Still Around

I'm still around, I just don't feel like I have had anything new and important enough to blog about lately. Mostly what I do now is tango, tango and more tango. Which after all is pretty exciting. Since March of 2010 I have been devoting somewhere between 8 to 10 hours a week dancing and practicing tango. Because of this intensive work, I am making pretty good progress as things go.

The one problem with dancing tango is that I suddenly feel the need to acquire pairs and pairs of really expensive shoes and lots of new dance clothing. Tango shoes (especially the classic Comme il Faut, which are handmade in Buenos Aires) can cost upwards of $200 and I have found a

seller on Etsy who makes gorgeous tango skirts and tops but not for cheap (see the grey tango skirt at left). I don't know why

I cant just make my own tango clothes, but I feel an overwhelming urge to purchase them. I think I may have an addictive problem. Yikes.

I am also attending the opera pretty regularly and am looking forward to the Barber of Seville which is Saturday the 29th (plus I have a hot date to take along which never hurts). The last opera I saw, Lucia de Lammermoor, was stunning. Truly the best opera I have ever seen. The sets, the costumes, the singing were all phenomenal. Bravo Seattle Opera, bravo.

My favorite thing about going to the opera is people watching. I love the intermissions,

when I can sit and look at all the different outfits people have chosen to wear. The clothes range from Seattle Casual to fully decked out ball gowns complete with fur wraps (a sight not often seen in super P.C. Seattle). Some are whimsical and others classic but the most fun is playing spot the fashion disaster. There are always a few walking around. I also always make a

point of finding a beautiful outfit to compliment. I know it always lights up my day when a stranger does the same for me.

Adventures in The Biggest Little City in the World (and nearby areas) Part 2

July 2nd
Friday morning and I’m up at 9. I’m sure Cathy was up hours ago, running up and down mountain trails, something me and my mother find incomprehensible (I can barely be convinced to run when I am late for the bus). I take a nice shower and then Cathy and I head to her favorite Tahoe area breakfast spot the Fire Sign. While ordering I briefly ponder the Fire Sign Crepes, crepes rolled around eggs scrambled with mushroom and jack cheese and then topped with hollandaise, but remembering the mess I made yesterday I follow Cathy’s lead and order the Gouda scramble. In a strange coincidence the waitress once again tries to feed Cathy ham.
After breakfast we go back to the cabin, sit on the deck in the sun and play Mexican Train, a version of dominoes that is played with a regular domino set but has different rules and fun little plastic trains to use as markers. Maureen’s sister, Mary Ellen and her husband Allen arrive while we are playing but decline to join our game which I win by two points. Cathy like me is very competitive and likes to win so she is a little upset. I tell her it was only a two point loss and that’s almost a win, but she sneers at this theory as ridiculous. I understand completely, when losing I have personally been known to tip over Monopoly boards and I now refuse to play Risk all together.
We also take another walk down to the lake which is beautiful and blue, a real treat on a hot summer day. Just before we leave Maureen arrives and we spend a little time catching up since I haven’t seen her for probably nine years. Then we head to Truckee California where I get to meet Cathy’s boyfriend Rick and we all go out for pizza with some friends. I also take an awesome picture of some swallows nesting under a roof. When we get back to Reno we are both thoroughly pooped out though I manage to stay awake shopping for tickets to Hawaii in November when I am sure I will want to escape the Seattle weather again.

July 3rd
Today I woke up a little earlier and around 8:30 and puttered around a little before Cathy and I set out for more casino carpet viewing. We had hoped to have a little more time because she knows of a program whereby you can go to a shelter and borrow a dog for a day hike. I think this is brilliant as the program gets the dogs out for the day and gives them a better chance of being adopted. However with the occasional stops I make for souvenirs and the fun of looking at carpets we run a little short on time. Especially since I want a little time to sit in the sun which we haven’t seen in Seattle for three consecutive days in probably 8 months. I read my Kindle and work on my tan for a half hour and all too soon it is time to go. After another ingenious packing job on my part (accomplished in about 20 minutes) we are off to the airport and it’s time to say goodbye until fall at which time Cathy will come to visit us in Seattle. While waiting at the airport for my little tiny twin-prop plane to board and leave I play 3 more dollars on the slots and cash out with $15.80 giving me a net gain for the trip of $11.85. For me that is just about right!

