Movies!!!

As 2008 is coming to a close I feel the need to start creating lists. I took a really wonderful international film class last quarter and I keep intending to compose a list of some of the great films we watched there as well as some others that I just happen to love.

So here are some of my suggestions for the New Year if you are looking for something to watch (and that I also happen to love!) :-)

Films I loved from the class:

   

Films I just love:

   

   

   

And “kids” movies I adore:

This was the only truly great one of the series…

The animated sequence at the end is one of my favorite parts!

 Brilliant director Alfonso Cuarón.

One of my goals for 2009 is to watch more movies! I feel like I haven’t seen enough the past couple of years and I think I’m going to finally cave in and get Netflix. Have some favorites you think I should see? I would love to hear about it! Happy watching! 

The banning of words…

I read a yahoo article today about words that people are tired of hearing and want to ban. Top of the list: maverick. I couldn’t agree more.   (And to keep the discussion bipartisan, “change” made the list as well…) It got me thinking of certain phrases I wish I would never have to hear again…

1. (Insert any person, place, or thing here) “just doing what they do”… For some reason I can’t stand it when people say stuff like this. Example: someone observing a chicken scratching in the dirt: “Yup thats a chicken, just doing what they do…” Ummm and what is that exactly?

2. “Can I help it if…”(insert some ridiculous proclamation that the speaker can almost always “help” or if they can’t, should just keep their mouth shut) This phrase particularly annoyed me recently when I overheard an absurd bleached blonde student yell loudly in the hall on campus, “Can I (insert expletive) help it if I grew up white middle class?!??!?”  Embarrassing moment for all present…

That brings me to another thought. Isn’t it strange how someone else’s actions can actually embarrass you as an innocent bystander? My little brother prefaced this perfectly once when we were foolishly watching The Real World. He looked at me and said, “That girl makes me embarrassed to be human!” His statement made us laugh till we cried, but it also seems rather profound…

3. Lastly, when a proffessor  goes on and on about a certain subject and then brushes the whole discussion off saying, “We’ll talk more about that later…” I’m always left fuming and wondering, “So what is we are supposed to be learning right now?!?!?”

Ok, this was a weird post, but apparently this is what is on my mind at present… I’m curious about others wishes for banned words and phrases? Let me know.

After the Storm…

Well now that the Great Snow Storm of 2008 (or “Snowmageddon” as my brother-in-law dubbed it) has slowly been washed away by good ‘ol Washington rain, I realize I’m behind. In everything. You would think that spending endless hours inside watching the snow fall would give me plenty of time to be productive. I guess I did knit allot of Christmas presents…

 

And I did make these amazing brownies… (along with allot of other not-so-good-for-you holiday baked goods.)

But otherwise I haven’t done much… Just allot of blog-reading and Etsy window shopping. I’m sad to think I must return to school in a little over a week. sigh… I guess I will have to be forced back into productivity.

One night when Aaron and I were taking our evening snow walk we were amazed to see that the ocean was full of floating ice and some of the snow was resting and blowing across the surface. This picture doesn’t quite do it justice. It reminded me of Briney Beach from A Series of Unfortunate Events. It was surreal…

It’s been a fun week and luckily the roads were decent enough that my family was able to convene for Christmas as planned. We had a great time. Tomorrow I think I will actually do all the cleaning I planned to do weeks ago and hopefully start planning out my Etsy shop… Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas Charlie Brown!!!

Last night I watched this classic and I am pleased to announce that dear old Charlie Brown has saved the world from the threat of commercialism once again. I love you Charlie Brown! It made me happy, but also a little sad. (as so many Christmas tradition often do) My little brother and I have a long-standing tradition of watching our old favorites every year, but had to forgo the tradition this year as he is serving in Iraq. The good news is this is the last time and he will be home for good in a few months! Last year we were so inspired by our tradition that we tried our hand at our very own stop-motion Christmas special. We spent most of an evening and the following day laboring over our film and ended up with roughly 35 seconds of footage. Stop-motion is not for the impatient! We had to abandon it for the time, but we will resume it one of these days and perhaps it will join the ranks of good ‘ol Charlie Brown.

I have been very obsessed with blog surfing lately and have found some great little gems. Here are some things I have discovered in my travels that I particularly love:

This beautifuly haunting  print was an Etsy find. It can be purchased here.

I also found this picture of my dream house… Wouldn’t it be glorious to live here? Well, during the summer… I found the image at this delightful blog.

And then there are my new favorite “boots”. These triumphantly rival the Uggs my sister and I have been so coveting…

These lovely slippers come in many colors and can be purchased at this site.

Well that is all for now. Hope everyone is cozy and safe!

SNOW!!!

It’s actually snowing! It’s also downright cold! After I ventured out for a little walk and some picture taking, I decided to spend the rest of the day as close to my heater as I can get without causinga fire… :-) Finals are behind me and I am absolutely basking in these school-free holidays. I haven’t really started to do much shopping yet, but I’m a procrastinator so I know I have plenty of time…  Hope you are all well! I’m off to make some potato soup to keep us warm.  Here are some pics of winter in my neighborhood!

One down, two to go…

I am in the midst of finals week. I just took the first one of the week today and I can’t wat until Thursday when I will be FREE!!! I worked very hard this week so I could give myself Saturday off and spend the day with my mom. We went and cut down the tree, tied it up, mangaged to get it home, and went shopping! It was allot of fun. We spent the day downtown Poulsbo and rummaged through the shops and antique stores. When we got home we went a little crazy decorating the house with lights and I got home long after midnight. It was a great day though and now I must retreat back into the world of academia for another few days. I will returns all phone calls, emails, ect. when I emerge. I promise!

Happy Thanksgiving! (just a little late)

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving! I actualy made a turkey this year and lot’s ‘o trimmings. I don’t usualy cook “big chunks of meat” :-) but… It turned out pretty good all thing considered. If it looks a little odd thats just because Aaron had already started in on it before I remembered I should photodocument. I also made stuffing from scratch! I actualy sauted the vegetables in white wine and that made me feel like quite the gourmet… My most proud moment though was making homemade gravy. It was fabulous!

I had a great time at my family’s and over all it was a very fine holiday. The unfortunate conclution was that on Sunday morning I was awakened from my slumber by the fraud protector people at Visa kindly imforming me that someone down in Florida had stolen my credit card number and went on some strange gas station binge racking up a hefty bill before my card was cancelled. Oh wonderful… Luckily I will be re-imbursed for it, but very inconvenienced… But hey! Who needs a credit card for the holiday season anyway?

Finals week is bearing upon me so I really should be studying. sigh.. I will leave you with this closing picture of one of the things that I especialy love about the holiday season: baby oranges!