Fibromyalgia & The Spoon Theory

Several years ago, I read this, found it to be a great analogy for my Fibromyalgia, and then somehow lost the link and forgot to go back and find it again. http://www.butyoudontlooksick.com/wpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/BYDLS-TheSpoonTheory.pdf
As much as I would like to print the entire text here, copyright restrictions prevent that. The author suffers from Lupus, which is also a disease whose patients often look perfectly healthy. She came up with this analogy when she was trying to explain her Lupus to a good friend, who did know the medical definition, but had trouble grasping the reality of living with such a disease.
Now, I've never bothered to count my spoons, but I learned long ago to listen very carefully to what my body is telling me, lest I use that last spoon before it is time to crawl into my bed for the night.
I'll start at what I believe is the beginning of my life with Fibromyalgia. In 1997, I had graduated from college with my shiny new Bachelor of Arts in History, and absolutely no job prospects within my field, as I'd already figured out that I am entirely too independent of a thinker to last in a classroom. I was working for a dairy transportation company, in their payroll/HR department. When my insurance kicked in, I made an appointment with a doctor that I knew and trusted, for a complete physical. I was tired all the time, had a constant headache, the back of my neck and between my shoulder blades hurt most of the time, my lower back felt like it was on fire by midafternoon, and my knees had been bothering me more than the usual arthritis that I'd had for several years. I was honest with him and told him that I was taking ibuprofen like candy (as Tylenol, aspirin, and naproxen don't do squat for me), just to keep the pain under control. I realize that I am truly one of the lucky ones. I had a doctor who not only acknowledged the disease, but recognized it without an endless stream of tests and failed attempts to treat other things. He looked at me and said "well, most of these seem unrelated, but when all found together, they are typically a relatively recently recognized disorder called Fibromyalgia" Initial treatment was either Amitrypteline or Nortrypteline, which I took in the evenings before bed, to help me sleep through the night, as his belief was that at least part of the problem was a lack of restful sleep. Those worked for awhile (one stopped working, so we went to the other). I also discovered a year or so later, that I am indeed VERY lucky, because there are a lot of people who are totally disabled by this disease. In the years since my diagnosis, I have been on a variety of therapies, which have included Ambien, Ambien CR, a couple of antidepressants I can't even remember the name of, something for Restless Leg Syndrome, and now I am on a generic form of Wellbutrin SR 150. The Wellbutrin is the only thing that has worked for me long term, and for now, I am able to combine it with OTC sleeping medications to get the rest I need. Ambien worked for less than 6 months, Ambien CR worked for less than a week (yeah, I fell right to sleep, then woke up in about 3 hours, exhausted, but with my brain racing so I couldn't sleep. The RLS drug also woke me up.
Fibro affects everybody differently, and there is no right or wrong therapy, it's a matter of what works best for the patient involved.
My biggest issues are:

1. Inability to sleep well and STAY asleep—my brain races ninety to nuthin for HOURS unless I have something mindless to settle it down. Currently OTC sleep meds, Claritin D (for my allergies), and a handheld solitaire game work pretty well. I also have a "sleepy" mix on my iPod of some of my favorite tunes and songs by musicians and friends, as well as just simply soothing songs & tunes
2. Brain fog – this is sometimes due to the lack of restful sleep, and I'm very aware that it is intensified if I don't get sufficient rest. I have to make more notes in order to remember things,
3. Getting sick more easily – As a child, I was rarely sick, and even after I was grown, until I started suffering from the Fibro, I was generally healthy. I do realize that poor sleep contributes to lowered immunity. I try to avoid people who are sick, and I use a combination of natural products to ward off the multiple respiratory infections that I used to get at least several times a year, and I've not had one turn from a congested nose into an infection in a year and a half
4. Getting fatigued more easily—Again it goes back to the sleeping disorder part of this, and this is a big part of the Spoon Theory. If I use up all of my spoons, I know I am going to be in trouble. I know just how far I can make my body go before it will turn on me and shut down for days.
5. Constant aches and pains – Fortunately, I have been managing the disease relatively well, which has greatly reduced the aches and pains I get, and my Fibro related pains have yet to be enough that I need prescription painkillers.
6. Gastro-intestinal issues – I have always been something of a picky eater, but in the last few years, I have also developed a bit of IBS or something. I've learned which restaurants I can have beef, and which ones I need to stick with chicken, a salad, or an appetizer if I want to finish my meal before I am hitting the ladies' room.

