chargirlgenius

Mmm. Tea

During my shopping exploits at Tysons this weekend, I spotted the Teavana store. alienor has waxed poetic before about it, so, despite the iced coffee from Starbucks clutched in my hand, I wandered in.

I can see how it’s addicting. I left with two types of tea – Rose Marzipan Delight Black Tea, and Lavender Dreams Flavored White. Mmmm.

So, I brought them into work, measured out a little of the marzipan into my new tea strainer, set it in a beautiful crystal mug, and turned to the water cooler/heater.

No water. We’re all out of water.

NOOOOOOO!

Luckily, a coworker came prepared and give me a bottle, since I just couldn’t bring myself to use the unfiltered base water in that gorgeous tea. I haven’t decided if I’ll forego a second cup, or suck it up to try the Lavender.

alienor, if you would like to try either of them, I could bring you a few teaspoons of leaves and meet you somewhere in the parking lot.

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In other random and unimportant news, I’m wearing pretty new shoes. They’re black and white polka dot kitten heel slides (These, but in polka dot). I feel like I should have pin-up girl clothes to go with them.

After my frustrating shopping trip for clothing, I realized why I like buying shoes so much.

They fit.

And if they don’t fit, I can go up or down a size. I’m not an 8.5 or 9 in all shoes, but chances are, I can just poke about for a different size or be ok. And while there are shoes that don’t look good on my wide feet, or just don’t feel right, I can still, for the most part, find something cute.

And that makes me happy.

And that’s why my new closet is going to have a big section just devoted to shoes. If we ever have to move, I think that closet will be what sells the house. (Paint is on and hardwood is installed. Yay!)

We'd originally planned on picking up some tenderloin and having a nice dinner at home on Valentine's day. Instead, we ended up with hotdogs in the Ikea cafe. S'all good.

We'd planned on getting going early yesterday, but then had to wait for a Lowes delivery person who just could. not. find. the. place. Can't people follow directions anymore, or are they completely dependent upon their GPS systems? And though we're way down here, and not on GPS, it's not exactly difficult. Go 11.3 miles from major highway, turn right at well-marked highway, go about two miles and turn up the BIG hill. That's it! Finally, we had him plug in a nearby intersection on his GPS and met him there.

Ah. Lowes drivers. Brilliant bunch, I'm sure.

We headed up to Ikea, but I wasn't as productive as I'd hoped. I couldn't find curtains for the dining room or kitchen, and I didn't find any art for the bedroom wall. The latter was just a long shot, but we need something for our big wall. I'd like to find something that we really like and can key off of for the design of that room. My Valentine's present was Jeff taking the boys out to the car when they got crunchy, so I could keep shopping in peace. Wonderful man!

We did come away with a Poang chair (yay!) and some barstools (that I bought the wrong version of and have to exchange). I also started looking closely at the Pax and Komplement wardrobe systems for my closet. It would be awesome to make better use of my giant closet, instead of the mess that's in there now. Ikea.com also has a nifty home planner software, which is essentially a simple CAD application with their products plugged in, so you can do all of the designing at home. Very. Much. Fun.

Of course, if I want to redo my closet, I want to replace the flooring in our room first. Is this how little projects turn into big projects? I've been wanting some sort of hardwood/bamboo in our bedroom to cut down on the allergies. But it makes sense to do that *before* the closet. Maybe we'll just do the closet, since the big projects this spring need to be out in the yard.

We spent Friday evening walking the yard, looking at the lay of the land, talking about spiffing the place up. We'd like to lay a sprinkler system, replace half of the lower lawn with wildflowers (poppies, maybe?), put in a stone patio, scrape up the bad dirt and add some good dirt, do some terracing, planting, etc. I think that doing these things now will a) make our yard more enjoyable now, and b) increase our property value a few years down the line.

This post is kind of rambly and all over the place. I blame being sick. I coughed all night last night, and slept in until 11:30 this morning. That's UNHEARD of. Jeff tool the boys to Sunday school and McD's for lunch, and I had the benefit of Vicks44. Yay.

Now, to sit and sew. I don't want to do anything else today.

