It's TUESDAY! What's on the DIVAMOMMY's phone?

Well, I have a minute while my phone re-boots in the hopes that I will be able to get my photos off of it.

For those of you who loved my teal skirt, click here and scroll down. I took a closeup for ya.

And I now have 8 followers!  I have decided to do a cool giveaway...I'm not sure what yet, but I'm a woman of many talents. As soon as I get to lucky 13 followers, I'll do a giveaway that's only open to followers of my blog!

And now...for my phone.

Oh, wait...this coming week I'm setting a goal to take photos of my handsome DramaDad because he always looks so great, even if he's just running to the store or puttering around the house.

And now for my phone for reals.

First up, the kiddos brought me pictures they had drawn of me. Ahhhhh!

 This is from Lollies. She was so proud!

 And BuddyBoy said it was me as a spider. Ahhhh!

Then I made a lemon meringue pie. I took a picture, but strangely, my phone did not save it or something. Strange, huh?

 So...here is what was left of it. Mmmmmmmm.....

And here's our lovely Christmas tree. It's kinda got a mardi gras theme...DramaDad is very creative.

I was rehearsing for my cabaret last week, and Lollies just had to join in the fun. 

And here's DramaDad doing his best Bernadette Peters impression.

Oh, too much fun. Now I'm off to comment on ALL OF YOUR TUESDAY phone blogs.

This post is brought to you by The Lowe Family News, the letter T and the number10.

My Christmas List!

Guess which one I will actually probably get.

1. iPad

It's soooo beautiful!

Why? Aside from the obvious coolness, it would be a fabulous business tool....for costumes, what an easy and convenient way to store costume renderings, shopping lists, measurements. For parties, it could play a video showing all my awesomeness, useful in planning, organizing. It could even be an instant karaoke player. yeah. And it can turn into a piano. And it's an IPAD!

2. Pretty Boots

Or something like these...

But I can't decide if I want them in grey or brown or tan. Ok, I want them in all 3. Not necessarily this style, either. But similar.Or the same. Cool. Maybe like brown flats, grey & tan heels...

3. Recording Equipment

Really awesome recording package on Musicians Friend.

Or...

GARAGE BAND (on a MacBook Pro, which I do not own) & Snowball (I have the snowball, but it doesn't play nice with my PC)

This should be self explanatory. I just want to SING! And record it. For posterity.

4. Vacay

Oh, sweet, sweet Hawaii!

In the past 2 years, my husband has been to the eastern Carribean, Bermuda and Hawaii. I've been to Spokane, WA and Edmonton, CA. Ummm... I mean, they were fun and I'm totally grateful, but they really aren't tropical. I find myself jonesing for a tropical environment - even though I've never been. My friends are heading to the Carribean for Christmas, I have another friend (several, actually) who are cruising the world. Jealous? Yes, indeed.

5. These fabulous makeups!!

 

Mmmmm...just mmmmmm.

These are great! I actually already ordered the white ultra sparkly stuff, I'll let you know what I think about it. They could be really super cool for makeover parties! Find them here, on Etsy @ CarinaDolci 

I'd also love new cooking implements and dishes. I got some dishes right before Ryder was born, almost 5 years ago, but most are broken. Oh, and we only needed a set of 4 back then. Clothes are always great. DramaDad always used to get me clothes for Christmas - in fact, for our first Christmas....

***DIVAMOMMY FLASHBACK***

DramaDad and I met in June. We "hung out" while rehearsing for Fiddler On The Roof. We got engaged closing night, a week before Thanksgiving of that year. (1998 for those of you who care)

That year for Christmas, he literally bought me a whole new wardrobe. DramaDad is the coolest dresser ever.   He is like the king of clothes. In fact, next week - for Phone Photo Tuesday - I'm going to try to take pic's of him everyday to prove it. Anyway, he bought me like 7-8 pairs of jeans, a ton of tops, shoes...yeah. I was opening presents forever. Turns out he couldn't stand the way I dressed. And until Lollies altered my body forever and I can't just wear anything anymore, he got me clothes every year.  Now that my body shape is different and we have 4 kids and can't just go shopping together all the time, I've had to learn to shop for myself...hence - TEAL SKIRT!!! What? Want to see it close up???

***DIVAMOMMY TANGENT***

As requested, closeup photos of the awesomeness that is my teal skirt. I love the high waisted, pencilness of it. And the really cool belt that came with it. And the ruched panels down the side. Slimming, sexy, shiny. Oh, and I have it in black satin as well.

This skirt makes me smile.

Ok, well, what a lovely look towards my Christmas future (ok, maybe not so much...it's more a dream list than a wish list) and Christmas past. And my teal skirt.

