Lunch at McLeod House

My good friend and her husband are in town and we met for lunch at McLeod House.

It would make a nice little outing for my costume crew.  The food was fabulous!  You must try the chicken salad sandwich and the cheese cake!  The main floor is where the kitchen and eating areas are and the top floor is a gift shop.  Though there is not a lot of period furniture and the kitchen and bathrooms are modern (as I believe they have to be to serve food) the “bones” of the house still have that old feeling.

There isn’t a lot of photo ops like Maple Grove Tea House had (I do miss that place) but there is shopping in and near the McLeod House.

Down the street is a gifts and antique shop where I saw this cool thing!

A paper dress form called the…

Adjust-o-matic dress form.  It looked to be in mint condition and was from the mid 1960’s.

Not my era but still pretty cool!

New idea found on another blog

For you bloggers out there who may be checking me out, I want you to know that I check you out too and I even read your old stuff.  I was reading World Turn’d Upside Down and found a crochet pattern that I’d like to try.  I don’t have any silk right now, nor do I have much expendable cash.  A certain insulin junkie is using that all up.

Update: she is feeling like a puppy again but is going blind I think.  I hope that if she does, it continues to be somewhat gradual.

But I like the pattern and may try it as a modern hat at first.  I’m sure I have stuff in my stash I could use up so I wont need to cough up any cash for it.

I think what is happening is the lighter part of the pattern is close together crochet stitches and the  darker part is the lining peaking through the spaces.  Basically the hat has four layers.  The outer layer is the crochet part.  Then there is a layer that is a darker shade of the color used for the crochet. That creates the dark part of the pattern in the hat.  Then there is some sort of stuffing, like a flannel, and then next to the head is a black lining.  There is a reinforcing band of leather around the brim but I think gros grain ribbon could work too.

Oh, I must see this! In costume please!

Judy Dench (Oh gosh! I love her) will be playing Queen Victoria!  Coming to a theatre near me!

The hubby and I had gone to see a sci fi flick and there was this larger than life billboard for this movie!  I was thrilled (and he was praying I don’t drag him to see it!) Shirley and Lottie, say you will go see this with me!  Costumes optional.  I acknowledge we’d be three of the biggest dorks on the planet if we go in costume!

Ladies! I think I found a new venue!

While chatting with a long distance friend and making plans for her visit this week she mentioned McLeod House in a near by town.  I’ve googled it and it is just up our alley!  Built in 1898 it is suitable for our Victorian attire and with an Edwardian war hero associated with it, it could be a good place for our Edwardian outfits (if and when we get them together!) 

Back in action

I’ve been MIA for a bit.  As you may recall, I have been juggling drama at work, a newly diagnosed diabetic dog, a son’s wedding and a house guest here from Germany for the wedding.  Work is still drama and likely will be for the rest of the year (sigh), the dog is still diabetic but we are starting to get used to it, the wedding is over and the happy couple is on their honeymoon and the house guest is back home in Germany.  It is time for me to try and get settled into my routines for my new normal.  That means I should try and put out a post or two a week here.

For the wedding I made my own dress.  Nothing difficult.  A tube with sleeves really.  I took a sleeveless dress I have that I find comfortable and relatively flattering and used it as a pattern (only I added sleeves).

Original dress

 

I don’t have any good pictures yet because I vowed that for the wedding, I wouldn’t take any pictures.  I would just be there “in the moment.”  Once I have a good photo I will share.  For now, you will have to settle for a blurry selfie with my eyes closed.

Sure, I would have felt prettier in a super fitted dress with all kinds of support systems in place (like a corset) but the day turned out to be brutally hot for an out door wedding and I was frankly happy I was wearing a loosey goosey gown.  Father of the bride was smart and brought three shirts and a pair of shorts to change into as he sweated his way through everything!  My hubby had to drive and hour and a half round trip, home to change!

There is a long weekend coming up and I have no real plans so hopefully my next post will be another completed project or at the very least, more Victorian in nature!

We have plans…so does life

At the beginning of the year I took the time to sketch out some projects that would go with the Historical Sew Fortnightly themes.  As the year has progressed, I hit some road blocks. (Projects that took longer than expected.  Supplies for projects getting ordered but not showing up.)  And then there was the drop in my own enthusiasm.

I had started to feel more intensely that I was making items I didn’t really want at this time or making items in strange orders (accessories before outfits, for example) so that I could match a challenge or really stretching the parameters of the challenge to make something I wanted to only to rush through it to meet the deadline as reasonably as possible.

Don’t get me wrong!  I loved doing HSF!  It did exactly what I wanted it to, which was motivate me to get started on projects AND actually finish them so that I could build a wardrobe for costume events.  Now I have a huge wardrobe. I have actually reached the point that it is to big! I have more outfits than I can wear in a year.  Several of which, I am no longer satisfied with.

With those thoughts and feelings in mind I decided a few months back that I would finish the HSF year out and next year I would change my way of doing things.   First I’d pack up the outfits I no longer love.  They’d go into storage until I reached the point that I could part with them.  Then I’d limit my creativity for the year to finishing UFO projects (the vast majority being modern knitting) and limiting myself to one costume, which I would take great pains to choose, to shop for and to sew slowly and carefully.

And then life stepped in.  There is actually a lot going on but the primary stepping has been done by my doggy.  This is her last Christmas.  Lookin’ fine!

She has been slowing down lately and I thought “hmmm, old age is kicking in”.  But within a few weeks, old age seemed to be running her over with a truck.  Here she is lookin’ not so fine.  And starting to have accidents in the house, which she has never done!

I took her to the vets a couple of weeks ago and the old age turned out to be diabetes.  We are early into the treatments (strict diet, twice daily insulin shots) but already we are seeing a vast improvement!  It is like having a young dog again!

Mom!  Stop takin’ pictures!  We are playin’ here!

 

But, keeping her this way means I have to do some changing.  I have fast forwarded my plan to back off of the HSF challenges (though I intend to watch and be amazed by the work of others!)  Not having the deadlines takes some un-needed stress off of me.   And I am vowing that any future projects be either UFO or at least 80% stash busting thus freeing up some cash to support my insulin junkie’s new habit.

Who knows, I may have to start a blog about my life with a diabetic dog!

Video from the last outing

The event was officially launched with a flag raising, which I have a nice little video of but WordPress insists on playing it upside down…I wont torment you with that.

The event was then blessed in traditional aboriginal fashion.  The video is fairly long (but up side up). I  found the music very moving!  Much more powerful in person than on video.

The event being celebrated featured the local aboriginal tribes and the Scottish settlers so some Scottish music was shared as well.  I find the pipes moving as well!  But that is just my Scottish blood speaking! This video has the still sideways but it in fact plays upside up!  Sigh!