Production Photos

This year, Box Elder High School did Phantom of the opera! A high school doing Phantom? I know right? WRONG! I'm not kidding you guys. This show was absolutely amazing! The talent, the work, the production, everything was fantastic. I was able to be involved in so many ways. Not as many as I wanted, but I was able to do costumes.

If you'd like to see more of my phantom photos just click here and visit my Photography blog! Let me know what you think!

Masquerade!

So recently the LGBS Alliance at USU had a Gender Blender Masquerade. My best friend, Chad, invited me to go with him. For those who don't know what a gender blender is, the girls were supposed to dress as guys and guys and girls. There was a drag show and a costume contest. I went with one goal in mind: Win the costume contest. I've always wanted to go to a Masquerade, and while I knew no one was going to take it quite as intensely as I was bound to, I didn't care. I wanted to go full out. So Chad and I went as Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI. And of course we won. We had a blast, we looked incredible, and enjoyed the heck out of our night.

Louis and Marie. We went with the very dramatic Theatrical Makeup
 like you'd find in a Moliere play such as Tartuffe or School for
Scandal! 

I love my Chaddy! Isn't he so cute!

Sexy Full Shot

Posing Full shot! As much as I love Chad's Costume..I just love mine!

Like my C3PO pants!? :) I love how they turned out

Waiting for Guffman Much? Ah yes. A penny for your thoughts. 

Chad's got some major Versaille bosoms going.  But I loved his dress
His fabric came from India. I've been saving it for a long time!

Chad's wig. I styled it myself, added the feathers and little bird!
And I did his makeup as well! I loved how it all turned out~

Beautiful Bustled Backside! 

Full shot of the beautiful dress! Isn't he sexy!?

Ah yes! and myself! I have to admit I am quite proud of my
own costume! I couldn't believe how well it turned out! 

I loved my hair and my cravat. but oh my gosh Look at my
adorable little tricornered hat and my moostache! I loved it!

Look at that backside! :)

The full monty! I loved them!

WE WON! HOOORRRAAAYYY!

My current obsessions!

I know i haven't blogged in a while. I don't have much to talk about. I bought a new car. Yay! And I helped out with Phantom at BEHS. But here are the things I am currently obsessed with.

Mmmm. Velocity!!!

Mary Kay's Velocity is now in a Perfume! I love the smell of my facewash, and now I can wear it as a perfume! It's a very light fun smell. More of an Every Day wear perfume than my current one!

    

Wishing I were somehow the one wearing this on stage

The Purple Velvet cape I made for Christine to wear in Box Elder's Production of Phantom of the Opera. She wore this cape in the scene where she goes to the graveyard and sings Wishing you were somehow here again. Michelle did a beautiful job and Brady's lights made it shimmer like you wouldn't believe! The night I made it, I walked around my house in it for a few hours. I'm so happy I get to add this piece to my costume collection!

Oh my sweet potato goodness!

My next obsession is  Ruth's Chris Sweet Potato Casserole! As soon as fall hits, I skip all the pumpkiny goodness and go straight for these! I don't even wait for Thanksgiving! Besides Sweet Potatoes are a vegetable Superstar! Good source of Vitamin A! Great source of dietary fiber not to mention Magnesium, potassium, and Vitamin C! Even when they ARE loaded with Brown Sugar and Pecans! :)

My Lia Sophia Charade Bracelet! This was my first purchase from Lia Sophia and I LOVE IT! I wear it pretty much EVERY day and matches everything I wear! 

Beautiful Gritty cinematography!

Film Noir. I Love love love this genre of film. The cinematography, the lighting, the grittiness of it. I barely even follow the plot. I'm too busy looking at how amazing everything LOOKS! The women are so beautiful and sultry. The men are so cavalier. It's like my Holga made a movie! Sigh! 

One of my favorite of Marisa's transformations

My last recent obsession is a blog called New Dress a Day! I love 98% of this girls' transformations! I've even adapted not one dress but two dresses! I look at this blog every morning after I wake up. It's one of the first things I do when I wake up. She only has two weeks left on her year journey, but I've had a blast following her and trying things myself. In fact I have one of my own that I'll be posting very very very soon! 

Anyway, There's my obsessions as of late! Hope everyone's doing well and getting ready for such a fun time of year!

Birthday for Annie!

 I've been doing the play Annie, and it's crazy because we've had tons of  birthdays. Celeste, Heather, Haylie, and then Phoebe. Phoebe is the adorable girl who is playing Annie in our show. She turned twelve (she gets to go to BEEHIVES!) And she is just such an amazing and talented little girl on stage! Seriously an amazing little Annie! SO CUTE! Not annoying and loud like most Annies. She sits quietly off stage and never protests, takes direction very well, and has an amazing innate sense of stage acting. Anyway, so when it was Phoebe's birthday I asked her parents if I could do her cupcakes.

