Sister Act the Musical - Raise Your Voice!

 
Last night I went to see Sister Act: A Divine Musical Comedy at the Durham Performing Arts Center compliments of Yelp. Being a member of the Yelp Raleigh Elite Squad has great perks! I'm not one to pass up free theater tickets.

I met my friend Kelly M. for dinner at Tobacco Road before the show. It was a BEAUTIFUL day in Durham. Seriously, the weather was absolutely perfect! We grabbed a table on the patio overlooking the Durham Bulls stadium, which was being prepped for Saturday's home game. After dinner we walked over to DPAC for the show. We were welcomed in by a giant promo poster for Book of Mormon, which opens in February 2014. We can't wait to buy tickets! 

I was excited to see this show because the original Sister Act movie was one of our go-to favorites to watch in high school when our choir director was out and we had a substitute for the day. I was really disappointed that the arrangement of Salve Regina from the 1992 movie was not in the musical at all! It was one of our favorite songs to sing in choir, (I think I might actually still have the sheet music for it...sorry LR music department!) but I guess it got replaced. Bummer.

My favorite songs in this version were "Take Me to Heaven" and "Raise Your Voice". There were a few Catholic jokes that went right over my head (Jewish girl problems) and some of the slower numbers left me wanting more energy, but the cast did an amazing job portraying the characters from the movie and Ta'rea Campbell who played the main character, Deloris Van Cartier, had a boomin' voice that blew me away!

The show runs at DPAC through May 19th so get your butt to Durham soon if you want to see a stage filled with singing nuns in fully sequined habits perform a sparkling tribute to the universal power of friendship and love!

 

Take the Yelp Shops Local Pledge!

Yelp has teamed up with the Etsy NC Triangle Street Team to support locally based online shops filled with amazing art, handmade accessories, vintage housewares, and more!

I have signed up for my Etsy shop, Three Ponds Vintage, to be part of Yelp's Cyber Specials Etsy Week (Dec. 3 - Dec. 9). Even though I haven't had much time to spend working on my shop and adding new merch, I still think it's important and I was honored to be asked to be part in this.

My offer is 10% off purchase, plus combined shipping on more than one item, with the code: TPVlovesYELP

Happy shopping!

Yelp's Passport to GNO Event: Cupcakes & Canapés @ Café Caturra

I braved the big evening thunderstorm that we had last night in Raleigh and drove downtown to Cameron Village for my second Yelp Event. This event was held at Café Caturra. The cafe has a an intimate atmosphere with low, low lighting, comfy upholstered seating, and a fire place. 

The cafe was serving various canapés and Gigi's was there with a tower of full size cupcakes. It was much more mellow than the event at the chocolate factory, so I am glad that I went to that one first so I already knew a few of the women attending.

I know these photos are not the best, but it is because Cafe Caturra was filled with very low, ambient lighting.

 

I took my cupcake ticket to the Gigi's cupcake table and tried a champagne cupcake with raspberry butter cream "Gigi's Style", which means upsidedown and smashed into the plate. The cupcake was very moist with a lingering almond flavor and the butter cream had a light raspberry flavor and it was rolled in beautiful sugar crystals. 

Yelp's Passport to GNO @ Videri Chocolate Factory

I mentioned my new interest in Yelp in this Friday Favorites post, but I haven't really mentioned it since then. I have been on Yelp more often, writing reviews and looking up new restaurants and shops to try as family and friends come to visit. I downloaded the mobile app and have started checking into places around town. I am even the Duchess of the Cameron Village Starbucks!

Last week an email arrived at the top of my inbox with an invitation to a list of Girls Night Out events. Each event was free, girls only, and they were all organized by the Raleigh Yelp team. I scrolled through the list and decided to RSVP to a couple of events. The first one, Yelp's Passport to Girls Night Out @ Videri Chocolate Factory was last night. I am so glad that I decided to go!

 

The event was held at a small, local chocolate factory called Videri located in the warehouse district of downtown Raleigh. There is a full parking lot in front of the factory, which was nice since most of the parking downtown is street parking or pay to park in a garage. When I went inside I was instantly hit by an amazing chocolate aroma that filled the entire building. I was happy to see that my new friend Kelly was working the check-in table. I picked up a name badge and my chocolate ticket and went in. 

The event was a chocolate and wine tasting so there was one line for the wine samples from Bonterra Vinyards and one for the chocolate samples. You can see on the menu above how the wines paired with each chocolate. I tried the Chardonnay, the Riesling and the Merlot, but didn't like any of them. I made sure to try each type of chocolate, but I only liked the Sea Salt Dark Chocolate. The Pink Peppercorn Dark Chocolate tasted like eating flowers! Not my fav.

While I was tasting wines and chocolates I met a few really nice women. There were no +1s allowed, so only a few people at the event knew other women who were there. This might seem awkward and scary, but the no +1 rule actually made it easier to just sit down and start chatting. Making friends post-college can be hard, especially for girls who can be a tough nut to crack. We girls like to stick with our trusted friends, but when you move to a new city and leave your friends behind, what is a girl to do? Going to Yelp events is a fun, casual, and inexpensive way to meet new friends and try new places around town!

I am going to another event tonight and I will be sure to blog about it tomorrow!