Stuff...
Jun. 5th, 2026 06:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
koshka_the_catMy sequins and felt for the belt for the water dress came today, and I went to a quilting store for spray basting, which they didn't have, but they did have temporary glue sticks, which should work fine. I want them for sewing the lamé to the organza. I'm doing that by hand. More work, less angst.
I also bought some green cotton with a subtle print to make a scarf thing for the 30s beach outfit. A successful trip!
I also had junk mail from the happiest widow on earth and her vile foundation. I didn't open it and wrote return to sender on it and put it right back in the mailbox. How did she even get my address? Why was it addressed to Ms? You'd think they'd be against that title. Things we'll never know...
I also bought some green cotton with a subtle print to make a scarf thing for the 30s beach outfit. A successful trip!
I also had junk mail from the happiest widow on earth and her vile foundation. I didn't open it and wrote return to sender on it and put it right back in the mailbox. How did she even get my address? Why was it addressed to Ms? You'd think they'd be against that title. Things we'll never know...
Soon?
Jun. 3rd, 2026 07:16 pmkoshka_the_catI should start my water dress soon. The ivory organza and light blue silk taffeta came. The sequins and wool felt for the belt are on the way. I have a good start to the very simple bodice I want to make. It will be fun once I start!
I so want some spray basting though. Sewing lame to organza sounds pretty nightmarish. That will help. I'll probably do it by hand too.
I so want some spray basting though. Sewing lame to organza sounds pretty nightmarish. That will help. I'll probably do it by hand too.
Too hot
Jun. 2nd, 2026 07:36 pmkoshka_the_catIt was so hot today that the safety features in my car turned themselves off today. Last year they didn't turn off until 110. It was only about 100 today. They also turn off under about 50. I'd like it to be under 50.
Summer is the worst.
Summer is the worst.
(no subject)
Jun. 1st, 2026 10:56 pm![[staff profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user_staff.png){kind=small}
denise posting in ![[site community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/comm_staff.png){kind=small}
dw_maintenanceQuick note that post-by-email and comment-by-email is (sometimes?) failing silently without actually posting right now! I'm pretty sure this is related to last night's shenanigans and will be fixed once Mark can finish the full fix for it, which he's working on, but if you've posted or replied by email in the last 24 hours, fish it out of your sent folder to check if it posted!
EDIT: This should be fixed as of around 7AM EDT! We *believe* everything that was stuck in the plumbing has been sent along to your journal or the comment thread it was meant for; it's definitely not where it was stuck anymore, at least.
EDIT: This should be fixed as of around 7AM EDT! We *believe* everything that was stuck in the plumbing has been sent along to your journal or the comment thread it was meant for; it's definitely not where it was stuck anymore, at least.
A start...
Jun. 1st, 2026 06:42 pmkoshka_the_catI was planning on using the pattern from my evening bodice with harem pants and backless suffragette dress for the 1927 water dress. Since those are from 2012 and 2017, it wouldn't fit anymore, but a good starting place. I took out the bag marked teens under bodice, and the Poiret lampshade dress pattern was in it.
But that made me think, I don't need a complicated base at all. A front and back piece should be plenty. Just shape it with darts.
Then I found the pattern pieces. They apparently fell out when I was opening the bag with the pattern in it.
The easy idea stuck though. I just did a quick two pieces of fabric pinned at the sides with slight neckline shaping and darts mockup, and it'll work.
This dress is all about the trimming. It's such a basic shape when you look at it!
But that made me think, I don't need a complicated base at all. A front and back piece should be plenty. Just shape it with darts.
Then I found the pattern pieces. They apparently fell out when I was opening the bag with the pattern in it.
The easy idea stuck though. I just did a quick two pieces of fabric pinned at the sides with slight neckline shaping and darts mockup, and it'll work.
This dress is all about the trimming. It's such a basic shape when you look at it!
(no subject)
May. 31st, 2026 10:00 pmdenise posting in dw_maintenanceRobby has managed to put in a temporary fix for the site errors and things failing to refresh or not showing up where they should! The permanent fix is going to need Mark's experience, and unfortunately -- seriously, this literally never fails -- Mark has been on an international flight all day, because of course he has. (Never. Fails. He and I are not allowed to both take vacation at once.)
The site will work just fine with the temporary fix in place, things just might be a little slow here and there. We'll keep you updated.
(no subject)
May. 31st, 2026 08:59 pmdenise posting in dw_maintenanceWe're aware of site traffic issues and are working to fix them for the people who are having problems! (The tactics the damn bot traffic uses are endlessly shifting, and they're really good at looking like real traffic, sigh.)
Getting there...
May. 30th, 2026 07:11 pmkoshka_the_catI think the bound buttonholes and covered buttons are taking as long as sewing did! Bound buttonholes are much less annoying than regular ones, at least!
