I have actually and for a change managed to leave the library with less books than I came there with - which is very, very good as it marks something like progress.

There's still plenty of work left to do, though, both sewing work (I have to finish the last piece for the museum project) and writing work. Writing-wise, apart from the book project which is currently cooking on low flame as we're waiting to hear back from a publishing house, there are several papers in line: one to be finished once I get it back from the collaborating author; one to be translated and tweaked to finish; and one to be written. Number one, by the way, is for the next volume of the Textile Forum proceedings. Yay!

And then there's the usual stuff to be handled: Preparation for the summer season (checking the inventory, packing up, checking and last-minute-repairing of things, and so on). Trying to get the study back into something that, with bad lighting and half-closed eyes and possibly some helpful intoxication, can be regarded as a semblance of order. Oh, and tax time is coming up too. Plus there's some knitting stuff going on (there was a lag caused by the need for some more test-knitting, but I think I am about past the maths-and-thinking stage now, too).

So no chance for boredom, as you see... plus tomorrow is the Day of Birthdays! (April 25 seems to be a good day for having a birthday. I know three people already who celebrate on that day...)

Every quarter of the year, I have to file some tax stuff... and guess what? It's time for that. Which is... taxing.

Well, it's not that bad, but it will require some coffee, and possibly some chocolate. While I deal with this and with the backlog of emails and writing and stuff so I can finally get caught up (in my wildest dreams, this happens today), why don't you have a few photos?

... a closeup of the fillet in the Manesse-Style:


... and since you all seem to like those buttons as much as I do:




 ... and finally some gratuitous cat pictures. Because I know what the Internet wants (and I confess that I had a need for them as well). 


That was the piccie part.

If you want more to read instead of cat and button pics, there's a list of 550 archaeological blogs over at Archaeologik - in different languages, many of them English.

Also, this Saturday is International Tabletop Day - see the tabletop day webpage if you want to find a game shop or gaming place in your area.

Some bird relieved itself against the window of the study... resulting in a long and enthusiastically white diagonal across the glass. Well done, bird. NOT.

Otherwise, I am sneezing (thanks to nature exploding around here). The willows are budding, and I will probably not get peaches this year - the peach tree is making leaves, but no blossoms. I will survive. And I will make sure to tell the peach tree it's supposed to make peaches next year, or else. (Worked with the strawberries a few years ago, it did!)

If you were thinking about getting the early modern Austrian tailoring books via Kickstarter, you have about 9 hours left to pledge.

Finally, just in case you are interested in my plans for today: putting together the documentation for the garments I made, taking a few last photos for my own documentary purposes, and packing it all up to send it off. Squeee! (I'm a little torn between wanting to keep the beautiful clothes and being happy to have it off my hands at last, but it's made much easier by the fact that a) I know where I can get the stuff these garments are made off and b) the woman's clothes won't fit me anyway.)

This

is what I did yesterday.

No, not making buttons, but taking photos of the finished (and almost-finished) pieces. The pictures are now hanging out on my computer, waiting to be sorted and processed, but you are getting the very first one as a treat. Here you are.

The photo session planned for the afternoon made yesterday a quite hectic day, but it was totally worth it, and the end of this project's hectic phase (which has dragged on for weeks altogether) is finally drawing to a close. And high time for that it is, since a lot of other stuff has accumulated, clamoring for attention and being taken care of. But not before I get some coffee. And possibly some chocolate... because life is just so much better with both.

A few years ago, while I was still quite new at that freelancing stuff that I do, I was beating myself up because I felt that I was not getting enough work done during any given day. I chatted about that with a very good friend, lamenting my laziness and inefficiency and my general ineptness. And then she did something that changed my life - she told me about a study that had found out that in every normal day job, with its eight hours nominal work-time, the actual hours of actual work done every day, on average.... was four.

Four. That's about... half.

