Dear Weatherman,

Why do you taunt me?

Yesterday I was running around in the lightest of Mr. Rogersesque cardigans and today you greet me with this.







Did you know that in a few days it will be April? I want to be perusing seed catalogs, not shoveling snow!

Deal?

Thanks,

Sarah

Ahhh...

Relaxing "Buffy" time with my hubby...I'll be back tomorrow :)

Coffee? Tea? Hot Chocolate?

I've noticed lately that I'm very drawn to images of coffee, tea, hot chocolate and the various mugs/cups/presses or what not that those beverages are served in. Weird? I wonder if there is some subliminal thing with coffee/tea/hot cocoa causes it to be really compelling to me, who knows!?

Anyways, with a lack of finished projects to post, (there are a few in the works), I thought I would share as many of my hot beverage related flickr faves as I could squeeze into one mosaic. There were a ton! Enjoy!



1. coffee or tea? 03, 2. tea cup parade, 3. Friendship Wall, 4. for me, too, 5. off to work, 6. Hot Chocolate, 7. Domestic, 8. 30 days :: 2, 9. Cozy Tumbler, 10. coffee press cozy, 11. Untitled, 12. vintage tea set with cupcake, 13. fuel to work, 14. Lady Green tea and Lichee, 15. ° g r e e k . c o f f e e °, 16. pretty packages, 17. studio breakfast, 18. Day 284/365.......just me and my happy juice, 19. (Real) Maple Yum Breakfast, 20. in good company, 21. feira das velharias, 22. Orla Kiely Mug, 23. Owly tea for me, 24. Cafetera, 25. new mug, 26. little red birds, 27. tea bird, 28. Untitled, 29. wedgewood lustreware, 30. vintage finnish enameled tea pot, 31. Decole - Mushroom tower., 32. cups, 33. The Boy Who Wouldn't Eat His Breakfast, 34. Decole - Tea for one set, 35. 1960's dishes, 36. Decole - Mushroom tea?

Crazed and Busy

...but ahh, this looks serene...



These tea napkins are my mom's cast-offs that she didn't think were nice enough to sell online. Therefore they are mine, MWAHAHAHAHA! I'm smitten with these - the strawberry/daisy print on the gingham is so sweet.



I love the way that she embroiders - and the "Tea Time" looks just like her handwriting which makes me happy.

I wish that I had gotten to use them today and have a nice relaxing tea!

Instead today was full and crazy:

* Rehearsal
* Desperately working on my application to be on the state's Artist in Education roster - the moved the deadline up fifteen days, eep!
* Started a new session of an after school dance program
* Sitting in traffic for an hour while an accident was cleared - usually this is a fifteen minute trip
* More rehearsal with the gospel choir

Maybe I'll make that a cup of SleepyTime tea!

Obsession

This is probably news to absolutely no one, but Threadbanger is freaking awesome. I watched every single episode to date whilst I was on my little cleaning spree, I'm officially obsessed! I remember when it debuted last year, but at the time I only listened one podcast (the ultimate) and I wasn't even really aware of vodcasts. I wrote it off. I remember thinking - "Eh, I read a million blogs. I don't have time to watch that." What was I thinking???!!!

So if you're the one other person on the planet besides me that hasn't checked out Threadbanger, what are you still doing here? Go. Now.

Seriously. Go.

This is...my demon(s)

The first is obvious...the second sinister and lurking in the shadows, because it is a demon that haunts me and encourages me to waste time!

Spring Fling :: Forget Spring Cleaning! It's Saturday Night!

My life and times as a band wife...tonight was so much fun!

Crafty Interruption

I'm interrupting spring cleaning week with a little crafty goodness, I hope you don't mind!

I whipped up this Waldorf-inspired play crown for my four year old niece today.





It's a belated birthday present. My nieces and nephews on my hubby's side live far away, so I try to and spoil them rotten from afar so that they know who their Aunty Sarah is. (The crazy craft nerd, as if there were a doubt!?)

Spring Cleaning :: Clean Bathroom Sink

Spring Cleaning Link(s) and Tips of the Day:

* My favorite bathroom cleaning products? Baking soda, Simple Green and vinegar.

