Can't wait!

I saw this over on Alexis' blog and had to share. It's snippets of the movie trailer set to a fun little catchy song that isn't a problem if it gets in your head. :) I'm very much looking forward to this movie, although my secret confession is that I never read this book as a child. Seriously. Me. The biggest bookworm child there could have been -- never read this one. So obviously my boy and I have some catching up to do before the movie debuts October 16th!

Move over, Siskel and Ebert

Before I forget, I saw this one a few weeks ago, and it's worth checking out as well. Typical romantic little movie, but good nonetheless. I especially liked the Seattle setting and Jennifer Aniston's cute outfits. Who doesn't love Jennifer Aniston? Seriously, she really seems like a nice girl, and ever since her trend-setting haircut debuted on Friends, I think we were all in love.




And it looks like it will be a great movie-watching weekend at my house. I have these three movies checked out from the library and plan on parking my derriere on the sofa in some comfy sweats. Of course, they are all FREE from the library! Who doesn't love FREE?

Valentino: The Last Emperor (for my Project Runway-loving self)



Grey Gardens



Coco Chanel

Whip it.

Whip it good.

This was my guilty pleasure today. A $4-11am-no-kids-in-sight-much-needed-mama-time guilty pleasure.

If you've ever dreamed of being a roller derby girl, it's for you. (But keep in mind, it's not for your 11-year-old. There's some language and other reasons for that PG-13 rating.)

I always thought it would be too fun to be a roller derby girl, well, minus the bruises and sprains and broken limbs. Roller skates and cute (and funky) outfits? That's my cup o' tea. What if someone formed a new type of roller derby league, maybe minus the body checks and crude parts, and more, oh, you know, squeaky-clean-Anthropologie-styled-goodness on wheels?

I'd be the first to sign up.

Up!

Absolutely brilliant. One of the most beautiful movies I have seen in a long time. It was beautiful in so many ways -- cinematically, musically, and a wonderful storyline.

I knew it would be good, but I had no idea it would be that good.

We crawled out from under the rock we'd apparently been living under to watch "Slumdog Millionaire" last night.

Whoa. I feel like I could type out the word "whoa" about 8 million times and that might come close to what I thought of the movie. And I mean "whoa" in a positive way.

It's a hard movie to watch at times. But then after the hard they reward you with little snippets of sweet here and there, and several moments of funny. It is rated "R" -- I couldn't tell you the last time I watched a rated "R" movie because in the last few years my personal opinion is that most of the "R" movies out there are filled with a whole lot of stuff I don't care to watch, but honestly, this movie probably needed to be "R" to have the same effect on people. I have to tell you also, that it is maybe a tad bit harder to watch this as an adoptive parent. Hopefully that's true of any parent watching it because of the nature of the story, but I can vouch for the extra hard tugging on the heartstrings as an adoptive parent for sure.

Yep, that's all. If you haven't seen it, don't wait around. I am so glad we finally watched it. (Thanks to our local library system -- love checking out movies for FREE!)

Mamma Mia!

Mamma Mia! What can I say? Get yourself out with your best girlfriends, leave the kids with the husband, grab a box of Junior Mints (always my movie-watching candy of choice) and go enjoy this movie. There were several points in the movie when I looked around the theater to see almost everyone's toes tapping or seats rocking. It's impossible to watch this flick and not have a great time. The scenery is breathtaking, the acting superb, and the music top-notch. Now, I must tell you, it was a teensy bit hard not to giggle when Pierce sang, only because it just didn't quite seem right to me, but I still enjoyed his character nonetheless. Meryl, ah Meryl, gave a fantastic performance -- I've always liked her; she definitely seems the sort of person that you totally wish was your aunt or good friend or something and that surely she would be such an interesting and fun gal to hang out with.

Flick #2

This movie was totally worth the price of movie tickets plus a babysitter (for the second day in a row), at least if you grew up in the whole Stephen Spielberg era of movies like I did. Although it was a tad bittersweet for me today -- my dad was a huge Indiana Jones fan and would have loved to see this last one, I just know it. And with today being my birthday, and with it being just a little over 3 years since he passed away so quickly and unexpectedly, and with this weekend being Memorial Day and remembering those who have passed on before us, well, it was also a reminder of how I wish he could have been sitting in the seat next to me, cheering on Indy as well.

