Our back room/dining room looks like a seamstress exploded in it. Scraps of fabric, ends of threads, pins littering the floor like little landmines and in the centre of it all, overseeing the carnage, sits the sewing machine.

Yes, we’ve been sewing. DmentD introduced me to the wonders of costume making, from a pattern! Crazy as it sounds, all the random bits and pieces I’ve sewed in the past few years, mostly for kit and costumes, and not once had I even considered using a pattern.

Our friends were having a Pirate Party, to celebrate International Talk Like A Pirate Day (yesterday if you wanted to know!) and we decided it was about time we set out and created permanent pirate costumes, rather than pulling stuff together out of our wardrobes. DmentD went right out and found a pattern he liked and we set about finding fabrics for him.

Initially I was going to bluff my way through, making up the skirt as I went along and ripping the seams out an old peasant blouse to create a new one in a nicer fabric. We went out to the Goodwill and I found a wonderful tablecloth and curtain I could use, and then for my main skirt used the curtains DmentD made for a Halloween a couple of years ago.

I made the skirt, that was no problems. The blouse eluded me though, despite leaving super large seam allowances, and the blouse being huge in the first place, somehow the tops of the sleeve came out too small. But hooray, we still had a week left so I went and found myself a pattern I could use. I still had plenty of tablecloth left, all I needed was some bias tape and elastic and I managed to pull the shirt out in a few days.

DmentD’s costume took a little longer, and you can see why. Making the shirt, trousers and the jacket himself, a lot of time and effort went into making sure it was just so. Plus his pattern, by some evil vindictiveness, made no sense whatsoever, and large proportions of time were spent with the pieces in hand trying to figure out just what the instructions meant. Thankfully, my pattern makes a little more sense!

The party was last night, costumes were finished just in time, and a fun night was had. I had experimented with a recipe for sticky buns for the party, and for peppermint patties, both turned out well, but I think the sticky buns were a definite success, within 5 or ten minutes of me taking them out the oven (I baked them, then put them in the oven to reheat once we got to the party) the first pan of them was gone. For the first time I think I managed to make just the right amount, they all went and no one was left wanting more. I think the reheating them added to the taste, as they had been cooked, then sat in the pan soaking up all the syrup before being reheated, so they came out gooey and with plenty of syrup, but not with too much syrup which went all over the place.

Today we were back at the Joann’s for more fabric (I think that store has become our second home in the past couple of weeks). While I am very happy with my pirate costume, I want to change it up a little for the ren fair, so I’m going to be making the skirt and the bodice from the pattern. For the skirt I found a nice, heavy duty, green twill and the bodice is going to be double sided, so I have a choice of colours. I’ll be letting you know how it goes. We had much fun at the store trying to use some vouchers I had, the discount had come off one of the cheaper items rather than the more costly fabric that I wanted it off of, so it all had to be returned (except for the item that had the discount) then all put through again using another voucher making sure it came off the right item this time. It still confuses me that tax isn’t included in the price, I always forget that I need to do the maths and add it on top when I’m trying to figure out how much I can buy!

Also had to go pick up a refill of my pill.. It irritates me that I have to pay for that here. General health care I can understand, and maybe I’ve just been lucky, but on the visits that I’ve had I’ve felt that I can see the difference in service that I’m getting by paying for my care. Even prescriptions I can understand (although I was getting them free in Wales I would have been having to pay for them soon), but birth control is the one thing that bugs me when I have to pay for it, the one thing I’m sat resenting the fact that I have to pay when I didn’t have to in the UK.. It’s not even as if it’s a whole lot I’m paying ($4 a month).. I dunno, I guess it comes down to what you’re used to and what you’re not, and I am most definitely not used to the idea of paying for birth control!

Coming back from Joann’s we found a peacock on our lawn!

Anyone who has visited us will know our neighbourhood contains a peacock. You can hear him most days, usually around dusk, but sometimes at other random hours. But in the year I’ve been here I had yet to see him (if it wasn’t for hearing him regularly I would have been doubting his existence), I think I caught a glimpse of a peahen once when I was out cycling but that was it. And today, there he was, majestically strolling across the front lawn!