Let's All Meet Up in the Year 2000

I've posted a lovely Turkish leopard costume on Bhuz, in case anybody is interested...  Another one I hate to let go, because it is so beautiful and it does flatter me, but it doesn't suit my music choices and style any more and so it sits in the cupboard sadly missing being worn.  Also selling a blue crushed velvet mermaid skirt.

New costume is even better in real life than in the photos--it's more of an antique gold than a bright gold, with more copper and amber in the fringe.  Plus every diamond shape is outlined in rhinestones so it will be super shiny.  A good exchange for the one I just sold.

Must exercise and dance now.  So not motivated.  Costume shopping and swapping is more fun!
 

I just posted this truly lovely Turkish bedleh on Bhuz, post there if interested.  This was my first real costume purchase--Amina Dalal helped me pick it out, back when she was vending for Anatolia Imports out of her house--and while it's hard to say goodbye, I never wear Turkish style any more, and it should be seen and appreciated in all its sparkly glory, not sit in a bag on a shelf.

I had an *amazing* time at the Red Fez last night, more on that later.  The band played Batwannes Beek for me, and sang me my very own exit song!
 

Got home from helping plan a friend's wedding on Saturday and then sewed, glued and otherwise crafted for four and a half hours straight.  Then I got up today and did it all over again.  But my Arisia costume is basically done, apart from some glitter spray (meant for fabric--it seems to be awesome!).  I cracked myself up practicing in it.  I am really going to enjoy this show!  And the best part about the costuming is that when you take away the silly bit, it's actually a rather nice costume that I could definitely see wearing again for more conventional performances.

Took down the Christmas tree today--on the one hand I will miss the warm cozy glow of its lights in the living room, but on the other hand I really wanted the living room back to normal at this point.  Our town's tree pick up is this week, hence the wait.  I swept most carefully, but I'm sure my feet will be picking up pine needles for months to come when I dance.

Now I am waiting for a pizza to finish baking.  I made it from scratch.  I do rather wish I had made it a few hours ago, though.  This weekend has been like that.
 

I just made a mermaid skirt in two hours--I think that's the quickest I've ever made one.  Though a straightforward mermaid skirt seemed simple in comparison to the last one I made, which had a fishtail train on it.  My rolled hem on the bottom of the skirt even came out okay, thanks to the velvet fabric's natural propensity to roll.  I'm starting to feel like I almost know what I am doing with this sewing thing!
 

Things to say to Najmat only if you *really* mean them include: "Can we work on drum solo stuff?" Oof my glutes. And hamstrings. And hip rotators. And all the rest. My foot remained partially numb throughout class, which was odd. I kept thinking I was stepping on something, and then realizing it was actually my own toes that I was sensing as some inanimate object. Wierd.

Just watched more of my last DVD purchase, and I am captivated by Shushu Amin. It's the performance where she's wearing a multi-colored bra and belt set over a rather hippie-ish skirt, including a wonderful Leylet Hob and a saxophone taqsim. At one point she does these rapid-fire vertical figure eights that are so strong, her belt fringe is whapping her in the elbows. Must find more of this lady! Also watched another Aida Nour orientale number which was much better than the other one, in a glamorous dress. I have decided I need a glamorous dress. Evil Dahlal has a Pharaonics sale, with several costumes that sound like they would fit...

Also, a meme:

I just spent 8 hours sewing.  I can still hear the sewing machine in my head and my fingers are dyed black from all the thread, fabric and feathers I've been working with.  But I made a lot of progress today:

• re-hemmed my trumpet skirt, dutifully using 8 million pins and thereby doing a significantly better job of it this time.
• Made a darted straight narrow belt using denim, a layer of felt padding and glitter velvet.  
• Made feather ornaments for the hips of the belt and sewed/glued them on.  I did a lot of combination gluing/sewing today, as this costume is somewhat sculptural and getting needles through stuff wasn't always an option.  I snapped a needle in half learning that lesson.
  
