I have another new project. Our club has a party/potluck every December. We dress up for this one. There is lots and lots of food of course, plus music, a present exchange ($10 limit) via whatever game they dream up this year. A very brief business meeting installs the next year's slate of 5 officers. A committee volunteers to do the work of planning, decorating, and even cleaning up though we all are expected to clear our table space and take leftovers home. The BYOB policy (we can't serve) means there are always a few people having an extra good time, and last year the dance floor space was filled for a bit with some who found "YMCA" especially entertaining. In my times there, alcohol has never been a problem. Many of us have spouses or partners with physical or memory issues, and people remain thoughtful.
Our volunteer committee chair this year is a talented and energetic woman named Jeanne - pronounced with two syllables. After consultation with another couple of people she came up with and made the actual frames for the tree challenge. A small wood square supports 4 pieces of sturdy copper wire - I'm thinking 14 gauge - which spread out at the bottom and rise about a foot to connect at the top with a flourish. We can sign one out, individually or as a group, take it home, decorate it however we wish using our club skills, and return it by a deadline. Then the club members get 5 days to vote for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choice for the best. Top three places get prizes and recognition. All trees become table centerpieces for the party, and we take ours home afterwards. The penalty for not returning a tree is your table gets decorated with one of our old, ratty, never-tossed, artificial poinsettias from bygone years. Very bygone years.
Of course I signed one out. I knew before I even saw the final form that was devised what my tree topper would be, how I'd hang decorations, and - what I hope is my piece-de-resistance - how to devise and hang "tinsel." I have all the needed bits now, some taking up room in the house for years. I made one trip to a craft store for the tinsel-to-be, and luckily they had something even better than I envisioned.
All I need to do now is the actual work. Some supplies have been made already and have just been sitting around waiting for a home - like a pair of ear wires, for example. Only now they've been diverted, since I have way too many earrings in the club already looking for customers. Other things have been shaped and need to be connected, some items have been long abandoned because people just don't wear them - ever! But they sparkle, or have color, or just will look great on a miniature tree. I hope.
Of course I'll still be slightly over-busy. The fall festival is coming up and that takes both administrative duties and actual service time on site. I have my third November workshop to teach later this week, and it will involve typing out instructions and assembling supplies as well as the actual class. Thanksgiving cooking is always labor intensive. My Christmas gift projects (some of you already got yours this summer to save postage) are finally proceeding after giving up and buying the really expensive, American-made diamond drill bits which last about 8 times as long as the cheap versions, which lose their diamonds after their second hole. But hey, I'm not bored!
Am I overworked? Finding myself once again delaying sleep after head meets pillow several nights in a row while my formerly sleepy, suddenly busy brain starts going over the mechanics and how-tos and what-withs of the tree challenge tells me it just has to get done and I'll make it work! All of it. The deadline is soon enough that if I like it when completed there will even be time enough to make it THE X-mas card picture this year, even though I was planning on that one special Bear Lake sunrise shot where colors from clouds and bouncing down the mountain to the lake turned everything a unique shade of red. Of course there is no reason I can't do both, I suppose. You'll find out if you're on my list.
No comments:
Post a Comment