Happy Holidays!!

Rockin' it out!

Well, sorry this blog won't be as exciting as I wanted it to be. I forgot my dang camera! And I feel really stupid because I waited for my husband for like 15 minutes to get ready, I dumped everything off the sim card...and then forgot it.

And, I should be cleaning. Instead, I'm blogging. But then I'll clean. I have too. Messes are ucky.

Anyway, so on Thursday night, my friends Keith & Kelly and DramaDad and I put on a little cabaret called Broadway Rocks! Featuring rock music from broadway.

I have requested a copy of my friends video so I can post some excerpts of the show. We sang music from shows like Next to Normal (a new rock musical about a woman with bi-polar disorder with amazing music), Spring Awakening, Tommy, Chess...and of course we had to do "Don't Stop Believin'" - it's in Rock of Ages, but we couldn't find their arrangement, so we had to do the Glee version...darn it!

Hmm....well, I guess that's about all until I have video. Oh, I did have PrincessPrettyP take my picture of my "rockin'" outfit. I liked it! 

The DAYBOOK treatment: shoes: applebottoms, jeans: paris blues - ross, top - target (pronounced Tar-shjay), sweater: thrifted, necklace - walmart (you wouldn't believe how cute it is!)

The only thing I bought for the day was the necklace. And the shoes I've had for a while but never a chance to wear them.

So tomorrow I'm singing a christmas song in church. One of my fav's - so that I'm actually excited to sing in church. It's called Christmas Lullaby by Jason Robert Brown. So beautiful and moving. Here's the original recording for your holiday listening enjoyment.

I wish I had decent recording equipment because one year for Christmas our whole family recorded Christmas songs. It was a great Christmas gift. Hmm....

AHH! Clothes!!!

Ok, sorry to blog like back to back, but I must feature this giveaway!

Remember my new blog obession - THE DAY BOOK? 

Well, she's giving away a $50 gift certificate to RUCHE

Pretty amazing clothes. I want this one:

It would be perfect for my rockin' broadway cabaret on Thursday.

What's on the DivaMommy's (lame) phone?

Link up!

Um, first of all, let me tell you how much I hate my phone. It's a MyTouch, I was all excited to get it - touch screen and all. But, no.  It's slow, stupid and annoying. Sometimes it takes me over a minute for my phone to load so I can even make a call. It takes lousy photos. I was excited that maybe it would get better when the new operating system downloaded a few weeks ago. Nope. Still sucks. Worse.

And it just took me like an hour to get it to talk to my computer. Had to re-start the phone, after spending $1.20 on a now completely useless app. $1.20! That's like $.80 away from the sinful goodness that is a caramel cheesecake bite from Del Taco.

So, anyway, here's what's on my dumb phone. I really never take picture with it and I'm trying to remember too, but oh well. Here's what I got!

 This is her majesty, PrincessPrettyP at her cousin's birthday party. I did her facepainting - she was a cat! Meow!

 And the birthday girl herself with her cute rainbow butterfly w/matching flower. The colors were really much prettier in person. Did I mention my phone takes horrible photos?

I don't remember taking this picture, but it's BuddyBoy at Cane's. I can tell by the table and the corrugated metal behind him. Mmmmm. Canes.... 

 So I did this AWESOME Christmas Concert last week. Seriously. You can be proud of yourself when you're number one compliment was "Mariah WHO?" Yeah. Coolness. Anyway, this is a pic of my friend Taylor in rehearsal. He's crooning out Michael Buble's version of Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow. You better believe I'll be posting some video when I get it.

For the Christmas Concert, I wore a teal skirt, so I painted my toenails to match. Of course, Lollies had to match, too. So, I took a cute picture.  

And while this photo is not from my phone, it is from a friends, and it demonstrates said teal skirt. I bought it for the last cabaret at the famed Liberace Museum which closed. I sang alongside cast members from Phantom, Jersey Boys & Lion King and was the only girl with a solo. And - bonus - it was the perfect outfit for the Christmas concert, too. :)

And here is the DramaDad, up close! We took the kids to McD's to play at the play place, and I discovered that with the new phone update, my camera could now zoom. I tested it out on him! But what good is the zoom if the photos are blurry? Whatever. Hate my phone.

And here are what most of my phone photos look like. It would appear that Lollies stole my phone and  took photos while watching The Princess and the Frog on the 'puter.

BONUS!!

I did get this adorable video of Lollies singing her favorite Pink song in the car. "You called me sugarrrrr"

Yup, ok, that's all. Seriously lame photos from my seriously lame phone. I hope I don't run into anyone famous and only have my phone on me to take a photo with them.

