116 & 117/120
116/120 - Hand sewed one fo the sleeves into a suit for Meri, one of my dolls:
( Warning doll picture behind cutCollapse )

117/120 - Finished a doll jumper by adding the fastenings before giving it to Alice when I visited yesterday:
( Warning doll picture behind cutCollapse )

Teddy

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Cheery, cheery, cheery
Reading Girl Genius never fails to give me a boost of cheeryness.

I like the comic, I like the books, I like the audiobooks. It's just win, win, win with Girl Genius.

Teddy

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Nice idea but lacking in the execution...
Someone on a doll list posted a link to a UK based company that are starting up a line of historical girl books and dolls (I know American Girl have already done it, but they don't sell outside the US and thedolls are all very US-centric).

Thinking what a good idea it is, I went to the website (http://www.agirlforalltime.com/) for a look - they're starting with a Tudor girl....

I haven't read the books, so I don't know how accurate or not they are, if the dolls clothes are any indications, it'll be more Hollywood than Historical.

EDITED TO ADD: There is an excerpt from the Tudor girl's story on the website: http://www.agirlforalltime.com/excerpt-from-matildas-secret-diary


I realize that they probably felt a need to simplify because of production costs and the dolls being children's toys etc, but even so - simplifying from an accurate basis would have produced better results.... and surely it's cheaper to produce something with fewer details than producing something where most of the elaborate extras are inacurate, and unnecessary anyway.

The Tudor doll basic outfit:
http://www.agirlforalltime.com/uploads/images/product-images/5e97ac1ea646fb3693025bfa363941fa74b628b8.jpg
http://www.agirlforalltime.com/uploads/images/product-images/e9c42f465eafc303ee32860665223e97675cb6e6.jpg
In a bulky fabric like that surely it's easier (cheaper?) to produce it without 2 unnecessary seams on the front of the bodice and have it sit smoothly. Making it a one-piece gown with seperate underskirt would be more accurate, wouldn't be any more expensive, and would offer the opportunity to change out the uinderskirt for variations in the outfit (perhaps with some undersleeves as they don't include any... And that awful straight-up-from-the-head attempt at a french hood.

The only good thing is the doll doens't have a fringe so is at least capable of a reasonably period hairstyle.

Masked ball outfit:
http://www.agirlforalltime.com/uploads/images/product-images/1faa89f01a1cddc52ffed85e9c941e73064bcffd.jpg
Hollywood... need I say more.

Shift (marketed as a "night shift")
http://www.agirlforalltime.com/uploads/images/product-images/8735e6568399682c03d73e61a13400eabf7f6933.jpg
http://www.agirlforalltime.com/uploads/images/product-main/67ce8e7d685d3b26e20c8cf23b859b7b3053e44f.jpg
Look at those oh-so-Victorian ruffles!

They plan to do Elizabethan, Restoration, Georgian, Victorian, and WWII dolls as well....

I ssupose I should be grateful - after all, if they'd done it well, I'd probably want to start collecting the dolls myself, doing it badly has potentially saved me a lot of money.

Teddy

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Copied from both eleyan and la_marquise_de_




Hmmm..... Well, looking at my default icon, I can see where that might be somewhat accurate.

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Costumers/crafters get together SUNDAY 1st February
Since Lissa (oreouk) thought to put a reminder on the costumeuk community, I'd better put one here (blatantly coppied and pasted, with minor tweaks from Lissa's post).

Sunday 1st February 2009 is the date and Flis is the host

12 Sheppard Way
Rickmansworth
Hertfordshire
WD3 7NJ

Please reply here, or let me know by 'phone if you are going to turn up so he can let Flis know and she can have an idea of how many of us to expect... or let Flis know direct (and /or contact her for directions) by calling her on 01923 770984.

It's the usual arrangement, assemble at Flis's from mid-morning, bring yourself, your costume/craft project(s) to work on and your lunch, and we'll while away the rest of the day crafting and costuming in company.

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In appreciation of authors
It occurred to me that I have a lot to be grateful to authors for.

People who devote large chunks of their lives to writing and getting those writings, be they fact or fiction, published.

Factual works sharing their research, skills and knowledge with a wider community, works of fiction sharing the products of their imagination.

I read a lot - I am seldom without a book of some sort about my person, I find journey's, particularly on public transport, almost unbearable without something with me to read - even if I don't get the chance to read it because I'm sewing, or chatting to a fellow traveler or whatever, the journey is more bearable for the simple knowledge that I have something with me that I can read should the need or opportunity arise.

I would just like to take this opportunity of saying how much I appreciate the hard work that the authors put into creating these pieces of writing for me and my fellow readers to enjoy.

It is hard work, often underpaid (or even unpaid) and unappreciated work. Work that I know I couldn't do, and then the struggle to find a publisher to enable the work to reach a wider audience.

So, to anyone who happens to read my LJ who is an author, my sincere thanks.

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Back to California...
So, Thursday morning, Tom and I walk 'round to the local Post Office, procure one of their self assembly crates (the biggest size) some mailing address labels and a roll of parcel tape and head back tot he house to finish our packing.

( Posting, packing, travelling, a lack of Mystery and much unloading of techCollapse )
It was somewhere around then that I knew the convention had begun

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Home again, home again thingumy wotsit.
Back home safe and sound from San Fransisco.

Costume Con was fab and fun and tiring and followed immediately by ten hour flight back to Heathrow , cab journey home from airport etc.

Determined to stay up until as close to "usual" bedtime as possible in order to give body clock best chance of adjusting to UK time before I get up at six in the morning to return to work tomorrow, but that will mean I've been awake for around 30 hours before I finally go to bed (I can seldom sleep while traveling unless I'm very ill, and a small and noisy child in the row behind was kicking the back of my seat and/or throwing things over the top for large parts of the overnight flight)

Proper updateyness about the fun of the con will follow - but probably not until after I have tackled the inevitable mountain of backlog that will have built-up at work in my absence...

This probably means that my catching up on my friendslist posts since last Wednesday/Thursday will be spotty and sporadic (if it exists at all)

Teddy

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Same again.
Tuesday: ( Dollshop revisited and visiting KateCollapse )

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More Updateyness
Monday: ( Japantown and BASFACollapse )

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And more again
Sunday: ( Fleamarket, shopping, Danville, Dollshop and a mysterious lack of NCISCollapse )

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And more
Saturday: ( TV, Fremont, Gladney/Kwinns music and dollsCollapse )

By the time it all wound up and everyone collapsed on the sofas and living room chairs, it was late and Paul and Beckett, instead of dropping us back at the BART stop, kindly drove us all the way back to Concord.

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Overdue updateyness!
Friday:( shopping, exploring and a filmCollapse )

Then it was back tot he BART and the journey back to Concord.

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Another day in The City
Today's fun in The City involved tracking down a Crocs outlet (we followed Seanan's directions and were told she was washing her hands of me if I failed to find the place. We found it easily but did consider 'phoning her to say we were lost and could she talk us through the details again....{g})

( What I did On My Holidays: Day TwoCollapse )

Tomorrow, We'll kill part of the day back in the city, before heading to Downtown Berkley to go to Stone Mountain and Daughter ( http://www.stonemountainfabric.com/ ) before meeting Seanan to go to a comic shop and... {tired brain fails to supply names}... to go see a Jackie Chan film.

Saturday, we go see Beckett (we meet at last - Yay!!) and Paul, and I get access to five year old twins and get access to Beckett's stash.

Monday evening we meet up with kevin_standlee and cherylmmorgan and go off to the BASFA meet, which apparently takes place at a restaurant.

So, our dance-card is filling rapidly.for the remaining, six days before we head to CostumeCon

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Some pictures of the London Aquarium trip last Sunday
It was a lot of fun - plus 40 of us with dolls boggled the rest of the visitors to the Aquarium.

( All the pictures are by people other people from the doll groupCollapse )

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Another doll in the house - but not mine this time!
Tom's fallen for another doll:

http://www.thedollpage.com/photopost/data/6729/603tannedmano1.jpg

I'm not objecting.

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Note to self:
Just because you blindly reach out and pick up the stapler instead of the barcode reader does not mean it will perform the same function, no matter how many times you run it back and forth over the barcode you wish to scan into the catalogue record.

Furthermore, squeezing the stapler closed on your finger does not improve it's chances of scanning the barcode.

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Next Costumers/Crafter's Housemeet/get-together
Sunday 11th May 2008

at Flis's place

12 Shepherds Way,
Rickmansworth,
WD3 7NJ
(On the met line, 10 min walk from Rickmansworth station)

From 11:00am onwards

Bring along costuming projects, crafts projects, your lunch and chat.

If possible, please let Flis know to expect you:


01923 770 984 or

sasha **AT** tuffcrater **DOT** f9 **DOT** co **DOT** uk

She can also provide more detailed directions, should you need them.

Hope to see you there.

Teddy

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Goodbye until next year
Right, it's nearly home time and I won't be abck at work (e-mail, LJ access etc) until January 7th... when I expect to have a huge e-mail backlog to work through, so won't be back on LJ properly until some time after that

It's possible that I might get around to firing up the horribly slow home computer, over the break, and checking in on LJ.... but unlikley, so this is Goodbye until next year.

I hope you all have a great time over the holiday season and wish you a Happy and prosperous New Year.

Teddy

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It's just not a good time for elecronics around us!
It started last week when my sewing machine went legs up leaving me to struggle on using my spare machine, then, one of the strip-lights in the sewing room started flickering and stopped coming on except a vague glow at either end of the tube (unless I fiddled with the starter thingie and then it would come on for a while).

( Continuing electrical woesCollapse )

We were without power for around 2 hours.... it came back just in time for us to see the repeat of the Ugly Betty episode recorded without sound, but Sarah Jane I'm afraid, is lost to us.

I finished the bit of sewing I'd been in the middle of, flickering lights making it difficult to move on to anything more detailed, then we tunred in for an early night...

...for all the good it did me, I barely slept. Again. No idea why.

Current Mood: TIRED!

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