Supporting Other People's Art

One of the best things in my vibrant West Philadelphia community is Curio Theatre Company, a small neighborhood company based in a decommissioned Methodist church.  The building has the most gorgeous Tiffany windows I've ever been able to visit in person.

I've helped out with costuming for Curio's productions for the last six or seven seasons, doing everything from Renaissance doublets (poor Mario!), straitjackets (poor Mario!), pirate shirts for the Tempest (Mario again, but playing along this time), gowns for the Queen of Hearts and the Duchess for a production of Alice in Wonderland, and costumes for a steampunk Twelfth Night and a more traditionally-garbed Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead.

This season, Curio is doing a series of plays exploring gender - from their opening show, a controversial (and very, very good) adaptation of Romeo & Juliet as two teenage girls, to their current show, Dancing at Lughnasa.

I bring this up because in the middle of the storm that the play caused, Curio filmed one of their exceptional performances and there's a Kickstarter afoot right now to try to get up the money to do the editing and produce DVDs of the production.  For a $25 donation, you get to help a great theater company that does a lot of good in the community, you get to poke a finger in the eye of the kind of people who actually sent death threats to them for putting on the play at all, and you get a DVD of the production.

I call that a win/win/win.

Smokey Bears

Back in October, I did a show in South Philadelphia.  While I was there, I was approached by a woman who was interested in custom teddy bears.  She couldn't stay and talk that day, but she took a card and said she would call me.  I never heard anything, so I figured she either lost interest or lost my card.

In early December, she called me and wanted to know if she got me the fabrics ASAP, if she could have 3-4 bears by Christmas.  I said at that point I had about a 10 day turnaround time, so it would be okay.  We traded emails and phone calls for two weeks, at which point it got too close and she said she'd follow up after the holidays.

Silence again until late February, when she emailed to say she was still interested, but having trouble getting it together.  I said that her custom listing on Etsy was open for another 2 weeks, so she had time.  (Listings expire after 4 months).  She paid immediately, and said she'd send the fabrics right out.  Then she emailed to say she'd send the fabrics at the weekend.  Then she emailed on the weekend to say they were going out in the morning.

They finally arrived, and the first thing I noticed when I opened the box was the handful of dryer sheets on top.  I'm not a fan of dryer sheets or their scent, so I chucked them, got on with my day and didn't take the clothes out of the box until later.  Then I was really sorry I hadn't pulled them earlier, because I'd been doing laundry and the reason for the customer's dryer sheets was to try to kill the cigarette smell in the clothes (despite her delays, she hadn't found time to put them in the wash).  My workroom immediately filled with the smell of Newports.

The two pieces were a woman's housedress in a blue wallpaper stripe with lace and a man's plaid shirt.  I was asked to do a single bear in each fabric, and the two remaining bears using both fabrics.  The fabrics are both blue, but that's about all they have in common.  I puzzled for a while about how to make it work, and decided to incorporate a bit of a third fabric (light blue denim) to offset the two and make them argue a little less.  I think it works, at least as well as it's going to.

And if you ever need to know how to get the smell of cigarettes out of fabric when you also don't have time to wash it (I'd done 3 loads of laundry on the day the fabric arrived; if only I'd known earlier), soak it with Febreze and hit it with a really hot iron.  That'll do the trick.

Of course, when I walk into the workroom, I still think I smell the ghost of a chain-smoking woman in a blue housedress.  If I didn't know better, I'd think it was my mom.

It'll Work

The clouds are lifting!

As spring is coming closer, and the snow is finally melting, and I can smell the dirt in my back yard, I can feel it lifting.  That winter fog that messed with my head so badly.

Nothing has changed, but I'm feeling lighter -- I don't have that feeling of 3 a.m. dread that's been lurking for the past month or so, which means it really was just an aggravated case of cabin fever.

