2023 Reading Plan

Just to see how much my plan changes over the next 12 months, here are my short and long lists for 2023, as of 1 January 2023. I'm writing this in advance, so I may need to go back in here and edit off any books that I've read over Christmas as I've added in my remaining 2022 shortlist here.

I am also vaguely working on a general "book challenge" for the last few years looking at reading "genre books" from around the world. About 10 years ago, I saw a challenge from someone who read a book from every nation, and thought that that would be a good way to read outside my personal perspective, however a lot of the books bored me - not because they were bad books, but because they weren't my style. So I wondered whether it would be even possible to do this myself BUT focussing on books from the genres I prefer - mostly speculative fiction (SF, Fantasy, PNR) and Historical romance. It's taking a while to discover and then find copies of books that fit, but I haven't set a deadline for completing this. Nevertheless, hopefully some items from that will be able to come into my reading this year. 

To define the two types of lists for 2023:

Shortlist - books I definitely plan to read this year. These fall into the following categories:

1. I just really want to read this - e.g. next in series, excitement, etc.
2. I've started so I'll finish - books that are partly complete. I'm making a special effort in 2023 to clear up my backlog of partially read books.
3. Already borrowed - books that I currently have out on loan. I want to only have new (to me) books on loan from the library after January, if at all possible.

Not on this list, but which will be later - Awards (Hugo 2023 probably) and Bookgoup. Because I can't predict these ahead of time, I will obviously have to wait to add them until they are decided. So the name of 2023 for me is "Backlog and Fun" - books stop being fun if you have to read them, so I will deal with those I have to as a priority and then the rest should be mostly fun!

Longlist - these are books which I want to read, but which don't have deadlines on them in the same way as those on the Shortlist.

1. Reviews owed. I have a backlog here too, which needs dealing with.
2. Awards backlog - I have some outstanding books from the 2020 and 2021 Hugos that I never got around to. I want to tidy this off too.
3. Books I own already - mostly gifts
4. Things I'd like to read, but don't own
5. Next books in series - some of these are being bumped up to Shortlist if I've been wanting to read for a while but haven't got around to continuing the series.

NB - Neither list is in a specific order, beyond the order in which I added them to the list.

Shortlist

Title	Author	Reason
A Peace Divided (Peacekeeper, #2)	Tanya Huff	Library borrowed
A Red-Rose Chain (October Daye, #9)	Seanan McGuire
Belief and Unbelief in Medieval Europe	John H. Anold
Blood of Elves (The Witcher, #1)	Andrzej Sapkowski
False Value (Rivers of London #8)	Ben Aaronovitch
Children of Blood and Bone (Legacy of Orïsha, #1)	Tomi Adeyemi
Cold Comfort Farm	Stella Gibbons
Cursor's Fury (The Codex Alera, #3)	Jim Butcher
Elsewhens (Glass Thorns, #2)	Melanie Rawn
Fantasy from Asia and the Asian Diaspora	Zen Cho
From the Editorial Page of the Falchester Weekly Review (The Memoirs of Lady Trent #3.5)	Marie Brennan
In Ashes Lie (Onyx Court, #2)	Marie Brennan
Infinity Wars	Jonathan Strahan
Lost Gods	Micah Yongo
Loyalty in Death (In Death, #9)	J.D. Robb
Lud-in-the-Mist	Hope Mirrlees
Mindtouch (The Dreamhealers, #1)	M.C.A. Hogarth
No Longer a Gentleman (The Lost Lords #4)	Mary Jo Putney
Old Peter's Russian Tales	Arthur Ransome
Redemption's Blade (After the War, #1)	Adrian Tchaikovsky
Regent's Park: From Tudor Hunting Ground to the Present	Paul A. Rabbitts
She Who Became the Sun (The Radiant Emperor #1)	Shelley Parker-Chan
Stars Above: A Lunar Chronicles Collection	Marissa Meyer
Strange Brew	P.N. Elrod
The All Souls Complete Trilogy	Deborah Harkness
The Book Eaters	Sunyi Dean
The Calculating Stars (Lady Astronaut Universe #1)	Mary Robinette Kowal
The Dark Days Club (Lady Helen, #1)	Alison Goodman
The Fifth Season	N.K. Jemisin
The Gatekeeper's Staff: An Old Gods Story (TJ Young & The Orishas #1)	Antoine Bandele
The Girl in The Tower (Winternight Trilogy, #2)	Katherine Arden
The House in the Cerulean Sea	T.J. Klune
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms	N.K. Jemisin
The Human Experience: Andzhaparidze, Contemporary American and Soviet Fiction and Poetry	Georgii Andzhaparidze
The Hunt	Chloe Neill
The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways	Wilbert Awdry
The Kingdom of Copper (The Daevabad Trilogy, #2)	S.A. Chakraborty
The Light Ages: The Surprising Story of Medieval Science	Seb Falk
The Machine Breaker Convicts from the Proteus and the Eliza	Bruce W. Brown
The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1)	R.F. Kuang
The Resurrectionist of Caligo	Wendy Trimboli
The Silk Roads: The Extraordinary History that created your World – Children's Edition	Peter Frankopan
The Ten Thousand Doors of January	Alix E. Harrow
The Thousand Names (The Shadow Campaigns, #1)	Django Wexler
The True Queen (Sorcerer Royal #2)	Zen Cho
The Way of All Flesh (Raven, Fisher, and Simpson, #1)	Ambrose Parry
Thorn	Intisar Khanani
Voyage of the Basilisk (The Memoirs of Lady Trent, #3)	Marie Brennan
Witches and Warriors collection (Kindle bundle)	Lindsay Buroker
Witness in Death (In Death, #10)	J.D. Robb
-	-	-
Uncanny Magazine 2023 issues
Apex Magazine 2023 issues
BBC History Magazine 2023 issues