* What You Can Do With Baking Soda

* My favorite - Use baking soda and vinegar to unclog a drain

* Want to cut down on using disposable sponges and paper products? Cut up an old t-shirt and use the rags to do your dirty work. When it's saturated with nasty stuff just throw it in the washer and use it over...and over...and over again!

Spring Cleaning :: Clean Swept Floor

Spring Cleaning Link(s) of the Day:

* The cleanest I've ever kept my apartment ever was when I was following the advice of Apartment Therapy - The Eight Step Home Cure, so I dragged my copy out of the abyss and I'm re-reading it. Also check out the Apartment Therapy website.

* Also on the Apartment Therapy topic, did you know that they're coming out with a new book? It's available for pre-order here

Spring Cleaning :: Clean Kitchen Table

Spring Cleaning Link(s) of the Day:

*Etsy offers up some cute handmade cleaning products via the Storque.

*Unclutterer - new blog that I found today, food for thought.

Spring Cleaning Week at Geek+Nerd

Well blog land, I'm admitting it, I am a slob. I'm a terrible type of slob though. My slobbiness goes against my Virgo perfectionista nature, therefore the fact that I'm a slob drives me crazy. I'm a neat freak on the inside! I swear!

My house has reached a crisis point.

This is my kitchen at the moment, (I'm posting this in hopes that it will shame me in to cleaning):



I did wash about every dish in the house today...



Here's the deal: I'm going to take a week off from talking and only post cleaning progress pictures. For all of those here for my usual crafty goodness, accept my apologies in advance. I'm sick of my house looking like a frat house after an earthquake!

Maybe I'll post some fun clean + green tips along the way, sound good?

I'll be back on Sunday for This is...

Best Blog Giveaway Ever!

Two posts in one day - this is worth it!



Old Red Barn Co. is giving away a gorgeous quilt! All you have to do is comment for a chance to win, so cool!

This is...my creation

The good, the bad and ugly. Mittens for me=good yay! The giant mess that they are perched upon=bad, eww! I finished these weeks ago, and I haven't had a chance to take a picture of them to post them. I wanted nice natural light, but ah well, that didn't happen!

Today was the most unproductive day of all time. That's what happens when you drink gallons of wine. It's all good though. Last night was a fundraiser for the dance company that I work for, and I usually loathe those things, but it was awesome. It was at a patron's mansion by the beach, the food was delicious, the gospel choir/band that we have the upcoming collaboration with performed, and I partied like a rock star with my friends. Most excellent.

Off to hydrate with non-alcoholic beverages...

Gallery Hopping

Ello first...



Mad, crazy performance art! Living, breathing, singing pine cone sculpture, Lenka Chludová. I wish I had a better picture of this, she walked by me at one point and scared the hell out of me, and I mean that in a completely good way. Props to her for drilling holes into a million pine cones and building an outfit out of it in four hours. Definitely crafty.



Second, Nahcotta. No, pictures, but nice conversation with a dear friend and an even older dear friend!

Favorite discoveries of the night:

Cassandra Warren
Lillianna Pereira: I wanted to take this, this and especially this home with me!

The Perils of the Dance World

Today was hard. Really hard.

I know that I sometimes complain here about work, but no matter how crappy a job there is always one constant, my love for my students. I do not have children of my own, instead I have this huge dance family, I consider myself a mom of sorts to over a hundred kids at a time. Maybe I get over-involved, too personal, but when you see someone every day for years at a time, how can you be a good teacher, and not be involved!?

My profession, dance, is one that has longed been associated and plagued with certain disordered behaviors. For the first time in my career I am being challenged with dealing with this nasty disease affecting one of my own. When I was a ballet student, if I saw a friend or an acquaintance struggling with these things, I never really spoke up. There was always an adult involved to take care of things. Now I'm the adult in the situation, and I feel like a helpless child. There is only so much that I can do. There is only so much that my co-workers can do.

I was searching for an appropriate picture to blog along with this entry on Flickr when I stumbled across this set: The Journey. Tears just streamed down my face as I looked through these photos and read the accompanying text. As I got towards the end, my heart just swelled with hope that there will be a positive outcome from all of this.

I have happy crafting planned for the near future - so bear with me during this sad respite. If you're reading this, it would comfort me to know that you're sending good thoughts towards my students' end of the universe!