• Attached wings to bra.  You would not believe how difficult such a simple little sentence turns out to be when taken from theory to practice.
• Ditched the idea of having a swan's neck wrap around my torso, as I felt it would have had the optical effect of shortening my torso, something I do not need.  Instead, the swan's neck comes down from the middle of the front of the bra, and I think looks much better than my original idea.  It's more integrated into the wings now.  The swan's neck is constructed from heavy needlepoint fabric (I like using it as a base for things as it is sturdy yet flexible) and more glitter velvet, with the beak in some of the wet look spandex that the skirt and bra are made from.  Ultimately I think there will be a pearl hanging from its beak, but I'm not 100% sure on that.  I used a red crystal for its eye and made little velvet eyelids to make it look more mysterious and swanny.
  

It seems like I should have done more than that in 8 hours, but I guess I can be happy with what I've done.  I'm definitely done for the night, that's for sure.  What I have left:

• Make pearl strands for loops on belt, probably also loops on bra.  I hadn't planned on doing the bra so hopefully I ordered enough extra pearls to make that happen.
  
• Make headband and gloves from glitter velvet.  Somewhat kicking myself for not ordering these from L Rose when I placed an order over the summer, but ah well, one can't foresee everything.  I had no way of knowing then that the glitter velvet I ordered is exactly the same as her twilight velvet.

This is a good learning project for me.  I'm learning that yes, it matters if you take the time to measure twice and use many many pins when sewing, no matter how long it takes to put them in the pattern pieces.  I'm learning about designing for my particular body.  I'm learning about the construction of skirts, particularly with regard to trains.  And my biggest "yeah, ya think?" lesson learned today is that the fabric goes through the machine much easier if you aren't resting your elbow on the stuff you're trying to sew ;-)
 

I just went out and lit the grill, and noticed the underside seemed to be more brightly illuminated than it should have been while the burners were not going as strongly as they ought, and there was rather a lot of gas smell in the air--I looked underneath and the whole ignition assembly was engulfed in flames!  I reached in and turned the gas off, as that seemed like the best thing to do in the moment.  Now of course I am shaking realizing that it might have been a dangerous and stupid thing to do, but the fire did go out, after a disturbingly long wait.  I should probably disconnect the assembly from the tank but frankly I'm scared it will bite me and the valve at the tank end of things seemed to be working fine, the problem was up by the grill.  M isn't home, he'll freak when he finds out.

I think I'm afraid to turn on the oven now to roast the vegetables I've already prepared.  Raw corn and sweet potatoes at my house tonight!

Well, in more productive news today I went to Green Street Studio to work with my wings.  I booked two hours, and after 45 minutes started to think that was a dumb idea.  I tell you I will have awesome arms and upper back after a month of this!  But I forged on through and got some work done.  It was great to have enough room and not worry about knocking the light off the ceiling or scratching the tv.  Next time I go in I'll bring a video camera so that I have instant feedback.

My mermaid skirt pattern came today, so I calculated my pattern and cut my fabric pieces.  I'll sew them later; I can only deal with patterns for so long before I get hopelessly muddled, so I'm thinking if I do this in stages it will be okay.  I also made lots of progress on my little swan wings.  The only thing left is to make a little cover bit to run along the top of the wing (where the bone would be) to cover all the cut off feather ends.  The kitchen is infested with bits of feather as I was cutting and trimming them to suit the wing shapes.  Thing learned:  it's easier to clean up feather fragments with a wet paper towel than it is to clean them up by sweeping or dusting them.

Man, I'm still freaked out by the fire.  Wah!
 

My L Rose meleya dress arrived today, and OMG it's perfect.  I wasn't totally sure when I tried it on, but then I added the meleya and immediately started prancing around the apartment, it just looked so exactly right!

