Miss Mina Murray

Dear Constant Reader,

Happy Friday! Here’s a little tip if you are applying to burlesque festivals.

Trim your videos to cut down the introductions.

The selection committee members have to watch a lot of videos and letting them get right to the start of your act will save a bit of time. Even less than a minute per video adds up when they’ve got hundred of videos to go through.

If your video is on YouTube, you can send a link that starts at a specific time so you don’t actually have to edit out the intro. Set…

Dear Constant Reader,

Happy Friday! Sorry for the lack of a tip last week. I was felled by a nasty bug and spent the long weekend swooning in my sick bed, occasionally, but only rarely, accompanied by a cat.

Here’s your tip!

When modifying a paper pattern, trace it first, so you’re not messing with the original.

Tracing paper is very nice for patterning; it’s crisp, and you can see through it, so transferring markings is easy, but it’s a little pricy and the sheets only get so big. For large pattern pieces…

Dear Constant Reader,

We’ve always been a one-cat household. And assumed we would stay that way. However, Bartholomew had other plans. He’s so smart and gets bored so easily. And when he gets bored he gets destructive. In the mornings he would break into the bedroom (and it took over a year and a half to figure out how to install doors that he couldn’t crack) pre-dawn and start knocking things down. Or he would just sit outside the door and howl like the world was coming to an end.

When one of the sleepy…

Dear Constant Reader,

Happy New Year! Thank you for being here! I hope 2024 is going to be kind to us all. Here’s your tip!

When applying to festivals, make sure you can get there.

That is, if you’re flying, what do flights cost? How do you get to the festival location once you arrive, especially if it isn’t near an airport? Are you going to need to rent a car? What’s the public transit situation? If you’re driving, how long is it going to take? Do you need to spend a night somewhere on the way? Do you need…

Dear Constant Reader,

It’s the last Friday Tip of 2023!

This is more of a wish for the coming year than a tip:

Be kind to yourself and to others.

See you in 2024!

These writings and other creative projects are supported by my 19 Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page. Or you can just tip me if you liked this.

Dear Constant Reader,

The most recent artwork that I have been privileged to receive came from Sinister Sarah herself, the mad artisan behind The Slightly Sinister Academy of Crafts. When she released her video on stained glass, she also held a contest where the two people who solved a murder mystery (most accurate answer and most entertaining, as I recall) would win hand-made stained glass suncatchers of her own original designs. 

As you’ve probably guessed…

I remember there was a spider design and a…

Dear Constant Reader,

The winter solstice has just passed and the days are growing longer!. Here’s a little tip about light:

In tech rehearsal, walk the stage and ask someone in the house tell you where the shadows are, so you know where to stay to be well lit.

As I am constantly being reminded by our director, an outside eye is incredibly valuable in so many ways.

These writings and other creative projects are supported by my 19 Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page. Or you…

Dear Constant Reader,

Especially if you follow me on IG, you might have seen me mention The Slightly Sinister Academy of Crafts, a really fun community of people who love crafts with a spooky touch. Last fall we had a Trick or Treat gift swap for Halloween, where names were drawn out of hat and Sinister Sarah spun the Wheel of Fate to determine if you were giving/getting a trick or a treat. I was paired with Tammi aka Crocheted Atrocities. I was giving her a treat, but receiving a trick.

I was rather…

Dear Constant Reader,

I have a friend with whom I correspond. Like real, in-the-mail, pen & paper letters. We’ve been doing this for a very, very long time. We attended the same university (she undergrad, me grad) and escaped graduated the same year. Her mom gave me a pen (sitting right here on my desk) as a graduation gift and we just started sending letters.

Last summer when I was despondent after Albert’s death. I got a handmade stamp-art card in the mail from her, which contained within a card secured…

Dear Constant Reader,

My first spotlight is on an artist I’ve never met.

There’s a community on Discord that began as an unofficial place for Patrons of Christine McConnell to gather and discuss her projects, but it’s evolved beyond that into a community of people who love the spooky side of life and creative pursuits. One of the things that came out of it was craft swaps. You agree to make a gift for someone and someone else, unknown to you, makes one for you. You fill out a little questionnaire so the…