I have spent the day up to my elbows in permanent ink, stamps, dominoes, paint pens, extra tacky tape and beads.

I have also managed to give myself – and the cats – a whopper of a headache from acrylic sealer.

And why have I done this, you ask? (At least I assume someone would ask!)

Because it’s chorus competition time and I have a ton of stuff that has to be stamped and created for the members.

My first job (after I finished sorting and bagging makeup) was to get the contest book ready. The contest book is sort of a manual of what –to-do-when for the coming weekend. We have a tight schedule the morning of competition and certain places we have to be at assigned times, so this is a booklet to give everyone the same information. It includes checklists for packing and reminders for things like warm-ups and choreography.

I’ve been doing the book for years and years, so it’s not that tough a job. It’s just time consuming because I have to check to see if information is updated and accurate. I also stamp each page with something cute or humorous to keep everyone entertained.

I also design a cover for the book that I then have copied in color. The cover design reflects something that is going on with the chorus, or the songs we’re singing or the like. This year it’s all about bands, as we are singing "Alexander’s Ragtime Band" as our uptune.

I finally got to a design that I liked, but it took a very long time and it went through several iterations before I was willing to go with it. I’m not sure how well it’s going to copy, as I had to do a lot of shading to make the images pop, but I hope everyone likes it.

The other thing that I spent ages doing was making pins for each member. This is where the dominoes came in. I stamped on the blank side of them.

This design came to me in a flash, and I ran out of here like a maniac to get the additional supplies that I needed.

I stamped a ticket design and a music staff. The ticket has to do with the coach who kept telling us that in order to win we needed to buy a ticket. This has become our catch phrase (we always seem to get one during retreat), so I had a stamp that I had bought in NYC that fit the bill totally.

Stamping on dominoes is an "in" thing among stampers right now, but I had never tried it before – even though I’d bought two boxes of dominoes "just in case". So I stamped in permanent ink, then colored some of it with a paint pen, the background with dye based ink. I then edged with a gold leafing pen.

So this all done I stood back and was dissatisfied. It was missing something.

This was when I had to run out again to get the super tacky tape and holeless beads.

I put the tape around the edges and then rolled each in blue and silver beads that are the same color as our costume. Then came the acrylic sealer asphyxiation. I did it out in the hallway seeing it’s at least slightly ventilated out there, but the fumes seem to have crept under the door. If it knocks out the neighbors I suppose that I’ll have to worry.

I really like the finished product.

I have always given some sort of good luck pin to the members the Tuesday before competition, and I just wanted to continue with my personal tradition.

Nothing like adding personal stress to my life.

We "spring ahead" with the clocks tonight and I am not happy about that. I hate losing an hour of sleep, and I hate that it’s going to be dark when I get up in the morning. I know that I will like that it’s lighter out in the evenings, but that doesn’t make up for the loss of sleep.

Tomorrow is my birthday and my family is taking me to Longfellow’s Wayside Inn for dinner after church.

That’s something to look forward to.