It's creeping up toward midnight and I'm taking a turn minding Jazzy in the office so Wonderful Husband can get some sleep. He does this often enough for me when the baby doesn't want to sleep on schedule, so it's my turn for a change.
Where to start? Costume College was this last weekend, expanded to four days this year! I didn't get the day limited class I would have liked on Thursday, but the Friday Victorian Corsets workshop had a two-hour fitting session that evening, which necessitated some dancing and shuffling and Wonderful Husband taking off from work a touch early so I could make it.
Friday? The workshop was great. My corset is something like 85% complete. I just need to put the bones in and the top and bottom binding on. The traffic, however, was hellish. Because I'm a nursing mother, this year I needed to commute back and forth and pump milk a couple times a day. And Wonderful Husband wasn't able to take Friday off, so I had to drop the boys off at my parents' before College and pick them up afterward. I spent four and a half hours driving that day, and didn't get home until 8pm. At which point I really needed dinner.
Saturday was my busy teaching day. The Fabulous Fabric Fairy Wings class went well. I felt a bit disorganized, but I had about 30 students (I need to mail the handout to a few; I only made 25) and I think they were excited by what they learned. I attended a bit of a lecture on organizing your sewing room, which gave me a few tips but also made me feel like, no, maybe I don't really have that much fabric in comparison. Then I took a workshop on Downton Abbey necklaces (I've now finished mine), which was fun. And, finally, I taught the 1950s Petticoat class. Which, I kind of feel like I need to figure out how to streamline it a touch, but given that they're all individually measured, I can't really cut the fabric ahead of time for the students. Still, it went well.
Sunday I spent most of the day in a class about Precious Metal Clay, which, ooh, really tempting (if a bit pricey) for a new hobby. I did get frustrated at one point and went for a walk down to the Bargain Basement to do some retail therapy ($5) and clear my head. After that things went better and I had a great deal of fun, ending up with two pendants and a pair of earrings and a tiny smidge of clay left over. After that, I had just a little free time to make my purchases in the dealer's hall (black and white coutil for future corsets, a 1950s quilt top, and an embroidered tablecloth for my mother; about $50 total), then taught my final class, Machine Quilting. Let us say that I've been going to Costume College at this same hotel for years now, and this was the first time I've even known the classroom existed. And also that this was the last class of College. Even so, I'm slightly disappointed that I only had two students. Still, I gave them my best and I think they left with a good handle on it.
I am quite pleased that the sewing machine I fixed up and donated to the Bargain Basement went for $100. But I definitely prefer staying at the hotel when possible; commuting it is annoying. Not so much for missing evening activities - I don't like the Social, and I've never been to the Gala - but for the pressure of it and the massive time/energy black hole that is traffic. I also felt overscheduled this year, to the point where I didn't get to talk to friends I don't see elsewhere for more than a minute or two. I kept wishing for more time.
But, oh, I did have such a good time....
