weekend reboot

[anotheranon]

I took advantage of the energy conferred by Saturday's unseasonably, unreasonably warm weather (70F?! In January? And today it's snowing) to do some much needed clutter reduction: put away and organized the Christmas decorations, took out a ton of recycling and cleared some junk out of the basement. My house may never be ready for its' Better Homes and Gardens closeup, but I can walk all the way around the dining room table, and that's something.

D. spent much of the weekend Sith-stomping, so I had the teevee to myself and started last year's "Pillars of the Earth" miniseries. I've not read the book, but I'm impressed with the screen adaptation, if only the way the characters' stories rapidly twist together. It's about a time period I'm not overly familiar with (The Anarchy of the 12th century) so there's the element of discovery as well.

Progress on the vest crawls along. Despite all my careful fitting, I still got the back waist too short, so I'm going to attempt to attach the peplum with a 1/4" seam allowance. For maximum control of the seam (and the rounded edges of the peplum) I've again been using the Elizabethan seam. Eats time but satisfies my control freakiness.

Over the holidays my step-father-in-law tipped me off that many carcinogens/endocrine disruptors/other bad stuff in cosmetics aren't regulated by the FDA; not news but I didn't know quite how bad it could get until I poked around the Cosmetics Database. Happily only a couple of things I use were in the dangerous red zone, but hey - any excuse to play with new lotions and creams :P I'm giving this a whirl to see if it keeps me moisturized without making me break out.

Fencing lesson this week included V.'s grand experiment to take video for all of us. I took some before the holidays, but haven't analyzed the results as carefully as I could. It's fair to say I now have plenty of footage to make me flinch review.

Badger and I are doing a week of quickie "fashion blogging" over on Facebook. Of course my alarm failed to go off this morning so my first entry is rather lackluster, but I'm plotting blockbusters for the rest of the week!

Last bits: I've not caught up on the latest season of PBS' Sherlock, but faunblade posted this compelling shot; I don't think Cumberbatch is all that, but it got my attention. Found this [YouTube] via yuki_onna which she (accurately?) describes as "what I think that mask scene in Eyes Wide Shut might have been if that movie weren’t mainly about white people not feeling things".

It's too cold down here. I'm going to put on my alpaca socks.

Comments

[belfebe.livejournal.com]

Oh, I am addicted to the Elizabethan seam. Even when I use a sewing machine for larger seams, I always set my sleeves by hand with that seam. Soooooo much better!

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

I know! I don't know how or why I managed to shove curves and tiny pieces under the machine foot all those years!

[maehymn.livejournal.com]

Oh MAN. After I discovered Cosmetics Database, I got rid of all my beloved MAC make up, and switched to Jane Iredale (which I don't recommend) and Zuzu (much better, though I think not as 'clean' as the JI stuff).

Thanks for the moisturizer link, I've been looking for good stuff!

It's really freaky how a lot of those cosmetics companies who are using ingredients that link to cancers/issues, are the people also publicly advertising that they donate to breast cancer stuff, etc. !!
It would be better if they maybe put that money into developing cosmetics that didn't contribute in the first place.

I wanted to ask you about the stretching for fencing you talked about in your New Year's resolutions-what kinds of things are you doing?

We've been having that same kind of insane weather. I think it's about to turn. If you want to see the new Sherlock prior to it's American release, I know people were posting links here: http://sherlockbbc.livejournal.com/ and also here:
http://www.alluc.org/tv-shows/watch-sherlock-online/season-02/337151.html

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

I confess I've not thrown out my MAC - most of what I'm using by them only came up as around a 3 or so because they affect development and reproduction - given that I'm doing neither I'll take my chances 'til they run out :P And yeah - if the companies would spend as much on safe product development as they do on PR this would be less of a problem! Alternately the FDA could make them have to prove their safety.

Re: stretching: that deserves a post of its own with links and images to be really clear. Can I get back to you?

[maehymn.livejournal.com]

Sure thing!

I have to go back and look at that again--I think I actually still have some MAC eyeshadow that I kept due to less frequent use. I LOVE their eyeshadow. And their foundation. And their lipstick! AHHH! I still haven't found anything that is quite as good as their stuff.