Viva Las Vegas

I have just finished my first show after having my darling baby boy. It was a fundraiser for a local community theatre. It was a cabaret featuring songs from Las Vegas. I sang "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss) by Cher and back-up for "Copacabana."

It was interesting trying to fit into costumes with the ever-changing size of my breast (I'm breast feeding).

-Before a feeding: forget it
-After a feeding: a struggle
-Time for a feeding: impossible

Sometimes it is hard enough to fit into a costume that is not made for you, even if you are the perfect figure (not saying I am by any means!). But the changing breast size really made costume changes an adventure. I thought about including before and after pictures, but decided against it for modesty sake.


It was great to be performing again, but I missed my baby and husband more then I thought I would. Before baby, I thought I would miss this part of who I was: the actress. I made my husband promise me that I could go back to acting and that it would be a part of our lives again. But after this experience, I am not sure I need it like I did before.


Being a mother fills a hole in my life (I know, that is sappy) and maybe I filled it before with acting. Who knows? I will keep you posted on my developing thoughts. I'm sure next week I will be dying to do another show!


Your Thoughts:

What is something you gave up when you became a mom, and you don't miss it as much as you thought you would?

About "The Acting Mom"

Photo by Tiffany Bagwell Photography

Hello and welcome! I'm so glad you stopped by this crazy little world of mine. I'm Karissa, The Acting Mom, actress turned mom of 4 navigating life's adventures of adoption, intentional living and the stage. 

My goal in writing this blog is to help YOU, fellow moms discover who you are outside of motherhood. Whether that is a career, a hobby, volunteering, a book club or turning what you love into your own blog, that is what I want to help you do! 

Finding an identity outside of motherhood can be challenging because this unpaid job is all-consuming, day and night and never ending. But I promise that finding the woman behind the mom will help you be a better mother, wife and housekeeper. I know! Because acting does that for me.

Here are a couple of tid-bits you might like to know about me:

1. I am a Christ-follower. My goal is to live my life according to the principals in the Bible and to teach my kids about the incredible savior I love. I am not a super spiritual person, just your average trying-to-get-through-the-day-with-all-the-hair-on-my-head kind of person, but my goal at the end of the day to try to be more like Jesus then the day before.

2. Adventure should be my middle name! Everything I do is a new adventure to me and I look for changes to explore in my every day life, whether it is with my family here in central Florida or by myself on the stage or in a new hobby. Traveling, trying new things and discovering

3. I have four kids, 3 years apart. After having two homegrown children, we add two heart-grown kids from Uganda to our family! I write a lot about adoption, parenting and family life here because that's what I do day in and day out.


4. Fair trade and shopping local are big to me. Follow me on Instagram and you will see what I'm talking about. Can we say, "Fair trade #hashtag overload?"

5. Every October I do"The October Dress Project." I wear the same dress for an entire month. Yep. The same dress. Of course, I can style it different ways, adding accessories, scarves, vests, shoes and the like to make the outfit look different every day. It's a fun project and a great challenge.


6. Oh, yeah! And I act. I write about my latest acting ventures and other random posts about this crazy talent I love. Being just Karissa for a couple of hours a day at the theatre gives me the fuel I need to be a nurturing and vibrant mother, wife and housekeeper.

Family photos by Petal & Vine Photography

Thanks for stopping by!

p.s. Want to know what roles I dream of playing 
or what I said in a letter to my 50-year-old self?

Do you need to contact me? Please e-mail me at theactingmomblog@gmail.com, 

find me on Facebook, Instagram, 

or on Twitter at @theactingmom.

The Acting Mom's Theatre Favorites

As an actress, I have some favorites when it comes to plays, musicals, actors and actresses. Would you like "in" on what I love?

Welcome to my world of acting favorites!

If you want to know more about any particular item, simply click the text and you are on your way!



Favorite Plays

All My Sons
Cat On a Hot Tin Roof
Doubt: a parable
The Odd Couple



Favorite Musicals

Fiddler on the Roof
Into The Woods
Les Miserables
Phantom of the Opera



Favorite Hollywood Actresses

Anne Hathaway
Julie Andrews
Julie Walters
Meryl Streep



Favorite Hollywood Actors

Johnny Depp
Matt Damon
Russell Crowe

Disclosure & Privacy Policy

Though I would love to blog for free, receiving compensation from companies to share products, places and things to do allows me to offer you, my readers, diverse content.


All opinions are my own. From time to time, companies will send me products to try, free of cost. Whenever I review or refer to a product that was provided to me, I will make it clear in the post. 

If it is a sponsored post, paid cash or by other compensation, I will state so and link to the company. My reviews are honest, and if done at the request of a company, you can be sure that any compensation I receive does not influence my opinion shared.

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DISCLOSURE // This policy is valid from 25 August 2014

This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me, Karissa Barber. This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.

This blog abides by word of mouth marketing standards. We believe in honesty of relationship, opinion and identity. The compensation received may influence the advertising content, topics or posts made in this blog. That content, advertising space or post will be clearly identified as paid or sponsored content.

The owner of this blog is compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. Even though the owner of this blog receives compensation for our posts or advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers' own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.

This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.

I am a participant in the Amazon Service LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to www.amazon.com from www.theactingmom.com.

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Privacy Policy // This policy is valid from 25 August 2014

This Privacy Policy governs the manner in which The Acting Mom collects, uses, maintains and discloses information collected from users (each, a "User") of the http://www.theactingmom.com/ website ("Site"). This privacy policy applies to the Site and all products and services offered by The Acting Mom .

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We may collect personal identification information from Users in a variety of ways, including, but not limited to, when Users visit our site, register on the site, fill out a form, and in connection with other activities, services, features or resources we make available on our Site. Users may be asked for, as appropriate, name, email address. Users may, however, visit our Site anonymously. We will collect personal identification information from Users only if they voluntarily submit such information to us. Users can always refuse to supply personally identification information, except that it may prevent them from engaging in certain Site related activities.

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We may collect non-personal identification information about Users whenever they interact with our Site. Non-personal identification information may include the browser name, the type of computer and technical information about Users means of connection to our Site, such as the operating system and the Internet service providers utilized and other similar information.

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The Acting Mom may collect and use Users personal information for the following purposes:

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Some of the ads may be served by Google. Google's use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to Users based on their visit to our Site and other sites on the Internet. DART uses "non personally identifiable information" and does NOT track personal information about you, such as your name, email address, physical address, etc. You may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy at http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html

Changes to this privacy policy

The Acting Mom has the discretion to update this privacy policy at any time. When we do, we will revise the updated date at the bottom of this page. We encourage Users to frequently check this page for any changes to stay informed about how we are helping to protect the personal information we collect. You acknowledge and agree that it is your responsibility to review this privacy policy periodically and become aware of modifications.

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By using this Site, you signify your acceptance of this policy. If you do not agree to this policy, please do not use our Site. Your continued use of the Site following the posting of changes to this policy will be deemed your acceptance of those changes.

Contacting us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the practices of this site, or your dealings with this site, please contact us at:
The Acting Mom 
http://www.theactingmom.com/
theactingmomblog@gmail.com

This document was last updated on August 25, 2014