Isabella's Project Diary

I found this...dress? Fabric vase? Previously unknown bird? on ebay. I'm not sure if it's a Lady Gaga styled dress (that you'd have to wear with trousers/leggings/something! underneath!) or if it's just a punch of feathers someone stuck to some fabric. I'm going with it's a UFO that someone thought to stick all their hair feathers to...

This is going to sound like an infomercial but I really love Rocksbox. Rocksbox is something I saw on pinterest that looked interesting but I never signed up until this month. It's the netflix of jewelery. You tell rocksbox what your personal style is and they send you three pieces every month. ...Did I mention this will sound like an infomercial?

It's $19 a month which is a bit $$$ when I'm used to spending that on a piece of jewelery or two. However, I also hate buying a piece, getting bored of it after a few days or not wearing it for months. This allows me to rent pieces that I like (you have a wish list that gets saved) without storing it. I can live with that. If you do like the piece (I LOVE the earrings I got in my box), you can buy them at a discounted rate.

As for shipping - they give you a return label, a reuseable mailing bag, a box, and velvet bags for the jewelry. Shipping back is easy - just like netflix used to be. :-D


I'm keeping these.  They ended up being $25 and I can't express enough how much I like them.  Of course, I told the stylist I have a thing for turquoise so I guess that's why she threw these in the box.


I've been wearing either this necklace or the other lovely one I got over the past week. The fun part is all the guys at work LOVE the jewelry. They all wanted to know where I got those lovely "vintage" pieces because their wives would like it too.  If you want to sign up, use my code "Elizabethcbff29".   You get a free month from rocksbox if you are one of the first five to use the code (it refreshes every month so every month a new 5 people get a free box).

It may be about $20 a month but I'm completely sold on this idea.   

Although I'm super, super bouncy excited, there is something going on at home that is making me mad. Stupid Comcast. I called them a few days ago because the Hallmark channel - which I leave on for Abby and Jasper- was all pixelated. They told me I shouldn't even be getting HD channels and promptly canceled them. What. The. Heck? I'm told I can pay $10 extra a month for a service I was getting. I'm also told that I'm getting HBO and Cinemax - which I don't want because honestly I never watch them- free. I know I don't need HD - it was a nice to have- but it make me furious that they just decided to downgrade my service like that. This is what Verizon did. Unfortunately, I have a choice - Verizon or Comcast- if I want internet. I could say screw the entire thing and just go straight to no TV, internet only but I'm not sure about that yet. I'll wait until after Pennsic.

At work; it's sort of funny. The supervisor for our section is worried about me leaving because he's scared that nothing will get done now. (Pretty much all the reports in the queue are mine most of the time. That's not to say the other two guys aren't doing work; they tend to answer requests in email rather than write reports. I do the long term stuff while the 24 year old does a lot of the "watch what this new gadget can do!!!" and our small team supervisor makes sure we can actually even get our reports out at all.) Of course, with the move in the middle of all this, nothing will get done anyway (like the computers will even work at the new place for the first few days, ha!) so, to me, it's not like it's a big deal. However, it's nice to know I will be missed.

I still have sewing. I still have laundry. I still have chores that need to be done. I'm going in for 2 hours tomorrow and then I'm hooking up the trailer, getting air in the tires, and doing the load/unload/wash everything/reload thing for the rest of the day.

My reddit exchange secret santas were AWESOME this time around. First, from the oldschoolcool Santa:

My new feather headdress.

My new 1920's necklace.

And then, from my Arbitrary Day Santa:



My new everything radio and Arwen LOTR necklace. The everything radio actually works well! It has a flashlight, hand crack, solar power charger, USB, and, yes, a radio. And a siren. Still haven't quite figured out a good use for that other than terrifying the cat....and myself. Because the button is also the on/off switch for the radio so....yeah.

Will post tomorrow in super hyper OMG!PENNSIC! mode. :-)

A few days ago, ebay decided it would be brilliant to do away with the decades based categories in the Vintage Clothing section and go with things like Men's Vintage Vests or Women's Vintage Dresses. /Facepalm To say the least, it's made searching for anything vintage near impossible. One of the best known ebay sellers, Carolyn Forbes, is one of the many sellers who has been affected by this change - and none for the better. I personally love what she said here when ebay had a "discussion" about the change.

