Melli D went VIP ;)

melli@melliinc.com

          I LOVE Halloween.   I find the ghost stories captivating.  I like the legends, the intrigue, and the probability (rather than the otherwise typical "possibility") that something magic could happen.    I make a wish at midnight on the thirtieth, and then the following midnight I do the same.
         This Halloween, we began with what's become, our tradition.  My sister and brother-in-law took my boys to the pumpkin patch.  A few days after they come back and we carve pumpkins...99% of the time it's my sister and I...which we love because it gives us "us" time.  So then, this year was a little different.  I had no idea how much so, until Later Friday night.  My friend was going to a place in Hollywood with a small group of people.  I offered to lend her and another girl (that's become a friend now too) some jewelry for fun.  I also offered to do their make-up.   That's something fun for me.  I've always loved getting people ready...even just to go to the market!  Putting a smile on their face, making them feel good inside about how they look outside is very cool.  It happens that neither of these girls needs any help in the department of beauty... it also happens that both are my friends and were going to humor me by letting me help.
          So, Friday night, I get a text ~ not un-common.  BUT...what she said to me was one of those totally superficial, completely and shamelessly, ridiculously exciting things that makes people want to do a cartwheel.  Difference being, I actually will in fact do them.   So I'm silently bouncing in my cartwheels down the hallway so that I don't wake the boys, or my husband, or the neighboring town for that matter.   I was completely stoked out of my mind.  She texted me to see if I'd go with her on Saturday night.  So ok, I got invited to go out in Hollywood with one of my most favorite people...I'm almost a hundred percent certain that she's secretly an angel.  Not only that, but it's in a limo, and how cool is this?  Pauley P from NCIS is the hostess!   Well holy shit.
         I was so excited...until Angela said "costume required"...I died...then I revived myself, and decided ok...I got this.  The ONLY hat that I can wear that isn't a beanie, is a witch hat.  Boom.  I'll grab a capey thingy somewhere, a hat from the grocery store, and I'm done.  Ok so this is me, I'm a girl...I got three dresses, two capes and two head pieces...got home, pulled three more dresses, and two more completely different options out...and transformed myself into this kind of "Gypsy/Witch/Funky?Hollywood?Fortune-Teller.   It worked.   It was so fun to dress up.  Squeezing in the limo was interesting... like being in high school again...
         The ONLY stupid issue was the norm for me, I got dizzy.  Still struggling with the car accident...getting better though.   So most of the night...into the early morning the room, or my head, were spinning.
         It's wild to meet one of your favorite celebrities.  Even seeing them across a room is cool.   Being their guest, VIP guest, at a party with people that are actually your friends?  Wow.  AND when the famous person suddenly becomes a real person it's spectacular.   Ok, she's tall, and thin and beautiful, and she has that "Magic of Hollywood" Sparkle...but she is truly a sweetheart.  She's respectful and courteous of others, and it was a little surreal.   There's actually security guards, and a velvet rope and I was on the side that I secretly have always wanted to be on.   It didn't feel wrong, or strange...it was just fun to be there...and to see my friends having fun.
         Around three AM I think, it seemed time to go home.  So I hugged my friends, and I sorta waved a cool "Thank You Bye" to Pauley.  But she insisted on taking me literally, by the hand, and walking me with a security guard, back to the limo, and made sure he knew where he was taking me.  It was amazing.
         A VIP, with a real VIP, my friends, and in a very cool place in Hollywood...how many times have I said Hollywood?   Yes, always it's in my dreams.   Anyway, I don't drink...I'll go all out on Shirley Temples, but that's it.   So assuming my memory doesn't mess up, I have the capacity to remember everything.  And I remember my friends and I having fun.    I met a bunch of people...all so nice...and one of them, Ginger Coyote who began what is now PunkGlobe.com   She was very awesome, and took a liking I think to my jewelry.  Angela was wearing a bunch, I was wearing a bunch, and somebody told her that Pauley had worn a piece on the show.   So I'm making her something, and she's doing a little write up on me...which will hopefully grab people's attention.
        It's been stated so many times, but in truth, I want to be successful so that I can be happy inside...and make the world smile.  First of course, come my guys...and then every charity that catches even the corner of my eye.   ;)
Picture time loves...

Pauley Perrette & I

 

 Angela & Maggie

Yours Truly 

Angela & I 

Ginger Coyote (& Pauley in the background). 

Maggie & Angela 

Yours truly. 

Pauley P  

The graceful bust of Angela 

Yes...my head-piece. 

