Camp Hearties 2017- Week 4

Camp Hearties

Week 4- Sock Puppet Show

Judged by : Ben Rosenbaum

Guest Judge: Erin Krakow

Ben's Brownie Points were awarded to:
HV Chickadees- Creativity
Britches in Stitches- Originality
HV Chickadees- Humor
Britches in Stitches- Presentation

Erin's S'more Points were awarded to:
Britches in Stitches- Creativity
Row House Rebels & Serge Watchers- Originality
HV Chickadees- Humor
HV Chickadees- Presentation

The last week is always bittersweet. I hate saying good bye to my campers! I had so much fun this year. Every week I was delighted with what the teams came up with! The creativity was amazing. Hearties really are the best fandom out there! We are so blessed to have the best judges come each week to camp. Our resident judge, Ben Rosenbaum, diligently gives his time every week to judge and comment on each entry. He also brings a guest judge to camp every week, a surprise even for me! We are delighted to welcome Erin Krakow, returning guest judge, to camp this final week.  This week teams were challenged to put on a sock puppet show. Reviews were mixed, some campers loved the challenge, other were not so crafty-happy about it. But the results from ALL teams are amazing! Ben's comments will be in blue, Erin's comments in pink. 

Row House Rebels

Ben: Look at that Red Serge! This looks like a sock puppet play that Elizabeth puts on for herself, dreaming of Jack's heroic return... to losing to her team in baseball. Pockets is played by Elvis Presley! I love the comet and the stage lights. Well done!

Erin:So fun to see some characters we haven’t heard from in a while! Love the sci-fi/baseball blend. Excellent use of twinkly lights.

Britches In Stitches

Ben: I love this play. I can't put my finger on EXACTLY why... maybe it's their handsome, funny, and smart lead character. This play had some serious production value! Very nicely put together—it's sort of a sock puppet comic book. Murphy as a side kick is great, and bringing Spurlock all the way back from season 1! And living "hope valley" ever after is brilliant. Very creative!  

Erin: Fun spin on a classic damsel in distress/dragon slayer tale.Beautiful sunset! Love the happy ending.

HV Chickadees

Ben: Brilliant. Great concept, I love the play about building a theater. Lee as a plaid sock is great. Jack as a red sock. RIP makes such a cute sock puppet! Hickam looks like a total dunce and you got him in a hoop skirt! All your puppets are very expressive, well done!

Erin: Elizabeth’s cowbell is a nice touch! Love how you’ve layered in lines from real episodes. Hickam in a hoop skirt = comic gold.

Constable's Company

Ben: Wow! Very detailed puppets! I love the little cookies. Including Brownie and RIP is a plus. I think Jack is the same size as Opal! That is a lovely background.

Erin: Nice appearances by Brownie and Rip. Now I want cookies too!

Cowbelles

Ben: Well the rules say not to include images that give away your identities, and now I clearly know who you are because those sock puppets look just like you! Nice plaid pants on the line, and great reference to the original Camp Hearties artwork! You all worked so hard this year you deserve to have a sock puppet play about yourselves.

Erin: I really like the celebration of the friendships that the Hearties have formed! Really cute clothesline with plaid pants!

Rip-Roaring Hearties Chicks

Ben: You went all out! Look at all these different scenes! I'm very impressed. Looks like a fantastic summer for your team... Except for the latrine cleaning. All the way to HFR3! And Brian Bird's sock drawer?! Finding all the lost socks, eh? Very funny!

Erin: Again, a great celebration of Hearties’ friendships!! I love the comparison of characters we haven’t seen in a while to socks in Brian Bird’s drawer! Hysterical!

Team Squidget

Ben: Look at those puppets! These are great! It's so nice you included other teams. Rosemary looks hilarious, and that's probably just the right amount of makeup for early 1900's Broadway. I love the Mountie on a horse puppet. And you found a cow bell cowbell! These are great!

Erin: Fun idea to turn Hope Valley characters into circus performers! That flaming hoop is very creative & well done - though I don’t support animal cruelty! ;) Gorgeous lipstick on Rosemary!

Hope Valley's Hopeful #Hearties

Ben: Seems like there's some interest in Lee and Rosemary having twins? That'd make for some fun overwhelmed Rosemary scenes! These puppets are very fun, I liked guessing who they are: Pastor Frank, Abigail, Rosemary, Lee, Elizabeth, and Jack? And then Faith and the twins?

