Emily Ellet

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Ghostwriter

Feb 13, 2017
3 min

Ghostwriter

If you didn’t happen to watch it, Ghostwriter was a live-action show featuring a group of kids in Brooklyn that solved crimes and mysteries with the help of a ball of light and words. You can actually watch a lot of the show on YouTube! Fair warning, though: the pilot episode is suuuuper slow-paced, in spite of the delightful surprise of Samuel L. Jackson! I was mildly pondering the show the other as I walked through a portion of Washington Heights, remembering how much I e

Gingham and Steel Bakes! Episode 8 – Gingerbread House

Jan 2, 2017
4 min

Gingham and Steel Bakes! Episode 8 – Gingerbread House

We’re a little belated, but here’s the Christmas episode of Gingham and Steel Bakes! Episode 8 – Gingerbread House! Recipe and notes after the episode: Show Notes: OMG I was mortified when I realized the icing had gone everywhere. I’m glad my editor cut away from my face at that moment, because I was NOT PLEASED. Honestly, I feel like almost every episode has had some major mishap, though I don’t think that’s a bad thing. (“I’m relatable! We all make mistakes, right?!”)

Gingham and Steel Bakes! Episode 7 – White Chocolate Peppermint Pie

Dec 6, 2016
4 min

Gingham and Steel Bakes! Episode 7 – White Chocolate Peppermint Pie

IT’S CHRISTMAS TIME!!!! And I’m so ready to switch to new, seasonally appropriate (meaning: peppermint) recipes. Like this White Chocolate Peppermint Pie! Recipe and show notes after the episode: Show Notes: How gorgeous is my sister’s kitchen?!?! It was created by my incredibly talented mom, a.k.a. Beckony Kitchens and Baths (so many stunning photos to drool over!), a.k.a. the company at which I spent over ten years of my life, a.k.a. the source of my love of home remodel

Gingham and Steel Bakes! Episode 6: Pumpkin Pecan Cobbler

Nov 21, 2016
2 min

Gingham and Steel Bakes! Episode 6: Pumpkin Pecan Cobbler

The last pumpkin recipe of the season, just in time for Thanksgiving! Thoughts and recipe below the episode: Thoughts: Huge thanks to my mom for this recipe idea. Very satisfying! So the cameras filmed everything slightly crooked because I’m still quite ghetto in my equipment setup. Didn’t know it till post-production, of course. I’m working on it…though honestly, I kind of like the angle! This is my LAST episode in this kitchen, as I moved. Expect a new kitchen environm

Gingham and Steel Bakes! Episode 5: GBBO’s Pistachio Cardamom Lemon Drizzle Cake

Nov 1, 2016
4 min

Gingham and Steel Bakes! Episode 5: GBBO’s Pistachio Cardamom Lemon Drizzle Cake

The title is as long as the video, I think, but enjoy this SUPER SPECIAL episode of Gingham and Steel Bakes! featuring my incredibly gung-ho sister, Katie! Thoughts and recipe after the video. Thoughts: First off: this recipe is hands-down the best thing I have baked or tasted in years. OMG it’s soooo good! Complicated? You bet. (Though for a GBBO recipe, it’s pretty tame.) This is Benjamina’s recipe from the current season of The Great British Bake Off (Season 7, Episo

Gingham and Steel Bakes! Episode 4 – Caramel Apple Cookies

Oct 10, 2016
2 min

Gingham and Steel Bakes! Episode 4 – Caramel Apple Cookies

Here’s the latest episode of Gingham and Steel Bakes! Notes and recipe after the video. Notes: I have a new editor! My brother Brian gets all the credit for making this video series instantly more professional-looking and -sounding. Let us know what you think of the new editing choices! I think I messed up these cookies, as they didn’t look or taste as I expected. The cookies were practically flavorless, and the frosting tasted maple-y, not caramel apple-y. I suspect thi

