Graduation Mess, I Mean Mass....

The week before the Grad Ball the BA's dad (let's call him Her Dad) and Step Mum had flown in to attend her Graduation Mass.

We were all delighted to see them and the suggestion was made that we meet for a meal the next night, before the Mass which was at 7pm. Lively discussion then took place regarding the wisdom of this. Himself pointed out that when we had done this the previous year, we had been very rushed and finding seating at the tightly packed school venue was stressful. There was general acknowledgement of this and some alternate suggestion of a supper afterwards, but no real decision was made and Her Dad and Step Mum left, agreeing to meet up with us sometime the next day.

Himself, feeling magnanimous and, more importantly, wanting to prove to me that there were eating establishments in Adelaide which stayed open beyond 10 o' clock, took it upon himself to book a restaurant. He spent several hours the next day researching the task online, finding and confirming a place willing to take a booking for 7 people at that late hour, and reading up on the menus and reviews. When he texted me to say he had been successful, he was well pleased with himself. The only minor hitch in this plan was that we had not actually confirmed with Her Dad and Step Mum that they wanted to eat with us after the Mass.  I texted them regarding this detail. I got no immediate response but assumed they were simply busy.

When I got home, Himself was raving about the place he had booked. He had read every review and was so pleased with himself for finding us a 5 star restaurant open after 9pm! This place apparently had a world class chef! The level of his enthusiasm set off a small alarm in the back of my head. I texted the others again.

Me: Did you get my message about dinner after the Mass?
Them: Yes, sounds lovely but we are eating now. May join you for coffee.

I took one look at my 'pumped' husband and sent them this text:

Me: Are you going to tell Himself that you are only coming for coffee??????????

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Naturally, in anticipation of the five star meal he would be enjoying after the mass, Himself did not eat lunch. But that was only the start of his problems. The Mass was outdoors.

We had to be seated by 7pm for a 7.30pm start. Once in the tightly packed quadrangle, there was no easy way for Himself to exit, unnoticed,  for a cigar break. 

It started under sunny skies,

but as the sun went down and the lights came on, the temperature plummeted.

Pretty, but cold! Really cold (by Adelaide summer standards).

 Her Dad and Step Mum both pulled on bushwalking parkas; my mum had a warm shawl around her shoulders; Dad had a jumper under his jacket and I was wearing a coat; but in his summer weight suit, tie and shirt, Himself was freezing. Bone jarringly, teeth chatteringly, blue lip style freezing. And the Mass went for for over two hours.

(The Principal presents the Baby Angel with her traditional rose as she and her opposite number carry candles for the Graduation Procession.)

(An attempt at capturing the Year 12 procession down the diagonal aisles, with candles. Fail. Tiny dot at centre is the BA.)

(The Baby Angel gets emotional).

And that two hours did not include the photos afterwards.

 

(See what I mean about the coat).

After that, no one was game to contradict Himself when he matched purposefully towards his vehicle claiming he was ready to eat a horse. Cooked by a 5 star chef. And WHO WAS COMING WITH HIM?

On the way to the restaurant, all I could hope was that it would live up to his expectations.
To everyone's immense relief it was very nice and we were all able to have a light snack whilst Himself devoured a beautifully prepared rare steak. After which he began to once more resemble a civilised human being.

Merry Christmas To All And To All A Goodnight

 "Of course you realise there will be no stocking this year BA," I cautiously raised the subject as she lay prostrate and miserable on the couch with a low grade fever, swollen neck glands the size of golf balls and eyes which looked as though someone had used her for punching practice!

Her face fell. As far as it could considering the swelling.

Never mind that three weeks ago she snapped waspishly at me,"Reee-ally, Mum, you are the only parent who won't just give cash at Christmas! What is the matter with you?"

Never mind that the things of childhood hold little interest for her nowadays.

Never mind that she recently told me she thinks we'll be better friends when she moves out of home!

When push comes to shove, my Baby Angel is loathe to let go of the traditions of her childhood, and so tomorrow morning, there will be a little stocking and a letter from Father Christmas!!

Not quite the plethora of presents she has become used to, but enough to remind her that she isn't quite that big, yet.

Merry Christmas to everyone, from all of us here at The Flaming Sword!

It Is Finished

The BA and her Dad prepare for the Grad Ball. A story for later!

