Monday, February 28, 2011

Billie Holiday


In trying to gain ideas for my tins for the jazz festival I ran across this about Billie Holiday.
She is one of my all time favorite singers. A voice like butter, I just adore this lady.

Billie Holiday became a pioneer of race relations when she toured with Artie Shaw and his orchestra, becoming one of the first African-Americans to sing with a white band. During this time, she would often perform "Strange Fruit", a song about the lynchings of African
Americans, which became one of her signature songs.

For all of Billie's musical accomplishments, she was plagued with troubles as her romantic relationships with unscrupulous and abusive men dragged her career down and she sunk into drug addiction. Numerous arrests on drug charges and jail time served in 1947 caused her to lose her cabaret license, barring her from singing in venues serving alcohol for the rest of her career. Despite all of these difficulties, she always presented herself on stage with the eloquence and grace well deserving of her moniker "Lady".

Billie Holiday died at the age of 44 in 1959 and is remembered as a legendary singer of jazz and swing music.

There will be a couple of tins and an 8 x 10 black and white framed collage that I made two years ago dedicated to this "Lady"





Friday, February 25, 2011

I Miss You Mom

Today is the third anniversary of my Mother's passing. I miss her so much.
Wanda June in her 30's
She was such a pretty woman

My Mom in the green blouse and her oldest dearest friend Hilma on Mom's 80th Birthday.

My Mom was a wonderful person. She loved all her family so much. She became a single Mother in her early 30's after my Father passed away at the age of 34. He had a massive heart attach. I was 7 and my brother was 4.

She was a nurse and worked the afternoon shift at Samaritan Hospital so she could be with us in the evening. She had so many stories to tell of her childhood and of how she met my Father on the Marine Base in Pocatello, Idaho. I miss all those stories. My niece Mandy loved those stories and had her tell them over and over and in a few years before she died she recorded all of them as Mom would tell them to her. I thank God she did that. It is so wonderful to listen to her voice and her sense of humor.

I am blessed to have had such a wonderful Mother. She taught me lots of things, things I am just recently realizing. I want so much to tell her she was right about so many things.

Cherish your parents. Listen to them.
They have experience in life even when YOU are all grown up.

Love You Mom. Miss you everyday.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Zumba

I have heard of Zumba for a few months now and it is only in the past two weeks I have been curious to what is all about. I have see the infomercials and loved the music and then one of my Etsy Team members told me she had been doing it for awhile now and she looks great.

So today I had my first Zumba class and I love it! It is a work out but oh so much fun. The music just makes you want to move and the class is an hour but the time went by so fast. I am hooked and cannot wait for the next session on Tuesday.

They say you burn up to 1000 in one of these sessions. As you know if you have been a follower for long, I used to be a dancer in the days of disco and I have missed dancing so very much. My ex husband was my dance partner and my current husband does not dance so I have not pushed it.

Zumba is like dancing and you don't need a partner! I seriously recommend it to anyone that hates to work out like I do.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Hi Ya All !


Yep it's me. I am still here though I have been absent from the blogging world for a few days.
Since Saturday we have been transferring our internet server from Satellite to cable.
Yippppeeeee ! I finally after 5 years here in Coos Bay have speed on my computer.

Just wanted to remind my ATC Swappers that your cards are due to your partner by Feb 28th.
If you are not able to contact your partner please let me know and I will help you.

It has been raining, hailing, sun shining and possible snow in our area tonight or tomorrrow.
Mother nature is for sure confused and she has confused my daffodils too. They have bloomed :( Now what? They wilt for sure. Poor things. I have lots of them.

I will take a picture of daffodils in the snow if it really does snow on them.

Have a great week

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Fun at the Pottery Place


Last week our Etsy Team decided to do something different so we all went to the local Pottery Place and created something.
This was what I created. The sculpture was ready of course...I could never create the lady bug myself!


So we each chose something to paint and this little girl is what I painted


She looks so cute I just love her.I had my doubts about the blue eyes but they turned out just fine
Cute little behind too huh?
What should I name her?
Posted by Picasa

Monday, February 14, 2011

The Andrew Sisters

How many of you even know who these three ladies are or what they stood for during WWII?