Longlist

Title	Author	Reason
The Light Brigade	Kameron Hurley
October Daye, #10-14	Seanan McGuire

2023 Plans - Part 2: Craft Details

EDIT @03:45: Minor spanner in the works in the shape of the first Charm Patterns Patreon release for 2023, which I now ALSO want to make. If it's a sew-along, well... there goes my initial plans!

"New Year goals 2023" by Marco Verch is licensed under CC-BY-2.0.

This post is specifically for my crafting plans for 2023. As outlined in the previous post, I intend to limit myself to not more than one project per month, and probably no more than 8 for the whole year to allow for both time off and for projects to take longer than planned. In some ways this is a 2-3 year project plan as my aim for 2023 is to gain core outfits plus some specific items, and to improve these outfits over time... I may add some longer term plans at the bottom, or not, depends how long it takes me to type this up!

These are outline plans - nothing about inspirations or fine details. I will list a broad project title, the item(s) involved, patterns to be used, and rough fabric information (owned, fibre, weave). 

Layout

Project title:

Description: Outfit item(s) + Good/Better/Best

Purpose:

Pattern: Company, # or name, owned/not

Fabric: Fibre, weave, owned/not

Status: Unstarted, In Progress, Complete

Links: Link to a full project post if one exists

1. Regency

Project title: Regency dress

Description: Regency gown with back fastening and long sleeves

Purpose: Early 19th century historical costume

Pattern: Laughing Moon #138 (owned)

Fabric: Cotton - have a printed cotton, may buy a swiss dot though

Status: In progress: Pattern pieces cut out mock-up for pattern size completed

Links:

2. Mid-19thC

Project title: Gaskell dress

Description: 1850s/1860s crinoline dress with pagoda sleeves

Purpose: Mid 19th century historical costume

Pattern: Laughing Moon #111 (owned), View B

Fabric: Wool (owned)

Status: In progress - continuation and improvement

Links:

3. Late-19th C

Project title: Fan Skirt #2

Description: Remake of earlier fan skirt project, with lessons learned

Purpose: Late 19th century historical costume

Pattern: Black Snail #0414 (owned)

Fabric: Purple/black 100% wool (owned)

Status: In progress: Fabric bought

Links:

4. House dress

Project title: 1949 House dress

Description: Wrap house dress from 1949, Ruler resized pattern

Purpose: Work and around the house. Easy-on clothes

Pattern: Enbonpoint Vintage #94 - Mable (owned)

Fabric: Cheap cotton or polycotton

Status: Planned

Links:

5. Pinafore dress

Project title: Julia pinafore dress

Description: Pinafore dress pattern from c.1950s, Ruler resized pattern

Purpose: Work and around the house. Easy-on clothes

Pattern: Enbonpoint Vintage #134 - Julia (owned)

Fabric: Cotton or polycotton

Status: Planned

Links:

6. Rita blouse

Project title: Rita blouse

Description: 1950s style blouse

Purpose: To go with fox skirt

Pattern: Charm Patterns - Rita (owned)

Fabric: Cotton/Polycotton

Status: In progress: Mock-up for pattern size completed, pattern pinned out but not cut

Links:

7. Bullet bra

Project title: Bullet bra

Description: 1960s bullet bra, ruler pattern

Purpose: Underwear for 1950s style clothes

Pattern: Mrs Depew #527B (owned)

Fabric: TBC

Status: Unstarted

Links:

8. 1950s Petticoat-skirt

Project title: 1950s Petticoat

Description: 1950s petticoat or skirt, ruler pattern

Purpose: Underwear for daily wear with 1950s style skirts/dresses (less floofy)

Pattern: Mrs Depew #7309 (owned)

Fabric: TBC

Status: Unstarted

Links:

Other proposed plans

Ideas and projects which may happen in addition to those above, in place of those above, or not until next year or even later!

9. Sarafan

Project title: Sarafan

Description: 19thC or folkloric sarafan, shirt, and apron

Purpose: Cosplay - Vasilisa the Wise and Baba Yaga

Pattern: Folkwear #128 - Russian Settler Dress (owned)

Fabric: Cotton

Status: Planned

Links:

10. Gambit dress

Project title: Gambit dress

Description: Pinafore dress in the style of The Gambit

Purpose: Daily wear

Pattern: Mood - Gambit (free/owned)

Fabric: TBC

Status: Planned

Links:

11. 1940s dungarees

Project title: Dungarees

Description: 1940s/Rosie the Riveter -style dungarees

Purpose: Daily wear - work and home

Pattern: Charm Patterns - Lucille (owned)

Fabric: TBC

Status: Unstarted

Links:

12. High waist shorts

Project title: Button Shorts

Description: 1930s-style button-front decorated shorts

Purpose: Summer-wear

Pattern: Charm Patterns - Ginger (owned)

Fabric: TBC

Status: Unstarted

Links:

13. Edwardian blouse

Project title: Edwardian blouse

Description: Early 1900s to 1910s blouse

Purpose: Historical costume for late 19th and early 20th century. To go with existing fan skirt(s)

Pattern: Black Snail #0816 (owned)

Fabric: Cotton lawn (owned)

Status: Mock-up for size completed

Links:

14. Wrapper dress

Project title: 1840s Wrapper

Description: Dress from 1840s-1860s for at-home wear

Purpose: Costuming and at-home

Pattern: Laughing Moon #120 (unowned)

Fabric: TBC

Status: Unstarted

Links:

15. 1890s shirtwaist

Project title: Shirtwaist

Description: Shirtwaist or shirt pattern from c1890

Purpose: Late 19thC costuming to wear with fan skirt(s)

Pattern: Black Snail #0314 (unowned)

Fabric: Cottons

Status: Unstarted

Links:

16. 1890s cape

Project title: Short cape

Description: Short cape from c1890

Purpose: Late 19thC costuming to wear as warmth with fan skirt(s)

Pattern: Truly Victorian #590 (unowned)

Fabric: Wool or similar heavy material

Status: Unstarted

Links:

17. Ten gore princess skirt

Project title: Princess skirt

Description: Corsolet waisted skirt from 1906

Purpose: Historical costuming 

Pattern: Truly Victorian #TVE23 (unowned)

Fabric: Wool

Status: Unstarted

Links:

18. 1917 skirt

Project title: 1917 Evelyn skirt

Description: Large pocketed 19-teens skirt

Purpose: Daily wear and Historical costuming 

Pattern: Wearing History - Evelyn (unowned)

Fabric: Cotton or wool

Status: Unstarted

Links:

19. Smocked aesthetic shirtwaist

Project title: Amsterdam Smokwerk blouse

Description: Pattern inspired by the turn-of-the-century Smockwork blouse/shirtwaist in Amsterdam 

Purpose: Daily wear and Historical costuming 

Pattern: Clockwork Faerie - 1890s Aesthetic shirtwaist (unowned)

Fabric: Cotton

Status: Unstarted

Links:

18. 1890s Apron

Project title: 1890s Apron

Description: An apron to go with 1890s outfit(s)

Purpose: Daily wear and Historical costuming 

Pattern: Undecided (unowned)

Fabric: Cotton

Status: Unplanned

Links:

2023 Plans - Part 1: Overview

 Welcome to 2023!

