Cut! Costume Exhibit, or Encountering Fantasy in Reality

My daughter and I visited the Cut! Costume and the Cinema exhibit at the Durham Museum during her Christmas break. It broke my heart that we weren't allowed to take photos, but I came across this video last night which lets you get an idea of how amazing some of the costumes are:

 


I have to admit the costume that took my breath away wasn't the most spectacular or elaborate. I've always loved the movie Howard's End - E.M. Forster is one of my favorite authors, I've had a long-standing obsession with Merchant Ivory films and I just lurve Emma Thompson - so encountering a dress Emma Thompson wore in that film (below) made me tear up just a little bit. That emotional response was surprising. I think it was a result of encountering such a familiar item from fantasy unexpectedly in reality. I even considered snapping a clandestine picture of the dress, but didn't feel confident in my sneakiness, so I didn't. Maybe I'll have to go back before the exhibit leaves, just to visit Margaret's dress one more time (and to check out Captain Jack Sparrow's outfit, as well. You know, as long as I'm there).

via  Enchanted Serenity of Period Films: Howard's End (1992)

If you can't get to the exhibit, but would like to see some of the costumes in more detail than what is in the video, I just found a Flickr set by annesstuff  which shows many of them when the exhibit was in another venue.

Dreaming of spring, remembering summer

We get to the beginning of March and I start really itching for spring, so I thought I'd share a picture with a bit of green today. I took this last summer in Custer State Park.

As I was looking through my photos recently and came across this one, my first thought was "I don't remember getting down in the grass near the buffalo..." and wondered how I'd had such an adventure without remembering it (after all, being out of your vehicle this close to these animals could be really dangerous). Then I realized I shot this from the car window in an area where the road was down an embankment from the area where the buffalo were grazing. Sometimes great shots come from working with what feels like a less-than-ideal situation at the time.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License (which means you can repost the photo where you want, as long as you give me credit - and it'd be nice if you include a link back here or to the Flickr page)

Only create things you can’t not create [Quote]

By Me

"Fear of protecting your platform can’t be what drives your creative process. Only create things you can’t not create. Even if that means losing some of your audience."

from Dear musicians, authors, bloggers & me. | Jon Acuff's Blog

As always, some great points from Jon Acuff (make sure you click through and read the whole post).

Oh how true [Information Overload]

Boy is this true:

by Jessica Hagy at Indexed

I hate to miss any of the interesting stuff floating out there in the world, so I find my list of "to read" stuff is impossibly long. Not just books, but blog posts, articles, product descriptions, street signs, etc.

Between my email, Google Reader, Read It Later, paper books, ebooks, and on and on, it's a little overwhelming whenever I sit down "to read" unless I have a specific item in mind before I begin.

Once upon a time, I only got that feeling of being overwhelmed when I stepped into a large library. Now it's almost constant. Years ago, who knew we would ever have to plan and structure our reading time (leisure reading or otherwise) in order not to drown?

Happy Leap Day!

By stuant63

Cool student-produced steampunk short

This is a fun short film created by students at Media Design School in New Zealand.

(via Set Phasers to LOL)

And some of the students talk about making the film:

Doesn't Miley Cyrus look like...?

Via CocoPerez

This morning, when I saw a clip of Miley Cyrus at one of the Oscar parties, I didn't even recognize her at first. In fact, I wondered if Madonna had found a time machine in the 80's and jumped forward.

Via Wikipedia

I guess Madonna went through her Marilyn Monroe phase, Miley can go through her Madonna phase...

via CocoPerez

And I just have to add my opinion on Miley's dress. Although I give her points for not going with something revealing, the dress looks far too old for her. It looks like something made for Joan Collins (and Joan would probably rock this dress. But for a barely-twenty pop starlet, it's just not the thing.)

Use caution...on Google Maps

I love it when Google Maps puts little Easter eggs into search results:

via Nerd Approved

Han shot.

Saw this last night. Funny after yesterday's post:

 
see more Set Phasers To Lol

Mal vs. Hammer, Indy vs. Han...

