Nothing says "Happy New Year" like fresh paint.

January first. New Year's day. Stereotypically a time of new beginnings.  We woke up after a fairly sedate New Year's eve of Family Movie Night with the teenagers (Guardians of the Galaxy) and faced the fact that one of my favorite people and long time vendor and tenant has given notice so she can concentrate more on shows and less on day to day retail. So faced with an empty room ( and ghosts of fabulous sewing and lovely jewelry) I picked

 not surprisingly the color of spring seas to cover the walls. Theory being we are turning the space into a self contained Gourmet Market to showcase our food & wine artisans and the bulk of their packaging is black white and red. What better color to make those shine than S&C Aqua?

 Started at 9:45. By 2pm with the help of Charming Husband and Reluctant Except I am Paying Him Son the "new" Gourmet Shop was taking place. I am actually VERY impressed with how much we got done.

 Also impressed with myself I didn't make the family do the Do It Now Death March to do ALL of the moves I am visualizing for the shop right NOW instead of rolling it out over the next couple of months...

Reworking the coffee station (pot is too crazy big) so one can buy a cup of coffee in Falls Church that is roasted by a local guy and not by a big chain. More soon.

Think about your life - Pippin

THINK ABOUT YOUR LIFE, PIPPIN
THINK ABOUT THE DREAMS YOU PLANNED
THINK ABOUT THE MOMENT
THAT'S SO CLOSE AT HAND
WHEN THE POWER AND THE GLORY
ARE THERE AT YOUR COMMAND
PIPPIN
THINK ABOUT YOUR LIFE...

Ok so, that is the END of the play, not the beginning but with one in high school and one in college it was the chorus that stuck in my head when I dragged um, chose my family to accompany me to the revival of "Pippin" as my (rather) big Christmas gift this year. They really are in their glory days, after all.  When they are not ebing tortured by teenaged angst of course!

Amusingly a whole lot of folks on Facebook reminded me that our High school drama department did "Pippin" while I was there.  Frighteningly I did not actually remember this (although I remember all my friends in "The Sound of Music" ) so I guess that is why I know ALL the words to ALL the songs over thirty years later!

waiting for the curtain to go up at the National

Seeing the amazingly cast and staged show did provoke a lot of dialogue after the play about heros and anti-heros and how in real life sometimes the heroic thing is just showing up everyday. And how in real life death is not reversible, although miracles happenand people live and death is never the end. And how eating right and regular work-outs might get you on The Right Track (another Pippin song) to having arms like 63 year old Lucie Arnaz!

Lucie Arnaz as Berthe aka Granny in "Pippin"

My muse for the 2015. Lucie sang, dance, swung from a circus ring and looked fabulous the entire time!