Lions and Tigers and Library Sensors... Oh My!

Okay, so the title is a little lame, as is the topic, but I was thinking about this earlier and wanted to vocalize it. Is there anything that you cringe doing? Like breaking up with someone, telling someone that their skirt is riding up because of their tights or backpack, or telling someone that they have a huge blob of something on their face right after eating? Such an awful feeling. That is the feeling that I get when I walk through the big, white, plastic book sensors at the library. Every time I walk in or out of the library I cringe just slightly, fearful that I will be the terrible soul to set the alarm off. A few weeks ago I had gotten some books and looked over them at home, and was going to use one of them while writing a paper in the library. As I walked through the sensors on my way in, the alarm went off. I wondered why it had gone off, so I took the book out and gave it to the security person at the front. He looked it up, and somehow I had gotten out of the library without checking it out. It wasn't really a problem, but I was so shocked that the sensor had not gone off when I had left. All the paranoia, and the one time when I actually didn't check the book out, the sensor didn't go off! It was an outrage!

So, today, I checked out another book and the sensor went off! I knew I had checked it out and began explaining quickly, while slightly embarrassed, to the girl that I was certain that I had checked it out. She checked and said, "That's fine," let me walk through again and I left... was that really so hard?

"It's all cold and snowy outside"

This morning, I woke up and peaked out the window, and lo and behold, there was about 3 inches of the most beautiful and pure snow on everything. I don't always like the cold and the slush, but to be getting our first real snowfall on December 6th, I was thrilled! Now Christmas can come!

Actor problems

Last night, I had the joy of completing 4 of my required 10 makeup class lab hours. This meant sitting and listening to 3 hours of Children of Eden, washing beard hair ( don't worry, it wasn't attached to anyone, it was in preparation for Makeup class on Monday when 20 girls will all have beards and mustaches), and watching tons of actors put makeup on. This was a rather interesting experience. I feel like I have fairly good grasp on actors mentalities and other things, but I definitely had a few new experiences last night.

First off, one guy in the cast refuses to wear anything but MAC makeup (Don't worry, only onstage)... I didn't know guys cared that much... apparently some guys in theater do. I also discovered that one girl in our cast sings just like Judy Garland. It was really quite awesome! Also I got sassed by a member of the cast, and I am finally learning to dish it out as quickly as it comes... Mostly because otherwise I feel like a doormat by the end of the night from all those jazz shoes trampling all over me.

However, the choice moment of the evening was this: we had an adjudicator come last night ( for those of you who have no idea what that is, lemme splain. An adjudicator is someone who is knowledgeable in the theater and observes the show and then gives criticism and encouragement on the design choices in lighting, costumes, sound, props and scenic.). We were talking to him about some of the costumes choices which were made and telling him how the biblical costumes were supposed to show their basic costumes underneath in order to remind the audience that the biblical costumes were just symbolic and that underneath, every member of the cast was equal and just like you and me. Then the adjudicator said, "Well that wasn't the only thing that was open on _________ ( actor's name and character are omitted). He had something open on the lower half too. " Turns out said actor forgot to zip up a certain necessity... I told the adjudicator that that was not a costume problem... that was an actor problem.

Warm and Fuzzy time of the year...

It snowed this weekend. I am split in my opinion about snow. I love the first few times that it snows, and the lovely layer of perfect white that covers the grass and ground. There is something really lovely about the way that it falls past the window, and the way that it sticks to your eyelashes. On the other hand, I don't like the risk of slipping and falling. I don't like how the snow gets dirty and slushy when people drive on it. I don't like how your hands feel like they are going to fall off when you are outside for too long. But, I have found a marvelous solution for the cold: A heated blanket. Yes, you should all get one too... believe me, you won't regret it.

When it rains, it pours.

Ain't it good - an amazing song by an amazing girl!
Eve
Finale of Act I
Eve, Adam, Abel
Rebellious Cain... I love this picture!
The naming of the animals. I love all the motion in this picture.
And the set.

The title of this post sums up my theater life at the moment. Perhaps you were wondering why I had not update my blog with more exciting pictures from Frankenstein, or stories of how the mother's skirt fell off onstage once, or perhaps the time when we bought a gorgeous hair extension for a character and it almost went flying into the audience during a fight scene... I could have told you many stories about the exciting things that happened during that show, however, like so many things in theater, I moved right onto the next show.

