heather: June 2008 Archives

The opinions expressed below are that of the writer and not affiliated with any organization.

 

The Air I Breathe - Loved it, loved it, loved it! The premise is original, the actors were incredibly good (especially Sarah Michelle Gellar) and it's wonderfully shot. I'm not sure why critics panned it. It was like Crash with the inter-related characters but rather than dealing with race, it tackles the basic human emotions. There are some cliches but they don't detract from the picture. I'll probably buy this one.

 

Lords of Dogtown - Loved it so much! I've been meaning to see this for a while and it just kept getting bumped down in the queue. Having seen Peralta's documentary "Dogtown and the Z-boys" a few times with Shawn, I have to say Catherine Hardwicke did a really good job with this fictionalization (which makes me happy because she's directing "Twilight"). The casting was impeccable!

 

P.S. I Love You - I was expecting a sappy romcom. And to be honest I'm not a Hillary Swank fan. So I popped it into the DVD player with a little prejudice. Fortunately it proved me wrong. It had heart and intelligence. There were emotional parts but you can't deal with the death of a spouse without that. I enjoyed how the story unfolded between the present and flashbacks. Ireland was beautiful!

 

Jumper - Interesting, entertaining and yet it felt very incomplete to me. I get the sense that too much of it ended up on the cutting room floor. But it was actiony and fun, if not thoroughly explained. I wanted to see more so that's a good sign.

 

Get Smart - Funny! There were a few slow parts but it was relatively entertaining. Steve is a comedic genius. It's been a few days and I still giggle when I think of the airplane bathroom scene. Like Pavlov's dog though I couldn't stop myself from chair dancing during "4 Minutes". Damn I bloody love Madonna's Hard Candy CD.

 

The Other Boleyn Girl - Ugh I hated it! Is it a bodice ripper? Is it a historical drama? No one knows, least of all it. Nevermind the historical inaccuracies (I can live with them, I mean I love The Tudors and they "modernize" and combine real life people into single characters to further the story) but I never bought the chemistry by either of the Boleyn girls and King Henry. Isn't that the point of telling this story? Eric Bana is sadly underused in this film. Scarlett goes against her typecast and that was interesting but still not worth sitting through the entire movie. 

 

 

I've been making a lot of cards again. I made this one for my friend Candice up in Seattle. She's been pretty stressed out lately and I thought she needed something pretty and cheery in her mailbox. That's not a eupheism, her "box" is very well taken care of by her loving husband. You sickos.

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

I made this one for my friend Lindy in Texas. I hadn't talked to her in a while and was thinking about her. I love the designer paper series I used on both of these first two cards. So prigly!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last weekend Jenni and I hosted a Stampin' Up party at my place. Our demonstrator showed us the technique of chalking using pastels. On that note, our consultant Karen Indendi is AWESOME! If you're in the central CA area and interested in stamping or scrapbooking, I highly recommend her. Anyway this was the first card she showed us how to make. I like the pear. I haven't thought of anyone to send it to yet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is another one we made during the chalk workshop. Mom especially liked the button usage (although she insisted on threading it with some linen twine). I think all of us did our brown ginghan ribbon differently; I opted for a standard bow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I really enjoyed making this card. Karen had a Stampin' Up script stamp for the background but Jenni pulled out her custom stamp of Captain Wentworth's letter to Anne from "Persuasion". Then we did the lovely lilac chalking on top of that. The hardware and ribbon polish the look nicely. I decided to send this to my friend Sherri for her birthday.

 

 

 

 

 

Our workshop was Sunday; our new stamps had arrived by Thursday. I decided to make good use of our new grape set and try my hand at the chalking technique on my own. I'm not thrilled at how this one came out but it is ok I suppose for my first solo mission.

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was my second attempt at chalking using my new seashell stamps. This one came our considerably better. I believe the trick to chalking us choosing the right sort of stamp (lots of outlining!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have some movie reviews and recent activities to blog but I'll get to them tomorrow.

