Silk veil or giant bedsheet ??

So our belly dance troupe is getting ready to film a DVD using veils. It really should be a beautiful piece of work. Leela is such a brilliant choreographer and never ceases to amaze me with her innovative concepts. This one is no different with a veil origami theme. Unfortunately I am struggling with the whole veil thing. I am 4 feet 11 inches and the veils are bigger and longer than me. Monday night in class I felt like the veil was made of velcro and I was the target. It stuck and clung and got hung up. After about an hour it's weight was 10 pounds instead of 10 ounces. near the end of rehearsal Leela suggested I get a smaller veil so it did not look like I was struggling with a king size bed sheet. I did not think I was that bad but on reflection..probably. I hate not doing everything spot on from the very start so this just sent me into a furious tailspin.
I went home (at 11:30 no less) and got out every veil I own. Played the music and test drove all of them. Nothing was working except the lovely silk veil my mom got me for Christmas. It drives itself. But that one would not do for the shoot. they have to be all one color and mine is tye dyed. After all was said and done I managed to take control and drive the lovely blue, standard size veil....and no one was hurt in the process.......

I won...well not me really....just read!

My life is never boring. Crazy, busy, frustrating but never boring. Recently I had the task of making a costume for a young lady who is the "fresh new face of porn". Yup, you read right, porn. Samantha is a lovely girl from Manchester, England, who needed a costume for a bikini contest held in Las Vegas. She was trying to acquire a talent, other than the obvious one she already has, and approached my belly dance teacher to teach her to belly dance in 20 days. Leela, in turn, referred her to me to make her costume.
Samantha (aka Nikki Jayne) had very specific ideas of what she wanted in a costume. It needed to look like something Brittany spears had worn in a long ago video, before she took her sad turn in to whatever it was she turned to.... OK, I can do that...This girl is stunning, I am telling you. Tall, tan, blonde, artificially enhanced (I am pretty sure about that part) and very sweet. Not at all what I expected from a porn star. Of course, never having met anyone in that industry I have no basis for comparison. I bet they are all very lovely......
So I have her over so that we can chat and I can sketch, get her measurements and set a price.
All doable. Downtown I go....It is amazing how much so little fabric can cost. All July 4th I dedicated my time to constructing, sewing, designing and this amazing looking costume starts to form on my dress form...I was a bit worried that, even though it looked great on the dress dummy, it might not look that good on Samantha with her curves. When she finally arrived to pick it up and tried it on....oh it looked amazing. Now at this point Samantha was having second thoughts about competing. She wasn't "to keen" on the whole thing. I wanted to say..hey, I worked hard on this, you better get in it and strut your stuff....but I didn't. Not my place right?
So off she went (paid me a bunch too)....I kept waiting to hear about the whole thing from her but nothing......then Leela emailed me that "we won our first porn award" YEAH...She had won the Miss XBiz contest wearing a white bikini and preforming a cowboy strut (don't know what happened to the belly dance portion..in a fabulous costume.......Not sure if I can put this on any resumes but hey...still a winner.!

Working without a Net

Last Monday I finally had my access port removed..for those of you unfamiliar with this little gizmo it's full name is a Central Venous Access Port used for delivering chemotherapy over a long period of time. It is placed under the skin of your chest and has a line that goes directly into your heart. Having one saves the veins from breaking down over the chemo process. I had mine for six long years. They (the doctors) used it for almost three years. They (the doctors) asked me to consider leaving the line in in case I needed more chemotherapy. Now this never sounded very positive to me but whatever..I am pretty easy going. I was supposed to have the line flushed (cleaned out) every month. The last couple of times the port was not acting right...they thought maybe, after all this time, it was breaking down. The ports are only supposed to be in there for two years and mine was holding up really well. So, with the invitation set to "take her out" I was ready. Surgery happened with out much hoopla (except that I woke up in the middle of the procedure but no pain so they kept going).
I was not prepared for the feelings that would rise up from the departure of my old friend. It was like a life line to me, I guess. If, God forbid, I have to have any more treatment I will have a new one installed but for now...I kind of feel like I am working with out a net.....wish me luck.