Sugar Plum Party on Pretty Ponderations!

My good friend Janice has a wonderful blog called Pretty Ponderations.  (I'm sure you've heard me talk about Janice and Pretty Ponderations before, both she and her blog have been constant sources of inspiration for me over the years).
Check out her post on our Sugar Plum Party here.  Remember, there are only a few weeks left in December!  Don't miss out on this great offer and sweet event, book your party now!

Creative Crafts

Happy April!  Despite the persistent rain of late, I've had some fun spring crafts in the works and wanted to share!  I had a Ballerina Birthday this past weekend with a gaggle of boys in attendance and wanted to make sure they had something fun to dance and play around in, and I thought capes would be a perfect prop for would be knights errant, pirates and princes.  I'm planning to spruce them up a bit with maybe some fur trim or a lightening bolt applique, but these were super quick and easy to make, and fun for playtime.  I also found these paper masks at JoAnn's and decorated them up with some glitter paint, markers, and some stones, another quick and fun craft for your super heros or masked ball debutantes.  

A few weeks ago I was inspired by a Fancy Nancy craft I found at Michael's for a butterfly bracelet.  Here's my version, done with a child's hair tie, ribbon, and a paper butterfly.  This could also double as a ponytail holder, but also looks pretty cute as an accessory I think!

My good friend Janice is off to a new home and adventure in Seattle and while she was cleaning she came across these cute pink lanterns she used to throw me a birthday party a few years back.  She passed them on to me, and I paired them with a wonderful strand of paper roses I found at Baksheesh in Sonoma (a favorite store of mine in the downtown area).  So pretty!

Bag Lady

I’ll admit it; I’m a bag lady.  Going out to my car in the mornings and coming home at night I typically lug no less than 3 bags in and out with me.  In my defense, they are organized, and they are all necessary.  There’s my teaching bag – with my lesson plans, syllabus books, music and teaching shoes.  My school book carries notebooks and text books for the classes I’m taking, and I would be one grumpy woman if I didn’t tote around a lunch bag with me, when my blood sugar is low I’m not the most cheery of people.  Now I don’t really mind being a bag lady because I’m a fashionable one; my bags are just paper and plastic grocery bags (although those do have a time and place), my bags are cute and fun as well as functional. 

Love this bag! A gift from Janice - she knows I love a bag.

Lucy tote- compliments of The Dailey Method Benicia

A handmade gift from my friend Kristina!

Check out the cute lining!

Maybe my love of bags stems from my early dance training.  As a young and aspiring ballerina, you are taught that it’s important to have a dance bag – one place where all of your dance things (shoes, leotard, hair pins etc) go so that when the time comes to dance, you’re organized and ready to go.  Here are a few cute ballet bag options for the mini ballerinas you may have in your life! (These are all from discountdance.com).  It's a well known truth that the grown ups end up carrying these totes for their tots, you might as well look good while you’re doing it!

Guest Blog! Giving Ideas from Janice

Well, the countdown to the holidays has officially begun.  The malls are crazy crowded, online stores are dishing out the last minute offers, and people are in a frenzy of wrapping and crossing their fingers that mailed gifts arrive on time.  Amidst all the craziness, my good friend Janice (and author of Pretty Ponderations) has put together a handy list of ideas to help you make it through.  She shares her ideas with The Ballerina Birthday in this blog, thanks Janice!  And make sure you read all the way to the end... there's a surprise offer waiting for you!

There are many types of holiday shoppers.

•  the online shopper: who actually follows the gift guides that instruct you on what to buy for “chic celine” or the “adventurous adam”
•  the planner: who knows what they want to get people by early fall and spends three months gathering the goods
•   the suggestion-maker: who buys you a pot when you don’t know how to cook
•      the clueless: who buys you a colander, thinking it’s a pot
•    the procrastinator: who is reading this a mere four days before Christmas, wondering what to do now?!?!

I am a planner, and annoyingly so. The day before Thanksgiving all of the presents were wrapped and just awaiting a tree. But in an attempt to be less annoying I have some last-minute gift ideas that can complement a variety of people. And here they are:

• Give creatively. Specifically, make a collage because it is the easiest DIY project that there is. Feel free to steal my idea – cut up the ugly wrapping paper that is “so last year” and use elmers glue to collage it. Or to steer away from holiday, print out a bunch of facebook pictures and collage the pics in a picture frame.
• Give calories. Buy the premade cookie dough from Safeway and bake it. If you’re lazy, get the rolls that have the designs in the middle. If you’re ambitious, mix milk + powdered sugar + food coloring and make your own royal icing and decorate away!
• Give coffee. Starbucks gift cards, done.
• Give convenience. Buy someone an Amazon Prime membership. It will change their lives because they will have access to thousands of products on Amazon for two-day shipping FOR FREE.
• Give Gilt. Full disclaimer, I work for Gilt Groupe. But I feel that for the amount of shopping that I do on Gilt Groupe I am within my rights to shamelessly plug my company. If you’ve already missed the shipping deadlines, go on giltcity.com and gift an experience to your fancy friends! And just because you are Ballerina Blog fan, click this link to get 25% off your next order:  http://www.giltcity.com/sigma 

Happy Holidays! 