I Think She Likes It

Remember the flashy Alexander McQueen ball dress that the BA decided she liked? Well my friend Blondie and I came up with our own version!

This was the first draft. I was pretty happy with it considering the pattern we adapted looked like this:

but I didn't like the boxy front pleats so I fiddled. This is the finished result. Not perfect but hey!

I decided against lining the skirt as I figure she will wear it once. Who knows though, it may get a run in a school musical someday. Stranger things have happened! For the big night (tomorrow..eek!) I will make sure she has a long slip.

I am looking forward to seeing the finished effect tomorrow with hair and make-up (and obligatory fake tan). This Grad Ball will be the final, official school function of her young life and I am so grateful that her grandparents, both parents and step parents will be there to share it with her.

ANOTHER Evening Dress!

Believe it or not, the BA is graduating from school in two weeks. The journey which began here

will end on December 11th with her Graduation Ball.

And of course, she must have a dress!

This time the dress must be a formal floor length dress in white or cream. This Ball is akin to the old Debutante Balls, so fashionable in years gone by. The girls are presented by their fathers and must undertake the father daughter dance, something which her Dad is very excited about. I have been fielding questions about dinner suit v lounge suit, bowtie v straight...for some time now!


Initially I thought the easiest option might be for her to wear my second wedding dress.

 

Which looks a whole lot better on her than it did on me!

But she wasn't having a bar of that. She used the fact that it was about 6 inches too short at the front as justification for not wearing it. OK, so I'm short! Aren't mullet dresses all the rage now anyway?

Apparently not for my girl.

Running short of time I announced that I would simply make her the one I had planned to make once before: Vintage Vogue  V2962.

 

I thought I'd use some heavy silk for the dress and a softer chiffon or lawn for the bodice. I checked a few online images and began to get nervous. It is entirely possible to make this beautiful garment, really badly. How is that possible, I hear you ask? Well, here are the steps:

1. Make sure you are quite short and have REALLY big boobs.
2. Use a soft drapy fabric all over so that the central bodice panels cannot support the weight of the hugely gathered skirt.
3. Tie something sparkly around the waist.
4. Alter the halter so that it looks like a bikini top.

To be fair, there were a number of images where the seamstress had done quite a good job but it had taken them hours and required massive amounts of alteration.

I called my friend Blondie who is a dab hand at all things sewing and asked her opinion. She had made a retro evening gown once and I'd thought it was the Vogue one, but in fact it was this one.

Nevertheless, in the course of our conversation, she offered to help AND donated 5 metres of ivory dupion silk left over from her own wedding dress 20 years ago!! "It's been sitting around this long," she said. We  had a long conversation after school during the week and decided we would do a combination of the two patterns. The skirt from Blondie's pattern was cut on the cross and not as full so we decided to subtitute it for the excessive Vogue one; and we decided to try wrapping the tie waist effect around the halter dress to hide the central bodice panels which we felt would probably wrinkle unless we boned it...and did we really want to go there?


Now this was all fine and dandy until the BA came home. She didn't exactly turn up her nose at our ideas so much as move right along to her own preference. And this was it.....

Undeterred I thought I might make a mock-up of the Vogue dress. Just to, you know, see what all the fuss was about! I actually thought it looked quite nice, despite the fact that the halter was made out of an old curtain! One look at the BA' s face here will tell you what she thought of my efforts!

Meanwhile I sent Blonde an email containing the BA's dress preference. She was delighted and promptly went out and bought a pattern which we could 'adapt'. I was a little concerned about the depth of the neckline of course but Blondie assured me we could create something appropriate.

So, here I am in the middle of all these 'mock-ups' and Blondie has gone. We have devised a neckline and adjusted the pattern, and now I'm going to try and cut it out of the silk.  It's not as low as the photo, and Lord knows if I'll get the skirt to resemble the photo in any way; the main thing is that it has to have pockets!

I really don't know what I'll do with myself once all these formals are over! I certainly won't be sewing too much for me because, although I am dieting, things are not moving too quickly on the weight loss front. In short, I have altogether too much front, and no one wants to sew for that :-(

I'll keep you posted on our progress!                         

Long Time Coming

A long time ago I started this blog, partly to keep my overseas family informed about our day to day life and partly to talk about parenting in the 21st Century. This blog kept me busy for a very long time and through it I met some fantastic friends.

