Dang, I went to Everybody's and forgot the ingredient I needed for the tarts. I have very nearly all the other two types of cookies I prepped last night baked off. One batch in the oven and one more after that. The problem with mass producing lots of little cookies is it takes a LOOOOONG time. Sigh. They are tasty though!
The Cafe did it! Opened today! They still have work to do finishing stuff up, but they had tables and chairs and the espresso machine working and I got there in time for the last scone. It's still kind of paint/lacquer fume-y in there, but that will go away soon I'm sure. It appears they opted out of having kitchen space. I guess I'll find out some things when I go in on Saturday to cook brunch. I just found out tonight they have a basement, which you access through a trap door in the floor in front of the stage, and that is where they have the refrigerators they had in their second room at the old place. Seriously????? It's a major bad set up for anyone cooking. Possibly much worse than before actually, when I'm thinking about it. In the old space, the cooking area was right next to the fridge and sink and stuff. Now there's the whole bar in-between. You'd likely have to walk through the coffee line to get to the fridge and sink now, or even go open the trap door to restock?!?!?! Good geesh. It's just not their priority I guess. I'm sure there are work-arounds, but it's going to take some figuring out. sigh.
Put up some posters for a musician's show. Went to OTM with L to see New Moon again. Realized I pretty much didn't want to see most of the first part of the movie. Frustrating and sad part of the story. Totally team Jacob at the moment. :D We pondered how they were going to pull off the other two books, as the story-line strays farther and farther from reality... Hoping they invest more in their CGI. Got home, let the dog I'm taking care of this week out and gave it dinner. (It eats baby carrots for dinner, how cute is that?!) Went and borrowed a mic stand so I can practice the song with something in front of my face cuz that's a whole different ball game.
They were reading The Littlest Angel on the radio tonight. I had read/heard it before, but long enough ago that I didn't really remember how it ended. Pretty beautiful. There are so many versions of the story - a young/poor person doesn't have anything to give as a gift to the Christ Child, but they give the best they have. They either realize their gift is shabby and try to sneak it in, or they suddenly see their gift next to all the glorious glitzy other presents and freak out in embarrassment. "What was I thinking, that I/my gift was worthy?! I'm so ashamed!" But then because their gift was given from the heart, God takes it and proclaims it worthy, and then suddenly the gift is elevated to pretty much being one of the best gifts of all, or is even transformed into something super fancy as a reward for being humble and honest. It gave me hope for the concert this weekend. Even if I'm not as shiny and loud as a lot of the other performers, I still have something to offer and it's worthy. Tomorrow is the run-through/rehearsal. Which means I have to do a good job. I'm not as nervous as I was a few days ago, but geesh. Pressure...
Showing posts with label Cafe Paradiso. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cafe Paradiso. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Sunday, December 20, 2009
hrm
Shared a table space with my bro at the indoor market today. Ended up with $9 after paying $6 for table space, and was there/working on being there for about 7 hours. Not great, but that's more cash than I've seen in a while. Sigh. There were somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 vendors, and somewhere between 6-8 of them were selling jewelry - LOTS of competition. I had meant to make more stuff this week and never got the chance. I ended up waking up, driving T there and setting up our tables with some of my little beeswax tea lights and then I went home to get some more stuff while he held down the fort.
I stayed for a bit and made a few cards, just simple ones but I think they are cute. I'm real glad I did because I ended up selling four of them! Also sold several of the tea lights, some of them while I was gone, so I'm glad I left them there at the beginning. But I also guess I'm glad I didn't spend a whole lot of time making stuff, because I have the feeling I would have sold about the same amount whether I had more or not, and I would have been more disappointed if I'd put more time in.
Anyhoo, next year if I plan to keep selling stuff, I really need to find a new thing to make. Something more unique. Or the jewelry needs to be more unusual. Although really, if everyone is making the stuff that is fast, it sort of shows that people aren't paying for the more intricate, unique stuff when it comes to earrings. Also some of these ladies must be buying big amounts cheap of stuff like the real silver and gold-filled ear hooks, because otherwise how can they sell the stuff for so cheap and make money?
Well, tomorrow I get to help out at Cafe P for their very last Sunday brunch in the old location. They have been working like crazy to get finished in the new place on the square, I hope they are ready! I think they are just going to do it no matter what. They've had a lot of volunteers helping make it happen, I was out putting up posters and it seemed to be crawling with people working on it. The remodeling they are doing really is making it super nice though. Still trying to figure out if they are going to have a kitchen or what, because I can't figure out where with the current layout... Maybe they thought they've gotten by without it for so long, but hrm.... Anyway, I'll get some hours and I'll get to be there in the old place. It'll be a little sad to see it go. I wonder what will happen there next...
