Tea and Today's To-Do

Yesterday I went off to Cyn's "Terrible Teens" tea party, which inspired me to indulge in a late-night sewing session Friday to make something to wear for it (the Past Patterns "Armistice Blouse" and a plain gathered skirt in the same pale blue linen batiste), although matching costume was not required, only appreciated. There are a couple of fixes I want to make in the outfit before it settles into that "completed -- and therefore not to be changed" state: the skirt wants a set of tucks near the hem, and the central placket needs to be about an inch taller (which should be easy since it's a separate piece).


It was a lovely afternoon of nibbling on delicious era-appropriate food, drinking tea, and indulging in wide-ranging conversation with a group of intelligent and personable women. (There was also one very very young man present, but he isn't up to engaging in conversation yet.) There's been a series of tea parties being held among an amorphous group of locals who think the idea of tea parties is really cool -- this is the first of them I've actually been able to make.

I've put in my bid to do one in January (need to pin down which of the currently-open weekends to schedule it for) as I've wanted for ages to use my great-great-grandparents' tea service for its proper purpose. I'll probably use the 1870s as the target for the food, since that spans the majority of their married life.

Today is unscheduled (thank goodness!) which means I have an entire to-do list ahead of me.
* Move the computer desk upstairs (with accompanying arrangements upstairs) so that the loom can be put into its home.
* Take pictures of the loom to send to the descendent-of-the-manufacturing-company with inquiries whether they can help me with some replacement cables for it.
* Try the two most-likely fixes for the kernal panic of the iMac.

And, of course, continue my successful stint at IWriSloMo and put in another day's efforts at novel writing. (I haven't always written much on any given day, but I've written something every day.)

About that to-do list

The nice thing about personal to-do lists is that one is not in the least obligated to accomplish them. I slept in to the decadent hour of 8am then went off for an extended semi-recreational shopping trip. Picked up some new DVDs, some shoes of the same style that I've previous bought about 6 pair (I have a solidly "guy" attitude towards shoes -- when you find something that works, keep buying it until they stop making it, then grumble a lot), a new teacup in my china pattern, thread and buttons for the fix-it work on the 1910s outfit, more than I intended in the way of organizational gadgets at The Container Store (that place is dangerous!), and some assorted mini-gourmet food items at Cost Plus to restock the car-camping-kitchen. Enjoyed a leisurely dinner of lamb rib-roast with sauted onions, mushrooms, and artichoke hearts, with mini cheesy biscuits on the side. Then did all the machine sewing for the fix-it items (tucks on the skirt, new tucked placket for the blouse front) and carefully removed the clamp-on snaps that I'd put on as a quick-and-dirty substitute for making button holes. Fortunately, the little prongs that fasten the halves of the snaps together had only pushed the threads aside and after being removed you couldn't even tell they'd been there. It was a vast waste of the snaps (which can't be re-attached to something else once the prongs have been bent) but they were way too heavy for the batiste, and besides which I'd put them wrong way round on the cuffs. So now I'll actually make buttonholes and add buttons, as well as adding hooks-and-eyes on the skirt waistband (rather than depending on safety pins). There: now you know all my dirty secrets about my one-night sewing project.

The only remaining must-do is my writing for the night, and so to bed.