My Christmas Duet With Mr. Fab

Note: You can hear the song at the end of this post, AFTER you read all of my disclaimers. *grin*

I was so enthralled by Zooey Deschanel's version of "Baby It's Cold Outside" from the movie "Elf" that I decided to enlist the help of my good friend Mr. Fabulous to create our own version of the song.

First of all, it's okay to laugh at me. I am by no means deluded enough to think I'm the next American Idol. But this was SO much fun to do!! I have been having so much fun and laughed so hard at myself. So feel free to laugh along with me. :)

Mr. Fab on the other hand is the king of karaoke and has had tons of practice. Natalie said he sounded like Johnny Bravo. *giggle* He will always be my go-to guy for duets (remember our last one? The one where you couldn't hear me because I didn't know about the "amplify" tool on audacity? Yeah that one.)

Now the karaoke version we selected for "Baby It's Cold Outside" was the one done by Tom Jones and Cerys Matthews. But I don't do high notes. So Zooey's version was out for me too.

And try as I might, I could not find a lower-note version of the song that fit my style from anyone else. Anne Murray was close, but I'm SO not an Anne Murray kind of girl.

So I had to make my own version which took tons and tons of practice. Trying to find the right lower key was SO hard! I still don't think I really mastered it, but I think I accomplished my goal of not scarring little children with my voice at least. :)

Now the ending? Impossible for me. No matter how many times I tried. But Brad, being the pro he is, was able to match my notes and I begged for him to sing really loud over me so no one would notice how bad it was, lol. Which he did (thanks, Brad!)

Another thing to keep in mind is that I have no idea how to edit my voice or the track, other than to amplify my voice (which I did this time) so that you can actually hear me over the music. I can't cut out bad parts and cut in good parts. So this is probably take #5,672. If everything sounded good and there was one part that was bad, I had to do a retake. I finally gave up and decided imperfection is fine with me, lol.

Are you ready? Here ya go...just click here! Woo!

The Reason for the Season

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Christmas Tree

I had an idea come to me that I believe in my heart was spiritually inspired. I won't get into the how's or why's, but I will share with you the gift I feel that my step-FIL wanted me create for my MIL.

As many of you know, I was by his side when he passed last year. It was one of the hardest moments of my life. I have felt connected to him more than ever since that time, though.

We all still feel his loss so deeply. Just the other day, Natalie said to me, "Mom. He said that they'd take me to the next race (he raced with his Ferrari). But I never got to go." That last race, he'd taken Amanda and Matthew but Natalie was too young. Hearing her say that broke my heart.

Then, I was going through old videos we have, and there was one of him kneeling down to help Matthew open one of his gifts several Christmases ago. He was SO excited for him, all animated and lively. He was so much fun. And wow did he love my kids. Like his own. Hearing his voice and seeing him again...it just felt like a punch in my stomach. It physically hurt.

On to the gift....my MIL recently sold her house after it being on the market for forever. The house she last lived in with him. She's now in a brand new condo.

We have a tree planted in our yard in memory of him. So the idea came to me (again, I believe it came from him...if I could explain how it came to me, you'd understand) to do a painting of the tree to give to her so she can have that to remember him by in her new home. A gift from him to her, though. Not from me.

So even though I was terrified to try to do the painting (I was so afraid of making it look horrible), I sat down last night and went to work. I sketched the tree from a photo I had. Then used my watercolors. This is what I ended up with:



(You can click to enlarge) Ignore the shadows on the glass.

It wasn't as awful as I was afraid it would be....I think I captured the tree fairly well.

I really can't wait to give it to her on Christmas Eve. I just wish he could be there with us instead.

Christmas Clips - Part One - Elf

In keeping with the Christmas mood here, I'm going to be posting clips from some of my favorite Christmas movies. Up today..."Elf." (hit "play" on that song above to hear the lovely voice of Zooey Deschanel from the movie....I could listen to that song all day)

Okay, ready to countdown my favorite moments? (feel free to skip ahead to #1 if you'd like because it totally rocks...but you will be missing out on the funny if you do. *grin*)

Here we go:

#8- The Escalator Ride (10 seconds) (actually one of the funniest parts of the movie for me, but this was the only clip I could find and the quality sucks)



#7- "Santa! I know him!" (1:01)



#6- Buddy discovers New York (1:04)



#5- "Did you hear that?" (18 seconds)



#4- Throne of Lies (1:48)



#3- "Baby It's Cold Outside" (1:38) (Will Ferrell singing with Zooey...isn't she amazing?!)



#2 "Buddy the Elf! What's your favorite color?" (1:25) (scroll to the end to hear the clip...this was the best I could do and definitely wanted it included since it's been our Christmas answering machine greeting for awhile)



#1- The Tree Scene (18 seconds)



We still rewind and watch this part over and over.

So what's *your* favorite color part?

Guess Who's Going to Britney Spears' Circus Tour?

Update: Click here to see the brand new video of "Circus" which is AMAZING. It just premiered on "Entertainment Tonight" this past week and embedding is disabled or I'd put it on here for you to see. It's worth the click over (at least to me, but then I am biased, lol).
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Yes, uh huh. ME, ME, ME! And my daughter. I read an announcement that Brit was making her comeback with a tour, so I went to her website and found a special offer to get tickets before they go "public." (Click here if you want to get in on the offer)

Ticketmaster tried their best to keep me from scoring tickets, but I would not give up and spent the better part of an hour trying to get tickets. And kept watching the good seats go to someone else each time. So our seats are crappy, but I'd watch from the roof if I had to! This tour is going to be HOT!

And as if it couldn't get any better THE PUSSYCAT DOLLS will be performing with her!!! Perfection!

If you haven't caught Brit performing her two latest songs off of the Circus CD, here's the YouTube videos for them. I already loved, "Womanizer," and I love "Circus" even more. If the tour is anything like these videos it is going to be amazing!!

Womanizer on X-Factor:



Circus on Good Morning America:



I could not be more excited!!