Averygoodun's Personal File

Though, I must say that the time spent away from the computer was fairly good. After all, I reread "Goodnight, Mr. Tom" and read "Plum Spooky" and "Cotillion" - my first ever Heyer. I can see why so many of you love her work. I just wish the library had "The Grand Sophy". Ach well.

So, in the time I was forced to stay away from the computer, I have:

( not done all that much, really... )

I did not:
( do a lot more than I list here )

It rained something fierce here today. Again. This time it actually caused one black and three brown-outs, though. I think the blackout is what fixed the computer, as we hadn't actually rebooted the modem, silly us. But MN decided to be nice and fix the problem for us. Yay! Now I just need to hook up the usb thingy and download all my photos and voila! Wheeness.

Shame about Geoff's computer, though. I don't have access to PS anymore. :-(

Anyway, that's about all that's on my mind right now. Sad, ain't it?


ETA Note to self: Do not take plaq on empty stomach. ALWAYS eat something before taking the stuff. Eating immediately after taking it is NOT the same as eating beforehand and you WILL regret it.

And it only took... oh, five months? Six? Seven?

I basically finished my birthday present today! I am not 100% satisfied with the results as there are some errors that are glaringly obvious to me (and one part I will probably have to do over), and I know how much I fudged it, but, it is done, and it looks loads better than the old, ratty, holey version did.

Now I just have to clean room, rearrange pics and then I will post pictures of my accomplishment.

It really does look so much better. Too bad I didn't take a before picture. Oh well.

ETA:
( Not perfect, but better than the battered 80's stripes )

Everything takes longer than anticipated, doesn't it? At least I'm doing something, though. (I'm feeling much better, although I cheated on my diet big time yesterday. I refuse to feel guilty, though.)

I am approximately 7/8ths done with my birthday present to myself. And may I say, I hate sewing corners. Hate hate hate. I'm not fond of pinning them, either. I'd say I have about an hour of work left for today, then another couple of hours work for tomorrow before I finish the basic shell. THen comes the decorating, which will be time consuming, but it's something that can be done in front of the tv, Which will be a relief.

I'm not sure I like the fabric I chose for this project now that I see it almost done, but I shall live with it. Besides which, mollyssister's PIF gift will look absolutely smashing with it. I shall have to choose a different fabric for covering our side table (the a/c box, now with a/c in it), but that will be easy enough. Basic black should look very nice. And then my black furry pillows can come back to the living room as well. Yay!

When I'm done, I'm going to have to rearrange my artwork again. And then I shall take piccies and spam you lot.

I'm not going make plans for myself, as I always manage to sabotage myself after a few weeks, but it would be nice to finish maybe one smallish project a week from now till I leave. Give me a break from the on-going medium projects, like SMHC, exchange fic, artsies and such. And then, when I come back from Canada, I would come home to a place that looks really quite nice, minus a few glaring, huge and costly spots (like the bathroom, the office, the floors...). By the time I get back, I shouldn't be able to see the glaring spot in the backyard, as it should be covered with snow. I hope.

But now I should get back to the grindstone. Only an hour, though. I'll be too tired after that, and I'll start making serious mistakes. So, I hope I finish within the hour. :-)

( Oh, and I'm still Voldemort, supposedly. bwa ha ha. )

Um, how do you adjust pants? I need to take in the waist a bit (the hips fit perfectly, thank goodness), and I'm not quite sure how, though my thinking is to take in the side seams a fraction, and, if that isn't enough, enlarge the back darts as well. I don't really want to increase the darts, though, because I think that'll skew the shape and make it pucker more noticeably.

Yes, I will be playing around with it myself (after all, what I'm working on right now is just the muslin draft), but any advice you can offer would be appreciated.

Already I know that I have to shorten it quite a bit. Bah. But... better to be wasting thread re-sewing this together (and I think I've re-sewn it 3 times already!) than to waste the fabric.

And oooh, do I have some nice fabric for these pants.


So, anyway, that's what's been occupying most of my mind lately. The exchange has been another part, and my lousy, lousy drawing has been yet another. Really, I should post this particular drawing as an example of why not to draw without the muse. I haven't drawn something so out of proportion and... stiff for a decade! Well, drawn and considered it good. I'm trying to make something out of it, but I don't know if I'll be able to. It's an illustration from the last posted chapter of SMHC... and if I can't even illustrate my own piece, my chances of illustrating professionally are pretty slim.

I will say that I got Snape and Hermione's faces and expressions (and Snape's hair!) to just about how I picture them in my mind. Just not their pose. :P

Oh, and speaking of getting hair right, Geoff just came home, and he finally, finally, finally got a hair cut! He's not shaggy anymore, but shaggable! Yay. (I'm not critical of other's appearances... except for hair. I'm not picky about the style as long as it suits the person (ironic, really, as I'm lousy at doing my own hair). Geoff's face really, really needs a short 'do, and it's been about 2 inches too long for about 4 months now. Although, looking at him the other night... If he wanted to go for the beach-geek look, he would look pretty damn hot with his hair about 2 inches longer than it was. If we ever move to the tropics, I'll suggest he adopt that look. :D )

Anyway, that's what's up here. Oh, that and I've actually been cooking up a storm. That beet salad with garlic sauce in the Greek recipe post is really, really good (and very garlicky), btw. And I forgot just how good quinoa is, as well. And... well, let's just say I've enjoyed the fruits of my labor. :-)

Oh, and an aside... the hematite has been working wonders in regulating my mood. I don't know if it's just grounding me, or if it is warding off others' energies, but I have been on an extraordinarily even keel since I started wearing it. Yay! Still tired, and occasionally fed-up, but no extreme reactions one way or the other.  It's like natural valium, without the side effects!