" The Rented Christmas"

It's almost Christmas and things have finally slowed down a bit for me. I spent the last few months sewing, designing, sewing some more and then building things for various clients. The biggest project was the CLC Christmas production, "The Rented Christmas".

This year was a complete challenge for me; very small budget, no time and little help, but thankfully my hubby and kids helped out when I was ready to pull my hair out. I also had help from Pam, who put up with my gripes and helped me laugh when I needed it.

The following pictures are from the journey in re-using, up-dating, and new construction of all things sets and costumes.

First Up: STAGE SETS

We reused all the canvas and tradtional flats from the play two years ago. But first we had to fire retard them. Yep, our favorite chore. NOT.

And amazingly enough, Jeremy decided to give mural painting a try and helped out with the sky and water. He did pretty good for his first time too!

The finished sets. Terry built the fireplace all by himself and man, it was beautiful! Great job Bud!

The Rental Shop was just a quickie, had a very short stage life during the play. And of course, the final products in midst of all the action.

Next: ANGEL COSTUMES

Although every year we'd like to design new costumes, we just up-dated the costumes from the previous years. Some trim here, some rhinestones and appliques there... they looked great in the blue lights during the production.

Angel Dancer Maggie

New Angel Costume

Last but Not Least: SANTA'S ELVES

This one is just for fun. Pam and I were goofing around and got Santa to join in the fun.

While the journey was often times stressfull, in the end we all had a blast!

Yes, the two backstage managers take their jobs VERY seriously.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

When Theatrical Interests First Took Root

When you're working your job or running your business, do you ever wonder to yourself when the starting point of your career or your favorite hobbies/interests began? I have. A lot. As an artist, I can recall many of the first drawings and paintings I did. I still have a few of them, though they are in storage at the moment. I'll post them at another date.



My family and friends always knew I'd be involved in the arts; but when did the interests of theatrical design enter the fray? Why costuming? Why set and prop design? Why drama?



Well, on reflection I remembered a few outstanding moments in my childhood, one of which was dressing my youngest brother up as Santa Claus with what little materials I had. I don't remember how old I was though...maybe 10 years old? I knew we had a picture of the outfit in my parents photo box, so I went on a hunt and began digging away. (BTW - Looking through old photos can cause you to post them on facebook, LOL)



So without further ado I give you my little brother, Adam, sporting his Santa Claus outfit. Adam is wearing a red courderouy jacket and pants, a red cotton t-shirt, a white and red knitted hat and a fluffy beard of cotton balls. His bag is of the always fashionable white cotton pillowcase. As you can tell by the smile on his face and the gleam in his eyes he was very pleased with this look!






When it comes to props, the first thing I recall was building a rolling horse for us and our next door neighbors to ride. My dad had a great collection of tools, wood and a multitude of miscellaneous knick-knacks in the garage, so I just helped myself and went to work!



What I came up with was a magnificent steed that would make McGyver proud! The body of the horse consisted of a saw horse on wheels, on of those stringy mops, a rope, a paper bag and a large old blanket.

Again, I may have been around the age of 10 - 12.




Scott Wilson, my brother Mark, and Chris Wilson going for a trail ride


As for drama, I fondly remember the times when my cousins would come down for a visit and Jacki and I would write and perform some short plays for us, and our siblings, to perform for our parents. Ahhh - Those were the good old days! No pictures though. So sad.


There were however, a multitude of times that my brothers and I would play army or cowboys and indians with the neighbors. Mostly it was army. My dad was the company commander for the National Guard unit in our town so we had a plethera of outfits and supplies to make the playtime more realistic.





I don't know who's thumb that is, but the back row is me, the middle row is Scott and my little bro, Adam and up front is Chris.


I bet if you take the time to reflect and look at old photos of your childhood, you'll find yourself saying "Ahah! So that's when it happened!" So the challenge for today is to give reflection a shot and let me know if you connect the dots.

Icicles

For some strange reason I woke up this morning with snow and icicles on my mind. I don't know why---I just did. (Of course if anybody actually knows me they wouldn't really be surprised by this sudden interest.)

Perhaps its because of Christmas. Christmas is my favorite time of the year and is closing in fast. I have always envisioned having a white Christmas, complete with icicles hanging from the eaves of houses and snow covering trees and fences...