Flick #1

I convinced my husband that we needed a babysitter twice this weekend so he and I could steal away to the movie theater (my only big birthday request to him). So this afternoon we caught our first movie, and it was totally worth it. I'm usually a "Netflix girl", one who patiently waits until most movies come out on DVD (since it is now a small fortune to make it to a big screen if you're parents), but I make exceptions for the "blockbuster" movies, and we all know that summer is usually chock full of blockbusters. Man, our babysitter is going to have a good summer ahead...

Change o' plans.

Today we were supposed to take the boy with us for a family treat and go see "Speed Racer" at the IMAX. (My idea, even.) Thankfully, I woke up this morning to a quiet house (husband took our son to soccer, yes, soccer for tiny three-year-olds with parent participation) and was able to check my blog reader. This means I was able to read a review of the movie that said it stinks, is too long, is too confusing with jumping from past to present several times, has too many plotlines, and get this, Speed Racer says the "S" word.

Yipes! I definitely thought it would be an okay movie to take my three-year-old to, but not if Speed Racer himself is uttering the "S" word. Shoot. (Not the "S" word I am talking about.)

So, new change of plans. We will now be taking our boy to a Renaissance Fair tomorrow! Woohoo! And it works out perfectly after all -- today is supposed to be stormy this afternoon, not good for being outside all afternoon at a Renaissance Fair, but tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and cooler than normal, perfect for being outside, immersed in all things Renaissance, while not burning up. I'm actually excited -- Renaissance fairs are not normally my thing, but now that I am the parent of a three-year-old little boy who loves all things like knights and horses and jousting with swords, I know that I will love seeing his face light up every two seconds.

And Happy Mother's Day to me. My sweet husband came to me last Sunday and handed me a gift -- a pre-paid Visa for me to spend. And here's what he said: "I know today is not Mother's Day, but I might forget by next week, so it is better for me to go ahead and give this to you now." Ha! Gotta love a man who will admit forgetting things, but who tries his darndest to be better about the whole thing. And he knows that a pre-paid card with money is the best gift, thus enabling me to pick out what I want. God bless him. So it worked out perfectly that my favorite designer, Anna Maria Horner, had her long-awaited new line of fabric, "Drawing Room", hit the stores this week (or should I say "store", as I have only seen it one place so far on the web). I have been waiting on pins and needles for this fabric to come out because I want to sew all new pillow covers and maybe a quilted throw for my living room (my goal is to have a set of spring/summer pillow covers and a set of fall/winter pillow covers to switch out). With tax and shipping, my order ended up being 60 cents shy of the amount on the gift card. Perfect!

Here are the fabrics I ordered:
(ivory sketchbook - 2 yards, but it is on backorder, so it may be a few weeks before I actually get it)

(Nouveau Bouquet - 2 yards)

(Teal Shadow - 1 yard)

(Blue Trellis - 1 yard)


There are two sofas in my living room -- one is red velvet (my favorite) and the other is ivory microfiber. Both are two cushion sofas with taut backs (no pillows) so I like to have lots of throw pillows (feather-filled) on both. Of course, the pillows need to be cotton and washable since my lovely Italian greyhounds all think the pillows are just for them and lounge on them almost every night. there are also two chocolate brown microfiber chairs in there as well. My walls are a light yellow/chamois color, and the dining room is visible with its robin egg blue walls. So I am hoping the colors in these fabrics will all work well. I am a color girl for sure! (Let's just not think about the fact right now that I will have to actually do a little work and SEW these pillow covers up and that the fabric won't just arrive and magically turn itself into the perfect pillow covers, haha.)

Wahoo.

Wahoo!!!!! for two reasons:

#1 -- I just walked 4 miles in an hour.
and
#2 -- I watched this movie over the past two days while on my treadmill.


I loooooooove this movie.

Sweet movie.

