it's like the eye of a duck

This househunting thing takes a lot of time.

D. and I went to a couple of open houses this weekend, just to see what's out there. Locally, commercial and residential areas are zoned in such a way that in our everyday doings we don't go through many other neighborhoods except our own. Tentative conclusions: we need at least our current square footage or more to be comfortable. And a-frames aren't great for D. as his head gets uncomfortably close to the ceiling!

The rest has been a lot of paperwork gathering, phone calling (I hate the phone) and number crunching. It's not the numbers so much as the finding of them all that I find so tedious!

Meanwhile our current landlord needed to work on the electrical outlets behind full bookshelves so we got a start on packing to get them out of their way. Still haven't seen evidence of their repairs, but we've made a dent in the personal library.

The cats can't figure out why we'd want so many full boxes around - they can't jump in them so I think it's messing with their feline feng shui.

No, not that kind :P

It seems I spent most of the weekend sweating, mostly because I didn't realize how warm it was going to be. I shouldn't complain, as the weather was BEAUTIFUL and I got to go out into it, I just wish I hadn't worn long sleeves!

I visited with my friend G. who I've not seen in a couple of years, though she only lives across town. She's just bought a house in a quiet, historic-y neighborhood that was once considered kind of sketchy, but due to low rents and abundant warehouse space has become something of an artist's enclave.

This weekend was the annual open studio tour so we walked down to a group of galleries near her house and drove out to studios further away. I enjoyed seeing the studios in their cluttered glory more than the somewhat antiseptic galleries because I like seeing the tools and "in progress" work, it makes it so much more tangible for me to know how these pieces came to be.

Many things were noteworthy but my favorite was an artist who works in unbaked clay and earth - the texture of her white-on-white unfinished clay/porcelain tempted me to touch, but I was a good kid and kept my hands to myself :P There's something about textured monochromatics that I keep coming back to again and again.

Sunday was my weekly fencing lesson, but due to the humidity I was a sweaty mess before I even suited up. I didn't drink enough water to compensate so within an hour of my lesson I was so wrung out that I felt like I was going to fall asleep on the strip :( Left 1/2 hour earlier than usual, had an extra cup of coffee to muster the energy to get to the grocery, and took a fitful nap in the afternoon.

I think I need to seriously look into getting the A/C in my car fixed, especially if this summer threatens to be anything like last year's.

I've made slow but steady headway on the closet/basement/everything purge that needs to happen before our move.

Consolidating and eliminating most of my fashion scrapbooks was probably the best and most rewarding thing I did. For years I'd clip pictures of things I liked, but now half the designer photos are in my books and most of the rest I put in Pinterest (takes up no room and is off site anyway! How did I ever survive without this?)

Organized all my Fortuny notes and backed up the files on my computer. Whoooo!

The basement is the worst. It is so piled up it's hard to get at many things and there's lots of dragging, lifting, and shoving involved. Having said this I have incredibly eliminated several pounds of fabric, mostly synthetics that I'm never going to use.

I know why I keep dithering on whether I'm going to Dress U or not.

It's not that I "have nothing to wear!" My costume collection isn't massive but it's enough for 3 days. There are even some that haven't been worn yet (white Regency), and given that I can drive I don't have to worry about how much/how to get it on a plane.

It's that I know I won't have anything new to wear. Yes, it's almost 2 months away, in theory I could whip up something. I've been sewing for over 20 years, and I AM good - not the best, but good, and am confident that I can make whatever I set my mind to amd I DO feel the urge to show off!

But for me making a good piece is kind of like quality software development: good, cheap, or fast, pick 2 :P And I always pick good and cheap(ish) over fast. Even when I'm working from a purchased pattern I have so many other things going on that the time manages to stretch forever.

Soooo...I perhaps I should just get over myself. Wear my polyester "mock Fortuny" to the Titanic dinner (hey, he was making them in the 19teens!)!

What started with a lucky Miyake find and deeply discounted Westwood boots is turning into some tentative designer collecting. I have searches set up for some of my favorite designers on Ebay, and so far I've found a Westwood top and Comme de Garcons blazer. I'm adhering to some limitations so I don't go crazy:

• It has to be something I'll actually wear, and in my size - no chasing something the wrong size or potentially unflattering just to see how it's made.
  
• Never full price because... just no. I can't afford such extravagance and besides, finding a bargain makes the pursuit more interesting.
  
• I have limited closet space so for each item I get, one has to go. It doesn't have to be an identical item (get a skirt and, say, a pair of shoes goes) but it's certainly ideal if I'm replacing "ok" with "better" (the CDG long blazer replaces a pinstripe one that never fit properly).
  
• It has to be representative of the designer's work. I refuse to shell out $$ for a t shirt with a logo.
  

So far this strategy is finding me ~3 pieces a year. Which is plenty.

