I blog once a year....

...whether you read it or not!

Yep, it's that time - the DivaMommy's annual year in review. A look back on the events of the year. 

It's been a year with a lot of ups, a few downs as usual and a LOT of learning! I am truly blessed with wonderful experiences.

Ok...where to begin? How about at home.

Mama's Babies are Growing Up!

Seriously! Ryder was baptized in April - (and he turns 9 in just 4 days) and Lola will be baptized this year. I love to watch them grow and accomplish and learn and to see their wonderful personalities come out. There are lots of challenges and triumphs, but it's truly my family that brings me the most joy. 

Unfortunately I missed their 1st day of school this year because of a this years Bermuda show, but Grandma was nice enough to get photos on their first day of school this year.  Chloe started high school, Piper is in 7th grade, Ryder in 3rd and Lola in 2nd. 

Chloe's first high school dance.

Piper broke BOTH of her arms!

But it didn't stop her from performing in my Halloween show! Chloe and Piper were stars and I was so proud of them!

And Lola continues to be my sweet little girl - who happened to bring down the house nightly singing "Do You Want To Build a Snowman" in our fall Disney Revue.

There's less of Mama this year!

Yup, I finally lost that baby weight. Yup, my baby is 7. 

My weight is always up and down but I finally broke my plateau. I went from a size 12 to a size 6. It's really nice and it wasn't hard. Not having gluten as helped but I cut out a lot of sugar. Any gluten at all and more than just a little sugar makes me sick so it's an "easy" choice to make. But what really pushed me over the plateau is EFT. I've been doing it for a few years but never for weight loss. I literally "tapped" along with one session that mostly addressed the overwhelm of weight loss itself and that did the trick. I have to work harder in other areas, however. I am a big fan of EFT so I wanted to share it! The best place to get started is here: http://www.thetappingsolution.com/  There is a book on basic tapping and one on weight loss. There are videos and programs and I'm happy to help guide anyone to the proper resources!!

I do still have a baby bump, though. A 4 baby bump to be precise. I'm kinda proud of it. :-)

Performing recently with Jack Walker and Lou DeMeis. Photo by Ed Foster Photography

Mamma had a challenging theatre producing experience.

As you may recall, 2 years ago we went to Bermuda to produce Once On This Island. We brought the family, lived there for 2 months and it was a really great experience.

We were asked back again this year to produce Beauty and the Beast. It was the most challenging experience of my life so far. Unfortunately the company we were hired by wasn't prepared for the technical and financial challenges of such a show and even more unfortunately, they often chose to be less than forthcoming about their shortcomings, creating more challenges for us and extreme stress and strain on every level of the production. While I don't believe any of it was out of malice, lack of communication and dishonesty will sabotage even the best intentions. Oh, and it rained almost the whole time we were there!

It was a blessing that the cast was truly responsive and appreciative and brought us much joy and that we learned that 65% of our desired production level was still really darned good. And I got to create some truly gorgeous costumes, grew closer to my husband and some really good friends. It was definitely and adventure and a learning experience!

It was a good year for gettin' Mamma's sang on!

I had a varied and diverse performance opportunities this year. 

Steve and I opened the year singing together as hosts at Sam's Town Live's weekly variety show, produced by Ed Matthews.  We invited our good friend Taylor Eliason to sing with us, Lola sang a little "Snow Man" and the Davis' brothers treated us!

I got back onstage in a musical as The Lady of the Lake in Monty Python's Spamalot - which was another learning experience. Never costume a show when you're the lead, ok? I really should have learned this by now.

Here's one of my favorite numbers from the show. DramaDad was also in the show - he played Sir Lancelot which once again meant we had literally no on-stage interaction, though his character was the catalyst for my character's best joke. It was a fun, silly show where I got to sing my guts out and wear pretty costumes - who could ask for more?

We produced a really wonderful and amazing Disney Revue for our church. It was an incredible cast and we had way too much fun. I hope to have video highlights of it soon.

I created and performed in a Halloween show for Las Vegas' Springs Preserve again this year. It was again, a LOT of fun!! This year we had Diva Monsters!

And GHOSTLIGHT - my country singing group, had a great year!

We did some red Carpets and performed at Vinyl at the Hard Rock Hotel for Mondays Dark - a really great charity event!