I am getting ready to make some musical tins for the Jazz festival here in Coos Bay next month and I ran across this information. I didn't know the youngest Andrew sister's name is Patricia Marie....That is my name. I remember hearing my Mother listen to their music.

The sisters were born in Minnesota to a Greek immigrant father and a Norwegian American mother,Olga "Ollie" (née Sollie) Andrews (1886–1948) and Peter Andreas, who took the name of Andrews (1884–1949).

Patty, the youngest and the lead singer of the group, was only seven when the group was formed, and just 12 when they won first prize at a talent contest at the local Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis, where LaVerne played piano accompaniment for the silent film showings in exchange for free dancing lessons for herself and her sisters. Once the sisters found fame and settled in California, their parents lived with them in a Brentwood estate in Los Angeles until their deaths. Several cousins from Minnesota followed them west. The sisters returned to Minneapolis at least once a year to visit family and friends and/or to perform.

Career

They started their career as imitators of an earlier successful singing group, the Boswell Sisters. After singing with various dance bands and touring in vaudeville with the likes of Ted Mack, Leon Belasco, and comic bandleader Larry Rich, they first came to national attention with their recordings and radio broadcasts in 1937, most notably via their major Decca record hit, Bei Mir Bist Du Schön (translation: To me, you are beautiful), originally a Yiddish tune, the lyrics of which Sammy Cahn had translated to English and which the girls harmonized to perfection. They followed this success with a string of best-selling records over the next two years and they became a household name by 1940.

World War II

During World War II, they entertained the Allied forces extensively in America, Africa and Italy, visiting Army, Navy, Marine and Coast Guard bases, war zones, hospitals, and munitions factories. They encouraged U.S. citizens to purchase war bonds with their rendition of Irving Berlin's song Any Bonds Today?. They also helped actors Bette Davis and John Garfield found California's famous Hollywood Canteen, a welcome retreat for servicemen where the trio often performed, volunteering their personal time to sing for and dance with soldiers, sailors and Marines (they did the same at New York City's Stage Door Canteen during the war). While touring, they often treated three random servicemen to dinner when they were dining out. They recorded a series of Victory Discs (V-Discs) for distribution to Allied fighting forces only, again volunteering their time for studio sessions for the Music Branch, Special Service Division of the Army Service Forces, and they were dubbed the "Sweethearts of the Armed Forces Radio Service" for their many appearances on shows like "Command Performance", "Mail Call", and "G.I. Journal." Perhaps only Bob Hope and his troupe did more to entertain the troops.

Career interruption

The Andrews Sisters broke up in 1953, the main catalyst being Patty's decision to go solo, with her husband acting as her agent. When Maxene and LaVerne learned of Patty's decision from newspaper gossip columns rather than from their own sister, it caused a bitter two-year separation, especially when Patty decided to worsen matters by suing LaVerne for a larger share of their parents' estate. Maxene and LaVerne tried to continue the act as a duo and met with good press during a 10-day tour of Australia, but a reported suicide attempt by Maxene in December, 1954 put a halt to any further tours (Maxene spent a short time in hospital after swallowing 18 sleeping pills, an occurrence that LaVerne told reporters was an accident).

The trio reunited in 1956. They signed a new recording contract with Capitol Records (for whom Patty had become a featured soloist) and released a dozen singles through 1959, some rock-and-roll flavored and not very well received, and three hi-fi albums, including a vibrant LP of songs from the dancing 1920s with Billy May's orchestra. In 1962, they signed with Dot Records and recorded a series of stereo albums over five years, both re-recordings of earlier hits, as well as new material, including "I Left My Heart In San Francisco", "Still", "The End of the World", "Puff the Magic Dragon", "Sailor", "Satin Doll", the theme from Come September, and the theme from A Man and a Woman. They toured extensively during the 1960s, favoring top nightclubs in Las Vegas, Nevada, California and London, England.

