Been a heck of a while...

The new job has taken a lot out of me.  Long, ridiculous hours meant most of August and September I was either working or sleeping.  There was a little time spent eating and eventing, but very little in comparison.

I know I promised a tutorial on Livia's hairstyle, but there are computery issues preventing that for right now.  But it is not forgotten, that particular hairstyle has been on my mind for quite a while.  The Boy and I entered the Summits' Coronet Lysts last month, and I wore that particular hairstyle to show off.  I looked fantastically Roman, enough that the Prince (a Roman Persona himself) gave The Boy approval for having a Roman lady on his arm.

I'm also turning that recreation into a full on A&S entry for the Baronial Championship in January.  I'm going to try to keep the cloak in the family so to speak.  I'm getting started on documentation now, partially because I want to do it right, and mostly because I'm currently motivated.

Also in the time that I've failed to post I was given two awards at the Barony's fall event.  The Baronial Brownie, Adiantum's first tier service award, a recognition of attendance, support, and promotion of the Barony.  Kind of like a Baronial AoA.  I was also given the Fern and Quill, the Barony's arts award, specifically for skill and generosity with hairdressing.  The current B&B will be stepping down in a few months, and I believe that Morrghan, the Baroness, wanted to be the one who gave me this award.  There was mention of how recently we'd moved into the barony, and if we were to move she'd steal the alternator from the car.  It's wonderful to be recognized for the hair styling up here.  I hadn't done much research into authentic styles back in Ansteorra, but was mostly a "get it off my neck" hairdresser.

We (The Boy, a few friends and I) went up to Honor Feast last weekend, hosted by the Portland group.  The event was fun, if a bit common as far as events go.  The "ball" was more of a class, but fun despite it's short time frame. The Boy and I made contacts with the Dance Master/Mistresses from up northerly way, and got to help with their issues with Parson's Farewell.  They were trying to reconstruct it and were getting caught in a couple sections, so we taught it the way we'd learned it in Ansteorra.  They seemed giddy to discover we knew the dance, and we kind of blew apart the ball right there in order to teach it to them.  We're now plotting to start up a dance night in the Salem group, so that the dancers from Eugene and Portland can descend upon a central area and take over.  I also got my hairdressing name out there further, hopefully people will recognize me in the future.  I chose to wear the 1515 Florentine for the day, not something I usually wear, but I looked damn good that day.

Hope to have more to say in the coming months, and more time to say it.

An attempt at a Roman hairstyle is forthcoming...

So I'm planning an A&S project for February-ish, which is recreating a Roman hairstyle without Janet Stephens having done it first!  I'm working on my recreation right now, and photographing the steps in perhaps more detail than is really necessary.  I'm hoping to get a basic write up done either tonight (yeah right!) or in the next couple days.  It's not exactly easy, because it is hard to juggle the hair and the camera in the tiny overheated bathroom, but I'm trying.  I can see why Janet Stephens uses a cosmetology head and video camera for her demos, once it's set up on the stand and tripod, you don't have to move them so much.

I wish I could just ask The Boy, but he found out earlier that the paper he thought was due on Monday, is in fact due tomorrow morning.  But this is my last guaranteed free night for a while, so I thought'd I'd get some use out of it.  Tomorrow, I go sign the paperwork for my NEW JOB!

That's right, new job.  It's not an amazing job, in fact I wouldn't have considered it back in January, but being without work for seven months has done a number on my self worth, and having any job has made me feel validated.  The hours aren't great, lots of extremely early mornings, late nights and weekends, but the paycheck will help us out so much.  And that's really all I feel I can say.  There's some strict policies about mentioning the company online, and I don't want a stray post to come back to bite me.

A little more water and back to the heat of the bathroom.

In Service to the Hair,

P

Trossfrau standstill, and 15th cent german

So I'm getting no where on my Trossfrau.  I can't afford to buy the trim I need for the tross, and that prevents me from really getting started on my dress, which is silly, but not completely unreasonable.  I should do a mock up of the bodice based on the pattern, and work on the hemd for underneath.  That would at least get me some progress.  Who doesn't like new undies?


So 15th cent german clothes are slowly edging into my desires.  I have so much free time right now since I'm unemployed, which causes me to daydream about what I'd make with money if I had it, which is silly because if I had a job, then I would have the money, but wouldn't have all this free time.  I'd probably get more done than I do now, because I suck at time management when I have lots of time.