And the (gag...) base metal ridiculousness I put together to go with my Pearls.  ;)

QUITE KINDLY YOURS, Mell

Tonight...I told him to shove it.

melli@melliinc.com
    
        Lashing out doesn't make life different.  Being in control, or having the outside "look" of it, makes things appear different.  No person is ever truly in control.  One would hope that people are able to respect one another so that we as a group, can feel good.   Sometimes, enough is just enough.
       The first step in being respected by another...even an insect...is respecting yourself.  That fly buzzing around in the corner?  Not coming anywhere near me...   I respect myself.
     Am I the slimmest, strongest, smartest?  Honestly?  I just might be.  There is a scene at the end of the first Harry Potter movie.  Neville is granted points to  Gryffindor.   He has stood up on behalf of, not only himself, but on behalf of his "House".    He did what he needed to keep the integrity of the house strong.  Despite being terrified, despite feeling insecure about himself, he got up, and held his "wand at the ready".  He happened to come out at the end of the series a true hero.  And it all began on one seemingly calm evening, when he stood up to his fellow house-mates.   His family.
    Tonight, I stood up for my family.  My battle is just beginning.  My healing is only just starting.  However this turns out, whatever the ramifications are, I am confident that my paternal grandmother, and my Ducky, are looking down on me...While they may not be smiling with pure joy... they are absolutely glowing with pride.  Tonight, I respect myself, my children, my husband, and anybody that comes after us.
    Tonight, I sent a letter to the family lawyer  ...  and told my father to shove it.   

Title? Do I have too?

melli@melliinc.com
      I swear when last I wrote, I had no idea it was literally going to be a "scorcher".  Really, though I'd very much like to know what is going to happen, and to whom, and when, usually, I don't.  That was plain and simple luck I suppose.   So, in trying to keep my sanity, I've downloaded a Martha Stewart "App" onto my iPhone...I'm very excited and yesterday, I even made dinner with a recipe I found there.  My chicken doesn't look nearly as good as my Pearl bracelets though, so I think I'll just stick to the creative side of things.   I can bake a mean cake, as long as the shape is circular...go figure, I've no idea why I cannot bake in a square, but I just absolutely cannot seem to get that one down.   It makes clean and perfect sense though, that out of everything in the world, of course, my passion is for Pearls...  The round ones.  :)  Just a little hello world I'm still here.  Despite the flu earlier this week, and my older son impaling his eye on the tip of a flagpole, I have survived the ridiculous California-ness...   I'll be back later with something interesting to say...Well, I'd hope.  I did see a once was rocker dude at the market yesterday...but being me and my puny self, I'm not sure who it was.   Had I known, I would have probably fallen over in awe.   Anyways, I'm here, working my butt off to make it into the fashion world, the Hollywood world, and/or any that I love that will have me.   Hoping you are all well...   Quite Kindly Yours, Melli D.

"Do be careful..."

melli@melliinc.com

"Do you know how helpless you feel if you have a full cup of coffee in your hand and you start to sneeze?"
Jean Kerr 

       It's inevitable, you will sneeze.  The (likely) hot coffee will spill...and from there, a number of ramifications will take place.   What do you do?   Furthermore, what do you do  when the person handing you the coffee is also the person that teases your nose with pepper?   Another name is a "no win situation". A "no win" life, would be somebody who has lost all hope completely.  I am not that person.

    "Hope may be lost temporarily, but it won't ever be truly gone".

      Throughout every trial and triumph no matter where my life is or was, my forever goals, dreams and wishes haven't wavered.    As my memory unscrambles itself, and re-organizes all the experiences that make up "Melli", I'm stunned, and proud of myself.  As part of my "healing" process, I've been forced to look back and process my past.  Being abused, hurt, and literally kicked when I'm down, really has just made me a stronger person.  I'm proud to carry "Little...But Oh My" not because it's cute or endearing, but because it's true.  No I don't go around kicking people's asses... though I could.  The force captured in those four words has almost nothing to do with my physical make up.  It's the power and the passion,  I hold inside the depths of my soul.   "Melli Oh My" is the new and improved version.   My strength is in my character.  So starting right now, at 8:45 PM on 10/9/11, anybody that feels the need to give me that coffee is invited to do so...   Nobody ever said it would be ME, having to deal with the consequences of it spilling.  ;)

Quite Kindly,
     Melli Oh My...
PS~  Do be careful, (Darn weather is so startling sometimes!!) tomorrow could be a scorcher.

             

Put one foot in front of the other ~ AND GO.

melli@melliinc.com

Dear World -

A zebra is an exact balance of black and of white, yin and yang, of plus and minus, fire water etc.  Perfection.  If I am good at something, I'm the best at it.  And if I'm not, I'm the worst.  I don't pretend to do things, though I've said "fake it till you make it".   If said "it" is something completely foreign, then that "it" for me isn't an option.  I don't fake the know-how...maybe just the experience or rather the confidence I have in the doing of a task.    If I agree/accept a gig,job,offer, it's because on some level, I know I can kick it's ass...in the very best and most gracious of ways.

