Pictures, Pictures Everywhere

Here are some more movie pics.

This is Kelly shooting scenes of me in "my bedroom" as I try to come up with things about the game. Christmas PJ's in this one.

This is me going through the mail. Note the stuffed animals. Kelly called me the night before this shoot and asked me to bring my stuffed animals with me. I said "Do I look like the kind of girl who has stuffed animals?" So I had to bring my mom's stuffed animals. It's a strange assortment. A turtle, a dalmatian, a dog with a diploma and graduation cap and a gopher that sings "I'm Alright". Don't blame my mom, they are all ones Will and I bought her over the years.

Here I'm reading the "Moron's Guide to Ethnic Stereotypes".

And the "Moron's Guide to Racist Stereotypes"

This is Will Edwards and I in a scene where we both are anticipating something intently (can't you tell?)

Now for some other pictures. I bought a new camera for the business. The one I had was old (in digital camera years it was 965 years old) and had no image stabilization so even when I shot with a tripod some pictures would come out blurry. So I broke down and spent money on a new one (My brother and his wife paid me some money for my wedding services so I didn't feel too guilty) I got a Canon Powershot and I LOVE it. These are some pictures I took only minutes after I got it out of the box so forgive them for not being perfect but I'm still learning. But it shoots great from any distance and in any light.

This is the Java dog. Isn't she cute? She's almost 14 but she's still spy enough that she stole the toy I bought her out of the bag when I got home from PetsMart yesterday.

Here is The Graminator on 'her couch'. We still haven't gotten a new couch here or painted the walls but we do have the color picked out (and I bought ceiling paint so we are sort of getting started)

And this is my beautiful Mom. She'd kill me if she knew I was posting this (but we just won't tell her will we?) You can see the new desk and the new curtains in this shot. But we are still in transition so forgive the mess.
I'll post more pics as I play with my new toy, er, I mean my knew business camera, not a plaything but a serious business expense.

Now, for Maura, who is DYING to see wedding pictures...I don't have any. Will and Val have a disk of pics which we saw on Sunday but they took it home with them. I promise I'll post a couple when we finally get a copy. But I'll be honest, I HATE the way I look in most of the pictures. I think I look better in the movie pictures. I had these false eyelashes at the wedding and do you know how some things look good in person but in photographs not so much? (I had an adorable haircut in the 90's, it was asymmetrical and totally rocking. But in photographs I just looked mentally challenged and like I cut my own hair) Well, that's how I feel I look. The eyelashes make my face look weird and I look ENORMOUS. But there are a couple of shots I don't hate (and there are some AMAZING shots of the cake and cupcakes and kids eating the cupcakes that will go on my new website they are so incredible) so I'll post those. Val is still going through the 1000 (yes, thousand) photographs to pick out the best ones. So please be patient and I'll get them to you, I promise.

Getting Crafty

This period in my life has been all about doing it myself and learning. I have been making a lot of things for various projects in my life.

This weekend I made my bouquet for the wedding. I decided to do mine first so that if I screwed it up it wasn't the bride's. It still needs a couple of flowers and some cherry blossoms strewn throughout but I think it's really pretty. I hand tied the bottom and accented with pearls, what do you think? (You can click on each picture to see more detail.)

I also made necklaces with those cherry blossom silver charms I ordered from Thailand. This is a picture of mine, the bride's is on illusion chain accented with just a silver spacer and pearl on either side, so it will sort of 'float' at the base of her throat.


In addition to prepping for the wedding (just 19 days away) and the movie (just 24 days away) I'm trying to start this cookie favor business. Because there is some competition out there, I want my cookies to be as unique as possible. So I am learning how to make my own cookie cutters. As a trial, I want to make Las Vegas sign cookies for Will and Val's wedding (like I'm not doing enough already!) so I made a Las Vegas sign cookie cutter. I think it turned out pretty good, what do you think? Of course, the proof is in the pudding, or in this case cookie, so I'll know how it worked when I bake a batch of cookies this afternoon.


Okay, I'm off to bake cookies, decorate some Christmas sweaters, memorize my lines, oh, and hopefully get some writing done!

Crazy Busy but Fun

Hello Loyal Readers and thanks for checking in even when I've been slacking on the posts.