The last two weeks have been full of Children of Eden that BYU is putting on. I am the assistant costume designer (such an official title, it makes me sound like I am actually important...) We have been working on getting problems sorted out like making sure no one will have to go onstage in the buff. Thankfully we have fixed it so that no one has had to do that...

Anyway, we have had a great time working on a lot of amazing biblical costumes as well as the basics that everyone wears which include: khaki pants or shorts, a colored t-shirt and then a multicolored tank top. The best and most time consuming part of the show was, of course, an entire set of animal head masks that are on stage for about 7 minutes... too bad, because they look amazing. I could not get any clear pictures of them today, but I will try again on Tuesday.

The great thing about this show is that the more you hear it, the more you love it. The music is amazing and although much of the stories of Adam/Eve and Noah/Ark have been altered, and the entire play is full of incongruities with the Bible, there is an amazing spirit that comes from this performance! I look forward to going to their tech rehearsals every day and wish that I could come every night of the run!

Frankenstein Photos

So, the preview performance of Frankenstein is tonight! Scary! I hope everything is ready and working! I still have a few last minute makeup kinds of things to get.

Here are some photos for your viewing enjoyment!

The Monster that is Chasing me

But seriously! Frankenstein is right on my tail. It opens next weekend, and I am SO busy! On the upside I now have all these tools for distressing clothing and lots of quilt batting. On the downside, I now have all these tools for distressing clothing and lots of quilt battings. What am I going to do with all of it...? I don't know...

Frankenstein

Me, preparing for fittings
This is the gypsy who has been in prison for a few months

A few months back, I got asked to design the costume for a Provo Production of Frankenstein. I said 'great', and have been working on it ever since! It has been quite the endeavor, because the place we are getting costumes doesn't have a whole lot to choose from... lame, however it has been adventurous trying to get clothing from other periods to look like it belongs in the 1850's! I have also had a fun time figuring out how to distress the creature's clothing in order that he looks like he has been running around in the woods for almost a year... So yesterday I went out and bought some black tea and fake moss, and am in the process of distressing polyester... it is SO much harder than you would think... Polyester is practically indestructible, so through the use of some sand paper and a sharp knife, I am starting to get somewhere. Here is the beginnings of what will be a disgusting shirt:) Dirt, and some black tea!

Fabric

Oh how I love fabric, and love my job! Isn't this last thing the most gorgeous thing that you have ever seen? this is a special way of sewing to make the fabric look like it is woven. This was part of an old scrap too! I work in a costume shop for theatrical productions ( as you have perhaps known or noticed:) and this is one of the many reasons for loving my job!

... and sometimes I cook...

challah Bread
Ratatouille
ratatouille for crepe filling
focaccia bread

When my cooking day roles around, nothing delights me more than kneading soft bread dough, or smelling vegetables cooking in the oven. Here are some of the recent things that I have made. Unfortunately, they look surprisingly similar. The reason behind that is that one of my roommates brought us a TON of summer squash and zucchini from her families garden and we have been trying to use it before it goes bad. Thankfully we all like it, but we have had quite a bit of it as of late. So here we have ratatouille, challah bread, focaccia bread and more ratatouille. Along with the second ratatouille, I also made a chicken pesto to fill the crepes.

For four years I have owned a pair of silver/grey sandals. The shoes on the right were the first pair. After wearing them almost every day for two years, and cutting off most of the sole and leather on the bottom, I acquired a new pair: the second from the right. These beauties were $12 at Target in the little girls section. Then they broke too... After hot gluing them back together about 3 times, I decided it was time for a new pair. Unfortunately, you should not ever buy an expensive pair of sandals to take to a place where all they have is cobblestone... really not a good idea. Especially when the end of the shoe is a little too long and you trip every 3 steps. Literally. But I liked them, so I wore them out in London. But, after some convincing from my mom, I decided to invest in a new pair last week... Thus, the new pair on the left... The silver sandals live on!

For the Birds...

We have two cats. Both of them are my responsibility when I come home for the summer, or even for a few days. I usually relish this job because they LOVE me. I brush them and feed them and I am their best friend. Unfortunately, with this responsibility comes the ick of reality. Cockroaches in their water bowl in the garage (there were 4 this morning... ew), cones around their heads from cat fight wounds and other things.

