Ikea

 When you wow NOT to make an 18th century Ikea-dress, because everybody and their sisters has them, what do you bump into in a second hand store.....

It has an ever so slight discoloration, I think I might just overdy it to light blue (what else?) But still....

Do people still read blogs?

 Is anybody still around here? 

I know I keep saying this blog as a very random journal for myself, but then again... 

Yeah, blogs are written to be read as well, isn't that so? 

I also know that this partical blog is kep in rather haphasardly, sometimes there are a bunch of posts sometimes there are none for weeks....I admit that the absence of any kind of feedback (umm, comments???) makes it harder to keep up (or should I say, makes it easier to be lazy, and not put things up for longer period of time). 

I also know people say that Ravelry / Intsagram/ Facebook and lately, increasingly youtube killed blogging, but I also know , that I, for one, like to read blogs...

So, I do have things to say, and pictures to show you, is anybody still here? 

If I would not go to concerts...

If I would not go to concerts… (For non-Hungarian friends: According to the latest from our govt, the current rules, for organizing cultural events (concerts, theater plays etc) are only allowed up to 500 persons at an open-air venue... all the while sports events can be organized without any restrictions. When the spokesperson was asked why is this discrimination, the answer was, because people can drink in concerts and then cannot behave and keep distance. Below there are a few Hungarian poets/poems, writers and songs and places are mentioned believe me- they are all very worth of knowing).

If I would not go to concerts, I wouldn’t only a few glasses of cider short (which I rarely drink anyway), but I would be poorer for not knowing some poems, that I find extremely important now, even though as a poem reader I had seen a fair share of the, I wouldn’t know to recite from the poem of Pilinszky „Don1t be afraid” or Ferenc Szemlér’s  „If you would be caring for me”. Not to mention Radnoti’s „Enchanting” (Okay, I WOULD know that, but let me tell you, it is much better sung. If I would not go to concerts, I would long forgotten that one of the last poems of Radnoti’s can be read in a different way, I would not know his wife’s Journal. 

If I wouldn’t go to concerts I wouldn’t’ know a lot of beutiful places, the Castles of Szigliget, Kőszeg, I would have never seen Ráckeve, Alsbogát, Kapolcs, Tusnádfürdő, and a bunch of other, very special places. If I would not go to concerts, I would not read the books of Krisztiám Grecso, I would not know how to put together a photobook, and I would not know what happiness is being truly wet by a summer rain, and sing from the top of your voice „may the rain was our hearts to one”…

If I wouldn’t go to concerts, I would be short of quite a few friends. I wouldn’t know how hard can a special needs girl hug, I wouldn’t know how much I can miss her sister too). 

I would not know the feeling that they save my place in the front row for me, I would not know how a cello and a violin sounds in a rock band. If I would not go to concerts I would not smile on someone’s posts on Facebook, or would not think about the things another shares. If I would not go to concerts I would not know, that one does not only go there for the music, but for the friends.

If I would not go to concerts I would not know what love is. If I would not go to concerts I would be still sitting home, lonely, and feel sorry for myself. I would not know how it feels, when someone cares for you, takes care of you, loves you.

I admit, I’ve never been to a football game, and I am sure there are positive things there, for those who do go, but I find it really sad, that all I got from going to concerts in the last few years, is dismissed with a shrug, because in concerts „alcohol can be drunk”. 

I’ve never went to a concert to drink, and I would be going just as happy if, from now on, you could get only water in these places.

Most of the pictures were taken by Norbert Varga, at a bunch of different places, I am grateful for everyone who are in the pictures, and for those also who, this time were left out, but they are still in my heart.

PS: If I wouldn’t go to concerts, I would not have planted flowers this year either. Just sayin’. 

Open!

My favorite textile store that is... after almost two month, it is a tiny-tiny shade of normality...
Last week when I've had an appointment with a beautician, and she cancelled, I literally cried  (I might make a list that make me cry these last weeks. Or not. However, there were some real strange reasons there... ). I mean I am so hungry to have contact with people other than N and Chris...I mean I love them both to pieces, and if I can only talk to two people for he rest of my life, they would be those two, but still...
Anyhow, I still ventured into the city, but downtown was so empty it was rather disheartening.
But this week it seems some stores had enough and reopening, bit by bit....
Like the "cheapo fabroc store"née I Love Textil, which do sells a lot of sh*** I mean stuff that is no value to me, but sometimes I do find trasures there... Just like now.

Its not that I need or have space for them, but still...

So, here is hoping that things might just turn for the better... one day.

Start...

of something new... As if I needed more hobbies... even though thi sis not entirely new, but I haven't done it in decades...

