Of Mice and Man-boobs

Fifteen days down, 351 to go.  Fourteen creations, and a mini-shopping spree.

Three plays in process, 5 more in the planning (just through May!).  There will be more plays later in the year (I hope!), I just don't have anything booked or scheduled yet. 

Zipper tape flowers, for reals.

Saturday was my husband's 50th birthday.  To commemorate the day, I got the biggest cinnamon rolls in the Twin Cities for breakfast, plus a pecan roll for myself.  Except he had a breakfast meeting scheduled for 10 a.m., so the kids and I enjoyed our rolls, whilst he went elsewhere.  I had a cave tour at my part-time job, so I wasn't around for lunch.  But we all managed to be together for dinner.  We had a lovely, large meal at Chianti Grill, then waddled over to a big old bookstore to attempt to walk off some of the pasta and birthday cake.  Which is to say, I was in a food coma all evening.  Fortunately, I  finished the second fingerless mitt (from my previous post) Saturday afternoon, so I did create something.  And they're lovely.  I found the zipper flower pins in a bag of trims that my stepmom recently gave to me; I wanted to add my own touch to these lovely mitts.

My Sunday consisted of a board meeting for my theater company, as we prepare for our second production, Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap.  Then off to a stumble-through and production meeting for Slasher; during which darling husband and 2/3 of my offspring decided to text or call me within a 30-minute span.  All independently, unbeknownst to the others.  And all because the hubs forgot to get milk.  The one thing he needed to get at the grocery store - and he forgot.  Well, he's 50 now, and his memory is going to pot (along with his belly.  This man is not aging well.)  Which meant a quick stop at the store on my way home, to purchase said beverage.

Finally, home. I fixed myself a late supper (good thing I have veggie burgers in the freezer; made me feel better about Saturday's splurge), poured a glass of vino, and settled in to watch the Golden Globes.  And thought about a quick project to work on from the comfort of my couch.  Because of the Golden Globes, I passed on the second episode of  Downton Abbey on t.v. (I'll catch it today online!), but I still wanted something inspired by the gorgeous outfits seen on that show. 

I had a small amount of black velvet ribbon trim left on a spool; certainly not enough to trim anything, but the perfect amount for a choker.   The women of Downton Abbey wear beautiful chokers paired with long beaded necklaces for their fancy dinner parties.  Also on hand, a beaded/sequined applique, perfect with the ribbon, and a plain hook clasp.  This was an easy handsewing creation - I turned under the cut ends of the ribbon, sewed each clasp half on the two ends, then centered the applique and hand-stitched it in place.

I feel like quite the fancy lady with my alpaca-silk mitts and velvet-beadwork choker.  These may be the last items I create for myself for a bit; with so much costume work in the next few weeks, my creations will include the following items: a horror film-inspired mask for Slasher; man-boobs for The Complete Wrks of Wllm Shkspre, Abridged (yep, just like Shakespeare's day - men playing the women's roles); and perhaps some little gifts for the cast of The Mousetrap, inspired by the title.

Seriously, the book just happened to be there.