2 Duets, 16 Spoonful of Sugars, 19 Step In Times finished, and just 24 Super Cali's To Go!

January 8, 2008

Well, we have survived getting Cooper's tonsils removed, Christmas, New Years, and returning to the school rut! Guess you could say our lives are back on track....

My time is anything but dull and boring lately....I spent my entire Christmas break making 19 Step In Time Costumes!!! My poor sewing machine is threatening to go into retirement, and I just may let it after it finishes 24 Super Cali costumes in the next couple of weeks. I am just waiting for the light bulb on the sewing machine to burn out. All these late nights, early mornings, and entire days surely must be taking it's toll on how many life hours that bulb has remaining. The biggest problem is that I don't have a replacement bulb, there is no Bernina store close by, I can't see very well when it's dark if it doesn't work, and there flat isn't time to go find a store that may have it. Everyone better be saying their prayers that the bulb has a VERY LONG life span! I'm not sure the machine will work if it burns out....guess we'll see.

My other problem is that my seam ripper seems to just LOVE to play hide and go seek. Now that normally isn't a problem except that I lost my other one, and now if this one goes to hide, how am I supposed to rip out mistakes that I very rarely make. Just the other day it was complaining to me that it doesn't hardly ever get used, and that the blade was going to rust. Generally, I can handle a little guff off a sewing instrument, but after 15 hours straight of sewing, I just lost my temper. I threw the thing in the back of the top drawer of the sewing cabinet, and then when I went to look for it, it was no where to be found. I truly think that it got together with the kite string and formed some kind of alliance to find a new home together. Come to think of it, the kite string has been acting funny lately. Every time I go to make a ruffle on the duet costume skirts, I have to untangle the kite string. It never used to get tangled, but now that I bought some new sharp scissors, (And no, you can't use them for anything!), that kite string manages to tangle itself up overnight. There must be some party going on in that top drawer that I don't know about. Maybe the tailor's chaulk will fill me in if I am nice and feed it a chaulk refill! If not, maybe the pinking shears will spill their guts! That may be dicey though as they really have their up and down days. I know, the Mom labels will tell me the truth, and then I can just clean out the drawer and sort everyone out! Cleaning out the drawer will cause some anxiety as I really don't know what could be lurking in the way back corner of it. It could be something scary, or sharp and pokey. Who knows what the magnet that lives back there could have attracted! Heaven knows it's not straight pins. All of them are working their little heads off holding various costumes together until I get around to sewing over them. The lucky ones manage to make it through another seam without getting bent by the big bad needle coming down on their little heads. One of the pins met it's doom tonight as the needle came down and fractured it's leg. I now have a hole in the material where the pin was bent so terrible. I had to take the needle out the the machine, and pry the material out of the bobbin casing! All to try to revive that little pin. It is impossible to give a pin mouth to mouth recessitation as they don't have mouths! It wouldn't have worked anyway as the poor little guy was in such a state of shock from seeing his little leg at a 90 degree angle from the rest of his body. Needless to say, the pin did not survive the ordeal, and we had to have a funeral before it found it's final resting place in the trash can with the ruffle scraps. I did make sure it was resting comfortably on a piece of interfacing though, so does that mean I get brownie points from the other pins? A pin funeral is really quite boring as they all just stand there straight and tall (well mostly straight and tall, some of them are a bit bent over with age!) holding their heads up. No one says much, they just stand there, staring in disbelief at the bottom of the trash can.

Things at the dance studio are rolling along. We are in the middle of our first competition registration. What a mess! People don't pay the entry fees on time, and then they wonder why we haven't entered their solos and duets. DUH! We don't enter dances that aren't paid for! Several people have had some revelations tonight as we told them to bad, they couldn't dance their solos this time. And before we know it, we will be in the middle of the recital stuff. I can hardly wait for those costumes to start coming in!

I am running the studio from home for the next couple of weeks, as I am living at the sewing machine to get the costumes done. Ginny and I spent the entire morning downtown choosing material for Super Cali. Ginny thinks I can run the studio from home and sew at the same time. It's going to kill me. I will soon be found at the bottom of the trash can among the ruffle scraps laying on that cozy piece of interfacing with the fractured pin! The phone rings constantly while I am home, and it's very hard to hold the phone, hold fabric straight, and not sew thru my finger. I know from experience that it is painful when you run the needle through your finger, and you have to spend time digging the needle parts out of your finger and stopping the bleeding. Then the next day your finger is VERY tender, and swollen, and that makes it an easy target for the situation to repeat itself!

Thankfully, Dad is in town, and is doing all the dance runs. He carts costumes to and from the studio, and picks up files and papers, and phone messages. He even comes into the sewing room, putting his life in peril to fight his way through all the hanging costumes to kiss me! Miracles will never cease....those kisses are what is keeping me going.

My foot is not doing any better. Guess that podiatrist will have to come up with something besides a surgical boot and 3 motrin 3 times a day. Thank goodness it is not the foot I use to sew, just the foot that pushes in the clutch on that dumb car. Tonight it is swollen and very sore because I drove the car clear downtown this morning. The van has some gas smell from something they did to clean the engine, so when I drive it more than a block I get a migraine. That wouldn't have been good in the rain and traffic, so Dad took the van to work today and I had the car. Now tonight, my foot is doing the be a pain thing.

Well, I guess I better at least try to get some sleep. It's been a really long day, and I have to get all the leotards for Super Cali cut out in the morning. Then it will be off to match some lining material for the boys vests, and buy some backram to make the girls hats. Home just in time to pick up Coop from school, then back to the old sewing machine grind until Dad comes home and the whole dance thing begins again.

Those of you still reading this, remember Dad and I love you very much. Remember to talk to your Heavenly Father about the important things happening in your life, and go out there and make Him happy that you served someone today. Do your homework, brush your teeth, and call your mom and dad sometime.

Love you bunches and bunches,

Mom