Portrait Painting

 

Lots of Contests and Shows Make for a Great Year

The last year has been full of contests and shows.  "The Queen" was in the Texas State Fair last year and came in 3rd for watercolor portraits.  The "Gypsy" won Best in Show at the Dallas Public Library contest, and the "Flamenco Dancer" came in 3rd.  However, I found out from the librarians that the one that received the most attention was the "belly Dancer".  Soon after I had a 45 day show at the library in Oaklawn.  In it, I put in "The Frogs", "School of Koi", and a lot of abstracts.  The abstracts sold well.  I sold six of them to of all people my main competitor in the contest a few months ago at the library.  What an incredible compliment!!!  Soon I hope to be showing my art work in several places. 

New Phases in An Artists Life

The phases consist of areas of concentration that an artist is focusing on. This year I've had two: Movie posters and horse paintings. Both of them are fun and rewarding, and allow me to really grow. The theory goes that in order to excel at a certain genre, you have to paint that particular subject three times. The other is that it requires 10,000 hours to excel. Hey, I'll go with the three paintings. Who has 10,000 hours to do anything?

MOVIE POSTERS

The first one is the movie posters. I started by doing existing movies posters, like the Good The Bad and the Ugly on a two foot by three foot sheet. I searched around on Google images to find the poster that jumped out at me. Believe me, you will know the one that speaks to you when you see it. It has to be an image you want to spend at least 12 hours with, and although I don't like the movie (way to slow and too little dialog), I could look at these guys all day. I also learned pitfalls with going for large subjects. Keep this in mind: you will not have a way to stretch it on a backing. So you want to pick focal points that won't take forever, and a background that you can speed through in order to NOT waterlog your paper. All these are watercolors. If you waterlog a huge piece of paper, your whole thing will be warped and not look good even pinned down by the mat. You may also have limited acccess to an area. I had to do Van Cleef standing up to reach his part of the paper because he was so high up. Here's another trick, use Indian ink for your background. I found that it covers it usually in one application and doesn't warp much. Remember, without a backing, you only have so many times to hit it with the wet brush before the paper goes all accordian on you. Black ink makes that foreground really pop. Cool 3-D effect. I started off masking any area that was going to stay perfectly white, especially the highlights on the hats and the whites of the eyes. Doing three faces back to back, I figured out that you want to go as far as you can with the burnt sienna (reddish brown) as a complete portrait. Then add burnt unber (dark brown) as far as you can go, then erase using the magic eraser where you haven't left enough lightness or white for the highlights, then go back and with the burnt sienna and burnt umber. You don't do the black ink until everything else is done.

I made a boo boo by not leaving a highlight on Van Cleef's hat, which made it look different from the other two (to me anyway.) I taped off the edge with masking tape where I wanted the highlight to show up. Then I scrubbed it with a damp magic eraser. This is the greatest invention ever for a watercolorist, who used to be cursed to live with screw-ups like that for the life of the painting, since I we had was a little lightening of the color with a paper towel. Now we have the best of both worlds, even with staining colors like green! The movie poster "of Human Bondage" was an orginal I made up from a photo of one of the movie scenes. This is even more fun than doing an existing poster, because you get to make it look any way you want. Next I could do favorite book jackets. Whatever grabs me at the moment.

THE HORSE PHASE

The second phase was painting horses. Horses make incredible subjects but require TONS of detail work. This is something you can really get OCD with if you don't finally say "Good enough!" But they really come out looking just like the photograph if you dedicate a good bit of time. Here's what I do: I tape off the horse and rider. This frees me up to get nice and loose on the background. Then I would tape off a fence. What if the photo doesn't have a fence? Well, I find a fence a pretty way to do a background and just about the easiest. Just three strands of tape across the canvass and your have a fence! Do this AFTER you have taped off the horse and rider. It will be your middle ground.

Now you can go a little wild. Lots of great sky, trees in the background, a nice grassy lawn (remember, these are people with money for horses and landscaping) of course your fence needs some pretty shrubs and bushes behind it. Throw in some color. Not overly detailed, though. Your horse and rider are the focal point. Nothing should take the eye away from them at all. So leave out the details and dark shadows. This should take an hour or less. Do not leave the background until it can stand on it's own as a nice fuzzy landscape picture on it's own. Once the tape comes off, you cannot go back to it! If you find you must go back, retape at least the fence. That fence is left white.

Now we move on to the horse and rider once you remove the fence tape. Again, you're going to hang out with these two for about three days, so find a subject you LOVE to look at and won't get tired of. I guess with the horse thing, it's like an alter life I might have had if I could have handled being on a fast horse, and had the money for boarding, food, a horse, and lessons. That didn't happen, so I will do the vicarious thing. I don't doubt I'm a much better painter than I ever would have been a horsewoman.

With the horse, again, start out with the lighter color (either burnt sienna or burnt umber) put down a wash, dab off the highlights, and then add layers upon layers of darker paint. Lift as you go with paper towel if necessary. Then go with the darker color and go as far as you can with that. Then you want almost black. Mix a burnt umber and blue the shade of your sky to get a "black." I do not use Payne's grey. It's kind of a dead color. I do for the top hat and things like that, but that's all. See that tent in the background? Purely taped off. No paint on that except the stripes. Then I went with a double mat of the same white and black. I hadn't paid for framing in some years, but this one was really an exception. Here's my plug for Hobby Lobby: If you buy the frame and have them cut a mat there (you'll have to for these jumbo paintings), Hobby Lobby will frame it for you while you are in the store!

The neat thing is I've been commissioned to do a couple of paintings of family members. This will always be a hobby of course, but it's nice to actually have people think that I'm good enough to paint their family and friends. These frogs are not part of the two phases, but they did win in a rescent art who, and they COULD be a movie poster, don't you think?

Showing Off Your Hobby in Public

What I do is look for opportunities to practice my hobbies in public. Not in the classroom, not in front of my teacher, but in front of a real audience. There's lots of ways to go about this: enter contests, find a captive audience who will clap politely, or video whatever you are doing. Just knowing that it's being video will have the same effect. What's the point of doing it in public? To up your game. There is nothing to get your adrenalin involved like being in front of people for the newbie.

You'd think that I'd have gotten over my stage fright by now but that's not the case. This week I played a small concert on the guitar for my watercolor class. I did the same thing in front of my dad and one of his housemates at his assisted living facility. Being perfect at my level is not a realistic possibility, and these groups don't expect it. They just want to support you. Even though I knew everybody, I still had a pretty good case of butterflies going. And of course I had more fun than anybody else there. Once you've broken the ice and played in front of a "safe" crowd, your confidence is up and you can work toward playing in front of a lesser "known" crowd. Hey, we could play at a Borders or something. It's all about just getting in the water to learn how to swim. If you don't get in the water, you'll never swim.