The main wishful thinking project is a 15th cent german dress, maybe like the ones from the Housebook Master, though I'm really in love with Hans Part (Babenberger Stammbaum).  I haven't decided on linen or wool, color or details really, but I want one of them.  The 3/4 sleeves and variety of bodice details make me more excited for this style than I've ever been for any gothic fitted dress.  I've seen GFDs, I've made GFDs, I'm no longer interested because everyone seems to have one.  The quest to be slightly more unique strikes again.


In other "news" I've recently become a convert to joined together braided pigtails.  I know it sounds weird, but those german ladies knew what they were doing.  I've never believed that anyone went around with loose hair, maiden or otherwise.  My hair tangles at the thought of being loose, braids are the only way to keep my hair from rats nests.  Especially now that it's just past my waist, longest it's ever been!  A pair of pigtails are more functional than loose hair, and cuter too.  But I've found that they still slip over my shoulders at inconvenient times and get into whatever I happen to be bent over working on (frequently the dishes).  So for the most recent workday at the Egils site, I tied the two braids together.  Though they slipped sideways, they never got far over my shoulder and didn't get in the way of my work.  Crazy eh?  And after the work day, when we're headed home soaked from the rain, I twisted the loop around my head and ended up with a relatively secure, if goofy, hairstyle; exactly like the hairstyle from the Unicorn Tapestries too.


Speaking of hair, we're heading out the door to go see Tangled, again for The Boy, first time for me!

I miss being employed...

I haven't bought fabric in what feels like ages. (It was like last month really)  I want to buy some linen or wool to work on a 15th c german dress to go with my cute red fringe hat.  Not a huge number of people do 15th c german, though you can find it on several peoples websites.  And yes, I do realize that I'm not capitalizing german, it's conscious.  Germany didn't exist as a country until well after SCA's period, but germanic groups existed then.  So I'm trying to be more accurate.

And more unique.  I like the idea of doing something different from most people.  The group I've moved into already has someone who is "The Roman Lady,"  and although I do it better, (full of modesty I am, or full of something) it's not going to get me the little bit of notoriety that I want.  For some reason, I want to be known for something.  I'm usually a pretty quiet person, rather self-conscious for the most part, but I want to have a little local famous.  Or maybe a little internet famous.

But I don't have any fabric to do a new dress out of.  I also need to buy the fabric to do the guards and lining for my trossfrau.  I could just use something cheap from Jo-ann, but I don't have the money for that right now either.  I'd like a good wool flannel for the guards in a rusty/dusty orange and a blueish red.  They'll be fantastic with the greyed blue wool of the dress.  I've had this color combination in my head for years.  While my wifey and I were shopping at High Fashion Home in Houston, I came across a piece of trim that had those colors in it.  The trim wasn't really anything worth buying, a brocaded something that didn't really look like anything period, but it was a gorgeous color combo and it has stuck with me for years.

I'd like a blue linen for my bodice lining.  I could use the leftovers from The Boy's gambeson, if I ever get my ass in gear on that project.  I can't decide if I'm going to line the sleeves or not.  I don't think so, mostly because of the slashes in the sleeves.  I'm hoping that I'll have a job soon so I can buy some fabric when the opportunity arises.  If I can't find the time in April, I think I'll see about shopping in Portland when we go up to pick up Himself's parents when they come for a visit.  That means I have plenty of time to research where to go buy what I'm looking for.

The gambeson needs another mock up, since I didn't draft in a waist seam before.  I should really work on that sometime this week and get the patterns finished so I can move on.  The thing I never noticed before about dress diaries is the long amount of time it takes to finish something.  It's not really taking me any longer to do these projects than anything else, but because I'm trying to keep track of it, it feels like I'm taking FOREVER between steps.  Must chill.  It will be done when it will be done.

Job Interview on Friday...

Part Time Teller at Chase.  It's no where near what I want to do for a living, but it's so much better to look for a job while employed.  And I'm fine with my work being completely separate from my life, so work is at work and fun is at home.

I so want to be employed.

Please can I have this job?

Job hunting makes me cry...

That is all

I swear...

Trying to find a new job is the most ridiculously convoluted rabbit hole I've ever been down!


I find an interesting job posting on one page, that I'm already registered for.  It takes me to another job site I have to register with to read the whole description.  I have to go to the actual company's page and register with them to actually apply for the bloody thing, and I'm pretty damn certain that my five years at a fabric store don't convey anything to me about healthcare or dental insurance.

So I go to the second webpage to see what they have that the first page didn't.  And now I'm registering for yet another bloody fucking page because no one posts a job on every page, they post one job on one page, and that page posts the job on another page and so on and so forth until I want to scream and cry and run back to Houston where I know I can get my old job back even if it wasn't that good to begin with because at least then I'd be fucking employed.  And that was a drastically run on sentence.

fuck.