The act came to an abrupt end in 1967 when eldest sister LaVerne died of cancer after a year-long bout with the illness,[5] during which she was replaced by singer Joyce DeYoung. LaVerne had founded the original group, and often acted as the peacemaker among the three during the sisters' lives, more often siding with her parents, to whom the girls were extremely devoted, than with either of her sisters. Once LaVerne was dead, Maxene saw no need to continue as a duo (she taught acting, drama, and speech at a Lake Tahoe college and worked with troubled teens), and Patty was once again eager to be a soloist.

Comeback

Both surviving sisters had something of a comeback when Bette Midler recorded her own version of their song "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" in 1972. Their most notable comeback, however, was in the Sherman Brothers' nostalgic World War II musical: "Over Here!" which premiered on Broadway at the Shubert Theatre in 1974 to rave reviews. This was a follow-up to Patty's success in "Victory Canteen" a 1971 California revue. The musical starred Maxene and Patty (with Janie Sell filling in for LaVerne and winning a Tony Award for her performance) and was written with both sisters in mind for the leads. It launched the careers of many now notable theater, film and television icons (John Travolta, Marilu Henner, Treat Williams, Ann Reinking, et al.). It was the last major hurrah for the sisters and was cut short due to a lawsuit initiated by Patty's husband against the show's producers, squashing an extensively scheduled road tour for the company, including the sisters.

Patty immediately distanced herself from Maxene, who claimed until her death that she was not aware of Patty's motives regarding the separation. She appealed to Patty for a reunion, personally if not professionally, both in public and in private, but to no avail. Maxene suffered a serious heart attack while performing in Illinois in 1982 and underwent quadruple bypass surgery, from which she successfully recovered. Patty visited her sister while she was hospitalized. Now sometimes appearing as "Patti" (but still signing autographs as "Patty") she re-emerged in the late 1970s as a regular panelist on The Gong Show. Maxene had a very successful comeback as a cabaret soloist in 1979 and toured worldwide for the next 15 years, recording a solo album in 1985 entitled "Maxene: An Andrews Sister" for Bainbridge Records. Patty started her own solo act in 1981, but did not receive the critical acclaim her sister had for her performances, even though it was Patty who was considered to be the "star" of the group for years. The critics' major complaint was that Patty's show concentrated too much on Andrews Sisters material, which did not allow Patty's own talents as a very expressive and bluesy vocalist to shine through.

The two sisters did reunite, albeit briefly, on October 1, 1987 when they received a star on Hollywood's famous Walk of Fame, even singing a few bars of "Beer Barrel Polka" for the Entertainment Tonight cameras. Ironically, an earthquake shook the area that very morning and the ceremony was nearly canceled, which caused Patty to joke, "Some people said that earthquake this morning was LaVerne because she couldn't be here, but really it was just Maxene and I on the telephone." Both sisters laughed and shared a hug. Besides this, and a few brief private encounters, they remained somewhat estranged for the last few years.

Shortly after her Off-Broadway debut in New York City in a show called Swingtime Canteen, Maxene suffered another heart attack and died at Cape Cod Hospital on October 21, 1995. Not long before she died, Maxene told music historian William Ruhlmann, "I have nothing to regret. We got on the carousel and we each got the ring and I was satisfied with that. There's nothing I would do to change things if I could...Yes, I would. I wish I had the ability and the power to bridge the gap between my relationship with my sister, Patty. Upon hearing the news of her sister's death, Patty became very distraught. As her husband Wally went to her, he fell on a flight of stairs and broke both wrists. Patty did not attend her sister's memorial services in New York, nor in California. Said Bob Hope of Maxene's passing, "She was more than part of The Andrews Sisters, much more than a singer. She was a warm and wonderful lady who shared her talent and wisdom with others."

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Darkness All Around Us

A young women prays that her Son will stay off drugs after many years of being addicted and repeated jail sentences. He is weak and falls victim again to drugs and another sentence. After three failed marriages she finds true love and then a massive heart attack takes that chance for happiness a week before they are to marry.

An 11 year old boy has a heavy heart after his Mom and Dad get a divorce. Mom is working at nights and Dad is a truck driver so the boy is left alone. He shoots himself and is not found until the next morning. 11 years old? Why was this child left alone in the first place?

