Moving On to the Next Thing!

The virtual seminar is all sorted, clipped, and has notes to accompany it. It's been sent to Mountain Mama Jessica and she will begin putting it all together into one cohesive video today. 

I love teaching, I love sewing, and I love models. Creating a virtual seminar hits all three of those loves. But doing one is a lot of work and I am tired.

Of course, there are always things that you find that make you laugh. Not only did Nashie make his way around the baby gate we'd put at the bottom of the stairs and interrupt filming, but another visitor photo bombed us.

As I was previewing the film clips, a sudden streak across the window in one video caught my eye. I rewound the clip and a bird had flown across the yard outside the window! 

It was small, but very distracting. It's been removed. (Unlike the time that Craig strolled across the yard with the dogs in tow to do their business that was caught on camera. I didn't catch that until I was watching the finished video at BreyerFest!)

My next step is to watch the draft that Jessica sends back to me, make any requests for changes (if needed), watch it a final time (including for what is going on outside the window, LOL) and then send the completed video on to Breyer.

Now I move on to my next project - finishing preparations for Indy Blooms. The swap meet is this afternoon, but I won't be there. 

I went last year and had good sales, but I wasn't using a walker then. Hauling in and hauling out Friday night, then repeating that for the show next day, plus a long day of showing... I don't think I am up to that this year. 

I went through my downstairs china cabinet yesterday and pulled out some pieces I am considering taking to the show. 

My real love is collectibility, and this year the show doesn't have collectibility classes as it has in the past. (There are a few decorator classes at the end of each division, but there is much more to collectibility than just the decorators.) And, I am less and less inclined to bring my really valuable or old chinas - the risk of breakage is just too high.

So, between no collectibility classes and those pesky lifting restrictions I am still under, my show string is small. Some tried and true plastics and (less valuable) chinas, a couple decorators, and that's all.

But I'm okay with that. I've been showing for years and the best part for me is seeing my hobby friends and making new ones. Plus, Leslie is going with me and we will get some sister time as I show.

It's going to be a great day.

A Grammy Brag

 Second Post of the Day

This is a big Grammy brag but keep in mind that this blog functions as my journal. I'm really excited about what I am going to share.

Not interested? Scroll to the bottom for the reminder about the Give Away - it ends at 11:59 Eastern tonight!

Cambria and Titan started their unexpected musical "careers" by joining a children's chorus several years ago. As time has gone on, that has grown into bigger and bigger opportunities for them. 

The first was when they auditioned for parts in a production of Roald Dahl's Matilda, with Titan getting a lead role as Nigel

and Cambria a role as one of Matilda's classmates.

A Utah composer, Angie Killian, was in the audience and heard Titan sing in Matilda. She tracked Jessica down and invited Titan to sing a Christmas song she had written. Cambria was also invited and after Matilda closed, the two of them went into the recording studio.

Titan was given a solo/duet in that song and video.

They have since made five or six more recordings for Angie Killian but this one is my favorite of them all.

They continued to sing in choruses and shows (they just wrapped Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat this weekend) but they had another huge musical opportunity last October.

They auditioned to sing in a children's choir at our church's Worldwide General Conference. 2,800+ kids auditioned; 380 were selected including Cambria and Titan.

They were accompanied by the 10th largest pipe organ in the world

and sang to an in-house audience of 21,000 and a broadcast audience of 17 million. That was a crazy opportunity for Cambria and Titan.

But, it led to another opportunity the very next month, November. 

Both were asked to sing in the 2024 Church Music Festival.

This was held in the historic 1867 Salt Lake Tabernacle  - a smaller venue but with another incredible pipe organ, one that has 11,632 pipes.

About half the kids from the October performance were brought back to sing 

and what an opportunity for the children to sing in that historic building.

Yet another wonderful opportunity to sing  just came to them - like the November performance, one that they did not audition for. (I can only guess that their director for the October and November performances recommended them.)

Read this text from Mountain Mama Jessica:

They are going to be singing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir!! (Now called The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square.) One of the best choirs in the world and often called "America's Choir." (The phrase was coined at Ronald Reagan's inauguration.)

The musician in me is pretty geeked out about Cambria and Titan's big opportunity. I don't often talk about my musical side, but I an a classically trained soprano with a minor in Music and a Masters in Science/Music Education. (Specifically, using Fine Arts to teach Science and Science to teach Fine Arts.)

