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About Me:

My name is Olivia and I am a senior at Butler University. I spend most of my time in Lilly Hall as a BFA Dance Performance major. When not in rehearsal or ballet class, I write papers for my English Literature second major. In my super-abundant, never-lacking, this-is-highly-sarcastic spare time, I attempt to cook in my apartment kitchen, watch Youtube videos of ballet, knit sweaters that never seem to come to an end, and read books both silly and serious. If I could take any class at Butler just for kicks, I'd go for DiffyQ.

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Posts Tagged “clothes”

Coppélia Rehearsals

Posted on March 21, 2012 by Olivia

I lost my contact today during rehearsal. We were learning part of the Act II scene when Swanhilda pretends to be the Coppélia doll and generally wrecks havoc with Dr. Coppélius. Blink, blink, blinkblinkblinkblinkblink, goes the choreography, so blinkblinkblink I go. Then I try not to move my eyes at all afterwards, at least until Dr. Coppélius turns to consult his book of spells.

As I tried to stare as innocently as possible straight ahead, my eyes grew drier, drier. Then my contact fell out, and I had to stop the doll imitations to pop it back in. Besides losing my contacts, Coppélia rehearsals are going smoothly. I am having the time of my life with all the acting. My feet, however, have told me I am not to wear anything but Danskos or tennis shoes. The weather is beautiful outside, so you end up with an odd outfit like this:

Oh well. Whatever keeps my feet happy! They aren’t too bad right now.

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Halloween: How to make a bird costume

Posted on October 31, 2011 by Olivia

I was a bird for my Halloween potluck, and the costume was surprisingly easy and inexpensive. You need:

  • a bag of feathers
  • some fabric
  • hair pins
  • sewing materials
  • duct tape
  • tulle
  • ribbon/belt
  • brown leggings
  • brightly-colored shirt, long sleeves
  • brightly-colored skirt

I made a feather fascinator for my hair by sewing feathers onto a piece of plain white fabric. Then I pinned it into my hair. I’m most proud of this aspect of my costume, since an Etsy search for “feather fascinator” revealed some beautiful but scarily intricate creations. (See a crazy one here, also one here.)

Feather fascinator

Fascinator, front view, rotated oddly and the photo software not cooperating

Fascinator back view

I made the tail with some tulle which I bunched together, the longer pieces on the bottom. After sewing it fast at the top, I sewed the entire tail to a fabric belt I have and used that to tie it around my waist over brown-legging-bird-legs and skirt.

Tail attached to belt

Tail/belt close-up

The wings began as two strips of fabric sewn into rectangles. I duct taped feathers all along the length of the fabric, then sewed the wings duct-tape-side-down along the sleeves of the shirt.

A wing, flipped up

Duct tape/wing underside close-up

Wing sewed onto shirt sleeve and flipped down

For make-up I used:

  • False eyelashes, with two small feathers from my feather bag glued on the outsides of the lashes
  • colorful shadow and a precise make-up brush

You can sort of see the bird make-up in this picture...

 

And voila! You are a bird!

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Lost Objects, Rain, Nothing Particular

Posted on October 27, 2011 by Olivia

Lately, I’ve been losing things right and left. Like:

  • My camera charger (this is why I haven’t had so many pictures/posts)
  • a pink sock, so sad!
  • other articles of clothing — two of which I found under my bed on two separate occasions after the articles had been missing over a week
  • a check
  • dance warmups
  • my tennis shoes
  • my mind

Most of these I’ve recovered, some I have not. I blame the increasingly chilly weather for my brain melting, if that makes any sense. I’m half-transitioned through from summer to winter clothes, but it will just take so long to drag my chest of sweaters from under my bed that I’ve been putting it off. Also, I don’t want to admit the time for shorts is past.

A picture from the vaults... a Butler squirrel getting ready for winter.

The last two days were beautiful, and I broke out the dress/shorts/t-shirt combinations faster than you can say “Indianapolis.” Today, alas, is rainy and cold, and I have two shirts layered on top of one another.

Don’t forget to bring rainboots to college — you have to walk everywhere to and from class, and at Butler, the sidewalks morph into rivers. Also, an umbrella. Also, a camera charger.

Sorry this is such a lame post. I promise I’ll be more articulate next time!

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Turkey Trot

Posted on November 27, 2010 by Olivia

Every Thanksgiving morning, my family volunteers at the local Turkey Trot race at the University of Richmond. The race, sponsored by the Richmond Road Runners club, sees about 1,200 people, though this year they registered 1,500 because they used chips for race times. My dad runs in the (extremely hilly) race, and my mom, two sisters, and I help with the mile marker 2 water stop. This year was no exception.

We fill water cups before the race, hold them out for the runners to grab as they race past, and provide water as everyone finishes the course. While I’m not actually running the race, I at least feel like I’ve partly earned the right to eat my turkey/mashed potato/green bean mountain. It’s a good family tradition.

Where is my white t-shirt, you might ask? Why am I different? Why do I look like a marshmallow before Thanksgiving lunch? I might answer, because I am wearing six shirts because I am always cold. Actually, one jacket, three shirts, a wool sweater, and a hoodie sweatshirt.

Back to Butler tomorrow. I haven’t done nearly as much homework as I should have. Sigh… This coming week is production week for the Nutcracker, with opening night on Thursday, December 2. I might be a bit absent from the blogging world, but you should come and see Butler Ballet!

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