We added musicians so we can now perform as a band...and we had an awesome photo shoot.

Check out our band promo!




I truly love these guys - 2015 is going to be our year!

Mamma made pretty things!

Just a few of my costuming adventures this year!

Belle's Ball Gown

The Bouche (Wardrobe) from Beauty and the Beast

Self Explanatory

Katy Perry Inspired

BBR's ALICE

Another Katy Perry Inspired costume - for a Burlesque STAR!

And, of course, Mamma made time for Disneyland!

My first trip was in early January to actually audition for a role in Disneyland. It was a great experience and my first time in Disneyland solo...which is why there are no photos.

We knew we would be traveling to LA a lot this year for fabric shopping, so we took the plunge and purchased annual passes to Disneyland. So I was there for my birthday!

And we even ran into our GHOSTLIGHT bandmates in the Fall!

 As well as this unsavory character...

And in November, we took a family trip with some of DramaDad's extended family. It was a LOT of fun! We had a blast and Lola FINALLY got to meet Anna and Elsa.

So looking back, it was in fact a pretty great year. Looking forward, I have lots of great things coming up, surrounded by a family I love more than anything in the world.

Much love!!!

The DivaMommy

Halloween Horror Stories (or, how much would it cost...)

It's that time of year....Halloween. Definitely one of my favorite holidays because I love to dress up. And I love that my kids love to dress up.

It's also that time when I start getting requests to "help" with other peoples costumes. Most of the time it's a question of "how much would you charge me" but occasionally it's "could you..." and then it puts me in that awkward position of ok, do they want me to work for free or should I discuss a price...etc.

I should be clear that I get requests a wide variety of people - friends, family, acquaintances  friends of friends and strangers. I should also be clear that I am a professional costumer - it's my main source of income. Some people are dr's, lawyers, sales people, HR people, CEO's - I'm a costumer.

I would say that 9 out of 10 times that someone asks me what it would cost to create a specific costume for them, I never hear back from them. Not even a "thank you for taking the time to research the fabrics and pattern and then contemplating how you would go about building this in the most economical way" response, or even just letting me know that they received my email. I really appreciate when people at least just let me know they got the information as it can take a few minutes to many hours to just come up with a quote!

I'm sure that the reason I don't hear back 90% of the time is because the cost is much more than they anticipate. And I understand that. I mean, you look at a costume at the Halloween store and it's $30 - 80 on average, right? Surely it can't cost more than that to make it from scratch? Allow me to educate you on the cost of building from scratch.

First of all, Halloween costumes are crap. They are meant to last one night. They are made of the cheapest fabrics and trims that exist. They have little construction for your shape. It would literally kill me to produce a costume at that level. There are some higher quality costumes, but even those don't hold a candle to the costumes I create. For example, here's a cheap Cinderella costume.

It retails for about $60. It won't look like that on you. It's a one size fits all. They tailor these to the models in the photos. The back is probably a super thin, super cheap polyester that velcros closed.  This is what it will probably look like on you:

Shapeless and silly. So you think, it can't cost much more to make something like this from scratch, right?

I stole this from my friend Valinda's site...she bought Once Upon a Costume from me many years ago and this is one of her custom made Cinderella gowns. It's the same pattern (with some of her upgrades) that I started with. I just don't have any pictures of my "standard" Cinderella dresses, but mine looked pretty much identical! I would quote you $450 for this. What? WHY SO MUCH!

First, fabric! The base fabric of this dress is about a medium weight, good quality satin.  While we can get really good satin at Heddy's, a more boutique fabric shop, we want to be thrifty and you want us to be. So, we go to JoAnn's. The Casa Satin retails for $7.99 per yard and we need 6 yards of fabric for this dress - about $50 with tax. Suddenly, $60 for a whole dress, already made - not so bad!

Then there's sparkle organza. We need 3 yards and it's on sale for $6.99, so there's already another $20. Then you need about 1.5 yards of sparkle trim - another $8.00. The separating zipper will set you back $3, the lining is another $10 - because I use medium weight twill so the costume will hold up. Then the headband, ribbon for the necklace, snaps, thread, glue - we'll just lump those in a $9 because I like even numbers

So our grand total - just for fabric, which is a better quality than the cheapy halloween costume, but that's why you want me to make it, right? - is $100. So we've already spent more than the wanna-be. Almost double, and we haven't even picked up a needle!