Shorts!
May. 29th, 2026 07:49 pmkoshka_the_catThe shorts for the beach outfit are almost done! Just buttons, buttonholes, and seam finishing!
(no subject)
May. 29th, 2026 09:03 amtotchipandaIUD follow up: short n sweet! I wasn't sure if it was going to be like that or if they wanted to poke and prod and I was NOT ready to be perceived. But it was just some questions, how's it going, see you in 5 years but call if anything happens.
It's been ridiculously hot, not for you southerners but for here, and of course it's pollen season. When I got home I was sweaty and I could FEEL all the pollen stuck to my face. UGH. I've been putting off an everything shower for too long, so last night I finally got in there and spent literally half an hour cleaning up so I could wear skirts and sleeveless items again without feeling gross. (There's some commentary in here about beauty standards and capitalism, I 100% do this for myself.) And then of course I had to change my sheets because I was not getting into bed with freshly shaved legs without it. I opted not to put my weighted blanket back on (see: hot) and slept under a sheet and duvet cover. Still hot but I slept OK. I know i'll miss the weight, but waking up sticky and damp is worse.
Yesterday my sticker subscription released some Canada geese stickers and I simply had to have them (they are so ridiculous) and got a 3-month planner too. It won't be here for June (lol) but I can still start it then and see how it works. I have not prepared my last page for May in the journal. Maybe having to plan it out myself is the problem? Either way, I can prepare it for June and maybe reconsider how I lay it out. Experimenting timem!
Stay-cation starts in 7 hours!! I am so excited. I have many plans and we will see how many get done. Bring on the hunkering down!
It's been ridiculously hot, not for you southerners but for here, and of course it's pollen season. When I got home I was sweaty and I could FEEL all the pollen stuck to my face. UGH. I've been putting off an everything shower for too long, so last night I finally got in there and spent literally half an hour cleaning up so I could wear skirts and sleeveless items again without feeling gross. (There's some commentary in here about beauty standards and capitalism, I 100% do this for myself.) And then of course I had to change my sheets because I was not getting into bed with freshly shaved legs without it. I opted not to put my weighted blanket back on (see: hot) and slept under a sheet and duvet cover. Still hot but I slept OK. I know i'll miss the weight, but waking up sticky and damp is worse.
Yesterday my sticker subscription released some Canada geese stickers and I simply had to have them (they are so ridiculous) and got a 3-month planner too. It won't be here for June (lol) but I can still start it then and see how it works. I have not prepared my last page for May in the journal. Maybe having to plan it out myself is the problem? Either way, I can prepare it for June and maybe reconsider how I lay it out. Experimenting timem!
Stay-cation starts in 7 hours!! I am so excited. I have many plans and we will see how many get done. Bring on the hunkering down!
New iron!
May. 28th, 2026 04:31 pmkoshka_the_catI'm making a 1930s beach halter and shorts because my suit won't be ready for a long time. I went to iron the darts today and my iron did nothing. Argh. So I bought a new iron. A Chi 360 Precision Steam. Once I was visiting Amy and really liked hers, so I was happy Target had one probably not her exact model, but same brand. Anyway, it's really nice and the halter is done!
Testing needed in advance of code push!
May. 28th, 2026 04:10 pmdenise posting in dw_maintenanceIt's been a while since we've done a full code push rather than just hotfixes for bugs, so we are well overdue! Depending on availability, we're aiming to do one sometime soon; we'll let you know specifics once we've worked out good timing for everyone who needs to be available.
However! The reason it's been so long is we kept trying to get some of the stuff that's pending to "really finished" instead of just "mostly finished", and then we once again looked around and went "oh no, this is a really big code push with a lot of changes". Those make us nervous, because while we do a lot of testing ourselves, y'all are really creative in how you use the site and we inevitably find a bunch of edge cases when we let you loose on new code with your real-world data!
So, if folks have some spare time in the next few days, it would be a huge help if you could spend half an hour or so using the site the same way you normally do but with the "Site-Wide Canary" beta features flag turned on. Canary mode is a sort of "live testing" mode: it's your real data, but running the most up-to-date code.
Canary mode always does have a few glitches -- there may be missing text strings or errors about missing database properties, which is a limitation of how we run it. We don't need to know about those, but anything else weird that you run into, leave a comment with what you were trying to do and the error message you got.
I'll repeat that the "here be dragons" caution that's on the beta features page: some things may be broken, so don't use it for when you're doing something important. But a few more eyeballs on it before the push will help the push go more smoothly for everyone.
For folks who want to concentrate on what's changing, we haven't finished the second code tour of what's going to be in this push, but the ffirst one has a good chunk of what's going to be going live. (We'll get the second half done ASAP!)
