If You Let It

Anna and I went to see Mary Poppins, the wonderful heart warming musical presented by the Village Theatre in Issaquah (for Seattle folks - their other stage is in Everett). I'll tell a bit more about it in a sec, but first I wanted to say that I tried to wear black and white this past weekend to join Sacramento and Monica and Share-in-Style which is always great fun, I even prepared an outfit (hopefully will be able to wear it tomorrow), but this dress put a spell on me - I just couldn't resist it and wore it again. But Anna saved the day without even realizing it, by putting together this black and white outfit. Do you recognize the dress she has on? That's right, I have a skirt which I showed many times on my blog (last time I wore it for another "Julie Andrews musical", oddly enough - read HERE about my outing to see Sound of Music). When I bought this skirt, Anna liked it so much that I ordered one for her too. I love how she wears it as a dress here - very creative! Her sense of style started blossoming pretty early on. At the age of 9, she was already putting together stylish and truly unique outfits, constantly being praised by grown up fashionistas. 

I, on the other hand, at the age of 30-something took a looooooong vacation from fashion and almost did not think about clothes until just last year. In a way, I consider myself a baby fashionista. :)

Here, I wear my new dress with old beloved pieces - my silk floral blouse (thrifted) and one of my Russian shawls (which was labeled as a "Russian table cloth" at a local antique mall), earrings which remind me of a bunch of berries, found for $4 or so earlier this year. 

We had such a wonderful, memorable day together. Anna is at this age now when at times, I feel that we are becoming true friends. The drive to Issaquah was very pretty (about 50 minutes from our home). It's a charming small town with a long history and one of the fastest growing communities around Seattle. I got a sense that the town heavily invests in arts and education. To most people, it's primarily known as a mountain hiking and hang gliding spot.

The performance was truly amazing! I haven't watched Mary Poppins the movie (though, as a lot of Russian speaking kids of my age, I loved the Russian version of the story, also a musical, but by a popular Russian composer Maksim Dunayevsky). But I watched Saving Mr. Banks, a movie in which Emma Thompson played Pamela Travers, and it was in a way a story about making the famous musical, so I was familiar with many songs. Everything, from the stage and costumes to acting and directing, was superb. The full house speaks for itself. If you are in the area, I highly recommend. Tickets to a professional live theater can be a bit on the high end, but at least from time to time, we splurge. They are really worth every penny, and raising an artistic child, both Justin and I consider it a part of her education.

An old-fashioned gas station... notice the piano - someone actually played it when we walked by later in the evening.

We took a little photo walk during the intermission, and after the show was finished, we had a bite at a Chinese restaurant, and then I took Anna to a frozen yogurt place... where we saw the young actor who played Michael Banks in the show. All the performers work very hard - four shows on weekends, and a few during weekdays. I know a little bit about what goes into one show, what kind of commitment it is, because Anna was on the stage a few times - she had a few small parts in the local production of Oz! the musical, and was a lead in a dance production Petra and the Wolf. I sometimes feel shy about talking to strangers, and I realized that it was a break between two intense performances, but I really wanted to express gratitude which is always much appreciated. I chatted with the little actor's Mom (children's performance is always a commitment for parents as well, of course), it was the first big part for her son, and she was very encouraging about taking classes and just going for your dream - you can land a big role. It is so true, isn't it? Anything can happen if you let it...

Linking up with Share-in-Style, 

Anna with her black and white outfit, 

I with my black and brown one,

both with big dreams - see you there!

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