Six Months Later...

... and our lives are basically completely different from when we last checked in.  For one, I'm the now the cook.  At least for the summer, while Ben is the busy one and I have oodles of time (relatively)  A lot has happened and, honestly, I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with the task of trying to catch up.  Then again, I'm generally feeling a little overwhelmed today - you should have seen me cook pizza.  Don't get me wrong, it was delicious, but let's just say I'm glad no one was there to witness it's creation...

I'm also a little ashamed because I was doing so well last year blogging once a week and here it is May and we haven't made a peep.  So somehow I must find a simple way to bite the bullet and give a concise and interesting review so that we can start fresh.
So here are 10 things that have happened since October 2012:

1. Thanksgiving (plus my mom came to visit)

We had a lovely visit; unfortunately,  I had a ton of work and couldn't entertain as well as I would have liked.

We had Thanksgiving dinner at the home of a new friend, Susie.  Ben has done some work with Susie's daughter, Katie through a group she started with her husband called Studio Forza.  Being a truly orphan Thanksgiving, countless friends, family, and acquaintances (like us) filled four tables.  It was such a lively time filled with food, conversation, and ... making Christmas ornaments.

Susie is a local textiles artist so there was - fittingly - a craft table set up where one could create beaded Christmas ornaments.

2. Christmas

First and foremost was the Theatre Design/Tech party.  There was a gingerbread-wo/man decorating contest.  Being in the midst of designing The School for Scandal, I was inspired to create a 18th Century frocked lady.  There were three or five categories and I won in one of them.

Julia - always a fan of folklore - designed the gingerbread Cretan Snake Goddess

Christmas dinner was another orphan-holiday surrounded by dear friends.  Nicole and Jaron (front and center in the photo) hosted.  We provided the British-inspired paper crowns and poppers... of course!

 

3. I took my first trip to New York City to shop fabric for The School for Scandal

I had never been to NYC before and I loved it!  I not only got to shop my heart out for fabric, see a Broadway show (Bring It On, an unusual choice, but surprisingly good and completely entertaining), and witness Santa-Con, but I was also able to visit some dear friends.

A glimpse of Santa-con 2013

4. Designed The School for Scandal, you can see the renderings and production photos on my online portfolio
5. Projects:  This semester I took a millinery class.  Through it, I learned to make several types of hats.  I took some great pictures but I lost some of the pictures and need to re-take them.  They'll be posted on my website when I do, but in the mean time, here are two of the hats I made which Ben and I had the opportunity to wear at a Kentucky Derby party.

 This is a dress I draped, patterned, and helped construct for IU's production, Intimate Apparel.  It is an Edwardian wedding dress.

The last big project was this Victorian day jacket I draped, patterned, and constructed for IUs production, Sunday in the Park With George.

6. Ben started working with his doppelganger, Reynolds, at Performing Arts Abroad (PAA)
7. Ben's parent visited!

8. Ben performed as the non-singing narrator in the opera, Akhnaten, with the IU Opera and we were able to have a stay-vacation in Indianapolis when Akhnaten performed there.

Indianapolis has some great art installments strewn throughout.  We particularly enjoyed this one:

Now this treasure kept popping up before we had the opportunity to take out our camera but we finally got it!

 On our way back down from Indy we stopped in Nashville, IN, a sleepy town full of boutiques, food (there are especially a lot of homemade candy stores), and unique art (Nashville began as an artists colony).

9. I finished Grad School year two!!!  You know what that means?  Only one more year!!!!
10. Ben's show, Questions of the Heart: Gay Mormons and the Search for Identity got accepted to both the Indianapolis and Cincinnati Fringe festivals.  He held a reading to get feedback from a range of people and has since been re-writing and re-staging the now two-year-old script/show.