished the bustle pad from the burda pattern, and did NOT wear it. It looked like I'd stuck a box on my arse, and not in a good way!!!
Wearing it the polonaise looked all wrong, and the waist tabs looked odd. Possibly would look better if it went under a petticoat, instead of on top of my late 20th century skirt. So before I toss it, I'll pad stitch it to make it denser/thinner, plus make the petticoat & skirt I plan to wear with the lobster.
I even put something in the oven to take with me (yes I should have made sure you were seated). Either the stoopid oven wouldn't heat up enough, or the instructions were dodgy (from an internet recipe website so possible) but it took 30 minutes!!!! not 15 for the pastry pinwheels to turn puffy & golden. I'm going to experiment some more, and will probably victimise the stitch & bitch group next Sunday.
What I did get all excited about and decide that I need to try until I get it right is an 18th century cream apple pie recipe. :drools: It's in my Delia Smith cookbook, so it should be a matter of fine tuning the timing/heat in my oven. Aforesaid stoopid oven does seem to run slow or cold, but Friday's effort was much slower than usual. If I can get the apple pie right I'm taking it to the picnic at the end of the month.
Saturday, umm I woke up 40 minutes before my haircut appointment. :ugh: I made it, just. Just a trim n tidy up of the fringe. The rest of the day was spent mostly resting and then going to CrazyCatLady's for bbq dinner and to see her photos of blighty. I'm dead impressed that she tooks so many, and it was great to see some familiar sights & places along with a whole raft of new ones. Her postcard to me still hasn't turned up, and it was of a saque robe in the museum in Bath. NOT FAIR. I so want that postcard :sulks some more:
When I got home, the peeps living above/behind one of the shops on Oxford St were partying, and by 2am I finally found my last set of earplugs. I couldn't figure out which shop they were above so that I could pound on their door at 7am on Sunday morning. I realllly wanted to. Cos they'd have a bell that I could lean on & then they'd have to walk down all the stairs to street level heh heh. I don't care why they'd kept me awake, just wanted it to stop. Even with the earplugs that silenced the noise, I was still disturbed by their drunken cheering at 2.30am. WTF. How loud must they have been.
Sunday found me stumbling from my bed in a zombie state (again) mid-morning and I shuffled around while not one but two coffees filtered through the body. Continued reading Richard E. Grant's Wah Wah Diaries while I waited for last_chael & Matt at central to go wig shopping at Paddy's Market. It was great to catch up, and be an idiot. I found a nylon braid hat *perfect* to use as a base for a regency bonnet. It'll have to be covered in fabric, but it (1) fit, (2) was the perfect shape, (3) cost $3 and did I mention it fit!! Anyway at one point I'd forgotten I'd put it on my head while fossicking in my bag for my water bottle. It wasn't until I saw a couple of would be Paris Hiltons stare at me in horror that I remembered the hat :snicker: so as well as 1>3 above it's (4) supercomfortable. last_chael found an ideal wig ... thank goodness given it was the only day she had to go shopping, and overseas prices are now so radically higher thanks to the exchange rate. It doubles the shipping as well as the goods.
By the time I got home around 5.30 I was ready for a nanna nap but couldn't drift off. So I finished R.E.G's book, which was delightful, horrifying (the utterly incompetent yet supremely egotistical french producer) and so readable. I'm going to have to hunt down his other books.
Then cos I couldn't be bothered watching anything on TV, I kept on reading and finished Double Whammy by Carl Hiaasen. I enjoyed it enough to potentially have another author's back catalogue to stripmine. When you read multiple books in a month, you need multiple good authors. Most of mine don't write enough. Or the other way to view it is that I don't have enough good writers on my list. So this weekend I can add 2 more to the list.