Blog Sale....? (26/10/12)

Good morning!

Like many who have come before me, I am seriously contemplating putting together a blog sale in the coming weeks, as I've recently noticed a change in my personal style which has resulted in quite a few items just sitting in my closet, not being loved and taking up some of the (quite limited) space...

My mission for this weekend (well, tomorrow) is therefore to pull out every single item from my closet, and if it doesn't fit me or my style anymore, you'll be seeing it in a Blog Sale photo album on my facebook page. Items might include bags, shoes and accessories, as well as clothing, so look out for that! :)

In other news, Hallowe'en is coming up, as you might know, and at the Sliema Salesian Oratory we're going to be organising a Ghost Hunt on Saturday 3rd November. The location is secret, and anyone can apply alone or form a group of no more than 10 persons. Participation fee is €5 for Oratory members and €7 for non-members. If anyone's interested, let me know by Sunday 28th!

That's all from me today!

Cheryl

 xXx

No More Happily-Ever-After....? (24/10/12)

I have a problem..... 

I have started watching Once Upon A Time (yes, I know I'm a year late...) and have become practically hooked on the damn thing... Not only does in involve all my favourite fairy-tale characters, but their stories have been twisted into more interesting (modernised?) ones plus their costumes and make-up are just too awesome!!

Seeing as how it's Hallowe'en this weekend, I've come up with a few costumes relating to the Once Upon A Time theme, mostly inspired by the many Disney villains (because, yes, I believe that Once Upon A Time villains are mostly based on their Disney counterparts)...

As you'll notice, I've given each character a particular colour scheme, depending on what colour I associate with each.

The first is Regina, the evil queen from Snow White (colour of choice - Burgandy)

I chose this outfit because to me, Regina is quite subtle in her evil-ness... She's not as manic as typical villains, and has a certain kind of sex-appeal (which was probably the King's downfall in the first place). I couldn't resist adding an apple ring and leather cape...

Next is Maleficent - the villain from my favourite story, The Sleeping Beauty (colour of choice - Purple)

Maleficent was without a doubt the Disney villain which caused me the most nightmare as a child, and considering the fact that I used to watch the video countless times since Aurora is my favourite Disney heroine (along with Pocahontas and Megara), you'd think that she'd have stopped being so scary after a while - nope...!

One of the funniest villains - Cruella De Ville (colour of choice - Black & White)

Ahhh, Cruella... I remember that for a long time I associated those long vintage cigarette holders and long gloves with her, rather than Ms. Holly Golightly... Apart from the highly frowned-upon penchant for animal furs, you have to admit that she's a damned stylish villain!

An oldie but a goodie - Lady Tremaine - aka the evil stepmother from Cinderella. (colour of choice - Navy)

I chose navy blue out of all the colours Lady Tremaine wears because she keeps Cinderella under very tight orders - very militantly - so I thought the colour would compliment that... That and the fact that she thought very highly of herself...

The final villainess was quite a tricky one to interpret - Ursula from The Little Mermaid. (colour of choice - Turqouise)

Now, I decided to look to the Broadway version of Ursula's costume, and came up with the above. Note the seashell earrings and the snake-like ring (in memory of her "poor little poopsies" Flotsam and Jetsam)

I hope you like these ideas... Might be doing a "good-guy" verson later on this week...

Cheryl

 xXx

VOICES 2012 - Dream A Little Dream (15/10/12)

...can 7 months really pass by so quickly?

"Yes, they most definitely can!!" is the answer, just in case you were wondering... It seems such a short time ago that I sat in the foyer of the St. Aloysius Sixth Form, anxiously waiting for my turn to audition for Voices in front of a panel of people whom I didn't know... I can remember clearly the way my heart stopped when I then received the following e-mail a few weeks later: 

"Dear Cheryl,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been selected for the solo part of ‘Hey Soul Sister’."

Then came the day of the first rehearsal at the UoM chapel - Tuesday 26th June...  I was feeling a mix of anticipation and anxiety, at the thought of spending two hours singing with 200 people of which I only knew 4 - my sister, Fiona, and my friends from the Sliema Salesian Oratory: Joanne, Aldo & Francesca.

Representing the Salesian Oratory in Voices - Joanne, Francesca, Aldo, Fiona and myself with our super amazing choir directors Martina and Tony

Fast forward to the end of September on stage at the Mediterranean Conference Centre and I just couldn't believe how many new friends I'd made! (spending all that time standing and singing next to each other is bound to lead to new friendships!). 

Joanne singing her heart out during rehearsals at the Chaplaincy

Aldo and his fellow Low Tenors listening attentively... (credit to Johann Cardona Schranz)

Joanne and Francesca singing with the Low Altos at the Chaplaincy (credit to Yentl Spiteri)

Fiona in the midst of High Altos and Sopranos (credit to Johann Cardona Schranz)

The choir at the Chaplaincy during a short talk from Ira Losco :) (credit to Johann Cardona Schranz)

We've finally moved to the MCC!! :)

Although it was getting increasingly difficult to get up each morning during the final two weeks, I was looking forward to 17:30, when I'd drive from work to Valletta, run down the steps of Cottoner Hall through to the Stage Right entrance, and down to the make-up area to get ready for yet another breath-taking experience on stage with the people I grew to call my Voices family!

As well as the usual rehearsals, we sometimes got a guest speaker to give a short talk prior to a particular rehearsal. Among these were Ira Losco - who came by to share some tips re: stage presence and microphone handling for the soloists - and the beneficiaries from the previous edition of Voices - The St. Jeanne Antide Foundation - which was particularly heart-warming, as we got to hear how much our hard work was helping the community by the people who benefited from it themselves.

