where'd I leave off?
Dec. 3rd, 2008 09:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonlady7Spent yesterday catching up on Internet, sitting on the couch trying to remember what I was doing, and doing half of the massive amount of laundry awaiting me. Also cleaned the kitchen and did lots of dishes, and tidied the living room a great deal, and fixed the window in my bedroom which was leaking cold air not because it sucks (well, it does) but because all this time it had been improperly latched. Hm. I do not win any prizes for being good at observation, but then I never have. At least the thing wasn't *open*, like the window by the desk where Z was working for a while and kept complaining of cold.
He doesn't win either, not at the "notice stuff" game.
Fi is settling in. She has, for a while, been speaking longingly of a day that she is going to spend in bed, doing nothing of purpose and accomplishing nothing. She's been dreaming of such a day for at least three months. At this point, maybe four. A day to sleep off all the jet lags, to stop worrying about all the bullshit, to not deal with any hassles or try to do anything complicated.
We agreed that today would work, so she's in bed, and I'm going to focus on laundry and tidying my room today. Though, since it's supposed to be above freezing for the first and only time in a good while, I think I'm also going to do a bunch of the outdoor chores I should've done when it was still, y'know, autumn. Replacing the screens with their plexiglass storm doors, for example. And getting the mulch on my damn beds. Moving all the potted plants into the porch. That sort of thing. I know it gets below freezing out there so I've got to come up with some better storage for the ones that matters for, but the overwintering ones should be fine. (Basement or attic it will have to be, for the others.)
I also scored a whole pile of old insulated drapes from Dad. They're pretty rad in their ugliness-- mostly reds and yellows, with some swirly green bits. I'm going to use them inside the attic door, I think, so not so much cold air leaks down; also perhaps in temporary fashions on the coldest days as interim curtains for windows in unfinished rooms. Like the kitchen; the big window in the kitchen leaks cold air like a seive, and plasticking it only ever does so much good.
Part of the problem, really, is that the walls themselves are thin and the cold beats straight through them. Two winters ago it got into the below-zero-Fahrenheit range, which it rarely does over here, and it was awful. I dug out old quilts and comforters and stuck little finish nails into door frames and hung binder clips from them to suspend these quilts over the doors, across expanses of the walls, etc. I've considered working on a big tapestry for the north wall of the bedroom and giving it an insulated-batting back just to give that room some more heat retention properties...
It would be kind of a neat project, but in the long run it would be much, much smarter to just get some insulation put in. Maybe they could do the blown-in stuff somehow. Dad gave me a quick-n-dirty list of how I could partially-insulate the attic, to prevent so much heat escaping there-- the floor of the attic is so totally not insulated either, so there's a lot of upward heat loss. When this house was built, you apparently didn't need to insulate anything. I would bet you there's not a shred of insulation beyond plaster and lath in this mother. And not much of that.
If I owned it, maybe I could do these improvements. But I don't. And even if I did, it would be mortgaged. I can't buy it for cheaper than I live in it. That's just all there is to it.
Anyway. Nesting instinct for winter: check! With Fi around to help and give feedback, I'm much more likely to get what I can do, done.
And oh yes, Christmas! My family already had Christmas, on the day after Thanksgiving-- everyone else in the nation's in the mall doing frenzied holiday shopping, and we're already opening presents. This is the first time that the Christmas music on Halloween didn't really seem too early for me. Though I expect it's going to be real confusing once Christmas itself actually comes and I'm expected to be festive. Bzuh?
So, gift report, which is a segue from the previous section because Ann and Zack's gift to me was a lovely hardback book on organic gardening, and I expect Fiona will help me actually achieve some of the goals I set myself in that respect. She's never gardened before, never really cooked (even though she's the only one of us who ever worked professionally as a chef-- restaurant cooking, as many have said before now, bears no resemblance to actually putting food on the table for a family in a consistent, practical, and economical fashion. So she knows how to make a fancy caper sauce, and knows how to make a particular kind of soup, and that's it-- she's not even confident in making boxed macaroni and cheese. Oy. ("Don't you have to turn the temperature down once it boils? And do you cook pasta with the lid on or off?")
It was relatively tame. Having it early means nobody got too wound-up. Mom got us all a few random things-- a magnet that said "tulips" on it, a bar of organic goat soap, and a beautiful ceramic oven-safe pie plate. She also gave me money for my skates, so those are now a gift from her. Yay! And about a year ago, she had each of us pick a pattern for a hand-knit shawl. Katy and I picked the same pattern, though she picked the rectangular version and I the triangular. Mom made ours out of an unplied yarn, which is neat; it also is minimally processed, so it smells a bit like a sheep. I'm inordinately pleased by having a fluffy shawl that smells of sheep. My mother really is an amazing knitter.
