Looking Ahead: 12/11-12/17

December 9, 2015
by Emily

With so much to do during the holidays, between work parties, friends’ gatherings, shopping, baking and decorating, we don’t have much spare time for other events.  If you do, here are a few to check out over the weekend!

Friday, Dec. 11th

Santa Crawl City Loop

8 p.m.
Wilmington (Trolley Square, Riverfront, Market Street)
$5 entry, free with a Santa hat, buses provided between the three districts

5 course dinner at De La Coeur Cafe

7 p.m.
De La Coeur Cafe
1836 Lovering Ave., Wilmington, DEFive course seasonal dinner prepared by chef and owner Gretchen Brizendine. $80/person

Saturday, Dec. 12th

Grilled Cheese & craft Beer Tasting

3 p.m.
World Cafe Live – upstairs
$40/person.  This month’s tasting is feature Stone Brewing Co.  I went to this last month with my dad and I can say it was delicious!  Definitely go with an empty stomach.

The Nutcracker by The Wilmington Ballet

2 p.m., 7 p.m. (Also Sunday, Dec. 13th 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.)
Playhouse in Rodney Square, Wilmington
$15-$45.  No better place to check out the Nutcracker than the Playhouse Theatre in downtown Wilmington!

Charlie Brown Christmas

7 p.m.
Baby Grand, Wilmington
The Eric Mintel Quartet performs a jazz holiday concert featuring music from the Peanuts.

Sunday, Dec. 13th

Yuletide Brunch with Santa

9 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Winterthur, Wilmington
Winterthur’s Sunday brunch featuring Santa (9 a.m. – 11 a.m. only).  $34.95/adult and 50% off for children under 12.  Children under 2 are free.  Reservations required.

 

Clay Tile Class at the Brandywine River Museum

September 29, 2015
by Emily

Since I’ve been on yet another hiatus from Dela Darling, I thought I’d come back with a really fun post.  Allllllll the way back in July I took a clay tile class at a local museum with two of my girlfriends.  I had seen the event on the museum website and with a pricetag of $20 for the class with my own tile to take home I couldn’t say no!  (It doesn’t hurt that it was BYOB.  I’ll pretty much attend any event that’s BYOB!)

When we arrived the tables were all set with the materials we would need and there was a separate table with all of the snacks.  I couldn’t resist at least one sweet treat while I was there!

The program started with a look at the tiles on display and some background on the style and artist.  Since I have close to no artistic abilities I’m always so impressed by collections like this.

The tiles were a collection done by Henry Chapman Mercer (Moravian Pottery and Tile Works in Doylestown, PA) and were originally created for installation in a single home.  This series, Moravian Tiles of the New World, originally consisted of 29 tiles, but Mercer eventually created over 70.  We were able to see 25 of the original 29 and I snapped some pictures (above) of the ones that really stood out to me.

After being given directions by our teacher, we were left to start creating.  Essentially we just carved the pieces that would “pop out” and then overlaid them on our original tile block, gluing them together.  I even created my tile from scratch.  That’s right: no stencil or ghost artist!

I just loved how my little Alphie turned out and can’t wait to figure out how to display him!

Bling Bling – Bachelorette Finale Party Recap

July 31, 2015
by Emily

For those who don’t watch the Bachelor or the Bachelorette, I get it.  Maybe it’s not something you’re interested in or you have a hard time dedicating two hours of your time to a reality TV show every week.

I urge you to change your mind about the premiere and/or the finale though!  Since Kaitlyn’s season (#11 for the Bachelorette and somewhere in the low thirties for the whole franchise) was ending on Monday night I had a group of ladies to my house to all get together and watch.

Out of the 11 of us, I was the only one who had watched the entire season and only three others had been casually watching.  My mom did manage to at least Google a season recap so she at least knew the three major players’ names…  Don’t worry though; we still called Nick “the Other Guy” for the whole night!

Even though so many of the girls had no idea what had happened all season we had a great time.  Of course, we had a pink lemonade wine punch and everybody brought food.  The most discussed crowd pleaser was probably the ricotta cheese and truffle oil dip.

My favorite “suite treat” were the ring pops.  It was fun for us to watch while wearing our own rocks.  Even the one Shawn picked for Kaitlyn couldn’t compare to the size of those!

We had so much fun gossiping about the show, catching up with each other and making predictions about the next bachelor.  (I know it’s rumored to be Ben H, but I don’t buy until he signs a contract.  I’m sort of hoping it’s Andi’s ex-fiancee Josh.  I think Ben H would be boring for an entire season.)

Something I did that was really fun was make “Team Nick” and “Team Shawn” buttons.  The group was overwhelmingly Team Shawn or Team Reject Them Both, but a couple people felt bad that Nick had no one on his side, so I did see a couple of Team Nick buttons leave the bowl.

The gamemaster Dara even put together Bingo boards featuring various probable moments (blatant Neil Lane diamond product placement, Chris Harrison says “the most <insert adjective here> season yet, someone says “future husband or wife”) and we used M&Ms to keep track.  She even brought prizes for the first two bingo winners – bouquets of roses!

Already looking forward to the premiere for next season.  I’m hoping to have everyone do predictions and then reread them at the finale!

**All photos credited to Dara McBride.  Isn’t she fab for helping me out?