Regrettably today I was on my way out the door to a haircut when one of our cats ran into the house with a dead bird in his mouth... I can deal with throw up, roaches and litter, but I didn't think I could do dead birds. Can you just see me standing over the dead bird with a rake in hand in heels and dress ready to fling it into the open trash bag that my mom was holding....? Yes, that was me this morning. I am going to be so prepared for motherhood...

FREE!

Have I ever told you how much I love gift cards? Well I do. When I graduated from High School, I received close to 10 gift cards of various kinds. One to Target, one to Walmart, and several to others that I have forgotten. They were glorious because unlike money that can be used anywhere, a gift card is free money to a particular store, so if you want to splurge a little, it didn't cost you a dime, and you don't feel nearly as guilty!

Until yesterday, I had held onto a gift card to Staples, because we don't have a Staples in Las Vegas, and until this summer, I didn't have a car, meaning that I never got over to one in Utah. Well, I was a little worried that they had started taking money off of it, or had canceled it, but two years after receiving it, I went to Staples and asked them how much was on the card still.... 25 free dollars... Oh the bliss! So I wandered around for close to an hour deciding how to spend this precious money. I finally settled on some black printer ink, and orange headphones. And I only paid $4.87 for them...mmmmm...

The Scarlet Pimpernel

I decided that a series of the pictures that I have drawn would be a little more interesting than a variety! So here is my final for Costume Design 2 class. This was a crunch project that turned out quite well! The Scarlet Pimpernel has become one of my favorite shows(It already was a favorite book)... that I have never seen. But, the music is amazing and the movie was great because Jane Seymour, one of the classiest and most beautiful women of all times was in it... if you haven't seen it, you should. The acting is pretty good, it is very romantic, and the costumes are gorgeous! But here is my interpretation of it for the stage.

Fops are SO much fun!
The left hand corner of the bottom of this dress was a triumph! The face however was not, but in crunch time, you take what you can get (Which clearly isn't much...)
Percy... mmmm....
Not a favorite, but mostly because I did it so fast... like 15 minutes...
My favorite of the series. Notice his lovely pants. I love them.

Costume Renderings

So, here are some costuming renderings. I can't really get the formatting quite right to add all of them, so here is a first batch, and in a few days I will give you another batch of stuff to look at.

The first, and most hideous drawing that I have ever done. I kept it so that I could see my progress. I did this when we first started drawing in my beginning Costume Design class.
I designed this costume for a short play I did in my Theater 101 class.
This was the final project for my beginning costume design class.
This was the fairy tale project that I worked on for my intermediate costuming class.
This one was a computer rendering that I did for my intermediate costuming class last winter.

There is SO much more that I could post, but there wasn't enough room... so here it is! I will keep posting my latest stuff.

Perhaps you look at your google reader, or however you access my blog and think, "hmmm... I wonder what 'Landie's Lovelies' really are?" It is actually the name of a CD that one of my roommates gave me, however, it could also be a variety of things. I really like fashion and clothes and stuff, so I thought about talking a bit about that or showing pictures, but I am never sure if my outfits merit taking pictures of to post on the internet, so I quickly scratched that. Then I thought about my theater stuff... interesting, but I don't have anything recent because the shows I am working on are not that far along. SO.... here is the latest and greatest. I am taking a figure drawing class from the same school as my sister Merrick and this was what I drew last week. Enjoy.

I keep feeling guilty whenever I look up at my bookmarks bar and think, "this time?" and then, "nope. Don't have time." Today I don't have time, but I figured it sounded better than homework for now, so here we go. Let me tell you a little about my vacations over the last few days, even though the people that actually look at this blog are, in fact, people who have been with me. Nevertheless, now is the time to press on because I am actually posting.

Nauvoo. A gorgeous place on a bend on the Mississippi. The highlights of that trip were: See the beautiful temple again! A trip to Carthage! Racing Crawford across the grass in front of the Visitors Center (A tradition that we HAD to keep!), and of course, the Pageant. The pageant was marvelous. Partially because it was well written and interesting, but mostly because I got to see two of my friends from BYU. It was delightful. Perhaps even tied to the greatness of the Pageant was the fudge.... mmmmhh. I LOVE the fudge from Nauvoo. Overall, a terrific trip with fantastic memories!

