Bald Caps

So, the topic last week at school, was bald caps. We learned how to make them and apply them. We started the week out by making latex bald caps. We then learned how to apply them onto our models. After that, we learned how to apply plastic bald caps. Plastic bald caps are much easier, seeing as the sides don't tear and they don't get holes in them.  On Friday, I had my final for bald cap week. I had to take a written test as well as a practical... yet I didn't have a model. We usually use each other in class as models, but there were 2 girls absent meaning my partner was not there. We were scrambling around trying to find someone, but to no avail. I decided to call Blaine, who was at work. I asked him if he could come down to be my model, to save me from receiving an Incomplete or having to retake it at the end of the course, which by then... I probably will forget how to do it. Blaine talked to his manager and he was kind enough to let him come out to Hollywood from Calabasas to help me with school. 

The process:

I first had to get Blaine's hair down by using gel and bobby pins.

I then fit the cap to his head. I glued the front, the back and then the sides down.

I then have to take a Q-Tip and 99% alcohol and go around the whole cap to blend the edges.

Once that is done, I paint it. The paint itself takes 30 or so minutes just to mix. You have to make sure that it matches your models skin color exactly...or at least pretty dang close.

So after I painted the cap, I blended the edges, added a bit of water and powdered the cap. The end result:

This week we are doing Old Age. We use prosthetics and makeup to make people look old. I didn't go to school today, because of my ears. I woke up Thursday morning with a terrible ear ache. I couldn't hear anything and there was blood/discharge coming out of it! I went to Urgent Care and it turns out I have an inner and outer ear infection in both of my ears. They put me on Amoxicilan, Vicodin and two sets of ear drops. They're getting better, but it is still painful.

Blaine and I were going to go have a picnic at the Griffith Observatory yesterday, but we couldn't because of my ears. On Saturday though, we had a really good day...

It started out by me making biscuits and gravy with hashbrowns. Then we got ready and walked down to Nigel's Beauty Supply to get some stuff I needed for school. After that, we walked to Walgreens so I could pick up the last of my ear meds. Then, we drove to Burbank Town Center. We ate lunch at Chipotle and then saw Watchmen. I didn't like it at all. There were some good parts to it, but as a superhero movie, I gave it 2 thumbs way down. When the movie was out, we walked to Coffee Bean so I could get a coffee and then we went to Haagen Daaz so Blaine could get a milkshake. We came home and played Katamari for the rest of the night and fell asleep together on the couch.......holding xbox controllers! haha

Blaine is going to make us Snickerdoodle cookies tonight. He is doing the dishes right now (since I cooked dinner, he is doing the dishes) and when he is done, we are going to Ralphs to pick up the ingredients for cookies. 

=)

Hawaiian Haystacks

So Blaine and I just got done grocery shopping. We went to Fresh and Easy, which is our favorite place. They have a lot of really interesting recipes and already made meats. For example we bought pork chops stuffed with apples and cinnamon. We were hesitant, but figured we would try something new. I'm going to make a new recipe that I found online. It's chicken breasts stuffed with feta cheese and you pour marinara sauce over it once it's cooked. Right now, Blaine is making us Hawaiian Haystacks. It's a recipe that his mom has used for ages. It's white rice with cream of chicken poured over it. On top of that, you put mexican cheese over it, add pineapple and crunchy noodles on top. You can also add chives and onions too, which makes it really good. I took some pictures of Blaine cooking tonight. =)

I also just completed my first week of school at Cinema Makeup School. It's so cool there. The people are really awesome and the teachers are so cool. They also have all kinds of cool movie props/creatures. The director of the school helped create Gollum from Lord of the Rings, so they have the actual puppet displayed in the school. We also work on what are called 'tuffy heads'. Basically what they are, are molds of peoples faces placed on sticks. They're made of foam rubber so we can work on them instead of models if we need more practice. The cool thing is, we have a bunch of different actor's molds and I got to work with Brad Pitts. It was so strange, but really awesome. Speaking of Brad Pitt, the makeup artist who just won the Oscar for Benjamin Button, will be coming in to the school in a couple of weeks to speak to us. He also did the upcoming Watchmen movie... I have so many questions.