As an opera singer, I've had my share of times onstage, and some of my fondest memories are having my kids join me there. When I was younger, I dreamed of being a member of the Tabernacle Choir. But, we stayed in the midwest and so it never happened. That's okay - I have had plenty of musical opportunities here.

It is because of my musical background that I know just how big an opportunity this is for the kids, one that they will remember all their lives. Lucky, lucky kids.

They rehearse Tuesday evening and hopefully Jessica will send me some pictures that I can share. Recording will be next Sunday, a week from today. It is doubtful that she will be allowed to take photos then.

Grammy brag over. 

(And don't forget the Give Away!)

Finis!

First and most importantly, I heard from my friend in Boone, North Carolina and despite the hard hit their town took, she and her husband are okay. They have no water or power, but they are okay. Grateful!

----

I did it. I finished the robe a l'Anglaise.

It was absolutely the most difficult thing I have ever sewn and took more hours than anything else I've made. What an undertaking it was.

Lisa is coming over for dinner tonight and we will do a last (I hope) try-on. She will wear her stays (the precursor to the corset), the stomacher (a triangular piece that is pinned over the bust and then down to the waist), and the petticoat with it - all are considered part of the gown despite being separate pieces. 

There is some sentimentality attached to the stomacher and petticoat - it was made with fabric from Leslie's wedding gown and she gave it to Lisa to use for the robe a l'Anglaise.

Lisa is so excited to have her gown completed. She started planning it two years ago and together we researched patterns before finally deciding on this one. The pattern was intended to be completely hand stitched, but I did both machine and hand stitching.

It was a massive project, but I am really happy with how the gown turned out and can't wait to see Lisa walking around the Feast grounds wearing it. (That's next weekend - Tick! Tick! Tick! Tick!)

I'm checking that robe a l'Anglaise off my to-do list. Time is getting really short for final Feast prep but there is still another very important thing on my to-do list. 

Picking up my new business sign.

I got another photo from the craftsman who is making it for me, and the sign is looking good. The border has been painted and all that needs to be done is sealing it and then adding the hardware needed for hanging. 

I nearly went with a different horse motif (above) and I really do like that one, but in the end, I wanted me to be represented, too. (It reminds me of playing Circus Girls with Leslie when we were kids - that's me riding sidesaddle on the horse!)

I love my new sign and it has ended up being a lovely merging of two things I love - horses and sewing. 

It's Feast week so here is a video to give you an overview of what The Feast of the Hunters' Moon looks like. 

Use the link below if need be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs_MAo5TRjU

It's 8 minutes long and the man who made it does a nice job of  showing the variety of things you will see if you go. And check out those canoe races on the Wabash - one of my customers is in it wearing one of my shirts! 

Today is my day off from sewing, and then I will have Monday and Tuesday to finish final preparations. Wednesday we set up the tent and start stocking merchandise. 

Time is flying!

Check it Off!

Yes! I can finally check off one of those three projects I've been working on for what seems like ages!

With ten days left to spare, my video is filmed, cut, edited, proofed, tweaked, and has been submitted! No more dividing my time between projects, stopping a sewing project at a bad spot because I needed to work on the video, or stressing over whether or not the video will come together as I'd hoped. Hurrah!

I wish I could tell you more about it and what it is for, but I can't. I will share in the future although I don't know when that will be. (Insert "stay 'tooned, right?) 

These three projects have impacted my Horsiemama life in a big way. Barn time has been minimal at best and Sewinmama is a better description than either Horsiemama or Teachinmama. (My original blog.) 

I have made everything on this clothing rack.

Wooden hangers have to be used at The Feast as plastic had not yet been invented in the 18th century. (They are HEAVY in comparison.)

There are horsey things to do; I just can't at the moment. I have unopened models in boxes sitting around the horse room waiting for me to release them. Since I will have to rearrange the shelves to fit all the new ones, they will sit until The Feast and GLC show are over. 

Rearranging shelves is one more project that I don't want to start right now. (Although I do find rearranging shelves enjoyable.)

