A Closer Look

It has been ages since I took my camera out. I'm talking about the one with the lenses, the strap and the memory card. As opposed to that other thing that's called a phone, but is really a flat camera for me. iPhone photos look great on an iphone, but I find them altogether unsatisfactory for blog posting....they are dark, typically grainy, high contrast, and while fun, they are not the kind of images I like to share here.   I've been missing my Nikon and spending time focusing on a subject and composing an image, so I decided to spend a few minutes in the garden yesterday doing just that.  I feel really out of practice, but here are a few of the shots I took.  And just for the record, I find the new and ever-changing Flickr interface extremely difficult to use, so that is another reason I am struggling share much these days.

All of these images were shot with my Micro NIKKOR 40mm 1:2.8 lens.  The lens was a Christmas gift from B in 2012 so that I could take more detailed photos of my work. It's an amazing lens!

This is my favourite shot from the exercise. The light, layers and bokeh effect all make me happy.

The vast majority of my sewing time over the past several weeks has involved many, many yards of Spandex. You see, it's show time again. In fact, the curtain opens at 12:30 on Thursday for the first matinee and we still have plenty to do. I've been doing 4 or 5 hour shifts three times per week. It's actually a lot of fun as the volunteer team is really great and we're enjoying the process of cutting, serging, trimming and fitting the costumes to the performers.  Racks of bodysuits on hangers aren't really suited to blogging....

Quilting will be back on the program starting Friday morning. It's the VMQG's first sleepover retreat!! I'm sad to miss a lot of the show action, but I'm also excited about retreating with my modern guild peeps at the beautiful Edenvale Retreat Centre. The weather is supposed to be gorgeous, so hopefully we'll get to see some sweet trilliums and wild orchids on the forest walk behind the house. I'll be working on a comfort quilt for a friend who is in need of a miracle.  Thanks to the generosity of local quilt friends and moms in our community I have almost 70 blocks to sew together and get basted this weekend. That's another thing that's been occupying my mind a lot over the past few weeks: our friend community has really suffered a tremendous amount of heartbreak over the past year.  It's a real time of reflection and introspection for me. I know you understand.

Krista
xo

Circus in Wonderland - a photo essay

What a whirlwind couple of weeks! I've been thoroughly entrenched in a tiny, windowless, airless sewing lair at the circus school sewing my little heart out for 43 incredible teenage performers. There were four wonderful moms working on the over 100 costumes required for the show and we had a great time supporting CircusWest  in A Circus in Wonderland. After spending almost 40 hours at the gym over the last four days, repairing popped seams, washing make up and blood out of costumes (a cut toe!), attaching D's unicorn horn part way though each performance, mopping dirty floors, bobby-pinning buns and braids into place, I am really looking forward to getting back to working with cotton in the peace and quiet of my sewing room tomorrow.

It takes a small army of dedicated volunteer moms, former CirKids and make up artist students from the Blanche MacDonald School to prep the kids and get them into character.

The morning starts with an airbrush machine,

 then lots of braiding/backcombing/pinning and hairspray, then to detailed makeup, finally ending with this:

The unicorn is my D, the lion is one of her circus BFFs. They did a fun acrobatic act representing the unicorn and lion's duel for the crown.

The show was even better than last year's and the Alice theme brought in hundreds of audience members (30 members of the Vancouver Lolita cosplay group came in elaborate costumes!) that might not otherwise have been exposed to this amazing youth circus. I think 5 out of 8 shows were oversold, which is amazing since 400 seats was considered a sell-out.

Here are just a few photos so you can get a sense of it.

Alice first goes through the looking glass

A whirlwind of Alice imposters dance inside the looking glass

The Red Queen on her trapeze

The card queens enjoy a cuppa on the double trapeze before getting down to business

Alice and the Mad Hatter enjoy a flower poi act

A backstage silhouette of the tissu (aerial silks) performance

Super cool tightwire trick!

A stack of Blind Mice

Stacking cards handstand act final style (D in lower right)

The amazing cast of Circus in Wonderland!

There you go! It was really a pleasure to spend so much time around positive, supportive, motivated and hard-working kids. They are total slobs, but hey, you can't have it all.

I completely missed out on participating in SewMamaSew's giveaway day and I feel rather disconnected from blogland, but I'll try my best to get back in the swing. I'm eager to get sewing for myself again. Hope you are all well and working on fun projects!


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That's Circus!

Without further ado, I give you the Centre Stage girls 5' unicycle act "Satellite".

Mine is the blondie on the unicycle

Pardon any gerbil-cam shakiness. I take photos, not video!

Blue Sky Circus

Life is returning to normal. I actually made dinner last night. D and I figured out that we spent about 65 hours at the circus gym last week for the big spring show Blue Sky Circus. It was amazing, inspiring, fun and tiring. She is definitely suffering withdrawal from her circus peeps - seeing these 38 kids bond so tightly over the past week was really heartwarming.  We can't wait until next year!

The Centre Stage girls ball dance

The tumbling coach calls kids like D her little 'gymnastics refugees'. Many young athletes are willing to work hard, but don't enjoy competition; they would prefer to perform and entertain an audience. Circus school is the place for them! The kids  train 10-12 hours/week on unicycle, juggling, aerials (silks, trapeze, lira, German wheel, straps), hand-to-hand (think human pyramids, handstands), acrobatics, trampoline, movement/dance and clowning. They do it all and they are a wonderful family. 

Centre Stage girls

For all of these girls (aged 12-14), it was their first experience in the production. They performed in 3 or 4 group acts including a dance, a 5' unicycle act, tumbling routine and poi act (under black light!).  It was fantastic to have many friends attend the show and learn more about this amazing school and the talented kids that train there. Most people have no idea about the calibre of athleticism and performance that happens right here in Vancouver!  I helped out with costumes; sewing, mending, washing and other general back-stage stuff that went on throughout the 8 shows over 4 days. Five shows were completely sold out to an audience of 340 and people were even searching tickets on Craigslist and Kijiji: incredible! I have a couple of videos but need help from my I.T. department to edit and upload them.

I'm ready to get back to some Poppyprint sewing now; straight line quilting on a queen sized quilt is almost complete and I'm anxious to share it with you. Off I go!