Month: June 2018

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Getting Stella’s ears pierced at a tattoo and piercing studio

As Stella approached her fifth birthday, she began talking about wanting to get her ears pierced. I was open to the idea, and started showing her videos of the process so she could wrap her head around it. When she turned five, she said, “I’m going to wait until I’m six.” But in the last month or two, she started bringing it up again, and didn’t seem spooked by the idea anymore.

I knew that no matter when we ended up taking her to get her ears pierced, we would be going to a professional piercer. It seems like a strange juxtaposition, a young girl and a tattoo and piercing studio; but in doing my research, there were so many reasons why this decision made the most sense. This is a great read from TIME, and here’s another one from Scary Mommy.

Tattoo and piercing studios go to great lengths to make sure everything is done in a safe, clean, and informative environment. For piercings, a needle is used instead of the piercing gun commonly found at places at the mall. One big problem about those piercing guns: they can’t actually be sterilized. And there is also the question of piercing experience.

Now look, I have five holes in my ears that came from Claire’s at the mall, just like almost any other person my age with pierced ears. That even includes my upper cartilage on one ear. It was the norm, and seemed safe and easy. I was fortunate to not have any complications with my ear piercings. I have also heard enough horror stories about the piercing guns that it was important to me to choose the safest option for our daughter.

And that was a tattoo shop. Continue reading “Getting Stella’s ears pierced at a tattoo and piercing studio”

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Interview: Chatting with Take It from the Top’s executive director and co-founder, Paul Canaan

Each year, East Lansing audiences get a taste of Broadway thanks to the Wharton Center and its exciting lineup of shows. But did you know that the Wharton Center also offers many educational opportunities for the community to learn more about and engage in the theatre?

One of those opportunities is Take It from the Top;  its primary goal is to “serve as a catalyst for creativity for aspiring artists through professional mentoring, workshops, and structured programs that will inspire confidence and provide students a pathway to attain their highest potential.”

This week marks Take It from the Top’s 11th year at the Wharton Center. I personally have taken the one-day adult workshop twice, which helped me get out of my shell and over my anxiety about singing in public.

I had the opportunity to speak with Paul Canaan, executive director and co-founder of Take It from the Top, about his history with the Wharton Center and why it was important to him to develop a program that would help give back to young people pursuing theatre.

Learn more about how Take It from the Top came to be, and Paul’s most memorable experiences with students at the Wharton Center.
Continue reading “Interview: Chatting with Take It from the Top’s executive director and co-founder, Paul Canaan”

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Postcards from Portland: A weekend with the Maine Squeezes

Travel for fun is one of the most special and wonderful things in life, and sadly something that doesn’t get to happen all too often. So when my friend Linda had a flight voucher and needed to get a trip booked, she put the word out to our group of friends last summer to see if we could plan a girls trip. This was such an exciting prospect.

It’s rare enough to get to travel with Zack for fun now that we have the girls, and funnily enough, we’ve tried to travel more as a couple after having kids than when it would have been a lot easier to sneak away for a long weekend here and there. But to be able to get away with friends, especially when there are multiple kids and pups and jobs involved, seemed like a marvelous idea.

After much discussion about time of year and focusing in on the east coast, we set our sights (and sails) towards Portland, Maine.

I will say that I didn’t know much about Maine, only that Julie “The Cat” Gaffney from “The Mighty Ducks 2” was from there. But the area looked beautiful as we began to dig into the details, and it checked off a lot of boxes: potential for water activities, a delicious food scene, and beautiful scenery.

We booked our trip for June 21-24, a sweet little long weekend getaway to a seaside town. It felt like it would take forever to get here, but now, the trip is in our wake.

And it was a delicious and wonderful trip filled with innovative meals, sea air, belly laughs, cute dogs, and lots of memories. I can’t tell enough people how much they need to go there.

Here are some postcards from Portland, Maine. Continue reading “Postcards from Portland: A weekend with the Maine Squeezes”

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Check out Batter Up Bistro

When it comes to restaurants and shops, the Lansing area has many locally owned gems that I love to visit and support with some major word of mouth praise. So when my friend Linda called last week to enthusiastically tell me about the place where she ate lunch that day, I had to know more. Especially when she said it was the best French onion soup of her life.

Batter Up Bistro on Michigan Ave. in Lansing opened in October. Previously, the space had been vacant for four years. Owner Cari DeLamielleure has created a cozy and beautiful haven just steps away from Cooley Law School Stadium and around the corner from where Clara’s used to be.

Continue reading “Check out Batter Up Bistro”

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A sentimental gift for a dad who has everything

What do you get for the guy who has everything? The truth is, my dad doesn’t necessarily have a bunch of gadgets or golf clubs. In fact, he is truly a man of simple pleasures: Dunkin Donuts coffee and donuts, the Tigers, reruns of “The Honeymooners,” apple pie, you get the picture.

