Dress

We've been running full dress all week for the opening of "Christmas at the Park Theatre". It's our version of the radio city Chirstmas special... with the previously mentioned "Parkettes" instead of the "Rockettes".

Um... I've been calling them the "Perkettes" (read the post from two days ago)

Last night we even had Santa (aka The Town Crier, aka Tom) in costume... he's just been lumbering out from the audience in past rehearsals in jeans and a sweatshirt.

I'd invited the individuals (and accompanying staff) from where I work to come and watch the dress (rehearsal) last night. They gave us some really great energy while we were up there- singing loudly and clapping with excitement. I think there was some confusion when we started singing happy birthday to Santa (it was Tom's birthday), but they took it all in stride. I loved that every time I looked back to where they were sitting someone would start waving frantically at me.

Bitter sweet. This will have to be my last show due to the changes with work. I won't be able to attend any rehearsals with the new schedule. Unless I  find a director who's really lenient and allows me to show up an hour late every evening.

A shot from this week... I'm behind one of the pineappley things- (AMAZING headdresses by Lisa... based on one of the 12 days of Christmas! The girls have to walk sideways to fit thru the door!)

Toasty Toes

I'm in high gear for Christmas crafting.
Actually, maybe it's the coffee...

Either way, slippers are being hand sewn and YOU could give those slippers to your favourite persons. Just $25! A real deal!

So, if you live in Northumberland or Ptbo, you should email me at ladylesley at hotmail dot com and place an order.

Look how cute those are! Your loved ones NEED them.

When you start laughing and can't stop?

SHAKING WITH LAUGHTER

That's what I've been doing with this play. Oh, it's not a funny play... it's a Christmas cantata, or... rather, it's the 'Burg's version of the Rockettes... except that it's the "Parkettes" and they're like 13 years old, so we all feel pervy watching their legs.

Seriously, doesn't matter if you're into boys, you can't help but love the Parkettes' legs... well, until you remember again that they're 13.. Then you want to lock yourself up.... but even then it's like "oh my gosh lock me up, look at those gams!"

That's not why I've been laughing though. There are a few scenes where we're to be in our "family groups" while there's not much room on stage- those leggy colts take up a lot of room with their giant costumes and fancy moves. So, in order to keep the distance between the family groups and still give space to the dancers... we squish into a corner. The other night we squished, and the director could be heard from the back of the room "your family group is too wide". Which I took to be a direct statement about my hips. Then he comes flying onto the stage and shuffles us together, placing me in the neck pit of a fellow singer, my hands in the crotch of another singer, and pushes poor neck-pit back so she's totally body to body with me... so not only am I singing into the base of her scalp, but she can feel every breath. The music starts... and all I can do is stand there and laugh. Which of course makes poor neck-pit laugh... and we shake through the entire song.

We're just going to back up out of the way from now on.

seriously?

::note- yesterday I must have hit "save" instead of publish, the post was still sitting in the drafts folder when I signed in last night.... oops::

me: you want some of this carrot?

dog: food food food food food!

me: you're not going to eat it.

dog: gimme

dog proceeds to spit carrot slice onto the floor and walk away

me: glad I saved the rest for the rabbit

rabbit: grunt, munch, swallow, grunt

dog: I WANT THAT

rabbit: hey! come back here!


seriously? dog is now slobbering all over the stolen carrot while her piece of carrot lays where she spit it out.

Time to wash the floors.

dust bunnies

I had a bit of a nerdgaism this weekend...

Went into the wool shop with the intention of just picking up one bag of roving... and was GIVEN two extra bags... one is this super awesome dark green who-knows-what... and the other?????
oh gosh.
A cashmere sea cell blend.

I nearly suffocated myself a few times sticking my face in the bag to nuzzle it.

ps. knitters: the black lamb has a sale on yarns/woolies this month. GET IN THERE.

warmed

This was posted on my facebook page the other day.... it made me all grin-y grin-y.

isn't it cool when a girl from Ontario and a Brit living in Halifax can play a gig together in St. John's and the one from Toronto can say to the other "hey, didn't you play a house concert at Lesley's house?"

This however is not the grin. This is the face I make when David takes my picture.... then I immediately follow with "that's another for my funeral [slideshow]".

