Slew of good movies and pretty good books

Flaming Iguanas was cute and bawdy. Somewhat like Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance but without all the boring philosophy crap and with cartoons.

Tony Bourdain's No Reservations was full of fun descriptions of the making of his show and lots of stunning pictures - of scenery and of leaches on asses.

We've watched a ton of good movies in the past week. Atonement was beautiful. Very like to book (although I reserve the right to prefer the book.) James McAvoy can be my new crush.

No Country for Old Men was so freaking good and deserving of all kinds of accolades. I loved how many of the characters resembled real people and not just pretty Hollywood extra types.

The Lives of Others is amazingly good. A-mazing! I'm forced to tell everyone I know to watch it so they can appreciate its amazingness too.

Flickr dilemma solved

So just a few days ago I was doubting my ability to accomplish the 365 Day Project on flickr. Well, lo and behold, there's the 52 Week project I can participate in instead! Instead of a self-portrait every day, I can do one once a week and still feel like I'm accomplishing something. Not to mention improving my photography skills and visually tracking my road to a healthier life style.

Plus, I'm intrigued by Project 365 which isn't self-portrait driven, but I should probably not over do it to start.

The 52 Week discovery is all do to PeskyMac's delightful flickr stream. Her blog is hella good as well and keeps me feeling well-informed when it comes to politics and the pro-choice movement.

In between projects

So after finishing all three sets of puppet theatres and finger puppets, I'm at the interesting stage of not knowing what to work on next.

My options:
- Fixing a possibly ruined lotus painting
- Doing a dia los muerte painting for my pottery teacher
- Trying my hand at sewing a garment - possibly a kimono-style top
- Blossom box type thing inspired by futuregirl's post
- Shrine art piece
- Felt flower garland to prettify my home

I'm a to-do list kind of girl, so being without a project decided upon is dumbfounding. I had decided to finish more on-going projects rather than starting fresh. The only two started projects on the list are the lotus painting and the flower garland. But they need some percolating I think. I may be leaning toward the cool blossom box idea.

Another reason to go to bed way too late

Having seen all but one of the movies nominated for best picture, I was interested in a bit more than the clothes at last night's Oscars.

My three favorite dresses:


Kelly Preston's dress is such a delicious color. Reminiscent of the painting (who's name I cannot recall) or the woman lounging in the sunlight. I want to bathe in that color.

I liked the drama of Heidi Klum's dress.

Marion Cotillard's dress is so pretty and detailed and mermaid-like. I have yet to see La Vie en Rose but its on my Netflix queue.

Other things I noticed:

His character in No Country for Old Men scared the bejesus outta me. But cleaned up and sans the bad haircut, Javier Bardem is a cutie.

No big fan of her dress, but I was happy when Tilda Swinton won for supporting actress. She was so good in Michael Clayton. And she looked so striking and fresh faced last night.

365 project considerations

I pondering a new try on the 365 day project. It seems kind of narcissistic to take so many pictures of myself, but it is such a good reason to learn some Photoshop skills. These two were faves from the last attempt:


Plus its on my 101 list. Besides Jen finds time to do the project and do a bazillion crafty projects. That's some inspiration!

My continuations of ridiculously short reads

French Women Don't Get Fat was a stupid choice for me. Yes, I love audio books - espcially those read with accents. Yes, I love travel and food. No, I do not love diet advice books. I blame it on a subpar selection from my library download section. And while I admittedly could use some help in the health and weight department this was too snooty-ish and simple for me. Even with the pretty accent.

A Certain Slant of Light was gripping and engaging. Told from the point of view of a ghost, it has a great premise. However, something about the ending didn't come together quite right for me. It seemed rushed.
And after all these super short reads, its definitely time to dive into something more substantial. Maybe something from my Chunkster list.

Adorable