However! The reason it's been so long is we kept trying to get some of the stuff that's pending to "really finished" instead of just "mostly finished", and then we once again looked around and went "oh no, this is a really big code push with a lot of changes". Those make us nervous, because while we do a lot of testing ourselves, y'all are really creative in how you use the site and we inevitably find a bunch of edge cases when we let you loose on new code with your real-world data!
So, if folks have some spare time in the next few days, it would be a huge help if you could spend half an hour or so using the site the same way you normally do but with the "Site-Wide Canary" beta features flag turned on. Canary mode is a sort of "live testing" mode: it's your real data, but running the most up-to-date code.
Canary mode always does have a few glitches -- there may be missing text strings or errors about missing database properties, which is a limitation of how we run it. We don't need to know about those, but anything else weird that you run into, leave a comment with what you were trying to do and the error message you got.
I'll repeat that the "here be dragons" caution that's on the beta features page: some things may be broken, so don't use it for when you're doing something important. But a few more eyeballs on it before the push will help the push go more smoothly for everyone.
For folks who want to concentrate on what's changing, we haven't finished the second code tour of what's going to be in this push, but the ffirst one has a good chunk of what's going to be going live. (We'll get the second half done ASAP!)
Don't think about it...
May. 27th, 2026 06:52 pmkoshka_the_catUgh. I knew when my friend was calling instead of texting, something was stupid at work and I ended up with almost the worst schedule possible for next year. We can't do our shared class the same way we did last year, I have first period prep, which I loathe, which means that co taught is periods 3-6 instead of 1-4 like I was expecting. I used to like co taught, but am so burned out on it and it was amazing not having it this year. Co taught is so hard at the end of the day too. It's half special ed, half gen ed kids, and they're tired. It also used to be one period, or when we moved to block, two periods. Now it's 4 out of my five periods. I did that once before and it's hard, as a teacher who's used to independence, having another adult in the room almost all day.
But it's summer and I'm not going to think of it...
But it's summer and I'm not going to think of it...
(no subject)
May. 27th, 2026 02:51 pmtotchipandaYesterday I had a therapy appointment, and we talked about vacuuming. It sounds silly, because we really did discuss it a fair amount, but it wasn't entire about vacuuming. It was about breaking cycles and what to do when you feel stuck. It started with me still pondering a new job and is it "wasted effort" if I end up moving east in a few years, and moved into house chores of which vacuuming is the number one "if I did this my place would look and be cleaner. It ended with how being stuck in the cycle guarantees nothing will happen and how do we take steps to move past that.
So I grumbled and dragged my feet, but when I got home I picked up most of the objects in the hallway and then vacuumed it and as far into the living and bedrooms as I could reach. OK FINE YES IT WORKED I do feel better about having taken that step towards a cleaner house. Ugh why does doing a thing for our stupid mental health usually WORK.
I am on a stay-cation next week, woohoo! Aside from taking M to and from the airport, I have no major plans. I want to do chores and a day of laundry, but also things that are fun! I really ought to get some sewing projects lined up so that I'm not scrambling when it comes time to stitch. There's always the cross stitch too. The 100 day project wraps up on Monday or Tuesday, and I haven't made nearly as much progress as I wanted. I should read some audio books while doing said fun things. I have review copies to read.
In a little under an hour from this posting I will be headed out for the follow up to my IUD insertion.
So I grumbled and dragged my feet, but when I got home I picked up most of the objects in the hallway and then vacuumed it and as far into the living and bedrooms as I could reach. OK FINE YES IT WORKED I do feel better about having taken that step towards a cleaner house. Ugh why does doing a thing for our stupid mental health usually WORK.
I am on a stay-cation next week, woohoo! Aside from taking M to and from the airport, I have no major plans. I want to do chores and a day of laundry, but also things that are fun! I really ought to get some sewing projects lined up so that I'm not scrambling when it comes time to stitch. There's always the cross stitch too. The 100 day project wraps up on Monday or Tuesday, and I haven't made nearly as much progress as I wanted. I should read some audio books while doing said fun things. I have review copies to read.
In a little under an hour from this posting I will be headed out for the follow up to my IUD insertion.
Done!
May. 26th, 2026 05:05 pmkoshka_the_catI checked out of work!
I'm not excited about my schedule next year, but whatever. It's break!
I'm not excited about my schedule next year, but whatever. It's break!
Tomorrow
May. 25th, 2026 06:37 pmkoshka_the_catIt feels weird that I have to go to work tomorrow. At least since I took the day off I can go in whenever I want. I'm just trying to figure out timing with my doctor's appointment. Who knows how long it will take to do the checkout stuff. I'm still annoyed that we weren't able to do any of it on Friday.