Hobbit Nation

Last night was just perfect!
A huge thanks to Kaye and Neil for opening their home to a gaggle of people they didn't even know... Actually, there were people at this show that I didn't know either. I love that the series has grown like that- true enough, most of the people I didn't know had come because it was Kerri playing, but I'm sure I'll see some of them again.

Another great thing about last night was the number of people new to house concerts! About one third of our 35 people had never been to a house concert before... that's pretty cool.

There were some glitches with the live streaming- the set up of the space made it kind of awkward to check the feed. I think I'll have to put someone in charge of that for me during a show. It's a little much hosting/organizing and doing techie type things, in the past I've wished there was some moderator on the chat too...

Kerri was adorable as always, but with this really sweet almost overwhelmed-with-gratitude thing... She made the audience feel like we were doing her this huge favour by being there- her face each time we sang along with the well known pieces, her reaction when we broke into harmonies with her new music was so touching...I nearly cried watching the joy in her face... meanwhile- it was we who were so thankful she could be there! Having good music come to a small space means so much to our little community.

Paul's songs were fabulous- what a welcome surprise. I loved his low mellow voice, and the tricky way his songs made me bob my head along happily to songs of heartbreak... haha, so funny when I think about it now. Having the two of them sing together was a real treat. Kerri's voice has this AMAZING resonance to it- near pitch perfect (if not dead on!)- so her tones have this cool way of rolling back into themselves... um... that might not make as much sense written down as it does in my head... anyway, her voice would stand alone so clearly and Paul's voice would sort of melt into the notes... it was really neat pairing...  like like like.

SO- if you have the chance to hear Kerri Ough's solo stuff, I recommend that you do... AND I recommend that you find a way to hear Paul Mathew's "happy sounding sad songs"... which, I think might be my new favourite genre. Seriously.

Hostess

Tonight's a Hobbit House Concert Series production ... being held at a slightly less hobbitish house, just so we can fit more people in! It's a sold out event (my second).

Kerri Ough of the Good Lovelies is getting ready to release her first solo album, and is coming to share her tunes with us.  For those able, you can tune in for a live broadcast (if everything goes well) at this fantastic site.  We should get the show started around 7:15ish PM EST if all goes well.

I really do love putting these shows together. I wish I had my own venue (I mean other than my little living room).

hope on the horizon

ha.
for those that caught it... that pun wasn't intended.


So, with the changes that are about to happen at work, I've been spending SO much time in my head trying to figure out how to make it work... how to make it work in a way I won't want to shoot myself after a month.

And I think I've got some things figured out. When I first left the monday-friday job, I had a plan in place that I never needed to put into action, but... I was a smart cookie and wrote it down. Mind you, I forgot about it and didn't even think of it till yesterday.

So, tonight I dig up what I've got written, tweak it a bit, and make the call tomorrow to see if it'll fly.
I'll let you know next week if it's all a go.

I wish I was brave enough to try one of my other ideas.
One of my friends has a simple sheet of paper taped to the frame of her living room door that says "what's the worst that could happen?"

If this plan doesn't work.. maybe... maybe I'll have to get brave.

adventures of a seeing eye human

On our walk last night Miss.Jelly ran head first into my legs twice, then tried to attack the neighbour's shrub.

True, it was a scary shrub... but I think it was minding it's own business at the time. 

my first world problem

I've got something weird going on with the hot tub controls... ok, since the spring when it last got a tune up- I should have noticed then, but I didn't till like a month after the repair.

So, the temp. control is a little off... it's suppose to be that you turn the dial up to the temp that you want, the light comes on when it's heating, and shuts off when it's reached that heat. Except that there are no numbers on the dial (nor have there ever been)... SO. in the past, I learned where 101 was... and the temp would fluxuate between 100 and 103 at that setting.

Since the spring, the temp can be set at 95 (with a range of 92-95) or... the last setting on the dial, where  it won't turn off and instead heats up to it's safety shut off at 107. So, I can leave the tub at 95, and turn it up half an hour before I go out... perfect timing for it to be at around 101.... or, I can forget and go out later when it's 107... OR forget completely, and it shuts off when it gets to 107- but I'm going out the next afternoon and suddenly it's 80 because the heater shut off the night before.

Last night was a night where I forgot and went out after it'd been on for an hour... 107... which, as a friend likes to call it is a "religious experience" being in there.
My first world problem?
My hot tub is too hot.
I had to stand out in my towel in the back yard afterwards for a few minutes because I was too hot to go in the house.

