All pictures from Modcloth.com
Wednesday 31 March 2010
Projects
I mentioned in my last post that I was making a shirt, this is the shirt
I have cut out the pieces to make the the long sleeved version in black poplin with a white poplin collar but it's creation has been put on hold because I've found that my work clothes are too hot and restricting for my dance classes but normal exercise clothes (which I've never been a fan of) are not particularly suitable either. So I am making this (the shorter version of the black dress)
in very dark teal/green cotton, which is very light and very thin so petticoat required!
I'm posting this here for two reasons. One as an explanation as to why I have been not posting more. I've even been watching fewer movies...gasp! Two because this is an promise to which I must hold to post the finished items which will require me to actually appear in a public forum photograph (a big deal for me) and for me to actually get my camera and my computer talking to each other!
1 http://sewing.patternreview.com/cgi-bin/patterns/sewingpatterns.pl?patternid=18336
2 http://sewing.patternreview.com/cgi-bin/patterns/sewingpatterns.pl?patternid=29782
I have cut out the pieces to make the the long sleeved version in black poplin with a white poplin collar but it's creation has been put on hold because I've found that my work clothes are too hot and restricting for my dance classes but normal exercise clothes (which I've never been a fan of) are not particularly suitable either. So I am making this (the shorter version of the black dress)
in very dark teal/green cotton, which is very light and very thin so petticoat required!I'm posting this here for two reasons. One as an explanation as to why I have been not posting more. I've even been watching fewer movies...gasp! Two because this is an promise to which I must hold to post the finished items which will require me to actually appear in a public forum photograph (a big deal for me) and for me to actually get my camera and my computer talking to each other!
1 http://sewing.patternreview.com/cgi-bin/patterns/sewingpatterns.pl?patternid=18336
2 http://sewing.patternreview.com/cgi-bin/patterns/sewingpatterns.pl?patternid=29782
Tuesday 23 March 2010
New Things
I'm shocked that it was over two weeks ago that I last posted. I'd like to say I've a decent reason but the truth is something else. Something broke in a friendship that has been very important to me over the past two years and although there is a lot of bad involved in that there is some good coming out of it. I have realised the goals I set for myself when moving to Manchester are still way too far from achieved, and this breaking has spurred me on to get busy and push myself. So I put together a list of things I want to do and starting thinking about all the things that previous habits formed by the friendship pushed from my mind.
Maybe because I am more open to things but good things have been happening, an old friend sought me out on facebook which encouraged me to seek out two friends who were a part of the happiest time of my life, one of whom has very enthusiastically replied; I have started taking a Swing Dancing class which I have been wanting to do try for a while now and I am really enjoying it. I am trying veganism for Lent and am finding it easier than previously thought to make the change. I've starting learning to sew clothes, so far I've made a dress, a night-gown and am currently taking on a shirt. I drove to see Violet's new place down South and had a lovely weekend with her, just shopping and hanging out. The weather has been good, the sky bluer and signs of Spring are creeping in. Tonight I'm meeting up with some family for a meal, a situation of lucky circumstance and proximity. I'm not ready to give up on the friendship that broke, but it is nice that when I looked I saw many reminders that there are possibilities there if I am willing to push for it.
Also I bought a tube of MAC Russian Red which is as good as an excuse to hold your head up and smile as any other I've found! Anyway, I have plenty of things I want to post and babble about but for now I just want to say thank you to and for everything, especially those who have so kindly commented here.
xxx
1 http://www.ansanctoir.ie/Images/swing.gif
2 http://tiarasquemamaeodeia.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/russian-red.jpg
Maybe because I am more open to things but good things have been happening, an old friend sought me out on facebook which encouraged me to seek out two friends who were a part of the happiest time of my life, one of whom has very enthusiastically replied; I have started taking a Swing Dancing class which I have been wanting to do try for a while now and I am really enjoying it. I am trying veganism for Lent and am finding it easier than previously thought to make the change. I've starting learning to sew clothes, so far I've made a dress, a night-gown and am currently taking on a shirt. I drove to see Violet's new place down South and had a lovely weekend with her, just shopping and hanging out. The weather has been good, the sky bluer and signs of Spring are creeping in. Tonight I'm meeting up with some family for a meal, a situation of lucky circumstance and proximity. I'm not ready to give up on the friendship that broke, but it is nice that when I looked I saw many reminders that there are possibilities there if I am willing to push for it.
