Sisterhood of the Travelling... No, Wait - Sisterhood of the World Bloggers

I've been given The Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award by Jessie of Living A Life of Truth. Yay! I always feel so special when I get these things. :) 

June's Soundtrack

It's the end of June (Already! Crazy!) so here are my top ten songs that I've been listening to this month.

Also - I'm sorry the blog has been taken over by guest posts. I LOVE LOVE LOVE having guest posts because I can feature some really great bloggers. However, I feel like I've barely written anything myself lately. I've been busy so it's been hard to think of actual blog posts to write. Hopefully this will change soon.

As I said, summer is my craziest and busiest time of year. School is out and that means the teenagers have A LOT of time on their hands - so youth activities are in full swing, and therefore my music is being controlled by a lot of high school students.

Thankfully they don't have too terrible of taste. ;)

I Fell In Love

Emmy's Note: Today's final guest post for June's theme of "Art That Touches My Soul" is from one of my newest blog friends- Alexandra! She is one of my sponsors for next month, and while she is an Alabama girl she is NOT your "typical" southern chick. She's lived almost everyhwere and is getting ready to go to college in Huston. Let me tell you, this girl is one AMAZING singer! I'll leave you all a link for her youtube channel because she has a lot of talent, especially for being so young. She's perfect for this month's topic! Alexandra blogs at This Journey of Journies and you can email her at chandelier27aaa@gmail.com.

Art is a kind of neat word, as it encompasses many meanings. I am so grateful to witness art every day, and experience it in all sorts of ways. Everywhere you look you can see miracles and art. Art can be accessed by several senses. Perhaps you might hear me experiencing my art; I sing opera.

It’s a kind of funny story actually. You might want to grab a fuzzy blanket and a cup of coffee.

I have always been with music. And when I say always, I mean, when my mother was pregnant with me she and my Dad went to orchestra concerts and I would kick in her stomach, yearning to be part of the sounds and rhythms. As I grew up I performed in plays and musicals (the first being at age 6, when I was the color red in The Color Factory, which is definitely deep stuff ;) ). Music was always there, keeping me company. I played piano, violin, and sang in the church choir; I think that’s when I first started to love voices making music. (To this day, a men’s ensemble just makes me melt!)

When I hit high school, our family moved to Alabama. Now, this kind of amuses me. I started voice lessons when I got here, and then was asked to be a lead (sort of) in an opera! Keep in mind…I was 15 when this role came around. I had always loved music, and classical music, but had never been in an opera. Oh yeah, and I had never seen one either. I was in an opera before I saw one.

That was all fine and dandy. Operas and musicals came and went. I thought to myself, “this is something I could do. Yeah!”

My Dad is military, so we have done our fair share of travel. Last year brought us to the place that changed my life: Italy. Long story short,  I had the amazing opportunity to spend two months on my own (as in, away from Momma who has always taken care of me) in Milan and Arezzo.  (Arezzo is a little town in Tuscany, not too far from Florence).

Guys….Arezzo changed my life.

I fell in love.

But not with a greasy Italian man. Nor with an imported American dude. In fact, it wasn’t a guy at all!

I fell in love with opera.

Somewhere between the Mozart and Puccini, my heart got captured. And opera has made a permanent home in my heart. I finally knew passion! This love became unexplainable, and honestly incomprehensible. I couldn't believe how much joy had entered into my life, all because of opera. 

Mozart and... source.

Now, as a recent high school graduate, I am off to college to pursue a vocal performance major.

Art changed my life. I found passion. And I couldn’t be more grateful. 

You can check out Alexandra singing here: http://www.youtube.com/user/wwitherow1/videos

The Perfect Photo- Guest Blogger

Emmy's Note: Today's guest blogger is one of my sponsors this month - Mindy! I have a soft spot for photography myself, so I love that Mindy talks about it today! While I'm not a professional photographer or anything, I hardly ever go anywhere without my camera. (The teenagers on trips are always rolling their eyes because I'm snapping pictures of them all of the time!) Mindy also gave links for her blog, Pinterest, email, Facebook, and Twitter. So go check her site out!

Hello! I'm Mindy, from My Life As Mindy and I am so grateful to be a guest today! I tend to write about a lot of different things, but I really love just writing. When Emily gave me the topic of 'Art That Touches My Soul', I was so excited! I knew this was a topic that I would love exploring. 

{Taken by a former student}

Art is an amazing thing. It can bring people together or draw them a part. It can be beautiful to one person and something of disgrace to another. It has been said that ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’. This is true for many things, but especially for Art. 

There are many forms of art. 

music, photographs, paint, digital, dance and lyrics 

This is all considered art. 

Letter to Myself - 5 Years Ago

20sb (20 Something Bloggers) is five years old! It's a blogging community I've been a part of for probably about a year and a half now, and it is probably one of the best things I've ever done for the blog. 

To celebrate, they asked for people to write a letter to themselves 5 years ago.

Eeek.

Five years ago was the summer before my senior year at Concorida. The summer I turned 21, road-tripped to St. Louis with six friends for a wedding, helped as a young adult volunteer at the National Youth Gathering, Vacation Bible School, visiting family in Indiana, my first high school friend got married... I can't believe that was 5 years ago. Crazy!