 I made her Annie Cupcakes!!!!

I was so happy with how these cheery little cupcakes turned out!!!! I was so worried they would look like clowns! I was right to make little peach skin colored frosting and going without a nose.

Little Phoebe loved her adorable cupcakes!

She was so cute and even came over and hugged me and said thank you! I was in Babes in Toyland with Phoebe years ago and she was just a doll then, she's still a doll now.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the cupcakes. I made about 4 dozen and by the time I looked back over at the table all but 5 were gone. (don't worry, those were gone a few minutes later)

Even Erika seemed to enjoy stuffing her face with Annie face cupcakes.

 Daddy Warbucks (Darren Saunders) Even sang a song to a cupcake he mistakenly took for Annie. They were that realistic looking. 

SO HAPPY BIRTHDAY PHOEBE! er...Annie? Er...Whatever! 

Dress Revamp #2

Well When I saw this pretty little ditty at D.I. I was like. WTF! It looked like one of those dresses you see big Tongan women wear. You know? Anyway, I stared at it for a while and I figured out what I wanted to do with it! 

First I removed the little ties on the side then took the side seams in MAJORLY. And then cut them off.

Next, the shoulders HAD to come in. They were way wide. So I added pleats

Next, the sleeves had to come up. They were like 80's long. I wanted them more 40's/50's long. So I turned the hem up and tacked it, making a cuff

Next I added a little vertical gather in the sleeve so it gathered up a bit. 

I also added some darts in the back, and some pleated darts at the waist.

Last thing I did was cut off TONS and hem it up. 

Next I added my Rome Belt, some pearls (my hair looks like that because I was on my way to the theater for the play.) And this was the end result:

A lovely little 40's reminiscent blouse. I kinda want to try wearing it tucked into a pencil skirt as well! I'm actually really pleased with the way it turned out. What do you think?

Vera's present

My beautiful Holga, Vera, just keeps giving me beautiful surprises. Most currently is this beautiful little treasure:

I seriously love it! I took it at a fruit stand along Highway 89 on my way to Play rehearsal one night. I love the fluttering flags! I want to wear this picture. haha. Somehow. You know, make a dress that reminds me of this whimsical, retro look? I love it. Thanks Vera!

To see more of my holga photography, because this roll was fantastic, check out my photography blog
http://photosbymandee.blogspot.com/

Bound Bound Bound & Rebound

Tonight was not really a great night at work. I won't go into detail, because that's not important. The important part was that many things have been happening and I came home tonight quite discouraged. I posted a status on my facebook after work about what had happened, of course wanting sympathy. Why else do we post the hard things of our lives on our facebooks?

Well I got up to get some kool-aid. By the time I sat back on the couch and put my mac on my lap I already had two responses. "YEESSSSS! Sympathy." One was an uplifting funny comment from my pirate, Sid. The other was from my Love Biscuit, Chad. All he said was "Bound, Bound, Bound and rebound." I knew exactly what this meant and I knew what he was telling me. And you know what? It brought a relaxed smile and a tear to my eye. Yeah. You know what? Things are not as bad as I think they are. I'm doing great. And who cares about one night at work or everything else that is happening. Because they are minute and they mean nothing.This probably means nothing to you, and I'm not feeling like I can take on the world, but I do feel a little more calm about the things I've been stressing about.

Thank goodness I have my jackalope, Chad, around.

Now Sometimes you're up, and sometimes you're down, when you find that you're down, well just look around.  You've still got a body, Good legs, and fine feet. Get your head in the right place, and hey! You're complete!

Revamp!

So one of my  best friends, Shawn, introduced me to This Blog called New Dress A Day. I love love love it. Here's an excerpt from A Yahoo Article on the matter.

"Marisa Lynch set herself a challenge: Transform 365 unattractive frocks in 365 days, for $365. Just before her 30th birthday, she got laid off. To some, losing a job means hitting the streets with a resume or wallowing in grief. But for Marisa, it meant getting the sewing machine out and upcycling thrifted fashions. Every day.

“I was just in this not-feeling-good, crummy kind of mood, and I didn’t know how to kick it,” says Marisa. That’s when Marisa saw the movie, Julie & Julia. “[Julie] was finding something to do every day that made her feel great. I was jealous. I thought, I want to find that.”

Thus, New Dress a Day entered the blogosphere. The task: To make a new fashion piece a day — on a budget of a dollar a day — for an entire year.

Think the uber-frugal budget and tight turnaround requirements can only mean shoddy, unfashionable duds? Not for Marisa. All you have to do is take a quick glance at New Dress A Day to see that while this West Hollywood resident may be short on money and time, she’s never short on style.