Also I bought a tube of MAC Russian Red which is as good as an excuse to hold your head up and smile as any other I've found! Anyway, I have plenty of things I want to post and babble about but for now I just want to say thank you to and for everything, especially those who have so kindly commented here.xxx
1 http://www.ansanctoir.ie/Images/swing.gif
2 http://tiarasquemamaeodeia.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/russian-red.jpg
Saturday 6 March 2010
Spotlight Saturday
As a big film/reading/all round geek I often find myself saying how great certain people are and seeing blank looks. Not that these people are obscure, often I'll find forums, tumblrs and facebook pages dedicated to their wonderful selves. Anyway, I have a great deal of enthusiasm for certain people's work and would like to use my little piece of the internet to celebrate them. So:-
Amber Tamblyn
Amber Rose Tamblyn was born May 14, 1983 in Santa Monica, California. She is the daughter of actor Russ Tamblyn, and her mother, Bonnie Tamblyn, is a singer and artist. Russ Tamblyn was a childhood love of mine, especially as Gideon in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, so when I got dragged into seeing The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants by my Alexis Bledel-loving friend I made the connection to her.
She is a wonderful actress, she grew up working on the TV show General Hospital but after acting in a few movies (including the Wim Wenders segment of a short film compilation Ten Minutes Old: The Trumpet) she landed the lead role in Joan of Arcadia. The show follows Joan as she comes to term with the fact that God is taking a rather more direct interest in her life than most, and grumbles her way through it. The show is very much written by people who like science and questions, and it benefits from that, along with the genuine affectionate bonds the family group seemed to have. After JOA was cancelled and S of T P came out, Amber starred in the movie Stephanie Daley, a difficult look at a court case involving a teenage girl whose baby died immediately after birth and whether it was murder and the events running up to it. The movie is brilliant, sensitive and harrowing and wonderfully acted by Amber, Tilda Swinton and Timothy Hutton who play the pregnant criminal psychologist and her husband. After that she worked in The Grudge 2, S of the T P 2 and a number of films which I haven't had chance to see yet. Recently she has been playing Casey Shraeger on The Unusals which also starred Oscar nominated Jeremy Renner, playing a young cop out to prove herself in the bizarre dept handling the more unusual aspects of New York law enforcement.
Amber is also a writer with two books of poetry out published, a co-founder of Write Now which fundraises for quality poetry programming and supports poetry communities who also put together an annual show in LA to showcase poets living and writing in the US. I have both her books, and they are wonderful. When I was little I tried to learn all my favourite poems and passages of books to recite to myself because replaying people's beautiful words stopped me from being lonely; I grew out of it but began again when I read some of Amber's poems from Free Stallion. This Christmas I got Bang Ditto and love that just as much, her words are sharp but not vicious, angry without being vindicitve, introspective without being to self-involved and passionate while remaining involving. She talks about politcial issues she feels strongly about, about personal relationships, how she feels about herself and the world.
Amber Tamblyn
Amber Rose Tamblyn was born May 14, 1983 in Santa Monica, California. She is the daughter of actor Russ Tamblyn, and her mother, Bonnie Tamblyn, is a singer and artist. Russ Tamblyn was a childhood love of mine, especially as Gideon in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, so when I got dragged into seeing The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants by my Alexis Bledel-loving friend I made the connection to her.
She is a wonderful actress, she grew up working on the TV show General Hospital but after acting in a few movies (including the Wim Wenders segment of a short film compilation Ten Minutes Old: The Trumpet) she landed the lead role in Joan of Arcadia. The show follows Joan as she comes to term with the fact that God is taking a rather more direct interest in her life than most, and grumbles her way through it. The show is very much written by people who like science and questions, and it benefits from that, along with the genuine affectionate bonds the family group seemed to have. After JOA was cancelled and S of T P came out, Amber starred in the movie Stephanie Daley, a difficult look at a court case involving a teenage girl whose baby died immediately after birth and whether it was murder and the events running up to it. The movie is brilliant, sensitive and harrowing and wonderfully acted by Amber, Tilda Swinton and Timothy Hutton who play the pregnant criminal psychologist and her husband. After that she worked in The Grudge 2, S of the T P 2 and a number of films which I haven't had chance to see yet. Recently she has been playing Casey Shraeger on The Unusals which also starred Oscar nominated Jeremy Renner, playing a young cop out to prove herself in the bizarre dept handling the more unusual aspects of New York law enforcement.
