Thursday, April 19, 2012

Country Music-gasm

Loretta Lynn and Miranda Lambert

I love country music, I do. Not Toby Keith with his insane 'Loving America means hating everyone else and never using your critical thinking skills' nonsense, but the kind of stuff that comes from deep in the soul and makes you feel glad to be alive and able to deal with the pain that often comes with it.I love classic country, I love the stuff from when I was in high school- when I owned every Dixie Chicks CD and was jealous that Natalie Maines wasn't from California, and I love the stuff Miranda Lambert, Braid Paisley and so many talented musicians and singers puts out today. When I was in high school and someone was trying to shove Britney Spears and a cadre of soulless, talentless pop stars who were created in a marketing department down your throat every time you turned around, country was one of the places you could find artists with real talent who had something to say.

If you think you don't like country music, seriously type these ladies into Pandora and listen to what comes up for an hour or so. You might be really surprised.


Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Rant

I just tried to very politely give a group of people my opinion on something: I am a vegetarian. I have been for over 12 years. I do not get up in people's faces about it, I do not yell at them for eating meat. I have many good reasons for my decision, but I also realize there are many good choices I do not make. I am totally respectful of the decisions of others, all I ask is to be respected in return.

People love, love, LOVE to make fun of vegetarians. Often it is as a cruel response to a perceived weakness "Oh, you care about bunnies? let me try and exploit that by talking about how great killing bunnies is." However more frequently it is not so overtly malicious. There is the image of the 'crazed vegan' yelling 'Meat is Murder'' at you, and people love to make fun of it. Then they transfer that to anyone who doesn't eat meat. They stand proud of the fact the kill bunnies and cows for their food (for the record, I have significantly more respect for anyone who has actually kept and slaughtered an animal and actually knows what they are talking about). Vegetarians and Vegans are just sooo much fun to mock. I mean, what's funnier than someone with a conviction whose actually walking their talk, right?

Let me be really clear. I am NOT writing this to tell you all why you should be vegetarian or vegan. If you want to know why I believe it is a good choice, ask me in person and I will be happy to talk about it. I made this choice long ago, and I am satisfied with it. I try to set a quiet, respectful example to others. If nothing else, I control my particular influence on the planet. I generally do not engage in any of these conversations, I let it go. But lately I'm just getting a little tired of it. What the hell is so threatening about me making a choice you haven't? Why do you need to pounce on me?  If I respect you, why can't you do the same to me?

Monday, April 16, 2012

Doublet Update


The doublet looks ever more doublet-like. It has shoulder seams and  treatments and trim and everything now! The sleeves are also sewn together, though I haven't sewn up the ends yet- still debating how to attach them to the doublet. The pattern calls for the usual D rings and ties, but to my knowledge this has since been declared a fair-ism and is not St. George approve-able. 

The only real issue I have had so far is the collar. The back of it is part of the back piece of the doublet,  and then you are supposed to add two bits on the front sides. All of this rather than just make one piece and sew it on. I think it's way more period this way, since I know those Elizabethans loved to  make the most of every piece. And hell, it seemed easy enough...in theory....

 Several ripped and resewn seams later, I declared victory;



Well, I vanquished it, anyway. 

I don't think they're gonna kick him out if his collar is one single sewn on piece........

For those of you keeping track from my last entry, I have so far typed a grand total of 3 pages on my total.  I REGRET NOTHING!!!!!!!




Friday, April 13, 2012

On we go.....

Graduate school is a funny thing....like, between now and Wednesday I have to write a 6 page paper, a 20 page draft for a term paper, and grade a stack of midterms. A year ago I would have felt slightly overwhelmed, but hopeful, determined, ready to climb that mountain! At the end of year two..... meh? It'll get done. No big deal. Somehow.

Usually, yes- but not today


I really am satisfied with what I've done here at State, but its weird to think I'm in closing in on the home stretch. Next semester I take my comps and then that's it, on to the next thing. I need to get on that, researching PhD programs, applying, etc. I want to go back to Davis- I love the school, the faculty, and the area. 



Remember this?
 I seriously look at this stack now and think  "cool, light load'.

The fact is a lot of the time I struggle with a great deal of self doubt. At times its downright crushing. I can be an absolute, vicious brutal bitch to myself. Its not exactly a good motivator, and I need to overcome it. Especially since school makes me feel so good about myself. When I started this program, I felt so overwhelmed. Last year was kind of like how I hear law school described- break you down and build you up again. But by the end of it I had come out feeling on top, like I was really good at this and headed in the right direction. I just need to keep pushing myself. 

Sleeeeeeve

Ok, the lovely colors are totally not coming out in this picture, but man oh man does the Dudley livery look great  :-D


Grey and burgundy, baby!

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Time to stop hiding from my blog

So I started this thing to try and keep track of the things I was doing, but it turns out, I do a lot of things.And if I had to actually blog them all, I probably would do less of them. So instead this blog kind of joined the box full of scrapbooking supplies I've been hiding from for years, while the list of things to include just got longer and longer.....

Among other things, this blog was supposed to detail the things I sewed, but then I haven't been doing too much of that. But then I got this


I'm debating taking my old one out into a field and re-enacting Office Space

I know, BEST THING EVER, right? A machine that can handle more than two layers of quilter's cotton without the tension going all to hell sending me into a psychotic rage. (Which is good, cause I can really only handle like one or two of those an afternoon.) She's a Bernina in case you couldn't read it.


And then I started working on the long needed doublet to go with Andrew's slops, which reminded me why I sew in the first place (ok, actually that's because I don't wanna pay someone else, but this next part is a close second). Stepping away from my usual school, work etc and focusing on a nice little project is calming and and makes me feel like I can accomplish things. It enhances  my calm.

Using the same Margo Anderson pattern as for the pants, a few things are clear to me- mostly the fact that she was totally not prepared for someone with Andrew's broad Norwegian shoulders who wasn't also morbidly obese. However three mock-ups and absolutely *no*-panic-attacks-thank-you-very-much-later (really!), I seem to have a nice fitting pattern.

...I also may have learned I *probably* shouldn't do a fitting on my second Sunday bloody mary....but that's neither here nor there.....

Anyway,once I had it fitted, the pieces pretty much came nicely together into this


Doublet-y goodness


Those are sleeves and shoulder treatments hiding in the back there

Just need to sew on the trim, sew the shoulder seams, cut out the lining for the sleeves and sew those together, add trim to that, attach the collar, cutout the peplum, sew the lining into that, attach it, add trim to all that, attach the sleeves, figure out how I'm gonna do the front closures, sew on buttons, and probably add some more trim to something else I haven't mentioned......so practically finished   :-P