I feel like I have a headache every day

I always want to post my blog stuff on FB but don't know how to get into it without seeming to be going LOOK LOOK LOOK AT ME DOING THINGS, so I just kind of allowed my response to the Wearing History post on Miroir des Modes, where I gave the link to my translation, to be crossposted to FB. So it's like ... I'm allowing people to notice but I don't have to feel like I'm going out of my way to be linking to myself.

I managed 2.7k words yesterday! That is excellent for me. I know some people can do many thousands but as long as I do over the minimum that's impressive to myself. I wonder what it's like to be able to write consistently on one project outside of NaNo. It must be amazing.

Cracked just taught me that Tiger & Bunny is apparently a mecha/superhero anime, which is interesting as I had been imagining that it was very shoujo-looking yaoi based on the way people talk about it.

I'm loving Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Shuttle like crazy. It has basically everything I want in a story. The main character is intelligent and gorgeous, and swoops in and just straight-up rescues her sister and nephew and starts fixing up not only her brother-in-law's estate but the local village as well. She is Sara Crewe if she'd gone to decent schools throughout Europe instead of Miss Minchin's, and if her father hadn't died but just kept working on his diamond mine. Her love interest is the earthy Earl of Mount Dunstan, whose estate is completely impoverished and who is unjustly shunned by all because his (deceased) father and older brother were profligates and degenerates and it's assumed he's like them. On the whole it's not quite as pull-you-in as ALP or TSG, as a result of the main character not really being under any trials or having many issues of her own to overcome, but

The one thing that does get to me, though, is that the basic theme is relations between England and America, and as a result of that there's a decent amount of talk about the historical ties and ancestral ties. There are a lot of statements about Americans recognizing England as home when they get there because ~that's where they came from~. And if it were just more specific about which Americans ... but it's not, and every time there's a sweeping statement about Americans all being English underneath I kind of want to shake the narrator. Especially because the main character's surname is VANDERPOEL, and the family is very obviously built on the VANDERBILTS, and these are not English names, ffs.

SO EXCITED

about getting to work on these Sew Serendipity patterns. I even got out Couture Sewing Techniques (signed copy, have I mentioned) so I can do it right - specifically, for alternatives to fusible interfacing, because I don't like that stuff. In general, while I like the basic patterns and the different variations shown in the book, I'm not 100% on board with the techniques and materials. Eg, she recommends using a serger because it gives a more professional look, while I think if you're going to sew your own clothes they're not going to look like retail and you might as well not use a retail-type seam finish. And I'm not into wearing quilting cotton unless it's really nice, drapey one, but for the most part I'd prefer to get cottons from Mood or Fashion Fabrics Club. But like I said, the patterns seem to be great and I am psyched to make proper muslins of them and fit them and everything. I've got the skirt one pinned together right now, with each section labeled with what it is and which side it's for. It's all very mature and careful.

( Boardwalk Empire, through 3.10 )