Side two, drying.

Sigh. I really wish I was a better painter. Painting well is difficult to begin with and I always end up painting on surfaces that aren't flat!

Aha. I shall claim my style is "loose and impressionistic...." Let's see if anyone actually buys it.
 
And on that note, I am going to get out of the house for awhile because I need to. Even if it is raining.

Stuff and stuff and nonsense.

Escape from the house complete. I found a cute tank top to wear under my suit for Maureen's wedding, plus a pair of black Jones New York jeans on clearance $15 at Marshall's. They were, of course, out of black sheer pantyhose in human sizes, so I'll have to pick up a pair elsewhere. Would their card reader read the  Visa gift card I tried to use to pay for it? Nooooooooooooooo. So I pulled out another one. And another. Because I now have six of the darned things. Nope. None. I gave up on the third one, even though there was no one waiting in line behind me. It was obvious that either the card reader doesn't work or the cashier had no clue what to do.

Picked up a white mock turtleneck (made of genuine mock turtles?) and a couple more long sleeved T-shirts at the Eddie Bauer outlet because they are useful and I kind of live in them at this time of year.  (Extremely casual workplace, remember?) Their card reader happily digested a gift card.

Hiogi is dry and half laced at this point. I'm taking a break from peering at thread holes through my reading glasses for a few minutes before I run the second thread through.

A number of people are probably stressing over Not Done Twelfth Night Clothes right about now. Not me. (Well, except for the part where I hang everything up and attack it with the steamer in a little while.) I don't work that way. I never have.  I've gotten through thirteen years in the SCA without staying up all night before an event to finish a project, or sewing on the way to the event or sewing it onto my body AT the event. Clearly there is something wrong with me.

Instead I will be wearing this old thing. It deserves to be worn. 

Note to self

Steel beading wire, while excellent for its original intended purpose, was a really bad idea for hiogi lacing. It's just not flexible enough for the fan to close properly. Stick with the heavy silk thread if you ever decide to make another one of these.

At least I got to watch more Rome episodes this afternoon. For the Kevin McKidd fans, he does the commentary on Episode 11 "The Spoils," in which Pullo ends up in the gladiatorial ring. For fans who are intrigued by the effect of certain male voices on the lizard brain, McKidd reverts to his natural Highland Scots accent  - he comments that he and fellow castmate Michael Nardone (Mascius), a fellow Scot, were the despair of the dialect coach when they had scenes together. While not as light hearted a commentator as co-star Stephenson, he definitely had some interesting insights to his character's development to offer. Also of note to anyone interested in acquiring the Season 1 boxed set are the Shot By Shot features on the gladiatorial combat in this episode, and the one on Caesar's triumph.  I haven't gotten to the last disc, which has additional special features as well.