It's a good day from morning til night

Really, its a good day for anything! I had such a wonderful weekend and early part of the week that I'm absolutely giddy! This might get annoying soon, but I can't help it.

Last weekend, Kiss Me, Kate opened and despite opening night being Friday the 13th, it was a wonderful show! Unfortunately, there was some sickness among the cast, some loss of voices, and one pulled hamstring the following nights. Our first official cast party was held after the Sunday matinée, a boy was it entertaining. Food, karaoke, friends, and one heavenly hot tub makes an ordinary night extraordinary!

Monday continued wonderfully, as a generous cast member expanded my a capella collection to four times its original size! Straight No Chaser and Rockapella has been joined by two albums of OSU's Outspoken, three albums of UO's On the Rocks, and another album of UO's Divisi. As can be imagined, Tuesday was filled with lots and lots of music. It really did wonders to keep me from dreading interviewing a woman for my Media Writing class.

As the second weekend of the show approaches, I have a feeling that I'll keep walking on air. My family (Mom, Aunt, Grandma, and Grandpa) will be here on Sunday and I'll get to see the gorgeous percolator my mother found for me a few weeks ago. Sadly, they'll be taking my iron, ironing board, and steamer away for the first step of the moving process, so I'm going to need to iron all of the things that need it before Sunday! Time to hand wash and iron my scarves, freshen up my pegnoir, and starch my skirt waistbands before it's too late!

Get comfortable... it's going to be a long post.

I am such a bad mother to my little blog. After leaving it neglected for nearly a month, I'm wondering if I'll even be able to write a decent post. Well well, many things have happened in my life since that last entry, but I'm not sure where to start.

My birthday was right at the end of January and I went home to see my sweetheart and my family. We all went out to as delicious thai restaurant and had a great time! My favorite aunt (on my dad's side) got to come, which really made the night fun. The cupcakes were... well, you just had to be there. The cake I love more than any other is a version called "Grandma's Chocolate Cake" which is best with penuche frosting. For those who don't know what that is, it is a cooked brown sugar frosting that you must try immediately. I didn't get to blow out any candles due to restaurant policy, but I did get some thoughtful gifts from my family which really deserve to have the spotlight.

My Aunt got me a pretty Brighton necklace composed of a darling little heart on a sturdy chain. My favorite part is the saying on the back of the heart, "Love Always." It's really the perfect heart necklace that I've needed for awhile.

Next, my mother got me a few things, but I will only highlight the best. She found two books for me at Christmas, but decided to hold them over until my birthday. They were well worth they wait, so I'm not unhappy. The first, I've read through a couple of times already, but I haven't had time to curl up with the second yet. Charmed by Audrey is just that: charming. It is basically a photo montage of Audrey on the set of the movie Sabrina. Sabrina is definitely one of my favorite Audrey movies and I love looking at all the prints and quotes from or about Audrey. She really was a wonderful woman, inside and out.

The second book has yet to be delved in to, but it is called Very Vintage and it chronicles styles in the 20th century, I believe. There are some great pictures and lots of reading. I have a feeling that I won't be able to put this one down once I pick it up!

The last present that really needs some limelight is the most perfect collection of movies. My aunt (on mom's side) always finds the best movies for me. I don't know if I ever thanked her fully for finding the collector's edition of Meet me in St. Louis and she really outdid her herself with this one. She got me a collection of 4 major musicals with Howard Keel. This was especially welcome because I wanted to see the original movie version of Kiss Me, Kate (you'll find out why later in this post) and I've also been searching for Showboat since I found out Marge and Gower Champion danced in it.

Now, the next exciting thing I've been doing actually corresponds with my last post. For my Fashion Trend Analysis class, we were working in groups on trend boards. A trend board is part of a trend forecast and just gives a visual feeling of the season or style to come. A girl in my group and I completely connected and planned the entire thing. Our season? Summer 2012. Our trend? Pin Up!

I'm very happy with the board, we ended up with more modern images than I would have chosen, but it's still adorable! I know the picture is blurry, but all I had at that moment was my phone. Our colors were pastels with a strong red and dark denim base. Motifs included card suits (diamonds, hearts), polka dots, and horizontal stripes. We really had fun accenting with gold buttons, leaves, and rope, red ribbon, and little knit doilies one of the girls found at the fabric store.

All of this Pin Up energy has just renewed my love for the style in daily life and I've really been working on keeping with my vintage look more. I've not been focusing on it lately because it's been very cold here. Now that it's warming up a little, I'm at it full force again. In honor of this, and just to have fun, I took some current photos for my sweetheart with some of my new finds. Here's a little taste:

Yes, this is what I do when I'm procrastinating. I change clothes all the time when I'm trying to focus on homework. My sweetheart let me borrow his amazing camera, so I finally got to take quality pictures. This outfit is completely thrift-store stuff. Shirt: Arc Resale in Philomath (I found this the other day!), Skirt: Salvation Army in Grants Pass, Belt: St. Vincent De Paul in Grants Pass, Shoes: Arc Resale in Philomath, and Bag: Buckingham Palace in Corvallis (Also a recent find!). I finally got the buttons sewed on to a suede and shearling coat I rescued this summer and wore it to the first rehearsal for Kiss Me, Kate on Monday night.

