Goings-On

Are you hearing crickets at the "Day In 1862" blog yet? :)

I don't have anything of importance to say, so I'll just update you on the goings-on in our humble home. It has been busy. Tis the season -- in a number of ways. And not just holiday-wise. Apparently this is also the time of year where every franchisee in our company needs me to design an ad for them. Big ads. Not easy, little things. Victoria is teething pretty intensely now -- poor little bugger -- and that creates a frustrating environment for me. Keith has been working lots and lots of weird (and multiple) shifts, so he's been gone a lot. We're in the process of planning/deciding things about building a home. And I have sewing for Ft. Washita to do. I'll get to that in a minute.

To break the monotony (!!) one of the fun things I decided to do recently was enter into a design challenge for Valentine's Day cards at minted.com. Drop by my design studio at minted to look at what I submitted -- and vote when the contest opens for voting! It's a great way to encourage new talent out there, because the top 10 designs win a monetary prize, plus get a chance to have their design be sold on minted.com! Pretty awesome stuff. Plus, it's just all real good fun. I decided to start a blog for my graphic design, Two Leaf Studio, as a sister-site to my Two Leaf Press (a letterpress shop, which is not open yet). I'll be doing more design challenges as they come up in the future.

Here is a fun pic. Found it on the home page of istockphoto.com. I thought it was pretty ingenious, don't you think? Kind of reminds me of us reenactors, trying to be historically correct in a modern world.

Anyway, in other news, I've started work on a fitted wool dress -- thank the good Lord! -- that I can wear at our Ft. Washita event the 2nd week in December. Oh, I've had this plaid wool just sitting on the shelf for about 3 years now, just waiting to be made up into a dress. It's rather pretty (in my opinion), although it's not flowery or girly. It would make up into a wonderful tailored (more modern) dress, but I thought it would work well for a simple fitted dress. At a distance, it seems to look brownish grey. Perfect for the now-matriarchal me.

It's pretty clear from looking at that photo that I desperately need a petticoat for my hoop -- and it probably won't hurt to add a hoop to the bottom of my hoop, either. It shrunk once in the rain and it's had that large "drop off" on all my skirts ever since. I loathe this. And I can't wear my wedding hoop because it's covered (harder to maneuver, imho) and much bigger. I wanted something rather modest. So, I suppose it's a new petticoat for me (that was necessary anyway). Perhaps I'll make it with a nice flounce at the bottom to help hold out the hem. Or maybe I'll go flamboyant and make a flounced petticoat! Woohoo!

Well...that's all for now. I hope everyone has a wonderful (and tasty!) Thanksgiving holiday. God bless you all.

-Amy