Elsa Mora

There is a branch for every bird! :)

The other day I went to Ross and got this wonderful little jacket (first picture) for $12.99. I was walking through the alleys of the store where thousands of pieces of clothes were waiting for their perfect buyers, but non of them talked to me. I was ready to go when I heard something, like psshhshh... WHAT? (I said) Then I looked to my right side and there it was! I saw the little jacket looking straight at me like saying: YES, it's me, you found me!. And I said: ABSOLUTELY, I am taking you with me little jacket! I felt in love with the design, the color, the fabric and the attractive numeric combination of 12dot99 :o!. Once in my studio I saw this bird and brach and CLICK! I immediately got inspired to do something with the jacket! In the second photo you can see what I did. This was a very simple thing to do: I just drew the bird and branches on the fabric with a regular pencil and then I filled up the shapes with this textile paint using a brush. I then ironed the fabric from the back to fix the paint.
Yay!!! Now my little jacket and I are like best friends and we go out together looking happy!

Have a wonderful day and see you tomorrow!
Elsita :)

(I am sooo glad to know that you liked the little buttons from our last giveaway! Thank you for participating in the game!!!)

Oscars Report! (PART TWO)

AND HERE IT IS!!!!! The most SPECTACULAR Oscar photo ever of Bill and Elsita!!!! The only unfortunate thing is that couple filling up 99% of the picture. I cannot understand why some couples just want to steal all the attention from other couples!!! These two people (no idea who they are) decided to stand there and be the center of attention for several minutes. There is nothing to do about it, these things happen all the time :o

YAY!!!!!!! Let's give a 10 to the Indiana Jones man!!!!! I already told you the story about how I meet Harrison Ford for the first time. This man has all my admiration and respect and love for being sooo real. His partner Calista Flockhart is always polite and formal. I have never talked with her in order to get the feeling of how she is but she seems to be a great person. Thank you Calista for loving your man! And thank you Harrison for loving her back! Viva el amor!!!

Harrison Ford and I had one thing in common the night of the Oscars: we desperetely needed a glass of water! Before we all got to see each other Harrison and Calista and Bill and I walked to the same place looking for a glass of water right after we got to the second floor of the theatre. Harrison arrived two seconds before I did and got his water but when I asked for the same thing I was told that they weren't still open :o Thank you Mister Waiter, there is always the restroom where water is found in unlimited quantities! But before the restroom we shaked hands with Harrison Ford and his girl, they were looking really happy together! :)

So, after I found the source of water and came back to the big room we went to our sits and got ready for the fun spectacle. Tara Taraaaa!!! Everything started and in my opinion our host Jon Stewart was really funny. He made everyone laugh so much!

And here is when all the unexpected things start happening to some members of the audience and I am going to tell you one of them: An old man who seemed to be one of the members of the academy, sitting a few feet away from us needed to go out for a sec and on his way back he fell down and broke his front head. In less than a second two paramedics arrived with a wheelchair in order to take him away but he said NO WAY! They really tried to convince him about leaving the place but he was firm and said the word NO several times, the paramedics then realized that he wasn't going to move at all so they left promising to come back if he felt like leaving. Now the old man's companion (this beautiful girl who was probably his granddaughter) took good care of his wound and he stopped bleeding, in the end the cut was really tiny. He enjoyed the rest of the event and we were all happy for him!!! Great job old man, just because you're old it doesn't mean that they have to carry you away in a wheelchair as if you were a criminal!

Now two words about the girl up here in the picture: Cameron Diaz. She is such a GREAT dancer! When we were waiting for the show there was some energetic music playing and she was the only one in the whole place dancing, she could not resist the music and just looking at her made you want to dance too. And here I have the explanation to this: she has some Cuban blood since her father Emilio Diaz is a second generation Cuban-American. It is a very latino thing to move your body whenever there is music playing and I was happy to see that some of the musical cells from Emilio Diaz were passed to his beautiful daugher! let's give her a 10 for good dancer and for best smile too!