I have learned over the years what my biggest triggers to a flare up are:

1. Being overtired (DUH, right?). I try to get at least 6.5 hours of sleep as a minimum. Ideally, I like to get about 8-8.5. Unfortunately, in my current situation, that doesn't happen very often, because no matter how early I shut down my room, the rest of the house doesn't shut down until at least an hour later, sometimes more.
2. Stress. When I get stressed, my brain goes into hyperdrive and thinks weird, insane, or incredibly negative thoughts. It keeps me from concentrating on anything, and it causes me to go through spoons at an alarming rate. Sometimes it's extraordinary stress, like a death in the family. Other times it's what seems like normal, everyday stuff like traffic.

My management techniques:

1. Take my medication. It helps me to stay awake better during the day, so my brain will shut down and go to sleep at night. The side effect of it is that it's an anti-depressant, which does help keep my moods on an even keel
2. Downtime. For years I lived by myself, and now I live in a house with 3 other adults and a teenager. Sometimes there is just too much activity for me to deal with. It is never my intent to offend anyone, however I know that I NEED my downtime in order to function effectively and conserve spoons. There are evenings that I come home (after I've been gone for almost 13 hours), and just close myself up in my bedroom. My health MUST come before my tendency to try to be social and nice to everybody
3. Regular bedtime & bedtime routine, which lets my brain start shutting down before it's time to actually sleep.
4. Reduce stress, which I can sometimes do, other times I have to just deal with the stress. I've made some great strides in this area in the past couple of years. I've eliminated a couple of people from my world who do nothing but suck energy away from me and drag me down. I have been burned by various people in recent years, and to that end, have decided that it is all about ME. My health and wellbeing are my first priority. I am no longer putting myself second in order to put everybody else first. I realize that it sounds selfish, and for a long time that bothered me. Until I realized that by and large, that's what many other people in my world do, and it's really OK for me to do it too.

I have recently started a new job, which I'm pretty happy with. I like the people, I learn something new at least every week, and I no longer think "well damn, do I REALLY want to get up this morning". I earn a decent wage, and by and large, I don't feel a lot of stress or tension in the office. One of the best things about it is that I work 4 10 hour days, instead of 5 8's. I LOVE having a 3 day weekend every weekend, especially during Scarby season, because it does give me a day to get some stuff done, and get my bag packed for the weekend at faire. This week there are several things on my agenda, and I'm hoping that by getting to bed early tomorrow night, I will wind up with enough spoons to get the majority of it done on Friday.
At any rate, I just wanted to share a bit of information about what it's like to live in my body, with Fibromyalgia. I will get some links posted later, when I'm more awake and functional..By the way, I feared, earlier today that this was going to be a zero spoon day, but I managed to have a small one left by the time I crawled into my bed.
Thanks for reading ya'll

