one year ago today.....

this little guy was born:





in order to celebrate this occasion, i made bought, cupcakes from the grocery store on our way home from the airport - made a little crown and we started here:



and ended here:




there were a few stops in between :)


it ended in a bubble bath - no pics but i think you get the idea

as for USITT - we had a great time and we are exhausted! I will post yarn store reviews along with a few restaurant reviews - there are places that you defintley want to go when you are in Houston, and there is one or two that you should never eat at, no matter how cool the name!

never enough time

No, I haven;t vanished - I just have been way busy! And getting ready for USITT - hoping to learn many things to make me a better costume shop manager and/or designer.

Max will be on his first plane ride early in the morning with just ME!!!
Fritz left this evening - later than expected due to hailstorms and the like in Texas.

WE'll be staying with friends all week - i hope they still like us after spending 5 days with us and the baby! We'll see......

And we will be flying back on the Sunday the 23rd....Max's first bday!!!!

He has already had a head-start at the yarn store!

i didn't forget

there was all this build up to today and what it would mean....so i spent the week being mentally and emotionally exahausted and today arrives and all i can do is laugh! and well, smoke the first cigarette in the last 20 months! (just the one, i promise)

Cheers to you Daddy!




dad in COMEDY OF ERRORS - he can so work that gold lame! He is FIERCE!

and no i couldn't bring myself to light a yahrzeit candle - i was worried that the baby would climb the bookcase and knock it over :) i am truly a mom - shoot me now!

last review

No mention of costumes, but the last review for LOST AND FOUNDLING can be found here.

and yes, i am going for the gnome-pooh next!

The magic of the bubble gum machine...

This past week has been one of those weeks where all I seem to be doing is bashing my head against a wall in order to solve a problem that those with the control to solve said problem are not willing to do anything about.

Did that make sense? Probably not.

In other words - somebody royally fracked up the budget and I am expected to make something absolutley friggin' fantastic in a non-existant build time with bare bones labour.

So what is a girl to do?

Why go get herself a cup of coffee at the local grocery establishment, and run into this machine:



Can you see what it is? Sorry for the fuzzy pic, but i used my cell phone camera to get the quick pic while i was on my way to teach a knitting lesson.

HOW could i resist????!!!! I could not! So i dug 4 quarters out of my pocket, and took my chances. I am sure you could guess which one of these ridiculous 1" tall Pooh Bears I wanted. Well, 2 choices....and I got.....



Can you believe it? I actually got the one i wanted! How rare is that? Very, if you ask me. It is like buying Kinder Ueberraschung Eier and hoping for the latest cute toy and getting the exact one you wanted (which, by the way, never happened).

I think there is a theme for me today:

the latest picture of Max sent home from Daycare. So damn cute!

ps - happy leap year!

In the POST baby!

As promised, here is another review of our latest show. This one is in the WASHINGTON POST! And I am mentioned by name! More patting on the back!

The Never Ending Line

Photo credit: Scott Suchman

We go shopping!

(warning: no knitting content today, but there is fabric!)

I am a slacker of a blogger, I know. But i have a legitimate excuse. Several of them, actually.

1. we opened a show
2. the baby was sick
3. fritz was sick
4. the baby was sick again
5. I was sick again

Did I mention that the baby was sick? As it turns it out, the entire eastern seaboard (okay, i exaggerate) and their children has some sort of flu-plague :) The adults go quick - but the babies can take up to 3 weeks to get better and that is a lot of diapers, if you know what i mean. So that explanation covers 2-4. What about #1?

#1 is all about LOST AND FOUNDLING, a sort of fairy tale told inside a big box store.

L to R:Susan lynskey, Chris Mancusi, Taisha Cameron, Mark Krawczyck

At first I wasn't sure about designing this show. I occassionally have a mental block with contemporary shows. I think it is because most designers want to create something that is fantastical, be it historically accurate or a fantasy piece (such as THE NEVERENDING STORY - which is our summer show or HEIDI - which we might do next year and i so want to design it!)- which leads to fabulolus elegant fabrics and creating items that are not practical. But I really loved this design because of the every-day quality of the characters. There is a lot of body padding for several characters, ie: saggy boobs, big bottoms and big bellies.

There is also a lovely review over here. Okay, it is the Washington Times and not the Post, but it is a very nice review that actually gives me props. I will now pat myself on the back :) If and when there are more reviews, i will post them. There are always links posted on the theatre home page.

One of my favourite moments in the show is the Never Ending Line - and the song GO SHOPPING by Bran Van 3000 (from the soundtrack for Y tu mamá también)
has become the shows unofficial anthem - minus the dirty parts of course.

Here is the video from the band along with the entire song - it goes on a bit - but you get the idea after the first 2 or 3 minutes of how this song fits our strange little show (again, minus the dirty bits of course - 'cause this is children's theatre after all...)

As for my own shopping, there has been way too much fabric buying over the last 2 months. Some I blame on work. I mean, I HAVE to go fabric shopping for working and I HAVE to go to the thrift store where i end up seeing cute fabric like this:

just a fat quarter for 99 cents along with 1 yard of hot pink cotton/poly blend

and then this:

the blobs are about 4 inches wide. i am thinking purse or apron - who knows. I think there was at least 3 yards worth in pieces for about $5.00. Ideas anyone?

But the scary part is this here:

do you see it? look a bit closer....yep! who over owned this fabric before me, had intended to make a jumpsuit out of it, maybe for a 6 foot tall clown, or maybe as a fashion statement...who knows!

no max pics - sorry to the baby obsessed! but he has not been all that cute latley.