I spent yesterday feeling absolutely crappy, sick, and under the weather. My parents came over and Dad and Wonderful Husband fixed the master bath toilet, and Wonderful Husband made dinner for us all. Today, though, I recovered, and spent a good part of the day weeding the side yard. Which is nowhere near weeded enough! But it's better than it was, which will have to do, since it's now dark out.

After several hours of that, I moved on to roses.

I love roses. I admire something that's so pretty, smells so good, and yet has such vicious built-in defense mechanisms. I love the Gamble Fragrance Award winners list; it has always given me a starting point for a garden. Roses that don't have fragrance are like chocolate cake that doesn't contain real chocolate.

Last year I'd ordered roses from David Austin Roses. (Which are not cheap. But their English roses are lovely and by and large have stronger scent than most modern versions.) But of the roses I'd ordered, three died on me. One I bought later in the year, as a replacement for one of the ones that'd died, and was not under their warranty. But the other two I submitted claims for, and a couple weeks ago I got a invoice back from them with a zero balance and red circles on the photos I'd submitted, telling me what I'd done wrong. I assumed this meant they'd rejected my claim, and was torqued.

But this week, a box arrived on my doorstep. I opened it yesterday, and it contained bare-root replacements for the two roses that had died! So I followed directions, soaked their roots overnight, and decided where I was going to plant them. The bed in question, of course, was completely overrun with devil grass. Cue Wonderful Husband and myself sweating and grunting for an hour or so to clear about twelve square feet. After re-fluffing up the dirt, I planted and fed the roses, watered them in, then came in and cleaned up, and we went off to the theater.

To see Beauty and the Beast (2D)! Which, hmm, shows its age slightly; I think animated films have gotten a little more subtle over the years. But it definitely still holds up and is nothing that Disney should ever be ashamed of. I'm looking forward to Disney's re-release of The Little Mermaid next year, to see how that holds up on the big screen. I'm also looking forward to Brave, and contemplating seeing if I can find a good fabric to use for cosplaying Merida's mother. The short Tangled film before BatB, about Rapunzel and Eugene's wedding, was amusing. I wish Disney would do a whole series of short films about Rapunzel and Eugene dealing with her newly refound family, her learning to be a princess, him learning to be respectable....

I'm still running on midnights. In fact, I suspect I'm going to keep running on midnights until Costume Con is done. But with Wonderful Husband's help, this weekend I got the voluminous sleeves cut, appliqued, and piped, and the body of the blouse cut and sewn. I need to stop at the fabric store on the way home... I need a slightly larger cord to make the neckline piping, and to exchange the 9" zipper for a 7" one.

To do tonight:
--sew sleeves on
--add on gold lame bias tape around hem
--hand sew in side zipper, hook, and eye
--cut, sew, and apply thicker gold piping to neckline
--finish neckline
--sew shoulder strap fabric (x2) to interfacing

As Wonderful Husband began heating soup for dinner (and can anyone tell me why split pea soup always tastes markedly better on the second day? Even he commented on it...), I went to the sink to start washing up dishes. Except he told me to go sew, because "I'd rather deal with the dishes than deal with you if you fall behind."

^_^;;;;

So true. So very, very true.

So now the underdress is done except for (1) sewing in the zipper, (2) sewing in a hook and eye above the zipper, and (3) sewing on supplementary straps which will have to wait until stitchy comes over again. And the center back seam is basted closed and the zipper is pinned in, so all it needs is for me to thread a needle and start.

And there is blue glitter all over my floor, my trousers, and (according to Wonderful Husband) my lips.

I am sooooo glad this ain't gonna be in my luggage....

WET. Windy! But mostly wet today.

Wonderful Husband and I braved the rain to go to a mystery screening from Dreamworks today. Fortunately, unlike the last one we tried to attend, the line was inside the building. We were guessing either Kung Fu Panda 2 or Puss in Boots. Lucky us, it was Kung Fu Panda 2! The film was about 90% completed (some scenes had the animation done, but not the texture/lighting added yet), and if you liked the first, the second will be worth seeing. It's not quite as good, but it is very definitely good. We filled out opinion cards and it will be interesting to see what changes if any get made based on our feedback.

Skirts done. Time to cut out tabard/bodice/obi...

Yesterday after I got home I was pretty much incapacitated after I got home. Screaming headache that nothing seemed to kill. Not painkillers, not drinking lots of liquid in case I was dehydrated, not food, not even cookies in case my blood sugar was low. Wonderful Husband gave me shoulder and backrub at bedtime, which helped me fall asleep pretty much immediately. I'm going to blame it all on the time change and not enough sleep. Or something like that.

ANYHOW. Despite this, and with his help, I managed to take apart the mockup for stitchy's costume underdress. My challenge is to make the actual underdress in time for her to try on this Friday. And if I do, I can go to the Fashioning Fashion exhibit at LACMA this weekend. Next weekend is the last weekend, and I'd reallyreally like to go.

Kyou no tema wa kore desu! A skirt (two layers). An underskirt (again, two layers). A bodice (lined, with three rounds of trim). A tabard (lined, two rounds of trim). A waist stay. A zipper. And two straps pinned on for now since they'll need to be positioned to be hidden under the "blouse" of the outfit.

And the clock is ticking.