you won't make yourself a name if you follow the rules

I went out to get my prescription and some photos and a pack of white zip ties. While out I put a foot wrong on the sidewalk and went down hard. I didn't actually hurt myself that badly—lost a square inch of skin and a couple drops of blood on the right knee; wasn't nearly so bad on the left or on the heel of either hand—but good fucking gods did it amp my overall pain levels from 6ish to 8ish what the fuck OW.

And I didn't even get the right zip ties. I got what Walgreens had, because I'd already banged myself up when I got to Walgreens and I didn't want to continue on to Walmart!

As I'm sure dialecticdreamer knew, my fabric for doll peplos and himation are not in fact unwrinkled, despite having spent hours and hours being flattened by piles of books. I have hung both pieces of fabric in the bathroom and shall now go take a long steamy shower. Then go buy gold or bronze spray paint for the helmet, and also one of those rectangular clear plastic rulers in adequate size so that I can use the rotary cutter I bought yesterday to cut the fabric to size!

After that, or anyway after shower, not necessarily after shopping, I need to deal with what is probably a dried cat vomit. (Under the coffee table, where one does not think to look.) How best, please? I've got spray-on carpet cleaner, which I think is my best option? ETA: carpet all clean \o/ thanks y'all

That's like five cat vomits in the past few days, after a month-plus of none, and also Thea is again not eating most of her food. I worry. What do?

YO synecdochic you know Thea—do I need to be picky about her dry food, and if so, what am I looking for?

Also it finally occurred to me that the way to keep Thea from breaking the blinds on my bedroom window is to raise the blinds some. There's blackout curtains, which is why it took forever for me to figure out where her hide is (it's the windowsill), so the light levels in my bedroom should be unaffected, but it is too late for several of the flat bits of blinds. Oh well; my security deposit here wasn't refundable anyway.

Doll head is 7" circumference, above eyebrows and ears.

( talking through the helmet construction )

( image )

One attribute down.

Dare I machine-wash my doll body, given that the ceramic hands and feet are not removable? Because this page suggests hand washing if blotting with a washcloth and baby shampoo doesn't work. Well, it didn't work, and the cloth is a little dingy as well as the darker spots, so. But hand washing looks like too much work.

Well that didn't go according to plan.

*resumes glaring at the academic works on Homeric-era looms*

I found my dichroic glass dot tie tack inventory! (They were in with the rest of my sunbowgems inventory. Go figure.)

I have picked out two just-about-matchy blue ones to be peplos pins and one green one to be the himation pin. They're still gonna be ridiculously big on doll, but I don't think quite as comically large as I had thought.

Doll will require attributes of Athena!

Armor is right out. But could I plausibly make a convincing-looking helmet? (Though that probably means doll needs loose or ponytailed hair, instead of the Janet-Stephens-demonstrated style I already linked.) How would I this thing? (Remembering I'm not a bronzesmith! Though I may well be taking a metalwork workshop in a few weeks, we'll see. I don't know; bronze and match-the-himation felt?)

Given doll's hands—will photo up close tomorrow—can doll hold (preferably without glue) a spear, or a book, or a pair of knitting needles, or a hand loom? (I doubt this. Unless I tie the things to her wrists with thread.) Think a couple headpins from the beading department would make proportional knitting needles?

Ooh, could I give her a sword belt and accompanying pointy metal stick to go with the helmet? And a "leather" satchel with the knitting needles and embroidery-thread knitting project poking out, and definitely a book. (By which I may mean scroll.) Then I will be covering Athena's three most prominent (to me) areas of expertise: wisdom, war, and crafts!

ETA: Or arm her instead like a fairly poor hoplite...tell me to stop, this is overambitious...

( images )

( babble )

Next step: the shopping trip.

—which does NOT include buying dichroic glass cabochons on Etsy and tie tacks and clutches on Fire Mountain Gems.

(Yet.)

I accidentally a thrifting. Because of reasons.

So now I have a doll, and a stand for her. (She came with a pretty floral bonnet and dress to match, and bloomers, socks, and booties. But those won't, like, do.) Cloth body, and I think the head, hands, and feet are ceramic? Bigger than a Barbie, but I can't find my ruler so I'm not sure dimensions beyond that.

There's a couple stains on the body and a mark on the face. How do I best remove these without damaging the doll?

Short of buying a Barbie hairbrush, best way to detangle the hair?

How might I go about [finding someone who will be competent at] changing her eyes from brown to gray without spoiling the look of her?

(Did I mention I don't own a sewing machine, can't sew a straight seam with or without a sewing machine, and don't need more craft projects to never finish? But, um.)

(I believe I shall begin the embroidery on the peplos, once I acquire suitable materials which probably won't be terribly soon, with an eight-spoked circle that people will graciously admit bears some resemblance to a spider and thus evokes the story of Arakhne.)