Sherwood Forest Faire Opening Day

I would have loved to have been able to gather my thoughts last night, as soon as I got back home and get this post written, however, that just wasn't happening, since I'd been up 19 hours, after less than 4 hours of sleep, so I was in no condition to do anything except fall into bed! We had great intentions of getting to bed early so we could get up at 4:30 (AKA the buttcrack of o'DARKthirty), in order to be on the road by 5:30, since we knew we had a nearly 4 hour drive, and wanted to be there by at least 30 minutes before cannon at 10, but umm, yeah, it was after midnight by the time we finally settled down to go to sleep. It took us right at 4 hours, because, well, we had to stop and get donuts for breakfast, and there was one bathroom stop on the way down due to the fact that when you combine 2 wenches, both of whom are 1. Sleep deprived, 2. Faire deprived, and 3. Sugar powered, courtesy of Dr Pepper & Donuts without sufficient protein to balance out the sugar/carbs, what you get is a serious case of the giggles, and a desperate need for the privy in about 3 hours. We wound up taking a different route than planned, thinking that perhaps it might be faster… it wasn't, but we made it, and before cannon, though barely.
Going into my review, let me say that I've been going to faire regularly (annually, for a weekend a year, at least) for about 8 years or so, and have had a pass of some sort (FOF, Season, or Participant) for the past 4. Relatively speaking, my experience with different faires is limited, though I try to get to a new faire each year. I've done Scarby (HOME), Middlefaire, TRF, Carolina, Four Winds, PARF, MDRF, Sterling, and now Sherwood. After Sherwood, the youngest of those are Middlefaire and Four Winds. Obviously they are all different, with pros and cons of each.
The parking lot is decent enough in size, though it's pretty sandy terrain, and probably could benefit from a layer of gravel, at least in the parking rows… the drives to those rows are pretty well packed down, but a little rain could easily make the exit from the spaces a HUGE issue because they aren't packed down. My only real complaint is that the handicapped parking is NOT the rows nearest the gate, but is on the far side of the entry drive, instead. We didn't take Brunhilda, Doc's scooter because she's broken, but even if we had, the whole site is not fully accessible with a scooter, because of the sandy terrain, and for people who can't walk well, it's truly not a prime parking space.
There was a great crowd out there. Sherwood's been very well publicized, both to the public, and the rennie community, which resulted in a fabulous turn out. There are also no other TX faires on right now, which is great planning, IMHO. We had a mission, to get into the gates and directly to a stage, since our friend Marc was playing at 10:15, and well, we hadn't seen him since Scottish Fest last summer! We made it, easily, and happily, for Marc, there was a decent little crowd at that first show. Of course, many of us are diehard fans, so, yeah, we were pretty loud.
The site is wonderful, to say the least. Most of the vendor booths are permanent structures, as are all of the food booths. Since I've just been back to work for a week, and haven't gotten paid, I didn't do much shopping, other than window shopping, but I saw lovely things, familiar, and new. There are finishing touches to be done on a few things, several vendors weren't fully stocked yet, or booths weren't quite as finished out as they could be, but overall everything was terrific. I honestly didn't get to several places on the shire, but from the looks of what I DID see, this is a fabulous faire, destined for a wonderful future. The owners have been awesome about inviting folks out over the last couple or 3 years that they've been working on the site and getting things going, to see what the plans and progress were, which, while it did get them free labor, it also gave a lot of folks a feeling of being appreciated by faire management, as well as being a part of the building of a fabulous shire. The size of the shire is comparable to Carolina, Scarby, Sterling, PARF & MDRF. TRF is significantly larger, and both Four Winds & Middlefaire are a good bit smaller.
We had a beautiful day, having taken a variety of cloaks (rain & warmth) in order to help make sure we weren't too cool or too warm. By the time that we were getting ready to go, it was cooling down and we were ready to get into the warm car. Overall, plusses, for me, anyway, are

1. lots of shade and dappled sunshine
2. a good variety of vendors, with permanent structures
3. porta-FLUSHIES in addition to standard porta-pots
4. lots of stages in lots of areas
5. swings available for many ages
6. showers & flushies in camping (at least that's what I hear, since I didn't camp)

Minuses

1. poor handicapped parking options
2. sandy parking areas (driving rows were well packed, but the actual parking spaces were not packed & very sandy)
3. not enough packed pathways in the shire, rendering a lot of areas inaccessible for anyone with mobility issues
4. not enough seating spots, especially around food areas
5. not enough trash receptacles throughout the shire
6. signage was either hard to see, or non-existent, for directions, etc. as far as within the site, all of the shade is wonderful, but it does create a darkness, which means signs need to have more light colors on them.
7. I would have liked to have seen a few more familiar acts, but in all honesty, I didn't see but 2 acts from start to finish, and bits of a couple of others, however I do realize that it takes $ to draw more well known acts, AND that there are at least 2 other major faires which have claimed a number of the big names, so I am hopeful that in future seasons I will be able to see more of my favorites there

A variety of our friends and acquaintances from Scarby and other faires were there, and we had a great time in general. I'm sore today, and I'm sure that tomorrow will be much worse, but I'll get through it, and am trying to figure out $ and whether or not I can get back down there in a couple of weeks for another visit.
Tomorrow I will hopefully get finished with my post about my new job that started last week…. Oh, and get all my links created in here... brain dead righzzzzzzzzzzzz

