Taylor's Tale

I thought I'd have a bit of a 'blog facelift' today. I enjoyed fiddling around with the different designs and layouts and font colours. I wanted to upload one of my own photos for the background but the one I chose came back with the message 'file too big' so instead I browsed through the images supplied. I could have chosen so many of them - a scientific theme as a tribute to my early leaning towards science and my chosen University degree in Chemistry, a natural one as a tribute to my ethos to live a harmonious lifestyle, a food related one as a tribute to my passion for cooking and eating...it goes on. In the end I settled for zebra stripes just because I love them.

Do you know the feeling when something important happens and you sort of forget about it and then you suddenly remember? Usually it is something bad like you've pranged your car or said something hideously inappropriate that could come back to bite you on the bum. I remember being partly responsible for my mum breaking her wrist. I wouldn't be thinking about it at all then all of a sudden, there it was, front of mind with all the associated feelings of guilt and sadness, totally fresh, totally painful. I find myself in that situation again but this time it isn't anything to do with vehicle mishaps, unwise comments, or maternal bone snapping - nor is it a bad thing at all.

My daughter Taylor is a big fan of a certain young, blonde haired American pop star who shares her name. She found a competition on the internet to win a signed guitar and feature in a fan video for the new release of the single 'Mine'. Inspired by the success of her Aunty and to a lesser degree, me, she decided to enter. She had to make a video of herself miming to the song, which as I have mentioned in an  earlier blog, was an obstacle because she didn't know the words. By the time she had learned the words and recovered from a cold, she was really running out of time. She had planned to do an outdoor video of her miming and playing 'air' drums with her drumsticks which she could also use as props to perform 'air guitar' and 'air microphone'. The finale was to be her boyfriend running on and spinning her around. Unfortunately, the weather was against her as well and it really looked like the entry was not going to happen. To add to the panic, she realised that the deadline was actually sooner than we had thought.

We found ourselves in a 'now or never' situation. We had a quick change of plan and I helped her to turn her  face into an upside down 'singing chin' version of Taylor Swift, complete with glittery guitar. I reinvested one of my competition wins in the form of some fabulous fake eyelashes to give the face painted eyes a bit of a 3D look and away we went. We did it all very quickly, submitted the video and that was it!

The video received some positive comments from other TS fans and it certainly did stand out as a one of a kind. Yesterday, she saw she had a comment from a fan saying 'congrats on your win'. As she had heard nothing about winning she was a little confused. It turned out that the winner had been announced on the fan video that had been put together from all the entries and posted to YouTube.  Due to copyright issues, the video had been blocked before she got to view it. The fan who had sent her the message of congratulations was able to send her a copy of the announcement. Reading "and the winner is...." drove the point home. Taylor HAD WON. There was much jubilation!! The signed guitar was HERS!!!

The fantastic news of Taylor's success does keep fading out of my conscious thought as life takes over, but then it's back. In a sudden, front of mind sort of way, there it is with all the associated feelings of pride, excitement and absolute joy, totally fresh, totally wonderful.