Cartoon-style fighting

Watched Kung Fu Panda recently although the mister swears he saw it as a silent film (long story.). Cuteness with fighting. Nobody dies really though. It's wrong to complain about that in a kids film, no?

Jack Black IS a cartoon character so his voice is overly appropriate here.

I liked! I give it a 6.5 and a kung fu kick.

Girls

Encapsulated

Goodbye Mr. Chips is sweetness in written form. What a wonderful little read. I give it a 7.

I the movie version equally as nice?

Bright

These bangles are pretty fabulous.

Maria came from nashville

I have a Gaslight Anthem music crush at the moment. I'm not sure if I'm proud of it, but I can't deny it.

Shhhhh

Don't tell, but next time I'm looking for a gift for the boy, I may need to be reminded of these. So perfect for him!

Not so charming

Not all that charming. I expected to like The Apartment more, but couldn't get past the smarmyness of it. All those men using the guy's apartment to cheat on their wives. The whole idea of the movie made me mad and skeeved me out. It's really pretty crappy all around. Maybe the film is great - I'm too annoyed to appreciate it. It's prettily done though which is the only reason it gets a 2 from me.

Local matters

Ohio is looking at some tough cuts to make the budget work. Two very important things are on the line - the hungry & libraries.

If you live in Ohio, help speak out and let our elected officials know that some cuts are too deep. So many Ohio families are hurting now. Area pantries and soup kitchens are the safety net for many families who can't make ends meet during these times. Libraries are doing all they can to provide job assistance to many in hard hit areas.

Please help by contacting the decision makers.

I need!

Love love love this brooch!

Resolution

Next friend's baby that comes along is getting a sweater ball. Too cute too resist.

What would your last supper be?

My Last Supper consists of beautiful photographs of chefs and their answers to what they would eat for their last supper, where they would eat it and with whom. Consider me a softy, but I adore those who picked a dinner with only their partner. One even confesses that he'd have krispy kremes for dessert. Cute book! I give it a 7.

My last supper would be a good red wine with lamp chops perfectly grilled, very buttery and garlicky mashed potatoes, steamed brussel sprouts, and a heavenly bread pudding with a giant glass of milk for dessert. It would be in my backyard with my boy and my pooches racing round the table in their delieriously happy way.

Never get to heaven

Current fave:



Man, do I need to catch these guys in concert!

Truth in advertising

Idiocracy is idiotic. It only gets a rating of one from me and that's cause I like all the people being named for brands.

Balloons

Up is a pretty cute little film. I love the tale of the boy and girl growing up together. My heart went totally aflutter every time they showed those fantastic balloons. Seriously, anytime I'm down, I could just play a video of those balloons.

Everything was marvelous.....until that house landed and then some dumbness ensued. I would have been much happier had that house just sailed forever and stupid Paradise Falls stories had never come to be. Big disappointment there.

It gets a 5 in my book.

That's it

I'm dusting off my sewing machine! Softies are so much fun to dream up and make and they don't have to fit anyone. Casscette's creations are amazing.

Patch

Charming.

Who knew?

Did you know that there's a dvd made entirely of Pixar short films? Well there is! I confirmed two things by watching it - their original stuff was more creepy than funny and the bird short pictured above is still my fave short. I give this a 5.

Wrestler - not full of horrific injury scenes!

The Wrestler was a movie I knew I wanted to see but kinda didn't want to see cause I envisioned lots of horrible injury scenes that would turn my stomach.

Well I'm glad I did see it cause its freaking marvelous. I adored it. So many small touches that just made it so extra good. Loved most of the deli scenes.

This one gets an 8.5 outta 10 from me. (Might have gotten more but the daughter stuff never did it for me.)

Three men and a baby

Saw The Hangover at the ever-so-cool Studio 35. Thoughts?


- Cutest baby ever!
- Many movie trailer makers should be slapped. Almost all the best parts are in the trailer for this one. Still funny, but spoiled.
- The ending credits are delightful.
- I liked it, but laughed WAY harder at Role Models.


How about a 6?

Flung

I hate not finishing books, but now and then it must be done. Sometimes twice in a row.


