Commercials and Life

I really don't care how hipster Instagram is. I love using it. There's something irresistibly charming about seeing the world through a phone. Little moments on the go. I look forward to sharing fragments from my life, as well as seeing what my friends are up to in their travels. And I've discovered that an old college buddy of mine is rocking Instagram. Meet Colby.

I'm really proud to say we're friends. In college, we lived down the hall from each other in the dorms. I remember stepping into her dimly-lit dorm room - one of the few dorms in the building that smelled nice. More than nice. Colby was always using a strong, cakey sweet perfume. I'd sit on her bed, admiring her Marilyn Monroe / Michael Jackson / Abraham Lincoln posters as she went through her beauty regimen. I'd always been interested in the past, but I think spending time with Colby strengthened that desire to immerse myself in all things vintage and research my favorite time periods. She also made me think about female role models.

Before college, I can't say I really had any. Except for maybe the heroines in the books I read. But along came Colby with her intense love for Marilyn Monroe. For our senior projects, Colby gave a riveting hour-long presentation about how different biographers have portrayed MM over the years (while my presentation had been on mermaids in folklore, using Vladimir Propp's version of structuralism - turning fairy tales into equations. So. Much. Fun).

MM wasn't quite for me, though. I looked at other Old Hollywood starlets. Who won? Mary Pickford, of course. Jeez, she was wonderful.

But Audrey Hepburn came in second. I love how she carries herself, a confidence that I've rarely seen. There's something mysterious about her as well. So far, I've seen Breakfast at Tiffany's and My Fair Lady. Though both films are classics, I can't say I like either that much. That's the weird part. I'm not too thrilled with the films (or even the prospects of watching the other ones), but I love the woman herself. I get the shivers every time I hear the lines from Sky Sailing's "Sailboats" song:

Once in 1964
An actress ran on the shore
And though you'll never return,
I love you Audrey Hepburn
Sometimes I can see your face in the crowd

And when I saw the brand-new commercial that Dove Chocolate released, I was in awe:



The best part? Audrey is actually CGI. It's a lot easier to notice that on the computer, but she certainly looked real to me on my plain old television. I had just assumed a lookalike actress or model was playing her. Wow. This is such a cute commercial. I get the chills (the good kind) every time I rewatch it. 
Speaking of role models, I'm guilty of periodically searching Nicoletta Ceccoli to see if she's created anything new. I'm fidgety and EXTREMELY RESTLESS because it's going to be forever (or never) until Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart film makes it to America. Please, just give me subtitles and a way to buy it. 
I loved the book and author Mathias Malzieu's soundtrack (he's a brilliant musician, so you know...). And Nicoletta Ceccoli worked on the film. The character designs are modeled after her style. I'm dying, guys. Dying. To tide me over, I found a little commercial that she had worked on:



Lice-prevention has never been cuter. If you think about it, this was a good fairy tale for Paranix to choose. Having hair that drags all over the place because it's so long must not be very hygienic. A perfect home for lice. But luckily we have princes that ride stick horses and peddle Paranix.

Writing has been going well. I always gain more momentum when I pass the halfway point in a manuscript. At 64k, I'm almost done with We Could Fall in Love. Just. A. Few. More. Scenes.

The main thing I'm keeping in mind at this point is keeping the plot tight. No flabby scenes. No fluffy exchanges of dialogue. No boring.

Which makes watching this commercial highly appropriate if you ignore the car part:


I have no shame in saying that I've been singing this song around the house as my brain recovers from mad-typing. I may be an adult, but I still find Muppet humor just as funny as it was when I was a kid. I'm probably hyper aware of Jim Henson everything these days, since participating in The Dark Crystal Author Quest contest (sorry folks, I didn't make it). 
Still, the Muppets continue to put a smile on my face. I'm considering seeing the new movie, because I can't sit through those trailers without laughing. Even if I see the same trailer 15+ times in one night. 