Now what happens during the commercial brakes? EVERYTHING HAPPENS! You get to know your neighbor; people get up and talk with each other. The stars get to say hi to their friends and hug each other and have little talks. Some people go to the restrooms. MANY people eat their snacks and MANY others feel like they are going to faint because they didn't bring anything to eat. The host makes the best jokes of the night. Little girls that come with their parents fall sleep or want to go home. People read the book that they always print for the event. Girls admire other girl's dresses... you won't believe it but many of my favorite dresses were not exactly from the stars but from other girls and I realized that most of them were vintage pieces found probably at thrift stores. Some of them were REALLY special, there was one in particular that I can still see clearly in my mind! The color was this antique pink, it's really hard to see a beautiful dress with this color that's why I was so impressed.

Now talking about the stars; these were some of my favorite dresses:

Amazing color, very subtle and smart.

So simple and elegant and fluid.

The work with the roses was AMAZING.

A work of art, sophisticated and perfect.

This one has to be seen in person, the picture doesn't make justice to it. The embroidery work was sooo beautiful!

Best shape, so feminine.

Beautiful and glamorous.

Spectacular and dramatic. It looked really amazing in motion.

And in this last picture you can see Alberto Iglesias (who got an Oscar nomination as I said before for the music that he created for The Kite Runner) and his beautiful girlfriend Cristina. She used to be a ballerina and now she goes to Film School, one day she might get her own Oscar!. And here is a nice detail: the dress that she is wearing is from Penelope Cruz! Doesn't she look beautiful! Let's give a 10 to Penelope Cruz for best friend! And another 10 to Cristina for most beautiful guest!!!

And now I have to say HASTA LUEGO!
But I will be back with more!
See you tomorrow!!!!!
Elsita :)

Oscars Report! (Today: INTRODUCTION)

Hello my friend!!!!!
And here I am with my Oscars report!!! (Part One)
As always there is so much to talk about that's why (if you don't mind) I will deliver all the information in more than one post :)

HERE IT GOES:
For Bill and I the Oscars started on Saturday night (just the night before the actual event) when we had dinner with our friends Dante Ferretti, Francesca Lo Schiavo and their sweet daughter at this great Japanese restaurant called Katsuya. I could not resist showing you the business card from this place, which is sooo beautiful. Not many times we find cards like this one. Take a look:

It was Francesca’s idea to go to Katsuya, she has a great taste for restaurants! The whole place is new and it looks amazing, the decoration is very modern with Japanese accents everywhere.
That night was so special! We talked with Dante and Francesca about their experience working with Tim Burton in Sweeney Todd. Everything in our conversation about Tim Burton was positive. They think that he is a true Artist and their chemistry working together was beautiful. They also said that Johnny Depp is the sweetest guy ever which is something that I hear all the time. As I mentioned before Dante Ferretti was the Art Director for Sweeney Todd and Francesca was the Set Decorator. They always work together as a team and together they were nominated for the Oscars this year! So to make the story short I am sooo happy to say that they won their awards!!! (This is the ninth Academy Award nomination for Dante and the seventh for Francesca, can you believe it?) It was just perfect and Bill and I were sooo excited jumping in our sits!! After the ceremony I got to do something that I had promised myself to do if Dante and Francesca won the awards: I lifted the two statues three times with my hands as if they were weights to see how they felt and THEY ARE SOOO HEAVY!!! It was my first Oscars workout ever :)