I'm starting off in the character class. I will pretty much be doing hair work, bald caps, aging makeup (making people look old) and also doing bruises/injury simulation. My first week consisted of hair work. We started with doing mutton chops, moved into goatees and then did a full beard.  Here are some pictures of the work I did. Keep in mind that the way the hair is applied strand by strand. It's very tedious, but it's so much fun. Here are some pictures....

Right Side Mutton Chop Small
Left Side Mutton Chop Bigger Size
Front View of Both Sizes of Mutton Chops


Goatee

Professor Sicotte...
Right Side View of Full Beard
Left Side View of Full Beard
Front View of Full Beard
Also in dealing with hair, we create different looks using only cream makeups. Mostly things like 5 o'clock shadow and next when we do bald caps, we can use cream makeups to make them look like a shaved head. Anyway, Blaine was nice enough to let me practice, so below are a couple of pictures of his 5 o'clock shadow I did using only cream makeups.

Blaine Before (Clean Shave)
Blaine with 5 o'clock shadow using cream makeups

Hobo! =)

Here's some of my equipment...

I've been so happy lately. I've been able to spend so much more time with Blaine. Like I said in an earlier post, the biggest thing I missed with him, was having dinners. Like tonight, we just sat in the kitchen hanging out. He was cooking and I hung out at the bar on the Mac. We just talked and listened to music.... it was nice. We also went on a hugeee cleaning spree this weekend. It started yesterday when we went to Target and bought tubs to organize our patio. My dad gave us these plastic shelving units we can put our tubs in to place on the patio. We finally finished yesterday and we have so much room now on our patio. I also put my shelves up finally and was able to get everything organized. Blaine and I scrubbed floors, toilets, sinks, walls.... we did major clean. Our apartment doesn't even get too dirty actually, just cluttered. 

Anyway, Blaine and I are going to go play some video games. We have to get up early tomorrow to go workout so we can't stay up too late. We are also having movie night tonight. We are going to watch Slumdog Millionaire. We bought some popcorn and sodas so we can feel like we're at the movies. 

Until next time...

Alphabet Soup

I start school next week... on Monday, I am so stoked! Today was my last day at my job with Time Warner Cable. The school gives the students jobs while we're in session for the 18 weeks and after. Also, since I did so well while at Time Warner Cable, they offered me a position to come back if I so choose. I'm hoping I will be successful enough with this makeup industry out here, that I won't even have to worry about it, however, it is extremely comforting knowing that if I need a job, I will have one waiting in the wings. I am also extremely nervous about this change, but I'll never know unless I take a risk, right?

I am also looking forward to my schedule change. I will have a more in sync schedule with Blaine so we're going to start a work out routine! He has to leave by 6:30am and I'll have to leave by 8am so we're going to work out at 5 am! It's early, but it feels so good, especially early in the morning. It gives you so much energy throughout the day, including positive endorphins. They just built a new work out room in our complex and it's massive! It's literally the size of a Pure Fitness or something... it's two stories, has several treadmills, weight stations... it even has spin classes with video monitors. The video monitors are the teachers! Isn't that nuts!

This schedule change will not only be good for working out, but Blaine and I will finally be able to have dinners together again. With how our schedule has been for the past few months, he comes home at 5pm, I come home at 1230-130am and pretty much go to sleep. I really miss making dinners with him and enjoying them together. It's the small things like that, I do with Blaine, that I cherish the most. I just love cooking in the kitchen, with all of the cats running around and Blaine sitting in there with me while we listen to music. It's usually Jim Noir or Mae. =) We found a Fresh and Easy not too far from us that we love shopping at. If you've never been to Fresh and Easy... go! They have the freshest meats (NOT FROM MEXICO!!!) and the best ways to make quick dinners. It's all mostly healthy food and really cheap. Blaine and I used to walk over to the Fresh and Easy in Mesa when we worked at AT&T.  Oh.... days at AT&T... 

