Tis the season that I begin my day at about 6 a.m. [ ish] and start sewing by 8 a.m.  Working until 1 or so, taking a break, and then draggin’ myself back to it for the afternoon shift – unless I have a class that evening.

My busy season.

Wedding dresses, prom dresses dance costumes abound – yay for the chance to create such a variety of beautiful things~!  

My first deadline weekend was May 18th.  Irish dance dress. Gone. After 11.5 hours of sewing.  Does not sound like much time, I know.   And if it could be done all at once, it would be two, not so long days.  But it gets spread out over weeks and looms quietly in the background.  Taunting me with the huge, heavily interfaced skirt that knocks everything off my shelf and window sill as I try to work on it.  But it is gone now.

Next deadline: May 26.  Silk prom dress should be done by then.  That means working on the weekend probably, amongst the two dance events I am booked to perform at as well.  

Oh, did I mention the dance gigs have been picking up this spring too?  Yay! And that means new costume pieces for me as well – must have new things when you are dancing all the time!  Which means making them as well.  Good thing I hand sew fairly quickly when watching Buffy episodes!  5 episodes got my new silver bra and belt done to the point of wearing. Updates will take place though, before the June Recitals/Shows.  But I now have the pre-made fringe [ thanks, Diane] that will form a back ground for the hand beaded and coined fringe I will add myself.

And June 5th brings the light at the end of the tunnel to most of the dance costumes I am making.  A few I can push over to the next week, if I need to.  And then I will run away.  I will take a brief respite after the June 12th show to find a moment of sanctuary before the rest of the bridal season takes hold. There is a retreat that calls to me, but at $400, it may be pushing things a bit out of balance.  Perhaps my retreat simply needs to be me and Boing and a hammock, out of Tom’s way while he processes DVDs of the OCCP.

I’ll decide closer to it.  Once I figure out what I want, it will all fall into place.

For now, I am actually enjoying the structure I have managed to set up for myself with Ical. I schedule in the work time for each project, with some flexibility to move things around and change my mind. As long as I get those pieces worked on before their appointments, all is good.

Today introduces a new wild card into the mix. The return of working in Beacon Hill.  I have been working with Ivy for about 20 years now, part time, full time, off for a while, on to contract work.  It has always been a great way to get out from my own clients work, and see something new.  And play with even more expensive pieces, and this summer offers some fun beading to be done. Yay~!  Here’s hoping that I can find a way to schedule this work too…

Well, off to walk Boing and get ready to head out!