Gardening 101

Time Practiced: 0 Minutes. There are still a few hours left tonight though...

The hubs and I spent the day fixing up our front walkway. Only two out of 8 plants survived the winter from the previous owner of the house so it needed some serious work. Things look much better. Of course, anything would look better than the dead sticks that were there, but I have to give myself credit where credit is due, right?

Because of my lovely allergies, I wasn't able to contribute much to the gardening effort than picking out the plants and deciding how they would be laid out. Thankfully, the hubs has no allergies and got down and dirty to get the job done. I do have to say, he is a wonderful day laborer. I should hire him out...

Gardening is more my mother and mother-in-law's things. My mother actually made a career out of it after all of us kids moved out of the house. I'm proud of her for that. My mother-in-law grew up on a farm and the family has a half acre plot next to the farm dedicated to nothing but the families stash of veggies for the year. She cans and the whole nine yards. Tell you what, that garden is a sight to see! It's huge!

Me? Allergic to gardening. Seriously. Hence the fact I will never garden to the level either of my mother's does. Doesn't mean I can't try and have the hubs do all the dirty work. And good thing he likes to do it, otherwise we would have a serious problem...

Today's Recommendation: Get down and dirty every once and a while. It's good for you. Whoever said "rub some dirt in it" might have had something there...

Beethoven Symphony No 6 in F Major "Pastorale"

Sometimes Life Just Gets in the Way

Time Practiced: None. I had a flat tire today and had to buy new tires. No energy!

Well, how can anyone expected to be creative when they are dealing with a flat tire? Right?

Ok, so I used it as an excuse today. I could have practiced, but didn't feel up to it. After all, I had to miss my weekly massage as a result of said flat tire and that just threw the whole day off... :D

So instead, I was creative by gardening. I finished up some projects outside transferring plants to different planters, watering the plants, and harvesting some arugula. I also made a fabulous salad for dinner with the arugula and some spinach and strawberries I got from the farmer's market. Fresh strawberries in salad is one of the best things ever. I promise to share a picture of that salad once I get it uploaded.

Perhaps tomorrow I will take a look at my music. Of course, after dropping some serious cash for new tires today I might be too depressed to muster the energy... but I get ahead of myself.

Today's Recommendation: Eat locally and seasonally. Plant a garden and become one with the earth. It's good for the body and the soul.
Vivaldi, Concerto No. 1 in E Major, Op. 8, RV 269, "La Primavera" Mvt 1, Allegro

Food Art

Time Practiced: Negligible, though I did have a voice lesson last Thursday. :)

I've disappeared for a few weeks. Scatterbrained... told ya. Here's what I've been doing for the past two weeks. Cooking and baking. And lots of it.

For me food is not only art, but it's also love. Hence the fact I tend to overindulge.... I just can't get enough of it. It intoxicates all of the senses. And it feeds me to boot! Bonus! I truly believe you can taste the love in food. It makes a difference when the food is made by someone who is passionate about it and what it provides for the people they are serving it to. If I'm cooking for myself, I don't put a lot in to it, but when I cook with the purpose of feeding my loved ones- friends, family- the food is outstanding. I rarely ever have someone come over and not want to know when they can come over again for another meal of mine. I'm also proud to say that I've converted many a non-vegetable lover in to a vegetable lover- well, as long as I'm cooking it. :)

Now, I don't claim to be a wonderful photographer, but this is one of the few food pictures that I've taken that I am truly proud of. Doesn't it look tasty? Well, if you want to read more about my food projects you can read my other blog that follows that in more detail. I have to maintain some sort of focus on here, afterall. No sense muddying the waters talking about the same thing on two blogs twice, right?

Today's Recommendation: Use all five senses whenever possible. And get some sleep! Have you looked at the time?!?!

Holst, The Planets Op. 32 Saturn- The Bringer of Old Age

When I Grow Up

Practice Time: 0 minutes. (Another sick day, so I have an excuse)

Like many pig-tailed little girls, when I was about 6 all I wanted to be when I grew up was a ballerina. I wanted to dance and wear pretty costumes and twirl to pretty music. Didn't we all?

Today I was reminded of that dream when I was doing my weekly volunteer work in the community (don't get too excited, it's only a five week gig that I'm doing for my job where I teach these things called Junior Achievement classes at a local junior high). One of the the students- a fourth grader named Abigail- wants to open her own dance studio. I am teaching the kids about how businesses work and about resources and all sorts of other things that even I don't understand (yet somehow have to teach them) about starting a business and how a local economy works. Anyway, the kids have to decide what kind of business the want to run and do all sorts of assignments based on that business, where its located, and the resources they will need. Well, Abigail wants to run a dance studio. And Abigail has so many cute questions for me. She is too shy to ask them in front of the class, but her excitement about running a dance studio oozes out of her every time she asks me a question.

