The Little Pink Book: On Being Unique

Not doing something because everyone else is doing it is just as bad as doing something because everyone else is doing it.
We all want to be unique but trying to be different for the sake of being different is just as silly as trying to be the same for the sake of being the same. It’s impossible not to be influenced by what everyone else is doing around us. But try to minimize how much that affects your decision making. You may think you’re not letting how the girls dress affect how you dress at all because you dress so different, but probably you’re letting it affect you a lot because you’re choosing to dress so different based on what they’re wearing, not entirely based on what you want to wear.
Girls who want to be different: don’t be afraid of being the same in some ways, no one is truly out on their own planet.
Girls who want to blend in: don’t be afraid of being different is some ways, it will make you stand out for being yourself in a group of clone girls.
People say “be yourself” all the time. But who really knows what that means? We’re constantly on a journey to finding out who we are and experimenting with different versions of ourselves. Instead of “be yourself”, I say “keep trying to discover yourself”. Try new things all the time, you’ll never know what you like until you try it and you could be missing out on something that could make you happy, even if that turns out to be something “lame” like chess club.
You’ll never really figure yourself out completely. Even adults who seem to have everything figured out are constantly discovering new things about themselves and constantly changing.
It’s like that old saying “it’s not the destination, it’s the journey.” your life doesn’t have a destination, it’s just a journey. So just keep going, discovering new things about yourself and the world along the way. Ever evolving, ever changing.

The Little Pink Book

I've been working on the idea for a book in the style of How to Walk in High Heels by Camilla Morton and Confessions of an Heiress by Paris Hilton called The Little Pink Book. It will be full of articles and little tips about everything a girl should know from boys to fashion.

The topics I'm covering include Style: Fashion, Beauty; Home: House, Tech, Party, Food; Social: Boys/Relationships/Love, Friendships, Yourself.

Some articles are pure fun- "rules" for being a girl, fun stuff to do, etc. Some articles are quite serious- about staying true to yourself, dealing with boys, etc. I'm hoping that the book will appeal to girls from teenagers to mid-twenties. I want it to be fun and silly enough that girls will enjoy looking through it, but be full of enough substance that girls will really appreciate it.

I've started writing some articles for it. It will be a work in progress for a while, I'm in no rush. I won't have anything to write for it unless I have some life experiences to inspire my writing, so I think it will be a few years before I'm done.

Occasionally I'm going to post an article I'm working on. Most things I write are just rants, ramblings that I will edit later. So, don't judge me too harshly on my writing, these will just be the rough drafts.

My Fashion: School Fashion Show

In Grade 12 Fashion class, we did a fashion show. These were my two looks that I created and modeled.





The dress was a bridesmaid dress of my mom’s. I cut off the sleeves but kept the cuffs. The dark brown corset is by Costa Blanca. The shoes were a hand-me-down from a friend. I added the white tulle around the neck.























I bought the dress off eBay. The flower pin on the choker came with the dress. The tutu is a real ballerina tutu I got from a friend. The shoes are from Payless. The sleeves are made from a shirt. I spray-painted my fairy wings black.

Something I've Noticed... Nicholas Sparks Movies

While perusing through my movies yesterday (with the amazing Delicious Library program) I noticed a similarity between two Nicholas Sparks movie DVD covers.


Coincidence? Maybe. The DVD covers for A Walk to Remember and Message in a Bottle (other Nicholas Sparks movies) don't have the characters kissing. But then I saw this picture on PerezHilton.com of Miley Cyrus on set filming a Nicholas Sparks movie, The Last Song.


Okay, maybe that’s just what people do when they kiss, and since his movies are super romantic cheese-fests, it makes sense that the DVD covers would be of two people kissing. Maybe I’m just looking too much into this, but… it’s just something I’ve noticed.

There's Something About Mondays

In Grade 12, my two best friends and I made a YouTube series called There’s Something About Mondays. In each episode we talked to the camera and each other about random stuff, our lives, funny things, whatever. We also each had a segment to ourselves. I did celebrity gossip, Addie did music, and Kelsey did fashion. We used nicknames to avoid stalkers. I was L.C. (because those are my actual initials), Addie was Lo (because Lo was L.C.’s best friend on Laguna Beach) and Kelsey was B.B. (because she liked to put vaseline on her lips to make them soft like a baby’s butt). At the end of every episode we danced!

