InstagRandomness

I am so tired.

I mean, I am flat-out, fall-on-your-face, dear-God-I-should-not-be-driving exhausted. Poor Thomas is, too. I'd like to blame it all on the time change, but we've been burning the candle at both ends for so long now, this was bound to happen. At this point, I'm sitting upright. Please don't ask any more of me...and pass the coffee. Thank you.

Now, for your viewing entertainment, I give you: Random Instagram Photos! InstagRandomness, if you will. If you enjoy these, you can follow me @adorablenapalm. I don't have a hashtag (I'm not hip with all this newfangled social media hullaballoo. In my day, I had to dial-up to get to the world wide web. I had to wait for a connection and listen to a whole lotta screeching, just so I could reach America Online. Also, I'm apparently 106 years old now.) but I am always open to suggestions.

And now, the InstagRandomness!

Considering the March ipsy bags have already started arriving, I should probably show you a picture of the February bag. I actually took about two-dozen photos, with close-ups, swatches...the whole nine yards...and they all turned out orange. All of them. This was the best one of the bunch.

My bag contained Zoya nail polish in Odette, City Color Be Matte blush in Fresh Melon, Tini Beauty Eyetini in Spiced Rum, POP Beauty lip gloss in Peony Petal, and a Nume hair mask. The bag was a very cute hot pink with pink leopard lining.

Briefly, the Zoya is a lovely plum cream. For me, the name Odette conjurs up visions of soft white feathers, but this is beautiful, just the same. The blush is ginormous, crazy pigmented, and the perfect Spring-y coral. It's sitting in my current rotation. The Eyetini is fabulous. It's a rich bronze cream that applies easily, blends well, and reminds me a lot of my favorite MAC eyeshadow, Woodwinked. I lucked out with the POP Beauty lip gloss. It seems that several subscribers had issues with a gasoline-like smell, but mine is fine, so far. The rubber cap does have a distinct rubber odor, but that's to be expected. The gloss itself is more like a liquid lipstick. It's opaque, a pretty orange-leaning pink, and stays on fairly well. It's not my favorite thing, but I've worn it quite a bit. Lastly, the Nume hair mask conditions nicely and smells of Patchouli (to me, anyway). All in all, February was a very good bag month.

Now, if you've been reading this blog for any length of time, then you probably have noticed my complaining about the renovations we're doing to our sunroom. Well, folks, here's a sneak peek:

The walls are Orange Spice (or Spiced Orange? I can't remember) from the Better Homes and Gardens collection at Walmart. The door is Tierra Brown from the same line. The blue is painter's tape, and I'd better get used to it, because it has embedded itself into the walls and glass. Yay.

The floor is mostly done, now (just a few more planks. Thank God), but here's a shot of the new floor going over the old laminate tile.

I am in love with this floor. The wooden planks are actually stick-down vinyl tile! You can cut it with scissors (and I have...oh boy, have I ever). The brand is Style Selections in Antique Woodland Oak, and Thomas and I found it at Lowe's. If I hadn't put it down myself, I'd never believe it was stick-down tile. It even feels like real wood. Ah-maze-ing!

This little "weekend project" has been going on for a solid month and a half. Of course, we did take one weekend off to go to the brand-new Pensacon convention in Pensacola. Remember, this was the first year EVER of this con. First. Year. Now, look at the vendor floor:

Holy hordes of people, Batman! There were eleven thousand attendees on Saturday. Not over the course of the weekend. Saturday. That's nuts. And awesome. We were there Saturday and Sunday, and had an absolute blast. I got to see Axel from The Walking Dead, and nearly bumped into Nicholas Brendon in a hallway. It was magical. If you get a chance, read the article I linked to and join me in being highly impressed with this fledgling con.

In addition to celeb-spotting and souvenier shopping, Thomas got to participate in a panel on Indie Filmmaking. I sat in the front row and grinned like an idiot while snapping pictures. I'm so proud of him. There were six other highly accomplished speakers, and we were so honored to have Fighting Owl counted among their work.

So, this happened...

I kind of love him. He sits in our office/studio, next to a shadow box filled with zombie faces. That seems fitting. My voice students haven't had a chance to meet him, yet, so I'll have to let you know how that goes. The dog likes him. He also likes the Krampus. However, Batman is not allowed anywhere near him. The chihuahua may not be the best judge of character...

Speaking of Ronnie, I leave you with a visual representation of the word "spoiled":

I love that little face. Both those faces, actually. :)

No Shouting, Crying, or Pouting--Krampus Is Coming To Town!

You know, I've always considered myself a holly jolly Christmas kind of person. The weekend after Thanksgiving, my living room and tree are decorated within an inch of their lives. My gifts tend be ordered by Halloween and wrapped by Black Friday, and I spend most of the Fall googling cookie recipes. There have been years where Buddy the Elf would have looked at me and thought, "Dear sweet baby gumdrops! Dial it back a little!" So, imagine my surprise a couple of years ago when Thomas introduced me to the Krampus.