I also entered an art contest this week. I didn't know whether the woven painting or the portrait would win. Most people thought the frogs were the slam dunk, but I wasn't 100% sold. I thought Al Pacino might win over adorability. He IS pretty adorable, too. And he won. So what does this accomplish? Did I get any money? No, I got a ribbon I don't get to keep. And I paid $30 to enter the two pieces (and join the Friends of the Dallas Public Library). But it upped my game! Now I'll enter more contests. AND I have another show scheduled in the spring for all my new portraits and woven paintings that I've been cranking out. Thanks to the Dallas Public Library.

How do you up your game with reading? Books on tape! I'm almost done listening to Jane Eyre at the office (I have one of those jobs that I can do while listening to books and watching the daddycam at my dad's house), I'm listening to The Unauthorized Biography of J. Edgar Hoover in the car, and on the train and at lunch and on the elliptical or in bed I read What Happy People Know or a Thomas Wolfe. So basically, this week I've upped my reading by doing it in public.

Why would you want to up your game? There's lots of reasons to do a hobby, but improving your skill is part of the deal. Plus, if you don't challenge yourself, it's not nearly as fun. There's lots of ways to keep your brain active, and learning a new skill (a new song, a new painting technique, a new exercise) is about the best. Watching TV is about the fastest way to turn your brain to mush. Think about it. We are all born with that particular skill mastered.

Woven Paintings: Create a Special Painting from Two So-So Ones

We had a demo last year in my watercolor class that basically rocked my painting world. I always like to develop new watercolor techniques that are easy and turn out consistently good results. Weaving two paintings together is about as easy as it gets.

First you paint two separate paintings of the same subject. Landscapes probably turn out the best. Portraits are a bit difficult and, although Liz Taylor is recognizable, I have to deviate from her true skin tone in order to get any variance in the paintings. In the above I used orange, so it might come out just Liz with splotches of orange around the mouth. I don't think too many people at the office who saw it even realized it was a woven painting. I could have gone WAY off the natural skin tone, but then she wouldn't look like a person. Or green. Or blue. Skin tone on the first painting and orange and gold on the second just says bad skin.

OK, so let's say you are going to pick a landscape, a seascape, an unusually shaped structure, aspen trees, or an animal. You do two exact pictures by tracing. I personally go one light, one significantly darker; one pastel, and one more primary. Opposite colors on the color wheel work great. I tend to stay away from browns and a whole lot of realism for the colors. However you do your painting, it will come off abstract in the end due to the weaving. I would say the less complicated your subject, the more recognizable it is. The building in Santorini above is a good, basic building with the shadows on both paintings in the same place. Most areas can be lined up on a simple subject. If you do mountains with varying shaded areas, the tops of the mountains can be lined up, but not the shading. Some people don't mind things being out of alignment, but it just depends on how recognizable you'd like your subject to be.

Once I have done the paintings I start on the cutting. This is also arbitrary. The most common is one vertical and one horizontal. I think that's a bit boring, and tend to go with circular lines on one and diagonal lines on the other. Even if you like straight lines, diagonal is far more interesting. Curves add movement to the picture making it almost swirly. Curved lines can be drawn with a big bowl. I draw the lines on the back of the picture, and if there are details on one painting I want to retain in the finished painting (e.g. a cool cloud formation or in Liz's case the eyes in one were better than the other) I draw the lines on the front of the painting around that area and build the cuts around that one strip.

Finally you cut it based on my little video, and just weave the strips together ony by one. It might take a good while to get everything to line up. I sometimes start over. The best way to avoid getting things out of order is to number the back of the strips.

What comes out in the final product is a big surprise, especially to me! I have NO idea what the weaving will look like. But so far, I've been more pleased with the woven painting than I was with the original works. I guess it's because it really is an accident and it's SO easy to make it all come together.

Portrait Painting

Every week before my watercolor class, I draw my subject from a photo. I draw each area of varying shades. What really carries the day with a picture is the values (although color gets all the credit.) Just like painting ship sails, painting a face is all about painting shadows. I start off with a wash of burnt sienna. Everybody starts off as a light skin tone, and I find burnt sienna applies to everybody, regardless of race. I then paint the shadows, layer after layer. Going gradually darker over about two hours. (Of course the eyes and teeth are left white until I get the skin completely done.)







 

When I've gone as far as I can with the hills and valleys of the cheek bones, chin, neck, etc., I go for the detail work of the eyes, lips and hair. Then I shade the whites of the eyes. If at this point I see that I've gone overboard on the skin tones for the shading, I can remove a layer of the shading by "painting" the shadow with water, maybe giving it a little scrub with a clean brush, and patting it with a paper towel. If I need to take the whole area off, I can do that with a slightly damp Magic Eraser. This really is magic. If I want to put in a highlight where one doesn't currently exist, I can take the Magic Eraser and rub out a circle where I want the cheekbone or forehead to come forward to the viewer.

See if you can name all the famous people in the paintings!

Tennis: Healthy Fun at Any Age

I used to say that my purpose for being on my tennis league was to make people feel really good about their game. I was slow and erratic, although I had pretty good hand eye coordination and a wicked backhand and serve. However my game went, I had more fun than anyone else out on the courts. The social connection is just as much fun as the game. If you are willing to have fun and not get overly caught up in the competition (beat up yourself, your team mates, or your competition) you can do this well into old age and stay fit.

HOW TO LEARN TO PLAY:

There's lots of continuing ed courses all over the place including city rec centers, tennis centers, and junior colleges. These last eight weeks or so and are in groups. You can also take individual classes. Although these teach you the mechanics, you don't actually play any games so you don't learn the rules or etiquette. There's plenty of easy books out there and now you can find whatever you want on the Internet.

