The Weekly Random

Interesting moment of last week was finding "Fifty Shades of Grey" in my employer's bathroom. My nanny job is going well overall, and I'm grateful to have found it. There are a plethora of childcare jobs available, but so many of the parents make huge demands on time("must be free from 6am to 10pm and sometimes overnight any day of the week") and energy("must be outgoing, love games, children, animals, outings, housework, and speak French") all for minimum wage. This job is flexible and can be one or two days a week for just seven hours a day, decent pay, and only two kids. And playing constantly with the children was not required, so I can even get a little reading done while they're entertained.

In the past two weeks I've cut out seven ladies' vests, a Regency waistcoat, made a colonial shirt, and an Edwardian peplum for my skirt.

 I finally got up the nerve to cut the new belt for my treadle machine, so that's good, but after much scrutiny I now think I might be entirely missing the needlebar clamp. The part I do have looks similar to a clamp, but seems entirely unable to hold a needle in place, and I can't understand it. A normal clamp should fit, I hope, so I suppose I'll just have to go buy one.

As is now public knowledge, most of our family recently took a ten day trip down to Texas. Long story short, my older brother is now engaged and his fiance is coming to stay, beginning on Valentines' Day, for two weeks or more. The first clan wedding looms in the future!