totchipanda

Monday I HAD to do laundry, and I said I would sew in between. Well, my sewing space said absolutely not. The machine did not like the quilt, and when I reset, it ran out of thread. Ok fine. I'll switch to Jenny the Janome and try the walking foot. But she already has the buttonholer attached and I do need to do that... fiiiiine, I'll start with buttonholes. Nope, the attachment wouldn't open, I had to flip the entire thing upside down in my lap to change it out. Wound a bobbin for that machine and then decided to listen to the universe and instead rotted on the couch.

Tuesday I had therapy, an hour in which to make and eat dinner, and then dance class. We talked about why I was avoiding creating my journal pages, so my homework that day was to make one page. So when I got home, I drew out my monthly calendar page (very imperfectly, with no ruler) and stuck the day stickers down.

Yesterday I was awake from 4-6 am. I grocery shopped on my way home, where I picked up something to eat for dinner, which turned out to be a smart idea because I was knackered. About 8:30 I was like "I could nap here..." so instead I went to bed, where I was awake approx one more hour before deciding to sleep. If I woke up, then I woke up. I did wake up, coming to wakefulness just enough to know I was awake, and went right back to sleep. Including those moments, I slept for about 9.5 hours. I clearly needed it.

Today I must make dinner so that I have leftovers for lunch. Then we'll see about those buttonholes.

Long weekend ('tis Thanksgiving) and it's forecast to be cold, with solid precipitation expected starting Friday night. Thank goodness my plan is to stay home! So here is your regular "long weekend coming up, bring on the cozy!" plans.

Sewing

• Buttonholes + buttons
  
• Quilt
  
• Mariner top with bug print (this is the one I cut willy-nilly)
  
• Linen Make Do & Mend Overalls (do I want pants or a skirt? Top front needs to be cut and fitted)
  
• Maybe start my Princess jacket?
  
• Definitely start the Princess dress
  
• Print the Ninon bodice so I can start the mock up

Knitting

• Finish my Fade shawl
  
• Start working on the Granny cardigan
  
• Start the shawlette
  
• Wind up some yarns so I can work on some other small projects
  
• Like a hat...
  
• and mitts...
  
• and the Ziggy shawl which is nearly complete.

Other

• Work on my journal
  
• Make foods!
  
• Bake! I bought chocolate chips specifically to bake!
  
• Some housework
  
• Dye my hair and shave the long bits
  
• Clean and refill my fountain pens

Monday will be tea and dinner at my aunt's house, aka kitten-free knitting time. I will endeavour to work on Ziggy there as I need to remove a few rows of stitching first. Best not have "help" for that.

Therapy thoughts: ( Read more... )

Picked up my book on Friday, and my notebooks which had arrived and Canada Post made me pick them up. THEYRE SO BEAUTIFUL. I got Bewitched and Homespun (through a Canadian supplier). They each came in a sleeved box, wrapped in paper. Gorgeous. No idea what I will use them for yet as yet, but AUGH SO PRETTY.

Saturday I finally sewed my dress hem as it was the only thing left to do on it. I did consider just... Not, but come on self, it's A HEM. Then I could take the black thread off the machine and never think about it again! So I did it. Then I printed out, taped together, trimmed the pattern, and cut the fabric for the shirt. I even started sewing it that night, but I reached a point where I need to press things and I'd already unplugged the iron. Plus it was getting on to be 10pm, so I packed it in for the night.

Sunday morning I sewed and ironed until I needed to leave for the show. I stabbed myself REALLY good across the top of one finger, which amazingly did not bleed. I have to stitch on the collar facing, add cuffs, and put on buttons/buttonholes and it will be complete. We saw & Juliet, which was PHENOMENAL. ( Spoilers! ) It was so good. Easily one of my top 10 favourite shows. After, we went to the poutine place down the street and had a dill-icious special, dill ranch and dill pickles and dill, which was also phenomenal. Later in the evening I scooped the cat box.

