Well, smack me with a frying pan. This movie was so good.

Tonight Jen and I took Jules to see Tangled. It was important that I get her to see this film since I bought her a Rapunzel dress and a two-foot-long blonde wig for Christmas. Julia, not Jen.

What can I say? This film was an utter delight from start to finish. Beautiful animation, hilarious script, fantastic Broadway-caliber songs. Julia laughed and squealed with delight and I was right there with her. Highly recommended.

Then, as we drove home, I was sure to talk up Rapunzel's purple dress and long blonde hair. I'm hoping she remembers it on Christmas morning.

I am setting my alarm for 3 AM tonight.

Why, you ask? DVR already full and hoping to catch the Mad Men marathon on AMC? Switching to China time just because? Complete mental breakdown from having to bake ten dozen cookies for my cookie exchange?

Nope.

I just want to look out my window and see this:

Lunar eclipse tonight. It ought to be worth hauling my butt out of bed. Especially since I'll only be hauling it about 38 inches to the bedroom window.

Festiveness!

I'm festiving it up today. I'm baking cookies, roasting chestnuts (no, really), wrapping presents, drinking cocoa made in my Cocoamotion machine that Amanda bought me years ago (seriously one of the best gifts ever), and just generally being merry. Then tonight I'm off to a Christmas party. Frivolity abounds!

Photo: 34th Street in Baltimore.

What the what?

So I'm standing at my kitchen window at 1:00 this afternoon and what do I see running through my yard but a six-point buck. Excuse me? I know I don't live in a booming metropolis, but neither do I live in East Jabip. Ridiculous.

I just realized...

...I still fight the urge to write "09" at the end every time I sign a date.

When a whole year is no longer adequate time to get used to what year it is, the trouble has really begun.

What I did this weekend...

...was to meticulously re-create the pages of Ellie's adventure book for Julia, so she doesn't have to carry around her children's Bible and pretend it's an adventure book anymore. I had borrowed her DVD of Up so I had a template for the book, and yesterday I got a call at work. It went like this:

Ali: Hello?

Jules: You will bring Russell back, please?

Ali: Oh, sweetheart, I will bring Russell back, the next time I come to your house.

Jules: You can come tonight, please?

Ali: Honey, I can't come tonight because there's a snowstorm.

Jules: But you will bring Russell back?

Ali: Can you put mommy on the phone?

Jen then explained to me that Julia asked to watch Up, was informed that "Aunt Ali has the DVD," and dragged a chair over to the kitchen phone and declared, "I will call her." Heartbreaking.

And then my co-worker berated me for stealing my niece's movies.

I love winter...

This is a frozen Dutch canal, but it pretty well expresses how I feel about winter.

Okay, clearly this is awesome.

So, I just woke up from a six hour nap (I know) and I thought I'd share something that I believe is patently spectacular.



If I'm ever able to fall back asleep tonight, I'll be dreaming of this.

C & C Freak-out Factory

I'm sorry, but I find this to be hilarious. Nice emeralds, though.

"Oh, I say, this is a right kerfuffle. Tally ho, driver!"

Random days off and buttons and ribbons and prints

I have a friend at work who, in mid-November, decided to take off every Wednesday between then and Christmas in order to get all things done that people need to get done this time of year. Well, she’s got Christmas hosting duties, two small children, and apparently more leave hours saved up than I do, so I couldn’t follow her lead entirely, but I did take one Wednesday off – today. It just seemed like a good idea, to take a random day off for no reason.

I got a lot done today, even if much of it was fun stuff like bake apple strudel and watch a marathon of The League and go for Great Cheap Dates with my sisters and Brian to see Red. Random days off FTW!

But I also spiffed up my craft room wall. This summer I bought a print at one of the awesome local artistry shops we visit when Kris and I go stay with Liz. I had framed it and put it on my craft room wall:

But then I thought that looked so good that I bought three more colorful frames and decided to make a grouping. I had another awesome print, but I was unsure what to do for the other two frames. Then, during my recent weekend of industriousness, I used what I had on hand in the craft room...


...to make a couple of collages...



...and it all turned out like this:

I love the idea of using crafty materials to decorate your crafty space. And I didn't even realize until I hung them that the buttons in the blue frame mimic the dots in the green-framed print and the ribbon in the pink frame mimics the lines in the red-framed print. I delight in it.

