Bein' Queenly in the Berry!

Zippity Doo Dah Parade and Jackson Trip 2011

2011-03-31T11:24:00.001-07:00

Zippity Doo Dah Parade and Jackson Trip 2011

The 2011 SPQ Weekend started off a little bittersweet, our Queen Spoiled Royally and Queen Em Cee could not make it at the last hour and we were forced to set off without them (sniff!sniff!). So we were Boo-Day'n the loss while at the same time bout to jump out of our panties with excitement over the very first Zippity Doo Dah Parade in Fondren, MS. The trip was uneventful save the additional passenger which RUDELY hitched a ride from Queen New Wave, Queen LeauxLa and Queen Hell N. Heels--a wasp, who summarily found itself ass-phyxiated by huge amounts of hair products which took its little self right on up to wasp-heaven before it had a chance to think "What the heydehoo??" It's a shame it did not get away to tell its other insect friends the tale so they would be forewarned, cause Berry Queens, like Boy-Scouts, come prepared!!!!

Upon getting to the Hilton, we were surprised to be recognized by the other groups--"There go those Berry Queens!" "Aren't ya'll those Berry girls?" It was amazing how many people remembered us from last year and wanted to take our picture--since there were 34 of us dressed somewhat alike. It was a sight and ya'll would'da been sooooo proud at how we represented our membership! Our clothes, our hair and our attitudes weren't anything BUT fabulous, as all Berry Queens are apt to be! Anyhoo--here are my reflections of the weekend, hope you enjoy...

First and foremost, there was a lot of zebra print--at one point a woman remarked "Man--a lot of zebras had to give up their lives so that this weekend could happen." Our first night there we gathered in the entrance of the Hilton to hear Kacey Jones--who sang her kewt heart out and played our favorite song "I'm Not Bitter"~probly just for us!!!! Afterwards, we rocked it out to the Bouffants well into the night and they were AWESOME!!!!!! We wore our aqua shirts and tutus and zebra print accoutrements and we looked precious, ya'll! We met up with The Black Eyed Pea Queens from New Orleans and they want to come to our ball as did The Breaux Bridge Big Butt Queens. I also met up with the Arkansas Toad Suck Queens and their Head Boss asked me how many of us there were. "Over 70 total," I told her proudly. "Lord, I only have 11 and I'm bout to pull my hair out!!!" said she. "Well, hunny," I told her, "You need to get you some new queens! Mine are WUNDERFUL and give me NO trouble atall!!!!!" After all the festivities, as I was wondering around upstairs, a woman approached me and said---“I would know you if you had your wig on!” I can honestly say that that was a first for me.

Our door decorations turned out kewt as pie, though we got no prizes--the girls who used toilet seats won the $$$$--who knew a toilet seat could be a door decoration!?! But, unfortunately, we paid the price for decorating because several of us got badly burned by hot glue--ourown Queen DIVA Doc got a burn that suspiciously resembled a playboy bunny--everybody agreed that if you were going to have a burn--that was at least a neat one! Mine just looked like a blob and hurt like a sumabeach! Some of the BQ's (the more "experienced" group) went back up to the rooms after midnight to shoot the bull, while another group (the "less experienced" girls) went out to a local establishment and rode a bull--a mechanical one to be exact. One of the queens that went and rode told her hubby once she got back and all he wanted to know was did she make it the full 8 seconds!!!!?????!!!! Nobody did anything embarrassing and they were such a hit at the bull riding place that the band asked them onstage to join in on a few numbers and made them honorary "Security". Geaux queens! The only downside to our night was that many of the queens wig caps turned out to be “crotchless”—they had big old holes right in the middle. I have only recently learned about the crotchless panty as a result of trying to find black fishnet stockings in a pinch. I exhausted all possibilities in New Iberia and was forced to go into the S-E-X shop on Center Street. The paraphernalia ‘hangin’ to the left upon entrance had me soooo flustered as did the THOUGHT that someone might see me in that place that I could not concentrate on what I was doing enough except to spot some tights and yank them up and get on out of there. Upon getting home, I realized that my fishnet stockings were FULL BODY and crotchless—which rendered them useless to me for the weekend and I WAS NOT GOING BACK THERE—no sir-ee, Bob—or whatever
S-E-X shop boy’s name is (besides PERV)!!!!! Anyhoo—I asked some of the queens what one did with full body fishnets and they suggested I give them to the Goodwill—“ARE Ya’ll CRAZY! They have cameras in that place and somebody who knows me would see me dropping those things off!!!!! So, the lesson from me, my queenly sisters, is order your fishnets ahead of time and Be Particular!!!!!!!

Saturday, dressed in our sequined finest, we headed with our zebra hats and go-go boots into Fondren to the street festival and shopping expedition where we ate at Babalu's restaurant--an EXCELLENT Mexican place. My wonder woman boots were a big hit and I found some very queenly things to bring home! The food was excellent, so most of us went back to our rooms to rest after our lunch there. Queen Goodwill came later on the bus to Fondren from visiting with her mama'nem and we were already gone--the people in Fondren took one look at her in her BQ getup and said, "Hey Berry Queen--you're LATE!" Bless their hearts! We filled up almost an entire bus going back and forth--a plethera of Berry Queens--the largest group of all the groups in Jackson for SPQ!!! We hung out at the festival with none other than "kiltboy" or Randall Wallace--for those of ya'll who know--he directed BRAVEHEART, PEARL HARBOR, and SECRETARIAT, among others. He was in Lafayette filming for Secretariat and broke three ribs, poor thing! He was a delight and took his picture with many of us! He ain't Mathew MCconoughy, but he certainly wasn't hard on the eyes and seemed especially fond of us Berries, as was Lance Romance, who was caught trying to smooch on one of our own and wanted to come to our ball, but he will have to behave if he does! We can't have some big old Asian guy walking around smooching on everyone at the ball, for heaven's sake! Ya'll may say it's just flirting, but like my mama says, "Flirting is just cheating's second cousin!!!"

We lounged around most of the day until it was time to go to the night parade and we found us a cozy place on a hill to sit and watch the festivities and it was GREAT! Soooooooo much better than downtown Jackson and the people of Fondren were FUUUUUUUN! They seemed very excited to have us there and fawned and groveled overlymuch, which we all LUVed. I must admit that due to my “Aunt Flo” making her appearance the day I left for Jackson and my lack of sleep—I was a bit “cranky” after waking up from my afternoon nap. At one point, I was walking down the hall and somebody said something to me, whereupon I turned and said, “Either I am in a VERY BAD MOOD or everybody on the 8th floor has suddenly turned into a SMART-Ahyes!” Queen Hell N. Heels was quick to inform me that yes—indeed-everyone on the 8th floor was indeed a smart-ahyes. So I felt a little better! By the by...I got interviewed at the parade and all the BQ's were standing in the back of me--they put it on the website for THE CLARION--It was very cool and gave us a chance to talk about IHFH!!!!!

Sunday, we went to the Bathrobe Brunch and Jill Conner Browne made us laugh and cry all at the same time and after singing "Never Wear Panties to a Party" and hugging all our new and old friends, we loaded up and headed home--happy and contented, since we were full up with pig candy and cheese grits! It was a hail of a weekend girls--and if you weren't able to come this year--put it on your calendar (last weekend in March) and come with us in 2012!!!! Ya'll can see all kinds of photos on Facebook from the queens who went! For those of ya'll planning on going next year, please note--even if I am all by my lonesome--I WILL be walking in next year's parade!!!!!! Nobody is going to keep the BQ's on the sidelines again next year, hunnies! We are going to BE SEEN!

Take care and LUV'n Royally, Queen de Bling

Hats 'n Hallelujahs Gospel Brunch

2011-02-08T19:05:00.000-08:00

Well, The Hats 'n Hallelujahs Gospel Brunch was a great success! We all had a mah-velous time and agreed upon leaving that we would most definitely do it again next year!!!! We raised about $1000 for our dear Iberia Habitat and displayed some of the most A-mazing hats in the Free World--move over Kentucky Derby--the Berry Queens are in the house, hunnies! I am including some pictures for your enjoyment and hope if you did not make it this year, you will make plans to do so in 2012!

The Berry Queens will host our first ever Hats 'n Hallelujahs Gospel Brunch on Sunday, February 27, 2011 at The Sliman Theater in New Iberia, LA from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. as a community feel good event and fun-raiser! We will be featuring Brunch by Cajun Catering, including breakfast casserole, cheese grits, pig candy, biscuits and strawberry jelly, coffee, juice and mimosas and most excellent music provided by local parishwide Gospel music singers and performers. It will be an event NOT TO MISS! Tickets are $25 each and available by calling our IHFH office and speaking to Miss Audrey 337-367-3083.

Third O-fficial Berry Queen Ball & Pageant, Friday, September 17, 2010

2011-02-08T18:42:00.000-08:00

Well, hunnies--our third event ended in great success! We crowned another Her Royal Hi-ness, Queen of Cars, A.K.A. Kelli Patout Romero and raised $20,000.00 for Iberia Habitat for Humanity. We also made the debut performance of "Iberia Girl" which drove the crowd all frenzified!!!! It was AWESOME and next year is already being put together, so mark it on your calendar and prepare to be A-mazed. Friday, September 16, 2011 at The Cade Community Center. Don't miss it, sugars!

2nd O-fficial Berry Queens' Ball and Pageant!

2009-09-25T08:03:00.000-07:00

Best Theme II winner, "Queen Pole-een, The Berry Queen, Dancin' for the Chirren'!!!!

September 25th-Well, the 2nd O-fficial Berry Queens' Ball was a wunderful success and was sooooo much fun!!!! We raised over $12,000.00 this year for Iberia Habitat for Humanity with out little shindig and The Board of Director's couldn't be more pleased!!!! I want to thank all the DIVAs, DIVA Queens, Queens, Wannabees, Stalk Studs and Sponsors who made this thing "do what it do!" Ya'll are berry awesome!!!

We'll see ya'll at the parade on Sunday, September 27th at 2 p.m. on Main Street and Make SURE AND SAVE THE DATE: September 17, 2010 for our 3rd O-fficial Berry Queens' Ball and Pageant!!!!!! Til then, BE SWEET, SUGARS!!!!

Queen Em Cee did a fantabulous job for us!!! Photography for our ball was done by Roger Broussard in New Iberia, LA

Her Royal Hi-ness, Queen of The Berry 2009 QUEEN OF QUACK, AKA April Defelice and Queen Most Likely to Wear Majorette Boots

Congratulations to our new 2009 Berry Queens' Court: Front row: L to R~Amy Courrege, Queen Choc-A-lotta Runnin'~First Runner Up and Ms. Berry Sweet; April Defelice, Queen of Quack~Her Royal Hi-ness, Queen of The Berry 2009 and Queen Most Likely to Wear Majorette Boots; Shelli Helms, Queen Domestic Goddess~Golden Rule Queen; Lory Landry, Queen LeauxLa~Third Runner Up and Booty-licious Queen (which should have been BOOBY-licious Queen); Betty Romero, Queen Hell N Heels~Best S&G Queen; Angela Langlinais, Queen DIVA Doc~Queen Bee Creative; Jeanne Schenk, Queen de Cuisine Art~Second Runner Up and Best Theme Queen; Cherie Lord, Queen Des Colores~Biggest Hair of the Ball

Congratulations to each of them!!! I don't know HOW the judges decided on a winner for ANYTHING because they were all sooooooo A-mazing!!!!! The tables were awesome--the costumes were AWESOME and the presentations of the queens were FANTABULOUS!!!! There wasn't a DUD in the bunch!