This week has been über busy. After a crazy weekend (Saturday was spent dress shopping for a dress for my mother for the wedding, getting fittings for Val and I for our wedding attire and assembling a giant Ikea bookcase for my mom, Sunday I assembled all the wedding invitations) I had to accomplish a lot this week.

My dress fitting made me realize that I've been slacking on my diet and exercise regimen (it fits but just barely) and if I'm going to look good for the wedding I had better jump back in with both feet. Plus the new movie starts filming the week after the wedding and I want to look good on camera, right? (Even if my character has a penchant for ugly Christmas sweaters.) It won't do any good for tomorrow though when I reprise my role as dominatrix for the final Vegas Schmegas shoot. Oh well. But it's crunch city for the next eight weeks.

The invitations for the wedding went out Monday (well, most of them anyway, I'm still waiting for a few addresses from the bride and groom) They turned out very well and were really personalized. It was a lot of work and I'm really glad it's a very small wedding because making twenty-five was enough. I would have hated to have to do two hundred!

We had a read through and blocking rehearsal last night for the movie. It was really cool and Kelly is using an interesting filming technique to keep it fast and furious. Movies take a LONG time to shoot and he has tried to get the schedule down to twenty-five shooting days which is really short. So he's shooting it in a different way so as to minimize the number of 'set-ups' we have to do. Set-ups are whenever you move the camera, because you have to move all of the lights and it takes forever. He's trying to figure out a way to capture what he needs with as few changes as possible. The way he's doing it feels better to me as an actor because it helps the scene flow better. Last night went great and I'm starting to feel very comfortable with my co-stars and my character. Fun, fun, fun!

Random question, but when do you RSVP for something? I sent out invitations to Val's bridal shower over two weeks ago and I haven't heard anything. I did put a deadline of March 15th for RSVP's, do you think everyone is waiting until the last minute? I guess I'm just worried that they never received the invitations. But I guess they would have been returned by the post office if that were the case.

Tomorrow is the Vegas Schmegas re-shoot. I have to confirm the location and then make set decorations today as well as pack my costume and makeup. But we should be close to finishing it up which will be nice and then we can send it on it's merry way to be bought by a major network and make us all rich (are you listening universe?) I would like to spend Saturday collapsed on the couch but we are in the process of re-decorating the house and my fingers are crossed that the new desk my mom ordered will be here on Friday and I can secretly put it together for her while she's at work on Saturday. (The entertainment center and bookcase were too massive for me to do alone so it was a whole family project.) I'll post pictures next week.

Okay, LRs, I have to go and start on all the things I need to accomplish today (it's also time for The Graminator's shower). Have a wonderful weekend and I'll see you on Monday!

Trying Out Wedding Cakes

No, not for me (don't I wish) but for Will and Val.

They finally set a date. May 2, 2009. They really wanted to get married at the Clark County Heritage Museum, which is this cool place where they took old homes and things to this one site and restored them with period furniture, etc. Yes, most of the things are from the 1940's and 1950's, but in Las Vegas, that's historic. At the end of this street of houses and things is a gazebo and that's where they want to get married. They are restoring an old wedding chapel too but won't be done in time for the wedding. The museum doesn't usually host weddings but Val called and talked to a very nice woman who went to the Board and got them to approve it. The site will only cost them a $200 donation and they have benches for guests to sit on and everything. They are still looking for a reception location but they think they know where they want that too.

So I volunteered a long time ago to make their wedding cakes. I say cakes because instead of one tiered cake they wanted several individual cakes that we would put on a multi-level stand. But now with all the cupcake baking I've been doing lately, Val thinks she might want cupcakes instead. I told them I had even see a cupcake stand that you could put an eight inch round cake on top so they could still have a cake to cut with a topper and then individual cupcakes on the other tiers. So now we need to decide on flavors so that I can perfect them over the next few months so that I can do them in my sleep by wedding time.



The 'theme' of the wedding is cherry blossoms and I am working on making a gazillion cherry blossoms out of gum paste to decorate the cake and cupcakes with. I could buy the flowers but since I have some 'free time" I thought I would try making them. They don't look too hard once you get the knack. I also need to work on a cherry cupcake. My brother suggested a cherry cheesecake cupcake and I want to make them happy but also remain true to myself as a baker. So I'm going to try this weekend and make a cupcake with chopped cherries (real ones, not marachino) in it with a graham cracker bottom and frosted with a marscapone cheesecake frosting. I'll see how it works and how they like it. The main cake for them to cut would (hopefully) look like the top picture.



