America's Got Talent...But Not At This House

No, I don't have a tour of my sewing room, just a little fun we had Saturday night demonstrating my kids' musical talents and my ability to convulse when hitting wrong notes. Our drummer appears somewhat lethargic but is still able to keep the beat:



And here's a little more polished product sans drums (this is like the 3rd run-through together if you wonder why it's so rough). Obviously more practice is in order.



That was "Somebody That I Used to Know" by Luiz Bonfa, in case you didn't recognize it....and why would you, really?

Did You Need a Little Pick-Me-Up?

Wanna see some 40-year-olds dancing, then wheezing and clutching their chests? At least the 9-year-old can keep going - the rest of us gave out. Anyway, this is good for a little pick-me-up when you're feeling down or bored. We inherited this uncanny dance ability from our dad, who was prone to falling on the floor and doing The Worm at the drop of the hat...or the Sprinkler, which Lucas has mastered. Our mom has a different dance style, which I shall profile in the next couple of days....oh yes I will!

Here's What I've Been Up To...

Hello Stranger! I'm back after falling off the planet for a week. There was a lot going on with camp preparations (i.e. manic shorts-sewing aided by my saint of a mother who selflessly cut and ironed and interfaced while I sat at the sewing machine), followed by a week at Lake Martin, followed by more laundry and packing for Drew.

So I have more clips of our fun, but apparently I have to load them on YouTube now because Blogger won't play the regular clips from my camera. Oh well, if you're incriminated in any upcoming videos, rest assured that these are unlisted and not available for public consumption (only public humiliation here at my blog).

And since I'm boarding a plane in one hour, I'll leave you with this and then work on some more later this weekend. This is my brother and sister and the niece and nephew plus Lucas, as captured by Drew on his Flip. You will see that the madness runs in the family - it's not just me.

Call Weekend = Sewing!

Well they left me again to go to the Hangout Music Festival at Gulf Shores, and I can't go because I'm on call, but it's all good because I get to SEW! Now Victoria was talking about how her TV distracts her from sewing, and apparently this blog is distracting me from sewing.

I was working on Lucas's shorts and Lady Gaga came on the TV (I was bouncing between Fox News and CNN trying to be bipartisan). Well I started composing new words to Telephone, which I have now been working on for an HOUR! Of course I had to check the video, which was quite shocking - who knew Beyonce would agree to that? But now I'm working out the logistics of getting it on here - I can link the song so you can listen and read the words at the same time, because just reading it doesn't make sense. But I think I need to sing over the music so you'll get the beat, so I'll need a microphone. (This is where my family commences to vomiting and denying any relation to me.) So I'm headed back upstairs to work out the rest of the words in my head while finishing Lucas's shorts and hopefully cut out a top for myself. And just you wait...you'll get some Lady Sister later tonight or in the morning! (Is that a threat or a promise, Sister? Oh, if you knew how I sing, you'd know it was a threat.)

Lady Sister - Just a Taste

Okay, shorts are done as far as they can go till the boy gets here to try them on. Plus that damn waist facing around the fly messed me up again, so I put it down till tomorrow. Here's what I got so far on the Telephone song by Lady Gaga and Beyonce:

Hello hello baby you called
I can’t hear a thing
I have got no service
in my sewing room, you see.
Wha-wha-what did you say?
You’re breakin’ up on me
Sorry I cannot hear you
I’m kinda busy
K-kinda busy
K-kinda busy
Sorry I cannot hear you I’m kinda busy.

Just a second
It’s my Jalie shirt I'm working on.
And I can't get it cut out if I'm talkin' on the phone.
You think I'm lonely 'cause I'm here by my-self all alone,
But this is the first chance all week I've really had to sew.

I'm sewin'
I'm sewin'
Workin' on that Sim-pli-ci-ty
I've basted it, now I'm sewin' the real seams.
I'm sewin'
I'm sewin'
Those shorts are almost finished now
I'll hem 'em up when he gets back in town.

