Photo Overload

This past week has been really fun but tiring. It started early on Monday, I packed up my giant bag and drove to Kaysville to help watch my niece and nephew.  We did a lot of fun things:

We walked down to the ponds to feed the ducks.

Some of the ducks were overly aggressive and they stole the bread out of Avery's hand.

Avery and I made cinnamon rolls while Parker took a nap.  She was a very good helper.

Testing the sugar/cinnamon ratio

Waiting for the rolls to rise

Parker was a cute as always!  I can't believe how fast he is growing up.

We also made masks.  Avery requested a pretty mask and a scary mask.

The orange mask is the "scary" mask

Jordan's wife Lindsey came over for dinner and played "Pretty Pretty Princess" with Avery.

Avery dressing Lindsey up in ALL the jewelry!

I also worked a little while I was at my parents' house.  I'm designing "The Marvelous Wonderettes" for the Midvale Arts Council this summer.  The musical centers around four girls in a singing group.  Act I takes place at their senior prom and Act II is at their 10 year reunion. I finally put pen and pencil to paper to get the ideas out and visualized.  If the prom dresses look familiar it's because we're renting Weber's West Side Story dresses.  I can't believe I designed those four years ago!

ACT I

ACT II

I also used the time to visit Target to update our baby registry.  I noticed this set up and I thought it was funny:

Milk Duds and a breast pump...nice.

Last week there was a police stand off in our tiny town.  Apparently a young man was threatening suicide and the police blocked off the block.  There was even some news coverage.  I think it resolved itself peacefully.  I hope.

Road closures

News vans

Main Street

Finally, TODAY.  Our friends Annie and Rob were sealed this morning at the Logan Temple.  They got married last year, six months after Rob was baptized.  They were both glowing this morning.  Happiness all around!

The happy couple

We ran errands afterwards and I found the CUTEST measuring cups at TJ Maxx.  I had pinned them on Pinterest a YEAR ago and then I found them at a discounted price!

Warning! Scandalous Pictures!

One thing that I love about our place is our backdoor neighbors:

Or maybe I should say, "neighhh-bors."

Not funny?  I thought so.
As of the beginning of this blog post (Wednesday night) this is how my Plan B Report looks:

It's not done yet but it's pretty close.  I have some more to write for the last two chapters but I can do it.  My draft is due on Friday.  THIS Friday.  Awesome.

In other adventures, I turned in my designs for Gypsy in Design Studies.  I was really excited to do this paper project because it was a really fun design.  I broke up my research into six musical numbers from the show and figured I could finish them all.  Well, I stayed up until 3:00 last night and woke up at 7:30 this morning and...

I still didn't finish.  It was okay because I finished 17 out of the 22 figures I had designed on 5 of the 6 pages.  It was a lot of work and I am VERY tired.

Baby June and Her Newsboys

Madame Rose's Toreadorables

 After this point in the musical, the theatres are replaced by burlesque houses.

Gotta Have  A Gimmick

Louise's First Strip

Gypsy Rose Lee

Rose's Turn (Everything's Coming Up Rose)

 And, finally, the centerpiece for my friend Kim's bachelorette party:

Our friend Nat made it.  I thought it was really funny.  Did you know that Ken's plastic underwear has his name on it?  It's weird.

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:

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.

A break from homework

I realized after I put the first picture on my blog that it's kind of nauseating. It's basically upside down.

I changed it. Can you tell a difference?

It just seems slightly more natural the second way. I'm working on designs for Frost/Nixon, one of my favorite plays. It's the first batch of watercolor renderings this semester. The first two sets were in marker and pen. I'm glad that I haven't totally forgotten how to paint!

The design process sort of goes like this: script, research, sketches, renderings, costumes. It's the bare bones description of how it goes. Below is some of my rough sketches, completed on tracing paper with Prisma pencils. I wanted to experiment with color and this was the fastest way without working on the computer. I'm kind of old school that way.

You can't get your sketches without some research. Yep, it's a yearbook. Check out the sweet plaid suit, lower right hand corner.
Three Musketeers opened this week, hooray! I was responsible for patterning four dresses including the queen's ball gown:
and Milady's dresses. This one wasn't finished, we added more trim to the collar and cuffs plus interchangeable stomachers.
Up next is another shot of my grad lab box. I don't really work in here much apart from class. It's not the coziest room and there isn't a sink in the room which is a pain when I'm painting.
I made a couple of discoveries this week including:

Spray and Wash+bleach=FOAM! Granted, this was probably toxic so it's a good thing I'm not pregnant! I dyed some lace for Milady's dress and it was way too dark so I tried to get out as much of the dye as possible. I few tries and a go in the washing machine and it was perfect. I think I was just lucky as opposed to qualified.
Someone hung this up on the art hallway. In case you can't read it, it says "Hello?" and under Lionel Richie's picture, "is it me you're looking for?" Here's a link for those who aren't laughing.
Finally, I made grapefruit marmalade using Nigella Lawson's recipe. I was very pleased with how it looked. It was so jeweled and pretty in its orange-ness.
However, it was disgusting. Anyone want a few jars of stomach-turningly-tart marmalade?

A Plethora of Pictures

I basically dumped a bunch of pictures I had on my phone, on to my blog. Most are from after ACTF but a few are from before. First up, Valentine's Day. My husband is amazing, wonderful, loving, thoughtful and funny. I think that his gifts show all of his sides. He bought new garments (I really needed them, mine were all gray!) risque candy hearts and a jewelry box.I was really surprised by the jewelry box but he pointed out that I usually complained about my necklaces getting tangled and lost earrings. It was extremely thoughtful and I really love it!

