Of Curious Cats and Curling Ribbon

So, it's the week of Christmas!!! YAY!!! I'm oober excited. On Sunday we decorated the tree and put a lot of the decorations up. Yesterday we wrapped presents and put them under the tree, and Mom added some finishing touches to the decorating, such as putting a wreath and other garlands on the front porch, and setting little statues of snowmen and santas all about. I had painted this little guy this year:



I'm really proud of his eyes - you can't see it very well in this picture, but - they were just a plain blue, and Santa's eyes are supposed to sparkle, right? So, I saw this one bottle of silver glitter paint in the big box of paint, and I thought, maybe this'll work! So I put a little drop of silver sparkle on his eyes, and it gave the whole thing a new depth or dimension or whatever you want to call it. (Personally I say it gave him personality.) Anyway, I hung him on the tree yesterday.

When My mom and I had gone shopping on Saturday for Christmas presents, we had purchased a quantity of cheap curling ribbon, for decorating gifts. My sister and I had a bit of fun decorating almost all of the presents with the random colors - it's really fun to wrap on color around the box, and then add at least 2 different colors to the curly mass on top. (example - wrapping paper color: blue & white & silver. Main ribbon color choice: dark blue. Different colors on top: white, silver, and light blue. This present is Really pretty!)

This morning I saw my cat, Bootsy, sneaking up the stairs. We keep a squirt bottle full of water handy in case she decides to try to get some ornaments off the tree, so I no longer worry to much about her bothering the tree. (She's learned that lesson, trust me!) Anyway, this morning I watched her as she silently crept up to the tree, investigated some presents (as if expecting them to suddenly attack her and steal her whiskers), and then she carefully stepped over them and slithered around the base of the tree (which is real, by the way - smells SO good!) and sat there. I thought I knew what was coming. It happens every year, and I find it completely hilarious. She was drinking the water from the tree stand!!! Oh, Bootsy, you never cease to amuse us! Apparently she thinks the tree is just a new invention so she can have more than one place of refreshment. Oh well. It does no harm. :)

Thoughts...I Think.

Wow. November is almost over. Where has it gone? I just finished lesson 15 in Geometry...clearly I'm not doing overly well at that - though I've only had it about a month. And it would be so easy if only I had time! I kind of blame teaching a dance class for my apparent lack of time to do school work - but I also sleep in and have a terrible work ethic, so really dance class has nothing to do with it. Though it doesn't help to have a terrible start every Monday because I haven't taken the time over the weekend to be prepared. I really should go to bed before 11:30 every night, and then maybe I could get up before 8:30 and get some more of my school work done. Wow. I sound like a bum. This post is me talking myself into getting a move on it. I have life goals, and sleeping in is not one of them. Nor is setting the fire alarms off, although all of the fire alarms in the house (and we have 3 floors) went off, for no apparent reason whatsoever. Seriously? Those things are really shrill, and give pain to eardrums that I didn't know I had! Save it for the emergencies, which hopefully would never happen because that is a Terrible sound!

Speaking of teaching dance, I'm currently having trouble sitting down to try and figure out what I'm going to do for the recital. You'd think picking out songs and costumes would be fun! But no, I'm actually dreading it. I think it could be fun, but I worry so much about whether the kids will like it or not, and I don't want the costumes to be too expensive, and what do you put a kindergarten boy in when there are 10 little girls in the same class? You see how I get semi-depressed. I'm 16. Why am I costuming kids? Oh, right. I volunteered. I asked for this. Yep. I raised my hand and said "Yes, I'll teach a bunch of little kids how to plie-how hard can it be? I can do a triple pirouette without losing my balance, so clearly I'm qualified." Ha! I won't even bother explaining why that isn't true - it just isn't, and so there.

Tomorrow is my last day being 16. Yay! I'm really excited about being 17. I'll tell ya about my presents later. (when I know what they are :).) Maybe I'll actually get some this year! Last year, on my 16th birthday, I didn't get to open a single present. Yep. 16th birthday. You read that right. That birthday all the kids look forward to, because then they can get a car, or date, or something fantastic. What did I get? Free pancakes at IHOP. (international house of pancakes.) Granted, those were some amazing pancakes-chocolate chip pancakes, to be exact-with a pile of strawberries and heaped - and I do mean heaped (there were swirls and mountains) with whipped cream, and they were delish! And I had a lot of fun with my Mom and Sister. We went shopping, I think...but still. I didn't open any presents. Nothing about my life really changed, other than I could now start writing "16" as my age instead of "15". Woo. (Okay, the cool thing about that was now I was old enough to take my drivers license, and I was older sounding, and all that. Nothing to sneeze at, if ya know what I mean.) This year, I supposedly am getting presents. SO EXCITED! I love ripping paper open, not knowing what is contained within the rustling concoction of suspense...untying bows and revealing that wonderful surprise that has been carefully and lovingly prepared by someone special - just for me! (yep, I'm still 2).