It didn’t last long because they got busy and couldn’t stay at my house after school on Mondays to do the show. There was only about 3 episodes where we were all present, the rest was just me and one of them.

We had a few fans that really loved it, but overall we didn’t get many views. But we and our friends really loved it and I’ve always wanted to do something like it again. I almost did with my friend Kayla last Summer, but we only ended up making a few prank call videos before we “drifted apart” after school started.

I’ve been wanting to make my own sort of variety show like that called Tish.TV, doing stuff like the How To Make a Dress Form Out of Duct Tape video I did with Kim, and Kim and I have a few ideas for videos of us being our crazy selves, so you might be seeing those soon.

In the meantime, you can enjoy the classic There’s Something About Mondays episodes. And maybe someday there will be a TSAM reunion, you never know.

Tish Vocabulary: Smack My Bitch Up

Smack My Bitch Up
Verb, Phrase

to smack one's bitch up is to take one's picture.

ie: Sally Jo, smack my bitch up in front of this funny sign!
Origin: My friends and I thought the song "Smack My Bitch Up" by the Prodigy says "Take my picture, smack my bitch up" so we decided that must mean the same thing. (I just learned the actual lyrics are "Change my pitch up, smack my bitch up", but that doesn't matter.)

Seven Mini Reviews

Zack and Miri Make a Porno
Pretty funny. Only a few grotesque parts, not as many as I was expecting. Cute ending.



Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging
Really cute. Eleanor Tomlinson and Aaron Johnson are beautiful. Not exactly like the book, but a good interpretation. Ridiculously cheesey ending, but it goes with the movie. I love Jas’s hair in the final scene. It’s crazy awesome.



The Tracey Fragments
One of my favorite movies. Story told all backwards and forwards, so pay attention. Edited in multi-frame style. Really interesting to watch. Based on a book I have yet to read.



Spirited Away
Crazy Japanese animated movie. In English, obviously. A The Wizard of Oz/Alice in Wonderland type story. Little girl goes into another world which is a bath house for spirits, crazy adventures, defeats bad guy, comes home. Really interesting and crazy.



American Beauty
Kind of boring. Stories of characters get all twisted together. Will make you feel weird around your friend’s dad from now on. I guess it’s supposed to be all deep and meaningful, but even I didn’t think it was too enthralling.



The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Really good. Really long. Love story, adventures. I liked it.



S. Darko
I’m in love with this movie. Daveigh Chase is so beautiful. Ed Westick is so hot. Jackson Rathbone is so cute. I love the beginning scene when Sam and Cory are on a roadtrip. I thought it would be a lame sequel to a cult classic, but it’s actually really cool. More complex time traveling plot. Some of the same themes from Donnie Darko.

Dirt Cookies

In the recipe book they’re called Boiled Chocolate Cookies but ‘boiled’ doesn’t sound good when talking about cookies. Neither does dirt, but that’s what they look like. That or clumps of manure. You can call them Manure Cookies if you like.
They’re called boiled cookies because you boil up some stuff to make a chocolatey sauce and then you pour oats in, scoop out in clumps and voila, cookies. You don’t need an oven, just a stove top and a pot. I’ve modified the recipe to make it vegan. It’s a great way to get your chocolate fix without actual chocolate or trying to find vegan chocolate.

Ingredients
1/2 cup - margarine
1/2 cup - soy milk
2 cups - granulated sugar
1/2 cup - cocoa

2 1/2 cups - rolled oats

*Optional: coconut and/or chopped nuts included with oats

Directions
Put margarine, soy milk, sugar and cocoa into pot. Bring to a boil stirring often. Boil for 5 minutes.

Remove from heat. Stir in rolled oats about a cup at a time (if you put in too much oats, the chocolate sauce will dry quickly and your cookies won’t stick together and you’ll have a lot of chocolate crumblies). Scoop out spoonfuls as big or little as you like onto wax paper. Let them cool a bit before eating.

Enjoy!

Update: Kim's dad came up with the name Tishy-Poops (cuz one of my nicknames is Tishy-Poo and they look like poops) but I also like Chocolate Crumblies.

