Since Mother Eve in the Garden long ago

Damp air trapped in limestone caverns, heady greenery, hothouse orchids, nicotiana blossoms, bois de chandel, elemi, palm wine, garambullo, pega-pega, flame of the forest, and a swirl of Haitian vetiver.

I know what almost none of this smells like and can't pick out any notes (even wet stone or greenery), but it is definitely a warm, tropical floral! I feel like I'm getting some kind of citrus, too. Eventually (after lunch) faded into something that just tickles my nose.

Haven't been up for writing much at AH lately due to the work drama, and then the busyness of everyday life. But I did just answer this one: Louis XV kept a place called Parc-aux-Cerfs (The Deer Park): a harem of young women he could have sex with. What was it like and what kind of life would the women of the deer park have? (The answer is, of course, "wow, you're wrong," as per usual.)

I went to cut out another slip from the crepe today, only to find there wasn't enough! I ordered 3yds, like I did for the charmeuse, but the latter must have been a 60" width because I got a full slip, a half slip, and French knickers out of that. I did manage to get a half slip with only a little piecing out of it. Now I just have to put the pieces together.

Picked up this 1940s dress project (view 1) again - I want to be able to wear it in Italy! The fabric is one of the heavier/coarser quilting cottons, printed with like ... balls of abstract flowers, each ball all in red, orange, light blue, or teal, and kind of black dandelions ... I will have to share a photo on Insta at some point, it's hard to describe. I cut out all of the pieces near the end of last summer, and pinned the darts, but then I hit the "it's too hard to make myself get to the sewing machine" wall. And now I'm getting around that by hand-sewing it! I think it'll be cute.

My to-do list is never set in stone because my work is always determined by my whims, and I expect that by the time I finish this I'll be looking to make something Haslam again. But if I do not, I think I will make Butterick 6282, a reprint of a shirtdress from 1941. For a long time I thought wartime 1940s wouldn't work on me because the fashion figures are so elongated and narrow, but then I made that ensemble for my concert last spring and it looked pretty cute. If I do go back to Haslam for a change, I might give one of the bra patterns a shot. (I need new bras, so I threw caution to the wind and bought a bullet bra from What Katie Did - it costs only slightly more than a usual bra for me, so why not - but unfortunately it's at least a full size too small in the band and cup. Ugh. Guess I will exchange and hope for the best.)

Stays pattern is up! Look at how pretty it is! My pattern, I mean; the stays themselves are so dull and brown.

I forced myself to finish reading this book, because I wanted to really lambaste it here and would feel bad if it had some major twists near the end that gave it surprising complexity. It did not, btw.

( Read more... )

So, uh, wouldn't recommend.

Finished The Haunting of Hill House last night! ( thoughts )

Rewatching the Netflix series to try to pick up on color stuff. ( notes )

The fanfic meme!

What’re your first and second most common work ratings?
I have ten Gen, and one each of NR, Teen, and Mature.

What’s your most common archive warning? Least common?
"No Archive Warnings Apply", lol. Only one is "Chose not to Warn" and I suspect that that was a mistake, because I don't think there's anything warnable in it.

Do you consider yourself an adventurous writer?
Yeah, I think so. I get more adventurous in each exchange - you wouldn't believe some of the things I offered in the H/C exchange. I don't have much of a desire to write fanfic novels, really, or series: I want to write about everything and every fandom.

How many stories have you made in each pairing category?
Gen (6)
M/M (3)
F/M (2)
F/F (2)

Is this more accidental, or do you have preferences?
Mmm ... I used to have a strong M/F preference, but lately I don't even have a very strong romance preference anymore - I want to concentrate on people's sad childhoods, or their clothing. That being said, I never bother to nominate anything in exchanges and since nobody ever nominates Remus/Tonks, I can't offer that and write treats for it, which I would if it were there. Apparently nobody likes the ship anymore??? (Only joking, hardly anybody really liked the ship in the first place.)

What are your top 4 fandoms by numbers? Are you still active in any of them, and do you tend to migrate a lot?
Original Work (3) - lol, but for real it's the most fun
Harry Potter (2)
The Goblin Emperor (2)
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, book and tv version (2)

Harry Potter is my ride-or-die forever fandom, even if I'm not talking about it so much anymore. I'm definitely nowhere near as active in TGE as I used to be, and I don't offer it anymore because I can't remember enough about the characters ... but then, I also never really cared about the ships in the fandom, which is what everyone else seems to be into. I don't migrate a lot so much as I offer what I can write and typically get matched on the thing I put in last because I needed one more offer.

What are your top 4 relationship tags? Does this match how you feel about the characters, or are you puzzled?
All my relationship tags have one each! Multifandom exchanges 4 lyfe.

What are your top 2 most used additional tags, and your bottom 2? What would happen if you combined all 4 of these into a fic?
Top two are Alternate Universe and Clothing Porn, both with 3 uses; bottom two would be Meta and First Time, both with 1. Technically, I've used Meta in conjunction with Clothing Porn for a Goblin Emperor fashion magazine. All together, I think I would write a fake academic or pop history article about the clothing we have left from Emma Poole's wardrobe, in an alternate universe where she is a fabulous magician.

How many WIPs do you have currently running on AO3? Any you don’t plan on finishing?
Nooooooone. I know that I never finish anything so I don't post WIPs. Also, most of my WIPs are about OCs and I'm still very very wary of posting OC fic in public.

