28/365

Last night I missed the daily photo deadline by 3 minutes. Graciously, my group facilitator didn't ban me from the group and let me post anyway. I got home from the opening night performance of Showboat around 11:50pm, and started immediately "taking off my face" and getting ready for bed. As I was washing my face I realized that I hadn't taken my photo for the day! I looked at the time, making sure to not get soap all over my phone, and realized it was 12:03am. NO-hooooooooooooooo!! I quickly scrambled around trying to keep the soap out of my eyes and kept darting around the room like "a crazy" (as my former Russian violin professor used to say) chanting, "What should I take a picture of?! What should I take a picture of?!" with classic poor grammar, while Kevin laughed at me.

Finally I just settled on this art on our bedroom wall and snapped a picture with my phone before I crashed into bed. Oh the places we go. To bed.

"us"

Vote!

For bee things! They are comprised of my good friends and married designers Jeff & Shay, and they were nominated for a poppy award on the poppytalk blog for favorite handmade papergoods!

Go vote for them here!

Jeff is the crazy cat who designed our wedding invitations and programs for those of you who might remember them. Here's a photo of the programs for those who forgot to 'member:



Check out their stuff and vote for them when you get a chance. I love supporting local art and I am in disbelief sometimes regarding how many wonderfully creative friends we have!!

Also if you don't have plans, check them out tonight at We Are 1976.

26/365 and 27/365

I'm down to only two picture days at a time! Woop woop! This week it has been really challenging to find interesting things to photograph because my schedule has been exactly the same all week.

1. Wake up after snoozing as long as possible.

2. Go to work.

3. Leave work right at 5:30pm so I can get home, shove something in my face and make it to Showboat rehearsal by 7pm.

4. Go home around 11pm driving 70mph in hopes of making it home in time to see my husbo before he hits the adorable hay.

5. Repeat.

I've already taken a picture of my Showboat music score and a super secret shot I snagged during rehearsal. Since this month has been "The Places We Go," I've kind of tapped out my resources. But maybe I'm just not thinking creatively enough.

For 26/365, I had just plopped down on the couch after rehearsal. Kevin was already asleep and I was going to make a couple plays on my outstanding (read: yet to be dealt with) Words With Friends games to "unwind," and this was on the coffee table in front of me. K-Ho has been playing at home more lately, and he loves his new Nord baby (full working name: Nordstrom Electroliver, III)...hence my photo:

"Buttons"

For 27/365, I took my photo whilst I was at work, since I haven't explored that part of my life in photos yet. Plus I just got a promotion to a new position at work (what what!) and decided it was high time I organize my desk, and subsequently my life. So in the afternoon when I had a few minutes free I did it! And took a dang picture to commemorate:

"40 hours"

22/365, 23/365 and 24/365

Contrary to what I keep telling myself, and you, dear reader, I keep blogging in 3 day increments! I'm going to try my darndest to turn this around! Don't give up on me!!

SIDEBAR: I've recently learned that Latter Day Grammar Rangers now find it necessary to shorten the number of spaces between sentences from two to one. This is something I find infuriating. Not because I disagree with the idea necessarily, but because I find myself CONSTANTLY deleting the afore-necessitated space. Like just now I had to delete my extra space. And now. Also, I believe it was probably established as a new rule by a frequent twitterer. MUST MAXIMIZE CHARACTER UTILIZATION! TWEET! But that has nothing to do with this post. It's just that every time I'm writing a blog, I think about it because of the constant space-delete space-delete that will inevitably occur, and the unfair judgment it might bring upon me if any of the self-proclaimed enforcers of this new rule (read: Monica Hopkins) notice that I missed one.

Anybuns, on to the photos!

For 22/365, I went to go see Dallas Theater Center's Give It Up at the Wyly, then afterward we met up with Julesdwit who was in town from her homestead in NYC and headed to Vickery for some late night tacos with some late night friends.

