TheWeeOne recently crested a skill-hill with drawing eyes. I was impressed when she showed me her “tutorial” that she put together for her best friend.
Send me a picture of your eye and I’ll send you a step by step on how to draw it.
I took her photos and plopped them into iMovie, with only a bit of sizing & orienting and wowie was I surprised at the end result.
See for yourself.
Last night the Mermaids danced until after 11PM.
Last night the Mermaids, The Mommy, Siena, HerMommy, myself, Monya, BopOp, Aunt, and Cuz all attended the 7th Annual Renton Film Frenzy Awards Gala, and we had a fantastic time!
And, as it turns out, last night the Mermaids and I won an award.
In the first weekend of October we invited a good friend over and we wrote, filmed, edited, and delivered a four minute movie.
Hairy Potter
When three tweenage muggles find a guide for becoming wizards, like their more famous cousins, they jump at the chance. But things take a turn for the worse when the nincompoop wizard, who wrote the manual, missed an important step.
We had screened the movie, along with the rest of the entrants, last weekend and arrived this night in high hopes, dressed in our party clothes, and (literally) walking the red carpet.
The Mermaids walked it like they’ve done it one hundred times – I suppose, in their minds maybe they have?
They owned it.
The awards started with some introductions and the 3rd place awards and right…about…then all three of my stars got up to go to the restroom!
OY!
[tangent]
The unseen hero here is The Mommy, simultaneously supplying tissue under stall doors, paper towels at the sink, and listening at the door for the announcements over the PA to make sure they wouldn’t miss their moment.
The speed with which they returned set a new precedent that I won’t let them soon forget.
[end tangent]
Back in record time and perhaps ten minutes later we were awarded the Special Judges Award!
The presenter was none other than L. Phillippe Casseus and he gave the Mermaids an excellent compliment saying that he was very impressed with the long takes.
Long-takes are always the hardest and you had some very long ones and you did it SO well!
I didn’t realize the pressure I was putting on them during filming but there were a significant number of very long takes that they pulled off with aplomb. This made the editing job quite a bit simpler!
Congratulations to all of the winners last night.
There is some amazing talent in Renton making films and it’s great to just put our creativity and ourselves out there, into the public, and be part of it with them.
I’m very proud of my Mermaids and their amazing friend for having such great work ethic, excellent creativity, and a fun-loving attitude – together.
Without further ado – the movie – Hairy Potter.
Late yesterday we had some fun in the late summer heat.
All because of Mary; Thanks!
Just a snippet of some kids at play – and one of them had a camera!
Sorry for the loudness of the screaming at ~5 second mark!
The hoop is located at the top left – just over the peak of the house in the background.
It’s that time of year again!
The Mermaids and I all made a movie a couple weeks ago and submitted it to the Renton Film Frenzy VI.
Now we are voting on The People’s Choice.
Once you register you can vote once per day for your favorite Mermaids.
There were three “curveballs” this year.
See if you can spot all three.
The synopsis this year:
A family night of singing takes a turn into the 21st century when two sweet violets record their Grampa singing his favorite song and turn it into one of their own.
http://pnwlocalnews.upickem.net/engine/SubmissionWidget.aspx?PageType=VOTING&ContestID=108652&SubmissionID=45711981
We took this trip to Wallowa (wa ‘la wa) in July because TheWeeOne wanted to meet an Nez Perce indian friend just like her American Girl doll named Kaya (whom she brought in complete pow-wow regalia).
I’m not sure she met with what she expected at this event;
I thought there’d just be lotsa teepees.
…but the weekend proved to be anything but lacking.
We did see, hear, and experience a fair amount of authenticity.
This image is taken from a short video presented on my Instagram account, where you can also listen.
The costumes, singing, and dancing were definitely a high point and a focus of the weekend.
They clearly took their rituals VERY seriously.
The grounds, where the majority of events took place, was well designed…
…and the view out of the south entryway was amazing at sundown – especially so with the teepees on the river.
A horse parade happened one morning, recognizing several individuals who had followed a traditional path to the encampment from Pendleton, on horseback.
TheWeeOne even got a very brief encounter with two of the performers her age.
And the rest of the weekend was spent either driving to and fro…
…or walking on water, near the cabin we reserved, just outside of Joseph.
It was a great little place called Trouthaven. The sunset on the hills even reflected gold in the water
(NO retouching here)
And we even saw some hard-to-find wildlife.
TheMermaids, ever the chameleons, went a little native themselves in a very short time.
Yesterday we celebrated my cousins’ graduation from high school!
Congratulations Ian!
There are pictures on Facebook and all.
There were lots of cousins around.
But I’m here to share my first ever “funniest home video” moment.
The men-folk were sitting in the yard swapping stories about the days before arthritis, perhaps even the days that caused arthritis, and I was keeping half an eye on The Mermaids playing in the hammock with their cousin (once removed).
Mostly because I found myself facing their direction.
They had been playing on the hammock for most of the past two days and maintaining sanity, as most mermaids might tend to do, but this time I noticed they had finally begun stepping outside the proverbial envelope.
So, without much regard for personal safety, I whipped out my trusty video recording device and voila!
Last weekend Wee was “helping” me fix things in the garage – but she got bored.
So she asked,
Can I draw something?
uhhhh, yeah!?
And in the cold of the garage she started, very quietly and deliberately.
After 20 minutes I was done with my task and told her I would move upstairs if she needed me – she followed a short time later with her pad and pencil in hand.
After 30 minutes she paused to ask about the black pencil lead all over her hand but during the entire hour she only paused to stare out the window for short periods of time while she considered…something.
I didn’t pay much attention, happy to have some “peace and quiet” doing my own thing.
Suddenly (to me) she announced she was done and asked me if I’d like to hear her story.
I’m lucky I had the wherewithal to start a recording and later I took pictures of her drawings.
She also defined the title of her story, on the fly, while telling me the story and, based on that, she drew the cover page at the end.
I’ve compiled the pieces, together here, in a video as narrated by the author and illustrator.
I heard about The Harlem Shake meme on the way home from a bike ride (on NPR) and learned that A) it’s super easy B) it’s super doopid (perfect for me) and C) sounded like fun.
If you don’t know (or remember) what the Harlem Shake meme is you can read about it here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlem_Shake_(meme)
Knowing that Grande was having a friend (let’s call her Twinnie) over for a sleepover, I gave it some thought (not much), and then Wee and I produced this first one (mostly) ourselves.
Then Grande and her friend Twinnie (and of course myself) decided we wanted to get in on the action. Live and in-person, we provided no end of entertainment for TheMommy and TheCassie.
Amazing how fun that is.
Come one, come all…to the free screening of Girls In Ghostland tonight at the Renton Civic Theater at 7PM.
See the article in the Renton Reporter here: http://www.rentonreporter.com/news/175282201.html
blief 