I got the aforementioned book on organic gardening-- Let's Get Growing, by Crow Miller. It's a bit over-cheerful, and the tone is odd, but I actually find it quite engaging to read, and Ann and Zack (who both spent this past summer as agricultural laborers on organic farms, and in Ann's case at least have been studying this sort of thing for years) assured me that it had a great deal of good, basic knowledge in an easy-to-look-up format. I'm pleased by the format-- it's a big sturdy lightweight hardback, kind of like a textbook, so I can actually consult it with dirty hands and not wind up ripping the cover straight off. Not that I plan on doing so, but I could.
I also scored a pair of sparkly earrings, which one always needs.
Fiona and Katy collaborated to get me The Bra-Makers Manual, which I have wanted for about 2 years.
It is indeed wonderful, full of technical information about every bust-supporting garment out there. There's a historical overview, there are technical insights into what each little piece of a bra does, there are insights into the areas where women differ most and what most often makes a bra, even a bra in the right size, not fit a particular woman.
The only issue is, of course, that I need to either buy or draft a pattern now (though it is full of all the information you can ask for in terms of grading any pattern you buy to fit you), and, most of all, the big one: my sewing machine is absolutely useless in bra making. I knew this, but now I really know it: every single piece is sewed together with zig-zag stitch. There's nothing I can do without a modern sewing machine.
I will probably hand-sew a few-- I am extremely good at backstitching now (most of Ann's sampler was done in backstitch. Somehow I haven't mastered stem stitch or outline stitch-- it comes out uneven and I can never keep there from being whitespace between stitches. My backstitch, though, is a thing of beauty.
What I want more than anything is a camisole with a built-in bra. I have one that sort-of almost kinda fits. Fi has a whole collection of them, from Gap Body mostly, and they're awesome. She always sleeps in them, or in an old sports bra. I would love such a thing. I'm considering buying some cheapish sports bras in the Christmas-season sales and seeing what I can do. The easiest place to start would be alterations, after all.
Also I'm spying on Bravissimo. I can't afford any of their stuff. I want this and can't have it because there's no way I can afford that. It would be over $50, not even really counting the shipping, and if I got the wrong size and had to send it back, that'd be another $10 in shipping... and if I decided it didn't really work at all, yeah I could get a refund but they don't refund shipping costs of course.
So if I can make myself one for less than goddamn $75 I can count myself ahead of the game. Nobody else is offering such a thing in anything other than S/M/L/XL, and if my little sister, bigger in the chest and smaller in the boobs than me, already finds them a bit disproportionate, I have little hope for myself.
So they have a product photo that shows the bra seams in dotted lines. I may try to draft myself a pattern from those lines. As long as I spend less than $75, right?
OK, this has taken me forever to meander mentally through and post. I left in the middle to go make a big brunch. Fi's "day off" still seems to involve getting dressed and taking care of telephone errands, so I'm feeling a bit lazy by comparison. Though I have done two loads of laundry already. Anyway. Back to work.
He doesn't win either, not at the "notice stuff" game.
Fi is settling in. She has, for a while, been speaking longingly of a day that she is going to spend in bed, doing nothing of purpose and accomplishing nothing. She's been dreaming of such a day for at least three months. At this point, maybe four. A day to sleep off all the jet lags, to stop worrying about all the bullshit, to not deal with any hassles or try to do anything complicated.
We agreed that today would work, so she's in bed, and I'm going to focus on laundry and tidying my room today. Though, since it's supposed to be above freezing for the first and only time in a good while, I think I'm also going to do a bunch of the outdoor chores I should've done when it was still, y'know, autumn. Replacing the screens with their plexiglass storm doors, for example. And getting the mulch on my damn beds. Moving all the potted plants into the porch. That sort of thing. I know it gets below freezing out there so I've got to come up with some better storage for the ones that matters for, but the overwintering ones should be fine. (Basement or attic it will have to be, for the others.)
I also scored a whole pile of old insulated drapes from Dad. They're pretty rad in their ugliness-- mostly reds and yellows, with some swirly green bits. I'm going to use them inside the attic door, I think, so not so much cold air leaks down; also perhaps in temporary fashions on the coldest days as interim curtains for windows in unfinished rooms. Like the kitchen; the big window in the kitchen leaks cold air like a seive, and plasticking it only ever does so much good.
Part of the problem, really, is that the walls themselves are thin and the cold beats straight through them. Two winters ago it got into the below-zero-Fahrenheit range, which it rarely does over here, and it was awful. I dug out old quilts and comforters and stuck little finish nails into door frames and hung binder clips from them to suspend these quilts over the doors, across expanses of the walls, etc. I've considered working on a big tapestry for the north wall of the bedroom and giving it an insulated-batting back just to give that room some more heat retention properties...
It would be kind of a neat project, but in the long run it would be much, much smarter to just get some insulation put in. Maybe they could do the blown-in stuff somehow. Dad gave me a quick-n-dirty list of how I could partially-insulate the attic, to prevent so much heat escaping there-- the floor of the attic is so totally not insulated either, so there's a lot of upward heat loss. When this house was built, you apparently didn't need to insulate anything. I would bet you there's not a shred of insulation beyond plaster and lath in this mother. And not much of that.