Seven Mini Reviews

Role Models
Really funny, of course, it’s Paul Rudd & co. Really cute ending! Like, clasp your hands together going “Awwwwwww!!!!!” cute. Super funny with a nice moral at the end.



The Pursuit of Happyness
Nice, inspiring story about risking everything to go after your dreams. Although this is actually based on a true story, it doesn’t always work out for most people who risk everything, right? Sympathetic character you really root for and, of course, a happy ending.



Waitress
Really sweet story. Cute and meaningful. Love her little daydreams about pies like “My Husband’s Going to Kill Me for Having an Affair Pie”. Makes me want to bake pies. I also like their cute waitress dresses. Nice happy ending, but she totally deserves it, so it’s not cheesey and lame.



Nights in Rodanthe
Nice Nicholas Sparks movie. Not as intense as The Notebook. Love the inn. Sad ending. Average love story, not epic.



Charlie Bartlett
Quirky funny, which I like. Love Kat Dennings. Anton Yelchin (Charlie) is super cute. Love Robert Downey Jr. Half the cast of Degrassi is in this movie, obviously filmed in Toronto.



Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium
Cute kid movie. Dustin Hoffman and Jason Bateman are funny. Natalie Portman is cute, but I don’t like her short hair. Another inspiring “be yourself” movie, nice happy ending.



Tropic Thunder
Really funny. Stupid sometimes, but funny. Love all these actors. Good times.

Me and You and Everyone We Know Shoes

If you’ve seen the movie Me and You and Everyone We Know then you’ll know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t seen it, then you should because it’s really good. Miranda July, the writer/director is a genius.

In the movie Christine buys these pale pink flats because she likes the shoe salesman but doesn’t really need new shoes. When she gets home she writes “ME” on one shoe and “YOU” on the other, then she makes a video of her feet moving closer and further away like they are her and that guy. It’s really cute.


So, one day at Giant Tiger I saw pale pink flats that were pretty much identical to the shoes from the movie, so I had to buy them and write “ME” and “YOU” on them. Turned out that those were really comfortable shoes and I wore them pretty much all summer. Kim would say “me, you, me, you, me, you” as I walked.

Rachel Getting Married

I know I said that I wasn’t going to review any more movies I’ve only seen once, but I just saw this last night and I really loved it so it’s stuck in my mind pretty well.

This is exactly the kind of movie I love. It’s independent, hand-held camera, low budget, and the story is very character driven. I love these kind of indie movies with a simple plot that is really about the characters and that is what the story is about. Nothing grand or exciting happens, it’s just a portrayal of real people in real, or extraordinary, situations.

This movie lets the characters tell the story. Through their conversations and interactions you learn about them, their pasts, and their relationship with other characters. You learn that Kym just got out of rehab for substance abuse, she is responsible for her younger brother’s death, Rachel feels neglected by their father because Kym and her problems always take center stage, and as the weekend goes on, these people get deeper into their issues. It’s enthralling to watch the family dynamic and the drama that unfolds. Watching people that are so messed up is fascinating.

Watching Rachel Getting Married really made me want to be an actor because this is the kind of thing I would love to do. I would love to be able to become such a complete character and especially on indie movies, there is often a lot of improvising and everyone gets input. I would just love to be a part of a movie like this. It’s so real.



Monsters vs. Aliens 3D

Oh my god, 3D is so freaking cool! Not the old school one eye red, one eye blue 3D, this is serious high tech I don’t even know how they do it 3D. The glasses just look like sunglasses and the screen without the glasses on just looked like two layers. It’s magic!

Even without the 3D it was a sweet movie. Really entertaining and funny. And of course a nice moral at the end about being yourself, or whatever.





Okay, I suck at writing reviews of movies I’ve only seen once because the first time I watch purely for entertainment. The second time I can make observations about the cinematography, story, etc. And writing a re-cap is just boring. I don’t want to write down the story I just watched. So from now on I think I’ll only review movies I’ve seen many times and can really analyze. And I’m not going to save you from spoilers.

Australia

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It took me four days to make it all the way through Australia. It’s fairly long, but that’s not why. Well, actually because it’s so long it has so many dramatic climaxes and also many slower parts. I got bored every so often and had to change it up.

