taimatsu no monogatari

I want to make a draught excluder for my front door. I could just make a sausage thing, but it would get in the way when the door was opened. I need something I can actually attach to the door itself. Anyone got any ideas how I could do this?

Hey, Shakespeare buffs - tell me about Hamlet! Specifically, I have a seminar Wednesday morning focussing on soliloquies and other especially notable bits (everyone should read, I quote, "the soliloquy at the end of Act 2.2 'O what a rogue and peasant slave am I' and also the famous grave diggers scene, 5.1"). We did Hamlet two Bardcamps ago so I have a basic idea of it but VERY LITTLE MORE and I know you people have Big Thoughts on the subject.

If nothing else, tell me - what do you think is the coolest/most interesting thing about this play? A section/speech/scene, a theme, an idea or critical theory, anything. I will do some secondary reading but not much in time.

I need to play Chinese music at Brownies tonight. I can't get Owl or Tigger to bring a CD player. I can't find either my old mp3 player or old CD player. I may be reduced to carting my proper stereo system over here (I think it might fit in my backpack) unless anyone local can lend me something with speakers on which to play a CD or mp3 by 5pm. Any offers?

(We're going to have a Chinese Dragon parade - I'm breaking my rule about not making things which aren't useful.)

Currently I have no money. Well, I have about twenty-three pounds which has to last me I-don't-know-how-long. That figure is, fortunately, *after* the food-shopping I have just done - I have spent about fourteen pounds on food. Now I want you to suggest what I should do with it!

( Read on for my food list! )

I have finally got started on the dress I would like to make for Shards. I am basing it on the Elizabethan Corset Pattern Generator bodice alteration, as I have used it before and know I can get a decently-fitted bodice out of it. Then I want to attach a wrapped skirt. Imagine, if you will, that you attach a big piece of fabric, at around one-third of the way along its length, to the back of your bodice, at your waist. The shape of the fabric is not important, it will be whatever drapes right - for now, a big thin rectangle. I want to attach the top corner of the short side to my waist on the far side, like a normal wrap skirt. But the long side, instead of wrapping round my waist the other way, I want to pull up the front of my body and attach at the opposite shoulder (with a button and loop).

This looks great in my head and when I doodle it on paper, but in practice it is not draping correctly. The swathe up my front, if it fits correctly at the side of my waist, is too tight over my breasts and looks odd. If I loosen it it gaps at the waist. I may have to make a tuck in the drape, which was not really the idea.

The costume is 'tribal fantasy' and is intended as a special occasion dress, which in practice will need to be easy to move in and quite warm. I will probably make detachable sleeves for the bodice so it will work in winter and summer, and a pair of leggings.


This is a rough attempt at a representation of what I'm after. The heavy black outline is the front drape - the green dashes indicate the location of the underneath drape at the waist.

Does anyone have any thoughts, comments, ideas, tips, or any clue what I'm even on about?