Catch Up

I know.  We missed last week.  It's just that it was a relatively uneventful week when you compare it to the weeks preceding it and I just keep putting it off until this week had completely finished. Now it'll just get combined into this week's entry.

So here's what's going on:


Next Year's IU Season - Last week we learned which shows we'll be designing next year!  Our Season is as follows: First semester - When the Rain Stops Falling, Richard III, Spring Awakening, some show a first year will design.  Second semester - Intimate Apparel (Katie's Thesis!), School for Scandal, Playwriting MFA shows designed by other first year, Sunday in the Park With George.  I am designing Spring Awakening and School for Scandal.  A big musical and a period show!  Both very exciting and very challenging as I've never before done a musical or period show.  One also immediately follows the other, so next year will be extremely busy for me show-wise.

Last week, Ben started helping an older gentleman in our ward, Ed, build/repair a wall on his property.  It has turned into a weekly little job.  I haven't met Ed and his wife yet, but they are apparently quite lovely and have a gorgeous home.

Here are my draping projects from the past two weeks!

 1825-1845 Between Jane Austin and Civil War - a strange time.

 1845-1865 with double layer Pagoda sleeve.

 

1865-1886 The dress I was assigned is late 1860s, so a transition dress before the more exciting bustle dresses of the late Victorian Era.  But - you can't tell here, the over skirt wraps around and is pretty cool.

Friday, Julia and I had our second fittings for our Period Pattern Making final project garments (that's a mouth full).  There are still several unfinished elements, but here are the pictures from that (I don't have the pictures of me in Julia's Elizabethan gown... but I promise you it's amazing, and I will definitely have pictures of the final, finished product)

Ben has been running with Bloomington Area Running Association!  He goes out with them Mondays and Thursdays and is hoping to go out a couple more times a week on his own.  Running with BARA has really helped Ben stay motivated.  He's also setting some marathon goals for the next two years: a half marathon next Spring, and then a full Marathon the following Spring.  He says that he's open to things progressing faster than that.

Finally, Spring is here!  I new that Fall and Winter would be different here (or at least Winter was suppose to be different...) but I never thought about Spring.  I didn't realize that flowers only bloom for, like TWO WEEKS! Then they go away and the leaves remain.  I'm sure I'm missing all sorts of horticultural details there, but, y'know, I just don't have the time to be accurate about these things right now.  All I know is that there has been pretty and now the pretty is going away.

Spring has also brought TORNADOES!  We had a drill last week, followed shortly by an actual funnel cloud sighting!  The tornado warning delayed the opening performance of Pillowman by about 30 minutes.  Very exciting.  I may sound flippant about the whole thing, but that's just because it partly really horrifies me, and partly seems novel and slightly fake since I've never experienced them before.

I will leave you with beautiful pictures from a walk Ben and I took today.

Ben discovered this cross country course through BARA - it's basically right next to our apartment.

One of the course's color-coded pathways