Adventures in The Biggest Little City in the World (and nearby areas) Part 1

6-30-2010
I fly into Reno on the evening of Wednesday the 30th of June to see my lovely and intelligent Auntie Cathy. My Aunt is a pretty amazing lady who has earned a doctorate and works as an environmental engineer making sure school sites are safe, when she isn’t busy flying to impoverished areas to dig wells, build rainwater collection systems or get clinics running all on her own dime.
The first thing I notice as I deplane (besides the heat that is), is the bank of slot machines directly across from me as I walk into the airport (they really want you to get started right away) but I’m not much of a gambler so I bypass these and head outside to find Cathy who picks me up in an adorable little Mini Cooper. Our first stop is an Ethiopian restaurant named Zagul’s which brings back memories of our trip to Kenya, the last time either of us had Ethiopian cuisine. Then we start what would soon become an odyssey in casino carpet photographs.
The thing I had been most impressed by in Las Vegas, when I was there was there, was the surprising brilliancy and patterns that made up the casino carpeting. I felt the need to document this phenomenon and decided that I would attempt to do that while in Reno, The Biggest Little City in the World. We start at a casino called the Peppermill which in fact has my favorite carpets despite all the others that are to follow (they start with a fish themed carpet, then went to a rainbow and planet pattern and finally ended with a brilliantly colored and theoretically Italian themed carpet). Then we stop at the Atlantis for some interesting circle and leaf patterned carpets, before making our way to Cathy’s house for some Ben and Jerry’s Phish Food ice cream.

July 1st
We wake up early and go for breakfast at Cathy’s favorite spot A breakfast joint called Peg’s Ham and Eggs. Cathy has the Veggie Benedict, not being a meat eater, and I had a California Benedict, being a no meat except fish and sometimes turkey eater. The California Benedict consisted of the regular beginning of an English muffin, poached egg and hollandaise but substituted Turkey for ham and added tomato and avocado. For whatever reason when the food comes mine is exactly right but they attempt to feed Cathy ham. However once the plates are corrected we commence to eating and somehow I manage to get hollandaise all over myself. This in addition to a nice dark red cherry juice stain on the front of my pants which looked like something, but fortunately is so located that it would have been virtually impossible for it to be what it looks like, all happen before 10:30am and pretty well complete my outfit for the day. After a quick stop for snacks we are off to Virginia City which I had read about in the book Roughing It by Mark Twain.
Cathy and I stop on our way into the town at the cemetery and spend a short amount of time wandering around reading the poems on the tombstones which date back as far as the 1860s. Some are more amusing then others. One Welsh gentleman’s tombstone notes that as we are now so once was he and as he is now we soon shall be. One doesn’t know whether to be amused or distressed.
When we head into Virginia City we find that the grades up and down are just as steep as Mark Twain had promised. The first floor of a house that you enter on C street is the 3rd floor when you look at the back of the house from D street. We park on C street which is the main drag (and is level) and walk up and down it looking at the cute little shops and numerous saloons that line it. I am not much of a drinker or a shopper but we manage to have a pretty good time wandering in and out of the places and we stop for a sarsaparilla in the Bucket of Blood Saloon where I play the slots and lose 95 cents. We also visit the Suicide Table which has been owned by many people who having owned it found they couldn’t pay out the heavy winnings of a gambler who had won big on it and so killed themselves.
We go on a mine tour that starts from inside the Ponderosa Saloon. It is not particularly impressive but it’s a fun little quick tour and it’s nice and cool inside, though I am not a big fan of being too far underground. We also stop at an old-timey candy shop where I buy loads of saltwater taffy and old favorites like Mary Janes and Bit O’ Honeys. I promptly eat enough taffy to make my tummy ache. I also buy my mom the cutest salt and pepper shakers you ever did see, two kissing chihuahuas.
We leave town and between Virginia City and Carson City we pass the infamous Moonlight Bunny Ranch. A legal brothel that has been introduced to TV thanks to the HBO series Cathouse. Cathy asks me if I want to go take a picture in front of the building, but I demur thinking that this could send the wrong message to the folks back home. Carson City, the state Capitol isn’t much to look at though we do pass the governor’s mansion and capitol buildings.
Somehow Cathy manages to get a little turned around and we end up taking the scenic tour of Lake Tahoe on our way to the summer condo of her high school friend Maureen. The drive is much longer but I get to see the whole of the lake as we head all the way around it. It is quite a relief to be out of the car when we finally get to the cabin and unload our stuff. Tahoe is surrounded by both Nevada and California and the condo is located on the California side, so I am getting two trips for the price of one. We unload our stuff, take a quick walk down to the lake and then head out for dinner at a restaurant called Spindleshanks in Tahoe Vista. The word spindle shanks causes much confusion for both of us, I think it has something to do with horses and she thinks it might have something to do with boats (it later turns out that we are both wrong and probably has something to do with table legs). The coffee I order is terrible (I mean really awful) but the food is delicious. My aunt and I split a spinach salad and a butternut squash ravioli in browned butter and the quantity and flavor is perfect.
We are off to see a comedy show at the Crystal Bay Casino, which true to its name has many huge crystals scattered around though I see no bay. To get there we have to cross back over the border into Nevada. The casino is tiny, but has a little performance area where we find seats to my liking. Since I am carded on the way in to the restaurant section I am very pleased. The MC is hilariously funny riffing on things like Atari and Nintendo video games and cassette tapes (failing all else you can rewind them with a pencil) and his cousins in Hawaii catching eels with a sharpened stick. But the two main comedians are spotty at best. The first one takes a sip of water (or vodka?) between every pathetic joke and the second doesn’t seem to have much of a routine at all except playing his guitar and updating the refrains of songs from classic performers with lyrics that have to do with erectile dysfunction and hemorrhoids, his lack of a plan drove me insane. One funny thing that they all mention is fact not fiction. It turns out that down the hill in Incline Village a KFC got closed down for dispensing methamphetamine along with the chicken. Talk about knowing your customer base.
Finally it’s back to Nevada where I fall asleep reading Lonesome Dove, a novel I highly recommend