Pretty Party Food at Cakebread Cellars

Well, this entry is really more for the adults to enjoy... parties for the kiddos are wonderful, but thanks to Janice, I was able to spend last Friday at a big kid party at Cakebread Cellars and it was fantastic!  Janice let me tag along to this event with her, and not only was the scenery picture perfect in Napa that evening, but the food was a sight to behold.  It was beautifully prepared by master chefs from around the world, incredibly delicious, and truly artistic.  I sipped mostly on Cakebread's Pinot Grigio, but also sampled the Chardonnay, which was also tasty.  Besides the fantastic food and tasting, Cakebread also had their new cookbook on display, which you can check out here.  It was so nice to get to enjoy delicious food, wine, and my friend, and to see other people doing the same just made me happy as a clam.  I guess I'm easily pleased, but sometimes it's such simple moments that make me remember how wonderful (and delicious) my world is!

My favorite from the event!  Bruschetta by Picco in Larkspur.

A sweet treat

Some of the beautiful landscaping at Cakebread

Polka Dot Birthday

I love polka dots.  I suppose it stems from my days dancing in a Flamenco and Spanish dance company, but they're flirty, classic, and just plain fun!  A few weeks ago I found a fun pair of polka dot ballet flats at Aldo (click here to check them out, so cute), and was poking around the internet today looking for fun polka dotted things.  I found and wanted to share the Polka Dot Party Birthday Blog.  

Savvy creator Sally has got quite an arsenal of crafty and wonderful things to share, one of them being this fantastic crepe paper initial door decoration. Perfect for a birthday party, or for a wedding even, or engagement party... actually, I kinda want one for my room...

Reminds me of the fun birthday party Janice did for our friend Kristina.  Click here to see the fun purple pom poms Janice made.

I'll definitely be keeping my eye on Sally and Polka Dot Birthday and Polka Dot Market, so much fun!

Fantastic Fearless Dancers

Last Saturday Janice and I met up at the Alameda County Fair to not only gorge ourselves on some delicious fair fare, but to support fellow dancers and CYC employees Bria and Ashley.  Bria brought together about 12 dancers in a matter of weeks to put together a great 30 minute show to one of the Fair's family stages.  Their hard work definitely paid off, and their passion was apparent in their performance.  From hip hop to contemporary, these Fearless dancers ran the choreography gamut, and they did it with an intensity that I love to see in any dancers I watch, and I couldn't be more proud of them!

The piece above is my favorite choreography that the Fearless dancers did, to Adele's Rolling in the Deep.  It's wonderful choreography and the girls attacked it with a ferociousness and passion that left me with goosebumps.  Cheers to the Fearless dancers and here's hoping they have a bright future ahead of them!

A Party For My Favorite Ballerina

I recently had the pleasure of putting together a little work party for Janice, and had so much fun putting together a few yummy and pretty things for one of my favorite ballerinas.  With the help of my fellow co-workers Kristina, Kim and Angie, we were able to pretty up our normal office spaces and treat Janice to some sweet treats.  Of course, a party for Janice wouldn't be complete without the fabulous goodies from Kara's Cupcakes in Walnut Creek and Sweet Tart. Thanks especially to my Mom for her baking expertise and making some delicious cake pops and for sharing her beautiful flowers!

Flowers compliments of my Mom's garden

Pretty little mini's from Kara's Cupcakes

More mini's!  From Sweet Tart

Cake Pops by Mom

Sprinkled Pretty!

The Spoils of Performance

CYC's Spring Showcase was 2 weeks ago, and I think myself and the dancers are pretty much fully recovered.  All the students did a fantastic job, I couldn't be prouder of all of them, and we had some fantastic parent volunteers help decorate the lobby at The Del Valle Theatre in Walnut Creek; they had such cute decorating ideas!  And the fabulous creations from Sweet Tart were a huge hit with our audience!  

There are always ups and downs and a few SNAFUs in a performance (perfection would really just be boring, don't you think)?  Here are some fun/funny/yummy moments of our performance weekend...

One parent volunteer filled her vases with colorful jellybeans and filled them with some beautiful spring flowers.  I didn't get a good picture of her version, which used a pink vase and Gerbera daisies, but this gives you the idea.

Well, during operation load out of the theatre, the vase I was holing completely collapsed, the bottom of the vase literally disintegrated, leaving me with an empty vase and a trunk full of jellybeans.  Not one to miss an opportunity to have some fun with the situation, I snacked on the jellybeans while cleaning out my trunk a little later, still delicious!

I was lucky enough to not only have a trunk full of jellybeans, but to be able to take some yummy cupcakes home from Sweet Tart in Concord.