Next up: STAIRS. I'm taking set design this semester and although I feel pretty confident about it, I obviously still have a lot to learn.

Case in point, this photograph:
As you can see, there is the 1/8" stair section on the left in heavy paper followed by two failed attempts to replicate the same stairs in 1/4" scale. It took three tries to FINALLY get the stairs to be wider at the bottom than the top. And I'm in grad school....

The skirt that Amanda is holding up is the long-lost skirt from The Cripple of Inishmaan...from SEPTEMBER! It was lost during the build of the show, replaced with something else and, of course, found months later. I think Amanda's face says it all.

Also from the costume shop is a picture from the trim used on the officer's coats for Our Country's Good, in performance until next Saturday at the Morgan Theatre. It was my task to thread the serger in gold thread and then serge 160 strips for the coats.
I really hated that job. But, I finished it.

Yesterday morning, as I was making breakfast, I noticed that the pepper I had pulled from the fridge made a funny rattling noise. I half expected some scary bug or something to fly out when I cut it open. Not so!It was a baby pepper! Crazy!

I noticed on Thursday that our tailor's ham was looking particularly sad. It had a gash on the back and the plaid side was falling off. I took it upon myself to fix our sad little ham.

I think it is much improved:

What do you think?

Wednesday morning I saw this:
Yep, a horse and buggy. Technically I think it was pulled by shetland ponies but I'm probably wrong.

Last up (I'll bet you're glad) my "completed" set for The Goat or Who is Silvia? which is technically still in the white model format but that is all we had to do for the assignment.
I'm going to remake the window piece (the center piece) because the balsa wood just didn't look as nice in real life.

Next up: The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus in Design Studies and Grey Gardens for Set Design.

Oh! I forgot to mention what I gave James for Valentines: "Manly Mustache Mirror clings," guitar shaped ice cube molds and underthings (technically it's for both of us.)

Cupcakes, Candles and Cubbies

I made some cupcakes this week for a birthday in my design studies class. I could have used a box and a jar of frosting but I like to bake and try new things. Plus, I stress bake so the timing was PERFECT! I talked to some class members and using their feedback I made the following decision:

LEMON MERINGUE CUPCAKES

I didn't have an actual recipe so I combined a couple of recipes together. I started with vanilla cupcakes, I filled them a little under the usual amount. After I baked them I used a plastic juicer to remove the middle of the cakes. I used about 2 teaspoons of filling per cupcake (a quick note about the filling, make sure it's at room temperature so it will spread easily.) Once all the cupcakes were filled, I lined them up on a baking sheet and topped them with marshmallow cream. This part was tricky, that stuff is hard to spread! I think next time I'll warm it up in hot water or try piping it with a large baggie. The last step is to brown the marshmallow so it looks like meringue. Ideally I would recommend using a small blow torch to burnish the tops but I don't own one so I put it under a broiler. Make sure you watch it so they don't burn.

ENJOY!

Magnolia Bakery's Vanilla Cupcakes (The recipe says it yields 24 but I wound up with 36)

• 1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Line 3 (1/2 cup-12 capacity) muffin tins with cupcake papers.

In a small bowl, combine the flours. Set aside.

In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not over beat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about 3/4 full. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.

Cool the cupcakes in tins for 15 minutes. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing.

America's Test Kitchen's Lemon Curd Filling

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice from about 6 lemons
1/2 teaspoon gelatin (powdered)
3/4 cups granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon table salt

2 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
4 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick), cut into 1/2-inch cubes and frozen

FOR THE FILLING: Measure 1 tablespoon lemon juice into small bowl;
sprinkle gelatin over top. Heat remaining lemon juice, sugar, and salt in
medium nonreactive saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally,
until sugar dissolves and mixture is hot but not boiling. Whisk eggs and
yolks in large nonreactive bowl. Whisking constantly, slowly pour hot
lemon-sugar mixture into eggs, then return mixture to saucepan. Cook overmedium-low heat, stirring constantly with heatproof spatula, until mixture
registers 170 degrees on instant-read thermometer and is thick enough to
leave trail when spatula is scraped along pan bottom, 4 to 6 minutes.
Immediately remove pan from heat and stir in gelatin mixture until
dissolved. Stir in frozen butter until incorporated. Pour filling through
fine-mesh strainer into nonreactive bowl (you should have 1 1/2 cups). Cover
surface directly with plastic wrap; refrigerate until firm enough to
spread, at least 4 hours.

We had not 1, not 2 but 3 birthdays on Wednesday (hence the cupcakes.) Here are some shots of the birthday girls in the scene shop, blowing out their birthday candles.

Cake in the scene shop, nice.

Cubbies is sort of a funny term. I guess my work station in the grad lab is a cubby but Amanda's office isn't really one, she has an actual desk and a sort of room.

Anyways.

Here is a new batch of renderings for my first project in Design Studies: costume designs for The Dark of the Moon. I used my friend Brandee's Prismacolor markers and they are SO COOL! I've never rendered in marker before so it was a new experience.

I'm really pleased with the results. I should take a picture with my camera so you can actually see the pictures.

And now, the picture that goes along with the reference to Amanda's desk:

We had a mouse in the costume shop. We think it was a girl because she ate part of Amanda's Cadbury egg. Look at the little nibbles. It's cute and gross all at the same time.