A Fresh Start

Tomorrow will be an interesting day. Back in January, I submitted my 1028^th resume in response to a posting on the Work in Texas website. The qualifications required generally matched my experience, though the field is not the construction areas I'm specifically experienced in. I didn't hear anything until the first week of February, when I got a phone call to set up an interview. My typical preparation for interviews is to do whatever research I can on the company, in order to have some information going into the process, and to print out some questions that are a combination of general information questions, such as why the position is open and what the timeline to fill the position is, and more in-depth questions, that I believe demonstrate both an interest in the position, but also an ability to think ahead, such as "What are the short and long term goals for the position?" I felt pretty good going into the interview, and that I was as well prepared as I possibly could be for the interview, as well as the abstract reasoning, spelling, and MS Word/Excel testing that I was told to expect. After I finished all of the testing, the interviewer called me back into his office to discuss my salary requirements, as well as let me know that I had scored quite well on the tests. Based on that conversation, I did expect that if I did get an offer, it would be significantly lower than what I'd really like to be making, and certainly not enough to get me back out into my own place before sometime next year. I was fairly confident that I'd interviewed well, with all 3 people who were involved in it, and frankly, was willing to accept a reasonable offer, however I tried not to get my hopes up, or feel too confident. On the 9^th, I got the call back, asking me to come in on the 10^th, (which, coincidentally, would have been Mom's 71^st birthday) and discuss an offer. The money was more than I had hoped for, and one of the best things is that I will be working 4 10-hour days each week, with Fridays off! I am THRILLED with this, I assure you. All was contingent on a clean background check, but since I've not been in trouble, I had no qualms about passing it. On Thursday I got word that the check had come back and I was cleared to start tomorrow. I also received my tentative 11 week training schedule. 1 week in the office, 4 weeks in the field with an inspector, then back to the office to learn the next steps in the process, each building on the previous. I am very excited about the opportunities it is affording me for personal and professional growth, and while I fully expect to take a few days to get back into the swing of a work schedule, I have no doubts about doing it now. I am going to work for a utility engineering firm, and my construction admin background will definitely help, however my understanding is that this is earlier in the process than what I'm accustomed to (as I would assume that by the time construction is actually happening, permits have already been surveyed, applied for, and processed.
My lunch is packed. I've a suitcase packed with an extra day's clothes, just in case the weather turns bad, or is likely to turn bad enough that I wouldn't be able to get up or down the hill safely here at home to get there on Tuesday. Now I'm off to bed for a good night's sleep… it's already not going to be 8 hours, but I'll take 6 or so and be pleased with that!

Look Outside! It’s Snowing!

We have had yet another snow day this winter in North Texas. Now, the 3 inches we got Christmas Eve was a great showing for this part of Texas, for sure, but well, we've zinged right past that now. I was all toasty warm this morning when my phone said "Message Received" at about 6:55 this morning. Now, I'd heard someone come downstairs and fix coffee sometime between 6 & 6:30, but I'd managed to go back to sleep. I opened the phone and found this message: Look outside! J, to which I replied "HELL NO woman I don't care what's outside unless it's Ed McMahon with my Publisher's Clearing House prize I've not entered to win!!" that I was all warm & snug in my bed with all the kitties.

 The texting went back and forth for about 15 minutes until I gave up and agreed to go out into the living room & hang with her to let the man sleep a little longer…

My first look outside saw this:

It was too cold to actually venture out for awhile, but when I did brave the cold for the first time, we had about 2.5 inches at around 9:30 this morning. By 11:15 we were up to 3.75 inches, just under 4.5 at noon, 5.5 at 2:30, 7 at 6 pm, and the last time I went out at 9, we were up to 8 inches, with more falling! I quite suspect that tomorrow morning will be a lovely icy mess on the roads!

Our incarnations of the snowperson…

                          The teens, me, and our SnowWench!

Our Highland Snowman


















 

                                   

 Looking at the driveway before anyone went anywhere

I like snow, but I'm pretty sure that by tomorrow afternoon, I'm going to be absolutely OVER IT! I don't do cold, and sure I bitch and moan in the heat of the Texas summers, but I will take those summers over the endless weeks of cold (and snow) that make up winter in points north of the Red River! I have gotten some shots that I absolutely LOVE though!

