Unfortunately...

...I did not make it into the Shakespeare workshop for the summer. Oh, well - time to figure out something else to do with my time. There's always the idea of starting up my own Shakespeare camp...

Quote of the Week

I think Sundays will now be Quote of the Week Days. Just gives you something to think about for the week ahead.

Today's Quote:

"If you don't get everything you want, think of the things you don't get that you don't want." ~Oscar Wilde

And note that since I like quotes so much, there will likely be more than one on many weeks - but I'll try to keep them related to each other, at the very least!

Featured Book # 15

Most people are surprised to learn that this, and not a Harry Potter book, is my favorite. It's The Dive from Clausen's Pier, by Ann Packer, and it's been my favorite book for a while now. I can't really describe it. I think I just read it at the right time - I was the same age as the main character at the time. I loved all the characters and I loved the story. The best word to describe the book would probably be bittersweet.

Happy Birthday, James!

Today is James' birthday. Here he is back


Here's James with Carol and the kids in May 2005, for Robert's First Communion.

My Latest Project

I figured since I was making all these dresses for the Music Man, I should have something new to wear to the evening performance on April 11. So I hunted around a bit. I already had this fabric, that I got too late to do anything with for Easter (though mine is pink, not green):


So I hunted until I found just the right pattern:


I'm using View B.

This is the first item I made for myself in a long time. I also just got some jersey fabric at only $1.95 a yard to make myself another dress, probably a day dress for work.

Picture of the Week

This picture of Popops on the beach was taken in August 2007 when the whole family headed down to North Carolina for the second time.

Happy Birthday, Jordan!

Today is Jordan's 23rd birthday!


Jordan as a baby - I think it's Christmas in either 1985 or 1986.


Jordan in 1989, at age 4.


Jordan in North Carolina in 1997, age 12.


With Emily and Kara on Christmas 2007, with an unfortunate rash.

Research

Some hairstyles to do for the Music Man! Just wanted to save them somewhere.


I can definitely see some of these... perhaps on Zaneeta Shinn and Mrs. Paroo.

More Photography

More pictures from yesterday! I like the one with the marbles - if you look close enough (click on it to make it big), you can see me taking the picture reflecting in two of the marbles!

Images of Easter

As we oddly did not actually take any family pictures, here are some Easter-y images from the day! I took these all today, at some point or another.

Happy Easter!

We're spending the day at Pam's with the Easter cake! (I'm pretty sure there's an egg hunt planned too...)

Now I'm off to find a good Easter dress!

Preparing for Easter... in 2001!

Since I haven't colored Easter eggs probably SINCE these pictures are taken, these will have to do as far as Easter prep pictures go. Here are Thomas and Robert in 2001, at ages almost 6 and 4 respectively, dying Easter eggs with me.

The Easter Cake!

Here's the cake for tomorrow's Easter festivities at Pam's:


I spent the morning preparing it - well, really about an hour because it's really easy to make. Here are some photos of the process.







Are you drooling yet?

Featured Book # 14

A few years ago I really enjoyed Prep, by Curtis Sittenfeld.


Here's the synopsis, from Barnesandnoble.com:

"Curtis Sittenfeld’s debut novel, Prep, is an insightful, achingly funny coming-of-age story as well as a brilliant dissection of class, race, and gender in a hothouse of adolescent angst and ambition.

Lee Fiora is an intelligent, observant fourteen-year-old when her father drops her off in front of her dorm at the prestigious Ault School in Massachusetts. She leaves her animated, affectionate family in South Bend, Indiana, at least in part because of the boarding school’s glossy brochure, in which boys in sweaters chat in front of old brick buildings, girls in kilts hold lacrosse sticks on pristinely mown athletic fields, and everyone sings hymns in chapel.

As Lee soon learns, Ault is a cloistered world of jaded, attractive teenagers who spend summers on Nantucket and speak in their own clever shorthand. Both intimidated and fascinated by her classmates, Lee becomes a shrewd observer of–and, ultimately, a participant in–their rituals and mores. As a scholarship student, she constantly feels like an outsider and is both drawn to and repelled by other loners. By the time she’s a senior, Lee has created a hard-won place for herself at Ault. But when her behavior takes a self-destructive and highly public turn, her carefully crafted identity within the community is shattered.

Ultimately, Lee’s experiences–complicated relationships with teachers; intense friendships with other girls; an all-consuming preoccupation with a classmate who is less than a boyfriend and more than a crush; conflicts with her parents, from whom Lee feels increasingly distant, coalesce into a singular portrait of the painful and thrilling adolescence universal to usall."

Presenting... A Reversible Jacket!

Well, I did it! I made a reversible jacket for Harold Hill for the Music Man! I was mighty proud of myself last night when I finished it off. It's not embellished yet, though I found some fantastic gold fringe this morning in the drama department stores to use!

Here it is:







It just makes you want to say, "Please observe me if you will; I'm Professor Harold Hill."