Gingham and Steel Bakes! Episode 3: Fog City Diner Cheddar Biscuits

Oct 3, 2016
3 min

Gingham and Steel Bakes! Episode 3: Fog City Diner Cheddar Biscuits

Here’s the latest episode of Gingham and Steel Bakes! Notes and recipe after the video. Notes on this week’s episode: Honestly, guys, I almost scrapped this whole episode. I tried a new camera (my computer’s) and angle (on the counter) and HATED the result. The lighting is atrocious, I couldn’t stage the room cutely, and most of all, I spent most of the footage looking at my own image instead of the camera (which is cruelly located above the escape key). But…my schedule w

Gingham and Steel Bakes! Episode 2: Gingersnap Gems

Sep 19, 2016
5 min

Gingham and Steel Bakes! Episode 2: Gingersnap Gems

As previously mentioned, we’re gonna take a blogging baking detour for a couple months! New episode of Gingham and Steel Bakes! featuring Gingersnap Gems. Scroll below the video for some thoughts and the recipe! Thoughts: As I watched some of the comments on last week’s blog roll in, I realized I had mis-titled the series. My previous title (Baking Your Way through a Divorce) inadvertently put the focus on my divorce, which was precisely opposite of what I wanted to do! For

Bake Your Way through a Divorce, Episode 1 – Kathy’s Pumpkin Bread

Sep 12, 2016
2 min

Bake Your Way through a Divorce, Episode 1 – Kathy’s Pumpkin Bread

As previously mentioned, we’re gonna take a blogging baking detour for a couple months! I’m a bit shocked at what I’m about to share with you: guys, I VLOGGED. Vlogged a baking video. And it didn’t turn out badly. (H/T to Ginny and Claudia for suggesting it!) Granted, I’m using the most elementary equipment (a Samsung S5!) and video editing skills ever, so it’s QUITE simple. It’s also WAY too long (19 minutes?!). But it exists. This happened. And in one take, no less.

The FAQ of Being an Audiobook Narrator

Mar 30, 2016
7 min

The FAQ of Being an Audiobook Narrator

A standard day at the “office”! So my “day job” here in the city is audiobook narration. I LOVE it – it’s incredibly challenging, artistically fulfilling, and both intellectually and emotionally stimulating. It’s also HARD. Naturally, I get a lot of questions from people when they hear the word “audiobook”. (“Actor” or “singer” doesn’t have nearly the same effect, weirdly; perhaps it’s because I can’t yet answer “yes” to the inevitable “Would I have seen you in something??

My Favorite Five Tools

Feb 4, 2016
1 min

My Favorite Five Tools

I recently read an Ann Friedman interview on the blog “Ways We Work,” which was fantastic, because Ann Friedman is pretty awesome. But I was intrigued by one question she answered: “What are the five tools you use on a regular basis?” It got me started thinking if I had five tools I used on a regular basis, and of course the answer was yes. Maybe because I’m still in a top five mood, I don’t know. In any case, here are my five favorite tools for work and life. What are you

Top 10 Most FAQ of this Cruise Ship Performer

Dec 31, 2015
6 min

Top 10 Most FAQ of this Cruise Ship Performer

Here’s an unrelated-to-this-blog-post shot of beautiful Hawaii for your New Year’s Eve pleasure. Guess what time it is? Guess who can’t sleep? Guess who seems to come up with really entertaining blog posts when this happens? Seriously, though, this is a nice way to end the year. And what a year! So without further ado, I give you… the Top 10 Most Frequently Asked Questions of this Cruise Ship Performer. Having traveled so much, where do you want to go next? On a cruise sh

Branding a.k.a. Self-Knowledge

Dec 8, 2015
9 min

Branding a.k.a. Self-Knowledge

It’s a cattle brand. Get it?? So a friend (holla, Sara!) asked me if I would share my thoughts about branding, since it’s something I’ve spent a lot of time, money, and energy working on. (I also promised you in a previous post to expand on how I ended up dyeing my hair.) I’m happy to, as long as we all acknowledge up-front that I’m still developing my understanding of branding, especially as it relates to my own product (myself). It’s a work in progress! But here’s my ex