The final set of rehearsals were particularly interesting as we were literally experiencing the set being built around us... Each day a new set of clouds, or a new form of embellishment would be added by the amazingly dedicated stage crew and each new addition signalled that our performances were getting closer by the day!

The stage being set-up!

...TO THE DRESSING ROOOOOMS!!!

The make-up station :)

One thing I should mention is that by this point, each voice group (Sopranos, High Altos, Low Altos and the Bases/Low Tenors/High Tenors) was assigned one of the four dressing rooms at the MCC (being in a minority the 3 male voice groups shared one room), and it was up to the members of each group to make our rooms as "homely" as possible for the coming fortnight. Cue a variety of charts, streamers, tinsel and one very troubling "female drawing", resulting in what I could only describe as Voices-gone-Christmas!

Jeanelle hanging up our flashing clouds in the High Alto dressing room

The HA decorators...

Our wall of dreams... :)

The delicious (and beautiful) HA cake baked by Mrs. Justine Odom! :D

The High Alto Wall of Fame - 'cause we're all stars! :D (credit to MarTina Farrugia)

The Soprano's chart :)

The Low Altos' Chart :)

...props to the men for this amazing chart - clearly this year's winners! :D

Shenanigans aside, we still had two weeks of hard work ahead of us - even though it didn't exactly seem like hard work, more like keep-fit-slash-singing-slash-laughter. From the very first performance in front of an audience - the Beneficiary night - to closing night yesterday, we gave our all, all for a good cause, and we were greatly rewarded by the applauses, smiles on our audience's faces and the positive feedback we received on various news sites:

Times of Malta Online
ESC Flash Malta

The only glitch that happened during the 10 performance nights was that on Friday the 12th the sound mixer somehow got shut down, resulting in a 50-minute delay before the concerts, however not even this could stop us, for the absolutely brilliant sound team managed to solve the problem and the show went on!

So, with all that said, I guess this rounds up today's post... Yes it's long, but it was a very enriching experience, and I felt I couldn't do it justice with just a few words.

Thanks to the Voices committee, all the choir members, sound/lights/camera/photography/stage crews, directors, group co-ordinators and mostly the late Louis Naudi, for dreaming up this noble cause 21 years ago!

Never underestimate your dreams, and you never know how well they might turn out! 

Cheryl

 xXx

VOICES Update: Time to Dream... (02/10/12)

The time has come...

Yesterday night was our final dress/technical rehearsal for Voices, and I for one am well and truly excited (as well as SUPER tired)! As I mentioned in my previous posts, production weeks are my favourite weeks of any production, because they bring with them a delightful mix of excitement and pride, as well as the unavoidable long hours (and as a result, lots of tiredness)... However, the fact remains that tonight is our first performance in front of an audience!!

Tonight's performance will be particularly emotional for all of us taking part, as while tomorrow marks the start of our performances in front of a paying audience, tonight's the night we're performing for our beneficiaries. Since Voices is (above all things) a charity concert, each edition is always for the benefit of a particular cause, and this year's cause is particularly close to my heart - Mamma Margherita Home, which is a safe-house for young men who have nowhere else to go. It's a project founded by the Salesians of Don Bosco.

I'm feeling slightly nervous about tonight, but since yesterday's dress rehearsal went so well, I'm sure today's will be even better, as we get to have our hard work appreciated by the people who we're actually doing it for...

Later I'll be writing an article for Password (the monthly newsletter for the Salesian community) about my experience in Voices, including some awesome pics... But for now, just a small teaser - me in my rockin' Voices t-shirt and make-up yesterday before the dress rehearsal started...

Another update coming up tomorrow with my thoughts of opening night... :)

Cheryl
 xXx

Vamp-Me-Up lip tutorial (02/10/12)

Hey everyone!

Something relatively new for me - a mini make-up tutorial featuring one of my newest Catrice Ultimate Colour lipsticks - 160 Tell Me A Berry-tale - as well as my Catrice Precision Lipliner in 60 Very Berry and my Rimmel lipstick in 38 In Vogue.

As you've probably heard/seen/read, two of this fall's hottest (and most daring) lip trends are duo-chrome lips and dark berry colours. In today's tutorial I decided it would be fun to mash the two together into one (pretty cool) lip tutorial.

First of all, apply your favourite lip balm - flaky lips look nasty no matter how fierce the colour you use is! Once that is done, line lips with a dark plum colour. I used Catrice's Very Berry as the colour matches my lipstick perfectly. Also, Catrice lipliners are my absolute faves because they are retractable, creamy and very easy to work with, thus providing precise application!

Catrice Precision Lipliner in 60 - Verry Berry

Next step is to apply your deep purple/plum lipstick (as you know, mine is Catrice's Tell Me A Berry-tale). It's important to blot your lips on a tissue after applying the colour, then re-applying. (This is a little trick my mum taught me in order to achieve maximum colour-payoff.)

Catrice's Ultimate Colour Lipstick in 160 - Tell Me A Berry-tale

Now comes the best bit - adding the second lip colour to the centre of your lips, creating a duo-chrome effect. I went with a bright raspberry pink from Rimmel - In Vogue. (I bought this one last winter and I simply adore it. It's lasted quite a long time too, as it's got very rich colour payoff, so a little goes a very long way!) Apply the second colour to the centre of your lips, blot and repeat.

Rimmel's 38 - In Vogue

This is the finished look:

Hope you like the look! Enjoy experimenting with your own colour combinations (that's the best thing about make-up after all!)

Cheryl

 xXx