With cat-like tread...

This is what happens when I have little to do during break - I found this video from the 1983 movie of Pirates of Penzance. I find it highly amusing both for the craziness and energy of the whole thing. I'm getting excited for it :) (even though several of my friends have dropped out). Enjoy!

Black and white and read all over.

I received my copy of Richard Corson's Stage Makeup today! Except I am a bit overwhelmed by all the pictures and information. Now I'm just waiting for my list of materials from my professor so I can purchase those before the 9th.

Blog revamp

If any of you have been reading this for the past year, you will have noticed a lot of changes (or at least within the past couple months). I've been experimenting with backgrounds and such to make my blog much less blah. So I now present to you my beautiful new blog (with help from a couple blog freebie sites - tehe)!

Now if only I could do this to the disaster zone which is my bedroom.

Merry Christmas!

Yes, another year come and gone. I'm done with my first semester of college and I'm nearly 19. Jeez times flies fast. Christmas was very nice this year (if you don't count my awful cold complete with headache and runny nose - I've gone through several tissue boxes in the past couple days and my upper lip is chapped from blowing my nose so often). I received a couple pairs of shoes, some socks, candy, as well as 3 (well 4) new books. One is Nineteenth Century Fashion in Detail by Lucy Johnston, Costume in Detail by Nancy Bradfield, and Patterns of Fashion 1: 1660-1860 by Janet Arnold. I've heard they are all really good books to have in the library for a costumer :) So glad to add them to my collection along with Lucy Barton's Historic Costume for the Stage, James Laver's History of Fashion, Kyoto Costume Institute's Fashion, and Cut My Cote. I'm also waiting for a copy of Stage Makeup by Richard Corson (it's in the mail) for use in my J-term Stage Makeup Course.

I've also been inspired to do something over my break. I still need to finish my corded petticoat (once I find the spool of hemp someplace in my house) and make a new regency chemise (from the remaining batiste from my victorian chemise and drawers). I've been eyeing the JP Ryan stays pattern and kit from Silly Sisters for a while, so I'm planning to order that soon so I have something to work on when I'm back at school in a couple weeks.

Costume 1 Final Designs

I passed in my costume final on Monday and took photos of each of my lovely designs for a Retro 50's-70's version of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Here they are in all their glory!

 Hermia in a pink spotted circle skirt dress.

Nothing is better

than sitting on the couch at home with two labrador retrievers snuggling at your feet. Yes, I'm finally home!

I finished my finals yesterday morning and the original plan was that Mom was going to pick me up from school today after work. But I finished my finals and called my dad and I went home! The real reason was because my mom just had a big birthday and there was a surprise party last night with the ladies from the neighborhood. Initially I didn't think I'd finish on time, but when I passed in my finals, I knew I had to come home because I knew it would make my mom very happy. So after unloading my stuff out of the car, I stuffed it all in my closet so it looked like it was empty and then went and hid at my neighbor's house. Around 7:30 my mom walked in the door (thinking it was only drinks with my neighbors and maybe the wife's sister) and was completely shocked to find most of the neighborhood in the kitchen. She burst into tears to see everyone, then looked at me and was even more surprised! She thought I was still at school! I guess I get best daughter award :)

So close!

All I have left of Finals is :

- 2 performance reviews

- 1 painting

- Writing resources on all my designs

- 1 redrawing

- 1 director's letter

- Printing my reference images

- 2 math problems

I promise I'll take photos of my designs and post them here before I pass them in tomorrow!

Ok..

So normally I don't post multiple times a day, it's just that I can't wait for my roommate to move out. She has been in bed for the past half-hour and i still want to work. It really prohibits my studying habits. I hope she can get the ok to move during J-term.

So much to do!

I didn't think I'd get around to another blog post before the end of the semester, but I can't focus on work much longer.

I'm relieved to be finished with classes, even if it means I now have to deal with finals (ugh). I'm currently progressing through my only remaining finals: math and costume design. I'm not worried too much about either, but just want to be home. I currently have two problems left on my math final so that should be pretty easy. My costume final is a whole other story: as mentioned last post, I have 8 full on designs for A Midsummer Night's Dream, 10 historical re-drawings, 2 performance reviews and a director's note. I am proud to say I am moving through each fairly decently. I have 6 more re-drawings and 4 design sketches left, as well as both performance reviews and the director's letter. One thing that has really helped me with the drawings is drawing off another person's shape - e.g. I have taken my neighbors, photographed them, drawn them in the poses in the photos, then put my clothing designs on them. It has really helped me with proportions because I have something to look at and I'm not drawing a body from thin air. So if you are reading this blog, who knows, you might be a character in my designs.

On another note, a group of students here has formed a Shakespeare troupe and is performing Romeo and Juliet. Good news: I went to a meeting today and they said I could be a couple of minor parts in it. Bad news: Pirates starts on the 13th of February and R&J will perform late February/early March, meaning I might not be able to do it :( I'm waiting to see if we will get a schedule for Pirates over break so I can decide and tell the director (who is only a first year and seems really on top of things. The exercises we did today were reminiscent of what I did in WHSTE *sigh*). I'm hoping that even if I can't be in it, I can maybe help with costumes.

It's the most wonderful time of the year?

Well it seems to be for most people with holiday shopping and tree decorating, but for college students it means cramming for finals, booking plane and bus tickets, and cramming enough stuff for 3 weeks home into a tiny suitcase. And I am no exception. My last day of classes is in a couple days, then we have "reading period" where we get time to study and finish our finals. I lucked out a bit this semester, with only 2 finals during finals period - a math take-home test and a costume design project. I presented my dance powerpoint about Agnes deMille on Wednesday and I will pass in my Shakespeare paper on Tuesday. So I just have to do 8 full color designs (complete with images and swatches) for characters from A Midsummer Night's Dream, 10 re-drawings of historical clothing, 2 performance reviews of performances I saw this semester and a director's letter about my designs. I guess it could be about 100 times worse, I'm just having trouble motivating my self to work.