Given my recent lethargy (lifting, thank goodness! Better living through chemistry!) it was chancy to plan as much for Saturday as I did, but damn, I just wanted to do it all:

Went to a series of lectures on early 19th century clothing at a historic home one county over - two of my Costume Society acquaintances were presenting, with extant garments to boot! Sometimes there is just no replacement for seeing an actual, three-dimensional object to figure out just how that bib-front bodice buttoned up, or how the bodice stays put with an apron front skirt. Turns out that knowledge about 1800s underwear is still incomplete, so the slip pattern I cobbled together to go under my white Regency may be as good a guess as any. One of my CSA buddies nudged me towards early 19th c. re-enactment, and I wouldn't say no except I'm still struggling to find time to accessorize what I have, and am about to get busier until ~July (see below).

After lectures and lunch I had some time to kill so I went to a nearby used CD store and ended up picking up Depeche Mode and Duran Duran "best of" comps. As someone who grew up in the 1980s it was kinda unexcusable to go without these "little black dresses" of 80's pop any longer :P

The day finished with a fencing competition, the qualifiers for the big National event each summer. It started on time and was well run, and I was surprised that there were only 6 of us - me, Badger, and 4 unrated people I didn't know.

I came in second! Which means that for the first time I get to fence 2 events at nationals, div 3 (moderately scary) and div 2 (really scary). To be very honest it was not one of my hardest competitions, so while I'm glad I placed 2nd and look forward to fencing all the other women foilists who finished ~top 3 in their divisions I'm trying to remember that I'm not a superstar. To steal a line from Rupaul, I bettah work: the usual practice, lessons, footwork, bladework plus weights and [gack] more cardio.

Today I resisted sleeping in and got the grocery shopping done and the laundry is in progress. I also stopped off at Local Awesome Fabric Store(TM) and found some goodies in the remnant section: an almost-black green silk charmeuse (bias cut top!), gray of same (test fabric for pleating!) and a heavenly smooth silk twill (summer robe for D.!) Got home and promptly fell asleep on the sofa while reading.

I foresee much ironing next weekend.

As a tongue tied college radio DJ my hero was John Peel, the legendary BBC Dj who would play anything and everything as long as it was new and fresh, from major labels to nameless cassettes sent in the mail. I first heard him on BBC World Service on my dad's staticky shortwave and his dry humor between records only added to the thrill of discovery. Oh, to flip through his record bins....

And through the joys of the internet WE ALL CAN! Peel's entire 65,000(!) record collection will be going online! Not only preserved but accessible to everyone!

Meanwhile, Tate Modern's photographic archive was narrowly saved from the garbage, while the V&A's is long gone(!). The moron at the V&A should surely be haunted by the ghosts of librarians and curators past!

The theme for the weekend was chocolate :)

On Saturday D. and I went to a historic chocolate sampler event at a local historic home. Their foodways historian prepared examples of 17th-20th century chocolate recipes accompanied by an informal lecture on the history of chocolate from harvesting to end product, and the improvements in quality control and seasoning that took it from a bitter, watery drink for the wealthy in the 17th century to the democratized sweet everyone knows today.

Most interesting discoveries:
( chocolate trivia )

Sunday was the ChocoTherapy fencing open. No chocolate was in evidence but I had a good time anyway, and did surprisingly well. Probably the best I've ever done at a C and under event, I wound up finishing in the middle of the pack instead of towards the end, and there were some very good and difficult fencers there! I stayed as long as I could after I was eliminated to watch my clubmates keep going.

So clearly tons of chocolate is the ideal, nay, PERFECT preload for quality fencing! I'll have to test this again in the future. Lemme just get a slab of lightly sweetened Baker's chocolate and I'm good to go :P

I've kept up my resolution to stretch, if not daily, then certainly I'm up to 5 days a week over 3.

I think it's helping my fencing, especially the "rocking lunge" and keeping my back leg under me rather than out behind me (thanks Badger) - I'm doing the best lunges of my life and generally feel more mobile, at least after I'm well warmed up.

I fenced Scary Person(TM) M. last night and he said he was pleased to see me "consistently fencing at a competitive level" and while I was flattered, I as ever have problems accepting a compliment. Can I really keep this?

So, I've committed to stretching, but little else. I keep planning to go to the Anglo-Saxon hoard exhibit, register for ChocoTherapy, chocolate, and Dress U but keep putting it off because choosing something invariably means shutting some other possibility out. I need to just gorram do it already....

Also need to catch up on LJ etc. I know you all are doing cool and wonderful things that I neglect to comment on because y'all deserve more than "cool!" and my words won't congeal further than that :(

Off to find D.'s robe pattern, as he needs a new one (though Reconstructing History's latest and a holiday Downton Abbey marathon make me itching to make a 1910s dress. Which I'll want/need if I go to Dress U...)

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.