Flickr Faves

1. Vintage Glass Canisters, 2. Spring Blossom Blue, 3. Pleasant Kitchen Dishtowel, 4. Untitled, 5. 66/366, 6. Celias' wool, 7. New Kit, 8. coffee or tea? 03, 9. good boy, 10. for me, too, 11. the barf mobile, 12. hard nite, 13. day 66, 14. More Wild Manes!, 15. My sweet little Cherry Soda :D, 16. hi, 17. Hexagons - part two, 18. Longmobile, 19. crazy, 20. chloe chatting with the NOM, 21. Millie Cardigan from Vintage Crochet, 22. Pirate Wedding, 23. Illustration Friday - Choose, 24. Wedding Cake Topper, 25. Loyal Loot log bowls, 26. thrifted, 27. thrifted, 28. natural dye project, 29. henna, 30. Spring Fawn Pendant - Close-up, 31. Marilyn Sleeps Uncomfortably in a Basket, 32. nesgas coloridas, 33. Может быть, но я не уверена, 34. Ballerinas, 35. Patricia Whittle, portrait of this young dancer, Royal Ballet, London, 1962, 36. red dishes

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

I love making these flickr fave mosaics, and seeing how all of these different photos kind of work together. Lots of greys and blues and red here. And creepy cute dollies! Maybe the red is a sign of spring and brightness coming through the wintery cool greys and blues. I don't know what the dolls mean...*laughs*

Crafty Before and After

When I saw Bridget's awesome tutorial for a sweater reconstruction, I knew that the shirt below was destined for a make-over!



In my earnest - I forgot to take a before picture, before I hacked off the bottom of the shirt. This shirt is a hand-me-down from my sister that's been hanging in my closet for ages. I've always loved this shade of blue and the softness of the material, but it was always too tight in the belly area, and a little preppy in the collar area for my tastes.

Hacked!



Now I love it! New clothes for me - for free!

Guest Blogger: Mr. Geek+Nerd

A couple of days ago Sister Diane tagged me to post seven things about myself. I've done this meme before, and I always post the same boring things! I decided to take a cue from Flossy-P and have the man in my life post for me instead. Introducing for the first time ever on this blog - Matt, aka Mr. Geek+Nerd...




So apparently Sarah is making me come up with creative things to say about her, when I am feeling lazy, and I feel very put on the spot, but here goes. It is after all very hard to resist her cute face!

1. Sarah likes big chunky jewelry, especially of the big plastic variety, which is good for someone like me who might be buying such things.

2. She likes old man sweaters - especially brown ones. Apparently all I can think of to write about is shallow things about her looks!

3. The first musical she saw was Godspell - her brother took her and she loved it!

4. She would leave me, her husband, for Dane Cook.

5. She owns a (dance) movie called "The Hard Nut" which just makes me laugh!!!

6. She has a fear of driving in the state of Massachusetts.

7. For at least a year after she got her license, she only listened to one radio station, because she couldn't look away from the road to change it while driving.

Tee-hee, I love my hubby, he's so cute!

P.S. Hi to all of the people popping over from Three Buttons! I've gotten so many comments today! Hello back to all of you!

This is...

looking out my back door.



Sun faded table cloth, empty window boxes, pottery cracked open from the cold, chairs tipped. All signs of the ravages of winter, but wait! I see GRASS in the background! It rained so hard over the past two days that all of the snow washed away, revealing the grass. Through this door I hear what sounds like a thousand birds chirping! Oh little porch, dare I even venture to say that it's time for a good spring cleaning?!

Off to Portland

To see my hubby's band the Swaggerin' Growlers play at Bull Feeney's!



If you're in Portland (Maine) tonight - stop by to hear some Irish awesomeness! There's no cover!

Cheers, S

this is what my non-crafting life looks like

We're currently rehearsing for an upcoming show. This is my friend Jess' choreography - she's also dancing on the right. It's ferocious. It's danced to this crazy 70's soundtrack music, and inspired by spy movies. She's infusing elements of capoeira, a Brazilian martial art/dance form, into the dance.

The show is called Rhythm and Motion and we're producing it in collaboration with a local gospel choir, the Funky Divas of Gospel. We'll be dancing for half an hour, the Divas will sing for half an hour and then we'll perform in conjunction for the finale.

