So as I wait for web pages to load as I work I�m flipping through blogs; I hit Ceridwen�s Cauldron, scan it quickly, and say to myself, �No, she hasn�t updated it, this is all familiar.� Then I look at it a little more closely. No, I�m mistaken. She has updated it. It just looks familiar because I lived through it four hours ago with her.

Yes, Ceri had much joy today in shopping vicariously through me. Well, Ceri darling, you can just look forward breathlessly to the days in the not-so-distant future when I call you up and scream that there�s no hope and that the pattern is going to hell. You�ll get the lovely experience of feeling sewing frustration through me, too.

If I had a million dollars, oh, the fabrics I would have bought today. Micro-suede. Jacquard. Printed damask. Silk brocade. Stuff I�d have cut after a stiff drink � immediately after, so I could cut correctly before the alcohol began affecting my system adversely. Just a nip for courage. And I would have looked smashing. (The impressive-in-costume, not the inebriated kind.)

Being financially challenged, however, I am now in possession of fabric that will look just fine, and didn�t cost even a fraction as much as the ones that I coveted. I have to keep reminding myself that only Ceri and I would really appreciate the look and feel of the $65-per-metre fabric. It�s a costume, after all. Like my other costumes, I will look amazing for one night, and then hang it up. I do take them out once in a while and try them on, and stroke them, and feel proud of how well I constructed them, but overall, they see use for about five hours max.

I�m letting myself in for a rough time, too, because I�m kit-bashing. �Kit-bashing?� Ceri inquired today. �Is that the term?� Yes, I say, and it dates back from my model-building days (Aha � something else you didn�t know about me!). Kit-bashing, for those who don�t know, is when you combine two or more model kits to create something new, or use a kit as a basis for something the manufacturer didn�t intend it to be. Never satisfied with doing the things the easy way first, I�m combining two patterns for this year�s Hallowe�en costume. No, I�m not telling you what it is, because then I�ll have to live up to your expectations. Forget it.

I�m giving myself two and a half months, though, so everything should be okay. Right?

It was Lughnassadh this weekend, the first harvest festival, and I baked bread to commemorate it, the way I always do. I got home from the Great Fabric Excursion this afternoon and said, �Ooh! Bread!� I�d forgotten I had a whole other loaf. There�s even Brie in the fridge, and p�t�, too. And the husband won�t be home for dinner tonight. If only The Fellowship of the Ring had been released on DVD today, instead of coming out tomorrow � I�d curl up in front of the TV with bread and cheese and p�t�, and spend all evening convinced that December simply won�t come fast enough.