Handel Messiah

We found out at the Saturday rehearsal  that we would be singing with a portion of the Houston Symphony! WOW! The high light of my birthday was going to the Symphony, but being able to sing WITH the Symphony AWESOME!!!!  Talk about one for the bucket list! *check*

I absolutely LOVE how my dress came out.  It was the exact look I wanted...simple and elegant!

Because I would be on my feet I had to wear sensible shoes (i.e. flats), but I can't wait for the opportunity to wear this dress again.   I have these shoes and they look perfect with this dress.

NOW it's starting to look like Christmas

We picked up the keys yesterday and the first thing on the agenda....PUT UP THE CHRISTMAS TREE!!!
I love the high ceilings in the new house (have a thing for high ceilings), I wanted a larger tree three Christmas' ago but let someone talk me out of it.  This move, I decided to go ahead and get the bigger tree! And I am SO happy I did.  I did not have the time to really decorate the tree how I wanted to, my goal was just to get it put up.  So that is what I did tonight!

Merry Christmas from our home to yours!

Who decides to move during the holiday's?

I did!
INSANE right? Yeah it's downright INSANE!!!

So I started purging and packing up the non-essential stuff a few weeks ago.  Thanks to Pinterest, I found some great tips in hopes of making this move go a little smoother than my last two move.  After doing some research, I decided on renting a POD instead of hiring movers or renting a truck and doing the move ourselves.  Price wise it's about the same amount of money, but stress wise it's going to be a whole lot easier!

Well in the midst of all this guess who gets sick? Yup you guessed it...the crazy lady that decides to move right before Christmas.  I started medicating up as soon as I start feeling bad.  But we all know, no matter what you take its just temporary relieve until this thing runs it course.

The POD shows up EARLY Saturday morning (7:30 am) so there's no sleeping in.  Plus I have Messiah rehearsal at 10:30 and I need to catch the last part of our Women's Ministry 2014 kick off meeting right after.

With this sitting in my driveway, now this move officially feels real!!!  It looks a lot smaller than I expected.  And I got nervous trying to figure out how in the heck am I going to get my WHOLE house packed up into this.  Thanks to my cousin who suggested I try Aleve Cold and Sinus.  Yesterday I was feeling a LOT better.  And got a LOT done.  My game plan is first thing in = last thing out.

I moved all the storage boxes out of the garage with the exception of my Christmas decoration.  Christmas decoration will either be loaded last, or moved in one of the cars. I am determined to have some sort of Christmas this year.  So the tree is going to be the first thing that goes up!  I have about 80% of the house packed.  So all I have to do it move those boxes out of the house and into the pod.

I pick up keys to the new house on Friday. 5 days and counting!!!

It's Starting to look a lot like Christmas...well not so much,

Normally by now my home is fully engulfed in CHRISTMAS!  But instead it looks more like a storage facility.  Boxes EVERYWHERE!  I'm moving in two weeks, so I am in full blown packing/purging mode.

MENTAL NOTE: Don't ever plan a move around the holidays!!!

Originally, I was not going to put up a tree.  But I just could not do it.  Christmas is my favorite holiday and I look forward to just sitting on the couch and looking at my tree.  So I decided to go ahead and put it up.

Well, its my temporary tree.  After we move on the 20th, then I will put up my regular tree.




   

Handel Messiah

Our choir is singing Handel Messiah for Christmas this year.  Note: I am not that great of a singer, but I enjoy being in the choir.  This production is not the WHOLE choir, just those that volunteer.  So I volunteered...not realizing how HARD these pieces are.  All I could think of was the Hallelujah Chorus, I figured this would be a great opportunity of learn how to sing it correctly.  Oooooh weee!  There are a couple of other chorus' we will be doing.  Thank God for YouTube.

Anyway, we are black formal dresses with a single strand of pearls.  Cool, easy...I have both.  Well I tried on the dress I already have last week.  I was just going to make a bolero jacket to wear with it...but after trying it on, I realized...I need to make another dress.  The one I have is not quite church appropriate, just a little tooooo low cut in the front.  Sure, if I was a "B" cup I could get away with it, BUT...NOT!

So, it's on to plan "B".  While I was looking for patterns for the jacket I saw this dress.  I plan on altering the pattern so the the back is not as low and I will not be sewing the drape onto it.

Perfect....EASY!  Just so happen JoAnn's had their Vogue patterns on sale for $3.99 Saturday.  So I was lucky enough to get the only, the last of this pattern they had in the drawer.

While I was there, I looked at fabric.  The pattern calls for fabric with a 4-way stretch.  I did not want to sequins or anything shinny so I looked at velvet.  They had a few options of crushed velvet, that was very reasonable ($5.99-$9.99) that also happened to be 40% off.  But I did not like the look of them.  They had that cheezy "renaissance fair" look to them. After about 30 minutes wandering up and down the aisle, I rand across a beautiful stretch velvet.  The bolt said $7.99 AND it was on sale.  Perfect...almost too perfect right?  Right! Got up to the cutting table with it and um yeah too perfect!  It was about a yard and a half of stretch velvet that was on the wrong bolt. :-/ The fabric that I wanted was $16.99 and that was all they had of it in black.  Well, at least I figured out what kind of fabric I wanted to make the dress out of, so it was not a complete fail.  Oh and I got my pattern.

Later in the week I went to Hancock's to see what they had.  I love the fabric at Hancock's, I always find what I'm looking for (plus a few of things I did not know I was looking for). LOL  Not only did they have the stretch velvet I wanted it was $14.99 AND 50% off!!!  I plan on lining it with tricot.

Love it when a plan comes together!  I wanted to cut out the dress that night, but did not get a chance to.  Which is probably a good thing.  In the meantime, I thoroughly read the directions and I've been reading a few articles on sewing velvet.