Bargain Shop Panties

In trying to promote my house concert shows, I've found attendance is good for the people with youtube videos of live performances.  It seems like most people say they didn't listen, but the proof is in the pudding.  When I find it challenging to find good videos, it's hard to get bums in seats.  Case in point, 100 Mile House have quite a few videos available and we had our best turn out for a Monday night ever last night.  The basement was pretty full, it was a great show.

So today I am listening to music while working and thought it would be good to start finding things to link for Jaxon Haldane, our next guest.  I've seen him as part of the D. Rangers, so that's easy to promote, but his solo stuff... a little harder to find.

Now how does all that relate to the title?  I have no idea why YouTube suggested Little Miss Higgins while looking for Jaxon Haldane, but I am a fan and I didn't recognize the song.  She's got a lot of innuendo and tounge in cheek kind of music (like "I'm Gonna Bake My Biscuits", pretty sure that doesn't mean cookies).  And this made me laugh, I had to share with someone and I thought the thrifters out there would like it.  Imagine what kind of spam/hits she gets with this...

From Synth to Folk

It's been a while since I went to a mid week "big venue" (aka not my basement or the Cameron House) concert.  We went to see Peter Hook last night at The Hoxton.  Peter Hook was the bassist for Joy Division and New Order.  We paid about 5 times as much for our tickets to see New Order and I think I had more fun last night.  The energy, the crowd, the sound, the venue... it was just... FUN.  I have blisters on the bottom of my feet from dancing.  If you have fond memories of Blue Monday, Love Will Tear Us Apart...  you have to see Peter Hook.  Well worth staying up past my bedtime and today totally sucking on 5 hours of sleep.  This isn't from the Toronto show but this was the second last song of the night and I loved it.  The crowd was into it even more than this crowd in Manchester.

And on Monday, I get the opposite music experience.  We're hosting 100 Mile House from Edmonton.  Anyone local who would like to attend, let me know and I'll send the details.  I'm happy to share music with others.  Thrilled really.  Talk about extremes though, New Order synth sound vs 3 people with acoustic instruments.  I've found a lot of live performances for 100 Mile House on YouTube and every one of them has better vocals than Hooky above (it's just not his strong point).  I'm looking forward to hearing them in the acoustics of my house.  Here they are at a performance in Calgary.

Happy weekend everyone.  I'm helping my brother move tonight and tomorrow afternoon and then I have some costume sewing to do for the next short film.  Which reminds me, both of Mr. Lina's films have made a travelling film festival in BC, the Fake Flesh Film Fest.  Granted, I'm sure you're not all interested in horror, but if you know someone who does, send them along. 

You might have a problem if...

Edited for pictures...
(I know, two posts in one day after two weeks of silence... strange but true) 

I went to Fabricland on my lunch hour (on Dundas, west of the 427).  I wanted about 20cm of black broadcloth to make a movie quality kippah, my stash was not coming through for me.

That came to $1.35 plus tax, so... $1.52.  Plus a little elastic in case I need some for the actresses costume.

And my bill?  $25.31.

There was this lovely fabric, on a table full of "European Imports" on for half price, $7.50/m.  A few remind me of the viscose we saw at Downtown Fabric in August.  Content wise, a mix of polyesters, cotton blends (including silk/cotton), viscose (bought one last week, so light and airy), most marked as being from Germany...  but today I was seduced by a fabric that makes me wish I had a camera with me at work.

I even brought my fabric into the office, I couldn't leave it behind in the car. 

I've already pulled it out once.

I want to open it all up...  but that's not work appropriate behaviour.

In lieu of pictures... imagine this...

• Dark grey at one end
• Dove grey at the other
• At the switching point...
• Orchid - bigger than my stretched out hand

• Stargazer lilies trailing towards the dark end of the fabric

• One repeat per meter.
• Cotton with 2% spandex (stretch going from dark to light)
• Fairly heavy weight, this is not blouse material
• Sturdy enough to get machine wash warm, tumble dry low, cool iron washing instructions

Oh I've pulled it out again to be sure I'm describing that right.

What the hell do I make with this?  I can't let it get too precious to cut into, but this has to be a planned project to make the most of it. 

It's so soft... and lovely...

Proportion wise, it reminds me of the butterfly fabric that Allison C made into a maxi dress.  But this doesn't have the drape of her jersey. 

I bought 2.2m to be sure I had some space where the flowers repeat.  Can anyone think of a pattern that's intended for a boarder to run through the middle of the fabric?

It's so pretty. 

I'll just look at it one more time....

Time Flies

I know this sounds like a broken record, but I'm not sure where the days  are going.  I haven't been in a great mental state to blog but I didn't realize it was over two weeks.  How strange.

So what's happened in two weeks?

• We went camping with a mix of friends, my brother and his girlfriend, my cousing and his wife.  Weather was good, I slept enough, Scot and his girlfriend were super cool and did not talk about the pregancy but I did give him a real hug and true congratulations.
• I went to a wedding in another city on the Saturday of Labour Day weekend, stayed the night, saw friends, it was good
• It was my birthday on the Monday of Labour Day weekend
• My SIL has decided that she needs some help being in the first trimester and chasing a 13 month old while my brother is on course work and can't help her
• So she (and my niece) came home and we surprised my parents with their arrival at my birthday dinner
• My niece is adorable
• I was kind of glad when they all went home
• Do you know how much cleaning we had to do to have a toddler in the house when the living room looked like the basement threw up crap and furniture all over it?  I'm not kidding, I had a path to the couch when my brother and SIL brought up the idea of her visiting.
• I wore my white lawn bowling skirt, but I don't have good a picture of me in it, my niece was naturally the cetre of attention.
• I had some post-birthday blues afterwards, I would have been okay skipping my birthday this year for some reason.
• We found out our mortgage was up for renewal this year, not next year so we had to rather quickly sort that out.
• We provided a weekend of respite, my friend from Summerfolk who has Down's Syndrome stayed with us to give his mom a break, she needed it.
• That went really well. 
• I started sewing for Mr. Lina.  Not for HIM, but movie stuff.  He needs a yamika/kippah, appliques of naughty reindeer added to a sweater and a crazy costume for one actress before the last weekend of September.
• I have never even met the actress, I think I'll be "fitting" with elastic.
• Yamika #1 from this kippah pattern came out a little wonky, poor fabric choice on my part and a little small given that the head it's going on has a full mask, it's bigger than a normal head.  It's a good pattern though, I'm sticking with it for my next attempt.  I think with 6 panels it ends up with a better curve than just 4 panels like most kippah patterns I found online.
• I went to a TIFF after party which was super cool.  One of my clients was sponsoring a film (The Grand Seduction) and while they didn't have tickets to the movie, they did give me tickets to the party.  So strange going to a party at 9pm on a Sunday.  But we got prettied up and went.

• And coming up... one last kick at the camping can this weekend, bowling starts tonight, Mr. Lina is getting us storage space to start really moving boxes out of the house, house concert season is starting up (100 Mile House from Alberta on Monday Sept 23, those local, let me know if you're interested in coming), and I need a nap.