Victorian Opera Dress Project (part 2)

Okay, I finished it and it was a lot of work.

I ended up making a corset myself, something I never thought I would be able to do. In fact it was really easy! (I think it might even be addictive) I am already thinking about making another (perhaps with a camouflage patterned fabric, just for fun). I made the corset in simple unbleached twill. I believe I mentioned before the importance of natural fabrics and I have to tell you twill feels so soft. I almost wish I was wearing it right next to my skin.

The bodice was the scariest part since it is so fitted and closest to the eye. It took me quite a while to work up the nerve to even cut the fabric, much less sew it. At any rate it turned out quite nice, though if I was making it again I think I might take in the waist seams a little. I finished it with a hook and loop closure and am still deciding whether or not I want to add any trim.

Now to other news. I have been feeling tired and worn out for the last three or four weeks and now I finally know why. It turns out I have Mononucleosis and I haven't even been kissing anyone, so where I got it is a mystery to me! This gives me a lot of time around the house and I have been trying to decide what to do with it. I am vacillating between writing a novel and starting up another sewing project. The novel sounds more restful, but of course my heart truly lies in the making of beautiful clothes. Stay tuned for the decision later.

Shaw

Victorian Opera Dress Project

Alright, it is finally time to tell you about the Victorian Opera Dress Project. At some point my interest in Victorian fashion had to take actual form and now that form has a name. I'm not sure what the tipping point was but when I finally had a little money to spare I decided to invest that money in yards and yards of dupioni silk (so many yards of silk, so expensive, sigh).

I decided I would wear my dress to the opera because my favorite part of the opera is the intermission when you get to look at (and talk about) what other people are wearing. In Seattle we just don't get that many opportunities to dress up so one had best capitalize on the ones we do have. Traditionally the intermission was also the most interesting part of going to the opera in the Victorian era for the same reasons, seeing who was with whom and gossiping about it. So the Victorian Opera Dress Project was born

At first the problem was how to pre-treat the silk with one option being dry-cleaning and the other hand-washing. For a while hand-washing was in the lead (once you have chosen a pre-treating method that is the cleaning method you must use in the future and the appeal here was no dry-cleaning bills), but the impossibility of trying to hang-dry 40 feet of silk while living in a second story apartment quickly set in and dry-cleaning won the day.

While I was waiting for my silk to come back from the cleaners I started in on the period undergarments which are a must if you intend to wear period clothing for a number of reasons, some of which I will explain as I go along. I made two petticoats using 100% cotton sheets I bought for a song at Value Village. All natural fabrics are important to use because of the number of layers that you end up wearing, they breath more easily than synthetics and will keep you cooler. Lest you pooh pooh my assertion of the importance of all naturals let me enumerate for you the number of layers an average Victorian lady might wear to go to the ball (these are the ones I will be wearing at any rate) starting from the inside out: a chemise and drawers (or combination underwear which combines the two), a corset, a corset cover, a petticoat (sometimes more than one), an underskirt, an overskirt, a bodice, a train and a cloak.