JOIN A LEAGUE:

Don't get stuck in the trap of lessons, lessons, lessons and more lessons. After about two series of lessons, you are ready for a league. Leagues have different levels, and obviously you will start in the beginner league. You don't have to be proficient to be at this level. League playing is where you will really progress. Since you are a baby player, you should join a city league for less than $40 for however many months the league season goes (which goes toward reserving courts). I was in the Carrollton league for five plus years (never did leave the beginner league) and we had people from their twenties to about 70. In order to progress, you have to play people better than yourself. This is why you don't want to get stuck in lessons without actual games. In lessons, you are competing against yourself. In leagues, you are competing against other people. It keeps you far more honest. In lessons, you are paying an instructor to tell you "Man, that was AWESOME," whereas, on a league, you might hear that and you know it's the truth. Or, on a league, you might hear dead silence or a sigh or a "Next time, try hitting to her backhand." You can always take lessons while playing on the league. You can also get your league members to take private lessons with you and split the cost. Now that's a blast.

Your first league should probably be a doubles league. This is less taxing to your body as you are only doing half the work, or maybe less. It's just as much fun and you will make lots of friends as you have four people for each match. Depending on the courts, that could be eight to twelve people running around in an evening.

BUYING A RACQUET:

There's a huge difference between an el cheapo $30 racquet and a $120 racquet. You might want to try out a few racquets at a tennis center and then find your favorite online and buy it (for half the price). I played with what felt like a caveman club for the first three years. When I finally decided to invest in a decent racquet, it truly transformed my game. It was like playing with a pencil, it was so light. But my gosh, I could hit the ball three times harder. I just wish I hadn't waited so long.

DEALING WITH THE WEATHER:

Our league played in the evening, and in Texas at 6:30 that was the peak of the heat in the summer. During this grueling months, you might want to take a break. The key is to dress as light as possible and drink a lot of water. In the winter, it was just the opposite. At 28 degrees, we would play with layers on to the point where we looked like Eskimos out there barely able to swing a racquet or run. I was a little afraid to take months off and leave the league short handed. The thing is, in the winter at least, you can always warm up by the end of the first set. With 100 degree heat, you simply have to take care of yourself by taking time off if necessary. Everybody gets that. The upside is, you will lose five pounds of water in a night!!

STAYING IN SHAPE:

I found the best cross training for tennis was yoga. Tennis involves a lot of quick reflexive movements from a standing position. Fast arm swings, fast sprinting, and your brain gets very quick at telling your body what to do before you've actually thought anything through. The ball is moving fast and you don't have time to consider choices. Your body just somehow gets there and does it's thing. Because of this, you can be in some pain and the adrenaline will allow you to tune it out. Once you've pulled a hamstring, it's always vulnerable to the next injury. For me, the only time my hamstring didn't hurt was during the game!! So I offset all this herky jerky exercise with stretching by teaching yoga. As you saw from my yoga post, that was several classes per week. All that stretching allowed me to keep up the tennis two nights a week. All the tennis was anaerobic and burned many more calories than the yoga.

My tennis girlfriends and I got together with our husbands and boyfriends for potlucks, weekend tennis camps, restaurants, and tennis socials. I watched their kids grow up. This is a great way to make longterm friendships with people who like to stay fit, are a little bit competitive, and know how to have a great time. Like golf, you don't have to be terribly athletic (you see old overweight people playing at both sports all the time!). Your lack of athleticism can always be offset by some sneaky killer shots that you've perfected over the years. Our seventy year old had arthritic knees. She was slow. But she placed her returns where you couldn't reach them every time (she had a smokin' shot to the sidelines) and therefore was a highly desirable partner! This is the one sport where practice and finesse almost always beat brute power. Just like in Toastmasters, you can't go by what a player looks like.

I Found Mine Online. You Can Find Yours Online.

I have coached many in the art of online dating, from friends and coworkers to my dad, and did it myself from 1999 to 2002. Dad dated online successfully for five years, and two of my cousins found their current spouses this way. Everybody I know from work who met their partner in the last five years met them online. Before dating online I met people through the pre-internet routes such as personal ads and match making services. In the process I learned some things through trial and error that kept the experience safe and fun.

THE MAGIC WEBSITE:

There is no magic website. I recommend using multiple sites.

WHAT WORKS IN A PROFILE:

I hate to say this but men go strictly by the picture. OK, maybe they actually read the profile to screen a person out on a few specifics, but my boyfriend answered my ad titled "Looking for a Tennis Buddy". He'd never held a racquet in his life! Nor was he remotely interested in learning the sport. By the way, I wouldn't recommend that title.

I gave several of my friends at work the following template some years back as an intro:

________________ _______________ _____________ seeks __________ __________ ______________. Interested in __________________, ______________, ________________. Enjoy __________________, ___________, _________________. EXAMPLE: Petite (if this is true) or attractive degreed professional seeks a fit degreed professional. I am interested in art, music, and tennis. I enjoy comedy clubs, movies, and seafood.

This was something I used in the Dallas Observer and it still applies. For one thing, it tells the prospective date where to take you on the first date. Petite is always a great word to throw out there if it's true (and back in the early 90's we didn't have photos.) Also, back then we paid by the number of words, so we didn't want to use any more than the minimum. I'm telling ya, those were the days when blind dating was like walking to school in three feet of snow. It's MUCH easier now.

THE BODY OF THE PROFILE:

After this intro you want to use some humor. Here's a couple of profiles I ran with and had pretty good luck with:

Example Number One

If one of these titles is what you are looking for, I'm afraid we will not be a compatible match my friend:

Looking For A Man To Make Me into a Princess

Tattooed Biker Girl Likes to Party

Jesus is My Life and You Can Fit in Somewhere

Meat and Potatoes Kind of Gal

Marriage or Bust

Hooters Girl Loves to Party

Kissed Too Many Frogs

Hurt Too Many Times

Looking for a Sugar Daddy

Tired of Being Dumped

Biological Clock Banging Away

Handymen Get First Dibs

Alcohol Makes Me Pregnant

Mother of Three Beautiful Teenage Daughters, Lots of Pics

A Complete Package: Clueless, Clingy, AND Desperate!

If one of these titles fits YOU, we may be a pretty good match:

Looking For a Woman Who Makes a Great Salad!

Interested in Ms. Right (Not Ms. Right Now)

Seeking Someone Independent and Happy

Looking for Smart and Socially Savvy

I Will Never Dump You (I'm just kidding on this one)

Example Number Two:

Please take the following True False Test so I can see how compatible we are:

1. I like cocaine

2. Spirituality is what I'm all about.

3. I'm in debt over $20,000 besides my house and car.

4. Friday or Saturday is reserved for heavy drinking.

5. If I buy a woman dinner, sex is assumed.

6. I don't like movies all that much.

7. Degreed women think they know everything.

This list went on for about 20 questions. The thing is, if they didn't get that this was funny, (some took it very seriously and some sent hate mail) then it wasn't going to go anywhere anyway. I didn't really mind hate mail. I got it for the first example as well. It certainly saves you time and effort you'd put into finding out that the guy IS a bible thumper or a weekend alcoholic or is looking for a hooters girl. See what I mean? Unfortunately, some guys might assume from these examples that you are a little too weird (which I'm sure they did), or you might get someone with a sense of humor that has no power down button. Yuck. One of the nicest responses I got on the second one was "I don't think we'd be a very good match, but this is the funniest thing I've ever read in my life."