Queen of Good Will struts her stuff on stage!

This year, I had a new wig--a new attitude--and I used my "rapping skills" to say "thankyewberrymuch" to all the folks in the crowd with my original song "The Berry Queen Jam" set to "This Is Why I'm Hot!" of course!!!!

Speaking of "H-O-T", our DIVAs were looking partikularly wunderful for our event! Front row (L to R) Sandra DeRouen, Queen of the Cruiser; Elaine Drago-Queen of Dippity Do Back row (L to R) Kristine Trahan, Queen of Ice; Roxie Boudreaux, Queen High Maintenance and HEAD DIVA 2008; Susan Sinitiere, Queen de Sacs; Judy Vaughn, Queen Easy Rider; Tessie Dore, Queen of Sold and Vice DIVA 2009; Suzie Charpentier, Queen Camil Feaux

Me and My DIVAs share a minute together looking fabulous for the camera!!!!
Front (L to R) Peggy Meyers, Queen Prim & Proper; Susan Sinitiere, Queen des Sacs; Me-myownself, Queen de Bling, LUVer of All Things Sparkly and Berry Head Boss Queen, ad infinitum; Brenda Langlinais, Queen Mum and HEAD DIVA 2009; Amy Allen, Queen of the Scene Back (L to R) Tessie Dore, Queen of Sold; Pat Richard, Queen of Hearts and Vice DIVA 2008; Kristine Trahan, Queen of Ice; Judy Vaughn, Queen Easy Rider; Roxie Boudreaux, Queen High Maintenance and HEAD DIVA 2008; Elaine Drago, Queen of Dippity Do; Suzie Charpentier, Queen Camil Feaux

The Stalk Studs, including our HEAD STALK STUD, Buddy Boudreaux "Maintenance Man" (in the white boa and hat) were all looking might kewt!!!!!

Counting Down the Days!!!!

2009-06-15T07:37:00.000-07:00

We are flat SOLD OUT, hunnies!!!! 350 plus tickets and it is waiting list only--so if you did not get your ticket--you better call Miss Audrey and get on the list at 337-367-3083 lickity split before everyone else who slacked off and didn't get theirs!!!!! It is going to be soooooo much fun! I cannot wait! We have some very special things planned and some very special guests, too!!!!

Hope to see you there on September 18th!!!!!!

Also, sugars, don't forget to get your Kacey Jones tickets--$15 each for Saturday night's concert--September 19th. She is HE-he-helarious!!

2009 Berry Queens' Hi! Tea

2009-04-22T14:31:00.000-07:00

Our tea this year was soooooooo much fun and the hats were gi-normous and fabulous!!! Thanks to Queen Good Will for the use of her most bee-you-tee-ful home and to all the Queens/DIVA Queens and DIVAs who provided us with the deelicious and deelectible treats!!! Many thanks, too, to Queen of Sold, for the wunderful door prizes which she so graciously provides us for our events! We are gearing up for our 2009 Berry Queens' Ball and Pageant and I was able to introduce the 2008 members to our newest members and contestants for this year's event. They are kewt as they can be and so talented, too! We all just can't wait and hope you will come out and support Iberia Habitat for Humanity and The Berry Queens at our event. I have it on good authority that Her Honorable-ness, Mayor Hilda Curry will be attending our event, as well as a few other special guests, too! We hope that you will come see. Tickets go on sale August 1st and will be available from The Berry Queen members and by calling the Iberia Habitat for Humanity office at 337-367-3083! Till then, here are a few photos of our most recent event for your enjoyment! I will put up the rest of the photos when I get them! Thanks to Queen Mum for providing these from her veryowncamera!!!! Also, many thanks to Angelina at Jolie Fleur florist for donating the most excellent centerpiece for our event. She is the designer of last year's winning table arrangement for our DIVA Beverly, so we can't wait to see what she will do this year!!!!
Isn't it FABULOUS!!!!!!
Now, on to our Hi! Tea pics...

The food was DEELICIOUS and A-plenty!!!!

Queen DIVA DOC used Hostess cupcakes to represent each of our newest Queenly competitors!

Queen DIVA Doc and new DIVA Queen Susan

Queen Angel, Queen LeauxLa, Queen Cher Be'be', and Queen of Sold~our Doorprize DIVA

Two of our Potentials with Queen Green and New DIVA Queen Lynette

Queen Cuisine~Art and former judge, Mati'

The Queens pose for a few photo ops!!!!
Finally, I have ONE LAST THING....We have one more competitor whom I have not yet introduced to you, yet...Queen Hell N. Heels

She is the next to last queen on the back row by Queen DIVA Doc and she has on a striped black and white hat. I JUST met Betty recently during the SPQ weekend and thought she would make a great addition to our competitors list, but Queen Cher Be'be' was sent on a SECRET mission to spend the weekend talking her into it and do you know--SHE DID IT! She came to me of her own free will and asked if she could participate (and there was only a semi-large amount of adult-like beverage involved!) without me having to do ANYTHING!!!! Ya'll are going to love her because not only is she funny--SHE ACTUALLY DOES WEAR HEELS ALL THE TIME!!! so her name really fits her! If you didn't get a chance to meet her--I hope you will soon!

I am thrilled about all the ladies who are participating this year--they are outstanding!!!! Ya'll Be Sweet!

Kacey Jones is COMING!!!!!

2009-03-30T09:24:00.000-07:00

I have found the $$$$$ (mostly) and have the boards approval and Kacey Jones--comedian and singer extraordinaire--is coming to New Iberia the weekend of our pageant/ball event (September 18-19) and she will be performing LIVE at The Sliman Theater (thanks to our most HONORABLE Mayor, Hilda Curry) at 7 p.m. I will have more information later, but if you want to learn more about her, go to http://www.kaceyjones.com and you can see for yourownself how WUNDERFUL she is and you will be frantic to have your tickets bought and attend this event!!!!! Much thanks to the Iberia Habitat for Humanity board for all their faith in me!!!! Thank the GOOD LAWD for them and for my queenly peeps!!!! And GOD Bless Kacey Jones for coming here for what amounts to a CHARITY DONATION for her time and talent!!!!! WHOO-HOO!!!!!!!!

We're BAAAAAAAACK!

2009-03-23T15:22:00.001-07:00

March 23rd-Well girls, we made it back from Jackson and WHOO-HOO, was it fun! We were one of the, if not THE, largest group(s) there. Needless to say, we made sure to be seen and made quite an impression! There were 22 of us at the Jackson Hilton and we participated or showed up for every event from Friday afternoon until the Brunch on Sunday! We tried to make ya'll proud, hunnies, wish you'd of been there! Our parade "virgins" (first time parade go-ers) were most excellent and we are soooooo glad they attended! Our door decorations looked great and I cannot imagine why we did not win first prize over the TOAD Suck queens (or whatever their names were!!!)! Enuf said! I, sadly, did not bring home THE BIG A&$ CROWN, as I had intended, and the woman who won it could not POSSIBLY make as good use of it as I was going to when I auctioned it off for Iberia Habitat--DANG that Crown Stealing so and so! Luckily, none of MOQs won it over me, so our friendships remain intact!!!!! We met the boss queen, Jill Conner Browne~Lance Romance~Kacey Jones--who remembered us!~Kyle (Cutest Boy in the World and husband of the boss queen) and several of the queens took their picture with him in an orange THONG. There was also jello-wrasslin' but we were watching and not participating as Berry Queens do not take to covering ourselves in green jello since we were raised right, although we have no problem watching other people do it and make fools of theirownselves! If you think you would like to go with us in 2010-mark your calendar for the 3rd weekend of March and start making plans. Next year--WE WALK!!!!! No excuses! We could surely show some of those queens a thing or two about how to show up and have fun with the crowd and how to throw beads without embarrassing yourownself and yourmama! SERIOUSLY! There were some VERY funny moments which I will share with you in a minute--but before that I need to tell you that we have a new queen and she will be revealed to you very soon and will be our 11th contestant in this year's event. LAWD--I can remember when I had to practically SHAME people into doing this thing!!!!! Who knew that all I had to do was take people to the SPQ Weekend and they were hooked on queenliness!!!??? Any-hoo--I'm thrilled to have her and will be introducing her to you when I unveil the pictures from our weekend in the next few days! Many thanks to Queen Black & Gold for bringing us all the kewtest red glowing martini glasses. What a thoughtful queen! Also thanks to Promotional Images and Queen Addy for the Jackson Queen cups which were a big hit! They give us everything for cost--sweet thangs--and we soooooo appreciate it! Thanks to Queen of The Scene for handing over her very own green hair braids to me during the parade because I LUVed them so much. Talk about giving the "braids off yourownhead"! I am lucky to have such giving queens! Finally--Queen Hotstuff gave me the most bee-you-tee-ful and blingy diamond tiara studded mirror--It is to DIE for! Thanks for thinking of me on my birthday week, sugar! As I say often--MY TIARA RUNNETH OVER, people!

Now--on to the good stuff!!!!

Here are some funny things, thoughts and moments to share with you about our weekend:

T-shirt seen on a very G-A-Y man in the lobby: Vaginas are Weird!

Overheard in the bathroom stall next to me at the Hilton after the parade: "Sylvia--look at this! I have feathers all in my panties on account of that (bleep)boa!!!!"

Note to self: There is a certain age--like after 40--when ALL women should stop wearing tank tops and gold lame one pieces that tie around the neck.

When asked how the Berry Queens decided on all our t-shirts and costumes, Queen Hotstuff and several of the queens replied, "We just do whatever our Berry Boss Queen tells us to!" (sniff!sniff!) I LUUUUUV ya'll!!!!!

Sign at the Jello Wrasslin' Competition: "Who Needs a Whippin?"

Several of the parade virgins went outside by the pool and a man came up to them and introduced himself, "Hey! Welcome to the Sweet Potato Queens Weekend. I'm Kyle--Jill's husband!" The virgins looked at him--without a clue and said--"Who's JILL?????" (Don't you just love it!)

Several of our queens had a harrowing elevator ride as we all tried to exit our rooms and get on the road on Sunday in which they were stuck for about 15 minutes with 17 people (including 7 Berry Queens) in a single elevator car which caused many panic attacks and worried women. They had to jump out of the elevator when they were finally let loose of it on account of the elevator stopped about 2 feet from the actual floor they were rescued on. Many worried that it would come back on and someone would be decapitated as all queens know that "It's all fun and games until somebody gets their head cut off!" Talk about a BUZZKILL for the weekend! But happily--everyone survived and all was well, minus a few flashbacks and future therapy for those more delicate queens, bless their sweet hearts!

The Berry Queens danced during the Karaoke time to one of the other groups sad little karaoke renditions of "DANCING QUEEN". It made all the difference, since no one concentrated on the poor cannotsingalick queens that were on stage and focused on us instead. After the dance was over--one of the new virgin queens in our group said--"I didn't know there was a DANCE to "Dancing Queen." Isn't that kewt!?! Queen Faye Dough Dough told her: "We MADE that up for our ball, hunny" and then she remembered the dance and all was well.

