Progress!

I was supposed to be getting on with some plain silk veils, but the silk hasn't arrived yet.  Order deliveries always take longer than I think they will, probably because I don't take into account the time needed to process the order, which is a bit daft. It's only common sense that the supplier will take a day or two to receive, check and put together the order, package it up and send it off.  Still, for the last two orders I sent out to other suppliers, they took more than a couple of days and it looks like this one will, too.

I have a tendency to drift and dither when I've planned what to do and then can't, but this time I seem to be making some progress on a number of jobs. I have a bit more energy at the moment, and wonder whether it might be partly due to gritting my teeth rather than take painkillers all the time.

Xena thinks it's her bed

The mountain of laundry which built up while I was off my feet is at last giving way to a mountain of clean, dry clothes and linens.
I've managed a little cleaning and tidying (okay in small doses), changed the bedding ...
Done some designs for mounting cards/labels ...
I've even made some headway with accounts (again, okay in small doses).

I've finished off some fabric flowers (more about those another time), including a knotted ribbon chrysanthemum with a faceted glass centre, as part of a present for a friend's birthday.
She came down with her family to Pembrokeshire on holiday last week, so I used a visit to deliver her present as an excuse to drive for the first time since my op.  Apart from the car needing a jump start because it had been standing unused for so long, it was fine, and very much more comfortable than walking!
She had picked an idyllic spot for the holiday and we had a lovely evening.  After a meal of smoked mackerel, potatoes and salad, we had a drink outside the pub by the beach as we watched the sky and sea change colour and the sun disappear on what was probably the last nice, summery day.



Having said in May that my stash of ties needed to earn its keep, I decided to process some, ready for use.

I got out my ties and started with some of the polyesters, unpicking them to separate the tie fabric from the interlining and tippings.  In the process, I started to notice stains on the fabric I hadn't seen before and decided it would be a good idea to hand wash the components before use. Although I had stored the ties in bags to keep them clean, I know how much dust clothing can pick up just in the manufacturing process, then there is display, not to mention wear.  (Chaps, there are ways not to get breakfast on your ties, such as putting your tie on after breakfast!)

I was quite fascinated that some of the polyester ties were 'dry clean only', while others were apparently machine washable! I wondered what the difference was. Possibly it depends on the interlining used.  Some looked a bit like felt or light quilt batting, others closer to open-weave embroidery fabric; some fat and soft, some thin and stiff. Even so, I would hesitate to put a tie in a washing machine, even on a delicates cycle. The fabric is cut on the bias, and even hand washing could make it twist and move out of shape against the interlining.

Having done a small mound of ties, I started to wash the linings and was astonished at the colour of the water. It's not like any of the linings changed colour, but the water was a murky greyish brown. Better out than in! I wonder what the fabrics and tippings will be like when I wash them?  I'm giving the linings a gentle spin in the washing machine to remove more of the water so that they don't drip all over the kitchen.

In the meantime, I have to get my act together and go to the bank.

And lo! The silk has arrived!  That'll keep me quiet this weekend, and I hope you have a good weekend too!

Dance Kit Check!

Off to Cardiff yesterday to perform at the Masquerade Belly Dance Ball with some of the lovely women who come to my Imago Belly Dance classes.  For two of them, this was their first belly dance performance; one has only had a couple of months of classes, and is feeling seriously challenged but resolutely goes for it. We must have danced the piece about 25 or 30 times, but there are still some sticky points, made worse by nerves, anxiety and frustration; everyone working so hard to get it right.  It's a relatively short, simple choreography with a lot of repetition, but it's slow and slinky, which needs muscles and control.  And we're wearing masks and using feather boas.  My workroom is adrift with white feathers and bits of glitter. At the end of rehearsals, the room looked like an explosion in a chicken plucking plant.  It's amazing there are any feathers left in the boas. (Admittedly they were cheap, but even so, seriously underwhelming in terms of quality.  Even doubled up, they are straggly and fluffy.  Both of my cats have also tried to kill them; they may be a heap of feathers, but they're obviously not dead enough yet!).
I'm an old hand at performance, but I still get anxious trying to remember all my kit. I packed a small suitcase for the Cardiff show, and received comments from the assembled company in the house at the time that they took less for a week's holiday (though I can't work out how!)  There are a few haflas coming up too, so here is my current and commented list for dance kit:

Body: Costume(s).  I wear everyday clothes for travelling in, with an extra coat or sweater for later. Check you have all the bits of the costume for all your pieces, clean, mended if necessary, admired from all angles in a mirror to ensure you're not unintentionally revealing anything, and rehearsed in to ensure there are no problems. Remember that beaded belts and skirts are designed for dancing, not sitting around in.   If you're wearing bedlah, you might want to take a galabeya to change into for sitting around and perhaps the dancing at the end, or if not, then a ...
Costume cover-up, even if it's only a large silk veil.  And a veil is also a nice prop to shimmy around with at the end, too.

