25 September 2006

Sleeping....

Beauty is basically open!!!! (Official party next Saturday September 30th) Yeah! And my nausea is really starting to subside…which means, I think, that I can resume my regular routines of blogging and personal crafting – until the next show that is.

Here are some lovely pictures of a few of the things we made the week before last – some of the pics are not that great since these are taken by me and not the professional photographer (which I plan to nab a few when I can get the disk later this week):

more aurora and family

more princess and queen

Check out our theatre’s home page and you will see (eventually) and fabulous picture or two and links to the reviews – which of course I will post (if they are nice) for all to see.
Yvette M Ryan designed these fab costumes and was great to work with – so I hope to get to work with her next season as well (she also made the yummiest Poppy Seed cake covered in powdered sugar along with lemon curd to smother on top….OH it was good and it stayed down!)


In other news – the lovely Alice of futuregirl – made me the most amazing handbag! Check it out:

coolest bag ever

Am I not a lucky girl? I am! I know! It is perfect and fabulous and I so wanted to lie and say I made it when asked….but the crafty-gods of Karma got the better of me and I did not…..

The stick has been thrown by my favourite mad hatter –a meem about the Who, What, Where, When and Why of my blog – but I will have to answer that one tomorrow.

I was working on socks – but decided I hated the pattern and 3” in I ripped them out. So I decided to start this crochet project instead:

suisse bag1

Not done yet – but it is the beginnings of a crocheted purse from THE HAPPY HOOKER. The book calls it the “red-cross purse” – but in my case it is the it is a Suisse Flag purse – it is for Katherine – my fabulous new assistant (cannot sing praises enough for her) who happens to be Swiss German/American (and she speaks Hoch Deutsch, not dialect, as well as beautiful French and Spanish).

***oh and according to a staff meeting today: it is unethical of me to blog while on company time. Well, I wouldn't be at work today if I didn't have to be here for the company meeting. All our notes are at the drycleaners (just 1). And I try to close the costume shop the monday after a show is up and running since not much else is going and we really need a break...so which is unethical? - not giving me time off after working a very long week...or blogging when there is nothing else to do? (cause you know, i could do this at home)

16 September 2006

finally!

Oh yeah! Vivi has gotten her packechen! Es freut mich sehr. I was so worried that the USPS had lost it or the German Customs Office had thought that when I wrote "gift" on the customs form, they thought I meant "poison"instead of present! I was considering making her a second package and sending it out - i felt so bad that it hadn't showed up yet..
Check out Vivi's page and you can see the pictures.

I made the purse out of a felted wool/rayon blend. The motif is actually one of the ladies from one of the fat-quarters I gave Vivi. I photo-copied it, enlarged the image and then turned it into a stencil, using freezer paper.
Instead of paint, I used maube a Tablespoon of bleach and 1/2 Cup or so of hot water (hot water activates the bleach quicker) to remove the colour, rather than add colour. Then, I reinforced the image with interfacing and satin stitched on the machine around it. It was sooo cool! And I cannot wait to make it again!

We are going into tech for SLEEPING BEAUTY starting tomorrow - so life has been busy...Tomorrow is the first time that the actors will be in costume - and i will take lots of pictures of all the yummy velvet :)

starting to feel better....knock on formica! Ate a whole box of kraft mac-n-cheese the other night. Took me an hour, but i did it and it stayed down! Not sure if i should be proud of this or not....hmmm

10 September 2006

gold paper packages tied up in string!

(so meant to post this on friday)

Yesterday was a long day at the theatre...but going home was fabulous! There was a fabulous package wrapped in gold paper with yellow Deutsche Post stickers on it :-)

Of course, the camera was at the theatre and not at home, so there are no pictures of the fabulous gold wrapping; but here are the pictures of the yummies inside:


gold paper packages...

