A Song for Everything

"Oh what a Beautiful Morning, Oh what a Beautiful Day......" Well actually its been a beautiful week! I did have the absolute privilege to play Laurey in Oklahoma! presented live on Four Oaks Farm in Littlehampton SA. It was such a beautiful setting to be in everyday, trees, fresh air, animals in the paddocks around and one rather show stealing peacock!! The cast was fabulous, the orchestra amazing and the sound superb (Tim Freedman, Allpro Audio  love your work!!). At the risk of sounding cheesy it was a magical experience. From the moment that Curly rides along the ridge on his horse (an actual horse!) singing "Oh what a Beautiful Morning" people were captivated. It was such a labour of love for all of us, and to see the joy in people's faces was so wonderful. This production was the idea of Emma Knights from Emma Knights Productions and along with some other wonderful people who captured the vision of it all as well, it actua...

Happy New Year!! Wow can you believe that we are in 2016! Last year really flew by and December was a crazy month. How are you feeling after the end of the year? are you ready to start a new one? December was a great month, I was flat out with gigs, rehearsals, work and Mary Kay plus of course Christmas events with friends and family but it was a great month. I do love singing and performing and it is such a pleasure to share Christmas songs with people, to have then join in and leave with such joy. Soul Factor's concert was fabulous! So much fun to perform and a full house to share it with. Our next gig was at the Hallett Cove Carols, which was freezing! And then the Adelaide Carols by Candlelight where some of us where backing Samantha Jade again and the whole choir was in the onstage choir. This turned into an exciting event, because although Samantha Jade got through her first number she actually had tonsillitis and got sicker after so about 20 mins before she was to go bac...

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?...

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...