Friday!

Things I am happy about:

~ Today is payday as well as being Friday! Whoo-hoo!

~ The Marie gown moves forward, but I still felt it was missing something. Gowns from that time tend to be extravagant with an emphasis on "extra". My trim just wasn't working for me all that fantastically. So this morning, I ordered some of this:



and these:



Now, I know sequins aren't exactly period. Nor is bullion embroidery and beading of this kind. But if it had been available, the fashionistas of the time totally would've used it! I got my inspiration for this after seeing the hella amazing costumes in Phantom - which were absolutely full of non-period sequins and the like. This is my rationale for putting this totally non-period trim on my dress, when really, I don't need a rationale. I'm not a purist anyway. I just want the look, and I want my dress to be fabulous, and gorgeous silver trim is way harder to find than gorgeous gold, for some reason.

~ SPN last night was more awesome than I can even say! Within the first ten minutes I was pausing it so I could gasp in delight and clap my hands - no, really. I was so not expecting ( (spoilers) )

~ Oh, yes. And yesterday saw a partial request for Nemesis from one of the agents I queried. This means the first thirty pages get sent in. The really amazing part is it came from one of the agents I assume will be rejections - one of the well established agents with a pretty full client list. I actually gasped in shock when I opened the e-mail, because I was so certain it would be a form rejection. I guess my query works. :)

(no subject)

Hmmm. Maybe someone out there will have some good suggestions.

A friend of mine has, in partnership with another woman, sponsored a local event this Halloween, the Albany Masquerade, a Masquerade Ball at a local venue that will include live music, etc, with proceeds to benefit SMART - a literacy program here in Oregon designed to help kids better learn reading in schools.

The problem is, if they don't start selling some tickets, they won't even be able to cover the cost of the event, much less actually donate something to SMART. They are on an extremely tight budget, but they have done some things for promotion, including dressing up and handing out flyers to local businesses, putting an ad on Craigslist, the website, the local radio station is chatting about it and giving away a couple of tickets - but so far, only ten people have actually purchased tickets. And of those ten - me, my sister, our husbands, my friend L's sister and her boyfriend, her Mom - that leaves, what, three tickets that are not in some way directly linked to L? She is starting to panic and think that she's going to lose a lot of money on this, not to mention have no one show up. Any ideas on how to better get the word out? Tickets are $20, and this doesn't seem like too much when people can write it off on their taxes. They need to sell something like 140 more. Surely there are 140 adults in the area willing to dress up on Halloween and go out and have fun with a bunch of other adults. We just need to find them.