I'm too sleepy to do my SYTYCD rundown tonight, but I will say Katee knocked my socks off and in her first routine was my favorite of the night.  Also, Kiss Kiss, ha!

Am already getting performance requests for the next Raks Spooki.  Suppose I should get my arse in gear with that.

Ianto ate his medication nicely tonight.  The pharmacy made it beef flavor, of which I was skeptical, but he seems convinced.  For some reason, though, we were only given a five day supply with three more refills, i.e. 20 days total.  That makes no sense, as he's supposed to be on this for the rest of his life.  And a five day supply just makes no sense in the first place.  Guess I'll be calling the vet tomorrow.

I'm on a mini vacation now but my brain is too full to accept it.
 

...for recommending Santogold some time back--her album just became available at emusic.com, I remembered you mentioning her, I downloaded it, and loved it!  A couple of the songs definitely have that M.I.A. sound (especially Creator, which is currently in some beer commercial) but really the album is very diverse.  Influences I hear strongly would be Siouxsie, the Clash, a bit of Daniel Ash type guitar work, Depeche Mode, some singer-songwriter a la Michelle Shocked or Tracy Chapman, plenty of reggae and other world influences, a little splash of industrial in a hip hop kind of way.  It's quite the mishmash but it all works.  (she also reminds me a bit of amadea  vocally speaking)  I definitely recommend her album!

In unrelated news, I ordered a royal blue holo on purple metallic meleya dress from L. Rose. It will be glorious!

The thought of going to the plant nursery and picking up herbs and annuals is far more enticing than the thought of going to the laundromat and watching our comforter spin in circles.  Leaving the comforter at the laundromat while buying plants isn't really an option, unfortunately--maybe if I had a car, but not when traveling by bus.  Decisions, decisions.  I have to do some housecleaning today too, as we're having my parents over tomorrow for a belated mother's day dinner.  Oh!  I should go to the plant nursery, because then I could get my mom a planty present!  All I could get her at the laundromat would be boxes of cheap detergent.  Then again, if that's my plan, then perhaps I should go to the nursery tomorrow so whatever I get for her is nice and fresh.  Plus, there's the Preakness to factor in.*

I picked up my new costume from the post office yesterday and it is stunning.  The photos at the website didn't begin to do it justice; there's fiery green metallic foil throughout the fabric and it sparkles even when you walk by it in regular lighting.  It will be dramatic under stage lights.  It is as expected a couple of inches too long, so I think I will have our local tailor's shop do the hemming for me.  I want to roll up the excess material rather than cut it, and I think doing that with slippery stretchy fabric is beyond me and my sewing machine's abilities.  There's also a couple of rhinestones missing, which I think is inexcusable for expensive costumes, but I've got an email into the Belly Dance Shop to see if they have any extras.  If they don't, Playtime is a Swarovski dealer so I'm sure I can find something close enough there.  For some reason the waist strap is enormously long, it goes around me one and a half times, enough to make me think that perhaps part of it is supposed to go somewhere else, but I can't figure out where.  But all these things are trivial--I'm enormously pleased and can't wait to wear it!

Thursday at the Athenian Corner made me realize how much I really, really miss performing regularly.  I don't think I can reasonably commit myself to more performances yet (and I promised myself not to take on more obligations before a show at the end of June), but I'll be raring to go once my foot is under control!

*an autopsy was completed on Eight Belles, btw.  There were absolutely no pre-existing conditions or any discernible factors that could have led to her fatal accident.  The owners and trainers are sensitive enough to public opinion that they ordered complete drug screens, etc on her.  The article I read mentioned that horses with her long, low running style have a tendency to trip over or knock together their own feet, and it's thought that this is what happened to her, combined with extremely bad luck in how each foot landed as she tripped.  So, while there are lots of reasons to criticize horse racing, her death is really not a rallying point for that, and I plan to watch the Preakness.  Think about this--the more people who watch racing, the greater the public scrutiny of the sport, and that's a good thing.