WHAT TO LEAVE OUT:

Look, you might want a spiritual man. No problem. But if you lead with that, I guarantee there are guys out there who might be bible thumpers looking for a submissive-captive type person. Or who use a lot of religiosity to take advantage of gullible women. There are con men out there. Just because someone knows all the buzzwords doesn't mean they walk the walk. Many do just the opposite. I edited one girlfriend's profile some years back, and she used the word "spirituality" at least three times. I told her, "The guy who answers this ad won't even own a car." Also, his brand of spirituality might very well not fit yours. This is something to check out over coffee. Not blast in the profile. It's good to come off as "balanced".

I had one friend who emphasized "committed relationship" in her profile. Sure enough, she went out with one guy who responded and when she didn't want to go out for that second cup of coffee (which is the norm) he fumed, saying that he thought they were committed, and WHY was her profile still on the website?? For a normal, stable person, who is also looking for a committed relationship, it will happen when the person is right. Otherwise, it's NOT committed. To a crazy out there (yes there are many of them) the fact that you stated commitment and marriage all over your profile means you are ready to head to the alter, with THEM. The box that is checked "yes" for "committed relationship", as opposed to casual date, is all you need to show on the matter.

I had one friend who used the word "sex" as in "sexually secure", or "sexually active", in her profile. Well, this is another "duh". I made her take it out. Look, there are predators out there who do searches based on buzzwords. I'm sure she got everybody's attention on this one. Again, if he's into you, he will become interested in the sack. Same with women, for you guys reading this. If they are not interested, move on. It's just not something you can talk anyone into long term.

Speaking of buzzwords, you can put things in your profile that you want to draw attention to. For example, on occasion I put "bonus points for _________________." This varied from Europeans to Seinfeld fans to Thai and seafood lovers. Believe me that shakes out your flavor of the month!

HAVING AN EXIT STRATEGY:

So you've dated this good looking person for a week, and now he doesn't look so good, sound so good, whatever. Remember, you don't know him, regardless of what stage this thing is in, in the first month. A person who is cordial on the first encounter or two might become dangerously pissed off if he just spent $40 on you for dinner before he started talking about (1) The little green man in his head who won't stop shouting (2) The last 20 women who dumped him for no reason (3) The affairs he had that broke up his marriage two months ago (4) his on again off again love affair with meth amphetamines. This is NOT a time to be honest with this person. This is a time to go home, alone, (he shouldn't know where you live at this point) and then politely tell him online or by phone that you are getting back together with you ex boyfriend. PERIOD. If the problem persists (and it might) have a male friend at work leave a new message on your answering machine at home (Male: We're not here right now. Please leave your name and number....) Leave it on for two weeks and the problem is resolved. I've had to do that myself two or three times. It certainly does the trick. Frankly, unless I've been dating a person for like, over three months, this is my normal way to break up with online dates. And guess what, men use it just as much and if I were to think long and hard about it, I could pretty easily figure out why they left. It's not personal. Usually there's just no major chemistry one way or the other.

HOW TO KEEP THEM AROUND:

To the extent you can comfortably do so, I would say follow the book The Rules. You don't have to go overboard with it (like not returning phone calls) but otherwise, it will save you from overinvesting yourself in hopeless causes.

HAVE AS MUCH FUN AS YOU CAN WITH IT:

One reason I put in the intro "I enjoy ______________, _________ and _________" is to get them to take me where I wanted to go. You WILL kiss a lot of frogs. So you might as well go out and have fun doing what you find enjoyable. I really did want a committed relationship. And I knew my life would be happier if I had someone to share it with. So I saw blind dates and going to singles events as a part time job that I couldn't quit. I might take a couple of months off here and there, but for the most part I kept it up whether I was having any fun or not. I finally met my boyfriend. As we used to say in sales, "Only one out of ten calls results in a sale, but it takes the other nine to get to the one that goes through." In my online dating experience, "Only one out of 100 online dates results in a long term relationship, but it takes the other 99 to get to the one that works." Was it worth it?? Yes, it was very worth it. It's been eight years now, and we couldn't be happier.

NOW HERE'S ME PLAYING THE PIANO (RECORDED) AND SINGING AND PLAYING GUITAR.

Fingerpicking on the Guitar: A More Challenging Hobby

There's a big difference between fingerpicking and strumming. Strumming is easy and you do not need to be able to read music. Fingerpicking generally requires that you be able to read either music in the regular sense or what is called Tabulature. Since I can read sheet music I saw no reason to try to learn Tabulature. I concentrated on learning how to translate the sheet music to the neck of the guitar. It's one thing to be able to play it on the piano, but you have to eventually be able to recognize where the same notes go on the guitar neck. I started by playing songs I already knew on the piano and practicing them on the guitar. This was OK, but the songs I picked (Bach) were difficult and limited what I could learn out of those songs. I finally broke down and bought Hal Leonard's Guitar Method, Complete Edition. This book not only gave me a ton of songs to play around with, it was progressive in terms of learning songs on the first string, then songs on the first and second string, then first, second and third, etc. So you really learned the neck of the guitar. Plus, as the string included particular chords, you learned them, too. Plus variations in strumming and picking. For anybody who wants to learn to read music and become proficient, this book is THE way to go.

I took lessons at Brookhaven and where I saw beginners really hit a wall was when it came to reading music. Just like me with Bach, the class didn't start off with baby steps, like one string of notes at a time. Hal Leonard's Guitar Method, Complete Edition would be a great way to supplement any class, whether it be group or private lessons. I will also say, if someone doesn't have SOME way of learning how to read music, one of three things will probably happen (1) they will give up on fingerpicking before they ever get started because it IS hard to figure out the notes on the scale, or (2) they will memorize a few songs by ear just out of lengthy practice and trial and error, or (3) they will develop their ear and arrange songs on their own (this requires a LOT of natural ability which you either have or you don't). What sold me on this particular book was one of the reviews on Amazon. A professional guitarist in a band had played all his life without being able to read music. He got this book and was now reading and enjoying the ability to pick up all kinds of sheet music and play it for the by sight for the first time in his life. I thought, "If this guy can do it without ever having had a music lesson, so can I."