I stayed for a bit and made a few cards, just simple ones but I think they are cute. I'm real glad I did because I ended up selling four of them! Also sold several of the tea lights, some of them while I was gone, so I'm glad I left them there at the beginning. But I also guess I'm glad I didn't spend a whole lot of time making stuff, because I have the feeling I would have sold about the same amount whether I had more or not, and I would have been more disappointed if I'd put more time in.
Anyhoo, next year if I plan to keep selling stuff, I really need to find a new thing to make. Something more unique. Or the jewelry needs to be more unusual. Although really, if everyone is making the stuff that is fast, it sort of shows that people aren't paying for the more intricate, unique stuff when it comes to earrings. Also some of these ladies must be buying big amounts cheap of stuff like the real silver and gold-filled ear hooks, because otherwise how can they sell the stuff for so cheap and make money?
Well, tomorrow I get to help out at Cafe P for their very last Sunday brunch in the old location. They have been working like crazy to get finished in the new place on the square, I hope they are ready! I think they are just going to do it no matter what. They've had a lot of volunteers helping make it happen, I was out putting up posters and it seemed to be crawling with people working on it. The remodeling they are doing really is making it super nice though. Still trying to figure out if they are going to have a kitchen or what, because I can't figure out where with the current layout... Maybe they thought they've gotten by without it for so long, but hrm.... Anyway, I'll get some hours and I'll get to be there in the old place. It'll be a little sad to see it go. I wonder what will happen there next...
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Yes yes
Feeling incredibly content and grateful. The Rachel Ries/Anais Mitchell concert was as good as I hoped.
It was PACKED. And on Wednesday Steve had been worried it might not be a good turnout. He threatened to just shut down the cafe forever if people didn't come. He made extra posters, Heli got a Facebook event going and I added a bunch of people to it. I'm not sure who's to say those last minute things helped in packing the house but whatever it was it worked. (probably helped there wasn't really any competition to speak of tonight.)
They played the songs off the EP in order, trading the acoustic back and forth. Then they just started playing other stuff. Did a few from Anais' Folk Opera. Which I still SO want to see. Next time she puts it on out there I am getting a ticket and flying out and I am SEEING IT. dammit. So there. Any part of it I hear or see only makes me want to see it more. She borrowed Rachel's electric for one of them, the one about the Wall, and totally had fun with the whammy bar at the end. :)
Anais mentioned me at one point, because she had a song about Venus, and said something like "This is a song about a goddess, and we were on the radio - Lyrical Venus, is that right? (Rachel nods) and she's here tonight. Anyway it was so funny because Heather told us right before we went on that we couldn't both talk at the same time or it would cut out, and then she asked us a question and we were both silent." hehe. And the song rocked. I think Tim was recording. I hope so because that would be awesome to play on my show.
Rachel had a sparkly shirt and hoop earrings that were very much like mine. :) and she played Hands to Water on the piano, sooo beautiful. And told us about her boy that she got to keep and sang a song about him. And did a new one about how it might be if her grandma was still alive that was really awesome. They did an acoustic version of Shenandoah for the encore.
Only wish it had gone on longer. But it kind of did for a few of us - after most everyone cleared out of the cafe people brought out whiskey and wine and bread and olives and cheese. Somehow we started singing some Christmas carols, because the sound of the roaster was like one of those sleigh bell song beats I think, and then Tom Morgan grabbed Anais' guitar and we sang the first verse of a bunch more, because everyone knows them, but only the first verse really. Sharon sang a couple, and gave everyone some mini shoulder massages. Tim went home and got his pipes, flute & mandolin and some really amazing Italian parmesan that you break off in chunks "so as not to destroy the crystalline structure." Heli gave Rachel a crash course in knitting and Tim gave Anais a crash course in pipes.
Steve got Rachel and Anais to each do one more at the end, and Helen requested one of my favorite's of Rachel's - Summer Came, A Warning. And when Tom asked her she said that she taught herself to play guitar by being stubborn and listening to songs and figuring them out by ear, that she had no theory or fret board knowledge. Anais did a new one she said isn't finished but it was damn amazing and damn sad about a farmer trying to get the hay in before it rained and his wife was in labor and she kept telling him to go out and finish or the whole season would be lost and they could go to the hospital when he finished, but he got half the hay in and went to check on her and she was dead. I had feeling that was where the thing was going, but it still broke my heart. Apparently based on a story her dad wrote.
