A Special Dress for Noli!

We had a sleepover this past weekend! Noli had an "event" at school -- a sock hop! Since it was over at 8:30 and going home would put them there pretty late, they slept over at my house (I'm conveniently about middle ways between Noli's two houses) and then they stayed over on Saturday too! It was a pretty fun time!!

Noli is still pretty sleepy on Saturday morning!

(Sorry about the yellow cast -- didn't do the proper settings!)

Wild woman!

I wish I had curls like that!

Stephanie got an attack of "clean-out-itis" and cleaned up the very cluttered closet in my office.... yay! I'd been fixin' to do it for a long time, but procrastination reared its ugly head and I put it off, and off, and off. So this was a HUGE help to me!

Anyway, in that closet were hanging the three dresses I had made for Stephanie's first day of school in Kindergarten and first and second grades. Naturally, Noli had to try them on! Kindergarten was way too short but the other two were a good fit.

The first grade dress is a red jumper with a white blouse and hearts and bows all over! And heart buttons. And ruffles! Oh my, I can't believe I did all those ruffles! 

Noli loved it and wanted to wear it to school on Valentine's Day! 

I just couldn't get the color right, but the red is like that first pic above.

But doesn't she look cute in her mama's dress!

Still showing off that lost tooth!

When Stephanie was in first grade, they celebrated Johnny Appleseed Day -- wore red, bobbed for apples, played apple games. 

The newspaper took photos and the kids were in the paper! 

You can see Stephanie in her red dress!

I did a blog post about it a year or so ago --

  click here if you'd like to read it!

Ha! If Noli were bobbing for apples, she'd have a hard time with only one front tooth!!

And, it's loose!!

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♥♥  Linking Noli's dress over at Claudia's for A Favorite Thing. Because the dress is definitely a favorite thing.... and so is Noli!

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The Moody Blues

Oh, how I love the Moody Blues!

I don't think there is one song that they have recorded that I didn't like...

The full orchestra behind them was just the icing on the cake...

The Moody Blues then....

from the inside cover of the album On the Threshold of a Dream

and now....

not too shabby for "old guys"

"Never Comes the Day" from the album On the Threshold of a Dream

Recently, I saw one of their performances on our local PBS station -- and decided to take some photos from the TV (if you've seen some of my other Alphabe-Thursday posts, you know I like to play with the camera and the TV).  :p

Love this song... 

First official video of "Nights in White Satin" from 1967

♥♥♥   Linking the Moody Blues over at Miss Jenny's for Alphabe-Thursday where we are studying the letter M

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Snaggletooth! ~ Wordless Wednesday

Take a shower, loose a tooth!

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Liberace could really play a mean piano....

Fabulous costumes. Huge diamond encrusted rings. Candelabras. Fantastic pianos. A smile that wouldn't stop.

And just a bit of talent....

I loved watching Liberace on his TV show back in the 60s. His costumes fascinated me. His music made my heart skip a beat. Now THAT was a reality show!!

Of course, he was famous as a classical pianist but he also played more popular tunes too. That's what I'm going to share with you today -- some beautiful music and some fun videos.

And a lot of bling!

Music video and his entrance to one of his Las Vegas shows - 1981

(be prepared... apparently he was not an animal rights activist!)

Audience requests -- he put them all together in medley form, made up as he went along!

"Memory" 

"Send in the Clowns" 

"New York, New York"

"As Long as He Needs Me" 

"Chariots of Fire"

Chopin - "Nocturne in E-Flat"

"The Bumble Boogie" 

"You Made Me Love You"

"Beer Barrel Polka"

What's My Line was a game show that played from 1950 to 1967.  Four celebrity panelists would question the contestants to try to figure out their occupations. There was always a famous mystery guest that the panel had to question and determine their identity. (I know, sounds kinda boring -- but it was really pretty funny at the time!)

Liberace was on this episode -- check out his signature!

He could even play "Chopsticks" 

♥♥♥  Linking Liberace over at Miss Jenny's for Alphabe-Thursday where we are studying the letter L

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Comfy Oliver ~ Wordless Wednesday

Scroochin' in Daddy's coat

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The Kingston Trio and Poor Old Charlie

Do you remember the Kingston Trio? Even when I was looking through YouTube videos, I couldn't really place their faces.... but I sure remembered their striped shirts!

Now their songs, that's a whole different animal -- I think I can probably sing every one of them from start to finish, they are so etched in my soul. Wonderful folk ballads written in a different era and in a style not often heard these days.

There was a time during the 60s that folk songs and groups were plentiful and popular, and I think that's the era that I remember of the Kingston Trio.

Tom Dooley was from their first album and was based on a real event -- the 1866 murder of a woman named Laura Foster in North Carolina. Her fiance' Tom Dooley (actually was spelled 'Dula' but pronounced 'Dooley') was a Confederate veteran and was convicted of her murder and hanged in 1868.

The M.T.A is a fun song which tells of a man named Charlie who is trapped on the Boston subway -- he can't get off because he doesn't have the extra nickel needed for the "exit fare" that had just been established. So his wife hands him a sandwich through the window each day (but for some reason does not give him that nickel)!!

The chorus:

Did he ever return?

No he never returned

And his fate is still unlearn'd

He may ride forever

'neath the streets of Boston

He's the man who never returned.