Our sweet little elf that sits by the driveway!    

     

We clearly need to have class on how to make a snow angel J

  

After dark I went back out to check depth, and just HAD to take some shots in the dark… I'm pretty happy with them though.

Poor SnowWench has lost her head, and started passing out!

Tomorrow will probably yield more photo's, we'll see what we end up with!

Stay warm ya'll!

Cat Tails

Now, some of you may know that I live in a house FULL of cats. Literally, there are 13 that live here. No, it is NOT a catHOUSE, it is a very small cattery, HoBBiTcaTs and WavorgoNaked Sphynx. My cats you've met previously… Bow, Leo, and Mollie. Also in the house are Bob, The HORN DOG, a Highlander, I believe, who has a bobbed tail and curled ears, aka BTHD; Blondie (who is also a pet, like mine, rather than a breeder) a very sweet sphynx; Tumbles a mostly sweet, albeit Diva-esque Bambino (dwarf sphynx); male kittens Tril & Trin (borne of Tumbles & BTHD) who are Dwelf (dwarf sphynx with curled ears) Tril is standard (hairless) and Trin is non-standard (haired); female kitten Shady who is a Bambino a few weeks younger than T&T; Uno a min-skin (and don't ask me what that is, I'm still not clear on that, all I know is he's short legged and kinda semi-furry), and Geej, Peej, and umm, I can never remember that other girl's name, all 3 of whom are sphynx. BTHD & Trin live in the resident teen's room, and all of the others (besides mine) live in the Master bedroom. Tumbles & Blondie are uncaged, the 2 naked kittens are caged together (as there is an ultimate goal of breeding the next generation of dwelves from them). Uno and the 3 sphynx girls are all caged, though Uno only gets one girl at a time, and the one with him currently is NOT putting out, apparently, so he's still pretty whiny, and she keeps trying to escape whenever they are fed, or cages are cleaned…

Well, Friday Blondie was NOT well at all, and when everybody who was coming home for the night (as it was visitation weekend all 'round for various kiddos so there was a bit of coming/going to get everyone where they needed to be), she'd been in bed for virtually the entire day, wouldn't eat, and was running a temperature. Tumbles, being the diva that she is, was not about to be left out of the attention, and kept climbing into the bed on top of poor Blondie, and was thusly caged with Tril & Shady, which of course, did not make for a happy Tumbles. However, since we had no idea what was causing Blondie's illness, best to keep all the others in the room caged and avoid spreading anything that might be contagious. For the entire weekend, all of the Master BR cats were caged, save for the sick one, and since Trin had been snotty, he'd been put in with the 2 sphynx girls who were also getting some medication via nebulizer. Now, remember, Trin has spent several months running free with his daddy in the other bedroom, so he was quite unhappy at being caged, AND at not being caged with his brudder & his mama since he was caged! Yesterday afternoon before the teen got home, Trin got to go back into his room with BTHD, but everyone else had to stay where they were. By this morning, Blondie's definitely on the mend, but still not totally herself, so still needed the run of the bedroom to herself, but we decided to put the kittens in with Trin & BTHD, to give them time to run for a bit. Tumbles is just SOL, because it's too soon for her to be bred (naked kittens are more fragile than haired, so need to wait & breed her when it's likely to be warmer outside and stay that way when she'll deliver), but the babies were liberated. Aaaand then BTHD was liberated, against his will, for harassing the babies. He is, after all THE HORNDOG, and believes that his sole mission in life is to breed. That has been true in the past, however that mission is likely to change soon. We brought him downstairs into the living room, and he wandered around sniffing things. He did not appreciate ML's cold, wet, shar pei nose in his ass, however. We are hopeful that perhaps he will remember what that's like the next time he starts sniffing a kitten's ass, but well, sweet as he is, we aren't at all sure that the lesson took. He spent a decent bit of time sniffing me, purring… and then he decided he needed to mark me as his… fortunately, I saw it start, and managed to get him off me before it was much of anything and it didn't soak my (favorite) sleepshirt or my Dr Pepper pj pants! Little twerp! I changed my clothes, and later he was all in my lap purring and loving on me till he settled in for a nap, I suspect a wee bit high from the catnip residue that was on my jeans, which I'd set on the bed, on top of my cat's catnip mice.

