Pam, here you are! Here are some pictures of Cinderella, the latest show I costumed. We were going for pastels and jewel tones. One of the most difficult parts was finding enough ballgowns for a chorus of 17 girls. The only men were the leads.














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It's official.

Ok, not officially official. But I purchased a wedding band yesterday. It's so pretty! And celtic. 'Cause Alan's all Scottish and everything. Here's the picture!



We're still waiting to see if the wedding can go ahead as planned in December, or if a possible job offer will force us to make other decisions. Alan's still holding out for our December wedding. I'm hoping I'll get to have my reception at least, but won't be sad if a small private ceremony happens in the meantime.

I've got a bit of a break this week. This morning I had nothing to do, so I finished two books over Malt o Meal and a Vanilla Latte. I took out the recycling, puttered around online, and generally did as little as possible. Now Allie's come over and we're going to go shopping in the Seattle heat. 90 degrees this weekend.

I've been doing my usual summer overload of reading. I read the Shopaholic Series. I read a whole buttload of Debbie Macomber books. I read the Corset Diaries, which was basically erotica, so I skipped through the terribly contrived plot to see if she married the guy after all. I grabbed a few true "Corset Books" as Alan calls them. I finished Innocent Traitor this morning - the story of Lady Jane Grey. That one was very good. I also have in the line A Vision of Light about Margarey of Ashbury, and Julie&Julia - because I've been wanting to read it for a while, and it was in the used bookstore in Renton.

I'm also reading The Eyre Affair - on recommendation by several people, a sci-fi literary mystery. And I'm breaking into E.M. Delafield by reading Diary of a Provincial Lady. I'm trying to sell Alan on C.S. Lewis - but he's busy with the Girl With a Dragon Tatoo series. We have read several Narnia books together.

I love summer. This morning I woke up in my little futon with the windows open, a gentle breeze blowing through, the birch tree waving outside, and feeling like a child sleeping in my treehouse again. How lovely!

Another alterations morning. This time, though, I have my repaired Serger, Sewing Machine, and my new Blind Hemmer all at the same time. 390 pairs of pants later, I can finally hem them the way they're supposed to be hemmed!

My Mom is in town. I invited her in to see my new Costume Shop, and she agreed to stay for a few days to help me with fittings and embellishing the ballgowns. I've got another fantastic parent whose daughter is doing her first play, and wants Mama nearby, but not in the room. So I leave alterations and mending in a basket for her, and find the finished items in my office. I love having a crew!

I've been shopping on Ebay quite a bit recently, but my underwear collection is wearing out, and ebay is a great place to get nice new underwear for around $1 an item, plus shipping. The combined total is usually still less than I would pay for a similar item at a thrift store. (Though, I'll maybe buy a nice bra second hand, I won't buy panties - eeeew. Even my thrifting has limits).

I have the next three days off from waitressing, but I'll be in my costume shop for most of them!

I love my job!

Alan and I are proud to welcome our first child into our as-yet un-mutual home!!

Her name is Gem. She lives in the Philippines, and we've agreed to fund her education for the next few years so she can finish school (See Compassion sidebar below and to the right). Alan helped me go through the pages of older girls and find the perfect child for us...and her birthday is the day before mine!

My last child from India graduated from her double major this week, and we got to choose a new child!

I love these days!

A peaceful morning at home. I'm trying to get the easy alterations started - since I have to drop off at closing time tomorrow night. Khakis take almost no time at all, so I'm doing them first.

I spent a crazy number of hours this weekend costuming the biggest bulk of the SE Summer Camps. Alice in Wonderland, Grease, and Annie all have performances this Friday. I still haven't started on Midsummer Night's Dream, but we have lots of Fairy costumes, and in a pinch, I know the costumer at Greenstage - the Shakespear in the Park people!

I had three days off from my waitressing job, and intended to take them. Except for one small round of meetings yesterday to check in with the camps and walk them through their costume stock. When one director absolutely needed a pack of cards instead of just Hearts t-shirts that were already made, my quick meeting turned into 5 hours of errands as I scrambled to come up with Clubs, Spades and Diamonds out of thin air. (A bin of white tees, some iron on printer paper, and Google Images came to the rescue) As long as I was there, I also did show laundry for Peter Pan, made and labelled a bin of mending for a volunteer mother who sits through the Cinderella rehearsals, and cleaned up my office.

I haven't done much to costume Cinderella so far, but I have bought ballgowns like crazy. The chorus girls had a fitting last week to see who fits which costume before I start modifying 80's satin prom dresses into Storybook Ballgowns. We have tons of bright peasant costumes that I'm going to dye, and thanks to Storybook Theater, we have a zillion King and Queen options. This will be a bright and colorful show, once I'm done with summer camps and can concentrate on it.

Alan and I are having a day off today. I had an audition for Camelot last night. He's auditioning a few people tonight for Dracula who can't make it to the auditions next week, and then we're off to see two of our friends in a Winery Farce.

Annie!

For those of you who won't get to see it, here's a few rehearsal photos from Annie!

Whew!

I made it. After switching six jobs in five weeks, and opening Annie, I finally have time to sleep. And breathe. And eat!

So, now I'm waitressing a few days a week, working as a resident designer ten hours a week - getting the studio ready for the summer day camps, altering around twenty-five pairs of pants, and doing Annie for the next two weekends.

It's the time of year again to pay off the debts, and save money for next year. And now that the weather has turned again after a month of rain I've got time to be out in the long summer evenings!

Alan is off auditioning today, then off to a wedding. I'm running to the Studio to get ready for strike, doing a matinee of Annie, then back to the Studio to make sure everything gets done. A little altering tonight, and I'm free for a day or two!

It's my second day back at Pike's Place for the summer, and it's raining cats and dogs. I heard someone on the radio refer to the weather as "Junuary" and I can see why. Wednesday I worked a few hours to get back in the swing of things. Then I walked to the market and bought a packet of crumpets from a tea shoppe, and a $5 bouquet of Market flowers from a vendor. I'm ready for summer!

Summer is upon us!

Annie opens in a few weeks, Seussical closes in a few weeks, and I start waitressing this week. My first alterations check (43.80) dropped into my bank account, so there's hope the rest of the money will show up soon.

Next week is my first week as Resident designer at the performance training program on the East Side. I've also been offered two shows next season at a theater south of Seattle. More on that once its official. I just have to make sure that my opening days don't overlap for the mainstage shows of my resident job.

Alan and I are heading to Portland for two days this weekend to meet his parents. (Again, actually, since we went down to Powells and had dinner there sometime in the first month we were dating) And Alan's got a job interview today, which he's very excited about!

It's raining for the next 10 days. I want it to be summer already!

I'm busy. I'm tired. I'm stressed out to the max. Just one more week of this, and Seussical will open, Princess and the Pea will close, and I can breathe again.