As I was cutting into some linen last night, I recognized an issue that I’ve seen before. Not all linen is 100% linen. I’m sure this doesn’t come to a surprise to anybody, especially those who have browsed through a Jo-Anns at the “linen” only to discover that they have significant poly/rayon content.

This linen was stretchy, along the width. You might not notice at first, but if you take the whole width and pull, there’s significant stretch. More stretch than just normal fabric stretch – there’s definitely lycra in there.

In two instances that I’ve seen this, the person told me they bought the fabric from an SCA merchant who said that it was 100% linen. I’m NOT suggesting that the SCA merchant is trying to pull one over on us. I’m NOT suggesting that we should stop buying from SCA merchants. I’m guessing that the merchants (two different ones, as far as I can tell) bought the fabric from a source that told them that it was 100% linen. I’m sure they don’t have time to burn test everything.

Lesson is, be wary. Especially with linens, take up a few feet, and pull, both lengthwise and across the grain. See what happens. Do a burn test. Nothing should bubble or melt. If you feel some stretch, and the burn test comes up clean, do a burn test on the warp and weft separately. A fabric merchant should be an expert, and should be able to help you do the burn test, or bring a friend with you.

That doesn’t mean that you can’t use it. I’m using some linen like that for a supportive dress, but I’m lining it in a 5.3 oz white linen from fabrics-store.com, which I *know* is 100% linen, and is supportive along the grain. I’ve seen it in linens and wools, plain fabrics and ready-to-wear medieval clothing. Just know what you have, and keep your eye out about what you’re buying. Communicate with the merchant, because they don’t likely know either.

Other than the gas/diesel snafu, it was a decent enough weekend.

Friday evening, we had the au pair exit interview, where all we had to do was sign paperwork. There was no trying to mediate – she already had her plane ticket bought. No point.

After all of that, Jeff and I sat down to watch Doctor Who. I know that people have hated Stolen Earth, but I loved it. It *was* a lot all in one episode, but I could get over that.
( potential spoilers )
melaniesuzanne suggested that I shouldn’t watch it until I could watch both halves of the two-parter, because it would mess with my brain. She was right, so we immediately broke our rule and found Journey’s End online. Hopefully one episode doesn’t push us over our net usage.
( More spoilers )

Saturday morning we took the boys to the playground, much to their utter delight, and then ran a few errands before bringing them home for naps. Jeff napped too, and I puttered, picked up, and read a little (I have no desire to panic for Pennsic). At 3pm, Berta took over, and Jeff and I readied ourselves for a date. She’d spent all of Monday on the phone, and unable to watch the boys, so we asked her to work Saturday.

For our date, we did something that we haven’t done since Henry was 6 months old – we saw a movie… in the theater… with each other! Of course, we saw Dark Knight, which was awesome. Wow. It would have been awesomer but for the idiots behind me occasionally dropping popcorn on my head, and pulling my hair as they grabbed my seat back to go pee in the middle of the film, but it was still awesome. I have fast reflexes though, and as he grabbed a few strands of my hair, I flung my hand back and whacked his arm. At least I got an apology.

We had a leisurely sushi dinner at Yamazato, and did a bit of shopping at Whole Foods. I get there so seldom, I want to browse and linger, but I managed to be not TOO slow.

On our way home, we stopped off at National Harbor, a new conference center on the PG county side of the Potomac, right near the Wilson bridge. The place is HUGE. It’s not just a conference center, but they built an entire neighborhood, with shops, piers, restaurants, and waterfront. It was big, fancy, and …. odd. At 10pm, the piped in jazz changed to a show-tune like number, and the lights flickered in different colors for a little “all about National Harbor” show. It felt like indoctrination. Trendy, expensive, and FAKE. Thanks, but I think we’ll stick to hanging out in Old Town Alexandria, which is trendy, expensive, and REAL with its plethora of “George Washington shat here” sites.

Yesterday, more errands, more picking up, a little laundry, and I got to sit out on the porch with Henry and enjoy a thunderstorm. He’s such a FUN little boy. I just enjoy his company, and hearing what he has to say. Eddie was napping, so it was easy-peasy time. Verily, 90% of our difficulties are with fighting, sharing, and general getting along, so put one of them to bed and life’s a breeze.