Hello Willow and Hello Dolly

The winter skies outside might be dark and foreboding, but the new bank of lights in my art studio makes it feel like the middle of August.  Thanks sweetie pie Jim!  It’s bright and sunny inside, so I’m working on a bright and sunny piece--my Willow by the Lake.  It feels good to return to a calm organized space.  It’s a refuge for me.  The piece still requires me to attach the dangling, swaying branches and adorn the shore with some stones, but the peace and calmness is just what I needed at the end of this busy week.  I had a hectic but rewarding few days in the costume studio fitting all of the returning Sounds of South members into their pre-costumes for the October production of Hello Dolly.   

When the curtain rises there will be roughly seventy kids on stage and each one needs at least two costumes!  The color story matches the happy, sweet and cheerful play.  The musical might be a little fruity and sugary, so I chose the color palate with that in mind—watermelon and lemon.  Each of the chorus members will display all of the colors in their costumes.  The production is set in 1885, which was the height of late Victorian extreme fashion.  I’m having fun assembling the huge bustles and leg o’mutton sleeves into colorful creations.  I have five of the women’s costumes designed and assembled to various stages and I’m working on the sixth.  It’s so much fun because each outfit is completely different.  I’m fortunate to have big bins of trim to work with, harvested by the Sounds of South kids from old clothing, ruffled curtains and lacy table cloths.  And of course there are some unusual treasures - the "buttons" in this green costume are actually vial caps that Cook donated to the Material for the Arts program at the Recycle Center!

I also have T-shirt cording that parents have created by cutting one inch continuous strips from watermelon and lemon-colored T-shirts.  I’m making the bustles out of the crinoline that I can harvest from old prom gowns that have fallen out of fashion. 

On the family front, I can’t believe it’s only been a week since we’ve returned to school.  I feel like we have seamlessly returned to our routines and are again rocking along on all of our daily activities.  The boys are back into voice lessons, hip hop, science Olympiad, Taekwondo and sparring.  I’m back into city meetings, E2C exercise classes and Zumba.  Speaking of the boy’s Taekwondo training, they have scheduled their second degree black belt test for March 4^th 2017.  Over the holiday they did some extra aerobic training to enhance their endurance for the grueling test.   

Forgive me for a mom moment—I’m very proud of their accomplishments and I’m looking forward to celebrating their achievements!  Speaking of pie (how did that pop into my mind)—there’s only been one, but sadly it was a pizza pie.  It was beautiful.  It was amazing.  It was tasty.  It went well with a glass of wine.  But it wasn’t a “pie” pie.  Helllooooo…   Jiiiiiiimmm…  There hasn’t been a pie picture in the blog since November 15^th!  What ever shall I do...?

Until next week

Martina Celerin