By Gina Biggs

A friend shared this cartoon on Facebook, and I love it. I have to say, that IS what would happen should Captain Mal meet Captain Hammer. (Just in case you're not familiar with Firefly or Dr. Horrible, I'll let you in on the joke: Nathan Fillion played both characters).

So, that got me thinking, and reminded me of this picture I saw on Flickr awhile ago as part of JD Hancock's "Duel 365" series:

By JD Hancock

What would happen if Indiana Jones met Han Solo? I mean there is this scene:

but, as we all know, Han shot first:

So, how do you think it would go down?

Dreams vs. Excuses [Quote]

By nicole.pierce.photography ♥

"If you really want something you’ll find a way to do it. If you don’t want it that bad, you’ll come up with excuses for why it can’t be done." Brittany Castanos

 via Quit Your Day Job: Daughters of Simone | The Etsy Blog

This is clever:

see more Set Phasers To Lol

Downton Abbey Paper Dolls - Adorable & Funny!

I found these paper dolls by Kyle Hilton via Jane Austen's World. I just love the "assortment of emotions" for the Dowager Countess:

Jane Austen's World has gathered links to the paper dolls of other characters (Mary & Matthew, Lady Sybil, and Thomas & O'Brien) here: Downton Abbey Season 2 Finale: Tonight You’re Mine Completely. I think I'll be printing all of these out & having a good ol' time playing paper dolls (no, I have not outgrown that. I don't think I ever will.)

Just an hour and a bit until the season finale!

The Dog Outwits the Kidnapper

Here's an adorable film from 1908, courtesy of the British Film Institute. I wonder if I could teach my dog this trick...

Happy Valentine's Day...from Valentine!

I found a special treat in the mail yesterday: My parents sent us all valentines postmarked in Valentine, NE!

There's even a special image stamped on the back of the envelope:

This is so cool! Thanks, Mom & Dad!

(If you want to do this for your valentine next year, here's how.)

Life moves pretty fast...

Ferris Bueller's Day Off  is one of my favorite movies, so I was super excited to see this commercial. Part of me wishes it was a whole movie, but in a way, this is enough and having more might ruin it.

I would ABSOLUTELY watch this show

DORK TOWER, Tuesday, January 24, 2012 
(Click through to see the full-size cartoon)

True, I'm waaaay behind on Dr. Who and I haven't even started Sherlock yet (I hear it's great and I intend to start on season one soon)...but a show like this would be just mind-blowingly awesome (England, will you still let me in?)

Flickr Favorite: Paris

Just like birds on a wire, I'm a sucker for pictures of the Eiffel Tower against a sunset. This one is by Flickr user  [phil h].

No need to panic, the mystery's been solved:

see more Set Phasers To Lol

Some days the dragon wins

When I read this post last night just before bed, I immediately emailed myself the link with the note "OMG YES!"

The whole thing is short and worth reading in its entirety for the full message, but this is the part that really hit me:

"Your manuscript was not written. Your miles were not run. Your dream was not dreamed. But, and this is an awful big but, that was just today. Tomorrow is a new day."

I have a tendency to fall into the trap of "I didn't achieve my goal today, so I'm never going to." I'm slowly learning to climb out of that hole and keep moving forward, brushing off the dirt of self-doubt and negative self-talk that clings to me afterward.


The dragon definitely won most of the last week. And I think the last couple days, I barely stood up to fight it. I'm back to fighting today, sword and shield in hand, partially thanks to this post.

photo via Library of Congress

I think I'm going to create a prominent "Having a bad day?" bookmark on my computer which links to that post so I can read it whenever I need to.

There Be Dragons by Jon Acuff

Does the movie of your life need a new writer?

Photo By Hal Dick

An interesting read:

"If they made a movie about your life, would it be titled, It’s a Won­der­ful Life? Or would Speed, You've Got Mail, or Nightmare on Elm Street be more fitting? Unfor­tu­nately, too many peo­ple are liv­ing lives like those movies that come out every sum­mer. You know, the over­hyped ones with big bud­gets, lots of action — and tired sto­ries with thin plots. Just because a movie costs a lot of money and has a lot of things going on doesn’t mean it’s a very good story. The same is true of your life...If you’re less than thrilled with the direction of your story, it is time to hire a new writer: YOU."

