A Song for Everything

Ahh Christmas time, the time of fun, food, family, end of year parties and celebrations, presents, celebrating the greatest gift JESUS and singing LOTS of singing. Now those of you who know me, know that I LOVE Christmas music. Which is probably a good thing as I am a singer and that means you start rehearsing Christmas music way back in September/October. This year in particular I am singing a lot of it, I am blessed to have quite a few Christmas gigs this year its just keeping on top of the music which can get stressful (oh along with other rehearsals and work etc still happening haha). To date I have ticked off three, still have 5 to go!  On Saturday night the 5th, Soul Factor Gospel Choir presented it's Christmas Concert "It's Almost Christmas". It was a fabulous night of music, fun and spreading the joy of Christmas. We sang & danced to a packed house and were very much  encouraged by the audience participation, clapping and laughter throughout the eve

I can not believe we are in to November already! This year is flying by. Last week was my birthday and so another year begins...... I am interested to see what it brings :) The weekend prior the family were all in Melbourne to celebrate my sister Lauren's 30th Birthday. Sh e was having a 1940's themed party which meant victory rolls and red lipstick! Because we were all together it meant that the Raymond Sisters could perform too! It is so lovely to be able to sing together every now and then and this time was no exception. Decked out in our military uniforms we sang through a new song of ours "Babies of the Blitz" which is a fabulous song from the movie Mrs Henderson Presents and we also did our Andrew Sisters Medley both to cheers and applause!! See the videos below :) It was a great night of celebrating Lauren's 30 years! We were also able to sing again the next day at Whittlesea City Salvation Army "Hymns and High Tea". It was a grea

A dream is a wish you heart makes... Do you have a dream? something that you want your life to be? or somewhere you want to go? Are you reaching for it? I have had a dream to be a Mary Kay Director since I joined the company 10 years ago and this month I took a huge step to achieving this. On October 1st I entered into DIQ or Director in Qualification, I now have 4 months to become a Director. I am very excited about this, the timing seemed right and when I do it I will be able to do just Mary Kay and Singing which will be perfect! It is rather scary though because there is a lot of work to be done in those four months, I have to build my team and reach certain production goals and sometimes it seems crazy, but that's the idea of moving up isn't it? taking a leap of faith? So why Directorship you ask? I understand leadership is not for everyone but I have always been drawn to it. I do have a passion for helping women feel good about themselves and I believe that we are

I love the BBC Series "Call the Midwife". It is a wonderful show following Midwives in London through the 1950's and now into the 1960's. I love it for the issues it tackles, the messages it sends and the acts of courage and strength it highlights. On the weekend I found the Fourth Season on DVD and I was very excited to watch it as it was only on Foxtel this time and so I missed it! It was in one of these episodes, the Christmas Special actually, that I was reminded how we often think we are not good enough. Whether it's we don't know what we can offer, or that we think we are too young or too old, or not attractive enough or smart enough there are so many different "enoughs". In the episode, Nurse Miller is trying to come to a decision on whether to become a nun or not. She feels happy about it but is questioning why God would want to use her in that way. She says to the Head Sister "why would God want to use me? what do have I to offer?&qu

What a month August has been! I have been meaning to write this blog post many times throughout the month but have either been too busy or new things have happened! So this month started off rather crazily, last month you may remember that I did 100 makeovers and a concert, I felt like I was running haha!! But the 3rd of August was the Mary Kay Colour and Awards night and what a great night that was! I did win a lot of awards I really felt very blessed but it was a good night. The next morning, I headed to Melbourne on a 6am flight!! I was singing at Salvos Cake for a Cause for the Melbourne Central Division at 10:30am. It was raising money for the Women's Ministries Fundraising Project which is now raising money for Nepal. To fund  Sisters Cafe and Beauty where they train women in a choice of Waitress, Chef or Beautician. It is a wonderful program and what was lovely is that it really connects with me as I am a Beauty Consultant so I was able to share that as well. I have rea

Well it is half way through July already, can you believe it? This year is racing by! What have you got planned for this second half of the year? I am excited about this second half and am well underway with my goals. At the moment I am doing a Mary Kay Makeover Contest and am aiming for 100 faces, I have already done 42 so am pretty happy with that and am having a great time meeting new people, catching up with friends and doing makeup :) I have a passion to help all women feel beautiful (whatever form that takes) and it has definitely been about that! Plus its helping me towards my goal of doing Mary Kay full time so I can be doing just Makeup and Singing!! Which sounds just right to me. So I am pretty excited about it all and look forward to what happens next. If you want to be involved in the contest please contact me, I'd love to have you as one of my faces. Besides playing with makeup I have been doing a lot of rehearsing for Soul Factor's upcoming concert "Bless