First I began Enslaved by Ducks, the story of a couple who move to the country and have their lives overtaken by animals. At first I'm reading along and thinking "Bunnies! Interesting!" and "Parrots! Funny!" But then the number of animals mount, and every time the author is all like "My wife did it because I have no say in my life." And then an animal dies some awful death, the author goes into a deep depression, and they get more animals. It starts to feel like animal hoarding disguised as hilarity. Not a fun read and, at least for me, not worth finishing.

Then I started Windflower with high expectations. I really liked past Nick Bantock books and their potent mix of art and mystery. This book feels like it was written by a twelve year old girl. The main character is perfection - beautiful, smart, dedicated, graceful, and all that is honorable. Not a flaw in sight. And then the point of view in this book veers around wildly. IN one paragraph its a first person point of view from the girl, the next paragraph its omniscient, and then out of the blue its the point of view of her employer. There's no sense to this! At three chapters in, I happily gave up and put it on the stack to go straight back to the library.

I refuse to let not finishing a book stop me from offering my opinion and ratings. The duck book gets a one; windflower can have half a point.

Stitches

Stumbled onto these pretties via flickr.

Smart

Isn't it?

A simple experiment

Participate here.

And death shall be no more

Emma Thompson is one of the best actresses out there. Wit was mentioned on a podcast I listen to, and I was all like "Emma Thompson - sign me up."

Wit is the story of a professor being treated for Stage 4 ovarian cancer. Most of the time Thompson speaks directly to the camera, explaining her treatment and quoting John Donne.

I like the format as it was completely unexpected. However, I think this would come across more effectively in its original stage form. I think that would cure some of the distance I felt throughout the film - even at the end when all the walls seemed like they should have fallen down. I give this a 5 out of 10.

Tags

These would be perfect for so many things.

The better "On the Road"

Just saying - I really dislike Kerouac so this On the Road is WAY better.

On the Road with Charles Kuralt is snippets of experiences from his show. You definitely get the feeling that Kuralt was a sweet man who liked to think the best of his country. I kinda wish we had something like his show nowadays - exploring the back roads and meeting regular people. It was just the sort of lift I needed after reading a book about the worst things folks could do to eachother.

I give it a 5.

Did you all read this poem in school too?

Sea Fever by John Masefield

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face and a grey dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

Ahem

Did you all know about Blip and how cool it is? I only learned today.

(Of course i already set up my own profile and it can be found here.)

Really?

I watched Babel the other night, and I shall happily share my observations.

1. If they wanted George Clooney, why didn't they just hire him instead of George Cloon-ifying Brad Pitt?
2. Gael Garcia Bernal for such a minor minor role - really? Not that I'm his biggest fan, but it was so extra minor.
3. This is like an international version of Crash - and not in any good way.
4. I liked the Japanese story the best by far. I think the Japanese teen and the nanny acted the hell outta their roles.
5. Wonderful wonderful music.

All in all this wasn't that great or really very resounding and they so wanted you to come away with a point. It's just trying so damn hard for something that isn't really a big realization for folks. Aggravating. I give it a 4.

Colors of the sea

This wreath is so pretty.

Not yet

Should I be tired of flowers worn in the hair? I've seen it around a lot, but I must confess I doubt my ability to grow weary of it. It's such a touch of prettiness. Look at these lovelies.

Frankly

This is awesome. But so are these.

Scraps and eyes

A while back I read a most unsatisfactory book about Warsaw, Poland during the Holocaust. That book was riddled with issues that made reading it not so great. However, the book did share a snippet of a tale about Janusz Korczak. Further looking into this heroic man turned up the fact that he's mentioned in Milkweed so I had to check it out.


This book is a YA novel. It's told from the point of view of a very young orphan boy who sees a lot of atrocities - many of which he doesn't understand at all at first. It's a quick read and there's some humor but of course an avalanche of heartbreak. I will admit to kind of wishing that the story had cut off a bit sooner, but I'm okay with that.


I highly recommend this one. I give it an 8.


And you know I can't help sharing well written lines when I read them:


The children who lived were all scraps and eyes. This was the ghetto where children grew down instead of up.

Marseilles Dress - Shabby Apple Giveaway

Ooooh - so pretty and versatile. Shabby Apple has so many lovely dresses.





