We Moved

Yes, actually moved.

It was horribly exhausting and I never want to do it again.

Once we signed on the house Monday morning we had a repeat cycle going. For a whole week we all rose early, crammed the van, car and trailer with stuff("It's like packing for vacation every day!" said Jeremy) and went to the other house. We worked like crazy and painted every room on the main floor, every bedroom, and one bathroom. 3000 square feet seems a lot bigger now than it did before. Painting was finally done in the nick of time and on Saturday we moved the furniture. Monday, Memorial Day, Grandma moved in.

My new sewing room. The boys sacrificed(under duress) the third upstairs bedroom to be a sewing room instead of a bedroom; so now my costumes repose here and the boys live all together in the big bedroom. I painted three walls tan and the other the same red as my sewing room back home, so it would be more familiar.

 The costumes have a home.

Everything's still a mess here, but I hope sometime next week to get started on costumes again. I have the materials for several tailcoats and breeches ready to go!

STILL Moving

Our closing date got bumped forward this week, which was disappointing but not surprising considering the mess of red tape we've had to work through in the past four months. The closing day was supposed to be yesterday, but now it's some nebulous event in the future; hopefully Monday.

Boxes are piled every which way, and as we go another week without movement the boxes are being half unpacked and rustled through looking for various items(where's the cheese slicer? I can't find the oregano! Where did you put the aspirin????).

We fluctuate between anxiety(we really need to move! There's so much work to do!) and denial(it's been four months. We're never going to move).

We really ARE moving!

The reality of moving house is sinking in. Meltdowns are becoming all the fashion here. Today I am trying desperately to get a handle on packing all over the house, evaluating what needs to be packed when and what will need to go to the new house first.

It boggles my mind to think of how many boxes it will take to transport a middle class family of eight one hour south-east. There are eight of us living here now, and with Grandma it will be nine at the new house. Each of us has our own hobbies and interests(Dad: church study, Louis Lamour, and yard work. Jennifer: Ballet and shoes. Caleb: cameras and computers. The rest of the boys: junk). I myself have a full closet of just historical costumes, and twelve plastic tubs of material, two(soon to be three) sewing machines and a huge file drawer of patterns and sewing miscellanea. Jennifer and I together have three whole bookshelves of our own libraries, which comes out to about fifteen boxes of books. It's overwhelming.

Our moving schedule is also very ambitious. We take possession on a Tuesday; we plan to paint, tear out carpet, and buy appliances from Wednesday through Friday. On Saturday we plan to rent a truck and move the furniture and most of the boxes. The following week Grandma will move in with us.

Is that even humanly possible?

So... We're Moving?

Yes, we're actually probably officially and in all likelihood moving. The papers are signed and the closing date is May 15th. I was five when we moved in to our rural acreage home, so I'm not really sure: how does one move? What does one do?

Adventures in Dyeing

As previously mentioned I recently bought three yards of a sort of aqua colored linen for my new Regency dress. It looked different on the computer screen but ended up almost the exact same color as a bit I used for a colonial jacket, only this length is a different weight and has a different name. I suppose that's why people send for samples, but I'm not patient enough for that. So to alter the color I bought a packet of green rit dye and another of blue, and mixed them to make a darker teal. It turned out well and I'm pleased with it. Hancock's and even fabrics-store.com has a very limited choice of appropriately colored linens, so it really makes sense to dye one's linen, or after a while all your reenacting clothes will look the same.

 Contrast: teal and turquoise.

I also made yellow dye out of onion skins. We buy onions in bulk, like so many other things, so we had plenty of skins in the basement needing to be cleaned out. I wanted to try dyeing with a natural dye because it's something I'd like to pursue this year. As I dye fabric more frequently and almost always for historical projects, I want to aim towards making correct colors without the modern elements.

 Trusty plastic tub in the much abused bathtub: the petticoat soaking in onion dye.

For the onion dye I simply simmered the skins in water until it turned a nice dark orange. I used it to dye a petticoat that I had already dyed yellow. It looked too bright, so I was hoping to dull the color a bit. It is definitely much more golden now.

Contrast: the onioned and non-onioned.

Week Past and Week Ahead

This past week I once again had the three young F's in my care. The most remarkable events of the week were that S threw up, C cried, and J spilled Easter purple egg dye. Even as adorable as the F boys are(think "epic"), it's nice not to be woken up at 6:30 in the morning! I guess I'm spoiled.

Because a guy picture is becoming tradition: Making chocolate chip cookies.

This coming week I'm planning to make a pale-blue linen regency dress for a young lady, Miss A. I've also sold the first Regency dress  that I made for myself, which doesn't fit so well anymore. With the small bit I'll get for making the dress for Miss A. I bought three yards of a sort of turquoise-blue to make a new, well-fitting gown for reenacting at Ft. A, thus keeping to my self-imposed goal of only ever having two regency gowns for myself(as opposed to colonial, which is limited by finances instead of discipline).

The blue and the turquoise-blue

I'm planning on trimming my dress with leftover chocolate-brown linen. It will have three-quarters sleeves(the normal poufy short sleeves drive me nuts in the summer, because the bugs can totally eat your entire arm), a gathered adjustable neckline, back closure with matching fabric-covered buttons, and a waistband to help the dress sit well. The Regency style really doesn't agree with me, and if it weren't for Ft. A I probably wouldn't wear it at all. I did watch Persuasion(1995) the other day and that got me excited about making a well-fitting, comfortable dress.

I'm also working on another set of stays, just because I had the material. I'm pleased that it's getting easier to make basic stays. I know it will improve the look and posture of the ladies in my dance group when we perform. Now four out of eight will be wearing stays, a definite improvement from last year!

Treasures

The last people who viewed our house said there was too much junk outside. Admittedly, yes, we have a lot of old things about. But they should have seen it twenty years ago. The last two residents before us trashed the place. First there was a little old lady who had lived here with her husband and family, and died here alone when they were all gone. She couldn't keep the place up. All the old farm equipment was left out in the grove, and the trees grew around it. 

After she died the farm was rented out, and the renters apparently threw all their garbage into the grove or wherever they liked. Growing up Jen and I found many "treasures" while roaming our five acres. You wouldn't believe the amount of Butternut coffee cans we found out back. One of our principal treasures was an tiny cologne bottle we dug up somewhere. We also spent hours trying to dig antique china plates out of tree stumps. I don't believe we ever got a whole plate. It's sad how much history was wasted when those people threw it out.

Anyway, due to the comment from our viewers, this week we have an all-metals collection bin sitting in our yard, being filled with all the old farm equipment, rusted bed springs, old pipes and miscellany of "junk" from our grove and outbuildings. One always finds some sort of buried and forgotten hidden things when cleaning out, so here's today's find: 

Treadle parts for an old sewing machine, and raspberry truffles. Both things I love. Dad found the parts in the corn crib, tied together with rusty wire. They're all in decent order and not too rusted, and I think they could be used again. The bolts were even there. The wood rod has the date May 18, 1884. I doubt we'll find the rest of the machine, so these will probably become wall hangings in my sewing room. Someone in this house was sewing clothes more than a hundred years ago, maybe even in the same room where I sew now.