Tuesday's Orts--bits and scraps of thoughts and happenings that land here semi-regularly.
- Grant's employer has an annual awards banquet and that took place this past weekend at a fine hotel/resort in Newport Beach. The invitation listed the event as semi-formal and I wore a knee length silk dress and Grant a suit and tie. Looking around the ballroom, that clothing description escaped a number of the people who attended. In what way are tight, shiny, pseudo leather leggings semi-formal? Maybe in a biker bar, I guess, accompanied by the dude who could not bother to change out of his puffer down jacket and jeans.
- I had a good laugh at the first menu item listed on the cards on the table: Assorted Dinner Rolls. That seemed sort of unnecessary, coupled with the fact that the dinner rolls were, in fact, all the same.
- There were some technical difficulties during the sales award presentations, with winners' names being displayed onscreen before the finalists had even been called to the front of the room. I'm guessing there was a heated exchange with the audio-visual crew afterwards.
- Traffic Rant: Aggressive drivers in the HOV lane, who tailgate and threaten at high speeds, in a lane where it is illegal for cars to cross the double yellow line to get out of their way.
- In preparing for the short trip, I was rummaging around in my semi-messy closet and suddenly slid into a cleaning/sorting binge. One of the items unearthed was the first cross-stitch project I ever did.
My godmother bought me several embroidery kits over the years, and this is one of them. I'd characterize this as Pennsylvania Dutch style. It was a stamped piece of linen and took me a long time to finish. Almost immediately afterwards I switched to counted cross-stitch because I didn't like the way the printing was off grain. Under the crossbar of T in "without" you might be able to see where I went off the printing to keep the word straight. I do still like the sentiment expressed in this stitchery.
Despite the date stamp of 1972, I'm sure I had this for a good while before I stitched it, since I recall doing it when I was living in Ojai sometime after high school. One of those sticky boards and some masking tape were my cheap framing aids. The stitchery is stained and aged and I wonder if I should try to peel it off and wash it in Oxy. Any opinions on the folly or sense in that?
7 comments:
I love the Orts! Semi formal as you have learned means showing up with clean underwear. No one dresses up any more which is really sad!
Did your hubby win an award? He probably should have got best dressed!
I definitely would wash the stitchery in a mild soap and get all the dirt and dust out of it, then reframe with more archival supplies...it's so lovely!
Love the orts!
I remember those sticky mounting boards for cross-stitch and embroidery projects, or am I mixing them up with sticky pages in the old photo "magnetic" albums? I don't have much experience with OxiClean, but I found it suggested online for removing stickiness from super-greasy plastic containers. Close enough?
If you said "semi formal" to 20-somethings, and 40-somethings, and 60-somethings, I bet you'd get 3 different versions of what to wear. I'm sure you and Grant looked great.
Went to a "formal" awards ceremony last year at the local university where my son was nominated for a prestigious award. Having never gone before, I stressed about having formal wear, and spent a few afternoons getting the right shoes, jacket and dress to go together. There were a few formals and tuxes, but so many people--and not just college students--in jeans and a jacket, or no jacket at all. Seemed odd to me to wear your school attire to the year's most "special event".
I would do as Kathy suggests. I framed many a cross-stitch piece in like manner. : )
It is because of your stated rant that I only use the HOV in the worst of traffic conditions. Too stressful.
I think people have no idea of what dressy terms mean anymore. Casual seems to mean wear tatty old shorts. Cocktail does not signify what you’ll be drinking. Im amazed at where you can get away with wearing jeans these days.
If you wash your stitchery I’d do it very very carefully. Like as in laying it in a bath of oxy and crossing your fingers. If your threads aren’t colour fast you may be in trouble regardless of how careful you are.
It does seem as if no one understands what the various dress codes like formal, semi-formal or business attire mean any more. Last year DT was able to go to the State Science Fair and the dress code was listed as business attire. I have to wonder what some of these kids parents did, because what I saw was definitely not business like at all.
Post a Comment