It’s something that can make it difficult to figure out what to buy him for birthdays and days like Father’s Day. Recently, we’ve started trying to do more experience-based gifts; for example, this year my younger brother took our dad to a Frank Sinatra impersonator show in Detroit over the weekend. It was the perfect kind of gift for our dad!

When it came to figuring out a present for my dad this year, I decided to do something simple and sentimental.  Continue reading “A sentimental gift for a dad who has everything”

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Embrace your inner actor with Take It from the Top

The Tony Awards were Sunday night, and I am still on a high from watching them. Though, to be more accurate, it’s a mixture of awe and jealousy. As I’ve written about before, my desire to be a star on the stage far outweighs any singing or acting ability I possess.

Still, I love any opportunity to embrace the actor that is embedded deeply inside my soul. At MSU, I took an Acting I class my senior year and loved everything about it, from the improv games to memorizing and performing a monologue as a final project. I performed Angie’s monologue from Steve Martin’s Patter for the Floating Lady, by the way.

And a few years ago, I discovered Take It from the Top at the Wharton Center, which offers week-long musical theatre workshops for kids as young as seven all the way to a one-day workshop for adults. The workshops are led by world-class Broadway artists; past instructors include Laura Bell Bundy (also TIFFT’s co-founder) and Billy Porter, among others.

Here is Take It from the Top’s mission:

Take It From The Top is a national arts alliance dedicated to providing quality education enrichment through music, dance and theatre to students and other organizations worldwide. Our primary goal is to serve as a catalyst for creativity for aspiring artists through professional mentoring, workshops and structured programs that will inspire confidence and provide students a pathway to attain their highest potential.

Continue reading “Embrace your inner actor with Take It from the Top”

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Check out The Grand Experience at the Lansing City Market

Summer is (almost!) officially here, and one of the things I love the very most about the warmer months is the growing number of fun Lansing-area events and opportunities to enjoy the outdoors.

This summer, the Lansing City Market is the place to be for lunch and dinner during the week, thanks to The Grand Experience. The Grand Experience is a new initiative inviting locals to enjoy the scenery of the Downtown Lansing riverfront while dining on food from local food trucks and vendors in the afternoons and evenings — all summer long!

Continue reading “Check out The Grand Experience at the Lansing City Market”

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Check out The Barre Code in East Lansing

Tonight was the first time I cried in a workout class for a reason other than being completely drained or exhausted. I just got home from taking a free class at The Barre Code in East Lansing, the brand new location of a franchise that truly lives up to its code of empowerment and motivation:

We live by a code. The Barre Code. We believe in our bodies. Our abilities. Our strength. We accept the differences that make us beautiful and strive for beauty that makes a difference. Every day we work hard to realize our potential. To dig deep and discover what we are capable of. To earn our bodies. We are relentless. We live to evolve. To exceed our own extraordinary expectations. We live by The Barre Code.

Continue reading “Check out The Barre Code in East Lansing”

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Talking about bodies and babies with a five-year-old

When parenting stops being polite and starts getting real. That’s what I posted with a photo of two books we just received from Amazon to help us answer some of the important questions Stella has started to ask us. And, to facilitate conversations about topics that haven’t even come up yet.

Surprisingly, not a lot of questions came up when I was pregnant with Margot. At three and a half, Stella’s explanation that her baby sister was “going to open [my] door and walk down the stairs” to get out of my tummy was hilarious, adorable, and accurate enough that it didn’t warrant more accurate or specific details at the time. Still, I’ve been proud to use and teach her words like vagina instead of anything cutesy.

In the last year or so, she has really started to notice and make remarks about bodies, especially hers and mine. She certainly learned a lot about babies and breastfeeding thanks to her little sister. And she often asks me why  I look a certain way compared to her. I do my best to explain things as matter-of-factly and simply for her to understand.

Continue reading “Talking about bodies and babies with a five-year-old”

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Etsy spotlight: Tundra and Taiga

I wouldn’t be my mother’s daughter if I didn’t love jewelry. And despite wearing the same simple things each and every day, I love when a fun piece of jewelry can really add something colorful and fun to an outfit.

I recently received some handmade jewelry pieces from Clare Corcoran of Lansing; Clare is the owner of the Tundra and Taiga Etsy shop and specializes in jewelry, as well as sun catchers, mixed media artwork, and sculptures.

I told Clare that I particularly loved her wire work on her jewelry pieces, and that I like a variety of colors. She sent me several fun pieces that showcase her work with beads and fun combinations. Continue reading “Etsy spotlight: Tundra and Taiga”