Saving money for the repair... but the dog who stole christmas decided to cut her eye again last week- so it might be awhile.

oh. crap.

guess what?
I'm sitting here watching Buffy (Vampire Slayer) and knitting (of course)... and I just realized something.
Something that makes me a little uncomfortable.
Ok.... more than a little uncomfortable...

I'm more attracted to Giles these days than I am to Xander.

When did I get so old?

the other shoe

So the time I talked about my job in a negative light resulted in a stern "talkin' to" from a manager, asking me to take down a posting. That was several years ago. To this day I feel that it should have been left there. At the time my name was nowhere to be found on the blog, and my employer wasn't mentioned by name.

But, someone who knew me had read it and showed it to a manager... blah blah blah blah... the post was removed.

All that to say, I'm having rather negative thoughts about something that's happened with work... and I can't write them here, and I can't say that I feel like the organization has lost it's way and sight of it's vision, but I can say that I've spent a great deal of time swearing and self-pity-crying about it.

*insert a sneer and an eye roll here*

Thankfully there are bunnies to be pet and good people in my life.

(it may be time to bring back Bunday Mondays)

Air Time

My first experience with radio voice overs came when I was in Kamapla. The church had it's own radio station- and it wasn't long till I'd been coaxed into doing some commercials and some tag lines... "you sound like Hollywood" the producer said....  I laughed, knowing full well how "unHollywood" I actually sounded... and knowing full well I could never pin down his accent to a part of his Continent either.
I'm pretty sure they're still using some of my material for the Top 20 program if you ever tune into KPC's radio station.

Anyway, flash forward to the other day- I've done some work for an ad company here in town before, but I was sent to the radio station to record my portion of the piece. New to me was the super awesome equipment he used... a great microphone, with the recorder built into it- SO SMART! Blah blah blah, we did the recordings. Afterwards the producer (I think that was his title there?) told me that I had a "bright, clear, and cheerful voice" and asked me if I was interested in doing some more regular recordings for them... THEN THE BEST PART!!! He said, "in return, we'd pay you 'in kind'" (this is my favourite kind of payment!!!) And of course, my brain started to wheel and wonder... what sort of "in kind" payment a radio station would give me.... maybe a FREE AD? For whatever I want? (goodbye dating sites!)

or maybe...

MY OWN PROGRAM!!!!

Ok, so I totally know that's not how it works, but that's where my brain went.

Turns out they give out certificates for free meals from some of the places that purchase advertising from them.

sigh.

Nearly had my own radio program.

less glamourous

Dump runs.

huhuhuh.... dump runs.

(I'm never going to grow up am I?)

Nearing the end of my basement cleaning adventure with a run to the dump to get rid of some of the bulky trash- Sure, I could have put it out at the end of the driveway, but here in the 'Burg we've got to pay by the bag for the things we throw out... It was so much cheaper to just drive to the garbage transfer. PLUS... it's always an adventure.

While you're not allowed to "dumpster dive" there anymore, it's a small County... so, of course I knew people at the dump.

(MandaManda- I saw Barry there! I nearly hugged him... but... it was the dump. He was dirty)

Speaking of a "small County".... Yesterday I got two fantastic messages.

So, I'm getting ready to head to the dump when the first message arrives- "are you available to do a voice over?" (radio ad) "head over to the radio station at such and such a time".
YAY!!!
Small towns means people remember you've said you've done something in the past (voice overs) and that you'd likely be the one to call when you need someone!

When Handsome J closed the recording studio, I figured my voice over days were over.... but after this afternoon, I'm now on the voice over list for one of the radio stations! That's a fun thing- more about this tomorrow.

Small towns ALSO mean that you're likely to get messages that say something like "hey, did you lose your owl pin? I just found one that looks really familiar the coffee shop".

Small town lovin' today.

oh dear sweet Gsus

I made the mistake of teaching myself how to make home made puff pastry the other day.

OH.

MY.

GOD.

Honestly, I've never tasted anything like it before. Now, I know I've got a long way to go, but I think I've found my new calling.. I mean, besides being an urban farmer/homesteader... homesteaders could have a focus on pastry right? Why not?  I'm going to need my own cow to supply me with all the butter I need for this adventure anyway.

thanks love

I have a big stupid grin on my face.
With everything swirling around me this week I shouldn't. But just in one of those moments where I'm feeling so very alone (in the giant sense of the word/world), someone's thought of me. Created something thoughtful.