I wanted to be a ballerina too. But alas, despite the many dance classes I took and homemade dance recitals I put on for my parents- the best was when I made up a dance routine to Madonna's "Like a Prayer" and Debbie Gibson's "Electric Youth"- I have two left feet. In high school musicals I was told to stand in the back and sing loudly. You know, that way the girls who could dance didn't need to do so much singing while they were dancing. :)

But, don't you miss daydreaming about being a ballerina? Aaaaahhhh, those were the good old days...

Today's Recommendation: Daydream again. What did you want to be when you grew up?

Debussy: Suite Bergamasque, Clair de Lune

Sometimes I Just Don't Feel Up to It

Image from DealingWithHeadaches.com

Practice Time: maybe 5-10 minutes?

Today was one of those days where I just literally didn't feel up to practicing or doing anything else creative. My sinuses were flared up and as a result I couldn't see straight and was working on a massive sinus headache. Fun, right? Yeah, so after vocalizing for maybe 5 minutes and running through a new aria once (just to see if I could sing it today) I caved and gave up. Just didn't feel up to it.

It's hard to stay focused when you can't see straight, ya know?

Health is one of the main factors that keeps me from focusing like a normal person should be able to and keeps me from fulling pursuing a career in the arts. Granted, I take full blame for the days when I feel perfectly fine and don't practice, but there are quite a few days when I'm not feeling well and it's just not in the cards all things considered. Between allergies (you name it, I'm allergic, including many foods) and digestive issues (I've got gallstones I am trying to treat naturally) and the subsequent side effects of medicines I take for symptoms of the allergies that then cause my liver/gallbladder to swell up and cause more digestive issues it is a rough go some days. Today was one of those days.

Like any musician, I am at the mercy of my instrument. As a singer, that instrument happens to be your body and if it's not functioning right it's like having a sticking valve or key, or, heck, a broken string. In order to make music again you've got to fix the problem. For a singer, that usually means rest and depending on the problem, probably some meds which come with their own set of fun side effects that may or may not cause more problems. I try to keep my treatment all natural when possible- acupuncture, chiropractic, diet, lots of water, etc- but sometimes even that is not enough or you can't get it when you need it. Today was one of those days, and it took a combination of meds, chiropractic, Starbucks (for the caffeine to get the meds to work, sad but true), sunshine and lots of water to feel better. Only side effect- after all the meds and caffeine my liver/gallbladder got angry at me and I feel sick to my stomach even though my sinsuses feel great now! Ugh, just can't win!

But the small victory was that I at least attempted to practice. And any bit of feigned focus I can get is an achievement I will gladly claim to on a day like this.

Today's Recommendation: Listen to your body. Sometimes it's telling you to sit down simply hear the music.

Tchaikovsky: Concerto No. 1 in B-Flat minor, Op. 23: Allergo non troppo e molto maestoso

Scatterbrain Soprano: An Unartist Unfocused

The first post on a new blog is always the hardest. Must set the stage for things to come. Tell the story. Paint the picture. Tell the who, what, where, when and why. Oh, the horror! So let's get to it, shall we?

I'm a soprano. And I'm just a wee bit scatterbrained. (Understatement of the year there.)

Practically since I came out of the womb I was in to the arts and anything creative. I am an artist. Music, acting, painting, drawing, crafting, writing, holly-hobby projects, cooking, you name it I do it or have done it as one point. And there in lies the problem. I don't know how to focus on any one thing and consequently give up another. In a way, I guess you could call me an ADD artist with bouts of ADHD. I'm constantly going on tangents from one subject to the next and from one art form to the next.

Deciding on a major in college should have been my first clue that things weren't going to take a straight path in the world of being an artist. I double majored. Made it almost three full years in the double major before I got bored with that and decided maybe I should just focus on one thing, too. At least I did make the decision to focus though, right? I started out with a double major in advertising/multimedia and Opera Performance. Came to that decision in high school on a brilliant idea that I could combine everything I loved about the arts- prose/language/etc, theatre, and orchestras- in one major. Notice that singing wasn't necessarily listed there. Well, I wasn't as good at playing the French Horn as I was at singing, and my voice was really big and obnoxious, so opera seemed like a good career path given those other things. You like my logic, right? Luckily, the opera singing grew on me. :)

So I studied voice and advertising for the better part of three years and finally dropped the advertising major after winning several awards and recognition for a multimedia project I did about how to sing. Makes total sense, I know. Well, I decided that if I was passionate enough about singing to spend that many hours obsessing over how to do it and sharing that info with people, then, heck, I didn't need the degree in advertising to get a job in it and I should just focus on the singing.

Eh. It made sense at the time.

Went on to get my Master's in voice and have done some small productions with a local company since then. And here is where the focus got lost again. I graduated, lost the structure that a university program gives and life intervened. I still sing, and still study, and still dream of singing at the Met. Afterall, I am a soprano, the type A personality of it never dies. But now I find myself bouncing from one creative venture to the next, and when I'm bored with it or tire of it I move on to the next thing or back to another. Somewhere in there the singing is still the constant artistic endeavor, but it's a bit scatterbrained to say the least.

Speaking of... perhaps I should go practice for those voice lessons I spend so much money on.