Sunday, July 24, 2011

Life


I can't begin to tell you how much my life is changing. As we get older and wiser-we grow closer and closer to God. We look back on our lives and our experiences and realize so much more about ourselves and our purpose. It's so interesting to me to see how different roads and puzzle pieces make up the road map of our lives. Every turn takes us to a different location-a different reality. It's invigorating to me to be a mother and see myself as a child in my daughters eyes. I see myself in her and I'm reminded that I am not a child anymore-but a grown woman. I remember the days dreaming of what it would be like to be 25 years old! To be married...to have a home...to have a family of my own. And I'm now there. In it. Completely at my dream level. I notice that I feel so much deeper now and love so much stronger than I ever have. Maybe it's because I lost my mother 5 years ago and I know how short life can be. Losing her was so devastating to me. We had our teenage mother daughter fights (a lot!) and definitely were very different people-but still I always found comfort in knowing she was my mother and she loved me even though she sometimes had a hard time expressing it to me. I know she was proud of me and she wanted me to be happy (and married with children!!!). She got her wish and as soon as she did-she passed on. It was only 6 months after my daughter was born that the tragedy happened. So every year that my daughter is one year older-it is a reminder of how long my mother has been gone. Recently my father came for a visit. I had a wonderful time with him and he really enjoyed spending the time with my daughter-tickling her and making her laugh. I couldn't help but think those awful thoughts...knowing it's only a matter of time till I won't see him anymore. Every second counts so much to tell someone you love them or show them that you care. I held my dad's hand as he left my car to check into the airport and all I could wish for was that I would see him again. He's now 73 years old and not in the best of health. I try to make him take better care of himself-but on his journey-he does what he wants. It's so hard to let go and let God. But that is exactly what we all need to learn how to do. I look at this country and all the poor people struggling to keep their homes or find jobs. Then I see what happened in Oslo and have such a heavy heart for the victims and their families. What do we do to make this world a better more peaceful place until we get to heaven? I've asked myself that question a lot. I didn't realize that even with my age and knowledge that it would bring me to the same answer I had when I was a child. We have to live life to the fullest capacity-without being destructive to our bodies or souls. Treat yourself like you would treat God-with respect and love to the fullest. Give love and share love-whether it's a nice gesture, being a good friend, creating music or donating to a charity-whatever it is-do it with love. Anything from the heart is what is most important. Right now there are a lot of people suffering out there and all we can do is make a small difference every day in our own lives. Life. A small word...that can have so much power if good choices are made. I look at Amy Winehouse's death-and her life. I see a girl who had so much talent-so raw-so real. Whatever those demons were-whatever bad choices she made-her journey was made and her signature was left on our hearts and in our souls with her music and her voice. Her managers and the people around her couldn't stop her from making wrong choices. It's always our own choice. I pray for her family and for her fans mourning her loss. It has really been a sad week...I don't want to bring you all down with my blog. I just wanted to reflect on my feelings and share them with you because I felt the need to do so. The next song on my "Little Flower" collection-is called "Be There". It encompasses exactly what I've been saying since I was a kid. Listen to your surroundings. Take notice of the things that really matter in your life and make sure you are in the moment always. Never worry about the future or the past. Be in the moment. Be there. Love u all. Keep your spirits up and live your life the way god intended you to live it. Luv, Elisa

Friday, July 22, 2011

Summer update...


With a month into my new unveiling of my new website-I have made many new friends and fans. I appreciate you all stopping by and making comments and enjoying the music. I did a show at Sams Town Casino on Thursday, July 14th and my dad, daughter and hubby all got to go. I had so much fun on stage...you could tell by my pics! I am waiting for the video footage from the performance and will be posting it to my You Tube channel as soon as I get it edited. This way-you can all feel like you were there with me!
My daughter is swimming like a fish after only one month of swimming classes. She loves swimming so we are in my pool pretty much daily! Working on that tan! I've also been doing some real estate transactions-the singing realtor that I am-always trying to stay busy. Mom, Realtor, Singer, Songwriter...and bowler-even though I'm not very good! HA!
So exciting... I am getting ready for Richard Hallmarq's fashion show August 6th in Sacramento, CA. When I get there-I have a bunch of press/interviews lined up and will be performing live at the show. I'm so excited to meet Naima-the winner from America's Next Top Model-who will be walking in Richard's fabulous clothes! I can't wait to see what Richard is going to whip up for me to wear! Now that I'm down 25lbs-maintaining the loss but will be losing more soon- I will feel like a million bucks in his design-I'm sure! Will definitely take pics and hopefully some video of the big day!
Other than that-my house is artichoke green and beautiful! I'm enjoying my time at home with my daughter and husband and doggies-Mia and Ella. Had a great visit with my dad who came out from Philadelphia this past week and my brother came out with my little nephew for a visit too! Olivia loved having her cousin around-it was so cute how she kept holding his hand and followed him everywhere!
So I made a promise to write on my blog and fill you in every month. I also promised to release a new song every month. I'm getting next month's petal all ready to drop! The song is called "Be There" and it's one of my favorite songs that I've written. It's very reminiscent of Dolly Parton's song "A Coat Of Many Colors" which is a song that was brought to my attention by my favorite teacher/mentor Prince. He has great taste in music :o) It's a beautiful song and it's crafted very well-you should check it out if you have never heard it before. Anyways...I wrote "Be There" after hearing the Dolly song and after a day of rehearsals in Minnesota singing with my girls Shelby and Liv. We were singing and suddenly the birds started to answer us back! They were singing back to us-I swear! So the song started to develop in my head and eventually it got to the point where I wrote out a chart and sent it to one of my favorite guitar players, Tim Kobza, and he played the part. A song was born. People say that I have a tendency to write songs that sound country-nothing against country music-but I like to think that it sounds very earthy/folky/pop instead. So I hope you enjoy my new release from my album "Little Flower" dropping on my website August 1st, 2011.
People have mentioned my album Little Flower...well-in the next 11 months-you will have the album in full. Each song that I post-is the album. I thought I explained it right but I guess I confused some of you. I figured I would release all the songs on the Little Flower album one at a time on my website. That way at the end of 12 months-you would have the album in it's entirety. Song number one was "Peanuts & Toffee". Now song number two is "Be There". A new single will be released every month to finally make up the entire album. In the past I have spent a lot of money on creating hard copy cd's and being independent like I am-it's a lot easier financially on me to just release the singles digitally. I hope you all understand. Music-I wish it was free...but you have to pay the musicians, the studio time, the producer to get it all recorded and down on tape-well now it's digital! I can only do what I can do being the one who is responsible to make it all happen. I hope that I can bring the music and the live performances to you via the internet and hopefully live as well. Please spread the word and tell everyone about my site and my music. All I want to do is have people hear it and enjoy it like I do :o) Love you all and wish you all the best that life has to offer you.
Can't wait till the fall when I will see a lot of you again :o) I miss my NPG family and I'm glad that the shows in Europe are a huge success! When you have the best band in the world with the best artist in the world, I guess you can't go wrong ;o) Happy summer!