Monday, December 29, 2008

Jane Austen rocks and other chick flicks...


I've been sick this Christmas, one bad cold to the next. It sucks, except for the fact that it allows me to watch all of the movies that W normally vetoes when we get DVD's together, not to mention all the movies that are on at this time of the year in general.
Here is just a sampling of what I've watched this past week...
-Pride & Prejudice (the new one w/ Keira Knightley) I've seen the A&E version too with Colin Firth. HELLO Mr. Darcy!
-Sense and Sensibility (seen and loved it before!)
-The Jane Austen Book Club (seeing a theme here?)
-Love Actually (I ACTUALLY watch this one every Christmas now!)
-P.S. (Not P.S. I Love You... this one has Laura Linney (love her!) and Topher Grace (love him!)
-The Devil Wears Prada. Didn't think I'd like this one as much as I did. Meryl Streep can do no wrong in my eyes.
-Mama Mia. See above. Pierce Brosnan can't sing and is adorable.
-The Sisterhood of the Travelling pants 2. I actually saw this on the plane coming home from Toronto. My Dad tried telling me which movie was being shown by telling me it was called THE PANTSUITS. Um, The pantsuits dad? Are you sure it's not The Travelling Pants? No, he was quite insistent that it was PANTSUIT. So now it will be forever known as "The Brotherhood of the Wandering Pantsuit."
-Thank you for not Smoking. Not a chick flick, but good nonetheless!
-The Hours. Ah, Meryl does it again.
- Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail. These were on TV and I got sucked in even though I've seen both before.
-Bridgit Jones Diary. Ditto to the above.
I'm sure there's more, but it's all a bit of a blur. For the record, I hate the term chick flick. I also hate the term Chick Lit. Why do we have to cutsie up everything that is women centric? We need a new term for it... Idea's?

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

The Paper Place Contest!


So there is this great shop in Toronto that has the BEST selection of Japanese Chiyogami papers I've ever seen. They are having this contest where you can win a sample of every Chiyogami paper they have! Now, I've already spent a lot of money buying all the papers i like, but I'm sure there's a lot I haven't seen yet. I WANT TO WIN THIS CONTEST! By posting it on my blog I receive 5 entries, so wish me luck!
The shop is located at 887 Queen St. West. See my links for a link to their online store!

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Anonymous Art Show


W, I participated in the Anonymous Art Show at the North Vancouver Arts Council again this year and this is the piece I sold! It's such a neat concept... it's a fund raiser for art programs and the artist gets half the proceeds as well, so that's a big fifty bucks coming my way!

Friday, December 19, 2008

Baby it's cold outside!




It is cold. Very cold. Well, very cold for Vancouver. It's supposed to be -19 tomorrow. That's MINUS NINETEEN CELSIUS! Hold crap that is frigid. That is why we live in Vancouver, because it's very rare for it to get that cold. We don't have proper clothes (or tires, snow plows or the constitution!) for this weather. It's very inconvenient. Having said all that, I do kind of like it just a little bit. It's so beautiful when it's coming down. Everything looks different, there's a certain quiet that you only get when it's snowing. It's like it muffles the everyday street noise or something. (It could also be that there is no street noise when it snows because Vancouverites can't drive in the snow, so we just stay home).
We are dog sitting my sister's dog Puck, who is the sweetest girl dog I know. She is such a cuddler! Henry likes to sidle up to you on the couch, whereas Puck likes to plop down right on top of you. She is half Cairn Terrier and half Cocker Spaniel, a strange mix that strangely works....
These are our holiday lights on the patio. That is my absolute favourite thing about Christmas is the lights. They fill me with a unequivocal joy!

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

The Sweet Hereafter


I swear, this is becoming the year Andrea reads every book that's been made into a movie... I realized that a few weeks ago, and I think it's because of my book source (The Salvation Army thrift store). For the most part, the books I see in there are Oprah Book Club books, Maeve Binchy, Steven King, John Grisham etc. Popular authors and books that warrant being read only once then tossed. Obviously if a book has then become a film, it's going to become a more popular book, hence my reading only books that became films. Next maybe I'll tackle some lighter fare, say Danielle Steele? Hee hee!
So, The Sweet Hereafter. I saw the movie first a few years ago. As mentioned in my previous post, I LOVE Atom Egoyan, and really enjoyed the movie when I saw it a few years ago. As for the book, it was good, but didn't really grip me. I liked the format, as it told the story from 4 different points of view. The school bus driver, the lawyer, the girl in the wheelchair and the father of 2 of the children who were killed. The basic story is a school bus slides off the road on a snowy day and many of the small towns children are killed. The story really is how the town deals with the loss, and who is to blame.
In this case, I think I liked the movie better again... Atom Egoyan, that's two for two!