Morning Inspiration

My friend Courtney posted this video on her blog and I decided I would follow suit. It's amazing and it gives me such hope and clarity.

While I watched it this morning (and thought about how I STILL haven't watched the whole broadcast and how it's waiting on our DVR) I realized, once again, how hard I am on myself.  It's so easy to compare yourself to others, especially when you compare their strengths against your own weaknesses.  I have to sit back and realize that we all have our own challenges and we are all on different paths to the same goal.  I need to remember how great the past experiences I have had and how they help me now.

On a slightly related note, sweeping announcements don't really work for me.  It seems the more I forbid myself from doing something, the more I want to do it.  Instead I am going to do what I have been the past few days: work on homework then portfolio projects and then my thesis.  The days keep passing by but I know I can do it.  I have a fantastic and supportive husband and I have the ability.  I'm so glad that's it's General Conference this weekend.  I LOVE conference.

Goodbye cruel world! Also, when it rains, it pours.

Okay, so the title is a little bit over dramatic.  I scheduled my defense for my Plan B Report (thesis) this afternoon during my graduate committee meeting.  I am going to defend my report on Wednesday November 16th in the afternoon.  So, what does that mean?  I'm not going to be doing much of anything fun until that point.  I also have revisions to complete for my portfolio and projects that aren't going to create themselves.  I know I can do it.  I HOPE I can do it.  That means for the next eight weeks I'm going to be a writing machine. Ugh.

Proof had its final dress rehearsal this evening and we open tomorrow.  Here are some pictures I snapped with my cell phone during the rehearsal process.  Most of the pictures are from tonight with the exception of the first picture.

Felicia and Kent as Catherine and Robert

Adam as Hal and Felicia as Catherine

Nikki as Claire, Adam as Hal and Felicia as Catherine

Felicia and Kent as Catherine and Robert

Adam as Hal and Nikki as Claire

Felicia and Kent as Catherine and Robert

Felicia and Nikki playing Catherine and Claire

Adam as Hal

I'm going to try to balance out everything that I need to to with the things that I want to do.  Hopefully I don't go crazy!

Ka-pow-ski!!

I saw this DVD at JoAnn's at the beginning of the semester and it made me laugh.

What a weird week!  Some good things happened and some concerning things too.  Proof is ready for dress rehearsal on Monday, we have a wardrobe crew AND the stage crew is more than willing to help if needed.  Another theatre miracle.  One of the concerning things that happened was an accident my Dad had while riding my brother's scooter.  He's banged up but he'll be okay.  That was NOT a fun text to receive, much less while I was getting actors ready for publicity shots and a run through.  I'm just grateful that he's okay!  I'll have pictures from the pub shoot soon, my didn't really show up very well.

One last funny thing:

Proof Progress

Proof opens a week from Thursday.  I'm feeling pretty good about the costumes just not the wardrobe crew.  Apparently we don't have a crew.  That's a problem when almost everyone changes for every scene.  I hope we can find some people to work!

Our "connect with the arts" display and poster for Proof

My renderings, in the order of the show

Some of the shoes for the show, check out the wedges!

the rack of the costumes

the mock-up for the funeral dress

I'm taking draping this semester from the amazing Louella Powell.  This is my dress form that is padded out and covered in tricot.  It's sort of depressing to realize that you look a certain way but it guess it could be worse!  This is our first draping project, the front to a foundation skirt.  I have tiny darts in my skirt because I don't have a defined waist.  Oh well!

Midsummer Photos part deux

I've been working on my Plan B report (thesis) and I came across my Midsummer production photos.  I don't think I shared these last time I posted them so I'm sharing them now.

Fairy girls and boys cavorting

Oberon and Titania, together again among the stars

The cast with the Mechanicals in their "play" costumes

My friend Felicia looks hilarious in this picture (she's the red head)

It was a lot of work to paint all of the silk for the fairy girl costumes but it was SO WORTH IT!

The mechanicals and the fairies

On a side note, I'm really loving the new options for photos on blogger.  It's really great to be able to have them take up the whole of the page.  Such choices!

And yes, I AM procrastinating!

Death is not the end

Have you ever driven somewhere fairly far away, stayed for a short time and then driven back?  James and I did that yesterday.  On Friday we drove down to Midvale to his parent's house and then woke up EARLY on Saturday and drove to Washington (St. George.)  One of James' friends from his mission died last week from cancer.  She was only 30.  The funeral was an amazing tribute to a life well lived and well loved.

We woke up at 4:30 so we could be on the road by 5:00.  We figured we would give ourselves plenty of time to get there for the funeral at 11:00.

