'Tis the Season... to be Singing!

It's that time of year again!  There's a chill in the air, snow on the ground (except for Southern Arizona), and everyone is ready for sleigh rides, hot cocoa and cuddle buddies.  It is also the exciting time of the year when musicians are at their busiest, because everyone wants their Christmas music at their holiday-themed parties.  Most of my holiday season consists of concerts, recitals and various other performances, and one such performance is my winter recital.  This year was particularly great in the sense that I didn't get my yearly cold until AFTER I sang this year.  The two songs I sang were "Sleigh Ride" and "Chi Voul La Zingarella." Check them out here at Chi Voul La Zingarella and Sleigh Ride

Post Halloween Decor

Just a little side note: This Halloween was a fun one to decorate the outside and leave everything else.

Flashback to the 20s-Halloween

One of my main projects every year is my Halloween costume.  I like to make it myself as much as possible instead of going out and buying a pre-made something, because that usually costs a lot of money and it's never authentic-looking.  This year I decided that I wanted to reprise my role as the 1920s flapper for Halloween and put my own spin on it.  I wanted things a little more flashy and less classy.  I wanted to make it look like I was headed for the local speakeasy instead of a dinner party.  The last time I was a flapper was back in 2007 when I was a flapper at school for our "Great Gatsby" party.  That was a little more elegant and toned down for school.  This time I went all out!

2007 "Great Gatsby" party look:

This year's more gaudy flapper:

Backyard Shenanigans!

This summer I had a project that was supposed to take a month and which ended up taking two-and-a-half months.  This was only because when I wasn't sick or out of town, I had to be careful of what I did because I was going to physical therapy for my shoulder that was always in pain.  The project that I did was my backyard.  The photo below that looks somewhat like the desert we live in was what it looked like before, and the other pictures are what it looked like after I was finished.  Pulling the weeds, cutting the grass, putting in a fire pit, edging the yard with brick and river rock, putting up the lighting and the picnic table and the patio furniture, and tilling and preparing the lawn to grow grass was all worth it.  Our backyard looks fantastic and it is ready for parties!


Before:

After:

The Mesa Temple

In decorating my house over the last few months, I realized that I didn't have a picture of Christ or of the temple anywhere in my house, and I wanted to change that.  I went to Deseret Book and Seagull Book to try and find something, but everything that was framed was so expensive and anything that was not framed didn't really work with my house, so I decided to improvise. I started drawing this a few days ago and it will be a while before it's finished, but I wanted to share the beginnings of it, because it will look very different when it's done and painted.

  It's the Mesa temple and its reflection:

Winter Recital

I must say, this concert season has reeked havoc on my voice.  With two concerts, a recital, and countless performances at church, my voice has been through the ringer, with just barely being able to sing tonight due to lack of voice.  That being said, I thought this particular performance (barring the random break in the middle of the song) was not too bad.  I don't usually do much acting when it comes to my vocal pieces, but after this one I think I should do a lot more.  This is a link to my video of the song "Adelaide's Lament" from the musical "Guys and Dolls."  Enjoy!  Adelaide's Lament

Christmas Party Prep

This was definitely a huge undertaking.  My roommates and I (yes, the same roommates who all decided to have a Halloween party.  What can we say?  We're party people!)  decided that it would be fun to have a Christmas party for our families.  There was so much to do and I had so many ideas that we couldn't do them all.  We split tasks again because of all that we had to do and again, I was one of two in charge of decorations.  I decided that I wanted to do a frame wall for decor in the kitchen so I took to the thrift stores and bought a couple of cheap picture frames of different sizes and I spray painted them the colors I was looking for.  Then I took different types of fillers, like wall paper and block lettering and filled the frames on the wall and I think it turned out great!  I wanted everything to be classy, so I took to the color theme of red and gold (thanks to the dollar store), and the Christmas tree came out beautifully!  There may have had to be some pull-back via some close friends and one or two of my roommates because of all that I wanted to do, but we made it happen and, in the end, the party turned out fantastic!