Made it!

I was frantically ‘creating’ the last couple of weeks, trying to meet two dead lines. I succeeded in reaching both deadlines…yeah me!  The first was the bodice for my last outing and the second was a crochet item for a pal who wanted it for a Halloween event.  I procrastinated that one and I ended up scaling the project back a bit and I still ended up literally working through the night and having him pick it up at five in the morning-a pit stop on the way  to the airport. That was a close one! 

Anyway, I have now caught up on my sleep and I am now ready to start thinking about crafting and all things Victorian again.  I think my blog will get back into its normal groove.

Fright Night at the Fort

Shirley and I went to Lower Fort Garry for their Halloween Fright Night event.  It is great fun but there is almost no light so taking photos is hard.  Since I was wearing my new ensemble, I had hubby take photos at home in the day light.  I showed you the front view in my last post.

Here is the front view with the hat and my star bag….

….and the mantle (which after years of sitting in the closet, finally gets used.)

I’m lovin’ the side view.  It makes me think this is my new favorite!

This is the other side with the hat.

And the back view….

 

These are some of the accessories I chose to wear.  Note: some of them are from the gift I received a couple of weeks ago.  I loved wearing them!

The only place to take photos was in the modern welcome center…and even there the light was not ideal.  Shirley and I found another visitor who was willing to get a photo of us together.  Shirley is in her newest 1870’s dress as well.

Here are some of the best shots of her dress.

And my favorite one….

There is a statue representing the fur traders that came to this area on York boats and Shirley and I got a bit silly with it.

Watch your hand buddy!

HSF: Challenge 10 Secrets

What the item is: Bodice

The Challenge: Secret

What’s the Secret?: hidden pocket for a watch
Fabric: cotton

Pattern: TV 405 Vest Basque from Truly Victorian

Year: 1872

Notions: buttons, bones, trim

How historically accurate is it?:  The buttons are quite modern.  But, other than that it is as close as I can get it!  80%?

Hours to complete: I never keep track….sigh….? 50?

First worn: Halloween outing on October 24

Total cost: @ $40

Tomorrow I will post photos from our outing.

The Vote

For my non-Canadian friends, Canada had a big election for our top leader.  It was a big election because it was, for us, the longest campaign since 1872 (78 days).  Apparently, Americans think that is adorable.  It was a big deal as well because many Canadians were getting royally pissed off at some of the dealings of the current Prime Minister.  I wont bore you with the details but I will say the positive of this is an apparent drop in voter apathy!  The advanced polls had a 70% increase.  Some aboriginal voting stations ran out of ballots and had to get more!  Aboriginals had a problem with voter apathy but not this time!

One news agency reports:

More than 68 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot in Monday’s federal election – the highest turnout at the polls since 1993.

That’s a jump of more than 7 per cent from the 2011 election.

Preliminary Elections Canada figures state that 68.49 per cent of eligible voters – or 17,546,697 people – went to the polls on Monday for the Liberal Party’s majority win.

Just 61.1 per cent of registered voters cast ballots in 2011.

On Facebook, there were tons of posts about the candidates and many more urging people to exercise their right to vote.  One of them was a “change you profile picture” campaign.  I chose one of my Victorian gowns  to represent the women of the 1890’s who fought for the vote women would get nearly 20 years later.

We have a new Prime Minister and now we wait to see what kind of leader he will be.  Fingers crossed, Canada!

Crazy deadlines

This is a small post because of self inflicted deadlines.

One is a massive crochet project that I’ve had since spring.  I procrastinated all summer over it and now the deadline at the end of the month is looming…

…and of course it isn’t quite right.  I think the flaw may have to stay because I don’t have time to fix it properly.

The other self inflicted dead line is to finish my latest dress by this coming Saturday evening.  I just have the bodice to do…and I cut it out today.  I hope to have it sewn together tomorrow on my day off.  Get the fitting organized in the evenings after work and then madly trim it up Saturday during the day.  I need one of these…

It is doable, except I will also be working on the crochet project during breaks from that and work!  What have I done to myself!

 

Mommy had to work but I did not

While I was slaving away at work yesterday (Saturday), my pooch was in the lap of luxury.

Nothing like a vigorous tummy rub to get one all relaxed.

 

Childhood hobby becomes modern trend

One of the latest crazes to hit the world is coloring for adults.  It seems that the medical world thinks it is great for things like stress and blood pressure and is like meditating.  Hey, I like it and if it is good for me…well all the better.

And now two crazes have crashed together to create something well…crazy!  Coloring and a phone app.  I discovered while playing with my new phone.  It isn’t as satisfying as coloring with a marker but it is pretty cool.  It is called Colorfy.

Here are a couple of my “works of art”.

I’ve saved them to my computer as screen savers.   I would recommend this app to all my friends.

I found out how it works!

The lady who passed the lorgnette on to me sent me a message telling me that it opens up.  I thought it might because it seemed to have hinges but I couldn’t figure it out.

I was told to push up on the bottom of the handle.  It took a couple of tries (I guess it was a bit stiff with age…aren’t we all.)

And here is me rocking my lorgnette and my early morning bedhead.

As a side note, I got a new phone which is supposed to have a nice camera in it.  Here’s hoping these are my last “crappy” phone pictures.

Its been 2 1/2 years….

2 1/2 years ago, I saw a dress at the costume museum that made my heart stop.  I’ve seen it again and my heart still goes pitter-pat when I see it.  In this case, absence did make  the heart grow fonder.

I like the chenille trim. I could make that. They sell wool like that now.

Little silk tassels are added to the end. It would take forever to make but it would be worth it!

Yup.  I still love it.

The nut doesn’t fall to far from the tree

Though our genres are different, the youngest offspring and I share a love of costuming.  His latest creation is patterned after the war boys from the latest Mad Max movie.

Yeah, he rocks “nutty” just fine!

He is aiming for a Comic Con in November.

As a side note, he managed to ditch quite a bit of his college class curves and has a month to go to reach his desired weight loss goal of war boy svelte.  Proud mama, I am!