A hanging hang over!

So after a looooong break from my costuming gig I lose my mind and accept three orders all due within a week of each other! Weak moment for me and yesterday and today I'm paying for the mistake. Sleep is never on the schedule during these crazed construction crunches and I'm getting too old to miss sleep these days. The title, for my adoption buddies, is a reference to the very tricky process of 'hanging the skirts' which is a key to the 'look' of an Irish dance costume. Those of you with little ones just starting their dance careers are still in the "I can't believe these cost so darn much!" phase so this is for your edification. The prices you pay are not just for the material costs!!! It takes know how and HOURS of sewing to get the yards of flat material shaped into the nebulous sketches provided by your dance teachers. Then there is the secret life of a dressmakers child that needs to be paid for out of that fee too!!!!!!!!! Can I just say that the local pizza parlour is on my speed dial and that the Chinese delivery man knows my children by name?? Parenting is at the bare minimum to avoid DCFS visits and keep them breathing....like how yesterday I declared it was "Pretending to be an Orphan Day!" The game goes like this: 1) Use your best imaginations to find something that keeps you OUT of the salt mine for anything but blood emergencies. 2) Use your best imaginations to be chef for a day and make all your meals yourself...microwave is okay but no stove allowed. 3)Be sure to check caller ID before answering the phone and get Mommy immediately if one of them says State of Illinois!! All other callers should be directed to call back next week...except Grandma, tell her to call Auntie Peggy! 4) Use your best imaginations to find those just right outfits for playing the Orphan Game and then the just right PJ's for the Orphan Sleepover that follows. This really did work well with this most recent costume batch with the ,hopefully, long term benefit of showing them that Mom doesn't have to do everything! Like this morning, when they were trying to wake me up after 48 sleepless hours to make them pancakes. Suddenly the Bisquick box was discovered along with the eggs and milk so all Mom had to do was roll out and pour the batter onto the griddle. They should be pro's by the end of this week when I deliver the last of the three costumes. Two are gone and paid for...well the cash is paid but my body has paid too. I'm thinking it's time to fall back into bed. Gotta build back up the reserves to get the last dress done by it's deadline on Friday. I do have one picture to post. I can just hear you now Diane! "One, only one picture of two dresses?!?!" Yep, I blew it again! See I cut the deadlines so close and my brain is so handicapped from sleep deprivation that they are out the door with their costume before I remember to get the picture!! As is expected, the new beginner Mom is the only one to follow through on the promise, shouted back over their departing shoulders, to "take one of her at the feis and e-mail it." Literally, the competition just started 3 hrs ago and this dutiful Mom has just e-mailed me a picture of her daughter in her first costume at her first feis dancing for the new Clark Academy of Irish Dance in St. Louis which is confusing since there is also another school in that area with a very similar name! Thanks Olivia and Michele! Glad to hear that Mary Jo likes her new class costumes (again adoption buddies, a dancing term meaning the uniform that everyone in that school will need for team dances). Dancing buddies, it's really a traditional 3-panel that I designed to look like a gladiator panel! Now, it's time to see if the advanced dancer follows through and shoots me out an e-mail...she's at the same feis!!! (Feis= Irish dance competition)