Told Anais that Brooke had played her song Changer (that was maybe the only one I especially wished she would have played that she didn't) at my house concert and she said what an honor and if I saw Brooke to say hello because she hadn't seen her in a long time. Not really sure when that would happen, but it's nice anyway, and I do hope Brooke comes back.
So yes, a full and happy heart have I tonight. I love it when something is as good as you hoped it would be. So often the high expectations are impossible to live up to. This was not one of those cases.
It was PACKED. And on Wednesday Steve had been worried it might not be a good turnout. He threatened to just shut down the cafe forever if people didn't come. He made extra posters, Heli got a Facebook event going and I added a bunch of people to it. I'm not sure who's to say those last minute things helped in packing the house but whatever it was it worked. (probably helped there wasn't really any competition to speak of tonight.)
They played the songs off the EP in order, trading the acoustic back and forth. Then they just started playing other stuff. Did a few from Anais' Folk Opera. Which I still SO want to see. Next time she puts it on out there I am getting a ticket and flying out and I am SEEING IT. dammit. So there. Any part of it I hear or see only makes me want to see it more. She borrowed Rachel's electric for one of them, the one about the Wall, and totally had fun with the whammy bar at the end. :)
Anais mentioned me at one point, because she had a song about Venus, and said something like "This is a song about a goddess, and we were on the radio - Lyrical Venus, is that right? (Rachel nods) and she's here tonight. Anyway it was so funny because Heather told us right before we went on that we couldn't both talk at the same time or it would cut out, and then she asked us a question and we were both silent." hehe. And the song rocked. I think Tim was recording. I hope so because that would be awesome to play on my show.
Rachel had a sparkly shirt and hoop earrings that were very much like mine. :) and she played Hands to Water on the piano, sooo beautiful. And told us about her boy that she got to keep and sang a song about him. And did a new one about how it might be if her grandma was still alive that was really awesome. They did an acoustic version of Shenandoah for the encore.
Only wish it had gone on longer. But it kind of did for a few of us - after most everyone cleared out of the cafe people brought out whiskey and wine and bread and olives and cheese. Somehow we started singing some Christmas carols, because the sound of the roaster was like one of those sleigh bell song beats I think, and then Tom Morgan grabbed Anais' guitar and we sang the first verse of a bunch more, because everyone knows them, but only the first verse really. Sharon sang a couple, and gave everyone some mini shoulder massages. Tim went home and got his pipes, flute & mandolin and some really amazing Italian parmesan that you break off in chunks "so as not to destroy the crystalline structure." Heli gave Rachel a crash course in knitting and Tim gave Anais a crash course in pipes.
Steve got Rachel and Anais to each do one more at the end, and Helen requested one of my favorite's of Rachel's - Summer Came, A Warning. And when Tom asked her she said that she taught herself to play guitar by being stubborn and listening to songs and figuring them out by ear, that she had no theory or fret board knowledge. Anais did a new one she said isn't finished but it was damn amazing and damn sad about a farmer trying to get the hay in before it rained and his wife was in labor and she kept telling him to go out and finish or the whole season would be lost and they could go to the hospital when he finished, but he got half the hay in and went to check on her and she was dead. I had feeling that was where the thing was going, but it still broke my heart. Apparently based on a story her dad wrote.
Told Anais that Brooke had played her song Changer (that was maybe the only one I especially wished she would have played that she didn't) at my house concert and she said what an honor and if I saw Brooke to say hello because she hadn't seen her in a long time. Not really sure when that would happen, but it's nice anyway, and I do hope Brooke comes back.
So yes, a full and happy heart have I tonight. I love it when something is as good as you hoped it would be. So often the high expectations are impossible to live up to. This was not one of those cases.
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Lame-a-tron!
1) Waiting for my Harry Potter book. B & P got theirs already. On the UPS tracking site it says mine has been in transit from Ottumwa since 10:28. It is now 2:08. That is plenty of time for it to get to me! But as G pointed out, there's probably a lot of books being delivered today. I have had a strict conversation with G about the things he is NOT allowed to do until I am finished with the book, including and perhaps most importantly the fact that he MUST NOT read the last two pages, even if he promises not to tell me what happens. Because I just know he would go around with a little superior smirk of knowing and that would ruin the experience of reading it. I still never told him what happened in the last book. I think it's cheating to not read it for yourself. Maybe that's being a little harsh, but at the least he shouldn't wreck my experience. After I'm done he can read the last two pages or the whole thing.
