Mood:
coolNow Playing: "My Super Ex-Girlfriend" - DVD rental, one more time.
I finally learned my lesson - I'm doing this in Word from now on. Much as I love doing DDD, I don't want to spend hours retyping the same stuff ! This way, if Tripod hiccups again and loses my entry, I just cut/paste it again.
I'm darn good at cut/paste. Got the first pattern book's images cropped, cleaned, grey-scaled, background removed, sharpened, reduced, and posted twelve to a page. Whoo. I wondered how many more files I still had to go. So I went through all the books to get a count. Discovered that one book I have scans only of involved making full-length plaster ‘skirts' for the doll and decorating them. By pushing ribbons, silk flowers, old jeans, or fabric into the plaster, then gluing more of the same material to the doll for a bodice. It's in French, too. And another was for various dolls, none of which were Barbie or any other doll I own. So there's two I don't have to do !
Yet I still couldn't bring myself to delete them completely. I already had a folder of pattern exchange group Lord Perry designs, so I stuffed ‘em in there. This may seem odd on several counts. LP patterns are considered the ne plus ultra of doll patterns, backed up with reams of research and attention to detail that makes even Vogue Doll Collections authors shudder. So why did I stuff ‘em into a folder I'll rarely even see, much less use ? Well, I doubt that I'll need a 42 piece pattern that makes a court gown commemorating the life of one of King Henry's eight wives. One whose name I've never heard until I curiously opened the pattern. Too elaborate, too fussy, and I don't really favor big ballgowns anyway.
The other aspect troubles me more. If I know that Heaven and Earth will have to change places before I use these patterns, why am I keeping them ? I could easily delete them. But they're fine where they are, and don't take up much space, so... maybe I'm keeping them for the 1 in 10000000x50 chance I'll actually want something there. I guess it gets down to ‘ya never know' and since no one's complaining but me at me, why not ? Besides, some of those plaster-skirt dresses look great, so maybe I can incorporate some ideas of theirs into something I like better. And an opportunity is hard to dig out of an emptied Recycle Bin.
Anyway, while I was deep into the images, I listed the names of all the files I'll have to edit into what's becoming my Pattern Catalog Project Notebook. Won't have to do it later this way. Even with the two books dumped in with the also-uncataloged Lord Perry patterns, it's a huge amount of work. Also remember, this is just the Barbie patterns. Not the Elphie, Crissy, My Size Barbie, Timey Tell, or general ‘x-inch doll' patterns. Don't have enough of those to get too disorganized like I have been with the sixth-scale ones. One day, I'll have to find out exactly how many Barbie patterns I have - not how many McCall's patterns, how many different outfits I can make. I'm sure it's an amazingly obscene amount. So. Are you ready for the total number of files I still have to clean and print ?
328. Yup. Over three hundred individual files. And my goal to get it all done is in 16 days. Counting today. Although there's no set reason as to why I want to have it all done on that date, I've given myself a deadline. 21+ cleaned files a day sounds like a lot, but I've been doing that for days already, and plus some. It's just starting to get a little boring and tedious. I can guess it's even more so to read about it !
So today, I swept and vacuumed floors. Did four loads of laundry. Then took Dearest Son to the SplashPad, a city-run water activity area for kids, and the library. We're both sporting slight sunburns, which is amazing. It's the first time in so long that days weren't cloudy, and skies weren't full of rain, that anybody could get red-tinged this summer. Last year, we were at the SplashPad twice a week from the end of April until school started. Stopped off for a snack, and Beloved Hubby brought home McD's. Then DM&FIL brought over a new-to-us dishwasher. The one here is shot. And DG-GMIL just replaced hers, although this one is only three or four years old. So we'll see how this one works for us. I've been using the one here to hold dishes to dry after I hand-washed ‘em.
Beloved Hubby'll install it later. He's exhausted. But it's been a good day for everyone, especially Son. While I've already done one book today, I think I'll go tweak some more images. At least it'll be done within two weeks ! I hope...
