Lorenzo and Serafina came over the weekend before last.  Their visit finally provided the motivation for me to retrace and cut out my body block.  In doing this I discovered that I am shaped a bit like Quasimodo!  However, once that task was accomplished Lorenzo showed me how to take the body block and use it to make a pattern.  My Black Eleanora dress has begun!  I’m going to try to work on it this week since it is Spring Break; however it is already Tuesday and I haven’t started yet.  I want to at least get it started tomorrow so that I can work on it during D&D.  Hand sewing and gaming go well together and I have promised Lorenzo that I will hand sew at least the bodice (Although this goes against my tenets of laziness :D).  I think hand-sewing it will make it look a lot better in the end.

In non-SCA related news, this past Sunday Elizabeth and I threw a baby shower for our friend Brandy who is expecting a little girl in about a month. Elizabeth did most of the decorating, Scott (bless his heart) did most of the cleaning, and I did the cooking.  I couldn’t make up my mind about a menu until the Friday before the party.  This was crazy for me, because usually I have menus planned and re-planned weeks in advance, but I just couldn’t make my mind up for this.  The party was at 2 and it was a hot day, so I needed to make light food that was cool.  Finally in a fit of desperation I turned to my favorite party cookbook of all time: Southern Scrumptious!  Actually, I turned to the sequel Southern Scrumptious Entertains. http://tinyurl.com/3pe5t7f (Which brings us to the question…can cookbooks have sequels??)  Anyway, the are absolutely wonderful for parties.  Here was the menu, which was all pretty tasty:

Savory: Cheese Straws, Cucumber Sandwiches, Asparagus and Bacon Roll Ups, Artichoke squares, Spicy Deviled Eggs,

Fruity: Fruit Salad with Honey Lime Marinade

Desserts: Heart Scones with Mock Devonshire Cream, Frosted Sugar Cookies, Rice Krispy Rattles (This was the only recipe not from the cookbook)

Beverages: Mint Tea, Celebration Punch

The party went well and was a success.  Brandy got tons of baby loot!  Hooray!

After the party, I told Scott that I didn’t have any more major commitments.  He said, “until tomorrow when you commit to six more things.”  Monday at our Shire’s business meeting, I agreed to do the scrolls for our event.  At least it is commitment that I like.  Also, the scrolls are to be “Myths and Legends” themed, so they should be really fun to do.

Okay, now I’m going to go to trivia tonight because the little guy is staying at his Mimi’s house tonight.  Wish us luck!

So, the red wool I was trying to dye a few shades darker is exactly the same shade it started as.  I cut a little piece off before I dyed it to do a comparison,  absolutely no change.  Sigh.  I think this might be fate’s way of telling me that it is my destiny to own orange red wool.  Double sigh.

Jude’s birthday party was a big success.  He had a fantastic time and got a ton of loot.  The food turned out really well, we had tacos, refried beans, and mexican rice.  I used recipes from the America’s Test Kitchen books.  They were really good.  I’ll try to get some pictures of the cake posted in a bit.  It was really pretty, but I didn’t think it tasted that great.  I tried using a new cake mix and I think that might have been the problem.

Lorenzo came by for a bit today and we got a body block done, but I’m still a bit unsure about drafting my own patterns, so he’s going to come by in a few weeks to help me work that out.

I also bought some dark red dye to dye the wool gabardine that I originally bought to make my Star Trek uniform but was orange-red when I received it.  Hopefully it will come out a nicer shade and I can use it to make a practice kirtle for my Eleanora dress.

I’m in a really crafty mood.  I think it is the beautiful, sunshiny weather.  I want to make everything that I see right now.  Embroidery, partlets, gowns, hand towels, you name it…Now if I can just put this energy to good use instead of trying to do everything, focus on one or two things.  We’ll see.  It is already 5 and I haven’t really accomplished anything besides the body block.  Well, I did take a nice nap and go to target 🙂

Okay, now going to try to update some stuff on the rest of the site.

Well, as with most grand plans, I didn’t get as much done as I wanted , but I did make a good dent in my list.  I figured out what  cake I’m going to try to make for Jude’s birthday.  I’m going to model it after the one on this site: http://simplysweetsaz.blogspot.com/2008/01/brendans-2nd-birthday.html, Jude loves trains, so I think he’ll love this cake.  I didn’t actually manage to get the fondant, but I think I’ll have time to get some on the way to the business meeting tomorrow.

I decided to just do straight lines on Jude’s quilt after I saw a quilt that I really liked online.  The straight lines look really modern and aren’t too fussy.  However, they are taking me forever and my bobbin keeps twisting up and jamming.  I’m about 75% done now, but I decided to stop for the moment because if the bobbin jams one more time, the sewing machine is going out the window.  I need to take a break.

My men’s shirt has been moved upstairs so it will quit staring at me.  I promise I will finish it later.  Jude’s presents got wrapped and the decorations were bought.  I updated my school blog and organized my readings for my class.  Only four more chapter to read.  I also promise that will get done…sometime…Now I’m off to go do some cross stitch and zone out for a bit.

Jude’s birthday is next week, the 9th, and I have about a million things to do this weekend to get ready for it.  I’m posting right now because I’m a huge procrastinator.  Today I need to finalize my idea for his birthday cake so I can start working on some of the fondant tomorrow.  I need to finish his quilt, so I have to commit to a free motion design and I’m having trouble deciding what will look best, especially since I’ve never done it before.  I need to finish my men’s Elizabethan shirt which has been draped across my kitchen chair for a week.  I have to do my A&S report for my shire, wrap birthday presents, decide if I need to go get some party decorations and clean the carpet upstairs.

Okay, I’m off to quilt.  Let’s see how much I can accomplish today.  May the Force be with me! 😀

So, I’ve now become a blogger.  I’ve moved my Philippa’s Wardrobe site over to Lorenzo’s household page (well, actually Lorenzo did all the moving!!).  I’m pretty excited to start blogging, just hope I can keep up with it and it isn’t too boring to read.

Let’s see…my life right now…I’ve been working on a lot of mundane stuff recently.  I feel the need to get in and do some costuming, just trying to find motivation.  Currently, I’m working on a quilt for Jude’s birthday on March 9.  I didn’t know I was making the quilt for him, but he keeps asking when “his” blanket is going to be done, so I guess it is for him.  I’ve also recently made some coasters and two small makeup bags.

I’ve been off from school all week for February break (this will apparently be our one and only February break so I’m trying to make the most of it).  I had grandiose plans about all of the sewing I was going to do on my week off, unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) I’ve spent the week shopping with friends and family, going to the park with Jude, taking walks, gardening, and doing chores so not much sewing was accomplished.  I did make the shirt for my men’s outfit and I did pull out my Elizabethan men’s outfit to start the actual sewing on only to find out that I don’t have it all cut out, so now it is laying all over my dining room and I’m trying to find the motivation to figure out what is cut out, what isn’t cut out, what size I was using, what pieces I need to find, etc…ugh.  This is what comes of cutting parts of something out two years ago and never finishing.

I think I will finish the quilt in the next few days and work on some handwork while I try to figure out where my motivation went.