And I am terrible at getting other people presents. Is there something wrong with this picture?

Medieval Dress

I have been meaning to post pictures of this dress for about 3 months now! I finally have all my pictures on my computer, so I thought now was as good a time as any.

First of all, here's a picture of the pattern I used (I posted the pattern in a previous post, but I just wanted to refresh your memory). It's the largest picture:



Now, as you may remember, a while back I found some lovely green fabric that I just love, and I purchased it with the intent of making this dress. Well, dear reader, I did make that dress. Mostly by myself, I might add, since my mother was not at home when I took it upon myself, and I am quite proud of my self-accomplishment. Let me tell you about my process:

First of all, I had to spread out the fabric, lay out the pattern pieces, and cut the fabric out. This was very interesting, as there was so much fabric, that I couldn't completely spread it across our large room! (I think I had 9 yards.) However, I did cut it out, and moved on the the assembly. Sewing projects really do go quickly when you have the whole day ahead of you and no huge consequences if it totally fails - other than a slight loss of $. :) This did not happen, so no worries.

The dress was very simple to sew together, and the sleeves were fun. I had a little trouble with the lace yoke, (the pins kept slipping out) but eventually I got that done, too. I had all but the zipper and the hem done before my mom came back, and then she helped my with the zipper.

When I was done with the dress, I made the vest. I used a fake leather-type fabric for this - it had a cool floral design, and I liked it. The vest went together really nicely, although putting gathers in a stiff fabric can be interesting...not to mention the 20 eyelets...I was tired after that! Anyway, here are some pictures of the finished product. I'm not very pleased with the picture quality, but you get the idea.

This is the front - I seriously love the sleeves! Although the gold rope gets a little scratchy...



And here's the back - I don't have a picture of just the dress, so these all have the leather vest over the top.



And here's one last picture, a close-up of the lace and the trim I used. I forgot to mention the trim before! I found it at Wal Mart, and fell in love. Literally. I thought the trim was so pretty, and it had the perfect green for my dress! It was really fun to sew on, too. I put the trim around the neckline and around the seam on both sleeves.



So, there you have it. My green medieval dress. I wore it on Halloween. For an hour. Sitting on the couch watching movies. Wasn't really the most comfortable thing ever, so I changed very soon, but it was fun for a while. Maybe someday there will be that perfect occasion, and I will be the one to say - "Oh, a medieval dress? Of course I have one of those in my closet!"

What's in a name?...

I.Love.Shakespeare. Some people I happen to know don't appreciate this love, but I don't care. Oh, and it's not like I love him personally or anything - I love reading his plays! Almost better than reading them - acting in them! I have only been a part of two Shakespeare productions: 'Romeo & Juliet' and 'A Midsummer Nights Dream'. I was only 14 when we did R&J..and guess what? I got the part of Juliet! I think it was the most exciting thing in my entire acting career thus far! Looking back on my acting job, I consider what I did very amateur and withdrawn. I remember not being very confident in myself, and the whole romance thing...SO not happening! That was just one big AWKWARD!!! And we won't go on in that, though there are some funny stories...

Anyway, I think that if I was to play Juliet now, in my old age of almost 17 (:D) we would see huge differences in my portrayal of Juliet Capulet. I have since read a lot more Shakespeare, and I feel like I can understand what he says. I've also been working on being myself a bit more openly with people, starting with my own family, so I'm pretty sure I would have the confidence to do whatever it took for the emotions and thoughts of Juliet to leap off the stage. But that is probably never going to happen..

When we did the play "A Midsummer Nights Dream" the summer after "Romeo and Juliet", (we did a Shakespeare every summer-3 summers in a row) I got the tiny part of a fairy. Peaseblossom, to be exact. After basically planning the show (my mom is always the costumer, and production manager...I help her out a lot)and dreaming of the part of Helena, this was a blow to my ego. At the time I was really bummed. Now I'm glad it happened, because otherwise I would be some sort of prima donna with expectations of always getting the juicy parts. Now I know that if I want a part, I have to work for it. (I haven't exactly gotten the opportunity yet - we took this summer off at the ol' theatre...) Besides, in hindsight, being a fairy was fun. All of my friends were also fairies, and since we were only really in like...5 scenes tops, we got to hang out a lot. And we got to decorate posters, and dance...I choreographed some amazing dances that no one else in the cast appreciated, but whatever. The director liked them, so what do they know? (my fellow fairies liked them, too. It was our moment to shine...literally. There was a lot of glitter on our costumes...and in our hair...and on our skin...and on the floor as we walked by...you get the idea :D )

