mandie_rw | Entries tagged with the dorkiest hobby ever

I had a Very Cranky Sort of Day today, mainly because I waited too long for the last person to rsvp to my vintage tea this weekend (are you coming or not? do I include you in the reservation? who knows!), and there were no reservations at either affordable place that serves tea in Center City today. GRUMP. (That girl is not going to be invited to any more things where I need a firm headcount. Buh-bye.) And then Paypal decided to continue sitting on my payment for the hat I bought last week on etsy for the tea. NO that's OKAY Paypal, "within 72 hours" is totally the same as 120 hours, that's cool. I DIDN'T WANT TO HAVE A VINTAGE TEA ANYWAY. *flounce*

But then I got a little package from Amazon on the front step (cue confusion: "I don't think I ordered anything...did I???"), that turned out to be some very pretty shimmery ink from my Christmas list! <3 Thank you,

chocolatepot ! Perfect timing.
red ink jar

It doesn't look like much in the bottle but I tested it out (with a couple splatters!), and it's a really pretty Christmas-y red with gold shimmer. It might be telling me to send out Christmas cards after all! ;) Although it definitely wants a broader nib than I usually use, to really show off the sparkle. (Gee, do I think I can bring myself to buy a cheap pen just for this ink? Yes. Yes I do.)

And Adrienne found a restaurant for our 8-person group, and etsy cancelled my hat transaction (so I could promptly buy it again WITHOUT PAYPAL, and they're really close to me geographically so I should still get it before Saturday), and I tried on my new Rago waist cincher that I got a couple days ago (can't have a proper 50s outfit without shapewear!), and it fits nicely! So...I am happy again.

(Except the non-responding girl is still on my shit list. Don't say you're coming and then when I ask everyone to confirm go MIA! Grrr.)

Current Mood: okay
Crossposts: https://mandie-rw.livejournal.com/618987.html

I finished the Kannik's Korner cap this afternoon, so I think the cap-making frenzy is done (FOR NOW mwahahaha). I'll post pics tomorrow. This last one may well be the dorkiest cap that ever did dork, I am very amused by it.

Regarding my Other New Hobby - I spent money I shouldn't've, and bought myself another TWSBI Eco and another couple inks as a back-to-school treat. I love the Estie J that

chocolatepot gifted me, but I've found that it tends to get a little ring of ink where the nib meets the barrel, and so can get on my fingers just a little bit. Which doesn't bother me at home where I can wash off, but I think that might not appreciate being bounced around in a book bag very much. And I want to have two pens at school. So. New pen it is! Plus I do want to have a semi-professional-looking ink to use, just in case...my current Eco and the Estie J are filled with purple and green inks, respectively, so. (Yes, you justify spending that money!) De Atramentis has a small line of "educator" inks, named after famous names in education, so I got a bottle of Pestalozzi, which is a subdued dark teal. Seemed respectable enough, and apropos to my schooling. xD

I also started working on quill pens this week, as I realized I could decimate a couple of goose wings from the millinery stash! (I've got a dozen, I think I can spare a couple...) I've cut three pens so far from the small feathers, thanks to a couple of internet how-to's, and they're fairly bad but I can write somewhat legibly with them! It may help when I get the iron-gall ink in my pen order; I'm just using fountain pen ink currently and I get the impression that's "wetter" than iron-gall or pigment? We'll find out. I do like writing with both the smaller-size feathers and the little "crow quill" metal dip pen I bought, so I suspect I'd favor the crow quills that were apparently popular around the turn of the 19thc...none of my regular feather sites sell crow feathers so I may have to ask the neighborhood murder of crows and see if they want to donate. ;) (Yes, there are a few on etsy. But I want to get less incompetent at cutting them before I spring for crow quills.)

Current Mood: cheerful
Crossposts: https://mandie-rw.livejournal.com/611196.html

(I realize it kind of sounds like I'm obsessed with this place. But mom and I are both enthusiastic admirers of public gardens - we're very lucky to have several fine ones in the greater Philadelphia area - and so we're members of LG, so why not go, and often?)