The rest? Lost in checking emails, nonessential phone calls, getting coffee, catching up with colleagues, whatever. (Possibly in nonessential, nonproductive meetings too.) Four hours, folks.

I took a deep breath and readjusted the expectations I had on myself to a healthier level, and one much more congruent with actual reality than before. I've thought of that ever since whenever there was a day that did not go as I had planned, and it has saved my sanity oh, uncountable times.

Some time later I heard about a study that had tested work times too, and found out that yes, you could make people work longer hours... but if you set them to work 40 or 42 hours per week, there was actually not getting more done than with 35 hours per week, because efficiency declined quickly enough to cancel the extra time out. Completely. (That's one of the reasons I try very hard not to work on weekends.)

Now, with the current project, I think I have found out what my personal ceiling on hours of actual work per day still sustainable over the medium-to-long run is. I will not share the exact number over the blog, as that's too personal and too much a part of my internal business reckonings, but you can probably guess that it is more than four and less than eight (I have .

Mind you - I am not saying that it is impossible to work much, much more for a day or a few days (that is called "managing a crisis" or "putting in an extra effort when necessary", or as another of my friends likes to call it "getting the cow off the ice"). I am also not saying that these four hours of average are the thing valid for every person, everywhere, every time. As the most patient of all husbands rightly pointed out to me, you can probably do more non-brainy, mildly taxing physical work in a day than deep thinking or stuff that requires much concentration.

What I try to say is that if you are a freelancer, do not think you will be able to work eight billable hours per day, any day and every day. You, too, will have a sustainable work hour ceiling, and it will most probably be less than eight (if not, you might be superhuman, and I might not want to know you). It's normal, and you are not alone. In fact, you are joined in this by the rest of humanity.
Of course you will be able to push through that ceiling when necessary (putting in an extra effort, see above). You might also be able to work more for a while. (That, however, is called "working too much", which should be followed by "getting some well-earned rest" and "doing normal hours again", or it will gradually slide over to being called "working yourself sick" and, if you really won't back off and care for yourself, "working yourself to death". I know people who worked themselves sick, more than one. You don't want that. Trust me.)

That's it. Now I will get coffee and try to hit my sustainable maximum number of work hours per day again, today. Chances are good.

Oh, and dear friend who once gave me that life-changing bit of information (and who also supplies me with socks sometimes, but probably does not read this blog)? Thank you. Thank you so much.

I was all set, yesterday, for finishing the woman's overgarment before ending my day... and then my current favourite needle broke. To be more precise, it's eye broke. (I'm always tempted to write "ear" of the needle, since the German word for the needle's eye, "Öhr", is close to the German word for ear, "Ohr".) I took that for a sign, heaved a sigh, and got some chocolate.

Over time, I've killed quite a few needles - they have a limited life-span, after all. I had the classic broken needle (shaft snapping in two), I also had needles bent so badly that I did not really like working with them anymore, but I think this is about the first time the end of the eye snapped off.

Over time, I've also learned that what my favourite needle is depends on the fabric I'm working with, the thread I'm using, and my current state of mind. Quite a few of my needles had that position for a while, and it's also quite possible for them to re-gain it one day.

Fortunately, I have found another needle quite like the one that broke in my stash. (Needle stash. Good thing. Good thing.) The surcot is almost done... whew.

Okay, here's the deal: You are getting pics today, but they are of the "quick-snap" variety, with colours slightly off and quality not as good as it could be. Plus you're not getting much text with them.

But hey, pics!

The surcot for the lady in progress:


There's a lot of basting going on for this one. A lot.



The purple tunic for the man, also in progress (still missing two gores):


The sleeve is done, though.




This one's finished. Whew. (That's a decorative silk facing on the neck opening that tried to eat all my patience, and all my sanity.)



Buttons!



And partly finished hose for the lady, in a night blue. (The foot part is not yet done, and I'll need a final fitting for this.)
 

• Plus a gratuitous cat pic.