So what commercials have you seen these past few months that seem to be speaking to you? What a crowded month March is turning out to be already :)

Cakepops and Writing Projects

I had been eating cakepops a long time before thinking of making my own. How could a mere mortal make a cakepop? They're always moist on the inside and seem to attract all kinds of experimentation. I've seen so many pictures of mouthwatering cakepops both beautiful and made of delicate ingredients like lavender and vanilla bean. 

I can't cook or bake and I get all trembly around an oven, but when I saw a Bella cakepop machine sitting on the bottom shelf in Tuesday Morning, my eyes grew big and I hugged the darn box. It wasn't until today that I opened the box, admired the happy-blue machine, and gathered my ingredients to see if... it actually worked. Yeah. That's kind of important.

With the help of my mom, who's been steering the family in a more healthy direction, we decided to go simple for our first try and cut back on the eggs. The cake mix was classic yellow (I didn't know that it had been elevated to "classic," did you?). Instead of eggs, we used soy flour mixed with water. Mom and I also made the executive decision of putting chocolate chips into the batter. 

The cakepop machine moved quickly - each batch bakes for five minutes; yet, after watching a video online, the baker said to observe the machine closely: you'll see steam coming out of the machine - when the steam stops, it's time to take the pops out. 

You'll see the first batch pictured above.  We, uh, had an interesting time with these egg-less pops. Some of them didn't rise, while others spilled over instead of taking the full round shape. But the taste? 

GUYS, the taste was spot-on. Moist in the middle. I mean, we may have created tons of cakepops that look like muffins / UFOs, but they were delicious. Next time, we're going to use eggs, though, and see if they turn out perfectly round. Also, I'd love to experiment with cookie batter... I have a mix of creamsicle cookies in the pantry that's just begging to transform into cakepops.

I'm in a wonderful experimenting mood. Not just with food, of course. But this is a new year and I want to put my best foot forward with everything I write. 

I ended 2013 by chugging along to meet a December 31st deadline for Jim Hensen's The Dark Crystal Author Quest. A few friends of mine told me about the contest while I was in the middle of writing my NaNoWriMo project. I got so excited about it that I carefully set aside everything and plunged into the world of The Dark Crystal. 

I grew up with Jim Hensen's work, watching The Muppet Show every night and doing the Magic Dance while berating Sarah for not staying with Jareth, the Goblin King, at the end of the Labyrinth. There was no way I was going to let this contest go by without tossing my hat in. I had less than a month and a half to submit a 10k entry that would best represent the story I wanted to tell set during the Gelfling Gathering, a time many trine (years) before the film. The winner of this contest receives the honor of writing that novel and being published under Grosset & Dunlap.

When I wasn't working, I was fully-engrossed in exploring the extensive mythology and history of The Dark Crystal. There was a lot to see, read, and digest before being able to create my own story. In the end, my 10k entry was the first three chapters of the would-be novel. I don't think I've ever written a story like it before; the process was like riding a roller coaster: a slow ride up, what with all the research, but once I started working in my Word document, it was all screaming and laughing, flipping upside down and bursting out of tunnels. Exhilarating stuff.

By December 31st, I was feeling a little like Emperor SkekSo (not to mention quoting him because it's fun):

Now I'm back to working on what was my NaNoWriMo project, We Could Fall in Love. It's refreshing to be working in this world where charms can influence weather, but more importantly love, and a motley crew of rebels are just getting starting with their plan to overthrow the head love fortuneteller.

I'm hoping to stay on schedule and finish my first draft in March (hopefully earlier. I love tight deadlines). When the manuscript's ready, you'll be able to read it... but that's all I'm going to say about that right now ;) *continues to be sneaky*

And then... there will be brand-sparkly new chapters of Boys & Bees. Oooooh yes. As I sit on the couch, ruminating over the possible cakepops I can make, I've also been mapping out the next few chapters so I'm ready when the time comes to return to Lorabeth and her bees. The circus tents are popping up, Caith's sneaking around with his double-face, and another disaster is slowly making its way to the school of apiary studies. March couldn't come fast enough, eh? :D