riding twenty inches of man-made powder

got my first ride of the season in today! blue mountain just opened with twenty inches of man-made snow. i mean, not the real thing, but just had the snowboarding itch. it's been two seasons for me, and a trip from oakville to collingwood is nothing. first day on the new board was amazing, i could definitely notice the difference from the old one. best investment of the year! ... well, australia was pretty cool too.

noel chez notre grand-pere

it's been a super busy couple of weeks. last minute christmas shopping, exams, driving back and forth from leamington to oakville for christmases, having no money for any of these things. but seeing jordan and my father act like boyfriend and boyfriend is always worth it.

face off

casted kelsey's face today. now i've got a guinea pig to experiment on. i meannnnn ... practice on. i don't think she's as excited about it as i am. it's weird now that i have a cast of her face, i can finally see how people think we look alike. she thinks it looks nothing like her. it's really strange to see a replica of your own face. i was finally made aware of how lopsided my face is. so grateful for that, not.



i've also been watching this reality show called 'face off,' a contest to find the next best special effects makeup artist and it's getting me more and more excited to try out new things. PLUS, word is on MTV, mrs. doubtfire is being remade. that better not be a lie.

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas

now all we need is a bit of snow ...

aliens, creeps & prosthetics, oh my!

working with foam latex has been difficult. with noses, there was moisture in my mold which left me with bubbles and a wrinkly extra skin on the outside. with vampire foreheads, my edges were too thick. finally, with this custom prosthetic, i think i have a better idea of how to do it. now just try to find the edges!







i thought i'd put up presley's work on me too. i'm thinking about having plastic surgery to permanently become a glamorous alien. thoughts? comments? concerns?

them janglin' bells

i'm so glad to be back in canada for christmas '11! still a struggling student though, i don't even have a tree, let alone any sort of decoration, so it's been hard to get into the spirit. so i wrapped some presents today, listened to some holiday tunes, and unsuccessfully prevented my cat from trying to help.

learning with latex

i've been so busy, now holding down two jobs AND going to school full time that i haven't had much time to practice my makeup skills. most of the work we do at school is molding and sculpting, but i did get the chance to do a fun project. this is for an album cover, up and coming hip hop artist. i still need to add text, but i'm waiting for the instructions on that.

the recent misfortunes of the hill family

i knew that me moving to oakville would be hard on my family, but i had no idea just the damage it would cause. i have taken pictures along the way of the procession of hardships my poor sister and grandmother have endured, just to make everyone aware of the negative possible outcomes of not having me in your life:

this is the last picture i took of kelsey before she left. what a beautiful young girl. who knew such natural, gorgeous ammenities could be lost so quickly.



soon after i had moved away, kelsey began experiencing intense cold/flu-like symptoms. runny nose, dry eyes, raw lips, you know how it can be. when these didn't cease, i forsaw her misfortunes becoming much worse. only now do i regret offering advice when it would have helped.



she was so unfortunate to look at that her friends and family disowned her and she was forced to begin living life on the streets. one can see just how harsh those conditions can be, especially for a young girl. dirt, grime and weather damage tainted her beauty for the worst.



because of her assumed need for cheap dollarama hair-clips, kelsey's funds ran scant and the last of it was spent on drugs. i began wondering if she could ever turn her life around.



not only did my absence affect kelsey, my grandmother was so disheartened that she felt life was not worth living. she attempted suicide!



lucky for her though, i had learned my lesson with kelsey, so i sped to gramma's rescue, just in time to save her from fulfilling a terrible decision!



after success in preventing gramma from doing something she would later regret, i felt it was time to give kelsey another chance. i gave her a knuckle sandwich and believe it was the best thing that has happened to her.



with my persuasion, i was able to convince my parents to let her move back home. her wounds, though slowly, are finally healing.



postscript: i'm actually going to school to study advanced special effects makeup and prosthetics, so no family members were harmed in the making of this post!

funny this is, as much as i hated vegemite in australia, i actually like it now. i brought home a jar to show off and now i eat it. a slice of toast, butter, and a thin layer of vegemite .. yum. what is it? a brown, sticky, disgusting goo? well, yeah. technically though, it's basically a jar of yeast. aside from that, i thought i'd post some of the strange aussie slang, both for your enjoyment and for my memory:

ta - thank you
sunnies - sunglasses
pissed - drunk
pot, schooner, jug - sizes of beer
bathers - swimsuit
heaps - lots
bogan - someone who doesn't care at all about their appearance
dodgy - sketchy
bottle-o - liquor store
brekkie - breakfast
eskie - beer/food cooler
budgie smugglers - men's speedo
you alright? - how are you?
goon - cheap boxed wine, usually for backpackers
slab - case of beer
lollies - candies
pokies - slot machines
rollie - a cigarette that you roll yourself
reckon - think ie. do you reckon it'll be a good time?
root - to hook up with someone
servo - gas station
scull - chug
stubby - bottle of beer
swag - sleeping bag
whinge - complain

and something from new zealand (or kiwi's, as they call people from new zealand) ..

sweet as, drunk as, cool as - basically like drunk as a skunk, you just stop at as. which is great when you are 'drunk as' because you don't have to think about a comparison.

cheers!

the australian wildlife

i was once bitten by a dog, but that's fairly common. once, i had several turkey vultures swoop way too low to my head walking home from the bus stop. am i prone to being attacked my otherwise harmless animals? maybe so, because for my 23rd, my mom took me to see the currumbin wildlife reserve. happy birthday melise, you're getting attacked by a kangaroo.

what seems here to be a friendly and yes, i know, miniature kangaroo turned out to be nothing but the opposite.



because here is where the monster jumped up on me, started biting my hands, and continued to chase me around the park.



there aren't any pictures of the chase because i'm sure everyone was panicking as much as i was, and personally, photo-ops were the last thing on my mind. guess what i had for dinner that night?