A view of the sunrise in one of side mirrors

The funeral was such a celebration of a wonderful young woman.  She touched so many lives, including my husband's.  They met on their missions and stayed in touch as they both attended USU.  When James had his jaw surgery, Whitni was one of the few who visited him.  Although I never met her I feel like I know more about her through the memories shared by her family and friends.  I'm looking forward to meeting her in the next life!

Apparently there were NO street signs in Washington!

Good bye Red Rocks!

 It was surprisingly tiring to spend that much time in the car (although waking up at 4:30 might be a huge part of the problem.)  When James and I woke up this morning, we felt like we hadn't slept at all.  We packed up the car and headed home for church.  Church is the best way to spend a Sunday.

I almost posted my journal entry from ten years ago.  I evidently thought I had written something profound to capture the feelings of a wounded nation but not so much.  I was overly flowery and just sounded ridiculous.  In fact, I read the entry to James without pre-reading it and he laughed.  It was that bad.  Here is what I remember:

I woke up that morning after the first plane hit.  I can't remember if I saw the second plane hit, the overwhelming news coverage sort of obscures the real memory.  I was weeks into my first semester at Weber State and I didn't have Dr. Elsley's Intro to Fiction class until 11:30.  I remember sitting on my parent's bed, glued to the TV, realizing that the world had been changed.  I called my friend Kristin because it was her birthday that day. (Side note, I had THREE friends who were born on awful days: Pearl Harbor Day, Oklahoma City Bombings and September 11th.)  The sight of the huge buildings falling down was shocking.  I had visited New York the year before and I had pictures of the twin towers as viewed from the Empire State Building.  I remember how eerily dark the sky was that night and the nights following.  

I'm off to watch the CES fireside with Elder and Sister Oaks.  You should too! It's on the BYU Channel right now!

Feeling crafty

First of all: MY BROTHER ALEX GOT HIS MISSION CALL! He is going to serve in the Mexico Veracruz mission. He's leaving in the beginning of December.

I went on an adventure last week to drop off a draft of my plan B report (thesis) to a committee member. My adventure took me to the south side of campus, a place I had never ventured before. I'm kind of glad that I went because I saw two neat building from the 1930's.I call it an adventure but really, I just got lost trying to find an office that I had never visited.
This weekend we made another batch of banana chips and we tried our hands at raisins!
They turned out pretty good! The grapes were too small and gross so I put them in the handy dehydrator. It's amazing how GOOD home dried fruit tastes compared to store bought. Especially the bananas.
I decided to experiment a little with my hair today (I didn't want to wash it) so I followed the lead of hair tutorial I found on-line. I really like this site, Thebeautydepartment.com, it's by Lauren Conrad and it's really informative. The styling on it is pretty good too.
It's supposed to be called "the fun bun" but I don't really see how fun it is to have a knob on the top of your head. I hadn't realized how fly-away-y my hair had gotten over the course of the day. It really did look better in the morning.

Proof is moving right along. We're half way done with fittings and I have a pair of pants and a few accessories to buy. It's been a different experience to buy for a show on such a scale. I was able to find a few things in our stock but we don't typically produce contemporary shows. I went shopping on Friday and found A LOT locally. I felt so much better to have so much completed!

If you want to see Proof, tickets are available on-line or at the USU box office. Or, you can let me know! Just a ...caution? Proof does have some language by way of THE four letter word starting with an F. Just so you know.

The first week of school AND Def Leppard? Too much to handle!

James and I went to the fantastic Def Leppard concert last night at USANA. It was so incredible! I never really thought much of Def Leppard before I started dating James but now I'm hooked! They won't replace Bowie though (notice my shirt: Ziggy Stardust.)

Heart opened with a pretty good set. We got there late because we ate dinner before because we thought there would be another band opening for Heart. Not so much. It was just the two bands.

I took the pictures with my cell phone so they aren't that great, at all. The Wilson sisters really rocked it even though Ann looked kind of terrible:

Her outfit was totally unflattering and just a weird mismatch of textures. I kind of wish her sister (who looked great) would have said something. Maybe they were in a fight...

Anyway, Def Leppard came on and they were AMAZING! Their set had tall screens that showed video of coordinating images for each song. It was really cool.

There was also a couple of levels and ramps around the stage.

This picture is of Rick Allen, their drummer, who only has one arm. And he still rocks.

This last one wasn't taken at the USANA concert, it was in Atlanta. I just wanted to show a clear shot of the set up. Also, our show was extra special because Phil (shirtless guitar guy) and Joe (blonde guy singing) both wore sparkly shoes. Viv (dark haired guitar guy) must not have received the sparkly memo.

Set list: Undefeated, Let's Get Rocked, Animal, Foolin', Love Bites, Rock On, Rocket, Two Steps Behind, Bringing On the Heartache, Swich 625, Hysteria, Armageddon it, Photograph, Pour Some Sugar On Me and Rock of Ages.