This past week was quite stuffed full of things, culminating in a Very Long Day, full of Very Pleasant Events.
(This Very Long Day actually started on Thursday, with intermittent napping Thursday night, and an all-nighter on Friday, because, Heaven forfend I should start a big project early, or finish without sleep deprivation. And just for fun, let’s bake a few cakes for the after-parties, too. And some rehearsals, and gym lessons that overlap them. But, I was functional all day Saturday, and am duly Impressed With Myself.)
(Also, I adore the antique affectation of capitalizing important words. It’s so much more Elegant than the random capitalization that passes for Creativity these days, or even more dreadful, the substitution of numbers for letters: Cre8ivity, or Heaven 4fend. Really, people? Typing teachers and lit professors everywhere are weeping into their lovely mustaches, male and female alike.)
So: busy week ending in busy weekend.
First up, voice recital, the first ever for our Eldest. She rather enjoys Steampunk-inspired things, so part of her Christmas is a Momma-made new “best” outfit, in a Steampunkish style, in time for her recital. I’m not wholly tickled with the whole thing (who knew man-made brocades would continue to grow and grow, even with stabilizing cloth?? Silk brocade doesn’t do this! And also, Big 4 patterns rarely accommodate for things like the turn-of-cloth, so the lining needs to be taken out, re-worked, and re-installed.)
I did discover that I don’t hate zippers quite so much as I thought I did. I merely despise those “overlap and fiddle and insert” zippers. Fully separating zippers are nay sae dreadful, really. I might be bribed to do more of those. All flaw aside, I like the hand-made buttonholes (worked between 3:30 and 4:30 am, Saturday morning, because I am a completely weirdo freak sewist who can’t abide machined holes on one-shot fabrics like sateen), and the “Spanish Snap” bound buttonhole that acts as the opening of a teensy little pocket for lip balm hiding under the pocket flap. And the color is great on her, n’est pas? So it’s all worthwhile.
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One of our family’s greatest gifts and curses is to view our own performance through poo-colored glasses, so we’re rather objective and harsh. In her own evaluation, she was critical of her anxiety, sinus issues that created some breaks where she didn’t want them, and one brief episode of “Oh crap” when she lost her place in the very first performance. The Tall, Dark, and Slightly Neanderthal fellow is also critical of his sound engineering attempts, so the audio files are un-edited and there’s ambient noise. Since our life basically consists of ambient noise, I am fine with this.
All considered, I think Eldest has a lot to be proud of; she’s worked hard through two seasons of voice lessons, stretched her range by loads of notes at the top and bottom, and when she relaxes, she has this gorgeous amount of feeling that makes you shiver–you’ll hear bits of that in “I’m Not That Girl” and “O, Divine Redeemer”, when she forgot herself and got absorbed into the song.
Listening to her practice, or in a lesson, I completely understand my Grandma, who used to sit in her room just below mine, and listen to me sing (all unbeknownst to me) in a private concert nearly daily. It’s very cool to hear someone you love beyond words make actual music, when your personal best mode of worship and connection is also music.
And yes, the Aunties and Grands and Greats can expect a disc in the mail with the sound files, before Christmas. I pinkie-promise.
Without further ado, here are the links to the private videos (can’t embed sound files on a freebie WordPress account, more’s the pity):
Hark, The Herald Angels We Have Heard On High (Christmas Medley)
And after all that fun in the morning, we had a glorious evening, full of Scouting. My Tall, Dark, and Slightly Neanderthal fellow completed his Scouting Woodbadge program, and was “beaded” last night, in a shared Court of Honor with one of our Band Sons, who received his Eagle Scout award. Multiple fellows from the pipe band turned out in full fig to support the new Eagle, and much fun was had by all.
We also came home with a huge banner thing (man crafting at its finest, that upright cruciform thing behind my husband’s head) reserved as a sort of booby prize for the last member of the Woodbadge cohort to finish his projects. I’d qualify that with this: my Tall, Dark, and Slightly Neanderthal fellow does nothing by half-measures, so his projects were rather more grand and time consuming than many.
A pleasant reception followed, during which Spicy and Lefty fell in love with an aging black lab (who fell in love with them, and spent her evening laying in their laps), and then we went home and made nachos and watched a goofy movie, and I made it all the way through without falling asleep.
The end.
Congratulations to the young lady on her singing performance! She certainly handles the stress of a live performance very well.
(I didn’t hear her sinus problems, but I always hear mine, so I know how frustrating it is.)
I think that extravagant stage outfit is awesome.
Nicely done!
Gounod is smiling, I think
Gorgeous work all the way around. Interesting to me that a mother with the gifts you have in the freak sewist category could be blessed with a child who has a passion for clothing that fits quite nicely with those skills and her shape. Some pairings can only be called divine.
Jazz, thanks! I passed along your comment to her, and she said, “It’s nice to know other people feel the same way!”
Gwen, I hope so. I’m excited to see her continue to work on that one, until she’s got it where she wants it to be. She’s definitely her own person when it comes to music.
It’s quite miraculous, I think! Poor Mom, with her yen for the outdoors and all things Nature-y, with ME for a first-born… well, some divinity comes later in life. I got really lucky.
You must be so immensely proud. I only hope I can encourage my daughter the way you do yours. I hear your deep love for her (indeed, for all your young’uns) when I read what you write. Well done, both of you.
Hello Not Molly! I wanted to thank you for visiting mine and taking the time to comment, and return the visit as well. What a blessing to be able to sing. And, or pipe. Or sew that beautifully.