Mary's Website News

August 2011

More modifications to the website, including moving the site search to a more prominent location, reorganizing the menu, and fixing some errors.

New page for ballet costumes.

Adding/updating links pages (the never ending task...).

July 2011

Modified & slightly reorganized the site menu. Let me know if you have any problems with it – and if you do experience any issues, please let me know if your on a PC, Mac, smart phone, etc. Not a lot of new/updated links added in the past few months.

As usual, too busy working on other people's sites to do a lot of additions to my own. My newest is for my BFF's son-in-law: DanPlaysTrumpet.com

My sewing room is a mess, as I have been using it for storage more than sewing. The general chaos makes me just want to quickly back out & close the door! It also doubles as a guest room and since we have guests coming soon (my brother who lives in Hungary & his family), I've gotta dig in and get it cleared out. Maybe after they leave, I'll feel inspired again...

April 2011

Been super busy with work and other websites, so not a whole lot of updates going on here. Tweaked the website code a bit, working on a mobile version, and moved to a new hosting company, FatCow.

Slowly working on updating the links as time allows. Also sloooowly working on adding more images of extant 19th century clothing.

Updated Ren Faire schedule for 2011.

July 2010

Working on a new tutu - I hope to post pix soon. Still working on getting new & updated links on the links pages.

October 2009

Converted all of my links pages to PHP so that it's easier for me to keep them updated. Next, I'm working on actually getting them updated.

  • April 2009
    Still not many updates, due to working full time, taking 6 units at the local community college, and opening a dance studio with my sister-in-law! Yikes! And spending waaaay too much time on facebook...
    Did manage to get the Renaissance Faire schedule updated for 2009.
  • November 2008
    Not a lot of activity on this site lately. I've been busy with other websites, genealogy (got the bug again), making costumes, and lots of personal turmoil. The last couple of years have been a definite roller coaster ride — And I don't like roller coasters!!
  • August 2007
    Working on updating Costuming links pages as time allows.
  • July 2007
    Well... Can't believe it's the middle of the year already. Boy, time does fly when you're not looking.
    • Posted some more pictures of costumes that I have made myself.
    • Made some minor updates to Costuming links pages.
    • Changed my dance videos format to Flash (to resolve compatibility issues between Microsoft products and the rest of the world) and I am slowly adding some more videos
  • March 2007
    • FINALLY!! The new redesign has been launched. I'm still working out some of the kinks, and I'm still not 100% happy with it. But... I finally decided that 95% was good enough to go live. LOL Please send me email if you have any problems with any of the pages, and try to include info about what browser & OS you use. And of course, general comments, "atta girls" and criticism is also welcome.
      Now I can finally get around to doing all the updates that have been piling up...
  • October 2006
    • Wow, it's been a long time since I did any updates! Gah! I've been working on a site redesign, but can't decide on anything I like (close but no cigar...). I've recently been contacted by distant relatives who stumbled on to my family tree.
    • Costuming links have been added and/or updated. More photo albums need to be added, but I don't know when I'll have the time - it's Nutcracker season again! Boy, time does fly!
  • March 2006:
    • Beginning a reorganization of the costume links & supply pages, and reviewing pages for broken links. Next, I will begin adding a whole slew of new links that have been piling up.
    • Two new photo albums are up:
  • February 2006: It's been a while since I've done any content updates -- just been really busy! Still recuperating from Nutcracker, including making a new Clara costume in 2 weeks, because one of the girls playing Clara was sooooo tiny, she didn't fit in any of the other costumes. Did some other general maintenance on other Nut costumes, which kept me busy for most of November and December.
  • September 2005: Some minor updates:
    • New photo album of my daughter, Hannah, in honor of her becoming a Senior.
    • Slowly but surely adding new links to the costuming section.
    • Planning on reorganizing the costuming links pages.
    • Working on two other sites, Sebastopol Ballet School and a site for a friend's new music teaching business.
  • June 2005:
    • My father died unexpectedly in April and I have created a tribute page to him.
    • My daughter is spending 8 weeks this summer at Joffrey Ballet School in New York City. She worked really hard this year and attended many auditions in January and February, so we are very proud of her accomplishments (see notes below about her scholarship competition). Preparations for the trip have taken up a lot of my spare time lately...
    • New video page added with clip of Hannah dancing a piece from "Paquita"
    • New page for Dance Costume & Supply Links
    • A bit more website tweaking, so that the site is now almost completely table free! Yay! I love CSS design.
  • March 2005:
    • Just finished making my first tutu! Phew! (Not the actual net part, but the bodice and plate/overlay.) It was fun, considering I had no idea what I was doing and didn't have a pattern. I made the costume for my daughter's participation in a scholarship competition. She won 2nd place in the Senior division and she won a special "Musicality" award! We're all very proud of her!
    • New - Stephan Bergdahl's article "Finding Time to Sew"
    • Updated the 2005 Nor Cal Renaissance Faire schedule.
  • February 2005: I've been a busy girl the last few weeks. Besides taking another class at SRJC, I've been making some more additions/updates to the site. Also, working on my first attempt at making a tutu. I've been working on the bodice pattern, then I will make a plate to go over the tutu base that I bought my daughter for Xmas. I'm dying to go to the seminars that are being put on by Tutu.com this summer in LA, but time and money don't allow for it.... <sigh>
    • New page with a petticoat pattern.
    • Updated and reorganized the "How To" page.
    • Some more visual tweaks, coding tweaks, etc, to the site design.
    • In the process of adding more new bookmarks to the costuming pages.
  • January 2005: Happy New Year all! Hope 2005 is better than 2004 (and 2004 was pretty good to me!).
    Haven't added any new content to the site for the past several months, because I've been caught up in the tidal wave known as "The Nutcracker." This year my daughter got the part of Clara and she was fabulous (if I must say so myself). And besides sewing up stuff for Nutcracker, I was also helping her to sew a costume for an English project on "The Scarlet Letter." Oh yes, and trying to finish my class at SRJC at the same time. Whew!!