Once upon a time

Once upon a time I used to be a demonstrator for a stamp & scrapbook company. 

I quit about 5 years ago, we were moving to a new area, and i had decided to go back to school and knew I wouldn't have time to put into the business.  I had been doing it for several years- about 8.  I have a garage full of this stuff- not being able to part with it, but I keep telling my husband I will.  Every now and then I put together a small album usually a 6 x 6 for a gift, but I can't justify the 5000 stamps i own.  It really is time to move these to new homes where they can be appreciated.

But alas, today I was able to go to my friends home and do a workshop making these darling mini albums with products that weren't even available when I was demonstrating. 

Sticker sets, and 4x6 photo flip flap holders.  I can't tell you how much fun I had doing this and getting the juices flowing to be creative with paper again.

Photo above shows the inside of the cover and the flap seen below on closed cover left.
This is the cover with the flap closed on left and open on the right.
It was just fun, to be able to put my own little twist on the project she designed.  When I got home and showed my daughter- who just returned from first set of auditions for college- she was oh that is so cute!  I said  I know!  And then we started thinking they would be fun to make for her dance friends who are graduating from high school this year.  So of course the quest is what to put on the front of each as they are very different personalities.  Fortunately we have a few months, but already there's excitement building.
The supplies for these are from CTMH who have high quality papers and scrapbook supplies. Cornflower blue, barn red, sticker set called sweet home, and a print paper, that I'm not sure what set its from, but it has the cornflower blue and buttercup yellow- its reversable.

Movie Time!

So we caught a couple movies this weekend via Netflix. 

One was called Adam.  About a young man who has Asperger's Syndrome, which is a type of highly functional autism.  Most of these people function in society but are more limited in there social abilities.  They don't necessarily feel things like other's do.  This movie was really very sweet, and it functioned around the young mans limitations but also his growth when he meets the young woman next door who is an elementary teacher.  I would highly recommend this- although some think its a chick flick, my husband was actually very interested.

The other was Taking Woodstock.  I remember when the commercials came out it seemed really interesting and I was looking forward to seeing it, but we ( I only watched a part of it) weren't that impressed.  It had some interesting moments, but hubs watched the whole thing and said it was more of an "eh" movie.  Since he loves the music from that time I thought he would for sure enjoy it.  Guess not.  I had more important things to, so it was just a dinner break movie for me.  But after his observations I really wasn't inspired to watch the rest of it. 

My sewing room can be kind of lonely sometimes and music isn't enough distraction. So I've taken to putting a netflix instant play movie.  These are OK as long as i don't get drawn in.  There was one I threw on while working that was about a girl who changed places from current times to the Bennett sisters and Mr Darcy.  It was interesting, and if you ever read Diana Gabaldon's series of books about time travel into the past you could relate.  The Title was Lost in Austen.  If you've ever tried to imagine being part of Jane Austen's books and what it would be like to know the real Mr Darcy- not just Colin Firth , you'll probably enjoy this movie.

Well I've almost complete my company project.  Had fittings today, to fine tune them. and will deliver completed for rehearsals later this week.  Can't wait to take a photo of the company with skirts on.
Good thoughts to you,
Trev

Auditions

Audition Season has started. 
Generally this means visiting dance companies come to our area, and my daughter goes off and takes a "master class" by various dance schools.  Where upon you wait and about 4 weeks later learn which schools have accepted you, and you make the decision of which school you will go to during the summer.  These sessions usually last 4-6 weeks and are intense dance sessions of 6-8 hours of dance- at least the schools my daughter has gone too. 
This year the twist is that she's auditioning for college dance programs, and not ONE of the selected schools is coming to or nearby our fair city.  So I put her on a plane this afternoon to go to Southern California, stay with my longest friend -we've know each other since we were 4 & 5, and she will be auditioning for a two schools down there.  One is a New York School doing national auditions- I'm so glad, as another ticket across the country is too costly.  The other a southern cal school. 
She is nervous, which is to be expected, and then after landing she called and said "It's very weird here, its dark and gray and it seems so out of place with Palm Trees."  Yes its storming there, and I sent her from the stormy northwest to stormy  Southern Cali, which is pretty rare.
This is just the first in a series of trips.  She has two more planned for sure, and is hoping we can swing a European trip for her.  That's still in debate.  We haven't said NO or Yes at this time.  This trip is certainly a learning curve trip.  She has traveled alone before, but always with help along the way checking in at the airports etc.  This time its pretty much a drop off and fly situation, figure out all by your self how to do those things.  By yourself everything seems a little more intimidating and frightening.  But the life of a dancer often involves travel, and not under the best circumstances so this is good training.
And the waiting starts.  Some schools are pretty straightforward, if we don't interview you, you may assume we are no longer interested.  Others don't have that stipulation.  Some college BFA dance programs only accept 25 students a year.  oh yeah there is some competition out there.  argh.
Trev

Weekend!

