Bushman World Ukulele Video Contest 2011

Bushman Music Works puts on an annual ukulele video contest and I entered this year! I didn't ask any of my friends or "fans" to vote because the website made voting kind of a hassle.. requiring everyone to become members of the forum and such... so I just entered for the fun of it.

Well, results just came in a couple days ago and I placed! I was actually in shock because I wasn't expecting to at all. There were over 100 video entries from ALL OVER the world and Igot 11th place! (#6 Honorable Mention) I even got a prize! haha. It's definitely cool. I posted the video I entered with (a cover of "Why Do You Let Me Stay Here" by She & Him) a couple weeks ago but you can see it by clicking here if you want.

Gotta love the uke!

St. Patty's Day 2011!

For the past couple years, I've always gone to the huge St. Patrick's Day parade in Cleveland with my best friend Diana, but she's in Florida this week for Spring Break. So, I decided to crash my mom's gig at The Creekside Tavern in Avon and it was so much fun! I got to hang out, eat an awesome corned beef sandwich, drink beer and play music. Great day! Here's some pictures!

WHOA! Long time no blog..

I've meant to blog... I swear I have. I've actually been doing a lot, so I had a ton of stuff to write about BUT alas... I was so busy, that blogging got pushed aside in the midst of it all. I'm going to attempt to sum up the last few months in the best way I know how.. list form.

• Christmas was awesome. I sang at a bunch of Masses and Christmas concerts for my job at St. Colette. Much fun!

• I received one of my most favorite presents that I've ever been given - a ukulele! It's my new obsession and I've been having a lot of fun with it. I've also been playing a lot more gigs! You can check out my new uke videos on my YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/lifeinacndyswrl Here's one for you if you just want to push play:

• I've been using Twitter a lot more lately! Click this link to follow my tweets: http://twitter.com/ClaudiainCLE

• I got to see one of my favorite band's of ALL TIME, Eisley, at The Grog Shop. Along with The Nick Zuber Band, The Chapin Sisters and Rooney. It was a really great show. I've been wanting to see Eisley live for YEARS. (P.S. Eisley just released their new album "The Valley" yesterday. It rocks! It's streaming for free here so you can check it out and then you should probably buy it. :)

• I went to hand feed some birds with my dad at the Brecksville Nature Center in the Cleveland Metroparks. It's so fun! The little birdies actually come sit right in your hand! Look at this little video I took:

• I've been becoming more and more obsessed with social media, advertising and PR. I'm so happy that I picked the right career field back when I declared my major at CSU. The more I learn, the more I realize that I made the right choice and I feel really lucky to be enthusiastic about the classes I'm taking and the job that I'm hopefully going to get when I graduate.

• Internships! Before now I never had enough time to apply for any, but now I'm finally going to go for it! I updated my resume yesterday and my cover letter is in progress, but I'm really excited to start applying for some and to get started this summer and gain more experience.

• Speaking of school, two of my favorite classes this semester are: Photojournalism and Advertising Copy&Layout. Photojournalism is SO MUCH FUN! I've always loved to take pictures, now I get to do it for a grade and college credit! I also get to borrow the school's fancy digital SLR Olympus. Advertising Copy&Layout is great because I have an awesome professor. She teaches part-time and also works at BrandMuscle Inc., a local marketing company. I love that the class is really teaching me so much about what to expect from the kind of job that I might be getting. She also has had some great guest speakers come in and talk to us, which has been really interesting. You can really tell you're an advertising major when you find yourself unknowingly paying way more attention to commercials, magazine ads and billboards. It's pretty comical.

• Last note about school: I'm Secretary of the Cleveland State Advertising Association and we've been working so hard on creating our campaign for JCPenney. We've got to have the book done this month, so we're pressing on through! Then, we'll be going to present our campaign at the National Student Advertising Competition in Kentucky at the end of April. I think I'm going to be a presenter this year so that's really exciting!

I think that's all I've got to say for now. Enjoy this extensive photo dump of pictures from the past couple months.

19th Annual People's Art Show

Cleveland State University's art gallery has an annual art show open to all people, regardless of experience or artistic training. I decided to enter one of my paintings this year! There are a lot of really cool art pieces and if you live in the area, I highly recommend stopping by to check it out. (Plus, it's free! Can't beat that!) The show remains on display until December 9th, 2010.

Here's my little painting that I entered:

and of course a picture of me posing with it! :)

CoolCleveland.com has a cool article that you can check out by clicking here.

There's also an awesome video of the opening reception!

Here are a couple pictures that I took at the reception too:

Land of Happily Ever After

“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?”

Hello everyone! Happy Halloween weekend! :)

A couple weeks ago, the church that I work at created a "Land of Happily Ever After." Itwas SO much fun. A bunch of the youth group kids, and a few of the adults who work there, dressed up as storybook characters and set up along the trail in the woods so the little kids of the parish could walk through and meet everyone. I was so excited because I got to be one of my favorites, Alice in Wonderland! (Now you all can see how I'd lookas a blonde! lol) The local newspaper of that area even did a story on us! You can read it by clicking here.

And now for the pictures!

Light the Night Walk

I am extremely behind on blogging, it's getting out of control! And I have SO many things to blog about.. but that's my problem. I've been way too busy. I don't know why but this Fall, I've been running around nonstop, plus school has been getting kind of crazy too.. but I guess that's expected. Anyway.. on to the blogging!

On October 2nd, I participated in the "Light the Night" walk for Leukemia & Lymphoma, walking in honor of my friend, Jessica, who passed away at the age of 20 from Lymphoma in December of 2009.

I knew Jessica since we were in grade school together and then we went on to go to the same high school and college.

I was honored to be able to walk in her honor, along with a group of her friends and family.

The walk took place at Progressive Field in downtown Cleveland. It started off a little rainy, but luckily it pretty much cleared up in time for the actual walk to start. We walked a mile around the streets of downtown, everyone with an illuminated balloon. It was really inspiring and I'm really glad that I took part in it.

With the help of my family and friends, I was able to raise $193 alone, and all together, our team raised a total of $1,210. The money will help fund lifesaving cancer research and services for patients, bringing help and hope to thousands of people battling blood cancers.