Since I am now in final stages of Feast prep, I think the barn and model time will continue to be pretty limited. I'll do my best to continue to post horsey blog entries, but please understand if the blog is Feast-heavy for a while - I can only write about things that I've experienced and my life is at the sewing machine for the moment.

So, thanks for your patience, and if you have no interest in The Feast and its doin's, it will be over October 8 and things here on the blog will shift back and become horsey again. I'll be working on show prep for the October Great Lakes Congress show that is two weeks after The Feast and will no doubt have a lot to say about that. So...

Stay 'tooned!

 

 

Tick! Tick! Tick!

Tick! Tick! Tick!

It seems as though I am constantly hearing a clock ticking in my mind. At times my stress levels have been through the roof as I think about all I need to do. 

Did you notice how early yesterday's blog entry posted?  I'd woken up at 2:30 AM and could not get back to sleep, so I got up and went to work. I am an earlier riser, but that took it to new heights!

That early rising did help me get some things done that had been hanging over my head. The video now has all it's editing spots marked and the graphics planned. I need to re-record the very last segment and then off to the film editor it goes. Due date is October 1 so I am in good shape on making that deadline.

Tick! Tick! Tick!

The Feast of the Hunters' Moon is my next deadline. It happens October 7 - 8 at Fort Ouiatenon, but I will be working on the grounds beginning Wednesday, October 4. I need to be ready by then.

I have sewn a lot of clothing to sell, but I will not have everything finished that I'd like to take. As you can see, my office is a mess with things set up for re-filming the video as well as all my Feast boxes and tubs out as I take inventory.

I used hand block printed cottons from India for many of the things I make, 

and Leslie is a US dealer for them. She lets me have them at cost.

Like me and other reenactors in the midwest, she is preparing for the Feast, too, so she has ordered many, many new fabrics to sell there. (I will also sell them from my booth for her.)

She keeps sending me tantalizing photos of what's coming in and inviting me to come up and take what I want. I've been up to her farm twice this week already and am probably going up again later today. 

But I don't just sew block prints; I have several tubs of other fabrics. Men's voyageur shirts also came in small prints, checks, and solid colors. Other types of fabric than cotton, too, like this light green linen.

Linen can be a bear to sew (depends on the weight of the fabric), and this linen was in the bear category. But I liked it so much, I have a men's shirt nearly finished and I made this pocket for myself from it. 

Tick! Tick! Tick!

Finally on my docket is the Great Lakes Congress show on October 21. I am really looking forward to this show and seeing lots of friends. I'll be taking the Mercantile with me, and I am thinking about taking Pony Pal Mila. She has quite a few models now, and while they are mostly unicorns, I think she has enough non unicorns to enter.

And, the class list is small enough that I think I could work the Mercantile while at the same time helping her get her models into their classes.

Youth Division

*This division is for those new to showing and are younger than 15 years old

1Y.  Western Performance

2Y.  English Performance

3Y.  OF Plastic Stock 

4Y.  OF Plastic Light 

5Y.  OF Plastic Draft 

6Y.  OF Plastic Pony 

7Y. OF Plastic Sport 

8Y. OF Plastic Other Breed

9Y. We are Family (Foal and Mare or Stallion)

10Y. My Favorite Model

I need to decide on that soon. I have spoken with Vanessa about it and she's given me the green light to take Mila. And Mila has spent enough time with my collection that she's learned to be very careful around models and to not touch unless she checks first that it's okay. I feel very comfortable bringing her to a show as a result.

Mila seems to have a real interest in model horses, and I am willing to nurture that love.

After all, she's the one who asked me, "Grammy? Can I have this when you're dead?"

Yep! That's my Mila!

Tick! Tick! Tick! 

 

Christmas Visit to the Horses

Like she did for the 4th of July family get together, Vanessa has made a video of our family Christmas. To see our visit with the horses, fast forward to 1:41. At the very end of the horse section, Lukie has gone back to see Abby by himself and is standing on the gate calling to her. (That may be my favorite part of the entire Christmas video!) Enjoy!

Hay! Here's an Educational Video About Horses

I'm a teacher, so naturally I am always interested in educational materials for kids. So when Pony Pal Cambria's mama, Jessica, sent me this video, I was happy to watch it.

Alrighty then! I know some former students who would have gotten a big kick out of this one. (Hay, so did I! LOL)