Now I'm hoping that we get to do a Shakespeare play next summer. I would personally LOVE to do "Twelfth Night", since it's been my favorite for like..ever! But it could get tricky, since we don't really have that many kids in our town that do Shakespeare - especially since most of them have graduated and moved on. And having girls play guys can get really confusing in that play! My mom's favorite is "The Tempest". I still haven't read that one...hopefully tomorrow! (My mom are planning to read it together tomorrow. :D )

If we do another Shakespeare next summer, you can be sure that I will be extremely involved. I might just take over as costumer...I'm also dying for a lead role again, (I don't mean that in a big egotistical way at all...it's just that they are so much more fun, and then you have the incentive to work hard at your role.) So I guess we shall see what happens! (I just realized that I did an entire post about Shakespeare plays without once quoting them! Sad...I'm a little rusty, though.)

What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet...

(And yes, 'killing' myself was definitely memorable occasion :)

leaps and twirls...wait - a tutu?

Apparently I've decided to become blogger who only posts once a month! Ha. Okay, I've been pretty busy...how's planning 4 classes of dance for little kids sound? Yeah, I thought so. Since July, when I voluntarily agreed to this provocation, I would completely lock down in a weird, panicky type of crabby nervousness that I had never experienced before whenever anyone mentioned that I was teaching a dance class. I would ask myself, "Why did I ever think that was a good idea?", and my family would get mad at me because I was so not pleasant. I knew I was being ridiculous, and I tried to be cheerful. However, I did not succeed in this endeavor until I actually got myself to sit down and plan my attack.

My mom made me (wow thats a lot of m's :) buy a few dance cd's - Al Gilbert tap was a great thing. I don't have to choreograph much tap for a while; He's awesome! - and then I got 3 ballet cd's. I love the two called "Memories From My Childhood". It's all these songs played only on the piano, and I've known these songs forever! There's "If You're Happy and You Know It" and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "O My Darling Clementine" and "My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean" and Oh so many others! I had forgotten all about these songs! It makes me happy. (I'm not sure the little girls really know any of these songs - at least not well enough to recognize them from a piano arrangement whilst they attempt to point their toes...)

So that gave me some really good materials to work with, since the music is one of my hardest perplexities. Oh, and I have been looking at this one ballet video that I danced to every day when I was like...7 or 8. Awesome stuff!

So then I came up with a lesson plan. For some reason I was all like "what if the kids don't like it?", which really puts a damper on creativity. I think I'll be better about that now that I've actually taught the class... I teach the same stuff to two different groups of kids in 2 towns, so I got to try it out on the first town on Monday. I made some tweaks between then and the next class, which was today. I must say I think today went a lot better, although I had thought Monday went really well, also. I guess that means there's still a lot of space for improvement no matter how good we get!

So, here's a recap of some random thoughts of mine during these classes:

Monday: K-1 -

"Aaah! There are children coming in! Run!".
"Interesting outfit choice..." (lots of random dance clothes)
"What, there's a little boy?" (was not expecting that..brave child.)
"Of course I'll help you tie your shoe...no, don't pull on the knot!"
"1st graders are really exasperating." (especially a team of 3)

(after they leave) "Whew. I am glad that's over. Oh-3 more classes today. Yay! (not)"

2-4 -

"I'm pretty sure these kids know their right and left foot already".
"Hmmm. These kids are kinda fun"
"I'm so proud! They LOVE my combination!" (it totally made my day - when asked if they wanted to do the little combo again, there was a really loud 'YES'! I'm taking that as a big "we love your dance class, Grace". ;) )

Preschool -

"Oh, they're so cute and little!" (there were only 4 of them)
"This might be my favorite class"
"5-7 - "Um, only one showed up. Awkward."
"I feel bad for this girl..I don't know if she's even having fun!"

"YAY WE MADE IT THROUGH THE FIRST DAY OF CLASSES!!!"

So, today I went to my 2nd town for my 2nd try at teaching. I had made a few alterations to my plan, and was ready to knock 'em dead. Figuratively speaking, of course. ;)

*walking in* "okay, there's no wall or anything to use for a barre...everything is now center floor!"
*kids start coming in..there's still 20 minutes before class starts. Oh, sure. Everyone loves screaming 6-year-olds playing freeze-tag.
*Um, wait. The parents are sitting down inside and planning to watch the class? We're gonna have to think about this arrangement.
*Those blue gym floors are weird to dance on - almost sticky...ew.
*Okay, 20 kids is a big class!
*Honey, you can still dance even though your dance clothes aren't here yet - oh, wait. This isn't a crying matter! Is it? Oh. I guess it is.
*Oh, great. Another class of 19! (actually, bigger classes are more fun..)
*10 preschoolers, eh? Okay...but seriously, every mother sitting in?
*I.do.not.like.5th.graders..nuff.said. (nothing personal)
*WE DID IT AGAIN!!! SUCCESS!!!