2) Waiting for my paycheck. I got totally thrown off by a) forgetting to tell G about my poetry class check, and b) car insurance payment. I also don't have my backup travel fund to dip into since I used it all on our trip. And this is a loooong pay period because get paid on (or the weekday before) the 15th and on the last weekday of the month, which means while the bills are paid, but I'm 8 days in on 18 days of not having any spending $. I can use my CC but I'd rather not. And there are those few things I want to do that don't take CC's. Lunch at Small Planet and concerts at Cafe P being the two most painful things to give up. I'm feeling like such a whiner now, yipes! Anyway, the point being I stayed up late last night and got up a bit earlier than I might have otherwise this morning so I could sell some of my tea at the Farmer's Market, because I REALLY want to see Gayla Drake Paul at Cafe P tonight. I made a whopping $6.50, and I still need to give $2.50 of that to my brother for sharing his table with him. Luckily he said I could give it to him later. I have $2 and 11 cents left from cleaning out my penny basket so I could have coffee with Mikaila a few days ago. The thing that is really driving me bonkers is I don't have a paper, and I can't find anywhere online to tell me how much the show is!! I sure hope it's less than $8.11! It looks like I need to do the Farmer's Market next weekend too, and do a little better, Ali Sperry and Betsy Huebner are doing shows at Cafe P next weekend and I'd need $7 for that...
2) Waiting for my paycheck. I got totally thrown off by a) forgetting to tell G about my poetry class check, and b) car insurance payment. I also don't have my backup travel fund to dip into since I used it all on our trip. And this is a loooong pay period because get paid on (or the weekday before) the 15th and on the last weekday of the month, which means while the bills are paid, but I'm 8 days in on 18 days of not having any spending $. I can use my CC but I'd rather not. And there are those few things I want to do that don't take CC's. Lunch at Small Planet and concerts at Cafe P being the two most painful things to give up. I'm feeling like such a whiner now, yipes! Anyway, the point being I stayed up late last night and got up a bit earlier than I might have otherwise this morning so I could sell some of my tea at the Farmer's Market, because I REALLY want to see Gayla Drake Paul at Cafe P tonight. I made a whopping $6.50, and I still need to give $2.50 of that to my brother for sharing his table with him. Luckily he said I could give it to him later. I have $2 and 11 cents left from cleaning out my penny basket so I could have coffee with Mikaila a few days ago. The thing that is really driving me bonkers is I don't have a paper, and I can't find anywhere online to tell me how much the show is!! I sure hope it's less than $8.11! It looks like I need to do the Farmer's Market next weekend too, and do a little better, Ali Sperry and Betsy Huebner are doing shows at Cafe P next weekend and I'd need $7 for that...
Friday, September 22, 2006
Cafe Paradiso does it again...
brought another amazing musician to Fairfield.
Geoff Muldaur
Apparently he's the ex-husband of Maria Muldaur (who is famous for singing "Midnight at the Oasis" and is actually coming to Fairfield Oct. 3rd for a fundraiser at Morning Star.)
Anyhoo. He's good. Really good. I bought his live CD, Beautiful Isle of Somewhere, and I'm glad I did cuz it's a solo live gig with a bunch of the songs he sang tonight. I'm sure his stuff with other people is good too, but as far as "re-living" the experience, this is a good one to have.
He had all sorts of good stories, like people who've been in the business and traveled a bunch do. He took a 17 year break from doing music! I guess he got burnt out. But when his kids were all out of the house, and his friends "shamed" him back into it and he caught the bug again. It's encouraging in a bizarre sort of way - that it's never too late. Although he was established and amazing before the break, but still. yeah.
Geoff Muldaur
Apparently he's the ex-husband of Maria Muldaur (who is famous for singing "Midnight at the Oasis" and is actually coming to Fairfield Oct. 3rd for a fundraiser at Morning Star.)
Anyhoo. He's good. Really good. I bought his live CD, Beautiful Isle of Somewhere, and I'm glad I did cuz it's a solo live gig with a bunch of the songs he sang tonight. I'm sure his stuff with other people is good too, but as far as "re-living" the experience, this is a good one to have.
He had all sorts of good stories, like people who've been in the business and traveled a bunch do. He took a 17 year break from doing music! I guess he got burnt out. But when his kids were all out of the house, and his friends "shamed" him back into it and he caught the bug again. It's encouraging in a bizarre sort of way - that it's never too late. Although he was established and amazing before the break, but still. yeah.
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