"delicious"

For 23/365, I chose one of my favorite brunch locations, Garden Cafe, which I believe I've mentioned in a post before. I met Jro, Jules & Candie there for a delicious brunch after I got my hair cut. (space-delete)We sat outside to start until it started raining. It was one of those gray, but really bright days. (space-delete)I love those days!

"garden"

For 24/365, I decided to take my photo at home. (space-delete)After church, I came home, plopped on the couch and turned on NPR to listen to the rest of the This American Life that came on while I was in the car on the way home. I. Love. That. Program. Now they are in the middle of their winter pledge drive, so there were some interruptions, but I loved it nontheless. I love listening to that show in my living room. There's something that feels very old school about it until I remember that I'm listening to it on my DVD/mp3/TV/Radio stereo system, on top of which is our DVR. The only thing old school about the picture is the only game system we own, the original Nintendo. I'll Dr. YOUR Mario!

"this american life"

GO IRA!

21/365

This week has been absolutely crazy. I only realized in the middle of Showboat rehearsal last night that I hadn't taken a picture yet, so I just pulled my camera out while our conductor, the illustrious Jay Dias was stopping momentarily to go over part of the score with the brass section, and ever stealthily snapped a photo. Only my stand partner Miguel was any the wiser.

"act II"

I love music! Plus I have a 2 measure solo in this show! Ha ha! I love it! Movin' on up!

17/365, 18/365, 19/365 and 20/365

I promise I'm not going to keep blogging in multi day increments. This has been a pretty crazy weekend and beginning of the week....I got a promotion at work, woohoo! It's fantastic but it's left me busier than I have been at work in a while, and with rehearsals this week (see figure 19/365), I haven't had my evenings as free as in recent weeks.

So, a concise, yet not terse summary of the last four days.

17/365 - I worked on a film score with my friend Curtis of The Theater Fire fame for a film called "Carried Away" recently. There is a second project in the works, so last Sunday I went over to his house so we could work on a game plan for writing the music. I love his house and opted to take my picture there.

"recording"


18/365 - My birthday!! Kevin and I had brunch, then headed to the mall for a bit. We stopped inside the Nasher store at Northpark because we'd never been. At the back of the store is an awesome kids section, and when I saw these patent leather baby shoes I knew this would be my photo for the day. They are so ridiculously hilariously cute!

"tiny feets"


19/365 - I started rehearsals with Irving Lyric Stage for their production of Showboat in concert last night and decided to take a picture of some of the score. I do musicals with them about 2-3 times a year and I love it! I've been doing it for about 3 years or so now, and we've done Sweeney Todd, Carousel, Dallas Divas, West Side Story, The King & I, Funny Girl and now Showboat. I've been doing it long enough that I've become friends with the other musicians and it's a mini reunion every time we do these shows. I love playing in bands, but this satisfies the orchestra nerd that resides deep within my weary soul.

"showboat"


20/365 - Tonight was the second rehearsal for Showboat. It's a fun gig, but I got a little overwhelmed when I realized that we have Friday & Saturday off this week, but this Sunday through next Sunday will be constant rehearsals/performances every night after working every day.....it will be a tense week and I think I'll be cashing in a massage gift card I got for Christmas shortly after the run is complete. I can't think too much about my schedule and how little time I'm going to have to myself, I just kind of have to keep my head down and push through. I think I'll be looking to this phrase more than once over the next week and a half.

"mantra"


Wish me luck taking my pictures every day and getting them posted on my blog! SHOWBOAT!

14/365, 15/365 and 16/365

Sorry I haven't posted the last couple of days' photos! Yesterday was an eventful day at work to say the least and I was a little distracted.

First, we have 14/365, which was a fun filled evening over at Sir Jesse Hopkins' house. He got a new tv for his new place and invited a few friends over to watch our favorite Thursday night line up. Perched on his piano were the photos I got him as a housewarming gift. Love my friends!

