"Love give me strength, and strength shall help afford."

"They are but beggars that can count their worth

For my true love has grown to such excess

I cannot sum up sum of half my wealth."

                               ~Juliet

This last weekend I had the honor of playing Juliet.  I stepped in for 2 nights with Shakespeare by the Sea for their Juliet, who is wonderful, and had a wedding to go to those nights. (they have 1 more week, check them out if you can, it's a great group!)  I found out about the role from a friend from theater school, who referred me, only to discover I knew 2 people involved in this production, from various other theater jobs I've done.  Very serendipitous!

I have avoided working on Juliet, for years, possibly all of the time I have worked on Shakespeare which would be about 16 years, maybe more.  When I did work on it in class, I would choose lighter stuff, staying away from the "Potion Meltdown" monologue and the overdone "Gallop apace..." speech.  She intimidated the crap out of me!  Yet I knew that the role is dead center of my wheel house as an actress.  When this opportunity arose, I grabbed it, going headlong into fears, but also knowing that I feel I have the tools now to address this role in a way that would keep me from having any end result ideas of the character, and possibly knowing I have the safety net of stepping in for someone else who is already playing it.  If I do what she does I won't be off track.  It also helped that the director, and actress playing Juliet had the same idea of the character, as I do.  She's not a worried, sighing, waifish victim.  She's clever, and pragmatic with a delightful sense of humor and irony.  He doesn't fall in love with just a pretty face or an icon, they are whole, people, adorable and fun people.

I also had the good fortune to work on one of the monologues with Alfred Molina, who occasionally does a Shakespeare intensive with the New American Theatre, where I am a member.  This certainly gave me incredible insight to the character, and how to approach the text in general.  Beside that, I have a helpful and insightful boyfriend who helped me run lines, in fact I think he just liked reading Lord Capulet, Friar Lawrence and Romeo... and the Nurse.  But he also liked keeping me from having "I don't know my lines and never will" meltdowns like I had on our trip to Chicago when I would work on it, any time we were traveling by plane or train.  Thanks to all of this, the support and help of the director and the cast, I felt I had it, and would be fine.

Now I have never really been horribly nervous, or had a bout of stage fright, knock on wood- but Friday I woke up with total nausea and racing heart, which only served to make me more nervous.  I was much better by show time, and other than juxtaposing some things and leaving out a couple chunks of lines, I did great.  By Saturday I was calm, what could go wrong had, and I fixed all my mistakes from the night before, I did bite it pretty good going up some steps in the Friar/Paris scene, which made it hard not to laugh, and hard to concentrate for the whole scene, but anyone would've fallen, and some others did I guess...
All of this is not to fish for more compliments, you all have been generous with those, but to express the surprising journey I went on. I went from dreading every playing her, yet wanting to, and I had a great time, and now I want to play her again and again, the way men want to play Hamlet and Macbeth.  And I think that is exciting.  If I had a bucket list, "Play Juliet at least once while I can" would've been on  it.  I am so grateful for the opportunity, to work with such delightful actors, and for all the amazing support from family and friends who came out those 2 nights to see me!  It was all a very moving experience.

"My Bounty is as boundless as the sea
My Love as deep.  The more I give to thee
The more I have, for both are infinite."
                     ~Juliet

Playing in the Dirt: Part 7 Winter Farming

So no, I haven't given up on the gardens!  They took a beating in the wind, but nature finds a way.  These are from the Boy's garden, the veggies at Mom's are doing well, we have some starter plants too so I will do that update all at once.  So here's the progress on the boy's garden.  The Tomatoes (not pictured) are still going crazy, I seemed to have solved the grasshopper issue, I think, with some insect soap.  I'm still having trouble getting any Artichoke seeds to last, they sprout but don't make it beyond 3 inches tall.  I may have to get a plant in the spring.

Of the 6 sugar snap peas, 3 are really doing well, and one in particular (pictured left) more than the rest.  To the right of it is a pole bean that planted itself from my previous pole bean plant!

 It's been a long road for this eggplant, but it's survivied and now seems really happy, and looks like we might get a few eggplants!

 Of the 12 or so swiss chard seeds I planted this one is the only one that made it, I want to plant more because it's so pretty and delicious.  More of the seeds I planted at home took, but they are 1/4 the size of this one.

 I planted at couple rows of mixed lettuce at both houses and all of them are doing great!

 I planted more Garlic at the boy's, he loves his garlic, as do I and it's coming along well, an exercise in patience garlic is.

Not the most exciting post ever, but I was overdue for an update and I have to say, I had read that the beauty of gardening in California is that we don't have to stop in winter, and it's true!  Looking forward to some weekend rain for my little green friends!

Merci!

~Chelsea

Something Wicked this Way Comes

Here are a couple of my favorite Halloween Projects from last year.  The "It's A Hoot!" owl banner ...

 And " Who Are You?" Alice layout. 

Both were samples for KatScrap Studio, which I'll miss even more at Halloween.  This is inspiring me to get cracking on some Halloween Cards, I do mean to do at least a few every year.  Maybe I'll get going on those, since I can't decide what to be.

Cheers

~Chelsea

Playing in the Dirt: Part 6 End of Summer Goodness

So after everything got fried this summer, at Mom's we put out an umbrella and started watering more often, then the weather did us a favor and got nice and overcast here and there and even had some good days of rain!  Just before the rain I got out there and planted some carrots and beets, and a few weeks ago I planted some swiss chard, and artichokes, as well as a scatter garden and some nasturtiums in the front garden.  So here's a look at what is sprouting.  Since I took these I also got some swiss chard sprouting and carrots.