A women is diagnosed with breast cancer. She can receive treatment and live 2 years or refuse treatment and live 2 months. Her life has been cut short no matter which decision she makes.

A single Mother is struggling with depression after she loses her Mother to cancer, her husband to another women and her Father to wicked step Mother who he has let come between he and his daughters all within a year. Today she finds out she has a kidney stone and has to work through the pain because she cannot afford to be off work.

There is darkness all around us . Satan is at work and we need to pray.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011


I have had a cold for three weeks. I caught it when I got back from CA. Must have been germs on the plane. Anyway I have been on Robitussin and Mucinix for all this time. The cough is gone and I am not so congested in my chest but it has settled in my ear. I am deaf in my left ear!!

I called my doctor today to see what I should take to relieve the congestion and unplug my ear. She said to get a nose spray and when I ask really, a nose spray for my ear? She said yes ask the pharmacist which one is best.

So off to the drug store I went. I ask the pharmacist which nose spray I should use and he looked at me like I was crazy and said you need to take sudafed! I got the nose spray anyway and came home to look online what to do for plugged ears caused by a cold.

After all the things my husband has been through the past two years with doctors here in our area I do not trust but looks like this time she was right.

Hope it works!



How to Unplug Ears

How to Unplug Ears

Overview

Plugged ears are rarely a serious problem. They most often result from allergies or a cold and can last between a few hours or a couple of weeks. They usually subside on their own and are painless, only resulting in muffled hearing. Congestion in the ears can be treated a few different ways and rarely require a doctor's visit. It is only when pain is present or the blockage last several weeks or severely impairs your hearing that it disrupts your routine or lifestyle should you seek medical attention for a plugged ear.

Step 1

Take an oral decongestant to break up any blockages causes by sinus congestion. When taking decongestants, you should follow the directions printed on the packaging of the drug. Most decongestants should be taken every four to six hours, but this can vary depending on the type of decongestant you use.

Step 2

Use a nasal spray antihistamine to treat allergies causing blockages in your ear. Insert the nozzle of the spray bottle into the nostril and inhale lightly while squeezing the antihistamine into the nasal cavity.

Step 3

Use a spray nasal steroid to treat the blockage. These are applied the same way as antihistamine nasal sprays but are a stronger medication for blockages in your nose and ears.

Step 4

Visit your doctor to discuss possible remedies for your plugged ears, including prescription medications or ventilation tubes temporarily inserted into your ears to provide a passageway through your ear canal, improving your ability to hear until the blockage subsides.

Things You'll Need

  • Decongestant Nasal spray Topical nasal steroids

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/95066-unplug-ears/#ixzz1DQ6uUNfL

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Love Never Ends

This month in Digital Whisper ATC Swap we were to take a line from this bible verse and make an ATC.

Love is patient,

Love is kind,
It does not envy,

it does not boast,
It is not proud,

It is not rude,
It is not self-seeking,
It is not easily angered,
It keeps no record of wrongs.

Love does not delight in evil,
but rejoices with the truth.

Love always protects,

always trusts,
always hopes,

always perseveres.

Love bears all things,

believes all things,
hopes all things,

endures all things.

Love never ends.

L o v e N e v e r F a i l s.

Corinthians 13 : 4 - 8



The strange thing about this is that not too many months ago I was discussing this verse with my daughter in law. Sometimes it seems as if people forget the true meaning of LOVE.


I picked LOVE NEVER ENDS
Here is my ATC


The Weekly Challenge was to take this photo and create something Frozen


Here is my Collage for that....burrr!

Don't forget to sign up for my ATC Swap this month.
The theme is Butterflies


Tuesday, February 1, 2011

She is 2 months old already

Where does the time go? Ava June is 2 months old already!

I love this picture of Remmy, her dog giving her a big wet kiss :)

Looks like she is sees something that strikes her fancy here

What a chubby healthy baby. Stretching is a sign that she is growing.

I think she likes her bath. What a cute smile huh?

Okay time for a nap.

She looks like her Grandpa did when he was this age.