"Jesse's House"


Then there's last night, 15/365. I left work a little early to meet Sarah Jaffe to play a show in Denton last night with Seryn and Robert Gomez. It was Sarah's last show in town before she goes on a fancy pants European tour with Midlake, woop woop! A couple of the guys in Midlake go to St. David's Episcopal church in Denton, where the show was held last night. It was a beautiful, traditional church and it was a gorgeous and perfect venue for the event.

"St. David's"


Today, as a pre-birthday celebration, I went with Jessica Roberts (Jro) to get my eyebrows threaded by Miss Kim then we met up with Jessica Allen and her ridiculously cute daughter Cecelia to eat at Garden Cafe. Then we went back and hung out at J-Ro's new place for a bit where I captured today's photo (16/365). Cece decided that she needed to reorganize Jro's bookshelf. And by reorganize I of course mean dump them all on the kitchen floor.

"Who Me?"

13/365

Well would you look at that - I'm actually posting a photo on the same day I snapped it! Tonight I went over to Elissa's house to eat delicious food stuffs and start our bible study that we've been talking about starting.

Tonight's menu was homemade tomato basil soup and grilled cheeses. Now I'm drooling thinking back about it. It was amazing. A little simmer here, a little blender puree there, and voila!! Gourmet in my mouth!! I know this isn't a very lengthy post, but the crack of midnight approacheth and my body is about to approacheth my bed so deal with it.

Love you!

"so I creep"

And as an aside, Elissa introduced me to a new book that is both disturbing and uproariously cute!

Check it!

12/365

Last night K-Ho and I went to see August: Osage County at the Winspear. It's the second in our Lexus Broadway Series (sponsorship plug, what!), and it's the first straight play (read: non-musical). I absolutely LOVED the show. The star is Estelle Parsons, who has done a lot of acting, but most of you probably remember her as Rosanne's mother Beverly on the 80s-90s hit sitcom "Rosanne."

Upon reading the cast bios I discovered that almost everyone in the cast has been on one or more of the Law & Orders, and that fact pleased me more than I think would be reasonable. I heart Law & Order. I also heart Words with Friends, but those are topics for another post.

I was initially taking pictures inside the theater at the beautiful set (which you can see if you click on the link above), but then an usher kindly informed me that it wasn't allowed. So, after much debate and not wanting to run into a cease and desist situation, I decided not to post my illegally obtained photo of the set and instead took a few photos outside on the walk back to our car. I took three that I was satisfied with, but could only choose one for Project 365, so Kevin helped me choose one that he felt was more unique than the others.

tree + wyly (this is the one I was originally going to use)


patrons retreat


and finally, 12/365 selection, "the lurker"

11/365

Last night I met my friend Elena for dinner at Hunky's in the Bishop Arts District. We hadn't seen each other in a very very long time and we both like ourselves a good hamburger, so we got our Hunky on. (gross!) I really love the Bishop Arts District. There are great little stores and restaurants and a cool bike shop and there's just a great sense of community every time I walk around down there.

I also got a new iPhone camera application with new filters and wanted to try it out, so I joined my love of Hunky's (and dinner with Elena) and my excitement about my new filters and thus I bring to thee:

"hunky's"

9/365 and 10/365, et al

So this weekend was packed full of events and occurrences worth documenting. Saturday was filled with three birthdays of very important people.

Starting off the afternoon was the first birthday of my friends Nick & Trisha's sweet baby Sophie:


Pretty adorable.

Also at Sophie's party was my friend Audrey's daughter, Alice June, displaying a pipe cleaner rendition of her family, complete with orange puppy dog:

Also adorbs.

Next was my bff J-Ro's birthday, which because I was having so much fun in the moment, I managed to not take one photograph the entire time. Because I'm a good friend.

