With one week to go until Thanksgiving and the holiday season, I spent all day yesterday updating our website store with some new fun gift items.  You can browse through the new things right here!
My favorite new things are the logo mug (I got a test version of it a few months ago and just love it!  I use it all the time, but that may just be because I drink coffee and tea practically all day, lol!), the white logo t-shirt (very soft and comfy!), and the new 2013 calendar.  The new calendar is really pretty and I hope you'll reserve one soon - I have a limited number available.  
There are also a few other kinds of t-shirts, including a kids' version in white and pink, as well as a khaki baseball cap which my dad has been sporting at the merchandise table for the last few months, but is now available to the public.  Any of these items are great gifts!  Also, don't forget about our coloring book... that's a great present for kids and even adults who like to draw!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the new items.  Leave a note in the comments to let me know which one is your favorite.

hehehe..... what would YOU tell them?

See the new Fairy Dance video! 
http://gothardsisters.weebly.com/fairy-dance-jig.html

What do you think??  :D

You can download Fairy Dance Jig for $0.99 on Amazon Mp3 and on iTunes worldwide.  Thank you!

Willow's Waltz - Now playing on a computer near you!  Knitting with tea and music, an early morning walk and chocolate chip cookies!  This weekend is off to a great start.  In the meanwhile, don't forget to watch Willow's Waltz! 
Watch the new music video below on this blog.  :-)
http://instagr.am/p/Kp_Vwtt1DT/
Click the link to follow Greta on Instagram.   

So on Monday I told you I would attempt to lead you through what goes on at band camp at our house step by step.  I started out with good intentions, taking pictures of each thing we were doing, but then of course we got all involved and I forgot to take pictures.  So it is not complete, but I tried!

Band camp starts in the morning at 7:30 when we all report to the breakfast table and get our schedules for the day.  The schedules are written by me (Greta) to space things out so we don't get burned out on anything during the day.  It's kind of a fun mixture of working on songs, dances, musical exercises and dance exercises, plus weird sections where we make up songs based on words or feelings or other interesting things like that. 

Example schedule from band camp:
7:30-8:00 Set up and sound check in the living room - we like to practice "plugged in" at band camp, but have to keep it pretty quiet since the neighbors are sometimes still asleep.
8:00-9:00 Zumba!  Our friend Sitara is training to be a Zumba teacher, so she tries out one of her routines on us and we dance around in the living room for an hour.  Fun!
9:00-Noon We work on choreography in new songs that we hope to add to the shows this year.  This means doing a lot of things over and over again to get them in muscle memory.  It's difficult to coordinate moving and playing an instrument at the same time, but if you do it through enough times you get used to it.
Noon- Tea We go on a long walk and collect rocks for our gardenbeds.  We want to line them with little rocks, so we pick up new rocks every time we go on a walk.  The bulbs we planted last year while recording Story Girl are all starting to come up!  When we get home Willow teaches us all the new hard shoe steps she made up during the week to add to one of the dance numbers.  Then we do dance exercises.  These include ankle raises, lunges, leg lifts and lots of abs and crunches.  Yay!  lol
Tea-6:00 More work on new songs.  We share all the musical ideas we've each had during the week and start to expand on them.  Recording here and there when something works and discarding songs that don't "click."
6:00-7:00 Greta teaches violin and Willow and Solana have private practice time on violin and mandolin.  Willow's also starting to teach Solana a little bit on the mandolin... watch out!
8:00 Band camp is over.  Tired out, we watch the video of what we've done so far and make judgements about the things we like and don't like.  Then it is time to watch a new episode of Downton Abbey with the family.  Oh yes!  A great way to relax.
So there you have it -  a day in the life of the Gothard Sisters on the day that we rehearse everything related to the show.  Hope you found it interesting.  Here are some pictures of the day.