Purty Picshures!

Soo....I recently went Blonde, which you can see if you compare my profile picture to my header.

And I'm doing this Christmas concert and I needed a new headshot.

DIVA-NITION: Headshot: Noun,  A photograph used by anyone in the entertainment business, like the DivaMommy, to submit to a casting director to represent your likeness in the best possible light, including generous use of makeup and surreptitious use of photoshop to change, alter and or manipulate said artist to look thinner, younger and more attractive than they really do in person in hopes that the casting director will forget how you looked in person and remember only your beautiful, angelic headshot. Also used in theatrical programs with the same purpose in mind, this time with the intention on duping the audience.


Fortunately for me, I happen to have a sister in law who's a photographer. DramaDad told me to call her, but I didn't want to bug her. But, the next day she happened to text to see if she could come over to my house and have me take photos of her family for their Christmas card!  EUREKA!

So, I got all purdy and took some quick shots.

How many photos does it take to get a good one? In this case, 70. I think I'm a pretty good model, but I wasn't really feeling the vibe this time. I did end up with a few good shots, one I'm really happy with!

Tah Dah!!

Why is this a good one? Because I look pleasant, friendly and easy to work with. I like the interesting porportions, but it also crops nicely to an 8x10.

8x10 - the industry standard!

So...how does one arrive at this photo? Well, first you sort through the 70 shots taken. Avoiding ones like these:

Hello, chins. 

DIVAFACT: My chin/neck is my least favorite feature. 80% of my 'bad' photographs are made bad because of my neck/chin. I'm sure if I lost that pesky 10 lbs that my last baby left me the problem would diminish. But no...I'm a little to fond of the drink. Dr Pepper, that is. And the dairy...cheesecake, cheesecake bites from Del Taco, sour cream, cheese, cheese enchiladas with sour cream...you get the picture. HA! You get the "PICTURE" - get it? Sigh.

The "trying to stare off into the distance but just looking 'touched' pose"

The Sexpot Sandra. Oooh, baby!

The SOOO close shot. If I would have just "smized", Tyra would have been proud.

And then you find this one. This is the one I picked in it's raw form.

Can you see the potential?

As you can see, it is not without flaws. The color is a little weak, the eyes are a little baggy. It's PHOTOSHOP TIME!!!!!

First, I adjust the exposure.

Then adjust the brightness and contrast. Helps to pop the colors.

With a paintbrush tool, blur and smart fix, I brush over my blemishes.

And fixed my tooth!

Once I have a good, raw image, I start to play! I use all sorts of fun things, most of which are PHOTOSHOP Actions and processes to alter and make the photo artistic!

This one's called Dragonizer. It's DramaDad's favorite.

This one is called Sepia Midnight. I really like this action.

And this is one I got from my blog obsession, the DAYBOOK!

And of course, black and white.

So, now that you're sick of looking at me, at least you know the process that it takes to have a good headshot.

Thanksgiving!

This year....I'm thankful for THANKSGIVING! Why?

Well, for the first time in 3 years, it was just our family.

Our own personal economy tanked before the real economy about 3 years ago, so we lived with the in-laws for a while. It was a wonderful thing for us and I couldn't be more grateful to my husbands family. We did end up staying longer than we had hoped and I'm sure they weren't sad to see us go - no house is big enough for two households. But it afforded us the ability to make a career change and though we are far from financially prosperous, we are spiritually prosperous and financially stabilizing in our own cozy yet spacious rental home, just down the street. Which is in and of itself another blessing, but I'll share that story at another time.

My joy started with the dining room table. DramaDad in all of his thrifty goodness, found us an amazing table for $12 at the local goodwill. It's HUGE! It fits perfectly in our dining room and for the first time in my life, I have a formal dining room. Way cool.

Now, we've had the table for a while, and he even re-finished it some time ago. Our landlords left some rather shabby iron furniture on the patio, but we brought them in and the 4 chairs have been sitting around the table, also for some time. DramaDad also picked up 2 more chairs at another thrift store for the ends.

But the 4 iron chairs needed completely new seats - wood, cushioning and fabric. We found some fabric about 2 weeks ago and I told him I wanted my dining room ready to go by Thanksgiving. And my man DELIVERED! It looks beautiful in there...I'll be posting about the room on his blog later this weekend.

So...Thanksgiving day...I didn't want to have 2 Turkey dinners in a row (we were planning on attending dinner at his parents house that evening) so I decided on my favorite dish...CHIMICHANGAS!!! Kind of a family tradition from my side of the family. Not for Thanksgiving, just for special occasions.

