Gratuitous Cute Pic of Henry

I can't think of anything to blog about so I'm just putting a cute pic of the boy up! I've been such a homebody lately! Reading and movies... that's my life! It's January I guess... it makes me want to hibernate!

Slumdog Millionaire - the best movie I've seen in a long time. It has everything you could possibly want in a movie. Loved it!
The Reader. Kate Winslet is absolutely amazing. She's going to give Meryl Streep a run for her money as one of the best actresses out there. There's nothing she can't do!
The Wrestler. I really didn't think I was going to like this one, but it was great! Mickey Rourke is the comeback kid, and I hope he gets an Oscar for his role as this sympathetic character.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Liked it, but didn't love it. I always like Cate Blanchet. She's up there with the other Kate for me, but it didn't grab me the way I thought it would. Totally watchable though, and Brad Pitt wasn't too shabby!

I still want to see Revolutionary Road, and saw a preview last night for He's Just Not That Into You... TOTALLY want to see that one for some mindless fun entertainment!

Wall-E

I finally saw Wall-E yesterday. How can a computer generated robot make me cry? I had a very emotional reaction to this little guy. There's just something about a lonely robot who just wants to hold someone's hand that brings a tear to my eye! This is NOT a kids movie in my opinion. Yes, kids can watch it, but (depending on their age)the message would be lost on them, I'm afraid. My 4 year old nephew saw it and but found it a bit scary, but loved Wall-E himself. I hope this one cleans up at the Academy Awards. I think it deserves to be a contender in categories other than just animation. The environmental and political undertones give it a greater depth than most movies in this genre. Run, don't walk and rent WALL-E!

Bizarro

I love Bizarro. He has the kookiest mind, and a mind bending cleverness about him. This cartoon is the way I imagine Henry to think...

Neverending Winter

Believe it or not, it is snowing again. It is the last of it though. The warm front is moving in and it's supposed to rain later in the day, and hard! These photos were taken on New Years Day, and it was a cold one! At least the sun was shining. Henry has been so housebound with the bad weather, he was just running in circles with excitement to be outside. Actually, make that 2 of us! I've been sick for over 2 weeks with 2 different colds, and going a little stir crazy. I'm feeling a *bit* better today, we're going to go outside now and soak up the last of the snowflakes before they're gone!

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?

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!

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!

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!

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!

Felicia's Journey

I just finished reading this book by William Trevor. I saw the film version by Atom Egoyan a few years ago, and had pretty well forgotten most of the story, except that cute little Bob Hoskins played an evil, evil man.
Almost 100% of the time I prefer the book to the movie, but in this case, the opposite is true. I'm a big fan of Atom Egoyan's work, his films are always unusual and dark. The book too, is dark, but I felt it moved at a pace that was a bit slow for my liking. I guess I also knew what was coming, so I was getting impatient for the inevitable ending. "The Collector" by John Fowles is one of my favourite books, and this book had a similar feel, but just didn't quite do it for me. If I was rating it, I'd give it 6.5 out of 10.

Henry's new fall jacket.

Isn't it adorable? It just suits his colouring so perfectly! This was a lovely sunny day a couple of weeks ago at the dog park. The leaves are so incredibly vibrant this year. Breath taking colour! Oh, I love Autumn!

New Collage Stuff!

These fridge magnets are my newest babies... I'm quite liking them, actually! I found some superly strong small magnets from another Etsy seller, and mount them on Lino samples... Shhh! Don't tell Home Depot!

TERRIERS!

I love Kids in the Hall. They were one of the first cool Canadian things on TV, and believe me, in the 1980'2 and 90's, there wasn't much on the good old CBC (except maybe the Beachcombers - Ha ha!)
I also happen to love terriers, and always have, so this video was always one of my favourite bits.
Enjoy!

The Glass Castle

Lately I have been consuming books like candy (and believe me, I eat a LOT of candy!)I buy almost all of my books at the local Salvation Army thrift store and most books are $1.00-2.00, cheap like borscht! I consider it my "buying library". I'm really bad at remembering to return library books, so I just return them to the Sally Ann when I'm done with them - No overdue fees!
This is one of the most engrossing books I've read in a while. I couldn't put it, was dreaming about it when I went to sleep!
It's a memoir by Jeannette Walls about her bizarre and dysfunctional family growing up. A lot of it is hard to believe, but I know people who have had similar upbringings, so I'm pretty sure it's not a Thousand Little Pieces all over again. She is proof that someone can make something of their life, no matter where they've come from. I highly recomend it!