 A Free Man and his Encumberances

A Strange Scottish Girl

There are others too; some who have become facebook friends; people I would be seeing for coffee regularly if we were not separated by thousands of miles.

As the tyranny of facebook took hold we found ourselves coming here less and less. Our posts became shorter and less detailed. Our 'writing' became 'note making'.

And then the purpose of this blog became difficult to manage. As the objects of my 'parenting' became increasingly more salient beings with minds and opinions of their own, there came a time when I could no longer post willy nilly about their everyday happenings. Where they had been delighted to see themselves on the blog page they became blase, irritated and somewhat possessive of their own images (ironic given the wanton abandon with which they post them on facebook!)

And I could no longer comment on the parenting process as the subjects of this process were waaaay too alert and attuned to my activities. More and more as I needed to talk about my parenting journey I was able to use my forum less and less.

A salient lesson for all parents. Don't TELL them you have a blog :-D

But shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
I think they've stopped looking........

Unfortunately, so has everyone else :-D

But hey, the autobiographical nature of this blog  meets a need for me. The ability to look (and read) back on things I think I remember and to be surprised (delighted/mortified) at the reality of the moment,  is such a gift. My scrap-booking has fallen by the wayside recently, even my photo-taking has dropped off. Occasionally in a sodden, hormonal state I may scrawl in a real life journal (most of which I cannot read the next day) but in reality, much of life at the moment is racing by in a superficially facebook notated glaze. I gotta tell you, facebook is a poor cousin to blogging.

 And such momentous things have been happening.

Here is a random 'round-up':

1. my 17 year old daughter has finished school and looks toward her future
2. she also thinks I am irritating and lame
3. having been my best picture going buddy for years she now wants to see things like 'Prometheus' and 'Hideous Scarey Paranormal Death Movie' (oh, alright, I know that's not a real movie....but you get the picture!)
4. actually, she would rather go anywhere with her boyfriend rather than with me
5. my 17 year old (under aged) daughter recently asked me to provide her with alcohol for a party(wt?????????????????) .
6. This year she was dumped by her first (long term) boyfriend
7. She has since met and started seeing a 20 year old young man who is in the ARMY!!!!! On a good note, he's a Christian, on a neg note....he will be deployed shortly.......
8. my 14 year old stepson no longer comes to stay with us
9. he continues to ask for taxi services and money
10. he has recently been diagnosed with a specific learning difficulty (thank you step mother for noticing that I was struggling!!!!!! .........>:-( .....as if)
11. there has been a whole lot more interaction between the Small Boy's mother and Himself (a good thing) and he may even change schools and go to the independent school we had initially suggested (....I really hope she offers to go halves) which has to be good for him! I hope.
12. A few months back I completely lost it with the Small Boy (see point 8)
13. My shoulder injury earlier in the year really impacted on my health, fitness and attitude. I put on a HEAP of weight. More than I have EVER put on before. Menopause may have had an impact on this.
14. I WENT THROUGH MENOPAUSE!!!!!!!! (WTF????)
15. We came into some money (Praise God!!!!)
16. We absorbed a lot of it in clearing up some issues with our business >:-(
17. Our partner did a runner. >:-(
18. We discovered we were a lot better off without him! :-D
19. I started working at the business in a bill paying, book keeping capacity!
20. We have had some significant improvements made to our house. There are more to come!!
21. My job has become increasingly stressful
22. I still love my job
23. We have heard nothing from No1 Son in 6 months. This is not a good thing.
24. No 2 Son is still living downstairs with the cockroaches. At 23 he occasionally works as a builder's labourer with a friend. No girls visit (anything to do with cockroaches??) but he seems to be in a very happy relationship with his Playstation.
25. I have had to make/buy a lot of formal dresses this year and another one is on the way!
26. My sister visited in October and my Mum and Dad are here now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 So, there we are in a nutshell. I suspect a few of these 'entries' will need explanation as I go along. But for now I am happy just to be writing again.

For The Baby Angel Although She Would Be Horrified

How do I let you go?
How do I let you go after I have loved you so long?
How do I hand you over to another's hand?
Small, snuggling, needy child
You grew
Every stage of growth
A loss
Every moment a treasure
A robbery

How do I let you go?
After I have loved you so long?
It is time
Time
Relentless ruthless foe
It is time
Loss
It is life that makes this so

No-one took you from me
There was no tragedy
But the moment you were born
the end began.








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