And piles and piles and piles….

of work. I'm getting sick of this. I just finished playing the cut and paste game with all the notes I took about children's clothing and I'm at 10 pages for my Material Culture essay. Just 5 6 to go (My 15th page has to be actual text, not piles of end notes, as I'd love it to be).

Also, I apologize for anyone who is reading my blog. The next few posts will probably be me complaining about my excessive work for finals. I promise that my 100th post (this is my 98th) will be something readable and amusing.

Beautiful day?

Happy Easter! So far, it has been beautiful outside (I went to brunch without a coat today), but I have been stuck inside prepping for all sorts of mayhem. We have our senior banquet today, so my entire house is setting up for the banquet in the living room. It looks really pretty. However, this morning the first years decided to make breakfast in bed for the seniors, but almost burned the house down. I guess they got toast stuck in the toaster and it started burning. Typical. So the fire alarm went off and we had to evacuate around 9:30 am. It's a good thing one of the HONS came and knocked on my door otherwise I would have still been in pajamas.

Also this morning, an alumna came and photographed my room for one of her upcoming exhibits. She specializes in photographing personal spaces and one of my peers had sent around an email that she was going to be photographing in the area, so I signed up. I wasn't actually in the room while she worked, but I do know that she used my regency dress and chemise, my corset, my copy of Corsets and Crinolines, and my sewing box in the photos, which is cool because those are some of my most treasured items I have at school. I don't know exactly when the photos will go up, but hopefully before finals. I'm also hoping to get a copy of two of the photos. That would be cool.


Now back to work on something (maybe stats homework or my Material Culture essay about toys). Au revior!

Hey, it's like doing homework

but it's not! My current homework for my material culture class is to read about historical fashion and it is making me think a lot about Cabaret costumes - so much that I have designed the Kit-Kat Girls costumes. Hehe. I made thumbnail sketches this morning and just now finished full size pencil drawings for 5 of the 6. I'm having a hard time picking a costume for myself, partially because I used all the good ideas on the others. EDIT: I finished drawing and coloring all the girls' designs! I'm really happy because they look very pretty and well organized! Yay! I'm really hoping that these ideas can come true, but we are a low budget group, so we'll see. But without further ado, here they are:

Yes, the designs in all their glory. 

*LL Readers: I'd love for these to happen, but if you're not comfortable with what I've put you in, feel free to change it (we'll be sending out a costume list sometime next week so you can hunt over break).*

Diamond in the rough

I just finished all six of the Kit Kat girl designs and still have to do the Kit Kat boys (after tomorrow night, when I finish my essay for Material Culture). So anyway, I was surfing youtube and found a wonderful gem - a recording of the original Cabaret opening with Joel Grey. It's very different from Alan Cumming's version, but still cool (it's also more proof that the girls had cats on their costumes)!

Meine Damen und Herren, Mesdames et Messieurs, Ladies and Gentlement!

I'm just having a lot of trouble focusing on my work, so it's probably a good idea to take a break and do this now while it's fresh on my mind - I got the cast list for Cabaret! I'm playing one of the Kit-Kat guys (Herman to b exact) which is a bit surprising. I've always seen myself as feminine and I was sure that I would be cast as a lady this time around, but I was wrong. I'm a bit disappointed because I won't be dancing quite as much now, but the Assistant Director came and talked to me tonight and mentioned I'd be dancing in one of the numbers in the beginning of the show (either Don't Tell Mama or Mein Herr - which are traditionally performed by Sally and the Kit-Kat Girls) because I'm one of the stronger "male" dancers. I also talked to the other costume head and she has some cool ideas for costumes and we'll have to go over those at some point (she was thinking Dresden Dolls/Amanda Palmer as an inspiration). I was also planning to stop by my costume design professor's office to see if I could borrow some fashion books from the late 20's/early 30's to get a better idea of the shapes (but only once I've gotten my work under control).

Ok. Now that that's out of my system, off to reading Material Culture and studying for my Stats test tomorrow morning.

Red and creamy silk all over

I figured it was time for a new post, considering my last one was about my stage makeup class. The semester has started off quite well. I'm taking Statistical Thinking (which my professor keeps telling us is NOT MATH), Intro to American Studies, Intro to Study of Women and Gender, Ballet IV, and New England Material Culture from 1860-1940. So far all the classes have been good, but I particularly love my Material Culture class. My professor brought in some random artifacts today and had us analyze them based on appearance. I was given the task of analyzing a red satin boot. It turned out to be a "bathing" boot from about 1890 that women wore on trips to the seashore. Pretty cool!

I also received a book for my birthday: Norah Waugh's Corsets and Crinolines! Ahh! It is so beautiful and packed with information about all sorts of skirt supports and stays and corsets. Hopefully I will get to draft a pattern for one of the skirt supports over break or this summer (of course, after I finish fitting the cover for my dress form...).

I'm also looking to drop Pirates of Penzance. I would really love to do it, but my work is a lot heavier than last and I'm worried about keeping up. So I'm looking at staying with the Leading Ladies or maybe joining the newly formed Shakespeare troupe. I just need to make up my mind.