Jill Connor Browne told us in her Bathrobe Brunch closing that for much of her life she would have been co-dependent with a cement monkey, along with every bad man within a 5 mile radius! She also reminded us that the CRUELEST person in a woman's life many times is HEROWNSELF! She encouraged us to remember FUNK DAWG. For those of you who didn't read the first book THE SWEET POTATO QUEENS BOOK OF LOVE, funk dawg was a dog taken on as a charity project by some friends of hers who was sooooo ugly and funky that they could not bring themselves to TOUCH it, so they just would rub it with a stick. She said if you ever find yourself in a position where someone is "rubbing you with a stick" then you should get yourself up and move on because all of God's creatures deserve better than to be treated that way! I whole-heartedly agree with that metaphor and will remember and pass on the story of FUNK DAWG whenever necessary! She left us with 2 Timothy 1:7: For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline. The BIBLE says that power, love, and self-discipline are available to each of us because the Holy Spirit lives in us. When we allow people to intimidate us, we neutralize our effectiveness for God. The power of the Holy Spirit can help us overcome our fear of what someone might say or do to us, so that we can continue to do God's work.

Finally, I just want to tell you that long-term wearage of fake hair, eyelashes, and tiaras can cause some pain in one's head, so if you come next year, bring some Excedrin, cause it helps a lot! It can also help if you find yourself the recipient of more than 2 of Queen Black & Gold's red martini concoctions--recipe to follow since it was sooooooo good! Queen Chocolat' would also have us remember that when wearing a lanyard (the clip that hangs around your neck that holds your SPQ weekend pass on it)--please be aware of your fishnet stockings and their proximity to the lanyard when bending down because should the two come into contact, you may find yourself stuck on the ground with your lanyard clip wrapped up in your fishnets and extracting aformentioned lanyard could be QUITE tricky!!!! Plus, everyone will look and try (unsuccessfully) not to laugh while simultaneously feeling sorry for you for being stuck that way and being glad that it was not them that did it!

Any-hoo--that's about all I can remember, girls! Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Luv and Royally,

Queen de Bling

The Door decorations were AWESOME!!!!

Parade Day!The Boss Queen was ready!
And so were her minions...

We were ready!!!!

This was the BRIDE that got married during the Parade

On the SPQ float--did'nt we look GOOD!!!!!

Jello Wrasslin for the Chirren...
Boss Queen Jill, Kyle, and Bailey took the first dip. We just watched...

PJ & Pearls Ball
Queen of the Scene, Queen Prim & Proper, Queen Mum and Queen DIVA Doc

Queen Em Cee

Now I don't even have to tell ya'll that I was LUVin EVERY minute!!!!

Queen Camo

Poor babies! You just KNOW their wives made them wear these matching PJ's, bless their hearts!

Myownself and Kacey Jones

The Bouffants were AWESOME!!!

We had sooooooo much fun!

Queen Faye Dough Dough

More pictures to follow, hunnies, as they come in!

A Memo from The Berry Head Boss Queen...

2009-03-10T04:47:00.000-07:00

Dear hunnies,

Thanks sooooooo much to all of you who came to the Potentials Meet 'n Greet and many, many thanks to all of those Queens and DIVAs who provided the deelish foods for our swa-rey (that's French for big ole party!) If ya'll haven't tried the petite fours from Bi-Lo, you better! They are out of this world good and the meat and shrimp plate that Monique Romero brought that DAVE made for us was unbelievable! There was so much good food there that it was just a plain old sin! I do appreciate and spent some excellent time appreciating everything that was laid out on that table!

Thanks to our Door Prize DIVA~Tessie Dore, Queen of Sold~who always manages to bring us the sweetest gifts to give out at our events! Thanks sugar!!!!! We very much appreciate it!

Thanks, too, to Mrs. Linda Freyou for the use of Antique Roseville for our event at DIDDLY cost to us! She is a true philanthropist if I have ever met one! It was the most lovely location for our meeting and I am making her an Honorary Queen just because...

We ate and visited and chatted to our hearts content and as a result of that meeting--I have very important news to impart to you MOQs (My Own Queens)...

First off--the most exciting news of all...We have 10 queens who are signed up to compete and they are as follows...drumroll please...

1. Kristine Trahan

Kristine is one of our new DIVA Queens who will descend to be among the regular queens long enuf to compete for the crown. What a giver she is!!!! Not only is she kewt as she can be, she is also one of the best fundraising advocates one could have on their team. I mean, truly, she is gifted in the gettin-people to give category among her many other talents and I could not be more thrilled to have her as part of our Berry Merry little group.

2. Shelli Helms

Since she was mighty with child last year, she could not be a part of our group, but will join us this year and show us how to manage it all--kids, motherhood, and queenliness. She is A-mazing and as Juliet Granger says from our SUCH A HAPPY FAT book, "The only reason she is not the President of the Free World is because she chooses not to be!"

3. Angela Langlinais Bourg

Besides running her household, her medical practice and LAWD knows whatallelse, this DIVA is going to grace us with her presence on stage. She can heal your sick, run a tight schedule, and cook up a beautiful quiche all at the same time. I am in awe of her wunderful skills and cannot wait to see what she has "cooked" up for her DIVA/queenly title.

4. Shelley Rankin

Shelley has just joined our board this past year and after coming to our ball, she decided Berry Queenhood is for her and I could not agree more! She has more energy than me, which is saying a lot and she works tirelessly for our community in many more areas than just Iberia Habitat, so I am grateful that she is willing to put one more thing on her plate!

5. Amy Courrege

Speaking of endless energy and kewtness~Amy has it all. She A-mazes me with her organizational skills--especially since ya'll know my fly by the seat of my pants capabilities and LACK of aforementioned organization 'n all... She has great ideas and lots of vision and will help in the keeping us all straight area, which will be a great load off of my royal ah-yes and she is also a pleasure to be around and work with!

6. Jeanne Schenk

Jeanne is an artist extraordinaire and her husband, BLESS HIS HEART, is a fantabulous chef~as can be witnessed by all those who got a taste of his shrimp dish from the Potential Meet'nGreet!!!! I, myownself, have sampled his wares at a New Year's party and his chocolate covered strawberries and just about everything else is to DIE FOR!!!! Not only is he willing and able to help out--she is also donating her talents to us in painting our next poster art of the queens!!!!! I am soooooo excited! Paul Schexnayder has offered to help her (as if she needs it!) Her addition to our ranks is a great boon to us all!

7. Cherie' Lord

Cherie is a stingfire and a dedicated philanthropist and beauty consultant to boot!!!! She has managed the Les Jeunes Amies art show now for so long, they cannot live without her and I am sure, we all feel- after seeing her fine capabilities and contribution to our Stalk Security program last year-that she will make an awesome queen. She is tireless and I have never seen her without a smile on her face! Her husband is also a hoot!!!!

8. Lori Landry

I met Lori when we went to Baton Rouge to meet Jill Conner Browne and I was immediately impressed because she is FUNNY and ya'll know how I like to laugh and she made me laugh A LOT! I wasn't able to talk her into joining last year, but through the help of Margaret Eikel and a lot of HARD SELLING, we got her! I know ya'll are going to LUV her and enjoy her quirky sense of humor as much as I do. She is a TRIP!!!!!!

9. April Defelice

I met April at the first LJA meeting after the 2008 Pageant/Ball and I thought then that she would make a great queen, but due to my schedule being crazy, I did not get a chance to talk to her again until the Potentials Meet'nGreet and after listening to all the former queens testimonials as to the greatness of my veryownidea (sniff!sniff! I JUST LUV YA'LL!) She was in! She is not only a queen, but she is a lawyer, too, so for those of ya'll who worry about me getting us in trouble with my bigolemouf--I'm sure she will draw up some papers to keep Iberia Habitat in the clear!!!! SCORE!

10. Mandy Desormeaux

Mandy and I have known each other for several years now through Queen Faye Dough Dough (who sings her praises regularly!) and I have been impressed by her A-mazing work ethic and ability to get things done and she is a teacher (like me) so I like her for that, too! She also has the leanest and most aerobically fit personage I have ever seen since Susan Powder, minus the almost baldness! We almost totally brainwashed her to get her to do it this year, but--hey! Whatever works! She is going to do a phenomenal job and look precious, too!

These are our newest BETA (2009) members...

DIVA Queens

Susan Sinitiere, Susan Klingman, Lynette Fraser, and Kristine Trahan

Queens

Courtney Abshire
April Defelice
Lori Landry
Nicole Estis
Amy Courrege
Cherie Lord
Jeanne Schenk
Shelli Helms
Shelley Rankin
Mandy Desormeax

and finally,

We have a new Wannabee

Julie Rosenzweig and her newly added Stalk Stud husband, Seth--I have met them both and they are the nicest little larvae you could ever meet! They are also kewt and smart, which is also a bonus! She is also technologically gifted, which as ya'll know--I really need some help with!

By the by...

Alpha (2008) members, remember if you haven't paid your dues yet, they are due by April 1st if possible! We will be recruiting new members until the end of May, so if you know of someone, send them my way or have them e-mail me at MsJerre@aol.com.

I just can't say enuf how much I appreciate all this wonderful support and hard work ya'll have given to Iberia Habitat. It is far more than I ever expected and I must say MY CUP (and Habitat's) RUNNETH OVER as a result of knowing each and every one of you!

Our HEAD DIVA is keeping me straight, thank the good LAWD and I just want to say that things have been running much better since she has been a part of my Berry Braintrust along with my VICE DIVA, who always has a sunny smile and bright disposition.

Our next event is the 2009 Hi! Tea which will be held at Queen Good Will's house (A.K.A. Margaret Simon) from 2:00 until 4:00 p.m. Details to follow!!!

BE SWEET!
LUV and Royally,

Queen de Bling, LUVer of All Things Sparkly
Berry Head Boss Queen, Self-appointed , ad infinitum
Her Royal Hi-ness, Queen of The Berry 2008-09

P.S.

At the end of our talk, the kewtest little larvae (possible Wannabee) came into the room and sat down, but she left before I could meet her. Did anyone know who she was or get a chance to talk to her! She was a keeper!

P.S.S.

Thanks to Queen Em Cee for remembering to always bring your camera so we can continue to document our get togethers and thanks to Queen Kilowatt for picking up the ice at the last possible minute!

P.S.S.S Amy Courrege and Brenda Langlinais wanted me to pass on to ya'll that THE FUN SHOP in Lafayette is closing its doors this Easter and everything in there, including wigs and such is 50% off!!!!!!!!

Fun-Raising Opportunity for ALL!

2009-03-06T12:33:00.001-08:00

On Thursday, March 12th at the Abbeville location of Lowe's, they will be matching any gift card purchases made, but not used on that day, up to $5000.00 and giving it as a donation for Iberia Habitat for Humanity. Ladies--what a wunderful opportunity to come and get a two-fer~buy your veryownhunny a gift card (score some points with him) and give to philanthropy, too!!!! What a deal! You can come during their business hours and find our table where our board will be available all day to help you! Hope to see you there! This could really help with our next building project which I will be telling ya'll all about very soon!