Some beets sprouting up as well as some birdseed plants (I planted the beets under the birdfeeder, so this should be interesting)

 Here's the first eggplant, already picked and the second one is almost the same size now.

 It's hard to see in this one, but this is my lone cucumber, slowly but surely.

 My 2 butternut squash are coming along great!

 Lovely kale, and new sprouts coming up next to it.

 Onions, green onions and Garlic in the foreground.

Very excited to see how these do, so far so good, excited about the fall crop.  The tomatoes also keep coming, but are winding down and the orange tree is gearing up.  Planted more at the boy's garden, but that's a whole other post.

Playing in the Dirt: Part 5 Resurrection

It's been so long since I updated you on the gardens, I had to go back to see what the last post even said!  Such a slacker.  In all sincerity,with summer vacays and house sitting and all kinds of shenanigans this summer, the poor gardens were left to fend for themselves in the midst of summer heat!  I watered what I could when I could, or mom did, or I texted the boy to water his, they had no stable, consistent person to look after them.  So, by the time the big heat wave hit a few weeks ago, they were in dire straits!  I had decided that was it for the summer crops, cucumbers had gone yellow before I was able to harvest, onions fried in the sun, everything was dried out and brown.
While puppy sitting I was minding a similar garden that was well shaded, in a cooler part of town, and was thriving.  So when I got home I decided this "full sun" indication on the seeds and plant labels was a load of BS!  I grabbed a dilapidated garden umbrella we'd planned to throw out and rolled it over to the veggies in the middle of the yard, they seemed to have the most trouble.  After doing this, off I went to kitty sit for the boy...  Mom was back in town so the watering was not going to be a problem.  I went to work and yoinked out the dry dead stuff in the Boy's garden, the Artichoke kicked the bucket, the second round of onions I planted never emerged (it's a long story) and the pole bean had one more fruitful crop before it croaked. (cooking them was another failed endeavor)  So I was left with ample, happy but kinda crowded tomatoes, garlic, a happy herb garden, and a very sad looking Eggplant, oh and a desperate jalapeno- I suspect the jalapeno knew nobody was that excited about it, and just didn't have the will to make it.
So I watered those, and they seemed grateful, especially the sad sad eggplant, it's doing great now, and whenever it looks droopy I give it a glass of water, it has buds and everything!  By the time I got to Mom's everything was green again!  I couldn't believe it, the weather had bursts of scorching temps and just with some shade and extra evening waterings they really perked up!
So here's some pics of the progress at Mom's.  I wish I had taken photos of what they looked like in the heat wave, but I thought they were done for, and was deciding what to plant next.

Here's the resurrected Veggie Garden, you can see the Butternut Squash is quite pleased with itself, the Strawberries are hanging in there and the Kale finally got bigger

The cucumbers and the eggplants have lots of flowers too, so bring on the bees, lets make some veggies guys!

This is my goofy umbrella but it gives it nice shade in the middle hours of the day, and you can see my critter fence, hope it works.

One of the Yesterday Today and Tomorrow bushes even started getting more flowers this week.

I just think this crazy tangle of Bugambilia, Fig Tree and Grape Vine (from another yard) is so cool!

Compost is going great!  Been throwing peelings, eggshells, coffee grounds, and tons of leaves and clippings in, the bugs and spiders love it, eek!

I've got some beets and red carrot seeds in the ground, and more to plant, I also want to do some swiss chard and sugar snap peas for the boy.  So I'll let ya know how it goes.

Ocean Pendants

I thought it would be fun to do a deep sea theme with these findings.  Here's what I used.

3D Crystal Lacquer

Jewelry Findings Black

Gem Particles

Glass

Bail 

Antique GoldChain

Scrap Paper

Sea Life Stickers

 I arranged smaller sea life stickers inside the Jewelry Findings and placed the large eel sticker on some scrap paper that I liked as a background.

 I sprinkled gem particles inside the Jewelry findings, to mimic see water and put some pink on the Jellyfish to match it's color.  I sprinkled some on top of the scrap of paper with the eel.

 Next I filled the Jewelry Findings with 3D Crystal Lacquer and set them aside to dry overnight.  Then I used small dots of Crystal Lacquer to create a mosaic with the Glass over the eel sticker and Gem Particles.

 Once everything dried overnight, I trimmed the Eel Mosaic around the class, attached a gold Bail to the back of it with Crystal Lacquer and strung the chain through.  Voila!  Summer Jewelry!

I have really enjoyed being on the Design Team for Sakura Craft, so many wonderful products and ideas!  Please keep following me and the other designers as well as the Sakura Blog, for great ideas!

Merci 

~ Chelsea

NY Mini Album

 The Boy and I took a great trip to NY this summer.  So I made him a fun little coffee table type album.  It's an acrylic Arrow album by Rusty Pickle, the rest it s a hodge podge of different stuff I have on hand.  At some point I will get it together and start doing my actual scrapbook pages for these trips, but it's nice to make the boy an album, it's quick-ish and easy to share, just the highlights, and I feel productive and rewarded sooner than doing several full album pages.  

Anyway, enjoy we had fun on the trip and I had fun doing the album.

We went for the Premiere of a film called Starla that Brendan was in so lots of the pictures are from that night.  Great film, wonderful people and the Boy had a huge turn out of family, it really was a great time.

I had to make a flip up page to fit more pictures and an account of what happened the day of the Premiere.

 Pictures from walking around NY and meeting friends for Brunch.  Got to meet Tiff's babies for the first time.




Walked through Central Park, and St Patrick's Cathedral. Saw Jordan do Shakespeare in the park, it was a great trip.  Fast, but fantastic!