Fake It Till You Make It-

“Meticulous manipulation of the mind,

 in order to properly complete a task, that

 one already has the inherent ability to master”.

Melli Clarification 

Right now,  I'm so grateful the ever so gifted for Kevyn Aucoin.  Despite the classes I've taken in design, color, costume, make-up, theatrical effects etc etc etc... His book "Making Faces"has taught me more than any of them.   It's also helped me elaborate my own thoughts and methodology in refining the gifts that I've naturally been given.   So, I'm not panicking.   Well, ok maybe a little.
I'm doing the make-up for a video shoot tomorrow.   A "Sizzle~Reel".    Until yesterday I was the "assistant" to the "professional" artist, who has since, backed out.  While my heart is now beating out of my chest...if indeed it still is beating, the only way to move forward is to actually put one foot in front of the other ~ AND GO.  So I'm going.  I'm going to Los Alamos, I'm going to do the make-up for the film.  I'm going to rock it.  And of course I'll be doing it in Pearls.  
 I'm absolutely bringing my books from  Mr. Aucoin.  To be a legend is wonderfully bittersweet.  He was taken from the world at such a young age...and yet even in death, is teaching so very much.  Not just that, but he is also guiding me  through,  reminding me of all the things I did learn,  do know, can do ... and giving me ~ again ~  the confidence to move ahead in doing them.    How inspiring he is to me alone, without even being here.  Now THAT is magic if I've ever seen.  
So yes, I'm nervous, but that's not a bad thing really.  It's energy building...and energy can be positive.  It can bring smiles to peoples faces, and it can turn a hum~drum day into the best you've ever had.  Terrified?  Ok, a little...but I'm human.  If I couldn't do this I wouldn't try.  But I can... so I will.
Anyway, my forever motto is worded a little different every time I say it,  however...

"On the inside, have passion enough 

to rival the wildest of any storm.  

On the outside though ~ forever do your best,

to instead resemble (ALWAYS) 

the calm just before."

Quite Kindly,

 Melli D.

Bummer? Maybe Not…I Do Feel Like a Fire Work Though.

melli@melliinc.com

Bummer?  Maybe Not…I Do Feel Like a Fire Work Though.

        “We only need you for three days and only to do a guys face…supposed to look like he’s been beat up…bar type fight etc…requires detail but nothing permanent sorry if I’d gotten your hopes up kid”.

         Hearing this reminded me immediately of an interview I’d seen with Margaret Hamilton.  (FYI to those of you that were in fact born yesterday, she might also be known as “The Wicked Witch of the West”).  The interviewer asked about capturing one of the most prestigious roles in history…in a movie of equally epic caliber.  Miss Hamilton went on to describe the buzz, the gossip, and the hype that surrounded the making of 1939’s “Wizard of Oz”.   

         Her response was something like this..."we'd all heard about the making of the film… MGM was looking to make it one of the biggest productions ever. … and it was everywhere...word was out that the role of Dorothy had been filled...and there was talk that Billie Burke was in negotiations to play Glinda... so naturally when my agent called me, I was a little confused and a little excited ... I wondered to myself did somebody back out?  What could they want me for?  My agent said then, “well...The Wicked Witch” ...to add insult to injury he then added...”what else”?!".  

You really never know…that role made her famous and unforgettable, a legend.  She’d been an actress for seven years I think before it, but it was “the break” that so many of us are looking/hoping/even praying for.  Not just in the movie industry…in the plumbing industry…a big break would be some water pipes bursting in the Mall of America  or something…   We ALL have dreams and aspirations.  And it’s difficult when even for just one split second we feel like we’re sooooo close…then oops…the Mr.Malfoy reaches his hand out with all his magical might…and still, the prophecy drops and shatters into a million katrillion little tiny piece’s.  

I feel like a firework. 

Over the course of my life, I’ve taken every ounce that makes up me, and stuffed it away into hiding.  I know very well, as does anybody that truly knows me…that one day soon I’ll be set off…like a firework.  Boom Melli!!!   And just like on The Forth of July, you’ll hear the whistle of the concoction and then…BOOM it’ll blast the ass outta you in a beautiful array of striking white and silver lights…sparkles in the sky…like the most beautiful and vivid dream you’ve ever had.  Boom, explodes Melli and each of the small but bright sparks will be a different aspect of me.  The make~up artist, the fashion designer, the stylist, the sketch~pad darling, the soft spoken but vibrant voice, the meticulous eye for color, the passion for all things jewelry…specifically pearls…the desire to make the world smile AND the ability to change the world for the better…This one firework among so many others…the one flower growing in a field of weeds…Boom.  Melli.  “Little…But Oh My”.   The difference in my lights and the others?  I’m not going to fade out.   Ever.  I feel like a firework…and it’s very very very cool.  Peace, Love Rock,Pearls, & Roll. 

