Merde Il Pleut

Inspired both by today's disgustingly wet weather and by a hilarious umbrella that I can neither afford, nor fold small enough to fit inside my purse, I decided to try my hand at a new skill this afternoon -- umbrella painting!

For those of you who don't speak French, the translation is: "Shit it's raining!"

I think it came out pretty great, considering how difficult it was to freehand paint nice, even block letters without being able to rest my wrist on anything solid. And the whole project cost me all of ten bucks. And now I have an umbrella with way more personality than the boring black one I bought on the corner one day when I was caught outside in a downpour completely unprepared.

This project can be completed in six simple steps:

1.  Buy an umbrella in a fun color and scour your neighborhood for a complementary shade of fabric paint.

2. Dig out a paintbrush and chalk from your unnecessarily vast supply of crafting tools.

3. Use the chalk to draw guide lines for your design.

4. VERY slowly and carefully paint over the chalk.

5. The next day when the paint is completely dry, flip the umbrella over and cover the reverse side of your design with a towel. Iron over the towel on a low heat setting, being careful not to singe your umbrella. This sets your design!

6. Show off your profanity-covered rain gear :)

What rainy day crafts have you been inspired to do lately?

Catching You All Up

So it's been an awkwardly long time since I posted here on my little ol' personal blog. I continue to attribute that to the joy I'm finding in being both Editor-In-Chief and a Blogger over at The Green Room Blog. If you ever want to read some really inspiring posts by artists trying to make their way in the showbiz industry, you have to check it out.

But enough about that, over here it's all about me. Hah! Things have been going really well lately. I'm just coming off of working on a fabulous show this summer, where I got my Equity card (a big deal for you non-actor civilians); Dan just got hired as an assistant at a busy NYC casting office (can I get a "woo hoo" for health insurance?!?), and we celebrated our second wedding anniversary just last night. So yeah, other than the super long hours that Dan is working, I have no complaints. I mean, I'd love to book another acting job ASAP, but that will come. I'm not worried.

And although I'm always sad about summer ending (god, I hate winter), I am excited about heading into the holiday season, which really begins for us with our October anniversary, I suppose. Next up: pumpkin picking and choosing a Halloween costume :)

So now you're caught up on all the big changes in our lives of late. I hope you forgive my absence. I do want to leave you with a gem of a picture from my show this summer, just because the costume is so out of character for me:

Yes, those were actual S.W.A.T. team uniforms. The costume shop had to take mine in from every possible direction. I guess they're not used to small people being on S.W.A.T teams, huh? :)