This weekend's the grand re-opening of the main fountain garden at Longwood; it's been a three-year, multi-million-dollar restoration project, taking everything down to the "struts" and then some. As members, we were able to go Friday for a sneak peek before the real crowds this weekend! And if you're in the mid-Atlantic region and think fountains and gardens are reasonably interesting, do go this summer! The fountains are lovely in the daytime but the nighttime show is really impressive. They can do fire in some of the fountains, and, come on, how cool is that? The quick daytime show played the overture of the Barber of Seville, and the half-hour night show was all-Beatles, so clearly this place knows the way to my heart. ;)

I meant to finish one of the approximately million unfinished vintage dresses that I have lurking in the sewing room...but didn't. Oops! Wore the lemon dress instead, and did a very lazy test run of one of my new snoods. (I am so not a hair person...) Someday I'll actually put the shoulder pads in... BUT THAT DAY IS NOT THIS DAY. I can't remember if I ever actually posted a picture of it when I made it last summer, so there you go.
me standing in front of fountains

(Also, someday I'll spring for a nice modern 6-strap garter belt. This one is vintage, with 4 elastics, and...it's kinda falling down on the job. Ha ha ha...groan. Didn't help that one clippie thing had unhooked itself entirely at that point and I couldn't fix it decently in public! Saaaaaag. It's tragic-looking.)

Today, I got a very pretty present in the mail from

chocolatepot ; a shiny pretty green fountain pen! Forgot to take a pic of it in the daylight and it looks very anaemic in artificial light, so I won't inflict a pic of it on you tonight. But I love it! I feel practically obligated, somehow, to put green ink in it, so I'll be ordering some of that in short order.

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Current Mood: thoughtful
Crossposts: http://mandie-rw.livejournal.com/594836.html

Okay, so I was pretty lazy today and didn't manage to finish the bolero! Just have to hem the sleeves and make/put in the shoulder pads, though. It was very chilly and rainy today, so it took me a very long time and a few mugs of tea to get going on my sewing! (Not to mention flatly refusing to get out of my nice warm bed for ages.) Logically I know it's going to be about 95F for the air show, but it just felt very silly to be working on a bolero that went with a sundress when it was 50 outside! I'll finish it tomorrow. Really, I will.

Although I did decide to break down tonight, use my 50 off coupon, and buy the only dip pen we carry at my store! Just a little plastic holder with a no.102 crow quill nib, but hey, gotta start somewhere. So I've got a new toy and I can't promise that won't be distracting...

Crossposts: http://mandie-rw.livejournal.com/592745.html

Between yesterday and today, sewed one seam on the print voile dress' skirt. Progress!

(I am totally going to regret this wasted sewing time once my classes start. But right now...nah.)

I have, however, been doing more research into The Dorkiest Hobby Ever. The history of pens over the past few hundred years is fascinating (shut up. fascinating to me, anyway!)...eventually I'd like to be able to write with dip pens and quills proficiently enough to do a small demo on them (very small. like, at the Indian King tavern). That's very much an "eventually" though, as right now I'm still working on my disposable fountain pen trial! ;)

Current Mood: lazy
Crossposts: http://mandie-rw.livejournal.com/592203.html

So I sort of forgot that mom and I had plans for tomorrow-day, and then I have work, and obviously I'll be busy most all of Saturday...so I have essentially one day (with work) to finish the new 50s dress for the opera on Sunday! Hmmmm. I did sew the basic bodice together today, but this seems unlikely. You never know, maybe it'll go together very quickly! Ha. Ha. Ha.

Why did I suddenly run out of sewing time? Welllllll, I've been wasting a lot of time the past two days learning all about fountain pens. Um. Is that weird? You see, I came across an article linked on FB about how it isn't really computers that killed handwriting...it was the rise in ballpoint pen use. Oh. Well, that makes sense, actually! Those things are no fun to write with. You might've noticed that I enjoy pretty, oldey-timey things (WHAT?! NO WAY), so the enormous amount of pen and ink options available make me quite gleeful! (Zillions of colors! Shimmery inks! Eeeeeee!) So I'm treating myself to a pack of disposable fountain pens from a delightfully helpful website I found (I say "treating", but it's $7.50 for three pens, so not a huge expense), to see if I like them.

...I may have found an even dorkier hobby than historical costuming. xD