Yeah, BTHD I think may be next on the list to get neutered, since he's decided to start marking territory. When we told the teen the story, we learned that he has indeed started marking a few spots in their bedroom…

I also need to get written down the story of Leo and the mousie from the weekend, but too tired to do it tonite…

Keep in Mind:
It may be those who do most, dream most.
-- Stephen B. Leacock

Whine whine whine

This is probably going to wind up being one of those bitchy whiny posts, so either please bear with me, or come back tomorrow for something a bit cheerier (I hope).

 Back in November, I moved in with friends, in an effort to try and get back on my feet. There have been times that it’s been great, and times when it’s been strained, to say the least. We’ve all had to make adjustments, and while it’s not a perfect situation, it’s the best there is for now. There are 4 adults (1 not yet 20) and a teenager living here now. All 4 adults are unemployed, and not a one of us is collecting unemployment. A couple of weeks ago, we held a “family meeting” and came to a few ground rules.


Each of the 3 oldest adults will cook dinner 2 nights per week, 2 of us will each do a night with one of the kids, and the kids will do one night on their own.


Monday is T & the boy (19)


Tuesday is me & the girl (14)


Wednesday is E


Thursday is the kids


Friday is me


Saturday is E (& T if we are having company)


Sunday is T


Kitchen duty (as of that meeting) consists of preparing and cleaning up after dinner, and it is the responsibility of the cooks to plan ahead to be sure that all necessary ingredients are available. Everybody is to rinse their own plate and put it in the dishwasher.


Monday, Wednesday & Friday the boy is to sweep the living and dining rooms, and on Friday mop them, and help as needed with trash


Tuesday, Thursday, & Sunday the girl is to sweep the kitchen/entry, and on Sunday she is to mop the kitchen and sweep the stairs as well.


I am sweeping the public bathroom downstairs and the girl’s upstairs, and keeping sinks, tubs & toilets swiped clean.


T is in charge of trash and keeping the porch/front yard clean


E is in charge of keeping the kitchen and living/dining rooms generally picked up






So Friday, I had plans with a friend to go with her to find fabric for her new dress, and was also going to try to exchange something for E at Joann’s in Dallas. I did the messy part of prep work for my soup on Thursday, cleaning up behind myself as I went. Friday morning before I headed out in the cold, I put everything in the crockpot, put the trash in the trash, and cleaned up behind myself once again. It was kind of a trying day, and when I got home, I came in to a sink full of dishes! WHAT? I cleaned up the DINNER dishes, which, thanks to crock pot liners, consisted of rinsing the ladle, washing the spoon rest, and washing the lid to the crockpot. I got chewed out a couple of days later for not washing and putting in the dishwasher what I found in the sink. WHAT? SERIOUSLY? I was GONE ALL DAY, I DIDN’T EAT ANYTHING IN THE HOUSE THAT DAY. When did I get elected to clean up other people’s messes?






So tonite there was another family meeting, because E had been on a tear much of the day, over various things. Well, the boy’s chore days have been changed to match the girls, so that all the sweeping/mopping can happen on the same days. Granted I haven’t been up and done the girl’s bathroom, but I DID handle the downstairs bathroom before we had company come over on Sunday.


Now the “dinner” duty has become all day kitchen duty. Which, on the one hand, if we would all get up and clean up after ourselves, wouldn’t be a huge deal, but not everybody does that. I guess we’ll see what shakes out.






I get that I’m living here and haven’t been able to contribute much at all financially, however there have been 3 trips that could not have been made as they were without me here to stay with the girl and the critters, and another that needed someone here with the critters. I am doing all that I can to find work, and get some regular income that will allow me to contribute financially to the household (as well as keep my truck, tyvm), though it seems that I’m the ONLY one who is actively trying to find something, which is quite frustrating. Especially when I start getting “advice” texts from unemployed people about what to do to find work. UGH!






I think it’s time for me to pop into bed with the kitties for a decent night’s sleep before I get up and head into FW to take some clerical tests I need to do in order to apply for some municipal positions.