So now, instead of sitting and worrying about X, Y, and Z... and all the letters before those...I'm sitting with a warm dog on my cold toes, knitting at the ready, and the kettle nearing a boil for my tea.
With that big stupid grin.


"I saw that you were knitting and thought you could use some music".


Tweet last night: 12:30am  Need a guy with size 11 shoes to visit the house... no way to make that sound like it's not a booty call. #knitting #mens #socks

uh

quick! something funny needs to happen...

Past and and re-thinks

I was just reading back in a notebook... I found something that I think made it into the blog a few years ago... At the time it was about something else, but there's a line in it that made me pause this morning ... in a huge way. I've been leaning a little on the selfish side, instead I need to take a look at some things and see what I can be doing differently.

"you can't make shit like this up"

what if your morning started with the nicest fruitiest granola, made by a friend, who called and said coffee was made and waiting for you?
what if you sent people to the wrong place for a parade, but they still came and you all had a great time? and you played your kazoo, and rode your bike in a pretty skirt and gave it your everything?
what if people you loved so deeply were there, along with all your favourites?
what if you drank pints on the patio, ate poutine, laughed, took pictures and moved your office over one space closer to a chocolate shop?
what if you set up your tent, blew up your air mat, and nearly had a nap in the sun?
what if you had the most adorable old man living beside you? and you spent the afternoon and evening walking back and forth to the neighbours- chatting and laughing? and they looked out for you?
what if your favourite people came and you loved them through the rough spots?         what if you dragged them to the waterfront through all the tourists?                                what if you ate too much pulled pork, cranked some ice cream to smooth vanilla perfection, then dolloped it on to a cobbler from heaven?                                                what if then maybe you laid in the sand on a blanket by the lake with the real town- not the imported one?                                                                                                               watched women hula-hoop with fire, campfire visited, then experienced some crazy enormous fireworks- so good that you clapped, and maybe teared up?                           what if when you got back you danced a jig under the glow of twinkle lights while the fiddle played for you?                                                                                                     would you even believe it happened?

Toes

I'm on a sock knitting bender... I've given myself 2 weeks to knit 2 pairs of socks. Totally doable. Right?

A few nights ago GTI (I know, it goes by the name "Greenwood Coalition" now... I don't adapt well to name changes) Held it's second Johnny Cash Tribute night- a fund raiser, and all around good time.  It's an art show showcasing some of the work done by the GTI art group, and a whole bunch of amazingly talented musicians bringing Johnny's music to life.  I'm sorry if you missed it. Maybe next year I'll be in a place where I've got my head on right and think to share the info BEFORE the fact.

I've had some huge mixed emotions going into this one (the concert). Something in life ... in my circle... has shifted in the past 3-4 months, and I'm still learning to navigate the waters. It's nothing to worry about- not good, not bad.... just different.  I'm left feeling more observer than participant, and after the past couple of whirlwind years, maybe it's a really good thing.

HOW does any of that tie into a sock-knitting bender? Ah HA! One of the things you missed at the concert was a raffle... including one fantastic prize "2 pairs of custom knit socks"!

must stop typing must keep knitting must stop typing must keep knitting must stop typing must keep knitting must stop typing must keep knitting must stop typing must keep knitting must stop....

One pair down, one to go.

Things I Can See Without Turning My Head (or) items I need to remove from the kitchen table.

Note, the following items on the kitchen table are NOT items found while cleaning my basement... Those items are sitting in the middle of the living room floor with the hopes that Jelly doesn't fall into any of them.


Ukulele
ball of wool
Kazoo
Egg Shaker
skien of wool
Clown Nose
Pie Plate
Vase
bag of wool roving
3 binders (of Ukulele music)
teapot
a half knitted sock
2 mugs
a jar of homemade ketchup
couple of balls of sock wool
the wooden club thingy from my food mill
ball of yarn
my dinner (chili!)
and three purses.


just in case you were wondering.

Found items

So the basement acts like a time capsule... or a garbage heap... I'm not sure which is more true. The clean up process is still going.