My oldest friend, who is also our housemate, tends to have a much different view of life than I do.  I've known her since I was 20 (she threw my 21st birthday party at work), and over the years I can't tell you how many times she's threatened to punch me in the neck for saying, "It'll work."  She always assumes, whatever it is, that it won't work and is therefore never surprised when it doesn't.  I tend (at least until lately) to assume that it will work, and if it doesn't, I scramble to find a way to make sure that it does.

I think a lot of the difference between our attitudes is just how entrenched our ideas are.  I've always been one to think, "Well, if the door won't open, maybe I can go over the wall.  Oh, it's that high?  Maybe I can tunnel under it.  Or, hmmm, wait, if I go three steps to the left, can I just walk right around the damn thing?"

Flexibility is what saves me most of the time, and if I sound more confident than I am, well, that's okay, too.  Fake it till you make it has also worked well for me over the years.

Yay! New business cards

I finally ordered new business cards a couple of weeks ago.

I still have some of my original batch left, but I've fallen out of love with them, and I wanted to change the look.

The first ones, which aren't pictured, had one photo on the front and way too much type, and the back had some duplicate type.  These have three photos on the front, with just the business name / description, and all the info on the back.

Much cleaner looking, I think, and best of all, on sale.  Vistaprint had one of their 250 for $8 specials going, and I also ordered two 2' x 3' foot banners for my craft show tables.  I have a larger one I got last year, but it's more appropriate for using on the tent than trying to attach to a table.

First show is coming up on April 26th.  I'm almost ready.

Hope is Green

Not your average baby gift

Yes, my sewing room walls are that color.

But then again, this baby doesn't have your average father.

One of my dearest friends is expecting his second child very soon.  Very, very soon, despite what the doctor claims the due date actually is.  And dad is a huge Star Wars geek.  His cats are named Luke, Leia and Mace (Mace started out as Yoda but grew to such panther-size that the name no longer fit).

And the baby, which is a boy, is going to be Lucas.  As in George.  As in Luke.  Except they've decided to change it up a bit and spell it "Luc," just to be different.  Personally, I think the kid will change it back just as soon as he's old enough to realize there's an alternate spelling, but either way, as soon as I found out the name, I knew what I wanted to make for the Star Wars themed nursery.

(Their first child was a girl, and he had very little input on the decor that time.  This time around, I think his wife knew it was a lost cause and just let him have free reign to put Wookies in rockers and Death Stars on the nursery wall).

This will also go on the nursery wall, possibly tonight.

Strike!

For the second time this winter, Bonnie the hen is on egg strike.

She moulted late this year, didn't start laying again until the end of November, and her production has been really uneven.  She's no spring chicken -- I'm thinking she's pushing 4 now -- but still, she's been regular up until this whole Polar Vortex thing.

A few weeks ago, when we had days that actually pushed into the high 40s (tropical weather, practically), she revved up and laid every day for four days and she's not a daily layer.  I guess they were all backed up.

Chickens use a lot of energy to produce eggs, and they also use a lot to keep warm.  No matter how much protein and how many calories I give her during the really cold weather, she's not going to waste them on food for me.

What you see here is her coop during the earlier Vortex-with-snowstorm.  I didn't wrap her up as much this year, out of procrastination and also to see how well she fared.  Turns it it is way easier to keep a chicken alive in the winter.  Her insulation includes foam core boards slid along two sides of the coop to keep the show out (which get removed for air flow when the snow is solid and not likely to blow in), a heavy duty plastic sheet over the extension at the far end by the fence, so she still gets sunlight but less wind, and an old storm window in front of the door/water area to keep the breeze down while she's feeding.  There's a light over the waterer that I keep on a timer, though I've been leaving it on all day during the worst cold, mainly to keep the water thawed.

If it's really bitter, I'll put a warmer in the roost area at night.  We used to have a stray cat who lived on our porch, and my housemate found these microwaveable things she used for his bed.  They're hot pink, frisbee-shaped, and maintain their heat for about 6 hours.  It's not going to keep her from freezing to death if that's going to happen, but it does keep it more comfortable up there while she's sleeping.