Appropriate underwear!  Note; match knickers/boy shorts to the colour of the skirt.  I like to take a change of underwear, so that I can change into something fresh and dry to avoid getting chilly on the drive home. 
Props.  In this case, mask and boa, and a spare mask and boa in case someone forgets theirs. (I know, I'm just a mother hen!)
Sagat (aka zills, finger cymbals), if you like to play them while shimmying around with if there's a disco at the end.  (If you see me playing air sagat backstage, you know I'm having a few pre-performance nerves!)
Jewellery. Earrings, necklace, bracelets; something to max the bling which won't catch on the boa or mask.
Other bits like emery board, lip salve, moisturiser, body glitter and bindis.
Talcum powder, to try to stop the boa sticking to my sweaty hands!
Small towel and/or wet wipes or similar.
Feet: Dance shoes to match costume.  I might take two pairs, one ballet, one 'ballerina' flat.  I took only the latter to a hafla last year, and they were so grippy on the mucky tile dance floor, I could hardly move!
Face: Make-up and mirror.  For a local show, it's best to go ready made-up; there's seldom a dressing room with a mirror, reasonable light, space and time to do a good job.  We went up to Cardiff quite early and did our make-up in the canteen while we were waiting for our food to arrive.  Note, if you're travelling any distance in make-up, you'll probably still want to touch it up.  If you're in fantasy make-up, be prepared for some strange looks at motorway services when you wander in looking like Dr Who extras! 
Hair: brush, comb, hair clips (hair bands and so on just slip off my head), hair ties, flowers,braids, tikka, dreadfalls, whatever, etc.
Mending kit, with thread to match costume pieces, safety pins, scissors
And various 'handbag' bits such as:
Money, keys, business cards, diary and pen
Phone (with charged battery)
Camera (with charged battery and a spare SD card ... and spare battery in case the first goes dead.)
Music, spare copy on CD
Bottle of water
Address, directions and notes on parking
Tickets, if these have been sent in advance
A copy of the choreography notes (I often go blank!) and tech sheet.

Both my cats get rather upset when I pack to go somewhere, and start being a bit obstructive ...

I don't care if your sparkly galabeya is in here, this is currently my bed.

Birdsong and Music

Spring is well and truly here and I'm surrounded by birdsong.  Which is great, and very loud at 5.30 on a sunny spring morning!  I do rather like waking early and opening a window to listen to the birds while still snug under my duvet.  Unfortunately, I often either fall asleep again or sleep through it entirely.  I can't understand why some people complain about the dawn chorus waking them.  Much better to wake to birdsong than an alarm, surely?  There are those who complain about cockerels, too.  Okay, so they're loud and not the most melodic of birds, a bit repetitive.  My cockerels start the day with a good crow and I love the sound.  Each has a different voice and I can tell who is crowing by the sound they make.  When I go out to feed the chickens and let them out, I can hear cockerels on farms across the valley and it can sometimes trigger a conversation of sorts between mine and the distant cockerels.

The dawn chorus is coming to its peak now and it's not long until international dawn chorus day on 1st May.  The Wildlife Trusts usually hold some sort of events, but it means getting up and out very early.  If you don't hear the dawn chorus at any other time, it's worth making the effort on just one day to listen to the birds.  When it comes down to it, mostly the birds are saying things like 'I'm bigger than he is, mate with me!' or 'This is my spot, go away!' but some just appear to be singing because the sun is shining and all is right with their world.  It makes me want to sing with them.  I especially enjoy playing question and answer with a blackbird, trying to mimic the song and hearing another line sung back to me to copy, like Jeff Beck's 'Blackbird', where he mimics the song on guitar.

I’ve just had an email from the Goldsmiths College Music, Mind and Brain research group, inviting me to participate in part II of their Earworm (involuntary musical imagery) project.  Not that I have recorded many earworms since last October, when I did my original questionnaire and wrote about it here.  Most of my earworms since then have been fleeting, each displacing and replacing another in succession.

Part II is by invitation only, to do a second questionnaire, this time with an emphasis on musicality.  I found doing the questionnaire quite fascinating.  The questions weren’t challenging, but made me think about how I see myself and my relationship to music.  It’s not something I would normally reflect on, so this was a small journey of self-discovery as well.  It made me realise how important music is to me, even though I might not play it all the time and I very rarely listen to it completely attentively, without doing anything else.  Since birdsong is also music, it might only be a matter of time before a bird's song gets stuck as an earworm.

Current earworm: Desert Rose – Sting feat. Cheb Mami.  This one has been going on and off for a few weeks now, and it’s so beautiful I’m not feeling inclined to replace it.  It makes me think of silk veils, the light catching them as they ripple and flow.  I feel a choreography coming on ....