Finally, was other dear friend Ashley's birthday, hosted at a beautiful home in Oak Cliff. Here are a few pictures to document, including my 9/365 photo:

Carli, Ashley & myself:

Birthday girl, a la raccoon:

9/365 - "duet"


Then yesterday was a day of relaxation and recuperation from all the celebrations. I watched a Law & Order SVU Marathon, had lunch with Ashley and co since Sunday was her real birthday, watched more SVU, and took my strengths finder test that my friend Stephanie got me for Christmas, thus resulting in my photo for yesterday:

10/365 - "strengths"

marital conversation

This is an excerpt from a conversation Kevin and I just had over the phone. I was asking him how he slept last night (he was just rousing from slumber as I left for work this morning) and was telling him that I had the hardest time getting out of bed this morning. He told me that he had some crazy dreams, and before he went into any details, I shared with him that I, too, had some crazy dreams.

I dreamed in two parts. In the first part, I don't remember much, only that Jared Harris, guest star of various Fringe episodes as well as Law & Order, was someone I was afraid of, but whose trust I was trying to gain in order to outsmart him.

In the second part I worked in some office with wood paneling, and all I can really remember is that at one point during work, our office got shot up as in a drive by shooting, but the shooters were walking by in the hallway, not driving, and I dove behind one of four giant high backed living room chairs of various colors that were all around the room and just stayed low until the shooting stopped. I injured my elbow somehow because there was a bandage on it for the rest of the dream, but I didn't remember whether I was shot or not. What I DID remember was that Legacy, of So You Think You Can Dance fame, also worked in the office with me, and after the traumatic shooting he comforted me with an embrace and ultimately a passionate kiss. Even as I type this I'm laughing hysterically, much as I was while I was telling Kevin this over the phone.

"Oh good, great, so you cheated on me. And you cheated on me with Lord of the Dance. Excellent," he responded.

"Are you jelly?" (short for "jealous" because I think it's hilarious to speak in ridiculous abbreves to Kevin) I asked, still laughing uncontrollably the whole time.

He replied assuredly, "I am totes not jelly. Also you are now forbidden to watch So You Think You Can Dance. So there's that."

Jacob Metcalf @ Trees, cont'd

Here are some MUCH better photos of Thursday evening's concert. Oh Canon 5D, how my husband longs for thee! They were taken by photographer David Wilson. I'm so glad someone got some really great shots!

7/365

Last night I played at Trees with Jacob Metcalf as part of the Local Edge Live concert series. It was free and it was a glorious line up. We opened the show around 8pm, followed by, Baruch the Scribe, Seryn and then finally Spooky Folk.

It was a wonderful, Denton-heavy line up (we were the only Dallasites on the bill) filled with amazing musicians. My 2/365 photo was an image of one of the rehearsals we had for this show. One of the two rehearsals I was able to attend, that is. That's the one thing about playing with really excellent instrumentalists. We didn't have a single rehearsal with everyone present, and the show went off beautifully without a hitch! Jacob Metcalf, the band's namesake, guitarist and lead vocalist, decided that for this show he'd like to do something a little different. Different = 9 string players on stage, all with direct inputs (that's "stage talk" for fancy plug-in thingys). Every sound guy's delight......or worst nightmare. I knew two of the string players already - Miss Buffi J, cellist extraordinaire, who I've known because she plays in bands such as Robert Gomez and the Polyphonic Spree, and we also play in the orchestras for musicals together 3-4 times a year. I heart her. I also knew Markus, another cellist I know through Kevin, who lives in Nashville primarily and does studio work as well as playing in the Kopecky Family Band. In addition to my already great friends, I met 6 new people/string players, including Miss Petra Kelly, fellow violinist lady who also plays with the aforementioned Spooky Folk, and she also wrote/arranged the violin parts for Jacob's songs, which were so gorgeous.

The sound guy was completely accommodating and Kevin said that the music sounded perfect from the audience and it was just a really wonderful time. It's not often that I get a chance to play with a group of strings like that alongside a band, and it was sooooo much fun! I couldn't stop smiling the whole time!

Here are a few pictures I took/gathered of last night, and I'll sum it up with my 7/365 photo.