Yesterday I got my prize so that's being considered seriously again. I was VERY lazy yesterday and took a nap and otherwise rotted on the couch with my youtube shows and a bit of true crime. Tonight I must cook the hamburger before dance class, and tomorrow I have committed to a friend's house for sewing time. I wanted to have something impressive to work on, by which I mean a large pattern with no cats around to "help" with any part of it lol. We'll see. I have the list of pieces needed for a coat, but I have put the last bit of paper into my printer and will need to buy a new pack instead of liberating an old one from the print shop. And in that case, do I just spring for the $$ to have it printed A0? Choices. Maybe I will just print my patterns and tape them together there. I don't know.

In other news, my coworker and I started talking quilts yesterday. She bought a cute halloween-themed cat panel yesterday, so I showed her the one I liked so much a couple years ago, and then she sent me a different one that is so pretty and y'all, I feel the quilting bug coming on. Perhaps that will be my winter project.

Weekend was the expo, so I didn't plan anything besides "survive". My friend developed a UTI that peaked on Friday. Her booth friends across the aisle took her for anti-biotics and we told her to stay the fuck home on Saturday. She was much improved Saturday afternoon/evening and joined us on Sunday. Decent weekend for sales, I suppose, if not as much as we hoped for. Our OG Booth Babe K noted that we didn't have a lot of table sales that add up quickly. Sold a TON of crowns, quite a few kimono (really haori, but the general populace doesn't know the specifics), a number of notebooks, and enough stays to keep us busy.

Hotpot dinner on Saturday, my first time there and not my favourite just because I didn't know what to expect. Yesterday joined up with my usual Sunday crew after the show for noms.

Very tired today. I have SO much to do at home, but we'll see how I feel. So sleepy right now, which will almost certainly change by the time I get home.

Things to do this week:
- dishes
- order a vacuum filter and vacuum
- bathroom clean
- grocery shopping
- shower
- laundry
- start makin' progress on autumn sewing

Knit City is in Calgary this upcoming weekend and I am debating going. I can only go one day as I have a show on Sunday. There's another local market mid-October, but the vendors I most want to see won't be there. Plus, I can visit my friends! It'll be kind of expensive though so... we'll see.

Friday night hangout with Trick: made another week layout in my journal.
Saturday: mostly rotting and playing phone games. Made an effort to feed myself food all day. Washed some dishes.
Sunday: Gave up on trying to be productive and entered Waiting Mode for like, three hours. Went to McDonald's for lunch, picked up some groceries, enjoyed my hour at the thrift store and meeting the pretty girl whose birthday we were celebrating. Rotted at home.
Monday: NOT TODAY, ROTTING, said I. I had a Rita blouse cut out so I sewed it, start to finish. Ate two meals, but the third was not it. Rotted through the evening, then read a book (it was 189 pgs, double spaced, interspersed with artwork, and double-sided "chapter" pages. Took less than an hour.)

Spent too much of the weekend rotting, imo. I tried on a dress I made and hemmed the sleeves, but the skirt needs a lot of work. I need to get the dress form out as its hard to do it on myself. The skirt is VERY FULL so I laid it on the floor to attempt connecting some of the lines I'd made, but Calcifer of course thought this was the BEST THING EVER and played on and with the fabric, even biting it and shaking her head a little. Ok little girl, that's enough lol.

Dance teacher cancelled our appearance at the event this weekend as she is injured and wanted to rest up more before class starts in 2 weeks. A-OK with me, actually lol. Still have the other plans in place.

For whatever reason, I decided to look at laptops on Saturday (someone mentioned Labour Day/Back to School sale? I forget) and immediately had one jump out at me. It was one step up from a basic model, nothing fancy, and on sale for $400. I have been complaining about my old off-leave corporate laptop which was already a few years old when I got it at the end of 2017 forEVER. It's so slow and it takes so long to do anything. When I looked last month, I expected to be paying around $600-700 for a slightly nicer unfancy model. So $250 off to bring it down to $400? I can do that. Still awaiting shipping confirmation. I thought about printing some patterns on Monday, but have decided to wait until the new one arrives. Or until I can stomach the idea of waiting forever for it to load. I will need to move a few things off of it anyway, so that's going to be A Project (tm)

I also put a couple rows into a knitting project while Calcifer napped on me! It wasn't terribly comfortable bc I was trying to keep it off of her in hopes that she wouldn't wake up. There is hope! I have no plans for what I'm looking for at the festival this weekend since I have so much stash and very limited time to focus on it. Maybe some day soon. Autumn is coming and I am thrilled. Bring on the cozy knitwear!

