Where you can find me....

I am so sad to admit that I have totally abandoned my blog here at A Blog by Shannon. The truth is, I took a break, while going through some major life changes. I got married!!! Quit my job in D.C! And moved to Richmond, VA! That is a lot of stuff.

I can not say that I will be back just yet, but I am still blogging. You can find me here:

Thirsty Richmond

Shannon and Evan's Wedding Blog

The New Ride

This week the word overextended would be an understatement when describing my schedule. I have a tendency to pile things on and if I wasn’t busy enough, we decided that this would be a good week to do some car shopping. Evan has been driving my old Mercedes that my Dad gave me in college. The car had a lot of miles on it, some of the electric gadgets had stopped working and we were just waiting for the day that it wouldn’t start in the morning. We could have taken it in to be serviced, but the cost of fixing it up would be astronomical. So, we decided it was time for a trade in. We went to Carmax right near where Evan works and they gave us $2,000 for the trade in. Way more than I thought we would get. We really didn’t know what kind of car we wanted, but after walking around their lot, Evan picked out Ford Ranger truck. It was just about as simple as that. Sometimes I am amazed at how decisive we are. It was a little sad to say good-bye to the Benz after all these years. The car didn’t seem to want to say let go either as it took 3 guys to get the plates off. The salesmen asked me if I wanted a few minutes with the Mercedes before they drove it away, which I thought was pretty silly, but a little part of me did want to take a moment to reflect on all the good times I had with that car. In the end, I declined the private parking lot moment. So last night, they pulled the Benz away and we became proud owners of a shiny white truck!

Tomato and Mozzarella

This summer we have been absolutely spoiled with fresh produce. Evan has been going to our local Farmer's Market every Sunday and coming back with fresh tomatoes, zuchinni, basil, corn, peaches and other deliciousness. We treated ourselves with fresh mozzarella, tomato and basil one afternoon as a little tasting before dinner. Add a little balsalmic drizzle = a happy Shannon.

Dragonfly Video

This Saturday was a really great Dragonfly Rehearsal. Not that all rehearsals aren't great, but this one was caught on video. We are working on a new piece to be performed at a TBD time and place that will be called Thread 2.0 I believe. The first version of this piece was performed with the AACC Symphony Orchestra while I was away on my honeymoon. I am so happy that I am getting to be a part of the new version of the piece.

I'm in the blue :)

Photos from our Coffee Table

Hello my long lost blogger friends. I have been trying to be disciplined and keep the wedding updates flowing on the wedding blog, which has sadly distracted me from posting here. We are still recovering from the amazingness that was our wedding and honeymoon, trying as hard as possible not to let reality set back in, if we can help it. I do have some new ideas brewing of things I would like to share here, one of those being "Photos from our Coffee Table".

Like many young couples, we don't eat our meals at the dinner table. We have a dinner table, but it is usually piled with mail and dry cleaning and other non-food items. We usually have the television on with both laptops going while we eat dinner on the sofa. I know it may not seem the most romantic thing, but sometimes we get try to get fancy in our own way. So I am going to try to make a weekly habit of posting, dinner from the coffee table. Although the event is casual, the food can be elegant, especially since we are attempting to pair our newly acquired California wine with our meals.

So I leave you with a little sampling we did last weekend with my Mother and Michael. We opened the first bottle of white from the trip to California. It was the Chardonnay from Summer's Reserve in Calistoga. We paired it with a Camembert cheese, baguette and fresh strawberries. A great bottle of wine enjoyed not at a fancy French restaurant, but on the couch with family.

Thursday Night Dinner

Who do we think we are?

Thursday night dinner looks very fancy thanks to the generous wedding gifts including the plates, silverware, serving bowl and wine opener, but believe it or not, these are left-overs. Pesto pasta from last night (which Evan lovingly refers to as $2 dinner), tomatoes and cucumbers left-over from our vegetable tray from yesterday thrown on a bag-o-salad with turkey lunch meat and the wine. Well, the wine isn’t leftover. It is actually the first bottle we opened from the bottles we picked up on our honeymoon in Napa.

Married life is sweet.

Day of Dance

I have been hearing some complaints that I am slacking on my blog posts, so I am here today to update on some of the exciting things that have happened recently.

Yesterday was a beautiful 90 plus degree day downtown Annapolis. The sun was high and scorching, the ground sizzled like hot sand and a breeze blew every half hour. It was a beautiful day for dance.

Brigid Myers

Although Mother Nature didn’t change her plans to give us a nice 75 degree day, at least she didn’t rain on us! Dragonfly Dance Experiment had a wonderful performance at the City Docks in Annapolis.

Megan Morse Jans and Stephanie Yezek

We performed an hour show to a very warm audience (pun intended). The show started with a duet, “Before Bed” choreographed by Dragonfly’s director, Megan Morse Jans and guest choreographer, Stephanie Yezek. Jans and Yezek recently performed the piece at the Oxford Fringe Festival and the British influence was a light hearted and fun start the show. Next to perform a self-choreographed solo was Dragonfly, Sarah Keller. The feeling of falling in love was represented by her sweet choreography that melted the hearts of our audience. Following was the Dragonfly premier of “Build, Run, Speak” a piece choreographed by guest artist, Becky Radway, artistic director of Becky Radway Dance Projects based in New York, New York. The three section piece performed by six of the Dragonflies is based around the creation of a working machine. Remember, “If you build it, he will come.”? Well, we built it and the audience flocked to see.

