...you have a photo shoot, naturally! 

A friend of mine at one of the studios in Burbank has been talking up his car for a while now and when I saw it I immediately asked if I could do a photo shoot with it. A 1965 Cadillac Calais. I can't not take advantage of it. That would just be rude! He, of course, was happy to have his car showcased! It took a bit of coordinating due to the strange LA rain we've been having lately and we nearly got rained out of the actual shoot day, but the sun broke in time and the rain held off for some really fun shots!

​Check it out! 

Technology is definitely working against me right now, as I've typed out a full update of my last two months three times and it has erased it in full and did not, in fact, copy when I "command c'd." I'll make one last attempt, but I'm getting tired and have to run lines again for a shoot this weekend.

When not watching YouTube videos to learn to teach my hair to do what I'd like for it to do, I've been busy bouncing between the Midwest and Los Angeles for projects, weddings, and surprising my best friend for her birthday (and to train her new puppy). Also moving houses (so much packing and unpacking! My step tracker says I went over 30,000 steps in two days and climbed 40 flights of stairs!).

The wedding was lovely, and gorgeous, and the nerdiest wedding I've ever been to. It was nice to be back in the audience of one for a change and we all laughed at the Battlestar Galactica speech that was thrown in ("So say we all!"). 

The projects have been small lately, but a few photoshoots and shorts have kept me busy and smiling!

Surprising my best friend was magical. Her husband flew me out because we haven't seen each other since I stood up in their wedding a year and a half ago! He picked me up from the airport and I hid in the guest room when she got home from work. He told her one of her presents had shown up a day early and she should go up and check it out. She screamed, we both cried, and it was a wonderful and relaxing weekend.

Here's a shot from her wedding to close this out :)
​~m 

The roommates and I turned our house into a speakeasy to ring in 2017 with style, class, and bathtub gin punch (note: no gin was actually made in our bathtub. We don't want to cause accidental blindness). The dress was swanky, the cocktails hand crafted, and the friends fantastic.

For those who do make massive jump-start resolutions though, I just did an 11 day course with Bonnie Gillespie that she offers for free at the end of every year. I think this is the third year she's run it, but I didn't find an official first year date. Regardless, it was downright inspiring to see so many people working to re-vamp their materials and working together to make this the Hollywood we want to be part of. I've already got two new photo shoots lined up and have a new friend writing a scene for us to shoot together. For any of you SMFA ninjas stopping over here, a hug and a hello!

Rgardless, I'm off to work on this year's resloution. Let me know what yours are! For 2017, I've decided on two.

<3
​m

Stopping in to wish everyone a very merry Christmas, happy Hannukah, and the best New Year. Monster and I are out of LA until the 29th, enjoying the snow and cold of Wisconsin. I know we'll have too many cookies, laugh too hard, and hopefully catch a Green Bay Packers win!

~ m

That commercial I mentioned last post is now live! Linking it below, so check it out :)

happy haunting :)
~m

Decided to switch it up and add some rainbows to my hair, which naturally meant NEW HEADSHOTS! Teamed up with Jamie Hanson again (I so love shooting with her!) and absolutely adore the new photos!

She's so brilliant at capturing moments and I can't wait for our next collaboration!

I'm also happy to announce I am now represented by Shirley Hamilton Inc theatrically in both Chicago and Los Angeles! I've been a big fan of the ladies over there for a while now and am ridiculously excited to have KaCee on my team and to join the Shirley Hamilton Family myself!

I shot a commercial that should be released in the coming weeks that parodies The Shining. Spending the day as one of the creepy twins was an absolute delight and my fellow twin was hilarious (I know, I know, not what you expect to hear in this role, but she was spooky on camera and kept me laughing behind the scenes!).

I'll post that as soon as I can!

Also been working with some monkeys (literally) and some crews with amazing desert, downtown, in the shop, and gorgeous home locations! Photos and videos when I can post them!

Last bit of update, I spent a long weekend camping in Joshua Tree and I have to say, it was wonderful to get out in nature for a while! I always appreciate how rejuvenating it is to get away from the noise of the city.

<3
​m

Since we last left our hero, she's been crazy busy between table reads, shoots, shows, and side jobs. I've also been spending quite a bit of time volunteering. But lets start from the beginning.

Shoots I spent a week recently filming a pilot for a new series wherein my character and two of her friends/roommates open a restaurant in their home. It's a hairbrained comedy that has been so wonderful to work on. We end up laughing after nearly every take and the whole team has been brilliantly creative and fun to work with. I also was chatting with our food stylist between shots and found out she worked on the original Jurassic Park! 

Had a few fun photoshoots where I played part photographer too! A couple friends needed new headshots and character shots so I was happy to help out. It also meant I got to play too. Caught a few fun ones of me with my Monster even!

