Just Breathe - Kara Langer

I just realized I finished this song a while ago and never put it up here. Written by Kara Langer, recorded in my living room.

Kara Langer - Piano and Vocals
Matt Powers - Bass
Me - Drums and mixing

Vocalist Needed

Ok, I know it's a long shot, but I figure it couldn't hurt. I've been working with Austin Lewis on an album for the past few months, and we really desperately need someone to sing. Not just anyone, but someone good. I'd say someone amazingly good. We've been looking forever and have come across some really awful singers. Sometimes you just find the right person in the place you would least expect it (like my wife's blog).

So here it is. Below are three of the songs we have. We have about 10 songs and are going through and re-recording all of them now, so they should all sound good in the end, but these should give you an idea of what they will sound like.

If you can sing, or know someone who can sing, or know someone who knows someone who can sing please please please let me know. If you live in the Bay Area, then great, you can record at Austin's house. If you live in Fresno/Clovis area, then great, you can record at my house. If you don't live anywhere near those areas, then you'll have to invest $100 in a microphone and I can teach you how to record.

What we want:

• Strong powerful melodic vocals. Not too hard, not too soft, just raw power.
• Some one who can write good melodies and good lyrics. This is harder than it sounds.
  
• A recorded sample of you singing. Doesn't have to be high quality, but I just need to hear what you sound like. You can even just sing into the microphone on your laptop.
  

What we don't want:

• Cookie Monster or whiny Blink 182 style vocals. There's a high school right around the corner where I can find plenty of that.
• An explanation of how good you are with no recording to back it up. There's a reason why the American Idol judges have to go through 3000 people to find 20 good singers.
  

I will even accept ugly people.

So what do you have to lose? Nothing. The worst that can happen is you send a terrible audition, I post it here for all to make fun of, and we all go our separate ways (I'm kidding by the way). What do you have to gain? The possibility of singing in the greatest metal band that ever lived. Seems like a low risk venture to me (no longer kidding).

So, if you are interested, or know someone who is, send a sample recording to apatheticinterest@bozrecords.com.

Dress-up Photo Shoot

To debut what this elf was up to in the wee hours of the night prior to Christmas, the kids and I had a little photo shoot (They were SO much fun!).

This dress-up set is made up of different coordinating pieces for lots of costume variety and with adjustable sizing (velcro, ties, smocked backs, etc.) for years of use. So here's a sampling of possible costume combinations. Any thing you see that isn't plastic was made by yours truly.

Oh and you should also know that Elyette posed herself 90% of the time :)...

Victorian Sweetie I made the base of this hat from craft foam so it may not last long, but it was a fun experiment (makes me really want to try out a hat making class)

Belle of the Ball
Ain't she a beauty?

Masquerade

Mystery Maiden

Rags...

To Riches

And I'm not one to leave Dude out of all the fun...

Its a bird, its a plane, its...

Robbing the rich to feed this chubby :)

Buttler King

Howdy!

My Knight in plastic armor
...who tried to kill me- and the camera- thus ends our photo shoot.

2010 -- and Handmade Holidays 2009

So I can't decide if I want to say "Two thousand ten" or "twenty ten"...hmmm... Anyway, Happy New Year Everyone! And I hope all had a Merry Christmas! So clearly blogging isn't yet on my resolution list, but hey better late than never. We had a blast this Christmas.
Jack seeing Santa arrive on Christmas Eve.
We went up to Boz's parents (who are now very close to us) where we get lucky cause Santa always visit Christmas Eve with some PJ's for the kids.
They loved it. Of course we all loved every minute of Christmas. We did lots of vegging, eating, playing, eating, watching movies, and did I mention EATING! Yeah, um, the Holidays are not good to a pregnant woman who can clearly not control herself and there is no working it off for this chubby lady, just getting rounder. Oh well, pregnancy doesn't look good on me, such is life. At least I get some cuties to show for it :).
This year in the "handmade Christmas" department we made PJ's, robes, monogrammed totes, personalized notebooks and popcorn bowls, screened tee's, including another awesome T-shirt with the recipients face on it (this time we did Boz's brother Ray :)) done by Boz (sorry, not pictured...)
We got the kids an art easel and whipped up some smocks to go with (interested in a tutorial anyone?). Unfortunately, some chalk cloth fabric I ordered to make a splat mat (to go under the easel didn't come in time, so that's one of this weeks projects. This was probably one of my favorites. We made etched glass ornaments of the kids' silhouettes for the grandparents (and of course a set for ourselves). Let me know if anyone is interested in a how-to tutorial for these! I did intend to do one for a "homemade for the holidays" post, but of course ran out of time.

Can I just say how fun it is to come up with and execute handmade Christmas gifts! The best is that Boz does it with me! I don't know what I'd do with out him. His photoshop skills are VERY handy and I've been really wanting us to get into carpentry stuff and now that we have a garage we really can! Plus we discovered that tools aren't nearly as costly as we thought. Boz is becoming quite the wood worker and much to my pleasure, HE LOVES IT.
This year he made my dreams come true :). I've been dying to make a set of costumes/dress-ups for the kids and asked Boz if he'd make a trunk to hold them. He did a beautiful job ( shhhhhh, Santa brought this ;).) and I'm very excited about future projects he already has in mind.

And the kids and I had a fun little photo-shoot today (finally got some sun!) with the dress-ups this elf made, so be warned of a post coming :).