The petticoats I made are of two different lengths one a walking length and one with a train. I used a Laughing Moon pattern. The petticoat is important as it gives shape to your skirt (and helps hide the scandalous shape of the "lower limbs" as they were delicately called in Victorian times, the Victorians were notoriously uptight). The rest of my patterns so far have been from Truly Victorian which is a great resource for beautiful Victorian era clothing patterns.

I made the combination underwear next. They look awfully silly if you ask me and I am now planning on making a chemise and drawers instead. The innermost layer is really important because it helps keep your body oils off your corset which is very difficult to clean. I have a chemise already which I wear at the medieval fair and which is beautifully hand embroidered (by me of course) and which may be suitable although not historically accurate.


When I got my silk back a frenzy of cutting ensued as I was trying to get my silk down to a manageable length while I had the use of my friends very long living room. Next up I made the underskirt. Once I was almost done with the underskirt I decided that I wanted to add a ruffle in another color which I then had to go buy and have dry-cleaned also. The underskirt turned out fabulously though, although it's interesting how putting the different color up against each other makes them change. What appeared at first to be blue in the main color of the skirt turned green when I added the darker blue ruffle which promptly turned purple.

The most recent item finished was the 1872 Side Drape Overskirt which is lined and trimmed with three or four yards of fringe. I don't know if I like all those colors together (although the Victorians probably would have) but the beauty of the pieces is that they are all interchangeable.

Next up I'm making the train.
Shaw

A Trip to San Francisco

Spring has come surprisingly early this year in Seattle. As early as the beginning of February we started seeing blossoms that usually wait until march to show up. It’s been a nice year so far.

This March I decided to do a little more traveling to the party of my friend Ryan who lives down in San Francisco, a city to which I have never been before. Now I know some people fall in love with San Francisco right away or say it is their favorite city, but I have to say that SF did not grab me in any particular way. I found the architecture strange (I like to see out four sides of a house) although the people were nice and it was fun to be a tourist in a new place. I even went on a Ride the Ducks tour which was a lot of fun, they even let me drive the bus (when it was a boat). I might even do it in my own city now!

Ryan and I tried to pack a lot of sight seeing into the first 48 hours so I spent the first couple of days completely exhausted, but I got lots of cool pictures and met lots of nice people, plus he lent me his super comfy bed and was gentlemanly enough to take the couch. The party was great with dancing, speeches, desserts and lots of really warm feelings.

I really enjoyed a trip to Chinatown with Ryan (despite the fact that I had just lost my wallet and all my money). We puttered around the very busy district stopping in Portsmouth Square to watch Chinese people gamble (and as Ryan pointed out also pick their noses [not that everyone doesn’t do that, just not always in a park]). I did some shopping with the money he was nice enough to loan me until I could get home and we found a street named Waverly after my mother. Also Purple Donkey had his picture taken.

More than anything I am looking forward to being back home with my sewing machine and my silk, moving forward on my Victorian dress project. I don’t think I’ve posted any pictures here of my progress so look forward to a future installment with more info on the Victorian Opera Dress Project.

New Year/Old Year

Lots of stuff has been happening lately. I am going on a trip to Puerto Vallarta in just a week. I have been to Mexico many times before and always to the same city. I suppose I should branch out a little but I really like it there.

I just recently came back from Hawaii for the second time. I feel drawn to it somehow. My friend Katie felt the same way and she managed to make her dream of living there come true. In fact she is now moving from Honolulu to Maui. I would love to move to Hawai'i except for the giant flying cockroaches.

I had a great time while I was there, Katie and I went snorkeling in Hanauma Bay and saw two Green Sea Turtles. Turtles are amazing. When you look at them they seem old and wise. We also saw lots of other fish including the Humuhumunukunukuapua'a Hawai'i's state fish which you can see below.

Lately I have been obsessed with all things Hawaiian. I have been learning the hula and Tahitian dancing. I bought a ukulele and plan to start learning to accompany myself on a few Hawaiian songs I am also learning. My mom has even bought me a Pau skirt for dancing in. I might be one of those people who goes on a trip to Hawai'i some day and never comes back. there are a lot of people on the islands like that.

Then again maybe I will go to Mexico and not come back. I know decent Spanish (well decent is relative) and I feel drawn to Mexico too, though not in the same way.

I have been making felt flowers to wear in your hair and now I'm making bags out of oilcloth. I try to keep busy and out of trouble. I'll definitely have more to post after I get back from Mexico. You can see my luggage all packed at left. Pepé is packed too but he probably will not be able to come along.