Too many dresses

I now own 2 wedding dresses. It is ridiculous.
Dress #1 is like your first real boyfriend. You love him/it intensely it first, but over time, you gain a new perspective and realize it's not a good fit anymore. At the same time, you don't want to get rid of him/it because you're sort of sentimentally attached and you feel so guilty. You've wasted time and energy and resources but you know he's/it's just not the one. (Except in my case, boyfriend #1 did end up being the one...)
However, I love to look at dress #1 on the hanger more than I love to wear it.

I've heard about 2 dress brides and I've always thought that they were silly. I mean, pick one and stick with it, geez. But then there's the whole, "this is the most important dress you'll ever wear on the most important day of your life so you should love it" thing.

I've never been known to be a decisive person. What do you expect from a girl who routinely takes 10 or more minutes to choose between brands of peanuts (or popcorn or salad dressing or anything) at the grocery store. However, I am most certainly a frugal person. It is definitely not an economically wise choice to purchase 2 wedding gowns.

At least I'm 1000% certain about my choice of husband. At least I got the most important decision right.

Sometimes you need good news

Today I picked up my dress from the tailor. It was the second fitting because after the first, it just wasn't right. I tried it on, looked the mirror...and wanted to cry. But not happy tears :(
To sum it up, I need to look for a new tailor (and hopefully not a new dress). This time I need to find someone that specializes in wedding gowns. Sometimes saving a buck can be a bad thing. You get what you pay for, right?

I was also feeling bummed because lately I've been auditioning a lot and haven't been booking anything. And then last night in class, I performed my monologue so badly that my teacher literally had me sit back down. This was after I forgot the last two sentences and before he said, "You've lost it. Is something wrong? Because the whole thing was just completely flat." I pretty much wanted to crawl under my chair.

After my dress fiasco and another day of career inactivity, I felt like sitting down with a gallon of Haagen Daz and a spoon. But I couldn't even do that, because then I really wouldn't fit into my dress.

So much to my delight, (and relief) tonight I got a random phone call from a director I'd auditioned for last week. He offered me a role in his upcoming indie short film. It's a smaller, supporting role but I'm excited. I'll be playing a barista. (art imitating life?)

Ironically enough, I had auditioned for this film with the same monologue that I bombed with in class last night.

The following pics have nothing to do with me. To make me feel better, I did some research on wedding dress disasters, and I came across this incredibly horrible and hilarious story. Long story short, this bride wanted her bridesmaids to wear gowns that resembled this one:


Her future mother in law was a seamstress and volunteered to design and construct them from scratch.








They turned out more like this:






Umm...I felt a little better after reading this story. My dress is not this hopeless.

Crafty

Our apartment has turned into a full fledged printing studio! Over the past few days, we have designed, redesigned, cut, printed, stamped and colored stacks of invitations/envelopes, etc. It has been a team effort and it has been fun. Homemade invitations: coming soon.

On a completely unrelated note, I am really, really happy that Kate Winslet won the Oscar on Sunday night. She's my favorite.

The Oscars seem so far away...
At this point, I would be thrilled to book a commercial.
Last night, I finished up a month long commercial class that was a lot of fun. We shall see...

Guest Blogger

Hello visitors of MandyLand.

Daryl here.

I have a newly discovered interest and I wanted to bring it to the MandyLanders. I stayed up till 4:30am doing this, and I'm currently trying to decide what my next theme should be. Any suggestions?

Projects

Since our wedding is less than 4 months away, we've decided to amp up our planning efforts. A few days ago, we bought paper, envelopes and some rubbers stamps/ink and I spent most of last night and today pretending to be a graphic designer. Hopefully all of these supplies will turn into brilliantly designed (or at least cute) invitations within the next few weeks.

Daryl has discovered the joys of Apple imovie and he's sort of obsessed. He stayed up until 3am last night experimenting. He's already created a slideshow of our Hawaii vacation. His next practice project is going to be about Larry. Ultimately, the goal is to create a slideshow for our wedding.

We took a break from our invitation and slide show making to take Larry to the park this afternoon. Going to the park is one of his favorite things in life. It's just about the only word that we have to spell out because when he hears us say "park" he goes nuts.