Luv and ROYALLY,

Queen de Bling, LUVer of All Things Sparkly
Her Royal Hi-ness, Queen of THE BERRY and
Self Appointed Berry Head Boss Queen, ad infinitum

Potentials Meet 'n Greet

2009-03-06T12:29:00.000-08:00

Please join us at Antique Roseville on March 7, 2009 from 10:00 a.m. until 12:oo p.m. for our open registration period for THE BERRY QUEENS 2009-2010 calendar year. We will enjoy the gardens and have information about how you can be a part of our organization and help fun-raise for Iberia Habitat for Humanity. For information, call Audrey at our Habitat office in New Iberia, 337-367-3083 or e-mail me at MsJerre@aol.com. Hope to see you there!!!!!

Update on Brian Blvd. Home!

2009-02-04T15:22:00.001-08:00

Thanks to the help of many of our DIVAs, Queens, CHS students, and community volunteers, our Brian Blvd. house is nearing completion. All volunteer work is complete and the Washingtons will move in soon! I want to thank each of you who came out to help make the Washington's dream of home ownership possible. I know they appreciate it! Above are some pictures of some of our volunteers in action. It is only through the donations of the community's time and funds that we are able to accomplish our goals!

Escape to the 80s

2009-01-07T10:29:00.001-08:00

On December 30, 2008, Dr. Chop and I attended an "Escape to the 80s" Party in honor of the turning 40 of four most excellent queens in our community. Although it is not O-fficial Queenly Bidness, it was such a good time that I decided to share it with all of you~my Berry and Habitat people. I hope you enjoy and that for those of you who were young in the 80s, it brings back fond memories. I also wish you a totally tubular 2009~Like, totally!!!!!

Queen Green and The Incredible Professor came as Square Pegs and The Jock

Stalk Security and newly crowned Berry Queen, Queen Cherie poses for the camera.

Stalk Stud and host, Kurt, gives us his best RISKY BUSINESS moves! Party ON!

Queen Karen sports her Mt. Carmel uniform...Memories!

Real Queens are not MADE, they are simply BORN! Queen de Bling

Queen Donna celebrated her coming of age. Welcome to the 40s girl--they are GREAT!

Queen Beth and her Stalk Stud, The Naturalizer

Queen Beth enjoys the music of FLASHBACK!

Queen Kilowatt and Gen'ral Lectric

This was kinda like me in the 80s for awhile, sans the black wig--except for the being sober part!!!!! Tee-Hee! (Sorry mama!)

Does this take you back to High School or WHAT!!!

Queen Kilowatt and I, along with EVERYONE THERE had a BLAST!

FLASHBACK played the most awesome music and the lead singer looked just like Bret Michaels!!!!!!

Gnarly!!!!!

Cyndi Lauper was in the house!

Queen Gillian (far left) was one of the four hostesses of the Escape to the 80s Party. Her backup singers and guitarist came with her.

Queen Cher Be'be' and THE MAN were in attendance.

Queen Angel brought herveryown brother to the event, bless her heart!

Queen Angel and myownself, Queen de Bling~She was one of the hostesses to our tubular time!

Now I know you are not surprised to see Queen Faye Dough Dough and Brick house at a party! She, surprisingly did not have the biggest hair at this particular event!

Queen Donna and her Stalk Stud, Kurt. She was one of the four hostesses of our radical evening!

Queen Martha and her Stalk Stud, Mitch~she was one of the four hostesses of our most excellent event!

Chop and I went as Joan Jett and the Prep. Did ya'll even recognize me without my bling on?

Queen Kilowatt and Gen'ral Lectric and friends

Queen Cast-A-Net and The Guv'na

Queen Nan and her Stalk Stud Waxon Waxoff...

2009 Calendar of Queenly Events!

2009-01-06T11:51:00.000-08:00

Here is an updated calendar of events for our upcoming 2009 year. I hope it is to your liking. It is not set in stone, but it is at least a better idea of what to look forward to…

January 24th General Queen/DIVA Meeting and Get Together
Location and time TBA
I would like for ya’ll to be putting together a list of POTENTIALS~DIVA Queen/Queen/Queen-in-Waiting and Wannabee candidates to attend our Potentials Meet-n-Greet in February. I will need their names and addresses, so e-mail or bring to the meeting. If you cannot attend, but want to suggest something for our new year, please send that info with a Queenly friend or send me an e-mail prior to the meeting so we can discuss it. (Sorry I had to postpone our meeting, but my sister-in-law had my niece early, bless her heart!)

Saturday
February 21st Potentials Meet N Greet
Location and time TBA
We will have open spots for DIVA Queens, Queens, Queens-in-Waiting, and Wannabees

Dues will be due on or before March 6th for DIVAs, DIVA Queens, Queens, Queens-in-Waiting, and Wannabees and our final roster for new members (our Beta Group) will be set for 2009.

Thursday/Friday~Sunday
March 19-22 SPQ Weekend in Jackson, MS
Shall We March, girls?

Thursday Big Hat Tea
Friday SPQ Ball
Saturday Parade, Big Ah-yes BBQ (or whatever) and PJ and Pearls Ball
Sunday Brunch

We will probably need to book our rooms at the Hilton by early to mid February to avoid having no place to stay, so be thinking about whether or not you want to go.

Saturday
April 18th 2009 Berry Queens’ Hi! Tea
Location and time TBA

Friday
May 31st S.W.O.T.’s Up Planning Retreat and PJ Party
Location TBA

Friday 8pm-12am
September 18th 2nd O-fficial Berry Queens’ Ball and Pageant
I have reserved Cyr Gates for this event just
to make sure we have a bigger place. Our tables
this year will be rectangular (6 feet).

Sunday
September 27th 2nd Annual Appearance in the Sugar Cane Festival Parade

Thursday
October 29th Berry Scary Bar Party
Location and time TBA

Tuesday
December 1st Downtown Christmas Parade 2009

P.S. We welcome our new Her Royal Hi-ness candidates: Amy Courrege, Cherie Lord, Nicole Estis, Jeanne Schenk, Shelli Helms and our two DIVAs who have decided to compete: Queen DIVA Doc and one more to be named at a later date, ya'll!!! We have 7 and only need 1-3 more to complete our competitors!!!!

If you have wondered onto this site and would like more information about becoming a queenly candidate, please e-mail me at MsJerre@aol.com!

Christmas with the Queens!

2008-12-31T07:47:00.001-08:00

Pictured left to right~Top row: Queen of Disney, Queen of High Maintenance and Her Stalk Stud and our Royal driver, Buddy; Queen of Dippity Do, Queen DIVA Doc, and Queen Easy Rider Bottom Row: Queen Camil Feaux, Queen de Bling, Queen Mum, Queen of Sold, and Queen of Hearts

Well, the queens/DIVAs represented Habitat well in this year's Christmas Parade, which was held downtown along Main Street. We had sooooooo much fun it was ridiculous!!!! Ya'll make sure and come out and see us next year, since we have decided to make it a yearly event, sugars!!!! Sorry about the sideways pics, hunnies, but ya'll know I am not gifted in the technical department!!!!

Winna....Winna....Chicken Dinna, Hunnies!!!!!

2008-09-24T13:24:00.000-07:00

The 2008 Sugar Cane Festival Parade was a BLAST! We all loaded up, queens, wannabees, and DIVAs alike~with out big hair and boots and tiaras and costumes and rode through downtown New Iberia, delighting the crowd with our dancing and bee-you-tee-ful appearance. They gawked and admired us from afar, thanks to our "SECURITY" personnel, who did a FINE job, I might add of keeping back our throngs of admirers. We passed out strawberry Twizzlers, flashingblinky rings, plastic jewels, strawberry Mardi Gras beads, and various other asundry things to the crowd and played sugar type music and acted up in a family friendly way. It was a great day and a great memory. I'll have more pictures to follow!

Well, hunnies, WE DID IT!!!! It was a whopper of a night and I don't know about the rest of MOQs (My Other Queens) and my DIVAs 'n such, but I had a he-helarious time and am still sufferin the "after-party" effects, which I am O-fficially calling THE AFTERGLOW and LUV'n it! Words cannot express how thankful I am to each and every one of the fine people who made this whole shindig possible and allowed my dream to reach its "fruit-ition"!!!! Totals are not in yet, but it seems we have exceeded our 5000.00 goal by over 2000.00!!! The board and I are tickled pink, to say the least so everyone who participated, came, or gave should be very proud of theirownselves!

The tables were bee-you-tee-ful, the wigs were gi-normous and fun and my DIVAs played the part to the hilt and the crowd just luv'd them all! Lawd--there were soooo many moments when I thought my jaws were broken and my sides hurt from laughin so much! Sandra Babineaux's comedy had us all rollin in the aisles and Brenda Lowry's song "Big Ovaries" wherein all the Stalk Studs sang along was too too kewt for words. I am sendin ya'll some pictures to enjoy and although it cannot quite captured the fun--ya'll can get a little idea of what it was like! I'll write more later, but I need to go clean up myownhouse and spend some time with Dr. Chop, MAA and CLB, who have been sufferin lately from lack of my presence!

Finally, I must say that indeed, it is truly GOOD TO BE QUEEN!!!! Parade time is right around the corner (this Sunday) so we are getting ready for that and I want ya'll to know that from the moment they attempted, but were sadly unable, to put that gi-normous crown on myownhead--I KNEW that my life would never be the same! I suddenly had no ill feelings anymore for Amy H. (crown stealer) and I resolved then and there to put the past behind me and accept this new tiara with heart-felt and totally pure purpose for honest to goodness WORLD PEACE..(sniff!sniff!) so God Bless You, ONe and ALL, sugahs!!!!

by the by...I know some of the pictures are sideways, but I cannot get the blankety blank photo CD to edit them, so I figured I'd share them anyway, til I could figure it out!

Berry Queens' Hi Tea 2008

2008-06-08T12:14:00.000-07:00

Special quest and Stalk Security, Cherie Lord, wore a hat she designed her veryownself!

The 2008 Berry Queens and helpers

Queen Mayor,with hostesses Queen de Bling and Queen of Hearts

Most of our DIVAs came and looked FABULOUS!!!!

Queen Cruiser enjoys the fashions!

Many thanks to Lane Walker of Lemondrop for all her fashions and door prizes, too!

Our host and hostess, Carl and Pat Richard (aka Queen of Hearts!)

Queen Muther and Queen Green of Beausoleil had amazing hats!!!! Queen Green's (of course) was vintage and recycled!!!!

Queen Cher Be'be' had a marvelous hat and her ho-made Creme Brulee thingy was to die for in the Berry Crock-A competition!

Is it the picture, or does this jacket make me look fat?????

DIVA queen, Katherin Bordes shows off her Lemondrop fashions!

Queen LeTigre shows off her Lemondrop fashions and her new little tiger on the way!!! Congrats to her, Jason, and Adeline by the by!!!

Queen Faye Dough Dough shows off her Lemondrop fashions

Queen Kilowatt shows off some fashions from Lemondrop

Queen of Fine Arts and Queen of Dippity Doo show off their A-mazing hats!