She’s also got an imaginative fashion sense, serious sewing skills, and some awe-inspiring powers of transformation. In each of her daily posts, Marisa shares the story — and impressively fugly before photo — of an old vintage dress found at a thrift shop or garage sale. Then comes the chic and cute after photo — along with details of where she wore the new-again outfit and how it was received."

So here's my attempt at making my new dress from an old:

Giant Nightgown thingie I got in India. Loved it when I bought it,  but always wished there was  something more I could do with it

Adding giant button holes on the side for the belt to go through

Then I cut off the bottom to shorten the hem. I wanted this to be a summery dress

I then accessorized with a leather belt and leather shoes I got in Europe!

I'm addicted. In fact I'm heading to the  D.I. right now to find something else to  transform.

A thought on our freedoms and founding fathers and fourth of July

I love Fourth of July. Ever since I was a teenager it's been my favorite holiday. Even more than say...Christmas or Halloween. It is such a patriotic and spiritual holiday. It's poignant and meaningful and you know what else? It draws all americans together. We love our oblong food (Hot dogs, Popsicles, Corn, Shisk A Bobs) and we love our fireworks! 

Traditional Barbecue shiskabob dinner at the Shaffer household!

My mom bought these beautiful flowers which looked just a like a bunch of fireworks! They were GORGEOUS

But past the traditions of our modern days, we have a true love for this country. This country that 364 of the other days of the year we have a tendency to gripe and moan about. But on this day, we love it. We cry over the marches of John Phillip Sousa, we sing songs about this beautiful land from california to New York, from Georgia to Oregon, North to South, East to West. We all sing the same songs, Cry over the same stories, Thank those who came before us or are here now who sacrifice/sacrificed so much to give us what we have today. 

I love American History. I can't get enough of reading about the start of our great nation. Our Founding Fathers were fascinating men to me. And they gave so much for this country, America.

Fifty-six men from each of the original 13 colonies signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. Nine signers were immigrants, two brothers, two cousins. One, an orphan. Their ages ranged from 27 to 70.
There were merchants, businessmen, farmers, professors, doctors, lawyers and even judges. Most were Protestant, while there was one Roman Catholic! (Charles Carrol) They had been educated at schools such as Harvard, Yale, William & Mary, and Princeton! Seventeen of the signers fought for the revolution! Some were generals! Five were captured by the British. Nine died during the revolution. They never saw the birth  of their dream, America. Some lost their sons in battle. Some had their beautiful grand homes looted and burned or taken by the enemy.
I believe it's safe to say that their very words from their sacred declaration, "Our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor," were not said in vain rhetoric.
These men went on to do great things. Two of the signers would be presidents. A few more would be vice. And many would be in congress, judges, etc. These were not wild eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians. They were soft-spoken men of means and education. These men who had the courage to stand up when tyranny was in their face. When they knew that what their own government was doing was wrong.

And their legacy lives on. Men and women have gone on to sacrifice everything. My grandpa fought over in Italy. My cousin flies to keep us safe. And my brother is over in Iraq doing his duty and protecting our freedoms and rights. And for them I am grateful. I am grateful for the men and women who give so much where so much is needed to be given. And on this fourth of July I hope we can say a little prayer of gratitude for the people who have allowed us to have so much.

















Sources: Robert Lincoln, Lives of the Presidents of the United States, with Biographical Notices of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence(Brattleboro Typographical Company, 1839); John and Katherine Bakeless,Signers of the Declaration (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1969); Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-1989 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1989).

The Camera of my dreams

Hey there! So I finally got my holga film developed, but before I show you that, I want to show you Vera's new friend. (Vera is my Holga). I was in Deseret industries and I found an amazing find:

The 1959 Kodak Brownie Reflex 20. Takes 620 film. I am just so into all these old vintage cameras and toy cameras. And I love them! And now that I've had my holga film developed, I am amazed I took those pics! the double exposures turned out phenomenal. There were some I don't even remember taking, but I am in love with them! I love my cameras and like I've said before: I love having something that shows the world like Mandee sees it! I love it so much! So without further ado, because I know tons of you wanted to see them: I give you my first pics of Holmography.

The boardwalk, Coney Island

Ticket booth, Coney Island

The Wonder Wheel, Coney Island

Spring Blossoms

The cutest puppy ever

Rear Window, Upper West Side, NYC, NY

New York Building

The Red Door, NYC, NY

The Skylight, NYC, NY

Upper West Side

Upper West Side

Rear Window 2

Waiting for the subway

NYC, Fisheye Lens

Airplane Wing in Flight, Fisheye Lens

Coney Island

The Boardwalk, Coney Island

Coney Island

Coney Island

Coney Island

Coney Island

The train Ride

The Bridge

The Bridge

Old Justice

The Whitmer Farm

Amish Country

Amish Crossing

Surprised Photographer