Parliamentary Democracy

If you don't like it,
don't run for office in one*. Or if you do, don't whine and cry foul when it works the way it's supposed to.

*You are, of course, free to run with a platform that includes dismantling parliamentary democracy and replacing it with something else. See how well that gets you elected.
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and my camera was at home

So I went to the pharmacy yesterday to pick up my prescription, and on the way home this gigantor luxobarge pulls out almost on top of me. Not surprising because the driver is squinting through a dense fog of cigarette smoke. As it trundles away, I see the following bumper sticker:
"Don't panic, eat organic!"
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So I had this clever idea

I'd really like to have a night light in my bathroom. It doesn't work very well because the outlet in there is on the same circuit as the light switch, you can only have power if the lights are on. I'd really like the night light to be red so it doesn't wake me up and blind me. I thought I had it figured out: buy some cheap piece of crap battery-powered object and cannibalize it for the battery holder/wire thingmy. Then take apart one of those fancy nightlights with the photosensor and the multicolour LED,

disconnect the plug-in, and replace it with the battery bit. I wasn't going to let something like this deter me

Why on earth would a LED need 120V difference? There's probably some kind of transformer in there to make the voltage reasonable, and I can just rip that out, right? It's not a dangerous thing to try, the worst thing that can happen is that it just won't work.

Or I could find out that I know a whole lot less about electronics than I think.

The first problem was that the $2.99 flashlight that I chose was actually too simple. There aren't really any parts I can take out:


And then I opened up the nightlight.


The parts I recognize are the light sensor, the on-off switch, and the LED. Oh well, I could use some kind of night light in the hall too.



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See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

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In which the blogger changes her mind. Again.

It keeps on acting too much like summer to even want to touch winter fabrics, so my progress on the wardrobe has been zero. I knew I needed some kind of transitional wardrobe, but nothing was really doing it for me. And then inspiration hit, in the form of hamsters.

Look at them from a purely aesthetic sense: on top of the unbearable fuzzy pink paws up cuteness, their colours are really pleasing together:


This is the kind of thing I wear. So the new plan is, beige capris, dark brown wool skirt, pink wrap sweater, and a crisp white blouse.


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What to make

for the August 2008 mini-wardrobe contest.... Originally I was going to go with something for the last days of summer, but I'm thinking that some stuff I'd actually wear all winter would be a lot more useful. Regardless of which season I do, the centerpiece will be my chunk of multicolour stripe silk from Gorgeous Fabrics.



The summer idea - everything is from this spring's Burda Plus World of Fashion. The pink and grey are a mid-weight linen from my stash.


The fall/winter idea - some from BWOF, plus some others. The cardigan will be a black wool rib knit that I have on order from Gorgeous Fabrics. The potential knits for the layering top are cheapies from fabric.com. The grey for the trousers is suiting, unknown fibers, from my stash.

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Work in Progress - McCall 2037 Blouse (Out of Print)

There's a whole story behind this blouse for me - it was pretty much my favourite pattern way back in the 20th century. I wore the blouse I made from it pretty much any time I wanted to look professional and/or dressed up. And then I moved out on my own and thought I'd taken my whole fabric and pattern stash with me, but when I went to look for this pattern, the only piece I could find was the pocket flap. I hung on to it for a while, but eventually I gave up on ever finding the other pieces and threw out the pocket flap, since by then the pattern was already out of print.

Fast forward to this spring when my mom was emptying her house to move. Way in the back of the closet in a box at the bottom of a stack of boxes was the missing part of my stash. In the stash was a half-done blouse. Folded up inside the blouse was the pattern, the envelope, and the instructions. I didn't get a chance to check it out at the time, and I didn't bother to get excited because I was a lot less fat back then, and chances are I'd cut a size way smaller than I am now and I'd have to grade up and that's a pain etc.

The other night I had a look at the pattern and the blouse, and found empirical proof that you really do fit your frame and then adjust for your fluff. Back then, I didn't know about that, and I made the pattern in the size indicated by my full-bust measurement - I wore a B cup at the time so it was OK. Well, that was a size 22, and today a size 22 pattern is where I start to fit my frame and then I do a full-bust adjustment. And the unfinished blouse fit me very nicely through the back and shoulders, it just wouldn't do up in front. So I traced the pattern onto new paper, and did a happy dance and a princess FBA like in Debbie Cook's tutorial.

Next steps:

• get the sleeves to fit properly - if there's enough of the unfinished fabric to get it right, the old blouse may be wearable open
  
• make a muslin to test the full-bust alteration (with luck it will be wearable)
• make one out of really nice fabric - I also found some burgundy and black shot silk shantung (say that fast, I dare you) in the old stash, and I bet that would be seriously fabulous. Or the black linen eyelet I have kicking around would be really nice too. Or...
  

(It's view G that I like so much)
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