Merry Christmas and Happy New year's resolutions!!!

Welcome back to my blog and a very merry Christmas to you all. I had an excellent holiday, with my most exciting present of a lovely red nintendo ds lite. It's all mine!!! *evil laugh. With additional gifts, like an awesome carrying case, and a totally sweet game, My Japanese Coach, and I having a great time with my Christmas presents. This pic was taken at my parents' home when we visited them a couple weeks before the holiday. Aren't we cute? I've been following my friend's blog and wondered to myself, "Why is her blog so much cooler than mine?" Thus I am becoming more involved with the options presented by blogger and experimenting with a few things. The pic at the top of the page is of my husband...well, his hands, on our wedding day. I gave him a pocket watch as a happy wedding present. The back of it was engraved, "For my love, on our wedding day." He likes it a lot. And I love the awesome picture that was taken of it. It's like art!
As the new year approaches, I feel like making a resolution. No, I will not do the I resolve myself to accomplish all the things I've always wanted to do just to crash and burn in a couple weeks from overexerting myself. I would like to make a different resolution. I would like to remember everyone I care about on their birthday, and I need your help. If you think I should need to remember the date, and chances are very high that I do, shoot me an email with the day and month of your birth. If all goes according to plan, this can become a habit and I can feel good knowing I remembered people on their birthdays. Wish me luck! I'm going to go play my ds now, it looks lonely.

I just saw this and thought it was really cool.

I just saw this online and thought it was really neat. That's a pit bull on the end, for those of you who don't know. One of the most misunderstood breeds, and discriminated against, that I know of. There are actually laws barring you from owning a pit bull of any variety, in certain cities or counties. What most people don't understand are the owners of the pits are usually at fault for overly aggressive dogs, and they would still have attacked and bitten someone whether they had been a pit, or german shepard, or a vicious pomeranian. There was an article a few years ago when a pomeranian mauled and killed an infant that is was left with in a room, the article then continued to talk about how dangerous pit bulls are, even though they were completely unrelated to what was going on. In most studies it is found that golden retrievers bite more often that pits do, but still...I could go on, but I do have to leave, and I would take forever talking about this.

OOO I made a fancy cake!

I made a fancy cake from the library cookbook I got called,
"How to be a domestic goddess." The cake I am holding is made with Nutella, and other cakey ingredients, like ground hazelnuts. I made the icing with heavy cream and chocolate, and those are whole, roasted hazelnuts, aka Filberts, on the top. It was delicious! However, I think the next time I make it, I will substitute Semi sweet chocolate for the dark chocolate. The bitterness was pretty subtle in the cake itself, but in the icing it was really strong. Like my pretty glass cake plate? That was a wedding gift. It has a sweet cover to go on top and looks really nice, and it keeps the cake really well too. Mom had a slice and said it was better than a sleeping pill, chocolate makes her sleepy, which is kind of funny considering I'm the only person I know who passes out when taking Pamprin. Eh...go figure. I had a good visit with my Mom this weekend. Yesterday we went and watched the snow queen. It was neat seeing it this far into the run, as things were more finished, and as always my puppets look awesome. Mom wanted some pictures of the pigeons after the show, the actresses who manipulated them brought them out for meet and greet. I got closer with the camera and as soon as they saw me, they turned both pigeons toward me and yelled, "Mommy, Mommy!!!" It was awesome. Now off to the movies! Woot!

C'mon baby make it hurt so good

For those of you who are not aware, I love the sound of a violin, specifically in those really complicated celtic fiddle pieces. Hearing the devil went down to Georgia in elementary school started my lifelong adoration of this amazing instrument. My parents got me a violin for Christmas when I was in...high school? I think? Possibly a bit younger, and I took lessons with a friend of my mom's who had played for like 15 years. I never was very proficient. I was young enough to get easily frustrated with simple roadblocks, like keeping time and reading music. I had this method when I had to learn a new piece of music. I would memorize all the notes and parts to play so that when it came time to play for my teacher, I could just do it all from memory without really having to look at the music. My sight reading is terrible. And then she brought out the dreaded metronome. So I stopped trying for a while, always remembering how awesome the violin can sound in other people's hands. I never parted ways with my violin. It stayed in it's case, just waiting for the day when I would decide, ok, let's try this again. Ladies and gentlemen, that day is here. It occurs to me that as BJ and I want to settle ourselves here in Georgia, I have a much more stable living environment than I have had previously. Meaning I could get an actual teacher who is brave enough to offer lessons to adults, and keep that teacher until he or she retired! For someone who moves around frequently, this is a very exciting concept. I have been looking at the different music centers in the area and comparing rates. I'm looking for someone who has a lot of teaching experience, not just a lot of performance, who won't charge what they are probably worth to teach me to play the violin. In the meantime, as lessons cannot and will not take place until after I have secured employment and developed some sort of schedule, I have been researching what is available, for free, on the greatness that is, the internet. I found this awesome series by this teacher on youtube. He emphasizes frequently and often that his videos are just for clarification of technique, and should not replace a real teacher. http://www.youtube.com/user/professorV I feel like, at this point, I don't "really" need to start over from scratch, so for now, clarification works very well for me! I was playing along to the video when I realized my violin had slipped out of tune, again. I got this handy little pitch pipe just for the violin, but I think it is a wee bit flat, at least on the D note. But that's ok, because I found a free violin tuner online where it will play the note that you click until you tell it to stop. See, I don't have to have a piano to tune my violin too! This morning I moved my chin rest to try and see how this different position feels. I like it much better because there is a lot less strain, but I am also remembering how much the violin hurts. My fingertips of my left hand are red, and a wee bit tender. You may think I've been playing too many video games, but it's all from pressing down strings on the fingerboard. Also my arm and shoulder are really tired from holding the violin up. *sigh, this will take some getting used to again. So, I sally forth, venturing into some aches and pains as I build up muscles, and learn new songs. I'm going to go play the twinkle off that little star! Charge!!!

Artistic meltdown...watch out!!

I have just been cruising right along since the snow queen opened getting chores done, cleaning up the apartment, cooking actual meals with sides, doing the dishes in the sink, laundry, and now the bomb has been dropped. Clint, the awesome director for the snow queen gave my contact information to Michael, who heads the XPT over at the CPA. For those that don't speak acronym, allow me to explain. XPT = experimental puppet theatre. CPA = Center for Puppetry Arts. I have been invited to submit a proposal for a piece of puppetry performance lasting ten minutes or less. My brain has turned to jelly. The icky kind with strange unidentifiable chunks of fruit amorphously floating through space. It's not that I don't have time, the proposals aren't due until February, and the show isn't until May. The question is, how do I, Brittany, push the boundaries on contemporary puppet theatre, and make a show that's more about heart and meaning than pretty things moving. Please exscuse me, although I am exstatically excited, I must go find a paper bag to hyperventilate into.

Crossing tasks off my list! Woot!

First Christams hurdle has been crossed, well, I guess that was decorating, check, then there was shopping, check, then there was wrapping presents, double check, and finally the stockings. You may recall that I was making our Christmas stockings this year. I bought plain red felt stockings and embellished them with pieces of felt that I stitched down by hand. They look very cool. Next item of business, Christmas cards. I'm off!!!

Donation time!

BJ and I like to be charitable when we can, so this year we are making a Christmas tradition. I think, once a year at Christmas time, we will pick a charity to donate too. This year was toys for tots. The year before I pick Make a Wish, and next year, who knows? Maybe someone will get smart like the barnes and noble in Massachusetts. They had little christmas trees with ornaments on them. On each ornament was the name and age of a child in the state foster care system, along with what kind of things they liked. Mary and I picked out some kids, I picked one, she picked one, and then we picked a third to share. I was visiting her at the time, I think this was two or three years ago. When we checked out we got to sign bookplates to go into the books for the kids we picked out. I think that was one of the best Christmas oriented charities I have participated in, and I really enjoyed it. Another way to donate is of the body. BJ is always very good about going to the red cross to donate whenever he becomes eligible again. They just can't get enough of his O+ blood. I go along with him for moral support. I am not allowed to donate my blood because we lived in Germany during the restricted years. It's all those exotic german diseases I picked up, I am sure...like scarlet fever, yes very dangerous. Anyway it makes me a little sad. My blood is O- which is actually not as common as it could be. You could be any blood type at all and need a transfusion, and they could safely give you O-. My blood can go to anyone woo! I figured out a very strange phenomenon as well. As I watched them stick the large straw that they call a needle into my husband's arm, I felt a bit dizzy and kind of faint. This is odd because whenever I get shots or have blood drawn for tests, I am fine. I can watch the needle go in and everything. So if I feel faint at the sight of my husband getting stuck with a needle, imagine how I will feel when we have babies getting their immunizations. Sorry future children, future mommy may be passed out on the floor while you are crying.

The Snow Queen Opening

The Snow Queen opened last night and it was really fun for BJ and I to be back in an actual theatre, watching an actual play, even if it was children's theatre. It was GOOD children's theatre. And Clint, the best director I have worked for ever, gave me a sweet little goody bag as an opening night present with Lindt truffles in it...Love that man! I am enjoying the melty sweetness at this very moment. My puppets looked totally awesome. I need to get a copy of the publicity shots that were taken, but I did get this one of the reindeer during rehearsal. It looks pretty sweet I think. I really liked hanging out in the lobby after the show listening to different people talking. Here is how one of the conversations went...
"the crow was really nice, but I think the reindeer was my favorite."
"oh, but did you see the pigeons??" I giggled a bit. : ) BJ votes the deer as his favorite, and I am leaning that way. The pigeons are really cool, but I am also a big fan of my buddy the crow, so it's hard to pick. They're all my babies!!!

O Christmas tree, o christmas tree...how little are your branches

There is an interesting phenomenon that happens when you get married in November. Your brain just kind of skips over the fact that there is still a holiday and you get uber excited about Christmas. BJ and I went to Target a while back and got a wee little faux tree which is actually really cute. It's about 3 feet high if you count the pointy bit at the top, but we are considering trimming that back. It looks a little silly. See, we even got our christmas presents all bought and wrapped and prettyfied. : ) I am still sewing away on our stockings, but mine is all done and it looks pretty sweet. In other news that puzzle that BJ and I got before the wedding and then barely paid attention to? We finished it. Yesterday. WOOT!
That is a coaster in the background, so you get some idea of how big it actually ended up being. We thought about taking it apart and putting it back into the box, but in the interest of self preservation, I think we are going to glue it all together and hang it somewhere so it can look pretty. Maybe in the bathroom...That might be kind of nice. We also have to hang up the pictures from the wedding and the guest plates which all look great. And yes, I still have to put together my wedding album. I don't have all of the pictures yet, but maybe I will just put it together and add in a page or two when I get the rest. Yeah, I think that will do it.