Berry Queens' Hi Tea 2008

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!!!!

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

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!!!!

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!!!

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...

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...

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