Projects

                                                                       

Ok, I’ve not posted much of late, but I have been a bit busy with a couple of projects, and, of course the job search. One of my fellow Wenches, like so many others, is an amazing seamstress, and has aspirations of being a custom seamstress, and she offered to teach some of us some of her secrets. First up was a corset. Specifically, a corset meant to be worn as the foundation garment that they are actually supposed to be… Amazingly, her own such corset seems to have some sort of magic, as it fit several of us, all of varying heights & girths amazingly well, and our individual patterns required minimal tweaking from hers. It did take a couple of us some trial and error, as we didn’t think to take notes (as someone else took them and offered to type them up and email them, though that has not happened yet), but eventually we got them finished. Well, some of them are finished. One is still waiting on grommets, because someone who was told they could borrow 3, wasn’t told that the ones in the baggie (the only ones I could find in the house) were set aside for the corset. My corset is FAR from perfect, and it probably won’t get worn much, but I did learn that I CAN make one, successfully. I also suspect that I am going to want more boning than what is in there… (they are relatively narrow, and made from ¼” fish tape, cut to length). It’s not particularly pretty, however since it’s an undergarment, it doesn’t have to be beautiful, necessarily.

I also think that my layer that pads between the outer layer and the boning layer is a bit too thick and, umm, fluffy.

  

I also think that for an outer corset or bodice, I want it to be a bit longer in the front. That corset or bodice is going to be an ongoing project, as I have a vision in my head of how I can create covers to go over it for a couple of specific outfits that I only wear once a season, and just can’t justify a whole corset or bodice for that one day. 

In May, I am in a wedding, which, while it won’t actually take place at Scarborough, it will be part of our faire day, and I’ve got an Irish dress to make for it. The fabric is purchased, as is the interfacing, and the thread. Pretty much I have to get it made, get the boning, and the grommets/lacing for it. My biggest issue with all the Irish dresses I’ve tried on, is that they land in such a spot that my tummy pooches way out and, well, makes me look about 5 months pregnant. Yeah, NOT a look I want to have, thanks. I’ve been told by 2 different seamstresses that I can adjust the waist of the dress to drop farther down, and not have that look. I’m going to try on the one that I already have, with my corset under it and see what I think of the look, before I get out the muslin and start mocking up the pattern with any adjustments I think it needs, before I start cutting on the real fabric. We’ve got a pattern, however it seems to be pretty much a front lacing bodice with a skirt attached to it, so I may just use my corset pattern and make adjustments on that.

My other new project is still ongoing. For some reason I got a bee in my bonnet about learning blackwork embroidery. I’ve had more than one person tell me I’ll go blind doing it, and I just might, but I’m going to give it a shot. Once upon a time I did a good bit of counted cross-stitch, and actually quite enjoyed it. I bought a piece of waste canvas when I was at Joann’s yesterday, and some black floss. I found an awesome site at Blackwork Archives with some not terribly difficult patterns, cut a piece of waste canvas to the size of the simplest pattern, basted it onto a white hanky, and started this little quest.

Now, I’m not sure what I am going to ultimately do with the skill, since I wear essentially peasant or pirate garb, it’s not like I have a court gown to wear with a blackworked chemise, but I guess we’ll see where it goes. The corner of the hanky that I did finish is a decent enough job for the first time out, I think. My next piece of waste canvas will be 14 count, rather than 10, as I think the 10 is resulting in a bit of a big design. I also am going to work on learning to stitch evenly, without the canvas, so that I don’t have to spend a lot of $ on waste canvas, and because the waste canvas is a bit of a pain in the ass to get pulled out of the stitching.

I LOVE digging through the remnant bins at Joann’s, and even at our local WalMart, which is one of the few that still has a decent fabric department. I’ve managed to score, in the past few days, several pieces of twill or duck cloth in 53” or 54” widths, each just about a yard, for between a buck and 2.50 each! Yep, I’m gathering fabric that I can use for either bone casings, or corset layers. I am always on the hunt for bargains, and I’m pretty sure my fabric is going to outgrow my tote AND my shelf in our cabinet. I am going to try to only keep current project fabric in the cabinet, to avoid cluttering it up, but we’ll see what shakes out.