We're going out to Arizona this weekend. We're leaving Thursday night and coming home Sunday. We're both really excited because we get to see our family and also our friends. I'm going to be spending one of the days with my pops, just him and I. He's going to take me to look at his new house he just bought. While I do that, Blaine is going to go see his friends in Gilbert that he hasn't seen for awhile. We're also going to see Blaine's family ( I consider them mine also =]). We always visit Ryan and Jamee when we go out there and have such a blast. We love them and their kids so much! They're always so gracious and kind to let us come over and hang out. It's really cool for me, because I only had my immediate family growing up, it's nice to have some extended family. I know Blaine and I aren't married, but I don't believe that defines family 100%. We've been together for 2 years and I really appreciate his family. =) I always have this fear, that when we go there, his nephews will not remember me! haha

Well, it's 2:48 in the morning and I'm tired. I fell asleep a bit earlier this evening which is why I am up so late now. Blaine and I played video games for hours tonight. We're both still getting over our sickness, so we've been pretty lazy. We're going to the grocery store tomorrow and I"m not sure what else we're going to do. We kind of just take things day by day.  =)

Have a good night.

2 years

Blaine and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary on February 3rd. We didn't do anything that day, because we both had to work opposite schedules. However, when I came home that night... this is what I found on the counter:

On February 4th, I took Blaine to see one of his favorite bands, Circa Survive. I took some pictures from the show, but they're pretty dark...

On February 5th, Blaine and I had plans to go to the beach and eat at Duke's. It's a restaurant on the beach that has a gorgeous view at night. Romantic right? Well it's in Malibu, which is about 30 minutes from us. It started to rain in the morning and never stopped. Unfortunately, we were unable to go to the beach and didn't want to drive too far. We decided to go to Outback and then we went and got Haagen Dazs ice cream. Since we got rained out, we're going to more stuff on Valentines day.

On another note, Blaine has the flu and it's been so bad. He had a fever last night of 103 and at the same time, has chills. I stayed home from work today to take care of him. I went and got him soup, gatorade and orange jello. He's sleeping right now, but I'm hoping he will get better. 

I also decided to clean the apartment today. It wasn't really messy, just cluttered. I've also been washing sheets/blankets all day because Blaine has been sweating so badly, that they've started to stink. 

I really like this picture, even though it's blurry. Harvey is sooo attached to Blaine. =)

Taking a risk

So today, I have finally enrolled into Cinema Makeup School here in Hollywood. I am taking their Master Makeup Program. It is an 18 week course that starts with Beauty makeup I will learn the basics in beauty and then I will also learn airbrushing, along with high fashion avant gard looks. After that, I will go into character makeup which involves bald caps, fake hair application, injury simulations (burns, scars...you know gross stuff!). After that, it will lead into prosthetics, where I will sculpt and construct a creature. After that, I will go into special effects where I will make my creature come to life. Basically, I will paint it, add blood tubing and actually apply it onto a human being. Here are some examples of the work done at the school:

High Fashion Beauty

Character Makeup



Prosthetics




Special Effects





I'm so excited to get started on this. I start classes on February 23rd and it goes until June. While I am in school though, they give you jobs on different film sets and studios. I hope that this is something I will be good at. I love the creativity and artistic aspects of it.

A little late but...

Christmas pictures! I'm so lazy when it comes to uploading pictures. I still haven't figured out this Macbook completely yet either, which doesn't help. Anyway, these are the pictures of our Christmas. Christmas with family was separate, since we're in California. I don't have those pictures yet... only the one from the Christmas Blaine and I shared. We went to the Cheescake Factory for our Christmas Dinner (we celebrated a week early) and then spent the night enjoying Christmas cookies, video games and movies. Here are some pictures...

Blaine flew me out to North Carolina to see my mom for my Christmas present. It was exactly what I needed. I've been having a hard time dealing with her being so far away from me. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and continues to have a good new year!