The second half of the show included some Dragonfly favorites and a new duet. “In Her Hands” choreographed by guest artist Stephanie Yezek was performed by four Dragonflies. This intense performance of powerful movement was a great addition to the works presented at the Docks. Dancers jumping for their lives as it would seem, didn’t give up even in the heat. To cool things off (and not in a temperature sense) a duet featuring Jillian Barber, Dragonfly Rehearsal Director and Megan Morse Jans was a light hearted petite allegro. The dancers seemed to be playing a bit of cat and mouse as they tried to one up each other in a friendly and delicately choreographed competition. It was a fun piece that brought smiles to the glowing (hopefully sunblocked) faces of our audience. Closing the show was “Like a Peach” a sweet and thoughtful piece in Dragonfly’s repertoire. The piece represents the challenges of adapting to mother-hood and closed the show by putting the baby to bed.

Dock Side Dance was yet again a fantastic evening of dance offered to a wonderful community of supporters. Anyone who would sit on the 100 degree brick for an hour is a lover of dance and we are so very thankful for that! Next year bring your beach umbrellas because we will be there shine or shine!

A group shot of the Dragonflies looking beautiful is what I have decided to post in the place of an action shot of myself with a red face. :)

Checking In

This past weekend was a very busy one. Friday night, I went to see my best friend, Jill's high school dance company perform. One of the pieces was student choreographed and featured music by Santogold. I had not heard of her before, but her sound reminds me of the Yeah Yeah Yeah's. I am totally diggin' her.

As you have probably figured out by now, I am spending most of my time wedding planning. Updates are on our wedding blog, http://www.shannonandevan.blogspot.com/. We have 7 weeks to go until the big day!

Front Row

Look closely at the shot of the front row from my brother's fashion show at New York Fashion Week. Recognize anyone?

I don't know, maybe Kristen Johnston, Mena Suvari, Amber Rose, Caridee English, Shannon and Evan and Mom, etcetera...

The Runway Shoes

It is that time of year again. This past Friday, my brother, Christian Siriano, showed a collection at New York Fashion week. I am so furious with myself! I did not get a single picture of myself in two of the three dresses I wore at fashion week. I made three costume changes throughout Friday’s events, one dress for the runway show, one dress for the after party and another dress for the after after party. I was too busy having fun to think to take pictures. Ahhhh! Although I can’t share pictures of my full looks, I can share pictures of the three different pairs of shoes I wore to compliment these looks.

Again this season, my brother worked with Payless to create the runway shoes and translate them into wearable fashion for sale in the Fall. I just love the Payless people. They are so nice and always let my brother make one of each style in a size six for me to try! This season I went from stiletto to platform to boot, a good transition for wear-ability. The stilettos were the most beauteous, but they were killing me by the end of the show (mostly because I don’t sit down until they make me), the platforms were the best for wearing outside in the cold and the boots were perfect with black tights and my mini dress.

Here are the runway models in the shoes!

Stiletto Flounce

Platform Boot

Gladiator Boot

I do have other exciting news to share about these shoes…my brother had Payless make the stiletto flounce shoes in white, ivory and orange (my wedding color) to have to wear on my wedding day! He made three different pair since I haven’t completely decided on the dress yet. Am I the luckiest bride ever, or what?

Snow Days

It was a nice change of pace to be snowed in this weekend. We watched movies, worked on wedding craft projects and just enjoyed each other's company. Today, we did venture out to see how the snow was piling up as people started to dig out, but our snuggling kitties stayed nice and warm inside.

Hope everyone had a nice weekend!

New Music - Melody Gardot

I am absolutely in love with Melody Gardot. They did a little promo on her on CBS Sunday morning this weekend. She is a Philly girl, which automatically scores points for me. The story on CBS can be found recapped at this link. Her story is a pretty striking one. She suffered very serious injuries in a crash with a Jeep Cheroke while she was on bike at a Philadelphia intersection. Music was a big part of her recovery and she still deals with constant pain, sensitivity to light and sound as well as additional symptoms of her brain injury. Her story is an amazing one, but so is her music. Her voice is just beautiful. You can see her music video here.

Cupcakes are Back!

Sorry for the horrible picture. I finally had some time this weekend to bake after I don’t know how many months. I also got to try out my new decorator that Evan bought me for Christmas. It is very fancy and I am looking forward to practicing some more advanced frosting techniques. These are just a quick box mix of Devil’s Food Cake and canned Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting. Nothing fancy, just a little sweet to get me through the week.

Dance Performance

As promised, I wanted to share the details for my upcoming performance with the Dragonfly Dance Experiment modern dance company. I never in a million years would have thought I would be performing in a dance show. Last summer, after a gracious invitation from the amazing Megan Morse Jans, I started taking class with the Dragonfly Dance Experiment dancers. I thought that would be enough, but after Megan asked me to rehearse for their upcoming show, I couldn’t say no. If you would have asked me even then if I thought I would ever participate in an evening length dance performance, I would have told you, “Never”. Never say never, my friends. Hope you can make it to the show!

Sunday, February 21st @ 2:30pm

Pascal Center for Performing Arts

101 College Pkwy, Arnold, MD 21012

Happy New Year!

I know it is a little late to be wishing Happy New Year, but time is just flying by in 2010. I'm sorry that posting has been so light over here. I have been busy wedding planning and blogging about all things wedding over on the Wedding Blog.

If you are interested in wedding details you can catch up on recent posts:

Honeymoon Flight BOOKED!!!
Hotels
Things to Do: Go to Canada
Orange-spiration

In other exciting news...I have started blogging for Dragonfly Dance Experiment, the company that I dance with. I post every Sunday, so you can check out what is going on with the best Modern Dance Company in Annapolis on their site: http://www.dragonflydance.com/. We have a show coming up in February, check back for more details!!