Back in 2013 (end of May? I apparently didn't post about it at all) I opened a door over top of my foot and ripped my toenail quite badly. The doctor looked at it and said hmm, I might have to pull it, but we'll wait and see. It did not need to be pulled and it was MONTHS in growing out, but it was fine. It's been fine ever since. The corner that ripped can be trimmed back quite a bit further than necessary, so I've been careful ever since to not do that. I was looking at my feet on Saturday and noticed that that edge has gotten thick and wavy all of a sudden, and I have no idea why. It's a little sensitive to push on, but not bad at all. Maybe the shoes I bought last month and have been wearing off and on? But why now? It's so weird. I really hope it doesn't fall off :O

What do you mean its been 11 days since I last posted? What is time??

Medieval faire was good, well-attended and there seemed to be enough entertainment. Rearrangement of things from last year, an attempt at line control, and more vendors, but some shenanigans from the organizer about what my friend was allowed to sell and how much space she was allowed to sell it in. When we checked the sales report for the weekend on Sunday afternoon, she had made as much as she had on Saturday alone of last year. Still a good weekend, but we could have done so much more. There were times when we just couldn't get anyone else in the tent, never mind fitting anything they could wear and buy on them.

I did dress up, wearing one of her stays under my dress/jacket, and petticoats from years past. Even a bum pad on dress-day. It was really warm, high 20s and low 30s (IDK, 80 something in freedom units), and I was sweating, but everyone was hot so I don't think I was any more or less hot than most. I wrapped my hair in a B&T hankie because my head looked tiny without something on it, but it was a blessing the next day. I'd taken a shower and washed my hair on the first night, and wrapping my hair protected it from being blasted with dust all day. My face was gritty and I had a big dirt mark just above my boots on both legs, but my hair was still clean (if damp). Got photos of the dress at the end of the first day but only one terrible narrow mirror selfie on the second.

Another faire this weekend, hosted by a different group and super close to home. Google says its 24 minutes away. So I'll go again lol. I like being paid to go. Not sure about costumes again, I need to wash everything before I wear it again. (although, for the most part, I aired them out before putting them into luggage. Body linens need washing before next wear, but the dresses etc ought to be ok.)

Inspection went well, even though I didn't clean as much as I (or my landlord) would have liked. My notes were about the water damage (that they were supposed to fix last year) and more diligent cleaning practices. Yeah, ok, I'll take that note. I spent literally 20 minutes vacuuming the space back to front and tossed the filter when I was done. It was still the original one I got it with (mumble) years ago, it was WELL past its useful date. I keep thinking I should vacuum again just to keep it down, but not until I replace the filter!

Thinking about sewing is the same as sewing riiiiight? I have so few (i think) work-appropriate tops, it is time for MORE MORE MORE! I object to paying $30-60 for the boring things that are in stores atm, so I better get to sewing.

Holy smokes, it's been a hot minute lol.

Last day downtown, I decided to do my phone upgrade (which I needed to do on or before July 13 or else they would charge me $400). He didn't have any phones on site (downtown dying mall with a larger than usual population of people with no money and maybe desire to take an easy target) but he COULD get the purple one I truly wanted and have it in the next day. Um. No go, I was out of town all day. OK, come back Monday. Um, also no go, I no longer work downtown as of 430 pm. Not well planned on my part, I was without my phone until about 530 on monday. We used to do this all the time! Having supercomputers in our pockets is such a recent invention!

Drinks with the work crew after work went well. We split up to go home, where I was caught in the WICKED storm that brewed up. Dry when I got off the train, not even 20m later (um 70 feet?) I was DRENCHED, the rain was coming down so hard.