Amber is also a writer with two books of poetry out published, a co-founder of Write Now which fundraises for quality poetry programming and supports poetry communities who also put together an annual show in LA to showcase poets living and writing in the US. I have both her books, and they are wonderful. When I was little I tried to learn all my favourite poems and passages of books to recite to myself because replaying people's beautiful words stopped me from being lonely; I grew out of it but began again when I read some of Amber's poems from Free Stallion. This Christmas I got Bang Ditto and love that just as much, her words are sharp but not vicious, angry without being vindicitve, introspective without being to self-involved and passionate while remaining involving. She talks about politcial issues she feels strongly about, about personal relationships, how she feels about herself and the world.From the poem ROLE RESEARCH:
"1.
“Jumpers” he calls them, pushing a picture
under my dried tabloid-puke eyes.
The homicide detective at New York’s 19th precinct
sits across from me, the mascara maven.
Role research. He has no eyelids left,
just crumpled Polaroids. Murders, suicides,
robberies, kidnapping: seen one 36-year-old
Caucasian male impaled on a pole after
plummeting the length of New Jersey,
seen ’em all..."
Friday 5 March 2010
10 Things
For the past three hours the alarm in my office has been going off. Very, very loudly. So as a result everyone has a headache and we have learnt the teamwork of calling to get it fixed and to use storage bags and sellotape to muffle the sounds. I woke up this morning in a pretty good mood and in an effort to regain it here is a list of things that are currently making me smile!
1. The fact that my best friend, Violet, is driving here tonight to celebrate her birthday with me for the weekend, and with a big group of us tomorrow night in town.
2. The sun is shining, even if the sky isn't exactly blue and we are closer now to summer than we were yesterday.
3. The two volcano-spot monsters that have been parked on my chin for the past fortnight have cleared up.
4. I have with, one lunchtime of exception, been vegan for 2 weeks and 3 days. I am trying it for Lent and so far am enjoying it. (On reflection, I wonder if this may have been a contributing cause of number three happpening)
5. Alice In Wonderland is released today! I'm not going until next week with friends so will be dodging spoilers and too much discussion until then.
6. The prospect of getting actual mail. I just found out about and joined Postcrossing and I am looking forward sending and receiving postcards all around the world!
7. Matthew Gray Gubler's episode of Criminal Minds. It was perfect, it fit with the story-telling method that we are used to with the show but at the same time he put his aesthetic and emotional imprint on the episode. Plus it had Beth Grant, Amy Cusack and Bud Cort in it, there were lots of little homages to horror movies and Harold and Maude and there was an element of Carnivale in there too. There was even a cast member, Felix 'Stumpy' Dreyfuss himself (otherwise know as Toby Huss)! The Gube, what a guy x
8. Since we are on the subject, Carnivale makes me happy...in a melancholy, tragic involving way.
9. Strawberries, especially free ones! (They were offered round at work) Makes me long for summer when I can go to the farm near my parents house and do the whole pick-your-own thing. Fresh, juicy and warmed by the sun strawberries, mmmmmmmnn,
10. Did I mention I am getting to see the most awesome woman in the world this weekend?
Hope you all (by which I mean anyone who happens to come by this, my little fraction of the internet) have fantastic weekends whatever your plans may be! I'd love to hear about them :-)
1. The fact that my best friend, Violet, is driving here tonight to celebrate her birthday with me for the weekend, and with a big group of us tomorrow night in town.
2. The sun is shining, even if the sky isn't exactly blue and we are closer now to summer than we were yesterday.
3. The two volcano-spot monsters that have been parked on my chin for the past fortnight have cleared up.
4. I have with, one lunchtime of exception, been vegan for 2 weeks and 3 days. I am trying it for Lent and so far am enjoying it. (On reflection, I wonder if this may have been a contributing cause of number three happpening)
5. Alice In Wonderland is released today! I'm not going until next week with friends so will be dodging spoilers and too much discussion until then.
6. The prospect of getting actual mail. I just found out about and joined Postcrossing and I am looking forward sending and receiving postcards all around the world!