What ever the case, I decided to post these pictures I took in Yosemite back in April. There were plenty of icicles there, especially hanging off branches that bridged the creeks.

Artwork in Progess

Although I've been having a fantastic time playing with race cars, I have been slowly working on a couple of art projects.

The first is of a Squirrel Monkey from the Phoenix Zoo. I really wanted to draw this little guy and thought it would be another quicky, but I have been painstakingly working on this for days and days but it is still a long way from being completed.

Why did I pick a critter with hair?! Because I like to do things the hard way, that's why. I'm so meticulous it seems I am drawing every single strand the little guy has on his body. And the leaves? sheesh. So much shading! Sometimes I can be too accurate for my own good. LOL But there is a good reason for it. I'm drawing this guy on smooth Bristol board, not just sketch paper (like my Iguana), so I want to make sure it gets done right.

Now the other artwork is mainly just practice, and it involves squirrels. Cartoony squirrels. I can draw realistic looking animals but cartoons? For some reason this now boggles my mind. When I was a kid, I could draw cartoons with no problem, but now? Problems. Luckily I kept an old animation drawing book by Preston Blair to help me out. Practice makes perfect, right?

These are my rough drawing exercises:

This next picture is of a quick sketch I did of a real squirrel and then a cartoon.

But why would I want to put myself through this torture? Because I plan on creating an animated movie involving said cartoony squirrels in the next couple of years. Of course, at the rate I'm going, it may take like 5 years. But it's good to have a goal, right?

Infineon Raceway

Infineon Raceway at dawn

Back in June, Terry and I were invited to join the Golden Gate Racing Team's second car, the #31 Bay Biodiesel team, for the NASCAR Camping World West race at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma CA. Needless to say we were in 7th heaven the whole weekend!

The #31 car is owned and driven by Pat O'Keefe who is a really nice guy. While I was again unofficial picture taker, I also got to help out by pushing the stock car up and down pit road many times. And I mean many times. It was hot, it was tiring, but boy was it fun.

Terry was really enjoying himself and helped out with getting the car ready for inspection and also pushing the cars around to tech or to get gas.

I never imagined how much work actually went into getting the cars ready for inspections, practices and then for the race. When a race car didn't qualify or they crashed, I really felt bad for the teams because I now know how much time and effort went into each car. It was heart breaking.

The Camping World West race was held on Saturday, but Sunday was the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, so while we were working on the CWW cars, the Sprint cars were going through their practices. We saw quite a few well-know drivers, and even had close encounters with a couple of them....

While were pushing the #31 car through pit road, Terry was like 12" from the window of the#24 car when Jeff Gordon waved at Terry. Of course I was so busy pushing the car I didn't get an opportunity to take a picture of that but I did get a nice shot of the #24 on pit road.

I had a very close encounter with Tony Stewart; while walking back up to the hauler there was a pole on my left side. Tony was walking down from the opposite direction and squeezed between me and the pole and brushed my left arm. OMG! It was very exciting. (And Tony is quite handsome.) Shhhh. ;-)

Luckily for Junior, and Terry, I did not see him in person. But we did come close to 'bumping' into each other at one point. We were, once again, pushing a car down pit road to tech when we were suddenly stopped by an official. And 'swoosh'! Junior drives right down in front of us and out of pit road. Darn it.

Now all of this was wonderful but I think the most important and even more exciting celebrity of all was....

Guy Fieri from the Food Network!

Terry really, really loves this guy. He watches all his shows over and over and over and over....

I guess you can call him a fan. LOL

Ok, so back to racing business....

I have some pictures of the #21 and #31 teams before the start of the race.

Keith and Terry talkin' racin'

Terry, Pat and Keith

Chris and Blake

Chris, Josh, Mark, Lee and Terry



Pit Stop for the #21

Pit Stop for the #31

The pit boxes for both cars were side-by-side so this made pit stops easier for the crew.

The bosses calling the shots...Steve

and Jim

Blake is a Richard Childress Development Driver so the #21 team had the pleasure of Mr. Childress' company during the race.

After the race.... I can't recall what positions Blake and Pat started and finished at, but if you really want to know, just look at the Camping World West website for the standings. The whole experience lasted three days but the memories are for a lifetime.

I'd like to give a very special thank you to Steve and Jim for the pleasure of a 'Beyond Front Row' experience in racing. Yep, we definately got the bug now!