A New Direction

Last night as I was driving back from class I had a sudden flash of understanding. My Tuesday group has been the bane of my life this term what with the tiny shorts some members will insist on wearing, the complete refusal by others to move more than four inches to the right or left regardless of the fact that it's a BLOODY DANCE CLASS and the general moaning that they're expected to do exercise in an exercise class that they've chosen and paid to do. One lady though, I'll call her Nancy, has baffled and bothered me above all others - never in 36 years of dancing have I met anyone with such a total absense of co-ordination. Not a lack, not a question of using one leg when everyone else is using the other, not a mere matter of not being able to do arms and legs at the same time or walk in time to music or any of those minor difficulties, Nancy seems unable to distinguish between moving and standing still. She is the living embodiment of the phrase about not knowing one's arse from one's elbow.

But last night it became clear - she has actually developed her own method of movement, I truly believe that she will be heralded in the dance community of the future as a trail blazer in the same vein as Isadora Duncan. There will be classes on how to smack yourself in the eye with your own elbow when all you've been asked to do is gently move one shoulder. How to interpret the phrase 'just kneel down' into 'please balance on one forearm and the back of your head'.

She is a genius. And I think I love her.

This in turn led to another flash, so what if you're tipping 20 stone and have a bus pass - wear hot pants! Why the hell not? You go Marie, that's a camel toe of proportions that should be made public. The look of surprise on the faces of the Yummy Mummy's with their head to foot Boden was worth it alone for me.

Festival! Un-yipee and very much un-hurrah.

Tunbridge Wells Dance Festival starts tomorrow and while this, for the overwhelming majority of people is rightly insignificant, for me it's a week of fear and loathing. I have about 15 dances entered with children aged from about 6 to 15 years old, I've choreographed the dances, rehearsed them, designed and made the costumes, found and cut the music, made props, stuck sequins to tutus and agreed to do face painting and hair styling for a fair number of the competitors and still the parents are moaning to my boss that I haven't done enough for their daughter. I appreciate that we all think our child is the most talented, beautiful and wonderful since the dawn of creation but having worked seven days a week since October I'm on the verge of telling some of the Mothers exactly where they can stick their...well, you get my drift. I've been working so diligently on their kids that my OWN 6 year old doesn't yet have a costume for her performance on Tuesday. And I'm going to have to be VERY creative to think of a Valentines present for my long suffering and extremely patient husband.

On the upside I've discovered a few skills I didn't know I had (including making flat pack furniture with instructions in Polish. God bless Lidl.) I might post a great many pictures the week after next

No!! It can't be time!! Not yet surely?!

It's less than a week until the damn dance festival - I can't believe my stupidity at agreeing to enter so many kids. I feel faintly sick every time I think about the coming week but like fiddling with a sore tooth I keep sending my mind back to it just to check it still really bloody hurts.

On the upside though (and I'm trying very hard to concentrate on the positive) I've sold 4 versions of this monster in three days
It's the LUURVE monster, he's my favourite sock creature to date, I was intending to make more arsey types but as I stuffed the head the seam made such a sweet smile I had to turn away from my natural sulkiness and make something far more good natured than I'll ever be.

Sulking monsters

It's snowing. The boiler has decided it's not going to play anymore and packed up leaving us with no heating or hot water over the weekend. An engineer is booked for first thing tomorrow morning but I'm so worried the snow will mean terrible traffic and he won't get here...
It's not too bad for me as I work in a gym and can shower after work but my poor daughters are freezing and fed up at having to wash in a kettle of water.

These two new monsters just about sum up the expressions I was greeted with when I got back from work this afternoon.

They're both completely inspired by a brilliant book I treated myself to last week called
Stray Sock Sewing, the patterns aren't great but the photos are fantastic and it's given me a kick to start sewing again.

Charlie Monkey

Just a random picture of a sock monkey. I love his face. Can't remember where I sent him to now.

Everyone apart from me is back to work or school today, I've got another week (well another official week, I still have hours of choreography to do and syllabus to learn ready for going back to Aerodance and my IDTA exams) and don't know what to do with the time - I SHOULD use it to get the house sorted but am so tempted to spend it sewing fun things before I have to get down to costume making ready for the damn festivals - I saw a blog about aiming to make 50 things this year - 50? 50?? Christ, I've got to get through that before February.
1. 2 Tail coats for Hey Diddly Dee
2. Bow Ties for above
3. Pretend food for the bad mice
4. 2 bonnets for above
5. 2 sets of Ears and collars for Naughty Kitten
6. Big of Wool as above
7. Cat Bed (WTF? How am I supposed to make a cat bed big enough for two six year old girls?)
8. 3 Tarantella blouses
9. 3 Tarantella skirts
10. Lyrical costume for Rubes

And that's just what I can think of here at 5 past 7 in the morning.I suppose I could get the Tarantella blouses done and the tail coats started today as I have the fabric and patterns already.....Ok. Plan for today.

Spend an hour learning Aerodance syllabus
Photograph the monkeys I made yesterday and get them on to Folksy and MISI
Draft pattern for blouses
Find tail coat pattern and cut out
Make Sausage casserole for the girls tonight
Put away yesterday's laundry

If I can get all that done before school pick up I can spend this evening stuffing monkeys (that sounds filthy) Well, it's nice to have a plan, I wonder if I could fit in a run after I've dropped the girls off, hmm, I really fancy running through the snow...and it would mean I could have some lunch too. I'll see how motivated I feel once I get back home.

More monsters

Well, I confess I failed dismally at the NaBloPoMo thing, Frankly November was a horrible month with nothing to recommend it other than at least it seemed to go quickly. My right arm is incredibly painful and my poor family must be sick to death of the smell of Deep Heat and my constant whining. I suppose I'm going to have to go back to the doctors' next week but I don't know how to be taken more seriously. Oh! I could go on and on about how much my right side hurts but what's the bloody point? To paraphrase the great Kenneth Williams.

Instead here are this weeks sock creatures - I've nearly made back what I spent on my sewing machine in sales which is nice. A long way off the target I set at the beginning of the year but then again I did start 9 months later than I intended.