Shows Spent the last few months performing Charlotte's Web with the Sierra Madre Playhouse to over 3,000 students mostly ranging from 2-4 grade. It was a special treat for us as actor too because we had talkbacks after every performance and most of the questions were surprisingly thought provoking. I played a slew of characters from Narrator to Gander to President of the Fair, Reporter, Kid at the fair, Uncle's Owner, Edith, and a few others. It was definitely a fun character changing challenge as the show itself was only about an hour long. The cast and crew were a dream to work with though and I can't wait for the next one!

Side Jobs I've been lucky to have work as a barista and ticket taker during slower spells (not that this is exactly a slow spell... but my car just died so I now am the happy owner of many car payments), The recent events I've been taking tickets at were MMA fights and for some reason, the people I've met during those are ridiculously kind and giving. While waiting for the doors to open the other week, one of the security guys just stopped at our table and dropped off horchata. Purely because he could!

I also got to play photographer for my friend who had a beautiful baby boy last month. I caught this shot of him the afternoon after he was born. <3

Volunteering I adore the place I volunteer. It's an exotic animal rescue that takes in anything and everything from wolf hybrids to cavies to monkeys to kookaburras. I'll just give you a gallery of some of my favorite shots I've gotten over the past six months there!

Man 2015 flew by! The shoot with Panera was heaps of fun. We pretty much just laughed the whole time. At one point it became a big improv as we passed around food and set up plates. We had the whole crew laughing! I also gained some good friends. The HMUA actually ran after me when she thought I was leaving set to make sure we exchanged info and could keep in touch! 

The whole shoot felt a bit Through the Lookingglass, which I am perfectly fine with! As a curious person myself, I've always loved the stories of Alice wandering Wonderland. I think the curiosity showed plenty!

And of course I had to get one of the White Rabbit being late (and when he finally arrived)!

Hope everyone is caught up after the holidays and having a great time!

<3
​m

Guys, I'm ridiculously excited about my Christmas card. My poor mother has to hear about it every time we talk. They're ordered and she get here in about a week so I can mail them out and then share with the world. But until then, I'll keep giggling about it on my own. And, for the record, Monster once again hated the shoot. But got lots of treats for putting up with it :)

Had a fitting today for a commercial that's shooting on Friday. My goal for my first year out here was to have a national commercial booked. This is close. It's regional, but it's the biggest thing I've gotten since getting out here and the paycheck is honestly the reason I can go home for Christmas.

​I seem to run into people every shoot and fitting I go into that are absolutely certain they've worked with me before. It always seems like a good connotation so I'll happily take it and hopefully next time I can say "Yeah! That definitely is me!" But in the mean time, I'm getting to share laughs with new friends everywhere I go.

Something absolutely sweet happened at this morning's fitting. I got there about ten minutes early, threw an hour in the meter and went in. We were still adding options and snapping pictures as the one hour mark approached and anyone in LA will tell you that the traffic cops are like bloodhounds. I swear they can smell expiring meters from miles away. So with about two minutes left on my meter I rushed out to put more money in. As I neared the spot, the other girl who was having a fitting was coming back from her car (she got there around the same time as me earlier) and asked if I was the blue car. She put another two hours on me meter for me because she was worried I wouldn't be let out in time to catch it myself.

Also finally started at the coffee shop. My coworkers are fantastic and as a trainee, part of my training is tasting all the coffees and teas. Needless to say the perks of working there are pretty excellent :)

~m

Super late to the party on this one, but I just found out a film I shot in Sydney screened at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year! So happy for the whole team!

I'll throw in the trailer for the film too, so this post is more than two sentences long :)

​Last wedding of the season was a few weeks ago and I was honored to be the officiant. I'm now ordained by the power of the internet and can legally marry people to each other, so that's pretty exciting. I absolutely loved crafting a ceremony that the attendants seemed to agree captured the couple very well. It was the most low-key of the weddings I attended/was part of this year, and a fantastic way to close out the season. Unless, of course, anyone has a last minute wedding before the year is out. Vegas is quite close, after all!

​Last week I started volunteering with a rescue group in the area. Go figure it's another thing I legally can't name (this industry, man!). Suffice it to say I cleaned up the poo of famous actors... no really! There are wolves, monkeys, horses, emus, and a baboon (among plenty of other animals). Lots of spiders there too... But a number of them have had massive roles in blockbuster films. Haven't met the trainer who owns the place yet, but the people I have met are so kind and sweet! It's hard work, but so rewarding. I'm thankful I get to spend some of my time giving back and helping out!

On the docket for this week: finishing filming on the current episode of Daily Breakdown and our big read through of the entire first season of Filter/No Filter. I absolutely adore both of these projects and I can't wait to share them with you!

​~m