Erin: Twins for Lee & Rosemary? DOUBLE the sticky! I love the flowers all over Rosemary and the plaid pants on Lee.

Serge Watchers

Ben:Great first act. I love it. And look at those facial expressions! You can really see how surprised Hickam is to find some gold! And then he has a heart mouth for a proposal! Great patterned Suit for Lee. Actually just great little outfits in general! Well done!

Erin: Really excellent costumes here! Our costume designer Barbara would be proud! I like all the squished faces!

As you can see the teams did a fantastic job this week, and every week! Here are some closing comments from our judges:

Ben:Well done everyone! All the teams put in such great work each week! Thank you very much for having me again as your judge, and for making me laugh this month! You were all exemplary campers!

Erin: Great work from all of the teams! So much time and creativity went into making these puppets! It was fun to see all of the different characters in sock form! I hope you’ll thank and congratulate any younger Hearties who helped you for me. And thanks so much for including me as a guest judge!

And although camp is about teamwork and fun, it is also a competition. So without further ado: <insert sound of trumpets>

Congratulations Britches In Stitches!!

Congratulations Britches! You were on top every week, were competitive and even made a team twitter account! You were all in and it showed! You even got double points from the judges this week!

To ALL the teams, you brought it every single week and made camp so much fun! I hope we can do it again next year! I will be releasing my own collages for each team later in the week, so stay tuned. 

Thank you again to Ben, Andrea, Aren, Eva and Erin for judging!

Thank you to all the campers for showing up each week and putting forth your best effort!

Lee's Plaid Pants
Camp Director

Camp Hearties 2017- Week 3

Camp Hearties

Week 3- HV Life

Judged by: Ben Rosenbaum

Guest Judge: Eva Bourne

Ben's Brownie Points were awarded to:
This was a very difficult week for handing out points. Every team did such a fantastic job! So rich with details! So creative! I'm really impressed, campers! However, points must be assigned, so without further ado:

Serge Watchers- Creativity

Britches In Stitches- Originality

Rip-Roaring Hearties Chicks- Humor

Cowbelles- Presentation

Eva's S'more Points were awarded to:

Cowbelles- Creativity

Team Squidget- Originality

Britches In Stitches- Humor

Rip-Roaring Hearties Chicks- Presentation

Eva Bourne was sweet enough to squeeze in judging during her busy filming schedule this weekend. She saw all the entries and was kind enough to leave some comments for those who won her S'more points, so see their entries below for her comments. How fun to have both sides of Team Classe judging for us this year! Ben is such a great judge and planner! So far we have had both sides of Team Hickith and now Team Classe...and if we mix it up we could have Jesith and Clakum! Hmm, should we give this information to the writers or not? Let me know what you think Hearties! Onward to this week's submissions about HV Life in the past, present and future! Ben's comments will be in blue. Eva's comments will be in red.

Row House Rebels

 Ben: Gotta love that world-class gazebo—that's gonna take a lot of Coulter Lumber! I actually went back and looked for a 7.e) lol you're thinking WAY outside the box now! The HV kids tipped Hickam's portaloo?!?! btw, Portaloo is a dead giveaway that this team is from outside the US, so I'm onto you... Aussies? Don't answer that. Bill must have checked in his neighbor's pantries for the ingredients to that chicken surprise!

Britches In Stitches

Ben: Disney World seems to be a popular HV community vacation destination! I love the NOPE Valley News! That comet looks kinda familiar... And I love the Froonium shout out. Teddy poops will always be funny

Eva:So many good giggles from this one! Obviously the Brownie prank! Hahaha. Oh man. The Baby boom gossip, the cat lady and the crushed Rosemary! Kept me loling :D

HV Chickadees

Ben: Rosemary got promoted from columnist to editor! About time! If Hickam's designing a home, you know it's gonna be for dolls Wow! I love the practical effects for the "Curb Feelers"! You'd better grab the patent for that one. So many great details! Reading the news is so fun in HV!

Constable's Company

Ben: Great job setting up a whole scene!Of course Rosemary's house would be plaidFuzzy dice are a classic... or at least they will be in like 140 years! Did you guys take Jack to see modern Mounty policing? Kind of a busman's holiday!