So... here goes nothing I guess.

Why Theatre People Are Awesome

I've been in theatre since I was about six years old. With my 26th birthday coming up, that means I have been on stage for about 20 years now. 

One of the things I've learned is that theatre people are awesome. 

True story.

Every month for my blog I have a theme of the month, and this month's theme is "Art That Inspires My Soul."  Therefore, I decided to share with all of you wonderful readers why theatre people are awesome.

Something you need to understand is that theatre people are their own special breed of human...

Want to read the rest of this post? I'm guest blogging for my sponsor swap buddy, Sarah, on her blog - A Catlike Curiosity! 

Nothing That's Worthwhile is Ever Easy- Guest Blogger

Emmy's Note: Today's guest post if from Jessie (she also wrote the post Graduation, Friends Forever). She has recently graduated high school and wrote about her experiences in theatre. I love her post because it reminded me of what my high school musical director used to tell us. She would tell us how once you caught the theatre bug - it never leaves you. Also, she talks about everything theatre (and art in general) does for you. It's hard, but it shapes you and forms you. Jessie writes at Living a Life of Truth and tweets at @nerdfighter2012.

Want to write about Art That Touches Your Soul? It's not too late to contribute to this month's theme! Email me at lovewokemeupthismorning@gmail.com.

I also will be needing A LOT of guest posts in July because I'm going to be out of town 1/2 of the month. Check out the contribute page.

“Nothing that’s worthwhile is ever easy. Remember that.” – Nicholas Sparks

I remember seeing one of my very first theatrical performances. I was in grade school and had managed to talk my mom into taking me to the high school on a Friday night in November when my dad went out hunting with the men in the family to see the fall musical.  I mean, it was Cinderella, how could we NOT see that show?  Back then, when I hadn’t yet experienced working in theatre, I thought it was an easy thing to do.  Slap some scenes together and put clothes on people and recite lines.  Little did I know, that was not the case at all.

That had to have been eight years ago, considering it was the summer after that show I started taking summer classes at the recreation center and got my first taste of theatre.  Seven years later, with a deep love and passion for the art, I’m now teaching those classes.  And let me tell you, it is not just about slapping some scenes together and putting clothes on people to recite lines; far from it.

You'd Think I'd Learn By Now

So... what things are you bad at?

Artistic Inspiration

Emmy's Note: Today's guest post for this months topic Art that Touches My Soul is from one of my sponsors for June - Sarah! What's so cool is that Sarah is ACTUALLY an artist. She even has some of her work in a gallery right now - how awesome is that? So, naturally, this topic and month was perfect timing for her to sponsor and guest blog. I love and appreciate paintings and sculptures and the like. I loved going to The Met while I was in NYC. However - I really don't know much about it so I can never really share many thoughts. Sarah today will share with us some of her resources for art and even some Etsy shops where you can buy art and at the end is offering a great special so you can have art too! And don't forget to check out her blog, A Catlike Curiosity. 


Want to contribute to this month's theme? Email me at lovewokemeupthismorning@gmail.com.

The Great Roommate Search of 2012 and my Amazing Painting Skills

(For those of you who get this through email - if you want to watch my vlog go to the blog itself - thanks!)

Lessons Learned

Over Memorial Day Weekend I took a trip that I had been looking forward to almost my entire life...

New York City.

As a HUGE musical theatre geek (have done countless school and community theatre shows and majored in Drama ministry) and a city girl (born and raised in the south suburbs of Chicago) I was outrageously excited for the trip. I couldn't wait to see if the Big Apple was all my imagination had hyped it up to be. While I was there, I learned a few things.

Want to read more of this post? I'm over at My Life As... today! Check it out. :) http://mylifeasmindy.blogspot.com/2012/06/guest-post-emily-from-love-woke-me-up.html

June Sponsor Spotlight

This month - I have TWO sponsor swap buddies! WOW! I'm so excited to introduce these two lovely ladies to you.

Art That Touches My Soul

It's all about the story.

I threw my heels to the side and lay down next to him. They fell onto the stage floor with a bang and the sound echoed through the auditorium. The acoustics in that room always amazed me and sometimes I wondered why we even bothered wearing microphones.

He had the stage lights on, but dimmed so low that they almost looked like stars shining down on our faces. In the city, it was the closest to a starry night we would ever get.

We lay in peaceful silence for a few moments and I breathed in the scent of sets in the making, drying paint, and the dust of musicals past. For most people lying on a hard floor would be one of the last places they would want to be. Not for me. Nothing felt more at home than the stage and I could lie there for hours if I was allowed.

James eventually broke the silence. "So why this, Zoey?" he asked.

I answered him with another question. "This what?"

He waved his hand around, surveying the theatre. "This. Life of the starving artist. Why this life? You could do anything - but you chose this. Why?"

May's Soundtrack

I'm a little behind this month - so I'll have my introductory post for June's theme (Art That Touches My Soul) on Monday!

In the meantime... here are the top 10 songs that I've been jamming out to this month: