Advent Calendar Day 16

Day 16 and it’s another crisp and sunny one here, though I understand we’re in for more drear and rain after today 🙁

Yesterday’s sauciness ended up being quite a long post, so I omitted mentioning a couple of other things. Most notably, the gorgeous (and broken) glass has been repaired (and stunk the house out with the smell of Araldite.

Not exactly invisible and certainly not pretty, but I’ll settle for intact. I have now test driven it as I couldn’t do it on Sunday as I’d run out of wine. (It’s OK, I survived). Here’s hoping that the Araldite holds it together for a few bottles  longer.

MinceMEAT

I also managed to make the meaty mincemeat for my Victorian mince pies on Sunday. Unfortunately my printed copy of Mrs Beaton had been updated to exclude the meat, so I made it up using the recipe as a rough guideline and adding a few additional bits of my own, notably cinnamon, ground cloves and ginger in addition to the specified nutmeg…and more rum 🙂 The mixture is maturing in the fridge for a day or two, then I’ll put it into a jar until it’s needed next week.

I also finally restarted (several time) the failed/frogged Space Invader Mitts (which came out Yeti sized) for DS’ Christmas pressie. It did not begin well as I couldn’t remember which cast on I’d used and had a bit of a nightmare trying out various different ones before finally finding a cable cast on that gave a nice edge and I’m off and running. Now all I need to do is to remember it for next time.

The frustration continued with the vintage corset pattern I’d scaled up not coming out the right size for the client’s mock up, so I had to resize that. As soon as I’ve finished this post, I’ll be off to re-make the mock-up for fitting. I may still get the corset done before Christmas, though panic is most definitely setting in as I mentally scroll through a to-do list so massive that I’m not sure I have sufficient paper to write it on.

Well, as they say, one step forward and two steps back is just a Cha-Cha-Cha 🙂

So, on to the Advent Card and, for no particular reason, I’m in a literary frame of mind (maybe it’s contemplating writing the to-do list), so I’ve plucked the Shakespearian Tarot (sic) from the shelf for today’s card, which is….The Queen of Orbs.

The card is subtitled “I am a spirit of no common rate”, a quote from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The words are spoken by Titania, the Fairy Queen, and I can relate – I’m definitely no ordinary fairy 😀

The suits in this deck are Swords, Crowns, Orbs and Sceptres. I’m guessing Swords are Swords,  but the other suits are less clear and no clue is offered by the book. Looking at some of the interpretations, it would appear that Orbs are Pentacles, Crowns are Cups and Sceptres are Wands. Thus Titania is cast as the Queen of Pentacles.

It would seem apt as I panic over making sure I have all the food and gifts sorted out (particularly the food) and with sufficient Champagne, I can see myself floating around (possibly with my kit off) like Titania on the card. I’m not sure who the Bottom character would be though – I doubt DH much fancies an ass head and I’m not planning on floating about naked around anyone else. Mind you, ass head aside, that Bottom looks pretty fit) 😀