Time Racing By

Lately I've been feeling a little behind.  Many people my age seem to be graduating, or going or coming back from missions, or married, or even mothers.  I'm doing none of these things.  Sometimes it has me wondering what I've done with my life.  And sometimes the speed at which time seems to race by scares me. 

But in the temple tonight, I was thinking about a conversation I had with my sister the night before and realized that life isn't meant to be raced through.  Sometimes we talk about it like it's a race, but its really not.  My time doesn't matter.  What matters is that I'm facing the right direction and keep steadily moving forward.  Which I certainly am.  And I keep growing and learning and doing my best. 

I need to make time my friend.  I need to love each moment and each experience. I must not compare myself with others.  Everyone has their own timing and experiences.  I am doing my best to follow the Lord and that is enough.  It has to be.  My times will come.  I will graduate.  I will serve a mission (although it may not be till I'm older and with my future husband).  I will marry.  I will be a mother.

 I am living my life the best I know how.  I do feel I'm having the experiences that the Lord had in mind for me.  That is what matters.  Not how fast I graduated, or how young or quickly I married.  What matters is that I am the best me I can be and showing the Lord that I will always put Him first. 



This makes me think of Elder Uchtdorf's talk from last General Relief Society Conference.  If you haven't read it in a while you should read it again.  It's fantastic.  How can you not love Elder Uchtdorf?

From Duck to Bird Feet

This week at work, I have been recovering duck feet to turn them into bird feet for the next show at school, Rare Bird. Last week, my costume design professor asked me if I felt up to recovering these duck feet:

She handed me some vinyl and some muslin and I set to work on my first draping project. For those who don't know, draping is a way of making patterns where you arrange and pin and cut fabric around a form and then turn it into a pattern. Here's a picture of my pattern. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture until after it was recovered, so it only vaguely shows the idea:

And here's the final product! Well almost finished, they still need to be painted blue.

It's been really fun and I've learned a lot about draping, working with vinyl, working with strong glues and much more. It's been a challenge, but a great learning opportunity and great for my portfolio, as my professor said. Most people start draping bodices or skirts, but for me, I started with bird's feet. My professor and I had a good laugh about that today : )

I really loved working on this project, as I do most of my sewing and craft projects. I'm so grateful that I've found my niche. But sometimes I get a little too wrapped up with it. After work I went to the temple and was reminded of what's truly important. How ever much I love costume design, sewing and creating beautiful things, that's not what matters most. What matters most is putting the Lord, family and relationships first.  I'm grateful for the temple, scriptures and good people who help me remember where my priorities truly lie.

As I did some family history

I noticed above my name it said, "add or find husband."

"Find husband."  Hmmm, I wonder what happens if I click on that button...

A Sneak Peak of my Show and Happy Valentine's Day!

Here's a photo of the show I've costume, Les Belles Soeurs or The Beautiful Sisters.  Final dress rehearsal was tonight and after two shoe repairs, I am hopefully done.  Hurray! 

I am excited to be done and to have more sleep and more time to actually study and to just live life.  But it's been a fantastic experience.  I've learned so much.  It was a challenge since we had only $35 to spend on all of the costumes.  But I feel like I succeeded!  And one of the design professors even said it didn't look like "a no budget show."  I was so happy. 

The cast has been just lovely to work with and I'm going to miss seeing them every night.  Since our Valentine's Day was spent at dress rehearsal the cast gave secret valentine's to each other and one sweet girl realized the crew would see this and not be getting anything, so she made us all cookies and valentines.  It was so thoughtful.  And inside my valentine was the kindest note that made my day.

It said:

"Valerie,

Thanks for being such an awesome 

costume designer and making us all 

look good!  You have truly been a joy

to be around and you've done amazing work."

And to that I say, thank you!  You made my Valentine's Day.  I thought it was just going to be a test and dress rehearsal, with no thought of the holiday it was.  Thanks for making it special.

Hope your Valentine's Day was wonderful and I promise more pictures to come!

Some Recent Projects

This is a prom dress I made for my cousin. Pink is her favorite color, and this is very pink!

My little sister and mom made these beautiful flowers that complete the dress. Thanks Mom and Jess!

This is a Christmas tree skirt I made for a lady at work. For the annual Christmas exchange. We could use any materials from the costume shop for the presents. So fun! I loved the combination of burlap and red ruffles. I kind of want one myself.

I still owe you a picture of the coat I made, but I keep forgetting to take one. I'll post one sometime!

Les Belles Soeurs that I'm doing the costumes has its dress rehearsal this weekend, so after that I'll post some photos. Things are crazy busy with that, so this is a short post, but just wanted to say I'm alive and share these projects with you (the pink dress I just finished, but the Christmas tree skirt is from before Christmas).

A Few Collages

I had a request to see more of my projects so I thought I'd share with you some of the process as I design my first show, Les Belles-Soeurs. It's a very small show with practically no money, so I'll be pulling the whole thing from costumes already around. Today I made collages to show my ideas so I can show them to the cast on Monday. Collages are usually used when the show is mostly bought or pulled from stock. Hope you enjoy these!

Skiing and New Years

Last week I went skiing for almost my first time.  The time before that I was really little and terrified of heights... So terrified that when my ski instructor took us to the lift I sat down and cried.  I refused to get on it.  I don't really count that as my first ski experience. 

Last week was great.  It was really hard, but at the end I started to get a hang of turning and was more in control.   I went at it determined to conquer any fears I had about it.  I'll probably have to go again to conquer all my fears, but I made a good start : )

My grandpa is in his 80's and is quite the skier.  He's incredible!  He will hit the slopes whenever he can and was kind enough to help me learn.  Thanks to my amazing ski school teacher and my wonderful grandpa I stayed alive.  I have to admit there were some near misses with trees.  The first time down the hill I couldn't figure out how to turn or slow down and I was headed right towards a cluster of trees.  I heard my teacher yell, "I'm coming for you!" and he flew down the hill, grabbed me and turned me to safety.  Yikes!  That could have been ugly! 

It was nice to finally be apart of the skiing that my family (especially my grandpa) so enjoys.

On New Years Eve my dad's family all got together to celebrate New Years with all sorts of Japanese food.  My sister and I tried making sushi for the first time.  So fun!  Now if only I liked eating it...

There's a little update, my friends.  I must warn you, school starts on Monday and I'll be diving head first into quite the load of school, work, and designing two shows so I might disappear a bit.  I do love keeping this up and the excuse it gives me to take pictures so don't be too surprised if I still write despite my schedule.