Check out CYC's facebook page for more information on the center and more pictures!  http://www.facebook.com/CYCFans?ref=ts

Bella Umbrella

My students are preparing for our annual Spring Showcase, and this years theme is seasons.  I've always been a fan of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons (my mom used to play it on tape for me as I was falling asleep), but there are a number of other pieces for piano and orchestra that have a season theme as well, such as Glazunov and Tchaikovsky.

My goal for this year's performance was to incorporate some fun props for the students to use, which is not only visually interesting from a stage perspective, but teaches the students spacial awareness and encourages their creative thinking (which they are already masters at).

So far, I've found some super cute butterfly/bug catchers in the dollar bin at Target, beach balls, and park benches to conjure up images of different seasons. While Janice and I were searching around the web looking for ideas and inspiration, she showed me Bella Umbrellas.  I have a natural affinity towards anything old school, and these umbrellas definitely take me back to a different time. Who knew they came in so many shapes, styles and had such history?!  Pagodas, parasols, and lots of ruffles... oh my!

I did decide to use umbrellas for a piece from our spring dances, and while we didn't rent any from Bella Umbrella this time around, we did find some cute ones at JoAnn's.  These are just the right size for my students, and seeing them peek out from under them is pretty priceless and would make any rain clouds disappear. 

Light, Cameras... Beautiful Photography

Last week while attending my course in my Certificate in Ballet Teaching Studies with the Royal Academy of Dance in Toronto, Ontario, I spent my days in a beautiful ballet studio (London School of Dance).  It's always fun to visit new studios and see new spaces.  Dancers can be very particular about the spaces they dance in; it needs to be big enough for us to move and travel in grand allegro, and if at all possible, open and inspiring, just like our art is.  I was struck by the photography in the various rooms and studios at London School of Dance.  Take a look at just a few of them that I snapped some photos of.

Photography: Shannon Eckstein

Photography: Shannon Eckstein

Photography: Shannon Eckstein

All these photos were taken by Shannon Eckstein of SilverShadown Photographic Images, who takes light into account in her photos, and as you can see, has gorgeous results.  The top photo was in the studio that I spent my days in last week, and the little girl is just precious, and if you look closely, you'll see a bandage on her chin; the essence of youth right?  The middle photo reminds me of a favorite photo of myself and my good friend Janice, taken a few years ago.

Photography: Brooke Duthie

Admittedly, Janice said that the caption for this photo should be "not that I'm a slave to my phone or anything".  Not that any of us are, right?  This picture was taken in our home studio at Benicia Ballet School, a space where as a child, teen, and now as an adult, I continue to be inspired and feel at home.


It's amazing to me how photography can capture so much: light, inspiration, youth, friendship, and pure love... of dancing, or of the many other things that fill our world.  For more amazing and inspiring photography, check out my blog on The Ballerina Project.

Sweet Tart

I love a good treat, especially if it's a sweet treat.  My favorite new place to find fun confections is at Sweet Tart in Todos Santos Plaza in Downtown Concord.  Janice and I are now considered regulars to owner Mary Ann, and yesterday we chatted with her in her cute shop while munching on these cute mini cupcakes and savoring some frozen yogurt.

From upper left: Basil Lemon Blueberry, Strawberry, Thai Tea, Red Velvet and Tarot

I'm heading to Canada tomorrow for a Royal Academy of Dance teacher training, and I'm going to be missing my weekly (or bi, or sometimes tri weekly) trips to Sweet Tart!  Oh well, I'm sure it'll make me that much more appreciative of these sweet treats once I get back to the states.

Happy Birthday Tutu You!

My friend and co-worker Kristina's birthday was yesterday, and at her request, I made this purple tutu for her to wear around the office.  She's a beautiful model, and was tickled (I'd say pink, but it was really more purple) by the new addition to her wardrobe.

To see Kristina in all her birthday glory, check out www.janicejavier.com and her site, Pretty Ponderations.  Janice knows how to do a party up in style; my tutu was just one element to a fantastically purple and very sweet celebration.

Framed!

I started this project about 2 years ago, the idea was given to me by my friend Janice who like me, has been to many a ballet/orchestra performance/Broadway show and has kept not only the programs as a reminder of these special times and occasions, but the tickets as well.  I had put said tickets away in a box, pictures, newspaper and magazine articles that held some meaning to me scattered and stacked on top.  Needless to say, this frame option is a way better (and cuter!) idea!

Not only does this hold memories and occasions that are near and dear to my heart, but it's a great conversation starter, and it really reminds me of where I've been, and how far I've come.  There are tickets from shows that I've performed in, shows where friends were performing, world premieres I attended, shows that I helped collaborate on; taking in all all these tickets reminds me of what a lucky girl I am to have had the chance to do and see all that I have.  And as you can see, this frame is full to the edges, and frame number 2 is in progress!  I can't wait to see how it turns out!