Yes, today is Will’s 13th birthday. He is officially a teenager. He’s pretty excited that he is that much closer to driving. Yikes!
This is Will and Justin from 2004.
This is his birthday 3 years ago.
This is Will opening his presents this morning already.
This is the unquilted quilt I am making him for his birthday.
This is all the Star War movies we got him for his birthday.
Don’t spend your afternoon in an emergency room while they stitch up your husband’s finger!
Viewer discretion is advised. At the bottom of this post will be a picture of his finger after he got the stitches.
He had 11 stitches after he and his table saw had a disagreement. He asked the doctor how long he had to keep the huge bandage on, because he was concerned about flipping people off. He really wanted to get rid of the bandage so he didn’t have to tell people how stupid he was. The accident happened on 6/30 and the doctor said he could take the big bandage off today.
He has been working on recovering our staircase in wood. I hope it doesn’t take too long before he and the table saw can be friends again. He purchased the wood for the stairs last Oct.
This is Jemma about to go on stage. Her class were Little Cupids. If you don’t know much about Don Q you might look it up. I remembered very little from Literature class in college.
Since the end of February I have been working on ballet costumes for my friend Lisa that owns her own ballet studio, www.abtaonline.org. This past Friday was the performance. I barter sewing for Jemma to take ballet lessons. I had several late night this week along with teaching VBS.
Two and a half years ago, I had something to do with 35 costumes when she put on the Nutcracker. This time she did Don Quixote. I had something to do with 51 costumes. Some of them I had to shorten, some of them I had to take in, some of them I made with a pattern and 1 made from scratch. I don’t like to make things from scratch, I’m a big pattern person.
This is Olivia, she played the main character, Kitri. This costume took me 31 hours to make. I made the skirt without a pattern, but I did have a pattern for the top. It also weighed 4 lbs. It had 4 ruffles and 3 trims on the bottom of each ruffle. The one trim I had to sew on by hand because it had beads on it, so I kept breaking needles on my machine. The skirt was similar to a poodle skirt, so it flowed very nicely when she danced. Olivia is a super sweet girl and was always very appreciative of my time and work. I finished this costume dress rehearsal morning by 10:00 am.
This was the costume for the wedding scene. It took me 21 hours to make it. The bodice was made from a pattern and the white tutu part was purchased. So a lot of my time was sewing on sequins, petals, and small flowers. Everything on the skirt has to be sewed on individually and knotted to prevent it from catching on something and a whole string coming off.
This is Laura she was the Dryad Queen. I sewed three dark purple appliques on and individually sewed sequins on the skirt. Olivia also had the same costume that I sewed 3 light purple appliques on and sewed 2 rows of sequins on her skirt in a scalloped pattern.
This is Hannah. I’ve already posted about her costume, but it looks so much better on a person than on the hanger.
This is Jeff, he played Kitri’s love interest. They actually get married in the third act. Jeff is not a dancer, he actually plays football for his high school and has done some plays there. Lisa sometimes hires professional male dancers, but this time she asked dad’s or friends to play the male characters. I made this whole outfit for Jeff. The cumberbun I made from scratch.
I made this vest and a pair of black knee pants for Jeff.
I made this vest and a pair of fake leather pants for Don Q. Lisa’s husband Mike played this role. He was also in the Nutcracker 2 1/2 years ago. If you’ve every seen the movie, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, Mike looked like Jim Carrey.
If you’ld like to see more pictures taken during the ballet, you can go to www.mlyphotography.com. She took a ton of pictures.
I have been busy again this week. VBS starts today and Jemma is in the ballet on Friday. Needless to say I am teaching VBS and making costumes for the ballet. Here’s a preview of what I made. I will give a recap later.
I’ve made three shirts like this one.
I’ve also made knee pants to go with each of these vests.
My mom took the original skirt off this leo-tard and I put a new skirt with a ruffle and free-motion sewed the red flowers on. It is much better looking than what it was.
I’ve been much busier than I wanted to be this week. I sent Will to Colorado for Boy Scout camp, I’m taking Justin to Cub Scout camp for 8:15am until 3:00pm and then I take Jemma to Girl Scout Twi-light camp from 5:00 to 9:00pm. I’m in charge of the Brownie part of girl scout camp that is why I am there so long. The temperatures this week have been above 95. Some one told me the heat index was 105 today. I’m to tired at night to watch the weather, so I don’t know how warm it actually is. If it wasn’t for the wind, I would probably be cooked by now. Below is pictures of camp with Justin and Jemma. When Will gets home on Saturday, if he remembered to take any pictures, I will post what he did at camp.
Justin’s camp is out in the middle of no where (Logan county). It takes me 35 minutes to get there. At least Jemma’s camp is at one of the parks here in town.
This is Justin working on a totem in crafts.
This is Justin right before the nature hike.
This is Justin on the water slide.
This is Justin shooting a BB gun.
This is Jemma participating in a flag ceremony.
Yes, I learned to drive Marvin, we’ve only had the car since October 2008. Two weeks ago Bill took me over to the church parking lot to practice. I had to remember how to drive a standard car to begin with, then I had to remember I was on the opposite side of the car since, Marvin’s steering wheel is on the right side.
I took me more time to remember how to drive a standard then it did getting used to driving on the wrong side of the car. Driving on the right side is not as hard as you may think. The only gas, brake, and clutch are in the correct order, you just have to remember you are shifting with your left had and to drive to the right.
I have had a lot of fun driving it. Last week Bill took my van and was gone to Durant, OK for 2 days so I drove Marvin instead of the truck. I can take all the kids with me, I just can’t fit another adult.
All the 4th graders at school have to do a state report. They address letters to each state’s tourism department and request information about the state. The information is then mailed back to the school. Justin drew Delaware out of the hat. He made a presentation board with the info he got in the mail and also on line. Then they all set up in the gym and present their info as most of the rest of the school, parents and administration pass by. Justin could really sell the state of Delaware. The thing that is hanging around his neck is the push to talk button. You push his button he will tell you about his state.
Here is his presentation in his own words.
The state capital is Dover or I like to say Dover,Rover,Mcgrover.
State tree is american holly.State flower is peach blossem.State animal is the Horsehoe crab.population 783,600.
state motto and state bird is liberty and Independence,the blue hen chicken.
The population is 783,600.I made a book about Delaware.State animal is the horse shoe crab.
I made these for a friend. Her daughter was getting married and they needed a gift for the flower girl and ring bearer. She bought the bags from Hobby Lobby and I embroidered them on my embroidery machine.
The following picture is picture frames I made as teacher gifts. Jemma’s teacher liked Snoopy and Justin’s teacher went to OSU. Here is the link to the directions http://www.modabakeshop.com/2009/04/fabric-frame-tutorial.html
