I know I've been painfully inactive since the beginning of November, and the reason is that on the 10th of November, we have a house fire in our flat. No one were hurt, the fire didn't spread to any other flats and we have insurance which has covered most of our losses. However, we no longer have a home, and most of our belongings have been damaged beyond repair by smoke, heat or flames.
We are currently living with some friends, who have been kind enough to let us rent their guest room until we find a new place to live. We managed to save some of our belongings, including my husbands wedding clothes (barring the shirt, which was simply too sooty and stained to save) and, hopefully, my wedding dress, although we've been told it has gotten some discolouration which could not be removed in the cleaning process. I managed to rescue out most of my Tauriel cosplay, and Kili's tunic and trousers have come through whole, but I have yet to find out if all the leather work has made it through. My viking gear and some of my linen dresses have also been saved, so have some of my recent self made clothes. The rest had to be thrown. All my other cosplays are gone, and my 12 year old, reliable sewing machine also corked it. And on top of it all, I went down with bronchitis and then sinusitis, knocking me out for almost six weeks. After two rounds of antibiotics and now working through my third, I'm slowly getting back to health.
In spite of this, we are trying our best to look forward and focus on the positives rather than dwelling on what has past. This certainly has give us a kick in the butt to go looking for a place to buy, and with a very generously low rent on our friends' guest room, we have the opportunity to save a lot more than we normally would have been able to. Most importantly, we have gotten tremendous and overwhelming support from both family and friends, so, all in all, we consider ourselves lucky. We've taken a big blow, but we're still standing.
On a positive note, the insurance money have granted my a new, updated sewing machine, this time with a gorgeous embroidery module and lots of exciting functions I have yet to try out! So, I'm getting back on the costuming horse too, slowly but surely!
