sewloud

Now that the chemise is past the point where if I put it down I'd never remember what these random linen bits are (will it ever get lace? probably not) I've started to think about the rest of my outfit. mandie_rw helpfully suggested I should skip to the outside as I can fake the underwear but not the dress. she is wise. I decided to start with the skirt first as if I get totally desperate I COULD order ye olde blouse on amazon and Amanda is gonna let me buy her leftover insertion lace so we can majorly be twins...I'm amazed she puts up with me following her around copying her like the older-younger sister she didn't need or want.

I'm using this ageless patterns skirt pattern because I have it. the last 2 times I made it I was 1. thinner and 2. made it too short. BOTH TIMES. so THIS TIME I was determined to make it too long. We'll see how I do. The last 2 time I made it I also didn't put any thought into it beyond an unlined skirt with horsehair in the hem. This time I'm going for broke in the "look nicer" category and I'm going to line, interline AND face the hem.



Today I managed to pattern it out (I had to add 10" to the waist. so good for my ego y'all) and I de-trained it as a skirt for walking in the garden seems silly to have a train.  And I cut out the lining which will be the premium muslin from Joann's. Tomorrow my goal is to cut the interlining and fashion fabric and begin basting all the pieces before work...wish me luck I seem to be moving at a snails pace.

 I survived Disney! It was both a very magical trip and completely exhausting. I basically took zero photos as I'm not allowed to take photos cause of HIPPA and all that. And when you're there with an adorable kid who wants to bother taking a sweaty selfie instead. It was super hot and I sweat in places I haven't sweat since working at the ren faire, but I managed to drink at least 6 bottles of my 16oz refillable bottle every day and didn't get dehydrated.  Going with Make a Wish is pretty damn impressive, you skip all the lines and we met a huge list of characters (Woody, Jesse, Buzz, Stitch, Mike & Sully, BB8, Vamparina, Doc McStuffins, Fancy Nancy, Pluto, Micky & Minnie, Tinkerbelle, Cinderella, Ariel, Snow White, Aurora, Pooh & Tigger, Anna & Elsa, Olaf, Elmo, Cookie Monster, Big Bird, Patrick, Donkey & Shrek, 3 Trolls, a minion...i think I'm forgetting someone)
We stayed at Give Kids the World which is basically a resort for Make a Wish families, and it was pretty amazing. All the food is free, all the rides are free, all the entertainment is free. The "wish fairy" left a gift for him every day in our Villa when we came home. It took a few nights of us staying there for him to get into the routine and then he very much didn't want to leave. 

A few highlights for my own memory:

- We stopped at walmart to get souvenirs for the kids back home and he was sooooooooo excited to go to Walmart. Like best happy photo we got was him in the cart. 

-We showed up at Magic kingdom and he kept going on about wanting to go "inside" the castle...so I asked and they squeezed us into the the super posh restaurant up there...(I.E. like $80 a plate fancy). But he was SO happy to be in there, unexpectedly so. 

-As we were walking through the parks suddenly Pooh and Tigger appeared and we got to meet them. He was in heaven. I think the textural quality of the characters in fur was amazing as he just wanted to touch them and hug them. And they were SO GOOD with non-verbal communication it was basically his first language. 

-When we met Olaf there was a beach backdrop with an oversized glass of lemonade...he went and tried to drink out of the straw. The handler went "well that's a new one" haha 

-We'd be cruising through somewhere with him in his medical stroller and he'd suddenly see a gift shop, or a balloon vendor and he'd vault out of the stroller and do his adorable tippy toe race-walk into the store leaving one of us sprinting after him. 

-His face of pure joy when the minions 3D ride simulator was going. 

-The moment when we're all eating breakfast and I realized he too is just eating and playing his Ipad. This was huge progress and SO rewarding. eating regular meals at a table for a week and he "got it" in a way he never does when people just hand him food and he resists for attention. I'm actually really sad that that part of the trip ended. 

-Him coming into our bedroom to wake us up because the sun was up. 

I then slept all day Monday, had a wicked headache I couldn't shake all day tuesday, and Wednesday was productive and then went to work. Today is my last day before I return to the regular grind of my real job. 

