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A bright idea

Wanda Guadamud (left) and Shelly Dick of FrockZ with several of their lampshade slipcovers

Neighbors Shelly Dick and Wanda Guadamud were watching an LSU game last December, flipping through home décor magazines and dreaming of owning a modern lighting store when had a bright idea.

Dick swiped a textbook cover from her son’s room, trimmed it down and wrapped it around her living room lampshade. Voila! A lampshade slipcover.

“It’s like a girdle for your lamp,” Guadamud quips.

Not just any lampshade slipcover. The first.

The pair quickly applied for a patent, and in June they launched their business, FrockZ.

A manufacturer produces their machine-washable polyester/spandex lampshade slipcovers in more than two-dozen designs, including zebra prints, fleur de lis, chartreuse retro, pink leopard and mod florals.

They started with the Dallas market, but are expanding quickly. They also appeared at a home accessories trade show in New York City where reps from O and Nancy Glass Productions of HGTV glimpsed the Baton Rougeans’ invention.

“Our game plan was, if this didn’t work, we’d have 5,000 tube tops,” Dick says. “We think this will be really big. Everybody has lamps. Twenty-six dollars and you can put it in your drawer when you get sick of it. It’s the throw pillow of the 21st century.”

Their creations will fit awkwardly-sized lampshades, even beaten-up ones from thrift stores. “We’re saving these poor lampshades from the landfill,” Dick says.

Look for Guadamud and Dick at Hollydays next month. frockZ.com —photos and text by REBECCA BREEDEN

Company’s coming

Monika Olivier, who organized Consular Day Sept. 15, will welcome officials from Baton Rouge’s three sister cities. Here she’s holding an origami globe made by Baton Rougean Asayo Duorak.

Baton Rouge has three sisters, and they’re all coming to visit this month.

The Baton Rouge Center for World Affairs organizes the annual Consular Day Program, which this year includes delegates from our three sister cities: Córdoba, México, Taichung, Taiwan, and Aix-en-Provence, France. Their representatives will sign formal agreements at the Metro Council meeting Sept. 15.

“It’s a big deal,” says Monika Olivier, head of the BRCWA, which coordinates international economic development and organizes the annual International Heritage Celebration.

The week of Sept. 13-18, Baton Rouge leaders also will welcome Consuls General, regional representatives of foreign nations on American soil, which is just a notch under foreign ambassadors. “Usually we have 20 countries represented, and they stay a couple of days,” Oliver says. —R.B.

Purvis making TV waves

Bailey Purvis

Determination will get you everywhere. Just ask Bailey Purvis, a finalist on ABC’s High School Musical: Get in the Picture. The 16-year-old Baton Rougean has been labeled as “bossy” and an “overachiever” on the show’s Web site, but really she just knows what she wants.

Purvis started dancing at age 2 and singing at 6. She enrolled at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, splitting time at the acclaimed arts school and Redemptorist Catholic High School, earning a perfect grade point average.

“Why do I do it? Because I love it!” Purvis exclaims on NOCCA’s Web site. “I want to continue my musical theater studies at the Boston Conservatory and then I’m off to Broadway.”

Unless Hollywood gets a hold of her first. According to the show’s Web site, the Get in the Picture winner is awarded an exclusive talent-hold agreement with ABC, and a recording contract for two singles with Walt Disney Records.

Catch Purvis in action Mondays at 7 p.m. on ABC. —NICOLE STAUDENMAIER

Busted

Since the city-parish started installing traffic light cameras in February, more than 7,500 citations were issued at 16 intersections. And that number will have grown substantially by the time you read this because the Red Light Safety Program continues adding new cameras.

Violators caught running red lights receive high-res color photos of their offending license plates in the mail along with a ticket demanding $117.

This map shows intersections with the most violations through August 14. —MATTHEW SIGUR

College at I-10 eastbound 2,382

Essen at I-10 eastbound 1,598

Sherwood Forest at N. Harrell’s Ferry 997

Essen at I-10 westbound 637

Airline Highway at Old Hammond 543

Hwy. 19 at Blount Road 470

Sherwood Forest at Coursey 410

Florida Blvd. at Lobdell 216

College at Corporate 153

Essen at Hennessy Blvd./Summa Ave. 67

College/Lee at Perkins Road 55

College at I-10 westbound 32

Airline Highway at Goodwood Blvd. 14

Nicholson at Burbank 12

Coursey at Cedarcrest 0

Winbourne Ave. at Victoria Ave. 0

Winners - Waiting for the Man

Chris Aaron

Chris Aaron

Of all the genres in all the world, he had to get stuck with cop/detective movies.

But Baton Rouge filmmaker Chris Aaron and his team made the most of it. They strived for all 48 hours of New Orleans’ aptly named 48-Hour Film Project to make theirs the gosh-darned best they could.

And they did. Waiting for the Man, a 6-minute short film starring Dixie Taylor and Cheryl Singleton, won Best Film, Best Acting and the ever-coveted Audience Award.

The short black-and-white film, shot at Teddy’s Juke Joint in Zachary, features the dialogue of two policewomen-turned-private-detectives on stakeout for a wanted criminal.

Can the women catch the bad guy?

Check out treetopmediaonline.com to find out. —N.S.