A Lucid Moment

I have been feeling encouraged lately. People have taken me shopping and given advice on projects and given me bits and pieces that will contribute to Getting Things Done™. So tonight will hopefully see the genesis of a couple of things.

The fixie needs its back tyre mended and its handlebars wrapped. I have recently been gifted with a set of bars that will likely give me the perfect amount of extra reach and drop. I’ll get the old grips off them tonight and fit them. They’ll probably require that I get a new brake cable as the existing one will be cut too short to suit but once I get that and some new bar tape, it’ll have a whole new character that I think I’ll love even more than I do its existing one, which is saying something because I adore that bike.

I have a voluminous man’s shirt that I bought from an op shop because it has a funky mandarin collar and I love the fabric. It’s huge though and a bulky masculine cut. I’ve unpicked the breast pocket and after receiving some much appreciated advice and help with pinning, the plan is to sew darts into the front and close the rear pleat so it fits as a long, feminine cut shirt. This is my initial foray into breaking out the sewing machine and deciphering out it works. After that I have cloth originally meant for shirts but which may well become sundresses or similar, possibly after making the first one out of an old bedsheet or something so that I can learn from my mistakes on fabric that I don’t care about. I spent the bulk of my lunch break making a foray to Clegs so I now have a little container with four different coloured pieces of chalk. I've been warned off using the blue or pink on white which is good because otherwise I would have. The other two are white and yellow so I suppose yellow is the obvious choice.

This will lead into making garb, just like I keep banging on about. I’ll start with something simple and there are plenty of things that revolve around sewing squares and triangles together so once I actually decide what to make, work out fitting get some fabric and stop sewing my fingers together I should be away. I really want to sort garb out because I’m sort of re-emerging into the SCA (booked for the Krae Glas baronial invest, yay! Going to sing, double yay!) and I don’t want to do that in my boy garb, no matter how much I like it and love that it was made for me. I’m also no longer dressed by Laurels and frankly I should probably learn to dress myself. I suddenly have a body and a social context that makes clothes interesting to me and they never really were before so this is all new. I’m having a blast exploring it and I’m delighted at the support I’m getting. This translates into a desire to toy with them in terms of making and modifying. Hello vertical learning curve which is always a fun thing.

The other part of personal appearance which will involve a vertical learning curve is cosmetics. It’s not something I plan to make much use of but at the moment I don’t dare because if I try to apply them I’ll look like the over excited 8 year old who decided to play with Mum’s makeup. This would be bad. So there will be purchasing and advice seeking and experimenting at home.

Other than that I have a nice enamelled cast iron casserole dish that’s going to be loaded up with leek and mushroom and tomato and lentils and olives and whatever else strikes my fancy…it’s about time I had something without meat in it and lentil bake sounds nice. Browning and deglazing the leek and stuff on the stovetop first before adding the rest of the stuff and baking should work well. I think it’s also time to move the chest of drawers out from under the loft bed where it’s a pain in the arse to get to and use that for bike storage and sundries as I always intended. This might actually make my bedroom a nicer place to be although I’m damned if I can work out how to get into the light to replace the dead globe.

Forty minutes left before I go home, I’ll be posting this as I leave work. Want to go home now.

[edit:]

Dinner cooked and yummy, bedroom largely reorganised and bike fixed (the brake cable *was* long enough and the other tyre worked, yay! I can ride it tomorrow and just need to wrap the bars). Useful cutting tools and conversation provided by 10B and sewing project relegated to tomorrow evening at the usual open house dinner and chat time. I think I'm pleased.