http://sunshineandcarousels.blogspot.com/2011/09/holga-giveaway.html

I will be posting very soon about a couple of things, my brother’s wedding in August, the Renaissance Faire, and other crafty things.

Last night I had my monthly meeting with the Witches Next Door. We made brooms! What is a Witch without her broom! Honest to goodness brooms. They are so amazing. Snow hosted this month and she bought all the stuff for the brooms, we had to bring tools and a big stick, she was providing the tutorial and the broom corn. I was hard pressed to believe that my broom would look as good as the one she created already. But it did! I love it.

This broom will not be for sweeping the kitchen floor, it will be for sweeping away negative energy and cleaning sacred spaces, like your circle and ritual area. I cannot wait to use it! Thanks to Snow and the other lovely ladies the the Witches Next Door, we always have so much fun!

1. Pottercast: I am a Harry Potter nerd. So this is a great one for anyone who loves the Harry Potter series. Melissa, John, Sue and Frak are really great, you can tell that they are really great friends. They make me laugh out loud on the train a lot. 

2. Lipgloss and Laptops: This is a great beauty podcast done by two women Keri Anne and Airedrie  from Canada. Their reviews are very honest and they do not sugar coat anything if they do not like a product they will tell you. They talk about products from both the US and Canada. 

3. The Splendid Table: This is a podcast about food. It is from American Public Media. So it is radio show turned into a podcast. The host Lynne Rossetto Kasper is very easy to listen to and she knows a lot about all kinds of foods. They have few regular segments on the show, and they take calls from people.  

4. Twilight Series Theories: A podcast done by two sisters Cassie and Callie who talk about the Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer. They are really funny and have great discussions about the books and the movies. 

5. Craftcast: This is a crafty podcast. AllisonLee talks about craft books and she plays indy music. She talks about the craft process and “Getting your butt in the chair”. She talks to crafters, and the business of crafting. This is a very informative podcast. I am a bit behind on this podcast, but I have to catch up. 

6. Irish and Celtic Music Podcast: Marc Gunn hosts this podcast. He is a Celtic musician. He plays fantastic independent irish and celtic music.  The music is really great and I have purchased cd’s from artists featured on the podcast. He also does a pub songs podcast and a Renaissance Festival Podcast. 

 7. Wait, wait, Don’t Tell Me….: This is a podcast I recently started listening to. It is a news game show. This is another podcast that I laugh out loud on the train. Oh, this is part of NPR, which my aunt tells me, “You know you are getting old when you start listening to NPR.” 

8. WZRD : A podcast that features Wizard Rock. Wizard Rock is music written for and about the Harry Potter series. You can discover a lot of great music on this podcast.

There are a few more I listen to, but those 8 are my most favorite. When a new episode comes out, I listen to is right away. I also like Mugglecast, Craftypod, Martha Stewart, Pub Songs Podcast, Imprint.

Next post: The cupcakes themselves. 

Fondant, roller, cutters, stamps

(Just so you know this is going to be me ranting for a bit.)

1. my ipod is taking a dump, I now need to buy another one, but with all my expenses I will have to wait till June 12th. That really sucks. My ipod is like my arm,  I use it every single week day commuting and at work, the ear bud hole is broken, so I can listen to it, but I have to press on the end of the earbuds to get sound in both ears. Really annoying. I have to figure out a temporary soloution to my problem, because I will be getting a new ipod sooner rather than later. I will be getting the big 120G ipod, none of this nano business, I need all of my music with me. I must have choices!

2. This is a business people! I help cover reception at my job, when the receptionist is not in, I cover with another secretary. When a crowd of people stand up here and talk, it is unproffessional, and it looks really bad. Go away! I do not need an imdb recap of the movie you watched last night!

3. on a more positive note, I love that is getting warm outside! I love the city in the summer and all the activity that comes with it. Love, love love.

4. I cannot wait to stage manage again. This time I am doing it for a first time director (does that sound dirty?) I love stage managing. It the most fun. It is a lot of work and can be very stressful, but I love it. That is starting in July!

5. I am itching to do some crafty things. I am breaking out the sewing machine this weekend, I think I am going to make some fantastic new things for myself. I have 3 or 4 items of clothes that are going to get repurposed and I am going to start on a t-shirt quilt. I have a ton of t-shirts that I don’t want to get rid of, but are just sitting there. I may scrapbook as well. I am not sure what I want to do. Oh, the possibilities! Anything I create will be documented on this very blog!

Have a great weekend!

Friday:

I went with my friend Wolfie to see Keith Urban at the Allstate Arena. The Zac Brown Band opened the show. They were amazing. The fiddle player? Sick! (sick is a good way) and I have a bit of a crush on Zac Brown, he is a cutie!

I have seen Keith Urban in concert. I saw him at Soldier Field last year with Kenny Chesney. He was great last year, even better this year. That man really knows how to put on a show. His band was great, he played a greaet mix of stuff from his new album Defying Gravity and old stuff. He even played stuff from his very first album.

It was not a joy to get out of the Allstate Arena parking lot, it took us about 45 minutes to get out of there. I will definatley be seeing Keith Urban again in concert.

Saturday:

Bachelorette party. My friend Anne is getting married next weekend. So we had a bit of fun in the city Saturday night. Her sister Rachel got a hotel, and tickets to the Baton Lounge.  Nothing like drag queens and a bunch of screaming bridal parites. The place was packed with bridal parties. I have not been to the Baton in a while. It has not changed.  We ended up at Ed Debevic’s after the show. Yet another place I have not been to in a long time. It was fun. We were pretty obnoxious. I am sure the waiter wanted to spit in our food! LOL. Back to the hotel. and up the next morning and back home.

Sunday: Laundry and resting. I watched Survivor.

This time around, I was running the front of house (head usher) for Once Upon A Mattress. It was a lot of fun. I also helped with box office, and concessions. Being in the lobby is a lot of fun. You get to talk with the patrons, interact with the crew and basically just have fun, it is so much more relaxed than being in a show, or being on the tech side.

I got the pleasure on Friday night performance to stop 2 people from recording and 3 people from taking flash pictures. I love doing that. After that I made an annoucement that no video or flash photography would be allowed.  Sunday, I dressed in my rennie garb and did the announcement as Amanda Hugnkiss and a scroll. I pulling a move from Juniper’s play book. It was a lot of fun.

The cupcakes I made for concessions were a big hit. There was not a crumb left after the saturday performance. Our baker is Mrs. Braun, she has mad baking skills and makes a mean chocolate chip cookie.

The show was super cute. My friends were awesome in it! I am really proud of all of them. Congradulations Wolfie, Sandy, Debbie, Sherry, Betty, and Dean!

The recipes, in case anyone wants to know are from are, the Vanilla cupcake recipe from Amy Sedaris Cookbook I Like You:  Hospitality Under the Influence. The Chocolate was from a cupcake kit I got for my birthday. The frosting is from the Cupcake Doctor Cupcake book. 

We are doing Once Upon a Mattress. It is a super cute show, if you want to go see it here is the link:http://learn.southsuburbancollege.edu/theatre/mattress/mattressTickets.html