Easter in Chicago 2011

I think Easter in Chicago might be a new tradition for the Deeter family :).  Last year, I wound up having Saturday & Sunday off (in addition to my standard Monday) (the ONLY weekend I had off in my 2 years working at that theatre), so my parents and I came up to Chicago for the weekend.  We ate at ESPN Zone (and watched the Yankees), had a wonderful brunch including a whole fried chicken, and saw Billy Elliot!  It was great.

This year, I live in Chicago, and since I'm running a show right now, I couldn't come home for the weekend.  So, obviously, my parents came here!  My dad found a GREAT deal at the Palmer House downtown, and I stayed at the hotel with them Friday-Sunday.

We had a great dinner at Berghoff on Friday before I headed to work.  After my show, Dad and I had some drinks at the Palmer House bars.

Prosecco in the Lobby Bar

beautiful chandelier in the Lobby Bar

the other bar, that, when the PH was opened, was a feather dancer bar

delicious apple tart dessert!

On Saturday, we did some shopping at the usual Deeters-in-Chicago-spots: Filene's on State Street, Nordstrom Rack, Macy's, Old Navy, and mom and I went to DSW in Lincoln Park and found shoes for the 2 weddings I'm in this summer.  It was an absolutely BEAUTIFUL day.  Dad ended up heading up to catch the Cubs game.  They saw my show Saturday night, and we had a delicious pub Easter lunch at The Bar On Buena with my roommate. 

Tulips along State Street!

To top it all off...Dad got me a GRILL for Easter!  So on Sunday, after my show, roomamte Mikey and I grilled out for the first time.  It was amazing, and I cannot wait to keep grilling!!

Sunset over the back of our apartment while we grilled.

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!

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. 

Short and Sweet

I've been waiting to listen to Christmas music for weeks now.  I started on Monday when we drove down to the south side for a Thanksgiving dinner with friends (because in my family, it's ok to listen to Christmas music on Thanksgiving).  And then on Tuesday, I put all of my Christmas music back on my iPod.  And last night, I burned about 10 albums of Christmas music off of my dad's iTunes.  And today?  My mom  bought the Kristin Chenoweth Christmas CD at Target.  And right now?  I'm burning that to take back to Chicago as well.

I love the Christmas season.  And I love love LOVE Christmas music!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Today is the second thanksgiving in 20 years that we aren't having the holiday at our house.  We're headed across the street to our neighbors (of 20 years) to celebrate with them.  I'm pretty excited!  I've made a pretzle, cream cheese/cool whip, pineapple dessert as my contribution (since I AM an adult now), and my parents are bringing lots of wine.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

Wordless Wednesday: Thanksgiving Style

FOs #7-11! so many!

 Here are pictures of my most recent finished objects! 

Hat & Cowl crocheted with yarn from Loopy Yarns.  This yarn has become my favorite.  SO SOFT!

 

Two Cowls.  One for me and one for my cousin.  Both crocheted.

Cowl for cousin.  Pay no attention to the crazy hair. 

This is my first crocheted hat.  It's from the same yarn I made the black fingerless mitts out of from Loopy Yarns.  It's specific purpose is for wearing backstage when it's chilly (which happens more often than one would think).

Last but not least, a Scarf for my neighbor in Indy, Old Man Marr.  Don't judge me, I haven't tucked the ends in yet.  This is an early Christmas gift that I will give him at Thanksgiving :).  Knitted in a big basket-weave stitch (2 squares across).

Home-Made Holiday Decor!

I saw this how to on one of the many crafting blogs that I read.  I think it would be awesome to make/have...and it's not like I don't have a TON of yarn sitting around...

Yarn Ball Wreath.  Found via the Craftzine.com blog.

Thirsty Thursday

Oh Boy am I tired.  I got up at 7:45 this morning to get dressed and meet my mom downtown.  She took a bus trip up with her bank for the day -- Hooray for Bank Holidays!  We did all sorts of awesome things, which include, but are not limited to, buying expensive makeup at Neiman Marcus and going to Vogue Fabrics in Evanston. 

After I put Momma safely back on the bus at Water Tower, I headed down to the Loop-ish area to wait for Mikey.  We met Wych and had a drink at Elephant & Castle (cannot wait to go back with the family for dinner!) and then headed to see a staged reading that Mikey did the lighting design for.  No Big Deal, but the show was on the stage of the Pritzker Pavillion at Millennium Park.  There's a big glass door at the edge of the stage that they closed, and the audience sat facing that.  So basically the backdrop was Millennium Park & the Skyline.  Awesome.  I mean, check this shit out. 