Eric Scortia is my guitar instructor as well as my piano teacher. We divide up my lessons into 45 minutes of piano, 15 minutes of guitar. The benefit of having a teacher is always the same: If someone is going to listen to you once a week or once every two weeks, you run a much better chance of practicing and learning your goals. I can't stand for Eric to show up and not give him a pretty good show. I hate to sound bad. It's one thing for my boyfriend to hear me sound like crap. Nothing I can do about that. If you are going to learn a new skill, you will always suck in the beginning.

If you really want some motivation, watch some fantastic guitarists doing their thing, or just listen to incredible guitar music. I like a CD of Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood doing a recent live concert together of all their old hits (found at the library). I recently saw this young woman in the late Michael Jackson's movie This is It on guitar and she will blow you away. There are lots of closeups of her playing and I swear she must have started at ten years old to be this good this young! I like to think her career got a boost out of this movie. She can also bend strings like you wouldn't believe. I barely have the strength to press them all the way down. Once again, if this young Greek gal can do it (at least her name was Greek) maybe I can someday get there! I hear people all the time use the excuse that they are too old to learn new stuff (like reading music). First of all, that's totally false. That kind of thinking leads to dementia because you've stopped challenging your brain. Secondly, if you completely give up on learning anything new you will be incredibly bored for the next 20-30-40 years of your life. Reality TV shows and eating out only give you so much bang before your brain goes completely numb. OK, enough philosophicating.

You CAN Travel to Europe

One of the benefits of having a European boyfriend is that I've been able to go to Europe somewhat regularly. I don't expect anybody to trade in their American model on a European one, but he and I are in a position to share the tips and tricks of traveling to Europe affordably. It's quite a bit different from traveling in the U.S. We'll do U.S. travel on another blog.

PICK YOUR COUNTRY AND CITY: Let me dispel some of the common myths.

1. MYTH - Many countries don't speak English so this will be problematic.

TRUTH - They all speak English, if sometimes a little bit broken. The younger the person you approach, the more likely they are to speak English.

2. MYTH - Some countries are anti-American.

TRUTH - They are all pro-American unless you go over and act like a total jerk. I have done that myself and gotten the cold shoulder. The worst that will happen is someone will move away from you on the subway. No one will actually say anything.

Knowing this, you can go just about anywhere. I've been all over Greece (inland and various islands and Athens) and to London, Paris, Rome, Venice, Florence, and Zurich. If you are only going to Europe once, and you want to see the most historically significant sites in the smallest area, I would vote for Rome. I would also say focus on one city for several days. You will be jet lagged for the first couple of days, so plan time for an afternoon siesta to catch up on your sleep. What you do NOT want to do is one city per day, or one country per day. You will not get enough time to soak up the sites and you will spend all you time traveling. If beautiful artwork and ruins is not your bag, and laying on the beach is, I would say go to Greece. You can fly in to Athens, see the ruins for a day, and then take a ferry to an island where you will eat fabulous food and layout.

PICK YOUR TRAVEL COMPANION CAREFULLY: If your spouse is a poor traveler, or your children are at an age where they sulk and complain a lot, they could really mess up your trip. Pick someone and BE someone who doesn't expect to be in their own living room when they travel. I dated a guy who complained incessantly while on our one trip to Cozumel to scuba dive. Didn't like the food, wouldn't dive, couldn't understand why they didn't use American money or always speak English. I could have screamed. It was the beginning of the end for that relationship. If you are dating someone, and you ARE a person who wants to travel a lot, test your prospective life partner on something like a four day trip to Mexico. Also, if this person says that going to Europe would be a nightmare for them, believe him/her. It's TOTALLY different from the U.S.

THE FLIGHT: Per my boyfriend who goes to Greece every summer to see his family, the best travel sight is Kayak.com. This searches all the other websites for the best deals. Just like in the U.S., you want as few layovers as possible. I just looked up DFW to Madrid Spain and it's less than $1,100 round trip in June. Flexibility on your dates and times will help your rate. They have a busy season just like we do.

If you don't do so now, you might consider getting a credit card that gives you airline miles. I have used the AAdvantage card for American Airline miles and got free roundtrip tickets every year by charging everything to the card (including property taxes) and paying it off every month. You have to be disciplined because you don't want to pay interest on your monthly charges, or any late charges. However, we're switching to a Southwest credit card soon since we travel on Southwest more.

THE HOTEL: This is where we save a boat load. We don't package it with the flight. We just fly over and stand around in the line at the airport travel bureau in whatever city we arrive in (it's an office for tourists). The travel bureau desk will show you several hotel brochures they have listed and you get to decide. But before you get to the front of the line, some sales reps with unlisted hotels will sidle up to you in the line and ask you "What are you looking for?" I look them right in the eye and say"We want a hotel room with a connecting bathroom for less than 90 Euros." They might roll their eyes or laugh, or even say it doesn't exist. But the next sales rep will show up and say, "OK, this is what I have for less than 90 Euros....." It will invariably be something with construction noise from the remodeling in the next wing, but it's during the day when I'm going to be running around the Colosseum or the Louvre, so who cares??? I guarantee if you go through the web before you get there you will get the most expensive deal. The best deal we got in Greece was in Corfu (an island) where we get a whole small villa (little hotel) to ourselves for 90 Euros per day.

TRANSPORTATION: We have never rented a car. However, we did take his brother's car across Greece one year, so if you were doing an inland trip across the country you would have to do so. But otherwise we never have. We take the train (every major city has a subway) and buses. And we walk a LOT. You can get an international drivers license through AAA for $20. If you are AAA member, it's free. If worse comes to worst you can take a taxi (you may need to to get to the hotel from the airport.) But do not get one of those cattle call tours full of nothing but Americans. On the islands, the hotels and the beaches are not in the same location. They have buses that leave every thirty minutes or so to take you to the beach. The language of travel is English. If a person from Japan is trying to get to the Vatican, they speak English. You can get around if you just ask for help. They WANT you to come back.

When we went to Rome, we started in Zurich, Switzerland, took the train south to Rome, and then took the train north to Venice and Florence and then back to Zurich. This was two weeks. The train trip is part of the fun. And the flight over the Alps was breathtaking. It is possible to do two countries up right in one trip, but it will require one week in one city (Greece) and one week in the other (e.g. Paris). There is no reason to fly to Europe if it's for only one or two days per country. Take your time.

