Gift Wrap

When I have the time, I really enjoy wrapping gifts. Here are a couple from this holiday season!

Snowed in.

The Northeast is experiencing a big snowstorm today, and having left work early, I took the opportunity to decorate my tree and bake some Christmas cookies. My mom gave me a tube of Pillsbury gingerbread dough, so I decided to bake it off. I was disappointed that it expanded so much when I bake it, but it left more room for decorating detail. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.

Crafty Christmas

Here's my makeshift tree 30 seconds before my cat attacked it. While searching for decorations, I learned that I have three different shades of lime green sequins.

I have my life back.

The RISD Alumni Holiday Sale was this past Saturday. For the last two months, I've been spending every possible moment knitting, sewing, or covering stuff with glitter. This was my view every night after work:

I would knit for hours on end, watching [mostly terrible] dvds either rented from the Red Box at Stop & Shop, or purchased for $4 at Target. I sat hunched in my corner, surrounded my yarn, while my cat tried to destroy everything.


The day finally came, and my booth looked pretty good. Of course, I always want more product than I have, but all in all, it was a pretty successful day.

Baking Season

I always get really into the holiday season for some reason. I feel the need to bake, decorate, and listen to the Christmas radio station 24/7. I got the urge this weekend to bake and decorate sugar cookies, which surprisingly, I have never done. Here are the results:




They started out as snowflakes, but ended up looking like asterisks, which is ok with me. My next attempt will be gingerbread cookies.

It's That Time Again...

Brie and I spent last Saturday picking out the costumes for the recital. They really all start to look the same after 25 books full of spandex and sequins.

Here are a few things we settled on.

My lyrical (duo with Brie) costume for Dear Mr. President by P!nk and the Indigo Girls. We're wearing the pants version (there's no way our asses are going on stage in booty shorts).



We haven't chosen our tap costume yet, but we know it's going to involve fringe and/or sequins of some sort. We're dancing to a remix of Respect by Aretha Franklin. The costume will be somewhere along the lines of these:





For hip hop we're dancing to a mix of a bunch of Missy Elliott songs [yet to be chosen, but one is The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)] and I think we're wearing Adidas track suits. I would love it if they were black and silver.

My six and seven year-olds' ballet to Be Our Guest from Beauty and the Beast.



I can't remember what catalog their tap costume is from, but they're dancing to ABC by the Jackson Five ans they're wearing a pink and black school girl costume.

Cat Couture

Ok, so it's actually dog clothing. I've recently discovered that my cat [usually] doesn't mind wearing clothing. This is a very dangerous discovery for me, because now in addition to buying clothing for myself, I can also waste money on clothing for my cat. There isn't the same market for cat clothing that there is for dogs, but I've found that the size small dog clothing fits Gadoo perfectly.

Here is Gadoo in his new parka, purchased in the dollar section of Target. Stay tuned for more Gadoo Glamour Shots. (I am fully aware that I have completely lost my mind.)

Costumez

I've had a few halloween events to go to...acouple of halloween swing dances, so I needed more than one costume. I put these two together mostly with things I already had.
50's Housewife:


Flapper:

Happy Halloween

Gadoo was surprisingly open to wearing clothing. This opens up a whole new world of shopping: cat fashion.

Catching Up

I haven't posted in a while, because I've been busy, and what I've been busy with hasn't been all that exciting. Quick recap: in the past month I've been busier at work, started taking and teaching dance classes again, done some shoe shopping, and started strict(er) regimen at the gym.

Last night I got back from Monsters of Hip Hop, a weekend-long hip hop dance convention, where we (myself, the studio owner, and five students) took classes with some of th biggest names in choreographers. This was our third time going, but our first time bringing students, and it went suprisingly well. This time around, the tour made a stop in Worcester, MA, which was an infinitely easier trip than going to New Jersey, where it usually is.

All of the classes and choreographers were great this time. We all loved LUAM, who I also danced with at the Pulse in New York this past summer. I learned part of this dance on Saturday:



LUAM also has a great line of hip hop inspired clothing, Wild Child Nation. Since I abstained from buying one at the Pulse, I indulged in a cobalt blue hoody with white and metallic silver printing on it.

I'm tired and sore, but I had a great time, and the weekend has renewed my love for dance.