If you are just as revolted as I am about the idiotic change, there is at least something you can do about it. I've written a rather detailed post over on Extant Gowns about how to get to the "Tell Us What You Think" link to submit your complaint. Please, share the Extant Gowns post with anyone else you think might be affected by this change.

Eh, whatever.

Way more important stuff to talk about! There is a piece of cloth found that may be part of Elizabeth I's dress! Squee!!!!! It might be part of the Rainbow Portrait dress which would be FABULOUS. I think another strong contender would be the Hardwick gown. However, no one is quite sure yet if it is one of her gowns. Rather, it's being labeled - for now- as part of a 16th century dress. I'm really excited to see what comes out about it.

I had a carrot growing in my garden. I was very excited about this. I planted carrots last year but none of them grew. I guess one of the seeds decided to germinate this year. However, after I inspected the carrot a large, furry creature came and ate said carrot. I am not pleased. And she knows it.



That is the carrot sticking out of her mouth. And yes, she is looking shamed face.

Although many of us remember Hugh Grant in The Lady and the Highwayman as being pitiful, I believe I've found another entry into terrible, terrible historical drama. It has the following criteria in it's favor:

• Bad Costuming


• Bad Acting


• Horrid Special Effects


• Bad script

The drama? Tamara, the island.

Synopsis:

Set in the 1640's, it starts off with William, a young Englishman who is obsessed with the Orient. He flees a bethrothal to go on board an East India Company ship where he sets out for Tamara, Korea.

My verdict:

I lasted 18 minutes before I had to turn it off. The costuming was abysmal. Normally, Korean costuming is pretty good - somewhat modern looking but pretty and cute. This didn't have that - even on the seens set in Korea. Instead, there is a girl running around in her underwear and the other women aren't wearing proper hanboks. What the women look to be wearing is poorly made, dreary attempts at a hanbok. A hanbok should be a lovely almost spencer looking jacket with a separate skirt and a ton of petticoats. What they look to wear in the show is more the "Irish dress" version - the bodice appears to be sewn to the skirt and they don't appear to wear petticoats - just rolled up pants beneath it. It looks...horrid.

The western clothing is beyond atrocious. Running down the hall in red modern high heels and what can best be described as a puffy carnival clown's outfit, we first see William's Mom. This is supposed to be set in 1640 - during or right before the English Civil War. They are supposed to be in London and, amazingly, London is now right on the coast of England. I have no idea how it moved so far inland in the past 370+ years. /sarcasm
Anyway, the women in England wear their hair loose with hardly any ringlets. They were high heels just like the ones I saw at DSW a few weeks ago and the fabrics are....horrid looking polyester monstrasities that might show up in a beginner sewer's prom dress. Actually, that's an insult to beginning sewers - I have a feeling many would have more taste than what was being used.

The acting is so horrid - both in English and in Korean- that I'm sure if anyone who has never seen a Korean TV show before watched this, it would put them off to all Korean TV. I swear, the vast majority of Korean TV shows are way way better than this. For some brain bleach, should you choose to attempt to watch this abomination, I suggest Moon Embracing the Sun - the costuming and props on that are just droolworthy. The acting is decent to down right amazing, and the script is perfect.

Right now, Tamara the Island is on Netflix. You can easily find it there if you don't see it online.

If anyone else is interested, Fabric Mart has a good selection of 100% wool suitings on sale in their "As is" section. The flaw looks barely noticable - a line at the fold line that will probably come out with a good wash and an iron for the most part. They have a decent selection on colors - I bought some of the teal and the crepe magenta. There is also eggplant and the normal blah colors of beige and grey. All the wool seems to be at least 58" wide and it's on sale for $9.99. Not the best we've seen but certainly worth it if you use wool in your garb.

I'm sure a few people remember the original "basketball cop" who, rather than breaking the kids up after a noise complaint (they are kids? playing basketball? seriously, who does that?), the officer played a few hoops with them instead. This is the rematch. :-D