The eventual goal is to clear out the old coal-bin area and build hanging shelves to place christmas decorations and crafting crap and whatever other items survive the purge (all those Ramona Quimby books I've been saving for my potential future children). Hanging shelves? The coal-bin space isn't paved... the entire basement is paved... except that strange square that's still filled with hunks of coal. I'm being honest with myself when I say - it'll never get cleaned out and paved. (At least as long as I'm the one living here). So, rather then waste the space, the wooden shelving units are going to be attached to the floor joists above and hang down. The rental place I was in before buying here had them... the basement floor was all wonky/uneven... BRILLIANT!

I'm rambling....

LOOK WHAT I FOUND IN THE BASEMENT!!!!!!

He was nestled in some insulation, all cute and dead like... LOOK at his adorable shoulder blade!!! If you squint- it looks like a baby mouse ear!  And HIS TOES!!!! eeeeeeeeeeek! Adorable. Dead.

super

I was SO excited when this happened.. mostly because I couldn't wait to write it down, to craft it into something awesome. Seriously... I even said out loud "I can't wait to blog about this". But, well...

So, I'd collected the eggs from the chickens and brought them into the house (actually a lot more than just that happened but for the sake of this being a short story...). I'd placed them in a bowl near the sink... somehow, Cheepers (one of the chickens) had managed to get in the house, hopped up beside the bowl, squatted and plunked another egg down and it landed in the sink.

ok.. so.. uh... here's the thing...

The bowl was on the floor. The egg bounced into the sink from the floor.
That's when I realized I was dreaming (in my dream) and said (out loud to the people in my dream) "oh never mind, I'm dreaming again." To which everyone in the dream frowned at me, because by announcing that they were actually dream-people, I'd essentially killed them. They all turned and left the room.

Once my brain realized what I'd just done, it whisked me off to another dream.

sit knit

So, it's knitting and podcast season again.

Build it.

In the past couple of months, two of my neighbours have built new garages.
Not the "attached to the house" kind, like in subdivisions, but the grand "coach house" style that they park their cars in front of and store random crap in.

Because, they still need us to be able to see what their cars look like.


I love my neighbourhood.
It's this quirky combination of giant century mansions tucked into corner lots, with tiny century homes (those built for the servants and children of the "big houses") scattered between tiny war time houses and a hodge-podge of 70's mid-sized homes.  THIS. This weird jumble is why I love downtown small towns.

Some of those giant homes have been turned into multiple family dwelling units (read: ghetto apartments), while some are B&Bs, every other is a single family home...

I realized today that both of those new garages are significantly larger than my home.

And I'm SO ok with that.

(photo credit: the lovely Jerry, taken moving day 2009)

stumbling

Inspired by my friend BethSheff, I'm taking on the basement... I went down there this morning armed with a recycling bag, a box for garbage and a few boxes for the local second hand store.

I didn't come back up for hours.

And when I did... things were worse than when I started.
The house is... um.... *sigh*

Let's just say that if my mother wasn't already dead, she'd have had a heart attack and died from the piles of random things. I've mentioned before how I'm an "Outie" organizer raised by "Innie" parents, right?  Their version of storage was "everything has a place, and everything in it's place".... my version is "I know which pile it's in".

I'm slowly learning that neither method is right... it's ok to be either way... there are good sides to each of the systems... it's the Catholic guilt that I deal with for having things in sight that really does me in....

Anyway... I've emptied more than half the boxes (those which were never unpacked after the move) into garbage/recycle/reuse piles... the things I've found!!! Seriously. AMAZING.

I've found a smoke detector... the one that started beeping 4 months ago.
My Social Security card... I didn't know it was missing!
Countless bottles of shampoo... all half used... weird.
So MANY binders.
(one of them was even my music binder from 1997) (hello "Lifeline" music team!)

Some of the things I've been bringing up and leaving where I'll see them- so I'll deal with them right away... um. except that the dog keeps tripping on them.

I'm not kidding... she fell into a mixing bowl tonight. It comes up to her knees... it's not small. It's in the middle of the floor... um. beside the spinning wheel. um... beside the autoharp.

On monday she ran into a wall. She didn't cut her eye this time... but she did bruise it... I think she's lost most of her vision now in the left eye.

Hence falling INTO the mixing bowl.

I borrowed these snazzy Doggles to help protect her eyes... except her head is too big for them... Bubble wrap is the next option.