Dyeing is Hard

     Recently(ish) I received 2 dresses from Holy Clothing in the color dragons blood. Online it looked like a beautiful red color. In person it looks very orange and I am not a fan at all. So I decided I would try my hand at dying the dresses. I looked into the correct way to do it, followed the instructions on the Rit website, and was incredibly disappointed because it did absolutely nothing. Partially because the instructions are inaccurate on the website and partially because the bucket dying method doesn't seem to be particularly good. I wanted to try the washing machine method, but I can't get my machine to stop while it's full and not drain. There is probably a way to do it, but I don't know what it is. 

     So the next option was the stovetop method. That required buying more dye, fixative, and a pot, since you can't use a dye pot for food. Once I had everything I needed I was ready to start. Though the pot was not large enough to do both dresses at the same time. 

    The first time around I used scarlet dye and it didn't seem to do anything. I figured I would try the wine and hope for a good (non orange) red color. 

     I filled the pot with the hottest tap water I could get, and put it on to start it heating further. 

     I added the salt, as instructed, and then I got to cooking my dress. I left it to heat for an hour, which is the max time the bottle says you should do it. I then dumped the dye water, refilled the pot with the hottest tap water, put it back on the stove and added the dye fixative. 

     The end result was a less offensive color, but still not a great color. Either red is super hard, Rit dye isn't very good, or I am missing a trick. But at least I have a less offensive color (nicer in person). 

    You can see by my comparison that there is a difference in color after dying one dress with the stove top method. Now I needed to dye the second dress. When I went to the store they didn't have any wine colored dye so I bought royal blue. I figured I would get some color that was less orange and might be interesting. 

     While the dress was in the pot it looked super dark. Black at times, though I knew it wouldn't end up black (I would not have been offended if it had). The tag looked like it might end up purple, and I was OK with that too. 

    It still looked super dark in the washing machine. I had no idea what color this was going to end up. 

     This was not at all what I expected! The pot was clearly not big enough for this large dress, and I ended up with a somewhat mottled color. But, strangely enough, I don't hate it. I might see about getting a larger pot and trying again to see if I can get the color more even, but I really don't hate how this came out. 

     Before anyone offers this advice; yes, I used the correct type of dye for the material the dresses are made from. Other than that I also followed the instructions carefully, though if anyone has any tips (other than a larger pot) I am open to ideas. This was definitely an interesting process, though time consuming. I don't think I will be doing it again, but you just never know. 

The Law Library Part 2

     I seem to have a bit less interest in assembling tiny libraries than I did. That obsession didn't last long it seems. I still have a coffee shop to build, 2 if I go back to the cheap one I got with the super hard to follow directions, but I don't know when I will get to those. I should though at some point. 

     I had all 3 floors of the law library assembled, individually, with the lighting on them, just sitting on my table for weeks. Yesterday, I figured I would get into the final assembly, to put the floors all together, at least a little bit. 

 

     Getting all of the supports built took a chunk of time. They were not hard, they just had several pieces for each one. And I had to keep track of which piece all 6 supports were, so they ended up in the correct places. They were not identical. 

     I knew from building the first library that gluing the stairs as I assembled was the way to go. The instructions on this set actually say to glue them, which is helpful information to have. 

     I really love the railings in this set! The library is really very fancy. 

     One of the most helpful things about this set is that it is completely enclosed. It has a dust cover on the front, so I don't have to worry about dusting a bunch of tiny miniature things. Several pieces in this set are very delicate and fell off, or tried to fall off, while I was assembling everything. The final assembly took a lot of patience. 

     I actually was completely over working on this set before it was done, but since I was SO CLOSE to being done, I kept on going. I should have gotten up to stretch a time or two, but I just powered through. I really like the final result and I am glad I finally got back into working on this one. 