After we neutered him several months ago, Larry started marking on things outside: benches, fire hydrants, trees, trash. Shortly thereafter, he began marking on peoples' legs at the dog park, which was really embarrassing. Most recently, he's started urinating on toys at the dog park, and also in the water bowl there. Today at the park, he took it upon himself to mark another dog. He just lifted his leg and peed on this yellow lab's hind leg. I don't think I've ever seen a dog mark a dog. To Larry's credit, that lab had stolen his ball.

A guilty face if I ever saw one:

My New Headshots

Right before the holidays, I got some new headshots taken with Jeremy Folmer, a photographer here in the city. He was awesome to work with. His wife was my hair and makeup artist and she was great, too. This is the link to his website: http://www.jeremyfolmer.com
If you click on his portfolio, one of my shots is in there.
These are the ones I've printed up for now:


On the left is my "I'm an actress" photo.


The photo on my right is my "look I have good teeth and I'm friendly and approachable and can sell stuff" shot. AKA "the commercial shot"








I've printed my future last name on these new headshots, which was totally weird at first. I'm getting used to it though. My real last name has always been a fun conversation starter, but it's kind of nice not to have to spell my new/future name out for everyone.

What a weekend.

This past Friday the 13th was our original anniversary. Nine years ago on that day, D and I had our first date at On the Border in Plano, Texas, followed by a viewing of Dumb and Dumber. This year, Daryl had to work all day so I decided to make him a cake. I'd found this giant cupcake cakepan a few months ago and I was really excited to try it out using the Amy's Bread red velvet recipe. Three hours later, I had a giant brown turd cake on my hands. The mold was so thick that the inside was barely baked through but the exterior was pretty much burnt. Plus, I had to dump the icing down the sink because it was a disaster as well. I wrapped the turd cake in saran wrap and left D a note saying, "happy (original) anniversary here is your cake...I tried..." Unfortunately, I did not photograph this thing because I was in a rush to get to my call time for Ugly Betty.

A few weeks ago, I got a phone call from the casting person who casts background for the tv show Ugly Betty. I had been chosen to do some featured work on an upcoming episode. I don't find background work in general to be particularly rewarding. Usually, there are dozens if not hundreds of people in a "holding room" and you are referred to by your check in number. When you get on the set, the person in charge of "directing" the extras will say: "you, in the blue shirt- when this person sits down, walk over there..." You're really more of a prop than an actor. Larry could literally be a "background artist."

My experience this time was much different, and so much fun. I was the only "background" person in a four person scene that evening. I got there at 6:30pm, went to set at 1am, and wrapped at 4am. I was Mandy the Assistant, I went through hair and wardrobe, I met the cast, I met the director (and got directed by him), I had my own marks (pieces of tape on the ground that you have to stand on), my own lighting checks, the ability to mess up a take (which I did), and I got paid union scale that day. Now I just need some lines...
I have no idea when the episode airs or if I'm actually going to be in it...but it was a great experience.

I got home at 4:30 in the morning, and 2.5 hours later I had to wake up and work a mall promotion for 3 days. I would like to share this photo with you all:


This is Jungle Ride. I was introduced to this oddity at the last mall I did my promo thing at. This little kiosk rents out these giant stuffed animals for people to ride around the mall. You can't go to far from the vicinity of the kiosk or you'll get reprimanded. Each Jungle ride cost $5 and they were packed all day. Hmmm....maybe I should reconsider my day job?

My feet hurt

No updates because I've been doing my brand ambassador thing in New Jersey. It is not fun. This is all you need to know: a) it's in a mall b) it's for a cell phone provider c) it's 12 hours a day.
Tomorrow is the last day, and after that I will write about:
1) Making a giant cupcake
2) Working on the tv show Ugly Betty
3) The Jungle Ride

So Tuesday...check back. Until then, Happy Presidents Day.

Trader Joe's Rocks

We buy most of our groceries at Trader Joe's, because it is cheap and they have great products. It's a chain of stores that makes and packages their own products, many of which are organic. They are all over the U.S. but there is only one in Manhattan. It's always packed and you sort of have to do a lot of your shopping while standing in line, but it's totally worth it. We're a big fan of the pre-made Chinese dinners (Trader Ming's) and the pizzas, risotto and gnocci (Trader Giotto's) when we need something fast.