Queen Mumm, Queen of de Road, Queen of the Scene, Queen Prim & Proper and Queen Catin Dure toast Iberia Habitat for Humanity!

Queen de Bling poses with Ellen Nora, special guest

Well, the 2008 Second Annual Berry Queens' Hi! Tea went off without a hitch and we had the kewtest ladies in the most precious hats you have ever seen, ya'll, including our veryown Mayor, Hilda Curry(who is just made to wear a hat). Queen of Hearts house and yard were decorated to the hilt and the food and drink were MARVELOUS and plentiful, which all us queens do so appreciate, sugars! We had several special guests and the queens brought Ho-made cakes for our first ever BERRY CROCK-A competition and there was a hands down winner--thought I'll not tell until the night of our First O-fficial Berry Queens' Ball and Pageant, so don't even TRY to get me to!!! Even money, jewels, and Brighton type gifts would PROBLY not sway me, though, if you have to try, you can....(Tee-hee!) Can't wait to do it again next year! Hope to see you all at the ball--it will be sooooooooo much fun! Here's to the Queens, DIVAs, and to Iberia Habitat for Humanity!!!! Special thanks to Queen of Sold, Tessie Dore, for donating a ton of door prizes, which we are going to be able to use for the ball and to all our queens for baking or picking up desserts out the whazoo for our First Berry Crock-A competition and bake-off! All of ya'll who were there are positively precious and I just couldn't live without one of you!!!! For those of ya'll who couldn't make it--I MISSED YOU!!!!! Looking forward to seeing you there next year!

LUV ya'll,

Queen de Bling, (aka Jerre Borland)
Board Member, Iberia Habitat for Humanity
and Self-appointed Head Berry Boss Queen

We Have Our Own Kacey!!!!

2008-05-09T07:49:00.000-07:00

Due to the ever growing popularity of the SPQ's own Kacey Jones, we are unable to get her over to New Iberia for the Berry Queen festivities in September, I am sad to say!!! However, last night as I was visiting with the New Iberia Women in Business group, I was finally introduced to Brenda Lowry~BLUE MERLOT vocalist and songstress extraordinaire in her own right!~who I have heard at Cajun Trading during the art walk, but have been unable to meet. She was a hoot and I instantly liked her, besides ya'll--she knew exactly what I meant about the ball being like the SPQ galls, only New Iberia-d for us!!! I am hereforeto adopting Brenda and BLUE MERLOT as our Kacey Jones and donning her song "Big Ovaries" as one of our O-fficial Mantras and if you have not heard it, I am including the lyrics so you will adopt it and HER and her band, too!

BIG OVARIES

by Brenda Lowry

They won't write it on your tombstone, they won't say it at your grave
that your kitchen floor was spotless or your bed was always made
nobody really cares if your table settings match
and only Martha Steward makes it all from scratch.
Sometimes you have to speak up to be sure your voice is heard
and just remember "nice" and "fine" are four letter words.

Chorus: If you're trying to make a place in a world run by men
you need an attitude and a lot of estrogen.
Well behaved women never make history,
so make sure you misbehave and have...Big Ovaries.

Think of all the women who have made their mark on time
these women didn't fit into the nice girl paradigm,
Cleopatra, Queen Liz, and Catherine the Great
and so many others whose lives can illustrate
the power of a woman to see the job through
so stand up, sister, you can be one, too.

In the Bible htere was Mary and the Woman at the Well,
Sarah, Rachel, Miriam, and even Jezebel.
We've had goddesses and sinners, and saints like Joan of Arc,
women made of steel like Molly Brown and Rosa Parks.
All the pioneer women who walked across the nation
and a few billions mothers since the dawn of creationj

Chorus

Nefertiti, Margaret Thatcher, and the Queen of Sheba,
Tina Turner, Dolly Parton, Venus and Serena.
Annie Oakley, Dale Evans, Ginger Rogers, too,
Mary Shelley, Ann Rand and Maya Angelou.
Pocahontas, Princess Di, and Liliokalani,
Blondie, Lucy, Jane Jetson, Little Orphan Annie.

Chorus

Now listen up, sister, there's a moral to my story:
having big ovaries doesn't mean a lot of glory.
Some strong women had an awful lot of fame,
but for many others, we don't even know their names.
Just remember this, you can be one too,
be true to yourself in everything you do.

Chorus

Ya'll see what I mean????!!!! I love her and I think she will be an honorary Berry Queen just BECAUSE, don't ya'll think!!!!???? Blue Merlot is a finalist in the Times of Acadiana's "Best of 2008" in the category Best Jazz Band!!

In order to help our newest songstress, go to www.timesofacadiana.com
Click on the banner in the upper right of the home page
Scroll down to the "nightlife" category, and in that, "Jazz Band." (here's where you select Blue Merlot)
You need to complete the info at the bottom of the page - they make every effort to avoid "vote stuffing" - but they're not spammers.

Check out some of the other categories...our friend Brock Thornton is also listed!(Band that plays locally)."

Make your voice heard! Votes must be cast by May 20th. But hey...you're at the computer right now.... so why put it off?

If you want to hear BLUE MERLOT, here are some of their upcoming dates: Bob's Pub this Saturday, 5/10; Clementine next Saturday, 5/17; Dean's Friday 5/23, and the SweetTones (Brenda, Bubba, and Ronnie Vice) at the Solomon House Fundraiser at Antique Roseville on Saturday, 5/24. Any-hoo, ya'll be sweet and have a great weekend, hear!?!

Berry Queens' Hi! Tea 2008

2008-04-27T05:45:00.001-07:00

Well ladies, I am just FLAT OUT excited to announce that we will be holding our 2nd annual Berry Queens Hi! Tea on Sunday, August 17, 2008 at the home of our veryown DIVA, Patricia Richard from 2-4 p.m. The event is a fundraiser for Iberia Habitat for Humanity and is the kickoff for 2008 for our First O-fficial Berry Queens' Ball and Pageant event which will be held on Friday, September 19, 2008 from 8:00 p.m.-12:00 a.m. The next day, Saturday, from 10:30~ish until noon, we will have our First O-fficial "Kane You Hang?" Brunch at Clementine. Doesn't that sound like fun, ya'll! Any-hoo, back to the tea info~We are very pleased to announce that Lane Walker has agreed to give us a LEMONDROP Fall Fashion preview at our event this year and once again, the event is BYOH~(BRING YOUR OWN HAT) and I can't wait to see all of the bee-you-tee-ful hats ya'll come in, seein as last year, those of ya'll who came just outdid ya'llselves, truly ya'll did!!!

This year, our Queens will be competing in our Very First BERRY CROCK-A COMPETITION, which ya'll will no doubt get the benefit of. The winner will be awarded at the Hi! Tea and I for one can't wait to see who the winner will be!!!

(Just for clarity, I am including the rule sheet for the Berry Crock-A Competition so you can get the gist, sugahs!)

First O-fficial Berry Crock-A Competition
Rules, Regulations, and Explanations

The First O-fficial Berry Crock-A Competition will be held at The Berry Queens’ Hi! Tea on August 17, 2008 at the Home of our own DIVA~The Queen of Hearts (aka Patricia Richard) from 2-4 p.m. This competition will be held amongst ourown Berry Queen competitors and will require them to submit a Ho-made cake. These cakes will be displayed at our BERRY SWEETS table and will be judged according to the following standards:

Bee-you-tee~fulness
Decadent/Sin~funess
Dee-licious~ness

All non-competitors at the Hi! Tea will vote for their favorite Ho-made cake and the winner will receive the coveted “Berry Crock-A” Prize which will be awarded at the conclusion of the Hi! Tea during the door prize portion.

“Ho-making”: (Gerund) Describes a person’s ability to delegate out a difficult task to someone else who does it better, pay them for it and then take credit for “allegedly” doin’ it his/herownself, since it is legitimately his/hers because he/she paid for it! Now some folks, for reasons I do not understand, will gather a bucket load of ingredients and perform an old, out-dated ritual called “making something from scratch”. Some of the culinarily gifted and overachievin’ queens may decide to make just such a cake and that is also allowed as a submission, though I would not encourage you to do so, by any means, because it is just PLAIN HARD and too much WORK! Other folks, like me, “Ho-Out” such tasks to people who do a much better job of it, have better equipment, a bigger kitchen, and better culinary skills. Do not be offended by the term. It has nothing whatsoever to do with S-E-X, but in queen’s language is a reference to making the most of one’s lack of skills and another’s abundance of skills. It’s a WIN/WIN, hunnies! (Adjective form=Ho-made; Verb form=Ho-make; Other terms include “Ho-Out” which is the act of gettin’ something Ho-made done for oneself.

Each submission must have an “original” name and you must bring your own cake plate to sit it on.

Luv ya’ll, QdB

The Berry Queens Welcome our Newest DIVA's!!!!

2008-03-20T21:25:00.000-07:00

On two separate Thursdays night at Le Rosier I met up with Queen Guide-Ance's bunch of excellently kewt, funny, and bodacious friends who have signed up to be our first EVER DIVA's for the BQ Ball and Pageant. We have 21 of them so far and have room for a few more (wink! wink!) I want to give them a shout out now and say thanks for their support and let ya'll know how glad we are to have them because they are goin to be a great addition to our festivities. One of em actually painted herownhouse in her tiara, which made me know right off the bat that she was fit to be a Berry Queen DIVA!!! Don't ya'll luv it!!?? They will not have to do jack, since they are payin 'n all, but they will take on queenly names and dress up and act up and generally make our event much, much better OR NOT, because they get to decide exactly what they want to do and how they want to act because they are, after all, DIVAS! They may even get themselves a float together and ride just for the hail of it in the Sugar Cane Festival Parade and I think that would be too, too kewt for words!!!

DIVA 1~Jamie Nelson-Hebert

DIVA 4~Lisa Dugas

Queen of Sold~Tessie Dore

Queen of Disney~Anne Spears

Queenie in a Bottle~Monique Romero

Queen High Maintenance~Roxie Boudreaux

Queen of Fine Arts~Judy Vaughn

Queen of Hearts~Patricia Richard

Queen Cruiser~Sandra DeRouen

Queen Big Sistah~Margaret Simon

Queen of Dippity Doo~Elaine Drago

Queen Camil Feaux~Suzie Charpentier

Queen Catin Dure~Angela Langlinais

Queen of de Road~Jill Langlinais

Queen Mumm~Brenda Langlinais

Queen Prim & Proper~Peggy Meyers

Queen of the Scene~Amy Allen

Diane Musson

Cheryl Barras

Kim Holleman

Jodie Suire

Martha Girouard

Anita Lantier

Scotty Hebert

Becky Kennedy

and we welcome one DIVA Queen, as well, Katherin Bordes!

The SPQ Weekend is over and We're Baaaaaaack!!!

