totchipanda: (Default)
I was off work last week for a stay-cation, and it was great. I actually felt rested for coming back to work. I did not plan my time, and I did not go anywhere (thought I might try to go visit some friends 3 hours away, but my budget is too tight to allow for gas money for that kind of trip). I read 2.25 books, handsewed an entire dress, finished up the plaid skirt, and planted my garden (no thanks to the weather; it snowed last Tuesday).

Tudor Summer

I cut out the linen for a smocked hemd, and handsewed an entire underdress from brown wool with linen thread. It is THE most BORING colour EVER but it was a delight to sew. I pulled threads to cut the skirt panels, and it was quite off-grain. Can't really tell now that it's attached to the bodice. I maybe made it too tight, but I was counting on the linen lining and wool stretching with wear. I haven't started the hemd yet, mostly bc I can't decide if I want to handsew it or machine the long bits, and bc I haven't finished the shifts I was sewing last year.

I haven't made a decision about an overdress. I don't think I have enough wool-anything to make one. I have 3m of teal which I want to keep for the PERFECT project, something I will wear lots bc its so beautiful, and 2m of dark olive green which isn't enough for anything substantial (and I was kind of planning to turn it into a teens-era skirt).

But the underdress is done, and it's swishy, and I love it.

Other Sewing

I didn't spend as much time in the sewing room as I could have. Looking back on the week, I'm not sure what I did lol. But I tried the table trick for my plaid skirt (stand next to a table and pin the table level around or just below the hip line, then measure off your skirt length that way), got it all marked properly, and then hemmed it AND set some closures. I thought I might get to shirtwaists, but aside from trying on an old one that I somehow cut too small? I didn't get back to that.

Garden

I lost a bunch of my seedlings since my last update, all of the pumpkins and 4 of the 6 zucchinis. The basil didn't come back after being replanted, and the catnip got sprinkled into one of the planters where it seems to be doing ok? I have some mint-looking sprouts coming up. Nearly all, if not all, of the peppers are doing great, though.

As i mentioned, it snowed last Tuesday (very common in this area) and it lingered for a day, plus the outside temperatures were very cold for a couple more days. Too cold to plant the rest of the babies. On Sunday, finally, it was decent enough and I said that's it, time to plant. It was right after the last pumpkin perished, and one zucchini wasn't looking too great. I had enough leftover pots from the homeowner's daughter that I was able to plant everything with what I had.

I was gonna dig up more of the front garden, but then the neighbour and I got talking, and she offered to do it for me. So I took her up on it lol. I will bring her something nice as a thank-you and/or pay her.

Books

I HAVE LOTS TO SAY ABOUT MY BOOKS. That's why I've put it here at the end, because I'm going to cut this before it gets any longer lol. After watching Shadow and Bone on Netflix, I jumped into the Six of Crows duology bc it was already on my to-read list. So many feeeeeeeelings )
totchipanda: (heartbroken totchi)
I was recommended to read A Woman Worth Ten Coppers by Morgan Howell in a rather roundabout way. Meaning, I was looking at Zutara fanart on a comm and someone had done cross-over art of Zuko and Katara as the main characters from the book. Intrigued but uncertain, I finally just bought it in Chapters' buy-3-get-the-4th-free sale and technically paid nothing for it. Woot.

Well damn. I'm totally hooked. I finished it last night. Hot damn, I thought, I need a sequel like whoa. It was getting to the good stuff! But I had an inkling that it would be a wait yet, as it only came out last year. Amazon has the sequel as coming out on October 27.

Whiiiiiiine. A: It's a long wait. B: October 27th? I can't read a novel that close to Nano! Anything I read in October flavours whatever I write in November! I was planning on writing a space opera which got changed (maybe) to a steampunk novel with a Klapperschlange and an epic chase scene through Badlands in the middle of a storm in which several men and regrettably many horses die during our hikes through Dinosaur National Park on the weekend. But if I read that novel four days before Nano? I'll wind up writing a fantasy (perhaps the sequel to my 2005 nano that I never finished).

So I whined to Debbie, and she said "well why not write a steampunk space opera fantasy?" And I thought about it for a second, and then figured, it worked for Treasure Planet...

Anyway, A Woman Worth Ten Coppers is a good read, and I have some planning to do.

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