The Nauvoo Temple

On the Mississippi.
Me before the Pageant.

Cedar City. One of the most podunk cities in the US (only Meadow and Scipio surpassing it in podunkness), and yet with fantastic theater! We saw the musical version of the Secret Garden at the Utah Shakespearean Festival, along with Firefox (don't worry, I had never heard of it either) and Henry V! They were wonderful! It did make me miss London though....:( A little nostalgic for the National Theater.

Now I have two more weeks of school before two weeks off, and finals looming! Then before I know it, Fall will be here.

Getting Old.

Have you ever had a weird experience where suddenly you realize you are getting old?  Sometime I have these weird feelings where I realize that in the past 15 minutes I have just grown up.  Well, in two days I turn 20 and I can officially feel old.  I can back this feeling up too! I am now unable to stay up past 12 (ask my roommate, she can attest!)  I would rather spend a quiet evening at home sewing or painting instead of partying with my friends... (Lame!)  And I feel lazy if I sleep in past 7.  Definitely old.  

Mom's Trip to London

I love this picture by St. Paul's
Mom by the Sovereign's Entrance.  This is of course where she belongs.  
Me inside of the London Eye.  
Our two flat tires :(  very sad.

So here is one last commemorating post about London. I know it has been a week since I got home, but it is hard to let such experiences fade into memories so fast, so here is a little bit about my last week when Mom flew over.  

Saturday was excitement beyond compare.  Seriously.  3 Friends and I all went to the airport to meet Mom to pick up a rental car and go to Bath.  Seems pretty easy, right?  Um... Well we get to the Enterprise, and we wait for about 40 minutes.  No Mom.  So finally I go ask the desk clerk if this was the only location in the Airport, ect.  He tells me yes, and then proceeds to tell me that she had already gotten the car over an hour before, and at the North Terminal Enterprise.  So there was another location.  Lame.  Anyway, so we run over to the other location, and the guy at the desk told us that she had just left to go get something to eat, but had not taken the car yet.  So we wait and finally she shows back up and we leave for Bath.  I forgot to mention that previously, I had the assignment of getting a map, one which I had though about often over the last few days, however in the rush, I had neglected to get one also because Mom had printed out some Google maps of how to get there.  We jump on the freeway no problem, and Mom does great with the whole 'driving on the left side' thing.  Well, we had been driving for maybe 30 minutes and we got talking about something and Mom missed the turn off we were supposed to take.  So we just assumed that we could turn around at the next overpass sort of thing like the states.   Too bad that is not at all how England works.  It has the most complex freeway system I have ever seen.  The next exit was not for about 25 miles and it was this little town.  So we go to look for a map and gas (petrol in the UK)  and we find a tavern to ask them where a gas station is.  The nice bartender told us where to get both of these items.  Well as we are driving down this road in the little town of Hemel Hempstead, mom got too close to the left side of the road and hit a monster curb, popping both, not one of the left side tires.  Yes, both.  It was a sad event. Anyway, so we try to decide to what to do after pulling up onto the sidewalk (which was not uncommon on this particular street), and finally call the emergency number on the rental car sheet at a pay phone.  They tell us that a 'lorry' (or tow truck)  will come and fetch us and that we should wait.  We wait for over an hour, and finally the lorry shows up.  Well, the driver didn't realize that there would be 5 of us, and he didn't have room, so he told us he would call and have them send a larger one and he promptly left.  Great... so we wait for another hour before Mom finally went and called the number again and they told us to wait another 45 minutes.  We did (of course.  where else were we going to go?)  and another lorry pulls up with a very nice driver, Mark.  Mark didn't know Hemel Hempstead very well (who does?)  and he called around until he found  a place that was open, and that had the tires that we needed.  He dropped the 3 other girls at the train station and Mom and I went with the rental car.  The rental car got fixed ( although the guy who fixed it accidentally replaced the two front tires, much to our, and the other members of staff's amusement)  and finally we were on our way... sort of.  Back to Gatwick Airport anyway,  so we drove back, without any mishaps (amazingly!)  and got Mom to bed.  

