Technical Problems

Dear Readers, Somehow my blog La Chatelaine Chocolate is experiencing some technical problems.  Until I can get a handle on this please bear with me.   I hope to get this challenge solved soon and get back to posting.  I have many plans and want to share and get feedback.  In fact, maybe you can help me with this.  You know how on your blog at the very top there is a displayed menu which includes a Blogger search box, your email address, Dashboard, etc well for this blog it is gone?  I am not sure what to do, as I tried to add on to my fav blogs in a gadget but it won't let me add.  My art blog is fine, not sure what happened since yesterday when I posted something about the 3 Muskateers and posted with a link an image from the movie.  Do you think that did it?  I was using something even though cited that I should not have legally? 
I looked the help section but there is no where to contact anyone for help?  So Help?  I really don't want to loose all my posts or have to start again.  Thank.  You can email me or comment below - hope I can get the feedback.  Cheers?  :(

UFO's and counting...

Unfinished Objects are the bain of the creative person's existence.  Real life distracts our creative spirits with mundane tasks that, yes, keep our economic lives stable but can really distract and waylay any project in the 'fun' category.  So, to catalog my UFO's is to identify them and then decide what to do with them.  Do, I continue with them - make the time?  Do they fit in my 'historical costume' needs any more?  If I don't continue with them what do I do with them?  Where to start?  Oh, the knitted mitts.  Remember those?

http://lachatelainechocolat.blogspot.com/2010/04/knitting-mitts-phew-got-it-started.html

Well, it is much further along than this but only one mitt and I am at the point where I have to decrease to mold the shape to the wrist before moving on to the part that covers the hand.  So, this could be a keeper in that it would be good to do while watching my NetFlix DVD's for down time.  Perhaps I will keep this one.

Now there is the unfinished petticoat I started - you know the corded one.  http://lachatelainechocolat.blogspot.com/2010/11/corded-petticoat-under-way.html  Interestingly enough I found another petticoat that I started years ago to cord.  It is too small now and I was totally doing it the wrong way.  I was making individual channels to run cords through one by one.  Luckily, I didn't try to finish that one as it would have been a disaster since a friend of mind said that the petticoat will collapse at the seam where all the cords meet.  It is best to spiral the cord around creating channels as you go with the cord sandwiched inbetween the layers of cotton.  Both ways are tedious to do but the spiral method is a lot better and easier.  I do need a corded petticoat for my Victorian to wear to Dicken's Faire this winter so, I will need to set up a couple of sewing sessions to get that done.    Next?

The Victorian Corset I started this summer.  Well it is done but all it needs is the grommets to lace it up.  Yes, it has been sitting in its bag for almost 3 months waiting to be holed.  Yes, I know but life got in the way and it was a low priority as I was going no where in Victorians in the last few months.  But with the winter faires coming up.  Its time to make that trip to Lacis and get the corset ready for lacing up.    Here is the link to that post:  http://lachatelainechocolat.blogspot.com/2011/07/le-modiste-summer-of-underwear.html

The Tudor corset in that post got done but it doesn't have a busk for the front.  The busks that are out there for sale are too long for my body so I have to make one ergo why the delay in finishing it.  Sigh.  Any suggestions for a busks, my fellow costumers?  Someone said to pick up one of those free paint sticks at Home Depot.  I did, now what?  Suggestions please.

Oh, the Pierrot jacket - totally unfinished.  http://lachatelainechocolat.blogspot.com/2011/07/le-modiste-finishing-up-pierrot.html 

This has no deadline but I would like to get it done.  The biggest thing holding me back on this one is the trim.  Finding a fine fringe like the original example in the Kyoto collection is hard.  Most upholstery fringe is too heavy and not at all appropriate. I don't want to do lace - a viable option but I am not big on lace.  I really love the tailored but elegant look of the original and want to stay with that.  Any suggestions for sources for said fringe?  See my old post and you can see the example I mean.

I do have a couple of Art Deco dresses in the works.  One just needs sleeves put on.  So ridiculous that just the simple act of putting on a set of sleeves and doing the hem would finish it and yet it remains undone?  I think I need to just own the fact that I have to have the pressure of a deadline - an event to get stuff done.  I don't like that.  I really hate scrambling to make something for an event and yet that is where I tend to be the most productive.  Are any of you like that?  Am I alone?  Sigh?

What is on your UFO list?  Cheers!