Now this song became hubby's and my anthem for whenever we took a wrong turn somewhere and couldn't seem to get back on track (and of course, we could never ask for directions!!)

A bit of fun information -- now there is the "CharlieCard" which the Boston area transit authority named it's card-based fare collection system in 2004. The Kingston Trio performed the song at the dedication ceremony.

I think poor old Charlie needed a CharlieCard!!

Where Have All the Flowers Gone is one of their most beautiful, and heart wrenching, songs. Written by Pete Seeger in 1955 as a call for peace, there have been many singers who have sung their renditions, but none more poignantly than the Kingston Trio. If you're like me, you'll view this video through tears.

Sadly, it still applies today.

   

♥♥♥  Linking The Kingston Trio over at Miss Jenny's for Alphabe-Thursday where we are studying the letter K.

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James Taylor, aka Jelly Bean Man

For years James Taylor was known around our house as
The Jelly Bean Man. 

My son went crazy nuts for Sesame Street when he was around two or three and his craziness lasted for a good many years. We shared good times on Sesame Street -- loving all the characters, but most especially Big Bird and sweet Mr. Snuffleupagus. And shy Grover. Not so much the Count (Adam liked him and he was good for learning to count, but he drove me absolutely bananas!)

And singing the silly songs. Like Jellyman Kelly.
And deciding that the singer of this song was The Jelly Bean Man!

Adam sounded just like these kids when he belted out the chorus -- 

Ohhhhh, can he come home, Jenny

can he come home, Jenny

can he come?

Really yelling the Ohhhhh part!!

One of my favorite James Taylor songs is You've Got a Friend. It was written by Carole King in 1971 but was made famous by Taylor's cover version that same year.

This is what I love about James Taylor -- 

no theatrics, just a man and his guitar.

♥♥♥  Linking James Taylor to Alphabe-Thursday over at Miss Jenny's where we are studying the letter J

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Inauguration 2013

I love pomp and circumstance. Ceremony. Parades.

So I sat on the couch yesterday watching the Inauguration.

I'm essentially off my flu-cation but still have little or no interest in crocheting  : (

so I simply sat, hands idle.

For a little peek into my flu-cation, you can check it out
on my other blog!

(There's a really cute pic of a really cute puppy with an ice pack on his head.....)

Suffice it to say that I'm about to have done with this blasted cough and I'm back to blogging again!!

Woot woot!!

As I watched today, I snapped a few pics from the TV, and thought I'd share with you.

I love the way there are sometimes overlays when I snap pics from the TV. 

I really like this one with President Obama superimposed over the First Lady, Sasha and Malia 

James Taylor sang 'America the Beautiful'

Kelly Clarkson sings 'America' 

another superimposed shot

Beyonce did a fantastic job on the National Anthem 

Love the way this one turned out

Start of the Inaugural Parade

You gotta love a man playing the piccolo 

The Army's Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps

Obama's limo's cool new licence plate

You know the secret service is going nuts right about now....

Home again

♥♥♥  I'm linking over at It's a Very Cherry World for Rednesdsay -- hop over for more great reds!

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Fabian and The 5th Dimension

The best things in my Seventeen magazine were pictures of Fabian and Troy Donahue -- my absolute, hands down greatest loved teen idols at about the time I was in the 6th through 8th grades!  I even had a scrapbook filled with their pictures cut from movie magazines!

Fabian

Troy 

But because this post is for the letter F, and for singers, not actors, we'll continue with the ever gorgeous, but not really much of a singer, Fabian!!  Actually, he was in a few films too -- his acting was about a good as his singing but it was the eye candy that made all the girls scream!

This video shows Fabian on some teen magazine covers while he sings Hold Me in Your Arms, a kind of slow, dorky song but the photos are priceless!

As you look, read the captions on the magazines! Shows what a totally innocent time it was in the late 50s, early 60s, before the hippie generation came on the scene! I was a  pre- to early-teen at the time and let me tell you, it was a different world! But I could still fall in and out of love at the drop of a hat when it came to the cute singers and actors!

Now, when I think of Fabian I think of this song -- Turn Me Loose.   I still like it to this day!

This was an appearance on Dick Clark's American Bandstand.  He reminds me of Rick Nelson with those bedroom eyes! And the IFIC buttons everyone is wearing ..... Beechnut gum had an ad campaign at the time that said their gum was "Flavor-IFIC" so not only are they all wearing the buttons, they're all chomping down on the gum!

So, on to the late 60s which brought us that hippie and flower child generation!

The 5th Dimension had a lot of great songs, but one of my favorites is the medley Aquarius / Let the Sunshine In which, of course, was written for the 1968 rock musical Hair, and was released as a single by The 5th Dimension.

Now, if you are familiar with Hair you know that it's about the hippie culture, peace and love, sex and drugs, and the anti-Vietnam war peace movement. Long hair, the draft and draft dodgers.

So, pray tell me, why would my church youth group put on a Hair musical? But they did. I remember going to MYF to see it. Of course, it was WAY toned down, but still, I always wondered if the adults of the church ever did any research into what their youth group was singing about!!!

And then it was made into a movie in 1979 -- 

with Treat Williams of all people.....

(I just gotta snicker here)

And I still have the album. Oh. yeah.

♥♥♥  Linking over at Miss Jenny's for Alphabe-Thursday where we are studying the letter F

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