Back to the Thirst Thursday part.  Mikey and I had the BEST drinks EVER.  She had a Blueberry Collins (basically gin & blueberries), and I had a Caramel Apple Sour.  OOOOOOOOOH geeeez.  It was delicious.  However, drinking out of a martini glass makes me nervous. 

Also, the new to me digital camera I inherited from Daddy Deeter takes GREAT shots at night!  Yay for free, good quality point and shoot camera!!!

Knitting To Do List

While knitting and watching the Colts' game last night, I realized I needed to make a To Do List for my knitting projects, including writing down when things are "due."

So I did.

Here it is (in order of due date):

Due Date -- Project
Thanksgiving -- Scarf for Old Man Marr
Thanksgiving -- 4 more headbands for the homeless
?? -- Cody's mitts (he has to get me yarn/measurements first)
Christmas -- Dad's gift (which I won't tell you what it is in case he reads this :) )
Christmas -- Mom's gift (see above)Mid-December -- Megan Flanigan's blue giftChristmas -- gift for baby Jayce
Christmas -- Aunt K's washclothsChristmas -- Matt/Sarah's washcloths
Christmas -- Smiley's ribbed scarf
Christmas -- Lily's scarf
Christmas -- (hopefully) gifts for the 4 BFFs (Ann, Sarah, Chris, Frankie)
Whenever -- Roommates' washcloths      
End of Jan. -- Ann's wedding blanket
End of May -- Sarah's wedding blanket

I'll be sure to keep you posted on my progress... :)

Work In Projgress #1/HOME!

I'm dragging a bit today.  I just woke up from a nap, and I have to leave in 25 minutes to head to Rogers Park to see a show at Northwestern -- a good friend of ours is the props master there.  Yay free theatre!

I got up early this morning and went to a free crochet class at a local library.  Hopefully, I'll have more to share on this soon.  I also did some work for one of the shows I'm working on.

Most importantly, I booked my Megabus tickets home for this coming weekend (to go wedding dress/bridesmaid dress shopping with one of my BFFs) and for Thanksgiving!!!!  I'm SO unbelievably excited!  I haven't been back to Indy since I moved up here in August...I miss it so!  And Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, so I'm psyched to spend it with my family!!

Lastly, here's one of my works in progress.  Two of my BFFs from high school are engaged (Ann got engaged lat Christmas and is getting married in May, and Sarah got engaged a few weeks ago and is getting married in August).  I'm going home in a week to dress shop with Sarah.  We've done the dress shopping with Ann.  Back before I moved, I asked her how she and her hubby-to-be would like a hand knitted (by me) blanket for their wedding gift (partially because God knows I can't afford much else), and she flipped!  So I've started.  I'm working on the 7th square (of 20).  Here's what I've got so far.  The long ones count as 2 squares b/c they're twice as long as the regular ones. 

NaBloPoMo 2010!

It's been a crazy last week around here.  And I've decided to NaBloPoMo...posting on this blog every day for the month of November.  I'm pretty excited, and I already have a list of things to post about!  However, I am a little bit forgetful, so if I don't post, it's likely that I just forgot... But I promise I will have 30 posts come Nov. 30!

I closed my first show at VG, Edward Albee's "At Home at the Zoo", yesterday.  It was a great experience, and I'm looking forward to my next show there, "The Boys Room" which I join in January.  In the meantime, I'm stage managing a project "The Weaver's Tales" with Fifth House Ensemble, and this week I'll be helping tech a show north of the city. 

I had a pretty great Halloween yesterday.  I'm not really a Halloween person...I tend to think it's a holiday for the kids.  So yesterday, after closing and striking the show at VG, I headed up to my friend Wych's house in Rogers Park.  I stopped and got some Woodchuck Cider on the way, and my roommate Mikey was already up there hanging out.  Wych made homemade chili, we drank Woodchuck, ate cupcakes, and had a Dexter marathon.  The 3 of us are big Dexter fans, we made a rule that we can't watch a new episode unless all 3 of us are present, and at least one of us has been busy each of the last 3 Sundays.  So yesterday was catch up.

Tonight I have rehearsal, and tomorrow I'm spending the day teching up north.