Natural Pageants do's and don'ts

So it drives me nuts when I see basic mistakes in natural pageants,

Don't wear a dress that is too short, shows your ankles, or is a cocktail dress for formal wear.
Do wear one that nicely touches/brushes the floor.
Don't wear a dress that you can trip on.
Don't wear heels that you can't walk in.
Do learn how to walk smoothly and gracefully in heels.
Do practice walking in your clothing, outfits.
Do wear age appropriate clothing
Don't dress too old.
Don't act overly sexy, pageants are glamorous not slutty.
Don't put your hand on your hips when modeling gown.
Don't hold your dress
Don't lift you dress (if too long wear higher heals or get shortened)
Do wear appropriate color clothing for your hair and skin type.
Don't model a bathing suit where you are hanging out.
Don't wear too much makeup
Do wear age appropriate makeup
Do follow the rules and guidelines for the pageant
Do tan if you are too pale
Don't get an Orange tan
Don't sing without backup, karaoke music unless you are a perfectly intune and interesting acapella singer.
Don't sing a song about God in a pageant, not appealing to all
Do entertain
Don't sing the National Anthem as your talent song
Do make sure if you dance you have smooth lines
Do learn to cover mistakes, no one knows it is a mistake unless you make it obvious!
Do practice a few weeks/months in advance.
Do practice interview questions and onstage questions so you are prepared
Do follow timing guidelines for talent
Don't vote for miss congeniality b/c someone asked for it.
Don't vote for miss congeniality just because they are a friend
Do vote for a miss congeniality b/c the person deserves it.
Do have fun and make friends

miss chicago 2012

last night was the miss chicago 2012 pageant and it was bittersweet, sheridan gave up her title as Miss chicago outstanding preteen. It was a long day. we were at Concordia university, arriving at 730am and the pageant began at 4 and ended by 8.

we had 25 miss 10 teen and 3 preteen, 5 princesses. it was a long day and night. interviews started at 8am and ran until about 2pm, in between the ladies did talent tech on stage, learned their walks for the pageant and learned the intro number.

Cara the director was so organzized. she had a great team helping her, her mom and dad, her cousin who was in charge of the production on stage. she had Jennifer Heim as photographer and Mathew Jacobsen videoing. they are both such professionals and do a great job.

Cara provided lunch for the whole gang of 40 contestants plus the outgoing queens and their families as well.

The outgoing Miss chicago Erika Uhlig and Miss IL Hannah Smith (former Miss Windy City) were the emcees. Sheridan the outgoing Miss Chicago OPT and Rebekah Williams the outgoing Miss Chicago Teen asked the questions to the princesses/preteens and the teens respectively. Mia our outgoing Miss Chicago Princess led active wear for the princesses.

Interviews for miss were 10 minutes, Teens interview was 8 minutes and preteen 6. the miss go 9min30 sec and have a 30 sec wrap up if they choose.

The princess, teen and preteen model active wear in a sporting outfit, the miss in a bathing suit. they all do a talent, preteen and Miss have 90 seconds and teen has two minutes. Then they model gown.

what was nice is after intro where they all say their names, they have their on stage pop question, usually about their platform.

All ran smoothly.
Sheridan sang On My Own from Les Miserable and was dressed as beautiful as she sang (and yes I am biased but it was true). Sam H. did her hair and makeup and she looked amazing as always. Rebekah performed her talent as a lyrical dance and Erika sang the national anthem at the beginning of the pageant and played her violen as her farewell performance.

It was a great day!!

Political clout

Hmmm did i spell clout correctly?

I like to believe that most people who run for office are doing so because they want to make positive changes in our government and to help people.

When I run I promote the fact that I am one of the people and I don't forget where I come from.  I don't make a lot of money for being a politician or holding in office.   And i am not a rich person to begin.

I am involved because I believe that one person can make a difference and I try to be that person.  I also believe that many people just  complain about what is going on around them but never take action.

I say stop complaining and run for an office where you want change or get involved with programs or governmental groups or the political party that you back and voice your opinions or support a person who does.

What does this all have to do with clout?  I believe many politicians go into the business for the right reasons but are often corrupted by their power or contacts or by gaining such influences.  There are definitely some positions where term limits should be instilled. 

I feel that as a libertyville township trustee we do not wield (sp?) that kind of power.  We are there to work with the supervisor, to positively represent our township and what we seek to accomplish.

What do you think?

