TGIF

Friday, thank goodness... wasn't sure I was going to make it through this week! I managed to survive my Canada trip and U.S. customs kindly welcomed me back to the States. I have not been my chipper self these last few weeks and it's catching up with me. The tell tale signs of Amber being unhappy have kicked in. The house is not nearly as spotless as it usually is... The manicures and pedicures have gone along the wayside... and my gym membership is getting a little dusty. I'm just not focusing on my upkeep! It's funny how something flagged me on Facebook today and reminded me what I was doing a year ago. Apparently I was at the shooting range falling in love with a gun!

Luckily in the midst of my pity party my sister came to stay a few days. We are throwing a dinner party tonight for my usual gang. This is generally my method of motivation! It forces me to do something I love, eat, drink, entertain and cook... while also making me clean the house! So I am headed to the market to gather some goods and get to work....

Read an article the other day by Bethaney Frankel... and strangely I got something out of it.. I've never been a fan of hers, actually knew nothing about her but this is something I will elaborate on later...

Bye for now.

Oh Canada...

I am sitting in my hotel room getting settled for bed. I am in London, Canada, just outside of Toronto on a business trip. I picked up this distributor in July and they have invited me to their internal trade show/expo to educate their sales force and meet some of their key dealers. I do this every year in Texas, but this is my first trip to Canada, as this is a new distributor. Nothing exciting there, other than the fact that this is a new group for me, and I'm the new girl in town! Of course I've only just arrived and haven't really set up... but not too shabby!

On a side note, I met a really cute guy on my flight out here. Go figure... apparently I tend to do better in confined spaces with captive audiences! This guy happened to be traveling to Toronto for a film festival... and I happen to NOW be a set designer! Crazy, I would have never had anything in common with this guy until now. While the conversation was casual, we did manage to trade magazines... he gave me his InTouch, and I gave him my Rolling Stones! (strange!) I now know all of his contact info including his address, and he knows mine! We all know what happened last time I contacted someone I met on a flight... let's see if I get the courage to do it again!

For now I am going to focus on my trade show... I mean c'mon... French Canadian... I'll have something in common with my sister!

How many hours in a day?

So yesterday was killer... For some reason I woke up at 3:30 am, obviously my nerves. Too much going on in this head of mine. We started the second location shoot, which originally I predicted to be easy... the only thing it was easy on was the budget. I got there at 10:30am to prep the set and get my work done... I did not leave until 2am. Basically I am beat today!

It took forever to get things rolling yesterday. The first scenes took nearly 5 hours. Then flip the cameras to get different angles... No wonder movie prices are so high! All in all it was a great day and night of filming. I happened to be sitting with the guy who archives all the film prior to sending it to editing so I caught glimpses of what is to come. I even managed to watch my scene from Friday... thinking I should fill out my SAG application!

All in all I am doing a fantastic job keeping busy and preoccupied...

OH and on a side note.... RANDOM text from Mr. P! Didn't see that one coming and threw me for a second. It was a quick chat, nothing crazy, just a friendly hello. Nice to know you cross peoples minds...

Asta la Vista....

It's the official end of summer. The beaches will be bare tomorrow, not as if they weren't today. I spent my final summer weekend at my friends beach house in San Clemente, unfortunately so did the clouds and rain drops. Did they not get the memo that we were entitled to one last weekend?

We had a mellow and relaxing weekend sans sun and sand. This morning I awoke early to watch the sunrise on the beach and feel the spray of the waves. I realized this was my 6th weekend in a row of being away from home. Apparently I have a problem with where I live... no surprise to me! After packing up from the beach house, I took my girl and we headed up PCH for a drive. We stopped for a quick bite to eat, and later on met some friends to chat. It was obvious I was delaying our drive to return home. I can't wait to get out of this town, luckily I am nearly a third of the way through my real estate school. Thanks to the help of my dear friend Jeff!

This week should be a short and quick one for me. Tomorrow we begin filming at our second location. This one happens to be an actual residence that only needs some de-cluttering and major space planning. Not too much of our budget will be going into this shoot. I plan to get up early, get my girl to school, head off to work for a brief bit and then head to the location and get to work. Luckily this is only a one day shoot as opposed to the last one that lasted 3 days.

Thursday I am headed to Toronto for a trade show for Blingstar. I am excited to visit Canada, even if it is only Toronto for a few days. It is always nice to get away and just sell. It happens to be something I am very good at.

Friday and Saturday I was busy with "art direction". Friday was our first day of filming and for the most part all went well. Saturday I had to redress the set and focus on the continuity of the props. I am beginning to recognize this stuff in the shows I watch now. After filming I headed to the race track with my dear friend. It has been years since I have been to the track. This is something I completely relate to my ex. His family has been into horse racing forever. In fact at one point, he and I owned our very own race horse. I managed to get into a few areas of the track as an "owner". I forgot how much I missed this sport, the atmosphere and the people.

I am beginning to notice how much I am longing for two particular individuals. I wonder how much time must pass before they aren't in my thoughts. Mr. P and Mr. D have set the bar high for the next guy. Mr. D actually took Mr. P out of the equation for awhile... but with Mr. D moving into the "friend" category and our infrequent chats... Mr. P is in my thoughts again. For now I will continue to focus on my work... luckily I have plenty to keep me preoccupied. And when the time is right... the next one will present himself to me.

Casting Call

Rise and shine.... Today is an early day for me. We have our first scenes being shoot today. Lucky for me this is the easiest set. It is an exterior warehouse scene which requires minimum dressing. This scene however, is where I make a cameo appearance as a caterer. So I am off early to set the props, next head over to hair and makeup, and then make my acting debut!

I am loving this new area of design. It is no comparison to anything I have done before. With regular design and event planning, generally I am working with new items. With this particular project I don't believe we have purchased anything new. We have shopped craigslist and every thrift store in our area. In fact, yesterday as we were heading home from delivering a load of furniture to one of the locations we grabbed a sofa off the side of the road! The sets being designed consist of a governors office, a warehouse reception office, the interior and exterior of a warehouse, and two "crash" pads. Also their is an actual residence being filmed one night and a press conference scene. All in all very random, messy and for the most part cluttered rooms that can't look new!

Hopefully I will have tons more to share tonight after filming. For now its off to the set.... and "ACTION"