2008-03-18T11:43:00.000-07:00

There were 13 of us, includin my mama and Bibba who headed out on Friday to enjoy the festivities at the 26th Sweet Potato Queens Festival and St. Patty's Day Parade in Jackson, MS. We had a rippit of a time, girls and I brought some pictures back to share. Friday night was the SPQ Ball at Hal & Mal's, complete with Kacey Jones, great food, and a pole for dancin on, which was somethin this queen has definitely not seen cept on color tv. Then it was on to the Hilton for the "Afterglow" party, which was Hi-ly entertainin to say the LEAST!!! Saturday was the annual parade in downtown Jackson where Queens from all over the United States and everywhere else paraded and had a fine time. From there, we went back tot he Hilton for jello-wrasslin (which I did not watch nor participate in due to myown aversion to jello products as a whole and the fact that wrasslin is waaaaaaaay to close to bein exercise, anyhoo-)and the BIG ASS BBQ, which was deeeeeeelicious to boot! That evening, we went to the Pearls and PJs Ball at the Hilton. I have decided that Jill Connor Browne is a genius just for comin up with this thing because I have never been so comfortable at a ball in my whole life!!!! PJs--what a great idea!!! Sunday, we all came and listened to JCB and ate the most fantabulous food ever for the Bathrobe Brunch where, you guessed it--we lounged in our bathrobes and ate and ate and talked an talked and when ALL that was over--WE DID NOT WANT TO GET IN THE CAR AND LEAVE, but we had to, so sadly, the weekend came to a close!!!! Overall it was a wunderful time had by all and we met soooooo many interesting groups, like the Breaux Bridge queens and the Lafayette Queens who rode their Harleys all the way from home to be there with us and looked deevine at that!!! We are invitin them to come be with us in September cause they are just too kewt for words!!! Hope you enjoy the pics, girls and please--try to come next year--It was soooooooo much fun!!! Ya'll take care and be sweet!!!

Berry First Artwork...

2008-01-29T18:45:00.000-08:00

Since our budget is let's say...SLIM...and we do not have the money for hirin an artist to do the artwork for the posters and such, Queen Em Cee suggested that I use CLB (Cutest Little Boy--myveryown son) to design and paint the art, cause he is pretty good for five years old and works for Airheads and Icee's, which is good for the Berry Queens! I wanted to show you his canvas that will be used for many of the things we hand for the ball/pageant and will also be used on the programs. If anyone out there has the ability to put this canvas in digital format or knows someone who can do it out of the goodness of his/her heart and for a good cause, please let me know!!!!

Be sweet!

QdB

How the Berry Queen Thing Came About...

2008-01-25T19:48:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time, a few years ago, a woman in THE BERRY (New Iberia, LA) had a dream…

She stood at THE SUGARCANE FESTIVAL parade and watched as various floats went by, toting around many BONAFIDE queens and small children wearing large sparkly tiaras AND as flatbeds and tractors passed by full of drunken people carrying plastic cups waving to the crowd as music played. She watched the sequined and blinging dance girls; saw all the people from New Iberia out with their families enjoying the celebration, when suddenly—she had a light bulb moment!

It was then that the idea of THE BERRY QUEENS began to form. Having been an honorary member of The Sweet Potato Queens since her late 20’s, she suddenly could envision a group of women “of a certain age” dressed in sequins, big hair, and enhanced costumes of amazing flamboyance and sparkliness dancing and sashaying on a float playing most excellent and “sugar-filled” music and whipping the crowd into spasms and frenzy. At the top of the float stood the HEAD QUEEN of them all—HER ROYAL HI-NESS, Queen of THE BERRY! She was a vision of LUVliness—Hair big enough to make a grown woman from an Alabama trailer park weep with envy, dress shining brighter than the sun on account of all the sequins and such, breasts and buttocks standing proud and large—showing all the under 30’s women what a REAL WOMAN is actually made of! She was extra-ordinary in her bee-you-tee-ous-ness and her pageant wave and scepter motion were simply
A-MA-ZING!

But how, she asked herself, would such a being be found to ascend to said float and represent The Berry in such a fashion? She could not answer this, and so the dream was put away—temporarily forgotten—and she went back to her daily routine of mommyhood.

Two years later, the same woman found herself on the Board of Iberia Habitat for Humanity and LO and BEHOLD! She was asked to be on the Fundraising Committee. It was then that the IDEA began again, coaxing her into thinking about meshing the two—the quest for THE BERRY QUEEN and raising money for Iberia Habitat. A WIN/WIN situation was in the making!

After a lot of planning and a lot of begging, pleading, threatening, coaxing, and sucking up—she secured her queens, the location, the favor of the Mayor and the City Planner, and the date was set. She will gather queens from all over the Queen City of the Teche and have a competition to find HER ROYAL HI-NESS, Queen of THE BERRY in a Ball and Pageant event to be held Friday, September 19, 2008 at The Evangeline Theater in downtown New Iberia. Once the queen is found and crowned, the queens will ride on a float in The SugarCane Festival Parade and represent Iberia Habitat for Humanity and The Berry and her dream will finally be realized!

First O-fficial Berry Queens’ Ball and Pageant
Friday, September 19, 2008
8:00 P.M. until 12:00 A.M.
“He-e-e-y sugah!Be sweet!TellyourmamanemIsaidhi!Whodyathinkuhlwee-un?”
http://berryqueensunite.blogspot.com

T-shirts are HERE!!!!

2008-01-21T07:38:00.000-08:00

"Say to yourself, 'I'm beautiful, I'm bubbly, I'm marvelous,' and pretty soon you will be.":--Jacque Mercer

Queen de Bling, her travelin' hair and MAA(Miss Attitude America)

The back of our shirt!

The front of our shirt!

The Berry Queens' T-shirts are in and they are soooooo kewt!!!! They are available for purchase for $16.00 and come in ladies sizes S, M, L, and XL. E-mail me at MsJerre@aol.com if you want one!!!

Back From Baton Rouge and Jill Conner Browne!!!!

2008-01-21T07:35:00.000-08:00

The Berry Queens pose with THE BOSS QUEEN herownself!

THE I-DA-HO Queens

THE BOSS QUEEN

THE BOSS QUEEN WITH CUTEST BOY IN THE WORLD

Whoo-Hoo! We got back from Baton Rouge last night before 11 p.m. and boy was it a hootenanny! Jill Connor Browne is HE-helarious and the queens bout busted a gut listenin to her and meeting Cutest Boy in the World, who, thought VERY type A, was pretty fun, too, and kewt in a married boy way! There were a pile of folks there, but we managed to get ourselves on up and get a copy of her new book, THE SWEET POTATO QUEENS GUIDE TO RAISING CHILDREN FOR FUN AND PROFIT. The Berry Queens asked her a few questions, left her a little sussy from THE BERRY and we met some wunderful queens from St. Francisville called THE I-DA-HO Potato Queens. There motto is "U Not Da Ho, I-Da-Ho!!!!" There symbol is the Flamingo and sum of them wore some flamingo glasses that were quite extra-ordinary! They were a downright mess and a half and we promised to look them up at the SPQ St. Patty's Day Parade on the weekend of March 14-16 when we are headed to Jackson once again to represent our fine Berry as THE BERRY QUEENS!!! We did get a picture of us in front of THE BIG A$$ BUS, but Queen Em Cee hasn't sent them to me yet so I can load them up for ya'll. Hope ya'll can join us next time we have a road trip! Til then, BE SWEET and tellyermama'nemwesaidHI! P.S. For those of ya'll who want to learn more about the trip and bein queenly, you can go to my Queenly Blog at http://msjerre.blogspot.com, but you must NOT be easily O-ffended or you should probly just stay on this page, where it is Disney friendly on account of Habitat 'n all!

Mattel Announces New Barbie Line for Acadiana...

2008-01-21T07:27:00.000-08:00

In honor of Bein' Queenly in The Berry--I hope you all can enjoy this with a little grain of salt. Talk about STEREO-types!!! I'm kinda miffed they aren't comin out with an ALABAMA TRAILER TRASH BARBIE, come to think of it!! Where's the LUV for all the BAMA girls!!!! Thanks Queen Faye Dough Dough for passin this along!

RIVER RANCH BARBIE
> >
> > This princess Barbie is only sold at River Ranch shops. She comes with
an assortment of Kate Spade handbags, a Lexus SUV, a longhaired foreign
lap-dog named Honey, and a cookie-cutter dream house with a lawn service.
Available with or without tummy tuck and face lift. Workaholic ex-husband Ken comes
with a Porsche.

BROUSSARD BARBIE

This modern day homemaker Barbie is available with Ford Windstar
mini-van and matching gym suit. She gets lost easily and has no full-time
occupation or secondary education. Traffic-jamming cell phone sold separately.
Available at Target.

EVANGELINE THRUWAY BARBIE

This recently paroled Barbie comes with a 9mm handg un, bowie knife, a
'79 El Camino with dark tinted windows and a meth lab kit. This model is only
available after dark and can only be bought with cash, preferably small
bills, unless you are a cop, then we don't know what you are talking
about.

GREENBRIAR ESTATE BARBIE

This yuppie Barbie comes with your choice of BMW convertible or Hummer
H2. Included is her own CC coffee cup, credit card set and Red's membership.
Also available is Shallow Ken.

CARENCRO BARBIE

This pale model comes dressed in her own Wrangler jeans two sizes too
small, a classic Metallica shirt and Tweety Bird tattoo on her shoulder.
Wants to major in NASCAR at LSU. She has a six-pack of Coors Light and a Hank Williams, Jr. CD set. She can spit over 5 feet and kick mullet-haired
Ken's ah-yes when she's drunk. Purchase her pickup truck separately and get a
confederate flag bumper sticker absolutely free. Available at Big Lots &
Dollar General Stores .

OPELOUSAS BARBIE

This tobacco chewing, brassy-haired Barbie has a pair of her own
high-heeled sandals with one broken heel from the time she chased Beer-Gut
Ken out of Carencro Barbie's (D! isconti nued) house. Her ensemble
includes low-rise acid-washed jeans, fake fingernails, strawberry lip gloss and a
see-through halter-top. Comes with Barbie's dream doublewide trailer.
Available at Wal-Mart. Cheap.

LE TRIOMPHE BARBIE

This collagen injected rhino plastic Barbie wears leopard print
Spandex and drinks cosmopolitans to new age music with friends at the
Lodge. Into crystals. Comes with Percocet prescription and botox
treatments.
Also cheap.

GRAND COTEAU BARBIE

This Barbie comes with a monogrammed tote bag, a collection of credit
cards in her daddy's name, expensive hair highlights, cell phone and an
enormous sense of entitlement. Available in two models: eating disorder
with natural breasts or eating disorder with breast implants. BMW X5 or Chevy
Tahoe. ESA Ken (with Toyota 4 Runner and iPod) is also available.

UNIVERSITY BARBIE

This doll is made of actual tofu. She has long straight brown hair,
archless feet, hairy armpits, no make up and Birkenstocks with white
socks. She prefers that you call her "Willow". She does not want or need a
Ken doll, but if you purchase two University Barbies and the optional
Subaru wagon, you get a rainbow flag sticker free.

YOUNGSVILLE BARBIE

This doll is pregnant, drives a new Ford Excursion and is perfect in
every way. We don't know who Ken is because he's always away hunting
or in Japan on business. Youngsville Barbie aspires to become River
Ranch Barbie. Not cheap, but still very naïve

First O-ffical Berry Queens' Meetin...

