Hotspur.us

Quite some time ago I decided to make an Italian renaissance style dress. I’d fallen head over heels in love with pictures of a dress I’d seen online and thought I’d go ahead and give it a shot. It was a big departure from my standard Elizabethan gowns.

I was happy with the results and surprised how fast it went together. Part of that had to do with serious lack of embellishments. I’m used to spending significant amounts of time in the  evening curled up  on the sofa surrounded by piles of embroidery thread, beads, ribbons and other miscellaneous stuff that eventually gets stuck under the cushions. Not so in this case. The only embellishments were around the waistline and I even cheated with that. All those nice little beads on the trim? Well I glued them. Yes, you read right. I used glue instead of sewing. How out of character is that?

But still, I was pleased with the effect and since this dress was intended solely for the office Christmas party I didn’t feel that usual self-inflicted pressure to go all out.  And since the dress I was more or less copying didn’t have a lot of embellishments why bother?  Things being what they are, of course I didn’t have any photos taken at the party when my hair was all nicely fixed and I wasn’t sweating. Nope, I waited until August to do the photo shoot. And that was only out of desperation because I needed the sage brocade for a new dress I was working on.

As pretty as it was, the dress was just taking up space in my costuming closet. I’d worn it twice and that was pretty much it. There was enough of the sage brocade to make into an Elizabethan gown and I was getting the itch to start on something elaborate.  The under dress is still completely in tact to this day. The brocade still hasn’t been made into a finished dress though. Not surprising, that’s how my costuming generally goes.

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I have a gun – my great Uncle Frank’s Colt 1911. What I don’t have is a lot of practice under my belt. This is a bit hard to achieve since I’m still in the “needs supervision” stage of shooting. There are a limited number of people we know who are A) capable of supervising and B) willing to supervise – the latter being rather important. Most of you know me, and you know how I get when I’m overstimulated. And trust me, I get WAY overstimulated at the range. Oh boy do I ever. Especially when the person(s) in charge of supervision brings big guns that go boom.  So, in order to outgrow the “Needs Supervision” stage I have to practice, right? Well happy day for me, because this morning we had a volunteer that fit the bill of both A & B.

Chad and I headed out to meet up with our friend Keith (who just happens to have several very fun guns to shoot). After a quick schmuffin & schmagel we headed out to Pedlar WMA Shooting Range hoping to beat the crowd of annoying (read = seriously annoying and possibly stupid) people who would show up later.

My main goal was to get comfortable with my gun and actually be able to hit the target. It’s heavy, it kicks and last time it bit me.  Sometimes I think that I’d have a better chance of defending myself by throwing the gun than shooting it. Which is to say, I might as well carry a big rock with me (no, I don’t carry it. I haven’t gotten that far yet.)

While it was good to get the much needed practice with my gun in –  and I totally rocked that cardboard box by the way – it was way too much fun for Chad and I to shoot Keith’s AR-15. Too…much….fun….oh….my….goodness…. uh, what was I typing…oh yeah, right, right. Especially at 100 yards (or however far it was…so far I let the guys go out and retrieve the targets afterwards. I’m no dummy).

We ran through a good amount of ammo, a plastic water bottle, some clay targets (mostly fail for me) and some paper targets. Not to mention the cardboard box – you know, the one I totally rocked. It was a good morning! Enjoy.

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With some unseasonably high temps hanging around, to say it’s been uncomfortable is a serious understatement….the dog days of summer are supposed to be in August, not September

Highs in the 90’s and no cloud cover in sight….it’s a lot to take even for me

It’s been so bad that even I have been reluctant to head outside…and the thought of putting on jeans and riding Villain…unthinkable

So you know what that means, right? Less clothes is better….

It’s time to go Topless…………………….pass the sunscreen please.

Get your minds out of the gutter….I’m not talking about me

it was time to remove the Toy’s convertible top which had descended into disgustingness and try out the tonneau that had just arrived. And since I was pulling stuff apart I went ahead and yanked off the cover that hides the gas tank so I could replace it. And pulled off more various odds and disgusting ends. One day I’ll reassmble her and she’ll be gorgeous. Right now, it’s all triage.

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Football finally returned to Morgantown on a blazing hot day. A 3:30 start meant one thing….double the tailgate! And we all know what that means….no coherent story line here. Just enjoy the pics. I took more than I realized.

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