Saturday I popped out with my friend to a nearby city to help our mutual friend with her booth. It was SO BUSY, i barely left my 40 sq ft for 6 hours solid. Good day though, it felt good. We got home around 7, where i ordered food (couldn't do it on the way, bc no phone) and then had to run out to get M so we could pick up her mum at the airport.

SUnday I stayed home so that I wouldn't be wrecked for my first day. I did go grocery shopping and i picked up something for dinner that night and two pre-made salad bags to have for lunch so that I didn't worry about making sure I had leftovers or something. New job is in an industrial area with basically no nearby lunch options so. It was a thing.

First week went really well! I learned so much. They had a temp for the past 6 weeks but she was only going to be with me for that first week and then I was on my own! (With support, just not direct support.) New Boss took the Monday off (unplanned) so I spent a bit of time with him on Tuesday just going over some of the new hire stuff. He offered to take me out for lunch on Wednesday to welcome me to the team. Sure! We had delicious Vietnamese. Friday the company had a BBQ lunch out of the shop as it was WAY too hot to be hanging out outside. It was really good!

Mid-week I discovered a gigantic spider had made its home in my kitchen sink. I named it Marcello and on Friday I decided I needed to vacuum him up. Sorry Marcello. Maybe we could have cohabitated if you hadn't decided my sink was the best place ever.

Saturday was again WAY TOO HOT and it culminated in a WICKED thunderstorm that lasted, no joke, 2 hours. I spent time at a friend's place and took home a bunch of her fabric stash, including a length of polished cotton that she handed directly to me as someone who would understand what an incredible fabric it was.

Sunday we went to see Clue, which was basically a live action version of the movie, and it was hilarious. The butler's physical comedy was amazing, I had tears in my eyes. We went back to pick up Mama M for dinner, and we were able to miss the crowd from the world cup series finale, so by the time we got there, the restaurant was empty.

This week has so far been really good. Yesterday morning was really rough as I had anxiety dreams (about my grampa, the one who died in 2015, dropping dead in front of me) most likely about my second solo day and also therapy at 5pm. People also asked me questions that I didn't know the answers to, which was frustrating. Today, they had an ice cream truck come by and everyone got an ice cream!

After ice cream, I realized, when my boss left at the eminently reasonable time of 3pm, that my boss leaves at a reasonable time. He doesn't stay for 10 or 12 or more hours and make a fuss about how faaaaar behind he is. OMG its a Christmas in July miracle. I know it will be weeks while my body regulates itself after three years of hell.

Monday, M and her mum and I went to IKEA where I had a budget and didn't even spend a fifth of it (Look at this cute cat container! It definitely came home with me). Tuesday's therapy went well. I have some things I am thinking about for next time. Tonight I did a few chores and ate a shit dinner of potato chips and journaled a bit and wrote this haha. Tomorrow we are going to the fair, and on Saturday Mama M is going home, plus I have a birthday party to attend. Next week, M and I have a theatre show on Wednesday and a movie screening of Hadestown on Friday. I am a busy gal!

I also decided to start working on my playsuit. I have the skirt mostly done, and it is so stinkin' cute, I can't even!! Just three gathered panels, but the fullness is really lovely and I'm really happy I used a contrasting fabric to use as the pocket lining. I need buttons to put on it, and no brains to really dedicate to finding them right now. I don't know what I want. What would you put on a deep petrol blue background with dark coral crabs all over it?

I should get my first paycheque this week, plus the last one from the previous job. I decided that whatever the difference between them was, I was going to take 25% of it and spend it on absolutely nothing I needed. Last night, I decided that I was going to buy purple fountain pen ink.

Oh, and my job? I am BUSY. I spend a large portion of my day preparing invoices for various stages of the billing cycle. I will soon be responsible for charging some accounts to their credit cards, and depositing cheques, and then adding these payments into the system for AR to deal with. I am LOVING IT. I have had some down time the past couple days, but I have been spending that preparing paint samples that are kept in a meeting room for customers to peruse and take with them. I am LOVING IT. I am finally out <3 Proud of me!

