I’ve been awarded a “Kreativ Blogger Award” by Debbie Johansson, an Australian writer of YA, and all things scary and mysterious. Thanks, Debbie!
The rules are that I am to tell you ten things about myself and then forward the award on to six other bloggers.
Read more to read more…
I’ll try to stick to the general theme of my blog, the arts, in the ten things about myself. Hmmm…
1. My mother told me that the first solo I sang for an audience was “Silent Night” to a group of neighbors at someone’s house when I was two. I don’t know if I was asked to sing, or if I simply decided that it would be a great time to sing, since I had a large captive audience. I suspect the latter.
2. Despite such an early start to my singing career, my stage debut wasn’t until I was eight years old. I was a butterfly in an elementary school musical that involved creatures called Geewillikins and Follywogs. The other butterflies and I danced around and sang “You can’t get by with a lie, You can’t get by with a lie, You may try, You may cry, You may pretty nearly die, But you can’t get by with a lie.”
3. My first major artwork was a mural drawn in some primitive form of child’s marker. (What did they have for markers for kids in the late 1950s? I distinctly remember having markers, and they were a very unusual thing to have.) The mural was drawn on a clean sheet that was spread over the guest room bed. This is another “mother told me” story, as it was too early for me to remember it. She was so impressed with the mural, she said, that she kept it until it faded beyond visibility. I could have been famous, had those markers not faded! (Um, or not… … …)
4. Although as a child I stated that I wanted to be a ballerina and a cowgirl when I grew up, the only dancing lessons I’ve ever taken were lessons in Scottish Country Dancing when I was a grad student. I loved it!
5. I used to sew teddy bears (in my late teens and early twenties). My favorite kind to make were tiny bears with arms, legs and heads jointed with snap fasteners. The first one I made turned out to be just four inches high. I named him Small, and kept him (unfortunately, he was stolen many years ago). With the second one, I knew more what I was doing, and so he turned out to be the pattern’s intended size of six inches. I named him Not So (as in Not So Small) and gave him to a friend. I made others for various other friends, including one with a clergy-bear’s collar and little wire glasses named The Reverend Bartholomew Bear which I gave a friend on the occasion of her ordination to the ministry.
6. When I was in fourth grade, I liked to direct my friends in re-enactments of episodes from the “Annette” segment on the Mickey Mouse Club television show. Of course, I was the star as well as the director. 😉
7. I have sung in fifteen or sixteen different choirs (at least), including a group of sixteen “hand-picked” female singers who sang the rather odd vocal part in the “Neptune: the Mystic” section of Gustav Holst’s “The Planets” with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra in 1984.
8. I started piano lessons when I was seven and a half years old… and played in my first piano recital twenty years later. I had stopped taking lessons when we moved to the city when I was sixteen, and just went back to lessons after moving to Winnipeg in my twenties. My first (and only) piano recital was a city-wide one, for which teachers selected their “most promising” students. (I was likely the oldest and most advanced of my teacher’s students, though likely not the most promising, in reality.) The best I can say is, I survived.
9. Recent theatrical endeavors have only extended to dressing in costume for our city’s annual “The Symphony Goes to the Oscars” (I dressed as The Shady Dame from Seville from Victor/Victoria one year. That was great fun.) I’ve also dressed as Maria twirling on the mountaintop at one Sing-along Sound of Music while at another Sing-along Sound of Music, I dressed as Maria in nightgown (my friend was The Drapes) to portray the scene after My Favorite Things. (Thanks to The Drapes, we won a prize! She was literally the hit of the evening. It was like being with a celebrity.)
10. I’d love to be more active in theatre. Does anyone have a day extender? I need more hours in the day.
There. That’s my ten things. Now to pass the Kreativ Blogger Award on to six other bloggers. I will choose from bloggers I’ve recently “met.”
1. Donna Martin at On the Write Track
2. Erik at This Kid Reviews Books
3. Kirsten W. Larson at Creating Curious Kids
4. Julie at World of Julie
5. Stacy S. Jensen at her eponymous blog subtitled Writing My Way Through Life
6. Kelly Korenek at Land of the Librarian
Donna, Erik, Kirsten, Julie, Stacy and Kelly — Kreativ Bloggers, all!
Wow, Beth, you surprised me this morning! I am so honored to get this blog award! Now to think of the 10 things about me worth revealing…lol…
Congrats on the award by the way…you deserve it!
Thanks, Donna — and so glad to have surprised you! I’m looking forward to your “ten things”.
Congratulations on your award! AND Thank you for nominating me! 🙂 🙂 🙂 Great post! I liked learning more about you. You have a lot of talents!
Erik
Thanks, Erik — and you’re welcome! You are very deserving of the award! I know I’ll enjoy hearing more about you as well.
Beth, you are a sweetie! I always appreciate how much info you have to share with the rest of us. I’m honored.
Thanks, Kirsten! Your award is well-deserved.
It’s my pleasure giving you this award Beth – you deserve it. It’s good to learn more about you and finding out about your theatrical endeavours. I hope you find that extra time you’re looking for! 🙂
Thanks, Debbie. I certainly hope I find that extra time as well — I could certainly put it to good use!
Thanks for the award. I wish I could extend the day for you. I’ve discovered late in life, it’s better to take advantage of 15 minutes than to expect another hour in the day. The marker mural sounds very fun and your mom sounds very encouraging. Your story has reminded me to hide all the Sharpies from little hands.
You are very welcome, Stacy! Thanks for the advice to take advantage of the 15 minute bits of time that come our way. And yes, it would be a good idea to hide the Sharpies!
You had so much love, support and encouragement in your life from your parents. They really nurtured your love of music and the arts. Really enjoyed reading a more focused indepth look at your life and what has made you who you are. Beautiful!
Thank you, Pat. Yes, Mum and Dad were enormously supportive, as have been others in my life.
Thanks so much, Beth, for passing on the Kreativ blogger award! I am honored that you thought of me 🙂 I really enjoyed reading your list of all the things you have done-I really think you could write a mystery pb about Small the teddy bear-maybe with a happy ending-who steals a teddy bear, anyway??
Thanks again!!
You are so welcome, Kelly! Interesting thought to write a mystery pb about Small E. Bear. (pronounced Smally Bear). I’d never thought of such a thing, but hmmm…. Whoever stole Small also stole several other bears, most of them handmade. I hope they took them to children who would love them.