Up here you can see two pictures taken by Bill at the restaurant and in third tiny one there is Francesca and Dante accepting their awards! GONGRATULATIONS ITALIA!!!!!
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GETTING READY:
OK, Oscars day: I had my appointment for makeup at 10:00 AM which was so early! We left the house at 4:00 PM but that was the only time when this place had some space for someone non-famous like this client called Ilsa, Elisa or Alisa (that's me, they couldn't get my name straight) so I said that's completely OK with me. The owner of this salon (a real character with the most perfect eyebrows that I have ever seen in a man!) is supposed to be a well-known makeup Artist. Someone else introduced me to him the day before while he was working with another client. He looked at me for a half second and since I didn't look like a star he loudly called one of his Assistants in training and asked him to take care of me. Let me tell you this: the whole thing was sooo funny!! His Assistant was the nicest person in the place, he setup the appointment for me and next day there I was. I could have done the makeup thing myself but I have been sooo curious to see how a real Artist does it (in this case an Artist in training :o). I wanted to experience the whole thing in person and I am glad that I did it. Our young man was great! I can say that the process was like painting on canvas (there was even an airbrush involved plus many other little tools that I have never seen before!). He enjoyed his work and it was nice seeing the transformation little by little. It took about an hour and a half to complete the job. I gave him a big THANK YOU, a deserved tip and then I went back home and that's when I put my dress on and took some pictures for you.

(Interesting detail: For a Makeup Artist in training you pay $150 and for a famous makeup Artist with perfect eyebrows you pay from $400 to I don't know how much. I am sooo glad that I went with the first option!)

I never took the dress off after the pictures because it was really comfortable to wear. At 3:30 PM the limousine arrived but we left the house at 4:00. Now the surreal part begins!!!! After a few minutes we found ourselves in this area where there were only limousines around. Hundreds of these black cars looking all the same. I would love to see how the streets looked from an helicopter (there were a couple of helicopter flying around) all the streets near the theater were closed but people were everywhere on the sidewalks asking the limousine drivers to roll down the windows, which they are not allowed to do for security reasons :o You can see the most interesting characters on the sidewalks. Many are curious people trying to get a glance of the celebrities but there is this group of funny characters performing and showing the most creative and funny signs. There was also a small group of crazy people doing crazy things like trying to get into the limousines by asking the drivers to give them a ride. They were mostly paparazzi. The security guys were always trying to keep them away from the streets.

After all this process that took about an hour we arrived in front of the Kodak Theatre where we got out of our car and walked toward a big tent. In this very moment we heard a huge ovation dedicated to the man getting out from the car in front of us and here is a picture of him and the autograph that I later asked him to sign for Deborah who is my friend Margie's daughter:

Colin Farrell, he has the reputation of being a bad boy but I have to tell you: he was so nice and natural, plus he took his Mom to the Oscars with him. How sweet is that? In the picture below we see how they looked together :) After the event was finished, when we were waiting for our cars, he ordered some hot chocolate as well as Bill and they had a little conversation, he was very friendly. When I asked him to sign the autograph he did it with a smile. We like you Colin!!!! Let's give him a 10!

Now it comes the time when we go through the metal detector so you must show your golden ticket. Here is mine:

Several days before the event you get a little book with the rules for the event. For some reason I like to read all these things from the beginning to the end. Take a look at it:

After we went through the metal detectors we had to wait in order to walk on the red carpet that is behind the real red carpet and I have a SPECTACULAR photo of Bill and I from that very moment but I will show it to you tomorrow. That photo is too important, it deserves a whole new post. Please come back tomorrow and I will be here with that photo and more details from the event!!!! There is still A LOT more to say!
Now back to real life, I have a loooong list of things to do!!!
Have a wonderful day!
Elsita :)

Come to the Oscars with Me!!!!

And here are a few photos of my Oscar dress and I! Look for me on TV in a few hours! If I am wearing a shawl later due to the low temperature you can still look for the helmet-style top of my head, which doesn't deserve to be called haircut or hairstyle. Mami, ver a ver si me ves! (Sorry for the interruption, I was talking to my Mom!) Remember, we will be behind the stars trying to stay there as long as possible. Keep an eye on the security people and see how they will keep asking our behind-the-stars group to move move move, keep moving, keep moving please. We will move a little bit but then we will come back pretending that we have to say something to someone up there... That's more or less how it works! Super silly but lots of fun!

