After long silence...

Well hi, LJ...guess what, I'm not actually dead!
There has been much crap going on in my neck of the woods lately, and I just haven't felt like posting, or even had the time to get my thoughts in order.
  mmegaera, I am so sorry about flaking out on that reading I promised to do. I am more than ready to do it now if it will still be helpful. And I am very excited about your paper editions coming out! That prototype looked gorgeous!

Dad has been in and out of the hospital, and I'm concerned about Bruce not managing his health as well as he needs to with the artificial heart valve. Robs and I ran away from home for a week at the beginning of August to visit my aunt in Minnesota. Coming home was actually incredibly depressing...I wasn't gone long enough to actually miss anyone, and it seemed so unfair. :-(

But I'm back and reasonably well-adjusted again. Jenn took me and the kids to the Pittsburgh Renn Faire for my birthday, and I managed to scrape together a Tudor gown and hat for Robby. (I'm being very modest. I made the sucker and it is amazing and Edward VI can take a hike because my kid is so much more beautiful than he was in the Holbein portrait.) Katrina wanted to wear her Sleeping Beauty dress and glass slippers.

Katrina started Montessori preschool this week. So far her favorite part is getting to wash dishes after snack. Hopefully she's less splashy there than at home. I think this is a good fit for her.

Glencora had a bug bite or something on her neck that swelled up alarmingly for two days, but now has disappeared without a trace. I think she does it just to fret me.

I've been referred to an endocrinologist for the thyroid/hormone/why does my body act like I'm pregnant issue. Unfortunately I couldn't get anything earlier than October.

Bruce's car is persistently not working, no matter what he does to it. Mom's been out of town this week, so we've had the loan of hers, but come Sunday I'm going to be SOL with two kids and no car until further notice. I'm hoping Dad might let me use his for a few days; he's recently decided that it's not safe for him to drive. To which I give a resounding NO SHIT! It hasn't been safe for him to drive since the stroke last fall.

Jenn and I have one hell of a sewing project planned, but that's for another post. I've been keeping up with reading, so I'm glad to know everyone else is hanging in there. Cats and being cat-like, and babies are growing way too fast, but that's nothing new.

The cutest toddler with the meanest mommie

Here is baby Robs in his Tudor gown. It's based on the Holbein portrait of Edward VI. I knocked this out in two days, and it was made from materials I had on hand. The only things I had to buy were the blue ribbon to hold the hat on and the plume.

Patterning is semi-historical. I made it one piece instead of having a separate shift, and it fastens in the back. Otherwise it's pretty accurate. Fabrics are white linen and pale blue silk duponi (not an historical texture. If one could afford silk for a gown one could and did go with smooth silk).

I want to fix the hat brim; that little dip in the front bugs me. I'm thinking some canvas interlining might cut it, otherwise I'm going to have to break out the buckram.

It was mid 80s and sunny that day, but Robby seemed very comfortable. He even left the hat on for almost 5 hours!

The inspiration:

The closest thing I've found to cloth of gold is taffeta or quilters cotton with metallic gold woven in, but it's woven on a red base and the undertones were so wrong next to the blue. And let's not even talk about lame'. I left the over sleeves off for comfort.

(no subject)

I just made a really awful woodworking pun to the effect of "I need to get lathed".

Aren't you proud of me, flist?