Jacob getting his mic check on:


Blurry Buffi & Markus:


Petra & Jacob:


Orange Me & Petra:


De la audience ("borrowed" from Mark from the edge's twitpic):


De la stage ("borrowed" from Mark from the edge's twitpic):


And finally, 7/365 - "conductor"

That cute little tweet tweet was our "conductor" and Jacob cleverly painted a little tuxedo on his chest. Totes Adorbs!!

6/365

So last night, Kevin and I went with Eric & Mandy (Kevin's cousin & his wife, as well as being our friends) to see National Geographic photographer Paul Nicklen at the Winspear Opera House as part of my work's Brinker International Lecture Forum. It. Was. Awesome. Not only is he an incredible photographer of all things polar, he was also quite hilarious. And Canadian! What's that aboot?!

We (our Public Relations Director at work) got him a spot on KERA's Think from 1-2 yesterday, so if you're interested in hearing his interview with Krys Boyd, "The Stories Behind the Shots," click here.

I tried to take a few photos of him on stage presenting his photos. Most of them turned out blurry and I was trying hard not to get forcibly removed by one of our friendly but dutiful ushers for taking photos, but I got a couple acceptable shots. (if you don't enlarge them....DON'T enlarge them....you're enlarging the photo, I knew it!). I tried to find the shot I ultimately ended up choosing for yesterday's picture on his website but I couldn't. His photos, despite my inability to fully capture their clarity and intrigue on my Sony Cybershot sans flash, are truly incredible. He did a book signing after the even for his new book Polar Obsession. There's a really cool video embedded in that page with a short version of a story he told us about last night. Check it out!

All that to say, here's my photo for yesterday.

"Curiosity"

5/365

Last night I hung out with my wonderful friend Elissa. We went back in time to Mesquite, Texas, land of the greater part of my upbringing, and in honor of the trek, we also ate at.........get ready for it.........Olive Garden. I knew a lot of people who worked at Olive Garden when I was in high school, and let me tell you, from what I understand the restaurant business is a scandalous business of late nights and debauchery galore!

But.....that has nothing to do with my photo for the day yesterday. I decided that picture of Olive Garden wasn't going to cut it, so my picture comes from the guest room of none other than Elissa. Her design aesthetic is something I've always coveted. She has an artistic sense like no one I know for decorating her home and I find myself just looking around a lot while I'm there and trying not to steal too many ideas.

"multi-purpose"

4/365 - "warm"

Okay! At long (4 day) last I am caught up on my photos!! I had another rehearsal at Jacob's house, but rather than take another picture there I thought I would take a picture of another place I'd be visiting tonight....our room. :)

"Warm"


We have a cornucopia of furniture in our place. From IKEA to Eurway to thrift stores, etc., we have pretty eclectic taste. I think my very favorite part of our bedroom is the quilt on the bed. It was a quilt that Kevin's Granny made for him when he was 1 year old, and in addition to being sentimental and familial, it also happens to bring all of our mish mash of colors in the bedroom together. I love our bedroom and I love it best by lamplight. Feels cozy and welcoming.

3/365 - "Alice"

Day 3 (yesterday) was a great last day before starting back to work after the holiday. Came home and took a nap after church - Sunday naps are the best - then Kevin and I headed out to the IMAX theater up at 635 and 35 to see Avatar in 3D on the IMAX screen. We got there about 30 minutes before our showtime thinking that surely it wouldn't be sold out on it's 3rd weekend out in theaters. We were wrong. So we ended up just going to the "regular" 3D screening 30 minutes later. Which was also almost completely full. CRAZY!

I read that as of yesterday, Avatar had already (in only 17 days) grossed over $1 billion worldwide. Apparently only 5 films have ever done that. I was pretty skeptical about the movie initially, and in conversation about thoughts on the movie I may have uttered the word "lame" more than once. But then when it came out I started hearing repeated rumblings about how great it was, so last night we decided to check it out. I must say....I enjoyed it quite a lot. If you haven't seen it and are interested, here are a few things you should know:

1. it is 3 hours long
2. it took 30 minutes for my eyes to adjust to the 3D
3. people will clap when the movie is over
4. you will feel a strange urge to explore outside your race/species to find love
5. that might or might not actually be true
6. it took about 10 minutes for my eyes to adjust back from 3D. I couldn't even look at my phone screen without squinting and making some sort of indecipherable noise of discontent. My precious eyes!