So - $350 for labor? That seems like a lot. How many hours do you think it takes to put this gown together? Look at the bodice - there are 12 pieces just for the bodice! And then each of those have a lining - 12 more. So 24 pieces that all have to be sewn together, in the proper order and navigating some tricky curves. The sleeves also have about 6 panels each - for a total of 12 that have the be sewn together before the sleeve is gathered along the top, a casing made along the bottom for elastic and then attached. The skirt is made very full with a 3 godet insert in the front to add beautiful shape and detailing. So, for numbers sake, that's 8 long seams. Then it has to be gathered into a waistband. The bodice gets a separating zipper and the skirt gets a snap. Then the necklace and headband have to be made and the trim attached to the neckline -  usually by hand. And I have to make sure it all fits!

And before any of the sewing starts, all of those dozens of pieces have to be cut out. Which is also a process - first the proper pattern is selected, then pinned to the fabric and each piece cut out by hand.

Then there's all of my tools - my sewing machine ($500), overlock ($500), cutting and ironing tables - ($100 ea), scissors ($30 or more ea), rotary blades ($4 each - and I usually use 1 per project) plus everything else like seam rippers, bias tape, thimbles, needles...all the little things. Then I have tables and chairs in my sewing room, all those necessities. I have a studio in my home - a whole room dedicated to the construction of costumes that has to be paid for as well.

I would say all in all - including research and shopping time, I would easily put in about 20 hours on just this one Cinderella gown.  At $350 for labor, that comes out to $17.50 per hour. I like to earn $20 per hour. So hopefully I can sew quickly and make up that $3 per hour.

I don't mind helping a friend out on something simple and if they are going to pay me, I tend to cut them a break. But not too much because THIS IS WORK for me! I don't wake up in the morning and wander into my sewing room and think...oh, yay! what shall I sew today for fun and free?

And I tend to stay clear of projects that are just busy work. I like to be challenged and I like projects that spark my interest. I'm not a seamstress, I'm a costumer. I do more than sew, I build. I often pattern my own pieces and have to figure out - how can I do that? My least favorite thing in the world is to make duplicates of the same costumes. In fact, that's why I sold Once Upon a Costume. I was going crazy doing the same thing over and over and was getting behind on deadlines. I work best when I'm inspired. Which is why my house is always a mess, but I digress.

My motto is, if you can buy it - BUY IT! I was asked a few years back to look at making some Bridesmaids dresses. I was shown a very elaborately draped gown in a David's Bridal catalogue. I asked how much they charged for the dress and she said $120. I said - BUY THEM! The fabric alone will be at least half that, and there's now way I can do intricate draping for anywhere near that! I told them that I would have to charge about $300 each to make them worth my time. They were shocked to hear that, but grateful for the advice.

I generally think the only time it's CHEAPER to have something made is if you can make it yourself. And there are seamstresses who will charge less than I do. Again, costuming is my profession - how I earn money to pay bills and eat and have a place to sleep. I don't do it for fun. Even my kids' halloween costumes this year are thrift store finds that I'm putting my magic touch to. I don't have the time or money to make them all from scratch. And one of them is coming straight from Target because frankly, I can't even conceive of how to do a Batman costume for anywhere near $20.

I was asked to bid a prom gown - again, an elaborate 1950's style gown with a corseted top and a lot of draping in a dupioni satin. Dupioni starts at $20 a yard! I think I quoted $400 or so. Again, I never even received a response, but I'm assuming that the price made them dizzy.

Oh, and I get dozens of blog hits a day on this photo from a post from 2 years ago:

I charged $500 for this costume - it was a last minute order so it was extra do get it done so fast. I once had someone ask me to make five of them for $150 each. Um, no. The bodice is corseted with spiral steel boning! Most of the candy is hand made or at least hand painted. Between my husband and I, there are well over 30 hours in this costume. Because I already have the materials, I would do one more for $400, but no less! It's too much work otherwise.

And finally, you may be wondering..how do you costume entire shows? Like this, you mean?

