Senior Photos!

Hannah and I had a delightful morning testing my large Canon film camera lens that I picked up at one of the local thrift stores a little bit ago. The lens passed with flying colors!

Hannah decided that these will be her Senior pictures that she sends out to family and friends in her announcements. We are going to send out a collage similar to this one and her favorite individual photo in each one.

You know you did something right when you pick up the one hour photos and your senior tells you that you don't have to pay a photographer to take her portraits!

Love you, Hannah Banana!

Have a great day!
Donnelly

Jekyll and Hyde is 5 days away and counting!

I thought I would share with you the local commercial for Jekyll and Hyde that came out a couple of days ago.



My people have been coming home from rehearsals SO EXCITED! I can't wait to see it.

Starting Monday, I will be at rehearsals. On Monday, I get to find out my roles. Not only do I get to help with costumes, I will probably usher and take tickets each night. Hannah and I will be late on Tuesday as she has a Madrigals choir concert at school. She has several solos. She is pretty bummed out that her dad and Keith can't come; but that is the chance you take when you talk your people into auditioning with you! After the concert, Hannah and I get to rush rehearsals.

Wednesday is final rehearsal. Guaranteed that I will be packing my big Canon film camera to take photos of my peeps.

I am going to take photos of Hannah tomorrow to test drive my big lens that I got at the thrift store; so I know if it will work during rehearsals. Nice thing we have a new SuperWalmart in our town. As soon as I take photos I can have them 1 hour processed so I know what I am dealing with. Will share photos as soon as I get them.

Have an awesome day!
Donnelly

Ballgown complete!

Here is where Hannah and I started on her ballgown. A pattern and little bits of fabric and trim to show Lori, the director.

Here is a photo of all the the parts before we started cutting! Ten yards of fabric, a few yards of trim, light-weight woven fabric sewing machine needles, zipper, satin pins and thread.

Found out along the way, not to trust a teenager with her dress size.

Pattern dress size too small. Altering the pattern = priceless.

Here is the bodice and part of the sleeves. Mishap with the iron and my applique pressing sheet. Pressing sheet worked like a dream through one sleeve ruffle. Second sleeve ruffle, the iron melted the taffeta through the pressing sheet. Thank goodness there was enough left over to make a third ruffle, that was sewn on backwards not once - but twice!

Almost quit!

Mustard yellow pool table is not attractive at any time, let alone late at night! On the other hand, pool tables make a great sewing/quilting/craft table much to the disappointment of the hubby!

The next two photos are super blurry! Taken with my Blackberry to pacify my thespian! She was absolutely sure the dress would never be done.

Totally not sewn, just pinned.

Made my girly happy!

I cannot express the frustration and joy this dress has caused me. What I thought would take one night, took 5. I had to take the skirt waist out 2 times in 2 days! Then, there is the fact that I had to improvise the back. Remember the zipper? Changed to to 3 extra inches in the back as a panel with Velcro! This musical, we won't have stuck zippers, at least for my girly!

Even though she is not feeling well, she is modeling for me.

Here you might be able to see the alteration to the back! I was pretty excited with how my vision to fix the back worked out!

I have to say that I love this view. Hannah is heading to her car to see if her dress and petticoat will fit behind the wheel of her Honda so she doesn't have to change clothes.

No such luck, she had to put street clothes on.

Have an awesome day!

Donnelly

yeah!

Our dress pattern was approved by the director last night. Looks like I will be sewing like crazy this weekend!
Have a great day!
Donnelly

Excitement!

Hannah and I went one of the local thrift stores today to try to find a dress that I could alter for Jekyll and Hyde. No luck.

Earlier in the day, I had gone to JoAnn's to pick up a few things. I saw that Simplicity patterns were $0.99. Didn't know why that caught my attention because I haven't used a sewing pattern in ages.

Flash forward to the unsuccessful trip to the thrift store. Both of us are pretty disappointed. Hannah reminds me of the impending deadline for costumes, which depresses both of us more. All of a sudden, $0.99 patterns pop into my head. Hello!

So here is the pattern that we are going to use.

Along with the pattern are Hannah's fabric choices. I took the photo without a flash because the glare from the taffeta was blinding with the flash! These are both very rich, luminous colors. Hannah is excited about the swish the taffeta will make when she walks and dances.

Lori, the director, wants jewel tone fabrics for the scenes the ladies will be wearing their dresses for. These fabrics are Hannah's choice for "jewel-tones". We only bought 1/8 yard of each fabric and the main ribbon, just in case Lori doesn't like the pattern or the colors. The whole lot cost me $2.63! Much cheaper than buying a dress at the thrift store that you can't return.

Cross your fingers for Hannah and I, please. We are both hoping the dress style and fabrics work for Lori. Jekyll and Hyde takes place in the Victorian era. I know this pattern is not spot on, but it is the best we could do. There were a lot of patterns for the Elizabethan era, the Renaissance era, the Medieval era, the Georgian era; but none for the Victorian era. I think that this one is close and I can absolutely adapt this with a bustle and maybe fitted sleeves with a gathered puff between the shoulder and elbow, if needed.

Have a great day!
Donnelly

New Thrift Finds!

Yesterday, Rick and I hit the thrift stores. I picked up a few things that I absolutely loved. I picked up 2 Coates and Clark and 1 Gem size 30 threads. I know I have said this before, but I LOVE vintage threads. All 3 spools look like they had never been used and each one cost 75 cents! Total output was $2.25. I have a couple of the varigated yellow and orange spools so back-ups are always good. I have never had the solid orange before. At the thrift store, I thought they looked like fall colors. When I got home, the only fall color was the solid orange. The varigated yellow reminds me of spring sunshine and the varigated orange reminds me of Creamsicles. Funny how perceptions change.

My next vintage purchase was a duck teapot. It was without it's lid. I scored this treat for $1.50! I am going to use it in my craftroom to put tools in. I see this with knitting needles, scissors, crochet hooks, rotary cutters, etc in it!

It is marked "Hand Painted Japan" on the bottom.

My next find is awesome! I don't know if I have talked about how much Rick changed Christmas for me. There was a time when Christmas was not my favorite holiday. My mom was and still is depressed around Christmas-time and I am sure it rubbed off on me. Thanks to Rick's hard work, I have become a fan of Christmas. So without further ado, I present to you a vintage Santa vase. He cost $1.99.

His bag is the vase! How cool is this? I can tell by the way he is painted that he is old. Every year, I find as many different flavors of candy canes as I can and stick them in things for visitors to enjoy. Can't wait to see his bag filled with candy canes waiting for someone to take one!

All together my treasures cost. $5.74! I couldn't be happier!

Hannah thinks that I need to come up with a new adjective to wish you the best of days, so here it is: Hannah wants to tell you all to have a stupendous day!

Donnelly