2008-01-04T06:09:00.000-08:00

The first meeting of the Berry Queens came to order at BoJangles on Thursday, January 23rd, somewhere between 7 and 7:15 after all the drinks arrived and everyone had visited for a bit. we discussed many important queenly topics related to the upcoming Ball and Pageant and I wish to share some of these with you today:

1. We will be traveling by mommyvan to Baton Rouge on January 23, 2008 to see Jill Connor Brown at B&N and get a signed copy of her book RAISING CHILDREN FOR FUN AND PROFIT. Contact me at MsJerre@aol.com if you are interested in going along.

2. T-shirts for the First O-fficial Berry Queens' Ball and Pageant, which has all the ball info on the front and "It's Easy Bein' Queenly in the Berry" on the back and are sooooooooo kewt!!! will be available in women's sized starting January 23rd for $16.00 each. Stalk Stud t-shirts for the menfolk will not be available til we pay off the women's ones, so I'll let you know when that happens! You can e-mail me to let me know if you want one and I'll give you all the info.

3. The queens are heading to Jackson, MS, the weekend of March 14-16, 2008 for the Sweet Potato Queens' festivities. We will leave Friday afternoon and return Sunday afternoon. We have VERY limited space for this trip, so let us know if you want to go ASAP!

4. Rod Antoon, DJ and one man band from BoJangles, has kindly agreed to write and produce the very first Berry Queen's Theme Song for us. Isn't he just the sweetest thing!!!!????!!!! He even played a song he made up right there on the spot during out meeting about the Berry Queens and we had already told him there was no money in this gig to be made and he is still in!!! We are making him an "Honorary Stalk Stud" just because he knows how to worship queenliness when he sees it!

5. Gordon D. has agreed to work with us on holding the Judges' High Falutin' Meet-n-Greet at BoJangles. We are very thankful to him and would like to bestow on him the title of "Honorary Stalk Stud" as well!

6. Tickets for the First O-fficial Berry Queens' Ball and Pageant (September 19, 2008, 8:00 p.m. -12:00 p.m. will start being available in July/2008 so talk to one of the queens, or call Iberia Habitat for those. You will find the Habitat link on this site for the phone #. They are $35.00 per ticket, including entertainment, dancing, and food. There will be a cash bar provided and we are going to have fun!fun!fun! and along the way, crown the First Her Royal High-ness, Queen of the Berry!!!

The First O-fficial Berry Queens' Hi! Tea...

2007-09-23T20:44:00.001-07:00

Newest board member, Queen Carmen speaks with our VERY special guests, Queen Mayor Hilda Curry and Queen Ellen Nora.

Some of the First O-fficial Berry Queen Candidates

Look at how cute we all are and look at ALL the hats!

Queen Margaret, Queen Jeneen, Queen Beth, and Queen de Bling

Queen Faye Dough Dough, Queen LeTigre, Queen Chris, Queen FonDYou and Queen Betty

Queen de Bling, Queen Hotstuff, and Queen Angel

Queen Carmen and Queen Beverly are all smiles!

Queen Jeneen, Queen Jessica, Queen Lauren, and Queen Kilowatt strike a pose!

Queen FonDYou's own table was full up with good eatin'!

Queen Ellen, Queen Sunflower, and Queen Mati' do a little catchin up.

The Berry Queens sure do like to stir things up a little when we get together...

A fine time was had by all, ladies, and I hope you were able to attend. Queen FonDYou's ownhouse was absolutely BEE-YOU-TEE-FUL and GI-NORMOUS, too! It was fun to visit with each other and to share the news about the First O-fficial Berry Queens' Ball and Pageant which will be held September 19, 2008 at the Evangeline Theater and to eat all the WONDERFUL things our queens fixed for us. Ya'll don't forget to keep on watchin' for information about the Queens' Get Togethers for the future and BE SWEET! Have a great time at THE SUGAR CANE FESTIVAL and Tellyermama'nemwesedhi!

Berry Queens' Hi! Tea this Sunday, Ya'll!

2007-09-22T05:50:00.000-07:00

You are cordially invited to the

FIRST O-FFICIAL BERRY QUEENS’ HI! TEA

on Sunday, September 23, 2007

from two 0’clock until four o’clock

in the afternoon

at 630 East Main Street

New Iberia, Louisiana

B.Y.O.H. (Bring Your Own Hat!)

Hosted by Michelle Thornton and Jerre Borland
Sponsored by Iberia Habitat for Humanity
Regrets Only: 560-1755

This is to be the O-fficial Kick-Off Meeting for the Berry Queen’s Ball and Pageant Fundraiser for Iberia Habitat for Humanity for September 2008, so ya’ll come see!
We will be taking a picture for the Daily Iberian.

NTTW in Galveston!

2007-07-22T13:56:00.000-07:00

Getting ready to see NTTW at The Grand Opera House
Meeting the Songstress Extraordinaire--Kacey Jones

Our Cabana Boys at the Wyndham Tremont with some of the Queens

We're back from our trip and boy did we have a good time! NTTW was hilarious! The queens all agreed that there should be a warning on the ticket about going to the bathroom before the show starts to avoid wetting yourself from laughing so much!! Our faces still hurt! To see all the details about the trip, go to http://msjerre.blogspot.com/ and read July 27-29th "Gettin the Skinny!" We met Kacey Jones and represented the Berry Queens well! For information on the play and other locations where you can find it go to http://www.nipplestothewind.com/.

Don't forget that we have a Berry Queen's Tea coming up this September 23rd, 2007. There will be more details in August. If you are interested in attending/participating and finding out more about the Berry Queen's Ball and Pageant, please e-mail me and let me know! Most of the information is on this site, you just have to go to the sidebar menu and find the links.

The schedule for the pageant events is listed on the itinerary and the explanation of the Berry Queens is on the application. To see these, scroll down on the right sidebar and hit "older posts" and you can go to them.

Take care ya'll and be sweet!

Help write the new Berry Queen Theme Song!

2007-05-24T15:05:00.000-07:00

Go to the following seedwiki and add some lines to help create the First O-fficial Berry Queen's Theme Song!

http://208.106.181.117/wiki/berry_queen_theme_song/berry_queen_theme_song?t&usermessage=

I'm in Sequin Heav'n!

2007-05-21T07:09:00.000-07:00

I have been introduced to a bon-a-fide sequin genius and I have also found my dress for the BQ pageant. (To see my dress, one may go to my personal blog at http://msjerre.blogspot.com. Any-hoo, this fellow, Anthony at http://www.sequinqueen.com makes the most DEE-VINE queenly costumes you could imagine, sugar. I mean, they are too kewt for words! You must check it out yourself. Also, if you have other websites you can recommend, please post them for fellow queens so that we may continue to be inspired on our queenly journey to the crown! When you go on sequinqueen, make sure and scroll down the right side to look at the "Gorgeous Customers" link. You won't want to miss it--it is truly amazing!

Name a Queen!

2007-05-19T11:36:00.001-07:00

http://www.seedwiki.org/wiki/a_name_fit_for_a_queen/a_name_fit_for_a_queen?t&usermessage=&CFID=19141&CFTOKEN=6DFF6DBC-B6CD-48E8-AE76585A83CD041E

Click on the above link and make some suggestions for "Queenly Names". If your name is selected, then you will win a Berry Queen's t-shirt. (As soon as we make some!) Be sure to include your e-mail address so we can contact you if you're a winner!

Proposed New Motto

2007-05-19T10:52:00.000-07:00

Queen Faye Dough Dough has submitted the following for consideration as the Berry Queens' Motto. Write in and let us know what you think or if you have a better suggestion. Remember that this event is Rated-PG-13!!!

Attention Berry Queen Candidates!

2007-05-14T17:41:00.000-07:00

We will have our very first O-fficial Berry Queen's Tea on September 23, 2007 from 2:00 until 4:00 in the afternoon, Location TBA. Mark your calendars! We will be meeting to socialize and meet and greet, as well as to answer any questions you may have about the pageant and gather important pageant information. I am going to ask The Daily Iberian to come and take a picture so we can formally announce next year's event.

Wanna Nominate a Po-tential Queen?

2007-05-14T17:40:00.000-07:00

Give her this blogspot and have her e-mail the application for consideration to MsJerre@aol.com.

Future Berry Queens

2007-05-14T11:16:00.000-07:00

Princess Adeline
Daughter of Queen LeTigre

Princess Audrey
Daughter of Queen de BLING

Princess Cecile

Daughter of Queen Faye Dough Dough

Want to add your own image?! E-mail a picture with your daughter's name and your queen name to MsJerre@aol.com

Sugar Songs

2007-05-14T09:11:00.001-07:00

Click on the following link to list your suggestions for songs about sugar for the ball and parade.

http://208.106.181.117/wiki/sugah_songs/sugah_songs?t&usermessage

Announcing The First O-fficial Berry Queen's Ball and Pageant!

2007-05-14T08:20:00.000-07:00

First O-fficial Berry Queen’s Ball and Pageant
Friday, September 19, 2008
8:00 pm until 12:00 am

“He-e-e-y sugah! Be sweet! TellyourmamanemIsaidhi!

Whodyathinkuhlwee-un?”

I. Purpose-fundraiser/Community outreach for Habitat for Humanity and all around rippit!
rippit [rip’ it] n. a wild, noisy party. Ex: “When we girls get together, we rip it up and have a rippit!”

II. Location: Sliman Theater is reserved for our date. It holds 200 people max.

III. Pageant specifics:
See Application for details

Categories:
1. Her Royal Highness-Queen of the Berry and her 1st, 2nd, and 3rd runner ups, plus the following honorary Queens:

2. Best Theme Queen
3. Senior-Rita Queen-most "experienced in years" queen to be chosen by judges
4. Miss Congeniality –voted on by contestants
5. Queen Most Likely to Wear Majorette Boots-peppiest queen
6. BHB Queen-Biggest Hair of the Ball Queen-this will be done by measurement to make sure there is no error. (A yard stick will be used as a point of measure.)
Golden Rule Queen-Most Community Service-judges will choose based on application information

I would like all of the winners and participants to ride on a "Berry Queen's" float in the Sugar Cane Festival Parade on the following Saturday to represent Iberia Habitat for Humanity. I'd also like to invite the Decoy Queens and the Mardi Gras Queens to join us, along with any other organizations that want to dress up and be queenly for the day.

IV. Ball specifics
I would like to use a DJ for the ball and pageant, since it will be cheaper and easier.

Most of the songs should revolve around sugar in honor of the SCF.
Bar=cash bar with keg, and the following drinks for $5.00 each:
1. Gin and Berry It-lemon drop martini
2. The Bellini of the Ball-frozen peach Bellini w/ a cherry on top-frozen/pre-made, add cherry
3. Teche Your Tolerance Margarita-frozen/pre-made, add lime slice
4. Berry Queenly Punch-orange juice/grenadine and Meyer’s Rum-pre-made, add frozen strawberry to stay cold
5. Bloody Queen Mary’s w/ spicy bean-pre-made mix/add vodka and spicy bean
Each will be 5.00 per drink and proceeds will go to Habitat.
Maybe we can get Abita beer to donate a keg or two? Water, Coke, Diet Coke and Sprite
Zinfandel wine
Suggestions for Buffet food-Boudin balls, mini crawfish or meat pies w/ spicy Creole mustard, cheese straws w/ Tabasco, sweet potato biscuits w/ Louisiana strawberry jam, Meche’s donut holes, mini pralines, petite fours, cookies and fruit, cheese and vegetable trays. I have a caterer already who will take care of the food.

d. 5 inch crown available through http://www.sweetpotatoqueens.com/ (donated by the Berry Bossiest Queen for the first pageant) Note: It is IN and it is HUGE and it is

SPARK-LYicious ladies!

