和 敬 西 洋

Project Bumblefuck can be considered a success, I think. If you consider it's a kimono that's for someone half my size (literally), from the vintage-fugly phase of the kimono era, made of summer something (silk? I dunno), and had been hung in front of my windows as a curtain until faded near-white from its dark blue-grey color, run through the washer AND dryer*, and is now cut neatly in half into a vest for Tea lessons, with matching obi piece. (The 'obi' piece is a *project* on an epic scale - each tweak seems to fix one problem and present another. I'm not sure where to go with it.) I do know I need to go buy more $holyshit/yard 2" wide velcro, as sewing down the Joann's $1 bin velcro in 2" wide swaths just doesn't do it. :P That and it has NO grip. So. Save that for creative cord control or something. Also, stabilizer of the thick, nearly foam, non-fusible variety, which is about $yourfirstborn per yard. Good thing they don't take much. Oy.

On the bright side, we now have two Tea vest... thingummies. (I am thinking of making an obi thingummie for the lone male student with a little kangaroo pocket in the very front, since men carry their items slightly different than women due to the differences in kimono.) I've started a trend of finding the most godawful kimono I can to justify cutting wearable (barely) things to pieces. Kyoei had one the other day in lime green and neon hunter orange. It looked like a bad 70s acid trip puked on the fabric. Mom agreed it was absolutely horrid. I did NOT pay the steep $6 price for it. I just might go back and do so if it's still there on my next trip up. It's just SO bad. (And cheaper than winning one for 99 cents and then paying $20 in shipping. So.)

Which means I now have other projects to do, like Mom's tote bag that she's been asking for forever (and finally picked out the fabric and notions for all of two weeks ago). Once THAT is done, I'll play around with the d20 dice bag thing, since I have everything I need for it (note: we will be using only black thread, damn the matchy-matchy needs of our more compulsive side, because I REFUSE to re-thread the machine and serger 20-something different times.)

Also, I just now went through cleolinda's Twilight series recaps (except Midnight Sun, as I haven't read it but want to and the only thing Amazon[hiss] has is some vampire smut novel of an entirely different, non-sparkly nature. Sadness. I guess it really was pulled, not delayed. Boo.) -- I haven't laughed so hard in ages. Also, there is a sparklpires community that is ever so amusing to skim through. [It's true - it's like getting to be a goofy teen - in a good way - all over again, fangirling about these nutty books. They're so bad they've come 'round to good again, in some ways, and in others, well... you just have to laugh, because the other response is looking into the abyss...) Now to see the movie, then read the m15m version. :D (I see the movies first, because otherwise, well, I probably miss half the jokes.) I plan on re-reading the book once my coworker returns it to me (I lent her New Moon so she has a seamless transition from one sparkly! adventure to the next, though I may send her the links to Cleo's reviews, too...)

* If you tell me I shouldn't or can't, what do you THINK I'm going to do? ("Don't wash kimono!" "Right. Spin cycle with non-chlorine bleach it is.")


Now I'm off to bed and I'll try not to wonder if LJ will vanish in smoke before this time tomorrow - I'm fond of the place and I'd be put out if it went away, but there's not a whole lot in entries worth archiving (a few, maybe one or three a year, at most). I think I'd actually miss the community stuff - I do all my passive research (I let the research come to me) for SCA things through the communities. All y'all on the friends list? Go get blogs. I'll RSS your asses or something. ^_^