The Current Bee in My Bonnet

Every once in awhile, I get the proverbial bee in my bonnet.  There's something I need.  There's something I broke or lost.  There's something I want to try.

I've been shlepping around for the last five years while doing various band projects and assisting at games & competitions (you'd be amazed at how many sewing issues come up at these things), and the entire time I've wished I had a small-ish backpack to take during games, comps and night rehearsals.  You see, I end up pushing around a lot of equipment while I'm there, since son #2 is in the percussion section - the front ensemble, to be exact.  He plays mallet instruments and has been known to play as many as five of them during a show: xylophone, glock (they call them "bells"), crotales, djembe drum and the sampler.  Which means that when he pushes onto the field or floor during a timed competition, he needs some "handlers" - parents who are designated to get some of his instruments there in a timely, orderly fashion.

Well, we usually get it right.  They've only been given one penalty so far this spring season for taking too long to set up.

What I really hate is pushing in something large, like the crotales.  Not because it's large, not because it's unwieldy.  Because my stupid purse keeps sliding off my shoulder and dangling off my wrist and banging around when I'm supposed to be concentrating on getting his instrument to the right spot in the right order ON TIME.   We often have to traverse parking lots, football fields, sidewalks, streets, gymnasiums and arenas, and sometimes have to do it in an awful hurry.

So ask me why I haven't corrected this problem sooner.  I kept meaning to, but I couldn't bring myself to buy one when I knew I could make one, and there was always something more important to worry about so I figured I'd get to it "later."  Only "later" never got here.  Until now.

We're gearing up for SCPA championships this Saturday in San Bernardino, CA and will be leaving shortly afterwards (Tuesday) to go to WGI World Championships in Dayton, Ohio.  Which means two things:  I will have to fly with a more compact set of carry-ons (we're loading the semi on Saturday with any suitcases we might need for the trip), and I really need a small backpack type bag so that it goes over both shoulders AND STOPS SLIPPING OFF MY SHOULDER AND BANGING AROUND MY KNEES while I'm pushing an instrument.  Not to mention one that gets me through airport security.

So with that in mind, here we go- I went hunting around the internet for easy instructions on making a simple, small sized backpack and I found this:  http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=9475

Looks simple enough.  Lord knows I have enough spare material around.  I could make it in a snap, I'm sure. But, no - I have to have a discussion with my creative muse and decide that I need to make it a bit more outstanding.

Personal.

CRAFTY!

Craft-a-licious embroidery from urbanthreads.com

Half the kids in the band call me "mom" anyway.  Might as well brand myself.  

So today's part of the backpack?  The embroidery, and selecting and combining interesting fabrics from my stash to coordinate.  

Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh......

Let the crafting begin!