If I owned it, maybe I could do these improvements. But I don't. And even if I did, it would be mortgaged. I can't buy it for cheaper than I live in it. That's just all there is to it.
Anyway. Nesting instinct for winter: check! With Fi around to help and give feedback, I'm much more likely to get what I can do, done.
And oh yes, Christmas! My family already had Christmas, on the day after Thanksgiving-- everyone else in the nation's in the mall doing frenzied holiday shopping, and we're already opening presents. This is the first time that the Christmas music on Halloween didn't really seem too early for me. Though I expect it's going to be real confusing once Christmas itself actually comes and I'm expected to be festive. Bzuh?
So, gift report, which is a segue from the previous section because Ann and Zack's gift to me was a lovely hardback book on organic gardening, and I expect Fiona will help me actually achieve some of the goals I set myself in that respect. She's never gardened before, never really cooked (even though she's the only one of us who ever worked professionally as a chef-- restaurant cooking, as many have said before now, bears no resemblance to actually putting food on the table for a family in a consistent, practical, and economical fashion. So she knows how to make a fancy caper sauce, and knows how to make a particular kind of soup, and that's it-- she's not even confident in making boxed macaroni and cheese. Oy. ("Don't you have to turn the temperature down once it boils? And do you cook pasta with the lid on or off?")
It was relatively tame. Having it early means nobody got too wound-up. Mom got us all a few random things-- a magnet that said "tulips" on it, a bar of organic goat soap, and a beautiful ceramic oven-safe pie plate. She also gave me money for my skates, so those are now a gift from her. Yay! And about a year ago, she had each of us pick a pattern for a hand-knit shawl. Katy and I picked the same pattern, though she picked the rectangular version and I the triangular. Mom made ours out of an unplied yarn, which is neat; it also is minimally processed, so it smells a bit like a sheep. I'm inordinately pleased by having a fluffy shawl that smells of sheep. My mother really is an amazing knitter.
I got the aforementioned book on organic gardening-- Let's Get Growing, by Crow Miller. It's a bit over-cheerful, and the tone is odd, but I actually find it quite engaging to read, and Ann and Zack (who both spent this past summer as agricultural laborers on organic farms, and in Ann's case at least have been studying this sort of thing for years) assured me that it had a great deal of good, basic knowledge in an easy-to-look-up format. I'm pleased by the format-- it's a big sturdy lightweight hardback, kind of like a textbook, so I can actually consult it with dirty hands and not wind up ripping the cover straight off. Not that I plan on doing so, but I could.
I also scored a pair of sparkly earrings, which one always needs.
Fiona and Katy collaborated to get me The Bra-Makers Manual, which I have wanted for about 2 years.
It is indeed wonderful, full of technical information about every bust-supporting garment out there. There's a historical overview, there are technical insights into what each little piece of a bra does, there are insights into the areas where women differ most and what most often makes a bra, even a bra in the right size, not fit a particular woman.
The only issue is, of course, that I need to either buy or draft a pattern now (though it is full of all the information you can ask for in terms of grading any pattern you buy to fit you), and, most of all, the big one: my sewing machine is absolutely useless in bra making. I knew this, but now I really know it: every single piece is sewed together with zig-zag stitch. There's nothing I can do without a modern sewing machine.
I will probably hand-sew a few-- I am extremely good at backstitching now (most of Ann's sampler was done in backstitch. Somehow I haven't mastered stem stitch or outline stitch-- it comes out uneven and I can never keep there from being whitespace between stitches. My backstitch, though, is a thing of beauty.
What I want more than anything is a camisole with a built-in bra. I have one that sort-of almost kinda fits. Fi has a whole collection of them, from Gap Body mostly, and they're awesome. She always sleeps in them, or in an old sports bra. I would love such a thing. I'm considering buying some cheapish sports bras in the Christmas-season sales and seeing what I can do. The easiest place to start would be alterations, after all.
Also I'm spying on Bravissimo. I can't afford any of their stuff. I want this and can't have it because there's no way I can afford that. It would be over $50, not even really counting the shipping, and if I got the wrong size and had to send it back, that'd be another $10 in shipping... and if I decided it didn't really work at all, yeah I could get a refund but they don't refund shipping costs of course.
So if I can make myself one for less than goddamn $75 I can count myself ahead of the game. Nobody else is offering such a thing in anything other than S/M/L/XL, and if my little sister, bigger in the chest and smaller in the boobs than me, already finds them a bit disproportionate, I have little hope for myself.
So they have a product photo that shows the bra seams in dotted lines. I may try to draft myself a pattern from those lines. As long as I spend less than $75, right?
OK, this has taken me forever to meander mentally through and post. I left in the middle to go make a big brunch. Fi's "day off" still seems to involve getting dressed and taking care of telephone errands, so I'm feeling a bit lazy by comparison. Though I have done two loads of laundry already. Anyway. Back to work.