Now that they've all received them I can share my latest batch of card making. This first one is a Bride To Be card for my friend Jessica. I used my new stamp sets which when I ordered them I thought "You know, I don't really have a huge need for these but I love them so I'm buying them anyway." Glad I was proven wrong and was able to use them so quickly. Jenni had the vellum in her stash. The pink paper and ribbon were leftovers from my Valentine extravaganza. And of course I had to emboss part of it. I love the finished look of embossing and the silver popped nicely against the black linen paper. Jessica seemed to like it and it opened up a whole new shared love as she's been to a Stampin' Up workshop too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next was a wedding card for Greg. It sounds sexist but I really do struggle with making cards for men still. Aside from Shawn (who appreciates the artistry I think), I'm just kinda at a loss as to how to make them masculine enough. I'm definitely channeling girly Heather during the creative process. But Greg is a dear friend and highly valued co-worker (he's Sundance to my Butch) so I had to do something special for him. At first I was disappointed in how the gold embossing powder didn't stick to all the grooves of the paper's texture. But then when I put the ribbon and grommets on it, I kinda liked the voids. It makes it feel old and classy.

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lastly I created a birthday card for my friend Melissa. She LOVES green. So I used some of my spring designer series paper with coordinating green solids. Jenni had purchased the stamp set last month and we'd learned water color techniques so I used this opportunity to test out my skills. I'd bought the Stampin' Up water color pencils even though I'd used the crayons in the workshop. I think I preferred the end result of the crayons better but as for application and clean up the pencils were much better. I need to adjust the amount of color to get the colors perfected.

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Oh and this has nothing to do with card making and wasn't the "newest love" I was thinking of when I started this blog entry but I have to inclue a pic. This is my latest splurge on myself. It's a darling Betsey bag with all kinds of yummies on it-- mint chocolate chip ice cream, banana splits, root beer floats, fudge sickles, etc. It was so summery cute and even though I wasn't thrilled with the gold (I'd prefer silver) I bought it anyway. I love it. And I get lots of compliments on it.  

 

 

 

 

As to my newest love I've fallen head over heels in love with Edward Cullen. At the urging of my friend Sherri I read the Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyers. Well actually she urged me to read the first book "Twilight" but I couldn't stop there. I devoured them in the way a vampire would. I couldn't sleep once I started Twilight; I had to keep reading to see how it ended. I wasn't disappointed. It made me, a grown woman, swoon. The second book "New Moon" was... amazing and yet so difficult. Stephenie truly captures how it feels to be broken by love and it brought to surface some feelings in me that I assumed were long since dead. About halfway through it I was so touched by what Bella was going through that her morose carried over to my real life. But you know by the end I was beaming again. I finished the third book "Eclipse" last Saturday and while I didn't like where it went in some places (I love the character of Jacob as a friend but not as anything more, Edward is Bella's soulmate!) again it made me think about my past. I've been broken by love before. And I've been healed by a wolf, of sorts. Weird huh? Anyway now I have to wait 45 torturous days till the fourth and final installment "Breaking Dawn" comes out. Of course I have it easy... most of her fans have been waiting much, much longer. Give them a read if you get a chance, you will likely get as caught up as the rest of us.

 

It also makes me introspective though. I wonder if I'll ever love a real man the way I love Edward Cullen, Helo Agathon, Mal Reynolds, Mr. Darcy... I may be cursed to only love in fiction.   

The 2007 chase for the cup was fantastic. It was one of the best racing seasons in recent memory with stiff competition from amazing drivers. I suppose it wasn't quite as captivating if you were part of Junior Nation. But for a Hendrick fan it was a blast... with the exceptions of Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin, I had a love for all of the drivers in the running. And it was exhilirating to watch Jeff and Jimmie, teammates and friends off the track, to run at each other so hard. In the end my favorite driver since his rookie year, Jeff Gordon trailed Jimmie by 70-some odd points. I was disappointed but not dejected; Jimmie had several amazing finishes and the championship was well-deserved. If anyone besides Jeff was going to win it, Jimmie was definitely my second choice.