I will be back with an Oscars report as soon as I can!
Have fun you too!
Elsita :)

A Flower in the Darkness.

Good morning my friend!
And here is my dress for the Oscars and the accessories that will go with it! I could write a lot about how I made this dress but instead I would like to point that the little floral embroidery on the belt (made with silk ribbon, thread, crystals and an antique purple cabochon) is what brings this whole piece to life, like a flower blooming in the darkness. This dress is entirely dedicated to my hubby Bill who, in my opinion, is like a rare flower blooming in the middle of the dark and difficult landscape that Hollywood is.

Bill, as I have said before, is one of the most inspiring creative people that I have ever meet in my life and through him I have learned so many amazing things. Through Bill I have learned how to appreciate artistic quality, I have learned how to enjoy movies and how to become a better person thought the lessons that they teach to me. Today from my little position in this modest blog I want to invite you to think about the film world and the Oscars in a completely different way.

Through movies we learn about other cultures and about ourselves. Movies make us think and cry and smile and laugh and experience the most amazing feelings. Films can change who we are, they are like open doors to worlds and things that we wouldn’t know about otherwise. On Sunday I invite you to enjoy what really matters behind the Oscars, which is talent, imagination and creativity. I invite you to think that behind all the illusion that glamour and gold and fame is there are lots of real people like Bill that deeply believe in creating meaningful films that have something important to say to the rest of us. Let’s celebrate movies and let’s give them the place that they deserve in our lives.

I am so excited about attending this event on Sunday.
I will be celebrating with Bill and our friends and I will be sharing everything with you afterwards!
Please join me in this adventure!!

Elsita :)

The Dress is Finished! :o :)

Good Morning! And good news! My dress for the Oscars is finished!
I will show you a photo of it tomorrow plus a little drawing of how it looks from the back. The design of this dress is simple that's why it looks better on the "model" but tomorrow you will have a general idea of how it looks like. Then I will make sure that Bill takes a picture of me on Sunday so you can see it better later. And here are a few interesting details about the the event on Sunday:

Jon Stewart will be host, I'm sure that he will be funny :).

In this picture you can have a general idea about the "anatomy" of the red carpet. First there is a line of official photographers doing their job. Next there is the red carpet which is exclusive for the nominees and the celebrities that have been invited to the event. Then, behind the red carpet there is another carpet for the rest of the people connected to the movies, members of the Academy, relatives etc. Look for Bill and I over there in that group. And then there is a stage with a number of fans asking for autographs (that's a great group because they will really be having fun, the rest of the people are mostly working, including the stars).
Two of Bill's movies got nominations this year:
The Kite Runner: Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score. Alberto Iglesias)
Lars and the Real Girl: Original Screenplay (Nancy Oliver)
So Alberto Iglesias (Go Spain!) and Nancy Oliver will be walking on the red carpet.

Did you know that the nomination for Best Motion Picture or Best Film is the most important one and it goes to the Film Producer? It's always the last award of the night. I had no idea about this before I met Bill. You can learn more about it here.

And next we have the list of the presenters that you will see on Sunday:

Amy Adams
Jessica Alba
Cate Blanchett
Josh Brolin
Steve Carel
George Clooney
Penelope Cruz
Miley Cyrus
Patrick Dempsey
Cameron Diaz
Colin Farrell
Harrison Ford
Jennifer Garner
Tom Hanks
Anne Hathaway
Katherine Heigl
Jonah Hill
Dwayne Johnson
Nicole Kidman
James McAvoy
Queen Latifah
Seth Rogen
Martin Scorsese
Hilary Swank
John Travolta
Denzel Washington
Renee Zellweger
Alan Arkin
Jennifer Hudson
Helen Mirren
Forest Whitaker

Take a look at the nominees.

And here is the list of international broadcasters.