I just watched a great movie from Netflix. "Sweet Land" -- the love story about a Minnesota farmer who takes a mail-order bride from Germany, but she is not accepted by the community. The acting is superb -- if you are a Grey's Anatomy fan, the lead actress is the girl on Grey's who was in the ferry accident that Alex fell in love with. Of course, after you see this movie, you'll realize she is far too talented of an actress to have her Grey's character be the pinnacle of her career. I also loved the music and the scenery. While Minnesota may not be the most scenic part of the country, there is a simple beauty in the rolling farmlands, one that I can appreciate SOOOOOOOO much more now that I don't actually live there and have to endure the -30 degree winters, haha. Seriously, though, I do have a place for Minnesota in my heart and did enjoy the movie. With all the trash out there in Hollywood today, if you are looking for a simple and sweet movie, this one's for you.

Across the Universe

Man. Jim Sturgess is a force to be reckoned with. You may not recognize his name if you have not yet seen "Across the Universe". It arrived this week in a Netflix envelope, and I am so glad I decided to try it out. I'm usually not a fan of PG-13 movies anymore -- I know, I know, I am really making myself sound like a granny here -- but it is really because they have gotten so much worse and in my mind usually should be rated R instead. It's definitely not a movie for "little eyes" though, so make sure you watch this one after they've nodded off to dreamland. I was very skeptical about watching it -- just the night before I had tried to watch the movie "Once". It had gotten rave reviews for its music and storyline, but I just could not get past the first few minutes and how many times the F-bomb was dropped in a single conversation. This one does have some drugs, sexuality, and nudity, but man, it is a fantastic flick. I'm also not a fan of anything with the whole late 1960's/70's hippie vibe/Vietnam War thing, but again, I really enjoyed this movie. I am amazed at all the work and thought and creativity that went into this movie, and it is incredibly clever how a storyline is woven around these Beatles' tunes. And Jim Sturgess? Incredible singer. Even if you are not a fan of musicals, you might be pleasantly surprised by this one.

Go out right now and get it.

That's an order.

I was blog-surfing yesterday, and on one of my favorite blogs ("Me" by Tara Whitney, and no, I haven't learned how to put that in here underlined where you could just click on it to visit it automatically), and she was talking about a new CD she bought. Out of curiosity I hopped on over to iTunes, listened to a few snippets, and fell. in. LOVE. It's like the CD was tailor-made for me and my personal taste in music! I had trouble at first remembering who Zooey Deschanel is -- she is an actress, and I remember her from the movies "Elf" and "Failure to Launch" (as SJP's roommate, or sister, was it?) although she has been in more than just those two movies. Anyway, apparently this girl sings on the side. She's a fine actress, but I think she should quit her day job and take this gig on the road!

See what you think. I found this video on YouTube -- I guess she recently performed at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin.



By the way, this is the first full album I have actually downloaded on iTunes. Usually I only buy songs one at a time because I never hardly like every song on the album (unless it's Pink Martini or Sondre Lerche or one of my faves). But yes, I downloaded the whole entire thing late last night, and I love every song. But poo on iTunes for not putting the album up on it's new releases since it just came out Tuesday. I always check those to see if anything good came out, and had I seen it listed there, I definitely would have checked it out.

Another great movie

If you haven't already, get out and rent this one -- "Dan In Real Life". I'm not normally a Steve Carrell fan, and I don't usually go for the slapstick goofy roles he typically takes. But this is a fantastic movie with even more fantastic music. I had never heard of Sondre Lerche before this movie, and now he is one of my favorite musicians. This song is by far my favorite in the whole movie -- I spent days afterwards trying to track down the song name, etc. (Can you tell how "YouTube"-happy I am right now? Now that I figured out how to upload video clips, you'll definitely be seeing a few from me on here...)

The cinema

Now that I am a mom, a movie has to be downright unbelievable for me to actually make it to the theater. Netflix has made my life so much easier, delivering so many movies right to my door, and I've actually become lazy in making it out to the theater. I see a preview on TV and think, oh, I'll add that to my queue. I can wait. But occasionally a movie preview comes along that actually has me asking my husband if he will take me to see it, and thankfully this movie also meant that we could take our son along as well.

So, all that being said. Go see "Penelope", a little gem of a movie. It's nice and clean for the most part. The cinematography reminds me a lot of "Pushing Daisies". And it doesn't hurt that it looks like Penelope lives in Anthropologie. Oh, how I love all things Anthropologie.