Just before Christmas, we experienced an awesome ice storm that downed a great number of rather large branches in southern Ontario. Then it snowed, covering most of the evidence.

Well, now that the snow is starting to melt, the extent of the damage is being revealed, and I wondered how my daughter and I could use those branches to make something nice.

Inspired by a jewelry tree I saw in a magazine a while ago, we picked a couple of branches, trimmed them a bit, cooked them in the oven at 200F for 2 hours to dry them out and get rid of any unwanted critters, and stuck them into mounds of air-dry clay. We threw in a couple of plastic sprigs of greenery, and made little 'ponds' to put earrings in.

They looked pretty classy like that, but I had some sprinkle "grass" powder from a nearby train model shop that I wanted to try. So we painted the 'ponds' and using the glue from the model shop, sprinkled the green stuff where moss might grow.

Since the smaller one is going to be a birthday present for a friend who likes purple, my daughter painted that branch appropriately.

I left mine au natural. Just a bit of indoor craft varnish.

And there they are!

So before all those fallen branches get picked up and sawdusted, pick up a few and see what you can do!

About ten years ago, my husband and I were discussing the classic Abbott and Costello "Who's On First?" routine, when Nelly Furtado's hit song, "I'm Like a Bird" came onto the radio. The line, "I don't know where my soul is" quickly became "I-Don't-Know is on third base" and I was subsequently challenged to create a parody that mashed the two together.

The lyrics were written quickly, which I attribute to the fact that I love both the song and the comedy routine and knew them well at the time. Not wanting to swipe someone else's karaoke version, we contacted our actor/musician/composer friend, Reston Williams to ask if he could re-create the instrumental for us, incorporating the Take Me Out To The Ballgame theme into the beginning, which he expertly did. The plan was to record the parody and make an accompanying video in the nearby park and baseball diamond, with myself playing both parts.
But, you know, life happens... I became pregnant, and that wasn't the "look" we were going for.

Some years later, we fell into the hands of some producers in New York who created many projects for us, one of which was a revitalization of the Abbott and Costello franchise using puppets. The project fell through because it was all a scam (see my husband's blog about all that here: http://alexander-galant.blogspot.ca/2013/11/i-was-duped-dont-let-it-happen-to-you.html?spref=fb) but we had already privately commissioned the puppets by the time we came to that realization. Despite the bogus project, we loved our mini-Abbott and little-Costello! Our puppet-builder was Kanja Chen of Chensational Puppets who did an amazing job, didn't he? See the comparison below!

So, a couple of years passed by, and we found ourselves looking at two beautiful puppets that were begging to be used, with the perfect backup music for a parody sitting in a computer. 

It's raining and you have a kid or two who need to be occupied. Here's something that I did that kept 'em busy for a half-hour or so... 

A picture scavenger hunt!

Give the kids a digital picture-taking apparatus and a list of 20 (or more) things for them to find inside their home or play space. The game's not finished until they've taken pictures of all the items on the list!

Mine included things like:

A unicorn.
Something made out of real wood.
Elvis.
The letter "O".
And, pictured here, a bottle.
(I was pretty impressed with the quality of this particular shot,)

You can challenge them as much as you like, by being vague in your description. For example, there are several bottles of different kinds that might have been chosen, but the baby bottle was the one that got its picture taken. 
You might be surprised by what they find! 

Or, you can insist that they create everything on the list:

Build a castle.
Make a footprint.
Cut out a paper star.
Make a rainbow. (One idea is pictured here, courtesy of my kid.)

So, start your list for your rainy-day picture scavenger hunt, and have some indoor fun! 

Today, January 21, is supposed to be the most depressing day of the year. So I made this video! Enjoy!

Last week I was asked, via the internet, to provide a test illustration for someone's project in New York. Their example for me to go by was a lovely painting of a proud, grinning boy, done in a rather Norman Rockwell-ish style. That kind of art isn't my norm, but I gave it a shot. Putting my trusty ink aside, I played with my watercolour pencils instead, believing that this was the kind of thing they were looking for. Then the second example image arrived, looking very cartoony. Now unsure of what they were looking for, I just submitted this test, even though I wasn't quite happy with the result. After all, the test was unpaid.

