Blog!

Hello Folks,
We are determined to be more frequent bloggers. That’s the New Year’s Resolution. So here goes.

We are all doing well. We are collaborating with a wonderful jazz group called The Royal Garden Trio. Brian Delaney is a terrific guitar player and Mike Karoub is a great cellist and Tom Bogardus doubles on clarinet and guitar. They have a very nostalgic, sort of gypsy jazz sound and we LOVE them! So we’re working on lots of songs with them and hoping to start performing in the spring.

Michigan has been hit with a couple of really hefty snow storms already this year and we are now in a deep freeze. So we are delighted that we’re going to Sarasota, FL in March for a few days. We’ll be doing a kids show and a jazz show with James Dapogny’s Chicago Jazz Band. We’re going to spend a few extra days down there. . . because we CAN!

So far, 2008 is looking good and we are happy campers!

We’ll write again sooner rather than later. Thanks for reading.

Love,
The Chenilles

Hello Everyone,
We are having a beautiful summer. We got to go to Downer’s Grove, IL and to State College, PA and enjoyed both very much.

Here are some things we talked about on our drives:

Red licorice is a most excellent road food
We usually need some chocolate, too, but it does melt and get very messy in the Chenillemobile
We all 3 felt so much safer when Paris Hilton was behind bars
Ray Charles, Sam & Dave and Aretha make good driving music
We want to do more jazz songs
A minimum of SPF 30 is mandatory when out in the sun
We all 3 like Anita Shreve’s writing
It is preferable to use the bathroom in a fast food restaurant than a gas station
Drinking big gulps of anything makes us have to stop at fast food restaurants a lot
The war is horrible
We are lucky
Who among us snores and who we sleep with who snores
Painting our toenails

So there you have it. We have sparkling conversation, solve problems, eat fun stuff, read good books and take naps on our trips.

Hope all of you are enjoying your summer!

Love,
Grace

Hello All,
We are all 3 doing well this spring. We have a few new gigs which we’ve posted on our tour schedule. We’re looking forward to being in E. Lansing (which is one of our absolute favorite places to pay this weekend.)

We discovered Ginger Martinis with friends last weekend. They are delicious, but deadly.
Here’s what we’re up to:

Grace is having a big birthday with a “0″ on the end this week. Whoo!

Connie is camping out with friends while her floors are being refinished.

Cheryl is making beautiful collages.

We sang on my back porch during a big rain storm last night. It was lovely.

More later.

Love,
Grace

Grace & Connie have followed through and done their part here on our blog but I’ve been a slacker — so I thought I’d better jump in and participate, too! In my “other life” I write for a living (I help manage a grantwriting business) — so the last thing I feel like doing is more writing or doing anything that has anything to do with writing, but, I guess a few more words won’t hurt me!

So. It’s almost spring. Doesn’t feel like it though, does it? Doesn’t look like it either. It seems like everything that sprung up during that warm weather (now so long ago), is trying real hard to stick around and stay green through this cold, cold spell. I admire its fortitude.

Easter has come and gone and I now pride myself on practicing self-restraint through this season of chocolate bunnies, Peeps & jelly beans. (No chocolate bunnies, no jelly beans, and only one package of Peeps!)

Speaking of Peeps. Yes, I’m a Peep person. Part of the Peep-cult. But I only eat the original yellow chicks, and only around this time of year, and, oh, yes, I do like them stale, but just slightly stale I recently discovered. (I did an experiment with this last package and left the cellophane open for a day longer to let them get really stale — BIG mistake!) They just got all hard and crunchy and the middle marshmallow stuff just sort of disappeared…… OK, I’m spending way too much time talking about Peeps! Enough of that!

Back to some real writing!

Cheryl

In spite of the fact that we aren’t doing much touring, we are all doing fine. Connie is getting a new kitchen and is living in a construction zone. Cheryl is managing a difficult project in her day job (and not feeling very harmonious about it.) I survived my first root canal and hope I never have to see that endodontist ever again! So ordinary life takes a front seat for awhile, but I believe this is the stuff that allows your creativity to percolate. A dormant time is required before anything can bloom.

So I send the best wishes for a happy spring from all of us. May we wait in contentment for the blossoming.

Love,
Grace

Hi Everybody,
We had a lovely weekend trip to Bloomington, IL. The weather was horrible, but we managed to drive in between fronts and right before and after the stormy parts. We love our trips in The Chenillemobile.

We did a private party, and had a good time. We ate some fabulous scallops and crab cakes at the Chateau Hotel. Who knew you don’t have to be on the coast to get great seafood?

I am reading “The Secret”, an amazing book about the law of attraction. It’s been featured on “Oprah” a couple of times and there is a DVD which I haven’t seen yet. It’s empowering, positive, and wondrous. I highly recommend it. Even if you don’t love Oprah. But I do.

I have got to figure out how to upload a photo onto this blog. I want to post a picture of Dolce, The Wonder Dog. I am LOVING having a dog. She is a great companion, she’s got me out walking and noticing all kinds of beauty–even on crummy weather days. Pink morning skies, sunlight shining through icicles, bright red cardinals against blinding white snow, big puffy flakes falling all around that give the feeling of walking in a snow globe. If I am this wild about the winter beauty, I can’t wait until things start blooming!

I bring you all warm greetings from Cheryl and Connie. They haven’t gotten their blog-groove on, but they will!

Till next time,
Grace

Hi all. I just read this great book called The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. It really is an amazing tale about her life and it’s true. We are taking hot baths, walking in the snow and waiting out the winter here in Michigan. More later. ps. this is fun. Connie

We’re half a month into 2007 and I think it’s going well. It’s too soon to tell, but I am an optimist. Cheryl and Connie and I are excited because a filmaker in our community wants to make a documentary about us. It’s a small, modest project, but we’re looking forward to it.

We are getting a great response for our new CD. That feels great.

We don’t have many shows on the books for 2007 yet, but are confident things will fill in. They always do.

We’re having a minor ice storm in Ann Arbor today, and all I can say is that this has been the wimpiest winter I have ever seen in Michigan in my whole life. It’s been quite balmy here. So today I am hunkered down at home.

Am I really talking about the weather on our blog? I am such a bore.

I will post again soon.

Love,
Grace

Happy New Year, everyone! I think I’m going to like this blog thing. We had a wonderful time at our New Year’s Eve concert at the Ark. We had our own version of a ball drop on stage. It was hokey, but really fun. And our ball was purple.

We are having a quiet January as far as gigs go, but we are working on new songs and planning our next year.

It always feels like a fresh start and that feels great at the beginning of the year. Isn’t it funny when you realize that time and calendars are just arbitrary? I mean you could start over ANY day. You could start over EVERY day.

May we all remember this when things get hard.

Happy New Year!
Grace

Man, I am riding on a sugar buzz these last days. Everywhere I turn there are sugary and buttery opportunities. And chocolate. Tis the season, right? I just hope I can fit into my pants I plan on wearing for New Year’s Eve.

Hope all of you are enjoying these short days. Starting the day after tomorrow they begin to get longer. That makes me happy.

Happy Solstice!
Grace