"Business plans for 2023" by Marco Verch is licensed under CC-BY-2.0.

I don't really "do" resolutions, especially not New Year Resolutions. Why? 

1. I forget the things I planned if I'm not actively doing them
2. If I want to do / start / stop a thing, then postponing it to an arbitrary date doesn't help me - I start it right away (or don't!) - building in procrastination just sets me up to continue procrastinating!
3. If put on the spot, I find I just think of things to propose, which aren't necessarily things that would help me or which I actively want to do the most, just what came to the top of my head right then

So, what I am doing instead is using today as an opportunity to write down the things I was already hoping to do this year. There is no "today is the new start" aspect to this, just an acknowledgement of y plans for the forthcoming year. These are split into sections to try to group my plans. Unlike a traditional list of resolutions, the aim of this is to try to keep my ever burgeoning list of Things I Want to Do in a somewhat manageable state, and hopefully to limit my goals to things which I can reasonably accomplish within the limits of my brain and body's capacities.

Personal and Professional Development

1. Complete at least 50% of my chartership submission
• This has been rumbling on now for almost 5 years, so this year I want to get some concrete progress on it.
2. EITHER Get my hours increased at my current post OR Seek a new post
• I am stagnating at work, which could be fixed with either more hours (more time to develop the role) or finding something altogether new.
3. Continue my Russian classes and consider taking the C1 exam either this year or register again at C1 to take it in 2024.
4. Complete another year on Duolingo. 2023 focus languages
• Russian
• Primary focus
• French
• Secondary focus
• Ukrainian
• B1/2
• Italian
• A2/B1 - revive my old Beginner's level
• Arabic
• A1/2 - Recognise the alphabet, Get basic greetings, numbers and please/thank you
• Chinese
• A1 - Recognise characters

Leisure

1. Read between 2 and 4 books a month. My Goodreads target is currently set at 24 books, or 2 per calendar month.
• Lacking commuting time, I am reading less fiction books than I want to, and my TBR is insane. 
• 2-4 books a month is one every week or so.
• No limits on length - just published separately (e.g. a Tor.com short book is the same as Lord of the Rings in this count)
2. Play PC games at least once per week

Craft

1. Sewing - no more than 1 project per month.
• Complete three basic 19th Century outfits
1. Early - 1800s-1820s
2. Mid-century - 1850s-1860s 
3. Late - 1890s-1900s
• Complete some practical outfits for general wearing
2. Do the fox painting my parents bought me for Christmas 2021
3. Practice crochet

Health

1. Weight control
• This is probably the closest thing I have to a traditional New Year's Resolution, but in this case it has a specific target and end date. 
• Target: 95kg
• Purpose: Anaesthesia for transfer
• Date: April 2023
2. Exercise
• I need to force myself to exercise more or I won't achieve my target weight.
• Ever since breaking my ankle mid-summer 2022 I've been struggling with walking, so I will be getting a month's membership to the local swimming pool for January and trying to go at least once per week. Depending on how successful that is, I will decide whether to continue to fight the work insurance people and get "proper" gym membership sorted or continue using the local pool. Swimming as my main "big exercise" should reduce the pressures on both my ankle and my existing arthritis. 
• Minimum target: 
• Walk at least 3x a week
• Static cycle at least 2x per week
• Swim 1x per week
3. Teeth
• Arrange for 3 teeth to be pulled - I have two wisdom teeth coming in a 90° angle off from the angle they SHOULD be at, and one has also crushed into the tooth alongside and is sitting half inside that tooth, and is slowly killing it.
• Dentist wants this completed before my other treatment starts again, and we don't want to delay that more than a month ideally.
• Date: Jan/Feb 2023
4. ASD & ADHD
• Consider the value of pursuing a formal ADHD diagnosis
• Evaluate whether can afford to continue counselling sessions from 2022 now that they are no longer included in my NHS coverage (12 sessions covered)

Life Planning

 Following on from my last post, I think I need to schedule some kind of life planning schema for my future. What do I want to do, what do I need to do/be/have in order to do this, and then a plan to work on an aspect of this each month. This plan is going to structured in such as way as to not constrain anything in particular to a specific day or date, but which acknowledges the factors necessary to achieve each step of the journey. I also accept and embrace that I may decide that certain factors are no longer of interest or important to me any more. 