RESTAURANTS: The water and the food is safe. You might want to go where the locals hang out, because it will be significantly cheaper. Please please do NOT go to TGI Fridays and McDonalds. The goal is to get immersed in a new culture. Try something you cannot get over here. In Greece we eat a Greek salad and tzatziki (yogurt dip) as an appetizer every meal. We eat rabbit, too. The seafood is exceptional. The food is actually the best thing about Greece. I wasn't crazy about the food in Rome. Prosciutto sandwiches are all dry white bread and a sliver of dry lunch meat. What was really good was the paella (stew).

Pampering Yourself, Loving Yourself

I like to pamper myself in healthy ways, which cuts out cigarettes, sugary snacks, booze, or wild spending sprees, all of which would lead to regret and negate any therapeutic benefit. Any pampering I afford myself has long term positive effects. So the list gets down to the following:

MASSAGE: My masseuse, Isabella, works out all the kinks in my body and psyche one hour per month. Many people think of this as a pricey luxury. OK, so? Remember, I'm saving $4.00 per DAY by not going downstairs for Starbucks, $30.00 per weekend by not drinking, and $15.00 per week by not smoking like I did in the early 90's. The benefits of massage are huge, but mainly I just think of it as pushing all the toxins out of my muscles. Plus, it just feels so nurturing to be professionally massaged. Unlike a backrub (better than nothing), massages are like someone playing your body like a violin.

HOUSEKEEPING (by someone else): Elba comes over once a month to do the everything except wash the clothes. Look at the hobby list I've got going here. No way do I have time to wash my floors, clean the bathrooms, or even vacuum. My boyfriend loves having her over because I will pick all my hobby toys to enable her to clean once a month. Otherwise, the hobbies just take over. When I come home from my ceramics class after she's been here, and I start practicing for my piano lesson that afternoon, the house smells like I put hours into washing it, and I have, well, sort of. This is pampering at it's highest level. How do you afford this?? Cut out the silly Starbucks!

NAPS AT LUNCH: It's been called a power nap, and for me, it's all about recharging my battery. If I take a book into a conference room and knock myself out with a frozen dinner and about three pages of reading, I can sleep for 45 minutes. People from my prior companies know I have been doing this since 1989. Does it mean I am lazy? Didn't get enough sleep? Anti-social? No, it's all about working like a machine the WHOLE day rather than getting all catatonic about 2:00. As a morning person, my peak time is 8:00 - 11:30. With a lunch nap, I'm getting the morning all over again. Friday, I kept waking halfway up from my nap wondering what Karen was doing in my bedroom since I kept hearing her voice through the door! For the most part, a one hour nap is practically equivelant to a full night's sleep. No amount of Starbuck's can get you this much energy. You will always crash. Might as well get it over with on your lunch break.

DAILY WORK OUT: I get up at 5:15 and work out daily with 15 minutes of cardio, 10 minutes of weights, 15 minutes of cardio, 10 minutes of weights, 15 minutes of cardio, 10 minutes of weights. Why is this pampering?? Because (1) I feel really fit the rest of the day (2) I have a higher energy level than any other 50 year old I know (and a lot of 40 year olds) and (3) It's a way of saying to my body, "I care about you. I care whether you feel good and have a long healthy life. I care about the quality of your existence, not just the number of years you can drag yourself around despite your age and condition. This is my gift to you because you are VERY important to me. I refuse to let age limit you (other than not joining a spin class any time soon.)" See why I need a nap?

So what are my thought on Wii? I guess it depends on which exercise you are doing, but let's ask it this way:

Does Wii have a virtual simulation of 45 minutes on an elliptical machine at 110 RPMs? Does it have a simulation of chinning 75 lbs? Lifting 30 lbs with your quads 3 sets of 25 reps, or with your hamstrings 12.5 lbs each, 3 sets of 15 reps? If not that, yes, it's better than nothing, but it's crazy to call throwing a weightless bowling ball a workout. It's probably great for step aerobics, and yoga, just like videos were.

The key is to find what rewards you and give it to yourself regularly.

Never be Bored Again: Read

I not only love to read, I can't get through the day without it. I have to read to sleep, to ride a stationary bike or elliptical machine, to ride the train. Once I was so addicted to books on tape I couldn't work without listening to them all day at my desk. Every time I was in the car I had one going.

I wasn't a reader when I was growing up, but my parents were. I didn't read much until college, and then I became an English literature major. If you want your kids to read, you basically have to set the example of being a reader. My boyfriend's father was a house painter who never went to college, never went to high school. But he read voraciously all the classics he could buy. One son became a college professor and the other a geologist. I'm convinced that their father's example maximized their potential to succeed in school. They didn't have TV until they were older, so books were all his dad had to do for entertainment.

Here's my quick and easy ways to become a reader:

1. Never buy a book. The library has everything you want to read, and if your branch doesn't have it they can order it for you if you reserve it via the library website. If you buy a book, you might hate it, and then you will have wasted $7.99 and you might give up. If you must buy a book, they are .50 for paperback and $1.00 for hardbacks at the library. Half Price Books also has a $1.00 section because they get tens of thousands of books per week. If you must buy one, you can shop there.

2. Carry your book around with you everywhere. At some point in the day, you will have downtime. Whether it's the car wash, the treadmill, jury duty, the doctor's office, your in-laws, lunch alone, you are going to run the risk of getting really really bored. Use this time to learn something new, escape, or just be wildly entertained. They still make books on CD, and if you wind up totally hooked, you can check them out at the library and listen at your desk on your ear buds hooked into your laptop all day. They will think you are listening to music. You can get through two novels a week (unabridged). I can assure you, I would never have survived Bituminous for eleven years without doing so. This does not lessen your ability to do your job once you get used to it. In fact, it may very well enhance it.

3. Ask your reader friends what they like to read. You may already have a favorite genre, author, book on tape reader. Readers love to talk about their favorites and make recommendations. Just ask 'em.

4. If you start a book and it's boring you to death, move on to the next. If the reader's voice sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard, toss it aside and stick another CD in. Life's too short to suffer through a dull book or shrill reader. Some narrators are so phenomenal I could listen to them read the phone book (Frank Muller). Some write well but cannot read their own books (Stephen King) without ruining the experience.

