Sew Dance

I spent a lovely snow day in my bed stitching. Onyx kept me company for most of it. Lots of progress. This was Onyx when I woke up. Before she decided to join me on my bed. I started dance lessons again. Yay for having an income again! Slightly more disappointing news, the last two latch hook kits from my 'yay i got a job/birthday' present to myself are probably not coming. Site says backordered until March, but I got a letter that says they're having trouble locating another supplier. :(

First milestone: I am almost halfway done with Put On Your Red Shoes. I'm still having to frog more than I would like, but I'm catching the mistakes fairly quick and correcting them before it affects something else. Second Milestone: I am done with my Masters. Today was the official end of the semester. Two of my three grades are posted, including the one I was iffy about. I know I didn't fail the course but the traffic getting down to my final was horrible and I didn't have time to look over my notes right before the test began. I thought I would've had to go to class to show my final for another course but he said just to email it to him. Therefore I was officially done Thursday afternoon as soon as I hit send. Next up: Finding a job and getting ready for a ballroom competition in January. I may or may not have mentioned this before, but I found an amateur partner. We've been practicing since September and will be competing in our first competition i...

I finished my afghan. Ta da! Put a listing for a custom version on my etsy site. So now that I finished this little project, I went back to my cross-stitch for 2 days and managed to finish page 2 and at least 1/4 of page 3 finished. And I finished the spring semester of my masters! Don't have all my grades in but so far so good. Summer session starts Wednesday. So five days off before two 6 week courses. Plus my summer internships. I did put two of my projects from this semester on youtube. My video editing mid-term and my after effects final.

First the good news. I danced in the (delayed) Fall Classic this weekend. I swept my smooth categories. Final medal count was 12 first in smooth single dances, first places in smooth scholarship and 3-dance, 13 firsts and 2 seconds in latin single dances, and third places in latin scholarship and 3-dance. I've linked my videos below. Smooth: Latin: I also got a picture with Tony and his mirrorball. Not the best picture of me, but oh well. I had been dancing for a while. My hair for latin. I think there were 30 bobby pins to hold it all in place. Now the bad news. I was let go from my job on Monday. I was planning on leaving there anyway but I had been hoping to do it on my own terms. So my dancing will be put on hold sooner than I had thought. This is an expensive hobby and with no income (my etsy shop hasn't really taken off yet) I can't pay for my private lessons. It also cuts down on adding to my stash on whims as I've taken to doing lately...

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.

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...

Yesterday, September 29th, was the Hollywood Showcase which I had been preparing a jive and my rose dress for. I woke up at 9am in preparation. Now keep in mind, although 9 is better than 7, I usually don't wake up until 10:30-11am. I ate breakfast and put the last few items, needle and thread just in case, into my bag that I packed the night before. Shortly after 10am I left my house and headed to Manhattan to the location of the showcase. The garage I had picked out earlier was right across the street and shortly before 11am I headed into the venue. The location is the Martin Luther King Jr. High School Auditorium. One, I have no idea how the location was chosen, and two I'm curious to know how often they rent it out. Anyway, with my rolling duffel bag, and my dress hanging over my shoulder to keep the bottom off the ground (I did have it in a plastic garment bag my dress for the after party came in) I walked up a flight of stairs to the main entrance. I then proceeded dow...

Woo hoo! New season stars tonight and I'm back to blogging about it. I'm writing this from Dance with Me NJ's kick off party. So I'm dancing, or watching others dance, in the commercial breaks. It's also projected onto a red wall so everyone is really orange. Here we go. Joey and Kym. High energy, not bad with the footwork, could've used more hips to make the cuban breaks more fluid. Technique wasn't right for the locksteps. Kym's outfit's is a bit odd. I'll agree with the scores. Shawn and Derek. Song is not a foxtrot. It's a cha cha. Dress is an off length, what my rose dress looked like before I shortened it. Too fast for a foxtrot. danced well but just odd as a foxtrot. Carrie anne gave too high a score. Sabrina and Louis. I like her dress. Very sharp. Although I didn't see a lot of hip action. Everything was very up on straight legs with no settling although it was hard at that speed. Seems like a very 'Louis like' r...

Well, almost a square. It's 52 stitches across and 53 rows. I have now more than doubled my previous effort and have 19 more rows until the end of the page. I realize it still doesn't look like much due to the size of the pattern. Tomorrow is an interstudio competition. I have 40 dances to do. I've been wearing my latin heels rather than my practice shoes and I've forgotten how different the heel height is. I think it may be a factor of them not being broken in enough. I have a pair 1/2" lower and I can move so much better in them. I can't wear those tomorrow because they're black instead of tan.