We change, we adapt, and that's not bad!

This is version 0.1 of my "the rest of my life" plan. The format will be:

Ultimate goal - the final aim of this "thread"

Subordinate goals - goals which need to be separately aimed for in order to progress to the Ultimate Goal

Tasks - thinks that need to be done to achieve either Ultimate or Subordinate goals

Maintenance tasks - things that need to be done regularly or repeatedly in order to continue progress towards Ultimate and Subordinate goals. Like sleeping, these tasks don't necessarily take you closer to your goal each time, but completing them enables you to work on the other tasks, which do progress things.

I will include a flow-chart-like thing, which is to show how certain tasks filter into other tasks.

This layout works for craft projects, housework, anything really!

Today I am just going to write out my Ultimate Goals, and then a few wishy-washy things I have wanted but am not sure whether they still fit with me-now...

Ultimate Goals

Family:

Children - IF means not biological, so working towards DE and adoption.

Living - nearer to family OR nearer to access to family

House - slightly bigger, with a proper kitchen, a separate eating and resting room, and space for crafting. Home office if that remains a consideration

Career:

Earn more

Location

Work/life ratio

Responsibilities

Importance to organisation

Academics

Language skills - Russian to MA level

Further study - restart/continue MA studies; translation studies

More subjects - take course on geology, take course on corsetry, take course on pattern grading

Leisure activities

Sewing all my own clothes

Learn to grade clothes

Complete set of clothes for each decade from 1800

2021 Plans Updated and Expanded

 So, I wrote a post earlier this year outlining my original crafting plans for 2021, which was made using the Historybounding Discord channel's prompts. I'm now updating my plan based on the following:

a) Reality - I now have a better grasp on what I am able to realistically complete in a given month

b) Using the British Guild challenges instead

c) Adding non-crafting plans (mostly reading)

So without further ado, here is my updated 2021 Plan

Crafting

Prompts (from this month onwards)

• Mythology May
• "Sumer is icumen in"
• Just do it!
• Academia and Allure
• Spooks & Secrets
• Out to Sea
• No Buy
• Winter Woolies

May 

Mythology, Legends, Folktales

I've always planned to make an outfit based on Russian folklore, so I'm still hoping to get at least part of that underway this month. It might turn out to be a much longer project, but I wanted to get a catalyst section completed in May. Currently I am hoping to make a version of a sarafan, based on dress from an unknown museum. I had thought it was in the Государственный исторический музей, as I have a copy of a page showing it in an exhibition held there, but since I can NOT find it anywhere in their collections, I have to assume it was a loan item. I'll share the inspiration image(s) I'm using on another post as I hope to write more on Russian folk costume later this month.

June 

Summer - theme or purpose

I have a vague plan to make an Edwardian or Late Victorian hat, to go with my walking skirt planned outfit. A nicely decorated hat could double as a summer hat. I may also consider a fan and a parasol as useful things for summer...

As Pride is still within the remit of June for the updated challenges, I may colour theme it with the Ace/Aego colours.

Other options I have considered:

1950s swimsuit or other beachwear

Summer pattern circle skirt (because I love circle skirts!) - with a petticoat to match if I make this

Edwardian blouse - nice and cool for summer, but also covered up, because sunburn

July 

Just do It!

I have no specific plans here yet, but honestly there are many aspects of sewing which I've not yet had the confidence to try, so there's lots of opportunities here.. This may be where I finally actually work on the Edwardian blouse! I may also use July to get a nice big chunk of my Regency underthings sorted.

August 

Academia and Allure

Well, I guess August is the time to let my inner librarian become my outer one! My plan for August is primarily to make an Edwardian (stroke Late Victorian) walking skirt from the pattern I bought last summer. I may line it in something fun though, especially if I can find a cute books related fabric print... 

This month may also be the one where I try out the American Duchess cloak pattern.