It wasn’t the entirely dramatic epic I was expecting. It had comic moments and a tone that reminded me of another great Baz Luhrmann film, Moulin Rouge!. The plot was definitely long and epic. You’ve got an unsuspecting love connection, near-death experiences, business conspiracies, learning to let the people you love go, something for everyone.

If you can handle it, watch it all in one sitting, the way movies are meant to be watched. It’s a really great story if you let yourself get into it.


Friday's Fave Five (minus two)

I was starved for new things to discover this week, so it’s Friday’s Fave Three.

Carrie Bradshaw’s Wardrobe
I recently watched the Sex and the City series for the fourth or fifth time. Although Carrie sometimes wears things that are ridiculous or just plain ugly, generally her style is amazing. I have a few favorite pieces.
Dress she wore to wedding
(Season 2)
Outfit for first day of jury duty
(Season 5)
Last night in New York dress
(Season 6)
First night in Paris dress
(Season 6)
Last night in Paris dress
(Season 6)
Aiden leaves outfit
(Season 4)

Apartment in Interview
I love this movie and I love the giant loft apartment it takes place in. It’s basically just one giant room except for the two bathrooms (one with just the bathtub, on with just the toilet). I love the modern kitchen. I love the curved blue sofa. I love the sheer curtains hiding the bedroom area. I love the big factory-style elevator. I love the big columns throughout. I love the exposed pipes on the ceiling. I love the floor-to-ceiling windows at each end. I love the hammock hanging between columns. It’s my dream apartment (except maybe I’d want an actual bedroom and a walk-in closet a la the Sex and the City movie). I want something huge and open like that. You could roller skate around that place. And it’s got exposed brick walls and exposed pipes, very industrial looking. If I could ever own an apartment like that someday I would be in heaven.

Celebrity Style Website
This site is great for girls who admire celebrity fashion. I myself like to look online at photo galleries of my favorite style stars to just soak up their style. This site has just about every young, stylish star in Hollywood today. My personal favorites include Mary-Kate Olsen, Sienna Miller, Mischa Barton, Miley Cyrus, Nicole Richie, Lindsay Lohan, Rachel Bilson, Megan Fox, and Blake Lively.

Charlotte's Web

From the very first scene, this movie is about killing pigs and, as a vegan, I don’t like that.

Maybe it’s because I watched this movie in pieces, rather than in one sitting, but I felt like there was no plot. There was a pig on a farm, he made friends, the spider wrote things in the web, they went to the fair, spider dies, babies hatch, the end. Even the big dramatic, sad climax wasn’t very sad or dramatic. Charlotte’s like “This is my egg sac. Now I die.” and Wilbur’s like “Okay, I’ll take your egg sack home. Bye, Charlotte.”

The movie is all about making people see that even though he’s just a little runt pig, he’s special and shouldn’t be killed and eaten. I thought that was great, but I got really sad thinking why can’t people see that about every animal? Why should only the cute ones who have spider friends write words in a web get to live? Sure, he wasn’t eaten for Christmas dinner, but what was? Another pig? A cow? A sheep? A duck? A chicken? A goose? What about them? Wilbur wasn’t any more special than any other animal. It’s not fair. All animals are special. Even if they’re ugly and stupid rather than cute pigs that can do back flips, it doesn’t mean they should die. And be eaten.

I suppose this is a lovely children’s story and it teaches them that even the runts of the world are special. I just hope that kid’s also get from this movie that all animals are special and how could they eat a cute little pig for dinner?

Decide for yourself if you want to see this movie. Here's the trailer.



Influence by Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen

I thought the book would be all about their fashion influences, but the girls interviewed more than just fashion designers. They talked to artists, fashion show producers, jewelry designers, photographers, interior designers, as well as fashion designers.

I was inspired by the things the girls’ influences said. Not about their fashion design, or their art but how they described their work ethic and how important it is to work. I got a lot of inspiration from their life stories and how they worked their way to the top. It made me really want to work on all of my creative endeavors so I can be successful someday.

Anyone who is creative in any way should read this book. It’s so inspiring creatively and personally. I really learned a lot from it and I have great respect for Mary-Kate and Ashley as business women. (Personally, though, I don’t have much respect for anyone who thinks it’s okay to wear fur or have a fur bed spread like Mary-Kate does.) I really hope I can be as successful in the creative business world as they are someday.