Ritual: Days 30-32

Jul 30, 2015
3 min

Ritual: Days 30-32

Part of it is human. Just as children like rules (I could write a whole blog post about that!), adults like routine. It’s comforting, for one; most morning coffee and tea drinkers like the ritual more than the drink itself. It’s reliable, unlike life itself. And it gives you the feeling of control and order. Another part of this is encouraged in school. In college, I took an entire class devoted to defining “my acting process” and another class that emphasized developing

Cruising with Friends: Days 20-29

Jul 27, 2015
3 min

Cruising with Friends: Days 20-29

Well, hello again! I hope you’ll forgive my absence this week. As I mentioned, I had friends come cruising with me (they were official passengers and everything!), and so the time I usually spend blogging was spent talking with my husband – because the time usually spent talking with him was spent hanging out with them! Not that I minded too much – it was wonderful to see friends and to share Alaska with them. So, in lieu of the couple of posts I would have written this we

Afterglow: Day 6

Jul 4, 2015
4 min

Afterglow: Day 6

I suppose I should have known it would be a good day, because I got to start it off with ZUMBA!!! I am a passionate fan of Zumba, even though I’ve only taken a handful of classes in my life. But it is my absolute FAVORITE way to work out. Work up a major sweat, burn a ton of calories, learn fun new dance moves, and oh by the way, listen to awesome Latin music?? Yes, please. I was a little disappointed to learn that the Zumba instructor will actually be moving to the Dawn

Whirlwind: Days 1 and 2

Jun 30, 2015
7 min

Whirlwind: Days 1 and 2

Good morning. What a whirlwind the last two days have been! (At times, literally – quite the weather we had this morning.) I am currently sailing up the Canadian coast towards Alaska, but let’s start with yesterday… Seattle greeted us Sunday morning with warm, bright, and slightly overcast skies. It was gorgeous, in other words. Despite having visited Sea-Tac airport numerous times, I was taken aback to find that there was a whole section of the airport I didn’t know abou

Rehearsals: Exhaustion Edition

Jun 22, 2015
3 min

Rehearsals: Exhaustion Edition

Yah. My sincere apologies. The truth is…I’ve been sooooo tired when I get home that I just haven’t been up to posting. It’s amazing how exhausting eight hours a day of learning/rehearsing/running/reviewing choreography can be. Most of my life, the longest I’ve ever had to rehearse was six hours…on, like, tech day or something, and never was I on my feet that whole time! It’s also been high 90s hot for the last couple weeks, and it’s amazing what that takes out of you (se

Cruise Preparation!

May 26, 2015
1 min

Cruise Preparation!

The last time I blogged here at Gingham and Steel, I was an auditioning actor. I am now a week and a half away from being a working actor. Yes, it took that long to book a job whose news is worth sharing (that’s a subject for several blog posts, undoubtedly), but here we go, off to a new adventure, a cruise ship, and an unforgettable 2015. So what is this exciting job? I’ve been hired to be a vocalist for Princess Cruises for seven months! I’ll be sailing to Alaska, the C

Steel, Spunk, and Grit – Why I’m Not a Soprano

Nov 5, 2013
4 min

Steel, Spunk, and Grit – Why I’m Not a Soprano

(That sound you just heard was my voice teachers of yore choking on their collective arpeggios.) The news was a shock to me, too. I’ve spent the last almost ten years training to be a lyrical ingenue soprano, equally comfortable in both the classical and contemporary genres. I have spent countless hours preparing to pitch myself to the theatre world as a Galinda in Wicked, a Laurie in Oklahoma, and even a Maria in West Side Story, (if I could ever tan enough to pass for His