September 

Spooks and Secrets

I am not ashamed to state that I am a goth and that I love the gothy aesthetic as much now as I did as a student. I've not got any definite ideas here, but vague thoughts include

Bonnet trimming - can get quite autumnal and/or spooky without much difficulty

Cobweb themed circle skirt (and hopefully a top to match)

October 

Out to Sea - Nautical or Regency (thinking of Trafalgar Day)

I'd like to spend October working on a spencer, pelisse or redingote for my Regency 1818 project. The fashions for these sorts of coats were strongly influenced by military fashion. A waistcoat is also part of the borrowing of men's fashions for women, and would be a nice thing to make...

November

No Buy November. 

Whatever I make this month must not cost me anything if at all possible. I am personally choosing to make exceptions for items purchased at charity shops or otherwise second hand, as I feel Not Bought New still aligns with the ethos of No Buy.

I will NOT be applying this to my life in general in November, notably because November into early December has a LOT of family birthdays, plus spreading out buying helps a lot towards making Christmas affordable. In acknowledgement of this aspect, however, I will continue to make a conscious effort to make as many of my Christmas presents as possible. 

December

Winter Woolies

If not done earlier in the year, then both the AD Cape and Pelisse fit here beautifully. I may also focus on the "wool" aspect and try again to learn how to crochet.

I will also be using December to make presents, so that will be the "Winter" aspect...!

Reading

Reading is one of my longest persisting loves, and I have managed to completely lose my mojo over lockdown. I need to get it back! There is some flexibility in this list for adding new books that I buy, borrow, or which are selected for my book group. I hope to pay for the Hugo voting packet again this year, so I'll also be adding those books to the list. Here's my Short and Longer lists for 2021, where Short List is library books, books I've started reading, and a few others. The Longer List is for books I would like to get around to reading this year, and also books I want to read, but which are stored at the other end of the country from me... I also am resolving to ensure that I read at least 50% of my magazine that I have on subscription (because I accept that not every article is going to grab my interest each month). 

In "honour" of writing this, I am going to read at least one short story off my list before I go to sleep tonight! 

Short list

Started and need finishing:

Who Fears Death

The Island of Sodor

Cold Comfort Farm

The Fifth Season

No Longer a Gentleman

Regent's Park [history book]

Library books

Blood of Elves

Children of Blood and Bone

Cursor's Fury

Dreams of Gods and Monsters

Elsewhens

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

The Hunt

The Kingdom of Copper

A Peace Divided

Redemption's Blade

Short Stories

The Angel of Khan el-Khalili

Chicken Chicken Bang Bang

The Perseverance of Angela's Past Life

Head of a Snake, Tail of a Dragon

If at First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again

The House of Aunts

The Queen's Army (Lunar Chronicles)

Book of Souls (Prof Croft)

Long list (additional possibilities)

Hugo Leftovers

A Memory Called Empire

The City in the Middle of the Night

The Light Brigade

Middlegame

Presents (2020 Birthday and Christmas)

Prudence (re-read)

Imprudence

Competence

Reticence

Strange Brew

Of Wars, and Memories, and Starlight

Finally I have 5 or 6 books which were given to me in return for reviews. I need to do my genuine best to read them (or DNF) and write genuine reviews before the end of 2021. 

2021 Craft Plans

 While I've completely missed January, and we are now well into February, I thought I'd share my rough plans for the first part of 2021 at least.

First note is to say that while my 1818 ensemble is still in the works, Plague and lockdowns are putting September 2021 strongly into doubt as a physical meeting for me. I'm now mentally putting it as September 2022 for Plague and Other reasons. It's both sad and good - sad because it would have been fun, and good because I have longer to plan it...

So, first things first is to say that I am broadly planning to follow the Historybounding Discord's challenge for the next few months.

1. Finish It February
2. Mod It and Mend It March
3. Apparel Appreciation April
4. Myth May
5. Pride Month June
6. Just Use Stash July
7. Alterations August

February 

I will either get my Regency bonnet completed, or finish off a fox toy I started sewing last summer. Probably the latter due to the lack of days in February!

March

I have a LOT of things that need mending kicking around, so I'll find something for that! And then make a start on April. 

An alternative is to act on a Very old plan to convert some of the many Hello Fresh "freezer bags" we got some years back into one or more cushions.

April 

I'm not sure here. The guidance is to just mix and match eras, so maybe I may make up my Victorian walking skirt, but pair it with some existing 50s style tops I have.

May 

For this, I plan to put into action the research I did for the Foundations Revealed competition, that then had to be shelved due to health reasons. I plan to make a sarafan (and possibly the rest of the outfit) for Vasilissa the Wise and/or Snegurochka.

