While toiling away doing umpty dozen buttonholes, I have been watching a show on Netflix called Edward the Seventh (on imdb they call it Edward the King). It starts when Victoria first finds out she is pregant with Edward. The costuming in it is wonderful. There is a plaid day dress worn by Victoria that I would love to have a reason to make. But I will keep it in the back of my mind just in case. The show itself is very good too. One thing I liked was that they show Prince Albert as a German instead of a sort of elegant Englishmen you so often see in films. And Victoria is a total bitch... which if you go by reputation might not be far from the truth. But there are also very tender scenes with her as well. I read a book about Victoria and her relationship with her daughters and this show seems to follow that pretty closely. Honestly I am surprised the content and costumes are so good because it was made in 1975 or something like that.

I haven't finished it yet. Edward is still Prince of Wales but I'll finish it today. It is a 12 episode series and I am not sure how long each episode lasts, but it is well worth the watching. If you have Netflix, it is offered on streaming.

Wow... when I bought that book in St. Augustine, I cringed a little at the price of $40 because I wasn't sure what the going price is on it. The shop owner said he thought it was out of print. But really I bought the book because it has great stuff in it. I just checked on amazon and the starting price for new is $140. The starting price for used is $98. Yikes! Glad I got it!

http://www.amazon.com/Fitting-Proper-Sharon-Ann-Burnston/dp/1880655101/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337005201&sr=8-1

This weekend we drove up to visit with David's mom for the Mother's Day weekend. On Saturday, we all went walking around St. Augustine after a yummy lunch and I spied an 18th century textile shop I hadn't seen before. They had some nice things, but none that I particularly needed. Then I saw the hat! You know the flat straw hats that women wear? They had one made of black straw! It looks so cool. It needs to be decorated, of course, but it is going to look super awesome. Not to say I have a place to wear it currently, but now I have the hat so I will be ready if one appears.

I also bought a copy of Fitting & Proper: 18th Century Clothing from the Collection of the Chester County Historical Society by Sharon Ann Burnston. It has some great photos of and patterns taken from the garments in their collection.

Last night I received some shocking information involving my mother. Not sure if I will be able to journal about it or not. I had crazy dreams/nightmares all night and woke up with it in the forefront of my mind.

Health update: We just had our first weight and measure at the trainer: Lost 8 pounds and 1.5 inches on my waist. Yay!

Sewing update: I finished one tiered skirt though yesterday I realized that I don't have a top that really matches. I had planned on wearing white, but when I put it together it was off. The strip skirt has been waiting for me to get a zipper foot (for the sewing, there is no actual zipper). It came this week so I'll finish that maybe Sunday.

Other stuff: We are going to Disney World on Saturday! Well actually EPCOT center. They have a garden show every year that I really enjoy and it is going on now.

The Saturday after is a costuming guild meeting. It will be my first meeting and someone is teaching a class that they will be doing at CosCol this year.

This is Mimi the Miata. She came to live with us today. Poor Saabrina went to live at the dealership. We will miss her but.... WOOT! Convertible!






PS: Please ignore our dead grass. We didn't realize the sprinkler system was off. It is slowly turning green again. :)

This is mainly for Kass to see what my menus look like so I am putting it under a cut. But if anyone else is interested, please feel free to look and  comment. :)

I went through a bunch of sample menus for the diet and basically composed a list we could use as a guideline for what we should be eating for an 1800-2000 calorie diet. We are supposed to do breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner (and sometimes snack).

( It's not so bad! Click to see... )

A few weeks ago David and I joined a gym. We also signed up with a trainer twice a week. We are going to the gym on a third day and just doing some cardio. Sometimes it is TOUGH! :D We had to switch trainers. The first one we had was sort of a drill sargeant and she had no sense of humor which just didn't fly with us. And she didn't seem aware of our fitness level. We are fat and out of shape, honey! One time David had to throw up in the parking lot after working out. Plus she wasn't available on the days we really wanted to go so we switched from her to this other guy, Drew. LOVE him! He has a great sense of humor. And he listens to us. For example, last night we were doing this exercise which really hurt my wrists (because they were supporting my entire body weight at an odd angle). I mentioned it and he switched me to a different exercise which worked the same muscle. Yay! So even though sometimes we are dying, he makes it fun.

We have also changed our diet. It wasn't terrible to start with but there were definitely ways to improve. The first trainer told me that we could never eat/drink certain items again. And that's total bullshit. I am not on a crash diet to lose 50 pounds to fit into my new years eve gown. I am changing my lifestyle to be healthier. And "never" eating certain items wouldn't be a life I would want to live. I just have to do things in moderation. So, for example, we can order Chinese food. But we don't get all of the fried stuff that we would normally get. And we break the portions down into smaller servings. I looked up an 1800 calorie diet for me and a 2000 calorie diet for David. We don't stick to it perfectly, but it gives us a framework from which to work. We are actually eating more food than we were before. Just different foods. We have a breakfast (this is a real struggle for me as I don't like food first thing upon waking) then a snack, then lunch, then a snack and then dinner. And then sometimes a snack after that depending on how early we eat dinner. Basically every 3 hours I am eating something. And most of the stuff we are eating is stuff I like so it is no big deal.

We've been doing it about 2 and a half weeks. I've lost 5 pounds and I've already noticed that certain clothes that were a tiny bit too tight are fitting better. I'm encouraged. And I'm also thankful that we got the trainer. There have been two appointments where we might have blown it off because of other factors, but we knew he was counting on us to be there so we went. And we were glad we went in the end.

In other news, the house is slowly getting into shape. And I cut out my fabric for my two skirts on Sunday. I just need to finish sewing them together. And boy oh boy, cutting all of those strips for the strip skirt SUCKED! I looked up the jelly rolls online and even though they are $39. It might be worth it to avoid all that hassle if I do another one.

Today our couch and dining set was delivered! Yay! The matching chairs for the couch were backordered so they will come next week (I think). The house is finally starting to look normal. Hopefully it will stop echoing now that it isn't so empty!

In other news, I just finished The Hunger Games trilogy. I loved it so much, I immediately started reading the first book again. If anyone hasn't read the trilogy, I strongly recommend it!