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sewing

Jacket work in progress!

christinahopgood
The other week, Vogue patterns were 40% off at Spotlight for VIP members, so mum and I hurried off to have a look!
I intended to buy some of the vintage Vogue patterns but they were all a bit ho-hum.  I ended up getting this pattern for a jacket, dress, pants, and skirt.  Find it online here!
I got it for the jacket, but I also really like the dress!  The pants and skirt are super boring.
I also bought some of the lovely blue tartan fabric you see in the background.  My intention is to make a jacket similar to this Vivienne Westwood one!  In blue, obviously!
It is pretty similar to the pattern!
This is pinning pattern pieces.  I have to be super careful to line up the pattern on the fabric or I’ll end up with a weird looking jacket.  A lot of thinking was involved in placement of pattern pieces!
It was long.
I’m terrified to start sewing!  This will be the most complicated project I’ve ever started.  I have lining, facing, interfacing… gosh!  But I’m looking forward to having a rad jacket!
life, percussion

Concerto is done!

christinahopgood
Well last Friday I finally performed my concerto.  Thank goodness it’s over!  It was video recorded (unfortunately the video was small and cut out my lovely accompanist!) and I uploaded it to youtube.
It went well!  I did fluff some bits and I did make some bits easier for myself (by taking it at a slightly slower tempo etc.).  But the most important thing is the music, and communicating that to the audience.
More than being just a performance, it was actually an exam worth about 25% of my final Honours mark.  I had three panel members!  I was nervous!
It was really wonderful that so many friends came to see me play.  Even though I feel lonely and sad a lot of the time without Charles, it’s a reminder that people do care for me.  I appreciate every member of the audience!  Particularly my old piano teacher, who actually has WHOOPING COUGH and sat right at the back and waved to me from afar so I wouldn’t catch it.  Isn’t that crazy!
So here’s the recording!  I particularly like the second movement, but a lot of people said that they liked the third.  All up it goes for about 24 minutes!
Movement 1 – Water Running in High Mountain:
Movement 2 – Reflections and Dreams:
Movement 3 – Walking on Clouds:

dress, polyvore

Dressing up a dress

christinahopgood
I was thinking about how some of my dresses I only wear very rarely, because they’re not versatile.  I don’t go to cocktail parties very often (or never) but I do go to university, to work, to the shops, to church, and occasionally to fancy events like performances and parties.  So if I want a dress to really work for me, it needs to be able to be worn casually and dressed-up.  I made a few polyvore coordinates using a dress I own from UniQlo.  I liked it because it’s cute and spotty, and also because it’s a collaboration with the cute Japanese brand Milk.  Plz excuse how it looks in the coordinates, it looks way better on a human.  Most Milk dresses are like that I find!
First coordinate: Casual.
This is the exact coordinate I wore in Sweden when we recorded Maria’s piece.  Grey jeans, cons, dress and cardigan.  The dress is short enough that it looks good with jeans, as long as they’re the skinny variety.  This is a good look for going shopping or whatever, because it’s comfy.
Casual
Next: Fun!
In this coordinate I wanted to play up the cute pink and blue spots on the dress by pairing it with pink tights and cardigan, and a blue brooch and shoes.  Love those shoes!  They’re Melissa.
This kind of coordinate is good for parties (fun colours yay) or a casual day where you want to add a bit of colour (except maybe not with those heels!).
Fun
Lastly: Classy.
What is a classier colour than black?  There is no classier colour!  This coordinate is pretty simple, the belt and necklace are the only items added really.  It’s still fun though, with the spotty shoes from Irregular Choice.  I’d wear this coordinate to dinners, cocktail parties and the like.  This dress is still a fun dress no matter how you wear it!
Classy
Maybe I’ll make some more posts like this.  It’s the kind of thing I like to do!
life

Library Changes and Protests

christinahopgood
As most of you know, I work in my university’s Music Library.

Here’s me at the library a couple of years ago.  Shelving some CDs, wearing a skirt!  Photo taken by the wonderful Lisa.

ANYHOW

Recently there’s been a proposal approved to move the Music Library up into the Art Library space due to financial problems.  Obviously there’s a lot of upset over the proposal, because it would be super inconvenient for us music students to walk to the Art Library to get our stuff, and because the new combined library will have to house twice the amount of books and twice the amount of students.  It’s simply not going to work.  Anyhow there are lots of reasons why I think it’s a bad and shortsighted idea.  I won’t go into it here.

We had a fun “study session” protest the other week where all the Music and Art students crammed into the Art Library space to show how crazy it is and how it won’t all fit.  We music students all brought big scores to “study”.  It soon became clear that it would never work as a library for two sets of students – and that was without all the extra materials in the library itself.   Then people made speeches and there was cheering etc.
Pictures!
Here’s my friend Yvonne (of Professors in Dresses) studying a giant score that is more like an ironing board.  She’s wearing the original collar – the one I made the replicas of!  And there’s my laptop about to get trodden on.
So many people!
Even more so many people!
There was a video taken of the protest that has been put up on youtube.  
Now the challenge is to keep the protests happening to alert the public to what is going on.   We have a new Vice Chancellor so hopefully he’ll disagree with the merge and take steps to keep the libraries separate.  We need to make it clear that SOME THINGS ARE WORTH PAYING FOR.