Bob's Backyard

So in doing all of this conditioning, etc for Perfect 10, my gymnastics trainer Carolyn decided to spice it up for me so I wouldn't get bored. We went to a place called 'Bob's Backyard'. And it's literally stunt legend Bob Yerkes’ backyard. This guy is in his 70's and has been around since Elvis was doing stunts. He has worked with everyone on everything (including Circus with the Stars) and decided to turn his backyard into a place for stunt wannabes from around the world to come and train (without any trainers). There are old trailers everywhere and people living in them. Crazy.

So, here are some pics and you can see that people started to file in and train. Pros and beginners.

This is the inside of one of the trailers someone would stay in.

Practicing on silks.



Here is the craziest; you know when you see someone in a movie go flying through the air after an explosion or something? Ever wonder how they do it? Nitro.

Without the nitro:




With the nitro:





All they do is run up to a small board/platform and then it sends them flying through the air. It's apparently the most dangerous thing in the stunt world. I can imagine why.

Here's  a video about Bob.

Chels: )

Rudy Fig

So I have been made aware of an amazing artist based from minneapolis called Rudy Fig. She is only 20 years old, and her art is a mix of doll-like women/girls and candy. It's really very visually satisfying and I thought I'd share it with you all!

Check out her myspace for more paintings.

http://www.myspace.com/bigdeadvanillafish

Here we go...

So here I am starting my first blog... 

I love writing, always have. So I figured this would be the best way for me to keep in touch with the world and satisfy my craving to write. 

So...my life, my life... I'm entering a new chapter that I'm very excited and naturally a little nervous about. The pilot I filmed in December has been picked up for series! ABC Family has given us a 10 episode order, and we (meaning the cast and I) are all soooo excited to get going!!! The picture is the three other leads and me, by the way.

Now here comes the tricky part. I'm in 5 day a week training to build muscle mass (I'm naturally slight in frame and need to be more muscly like a gymnast), for 3 of those days I'm training twice a day. After going to a nutritionist I've been put on a 110g of protein/day "diet" and that includes 2 shakes a day; one whey the other egg-white based! 

Whew! Writing it down makes me realize how much all that is! It's amazing the difference I've seen in 3 weeks.. now we have about 6 more to go till we start filming. Crrraaaazzzzyyy!!!

I have to say the thing I'm probably most excited about in all of this is how fresh this show is. Here you have a plethora of shows showcasing girls who are shockingly thin. Ours is showing young girls that healthy young women who take care of themselves and kick a$$ in the gym, are beautiful! Our cast is stunning and athletic. All of the four girl leads take care of ourselves and all four of us are different shapes and sizes. 

I can't tell you how refreshing this is to me... and I'm sure it will be to thousands of other people. I'm so sick of the pressures young woman (and hey, even men) feel to be small or look a certain way. Let's motivate our youth to take care of themselves and give them healthy role models. And listen, I'm not sitting here preaching from my keyboard. Teen years are teen years and that comes with drama. It's just nice to know that the world is about to see a show on air that resembles all of our favorites but one which is based upon athletic, driven teens. It excites me immensely.

And on that note... I'm gonna watch a few of my guilty pleasures before bed. 

Kinda a crazy first blog, but hang in there and check back for some updates. 

I'll try to make it more often than not... depending on how much I have to say ; )

Love and peace

Chels