 I've been reflecting a lot on change this weekend. Rob left me last night to go to a concert and play a memorial video he put together for a musician we knew at the Ren Faire (yes I was invited. no I didn't want to go. I was feeling quiet). I haven't seen said musician in a long time or the band, but looking at the short snippets he shot on his phone it's weird to me that only one of the original band members is remaining from 2006...but then 2006 was 13 years ago. Wasn't my summer romance to his man I married just yesterday? 

So I was sitting at home alone and feeling nostalgic. Last night was the Francaise Dinner and I was feeling nostalgic for the simpler times. I'm sad that an event I loved so much and helped start is a place where I no longer feel welcome. I miss the times when my costume life and friendships didn't feel so damn complicated. I am well aware of my faults and contributions to the great schism but...while I don't want to go back to the way it was before sometimes it's easy to view those times with rose colored glasses. It also feels like last year not seven years ago...where did the time go? I wish the fences could be mended and friendships that are lost could at least not feel like scars and instead like acquaintances. I know at least I'm not the person I was. How could I be? I think something as major as a career change from theater to nursing has to change you in some ways. I hope it's for the better. 

And I do hope that this new group of costumers that I see going to the Francaise Dinner now and I can be friends someday. I do love meeting new people and making new friends. It's kind of strange to realize we aren't the "new" generation of costumers, there's a whole wave who have never heard of LJ or long for the days of dress diaries. Hell they think blogs are out dated probably. 

Well Rob's going to drag me to captain marvel today, perhaps that can pull me out of my nostalgic fog. 

 I'm going to steal a page from brickhousewench and do a good news Friday post. 

1. I survived my work week and I'm off from my real job till Tuesday! I have to do 4 hours on Saturday at the office job but that's just easy fun money.  

2. I got a $3/hr raise at work! for no reason! well not for NO reason but they evaluated everyone's salary and they're trying to "be more competitive" which is crazy to me as they did the same thing last year and I got a $4 raise so yeah in a year I'm up $7!? cray. 

3. I'm going to Disney with my favorite kid for his Make-a-Wish trip and I'm crazy excited! We are going to have SO MUCH fun. It'll be me, him, the director of nursing and the recreational therapist. Sometime in March not sure the exact dates yet. Rob's thinking of going to disney at the same time and staying with his friend Ryan who works there and we could meet up for dinner or something. 

4. Ellie got groomed on Tuesday so she's super soft and less sheddy. 

5. Ellie starts class on Monday! It's her second level obedience class which is the pre-requisite for the therapy dog class. I'm also stupid excited for that.

6. I did some sewing on my 1830s stays. I got all the gores put in and I'm up to the "now you have to figure out the cording pattern, oh and where did you PUT the cording" 

Today my plan is to work on the cording, poke the embroidery, and find the coffee table as I have friends coming for sewing day on Sunday which I'm greatly looking forward to.  

I finished row 1 of the embroidery of my pelerine. And considering I only started it on the 4th I'm pleasantly surprised how well it's gone.



I started it once before with some cheaper voile and it was NOT working, so I ordered some of the farmhouse fabrics voile and it was a whole new world.




This tambour thing is fun! no wonder people like it.



Step 2 is a second row below the first. I didn't think I'd ever have time. HA. apparently this goes faster than I thought. I'm feeling the Katherine buzz and it is guuuuud.

 I totally understand if my potential parenthood isn't interesting to you, but honestly it's a huge THING that we're starting to unpack, and well I need to unpack it. So feel free to skip if my OBGYN planning isn't of interest. 

( I'll even put it behind a cut )

Prepare for a long rambley event post. I've not even going to put it behind a cut as no one reads this thing anymore but people who claim to like event posts.

It was determined that hiraimi 's house was the most central point of departure and that taking on car was best because of the cost of parking. So I rolled out to her house and was EARLY in fact I was the first one there. I know, what world is this! We were all there by noon, carefully packed (five costumers don't pack...lightly) it's a really good thing it was only a one night event. And we were off!