Trader Joe's also has awesome fresh flowers. Check out these spring-y daffodils I picked up last week. They were $1.50....less than a quarter per stem!

Friends and Cupcakes

Hmm...this blog wasn't really supposed to be food themed, but what can I say? I love food.
My favorite bakery at the moment is called Sugar Sweet Sunshine on the Lower East Side. The tailor I chose to alter my wedding dress just happens to be right down the street from this little bakery...and yes this did influence my decision to use this particular tailor. Yesterday, I went down there for my first fitting and so I just had to swing by SSS and pick up a box of cupcakes to share with Zac and Leah at our din-slum-party!

Butternut Squash and Gorgonzola Flatbread Pizza

Butternut squash + gorgonzola= amazing

I was inspired by a flatbread pizza that they make over at the Hearst building cafeteria. I was introduced to this flavor combination when I met my sister there for lunch during her internship. I attempted to recreate this meal the other night, and I do believe I was successful. D was the taste tester and he approved. Here is the recipe (or, list of ingredients with no measurements) I created:

fresh butternut squashed (cubed)
gorgonzola crumbles
olive oil
garlic powder
portabella mushrooms(thinly sliced)
red onion (thinly sliced)
flat bread

1. saute squash, mushrooms and onions in olive oil, sprinkle with garlic powder
2. spread mixture onto flat bread and bake for 5-10 minutes @ 350
3. sprinkle gorgonzola over baked pizza
4. Enjoy!

I like to toy around with ingredients but I've never really created a recipe before, but you get the idea.

I'm no food photographer. It's kind of weird looking here, but believe me, it's good:

A (semi) productive Saturday

I am pleased to report that our neighborhood post office is filled with delightful postal workers. I was pleasantly surprised at how lovely and helpful everyone was. I had to mail some headshots to the soap opera casting folks and I finally sent in the paperwork to get my passport renewed. It expires a month before we go to Europe for the honeymoon...and then a month later I'll have to send it in again to get my named changed :/ Bad timing!

I introduced D to Chelsea Market today. He liked it. We split a (half-price) S'mores Brownie. It was delicious.

I don't have any pictures of the post office or of our brownie, so here's the frog-dog and his crocodile toy:

Larry

Larry is our awesome 1 year old French Bulldog. He loves everyone and most everyone who meets him loves him back. He is a quirky little fellow. I'll try not to blab on about Larry too often, but he is sort of like my child, so I have a lot of dog-child stories.

When he knows that we are going to leave the apartment without him, he runs to the bed and gives us pouty faces:



Larry and his dad (on the $75 couch we found on Craigslist):

The Dress

I officially own my wedding dress now. It is hiding in the bag b/c the pre-husband wants to be surprised. I'd sort of forgotten what it looked like because I picked it out in October. Prior to purchasing this dress, I was very anti wedding dress. I wanted something very chic and un-wedding-like. But alas, I have chosen a gown that is unmistakably Bridal. However...it's pretty, it's comfy, and I'm only getting married once, so why not?

Look what I found!

It was pretty tasty, too.

One of my new favorite places in NYC is Chelsea Market (www.chelseamarket.com) I found this cupcake at a bakery here called Eleni's. After 6pm, everything is half off. Love it. These are some of my other favorite discoveries within this fabulous food concourse:

Fat Witch Brownies (they have a happy hour too...1/2 price brownies after 5pm. Awesome)

Cheap Grocery Store ($1.75 for a HUGE tub of paprika!)

Amy's Bread (There's also one on our street. I think they make the best Red Velvet cake in the entire city)

Ninth Avenue Espresso (It's pricey- but sooo good. This is some quality espresso. And they make it pretty).

I find reasons to come here just about every other day, so I'm sure I'll acquire some new favorites soon...

1st Blog

Welcome to my blog. I've decided to create this blog because A) I've had some free time lately B) I'm not so good at staying in touch with folks C) Umm...why not? This is not going to be a "deep thoughts" kind of blog. I'll try to keep it as brief, informative and frivolous as possible.