Here's a few of my favorites based on genre:

Legal Thriller:
Scott Turrow's Personal Injuries*, Ordinary Heroes
Michael Connelly's The Brass Verdict

Drama:
Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible
Joci Picoult's My Sister's Keeper
Wally Lamb's I Know This Much is True*
Scott Smith's A Simple Plan
Larry McMurtry's The Last Picture Show*

Historical Fiction:
Kathryn Harrison's Poison*
Ron Hansen's Hitler's Neice

Horror: Stephen King's Misery and the following short stories, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, Apt Pupil, and The Body*

Mystery: Ruth Rendell's An Unkindness of Ravens Elizabeth George's Deception on His Mind

If you were one of those kids that said "Tell me a story" when you were a kid, reading nurtures that "inner child" who still wants to hear a great story.

*Exceptional on CD

Sculpting Ceramic Roses: Beautify Your Pots Even More

A pot can be made unique and beautiful with stunning glazes, textures, shapes, and what I call "doo dads". Doo dads are things you attach to your pot, like roses, insects, frogs, snakes, angels, and animals. I've stuck everything on pots from elephants and dragonflies, to entire bouquets. My sculpting never involves anything but my hands and the clay. I've tried using cake decorating tools and all I can say is don't waste your money. All I ever got was frustration because the clay is either too wet to hold a shape once it comes out of the cone, or too dry to come through the cone. With a couple of hours of practice, doo dads can be whipped out as long as your clay has the correct level of moisture.

You can also teach children how to make roses, frogs and dragonflies on Play-Doh, polymer clay, or good old clay. Polymer clay doesn't require a kiln, but the downside is it's pricey. I spend less than $8.00 on 20 lbs of stoneware. One pound of polymer clay is $10.00 or more. That's enough to make a small coffee cup. There's actually shops out there that will fire your stoneware projects in a kiln for a fee.

Here's the quick and easy way I make certain doo dads using clay:

ANGEL: Flatten out a slab for the "robe" and form into a cone. Roll a ball for the head (don't make it too big) and attach to the top of the cone. Roll a ball and flatten it for the halo (it will be a little bit bigger than the head so it will stick up above it) and stick it on the back of the head. Roll bigger balls and flatten in your hands to make wings. Make sure they are of equal size. Attach to the back. Add some little arms and praying hands if you like. All attachments are done through "slipping and scoring", which means scoring (using a pin tool or a little knife) the pieces you wish to attach where you want them to touch, applying watered down clay as the glue (or slip) where you want them to touch, and the sticking them together. If you don't "slip and score" the wing or head WILL pop off in the firing.

FIREFLY: Roll out a fat worm for the body. Roll out four more worms, two about the same size as the body, two a little bit smaller. Flatten them between your hands to make two big wings and two smaller wings. Attach the big wings about the middle of the body, and the small wings a little further down using slipping and scoring (see ANGEL instructions.) Roll two small balls for the eyes. Flatten them out just a little bit and attach them to the top of the worm where the head is. You might want to poke some holes into the eyes to make pupils.

FROGS: Roll out a short fat worm for the body. Roll out two more short fat worms for the back legs. Pinch one end of each of the legs and attach them to back side of the frog and pinch them all together into a little butt. Roll two eyes, flatten them a little and attach them to the "head". Then poke two pupils into the eyes (using a pen or whatever you have.)

GRAPES: Roll a buch of little balls and stick them on your pot. Roll out a ball and flatten it in your hand to make a leaf. When I make a leaf, it fold it at the point so that it looks more like a leaf. Attach to the pot and stick a few grapes on top of the leaf where it contacts the pot.

For anybody that wants to make a few bucks on this hobby, doo dads can double or triple what you would normally sell a piece for. For example, I've knocked out round lasagna dish that would normally go for maybe $15. When I stuck a couple of roses on the sides for handles, it went to $50. A $10 coffee cup goes to $20 with a flower on it. Teapots require a ton of work, but you can't always recoup your time...unless your have some doo dads or flowers stuck to it. People pay quite a bit for the decorations that make it a one-of-a-kind. As you can see from the video, it ain't rocket science. And in my case, roses are easier to whip out than two really nice symmetric handles!! All it takes is a little practice. People will also pay quite a bit for a doo dad that speaks to them (e.g. their favorite collectible). Start finding your forte and perfecting it!

Making Pillows Talk: Bargello and Embroidery

BARGELLO

When I was young I liked to work on needlepoint, but now I can't get excited by a project that can't be wrapped up in a week or two. Nor do I want to work on anything that comes in a kit where my personal input is not required. When I saw bargello designs for the first time I said, "Wow". Because each stitch covers multiple squares on the needlepoint mesh, bargello can be done in a fraction of the time. Bargello was created in Florence Italy for textiles. You also see these designs incorporated into beautiful quilts. There are different kinds of stitches such as flame stitches, dome designs, wave designs, and many more. This webpage gives you a quick peek as to how some of these designs are done: http://www.fruncesybordados.com.mx/Bargello%20Stitch.htm

Unlike regular needlepoint, bargello will not warp your mesh. So you can use a canvas mesh (as opposed to plastic) and it will be easier to sew a back onto. The fewer holes per inch will make for a larger version of the design and will make the project go faster. All you need is fluffy "fat" yarn so that you cover your holes well (maybe even doubling or tripling your yarn strands. I like to pick out colors I think look cool together, which may or may not be what the design in the book shows. One way to see how the yarn is going to look side by side, hold them up side by side in the store. There's no reason to get anything expensive. This is like a tapestry, so you want some sharpness to your look. Therefore, I avoid yarns that have multiple shades within the same ball. Two of my favorite books are Beautiful Bargello by Joyce Petschek and Four-Way Bargello by Dorothy Kaestner.

I don't assemble my own pillows because I don't own a sewing machine. However, once the needlepoint pattern is finished with a 1 1/2 inch border left uncompleted, you can take this down to a dry clearer that does alterations and just explain what you want. Bring the stuffing, the fabric for the backing, and whatever ruffles or tassels you might have in mind. This will cost about $20 for assembly.

EMBROIDERY

If you were raised in the 60's or 70's, there's a pretty good chance that you embroidered your jeans. I learned how to decorate mine at my mother's knee in junior high, and had lots of flower power cuffs, pockets, you name it. Machine embroidery probably existed on store bought clothes (another thing we didn't have), but it certainly wasn't computerized like it is now. I always liked the handmade look on jeans and decided I could easily pull it off with a pair of cheap used cut-offs at a second hand store. Which I did.

