I’m back from vacay and feeling…tired and anxious LOL
So let’s start with the sewing update since there’s not a lot to that (since I wasn’t sewing this weekend obv)
Like I said previously I’m making this Leia dress in 2 pieces – dress and cincher. I just think it will look best. Last week I got the basic interior pieces of the cincher cut (sized down from an underbust corset I’d already patterned out a few years ago, can’t remember for what) and sewn together. It’s ready to have boning cut and sewn in. Then I’ll do the outer layer — silk with the gathered chiffon on top.
Speaking of which I’ve got to cut the chiffon in general which is the scary part.
But anyway now let’s talk about VACATION!
For family vacation this year we went to Hot Springs again but we had a different house. This year’s house had it’s pros and cons in comparison to last year’s house but I think overall I liked last year’s house better. I’ll talk about that more later.
Chase and I headed on out in the morning — only for him to realize he forgot his ear buds and we had to turn around and go back to get them. And then about a half hour outside of Hot Springs he realized he forgot… shoes. LOL He had flip-flops on for the drive, but forgot his tennis shoes at home. We went and had lunch a a place called Copper Penny Pub, and then went and found a dick’s sporting goods so hew could buy shoes.
By then the house was ready to be checked into so we headed over there.
This house was 3 levels – top floor was 2 bedrooms/2 bathrooms – middle floor was living area with kitchen and another bathroom – bottom floor was 4 more bedrooms and bathrooms. It definitely had more space for everyone than last year’s house (last year we had to have people sleeping in the movie room), but it had like NO soundproofing and our room ended up being right underneath the kitchen so if anybody was up walking around in the kitchen it was incredibly loud. So that was a bummer because it made it hard to go to sleep early or sleep in if anybody else was in the living area.
But the backyard was really nice, it had a hot tub, pool, putting green, and all of the grass was astro turf LOL Which we all really liked? Like it was nice to walk around on barefoot and play games on.
That night we had pizza and played some more games – and I’d had Chase digitize my old VHS tape of my 11th birthday party at skateland for everyone to watch. That was a lot of fun.
Friday we went out to the downtown area again and then out to a crafts fair.
We all met up again for dinner at Fisherman’s Wharf which I really enjoyed. Then we went to play mini golf. I can’t even remember the last time i played mini golf.
It was the “oldies” vs the “youngies” with the losers having to buy ice cream cones for the winners.
There were several hole in ones and everyone had to do a dance when they got a hole in one. I did not get a hole in one so I did not have to dance LOL
Somehow the “youngies” team won by just a couple of points. But we never did get our ice creams!
After that Chase and I went to the book store and then back to the house. Some of the others split off to go to the casino so the rest of just hung out and read the rest of hte night – I went to bed early, I had a sinus headache!
Ash was checking up on Luna for us while we were gone. I think she stayed in her blanket fort all weekend.
Saturday was a lazy “hang out at the house” family day.
I spent most of the day reading or napping. I’m reading The Princess and the Scoundrel and really enjoying it.
I think at some point of “family day” everybody got tired of being at the house. Everybody went out on a drive at some point or another. Last year’s house had a bunch more places to sit or hang out plus the movie room, a boat, kayaks… there just seemed to be more to do at that house than this house. It was too chilly saturday for the pool so I think everybody was bored.
Dinner saturday night dad and Chase cooked steak and chicken and we had baked potatoes and salad and rolls and it was all really good. After dinner we had D&D night…
Which Rachel and I are still pretty bad at, we keep forgetting what we’re supposed to do since we go so long between games, so she and I sit next to each other trying to remember which dice we’re supposed to roll.
Sunday we all got up and got the house ready for check out and hit the road. The drive home seemed faster than the drive to get there. We stopped at a Hardee’s for breakfast out of sheer convenience and it was absolutely awful, never doing that again.
But anyway — we all kinda feel like we’ve exhausted Hot Springs as a vacation spot, we all enjoyed it but we’ve basically done everything we wanted to do. Chase and I are pushing for the beach next year.
Got home and Chase and I decided to run a few errands so we could just come and be home – and one of the things I wanted to do was to run by Walmart and grab some of these fries I’ve been obsessed with recently. They’re the Red Robin frozen fries and in the air fryer they are GREAT. And Walmart is the only place that sells them that we’ve found. So we went to the one by our house and… their entire frozen potato section was completely empty?? So nbd we went to the next Walmart and… same thing?? Is Walmart having a frozen potato shortage? So I googled around trying to find some other store that might carry them – we know none of the groceries around us do, nor Target – so I finally checked Superlo Foods and they said they carried them. So we drove down there and they did have them! Plenty of them so I bought extra AND they were cheaper than Walmart. That was my Sunday Fry Quest.
Then home to take a nap, watch Rings of Power and eat dinner.
Last night I had anxiety dreams about Marriott booking day all night. I only remember one specific one – that I’d managed to get a booking to go through but they’d changed it so that you just booked “a” hotel room – you could be assigned at any of some 35 hotels in the area and you just paid a general deposit and you wouldnt find out what hotel you got assigned until the next day. (See why I don’t go to sdcc anymore? lol) It was a relief to wake up and realize it was a dream.
Coming back from vacation and dealing with catching up all morning + marriott madness made for a stressful morning, which is why I said I was anxious in the first line of this post. Chase and I were oh on and ready and checking it regularly as soon as we hda the link – we’d planned to facetime each other right at 10 est (9 our time) so we didn’t double book. But then they dropped early and he got it. I thought for a second we both did because I went through it too — but i forgot to click “agree” on the last page so that extra second gave me time to see that he’d already gotten it to go through. Got both confirmation numbers and it’s showing in bonvoy but I don’t celebrate til the deposit is showing in my statement. I’ve got alerts on so I can know when it’s pending.
Anyway — the rest of my sewing news is another upcoming project, not a costume but just a dress. I came across a one-day-build challenge on tiktok with a really cute vintage pattern – the person doing the challenge would send you a copy of the pattern, though I ended up having a copy so that was nice. And it gave me an excuse to buy these haunted mansion bedsheets I’d been wanting.
You can either do the pattern as one fabric or use a contrast fabric, and I wanted to use a contrast – I specifically wanted the HM wallpaper fabric in grey to go with it. Apparently the wallpaper fabric has al been copyrighted off of spoonflower so I found some on etsy. It arrived while we were gone and I was excited to open it as soon as I got home but… disappointment.
The pattern is a LOT smaller than I expected which is not a big deal.
What is a big deal is that the pattern is horizontal instead of vertical. That is, if I wanted to cut this on the grain, the pattern would be sideways. And I only got one yard, so if I want to cut this with the pattern straight up and down, I’m going to have to cut it cross-grain AND add a seam at the waist because it’s not long enough that way. Just like… why is the pattern sideways?? Every fabric I’ve ever gotten with a pattern has it running vertical/on the grain. So weird.
But I wasn’t going to spend more money on what was supposed to just be a simple quick for fun project so I went ahead with it. I got it dyed last night — I wanted it to be darker so the wallpaper pattern was more subtle. I tried out RIT’s new “back to black” dye which… I was really impressed by!
Here’s the 2 fabrics together with the newly dyed wallpaper fabric. It’s a little brighter in this photo than it is IRL — the iphone camera’s auto-adjust kills me.
But anyway I’m mostly happy with these 2 fabrics. Just going to have to do extra work to make it but oh well. I’m planning to make this Saturday or Sunday – for the challenge you’re supposed to be able to make it “between breakfast and lunch” in one day so we’ll see. So far I’m doing multiple adjustments so I know I’m not gonna be the fastest but not really concerned with that. Just doing it for fun!