Cowbelles

Ben: Woh! Monopoly HV edition! Great presentation! That's a whole lotta little Coulters running around the Lego/Duplo mansion! I'm sensing a Coulter baby theme here. It's real subtle but I'm picking up on it... That pot-stirring shows some serious range!

Eva: This one stood out to me right away. The Pot Stirring game is the best idea! I'd like to land on 'go get free pie at Abigail's' any day! I saw that Henry's Soda ;) Bill certainly has some surprises up his sleeve with this recipe...Fantastic work!

Rip-Roaring Hearties Chicks

Ben: A competing HV rag! How exciting! Maybe one can be the morning news and one can handle the evening. Big Ben AND indoor plumbing?!?! Lee really knows how to live. Hickam really tricked out the Coulter family vehicle! It looks like a 60s super hero

Great coffee reference! And I bet people will be surprised by Bill's "chicken."Nice prank! Maybe Hickam will finally find those doves now!

Eva: Love the gazette presentation! Nice touch with the 'indoor plumbing'. Definitely gave me a giggle. I feel like that would most definitely be on Rosie's checklist for her dream house. The Cat Mobile! I'm a sucker for animals, especially kitties :) Great job on putting this piece together!

Team Squidget

Ben: That's a tasty looking house! Your answer to #5 is the most honest I've seen yet. Of course you'd take him to meet all the hearties! I have a feeling Bill's chicken surprise would be more effective than the prank! I hope Rosemary doesn't get mad at Hickam for giving Lee some company on the road!

Eva: Wow! What an imagination you guys! I can tell you had a lot of fun putting this together :) Love the road trip idea and Bigfoot hunting?! Come on! Amazing. The Hickam touch to Lee's new car is my fav!

Hope Valley's Hopeful #Hearties

Ben: What's better than one dream home? Three dream homes. Caramel onions are the work of an evil genius. I get that the time machine will let you take Jack to "a long time ago..." but I guess you'll be walking to a "galaxy far far away!"WOOOOOOOH that pot-stirring just blew my mind! And made me sad! Glad nurse Faith is still around though

Serge Watchers

 Ben: HV board game #2! And just as fun as the first! Hallmark better jump on this trend! I love the water tower drawing. Is Bill's surprise that he's serving lobster? Fancy! And surprising! Jack's going on a tour of some great cities! Fun! And in a Delorean (not the back to the future time machine mind you, just an actual Delorean)

We started camp with an 8-way tie.  Now in week 3, two teams are battling in 1st place for the second week in a row! It all comes down to next week and really, anyone could win! I can hardly wait to see if Camp ends in a tie! The teams have been phenomenal this year. I am blown away every week with what comes back.

  Next week is going to be so much fun! The only hint I'm giving is it involves socks!  No worries, no socks with sandals!  See you next week #Hearties!

Lee's Plaid Pants

Camp Director

Camp Hearties 2017- Week 2

Camp Hearties 

Week 2- The Scene
Judged by : Ben Rosenbaum
Guest Judge: Aren Buchholz

Ben's Brownie Points were awarded to:
Rip-Roaring Hearties Chicks- Creativity
Row House Rebels- Originality
Britches in Stitches- Humor
Constable's Company- Presentation

Aren's S'more points were awarded to:
Hope Valley's Hopeful #Hearties- Creativity
Rip-Roaring Hearties Chicks- Originality
Britches in Stitches- Humor
Constable's Company- Presentation

Teams continue to have fun, and things are a little crazy! I never said things were calm here at camp! This week they got to be part of the crew and set up a scene and they had choices. They had to choose between setting up Jack and Elizabeth's honeymoon or sending sweet Hickam on a date!  When I was preparing this week, I thought the honeymoon would be the most popular...boy was I wrong! But one team did stay loyal to their team name and prepared a lovely honeymoon for the lovebirds. So let's dive in and see what the teams came up with this week. Ben's comments will be in blue. Aren's comments will be in dark orange.

Row House Rebels

Ben: I think "The Date" is now my favorite film what a fun and creative way to format your submission! Fantastic details with the Hickith theme throughout: the nurse leading lady of course, the name of the boat, "Faith" by George Michael, fireworks (Hickam's favorite), and with a script penned by Rosemary what could go wrong? My only fear is that Brownie might steal my date!

Aren:Picnic looks yummy! With the location, song choices and Rosemary’s play, I think Hickam’s date will go very smooooothly.

Britches in Stitches

Ben:That whale oil is amazing!!! I want to make a t-shirt with that design!