There's another thing that needs to get some time in the limelight of this blog. I got involved with Corvallis Community Theater (CCT) last year when I got to assist the costume mistress for the musical, Guys and Dolls. It was a lot of fun, and I was actually asked to play a part since I had some stage and singing experience. The show went off wonderfully and the group of people I met really made my day (week, month, months, however long we worked on that show..). This year, I was e-mailed by the director to inform me that he would be directing another musical this spring, entitled Kiss Me, Kate. I asked him if I could do the same job that I was originally asked to do in the last show and he said he'd be happy to forward my request to the costume mistress. We talked, I researched, we met, picked fabrics, watched auditions, and finally got to measure our cast at the first rehearsal. I don't know all of the cast, but as far as I've seen they're all wonderful people.The second rehearsal, the director approached me and asked me to be in the play. I have dance experience and can pick up whatever I don't have experience in pretty quickly. I also sang throughout high school and don't have too bad of a voice, if I do say so myself. This is how I became a cast member in the show! I still hope to be able to spend some time around the costume department, but I know my replacement will serve the costume mistress well. Let's hope there's some intricate, interesting dancing I get to do for this show!

There's something I'm leaving out that also deserves a little bit of time in this post too. I will not delve into this subject, because it is more personal, but I've really been working to change my eating and exercising habits. I come from a very healthy family and college has kind of ruined my healthy eating, so it's about time for me to seriously get back on trace. This isn't about someone telling me I'm fat, but more about feeling comfortable in my own skin. I haven't felt truly comfortable for most of my life and I feel that it's about time. In short, I've begun to change my habits by getting more sleep, exercising 6 days a week, and eating more balanced meals. 

I know you'd like to read a couple more pages of me rambling on, but I do believe it's about time I start steaming the gorgeous red wool pencil skirt I got today! Cheerio!

My Wintery Break

I can't describe in the detail I would like to just how wonderful little winter hiatus I have taken from blogging has been. Since being up at school this year, I haven't gotten to spend much time with my family. My Halloween weekend flew by and Thanksgiving weekend also seemed to end before it began. Winter break, however, has been just magical.

As I type this, it's the first morning of 2011, and the property is a winter wonderland complete with chirping birds, scampering squirrels, and even some blue sky. The fire is crackling the woodstove, and I have only completed taking down 50% of the Christmas decorations I lovingly finished putting up only two weeks ago.

Christmas morning was a whirl of paper and ribbons and mountains of boxes which ended up daunting the tree. My little corner of presents (in the bottom right of the picture) was wrapped in white paper with different wired ribbons tied in bows. They were sure different, but not too out of place in the group. Family aplenty gathered together along with an abundance of savory food and drink. Even though the youngest in our group is 18, all of our eyes grew as wide as that of a 5-year-old when we saw just how many presents there were.

New Year's Eve was just as merry if not more so. Our numbers balooned up to 19 for the big night as friends joined in the celebration. I was overjoyed at the prospect of using my new cut glass punchbowl and glasses, personally. Wine, beer, and numerous other spirits flowed freely while we all enjoyed New York strip steak with baked potatoes and salad. Once the snow started falling, everyone under 25 began acting like 8-year-olds again. Fireworks, champange, and cries (and texts) of "Happy 2011!" capped off the night.

I feel so lucky to have such a happy, rowdy, and somewhat vulgar family! The love that surrounds this house and family, especially during the holidays, is astonishing. We have no family grudges or rivalries, and none of those funny uncles or annoying cousins you have to try to avoid. Our grandparents don't pinch cheeks and tell you how much you've grown, but we do get the occasional story of how things used to be when they were young. Even if you're not part of the family, we'll make you one of our own before the blink of an eye.

I'll be driving back to school tomorrow to start winter term and hope that everyone who is traveling or has yet to travel will be safe and patient. The highway sure is going to test my patience tomorrow!

I'm thankful

Though I got to go home for a nice long Thanksgiving weekend, it made me miss having family around even more. I spent the majority of my time between my mom's family and our large group and my fiance's family. I also squeezed in dinner on Saturday night with my dad and his girlfriend. They're really made for eachother, as far as I can tell. 

Other developments include finally getting one of my skirts hemmed so it was wearable and finding my first peignoir set, a peachy confection, in an antique shop I frequent. A very proud day for my little hometown, Thanksgiving was. If anyone was watching the Macy's parade, the first Oregon band to be invited to the parade in over 10 years was from my town. They really did a wonderful job and my family was gathered around the television cheering for them. 

There are only two more weeks (dead week and finals week) here at my university, so I don't have to wait long to go home. If only I had more time to figure out Christmas gifts for my family and new festive beverage to whip up- both quite a conundrum this year.