To be honest - I really don't know. I never remember because I never get much sleep. I built the (from l to right - the Yellow one (Velma), the pink one (Tracy), the green one (Motormouth), the orange one (Little Inze) and the brown one (Penny's mother) I also finished Edna's gown (the red one), made Pinky's plaid pants and altered Penny's dress.

I'm grateful for all of the show building experiences that I've had so far. However, I make very, very little, if any, money off of these endeavors and I don't even get to keep the costumes. So I am at a point, now, where I will no longer be doing full shows unless I get to keep the costumes or I can make a fair wage. That's the only way to make it economically possible for me keep doing it. As we speak, I'm gearing up to costume The Music Man for our own production company - Huntsman Entertainment! I'm excited to be my own boss. And bring the costumes back to my closet on closing night.

I hope you found this informative and know where I'm coming from when I give you halloween sticker shock.

PS - I wanted to add...

There have been many occasions when I have done a costume for a friend or family member free of charge and it gives me great satisfaction and joy to do so. What's the point of having a skill if you can't use it as a gift from time to time. I am so often blessed by those in my life and nothing makes me happier than to share a kindness with someone who has done the same for me.

Doin' it for ME!

2 months ago, Damn Yankees closed. It was the last in a long line of productions that I worked on. (See previous post!)

For the last 2 months, I have been taking on MY OWN PROJECTS solely. I have never been so happy in my life.

I don't say that to sound greedy or selfish, but I was just in a situation where I didn't realize how unhappy I was. You know how Oprah always talks about "The Authentic Self" or whatever that is, I never really knew I was missing my authentic self. I guess I just thought I was fine.

What I didn't realize was that I was giving myself away. I was being taken advantage of, but I was allowing it at the same time. And although money was an issue, it wasn't the only issue. I'm not suddenly rich now that I'm doing my own projects, but I am working towards it. But, pardon the bad cliche, my soul is full. It just really is. It's like I'm actually valuing myself for the first time in my life. People would always compliment me on my work, and I would never allow myself to believe them. NOT cool.

And those I was doing work for, I let go a bit. I still care, but I don't let it define me. I made some poor decisions this year, and some really unfortunate things were done to me. But, in a way (except for the downright mean words that were spoken of me behind my back) I am grateful. Because it FORCED me to make a change, to only do things if they are what I WANT to do and if there will be some benefit to me. Not saying I can't be charitable or kind, but only if I FEEL good about it.

I'm working on forgiving some things that have happened, and I recognize my own imperfection. I also recognize that others are imperfect and much of the time did not intend harm I do tend to hold on to things, but I also have to give them a chance to work their way out.

Now, if they want me, I come at a price that's worth it to me. Take me or leave me. And it feels good. I feel strong for the first time in my life. I get up every day eager to go to "work" - whether it's creating a blog for my husband's new business or working on a new costume for myself or working on music for an upcoming performance or marketing my businesses. I'm even doing a better job at keeping my house cleaner (still a lot of hurdles to overcome there) but I'm making progress. I wear makeup and do my hair (which I have changed to BLONDE and I LOVE IT!!!) and I actually have a positive outlook on life.

Earlier this year, I thought I there was seriously something wrong with me - maybe bi-polar or pmds or hormone issues - I even took one online quiz that said I had boderline personality disorder. Turns out, it was just stress and allowing other peoples issues to affect me far too much. It's funny, because I'm having some of the same symptoms physically as I go through my month, but the depression, anxiety and uncontrollable mood swings have all but disappeared. I don't feel like a freak anymore, wondering what's wrong with me!

So, if you made it through all of those confessions....you should be rewarded! With halloween photos!!
I love to make halloween costumes for my kids and my niece and nephew. Woody was a joint effort with me and my sister.

Buddy Boy as Leo from Little Einsteins, PrincessPrettyP as a Masquerade Dancer, Lollies as a Pirate and Mowgli as a Vampire Soceress. Yes, my girls are creative in costume and character.

Lollies, Mowglie, Cousin Ariel, Cousin Woody, BuddyBoy and PrincessPrettyP 

I even had time to whip up this little beauty!

From Katie Perry's California Girlz video. I had only 3 days to do it, but it turned out pretty cool. Oh, not for me, for a client in NY.

Ok, enough for today. :) To quote Mondo (Project Runway) I feel better. I feel free!