All of the dance pieces have different sorts of percussive music. I'm re-setting a piece that I choreographed last year with an Indian classical dance meets contemporary dance vibe, and I'm choreographing the finale with the gospel choir. I'm nervous about the finale, because it's the most dancers/musicians that I've ever worked with in one go. Rehearsals have been such a blast though - I'm just having so much fun!

Ballerina Brooches

Finally, sunshine to photograph by!

Four new ballerina brooches:



The one in the lower right corner is already sold, which is one of the many good things that happened today, but the remaining three will be listed in my shop sometime tomorrow or Saturday. I think that these would be so cute for a little girl, or big girl's Easter basket, or pinned to a big crocheted hat or something. I don't know!? Sky is the limit, right?

Hurts so good...

I danced ALL day today. I'm completely fried. But it was so awesome. Every time I get into the studio lately I feel better about myself than I have in ages!

In that vein, I have a dance video to share - it's Sacramento Ballet dancing Trey McIntyre's "Wild Sweet Love." I swear, even if you think that you don't like dance, take the 8 minute 36 seconds to watch this. I guarantee that you'll like the music. I mean, it features Queen, and really who doesn't like Queen?

Lethargic

It is just a grey day here in New England, and many little things have gone awry causing me to settle into a thoroughly lethargic state. Did any of you out there ever watch Ren and Stimpy? There was an episode where Stimpy accidentally clones Ren, but the clones are split into Ren's two personalities' Apathy Ren and Bitter Evil Ren. It was one of my favorite episodes - guess how I'm feeling today!?

Here is a sampling of my day:

* Wake up early with the intention of cleaning and getting some much needed house stuff done
* Read blogs instead
* Get up to do a load of laundry including a snazzy outfit to wear to an important meeting
* Load laundry only to get a phone call that the meeting is cancelled
* Laundry is still downstairs hours later
* Desperately try to upload my podcast to the internet
* Find that Garage band is exporting my project as an mP4 no matter what I do
* Read more blogs to ease frustration
* Between all of that eat a healthy diet of walnuts, a pita and hummus because there is nothing edible in my refrigerator

I *did* manage to do quite a bit of productive sewing today, but the light is so non-existent today I'm not going to bother with photos. Hopefully the sun will come out to play tomorrow!

One more thing - Mimi Kirchner posted a link to a great short film today. It's essentially an in studio chat with an artist whose work is a response to all of the youth and "beauty" worship that mass media serves up for us every day. Thought provoking, but fun: check it out!

Too tired for technology

It was back to work for me today. Vacation, as always, was wayyy too brief!

I'm so sleepy right now.

I was productive tonight on an unusual crafty front for me. I think that I'm going to try my hand at podcasting. I recorded an episode this evening, and found that I wasn't too horrified with the sound of my voice, but now I'm too tired to figure out how to put the darn thing online...

Oh the humanity!

Oh wise Diane, the Mr. Miyagi* of podcasting, if you're reading you'll have to impart some of your wisdom to this Geek+Nerdy-son!

Oh my, 80's references abound, clearly I need sleep.




*P.S. Diane, if you really are reading, please note that I am in no way insinuating that you look like an elderly Asian man.

These are my inspiration boards

My inspiration board in my workspace



Things almost never get removed from this little pin board, just layered upon. Mostly it is post cards and letters from swap partners, blog friends and people that I've ordered crafty goodness from, i.e. a whole lot of Etsy peeps!

My refrigerator is also a source of visual goodness in the form of pictures of my family and friends, and notices of inspiring events that I want to attend!



I can't take a picture of my most comprehensive source of visual inspiration, because it doesn't reside in my house! My Flickr faves are nearly endless, but I do click through them often to refresh my mind. I find it a relaxing thing to do when I'm having a cup of tea...hmm, sounds good. I'm off!

Cheers, S

Glamour Shots

I had a little fun dressing up last night and rocking a vintage hair-do...



Back in the day I used to be a pretty intense swing kid, when that whole mid/late 90's swing revival happened. I used to dress up and go dancing with my buddies all the time. I still love vintage glamour, but it's not practical for going down to the dance studio, getting sweaty/rolling on the floor modern dance and the like! This was such a fun departure from the everyday for me though, I just might have to find an excuse to glam up like this a little more often!

I've finally mastered hair "rolls" - so thrilled!



P.S. This is my 200th post since I moved my blog to Blogger! Crazy!