Happy New Year!

So, it's New Year's Eve!  Mikey, our friend Wych, and I are watching the Irish bowl game.  We went to the grocery today because we're having people over for NYE tonight.  We're dressing up, cocktail style! 

It's our first time hanging out with Wych since before Christmas.  He brought us Christmas gifts! 

A cookie plate for each of us from the Wychs!

Knit Hat Key Covers!!!

Tweet Paper!!!

And a bottle of sparkling cider...I cannot wait to open it!  I'll take a picture soon!

Light and Dark

guess which i was!

the former, obviously!

Chocolate covered strawberries & bananas at the Christkindlmarket!

HOLY COW at Harry Caray's for Christmas Eve dinner.  Best dinner of my life.  And dessert.

The Burberry store on Michigan Ave.  You can see the stuff AND the reflection.  FYI: sometime in my life, I will own a Burberry scarf.

The three above pictures were taken with my new camera.  The top one, not so much :). 

Happy Christmas!!

My parents came up to Chicago for Christmas this year.  It's been wonderful.  And I got a fancy new DSLR camera.  And I'm in love. 

baby blanket!

I crocheted this baby blanket for a good stage manager friend of mine who's having a baby in January.  I did it in a circle, and I put a cute scalloped edging around it.  I forgot to take a picture of it, so she just emailed one :)

WANT

see more dog and puppy pictures

photo ipdate!

One of my fave used bookstores!

Christmas Cookies!

Dear SMC friends and I grabbing a drink!

CHRISTMAS TREE LOT!

turning into my grandma

A text message convo between my cousin and I:

Me:  I've turned into Gran, I'm a crocheting machine.  I've got piles of yarn next to my lazyboy.
Katie: Hahaha!  You need to get a dog named Ed now.  Add that to the list of things to do this weekend.

In my world, this is hilarious :)

Time Wasting and Procrastinating Well Worth It!

I've got lots to do around Sheridan Road here since my cousin Katie from Florida is coming to Chicago to hang out with me for a 4 day weekend tomorrow.  But instead of cleaning my room, washing sheets, doing other laundry, and working on holiday yarning, I wound up hanging out with a good friend...a much needed, long overdue hang out. 

We played some Mario Kart...which I always win, no matter how much he trash talks.  Always. 

We got some wings at BW3s :).

We watched Elf.  How can someone not have seen this all the way through?!?

And we played a healthy, competitive game of Trivial Pursuit DVD Pop Culture!  And it took 2 hours!  Apparently he's a pop culture genius, especially the music category (sports & games is my strongest), because he got all of his pie pieces while I still had just one!  But then, the "for the win!" part took him so long, that I was able to collect all of my pie pieces and get to the middle before he had won!  But then, if you get the "for the win!" question wrong, you have to move out of the center, then land back in it on exact count.  It takes forever.  So eventually we just played a bunch of "for the win" questions (and helping each other) until we answered one right.  I don't even know who actually won.  But it was awesome!

So much for cleaning my room yesterday... And today a good friend of mine from SMC is coming into Chicago for the day, so I have to hang out with her! (Bummer :) ).  Good news is her train leaves around 6, so I've got all night with no excuses.

Happy Time Wasting and Procrastinating to All :)

Keeping You

Originally found here. 

Headed up to Roger's Park to watch Eat, Pray, Love with Mikey and Wych-a!  A wonderful, life changing book; hopefully the movie compares!

Friday!!

I feel like I've been busy this week...have I been busy this week?  Who knows...but I haven't been posting...  My current show opened on Wednesday, and I'm headed in this afternoon to call the show and run photo call. 

I took some pictures of my apartment today to send to someone who was asking me how Chicago was.  Here's a picture of my two child sized laundry baskets filled with yarn/projects:

Second Wordless Wednesday

Stumbled upon this today.

Worldess Wednesday

Melted Snowman Cookies!

Check out this awesome melted snowman cookie recipe I found today.  I don't know if I'll bake them; I've got other cookies lined up.  But they look pretty amazing!

Truer words are rarely spoken:

Reverb10 12/3

Reverb10 December 3 – Moment.

Pick one moment during which you felt most alive this year. Describe it in vivid detail (texture, smells, voices, noises, colors).

(Author: Ali Edwards)

You know what...my moment was recently.  While working.  The thing is, though, that I love what I do.  I get a rush.  I feel alive.  

I recently stage managed a project for the Fifth House Ensemble here in Chicago.  In short, it was a fairy tale set to music (played by the extremely talented members of Fifth House) with actors telling the story using movement only.  The 10 musicians are unbelievably talented, the director was someone who I love and have worked with twice before, and the actors were so friendly, open, and wonderful.

The stage for one of our performances. 

I felt the most alive during our first run through with the musicians and actors together.  We rehearsed in a warehouse, studio space.  The light was relatively dim, and everyone looked silhouetted from the light coming from the huge windows.  The space was either really cold or quite warm.  There were green plants hanging from the rafters.  The space smelled faintly of coffee and donuts, and once we started, music just filled the room.  

As a stage manager, it's my job to facilitate the bringing together of many talented people, and this was truly a goosebump and awe inspiring experience. 

Reverb10 12/2

Today's prompt for Reverb10:

December 2 Writing.
What do you do each day that doesn’t contribute to your writing — and can you eliminate it?
(Author: Leo Babauta)

Well, I'm not really a writer.  I mean, not that good of one.  I'm a reader.  I know that anyone can be a writer if they try, but I prefer to be the person who reads and appreciates what all of the other talented writers out there create.  But, yes, I blog.  And I blog because I find it a good way to release some energy.  Not necessarily bad energy...just energy.  And for myself...to post pictures of projects I make or things I do that I'm excited about.  

So what keeps me from doing that reading and writing?  Sleep.  I'm a sleeper.  I love to sleep.  And I'm good at it.  I like to sleep til about 11:00am, but then I stay up til at least 1:00 or 2:00am.  I could spend that time doing lots of other, productive things.  But really, I enjoy sleeping.  So, if I didn't sleep, I could spend more time doing the things that I blog about. 

Reverb 10 12/1 (a day late)

After reading some other bloggers who are doing this, I decided to give it a shot too.  I liked doing NaBloPoMo (for funsies), so this should be fun and will motivate me to post something more substantial than a couple of pictures...  This is me participating in Reverb 10.

I'm a day late in starting.  Here is yesterday's prompt:

December 1 One Word.
Encapsulate the year 2010 in one word. Explain why you’re choosing that word. Now, imagine it’s one year from today, what would you like the word to be that captures 2011 for you?
(Author: Gwen Bell)

2010:  Next. 

Most of 2010 was about thinking about what comes NEXT.  What's my next step when this 2 year safe job ends?  Where do I go next?  What happens next?  What will I choose next?  Who will I meet next?  

So far, I'm in love with all of the results of what NEXT brought.  It brought Chicago, Victory Gardens, new people, new roommates, new challenges, new shows, etc!

2011:  Success.

In the coming months, I plan on focusing a lot on work and making a successful career for myself here in Chicago.  Success doesn't necessarily mean lots of money.  It just means making a happy life doing what I love and (hopefully) being able to make ends meet.  Success means opening doors and new opportunities.  Here's hoping!