Ballet and Old Friends

Recently I have returned to dancing. It was my passion in my teens and early 20's. But then my life took a different path. I continued taking class over the years, and finally stopped all together, life and ankle injuries taking their toll. It was frustrating because, even though I am in my 50's, I still love ballet; it is still the only form of exercise that I truly enjoy. It is more than exercise to me. It is in its own realm.

About a month ago, I had a vivid dream about one of my old ballet buddies. You see, back in the early 80's in Chicago, I had two best ballet buddies. We danced together, had fun together, and were rather crazy together. We have kept in touch sporadically over the years. So I dreamt about Carmen, and just had to call her. We had seen each other the previous summer, where we compared ankle injuries and talked about going back to ballet. It just so happened that a short while before this phone call, she had return to a nearby ballet studio, and encouraged me to do the same. I felt apprehensive because I am really out of shape; quite tubby, in fact, for a ballerina! But I committed to returning, after getting Carmen to promise she would not watch me in class until I was better! It was so nice to be back in the studio with an old friend - older bodies still remembering the joy of dance, and a nice lunch after one class, where we talked for a long time.

Right around this time, my other ballet buddy, Ruta, found me on Facebook. We began talking and catching up a bit. Then, she came back to Chicago. We went out to dinner last night, and shared what we've been up to during the 20 years or so since we last saw each other. Ruta has also kept up with dance, to a very high level.

The three of us have all been through many changes and trials, some of the trials tremendously worse than others. But three things remained constant: I absolutely love these two friends, we have a blast together, and we all love dance.

Ruta has given me a challenge: to go this summer together to Birute Barodicaite's ballet class (she was one of our teachers back in the day). So, I have a lot of work to do to be in shape for this class! The thought of the three of us dancing and laughing together again is such an inspiring, happy thought.

The Making of an Ewok

It all started when Robert was watching Tyler one day, and Star Wars VI was on TV. Tyler had seen it previously, but the whole concept of an Ewok had not registered with him before that. Suddenly, Tyler needed to be an Ewok, and NOW!

I knew there had to be a pattern for this costume, but since Star Wars had its heyday many years ago, I knew whatever patterns there might be would be out of print. I was very lucky, however, that just when I wanted an Ewok pattern, a woman on e-Bay just happened to be selling one: McCall's 8731. She also happened to live in the same state, and shipped it immediately. Talk about instant gratification!

Next was a trip to the fabric store (or "The Ewok Fabric Store" as Tyler was calling it!). I was a little leery of using faux fur. I had never made anything with it before and found it a little intimidating. I originally settled on some nice, thick brown fleece, but lo and behold, there was not enough on either bolt for this costume layout. So I took a deep breath and bought this nice faux fur:

I also got some faux suede for the hood:

The pattern went together easily, and my faux fur fears (try saying that ten times fast!) were quickly put to rest. The mask was more challenging, so I made it last. I also did that so Tyler would at least be able to run around in the main part of the costume (the jumpsuit as the pattern calls it), and stop nagging me a bit. I love how creative this pattern is, forming a snout with tiny well-placed darts, and using felt and fabric glue to make the nose and eyes. Here is the mask and hood:

Finally, here are two views of Tyler playing in our "forest" in the backyard (in Star Wars terminology it is the Forest Moon of Endor). His weapon is a tree branch that Paul trimmed to resemble the weapons in the movie.

The Young Master Acquires a Violin

A Suzuki violin teacher has offered to teach young children from Tyler's school. When the notice came in the Backpack Express, I was immediately intrigued. Tyler expressed interest, so we called the teacher and set up his first lesson for this Saturday. But first we had to get a violin. We took a little journey to a neighboring village to visit the violin shop. Just a little while later, we were set with a teensy-tiny violin, a CD of Suzuki beginning violin pieces to listen to, and one happy and excited boy:

Organizing the Sewing Stuff - Part II "After"

Now to share the results of my organization project to tame my sewing stash. First, I did find the tucker kit that inspired the project in the first place. It was in a catch-all box containing all sorts of unrelated things, many Civil War, but also fabric lengths and other jumbled together things. I also found a book I have been desperately looking for (Skirting the Issue by Elizabeth Stewart Clark, a Civil War sewing technique book), a new box of quality pins I had bought months ago and really needed, and a couple other things that were MIA.