The drive was smooth, I texted mandie_rw 's imaginary boyfriend taunting things. We discussed cabbages and kings and made very good time. The sexy Scotsman (as we have named blackcat452 's Highlander) was a very comfortable ride so despite being packed in around us we were very comfy and made great time. Arriving at the hotel pretty much at 3 on the nose.

I did the easiest historical hair I've ever done. I had put my hair in pin curls the night before and just took them out, pulled it half back and pinned. I put on a thick layer of make up, my rosacea has been horrible lately. I really think I'm due to see a dermatologist, and got dressed again in record time. I'm NEVER dressed before mandie_rw by 4:00 we were toddling down the hall to collect the other room and by 4:37 we were calling for a very confused Lyft driver.





I kind of am having a love affair of Alice in curly bangs. I know she can't have them every day because ew hairstyling every day, but boy do I love them on her.



We arrived at Carolyn's maybe 10 min later and were some of the first people to arrive. Her house is AMAZING. The woodwork alone was enough to make my heart swoon. Then all the fire places and Christmas decor and and and *happy sigh*



The Victorian Photography Studio was there taking tintypes and while I did buy one of mandie_rw and I (in which we're BOTH making epic derp face) I also took a long hair one with Taylor and Alice (and felt like my hair wasn't nearly long enough). And one with Carolyn holding her new (antique) sterograph.



Aside from taking photos and eating my body weight in delicious cheese the company was really amazing.



It was satisfying to wear the alphabet dress again, and get more decent photos. I thought the new tiara was a nice addition and my first experiments with worbla.



We came home in the picturesque snow to our hotel STARVING and wandered down to the little "marketplace" they have. I got a salad and Amanda soup. We ate. we chatted. we slept. Then we got up early and headed out through the snowy roads home. The sexy Scotsman did superbly in the snow and we got home with no issues. By 1:30 I was napping on my couch

and now Rob is watching the Eagles game and he is NOT happy...oy

Current status in the Coccagna household. I can hear Rob snoring from the office. Ellie had SO much fun last night. we had a rather impromptu party that I shall call quite successful. Ellie got to throughly sniff mandie_rw 's imaginary boyfriend and deemed him worthy lap status. Poor Tom probably didn't realize he was now going to have to pet her ALL THE TIMEZ. Ellie has the funniest habit of claiming people. "you. you're nice. now you pet me." and just sitting on them/their laps/their feet etc. I suspect Amanda has a dog in her future as he is definitely dog people.

I guess it's not a New Years post if I don't do a costume year in review.

( I didn't make nearly as much as some years. )That got long so I guess I'll do a separate post for my 2019 plans...slash I should really make some 2019 plans.

I told ktlovely and totchipanda that I should post more. So lets have a wee update. Today is a day off for me, and I have a Dr's appointment at 2:30. It's just my annual physical but I'm not looking forward to the inevitable "you need to lose 10lbs" talk that I know is right and earned.

Thank you to those who have sent me Christmas things already, I'm as always behind on my list but have plans.

We put up lighted garland on the mantle for the first time and I think it looks so pretty!



I need to get some kind of...something for the center. And Rob wants to buy a pack of those clip in cardinals that Joann's always sells and I'm totally on board with this plan.

I also did a quick sewing project the other day. I made a gathered 3 panel skirt. I was going to do a circle skirt but I didn't buy enough fabric. What happens when I have zero plan when shopping.



It's just a quilting cotton from the J. Three panels with a 3" hem. I even machine sewed the hem, SHOCKING I KNOW. I'm quite chuffed with how it came out. I look forward to wearing it again at Christmas.

umm what else is new. I've been picking up a bunch of hours to have extra holiday money, but that means less holiday time. My pile of Christmas cards is sitting ready to be addressed and sent...

Roku passed while I was at work yesterday. Rob found him, he had come out of his house and was sitting in the corner for Rob. He looked peaceful and old. 12 years is a very long time for a Chinchilla, way past the expected age for a petstore chin. They tend to be really in-bred and his sibling only lived to be 7. We buried him in the back yard under the flowering quince that I love so much. I cleaned up and disposed of his cage last night because I could bear to see it sitting there empty. But now there's a very empty corner in my living room. He was just a little animal but boy was he a big place in my heart. I hope he's hopped off to find his brother.