Sewing, Singing, and Fishy

The Give Away is closed and I will spin to win today or tomorrow. Thanks to all who entered!

I've received several messages from readers asking if I will also sell the blackened beeswax ornaments. Yes, I will, but not until after Feast. I will be making more for the holidays and should have plenty for those who want one to choose from. Stay 'tooned on that!

There is so much happening right now, that it is pretty hectic around here. The Feast clock has sped up, or at least it seems so. I did a fitting on Mila's jacket, petticoat, and cap Saturday afternoon.

The petticoat is done and ready to go as is the cap.

And the jacket was a happy surprise - this was a mock-up made for fitting and not the real deal. (That is red.)

But it fits well and the vent in the back is darling! Today's work is to cut out the real deal and stitch it up. I think I can get it mostly finished today.

Mountain Mama Jessica had quite the weekend, too. Andrew, Jessie's husband, fell while climbing over some rocks at Strawberry Reservoir on Saturday and badly injured his thumb. The injury is gruesome (I've seen the photos) as the thumb is not only dislocated but the wound is open and bone and tendon can be seen.

It took an hour and a half just to get to a hospital for treatment and Andrew sees a hand surgeon sometime this week. Poor guy!

On a brighter note for Jessie's family, the kids had a Sunday afternoon rehearsal for something that is (Grammy brag now) a very big deal.

Cambria and Titan do a lot of performing in musicals and in videos. Coming up in February - a performance of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Two music videos for another project have recently been recorded and are being edited now.

So, when there was a callout for auditions for a children's choir to sing at our church's worldwide General Conference, they auditioned. And, even though 1,400 or so kids auditioned, they both made the choir.

They are in rehearsals for it right now - they will be singing 5 - 6 songs, all of which must be memorized, and they are being accompanied by one of the largest pipe organs in the world. (Shiver. I have been able to see it in person and it is jaw dropping. And its sound is incredible!!)

Jessica took photos during yesterday's rehearsal to help us locate Cambria and Titan when they sing in General Conference. Lucky us, that is always televised as well as streamed, and it will be broadcast to the 17 million members around the world. 

Plus, the Conference Center where they are rehearsing and performing seats a live audience of 21,000. (Another shiver. That's a big audience. My stage fright would kick in big time!)

Jess also sent us a quick video of the kids rehearsing.

I'm so happy for Cambria and Titan to have this experience and I cannot wait to watch them when their choir sings. (More leaky eyes - reminder to self to have tissue close to hand!)

Finally, there were a couple of pets I left out in yesterday's blog post. My kids had many pets while growing up - fish, hermit crabs, a rabbit, a pigeon, budgies, numerous guinea pigs, cats, hamsters, and more. (I did draw a line at the tarantula that Mountain Mama asked for.) But those were their pets, not mine.

But Fishy was mine. I bought her as a pet for my classroom.

Fishy was very tiny and I had a little three gallon aquarium she lived in. That did not last long. She outgrew it in just a couple of months!

I found a ten gallon aquarium in the Science closet, cleaned it throughly, and that became her new home.  She was friendly and always would swim to the students to say hello when anyone walked past her aquarium.

Lugging her home for the summer was quite the process, and I did not take her back after that first summer. She lived in my dining room for five years and died of a swim bladder issue. I never realized how attached you could get to a fish until she was gone.  

To honor her fishy-friendship, no flushing for her! We wrapped her in some soft pink fleece and buried her beneath the Great Blue Heron statue in our stepping stone garden.

Someday I'll share about Sky (best budgie ever; Craig loved him so much!), our canary Sunny (found on a hot summer day when he flew down to drink from my garden hose), and maybe a few more.

Stay 'tooned!