(no subject)
May. 25th, 2026 08:14 amtotchipandaA very relaxing weekend if I do say so myself :D
Friday I had a very delicious but wheaty bun with my lunch (it was free) and after the cheese buns all week and cupcakes and other wheaty items through the week, my tummy was BIG MAD. I ended up not having a proper dinner at all, I was so uncomfortable. Saturday I had a granola bar and a GF sandwich and nachos through the day, so that was good. Yesterday was granola bar, GF grilled cheese, and parmesan roasted potatoes. And the wheaty graham cracker crumbs on the bottom of the cheesecake I baked.
Yes, I made a cheesecake. I haven't made one in literally 20 years. I bought 2 packs of cream cheese, which was not nearly enough for a 9" pan, but I had it and I wanted to use it, so there we go. I will definitely do it again, it is very yummy! I did not use a water bath and only had a couple of cracks and browning on the edges. I was inspired by "cheesecake gate" on Threads, where someone ordered a cheesecake from a home baker that had been recommended on their newly-local neighbourhood Facebook group and it was really expensive for what they got. It went viral and it was a really fun weekend of cheesecake everything.
Sewing wise, I put the bra together as much as I could without having any elastic. I will have to get it done up fully to assess fit, but just holding it up, Lefty is busting out lol. It's a soft fabric bra, cut on the bias, so not intended for heavy use. We'll see.
Yesterday I cut out K's dress at LONG last, I bought the fabric at the end of February. I even made myself clean off the table (by tossing what was on it somewhat neatly into the pantry closet, which was useless because the cats got into a LOT of trouble trying to climb it) because the skirt pieces are so gigantic. And I am now very sad because I need to order more fabric. My scaled layout was very tight and I did not account for needing to adjust if the width was less than 44". I got everything cut out except for sleeves. The shop is local to me at least, and they only have a couple yards left. Honestly considering just getting the whole lot. I'll use a little over a yard for sleeves, and the rest would be for me.
Towards the end I was getting hangry which is when I had the granola bar (because my bread was frozen and too little was left to force apart, I would have had chunks and I really wanted a grilled cheese). Then I HAD to make the cheesecake because the dairy components had been sitting out for a couple of hours already. Finally got to rot with the cats and never went back to sewing.
Not gonna lie, part of it was because I need to change the serger thread.
Also put a couple threads into the cross stitch. I added a different colour which was more exciting than the near-black I've been working on, and hit the top right corner. Very exciting to see that right angle lol.
Friday I had a very delicious but wheaty bun with my lunch (it was free) and after the cheese buns all week and cupcakes and other wheaty items through the week, my tummy was BIG MAD. I ended up not having a proper dinner at all, I was so uncomfortable. Saturday I had a granola bar and a GF sandwich and nachos through the day, so that was good. Yesterday was granola bar, GF grilled cheese, and parmesan roasted potatoes. And the wheaty graham cracker crumbs on the bottom of the cheesecake I baked.
Yes, I made a cheesecake. I haven't made one in literally 20 years. I bought 2 packs of cream cheese, which was not nearly enough for a 9" pan, but I had it and I wanted to use it, so there we go. I will definitely do it again, it is very yummy! I did not use a water bath and only had a couple of cracks and browning on the edges. I was inspired by "cheesecake gate" on Threads, where someone ordered a cheesecake from a home baker that had been recommended on their newly-local neighbourhood Facebook group and it was really expensive for what they got. It went viral and it was a really fun weekend of cheesecake everything.
Sewing wise, I put the bra together as much as I could without having any elastic. I will have to get it done up fully to assess fit, but just holding it up, Lefty is busting out lol. It's a soft fabric bra, cut on the bias, so not intended for heavy use. We'll see.
Yesterday I cut out K's dress at LONG last, I bought the fabric at the end of February. I even made myself clean off the table (by tossing what was on it somewhat neatly into the pantry closet, which was useless because the cats got into a LOT of trouble trying to climb it) because the skirt pieces are so gigantic. And I am now very sad because I need to order more fabric. My scaled layout was very tight and I did not account for needing to adjust if the width was less than 44". I got everything cut out except for sleeves. The shop is local to me at least, and they only have a couple yards left. Honestly considering just getting the whole lot. I'll use a little over a yard for sleeves, and the rest would be for me.
Towards the end I was getting hangry which is when I had the granola bar (because my bread was frozen and too little was left to force apart, I would have had chunks and I really wanted a grilled cheese). Then I HAD to make the cheesecake because the dairy components had been sitting out for a couple of hours already. Finally got to rot with the cats and never went back to sewing.
Not gonna lie, part of it was because I need to change the serger thread.
Also put a couple threads into the cross stitch. I added a different colour which was more exciting than the near-black I've been working on, and hit the top right corner. Very exciting to see that right angle lol.