I tried to spend as little money as possible on this. I already had lots of bins and file folders, and a label maker. I wanted to pare down the stash to fit into not only the bins I already had, but the space I have as well. I ended up buying two plastic file boxes (buy one, get one free!), another large bin, and a refill of label tape. My goal was to fit everything onto no more than two of the several wire shelving units in our basement.

The categories I used in the sorting process were: Fabric, Patterns, Current Projects, Unfinished Projects, Tools, Trims, Notions, Ribbon, Toy Making, Millinery, Corset Making, Quilting, Embroidery, Books, and then the piles for Give Away and Sell.

I was able to reunite lone, lost pattern pieces with the rest of the correct patterns. I made two bins of "Projects On Hold". At some point I may get rid of them; the fact that they are in a bin labeled as such not only reminds me they are there, but also will hopefully will either inspire me to get to work on them, or give them away, discard, or use for something else. I have all of my over-sized patterns with their toiles in a separate box since they won't fit in a conventional file box (the toile pieces are just too big to cram all together to fit in a file folder. But again, they are labeled so I know where all are).

My patterns were purged of ones I will not use. This was so painful! The keepers are now in file folders, in chronological order, the labels showing the range of time periods for each box. (For example, "Medieval-Civil War, Part I".)

I still want to go back and micro-organize the interiors of a couple of the boxes. My box of trim and my small box of ribbons could use this. I did micro-organize the drawers of the small chest of drawers that sits next to my sewing machine table. I have these small boxes that my kids had to get with their school supplies ages ago. Each one contains different notions (such as elastic, or hooks, snap, and fasteners, etc.), each one has a label so I know what's what.

Finally, I would like to purchase one of those fabric-lined baskets to put my Current Projects in (not too many please!). This will sit atop my chest of drawers, neatly, for when I am ready to sew.

Here are the results:

The small chest of drawers by my sewing machine table. Most of my notions are in the middle drawers. Sewing machine manuals, machine needles, bobbins, and presser feet are in the topdrawers. Tools, pattern weights, measuring rulers, etc. are in the bottom drawer.

Sadly, I don't have a dedicated sewing room; my machine is up in the dining room and my stash is stored in the basement. However, now it is all in one area, not scattered about in various parts of the basement. And I was able to achieve my goal of only using two shelving units.

One of the fabric bins. This my Whites bin. I had many of my fabric lengths measured already, and indicated that on each label. Not everything in this bin was measured. That's another task I can go back and do in the future.

Two of my pattern files.

I have a separate bin for my Titanic patterns (my favorite fashion era). The box next to it are my over-sized patterns, including the majority of my Sense & Sensibility patterns.

Yesterday I sewed for the first time since I did this organization project. It was delightful! I worked on my corded petticoat. I knew where it was, where my crochet cotton was, I was able to use my fresh new pins for pinning the cording in place. Also, I didn't have a ton of stuff to be transferred from atop my sewing machine table before I could begin sewing (and before this it was really a huge, intimidating pile of stuff). It was just my small pile of other current projects (that will someday soon be in the designated basket I mentioned above), my little notions caddy, and my large pin cushion that needed to be placed on the dining table so I could open up my machine. When I was done sewing, the crochet cotton went back into its labeled bag in the labeled drawer, the petticoat was folded and placed in the Current Projects pile, the machine was tucked away into its cabinet, and the items placed back on top. It took a few minutes, that is all. Lovely!