Living in infamy

Our international humiliation continues.

So, I stumbled on to this Swedish newspaper article about a phenomenon called cuddle parties. They're these hideously-conceived social events where strangers get together in their pajamas and hug each other for a couple hours. Apparently the trend started in the US (though I've never heard of them before) and now they're spreading across the globe. Most recently to Sweden, where they're described, horrifically, as "a new way to socialize American-style."

American-style? I am so mortified! What must the Swedes think of us?

I mean, I know I've said before that Ikea makes me want to find random Swedish people and kiss them, but I'm certainly not going to get into my jammies and pay 40 bucks to spend two hours hugging them. A little dignity, please.

This guy knows what I'm talking about.

Spa Day!

In what is certain to be a new tradition, Amanda and I had a spa day yesterday. She flew in from Houston, I picked her up in Pittsburgh, and we went to the Chestnut Ridge Resort in Blairsville. We got a spa package with a peppermint foot soak, facial, mango salt scrub, and the best massage of my life, with hot stones.

My skin feels like this:

Merry and bright...

Last year I started a new tradition: to be finished with all Christmas shopping and decorating by December 1st. That way I can relax and enjoy December without feeling rushed. I plan to spend this month being cozy, surrounded by twinkle lights, watching Christmas movies, drinking hot cocoa, being with my family, and doing crafty projects.

So, I decorated tonight. The place looks quite lovely and sparkly.

Good book alert

I’m reading Kathryn Stockett’s The Help right now, and you should be, too. It reminds me a bit of To Kill a Mockingbird, not just because of its southern setting, but because it so effortlessly conjures its atmosphere for the reader. I’m only a few chapters in, and I can feel like what it was like to live in Jackson, Mississippi in 1962. Even if I don’t really know, I feel like I know, and that comes from skillful writing. The book has three voices, and they all feel authentic. Stockett, like Harper Lee, grew up in the south and she’s just writing what she knows. The old adage was right. This is a great book.

I’m nervous for the film adaptation, but since it’s being directed by Stockett’s childhood friend (her own Capote, perhaps?), I’m hoping it’ll do the book justice.

Happy Thankfulness!

If you're in the mood to guffaw...

Warning: This video does contain some profanity, but my mom rarely reads this blog anyway. And I literally spit fortune cookie all over my computer screen when I watched this.



"Are they fair trade?"

Oh man, I am already sick of this.

The thousands of flashbulbs exploding in your face right now are telling you to run while you still have the chance. Run, girl!

So, it's been what? Two days? And already I can't take any more. These two are everywhere. The CNN front page, Yahoo, Entertainment Weekly. I can't escape them. It's like they're coming for me in my sleep.

And the worst part? It will never be over. There will be the wedding, the first baby, the naming of the first baby, the throne inheritance issues should the first baby be female, the rumors, the paparazzi hunts, the eventual coronations... it's the news cycle that ate New York.

There. Is. No. Escape.

Industrious Weekend Round-up

The results are in!

1. Pick one thing from the crafty projects list and make it.
Done: Pretty paper boxes.


2. Go grocery shopping.
Done: And I'm all stocked up.

3. Start going through Real Simples and razoring out pages to keep because it’s ridiculous to hold on to all these magazines for just a few articles.
Done: I got through four years' worth, but I still have about five more years to go.

4. Hang my new bookshelves.
Fail: The place I planned to put them fell through and now I'm just not sure where to hang them.

5. Clean the whole apartment really, really well.
Done: And it looks awesome.

6. Organize bedroom closet.
Done: It's now my favorite spot in the house. I just stand in there and stare.

7. Organize bathroom cupboard.
Done: I also stare at this.

8. Make some embossed stationery and mail it to my prayer partner from church.
Done: I delivered it to her in person this morning.


9. Measure for and order mats for the maps I’m framing.
Done: And I can't wait to hang them.

10. Start making the super-secret awesome homemade gift I’m making for Jules for Christmas.
Done: But I can't show you any photos of it.

11. Make some more Christmas cards.
Done: And I took Aunt Linda's advice and chucked the plan to make no two alike. Because I believe in making life as easy on yourself as possible.


12. Cook something delicious.
Done: Man, it was so good.

13. Go through cookbooks to see if any should be donated to Goodwill.
Done: I donated four.

14. Drop off cookbooks and items from closet at Goodwill.
Done: I love the drive-through drop off point at the Goodwill. Brilliant.

