Weekend Roundup

Fabric drop has commenced!  We drove up to Granny’s yesterday and dropped off the first big box of fabric.  We went over the four different patterns I’ve bought and narrowed it down to probably one to use for most of the pieces.

This is where it gets complicated.

I want to mix and match pieces to come up with several different outfits.  I have two corsets:  one sparkly and formal, the other more steampunkish.  Fabric can be really expensive and a full-length skirt can take up to 5 yards of fabric–or more!–even though I’m really short.  So I want to keep the base skirt the same, but mix and match coordinates–that don’t require as much fabric–to change the look.

But my skirt fabric hasn’t arrived yet.  I ordered 11 yards of black taffeta on clearance over a week ago.  A few days later I ordered everything else.  Everything else arrived 2 days after I placed the order!  The black taffeta still hasn’t shipped yet.  (Same company too.)  There was a problem with the yardage, so now I’m down to 7 yards, which should still be okay.  I just need it to ship!

Mom would have started with the skirt…but since the fabric isn’t here, she’s going to do some of the other pieces first.  But where it gets complicated is my desire to change things up.  I want a detachable bustle, so I can wear the same black skirt and have it look completely different.  One of the patterns had an easily detachable one, but it was full length + a train.  I’m short and dumpy.  Sad but true.  I don’t think I need 5 yards of fabric trailing after me.  Plus how annoying would that be?  Probably not fun to wear for very long.

The other bustle is more complicated — though shorter — and we’re not sure if we can make it detachable.  Part of the pattern shows it getting sewn into the skirt, and the other part of it isn’t really clear how it’ll go together.  It’ll probably be one of those figure it out when she gets there deals…

But again, the fabric’s not here, so we can’t proceed.

The other mix and match pieces will be a cute bolero with flowing chiffon sleeves and a little knit tank that I can wear beneath the corsets.  So I think Mom will get started on those and I’ll hope and pray the black taffeta arrives soon so we can finalize arguably the most complicated piece of the outfit.  That blasted bustle!!

After Granny’s, we went to Papa’s for awhile and the girls rode horses.  Somehow I made it home without any of my cups.  I took my coffee pot and two little espresso cups to Mom’s and then went off and left the cups.  (I didn’t forget my coffee pot though!!!)  Then I went off and left my favorite water glass at Papa’s.

Eating was a challenge.  I took cheesecake to Granny’s so we could snack and visit over the dress plans.  I had one bite of Middle’s and that’s it–but it was hard.  Luckily Mac ate the other piece of turtle cheesecake, and the plain didn’t tempt me as much.  Then Granny and Mac took us to Pizza Hut for lunch.  As any dieter knows there’s not a lot of options there, definitely nothing gluten free.  I did have the salad bar, so that helped (although it was one of the smaller bars I’ve seen without a lot of choices) and I only had 1 piece of a medium pan.  Downside:  I was still hungry.  🙁  It’s never easy to sit and not eat (when you’re hungry) while everyone else is chowing down.

After a few hours at my Dad’s we stopped at Smith’s in Collins — the monsters’ favorite place to go for burgers and shakes.  See where this is going?  Typical greasy spoon type place with fantastic patty melts (my favorite).  Instead, I had a grilled chicken salad that wasn’t bad at all.  It was large enough I didn’t feel like I was going to eat anyone’s arm off in the car on the way home.

However, the chicken was blackened — which at the time tasted great.  But this morning, the scale is way up, which makes me think it was probably loaded with sodium.  There’s nothing worse than making the best choices you can in difficult situations, turning away from tempting food, and not seeing any sort of reward on the scale.

Well, yeah, there is something worse.  I could have eaten all that terrible but delicious food and then seen even more of a gain on the scale, plus felt yucky to boot.  I even managed to get Power 90 in before we left yesterday, so it was a pretty good day.

Not a lot of writing in the car, but I did possibly figure out Mama Connagher’s beau’s name.  I thought it was Thomas, but I didn’t want another T name (her husband’s name was Tyrell).  In my head, Ty is played by Sam Elliott.  In fact, the original “Connagher” name came from a Western he was in called Conagher.  *sheepish*  I also took the name Tyrell from The Sacketts.

Since I’m pulling in Tom Selleck to play this new man, I thought a name from the Sacketts might also work, but neither That Man nor I could remember what the other two brothers’ names were.  (Tell and Orrin.  I’m glad I couldn’t remember.)  I wanted something old fashioned and uncommon.  Something I could see Sam Elliott and Tom Selleck saying.

I think…. *knocks on wood*  that he agreed to be called Jebadiah Garrett, Jeb for short.  We’ll see if it continues to work.