7. Matthew Gray Gubler's episode of Criminal Minds. It was perfect, it fit with the story-telling method that we are used to with the show but at the same time he put his aesthetic and emotional imprint on the episode. Plus it had Beth Grant, Amy Cusack and Bud Cort in it, there were lots of little homages to horror movies and Harold and Maude and there was an element of Carnivale in there too. There was even a cast member, Felix 'Stumpy' Dreyfuss himself (otherwise know as Toby Huss)! The Gube, what a guy x
8. Since we are on the subject, Carnivale makes me happy...in a melancholy, tragic involving way.
9. Strawberries, especially free ones! (They were offered round at work) Makes me long for summer when I can go to the farm near my parents house and do the whole pick-your-own thing. Fresh, juicy and warmed by the sun strawberries, mmmmmmmnn,
10. Did I mention I am getting to see the most awesome woman in the world this weekend?
Hope you all (by which I mean anyone who happens to come by this, my little fraction of the internet) have fantastic weekends whatever your plans may be! I'd love to hear about them :-)Tuesday 2 March 2010
Twenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky
I have a habit of becoming fans of specific actors/actresses and finding all of their work I can, this method has lead to some almighty duds believe me; however not tonight. Bryan Dick is an English actor whose most well know projects have been Master and Commander and Blood and Chocolate, but as a British TV watcher I saw him in Earthfasts as a child, then Blackpool, an episode of Torchwood, the lovely All The Small Things and most recently an episode of Being Human.
Tonight the marvelous Cinema Paradiso enabled me to curl up and watch Twenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky and it was wonderful. The colour drained pallet of London in the 30's draws you into the world of Bob, Jenny and Ella; whose three overlapping but separately told stories make palpable the slow breaking of their hopes, love and ambition. There is a fantastic synopsis and review here so I won't even attempt but it got me thinking about things.
About how many small but passionate lives go on, how each person is screaming with their own story no matter how cliched or boring it may seem from the outside and that we may presume to get to know people or a situation but that it is probable we may never know anyone truly. How the small moments of happiness linger and how what is settling for one person may be heel-clicking, heart stopping love for the person on the other side of the relationship. How we are all living our own stories overlapping with others.
It also got me thinking about now, about all the blogs I read and why starting this was important to me; the lives portrayed in the programme were all quiet, a waiter, a prostitute, a barmaid living in a time we now paint with nostalgia. It came from a book by Patrick Hamilton and was heavily autobiographical, and yet it feels timeless, not necessarily the situation but the emotion behind it, commit to another human and run the risk of being hurt, trust someone again and again because you love them and want that to be enough, watch someone you want to want you want someone else. It made me wonder about the life I am living, what I want it to be and the people around me. Stuck in this body of perception, I want to know how and why others choose how to live, and how we try to break the barriers to tell our stories and what we choose to keep quiet.
Twenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky is a quiet period drama but it made my method worth the madness. My favourite plot was Ella's but I can't find a good picture of just her.
1 http://wondersinthedark.wordpress.com/2008/11/25/twenty-thousand-streets-under-the-sky-%C2%BD/
2 Ibid
3 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2009/dec/08/classic-novel-new-york-review
Tonight the marvelous Cinema Paradiso enabled me to curl up and watch Twenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky and it was wonderful. The colour drained pallet of London in the 30's draws you into the world of Bob, Jenny and Ella; whose three overlapping but separately told stories make palpable the slow breaking of their hopes, love and ambition. There is a fantastic synopsis and review here so I won't even attempt but it got me thinking about things.
About how many small but passionate lives go on, how each person is screaming with their own story no matter how cliched or boring it may seem from the outside and that we may presume to get to know people or a situation but that it is probable we may never know anyone truly. How the small moments of happiness linger and how what is settling for one person may be heel-clicking, heart stopping love for the person on the other side of the relationship. How we are all living our own stories overlapping with others.
It also got me thinking about now, about all the blogs I read and why starting this was important to me; the lives portrayed in the programme were all quiet, a waiter, a prostitute, a barmaid living in a time we now paint with nostalgia. It came from a book by Patrick Hamilton and was heavily autobiographical, and yet it feels timeless, not necessarily the situation but the emotion behind it, commit to another human and run the risk of being hurt, trust someone again and again because you love them and want that to be enough, watch someone you want to want you want someone else. It made me wonder about the life I am living, what I want it to be and the people around me. Stuck in this body of perception, I want to know how and why others choose how to live, and how we try to break the barriers to tell our stories and what we choose to keep quiet.
Twenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky is a quiet period drama but it made my method worth the madness. My favourite plot was Ella's but I can't find a good picture of just her.1 http://wondersinthedark.wordpress.com/2008/11/25/twenty-thousand-streets-under-the-sky-%C2%BD/
2 Ibid
3 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2009/dec/08/classic-novel-new-york-review
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