15. Etch something made of glass with my new glass-etching cream.
Fail: Apparently you need vinyl templates as well as the etching cream. Don't have them, so this didn't happen.

16. Hang my new curtains.
Fail: I needed my dad's super-heavy-duty drill to drill through the plaster in my living room, and I didn't get it 'til this afternoon. I'll do this at some point this week.

17. Read at least 100 pages in my book.
Done: I read 115 and I'll probably finish the last 50 tonight.

18. Winterize the window with the AC.
Fail: I didn't have the indoor cover for the AC, but the outside is covered.

19. Go for a walk each day and enjoy the sunshine and mild weather.
Done: What a gorgeous, sunny weekend!

20. Start working on the Cousin Christmas CD.
Done: The info is in the spreadsheet and ready for layout, and the songs are loaded into iTunes.

21. Sleep in on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. It is the weekend, after all.
Done: Was there ever any doubt?

Industrious Weekend was fantastic. My list was a little too ambitious, but I think that pushed me to get more done. And I did spend one evening with friends, eating dinner and playing games, but I have no regrets spending some time that way. I'm going to try to do an Industrious Weekend at least once a quarter.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go look at my bedroom closet again.

Read it and weep, James.

For number 12 on my list (cook something delicious) I chose this recipe from Jessica Seinfeld's website. Grandma turned me on to her recipes and I am so glad because this pasta recipe is awesome. I picked this one because it uses lots of fresh ingredients that I love, like tomatoes, basil, and garlic. Yum.

I'm so happy I made enough for lots of leftovers, because this recipe is flippin' delicious! Number 12 is officially crossed off. What do you think about that, James?

I also tackled number 7: organize bathroom cupboard. This is the "before" picture of my cupboard. I feel like you can't really get an idea of how hideous it is, especially that middle shelf. There are layers and layers of crap just tossed in there.

And here is how it looks now. Nothing like being able to actually see the stuff in your cabinet. I had no idea, but now I know I'm low on toothpaste, conditioner, and, horrifyingly, Burt's Bees lip balm.

I also went grocery shopping and now I'm off to take my walk before tackling some cleaning and some crafty projects.

So it begins

Today I tackled what was undoubtedly the biggest item on my list: number 6: Organize bedroom closet.

It took most of the day, however, I did sleep in pretty late since I didn't get to bed 'til after 3:00 AM because Game Night with the work friends went until 2:30 and what the crap are we in high school or something? That was nuts. But back the closet. It's done! Also, I read 20 pages of my book, took a lovely walk in the sunshine, went through my cookbooks, and started going through my Real Simples, so I think I'm doing pretty well on my list.

I didn't take a before picture of the closet because it was just too appalling, but just imagine something from that A&E show about hoarders. Here is the after:


My walk-in closet is walkable once more. (Yeah that's a flapper costume and a witch dress on the left.)

And just to give you an idea of how hideous it was before, I pulled out ten bags of stuff to donate and four bags of stuff to trash. I have no idea where it all came from. Probably a hefty portion of it came from the 90s.

Tomorrow: the bathroom cupboard!

Industriousness will abound

Tomorrow is a federal holiday so I‘m taking Friday off and giving myself a long weekend. During this weekend, I am determined to be super industrious. In order to ensure that, I’m posting my To Do list here, so that when I get the urge to sit down and watch an episode of Castle on my DVR, I will be dissuaded from that course of action by the terror of failing publicly on my To Do list. (And Castle is a really good show.) So, you’re keeping me honest just by reading this post. Good for you.

Here’s the list. Yes, it’s long and ambitious, especially considering the effort involved in numbers 5, 6, and 7. And 12! Am I mad? A little, yes, but you know what Norman Bates says about that.*

1. Pick one thing from the crafty projects list and make it.

2. Go grocery shopping.

3. Start going through Real Simples and razoring out pages to keep because it’s ridiculous to hold on to all these magazines for just a few articles.

