the week in tumblrs returns!

This is more like a summer recap in tumblrs as I was mighty negligent in my posting duties this summer. You'll have to forgive me though - in Chicago it is cold and dark for so much of the year that when summer comes around, replenishing the vitamin D supply takes priority over just about everything else.

The main project of my summer has been working on Spandex which debuted at the Chicago Fringe Festival last week to a great response. We spent weeks building the story and characters from numerous rounds of improv and Harolds and really thought provoking discussions about the American legal system. Above is half of our super talented cast modeling their costumes.

A few weeks ago, Fiat held a little event near one of our favorite restaurants. Since I am a tiny bit obsessed with Fiat we paid a visit and were rewarded with free gelato, a test drive and the above gem of a car that I wanted to steal and keep foreverandeveramen. Look at that little thing. Don't you just want to take it home and be best friends with it? Can you tell that I miss driving soveryverymuch?

I spent a good majority of my time this summer working on re-branding Wishbone's identity and creating a look for our season theme. Above is some of the collateral that we had made for our Season Announcement party in July. I love how they turned out and have been pinning the buttons to everything I own.

On my birthday, Anthony took me to a spectacular dinner at Gilt Bar which is the only restaurant I have ever wanted to permanently take up residence in...that's how good the food is. If you are in Chicago, you have to eat there if for no other reason than their mint chocolate chip ice cream is OUT OF THIS WORLD. Other things that are also out of this world include the entire rest of the menu. It's all I can do not to lick my plate.

on highly competitive word games

Among Anthony's family, Scrabble is not for the faint of heart.

It is a ferocious all-out-battle that sometimes demands an audience.

The stress is intense. I doubt world championship chess matches demand this much brain power.

This man is a ruthless Scrabbler. On our third date he challenged me to a game and I, being the naive and sweet tempered girl that I am (ha) thought 'oh, how cute. I love words. This will be funnn.' Yes, well, after losing by a several hundred point margin I realized that I was no longer in the Scrabble-Kansas of my youth.

Za on a triple letter score still gives me PTSD episodes. Unless I am the one playing it of course.

The Consultant.

Do you see that?!? 

Equine on a triple word score. This is what you go up against when you challenge a Dumville. Whenever I sit down to play, every lovely and eloquent word I know flies out of my head and are replaced with cat, hat, bat, etc. And if I don't have a 't,' well, then it's a REAL problem.

on morning confections

A surefire way to get your weekend off to a top-notch start!

Prep time: 20 minutes

Baking time 20 minutes

2 cups all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons sugar, divided

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

¼ cup butter or margarine, cut up

2/3 cup milk

1 large egg, beaten

1/3-1/2 cup candied ginger, chopped

Preheat oven to 425°F. Grease cookie sheet. In large bowl, combine flour, 2 tablespoons sugar and the baking powder and salt. With pastry blender or hands cut in butter until mixture resembles course crumbs. Stir in milk and egg until just combined. Add chopped ginger. Transfer dough to lightly floured surface and knead about 4 times until dough just holds together. Divide dough into 8 parts and place on cookie sheet. Sprinkle with remaining 1 tablespoon sugar. 

Cut into 8 wedges but do not separate.  

Bake 20 minutes.  

Makes 8.

on weekending

Let's be honest - the weekend is not a time to dress up, think about dressing up or even finding clothes that match. The weekend is for laundry and errands and recovering from nights that may have run a leeetle to late (see also, watching many episodes of The Wire

while lounging on the couch, reading George R.R. Martin novels and eating leftovers). SO, since we've now established that The Lazy is a large component of my weekends, I've been trying to find comfortable things that go together (adult garanimals if you will) and are not too fussy. H&M actually is a great place to find such things. This skirt? FIVE BUCKS. Seriously. 

Also I have kind of this sordid love affair going on with Madewell. After carrying around a canvas grocery bag as a purse for a year (because it could hold EVERYTHING), I decided to look for something a little more substantial. Enter

the most beautiful perfect tote bag in existence.

We will never part. I will carry my future children around in this.

I hope your Labor Day was comfy and fun!

on stretchy synthetic fabrics and their contribution to the world of art.

On September 2, my theater company is opening our second ensemble developed show at the 2011 Chicago Fringe Festival and needless to say, we are pretty stoked. SPANDEX evolved from a conversation that took place waaaaaay back when Wishbone was not even in its infancy yet. My friends and I were discussing the role of superheroes throughout history and how the story-lines of many of these heroes paralleled what was going on in the world at the time. We began to wonder what a modern superhero would look like and became quite fascinated with the idea.

We've workshopped this on and off since that initial conversation and now for the first time get to present it to an audience. Pretty exciting. The absolutely wonderful thing about developing new plays is that this is just the beginning. This play will continue to grow and change and evolve and I am excited to see it on the first leg of its journey.

If you live in Chicago and are in town for the next two weekends, we will be pleased as punch if you come and

see the show

. 

If you feel like benefacting (is that a word?) is more up your alley, and are interested in free three-line poems of the 5,7,5 variety, I humbly invite you to visit

this page

and show your support (and then leave me a comment here with your email and preferred haiku topic :)

Cheers and curtain calls!