Who's excited????!?!?!?!?!

THIS GIRL!  

This morning by 10:02 a.m. I was printing out confirmation for purchased tickets to see IDINA MENZEL at Wolf Trap this August!  Tickets don't publicly go on sale until Saturday morning, but thanks to my obsessive Facebook habit, I happened to see on my wall last night that if I was an FB fan (duh, of course I am) I could use the code on the status update to purchase tickets this morning at 10 a.m.!!!!

Conveniently, the concert is on Friday, August 3rd - the PERFECT way in my mind to kick off our 1 year Wedding Anniversary weekend!!!  This also meant that my totally awesome and extra sweet husband let me purchase the more expensive front orchestra seats :-D  We will be sitting front and center - row E to be exact and I was honestly bouncing in my chair for a good 20 min this morning.  Extremely professional at work, I know.

Who is Idina Menzel you may ask?  Well first, I'm going to try and not give you the stink eye through my computer.  Have you ever heard of the musical Rent, or Wild Party, or Aida, or Wicked, or the movie Rent, or the very popular TV show Glee?  Maybe you saw a glimpse of her fushcia dress on PBS over the past week or so while channel surfing.....still nothing?  sigh - please read here and here. 

Hopefully you'll enjoy these videos - I do have a bit of a girl crush on her these days (and her husband isn't bad looking either! LOL)

Anyway, we went 2 summers ago to see her at Wolf Trap with $20 lawn tickets.  In the past we've loved going to see shows sitting on the lawn with a bottle of wine and snacks under a summer night star filled sky.  You typically need binoculars if you really want to see what's going on down on the stage, but it's fun none the less.  Well neither of us could have anticipated how CRAZY packed the place was when Idina performed with the National Symphony Orchestra with Marvin Hamlisch conducting!  Seriously, packed is an understatement, we were practically sitting in the parking lot!

Regardless of how little I was actually able to see, and how HORRIBLY hot and humid it stayed that summer night in July it was an AMAZING experience.  I remember leaving there that night thinking I’d never forget that night – after all it’s the kind of a “life changing” experience for a Musical Theatre junky like myself (similar to when I was Bernedette Peters in "Annie Get Your Gun" on Broadway my junior year of high school.  That night as Ms. Peters took her curtain call and the whole audience was on their feet I had my“ah ha” moment where I KNEW theatre was what I wanted to do with my life.  And no, the fact that I didn’t end up persuing a Professional Theatre career after my college training does not bother me, and I regret nothing.  The fact that I had to move home after graduation was meant to happen – after all Jonathan and I started dating just 3 months later).  Anyway, seeing something this amazing perform in person is still one of those life changing experiences and I’m 99% positive I will cry more than once that night (Jonathan, fair warning ;-)  I laughed when you proposed, but this I’ll cry over! LOL)  I actually texted Jonathan this morning saying "Our engagement, the wedding and trips to DISNEY are the only things that made me happier than I am right now :-)"

If you've enjoyed the videos so far - I leave you with a few singles off of her albums

And her husband filling in during a performance of "Wicked"

Oh, Springtime

I know that I've been pretty MIA lately, but I promise, I have still been reading about all the crafty things and spring flowers in your world!  Not always everyday (like yesterday when I had to go all the way back to last Thursday in my feed to get "caught up"), but I'm trying to keep up to date!  Between Jonathan's birthday weekend, family in town last weekend and getting ready for more family this week and coming to work each day, there has been very little time for crocheting, let along blogging!  I have been crocheting when I can, but have been trying to actually have something to say here vs. a 'stitch by stitch' recap of the previous night!  This weekend's company is my Momma coming into town Thursday night and staying until Tuesday morning.  I'm also taking Friday / Monday off from work (first "vacation" time used since the wedding & honeymoon - yes back in August) so there are LOTS of crafty plans for us over our 4 days together!

But today?  Today, I'm talking about SPRINGTIME!

"..why?" you may ask?  well because it's here - "officially"! Last week's highs here in DC were in the 80s each day with sunny blue skies.  I believe it was Thursday that reached up to around 85 and even broke some records at our airports.  This has made for a very hot apartment with no air conditioning, so most evenings were spent sitting on the balcony, reading on the balcony, eating dinner on the balcony......basically the balcony was the only place with a breeze!

We seem to all have spring time flowers peaking out and blooming by now. The big story down here is how the Cherry Blossoms will be at peak in the next day or two.  My fingers are crossed that they hold out until this weekend when Mom is here (would also appreciate positive thoughts for a rain-free weekend!).  

The springtime event I'd like to discuss today are the "out of no where" t-storms that pop up when it's so warm (and already humid in this "swamp land")

A severe thunderstorm swept through our area this morning.  Right around 6:30 a.m.  Now I've had friends and co-workers who have said that the first clap of thunder had them sitting straight up in bed, but me?  Well, I was already in the shower when the fun got started.  Of of the "positives" (not) of an apartment building bathroom is having no windows .  This means I missed the skies turn dark, the rain starting, and the lightening leaving me with a crack of thunder that came through the vents in my bathroom.  I have NEVER gotten out of the shower so quickly, and likely still have conditioner in my hair.  Now, please note that I do live on the 10th floor of a 12 story building with plenty of antenna's etc. on the roof so I wasn't 100% concerned that something would happen to me.  My first through was some sort of bombing or attack (we'll blame this on the vulnerability of being wet and naked, and in the shower at 6:30 a.m.)  By the 2nd or 3rd thunderclap I realized it was thunder and by then I just really wanted to SEE what the heck was going on outside to make thunder THIS loud!  I need to pay closer attention tomorrow to exactly how dark it still is around 6:35-6:40 but by the time I got out of the shower it was pitch dark, and pouring with constant flashes of lightening and extra loud thunder (pretty sure it only seemed extra loud....it was early)  At first I was amazed Jonathan had slept through it, but I asked him if he'd heard it when he finally got out of bed and his response was "I'm surprised you didn't get back into bed"  Yea, I'm a pretty big scaredy cat ;-)

That's my story of the other side of springtime - I hope that if nothing else I put a smile on your face this afternoon :-)

Oh!  I was going to show a full progress picture of a current project, but opted for a sneak peak instead.  I'm fairly certain that this is going to so gosh darn cute that I'm keeping the "whole picture" (get it? LOL) for when it's finished!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Hi everyone - Happy Friday!

I only have about 30 seconds today to say that I'd like to wish my VERY sweet husband and very HAPPY 30th Birthday!

The most handsome guy I know ;-)