I didn't get that gig.

And it didn't sit well with me. The sketch that I had made remained near my laptop, taunting me. The pencil drawing had so much more life in it...

So this morning I took that sketch and re-did it with my trusty ink pen. A bit of watercolour pencil and voila! There he was. There was the boy I had intended to draw. In mere minutes. I'll never get to re-submit for this one, but re-doing the test made me feel better.

And I learned something: Trying to be like someone else doesn't work.

For a long time I undersold myself because I didn't think I measured up to others. Well, I don't compare because nobody else draws like me. That's pretty deep, eh? But it's a good way to start a new year, don'tcha think?

Sometimes something pops into my head, and I work on it a bit just for a giggle, but then I have no idea what to do with it. In this case, I wondered how the 'Old Spice' Guy would sing the Spice Girls' song "Wannabe".

Yup, I took that awesome "Smell Like a Man" ad and fit it into that catchy little earworm: "Yo, I'll tell you what I want, what I really really want... "

As requested, here are the two pictures that I'm actually using, as opposed to the crazy ones that I posted the other day for your entertainment. Here they are - as chosen by me. Well, actually, one of them was an obvious choice (everyone chose this first one - me, the photographer, my husband, my agents) because not only did it immediately catch our attention, it met all my personal criteria: Pretty but not glam, happy but not creepy, marketable but not desperate, and I can recreate the hair and makeup more or less by myself for any auditions. Yay!

But the second picture was my husband's and my agents' choice. You know how your pictures are supposed to look like "you"? I had missed this picture's subtle "me"-ness.
That's why it's always a good idea to ask for help when choosing your shots. BUT be careful who you ask! Unless your mom, your friends and your partner actually work in the industry (my husband does), don't rely completely on their choices. They'll inevitably choose the most sexy-model-magazine-cover-like pose. Which is great if you're a sexy model who does magazine covers, but as an actor, not so much. They're looking for people with a spark, not necessarily glossy perfection. And as an actor, I'm happy with my latest "commercial" look and my new "slightly dramatic business" look. There's a crazy one with my Casting Workbook if they choose to browse my profile, but these are the ones that will more likely get me work.
Let's see where these pictures take me! 

Last week, I was looking at my actor headshots and wondered if I needed new ones because I'd lost some baby-weight since they were taken. The next day I went to get my hair done and when I showed the stylist my current headshot so he understood how the colour needed to be the same, he said it didn't look like me. To top it off, the day after that I got an email from my agent saying that the old shots were no longer working.

Ya think the Fates were telling me something?

I've learned over the years that the headshot is a delicate balance. Of course, it's VITAL that you look like your headshot. That's what casting directors expect when they choose you from your picture - that you walk into their room looking pretty much like that. Drives them nuts if the picture is totally off.

But you don't really present yourself the way that you really look, either, like when you run to the store in your sweats to grab some milk! As a woman, I want to be fairly good-looking, but not too glam because that's not my 'thing'. I want to come across as likeable and fun because I mostly do comedy, but too much excitement in the eyes can be misunderstood as slightly coo-coo bananas. I want to be marketable, but not spiritless. There's got to be a certain twinkly sparkle, a je ne sais quoi, that 'something' that pops. A lot of time is spent doing makeup and hair and choosing wardrobe in order for me to look like... a perfect... me!

I had a fun photo shoot last weekend, and got a whole lot of excellent shots to choose from.
I'll put some of my favourites here. (Heh heh heh!) I hope these ones bring you a smile. And no, they are not Photoshopped. Be happy!
Which one is your favourite? ;-) 

Have you ever had a mental image of a creative endeavor but don't do it because you feel it won't meet your own artistic sense? Intimidation can be crippling. I know what's considered "good" and have often shied from trying something because it was out of my comfort zone.