While surfing the Web for ideas, I came across these cupcake wrappers. Aren't they adorable? I'm thinking if we put the cakes in a pink liner then into these they would look amazing. We will decorate the cupcake stand with ribbons, flowers, etc. What do you think? I want everything to be perfect for them so I've got to get to work!

Wedding Bell Blues

Okay, so most of you know that my bother, Will is marrying Val next year. Almost exactly next year since the current plan is for them to get married in May 2009 (Memorial Day weekend). So that started me thinking about weddings, right? Plus I'm a romance novelist which naturally leads to thoughts of love and weddings. And I have been watching "A Wedding Story" on TLC in the mornings (it's on the HD channels from 8-9 and then I turn off the TV and start writing). So I have been listening to happy stories and seeing happy couples and witnessing weddings. And it's starting to get to me. Mostly because I am still pathetically single, despite my obvious charm, wit, intelligence and cooking ability (References available upon request.)

I love weddings (see here). They make me so happy. I was a bridal consultant for a while and I loved the planning and buying and prepping. There are so many kinds of weddings and ways to get married that it's like candy land for someone like me. Although, most people opt for the traditional. So I have been thinking that in the mythical realm where I could possibly get married, what would I want?

On "A Wedding Story" I have seen lots of different weddings but the whole princess thing seems to be really popular. It's not my style (plus big butts do not look great in tons of tulle). Although I do like the tiara idea. I would wear a tiara around my house if I though I could get away with it. Not because I want to be a princess but because I think it would be fun to live my life knowing that even if I'm wearing sweats and scrubbing the toilet I can still wear a crown. Plus tiara's are all sparkly and I like bright shiny objects. There are also a lot of medieval themed weddings. I think that's a lousy idea since women in medieval times were really just chattel. Plus making your future husband wear tights and tunic seems cruel (although if he's willing to put up with that you pretty much have him whipped on day one.) Also, those "thees and thous" sound incredibly pretentious in a wedding vow. Ditto for pirate weddings, although those are at least a bit more macho.

Destination weddings are cool but you have to have friends and family wiling to go wherever it is you want to get married and to be able to afford that financially. I would do a destination wedding and just tell all my family and guests to skip buying me any presents and just enjoy themselves. If you bought a plane ticket and hotel room to come see me get married, you have already given the greatest gift possible. One couple got married on a cruise ship and all their guests went along on the cruise. That's neat, but I bet it's pricey.

I also think about what kind of wedding dress I would have in my imaginary wedding. Something really simple. I looked online at wedding dresses yesterday (yes, I was screwing around instead of writing, we writers are great at procrastination!) and I determined that there is nothing out there for me. I would have to design my own dress. Big girls shouldn't wear huge dresses, it's just not flattering. I'm not knocking you if you want to look like a giant snowball cupcake on your wedding day, you go for it. I just wouldn't do it. Plus those dresses are really expensive. I don't want to pay more for a dress that I'll wear one time than I did for my first three cars combined. I admire people who can look at those price tags and say, hey, this is my wedding and this is what I want and I'll just buckle down and do it. As for me, I'd better hope that if my mythical husband comes along they start selling wedding dresses at Ross.

Mostly I would care about the cake (I've been watching "Ace of Cakes" too). I think taste is way more important than looks when it comes to cake. I hate fondant. I know, it looks all nice and smooth and everything but it tastes terrible and most of the times you have to rip it off the cake before you can serve it anyway. Yummy cake, that's all I care about. And no cake smashing in any one's face, its awful and disrespectful and a big waste of good cake.

Okay, so now that I am even more depressed about my unwed state than before, what's your dream wedding? (If it's a fondant-covered, pirate-themed, dress-as-big-as "Gone with the Wind" kind, my apologies if I offended you.) And if you already had your dream wedding send me pictures. I love to live vicariously. Now I gotta go, I think "Cash Cab" is on, er, I mean, I gotta go get some writing done.