     I finished with very little time to spare before it was time to get ready to go to go to a dance class. My friend Angelique started a west coast swing class on Sunday afternoons and I really wanted to go. I have done west coast swing only a few times. Once at a holiday party with Angelique's group (but Tuesday nights and not as close as these new lessons), once at a pop up event where I actually took my first WCS class, one dance at the ballroom fusion event I went to a week ago, and now yesterday at the new place. It is HARD starting to learn a new style of dance. I can follow almost any dance, with minimal instruction, as long as I have a good leader. But when I decide I want to learn the style "the right way" I go right back to that awkward newbie stage where I all of a sudden can't read the signals (or realize I missed a signal after I turned the wrong way, etc.) and I have to concentrate really hard. But to advance in any style of dance you have to learn the basics. Yesterday's beginner lesson was amazing and I learned the basic step (or one of them, apparently there are others too) and then we immediately changed the direction of the basic and learned 2 passes. Then, anyone who was beginner went to another room while the intermediate/advanced lesson was happening. We worked a lot more on foundational stuff and learned a sugar push, which I learned a year ago and completely forgot how to do. But now I have it back. And I worked very hard on doing the basic steps properly. The anchor step (the waiting for the next move) is just different enough from salsa and bachata that I have to really think about it. But I will get there. And eventually I will have 3 styles of dance that I can confidently do. 

     Today I don't have to go to work which is always nice. I love my job but I also love not having to go. Maybe I can get a lot of work done in the studio. If I ever bother to get in there.
 

The Law Library

     I finished the magic shop book nook before vacation, and since I have been so obsessed with them, I ordered 2 more book nooks to make sure I had enough to last the whole vacation. Well, it turns out that I didn't spend nearly as much time building book nooks as I did when I first started making them. But I do still enjoy them. Maybe just to a healthier level. 

     The first step, similar to the original library I assembled, was putting together books. There were 4 sizes and I don't know how many of each there were, I didn't count. I just put them together and separated them into baggies so I wouldn't make mistakes with them. 

    Next I started in and built a fancy cabinet, with "glass" doors, and a filing cabinet. Now the instructions for these is just as detailed as for the library, basically, but it is also a bit less detailed. What I mean by that is there are some things, like all the file boxes, that say they can be freely placed. So I will figure out where I want them. I haven't even put all of them together yet. 

      I made it this far, I think last Sunday, and then I got distracted. Part of it is I am working on a secret project that I am almost done with. And that has held quite a lot of my focus this week. 

     Several of these random pieces were done last weekend and left off to the side, but I finished putting the desk together today. It felt good to make some progress again. Finally. Even though my fingers hurt a lot. Both my thumbs are split and my pointer finger on my right hand is also split. They are at that super painful stage where they just kind of sting and throb all the time and there isn't really a whole lot you can do about it. If anyone has a really excellent remedy for split fingers, that isn't Band-Aids or liquid Band-Aids, I would love to hear it. 

     I had to sort of make the top bookshelf in the stack work. All of these shelves called for either the painted wooden shelves of books or size C books. Once I got to the last shelf I didn't have enough C sized books left. So I went through the rest of the instructions to see what I needed the most of, of what I had left, and ended up using book size A. They are kind of too big but either I made a mistake somewhere (likely) or there were not enough books in size C. Whatever, at the end I will have a law library. Even if it doesn't end up exactly as the designers planned. 

     I only have one day left of my vacation, which sort of sucks. I do love my job these days, but I also really enjoy not going. I am not looking forward to being constantly tired again, not having enough time in the day to get anything done, and having to wake up early. But it is only 6 weeks until the February break and maybe soon I can share my super secret project. We'll see. 

Happy New Year!

       I started a new tradition for myself last year. It's a very simple idea. Get a jar, I recommend a large one, and when something really nice happens, or you do something really fun, write yourself a little note about it and add it to the jar. I put the date, it's nice to know when the cool things happened. Using different colored pieces of paper make it an even nicer visual. 

     On new years day, empty the jar and read all the notes. This was even more fun than I thought it would be. Some of the things I remember really well, like cool things I did with my kids (and extra kids) when we went to Texas. But some of the things I didn't think about often, so I didn't necessarily remember them. This was such a fun idea. 

     Elecktra came over and the kids got their gifts (we do gifts on New Year's day) and she loved everything I got for her. Travis seemed to be pretty into his gifts, and he's even wearing his new pajamas, which is amazing. Travis usually doesn't like to switch out pajamas but he wore the ones I got him last year (all year, every day) and now he's wearing the new ones. I wash pajamas a lot, lol. 

     The other thing I did was make chicken and dumplings. Which I have never made and I haven't eaten in years. It was so good! For anyone curious, this was the recipe I used. It did have a few alterations because I didn't have everything I needed (oops) and I thought it was way too thin so I made some roux to put in it. Much improved. 

      So far 2026 has been really excellent. My good things jar was definitely part of it. I added a little note about the day to start off my jar. I am going to try to remember to add even more of the good things that happen. Because bad days happen, but not all days are bad. And it's a really nice way to count your blessings.