All that to say, we really liked it. Feel free to make your own decision after you see it. I took a few photos from last night's IMAX excursion, and finally settled on this one for my Project 365 pic:

"Alice"

2/365

I'm still running a day behind, but hopefully I'll catch up tonight - I have another photo idea in mind. I am playing this Thursday (1/7) at Trees w/my good friend Jacob Metcalf's band. (SIDEBAR: It's a free show that starts at 8pm for anyone interested in a glorious and FREE night out!)

We rehearsed yesterday at Jacob's loft, which is one of the most beautiful places and I love all the natural light during the day, so I decided to take yesterday's photo at his place before we started rehearsing.

"Practice"

1/365

Okay! So I'm not a day late after all. Or at least my first photo isn't. I took this photo last night. We went with Dragan and Elissa to see the Ultrasonic Rock Orchestra at the Wyly then headed to Ships afterwards. That's where this photo was taken.

"Ships"

the things we see

In addition to blogging more regularly this year, I resolve to be a part of this group my friend and her husband started. (I love my creative friends!!)

I honestly don't know that I've ever done anything consistently for a year straight. I'm getting started a day late, but I'm going to do it! And I think it will give me motivation to post my pictures here on my blog, too. As we speak I'm charging my camera!!

Here are the details of the group:

About Project365: The Things We See

Just another group of folks participating in the wildly popular Project 365. Optional themes included.

Here's the gist.
Project 365 is a creative endeavor in which participants shoot one original photograph each day for a year. Our purpose with this group is to create a collective space to share and view these photos for anyone who would like to participate. Photography skills need not be honed, nor equipment professional, the only necessity is a desire to take the picture and take part in the community.

Though the idea may be simple, life can easily intrude upon one's intention to commit to taking an original photograph each and every day, 365 days in a row. This is why we've decided to create themes for each month of 2010, to provide a general guide for our photographic pursuits. If you'd like to join in on the themes we would be most pleased, though you need not feel obligated. If you'd like to come up with your own themes or keep it freeform, that's completely up to you.

Each month will have its own theme, and within some months we may create weekly themes that fit into the theme for the overall month. (Ex: Color is the theme for the month of March, with Week 1 being monochromatic, Week 2 complementary, Week 3 your favorite color, and Week 4 black & white.)

We are also working on creating a blog for the project where participants can post photos. More on that soon...

Monthly Themes (Details on weekly themes will be posted on the blog).

January: The Places We Go (Home, work, the grocery store, etc.)
February: The Things We Love (People, possessions, hobbies, etc.)
March: The Spectrum We Perceive (This month is all about color. Apologies to the color blind.)
April: The World We Love (Enjoy the changing of the seasons and observe the natural world.)
May: The People We Meet (Friends, family, strangers, co-workers, etc.)
June: The Light We Feel (Let light be your subject. June 21 is the longest day of the year {and our anniversary}, so you'll have plenty of golden hours.)
July: The Places We Live (Its too hot to be outside in Texas. Take pictures of your domestic life.)
August: The Things We Read (Words and letters are all around us. Find typography in its natural state.)
September: The Things We Dream (Fantastical images, subconscious moods. Try to capture a feeling that may be slightly unreal.)
October: The Things We Keep (Hunt and gather. Collect.)
November: The Things We Eat (Don't wait til turkey day to think about your food.)
December: The Shapes We See (Embrace the abstract and focus on form, lines and shapes.)


Wish me luck!!

and now for 2010

I thought this was so clever and wonderful and it made me happy when I saw it! I thought it would be an appropriate first post of the new year.


Happy New Year!!