Treasure chest

I finally got around and folded and put away my fabric stash... at least most of it.
I have a fairly old, retro, modular office...whatever they call it. It has modules for storing clothes, but it also has modules with drawer, and shelves. It probably sat in an office of the old socialist party. PJ got it, when he first rented a flat, about some 30 years ago. The furniture he'd gotten used back then,came from one of the party headquartes. (The last of teh chairs from there gave in pretty lately, it was thrown away in the last spring clean up). There must have been sized to a standard wall, because if it is all put up, it is exactly the size of the wall between my bedroom and the sewing room.... come to think of it, the second wife of my father had exactly the same set, exactly on that wall for a while (yeah, this flat has its own story, maybe I tell it one day). However that set had been around here, put up here and there, turned this was and on the other, the last I moved it was when after PJ left and 6 piecesout of the 8 had been put up in the small room that used to be my sewing room / storage. Now the shelved one stayed there, providing storage for Chris now, and the two wadrobe functioned was moved in the old/new sewing room. I asked N to put in some shelves, so teh fabric I put in would be more accessible, I wouldn't have to take our all, if I want something from teh bottom. This also gave me the opportunity to make "collections" and put fabrics with similar uses in one heap.
Since I do have (yes an awful lot of yarn, but also) an awful lot of fabric, I needed to figure out how to store them the most possible efficient way. The chest (let's call it chest) is not big enough to put in fabric rolls, so I measured the shelves, and spent literally weeks and weeks of folding up the fabrics to size. some I had washed to have it shrink if it wants to, those needed ironing as well.
I do not have enough space for a proper table, I worked on the floor. That put a considerable strain on my back and waist, but now it is done, and I guess it was worth ot. there you go...

 These are the taffetas and above the fabric that are suitable for stays, corsets and the like.

 Velvets, some of it for "civil"uses, most of them are for historical items.

 Small prints on cotton, for regency, early victorian and maybe late 19th century stuff... at the top are some knitted fabrics for modern stuff-

 Ahh the whites... these are different white stuf, for historical underwear, some cotton, some linen. Love them all. On the other side of the chest (no separate pictures, but you can see teh bottomright shelf on the top picture) there are similar amount of white fabrics for modern clothes... I do love white clothes, don't I?

 The wools.

The colored linens.

 And the stuff that I just could not stuff in its shelves. Some wool, some taffeta, some brocade, but all for historical stuff...

 And no, this is not all... I have about this much more, on the other side of the room, in boxes, but these are the things that -hopefully- will use the most in the near future.
The lesson is, that when you do fold the stuff flat, you can really stuff more things in. In this place there is about 12 huge moving box (the type you can buy in Ikea, or Kika in my case), and what had been lying around in bags.... Now I can see what I have, and go ahead and sew something.

Random ways our lives changed…

About a month ago our lives turned upside down, literally from one evening to the next morning, and I am afraid, it is never going to be the same.  Sometimes things are surreal to the point they feel pretty much like we are living in a post-apocalyptic move, sometimes they are even funny…

I was planning a whole big serious post about what is happening, and though I do have thoughts, it would either turn into a big fast whinefest, and /or would be rather unpopular, so I thought I will just list a few things…

It’s not that I am a stranger to weird thing, I have done plenty of those in my life, including flying over to Germany for a concert of my favorite band on a whim, buying wall paint at 2.30 AM in Tesco, or travelling on a tram in head-to-toe full mid-Victorian, dress with corset and a cage crinoline as it should be, so we can say that weird is my middle name, but things are beyond those levels nowadays.

Things are in this list are in no particular order, just as I bumped into them and in fact there are some good things in there too… So without further adoo

Random strange things of our days…

• Ø Driving through the city, during daytime, and not encounter traffic jams.
• Ø Not being able to get yeast.
• Ø Going out for a walk late at night and feeling guilty and defiant.
• Ø Fighting over the last package of dried yeast in the store, even though I do not like the dried stuff, I prefer to use fresh.
• Ø A post appearing on FB asking for fullcorn flour in exchange for yeast.
• Ø Not finding meat in Tesco, except for some tiny small parts of the male turkey.

• Ø Walking with a plush dog of my son. Yes, it is was partly a joke, as though there is a kind of curfew, but you can still walk your dog, however, that is the only dog I have, and that is only on loan.

• Ø Telling N, that the next time we are going to shopping, I am going in a full renaissance court wear, just for fun, and he asking, without missing a beat “will you bring the dog too?”
• Ø Having to stand on the street, and yell through the window of our neighborhood pharmacy to get my thyroid medicine, fir which getting the prescription was no small feat either..
• Ø Not being able to go to a dentist.
• Ø Having the urge and time to start walking / running again, but can’t because my old running shoes fell apart, and no stores open to get a new one. Yeah, I know, there are online stores and deliveries, but it’s a running shoe. Comfort is vital, and my feets are sensitive, so it needs to be tried on.  Ehh.
• Ø Cities that live on / off tourists closing, and putting up signs that non-locals are not only not welcome, but forbidden to visit (this is a really sensitive point for me, you really do not want me to get into it deeper).

• Ø I am reading the news. It is not as other times I am not interested, but PJ’s manic fetish f listening/watching the news all day long made me immune. Now, usually, the first things I check on, when I open my computer, are the news.

• Ø From having a (not so) long distance relationship to having N over here 7/24… and still liking it, and loving him.

Thats it fo now, but no promises, of not continuing, if I will have moe stuff to list...