Sew Dance

Despite my being in the middle of sandy, I still have power. Let's hope it lasts through the rest of the show. Gilles. Hardest cha cha ever? Far from it. His feet were sloppy and his solo was nothing to talk about. Was not a hard routine. Too high. Sabrina. It was pretty good but the steps seemed like she was running too much. I didn't see much hip movement and the footwork in her solo was unclear. Too high. Kelly. A few places she seemed a little unclear on the steps. I could have done without the feathers on the bodice of the dress. Maybe a little high but I think this routine deserved it better them the others. Melissa. Pretty, simple, elegant. I'll agree with the scores. Shawn. Cute routine but there was no cha cha in her solo. I'll give them the scores. Kirstie. Not as much hip action as I thought she was going to do, at least in the actual steps. Bonus points for not having Maks' thigh giving out this time. Some of her arm positions looked awkward...

OK. So it's not the end of October until Wednesday, but it's close enough. Plus I have Hurricane Sandy approaching which could possibly mess up Halloween and other events. I got more done on In the Garden this week. I did most of my scarf making at work. Oops. I'm almost done with page 2. I have started stoning my rose dress, I have 3 of the roses 2/3 done. I'll have a picture next update. Just a few more days until the beginning of November which means NaNoWriMo starts. Yay! Or should it be Eek? As much as I have the beginning scenes and the general plot and arc, the middle/end is still really foggy in terms of action. I hope this won't hinder me too much. My main concern is Sunday. I have a competition that day which doesn't lend itself well to writing 1667 words. I'll try, but I'm most likely going to try and boost my word count on other days. I've also been mulling over giving the story I wrote my first year, Lost Princess, a good edit ...

Hello second half of the performances. Let's see who's over scored tonight. Melissa. She looked a little unsure of some of the steps. I could see some were taken just to keep up with Tony's lead. Her frame was pretty good. Better than most. Heel leads may have been missing. Maybe a little high. Shawn. Turns, tricks, and something that looked partially bolero-ish. But no rumba steps other than a few of the spins. No hips. No chance to use her hips, there were no steps. Kinda of like Emmitt's bolero. Where was it? Highly over scored. Apolo. Lots of content but there was something off about the technique. Maybe the white pants accentuated the lack of hip movement other then the thrusting. Tad over scored? I would have given 8.5. I like her dress. Sabrina. It reminded me of a viennese waltz rather then a waltz. I blame the choreography. I like the fact that she couldn't be hard and fast but I think they still didn't go as far as they could given the style. ...

Two nights of performances. Tomorrow's may be a little late as I'm dancing myself tomorrow night. Kelly. Really odd song for a samba. Ignoring that, it was a lot of fluff but what I did see wasn't that bad. It was really slow tempo wise. Her feet weren't too bad on the rolls. Weight was a little too back during the runs. Bounce wasn't really there. I'll give them the scores. We'll see how much other people are over scored our under scored tonight. Gilles. Could have used more hip movement and it was a lot of Peta dancing around him. But the emotion and performance was there. The a capella at the beginning was risky given lack of a beat. Her dress gives me an idea of how to drape that blue/silver sequin material I have. Over scored. Kirstie. Frame needs work. She shouldn't be that perpendicular. She did keep up with the steps and there were a lot of them. I'll give them the scores. Emmitt. The hips weren't there when they should have been...

I've made some more progress on In the Garden. I've completed one of the 'magic wisps' that are floating around. I also completed a few more scarves, including this one. It's really soft. I also have a fuzzy red one. Why do I come home to find my cat sleeping on my pillows? I'm jealous. Silly kitty. While fleshing out my story for NaNoWriMo, I've come across a problem. One of my characters, seems to be lacking a motive. He's seems to be a plot device despite the fact that I plan to write some scenes from his POV. I need to somehow figure out a sub plot and a motive of his. Protecting his sister is kind of weak. I have a little over a week to figure this out. In the meantime I have a competition on Nov. 4 to prepare for. My rhinestones for my rose dress came on Friday. I have 5 different colors in 3 different sizes. I'll work on it a little during the coming week.

Oh boy, what an odd week it is. Although I don't dance some of these styles, I at least know what they're supposed to look like. Let's see what happens. Kirstie. The ending was a little strange but they had me laughing the entire time. She could have danced some places a bit better but she did something different with her arms. I don't think she went to her default position once. I'll agree with the scores. Bristol. She messed up a few times and if mark was dancing at level 10, she was at 5. I feel the choreography was safe. Too high. Sabrina. Fun, disco-y. I've seen better routines on SYTYCD though. I'm surprised she stayed in her top. Little high, but I'll allow it due to Bristol's score. Emmitt. Four choreographers? The shirt is not flattering on him. Lots of Cheryl dancing around him. The half basic I saw was not very good. Not smooth enough or lowered through his knees. Lots of lifts to cover the lack of steps. Did she really need four ...

My progress on In the Garden for the week. Not as much as I could have done but I did work on something else for a few days. Namely scarves. Aren't they pretty? I'm planning on selling them and a few other crocheted items. Currently building up some inventory although I will do custom orders if possible. I made a crochet spider for Halloween too. I ordered the rhinestones for my rose dress and will hopefully be able to stone some of the roses prior to the competition. Still need to make a new smooth dress, but still figuring some things out. I would love to use the purple velvet but I was having trouble finding a good color match for the skirt. I do still have the black charmeuse I can pair with various fabrics. Maybe these? I did pick plot 2 for NaNoWriMo. Plot 1 hinged a bit too much on what powers the Fae possessed and nothing was coming to me. Now I just need to try and finish my plot outline in the next two weeks.

Week 3 with a double elimination tomorrow night. Let's get started shall we? Drew. I felt like Anna was dancing around drew a lot tonight. He seemed flat footed on what I was seeing of the cha cha steps. They weren't too good. The spectacle was done well, but the lack of technique brought the performance down for me. No hips either which didn't help. I think the scores are too high. Gilles. I liked the performance, but he looked like he was missing his heel leads on the forward steps. The scores are still a tad too high, but it was better than Drew's. Melissa. Not much samba, lots of shaking and tricks. The few steps I saw were not that good on the technique, tony dragged her through the rolls. Too hoppy, your head should stay on the same plane during the dance. I just spent two lessons on samba technique. It seems everyone is over scored so far. I love the two of them but I'm being honest. Apolo. Karina's pants are distracting. Very fluid, rise and fal...

Well, I finished the first page (out of 16) tonight. Onto page 2 tomorrow. Onyx's birthday was the other day, she's now 8. I figured I'd post one of my favorite picture of her. My dance teachers are going through another mix-up/change. Who knows what's going to happen now... I worked on samba for a hour and a half today. I currently have two stories floating about for in my head for NaNoWriMo, I'm going to outline both for now. Not sure which is calling to me more or if I can even reach 50k with either of these. Plot 1: A human FMC is a ballroom dancer on Earth. MMC1 and MMC2 are both fae princes living in different kingdoms within the fae realm. MMC1 is a light fae and is constantly watching FMC with his powers. MMC2 is on the edge of the dark fae realms. MMC2 sets up an elaborate scheme and kidnaps FMC to his castle. MMC1 confronts him and tries to get her back, but teleportation magic doesn't work within certain perimeters of the castles exce...

After having looked forward to this trip for quite a while, the day had finally arrived in all it's wet glory. Donning my rain jacket and an umbrella, I hopped on the train for grand central. I arrived with time to spare so I looked around the food and bought a magnolia cupcake. Holding my treat, I headed out to 42nd street and into a light drizzle. All was OK until I reached 7th avenue, then it started to come down. I saw the big button at 39th and ducked into the overhang of an office building. I still had time so i put my umbrella down and ate the cupcake. I decided I prefer crumbs. At about 10 to 10, people were gathering so I braved the rain, threw out my trash and joined the congregation. We chatted for a bit as we waited for other people and got drenched by the rain. One person came all the way from Hawaii. We ended up being 12 in all with two guides and split up for the first two stores. My groups first stop was metro textiles or 'Kashi's'. Bolts of fabric ...

Week two is here, the person I thought should go home did, and we get to watch quicksteps and jives. Melissa. Neat and clean. The kicks and flicks could have had more retraction. The song is not a jive. As upbeat and fun as it is, it didn't have the correct rhythm. I'll agree with the scores. Bristol. The theme was really far away from a traditional quickstep and they broke hold. Her frame wasn't good. She messed up a bit. She didn't pick her knees up as far as Mark when they were side by side. Ok scores but maybe a bit high. Helio. I could have done without his arms pumping at the same time as his kicks but they weren't bad. His hip should have gone back with the back breaks and his basic chasse was lacking the closing of the feet. I'll agree with the scores. Apolo. I actually don't have much to critique about this dance. It looked like a proper quickstep. A little low? We'll see how it holds up through the night. Sabrina. She was in proper f...