A few images

First up are two of the elves from my husband's stocking. I started the green one and the guitars the week we got married. And then, nothing. I had planned on working on the stocking on Sundays because the other days were spent doing homework (big surprise!) Anyway, this didn't happen so by the beginning of the break I had two done and basically nothing else.

One Christmas miracle later and this is what James had Christmas morning:

Granted, it would have been nice if it had been a surprise but it's okay. He stayed up with me until 2 AM while I finished it. Seriously. I have an amazing husband. We switched back and forth between the following:

1. A Christmas Story
2. The King's Singers and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir
3. Midnight Mass at St. Peter's

I hadn't ever watched it and James was interested. It was a weird combination of shows but it kept me working until I finished the stocking.

Merry Christmas!

I don't have pictures available, I forgot my camera cord and my phone album isn't loading.

Anyway.

Christmas was great! Time together and with our families.

I'll post pictures soon.

Hopefully.

Finals are almost over

What has happened since I last blogged? "A Midsummer Night's Dream" finished its run. My parents, one set of grandparents, a brother (and his girlfriend) and my in-laws came to see the matinee. James' sweet parents gave me these beautiful roses.I like that some of them look like the fairy costumes. I was inspired by flowers so it makes sense.

On Sunday I tried to make a fancy Swiss braided bread. It wasn't totally successful but it was mostly good.
It got a little mangled when we took it out of the oven. Notice the poke mark on the upper right hand side. The bread looks awfully yellow, due in part to the egg wash and the yellow cabinets in our kitchen

My final FINAL project is a group of designs for a children's play called "The King of Ireland's Son." It's based on medieval shapes, James Christensen's amazing paintings and it is also a work with patterns and colors. I'm really pleased with how far I've come even in the past two years. My techniques have gotten better, I've gotten faster with my production and I think I've become a better designer. It's sort of hard to see the progress unless pieces are juxtaposed.
Okay, mostly I just wanted to type juxtaposed.

On to Christmas!

Wow. Seriously, wow.

My friend Courtney and I are totally fascinated by this lady in our ward. She is really stylish AND ridiculously creative. Her inspiring blog can be found here.

As much as I love my life (and totally hate the stress) sometimes I find myself fantasizing about how it will be when James and I are both NOT in school.

Hopefully James will have a good job that he loves and I'll be a stay at home Mom.

Theoretically we'll have some cute kids, maybe two boys and two girls.

Sometimes I think about how cool it would be to ride around on one of those cute cruiser bikes (despite the fact I'm really clumsy.)

Sigh.

Instead, I'm going to be grateful for the wonderful things that I do have:

• My husband James

• A really awesome opportunity to go to grad school (I mean, seriously, who else gets to the stuff we do in the shop?)

• Great friends in the costume shop

• Also, Midsummer is OPEN! That is definitely something to be grateful for!

Christmas is just around the corner and that means FAMILY! I'm so excited to spend the holidays with both of our families.

Final Dress and Opening Night

Just a few pictures from second dress rehearsal and final dress for Midsummer. Tickets can be purchased at the Caine School of the Arts Box Office or online here. The show runs until Saturday with a matinee that day at 2:00 and all evening shows at 7:30.

First Dress Rehearsal

We had dress rehearsal this morning for Midsummer. I snapped a couple of pictures with my cell phone. Some are good, others not so much.

This was the cast on stage, hanging out.
The cast doing warm ups. Isn't the set cool?
Oberon watching Helena and Demetrius argue about who loves who. Apparently Oberon is invisible to the mortals. Here is a shot of all of the guy fairies. We painted all of their pants with dye. We also added fabric strips to Oberon and Puck's pants. It was really time consuming but I think it was worth it.

Here are the fairies sleeping on the ground with Lysander and Hermia. This picture shows the color scheme: mortals in black, white and gray while the fairies in color.
Here is a shot of Bottom after his transformation. A dentist donated the fake teeth, which you can't see. It looks great!
It was probably the most stressful lead up to a design that I've ever gone through. I wasn't sure if it was going to work or if things were going to happen but it did work and is has happened. We have two more rehearsals before opening on Wednesday. I'm really pleased with how it worked!

In response to a comment from the last post: I didn't use a pattern, I just made it up. I measured Avery's torso and then made a trapezoid shape by taking an inch off each side and angeling the sides in. I just sort of guessed in regards to pocket size, strap length and ruffle size.

Projects: Midsummer and an apron

As you guys probably know, this play is quickly approaching. As in, we open in a WEEK.Working on a show like Midsummer, you see a lot of weird stuff in the costume shop. Such as pairs of legs wearing stretchy pants:
People painting on tables:
Sometimes people (ahem, me) paint with tiny brushes. It took more time than it should have.
But, I think it was worth it. I'll post an actual picture of this costume, Mustardseed, rather than this pinned together one.

Over the Thanksgiving break James and I spent time with our families. We had dinner at his Grandma's house and then we ate dessert at my parent's house with my Dad's side of the family. It was a well deserved break, I think. While we were at my parent's house, I kept a promise I had made earlier to Avery. She spotted Hilary's apron and decided she needed one too. I'm sure she said something like, "I yant un" or something cute. I used leftover fabric from Hilary's hooter-hider and the quilt my Mom made for Avery. It is a reversible apron. Here is the white floral side:
And the pink side, as modeled by Ave.
I can't get over how cute she is! It was so great to be able to spend time with our families, especially Hilary and her family. It will be Christmas before we know it!