E-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e
Stop telephonin’
Me-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e
I’m busy e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e
Stop telephonin’
Me-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e
Can call all you want but there’s no one home
And you’re not gonna reach my telephone

‘Cuz it's late at night,
Checkin' pattern web sites
And you’re not gonna reach my telephone
(Thanks to DirectLyrics.com for the originals.)

That's about as far as I got - did you want to hear a little? (No, you don't - trust me.) This is the 1st verse and the chorus - I couldn't get the 2nd verse to play. Just trust me that if you say it right it all fits.



Yeah, it is OBVIOUSLY time to go to bed! Just take this with a grain of salt and file it away with the zipper dance and the Coldplay piano performance - temporary insanity.

DJ Zipper and Rapper-17

Word to Drew for the videography, and props to my man Rapper-17 (picked the name himself) for joining me on the flo'. Remember my little statement at the top about being odd and sometimes inappropriate? I think it crossed into weird today, but you'll forgive me I hope. I just wanted to show how much talent DJ's need to do that scratching - we had to do a couple of takes because I was off the beat, thus the poorly edited version. Anyway, shows how well these jeans are made that I can play the zippers like that with no popped stitches, huh! (Ignore the carriers that aren't sewn down yet.)

Watch Out Tamilee! For Me, I Mean...

So this doesn't look like strenuous exercise at all, but I'm actually going 4 mph, which is pretty decent. I think it's that my legs are so long and I'm apparently quite Marfanoid, so it doesn't look like it's fast. What you can't tell is that I ended up sweating rather heavily after a couple of takes. (That just proves that I'm out of shape, not that this is great cardio...which it really is.)

I don't think Tamilee has anything to worry about. Even if I did have big muscles like she does, I certainly don't have the wardrobe or cleavage to pose a problem.

This is not how I look in my head.

Again, when I'm on the treadmill with earphones in, I am SO SEXY during this song! Somehow that all gets lost in video. I like it better in my head - maybe it should've stayed there! This is also about 4 mph, but if you'd rather run, crank it up! Just be careful or you'll fall off the treadmill like I nearly did.

Now for a cool-down, I like that Decemberadio song "For Your Glory" that I linked a few weeks ago. You just have to remember that it's a cool down, so no "testifying" or you'll get your heart rate back up!

Practice Makes Perfect......NOT!

Okay, so I was planning to re-enact some of the Coldplay concert that we saw last week in Atlanta (complete with paper butterflies), but I needed to practice first. I planned to enlist Drew's help as videographer and Lucas's as butterfly-thrower.

But what I discovered on these dry runs is that there's something wrong with my face. Everybody has always told me you can read me like a book - every emotion shows on my face. I finally understand what they're talking about. I also understand that I can never be taken seriously as a performer with all the nostril-twitches and eyebrow antics. Every time I hit a wrong note with my hand, it traveled up to my brain and sparked a facial tic.

Who's read Blink? Here're the 5,000 combinations of facial expressions he talks about. He talks about one video of Cato Caelin (sp?) on the stand at OJ's trial where he's talking to the lawyer and looks like he's growling at her in one freeze frame. I found some odd expressions in these freeze frames and had no idea I was doing them.

Another freaky thing is to see if you can sync them all up so you have a trio - NICE!!!

Gettin' Low

There's nothin' like a good dance party, and Low is a pretty good dance song (if you overlook the verse that talks about the pole in her livin' room). These boys have pretty good moves (one's got a little better rhythm than the other, but I'm not sayin' who). You'll have to watch this video 3 times: the first time your eye will naturally be drawn to the biggest bootie on the flo', the 2nd time you should concentrate on Drew's technique, and the 3rd time check out Lucas's stylings. He likes to take it face down during the chorus. Drew demonstrates strong quads at that point. I think we could've all made it on MTV's TRL.....uh, there at the end where the ratings were down.

Get up and go have a dance party of your own - there's no bettah fun!!!

P.S. For a better dance video - check out Saturday Night Live's parody of Beyonce's video for Single Ladies with Justin Timberlake - HILARIOUS!!!!!!! This was the best SNL of the year!