Bake-apalooza

Tonight, after a calmer weekend, I ended up going nuts in the kitchen! We're short on cash, so I wanted to bake some desserts. I was also inspired to make Boule bread, after reading about it on another blog. Earlier this afternoon I had mixed up the Artisan Bread Dough, so it was waiting in the fridge. After supper, Tyler and I started the cookies, while Paul took care of using the apple peeler-corer-slicer on some Granny Smiths and got them into the bowl with the sugar and spices for the pie filling. While the cookies were baking, I made the pie crust and assembled it. Cookies out, adjust temp, pie in. Then while the pie was baking, I got the bread shaped and ready to rise. About 45 minutes later: pie out, bread in. By the time the bread was done and I took this photo, a lot of the cookies were MIA. All was good if I say so myself. We all liked the bread the most though. Yum!

Organizing the Sewing Stuff - Part I "Before"

Recently, I was inspired to finally, finally organize my sewing supplies. The incident that prompted this was when I was looking for a tiny thing, a tucker kit for my Civil War ballgown. I looked all over the place in every bin (although, as it turned out, I hadn't looked hard enough), but I simply couldn't find it. I knew I still had it though. I ended up ordering a new one from Mrs. Christen's Miscellanea where I had gotten it before. Although it was inexpensive, it really bothered me that I had to spend good money on a duplicate item, simply because I was so disorganized.

So I decided it was time to get it all organized. This included everything. I used the organizing plan that Peter Walsh (from Enough Already!) uses. I took everything up to my parlor so everything I had was all in the same place; it was an enormous stash. Then I envisioned how I wanted it to look once organized. I mainly wanted to have similar things together, in easy access bins, where I could find anything I need at a moment's notice. I also wanted to be able to see exactly what I did have. And I didn't want my stash to be encroaching on other areas of the house. Basically, I just wanted my stash and the way it was stored to be my servant, not my master.

The next task is to sort through everything and divide all into piles, those things to keep and those to sell, donate, or trash/recycle. It looked overwhelming when I first had everything all together:

I made up some labels for the various piles. I just printed out a big list, then cut them apart and laid them along the walls of the parlor:

Next, I sorted things into the piles, including my piles for things to be thrown away, recycled, given away, or sold. This was difficult! There are many things I had a hard time delegating into the sale/donate pile. The things I wanted to keep were then organized into bins and drawers. I had my trusty label-maker at hand, large and extra large Ziploc bags for oversized patterns, etc. and file folders.

I was up extremely late when I did this, but by the time I finished I had most of it done. I spent the next week putting the finishing touches on my stash.

Stayed tuned for the next episode: Organizing the Sewing Stuff - Part II "After".

Blueprint for Late Winter and Spring

After a long week with illness, I am on the mend, and making plans for the upcoming months. I have three goals:

1. Restoring Health, including proper exercise and eating.
2. Organizing my "stuff", especially sewing stuff and music.
3. Preparing my home and harp for Easter.

My exercise regimen took a big hit, first because Paul and I were working very hard on our house, refinishing woodwork and installing it. We have been waiting for years (literally) to do this. The big push came because we were anticipating having our house appraised for a refinance (fingers crossed, still waiting to hear!). Then late last week the whole family, except for lucky Robert, became ill with this horrible virus. So starting Saturday, I want to go back to the health club and plan some wholesome meals.

I have begun a huge organization of my sewing supplies. I am close to done. (I will post my How-To and photos once this process is complete.) This process was so satisfying, I want to also do it for my music, which is in similar disarray as my sewing supplies. This clears the mind, makes finding things a breeze. So I would like to have both areas completely organized within the next month.

Finally, I am very excited about Easter. I met yesterday and today with our interim music director and another choir member to help plan Easter music for the Triduum (In the Catholic Church, this is the three important components of Easter: Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil Mass on Saturday evening). I will be playing harp and singing with the choir. Lots of work to do! Lots of practicing ahead for me. I also want to have the house all clean and sparkley for Easter, and I would like to have my extended family over on Easter Sunday. I have time off from work around then, so this will be delightful. I will also have the week after Easter off to start gardening.

I feel very happy about this plan!