4. Hang my new bookshelves.

5. Clean the whole apartment really, really well.

6. Organize bedroom closet.

7. Organize bathroom cupboard.

8. Make some embossed stationery and mail it to my prayer partner from church.

9. Measure for and order mats for the maps I’m framing.

10. Start making the super-secret awesome homemade gift I’m making for Jules for Christmas.

11. Make some more Christmas cards.

12. Cook something delicious.

13. Go through cookbooks to see if any should be donated to Goodwill.

14. Drop off cookbooks and items from closet at Goodwill.

15. Etch something made of glass with my new glass-etching cream.

16. Hang my new curtains.

17. Read at least 100 pages in my book.

18. Winterize the window with the AC.

19. Go for a walk each day and enjoy the sunshine and mild weather.

20. Start working on the Cousin Christmas CD.

21. Sleep in on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. It is the weekend, after all.

*“We all go a little mad sometimes.”

I love this week!

This is the one week of the year that I do not have trouble getting up in the morning (unless you count things like Christmas week, during which I have no trouble getting up but only because I'm sleeping 'til 11:30.) The time change has tricked my body into thinking I'm sleeping an extra hour, and the sunlight that floods my bedroom each morning beats my alarm clock to the punch. I awake feeling rested and peaceful. This is the closest I will ever come to understanding what it's like to be a morning person.

Soon it will all end, and I will once again be filled with loathing and spite as my alarm blares in my ear like the sirens that went off during the London blitz. But for now, I'm going to enjoy it. Man, it is so sunny.

Conversations about genocide and offal meats

So, I was talking with two guys from work: Matt, who is a vegetarian and vocal about it, and Chris, who loves every food that once had a mother. The end of the conversation went thusly:

Chris: You realize you're knocking your German heritage by ripping on things like Scrapple?
Matt: It's disgusting.
Ali: Well, there's a lot in our German heritage that we're not so proud of.
Matt: Yeah, you want me to bring you some blood sausage?
Ali: I was actually thinking of the Nazis, but blood sausage works, too.
Matt: Oh.

Don't forget to...

So, Thorin Oakenshield was... devastatingly handsome?

Casting news for The Hobbit is obviously exciting for many reasons, not the least of which is, if they're casting people, it indicates they're actually planning to make the movie. Martin Freeman landed the choice role of Bilbo and I couldn't be happier. Aside from being perfect for the role, he actually kinda looks like a young Ian Holm. Most promising. I hope he is practicing his "flummoxed" looks as I type.

"What has it got in its pocketses, precious?"

There were announcements of scads of British and Irish actors I've never heard of for the roles of Kili and Fili and etc. Dare I hope for John Rhys-Davies to change his mind and come back and play Gloin as nature intended? I do dare, indeed. Let's all hope together. Make sure you hope hard, because if this doesn't work, we'll all know whose fault it was.

Now for the surprising news that left me flummoxed for a moment and then elated for all the moments after it. Thorin will be played by Richard Armitage! Whee! If you're sitting there saying, "But Allison, who the crap is Richard Armitage?" then I pity you, because he is awesome in dozens of ways and dreamy to boot. Go Netflix Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South or the BBC's Robin Hood and then return here and agree heartily with me re: his talent and his dreaminess.

To quote horrible, awful Rachel Zoe, "I die!"

Also, this puts a whole new spin on Thorin for me. Now I'm thinking of him as the James Bond of the dwarven race.

How they're going to transform this dashing face into a dwarf is beyond me.

Why, hello, Mr. Thornton.

But I look forward to finding out.

Like, totally radical, dude.

So, Alexa was in her very first UPJ production last night, along with some of Melis' former drama students (with whom Lex is now friends--worlds were colliding). The show is The Wedding Singer and Melis and I and our friend Eric went for opening night last night. We had so much fun looking at the clothes and make-up and telling Eric all about how he was too young to appreciate all of this awesomeness. He disagreed thusly:

Eric: I can appreciate all of this!
Ali: Really? You can appreciate Justin's Flock of Seagulls hair?
Eric: I... don't know what that means.

Exactly.

In the Act I closer, Lex wore an outfit, every single component of which I both owned and wore in the 80s. Leggings (check), legwarmers (check, in every color of the Crayola spectrum because you had to match your leotard), headband (check, also in every color you can imagine, and with sparkly gold thread woven through them because the 80s were all about sparkle), and a sweatshirt with the collar cut out to mimic Jennifer Beals' iconic ensemble in the 80s masterpiece Flashdance.

Can your hear Irene Cara singing in you head right now? Isn't it wonderful?

