Thursday, May 05, 2011

skipping april

My god, I can't believe I completely skipped over the entire month of April! I'm incredibly embarrassed. And it's not even because things have been so bad, or even so great. That dang 365 photo blog is taking up all my online energy. Ok, here's the lowdown on what happened in April:

I decided to put my sewing machine back to work:

100 : 365

We had our first overnight guest in the apartment, prompting me to try, for the first time, to make my favorite cocktail from scratch, whiskey sours (Grandma, I know you're reading this, I always think of Grandpa Eddie when I have whiskey sours and raise my glass to him! xoxo):

103 : 365

I went to Paris for the weekend and saw Eddie Izzard live and in French! It was everything I thought it would be, but better, as we were exactly front row and center. He was five feet away from me! I laughed till I cried and had a great evening out with the girls (we went to a karoke bar and I sang in front of people for the first time in years! I really miss singing!!).

106 : 365

We've also seen some progress in the kitchen! The tiles are done, Stéphane did an amazing job! (The grout is done too, I don't seem to have taken a photo of it though, don't worry, will definitely do that when that wall is painted!)

109 : 365

Plus the painting is well underway. We're doing one wall at a time, this way we can work just during Fry's nap time. It's not like we're in a hurry or anything!

111 : 365

Work is going fine, it's going to be quite busy for the next few months, straight through summer, but extra hours means extra cash so I'm not complaining!

Oh, one more thing: I had mentioned a couple of posts back that I was going to meet a professional bookbinder that has a workshop half an hour away from here. I did in fact go and meet her and walking into her shop was like walking into a shrine. She had set up step by step examples of each phase of the bookbinding, and after ages of just reading about them, being able to pick up and touch these examples and watch her do some thread work on a few signatures was like a dream come true! We were able to chat a bit and I told her about my plan to do a stage before signing up for an official course and she was very receptive to the idea. She took all of my contact information and I am on the list for the stage in October and she's supposed to contact me at the beginning of September with more details.

I am, obviously, over the moon about this new development, and the only terrible thing about it is having to wait so long to move on to the next step! It's funny - it's taken me years and years to figure out what I want to be when I grow up, and now that I've figured it out, it's killing me that I can't start immediately. I never was very good with the whole patience thing...

8 comments:

Ksam said...

Ohhh, the kitchen is looking so good! You guys are doing some awesome work!

KathyMac said...

The kitchen, as Ksam said, is looking great!

I hadn't realized you were FRONT & CENTER at the show!! Lucky dawg. :)

Anonymous said...

Can you get granite countertops in France? They are all the rage in the States.

Vivi said...

Thanks Ksam!! :)

kylie: we didn't either until we got there, it was a great surprise!

Anonymous, I'm sure you can but we're really happy with our beechwood counter tops. :)

Anonymous said...

Is Eddie Izzard funny to French people? I had some French friends here recently and was tempted to show them the French portion of "Dress to Kill." But humor is so cultural and I wasn't sure if his reprise in French would be funny unless one had watched the main act in English...

Vivi said...

That's a pretty good question. Personally, I don't think he's as funny in French, but I'm not French either and I have the benefit of having seen all his shows in English already. I can say that the audience was definitely mostly French and laughed just as hard at the same things as us, but there were a few things that we found funny that the French didn't.

I can also say that my Canadian friend who was with us (and had never heard of him before) asked me if he's funnier in English because she seemed to like the show but wasn't completely enamored with him (as the rest of us are).

Also, I should say that some things must have been rewritten for a French audience, and the things that were deliberately changed were definitely the funniest parts of the evening!

Rachel said...

Love the blog. Your kitchen looks like it is coming along well!

As a side note, I recently discovered a twist on the old whiskey sour called a Lemon Whiskey Slush:

1/2 cup Irish whiskey
3 tablespoons white sugar
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
4 cups ice cubes

Throw it all in a blender and voila! The perfect summer cocktail.

SSP said...

i am very glad to know it is not just me who seems to think April just basically dissolved.....but the kitchen DOES look good - i love those colors :-)