Butterfly Princess

You may or may not know that I started and fronted an all girl big band for a while called The Sisters of Sass. We were a tribute to the all girl big bands of the 40's when the men went to war and the world discovered that women could swing more than their hips.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70p9kMJAM20

One of the reasons I started the band (besides my absolute love for the sound of the 40's and singing with 18 musicians) was that I have a huge collection of beaded tops from the late 50's and beaded butterfly tops from the 70's. My collection is pretty massive and the butterfly top I'm wearing in this clip is very rare in color (I paid way way too much for it) so I thought I'd bring it out and just team with a little black skirt and leggings with black sandals by Robert Robert that I got for $150 off at Myers. (I guess that almost counteracts the fact that I paid too much for the butterfly top). It was always a treat for me to see all the girls glittering away under the lights as they played.
This clip is one of my favorite Blossom Dearie numbers, from Guys and Dolls, If I Were a Bell.

Love the new 80's

I'm still trying for the ultimate white girl version of At Last. I mostly sing it when Vince Hopkins is on guitar because I feel the country side of that song. So here's the latest version. I put it up into G from F.

This weeks out fit was fun. New harem-ish cropped black silky trousers by Armand Basi one of my favorite designers featured on Outnet.  First rule of Outnet: do not talk about Outnet! and son on. You get it. It's hard enough finding the bargains in my size already. I don't want more people to discover the secret!
I topped the pants with a $5 Target T-shirt in cobalt blue to match the cobalt blue heels from De Cuba. Then I topped that with a severely beaded cropped Tuxedo jacket that I found in an op shop a few years ago. There you have it...update the 80's silhouette.
Here's Blue Champagne as well. Love this tune!

IT'S TUNIS!

I was very exited to receive another picture today from one more my Jango Radio friends. This is Mohammed Ashour from Libya and it's lovely to see once again that music can travel freely thought out this world. No passport or visa's needed.   Mohammed just informed me that this great photo was taken  on Jerba Island TUNIS, and I love it! If you look up behind Mohhammed you see stacks of hand woven carpets. I have these carpets in my home and they look beautiful on the wood floors.I also like this style of pottery. Just gorgeous. Thank you Mohammed. My list of international friends is growing.

I'm also a little late posting the video as I went down with a four day migraine. But I'll get there!

Two New Friends

I am always so delighted when my fans send me their photos.(Always nice ones). As I've said, they see my picture everywhere so it's not fair that I can't see all the lovely people who click me on Jango. Here are my two newest  friends!
This is Steve, a man with superior taste in music and motorcycles.

Steve says this beautiful thing is his wife. Thanks Steve!

Still Cold

For the last few weeks I've been ready to get into my pretty spring dresses and ditch the sweaters but it's just not happening. It's still freezing at night. I've been watching the forecast and the whole week is beautiful and warm except for Friday when the temperature is set to drop and the skies open.  So, winter outfits still reign supreme.

This week, I'm posting a comp of Smile (did you know that Charlie Chaplin wrote Smile???) and Sometimes I'm Happy.  Smile always gets a great response and I love to do the songs people really know. In fact, I put together a show of only the most well known Standards and ended up giving away many cards. Hmmm? I couldn't do it every week even though our audience changes. We play in a large cafe that refuses to advertise the fact that we're there and so our audiences aren't expecting to be an audience! That's our challenge every week, to delight and amaze the people who show up in an effort to get them to stay and drink more. I think we do all right.

So, because it was still cold I ended up wearing my FCUK long beaded tunic with a blue cardi and some new James jeans from the Outnet, my new favorite online store. They were touted as being skinny jeans but I had to take them in at the ankles to make them fit properly. I've actually pulled out the sewing machine this week and I'm committed to doing all the alterations needed so that nothing goes unworn! I'm getting ready to start and Ebay store too.  I bought the first tunic when it first came out (paid full price) and then ended up cutting it to make it a shirt which worked out well. But styles change, leggings became huge and I really wanted to have it mid thigh again. To my delight, there it was on Ebay, so now I have a shirt length and a tunic length. Mind you the girl selling it on Ebay quoted the price as double what I actually paid and I felt it was my job to reprimand her for telling a lie. Don't tell lies on Ebay. It goes against the spirit and someone will know the truth!
Enjoy the video.

All the Way from Mexico

This is my newest friend, Gerardo Arriaga who has moved from Mexico to North Carolina to get an MBA. He then wishes to live in an exotic Asian country. May I suggest Laos? The amazing Mekong River is it's lively hood but it needs champions to protect it from damming. There is a very rare species of dolphin, only 100 left, that will be destroyed if they put a damn in their way.

I'm very pleased Gerardo like my music and I wish him all the best!

I Love Harem Pants

I love when a a new "line" is introduced or reintroduced into the fashion arena. I don't mean a new fashion line. What I mean is that we've been living with skinny jeans for a long time now and suddenly...we have HAREM PANTS! I know that many will hate them, steer away from them but I had an instinct that they would suit me. Actually, it's more what style mogels are calling draped pants...  tight on the calves and lower thighs and the draping comes right at the upper thighs to disguise them. LOVE IT!! In this video, a comp of Walk on By and a song that I'm dedicating to Barry Thompson my A #1 fan and friend from Detroit called You Hit the Spot...waz up Barry? 

I'm wearing the most comfy pair that I found at Fat. I wore them with some cheap, but great, gladiator high heel sandals, a dark grey/green Tee with sequined bunnies on it from FCUK and a really old designer black suit jacket that I never wear and now I'm so happy I already had it! I was so inspired by this look that I went on line and found another pair in a brown color from ShopBop (free International  shipping) and found a a black pair of Robert Robert gladiator heels down from $240 to $40!!!!!  Honestly, I have a shopping guardian angel. I really do.
I hope you enjoy the clip. I left all of Jon Wade and Petey in You Hit The Spot because it's so lovely.

Ebay International

Last week, my drummer decided to actually have a look at this blog and decided he really liked it. Go figure. Still, at gigs he has never gone near the microphone, though in real life, he's hysterical. So you can imagine my surprise when he suddenly popped behind the mic and made a very loud announcement.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I think you will all agree that Connie looks spectacular tonight. Her outfit  is brought to you by Ebay International".  I nearly fell over. I went bright red and I couldn't stop laughing. I was just upset the tape wasn't running. The whole audience was laughing as I felt myself go red. It takes a lot to make me blush but he exposed my secret! So, I left in my admonishment of him as I berated him. I mean come on. It's a gorgeous fully sequined Scanlan & Theodore that, yes I did get on Australian Ebay. I wore it with a purple shrug, tights and heels but you can't see the color in the tape which is a shame because it was a great contrast.