Bregenzer Festspiele

The Bregenzer Festspiele (Bregenz Festival) is on my bucket list!


My friend showed me this image last week and I was blown away! The Bregenz Festival is an Annual Summer Festival at Lake Constance in Bregenz, Austria. The festival have become famous for having the most incredible productions on a giant floating stage.. so far the largest open-air floating stage in the world. The stage is 25 meters away from the shore and have 7,000 seats!

This summer, the Bregenz Opera festival will present the Opera "Andre Chenier" by Italian musician Umberto Giordanorom from July 20 to August 21st 2011. Based on a real story, the Opera is about the French romantic poet Andre Chenier (1762 - 1794) living through the French Revolution. Who’s up for a field trip to Austria?

Check out these images from the festival past production.. Just amazing!!!

In 2009, the opera show was called Aida:

These giant feet are 15-meter high feet and shoe size 2,400!



Here’s the set for Puccini’s opera "Tosca" in 2008. A scene from the James Bond movie Quantum of Solace was filmed here:

In 2005-2006 there was "Il trovatore" by Giuseppe Verdi, he was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century:



West Side Story in 2003:



La bohème by Giacomo Puccini in 2001-2002:



I keep the best for last.. how amazing is this squeletor stage! It was used in 1999-2000 for
Giuseppe Verdi’s opera, “A Masked Ball” :


www.bregenzerfestspiele.com

Cashmere/wool + hot + water = Fashion disaster!

Have you ever shrunk your cashmere scarf half the size or.. is your niece wearing your favorite wool sweater? This blog post is for you :)

This following post is dedicate to my good friend, Erica.

Erica had a romantic get away in Calgary/Banff and borrowed my cashmere scarf.. Before giving it back to me, she decided to wash it. Nice right..? The story could of end there with a happy ending but it doesn't. Erica accidentally put my cashmere scarf in the dryer and t's now half the size. Erica learned something that day.. Cashmere/wool + hot + water = Fashion disaster!

But.. did you know that there is hope for your favorite shrunken cashmere scarf or sweater.. Here is what you need:

You will need a few tick towels, hair conditioner or baby shampoo.

1) First you need to relax the fibers enough to allow for reshaping.. For this you need to soak your scarf/sweater in the sink/bathtub with warm water and about 1/3 cup of hair conditioner for at least 30 min. You can add 1/2 tablespoon of salt, this will help the color not to bleed. Then, try to reshape your scarf by pulling very gently while still in the water. Do that for an other 15 minutes. DON'T RINSE. Let the water drain.

2) ** For a sweater.. go to the next step. ** Hang the scarf on a padded hanger over the bathtub, so the water keeps dripping in the bathtub. The weight of the water will also help it stretch.

3) Remove the excess water and lay it flat on towels. You can roll your garment in a towel to get the excess water. Continue to pull on the sweater/scarf until it is almost dry. You can fold the sweater/scarf in half to make sure you are stretching it evenly. When it's almost dry, lightly ironed it, tell me if it worked and DO NOT EVER do that again !

Still a little crooked? Steam and iron your garment while stretch it. I swear it works!

I also know that professional dry-cleaner may be able to do something. They put it on a "blocking tool" and they stretch it for you..

Did you know that if you add 1 cup of vinegar to the rinse cycle of your washing, it will remove soap residue and it softens the fabric. Yep!

Use Woolite in the future!

Baby shower cake.. à la mode ♥

This next blog has absolutely nothing to do with fashion.. but it is about my other obsession.. cupcakes & cakes!

When I was younger, I would only finish my meal because I was told I would have dessert. I also have a recording from when I was 3 where my dad is asking me if I was excited to go fishing with him and I responded that yes, because I was going eat cake! My grand-mother said that the sweet tooth runs in the family since my great grand-father use to finish every meal with a teaspoon of sugar! Yes.. in my perfect world, we should start every meal with dessert :)

Because of this unconditional love for sweets, I have always enjoy baking. I have watch Cake Boss many times and I've always been curious about fondant but I never tried it. Because I LOVE what you can make with it.. I thought I would give it a try to create the perfect baby shower cake for my dear friend Joanne! I am now totally hooked on fondant and I can't wait to do more!

My cake got some much attention and I have gotten so many orders that I decided to share my cake with the world!

Here is my first personalized fondant cake.. It was a double chocolate chunk cake with buttercream icing!

Push Joanne, Push!! LOL

You can't really tell from this picture but I even added the highlight she has in her hair!

Joanne is a photographer..

and she wears converse running shoes :)

This is me, my good friend Joanne and her cake. She was very happy with my cake, it made people laugh and I love that! At the baby shower, we had this amazing photobooth service called Snapshot Photobooth and it was so much fun! It's available for rental in Toronto, they set up a backdrop, camera and guests can take pictures all night long! You should check it out http://www.snapshotphotobooth.com/