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Celebrations

Christmas Parties

Merry Christmas! I just finished up an insane month at work, and I’m on vacation until NEXT YEAR! 🙂 We’re taking advantage of the time off from work and flying out to North Carolina for Lindy Focus, which is one of the (if not THE) biggest swing events in the US. It’s the first time Chris and I  have been to this event, and will be our first time on the East Coast together. I’m going to *try* to blog while I’m there, but if I don’t you’ll know it’s because I’m running around having fun!
Because we’re going out of town we didn’t decorate at home this year, but we’ve gone to a couple Christmas parties. I wore a new me-made Beignet skirt to a Gingerbread House party last Sunday, but I’m a bad blogger and didn’t take any photos of it. But here’s our sugary creation – every team gets the same basic house kit and creates a different scene. We got 3rd place with our “Broadmoor Abbey”, mostly because Chris invented a ridiculous story about the Stonehenge-esque light bouncing through the stone windows. It sure wasn’t the Gummi Bear statuary that won!

Wednesday night was my office Holiday party – there was an office decorating contest, and I wanted to share some cute creations we made. Not award-winning, but pretty fun for a couple hours with wrapping paper! If you want that giant measuring tape behind me, it’s available as a printable download here.

We did NOT make the Hot Dog cut-out – that came with the sliders food station, but I thought it was pretty exciting. I’m pretty sure I’m the only one at the party who used it.
And the obligatory photo-booth pics!
Happy Holidays – I’ll see you soon!

Birthday Tea Party 2012

Like all of my posts, this one from my birthday is long overdue – my birthday was over a month ago! But we’ve been busy with all sorts of dance camps, Costume College, weddings (plus going to work!) – and for my birthday Chris bought me the fancy-pants photo editing software Lightroom, and I was determined to at least learn the basics and use it for my most recent photos, which took a while.
I’m also running low on my free space for photos through Blogger, so I started a new Flickr account. Hopefully all these new tools will makes things easier and more streamlined, but there’s definitely a learning curve with them!
For my birthday this year, I wanted to have a girl’s day out – a group of girlfriends joined me at the Orange Circle in Orange, CA for afternoon tea and vintage shopping. It was lovely but HOT walking around in the middle of the day! People wearing shorts and tanks thought we were crazy, but I’m glad my friends are such good sports.
And even though we brought fancy-pant cameras and I spent hours with my new software, the best photo of the day is the one I took with my iPhone and Instagrammed. Argh! 😉
Lauren and Cait both bought their hats on our outing – 
Lauren’s hat came from the estate of Dixie Lee, Bing Crosby’s first wife. How cool is that!

I didn’t need to buy a hat, because I already had one with a rhinestone shrimp on it!
Delphine, me, and Cait at the Orange Circle fountain. 
So many shadows – noon is not the best time for photos!
Vintage girl with her vintage iPhone.
A local friend tipped me off to this cute Orange mural.
Delphine – fantastic dancer and newly married lady!
Lauren made her outfit, and has awesome stripe matching skillz.
Teatime! We went to Paris in a Cup, which is delightful and rather touristy, down to the fake French on the menu. Delphine, our Parisian transplant, had a good giggle at that.
Petit fours and edible orchids – it tasted kind of like lettuce.
Poor photography skills, but it shows the cute room!
And of course Charlie Cat had to sneak into the
 photoshoot at the end of the day. What a ham!

Happy Independence Day!

Collier’s Magazine, June 24th, 1939
Back Cover
I’m off work for the rest of the week, and plan to do some patternmaking/sewing, shoe shopping, and on Sunday I’m celebrating my birthday with friends. Hope you have a safe, happy and relaxing holiday!