VI. Fundraising
a. Each applicant must provide a donation for SNAP and Solomon House to be turned in with filled out application as part of the groveling/sucking up process. These will be delivered the Monday after the pageant rehearsal Friday, Sept. 12, 6-8 pm.
b. Each applicant will need a business to sponsor her in the Berry Queen Ball program to include a picture of the P0-tential Queen in her costume and an advertisement for her sponsor to be handed out during the pageant. The ads will be $100.00 each. They must also sell 10 tickets each to the ball.
c. Though there will be a cash bar at the ball, Queens will be given a table that they will decorate and set up to their own hearts desire for their sponsors/invited guests which will allow a place for their guests to congregate. Chairs and tables provided but decorations are solely the responsibility of the Queen herownself. These should be small round tables to allow for as much room as possible. (Maybe only 4-5 chairs per table?) See http://www.orientaltrading.com/ for ideas. Put tiara in the search box! They also have some light up stuff, like shot glasses and rings that are neat. They also have table covers and gift bags, etc.
d. private donations from BQ Pageant sponsors/each sponsor will receive two free tickets to the ball and there will be a special table set up for them, as well.
Who can we ask for initial donations? IDEAS???
e. Tickets for the ball ($30.00 per person - tentatively). Queens and their escorts get in free, but the ball is also open to the general public after we figure how many will be left (250 total tickets)—black tie and queenly attire required!

f. Raffle to be held at the ball for item which is heretofore unknown. although I am thinking about a painting

g. T-shirts w/ theme picture (tiara and scepter) on front, First O-fficial Berry Queen Ball, September ?, 2008, and It’s Easy Bein’ Queenly in the Berry! on the back (red or white t-shirts). see attached I am thinking of asking Lipiri's if they will handle the t-shirts for us. Some of the t-shirts need to have “Stalk-Em Security” on the back instead of the “queenly” thing on account of the men might like some! We will only do pre-orders this year for the shirts. Forms will be handed out with the tickets to those attending and will be due back to Habitat in sufficient time to prepare the order for the Ball and Parade.
VII. Escorts
Gentlemen escorts will be either provided by the Queens In Waiting on their own, or the pageant committee will provide Stalk Studs (which I will gather or you can help me gather) who will escort the ladies to and from the “run-way” and be available for their opening dance at the ball.
E-mail me at MsJerre@aol.com with ideas for the Stalk Studs.

VIII. Security
There will be Stalk-Em Security in black t-shirts walking with the float to protect our Queens and as front door security for our ball. These will be nominated and assigned by clubs and organizations around our great city and they will receive their t-shirts from Habitat. They will wear black t-shirts with red lettered “Stalk-Em Security” on them and will carry shortened Sticks of cane for “beating back” all of the throngs of admirers that will obviously be a problem for the queens along the parade route! Maybe they could have Tabasco “pepper spray”around their necks or some other such nonsense.

A liability note: For the ball, I suggest “Breath-Alizers”, a few of Iberia’s finest that check people to see if they need to call a cab or find a ride home. They will also ask about a designated driver so everyone can stay safe and happy in the Berry!

IX. MCs for the pageant are already booked! I will announce these later.

I have arranged for two costume consultants to help all the queen's with their costumes if they need.

X. Candidates for Judges? We need at least 3. E-mail me if you have ideas.

Judging categories: Creativity and Poise in walk (40 points), Musical choice and relation to theme (10 points), Philanthropic involvement (30 points, Essay (40 points), and Judges’ Interview (30 points).

XI. Queen’s bio:

Each queen will have one of these for the pageant walkout. (Part of this will be put in the program.)

Queen’s platform
Sponsor recognition
Queen’s hobbies, etc.
Intro of Stalk Stud
Queenly motto/advice to Wannabees

XII. HER ROYAL HIGHNESS-QUEEN OF THE BERRY
The winner of this event will serve as a representative for Habitat and will serve as a Bonafide Honorary Board Member for the period of one year, in which she will be a goodwill ambassador for our organization until such time as she turns over her crown for the next pageant.

XIII. Queenly Events:
Sunday, Sept. 23, 2007-Po-tential Berry Queen’s Tea-2:00 p.m. to 4:oo p.m. This will be an opportunity for queen wannabees to meet and discuss the specifics of the pageant. Honored quests will also be in attendance.
Friday, Sept. 12, 2008 Rehearsal for pageant, 6:00-8:00 p.m. Location TBA

Thursday, Sept. 18, 2008- Judges’ High Falutin’ Meet-N-Greet- Judges and Queens will visit with each other at BoJangles or Le Rosier (other ideas?) at 6 o’clock informally . Queen’s will be in tiaras, wigs, sunglasses, and boas only for this meeting—No dresses! The general public will be allowed to interact with them from 7:00 until 8:00 p.m. so’s to see what they’ll be missin’ at the ball if they don’t get a ticket!
Friday, Sept. 19, 2008- First O-fficial Berry Queen’s Ball begins at 8 p.m. and pageant will commence promptly at 9 p.m. Winners will be announced by no later than 10:30 p.m. and ball will end promptly at midnight.
Saturday, Sept. 20, 2008-“The Kane You Hang?“ Berry Queen’s Brunch at Clementine’s at 11:00 a.m. Luncheon will be held at the bar area and outside. Buffet will be set up outside in the courtyard with additional seating. Queen’s may come in tiaras, sunglasses, and t-shirts for this event. All winners are required to be present at this event as well as all board members. Buffet will be 15.00 per person and there will be a cash bar. Soda, tea, or water included with buffet. Saturday, Sept. 27, 2008-Sugar Cane Festival Parade-All queen’s will need to be there promptly for parade time in full queen regalia. Those who want to walk or ride behind the queen’s float must bring their own transportation and it must be pre-approved before the parade. Stalk Studs may pull the little-uns in wagons if they are decorated and really cute, which all queen’s chirren’ are, of course!

I NEED SOMEONE WHO HAS A FLATBED OR FLOAT TO LEND!

XIV. WEBSITES FOR QUEENLY MATERIALS

fishnet stockings: http://www.welovecolors.com/Buy_Fishnet.asp
majorette Boots: Gotham Boot Company
cat eye glasses: http://www.anniepoodleskirts.com/cgi-bin/cart.cgi?action=showglasses&style=2005
evening gloves: http://www.amazon.com/Adult-Elbow-Length-Lycra-Gloves/dp/B000IXAZJA/ref=pd_sbs_a_2/102-2812087-2243364
http://www.amazon.com/Satin-Opera-Gloves-White-inches/dp/B000EGPPIW
wigs: http://www.worldofwigs.com/product_info.php/cPath/2_55_36/products_id/516
http://www.sweetpotatoqueens.com/ for inspiration

First O-fficial Berry Queen Application

2007-05-14T08:16:00.000-07:00

First O-fficial Berry Queen’s Pageant
Application
Pageant Date: Friday, September 19, 2008
8:00-12:00 pm

I. PERSONAL INFORMATION

NAME:
ADDRESS:
CITY, STATE, ZIP:
PHONE:
E-MAIL:

II. REQUIREMENTS FOR PARTICIPATION

Applicant: any woman of 30 years or older who is either a resident and/or employed in Iberia Parish who feels she exhibits certain “Queenly” characteristics and royal regalia necessary for life in the Berry, such as

a. The je ne sais quoi to wear a tiara and walk, speak and dress in an attitude befitting a queen
b. The capacity to execute “The Wave”, (Not the one at the football game, but the one that was perfected by Princess Di and Miss America.)
c. Philanthropy involvement of some sort is a must!
d. She must be able to speak English, since none of the judges are
bi-lingual!
e. Former Mardi Gras Queens are encouraged to participate in order to get some more wear out of those gowns that cost the same as a small economy car, as well as those who have never been crowned before but know they should of (known as Wannabees)!
f. Each PO-tential Berry Queen candidate is required to choose her own theme, costume, and music for her walk and write an essay about being Queenly in the Berry! You may choose a theme related to New Iberia such as Queen Praline, Queen Bayou Teche, Queen Crawfish, Queen Tabasco, etc., or come up with your own! Just have fun and be creative! (Wigs and artificial means of making oneself look bigger and better are highly encouraged. Big hair and jewelry are also a plus!) BYOT-(Bring your own tiara!) *Please remember that this is strictly a PG-13 event and your dress and manner must be appropriate for conservative folks, like your mama ‘n em, since some will be in attendance and probably even judging! Your costume choice must be approved by Julie Kilgore, the O-fficial Costume Coordinator before rehearsals begin.
g. Each contestant must also provide a sponsor for her picture in the Program (100.00) and must donate an item for SNAP and an Item for Solomon house as part of the groveling/sucking up process. (List provided upon request.)
h. Each P0-tential Berry Queen must also sell ten (10) ball tickets and decorate her own table for the ball guests that mimics her own theme.

The Winner of above title will be a representative of Habitat for Humanity for the period of one calendar year and will be placed on the board as a BONAFIDE Honorary Board Member for that period. She will be a spokesperson for Habitat and Goodwill Ambassador spreading the love for Habitat throughout the community—along with working toward WORLD PEACE!

Winners from all categories will be riding on the Berry Queen’s Float in the Sugar Cane Festival Parade on the following Saturday (Sept. 27?). All other contestants may participate, but have to bring a convertible to ride in or walk since there is only a limited amount of room on the float.

MY CONTRIBUTION(S) TO OUR COMMUNITY: (List all community service here.)

I HEREBY ATTEST THAT I AM 30 YEARS OF AGE OR OLDER.

SIGNED:________________________________________________________

III. ESSAY

PLEASE EXPLAIN IN 250-300 WORDS WHAT CHARACTERISTICS YOU POSSESS THAT QUALIFY YOU FOR ADMISSION INTO THE FIRST O-FFICIAL BERRY QUEEN PAGEANT. (FAWNING OVER YOURSELF IS BOTH ALLOWED AND ENCOURAGED HERE!) YOU MAY HAND-WRITE IF WE CAN READ YOUR WRITING OR YOU MAY TYPE YOUR ESSAY IN FONT NO LESS THAN 10 SINCE THOSE READING WON’T BE ABLE TO SEE IT OTHERWISE!

Please attach your essay to the application.

Disclaimer: I understand that Habitat for Humanity of New Iberia is in no way responsible for any accident that may befall me as a result of excess gyration, hairspray inhalation, artificial enhancement, or chemical I’ve applied to myownself, general lack of coordination or poise, and any other bizarre circumstance or general screw up that may befall me as a result of participation in The First O-fficial Berry Queen Ball and/or Pageant. I hereby acknowledge that I enter these events of my own free will and have not been put under any duress or excess encouragement by any Habitat member, including alcoholic (or any other type of enticements.)

Signed:

Date:

Witness:

Please return to MsJerre@aol.com once this form is completed.