Oh what a busy weekend!  Friday was filled with laughs as we attended the funny festival at the Paramount and had a marvelous time.  It was hard to get up Saturday morning to go in teach my kids, as well as wait for a gal to come in for a fitting.  I'm working on a romantic tutu for her, that I donated in an auction.

After heading home, i was greeted with my daughters finished photos for her senior picture and dance portfolio.  Here are a few of my VERY favorites, but they were all so good it was hard to choose. She heads off this coming weekend on her first round of college auditions. So much to do in the next few days.  We are very fortunate that her godmother lives down in the vast Los Angeles area and will be able to guide her around for the weekend.

The best part of today was watching my father in law who is 79 play a Mozart clarinet solo at a symphony festival.  He retired in '93 after 43 years of teaching. He now plays in 5 different music ensembles/bands/symphonies.  To see and hear such beautiful music and how it affected all those in the audience is absolutely incredible.  I really believe music keeps him young and incredibly strong.  Its one of the things that my husband and I have in common, and that's our love of music.  We have very different and eclectic collections from each other but we cross over many many times.  Add our Daughters collection, and you never know what will be playing in our home- classical, classic rock, world music, musicals, keep going you're sure to find something.  My daughter's got a special fondness for Frank Sinatra and Rosemary Clooney among  others, which I love because my grandmother enjoyed them, but my hubs totally disagrees with her.  They are not tops on his fav list.  HA Ha, can't agree on everything with your kids. 

Wishing you all the best for Monday.

Trev

Tickle me Thursday!

I had to come up with some catchy phrase for today.  We are swamped with rain and gray days, but when I finished this blanket it literally tickled me pink!  It really turned out cute and as I've said before its perfect for the northwest to cheer your baby with such bright colors.  I love the yarn its by Bernat and called Berries and Cream.  You will be able to find this in my etsy store in just a few days. It ended up measuring 36 x 37 inches.

After I finished that I whipped up this little baby hat with ear flaps.  I still need to make pom poms for the ties.  Its crocheted  in Lime green soft baby yarn.  I plan to make little booties to go with.  I need to find a little one to check the size but its supposed to be newborn up to 6 months.  We shall see.

I'm working on my project of dance company skirts.  Plan on doing fittings this Sunday.  Hope to meet up with my new sewing friends in the burda group on Saturday. Depends if I can find enough time.

Tomorrow is Friday and we are off the 6th Annual Funny Festival.  An evening of comic entertainment.  Meeting up with my hubby's brother and wife before hand for drinks.  I plan on having my funny bone tickled indeed.

Have a Great Weekend!

Treva

Oh happy Friday!

I love Friday.  Its always been that day that signaled the weekend was coming.  From childhood this has been one of my favorite days.  These days, it actually means i will be teaching the next day, but that's OK, because I love my my job.  I have a class of high school students who dance 6 days a week with classes and rehearsal for the majority of the school year.  I cross train them for equalizing their muscle balance, core and stretching.  Its a fun class for them and myself.

The wind has been insane here the last three days, blowing all night and day.  Today the rain started with it and its sheeting against the windows, the garbage and recycle cans have blown up and down the streets, along with the escaped trash. 

We are back to college apps.  The difference is now my daughter has to travel to auditions all over the country.  Trying to schedule these the cheapest and making sure the dates aren't the same day as another schools national audition dates.  UGH. we already ran into one snag.  Finally decided the schools staff was so rude that they would just get the video audition ( this isn't an easy task either - but will be cheaper than traveling there).  And when you can get big schools like Julliard to work with you, you would think a state school would be more agreeable. It wasn't her top choice it was more her last choice, so we'll see what happens.  Besides it will save money for the Brussels- yes that's Belgium, audition that she wants to attend.  I'm still not sure i can swing this one, and its possible it will be and early graduation gift if we send her to Brussels for a week.
OH MY.  I will be happy to have this over.  Spent most of my day trying figure out plane & hotel reservations, and looking thru pictures for my daughters portfolio.  She had a photo session done, they gave us a 165 proofs to go thru and we choose 25.  That's some weeding, and then choosing shots for their artistic, or technical characteristics- head shots, formal ballet poses and the best modern dance .  Once this is firmed up we will  post a couple- the photographer we used, is fabulous.  He's experienced as a dancer, had his own company with his wife as co-director, and then he started photographing dancers.  He's getting quite a reputation in the area.  There are a couple photos from the modern company my daughter is in that he took in and earlier post.

