Balticon, gardening and dressmaker forms

The crab apple tree in our backyard is in full bloom, its blossom-laden branches hanging over our back deck, an explosion of colour. I love this part of spring.



My seedlings are all sprouting now. I can almost hear the squirrels outside cackling merrily, rubbing their little talons together as they eagerly wait for me to transplant them outside.

This morning I found that the rain had washed away some of the cayenne pepper I had sprinkled in part of our new planter, and a squirrel had dug up the earth, exposing one of my nasturtium seeds. Guess it didn't like the taste.

Grr.



Woohoo, congrats to Seanan McGuire on her multi-book deal with DAW Books! I've already raved about how much I love Seanan's music. This woman is just way too talented. :-D

One week until Balticon! Allison, Jodi and I are pretty hyped. Not only are we looking forward to being the Music Guests of Honor, but we're excited about checking our first Balticon.

We'll be involved in the following programming, in addition to open filk:

Friday 7 pm: Everything You Wanted To Know About Filk
- Gary Ehrlich will be joining us.

Saturday 2 pm: Musical Guest of Honor concert

Sunday 11 am: Kids' Concert
- We'll be hosting a kids' concert with our friends Gary Ehrlich, Dave Clement, Sue Posteraro and Tom Jeffers

Sunday 9 pm: Theme Filk - Literary Songs

Monday 12 pm: Enhancing Your Musical Performance workshop

There will also be concerts by Maugorn, Gary McGath, Stone Dragon (Tom Jeffers and Sue Posteraro), Dave Clement, Peter Beagle, and Rob Balder/Sudden Death, among other music-related programming.

Tons of other programming as well, of course! I'm looking forward to trying medieval dancing, for example, and checking out some of the comics-related panels. Hope to see some of you there!




My dressmaker's form arrived! Jeff was amused at how excited I was. Anyway, the photo above is of my first attempt at sewing with knit fabric, which is DRIVING ME INSANE. For one thing, I've discovered that it curls when I cut it. I think the fabric I bought is a bit too stretchy and thin for my skill level but I couldn't resist because it was on sale and soooooo pretty! But I'm suffering for it now.

I've also discovered that it is a MAJOR PAIN to pick stitches out of this knit fabric; they bury themselves into the fabric and I have to be incredibly careful not to pick the fabric instead of the erroneous stitches. I've gotten into the habit of hand-basting seams first, THEN machine-basting, THEN machine-stitching/serging.

Anyway, the top above turned out ok, but needs some alterations before I'd be willing to wear it in public. The size ended up being way too big for me.



Above: my first attempt at making a dress. The top part is way too loose, and the back hangs all wrong:



After a few minutes of fiddling with the dress on my form, however, I think that shortening the straps will fix a lot of the problems. We'll see.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Babylon Five Virgin update

SPOILER WARNING: The blog below focuses on my reports while watching Babylon Five for the first time. An LJ feed is also available. If you haven't seen B5 yet and don't want spoilers, please DO NOT click below.

Season 3, Episode 65: Shadow Dancing
Season 3, Episode 64: And The Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place




Livejournal comments