More Clothing!

What finally got me off my ass and sewing the purple bathrobe I posted the other day?  I'll be driving to Dallas this weekend with friends for a spa day at King Spa & Waterpark. I. CANNOT. WAIT.  I mean, can you imagine a cooler place to hang out?  It's a spa WITH SLIDES.  Seriously, you guys.

So, in addition to the pretty robe, I whipped together a couple of other things for this coming weekend:

Pants To PJs

In my SCA travels, I frequently end up in hotel rooms during and after events - long trips often require a break and a hot shower before the road trip back, and sometimes events are rained (or frozen, or baked) out and a group of us will end up bailing on the camping idea and just hotel it for the event.  And I'm always the dump truck in the ratty old Iron Maiden tshirt and men's boxers, hehe.  So I decided to do something about that for this coming weekend.

This set was made from an old pair of wrap pants I purchased a million years ago and then never wore because they were too short.  I cut the legs off and hemmed the resulting shorts, then made the top out of the pant legs that I had removed, like this: 

(I sewed the rectangular pants legs together at the sides, hemmed the top, and
ran a single drawstring through both front and back at the top, to form straps). 

And Of Course, 

A girl needs a swimsuit at a spa/waterpark (spaterpark?)  While I'm an admitted swimsuit junkie, I currently don't have any that fit me properly AND that I wanted to actually wear.  This weekend is an event:  it requires a new suit, dangit!  Tee-hee.  

After testing out patterns on a couple of old tshirts (and assing them up completely. Three times), I decided to go with an "Infinity Dress" style top to wear with some plain black suit bottoms I already have:  

I used a pattern based on the one in this blog post.  The only changes I made were to shorten the skirt drastically and gather the top edge a bit so it would flare over hips and stomach, omit the waistband entirely, and to shorten the "tube top" section into one that would function AS a waistband and also cover just my bust instead of my entire torso.  The fabric is a slinky, shiny, jersey knit that I've had laying around for years.  The teal-and-purple knotwork design at the bottom is printed directly on the selvage edge of the fabric. 

It's hard to see the upper edge of the back in these pics, since my mannequin, Violet, is wearing a black tshirt at the moment (I really need to make her a proper cover), so I put a red arrow in the second picture so you can see how high the back is.  

I'm doing a great job not sewing for a while, huh?  

FUCK. 

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Success!

As I promised myself, I've hit the ground running after my cruise (after I slept for two days).  SCA's Gulf Wars is in March, and a large percentage of my free time between now and then is going to be devoted to working on my costumes and campsite elements for that event;  but I do have a few things planned around the house.  In fact, last night, after finishing a costume project I've been working on for some months, I hit my craft room like a tornado and cleaned it the heck UP.   I even moved my project board to a new place on the wall (where it'll be more useful), and hung up some new artwork, and a clock.

In the next couple of months, you can expect to see:

• the progress in the craft room, and some more changes to it
• changes to the headboard in the bedroom, as well as the art wall
• a new gallery wall in the hallway next to the living room
• more painted ceilings
• new wall color in the guest bath
• yardwork - can I get the garden going again this year, finally? 
• general house maintenance, including some effort going into saving energy and money on my electric bill, because holy crap. 0_0  

Slowly, but surely.  Incidentally, if you're interested in the SCA costume/reenactment stuff, there's a link to that blog at the top right of this page; or you can visit it here to see what I've been sewing. 

Cruisin'

Whew!  Okay, for a first cruise, that was pretty awesome.  We had a fabulous time both on the ship and in Cozumel.  I very nearly did not come back.  ;)

Now.  Back to business...

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And now back to your regularly-scheduled...

A short time-out to say  OMG YOU GUYS I'M TOTALLY GOING ON A CRUISE IN JANUARY WITH MY BFF!!!   

• So.  Much. Shopping to do.  OMG.  
• read up on cruise vacations and find out (a) what is available to do and (b) what I'll need in order to do those things (off-ship excursions, nighttime activities, on the ship, etc.)
• get passport  ← in progress
• do I need to get vaccinations of any sort?   ←  nope 
• find out about current travel regulations regarding luggage, containers, etc.  I haven't been out of the country for about eleven years, and I've never been on a cruise before in my life
• I have a brand-new swimsuit that I adore, but I can't wear the same one for 5 days.  More swimsuits, stat!  
• finish paying off the tickets (by November);  save up $$ to spend while on the cruise (food, drink, off-ship activities, postcards to send back to friends, etc.) 
• schedule vacation time with work - done!  
• we're driving to the coast to catch the boat:  should we pay to park for a week, or rent a car there and back? 

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ೋ   ♫♪♫    ~ ~SQUEE!!!  ~ ~    ♫♪♫  ೋ 

╚═════════ ೋღ❤ღೋ ═════════╝

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Straight from Nature to You

Aw, man!  I took ALL these pictures of the awesome lounge area we made around our campsite this weekend, and most of them didn't come out.  Most of the close-up shots worked okay, though they don't give you any idea of how *badass* our campsite area was.

We pitched our tents in a circle around a group of three trees and four large, flat boulders next to the creek.  Between them we laid out piles and piles of rugs, cushions, blankets, and pretty sarongs and tapestries spread all over the ground to sit and lay down on.  Naps were taken, songs were sung, and food was eaten here.  This candle lantern, from my living room, hung directly over the center of the lounge area.

We burned incense nearly constantly throughout the weekend.  I was surprised how well the scent of Nag Champa & Amber went with the scents of hot dogs and marshmallows, LOL. 

Everyone contributed to the altar/shrine design.  There were symbols and tools and Goddesses from at least three different spiritual traditions on our group altar.  We figured they'd all get along with each other.  I really can't imagine any god not having a sense of humor about their silly little humans.  ;) 

I *love* the bright colors we ended up with.  LOTS of blue and gold and purple everywhere you looked, completely by chance.  :)

The remains of the community bonfire from Friday night (this is like 15' across!), with smoldering stumps looking for all the world like feet sticking up out of the sand on a beach.  :)

Looking down the creek from my campsite.

Ripening persimmons  in the trees hanging over my campsite.  I brought several home that I picked from the tree and from the ground below it, in various stages of ripeness and/or decay, to see if I can start a tree of my own at home.  :)

A painted tree stump I found in the woods. 

And, finally...

Proof that I really was there, lol.  I almost never get pics of myself when I go places.  But I started my own little tradition when I was 15:  everywhere I go on any sort of vacation, I take a picture of my feet in that place.  One day, when I sort them all into some sort of album, the feet pictures will be my cover/title page for each vacation.  :) 


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