I'm throwing my hat in to win this delightful frock:

Although their styles are pretty affordable as well as darling.

Marseilles Dress SHABBY APPLE GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Stereotypes = bad

American Teen is a documentary that follows a handful of teens throughout their senior year of high school. I refuse to use the cover that imitates The Breakfast Club.

This film has a few delightful moment (Hannah's grandparents are the cutest things ever), but it was so obnoxious how they tried to fit every person into a mold. Instead of trying to bypass the stereotypes, this film leapt whole heartedly into them and crammed all the footage to fit. MTV can and has done better looks at teenagers' real lives. This just sort of sucked.

Two stars - one each for the darling grandmothers in the pre-prom picture taking scene. I'd watch a movie about them any day.

Just to say

I've taken to refering to wine as "nap juice". Not a good sign for my health initiatives. But highly effective in making sure I am able to sleep during stressful times.

On wood

I really like many paintings done on wood. Especially when they are as sweet as this.

Such edifices are notoriously fragile

I'm a big fan of Margaret Atwood as well as a girl determined to stop passing over books she owns in favor of library books which have that attraction of only being lent for a fleeting time. So I picked up Alias Grace.

It's a novel based on a true life account of a serving girl suspected of murdering her boss and another maid. There's a lot of ambiguity in this book and the story reveals itself in a deliciously slow manner.

There's a wonderfully chilling paragraph early on:

But underneath that is another feeling, a feeling of being wide-eyed awake and watchful. It's like being wakened suddenly in the middle of the night, by a hand over your face, and you sit up with your heart going fast, and no one is there. And underneath that is another feeling still, a feeling like being torn open; not like a body of flesh, it is not painful as such, but like a peach, and not even torn open, but too ripe and splitting open of its own accord

And inside the peach there's a stone.

How awesome is that? I liked the book but didn't love it. Maybe its because that wonderful, wonderful made a promise to me that the book failed to fulfill.

Another line I really liked - "His father was self-made, but his mother was constructed by others, and such edifices are notoriously fragile."

I give this one a 5 out of 10.

Also, as I'm terrified of clutter, I'm offering this up to the internet world. Anyone who wants it should leave a comment on this post. Sunday I shall send it off (and if more than one person wants it, I'll pick a name from a hat.)

At least not that kind of nerd

I'm not a typical anthropologie nerd, but this rug could convert me.

The temptation I did give into

One booth at the festival was seriously happy-making and pulled me in everytime I passed. By the time I left, I knew I needed to take some of the happiness with me.

Take a look at Rick Loudermilk's art:

I walked away with the print below:

Bag perfection

Spotted at the Columbus Arts Festival, Pistol Stitched bags are the cutest!

The designer even makes the wooden handles for the bags. These were a serious temptation.

Magic

In my world foxes = magic. I've seen one once on a camping trip. We crested one hill and he was at the top of the next looking over at us. The experience amazed me.

So I of course had to see The Fox and the Child. Its part nature documentary and part fairytale. A little loner girl chances upon a fox and decides she's going to mae friends with it. Besides capturing the gorgeous fox, the camera takes in all sorts of breathatking wildlife.

As a grown up, I found myself very anxious at times for the girl who rambles the countryside stalking this fox. If I'd watched this as a kid, I think I would have been smitten with the whole story.

The filming is stunningly gorgeous and the girl has a great laugh. And foxes! I give this a 5.

Blue parakeets

Forever ago I fell in love with intres' super cute towers, and now I find out they have equally adorable trees. Squee! Felt is magic.

Coworking

My work recently had a nice little event at a really interesting space in town. Sandbox is a coworking organization. The premise is that folks who want to do their business in a great space surrounded by other creative business folk. Its social and bright and collective.

The one I went to was in the Short North, but the folks in Gahanna are opening one this week. The organizers were all really nice and so sweet to host an event for our nonprofit. If you're in Columbus, its worth checking out.

Whoever you are

"Wild Geese" - Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting
--over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Milky

Simply adore this necklace.

Tailfeathers!

You must go look at this creation by Lulu Carter. The tailfeathers! Cutest thing I've seen in a while and SO inspirational.