Major Events Looming Large

I have a couple of things coming up that are very exciting, yet bring a certain element of pressure.
First of all I am applying to do my Master of Education in Arts Education. This will start up in September and I am very excited to say the least. Doing a Masters has been a long time goal, but only if it was really relevant to my life and life's work. This one seems perfect, it covers, art, drama, writing, music and aesthetics in general. I am always doing this stuff in my class anyway, and now I am archiving all my songs and rhymes etc on youtube, I thought perhaps some of this would work its way into my Masters Portfolio.
Why I say this is looming large is that the deadline for applications is Jan 31st and not that far away.
I have my three reference letters, (thank you kindly) and I did my letter of intent last weekend, and gave myself a big pat on the back for that. Now I have to get an academic paper together for them, and I was hoping to find one that I did towards my degree, and this could prove interesting. If I cannot track one down then I must write something, and things are so tight around time I was hoping to not have to do that right now.

The second event approaching like a speeding train is my concert as part of the Musical Expressions series at the Richmond Cultural Centre on February 5th 2011 at 8:00.
I am so looking forward to getting back on stage and doing a 'grown up ' show, but it has been a while so the old insecurities kick in. Beth and I had a killer practice last week and things felt really good, so I really can't wait, but there are moments of "what am I doing this to myself for." When as my kids say, you want it Mum, and they are right of course.

Something special has come about as a result of doing this concert, I have started recording an EP and the songs are all turning out so wonderfully. I am doing four that I wrote many years ago, but never performed much as they were so personal to myself, or those who inspired them.  So now that time has passed and healed the wounds, I think it is time to let these songs be heard.
One of them is a happy little ditty I just wrote, but it works in perfectly with the others.
You can find out more about my music at my Pam Carr Music website or on facebook.

So needless to say, I am practicing like mad and looking forward to going into the studio next Friday to do the vocals for "Rise Above It All."  I have to do the press releases and promo stuff, as it all helps to try and fill the theater on the night.

There is so much work involved in producing these kinds of shows and I really cannot say enough about the amazing Cherelle Jardine who works so hard to put this concert series together.

So this morning I have spent procrastinating and uploading video to my iMovie and editing it and adding videos to pamelasunshinetv and one of my other blogs. I am also trying to keep adding new songs to the Violet Femmes Music blog, so today it was Imogen Heap.
I really am as happy as can be keeping all this stuff going, it suits my butterfly nature I suppose.

Weekends Are My Time For Blogging

Working full time as a teacher means I have little energy for blogging week nights. I have also got several blogs, as my interests are varied and I try to feed them all.
I do try to add some videos to my youtube channel on a regular basis. Then there is Violet Femmes, my blog in support of women musicians that I try to keep ticking over.  I am very excited about my newest blog,  Pams Creative Classroom and I look forward to posting pictures of the happenings in my classroom, as well a gems I find in my travels around the internet. This is really a big thing for me as I get to share my philosophy around teaching, learning environments, childrens music etc.

Here are a couple of my students intent on cutting out some Wild Things for our big class picture.

It seems that the weekends are the perfect time for working on my blogs.  Setting them up is always fun, and tweaking the design is always interesting work.
So, as a result I did not go out for a walk as planned and this is not great, although the rain pouring did have something to do with that decision.  Normally I love the rain, but today I just felt so content in my warm little apartment, and decided that it will wait until tomorrow.
I did manage to do my yoga this morning and my meditation as well.  This practice helps me bring balance to my life and is as important to me as my daily journal writing.
It will be interesting to see if another whole week goes by before I get back to this blog.  Let's wait and see, perhaps I have motivated myself to be more diligent.