Goodbye Nyac

Nyac one of the two famous otter-holding-hands YouTube stars and long-time resident of the Vancouver Aquarium died on September 23, 2008. She was one of the last surviving sea otters from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. Nyac came to the Vancouver Aquarium in 1989 as one of the few young survivors of the oil spill. She not only survived the traumatic event, but she overcame incredible odds and became the only known survivor to have successfully had a pup. On November 9, 1993, Nyac gave birth to a healthy female pup, Kipnuk. This event was considered miraculous due to the internal damage she had sustained. During her 20 years of life, she won the hearts of members, visitors, volunteers and staff at the Vancouver Aquarium. She inspired many people as they learned about sea otters and the issues that face them in our waters today. She was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia a few days before her death. This cancer has not been previously reported in sea otters, but it is associated with contact with petroleum in other species. So even in death, Nyac will continue to provide vital information on the long-term effects of oil exposure.

Nyac one of the two famous otter-holding-hands YouTube stars and long-time resident of the Vancouver Aquarium died on September 23, 2008. She was one of the last surviving sea otters from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. Nyac came to the Vancouver Aquarium in 1989 as one of the few young survivors of the oil spill. She not only survived the traumatic event, but she overcame incredible odds and became the only known survivor to have successfully had a pup. On November 9, 1993, Nyac gave birth to a healthy female pup, Kipnuk. This event was considered miraculous due to the internal damage she had sustained. During her 20 years of life, she won the hearts of members, visitors, volunteers and staff at the Vancouver Aquarium. She inspired many people as they learned about sea otters and the issues that face them in our waters today. She was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia a few days before her death. This cancer has not been previously reported in sea otters, but it is associated with contact with petroleum in other species. So even in death, Nyac will continue to provide vital information on the long-term effects of oil exposure.
We'll miss you little girl!

A walk in the park.

Here we are at Lighthouse Park last weekend. It's a gorgeous waterfont park in the community I grew up in, West Vancouver. It's hard to believe the beauty sometimes, of this place I am lucky enough to live in.

Silky Specialty

We went to the Silky Specialty dog show yesterday in Cloverdale. Henry's breeder's are pretty serious dog show people, and we like to go out and see Henry's sister and Grandpa who we knew would be there. It was a great time to see all of these funny little creatures together. It's amazing how different they all look! Well, Henry immediatley looks different because of his full tail and home made haircut, but if you ask me, he's still the cutest!

New Collage

Here are a couple of my newest pieces. You can find them in my Etsy shop, along with my cards and ACEO's. I'm looking forward to going to Toronto soon. My VERY favourite paper shop is there, The Paper Place. That's where I get my Japanese Chiyogami paper. They have an entire wall of it, there's probably 200 styles to choose from, AND you can get a 1/4, 1/2 or full sheet. It's heaven!

Black Sheep Yarns

This is my most recent Etsy purchase from Black Sheep Yarns. Now, I've had some things come to me from Etsy sellers that is packaged beautifully, but this one topped them all! It felt like it was my birthday! And the papers were even better than I expected. Thank you Black Sheep, I'll definitely be buying from you again!
If YOU want to check out the shop, it's here...
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5033945

These beautiful old ledger pages are from 1897, and are just gorgeous! If you look at my collage below you'll see how I use them. The old yellowed book pages were just a bonus! Thanks, I LOVE them!


This collage doesn't use the actual ledger papers I bought, but a very similar one from France. I'll be putting Black Sheep's into the mix very soon!

Sage Island

My friend Sam wrote a novel for her Masters program, and it was recently published by Brindle & Glass. I rushed out to Chapters to pick up my own copy and finally finished it this week. What a great read! I absolutely loved it, and am so proud to be friends with such an amazingly talented person!
Now, I'm not much of a writer myself. In fact, I kind of stink at it, but I do read. A lot. So I like to think I know good writing when I see it. Some of my favourite authors include Margaret Atwood, Timothy Findlay, Margaret Laurence and Ann-Marie MacDonald. I guess you could say I'm a little "Canadian author" obsessed.
Buy this book at Amazon.com or at your local book seller.
Sage Island by Samantha Warwick.