There were also parachute pants (had 'em in black and pink, each with their own drawstring storage bag), ginormous plastic earrings in magenta and teal (oh, you'd have wept at our earring collection circa 1985), and a sequined bustier (didn't have one--would have loved one.) There was also a wonderfully clever and subtle New Edition reference that had Melis and I howling and then feeling sorry for everyone else in the audience who didn't get it. (Jen, look for it tonight!)

And then at the end of the night Justin ran past us in the parking lot and I declared, "And he ran. He ran so far away."

Melis totally got it, but we had to explain it to Eric.

I want this kitchen.

That is all.

This is made of awesome.

Tell me this reverse geocache puzzle box is not the coolest wedding gift you have ever heard of.

Go ahead, tell me. I dare you.

I want one!

If you know me, you know I laugh when people fall.

Okay, I know this is awful, but this photograph made me guffaw. Green Bay QB Aaron Rodgers has just taken a knock to the head and is literally splayed out on his face, and the way this photo is set up, it looks like no one could possibly notice or care.

It appears as though a bunch of Redskins have run over to number 83 there to hear a bit of juicy gossip, and 30 appears to be scanning the crowd for his girlfriend. Those dudes in the background are perhaps enjoying the sunny day. Meanwhile Rodgers is like, "I am ON my FACE here. Anyone? Anyone at all? Seriously, you're just gonna let me lie here?"

Well, at least until we get a photo, dude.

A modern Bag End

Every day it seems I read something more depressing about how the Hobbit movie is never going to get made. (sigh) But this made me smile and think of Bilbo at the same time. Truly, it is "not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort."

How do I glue this to that?

A common question. Ask it no more. Find out here.

Brilliant.

In Newark, no one can hear you whine.

So, I'm currently slogging my way through The Sopranos. And yes, "slogging" is the appropriate verb here. I'm watching it because it's consistently on the critics' lists of groundbreaking, brilliant television. It is interesting, but I have one major problem: there's not one single character I can bear. Not one. In fact, I loathe them all. The ruthless main character, his harpy wife, his horrible children, his awful uncle with the Coke bottle glasses, his eeeeevil mother, and his army of goons--each one more murderous and psychotic than the last. I survey them much like the Bingley sisters looking upon the Meryton assembly (if the Bingley sister had been totally correct and not shrewish witches.)

Not helping matters is the nasal Jersey accent everyone is sporting. That's not cool. That's not enjoyable to ear.

And the problem is not just that they're awful people. Believe me, I know from liking awful people on TV. The list of horrendous characters I've liked would appall you. Shane Vendrell, Al Swearengen, I even like the entire cast of It's Always Sunny! Well, except for Dennis. Obviously.

And these people are not even Sicilian! They're from Campania. I know. That shouldn't make me look down on them, but it totally does.

I may have just talked myself out of watching this show.

Hateful, awful people, led by their king.

Attempts to recapture nostalgic moments from my childhood so seldom work out for me.

A word of advice: If you're ever at the store and you see a pack of Fruit Stripe gum and you think to yourself, "I loved that stuff when I was a kid. I think I'll buy that pack of gum and put it in my purse," don't. Just don't. This morning my entire bag reeks like Froot Loops.

This is just like the time I ate some Chef Boyardee ravioli in grad school. You can imagine how that went.

What's that stench?

Getting crafty with Jules

Julsie and I got crafty today. We made bracelets with sparkly beads and alphabet beads. Jules had a lot of fun, but she really liked spreading the beads out on the floor more than stringing them on the cord. She also enjoyed picking out the letters she needed for her name.

Next time we may try necklaces.

Saturday craftiness: Christmas cards

On the agenda: Christmas cards

On the iPod: Amy Grant, A Christmas Album

I was cruising the Martha Stewart site the other day and she had a video about embossed cards, which is when I remembered the boatload of embossing powders in a drawer in my craft room. What a great way to indulge my Christmas longings.

Embossing powders

Anna Griffith stamps and colored cardstock

Anna Griffith makes the best rubber stamps. Her images are so clear and detailed.

After stamping with clear embossing ink and covering my stamp with gold embossing powder, it looked like this. Nice, but a dull, brassy gold.

After applying my embossing gun, it looked shiny and lovely, and raised up off the cardstock. Using the embossing gun is the best part of the process. It's like waving a magic wand over the stamp and taking it from dull to sparkly!

The gold popped really nicely off the green.

Some of my handiwork thus far. I have decided no two cards will be the same.