Dreamgirls IL workshop

Today we went to the IL dreamgirls worshop at the marriott in Schaumburg.
we learned about the pageant, what it will cost and what events you need to enter to be eligible to win certain crowns. we also met the new IL director Marleena, she is also director of Ohio and IN.

they dont double crown.

for the basic fee $350 you can be a eligible for the division title. Plus you have to pay ad page fee of $100.

then you can pay for 3 optionals and then you are up for 3 supreme titles plus an overall high point title. the supremes with optional are $75 each. they are photogenic, fashion modeling and casual wear modeling.

then there are is one other optional, talent @ $75and then two other optional supreme titles, supreme beauty and supreme spokesmodel which are $50 each.

by attending the workshop today we received a $100 discount. a nice deal because this is an expensive state pageant, as far as i can tell. but if you win the basic fee for nationals is paid by the director to go to St. Louis.

the pageant is March 16-18, 2012, this year. should be fun. Sheridan will be a preteen for state, ages 10-12 based on birthday as of Jan. 1, 2012, but she will be a Jr. teen for nationals, age 11-12, based on birthday jan 1, 2012

ABP Halloween Spooktacular

Today was a great day for Sheridan competing.
She was fortunate to compete with her friends Sam and Alyia and our friend Amy was there for support as well as Sam and her friends mom Jen.

This was a fun day. Started at 8 for registration, scheduled to start at 9, started about 9-915

First was Beauty, Gown, 2nd was Casual outfit modeling, after that talent and last was modeling halloween costume. then we had a lunch break and a nice party that consisted of "mummy" wrapping, limbo and eating a "pie" of pudding with whipped cream and finding five gummy worms, of course no hands could be used and if you found other candy, not a worm, you had to eat it. it was messy, icky and pretty gross, lol.

then was crowning, Sheridan did amazing. She won the highest title on the natural side, you could do natural or glitz... we did natural... she won Natural Ultimate Supreme, Overall Talent, Overall Naturally Fab runway model, overall Natural Cover Model, overall natural portfolio, 1st runner up composite and 1st runner up natural halloween model (although she tied for this one b/c she had a perfect score) - not sure how the tie was broken.

Overall a great day and lots of fun and close to home at the doubletree mundelein, we like that, next door.
Our friends competed too and Sam won Sr. grand supreme, natural and Alyia won Jr. Grand supreme Natural. they wre great!!

sheridan came home with a nice plaque and a cool spider trophy.

community service and volunteering and pageants

many people ask what is so great about pageants, all they are are beauty contests... well that is not true.

many of the pageant programs are mentoring programs, younger girls have older ones to look up to, and learn from.

in the Miss America/Miss IL system the girls in the Miss and Teen division require a platform and the preteens have a community service or platform.
Also with the Miss IL system one of the main community programs for which they fundraise is the Children's Miracle Network. All Miss contestants are required to fundraise for that program.

Sheridan's platform this year was fundraising for the food pantry. We like to go to the local church every third Saturday of the month and sort the food and hand it out. this is an outside program/pantry and no matter the weather we are out there. we also donate to the LIbertyville Township pantry as well as the Beth Am synogogue pantry where we participate yearly in the Stamp Out Hunger event in the fall. we sponsor queens to join us with NISP every year for that one.

The nice thing about the pageant systems, weather the Miss IL system or feeder pageant systems or the NISP, Northern Illinois Scholarship Program, or American Coed, NAM or many others, the girls all give back by donating time to community service events. The need to help out is engrained with these girls at a young age and they do it generously and give back often and have fun while helping others.

Sheridan has done a Lyme diseas walk, many cancer walks, whether walking around and having gathered/raised money, or volunteering handing out Gatorade for a marathon or handing out food at a pantry.

So therefore, another reason to be in pageants is to learn the community service part of volunteering.

Princesses are Almost Perfect Event with Miss IL and Preteen Miss Chicago

Today Sheridan was lucky enough to spend an hour with Miss IL Hannah Smith at an event hosted by the Glenview Public Library at the Book Mart located in The Glen, in Glenview, IL



A number of girls, about 20, 3-6 year olds signed up for this event through the library. Hannah, Miss IL and Sheridan, Miss Chicago Outstanding Preteen, each read a book to the little girls. Before reading the girls all got to decorate a crown to wear, a nice art project. After reading they could ask questions and both Hannah and Sheridan spoke to the girls.


Next they moved to a table for signature cards, gave autographs and took photos with the girls both before and after.

The girls were very cute, many dressed up in princess costumes or outfits, lots of pink.



Miss IL Hannah and Cara Kokenes, our Miss Chicago Director

Cara the Miss Chicago Director brought flyers about the program and Hannah made sure to speak about the program, the Miss Chicago event and about the princess program, hoping some girls would consider signing up for it in the future and looking for a great mentoring program.