Last night's anxiety dream was me having gone to a convention, where I was adjacent-rooming with danabren, and somehow between us we had 19 MILLION items worth of stuff that we then had to get out of the hotel rooms and into a hatchback. We managed to recruit my dad and my sisters and some random people, and it still took way more time, womanpower, and vehicle space than we had. I left behind two large bags of stuffed animals (they are my emotional support stuffed animals and travel with me everywhere tyvm) and we had to go back to get them, and surprise! Still more things to pack up and remove. Why did I need to travel with a full household of stuff? I don't know. We still weren't done when I woke up.

I'm glad I removed a bunch of my things already from work. I brought a bag today and collected the random things that I had left. A bit more than I expected, actually. Still, tomorrow I should have next to nothing to bring home. I think I'll take my mug home tonight too and just use what's on site.

Helping Nicole at the medieval faire on Saturday, maybe Sunday. I don't want to start Monday exhausted. I have to do laundry, trade in my phone, pick up M's mum from the airport, grocery shopping, and who knows what else before Monday. Groceries are not terribly important, I will more likely do them during the week since the store is on my way home.

Update since I wrote the above, I knew that one of my bill payments was going to be declined, but I didn't know which one. I just checked my account and now I do (and it was the one I was hoping wouldn't be declined, damnit). Ah well, next month's payment will be $$$. But I can do laundry tonight, which will help a lot towards making me feel calmer.

Just a lot of hurry up and wait right now. It's coming up fast!!

(including today, which is already 25% done) until I walk out of here without my tags and never come back :O

I've been having pretty vivid dreams all last week and into this week about things that I'm sure are related to work. Some of them have been about work, others are just more of a vibe. Lots of feelings. It still feels kinda surreal.

I hemmed K's dress on Monday and on Saturday I put buttonholes and buttons on. I used my machine for the buttons for the FIRST TIME EVER and even dug out my safety glasses just in case the needle broke and went flying. The very last button got weird, because of course it would, and I think it was because there was a loop in the bobbin thread. I rewound it down to that point and it behaved better. I added two extra buttons to the inside of the facing and the bobbin got weird again, but eventually I got them on. Then I buttoned it and admired it on a hanger for a couple of hours before packing it into the box and doing an estimate on shipping.

Yesterday, M and I went to the zoo because the Arctic wolves had puppies a couple months ago and we wanted to see them! We saw other critters too of course, but we needed to wait over half an hour at the wolf enclosure to spy one of the pups on top of some rocks at the very back. So stinkin' cute! It was a good day.

Tomorrow, a box set I've been admiring for a couple of years is coming back in stock for a limited run and I'm so hoping to be able to snag it.

I did not prepare a "this weekend I want to..." because my weekend was way too busy. Saturday I woke up early, went back to sleep and got up finally around 11. At 12:58 I left my house to walk to my friend's house because she had invited me and a couple other people over for tea. That was lovely. Then I went home to pee and get a water bottle, and then tootled across the city to pick up my sibling for grocery shopping. Got home at 6:30, where I was ensconced on the couch fighting not to nap because M was flying back in, and her flight left early even. She ended up landing before I left the house. Whoops! FINALLY back home at 10:30 where I went to bed.

Woke up at 10am on Sunday. Got up at 11-something and mostly spent the day with the cats on the couch. I played in my journals for a bit and took a nap. I had lots of yummy food in the fridge, but by the time I was making dinner, I was too hungry to spend any time making anything when I couldn't decide what I wanted. I boiled pasta and that was it. Stayed up too late and was fighting for my life when I woke up after having weird dreams about living a real life video game where I was casually trying to get my celebrity crush to acknowledge me while simultaneously making friends with his wife.

Tonight I must do cat things! Their water fountain requires maintenance and I have to scoop their box. Dinner must be made. Anything else is a bonus.

My week off was very chill, sometimes literally lol. It stormed on Friday evening, which I was home for but M was not. She was caught in it on the way home, which we both said "whatever, home now, who cares if you look like a drowned rat".

