My little nosegay of violets

I am pretty proud of how nice these turned out. the really sad thing is that I had all the materials lying about the house... I cut the little petals out of felt, I poked fine guage green wire through a small bead and then poked the two ends through the petals. I then wrapped 15 blossoms together along with some silk foliage I clipped from a bigger plant using florist's tape... this is the prettiest one, but they look very nice on stage :)

busy busy busy

Sorry Spidey... I have been remiss

The tea party was fun. It took me a while to figure out a hat that would go with my hair-do (I was wearing it up). I pulled 4 hats from the attic and none of them looked right. I then grabbed a picture frame hat out of the library and pinned that to my head. That one looked fine so I set off with my friend Joy... When she arrived she had a sort of sun hat on and I made her swap out with one of the ones that I had pulled for myself. It was a total Dynasty era hat with weird faux leopard trim and quite extreme looking which matched her animal print outfit perfectly.

When we got there we were surprised to see so many ladies (mostly elderly). They all were wearing cool hats and there must have been 50 or more. We had little crocheted hat favors at all our place settings and the tea cakes and tiny sandwiches were delicious. My friend Moe was there too. Her sister Gail was the guest speaker and she had a large display of her hat collection. She gave an excellent presentation on the history and lore of hats. I even won a door prize. I was one of the last winners so the selections were a little minimal. I chose a small baby themed photo frame over the porcelien blue jays, and mustard pots. Our eighth grade science teacher is expecting her first and it will be a nice gift :)

The weather was lovely and the company was grand.

the rest of my time has been spent working on the play. They open this weekend and although I swore I was only going to be peripherally involved it is like quicksand and I am sucked down.

Thursday I watched the dress rehearsal to see if Maddie could get in and out of her clothes fast enough. That seemed to go ok. I saw that they had decided to change most of the ladies dresses for the ball, I think in response to Maddie's pretty costume so I felt a little responsible. I helped make one dress over in about 15 minutes :) to look much more period. You don't need to go berserk ... just indicate the shape of the clothing of the time. I managed to fix a couple things and finally got tired and went home.

Friday after school we had a Bunco party ... I won the first Bunco so that was fun, but we stayed out too late

Saturday Maddie and I had to get up early to get her to her placement tests in Madison. I am not all that familiar with Madison so was a little worried we would get lost. Fortunately Maddie had just been to the campus for Forensics so was a little better prepared than me. We got there without event and had a little time to spare.

I have been working on a little project for Maddie to take with her to college. She has a lovely long canvas coat (I may have mentioned this before) It is a white painters coat and makes a good work coverup and makeup coverup. I am embroidering the names of all the characters she has played on it. I took that along to work on while I waited and managed to get up to seventh grade. There are still quite a few to go though

Sunday was dress and Makeup so I did up Maddie's hair in a Gibson girl style before church and then went off to help at the play after service. They had not gotten too far along in getting ready and it was a bit of a mad house. I helped a few actors with their makeup. I was a little frustrated at some of those boys who I trained in middle school who still needed help grrrrr.

I noted a few costume changes that I could help with.. replacing a sytrofoam skimmer with an authentic straw one that we own. Finding a better robe for one of the actors, finding a few more props and making violets for poor Eliza. I really hate props coming in late for actors. I know how difficult it is to get used to working with things and always try to get hand props in as early as possible.

There was a little brou ha ha over birdcages. The Director and AD almost came to blows over the cages (I brought a lovely vintage metal one in and a goofy small wooden one in) They ended up going with the vintage one. They had a failure to communicate. I think that Eliza is the one who brings the bird with the cage and that Higgins does not already have a bird. But that is just me.

Terry the costumer made a comment to me "Well you're the expert" I sort of snapped at her
"I am not an expert"
"Yes you are"
"No I am not, not even close, I just pay attention!"

I hate that sycophantic attitude she pulls out when she wants help. She is so freaking helpless sometimes I want to strangle her. "What do you think Lori?" "should we do this Lori?" I guess I would not mind so much if they would listen when I do give suggestions. I told them how to adapt a dress that was horrible for the ball, an easy squeasy fix that required one long scarf judiciously sewn to the waist in a couple places. When I saw it on Sunday all they had done is wrapped a dark purple belt around the thing and chopped the poor girl in half.

I came backstage later and they had the dress on the floor with sequin tape all over it and there were three people puzzling over it. "Do you think this would work?" "Lori could we cut the sleeves?" "Could you donate this dress to the theater?" (I had specifially told them they could dye this dress, but nothing about cutting it up) I finally had had enough and said "I told you how to fix the dang thing before"
"Yes, but Terry found this pretty belt......"
"Oh just give it to me!"

I took it out to the hall and ripped the purple belt off. I nosed though some dresses that were donated and found a nice long chiffon scarf. One of the ladies said there was another one that matched it and found that for me. She then proceeded to ask whether or not the pearl trim should be taken off.... and I said "Just go away and let me do it!" She backed off then and left me alone. It took 6 tack stitches to change it into the semblence of a ball gown and I did end up cutting the sleeves off, but at least it was me cutting them off my own property. I pinned the purple sash dangling from the front of the dress giving it long flowing lines and no longer chopping the poor actor in half. I hope it looks ok.

Later I was getting a little bossy with my suggestions as to the scene changes. Sometimes I get so frustrated when solutions seem so crystal clear to me and so fogged in darkness to everyone around me so I went home.