As you can see, Vivi has gone out of her way to make such a lovely package. There are lovely fabrics which are in autumn colours, and SOCK YARN!!!!!!!!!! (I am now tempted to rip my other socks off the needles and cast this on). Also a souvenir from the world cup (sweeties) and two cool little pink fobs that look like little sweaters. What was so nice was the little handmade something - Vivi made a little case out of this very soft loden green wool for pens (with pens inside) and a matching book cover for a blank journal, included :-). So I think Vivi has been sneaking around my house because I love blank journal books. I mean I have them in every bag (and I have a lot of bags) as well as one or two floating around the costume shop and my apartment. I sketch a lot - crazy design ideas for costumes or crazy knitting ideas - or lists upon lists of things I want to make or do.

It was really quite perfect! Vielen dank Vivi!

Of course I am feeling serious guilt because she has yet to receive her package which I mailed around August 10th. She shipped hers to me on the 29th. German post better than USA post wahrscheinlich? Keine Ahnung!

And thank you to everyone - such nice thoughts about my Linda Blair routine :-) You might want to pass on some of those thoughts to Fritz - after all, he is the one holding back my hair every night - heehee. And thank you for the Tigerente offers - so nice!!!

I am not quite sure when/where I will be going - I waiting for another 2 weeks (when everyone tells me that this constant nausea will be over) to see how I feel before I book anything. I also need to convince friends that they want a crazy pregnant woman staying with them for about 5 days...so that is either Hamburg or Wien....ahem...we shall see who wants to put up with me! I am crazy when not pregnant and hormonal. And now I am pregnant crazy minus alcohol and cigarettes. Yes, really! For those of you who know me well, I have not had a cigarette in 4 weeks and 5 days (and yes I am counting). Have had the occasional ½ glass of wine or sip of beer - which is just fine...looking forward to that one glass I will have of the end of season white wine - really sweet - good gespritzt...ummmm.... Federweissen in Germany? And sturm in Austria?

Okay, getting hungry again...germknoedeln (yes, I am getting food obsessed since I can't keep it down) Tchuess!

06 September 2006

whined long enough

Okay I think I have whined long enough about this morning-noon-and-night sickness thing that I have got going on.

Apparently this is a good thing…”keep your eye on the prize” people keep telling me…18 years till it is off to college is the prize  (you must remember I am very sarcastic and very cynical, and I think you can throw in sardonic? – I so need a dictionary, maybe even a thesaurus)

Had a sonogram – it’s not real – all magical computer tricks along with a good sound system– ‘Cause somebody tell me! Why is there a fish in my stomach? Fish I tell you! – Just waiting for the horns and tail to sprout… i am sure it is bigger now - but that first sonogram was a fish.

And of course I have been oohing and ahing at the tiny baby things on TV and the cute things in the stores – I will not be wooed by ridiculous items such as...


And Fritz said that he will ask our resident scenic artist (painter for the theatre) to paint a Tigerente mural for one wall in the baby room!!!!!!!!!!!! I might use the fabric that I got from Isa as inspiration or dig through my tigerente books and see what I can find….. I have also tried to convince Fritz that I REALLY need to go on a shopping trip to Germany and Austria to go Tigerente baby stuff shopping! He is not going for it…. I wonder why? I told him not to deny the crazy puking pregnant woman anything! Still isn’t going for it.

And then there is the knitting – I have not been in the mood so much – but I decided to finally to cast a two sox on two circs out of the lovely regia silk that Jacqui gave me a while back. Doing a little chevron pattern that doesn’t really show up yet – and I might just change it half way through the leg.

And yesterday was a perfect Düsseldorf/Vienna kind of day. Rainy and gloomy and just begging for a café in the Fuessgaenger zone with hot chocolate or a wiener mélange, some sort of semmel (broetchen) with a yummy cheesy spread, or a trip to Bitzi’s Pizza by St Stephan’s Dom in Wien or maybe find a dessert café and order etwas mit Mohn!!!!!!!! Mohn is poppy seed - I love mohn kaefer or mohnknuedeln…oh a germknoedeln (aka dampfknuedeln) filled with plum sauce or mohn with vanilla custard like sauce on top…..I bet I can keep that down….

Okay hungry now……see you in a few days! (I mean it this time)