Well that is a post all on its own, but I will quickly mention a few other highlights of Mom's trip.  We did the London Eye (super awesome, and pretty much a must-do in London cause it is so famous),  saw 4 shows, including All's Well that Ends Well,  Peter Pan, Les Mis, and Wicked.  All were fantastic, and I think Mom got the theater buzz (although she loves theater almost as much as I do)  and she commented several times how she would have loved to see a few more things.  We also went and saw St. Paul's, the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery,the crown jewels at the Tower of London and many, many more things (especially considering the tubes were on strike so it was tough to get around on the buses because everyone and their mother, including me and mine, was using the buses).  Anyway, it was so great to have her come and party a little with me.  There were of course plenty of things we didn't get to, but like she said, it only gives her an excuse to come back.  

Stratford... in detail

The Avon in Stratford
Man-eating peacocks
Warwick Castle
Kennelworth Castle and Gardens

I have been trying to decide exactly what I should do for this blog, if I should keep it or just leave it to float out in bloggers universe where all un- updated blogs stay as a memory of my trip.  I feel like I did short change it to some degree because my last two weeks were filled with a trip to Stratford upon Avon, studying for finals, a research project, and Mom's lovely visit.  Not conducive to blog posting, as you might imagine.  Anyway, so I was thinking about going back to chronicle several things (well quite a few actually)  that didn't ever get mentioned.  

Our Trip to Stratford seemed as good a place as any to start.  

We had to be out to the bus by 6:45AM in order for us to reach the first destination on time.  The bus ride was fairly uneventful except that I almost thought I had lost my camera (I found it in my bag stuffed into a far corner) and we reached Coventry Cathedral.  This is the sad exterior of a beautiful cathedral that was bombed out during the war.  It is now a sort of monument to the nation.  Our next stop was Kennelworth Castle.  This was also a big ruinous, but not from bombing.  It was built by Sir Robert Dudley, the most famous of all of Queen Elizabeth I's suitors and is just in ruins from age.  Anyway, this was pretty neat to go see.  It is kind of in the middle of nowhere, but at least it is a lovely nowhere.  Lots of fields and pretty little cottage type houses.  It really is situated quite nicely.  The last stop we made before Stratford was Warwick Castle.  At this point I just have to take a moment to laugh.  Warwick castle is this big historic castle that has been dressed up to be a theme park.  And the shoe doesn't fit.  It is such a beautiful castle, and they have a ridiculous disney type map showing all the attractions.  They had archery, birds of prey, a horrific castle dungeon (where you have to pay extra.  Why would anyone pay extra to see some people's toes get cut off and tongues cut out...? I have no idea), a sword in the stone among other things.  Overall it is a little overdone.  We went out to watch the catapult and the narrator was SO ridiculous.  He was incredibly melodramatic and made every moment of the loading and 'firing' so overdone it was laughable.  To add to that excitement, we also got attacked by some peacocks on the lawn.  Anyway, the inside of Warwick castle was very Victorian, although certain sections had medieval armor and stuff in them, but compared to the outside of the castle, the inside didn't fit at all.  It was very strange.  Anyway, we spent about 4 hours there, and I could have reasonably done it in two.  Then we trooped off to Stratford.  Stratford is a positively charming town where pubs are 400 years old, and very little of the town has changed to accommodate the droves of people that come up every year to see the Royal Shakespearean company perform.  There are quite a number of shops and lots of B&B's but overall, much of the town is still pretty sleepy with melting houses, and darling narrow streets.  We went to see two productions at the RSC, and both were excellently done.  I must give them credit for not sticking to 'traditional Shakespeare' just because they are the RSC.  Their performances were magnificent with no expense spared.  There is this fantastic part in one of the productions that we have seen, where two book cases collapse into each other and hundreds of books spill all over the floor, and a few moments later, a massive paper bear emerges from between the collapsed book cases to eat a man.  It was pretty awesome!  Outside of these productions, some of us rented little boats and rowed them down the river.  It was a great place to visit and I will always have charming memories of it.  On our way back to London two days later, we stopped in Oxford.  I didn't know too much about the city, unfortunately, but what I did see was great.  Among other things, I went to Christ's Church where parts of Harry Potter were filmed. It was really neat to see the college itself and places where actual footage had been shot!  Anyway, a long trip back to the city, and we spent a night in the comfort of our flat finishing up research projects and such.