Quartet Coaching Part II - The Coach

A mentioned in a previous post, my quartet was privileged to be coached by one of the best known names in Sweet Adelines, Kim Vaughn! She was informative; She was funny; She was helpful; She was interesting; She was fabulous!

I wanted to make her a thank you card. Took me nearly a week to come up with anything more than the image I wanted to use. Sketch Saturday (#271) helped in this regard. 

Internet has been off and on for a couple weeks, so here I am at the last minute finishing this post. Sadly, I missed the deadline for The Pink Elephant (#211), using texture. I think, perhaps, I need a new router. Darn thing keeps forgetting how to communicate with the modem. I am getting very tired of fixing it every day, some days more than once.

Anywho, back to my card. I stamped the background first with "Weathered" from SU. Next, I stamped the cover-a-card music notes. I crumpled it and crushed it, unfolded it, then crumpled and crushed it again. I used my distressing tool on the edges (all the while wishing I had done this step before the crumpling, etc) then inked the edges and the ridges. My goal was a look of old parchment. I think it came out pretty well. 

Card Details:

Image: Copper Leaf Creations, Cover-a-Card, SU

Sentiment: Computer generated

Cardstock: SU

Ink: SU, Memento
Coloring: Copics, Prismacolor markers

Tools: Nestabilities, Tim Holtz Distressing Tool

Embellies: unknown sequins, unknown rhinestone, Stickles

And here we are with Kim

Quartet Coaching Part I - The Outfit

This past Saturday, my quartet had the honor of coaching with Kim Vaughn (formerly Hulbert), Sweet Adelines International Faculty, International quartet champion (several times over), International Chorus Champion director and all around amazing singer and teacher. Though shaky in the week leading up to it, I had a blast on stage. Oh right, did I mention our coaching took place in front of many of the regions quartets?

During our weekly rehearsal we discussed what to wear. Our chorus director (who happened to be there) said she was going shopping that afternoon and would keep her eye out for some tops. The following night at chorus rehearsal, she had a bag full! (Not to mention a perfect pair of earrings) We chose two sets (everything must be bought times four, remember) and sent one back. We wore the more casual (and slightly cooler; it is summer, all) top for our big day.

The lead and tenor went shopping later in the week and found necklaces, bracelets and bangles to match




Kim complimented us on our appearance and talked to the other attendees about how your impression on stage sets the judges to expect good (or not so good) things from you. 

On Sunday while blurfing (I have been trying to do a better job with keeping up with everyone's blogs), I came upon The Deconstructed Sketch (#112). Immediately my "All Dressed Up" dies came to mind, and a card was born. This one will go to Marion (SONE director), our personal shopper.

Card Details:

Image: N/A

Sentiment: SU

Cardstock: GP, SU

Ink: SU
Coloring: N/A

Tools: SU Framelits die

Embellies: SU button, SU Bakers twine, SU Dimensionals

Hooray For The Winners

As I mentioned in my last post, I volunteered to make cards for my friend Yoda to send to the winning choruses and quartets from our recent regional competition. As usual, my first stop was Tuesday Morning Sketches. I stared at this weeks design (196) for a few minutes, then went looking for an image. 

Originally, I was thinking of a congratulations stamp along the bottom, but since the image I decided upon already has a sentiment, I had to use something else. Sweet Adelines are all about the bling (after the singing, of course), so rhinestones were the obvious choice. Pink in this case (believe it or not).

A scan of the cards have been sent to Yoda for approval. If, for whatever reason, she does not like them, I will be back with my next design.




Card Details:

Image: Stampin Up!

Sentiment: (SU)

Cardstock: SU, GP

Ink: Memento

Tools: Nestabilities

Coloring: Prismacolor Markers

Embellies: Unknown ribbon, unknown rhinestones

Cake Wrecks

Thanks to my sister, I have discovered a new and hilarious way to spend more time on the computer. Not that I needed more time online, but I just cannot resist. She posted a link on my Facebook wall asking if I still did cake decorating. (I don't do much decorating anymore - not that I did all that much in the first place - for it is far too painful for my hands [Have I ever mentioned that Lupus sucks?!])

Anywho, I was never a great cake decorator, but I was (thankfully) not as bad as the ones featured on Cake Wrecks; and they are from 'professional' decorators! What I like best about this site is not so much the cakes themselves, but the blogger's critique. Think about this... When you are with someone and something funny happens, you tend to glance at the other person and nod, smile or somehow connect to show you think it is funny, too. You laugh louder and harder if you are around who shares in your mirth, right?

Here I am, all by myself, laughing uproariously. There is no one here to egg me on, well, except for Darwin, who eventually will cackle right along with me, but as he is a parrot, I don't think that counts. Sometimes Princess A will be here and ask to see; inevitably those are the times when I am laughing at the ones totally inappropriate for the eyes of a 10-year-old. (Not so much the photos, though there are a couple, but the language used in the commentary)

The more entertaining the post, the more comments that have been attached. Most of which are just as risible. (Hey Mom! I used that word just for you - did you like it?)

(Did I happen to mention at the beginning that this is going to be an excessively long post? I didn't? Oops!)

Are you ready? It's my VERY OWN CAKE WRECK! (OK, not mine, exactly. It actually belongs to Shelley)


You may find this hard to believe, but this cake is, in fact, what was ordered. It is beautifully decorated - there is amazing dimension and attention to detail though I know it is hard to tell from this photo (Ack, I did not have my camera with me, only my cell phone, and I don't know how to send it straight to my blog, so I had to save it from my Facebook posting, hence the really bad resolution. Sorry) . Kudos to Waldbaum's in West Hartford for their superb undertaking of such a bizarre order.

Ah yes, you are wondering WHY someone would order this particular cake on purpose...

My chorus is soon to compete in the Region One Contest for Sweet Adelines International. Should we win (cross your fingers!) we will then be eligible to compete in the International Competition in Seattle, WA. Part of our preparation is to have coaches come for a weekend and show us ways to garner a few more points. One coach in particular, Joe, suddenly stopped during our rehearsal and asked, "what's that smell?" Not knowing where he was going with this we suggested perhaps he was smelling the coffee in the next room. He then followed up with, "is it salmon I smell? Salmon from Seattle?" Throughout the weekend, he would stop us every once in a while and sniff to get people thinking about earning our way to Seattle. (For me however, as this is a chorus of all women, I think a coffee reference would have been more appropriate...)

This past weekend we had another coaching session, but different coach. One of our members, Shelley, stood up and announced that her birthday was coming up, but since it was during Passover, she did not think her 80 best friends would appreciate eating chocolate covered matzoh. She brought this cake instead so we could all celebrate with her and at the same time pay homage to the reason we were all together that day. Happy Birthday Shelley!!

I wish I had a better photo so I could send it in to Cake Wrecks, for I am curious to see just what she would have to say, and what comments it would generate. Anyone out there have one you could send me?