This is one month where I will need to start work well in advance of May, due to the need to purchase supplies.

June 

I, currently at least, have no idea how to "make it gay". Maybe I'll make something in the Ace colours? I am neither a rainbow nor a pink person, so the traditional Gay or Bi pride flags won't work for me...

Source: Wikipedia.

July 

I have stash, I can use those! Maybe using some of the buckram stash to make another hat?

August

Alterations could be a great thing, especially if we're able to travel by then and I can gather some of my old clothes from my parents...

Life thoughts -- Rough Schedule

This is a rough schedule of the posts I am currently plannign to write, am writing, or have already written (posted or scheduled).

On Saturday I will be publishing the first in this Life Thoughts series, which will be on two big questions: "Who am I?", and, "Where do I want to be?", designed to help me focus my energies, spoons, and life goals more realistically. Not answering those questions, but explaining them as a framework for the rest of the series.

ASD in my life, in particular around specific impairments and/or adjustments I've made

• Executive dysfunction -- in progress.
• Being assessed, how to "de-mask", how to find an assessor, how the process was for me
• Co-morbidities

Academia

• Research goals - things I want to research myself
• Research interests - things I want to learn or understand, but am content just reading others' research
• vIMC commentary
• Study vs Appreciate, which subjects / areas go under which category
• Series on research progress
• Being AltAc

Crafting

• History-bounding -- in progress
• My periods
• Crafts for me
• Sewing plans
• Dream projects
• A series on project progress, including pre
• Gatherings - British Guild of Historical Costumers and other groups

Health & Personal bits

• Family, Infertility, IVF, and so on
• Mental health and ASD
• Disabled vs Impaired vs Having a disability
• Living arrangements
• Work/self/academic balancing

I plan to work on these as the whim takes me, but should anyone be reading this and want me to prioritise something in particular, do ask...

Splitting themes

I'm currently trying to think of a way to split themes within this blog. I have no desire to update multiple locations to discuss different things which interest me. This is a short post where I am listing the themes which I can see myself covering, and then subdivisions within that. It's not necessarily stuff I do already, but also things I have intended to write, or to think about.

• Self
• Things about my life, health, and that sort of stuff
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Something I want to write

Over the past few days I've been gradually reading this post and it's comments at Tor.com*. One folk medievalism that keeps coming up is 'but there were no Black people in medieval Europe'. This is wrong, I know it is wrong, even if we ignore such probable fallacies as the Mullato Queen. So, I'd love to write a simple article outlining why this is wrong, and providing evidence with some indisputable primary sources, so that when I see this ARGH being stated next I can say "Here, read this, you are wrong mistaken and here is the evidence". It's not my area of expertise, so it'd be more like an article giving primary sources that are online and citing the real experts for those who care enough to want to read further.

In reality this will only happen if I get ahead of myself this summer. I am already in the middle of writing up a lot of my old research and cross-checking old quotes and evidence to see if it still says what I read it as saying last time... In between all that I have my Coursera coursework to do each week (Note, I need to finish Through the Looking Glass tomorrow). Still not sure what on earth to write as I HATE writing essays without a theme or title... Oh and I have 3 jobs I want to apply for as Awesome Job 1. I didn't get shortlisted for, and Awesome Job 2 still hasn't replied, so I shall assume a negative there too**. Lastly there is Project Get Fit to work on. Being overweight makes some physical disabilities I have a LOT more painful so I am using the time I am away this summer to kick start me getting fitter so that I don't make myself get worse. So yeah, lots of stuff to get on with... Good job I don't like being bored! :)

Link for evidence:
TNA: Black Presence exhibition - Elizabeth I
TNA: Black Presence exhibition - John Blanke (Henry VII & VIII)
TNA: Black Presence exhibition - Moors in Scotland
*Long comment thread is LONG, k!
** As as aside, I really wish that when you send in applications electronically, the receiving institution would reply. It would take a simple MailMerge, cost nothing and take very little time once set up, and yet would create goodwill and let those who are applying for 3+ jobs a day know when they have wasted their time. Leaving you to assume is horrid and rather rude, plus it assumes that your contact for the successful candidates has arrived. I always worry that our post has gone walkabout AGAIN if I don't hear from someone or something in a reasonable time.