One of our closest friends in Hollywood and (in my opinion) one of the most remarkable Art Directors ever has been nominated (again!!) for an Oscar and I am sure that we will spend most of the time with him and his wife Francesca who I adore. When the four of us get together there is for sure lots of laughter and fun! They are both from Italy (go Italia!). Our friend's name is Dante Ferretti and he was the Art Director of Sweeney Todd. We already told him that bloody films are not our number one thing but there is no doubt that the whole visual job that he did for this movie is truly remarkable. One day I will be talking more about the important role of an Art Director in films.
This is a photo of Dante and I (Watch for him! I hope that he wins!!!!)

And now I am going back with the "kiddies"!
Have a wonderful day!
And see you tomorrow!
Elsita :)

Quick Report!

Yay!!! My dress for the Oscars is almost finished!!! And my voice is coming back!!!! And I just found this place where you can spell words with pictures! How cool is that?! As you can see good things are happening!!! Now I go back to my best friend in these days: Mister Ginger Tea! Lalala la la lalala lala!!!!
See you tomorrow!!!
Elsita :)

Makeup Party :o

This morning Natalie and I had a makeup party. She really wanted to see how my smoky eyes makeup would look like with the assistance of the ultra-modern gift from planet Mars that I mentioned the other day. I started the smoky eyes session and after several minutes when I considered the job finished Natalie looked at me and with her sweetest voice, in a descriptive way, she said: Mommy you look like a witch. Now, apart from looking evil, witches could also look beautiful but I swear that wasn’t my case at all. I looked as if I had just been in some fist-fight being both of my eyes the unfortunate target. I am better at painting on paper and canvas. My respects to all the real makeup Artists! (I'll have to keep practicing)
Have a wonderful Sunday!
Elsita :)

(And here is a link about how to get smoky eyes in only FIVE minutes. Good luck!)

Gift from planet Mars :o

Things are looking nice regarding my dress for the Oscars and I am happy with what I see right now in front of me. These pieces of fabric are coming to life little by little. The final result will look simple but putting everything together is demanding lots of energy from the Designer, her Assistant and the dress form (they're all the same person and that would be me). For Christmas Bill gave me a gift certificate for some spa and I just made a reservation for a facial a few days before the big day. They also offered a tan but since I don't think that an orange skin would go with the dress I politely said that I was going to pass on that one. But I said yes to manicure and pedicure and eyebrows. Talking about eyebrows, there was a time in my life where it was my eyebrows and I but I took care of that situation a few years ago. My hair will have to go as it is. Right now it doesn't make a lot of sense because it is not short or long, it is just hair on my head but that would be enough. That day will be cold but I have what I call my fancy blanket, which is a big, black shawl that will keep me warm and kind or elegant. Now to finish this post I just have to show you one of those surreal gifts that you get here in Hollywood. This is an eye shadow compact set for smoky eyes. You press a button and a robotic voice starts telling you how to apply your smoky eyes makeup! Isn't this like from another planet? I love it! I haven't tried it yet because it's hard to stop laughing when the voice starts talking! I imagine the voice saying in the end: this-smokey-eyes-compact-set-is-cortesy-of-planet-Mars-beauty-system-hope-you-enjoy-it-beeeeep!
See you tomorrow!!!
Elsita :)

Fabrics For The Oscars Dress :)

And here are the fabrics for the Oscars dress!
The one on the left is a lovely rose cotton velvet and it looks amazing in person. The dark gray one is pure silk and it is not metallic as it looks in the picture. Somehow the light didn't help to capture its true nature. They look so beautiful together. El Jardin de Maria Julia was a romantic dress and this one will be more on the dramatic side. All it comes to my mind when I see these fabrics is mystery. These colors make me think about how light and darkness complement each other. I am cooking a lot of ideas in my mind about what this dress will be like. I can't wait to start cutting these fabrics! I will let you know about the progress!

And today I will finally be wearing the outfit that I was supposed to wear to the Golden Globes. And also the necklace and earrings from Megan Auman. We wil be attending the Producer's Guild Awards dinner which is a very special event! I will be reporting later about this!
Elsita :)