They are a bit of an involved process. I put a rather large pork roast in the crockpot the night before and let it slow cook all night long. In the morning, I shredded the meat and made the "meat mix" which is basically salsa, onions, green chile's and some seasonings with the meat. But the flavor combinations are AMAZING! And, I have like 5 more bags of it in my freezer for future meals. GOOD DEAL!

I also whipped up some cheese enchiladas, another of my favorites and some mexican rice.

Sitting at the dinner table with my WHOLE family - my 4 beautiful kiddos and my rather hot honey, eating my favorite meal -well, it was just perfect!

(You should know that the table in my kitchen nook only seats 4, so family meals until this point have not really ever happened, which is sad.)

After dinner, I took a little breather because I had been in the kitchen all day, and looked through the black friday ads. I had ferreted away a little money for some deals that weekend. Unfortunately, some of it had disappeared over the weeks, but at least I had something!

BuddyBoy quickly found a pen and started excitedly circling everything in the ads that he wanted. It was rather endearing, but we had to have the discussion that Santa will bring you a few things on that list, but not everything. He seemed ok with that.

Then I stepped back in the kitchen to prepare the sweet potatoes and the veggie plate. In honor of BuddyBoy, the veggie plate consisted of yellow, red and orange bell peppers, carrots and celery. I also brought black olives and pickles. See, BuddyBoy LOVES LOVES LOVES bell peppers. He eats them like candy. Really, he would if you let him. If you tell him to pick out a treat at the store, he goes right past the candy to the peppers or apples. I don't know why, he certainly didn't get that from me.

I finished perusing the ads and we headed over and had a lovely dinner with the family. We really do have a great time when we get together, laughing and telling stories.

Back home, I got ready to head out to the Black Friday events! Luckily, Toys R Us was opening at 10pm and Walmart was starting their sale at 12:01 am. As I was getting ready, my sister in law called to tell me that the line for Toys R Us was going out to the street. Great. Oh well, mama needs some Bargains!

So...I head over to Toys R Us. Park. Far away. Start to follow the line back...and I see it stretches...to the FREEWAY! Which is somewhat close to the store if you're in a car, but I was like...NO WAY!

Well, it's early and Walmarts already open, so I head over there. Where I guess they decided not to wait until 12:01...I had my cart full by 11:20, when lines were starting to form at the checkout. So, I got in line. Good thing, too. They couldn't ring anyone up until midnight because the prices weren't in the computer until then.

Fortunately I was surrounded by really nice people...and ended up giving out a bunch of business cards! Yay me.

By the time they could start checking us out, the lines were to the back of the store. I was like 6th in line. Again, yay me! I was out of there by 12:20.

And decided to head over to Toys R Us. When I got an email. Saying I had a PayPal payment.  I was SOOOO confused! Until I scrolled on my little phone screen to see that someone had purchased a Katy Perry California Girls costume! I had plenty of stuff leftover from the first one I made, so I listed it on Etsy on a whim!!! Which meant I had a WHOLE bunch more money than I did a few moments before!!!! I have rarely felt so blessed. :)

Remember?

So, the kids are getting a few more things than I had planned. And I get to do another candyland costume, which was really fun and I even found some better stuff to put on it.

I went home, went to sleep, got up around 11am and went back out - to Target, Hobby Lobby, Kohl's and JoAnn.

But then my hubs called to tell me our computer moniter, which has been acting weird, bit the dust. :(

So, we grabbed the kids, hit up Cane's for some Chicken - YUM! And headed to Best Buy. Where they happened to have some computer monitor doorbusters left. If we had to replace it, at least it had to be on black Friday.

Thanksgiving dinner around my own dining room table, shopping in the middle of the night at black Friday sales...it's all so normal!! I like it. :)

Now, a sampling of things I'm grateful for, in no particular order:

DramaDad and the DivaMommy players: Mowgli, PrincessPrettyP, BuddyBoy and Lollies. They bring me joy. Plain and simple.

The opportunities to perform a lot this year and 2 shows in the next 2 weeks!! YAY!

My Sister, Liona, and her family. I LOVE THEM!!! And I love that we have kids the same age...cousins who LOVE to play together. It makes my heart warm. (I have no cousins my age and have never lived near family and it's one thing I always wanted)

Our amazing landlords and our old but beautiful home. I love it here.

Even though I hate it because it's falling apart, my car still gets us around unfailingly. Oh great, now it's going to breakdown because I said something. :(

Sleep, which I should be doing but I'm blogging.

Air Conditioning and Heating

Amazing friends who are like family

Self Discovery

My blog readers. Both of you. I love you very much!