You may not be an embroidery expert, but you really don't need to be with this project. All you need are the cutoffs, the thread, and a hoop. This is something you can do on a plane, watching TV, or at the beach. You are simply building a picture out of little flower stitches. On the picture above, even the rainbow is made out of flower stitches. Here is You Tube video that shows exactly what I do for the petals and leaves. No drawing or planning, just off the top of my head. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiIN2asUvkI This is a daisy stitch. I do the center with a french knot, also on You Tube. The assembly is very easy. You just sew the top closed, zip up the zipper and snap the snap and stuff the shorts. Then sew up the bottoms. If you ever wanted to wash it, you could take undo the seam on the top or bottom, take out the stuffing, wash it, restuff it and resew it. This is a super easy project but takes about a month of spare time to fill up one side (which is all I do.)

FUTURE PROJECTS

I've always wanted to make a bargello piano bench cover and that may be what comes up next. Any needlepoint upholstery cover on a chair seat or bench looks very rich. However, you might not want to start off with a project of dining room seat covers. You won't get much chance to look at it because it's not out in the open. Plus, it's one of those projects that will never get finished.

I've seen some very neat pillow forms at Joanne's, our fabric and crafts store here in Dallas. It's called a pocket pillow, and it has a pocket in the middle of one side. You simply wrap fabric around it and tuck the excess fabric in the pocket where it (we hope) keeps it secure. This looks super easy. If you wanted to get really crazy, they also have lampshade kits that have a sticky lampshade that you stick fabric onto. You could make a pocket pillow and a matching lampshade for a child's room in less than an hour. The lampshade project I have done, and it's very user friendly.

The fun thing about these kinds of projects is that it gives you something to do with your hands while you watch TV rather than snack. I'm a fidgeter, and as long as I'm going to do two things at once, it might as well be something for the beautification of the home!

Toastmasters: Going from Speechless to Silver Tongued

What exactly IS public speaking? We know that's what Toastmasters is there to help you with, but what's the difference between public speaking and just talking? We can already do that around family and friends. Let me give you some examples of public speaking:

1. Conducting a meeting in front of five people you only know through work.

2. A job interview.

3. Selling your boss on a new idea or a raise.

4. Going on a blind date.

5. Fund raising phone calls.

6. Teaching a class.

7. Giving a speech to an audience of 30 - 500 people.

Once upon a time, I couldn't do any of these things without getting stressed out. At the very least I would lose my train of thought in the middle of a sentence. At the worst my throat would close up. I remember going to a retreat in 1988, and people were taking turns going up to the podium in front of the room of about 100 people and saying something into the microphone about the topic. I had something to say, but once I got up there my throat closed and I sounded like I was trying not to cry (which was true). When I first started going to contests in Toastmasters in 1999, the throat closing continued to happen. (I actually won because my competition went overtime!) It took me a while to get over the nervousness that was causing this. I heard it described one time as follows by my first Toastmasters mentor: "You still have the butterflies in your stomach, but you get them to fly in formation."

Almost everybody has fear of public speaking. I heard an interview of James Earl Jones on NPR once and he talked about how he was a stammerer. Of course, once he learned his lines and rehearsed them for a performance, he had that beautiful delivery and you would never know he stammered. Stammering is like mental stuttering, and of course nervousness makes it worse. I finally had a word for my problem with drawing a blank. I also noticed President Bush had the same problem. Basically, you just get stuck on a word. Lots of pauses. One of the worst examples was when I went to a party in 1983 with my then boyfriend of a year, Stuart. When I went to introduce him, I couldn't remember his name. Solution, avoid introductions at all costs.

I could talk around friends with no problem. But put me in a situation where I was asked a question by a company big wig and I sounded really dumb. Some people have white coat syndrome (fear of doctors), I had dark suit and tie syndrome (fear of corporate big shots.) I think I stayed put at one of my prior companies far longer than I should have just because I hated interviewing and did it so poorly. When I left in 2005, I got a $27,000 increase in income. Lesson: The inability to sell yourself is downright expensive.

But what I know now is I'm far from being alone in my fear of speaking publicly. Thirty percent of people fear dying. Seventy-five percent of people fear public speaking. You might conclude that most people would rather die that speak publicly. They hate it so much that they will not do what is required to overcome it, even in a safe nurturing environment: Toastmasters. Even if it's costing them $27,000 dollars per year.

I originally went to Toastmasters in 1998 and started improving immediately. I was in an extremely small club (Oration Plus Toastmasters in Las Colinas, Irving, TX) so I had a lot of opportunity to speak. Within about three months they talked me into being the president (huh??) and with no idea of what I was committing to, I said yes. Fortunately, I had a lot of people keeping me and the club afloat. Then I went to another club which was all about getting better at English or Spanish (Fiesta Bilingual in Dallas), whichever one was your second language. I did about ten speeches in Spanish (which I learned in high school and college). Talk about a great avenue to work on a new language! With each speech, the fear of public speaking diminished. I had a ball and acted at VP of Education for a year.

After a ten year break, I joined Eagles Toastmasters in 2008 and said yes to being the next president about three months later. Being an officer in Toastmasters gives you some experience on leading people. If you are the type of person (as was I) that would rather be water-boarded than call people and ask them to volunteer, this might break you of that fear. In an officer's role, you simply cannot operate without delegating and persistently asking for helpers. I got over my hangup about "bothering people." I now know if I don't pass out the duties, I'm depriving other people of the chance to grow. Toastmasters is just as much a lab for managerial skills as it is for developing ones gift of gab. Here's the website: http://www.eaglestm.org/ They meet Fridays at 6:45 a.m. at Central and Meadow, Dallas at Denny's. This was super convenient for me because I could get in my meeting and never interrupt any other activities (hobbies) or work.

Toastmasters meetings follow all follow pretty much the same format:

(1) Three speakers give a speech

(2) Table topics: Five or so people are called at random to talk for at least 60 seconds on different questions on a similar theme.

(3) Evaluations of the speakers (very supportive and loving).

After each of these segments, the group votes on the best speaker, best Table topic, and best evaluator. Most of the meeting participants either have a speaking role or some kind of duty such as time keeper, Toastmaster, vote counter, etc. Basically it's a form of structured play with a lot of laughter.

Eagles Toastmasters has the basic ingredients to make it an above average club:

1. Fun people

2. Good speakers to learn from

3. Lots of leadership opportunities

4. Seasoned members who know the proper way to run a meeting

If you are looking for a way to develop your leadership skills, conduct a meeting, interview, and basically just sell yourself and your ideas, this is where you can learn all that for less than $50 for six months, which your company may very well pay for (gladly). Wherever you are in your speaking ability you can get better and better with a nurturing Toastmasters club.