I broke down and ordered more fabric for my stash. It's a bit on the expensive side but I think it'll be worth it when it arrives. There's a European ballroom dress designer that I found while searching dress designs for inspiration (more on that a bit later). Farale sells one-off fabric sets with a design. I gave in and bought this design with all the fabric needed: I know it's not a picture of the actual fabric but I really like the design and it'll be one of a kind fabric. It's also called 'animal print' and given my favorite pattern is leopard... I also got the following fabrics from them as I found the pretty/intriguing. The last fabric (stretch satin) is going to be used for godets in a smooth gown. I just need to buy coordinating fabrics later. I also signed up for a 'speakeasy tour' of NYC's garment district to be held in late September. This tour is given by Mimi of Shop The Garment District . I believe this will help...

Yay for pro numbers. Sherri. I enjoyed the number. It was fun and she was enjoying herself as usual. But she was pigeon toed on her new yorkers. I laughed at how Maks and Tony descended from the ceiling. Martina. Still as bad as I remember and she's wearing the lowest heels I've ever seen. Jack. Could have done without the hip thrust. no bounce. Gavin. They added balloons. I think he's worse then I remember. Gladys. she's picking up her feet too much again. Jaleel. Not a song I'd pick for a paso... They seemed to mess up a lift. Not very paso-y. Melissa. Looked about the same as the first time. Cute alternate ending. Roshon. Cute, but I can't critique hip hop. Another pro number. Makes me happy. Maria. I just noticed how low her heels are. William. Oh look, he's mainly shaking his body while awkwardly doing steps without the proper hip movement. Over scored. Katherine. Clean, but I preferred the first jive she did for some reason. I...

It's the finals! Onto the redo dances. William. Chasses in cha cha shouldn't have two bent knees. In fact both knees should never be bent. It was much better then his first one but his hip action in the cuban breaks looked off. Also all steps looked walking rather than sharp. Almost looked like his heels were hitting before his toes. Over scored a bit but I have a feeling everyone is going to get 30 for this round unless they screw up. Katherine. Competition paso music with a competition style routine. Not the best version, kind of bland. It was clean if not flashy. I'll give it the scores just because of my prior prediction. Donald. His partnering was solid but I don't think I can say he actually did much in terms of number of steps. Hmm. Not a perfect score... Freestyle round! William. He can lift Cheryl and shake hits butt, but when it comes to actual syllabus steps, he looked awkward. And there really only one tiny part where he wasn't doing one of th...

The ballroom round. William. His butt was sticking out. The ballroom dances force him to move. Some of the foot work was a little funny. His left arm could have stayed more still, moved a bit too much during transitions. A little over scored. Don't know why Cheryl chose pants. Katherine. Slight stumble. I think her shoe stuck on the floor. She got back on track quickly. I'll agree with the scores, it was better them William's. Donald. A few transitions has rushed foot work, could have been cleaner. It was a good performance. I'll agree with the scores. Maria. The steps she moved on were repetitive. And she was in a lunge half the dance. I don't think it was steamy enough and I don't remember ever seeing the twisting of the legs as a step in this dance. Over scored. Latin round. William. No bounce. Looked awkward. He shook his butt but those steps should have been battacattas. Over scored again. Katherine. Didn't look much like a salsa. I also ...

What is with the thing on the shoulder of Brooke's dress? The ballroom round begins. Donald. Well, that's one way to have a leather dress. I think I have enough fabric for the top left. This song is a jive, not a tango. It was sharp in the upper body, but the feet looked a tiny bit sloppy to me. They also had too much distance between their hips. I'll agree with the scores. Maria. She did two passes of basic Viennese waltz. The rest of the time they stood in place and did some filler. And a trick or two. The fog made it hard to see if she was doing heel leads. I like the style of her dress if not the color. over scored. I may argue that all 8's would over score it too. Melissa. Yay for tiger print dresses. She seemed to have missed a step our rushed one at the beginning but got back on track after the over-sway. The judges actually complimented her? I'm shocked. I'll agree with the scores. Katherine. Now that was a much better Viennese waltz. She move...

Katherine. Very odd choice of song for a rumba. She didn't have much hip movement and she never settled into her hips. There was only a little side to side. Lots of turns and poses. I would have expected more from her. I'll agree with the scores, but maybe a little high for lack of hips. Melissa. Another strange piece of music. It made it a bit hard to get into the dance. Judges were pretty hard on them. I saw a few blips and at times she did look like she was concentrating rather than acting the dance. I have a feeling this will be the lowest score of the night. William. At least this song was a Viennese waltz. He looked a little hunched over. Probably could have stood up a little straighter. His feet looked off as well. Not smooth, jerky. Scored much too high. Roshon. Bad romance? Seriously? I still have trouble seeing him as something other than a boy. Trying seemed off about the flicks. I preferred this over William but I'll agree with the scores. Donald. Much ...

I know a lot of you visiting tonight are following a re-tweet from either @dwtsgossip or @dwtsmaksimfans. I thank them for doing that. Please follow me on twitter @khascat to know when I update my blog. Gladys. No hip action, her feet were flicking up off the floor when they don't be. Footwork looked odd and her ones were bent too much. She looked like her arms were a bit lost at times. She enjoyed it but she isn't the best dancer. I liked her dress. Way over scored. Maria. Not fond of the hopping in the choreography. Foxtrot is usually smooth. still too straight in hold. I had trouble seeing her feet long enough to tell if she was doing the heel leads. I don't know if I would have given them 9's. Roshon. He had hip action, at least the figure eights, and Chelsea didn't dance around him while he took two steps. Kudos for him. It was however not smooth enough for a rumba. More movement through his body would fill up the time more. He also needed to settle in h...

I'm giving up on insanity until I get a new piece of fabric. Luckily I found a piece of 18 ct large enough to fit it without having to splice two pieces. Since I have to get the fabric, I figured I'd look at the charts and kits on the site and I found this. It goes on my list of, I'm definitely buying this list along with the other there John Clayton dancer series I have yet to get. Cheaper to buy it directly from England myself. I'll probably buy these within the next month or so. Ordered the fabric today along with the following HEAD charts that were on clearance. This is the piece I'm working on now, 'Dew Drop Fairy'. It also fits with the blue theme. On the top is where I was when I picked it back up, bottom is where I am now. Mainly worked on the leaves above her head. I was going to work on TW's Romeo and Juliet, but the working copy of the page I was on was not with the rest of the kit. I have an inkling of where it is, but ...

Rock week. Prepare sure lots of leather, chains, eyeliner, tango and paso doble. I know some Viennese waltzes that would fit but I'd be surprised if we see one. And if they use a song by Adam Lambert I well cringe. The singers botched the last one horribly. Sherri. She looked tentative with her steps. Maybe it was the boots. I have a similar pair, but higher heel, but can't dance comfortably due to lack of flexibility in the ankle. Seemed like they walked through it, not much was sharp. Most emotion seemed to be in the table. Val looked good. Sherri's top kept her contained. I agree with scores. Katherine. I like how they did her make up. Not bad but a little too much time with the 'skirt'. The shoes may have been a factor like Sherri. Can I have the outfit? I'll agree with the scores. Jaleel. He had the heel leads and his frame seemed to stay put, but his butt looked like it was sticking out a not. Better tango than Sherri. I agree with lack of aggressio...

I know I usually do my updates Sunday but I wanted a little spacing between these types of updates and my weekly posting of DWTS opinions. Well, I managed to only get 3 rows done on 'insanity' this week. I wasn't expecting much and it's not enough to take a picture of. It took me almost two hours to do the first row, granted I was distracted slightly by TV. Upon nearly completing the next row, I realized I had gone down several stitches as 2x1 and had to redo them. Not easy with the stitch size and amount of thread already on the back. I had time during the week to work on it more given I was home sick from work, but I wasn't able to give it the amount of concentration it would need. I tried to but managed to only find I had messed up on the last stitch, another 2x1 but the other way then some conflict with the blends that I didn't want to deal with. Oh well. This piece is going to take me a long time even if I didn't screw up. I'm very tempted to scra...

Jack. Samba, oh boy. One of the hardest dances to get right technically. What's with the odd color choices for this couple? He had a little bounce on a very sort section. No hip action (what were you looking at Len?), hunched over, looked strange overall. I predict over inflated scores. And I was right. Maria. It wasn't too bad technically but the steps she took looked flat. She didn't have much time to use her arms as Derek had her in hold almost the entire time. It was more steps then I'm used to seeing in a rumba on the show by a female celeb. Too high of scores once again. Gladys. Song is more an American rumba than a foxtrot but they only follow international Latin on the show. I'm not seeing heal leads. It was smooth like the foxtrot should be but a bit underwhelming. I like the dress, reminds me a bit of my dress. I think they were judging on something other than her dance. Roshon. Not bad but I could pick on improper technique with this dance all day....