Anyway...there's my very long post about my dance teaching experience. Of course, I still have 7 months to go, but I think half the journey was in this first week. Now I am starting to believe that yes, I actually can do this.

and the rain falls down...

Wow! Its September already! (I know, it's been September for 6 days...WHAT?!?) I started doing school work last Monday, so this is my second week...so far its been pretty fun. (oh, I see the quizzical looks on your faces now. Yes, I like doing school.) Well, not all the time, of course. I get crabby and lazy and freakish, but over all, yes. I enjoy the knowledge that is supposed to stick to my brain like bread-dough, and I find scheduling my day quite thrilling. Here, I'll share the subjects I am pounding into my mind this year:

Latin - this one is new for me. (yes, I'm a junior in high-school). I want to know Latin, and then someday I'll know like, 10 other languages, and it will be easy for me since I know the root of all classical languages. :D

Algebra2 - i. h.a.t.e. m.a.t.h.!. yes I do. I would love to be able to understand graphs and even simple equations and word problems, but frankly, I don't. I get through it, but nothing really makes sense to me - especially the question of "why am I doing this?". Yep. it's a big problem. (no pun intended ;)

English - reading random short stories and then dissecting them for a week is the scheme of things for now. Eventually I'll read some novels and write some essays. Most excited about the reading part. Essays scare me.

History - American History, to be exact. I read 68 pages of "Christ and the Americas" last week. This week I'm supposed to read a couple supplement books, but I don't have any yet. I could re-read "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" for the umpteenth time...I LOVE THAT BOOK! (actually, it was my sister who read it once a month for a while...) anyway..that's probably what I'll be doing in half an hour...
Oh, but then I have to write an essay on it in two weeks...oh well, if its something I love!

umm..I think that's all my subjects! of course I have to practice my music every day, and that sort of thing, but that's pretty much it. interesting. (I'm not doing science this year...shocking! especially since it used to be my favorite subject...then I met chemistry. end of story.)

So now you can picture me, reading my eyes out, (since most of my time is spent reading now), and trying to remember what the point is, and having a good time. I am getting lonesome for the sewing machine, though...it's been a couple of weeks. Hey, I got my first real costume dress done! I've been waiting to take some good pictures before I post about it, but it is SO PRETTY! and I made a cape...makes my feel like Darth Vader, but hey. It's cool. ;)

It's been an interesting week...

Sorry I haven't posted in a while! It has been pretty busy around here. First of all, my sister had her baby so I have a new nephew!!! He's SO cute!!! (okay, I'll stop with the exclamation points now...maybe!:) His name is Edward Benedict, which is totally an awesome name. Actually, his older brother, 4-year-old Joseph, named him before he was born by saying the babies name was "Eddie", so that is what we are calling him! My personal name for him is EddieBennie, though. ;) Benedict is a personal favorite name of mine...maybe it has something to do with the fact that Fish, (one of my favorite characters from the Fairy Tale Novels by Regina Doman - they're on my list of favorite books...like, way up near the top) has the real name of Benedict, and I love how the one evil dude says it...anyway, I'm getting off track.

So, my sister and her three little boys have been at my house for...how long has it been? A week? I think it has...anyway, their little family is moving, so Heidi (that's my sister's name) is staying with us while Chad (that's her husband) packs up and moves everything that's left in the house. Wow, that sounds crazy. So, I've become the auntie who occasionally babysits, makes capes, and frog hunts. (that's best done it the rain with a huge cape, while capering about :D) And then there's Buzz Lightyear...Jofu (that's what we call Joseph) and Tommy (he's 2...) like to run around with their arms straight out shouting "Infinity and Beyond!!!" though it sounds more like "fn'ty n b'yond!". It's funny.

Very excited for next week, when, hopefully, my sister Trudi and I get our alone time, and then it's Gilmore Girls and Nutella on Crackers with Whipped Cream!!! :D We have been planning this...

I have now driven by myself 2 times! The first time on Tuesday, I drove to town (8 miles) and back, to empty the trash at my dad's office. Then, yesterday, (Thursday) I drove to the town in the opposite direction from us (13 miles), to practice organ at our church for Sunday. That was interesting, since I had to go a way that I'm not entirely used to, and then drive around the town for a while, searching for a street that was NOT ripped up to get to the church...which was impossible, since the church was surrounded by ripped up streets! I got there eventually, however, parked! and practiced for like, 45 minutes...not exactly pleased with my organ skills this week.

So now I'm waiting for Tommy (who is wandering around my room with his blanlet) to get tired enough to fall asleep...I should probably pay attention to him now, so I'll post some more later. Toodles!