I spent the rest of the afternoon making violets for Eliza. There was a Pop's concert on Monday that Maddie was in so we went to that. I finished up my 6 bouquets of violets last night and have them ready. I ironed two men's handkerchiefs and a scarf to help cover a dress change

we shall see what things need to be fixed tonight. They open thursday. Maddie told me one actress is peeved about her hat which they switched with another girl. Nicole's father was in a bad car accident and she was not there on Sunday. She is feeling a little that her hat got switched because she was not there and I want to make things right for her. She is a great actress and a great girl. She also is a tall appropriately stalwart maid and a little self concience about it. I found her a dressing gown that is better than the thirties quilted atrocity they had her in so I hope that helps and I will try to fix her hat tonight

That is what I have been up to instead of blogging.

again the time has flown by

Maddie got home from Washington safe and sound and I just barely caught her at the highschool before she was off to the State Forensics tournament... She and her partner are doing two Monty Python sketches; "The crunchy frog" and "The dead parrot". They have gotten mostly good critiques from judges so far so I hope they continue.

It looked like she missed us a little anyhow so that made me feel good. I will have to wait to hear about the whole trip till tomorrow I imagine.


The week has gone by fairly quickly. Puck and I got our first taste of empty nesting and it is not so fun so far. We did watch a few movies.

Oh last friday our little family watched "The Exorcist" lovely Easter film that it is. Actually I don't think I have seen it since I saw it on the big screen. I read the book that year too. Maddie was seeing it for the first time. We are doing a little bit of cramming to get her to see as many classically referenced films as possible before she goes off to college. The one thing I noticed about the film that I found particularly striking was the distinct lack of music used for suspense or any hint of things to come. The theme shows up rarely and the story just creeps up on you only to be disturbed by a jangling telephone or doorbell that scares the wits out of you.

I continued to do some deep cleaning here and there, but still have lots to do. We had a half day off of school due to the odd snow storm on Wednesday. It was sloppy and wet and is pretty well melted today, but at least we don't have to make up the day.

Tomorrow I am going to a Tea Party... yes that is what I said an old fashioned tea party with finger sandwhiches, gloves and hats. The sister of a friend of mine is a milliner and makes amazing hats. She also gives these tea parties to teach etiquette and proper hat wearing. I suppose to sell her hats as well, but I cannot afford any of them. I went up in the attic to search for a hat and have found 4 possiblities. Now I need to locate some gloves and a nice dress to wear. I wish I were younger and slimmer so the selections would be a little less limiting. I did dye my hair over the break, but I could easily stand to loose 70 pounds and a middleage moustache. Ah well.

Puck went down to the place where he bartends to pick up his pay and found they were closed. He has a key so he let himself in only to find that they had neglected to renew their license and had been shut down. He collected the cash owed to him and left a note. Last time they went under it took almost a year to get his pay so I am glad he took the initiative. He was pretty bummed, but I reminded him that these guys seem to land on their feet most of the time and that they will probably be up and running again soon... I sure hope so. I hate to be backsliding again. Things were going along pretty well and I am not looking for any little black clouds to get in my way.

Ahhhh where to begin

First of all we are on Spring break here. It has been fun sleeping in. Not that I really sleep in, but just not having to set the alarm is relaxing enough. I think I have gotten my fix of Judge shows for the time being.

I am doing some deep cleaning in preparation for the graduation party in June. Some parts of the house are now sparkly and others dingy. sometimes I wonder if it is all really worthwhile, but it is nice to finally get to some things.

Puck and Maddie and I got most of the loaned costumes into the attic. that was quite a job and I handed things up to them so I really don't know how the attic currently looks. I essentially finished all 5 of Maddie's costumes for the play. I think I like the ball gown now the best. I spent a good deal of time adding beadwork to strategic areas to add weight and glitz to the dress and it turned out very nice. I did a little more e-baying and bought a nice pair of gold satin opera length gloves and a beautiful tiara. I got a bracelet and earrings that match my gorgeous aurora borealis rhinestone choker for basically the price of shipping plus a buck each. Hurrah for no other bidders!

I spent a little time cataloging my latest goodwill movie purchases... I think that puts us at about 12oo entries. We watched a few movies too over the past few days. My sister called to tell me that she could not host Easter this Saturday. Her father in law had suffered a stroke and they were headed back and forth to St. Paul. My baby sister volunteered to host, but that meant we could not make it. Puck has to work on Friday night and Maddie leaves for her class trip to Washington DC on Easter Sunday. Too much travel and really didn't want to be on the road for 10 hours on Saturday. I feel bad, but such is life.

Yesterday it rained and hailed and lightninged like crazy. The basement was dry when I went to bed but I asked Maddie to check before she went to bed. I woke up at 5:30 to Puck's alarm going off. He was slow to get it so I rather rudely poked him to shut it off. He got up and that confused me. He very groggily explained that he had spent the past 3 hours sucking water up out of the basement. Of course then I could not get back to sleep so I got up and took over water patrol. I sucked up at least 10 wetvacs full which is 100 gallons of water. Then every half hour I sucked up another 10 or 20 gallons.... at noon I woke up Maddie and told her it was her turn to stand watch. She dutifully sucked up a couple wetvacs full

I did a little laundry in between since it was already down in the basement. About 3:00 Maddie and I went to Janesville to buy some essentials for her trip. Puck was left in charge of the basement which seemed to be flooding a little more slowly. Maddie had some coupons for the movie and a restaurant and she treated me. We saw Bridge to Terabithia. We cried a lot.

Then we shopped and came home and sucked up some more water. Sheesh I hope the rain stays away for a little while. I am getting all pruney

Oh Maddie got her first scholarship. It was a new student in Theater scholarship from River Falls... now all she needs to do is accept it.