1. I’m always up for stories about opera. A Singer’s Journey: From Solitary Confinement to the Met Opera. (They’re doing Phillip Glass’s Akhnaten this season, btw!)
2. It has been a WEEK at work. This sums up my mood after the second rush project came through yesterday afternoon:
(Found randomly but here’s the artist)
Something to remember.
It Is Not Your Job
by Caitlyn Siehl
when your little girl
asks you if she’s pretty
your heart will drop like a wineglass
on the hardwood floor
part of you will want to say
of course you are, don’t ever question it
and the other part
the part that is clawing at
you
will want to grab her by her shoulders
look straight into the wells of
her eyes until they echo back to you
and say
you do not have to be if you don’t want to
it is not your job
both will feel right
one will feel better
she will only understand the first
when she wants to cut her hair off
or wear her brother’s clothes
you will feel the words in your
mouth like marbles
you do not have to be pretty if you don’t want to
it is not your job
Because here are some pictures of magnified sand grains and they’re amazing:
Images from sandgrains.com (which includes origins of the sand, so click through), found via the Dense Discovery newsletter. And here’s that William Blake:
When I re-organized the fabric stash in August, I got to fondle my one precious cut of out-of-print Pegasus rayon (from Anna Maria Horner’s “Fibs and Fables” line) and decided to hurry and sew it up.
“Hurry” in this case meant doing a full bust adjustment (FBA) to the pattern (the Ogden Cami) and then making a muslin to double check the fit, which means this baby got one wear before the weather turned. It’s worth it, though, because: PEGASUS.
I did a one inch FBA (my first, using a combo of tutorials I found online, because it was really confusing) and sewed the straps a quarter-inch wider than called for. That allowed me to put in some strap keepers so things stay in place;
(I used serger thread chains because I still can’t make a nice thread chain to save my life. I guess I could work on my hand-sewing skills for 2020…)
I love this as much as I thought I would–I never thought I’d need to make an FBA but it fits so much better with the darts. Also: PEGASUS! Six-year-old me and almost-forty-year-old me are equally delighted.
We took a long weekend off to originally go camping, which turned into plans for a staycation when the weather didn’t want to cooperate. I had big plans for day trips, taking my nephew out, maybe painting an accent wall–but we only got the first day’s activities in because I got sick.
But what a first day! Our friend told us about a place 2.5 hours north that her brother was bringing back to life: Maple Grove Hot Springs. We went up for the day to check it out and soak and it was just lovely–stunning setting, perfect fall colors, and the best natural (non sulfur!) hot springs.
After we got back home and my head cold hit, I kept wishing I had a hot springs handy for soaking. We’ll have to go back and stay!
1. More Twitter, which is accurate:
Tea:
– calming
– many flavours
– the answer to all problemsCoffee:
– Anxiety Juice™
– 3 heartbeats for the price of 1
– more than 4 cups and you can talk to electricity— ruby🦎 (@roobeekeane) September 13, 2019
2. I am inordinately pleased by this:
Sometimes you can learn from Twitter (assuming you trust your Twitter source, which seems decently legit).
The words ROOK, CROW, JAY and RAVEN are all supposed to have originally been onomatopoeic, and derive in some way from words imitating the birds’ calls. pic.twitter.com/nWtPtbf5sP
— Haggard Hawks 📚🦅 (@HaggardHawks) September 15, 2019
I don’t know where I got the notion that I need a classic leather moto jacket but here we are, a 20-year vegetarian (who, admittedly, does buy leather shoes) pining for something not only impractical and unethical, but hella expensive.
Expensive and GORGEOUS:
(I’m not linking any of these because I don’t want to give my dad a heart attack. But first image is Madewell; second is LTH JKT, which has an eyeroll-y name but seems about as ethical as a leather company can get.)
The Dry Down perfume newsletter talked about leather fragrances last year; I dug up the archives and they’re on to me:
The leather jacket is a bizarre luxury object: Toughness, rebellion, and the ghosts of motorcycle gangs, sold by fashion houses at the same prices as a high-end handbag or an evening gown. For most of us, a leather jacket is a little bit of a fake, and a little bit of a lie. It’s promising more than we can deliver, trying to project stronger swagger than our persona can really support. Leather jackets rarely look as good as we think they will, or as good as they feel to wear. They are cumbersome, too warm or not warm enough, hard to quite match to the weather. They overwhelm most outfits that aren’t jeans and a white tank top, and paired with jeans and a white tank top they just remind you that you aren’t either young Marlon Brando or a 1990’s supermodel.
Well then.
…Did I mention there’s a sewing pattern for a classic moto jacket? And that Mood sells leather by the hide?
Here’s another pair of Super G tights in a festive elf stripe for cooler weather, from a limited print run by Blended Thread Fabrics:
Please notice that stripe matching over the side pocket panels–I’m very proud of that. And please also note how I placed the darkest parts of the stripe repeat over the gusset and crotch, the better to hide that crotch sweat. (Hey, it happens.)
And can we talk about the new experience that is going to the gym in the mornings? After the layoffs at work happened, it was too hard to make my preferred 5:00 pm class time–and the 6:30 pm class just cut the evening in two. So last week I tried the 7:00 am class and I had so much focus for the rest of the day, I felt like a WIZARD.
It’s taken me 39 years but I’ve finally figured out SO MUCH: exercise is fun! doing things first thing in the morning is great! eight hours of sleep matters! go to bed early! I know my dad is proud.
It’s the Autumnal Equinox today and the mountains have gotten the memo: The light has changed to that slanting golden light and it was brisk up there.
A beaver lodge that’s just right off the road in upper Millcreek!