Made myself crepes after dinner and put some lemon curd on them. Shrove Tuesday! Britaboo level: increased! (They were delicious.)

I am watching Saving Mr Banks this evening and it is just ... why did I not realize how adorable this movie is? Emma Thompson is such a delight. She made me laugh out loud multiple times before I was halfway into it. (Bob Sherman's son made a revue about his father, it's called A Spoonful of Sugar, you can find it on Spotify.) Also, I had NO idea Ruth Wilson and Colin Farrell were in this and as amazing as they are.

Books lately:

Four Funerals and Maybe a Wedding, by Rhys Bowen - the latest in the "Royal Spyness" series. An adequate continuation; I mostly read them out of momentum, and really, they are better than most formula series mysteries. Better-written, I mean, and Georgie's mother is always fun to read. But as mysteries I always feel like they lack something - partly because mysteries set in the 1930s inevitably make you draw a comparison with Sayers which everyone else will always lose, but partly because Georgie just ... she just sort of walks around and the most obvious clues get left in front of her, every so often she does something insanely risky without seeming to realize it, and then she mainly solves the mystery because she runs into the criminals doing crimes. So just not quite satisfying. But as the title hints, she marries Darcy, so at least we can stop being reminded that she's a virgin every book!

An Unkindness of Magicians, by Kat Howard - a standalone urban fantasy novel, probably could be categorized as "new adult" although it isn't as far as I know. The premise is that New York City is controlled by various magical families/Houses, and every so often they have to participate in a tournament to see which House will be in charge. I'm going to get a bit spoilery about the worldbuilding, so I'll shift into a cut: ( not spoilery enough to ruin the book but I know some people like to be fully surprised )

Now I'm working on The Victory Garden, also by Rhys Bowen, and it's interesting to see where it is and isn't like the Royal Spyness series, in terms of voice and character-type and plot. (It's a standalone novel, not marketed with the RS books at all, but close enough that she's not using a pen name, so ... I have to say, it seems like she phones it in with Spyness.) Though I hit a Stupid Corset Scene - really stupid - and about ten pages later there was an unexpected Australian slur, which is like ... if you're going to have characters be "oooh modern young women who all agree about corsets and jobs etc.", can't you have the Australian perfect-man love interest have some slight racial awareness?

Also started The Haunting of Hill House, don't know if I can/should read it at night.

So yesterday I went to see Isn't It Romantic, and at the climax I was thinking, "Oh, this is a lot like what I get out of Sophie Kinsella," which reminded me that the book I just read was I Owe You One by SK! I find her books comforting because (apart from the Shopaholic ones, ironically) they always start with the heroine being picked on and unappreciated by her family, and you know that by the end she'll find her life path and yell at everyone else, and the romance is like a secondary reward to that. The mileage she has gotten out of this one plot is amazing.

Wore Red Velvet this afternoon to get used to it. Like it more the second time!

So I took a break from the pattern redrawing while I pitched to Contingent, and then continued the break because I started creating a pen-and-paper system for a Regency-period social RPG ("Dandies and Dandyzettes"). Lately I've felt rested up, though, and I'm back to redrawing patterns. Contingent turned me down. Ah well. I hope they can get funding to go forward beyond the March issue. I might ask them for advice on what type of fashion history articles would be suitable, going forward, in case they do, because I don't have the knack of coming up with good pitch concepts yet.

So I sewed both sleeves, and gathered one and set it in, cut out the skirt panels, cut into the bottom of skirt panels and sewed them up again, cut into the top to form the apron-front, ironed the plackets that will go on the sides of the apron into shape, cut out the bib, and ironed down three edges on bib to mark where to hem. Not bad for a weekend!

A while back, someone recommended Elizabeth Willey's A Sorceror & A Gentleman as high fantasy with a focus on social matters (rather than a quest, or the magic system, or w/e). I'm halfway in and still interested, but not quite hooked. ( It's from the '90s and feels bit dated )

I'm interested in seeing where it goes, but I'm not really devouring it.

But I've written three treats for Chocolate Box, and I'm working on a pitch for Contingent, a new history mag aimed at a general audience that especially wants to publish people with a postgraduate degree in non-tenure-track/non-academic jobs. (Attacking the idea that flappers are equivalent to Millennials.) I really need to get back to my bib-front gown but as usual I'm afraid of cutting out more fabric and ruining it.

Watching DS9's "Far Beyond the Stars" this evening. I so appreciate it when shows do episodes that are AU fanfiction.

Would like to buy myself a new lipstick or two because I wear Tango Red almost every day, Carmine on occasion, and Victory Red once in a great while, but I get exhausted looking at the options and then trying to figure out how it will look on me ... I feel like I want a more medium pink for variety, but I don't know if a pink will suit me at all. Wish Besame did sample lipsticks!

I never know what exactly I think about the new Les Mis, so a few disjointed points.

( Les Mis )

I also never know what I think about Victoria. ( Victoria )

Finally started watching this season of Outlander. It seems WAY better than the first few seasons. Like they've started producing it more like prestige television instead of "look at this sexy costume drama". I don't ... hate it?

IMO the costuming is better as well, even if it still hews to some of the annoying things (knit shawls/cuffs, that really abrupt RenFaire hip roll, etc.). Roger and Brianna dress in exactly the kind of hideousness people from 1971 would think was appropriate to wear to go back to the 18th century, which I appreciate.

Tired: Claire and Jamie 4ever

Wired: Bree and Roger 5ever