Ivory Roadblocks

I'm not exactly very skilled at scheduling my life. You probably already know this and are laughing behind your hands.

In the last three months, I've been working three to four jobs, depending on how you count. I count all the freelance sewing and alterations as one job because it's all one kind of job. I had a personal assistant job (mostly housecleaning) that I had to give up at the beginning of July because there was no way I could keep up with it. And my nanny job is currently transitioning into a position as Activities Director for a Special Needs After School program. (It's transitioning because my current bosses are going to be running it and some of my dear Young Charges will be attending. So I'm going to slowly change hats until the program is up and running and they've gotten a new nanny for help at home.)

On top of that, I've been "hired" by my Grandfather to keep my Grandma company. No matter who I talk to and how I ask, I still haven't gotten a completely clear answer on what I'm supposed to be doing. I think somehow just being there is enough. But my Grandfather is stubborn and insists that he won't accept help unless he pays me. Which is kind of confusing and makes me feel strange, because family helps each other out, right? And then I feel obligated to be over there because he's paying for it...

So what with nannying, and worrying about exactly what I'm supposed to be doing for my new job (which changes, I swear, every other day), and all the other things going on (including picking up babysitting jobs on occasion because I cannot seem to be able to form the words "no"), sometimes the sewing projects get shuffled to the side.

Particularly when the project is a wedding dress that won't be needed for, oh, seven weeks.

(Now it's down to a month.)

So when I got a few minutes last week to unzip the case and take a look at the dress, I expected that I'd get as much done as possible while the light was good and I didn't have messy kids running around. Because that's all something one has to take into consideration.

The bustling wasn't going to work like I had anticipated. The fabric was a lovely matte taffeta, which means that placing hooks and eyes on the outside is going to show up. Not a lot, but it's a smooth expanse of fabric and random bumpy protrusions on the surface of that will be apparent. But since it was impossible to underbustle it, I thought the best thing to do was get hooks in the right shade of ivory so they have a chance to blend in.

So began my latest foray into the twilight zone. Before I jumped into the car, my greatest concern was that the shade of ivory wouldn't match the dress. By the time I'd gone to three stores, came home and checked my websites, googled, and searched the manufacturer's website, I came to an aghast conclusion:

They do not make hooks and eyes in ivory.

I know. What on earth do they use in the Bridal industry if they only have black, nickel and white options? They've got everything else for every other possible need (including more patterns of lace than I ever care to have to choose from), but they don't have hooks in any shade of off-white?? WHAT IS THIS, COMMUNIST RUSSIA??

So I bought a package of white hooks and a can of ivory spray paint and I'm spraying the hooks ivory.

Like I really needed to add another time-consuming step to the process of bustling this wedding dress.

Maybe it's not really my fault that I overschedule. Maybe it's just that once I commit to something, the world conspires to make it all as difficult as possible.

I like that particular conspiracy theory.