Check out the whole post here: How To Live A Better Story | Jungle of Life

Making yourself miserable?

Here's an interesting list by Keri Smith. I've seen it floating around a bit lately and find it eye-opening every time I come across it. I do several things on this list on a regular basis. I won't say which I do, but I know all creative people probably do at least a couple at any given time - we're all human. We all fall into these traps. But being aware of them helps us climb out of the holes we dig for ourselves and hopefully avoid falling back into them in the future.

 via Rachelle Gardner

The chair of my dreams

I don't pay much attention to the TV show Revenge, which is probably why I never noticed this chair until last night (according to my husband, it shows up quite often), but now that I've seen it...WANT!!!

So, now I just need to come up with $1,859 so I can buy it....um, yeah....

Revenge Home Décor: Where to Find Victoria Grayson’s French Script Armchair - Revenge

Come to the bark side...we have biscuits.

After last year's Super Bowl commercial, Volkswagen apparently thought they'd keep going with the Star Wars theme. I'm not complaining.

(Best commercial that had nothing to do with the product ever)

The peril of naming characters [Cartoon]

Pearls Before Swine Comic Strip, October 02, 2011

I've definitely had that problem before...maybe not quite so bad as "Bean Dip"....

I do tend to end up with a lot of people with the name Something or Somethingelse.

How about you?

Lady Grantham's Greatest Hits + White Feathers

A friend posted this on Facebook earlier today. If you like Downton Abbey, you'll get a kick out of this. I just love the Dowager Countess of Grantham, and I don't think anyone but Maggie Smith could have played her.



I watched the first episode of Season Two last night and loved it! If you'd like to read more about the symbolism of the white feathers involved in one scene, check out this post at Jane Austen's World. I was kind of glad I'd read it ahead of time.

This made me giggle...

Potential: 

via XKCD

2012 - Week 1

I'm trying to check in and keep track of what I did over the last week, so I have something to look at when I start to beat myself up for not being Superwoman. So many times I get to the end of Sunday and I feel like I didn't accomplish anything through the week, when really I did. So, these are the things I DID ACCOMPLISH last week, to counter the hundreds of things the unhealthy voices keep telling me I didn't do:

• Did at least 30 minutes on the Wii Fit every day, including Saturday and Sunday (bonus points there - I usually slack off on the weekend). I did 1 hour one day, but I hurt A LOT afterward, so that's definitely something I need to work up to as I go.
• I did all my scheduled breaks for stairs at work (I noticed they were a bit easier this morning - I think doing the Wii over the weekend helped with that). 
• I went to church - I think I've figured out my key to getting there regularly: I prefer to go on Saturday evening and if I tell hubby on Saturday morning that I am going, it not only solidifies it in my head that I'm going, he'll give me a nudge out the door as well (even though he rarely goes along). Really, for me, the hardest part about getting to church is getting out the door; the rest is gravy.
• I finished reading one book: The Book of Ancient Bastards: 101 of the Worst Miscreants and Misdeeds from Ancient Sumer to the Enlightenment.
• LilGirl and I caught up on the dishes (you'd be shocked at how often this doesn't happen).
• I saw a movie and didn't get a soda (it helps that this theater had self-serve fountain drinks, which include water, so you're not paying $6 for a small bottle - definitely a reason to continue going there).
• No new pages written, but I did make a bunch of notes for my WIP.
• Took a load of stuff to Goodwill (and threw away several things not worth taking there).

I used to do this...

Unfortunately, "Staring out the window" seems to have been replaced by a circle marked "Staring at a screen" and the intersection does not often result in inspiration. I need to remember to start staring out the window (or just into space) again.

From Indexed

Happy New Year!

"It is reasonable that a man should be something worthier 

at the end of the year than he was at the beginning."

— Henry David Thoreau

May we all be successful as we strive towards "worthiness" this year, 

though that means something different for each of us.
Have a happy & prosperous 2012!

