Mistress of the Roses

That's what you can all call me now. I think I am actually sick of roses. Wait, don't let that get back to Hubby - I'll like me some roses just fine if they arrive in a bouquet for me and do not involve pins, hot glue, or mould. Baffled? Allow me to enlighten you - I was decorating on the weekend.

This weekend, the Boss-Lady had two galas to decorate. One was for the hospital foundation, and the other was the snowsuit fund. The snowsuit fund was a Hallowe'en theme, but very glitzy - silver chair covers, raised centerpieces with glass vases filled with black rocks, a haunted house vignette by the entrance that is all black with white windows and silhouettes of trees and black cats and bats, and silver-sprayed and glittered pumpkins. I saw it on Saturday when I helped with the final things after we finished at the other location, and it looked amazing.

Friday from 1:30 pm until 1:45 am, and Saturday from 8 am until 5:30 pm, I worked on the hospital foundation's Spanish themed gala. All the black chair covers that I counted and folded earlier in the week (600!!!) were for this event. There was lots of black, red, black lace, and roses. Lots and lots of roses. We put a black iron double arch at the entrance to the ballroom, and then I was assigned to fix this rose frame. Boss-Lady had ordered it a couple of months ago in preparation for this event, but when it arrived, a lot had fallen apart. It was a horrible packing job - just put in a box with absolutely no packing material to protect it. It was also poorly made - the stems of the gorgeous, very realistic, red velvet roses were dipped in glue, then stuffed into the rectangular grapevine frame. Which obviously wasn't enough to hold, since many had fallen out. It's amazing how long it took, but the rose heads were heavy, and I had to hold them in place so that they wouldn't slide down or flop over. I only burned my finger on the glue twice, which was impressive. At least it didn't blister, like one of the other women who was gluing something else - she really did a number on herself! Once I finished the frame, I was doing about five things at once. I would start something, and then Boss-Lady would assign me to do a couple of small, detail-oriented things. I almost got to do the entrance vignette with a wrought iron three-panel screen, the rose frame, some fabric, and a whole bunch of roses, but it didn't happen (she needed me to do something else, so no real decorating, but you can't always be the decor diva). The last thing I did on Friday night was to put all the centerpieces out. There were three different styles - the first was a tall wrought iron candelabra (it takes 5 votive cups); the second was a tall twisted iron pillar candle holder, but we put a flower arrangement on it. And the third was a slightly bigger flower arrangement on its own. All the arrangements were made with a base of salal leaves and leather fern, and then filled with roses - hot pink, yellow, and red. We also used a Spanish fan in each arrangement.

On Saturday, I got to fill the arrangements with extra roses, but all the pink bunches had some mould in them. Rose mould is just a soggy brown patch, but it's a pain to pick it off because the petal keeps ripping. But clients don't like to see rose mold (really, who does?). A pain in the ass for sure. And then I got to pin silk roseheads to the back of chair cover bands. Using corsage pins. One for each band. Some got completed on Friday (maybe 120?), but I got to do the rest. All I have to say is Thank God the material was black - at least the blood didn't show!! I don't know how many times I stabbed myself, but I felt like a human pincushion by the end of it! It was worth it - the ballroom looked spectacular. And the biggest bonus? I got out of take-down, so I was in pajamas by 9, and in bed by 11:30. Sweet!!!

I would have done take-down for a couple of hours (until 3 am), but I was getting more and more stressed about today. The whole rehearsal in the afternoon, and playing my flute for one (very easy) piece, but not being able to return the loaner and get MY flute until after church, and not being able to practice on my instrument had me running on nerves and adrenalin with an undercurrent of acid-stomach nausea. (*I do wonder if this was part of how I stayed thin in undergrad. Points to ponder, and with three more stressful concerts coming up, maybe I can drop a few by Christmas!!).

Right after church, Beck walked over with me to get my flute. Huge thanks again, since I would have taken the very long way. And when we came back, I wanted to sneak off somewhere just to try my stunningly clean and shiny flute. Finally, I ducked into the nursery, and played a bit. Wow, much improvement in tone, and the keys all move more smoothly (and the acoustics in the nursery are pretty good - new discoveries!). Then it was time for the rehearsal, and my piece was up first. Gordon didn't even let me tune, and we launched in. It went okay, I did get lost at the end and my tone can improve some more, but I'll just have to be to the side - at a couple of ritard. spots, I couldn't see the beat when he was conducting. The most important thing is that I did it, I didn't faint/throw up/completely screw up, and I even got a round of applause (love my choir people!). And I'm sure that Gordon did it first because he knew I'd be useless for the rest of the rehearsal if I was all nervous and freaked out about playing. The rest of the rehearsal was fine, too (except one piece, but I saw it on Thursday for the first time, so I just need to take a look at it myself).

Came home to Hubby scooping pumpkins. Gotta love him - he HATES the scooping part. I love it, but he knows that my time will be limited tomorrow because I have a ton of stuff to do. Part of that will be carving - woo hoo!! And right now, it's so insanely windy that it sounds haunted. I keep checking out the window to make sure it isn't a blizzard, since we had a dusting of snow this morning. SNOW! Before Hallowe'en. That's just wrong (oh, and not before Beck's birthday, either). Hopefully, I won't be shoveling tomorrow!