Quite Kindly, Yours Truly, Angels Angels, and All Good Things... etc etc etc...

Mell

     

Margaret Hamilton (December 9, 1902 – May 16, 1985) 

Fake~Up. I rocked~ I rolled~ and I did it in Pearls.

melli@melliinc.com

        So, after a kick~ass photo~shoot where I nailed the wardrobe, nailed the make-up and nailed the accessories ...(heck even the hair ~ but did not nail anybody involved)  I've been asked to do the make~up on a web~series...hopefully one in which I'll be noticed for my skills in make~up, as well as being seen for my real expertise, styling/wardrobe/etc etc etc and all things glamour not to forget hello, my own jewelry collection, and design ability.   My very first thought when asked?  "Melli baby, "fake it till ya make it"."   I am not actually a make~up artist...although slathering shadows, puffing bronzers dusting colors, or lining finely somebodies eyes seems easy enough, there is a science to this form of art...as any true artist can tell you.  The good part, is that as a designer, as a creator, and as a free~spirit when it comes to anything profoundly stylish, I like many, should be able to fake it up.  Just at the very same time I'm making it up.  Much like being a dancer, if you know ballet, you have the rhythm down, you understand the basic comprehension of how your body moves, it's not too terribly far off from bouncing it up a bit quicker, jingling your brains a little harder, and pouncing a tad stronger in going toward tap...and once you've got those two, well there's nothing you can't do...except maybe gymnastics.  
          Anyways, I should tell you this part because it's part of the charm of the very beginnings of me...of Melli...  There's one for sure, possibly two bodies...one face absolutely, not sure what colors, what era nothing...the photographers were very un-certain.  That's not my issue...my job as the in charge of everything else, was to in fact have everything else ready to go for the old west, or fifty years from now. Seeing how fashion does run in circles, you just never know.   Anyway, I'm pretty sure I brought with me every single item that CVS sells...a handful they don't...minus some of the Hallmark greeting cards...Scotch tape, ( lots of closing thingy's so as not to ruin any clothing I did have...however seeing as this wasn't an haute couture catwalk, having to use a seam ripper ( had that) or needle and thread myself(had every color) or even using actual duct tape (yup) wasn't out of the question.  The cute part was my set-up.  Though I did get lucky in not having to buy or bring a clothing rack, the person that was going to bring it didn't.  So this is what my set-up looked like.  My Black and Violet Jeep Wrangler, with the back open all the way, gave me just enough space to stack two sets of drawers containing (again) everything), a small place for one tush at a time, AND the kicker?  It also acted NOT ONLY as a hanging rack for the clothes once I'd aid a sheet over it, but also as a make-shift changing room, as the models were almost all totally new to this...even though they were all completely perfectly adorable.  Anyways, so I've got then on the from passenger seat two open books ( hanging accessories cases) propped up so that I could bounce around to the front and snag the proper accessories, and on the drivers side seat, I had the set of drawers with the hair supply.  I was completely efficiently organized, I even had a trash bag...and when things are moving so quickly, I suppose it's when the term "suck it up" or even 'grin and bear it" or possibly even "oh for fucks sake just rip the damn tag off" would be thrown in.  So off came the tags, out went the receipts (along with most all of my bank account) and any prayer of returning any un-used items...etc...however one phrase then that really does come into mind and play, "Ahhh The Price of Beauty".  ;)   I rocked, I rolled, and I did it in Pearls, with of course...the eighties music blaring right along side the sun...in this ever so desolate, haunted and rambunctiously scary setting...deep in the heart of Ventura County, where even the Ravens may have been afraid to go.
          Happy note though, today I saw two huge, blacker than night, and devastatingly (almost drop ~dead" dare I say?) gorgeous ravens in front of my car this morning...  I came home from an early morning trek to pre-school...and saw that I had "The Rachel Zoe Project" recorded on tv...I donated my monthly to the animal charity, clicked on the give for free Children's Hunger Site, Save the Rainforest's etc...and had my green tea... Now what could possibly make the day any better?  







PS:  Any and all wording on this blog, does come only from my own un~drugged, un~drunken, and completely sober brain.  IF anybody reading it cares to share their thoughts/idea/etc in any forum, I would kindly ask you to ( rather than friend me on facebook two seconds after your husband  almost  kills  me in a car accident that he is now trying to hide from an lie about) leave a comment here as I promise that would suffice.  Thank you though for your immediate interest and thoughtfulness in requesting my friendship via facebook within 24 hours...before the insurance company actually (legally) even had any idea who I or you were.   Hmmm...