Started to do the muslin for the company skirts I'm making.  Plan to finish that tomorrow, and start the actual skirts for dancers on Sunday.  These are pretty simple construction.  Should have them done in two weeks easily, barring no snags. 
Hope you have a great day!
Trev

Already have a list!

Here it is the first day of the year and I already have a list of new items to make.

 I'm working on a set of skirts- 7, I think for a modern dance company in the area.  Hope to have all the details worked out this Sunday and then those will have to be finished at the end of the month for performances they are doing in February. 

While thumbing through some patterns I found another pattern that I know my daughter would love, for casual hip look.  Kwik Sew 3718- Its such a simple look and I know she would wear with boots like the model has on with the cream version.  In fact that version is what really draws my eye- in a simple solid knit or french terry.  I know this would be tops on her what to wear list.

Another pattern I have ready to work on for her is McCall's 5714.  I'm planning on making this as in a red french terry for her, modifying version D with the sleeve from version F, and using a zipper instead of buttons.  I have another idea in my mind to do to the skirt version of it but haven't quite firmed it up yet.  We saw an inspiration piece at Lucy's my favorite store for exercise wear.  I somehow just couldn't even imagine putting out a $108.00 plus tax for a glorified sweatshirt dress, that I literally picked the fabric up (on sale) for $12.00.  When all is said and done this little number will probably cost me $20 and 3 hours to fabricate for her.  This is why I originally started sewing back in the 70's, having limited funds and wanting more clothes than my parents would have ever considered purchasing.  Now I do it, because it brings me joy to create my own interpretation and designs.

I've been working on another a little baby blanket.  I was wandering the craft store and found this lovely variegated yarn that has been crocheting up into stripes of pink, yellow and white with variations of the pink and yellow.  My daughter described it as looking like candy.  I will probably have it finished in a few days and posted  for you to see.

Happy New Years! 2010

I hope you all had a fun New Years Eve or New Years day!

We have traditionally hosted a party for the past 5 years now for my daughters friends.  This entails a house full of teenagers-17-20 who eat, play games, watch movies, stay up all night, listen to music and in general have a fun time.  This year, i decided I didn't want to be responsible for it, and my daughter and her young man took over.  Because there were guest with some diet limitations she asked me to help her figure out food, but from there on it was all them.  They prepped, cleaned, put out the food, and then obligingly cleaned again this afternoon after all had left. 
I on the other hand, went out to happy hour, and the movies with friends.  We saw the Blind Side with Sandra Bullock and Tim Mc Graw.  This is a great movie.  It kept the men involved, the women happy- its sports and a great story of humanity.  I highly recommend it.  We returned home by 9, to find the party actively involved with a the usual houseful.  Music playing, a rousing game of Seattle-opoly going and a ton of food-especially cookies as the invitees all brought cookies this year.  This year was one of the years we had several kids attending who have been off to schools or adventures.  So we of course had to catch up a little with some of them, then hubby and I ascended to the den upstairs.  Came down for a New years Toast, watch the fireworks, wait for the neighborhood fireworks to settle down and back up the stairs.  Watching the Burn Notice re-runs, and reading, and listening with one ear to make sure all is well. Consequently it was one eye open that I hear them finally going to bed at 6:30 this morning.  You would think that they would be asleep at least until noon- but I was up at 10:30 and daughter and BF were up already had coffee along with my hubby.  She looked fine, but BF was a bit grumpy. Breakfast, more movies and  about 2ish the remaining guest left. 

I'm now prepping my annual New Years good luck meal.  Always we have hoppin' johns (black eyed peas) and some greens and today its ham to go along.  I don't think I'm superstitious but I' have for the last 25 years prepared some version of this and we have been blessed through out the years. 

Wishing you all the best for the New Year!
Trev