OK, back to the task at hand. You've really set a fancy scene here! I can see eating being a problem with the knight's helmet on, and I think that Lego bagpiper will haunt my dreams, but this looks like a recipe for a successful date! You've made Hickam into a very thoughtful (and Scottish?) gentleman on this date. 

Aren: Haha, I actually LOLed at this one- love me some bagpipes! Great wardrobe for Hickam, and hilarious choice for Rosemary’s advice!

HV Chickadees

Ben:This looks like a lovely date! I wish it included the awkward conversation where Hickam asked Ned Yost's permission to take Katie on a date! I notice a sneaky watermelon in that fruit filled picnic basket. And a random shot fired across Elizabeth's bough for her baking skills! Haha! You did a great job on Hickam's outfit, that's definitely something I can see him wearing.

Aren: What girl doesn’t like sweet treats and sunset pond walking? That’s one classy date!

Constable's Company

Ben: What a beautiful presentation! And it's an actual Hope Valley location, filming equipment and all! Right off the bat I love that Rosemary is being helpful by staying out of it! Not an easy task for her! This looks like a wonderful picnic, and a very classy date. Great teamwork putting this all together so seamlessly! All the different elements compliment each other so well!

Aren:Beautiful date! I love how you used the location to tie it all together and set the mood. Great work!

Cowbelles

Ben:Love that custom wine (and the note about zooming in—very helpful)! But am I to understand that Hickam brought an empty picnic basket?! Charlotte Thornton would not be happy (?!?!? how far off am I with that guess?). That's a great outfit Hickam gets to wear; clearly he had some help from Lee. I see that cow bell in the music section—way to take advantage of a branding opportunity Cow Belles! 

Aren:That is one fine suit- Hickam will be looking very dapper in that! And great detail on the label! 

Rip-Roaring Hearties Chicks

Ben: Fun concept! I like the window sneak peek, it feels kind of whimsical. And then the whimsy ends with Faith's creepiest patient-case yet!aaaaahhhh! Great location, Hickam loves a waterfall (unless the WCTH writers disagree in the future... then he does not). It was thoughtful of Hickam to include a detailed plaque to explain his wooden cat gift. I see what you're doing with that ukulele... you've been watching Andrea's music vids.

Aren: Frog jumping contest sounds so cool! Delicious picnic, beautiful location and adorable song- that’s one heck of a date. Great job!

Team Squidget

Ben: Well there's no mistaking that red hair! That and her name written in the note were a dead giveaway. I love that classic "do you like me?" note! Though I'm concerned that Molly has not checked a box. That's a whole lot of inappropriate mustard! And a bug broach? I think Rosemary would say Hickam took the wrong page out of Lee's playbook

Aren: Yeeesss- awesome song choice! Should Hickam sing it to her? Now that I’d like to see! 

Hope Valley's Hopeful #Hearties

Ben:That Sick Bay scene is the stuff of nightmares. Is Barbie Nurse Faith's patient a zombie? Very impressive scene. And the horror continues with the Halloween band! I see Freddy Krueger singing lead vocals and Michael Meyers on drums. A candy/junk food bouquet is brilliant, I think Hickam will win a lot of favor with that! And I'm loving the location- everything about this says fun... And scary... But mostly fun!

Aren: Excellent song choice, I LOLed at the change in lyrics haha! Gotta love good medicine.

Serge Watchers

Ben:Well this looks like a classic and beautiful honeymoon. Niagara Falls? Check. Carriage Ride? Check. Flowery sweets and goodies? Check. And to top it all off everyone in town gets souvenirs?!?! So generous and giving! It's so nice I'm not even going to mention that this is the only team who chose not to set up Hickam's date

Aren:Niagara Falls would be a pretty sweet first date. And with the horse carriage, very romantic! Awesome collage. 

Thank you to both of our judges for your time and your comments! All the campers are so appreciative of the time you put into judging every week. And they are also appreciative of how you hand out those Brownies and S'mores! We went from an 8-way tie last week to a tie for 1st place, followed by a 3-way tie in second and 4 in third! Any team can still win! 

I hope you have had fun seeing what teams came up with for Hickam's date and Jackabeth's honeymoon. The teams this year are so creative! I"m so excited to see what they come up with next week for Life in Hope Valley! 

Lee's Plaid Pants,

Camp Director