What? What was this Christmas thing I'd never heard of before? OH...it's a demon-thingy that eats children...lovely. OH...just the kids on Santa's "Naughty List"? Well, that's...so much better?

Actually, yeah. It kind of is.

I kind of dig the Krampus.

Last year, Thomas wrote and directed a sequel to our feature, The Night Shift, centered around the mythical figure. He thought it would be fun to do a holiday special with a talking skeleton. When he realized it could also have a moral that might scare bratty little urchins straight, the deal was sealed. Over Christmas and New Year's, we shot a made-for-TV (and Internet...and DVD...) movie about the Krampus. Last week, it finally aired on local television. It was between Johnny Carson and C.S.I. Miami. For reals.

I took a picture.

That's me!! I'm blue!! (Darn camera hates TV screens)

Thomas worked insanely hard to get this to happen, and I'm so proud of him. From the Facebook comments and posts we saw, I think a fair amount of people from Mobile and Pensacola tuned in, and they seemed to enjoy it. It was intended to be an all-ages fantasy/adventure, and I know of at least one kindergartener who watched it from behind the sofa--twice!

The Friday before (Friday the 13th, natch), we screened the film at the Downtown Art Walk, in the coolest industrial artist's space. It's an old building that has been completely gutted, and is used by local artists as both a work and gallery space. The walls are dotted with an ecclectic variety of styles and mediums, while jewelry, pottery, and even hand-crafted furniture fill the open floor area. Even the rafters are artistic, with hand-painted glass pendant lights, and an absolutely gorgeous twinkle-light encrusted rustic chandalier. I just...I wish I had a picture, but I was too stunned to take one. Our set-up was on a covered stage, surrounded by art and lights, and was just unbelievably funky and awesome.

It was really crowded (yay!), so this was the best I could do. Trust me, though; it was amazing.

By now, you might be wondering what the devil the movie's about. Well, it's about our lead characters from The Night Shift, as they investigate the disappearances of several of the area's "naughty" children in the days before Christmas. It is a sequel, but you don't have to have seen the first film to understand what's going on. It stands alone pretty well.

During the shoot, I Instagrammed a few pics (@buddybear1221) of "Kramps", other actors, props, etc., and thought I'd pull out the better ones for a little jaunt down memory lane. 'Cause, really, why not? What else are we doing? We're playing around on the interwebs, that's what.

Here's one of our principal Krampus, Brendon, in costume. Looking at the final film, you'd never know that this scene was shot around 9am. That's our lovely P.A., Amanda, photobombing.

"Naughty!"

If you look carefully, you might spy a prime example of my holiday over-achiever-iness (a real word, I swear) in the form of a chocolate gingerbread house. Ladies and gentlemen, I made this. It took either three or four bricks of almond bark, peppermint sticks, a cookie, M&Ms, vanilla icing, candy dots, gumdrop mushrooms, several hours, a string of curse words, and the threat of divorce.

This year, I'm making cookies.

And, of course, while I had leftover melted chocolate, I figured I'd make sugared marshmallows. These were actually suprisingly easy, and looked beautiful wrapped in cellophane and attached to gift bows. I swear, I think something inside me snapped last year, and I became a somewhat rabid combination of Martha Stewart and Clark Griswold. Family and friends, I apologize. I had no idea until just now.

It's like a tiny, shimmering, sugar coma-inducing forest.

This is completely off-topic, but what the hey? This year, I tried the marshmallows again, but with jumbo marshmallows and crushed graham cracker. They're heat-free s'mores! They're nowhere near as pretty as their sugar-coated brethren, but they sure did taste fantastic.

They look...fuzzy...but they're tasty!

This next picture is actually from a deleted scene (that is available on the DVD as a special feature), but is probably my favorite shot from filming. One of our awesome child actors had to jump off the bottom step of the staircase, and managed to get some impressive hangtime.

I love the hat. Insert your own "Elf On the Shelf" joke here.

In conclusion--because it's my blog, my rules--here's a sickeningly cute picture of my adorable puppy in last year's Christmas jammies. Nothing to do with Krampus, other than the fact that the dog likes Krampus. Thomas wasn't allowed in the house in his Batman Halloween costume, but Krampus was deemed okay. Let me say that again: Batman, the Dark Knight, is not allowed in the house, but Krampus, the eater of children, is.


I need professional help. And more jammies. He's so cute!!


If you'd like to see Night of the Krampus, here you go. It's gotten some wonderful reviews, for which we are entirely grateful (here's one from Ain't It Cool News), and we just broke 1,000 views on youtube. We're used to counting our views in the hundreds (if that), so I'm really excited. Thanks to everyone who's watched it and shared it! We really appreciate it!

So, here you go. Merry Christmas, and don't let the Krampus get you!