Sheesh

I knew yesterday was going to be a full one but little did I know that on top of the Neighbourhood Mosaic Project Two and The Bride’s party, I would also come back down with that same darn bug I’ve been trying to shake for a couple of months now. Pooh. It started off on Friday afternoon with a bit of a scratchy throat, segued into a nasty sore throat overnight and into Saturday and today I’m dripping onto my sewing. I feel like something stuck on the bottom of a shoe. No fair. I totally hope I didn’t share any of this with any one of the many people I came into contact with yesterday. Especially the female half of the bridal party. That would really be unforgivable. Anyway, nature will take its course regardless so I might as well not agonize over it and just concentrate on finishing my sewing and getting better before Friday evening.

Backing up, the stone mosaic project went quite well. It was T-Man’s turn to choose the subject matter and design this year so he picked a lighthouse and sketched a few ideas. We had great fun placing our stones to simulate water, sky, cliff, lighthouse and even a seagull. See?


The light in the tower is one of T’s lampwork beads. This is what it looked like before the grouting cement and Portland cement were poured on it. Now it’s wrapped in plastic and piled with many others in a garage waiting to cure. Next step is to take off the mould, clean off the sand, pressure wash it and let it dry before varnishing. Can’t wait to see what it looks like when it comes out! This project, like the one we participated in last year, is fully paid for by a city grant to help beautify our neighbourhood. This time the area is wider and there are even more participants. The finished stepping stones must be placed on city property and permission has to be applied for each spot. It’s totally organised by local folks and has been a great way to get neighbours together for a group effort. I’m still finding stepping stones that were made last year every time I go for a walk. It’ll be even more fun to come upon all the new ones when they’re done.

After all that I only had enough time to walk home, have a shower and get cleaned up before my SIL picked me up for the drive out to The Bride’s townhouse in the suburbs. I took her my Sleeping Beauty spinning wheel and she seemed really appreciative. Hope she can get more use out of it than I have in the last 10 years. It does look decorative if nothing else. The rest of the women who came are all in the Society for Creative Anachronism and are all well-acquainted with (if not related to) each other. SIL did pretty well at socializing but I wasn’t really feeling very well. Hope they don’t think I’m a party pooper or a snob! They had a great time eating really “bad” food: fondues both cheese and chocolate with bread, marshmallows, fruit, graham crackers, and even Timbits (donut balls) for dipping. Also chicken wings, meatballs, veggie & dip, mini quiches, and cake plus wines both fruity and plain. I didn’t even try to stay low carb but didn’t really eat a lot anyhow. I can’t really tolerate a lot of bread and sweets these days. I did manage to have my share of the only dry white wine available though. And the chocolate was very yummy on strawberries…

They played some silly games, most notably a human male version of “pin the tail on the donkey” which was very hilarious. Later in the evening some of the girls offered foot and shoulder massages to each other. In spare moments the matron of honour was stitching on the bride’s jeweled collar and another was embroidering a patch for my brother-in-law the minister’s garb. She googled the logo for his Eckankar religion and it’s looking really nice. (In case you were wondering, none of us except he and his wife are Eck!) I feel better knowing that they haven’t finished all their sewing either and aren’t panicking yet. They are much more experienced in period clothing than I am so I’m glad they volunteered to do the bridal party’s outfits. I’ve got enough to do before Friday evening’s Rehearsal Dinner.

Even though I felt totally crummy today I still managed to hem T’s and my undertunics, all 40-eleven miles of them. I struggled quite a bit with the neckline on his overtunic trying to get the trim to lie flat. Didn’t totally succeed but it doesn’t look too bad. I hope. I had absolutely no trim to spare and even had to taper the overtunic’s sleeves a bit so what was left from the neckline would fit on the sleeve hems. That’s cutting it a bit too close. I tried really hard not to drip snot all over everything but I ended up quitting there. Tomorrow I must make Nana’s hat so T can take it to her after work on Tuesday. This is turning into a really close race. At least I hope I feel more human tomorrow so I can carry on without feeling like I’m going to keel over.