And so the story of the trip continues here Part One can be found here ! So we arrived in Istanbul on Tuesday 21st April 2015 and as I said in the previous post we were struck by how many people there were and how crazy the driving was but luckily we were picked up by our tour company, Travelshop Turkey. We did make it to our hotel, The Green Park Hotel, safely and this hotel seemed quite nice. We did find it weird we didnt know anything about our start time in the morning or anything else from our tour but the guy at the desk did say that they were rather unorganised and not to worry, he'd let us know. Dancers on the boat Our first experience began that night began with a Bosphorus River and Dinner Cruise (to be honest we didn't quite know what to expect), people had said that it was great to cruise on the Bosphorus and see Istanbul from the water. Well we got picked up along with some others we didn't know and headed to our boat. Well this night was an experience!

My goodness it is the last day of May! I can not believe that it is a month since I was heading back from my trip overseas. Those four weeks have flown and I meant to say a bit about the trip here so before this month comes to an end I will! So as I spoke about in an earlier blogs I won tickets in the ballot to Gallipoli for the Centenary Dawn Service and then Lone Pine service. I chose to take my dad and then we decided that along with Mum we would head over and enjoy a few weeks exploring overseas. So on April 9 2015 we headed to Paris, after the long flights (on which my TV did not work for the 14 hour part :( ) we were very pleased with ourselves for getting on the train and to our hotel. We spent 2 days in Paris and yes we had a nice time but really I don't particularly like Paris. I mean I love the architecture and the history but it is just so busy! Favourite parts were:  the Opera House - Palais Garnier (this was so opulent and amazing! Even saw the Phantom of the O

Yes this blog is titled with a line from the song "Hair" , not a song I sing often and funnily enough the song talks about the opposite to what I've done because I have cut OFF my hair!!! Yes this is the most crazy thing I've done in the past week and a half haha!! No really it has been 10 years since I last gave my hair a really good cut up to a bob. I am very happy with it and can't believe how much lighter it is (I did cut off over 20cms so considerably different!).  So anyway, I hope this finds you well and can't believe its already half way through March. In Adelaide we call it Mad March because we have so many festivals and events happening in the city and surrounds but it is a great time of the year. The end of February for me was finishing up the Fringe show I did "Pirates of Penzance on the Popeye". We had a fabulous time, the audiences loved it and although it was extremely hot weather to work in, we didn't melt! So what'

So we are very much into February, which is amazing really but it does mean the start of a rather busy time for Adelaide especially! I have started the year off reasonably quietly which has been good as I was rather tired from the end of last year but it is good to be underway and learning things again. Soul Factor are back and rehearsing again and we are learning music for Easter. This Easter concert is another stand and sing full of beautiful music telling the story those last weeks, days, moments of Jesus' life and the joy of the resurrection. Our Easter concerts have sold out for the last few years so don't miss out on tickets. For more info head to the website here. In February and March, Adelaide comes alive with the Fringe Festival, other festivals and Clipsal 500. It is a crazy time in the city but such a wonderful vibe and a great time for performing and watching others. This year I am in the fringe show "Pirates of Penzance on the Popeye" put on my Emma

On Monday the 12th January it would have been my brother Alex's 21st birthday. To think my little brother would have been that old haha!! Its almost 3 years since Alex passed away and yes we miss him everyday but occasions such as this make you think of him even more. Alex had told us girls (my sisters and I) that for his 21st (yes rather organised for a kid who didn't even start (he's often draw them) a birthday card until the day of the persons birthday!) he wanted an Anime/Video Games dress up theme. So knowing this and wanting to do something to commemorate this special occasion we decided to go along with a party with an Anime/Video Games dress up theme. So on Friday night we had the party. It was a great night, lots of people dressed up, we ate lots of bad food (his specialty haha), chatted, laughed, watched pictures of him and enjoyed each others company just as he would have wanted it. My niece Bella also entertained us all which was hilarious and very special. B

Happy New Year!! I can not believe we are already in to 2015. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year time, mine was quiet but very much needed. I was exhausted after the end of the year and so was very much glad of the relaxation and time with family. Love a good nap haha!! So looking back over 2014, how did you feel about that year? I had an interesting year, it was a bit quieter at times as I was no longer travelling with the band but then it got crazy busy at the end of the year. I'll be honest and say that at times through out the year I felt a bit directionless, a bit of a drifter but then I also felt like it was a year to refresh a bit, connect again with people and connect with me. I felt God was saying to trust him and I'm thankful for the year. I have had great times with friends, grown relationships, meet new people, auditioned lots, been a 2 TV series, done makeup for films, weddings & formals, performed at new places, performed two shows Legally Blo