Today as I watched Hillary giving her concession speech live, something the newly crowned 2007 cup winner said struck me in a new light. I'm paraphrasing so forgive me if this isn't exactly right, "In any other racing year, Jeff Gordon's performance would have won this championship. I got lucky in the end."

I think that applies to Hillary's bid for President. In any other election cycle, 4 years ago, 8 years from now, I think she would have been/be the democratic nominee without question. Obama got lucky. And perhaps Hillary had some bad advisors. It is not my intention to analyze faults here. I'll leave that to the vultures in the media.  

The difference is I don't like Obama as much as I like Jimmie Johnson. That's what makes this pill a harder thing to swallow. (Well that and the fact that JJ has no bearing on my life or basic human rights.)   

Yet Hillary's pleading today for democrats to unite behind Obama did not anger me the way I thought it would even as an independent voter. I carefully weighed the message she put forth... Do I really want to risk McCain? While the thought of him in international affairs and domestic security is a comfort to me over Obama's naivette, the thought of additional Supreme Court Justices who would, given an opportunity, annhilate issues I believe in wholeheartedly: Roe v. Wade, same-sex marriage, and medical marijuana, does not sit well at all.

So I'm in a quandry. Part of me says California is going to vote Obama regardless of my writing in Hillary so it doesn't matter. Another part of me says do whatever is necessary to end the regime of republican righteousness.

While VP is largely a bs job (sorry but it kinda is, we all know it) and I think Hillary is worth much more, putting her on the ticket is probably his only chance of beating McCain. It will make the pill easier to swallow for her supporters and gain him swing states. So in a sense, Obama is facing that same "do whatever is necessary" dilemma. For all his "settle down" people comments, someone somewhere has to be giving him the hard facts. This may be his first real lesson in what he wants to do vs. what is viable. How he passes this idealism test will determine his future. It's like Jr leaving DEI racing, the company his father built. I'm sure it wasn't easy and in an ideal world he would have stayed. But the guy wanted to start winning races and his best chance of that was joining the Hendrick team.  

But I tell you what, this is the second time delegate/electorcal math over popular vote has fucked me and my candidate. And I'm not happy about that, not in the slightest.

And as much as I like Jimmie and don't begrudge him the title, I still wish Jeff had won the 2007 cup.

Tis the season for seeing movies in the theater rather than at home on DVD.

Iron Man - I had really modest expectations going into this film. I love RDJ and knew he had the acting chops to pull it off but Iron Man himself has never been a fav superhero and frankly a big part of me feels like Hollywood is saturating the "let's make a superhero movie" market. So I was pleasantly surprised. It's really quite a good movie-- entertaining, interesting themes, good action bits, no glaring plot holes. If I'd known Favreau directed I probably would have made the effort to see it opening weekend. Be sure to sit through the credits, there's a fantastic cameo at the end. Overall I give it a 4 out of 5 stars.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull  - Let me start out by saying I enjoyed watching Indi again after such a long absence. It was entertaining. It had the wit, tongue-in-cheek jokes and adventure/chase scenes that you expect from the franchise. However... it lacked the poetry that makes Raiders and Last Crusade phenomenal movies. That was a bit of a downer for me. For a film wrapped up in South American aboriginal lore, it certainly didn't use them for much other than "window dressing". The Russians were kinda annoying (although I loved Kate's performance, don't mistake that). There were some spots of bad editing which we all found distracting. And honestly it lost me close to the end. It wasn't even the sci-fi factor that ruined it for me (as it did for some others expecting archeology). How can treasure = knowledge but no real knowledge be imparted to our protagnist? Disappointing. It pains me but I give it a 3 out of 5 stars. I didn't hate it but it should have been so much better.

Sex and the City - Perfectly written for the time elapse after the series ended. All the storylines made sense, it really felt like they spent time thinking about where each of the girls would be in their lives. The fashion was amazing (as always). There was crying, laughing, clapping, giggling, embarassment... every range of human emotion. The characters all grew in different ways, sometimes struggling with it, which really impressed me because that's how life is. I left the theater feeling so much... love. 5 out of 5 stars. Yep, it's that good.