May 30: Spent the day sewing K's dress. I did it a slow pace, and was delighted to find that I had some pale yellow serger thread in the box that blends in perfectly. I ran out of machine thread though, so I used some serger thread just to keep going. Terrible shit though, I got through most of the bodice before it started not catching stitches. So now my top thread is a darker, obvious tan while the bottom is a paler tan that blends in better. I still need to pick up more of the paler stuff, but as I only just ordered sleeve fabric this week, it can wait. Later I picked up M from her work and we tootled off to see The Mandalorian and Grogu with our friends. It was delightful, more like a 2 hour TV show than anything. I told my dad that I thought with the CG work required, they could recoup their investment better with a movie. I tell you want, I did not have a swole Hutt on my bingo list this year. I can't XD

May 31: finally did my last week of May in the journal, on the last DAY of May. Oh well, it was done, that's what was important. It started raining later in the day, and we had a weather warning for increased rainfall.

Rest of the week: Blur! On Monday I got TWO packages, some delightful oranges-and-blossoms-on-mauve rayon jersey by way of K, because she knew what she wanted to make with the fabric but the store, which is semi-local to me, does not ship to the US. So she bought out the yardage and half was for me hehe. The other package was my July stickers. IN the evening, I went out (in the rain) to help dad with his van. He thought the battery was dead, but with a new battery it still didn't start. (Wednesday he had it towed, and it was discovered that there was water in the cylinders. Farewell new old van, we hardly knew ye'.)

I cut the fabric yardage in half and immediately cut out a Society dress. It was sewn over Wednesday and Thursday. Kittens helped, of course. I also had dance class on Tuesday, took M to the airport really early on Wednesday and picked her back up on Thursday afternoon. Thursday I got my other expected package, the Canada Goose Stickers and new journal! (Friends, it is not having to set up my own pages that is the "problem" lol. I am just not a planner kind of person, but I'm still tryin'!) Friday it was raining again and while I got a gov't cheque that day, it was the only day I was able to stay home so I opted not to go out. I printed and taped patterns over Friday and Saturday, where I also donated blood and took my dad grocery shopping. Did some art in the journal to start off June. Sunday morning I also cut out a Sphix top from the rayon jersey, spent the afternoon cuddling with the cats, and finally started sewing it at like 5 pm while watching the Tonys. Finished it COMPLETELY, buttons and hand stitching and all, by 930 INCLUDING stopping for an hour to wash dishes and make dinner.

Of course was awake 2-4 am overnight, so I came back to work super tired but in my niiiice new shirt. One of my coworkers is leaving us next week, he is going to a new site that our company is already operating literally 2 blocks away. Good for him! Apparently it was an utter shit show while I was gone and now I don't know how I feel about my own job search, except that the GOOD jobs are coming up finally, so now what? I applied for two. I think I still need to move on. The situation here is so much better than it was, but I still feel stuck and like nothing is ever going to improve so...

I was so tired when I got home that I napped for close to an hour and a half. Did not eat dinner, and while I did get to sleep at a semi-reasonable time (before 1am) I am still tired.

Dance class tonight. Payday this week. I have two yards left of the jersey and I am expecting the striped fabric maybe by the end of the week. What shall I make with the rest?

Oh yeah, I am also interested in the stays-along this morning and am rapidly running up to "why bother because I won't finish by the end of the month". I tried on my very first iteration of Augusta stays, which are... well. They were started very-early during the pandemic. The front was low enough but the sides aren't high enough. Would definitely need an extra panel or tab or sommat for the waist. I finished these almost to the point of binding and seam covering. I started a second pair that are in two pieces as I was experimenting with the side front panels and put it in the naughty pile well before I moved. I reprinted the pattern while I was off, with the intent of refitting it entirely. I measured a size 44 front (as most of my full chest measurement is frontal) and 36 back. I wanted to cut out at least one mockup just to try sizing to see how it fits at the waist etc before committing to a full sew. And sweet fluffy baby bunnies help me, I want to handsew at least one pair of stays in my life. Wild.