Fairy Tales and Dragons

I hadn't thought about this quote in a long time, but it's one of my favorites. I came across the quote again the other day on a Tumblr blog:

Not a dragon, but the closest thing I have in my Flickr account :)

“Fairy Tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” - G. K. Chesterton

via mbthecool

Merry Christmas!

We're having a nice quiet Christmas at home today. 

I hope your holiday is special and blessed.

 

 Missing a white Christmas this year? Google has a little present for you. 

Go to google.com, type in let it snow and wait a little...

Christmas Countdown: Am I a hundred years too late for this toy?

I was looking at some photos in the Library of Congress' Flickr photostream and noticed the Eiffel Tower in this window full of toys. Was this a model for a child to build, do you suppose? Some quick Googling didn't come up with anything, but I may take some time to search deeper later. Whatever it was, I think I would have wanted one!

Hobbit Countdown: 360-ish days and counting...

I've been waiting patiently for the first installment of The Hobbit to come out. Of course, the realization of the movie mostly seemed like vague reports and imagination to me, and I could handle that. And for some reason, I thought it was coming out this summer. No problem. I could wait perfectly well for that.

Then hubby sent me this trailer this morning, which both took away any patience I had and informed me that I have to wait until NEXT DECEMBER 14th to see it!


On the bright side, this gives me plenty of time to re-read the book, which I haven't read since high school.

And this just showed up in my RSS feed: Waiting for Bilbo: Comic: The Hobbit Trailer (just so you know, I wasn't one of those people. Really. I'm serious. Why don't you believe me?)

Christmas Countdown: If you don't have it, fake it...

No fireplace? 

Fake tree? 

No Christmas CD's? 

No problem!

A pine-scented candle, over on the left

(I'm always on the hunt for the most realistic Christmas tree scent since we can't have a real tree), 

+

Pandora Radio on the computer, 

+

a Fireplace video streaming through Netflix on the TV

(we do have a fireplace, but it's gas, so it doesn't have the nice pop & crackle of wood like the video), 

=

A nice holiday mood while I worked in my home office the other day.

Update 12/22/11: A Facebook friend posted a link to this fireplace video on YouTube, so you don't even have to have Netflix - although the YouTube video is shorter, so you have to press play more often ;)

Christmas Countdown: Packages, Packages, Everywhere!

The postal service says today is the biggest delivery day of the year, while tomorrow is the biggest mailing day of the year. I found this picture from World War II in The Smithsonian Institution's photostream on Flickr. Click through to see some humorous notes users have applied to parts of the photo (just mouse over the photo once you've clicked through). Unfortunately, more keep being added, so I think some of the funnier ones are getting buried - kind of like some of the boxes in the photo. :)

Click through!

 

Happy Birthday, Jane Austen!

I visited Jane Austen's house in Chawton in 1996. The pictures I took there have turned out to be some of the most-viewed in my Flickr stream despite being faded-looking scans. In honor of Jane's birthday, I thought I'd share a slideshow of those photos. Enjoy!

 

Here's a video of the house (including some improvements done a couple years ago). It all makes me want to go back again.

Christmas Countdown: Winter Wonderland [Photos]

Saturday morning everything was covered with frost, so I ventured out to take a few photos.


Berries on the burning bush. View on black.

 
I love how wooden fences seem to grow whiskers in the frost. View on black.


I played around with this one in Picnik and added their fake HDR effect, which turned out really interesting, I thought. View on black

Christmas Countdown: O Dragon Tree, O Dragon Tree...

My coworker Steve makes Study Dragons for students each year about this time.
It appears a few of the dragons took over the Christmas tree.

I really like this one :)

Christmas Countdown: Yum!

I baked! 

This doesn't happen often (though it's not as rare as me cooking dinner), but I found a recipe for Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread earlier this week and thought it looked like something I could tackle. Then today was one of those perfect snowy, lazy days when I didn't have to go anywhere and the house wasn't a complete disaster, so I was in the mood to bake. The result was yummy, even if I did eat enough of it to get a tummy ache.

And thankfully, it didn't turn out like Miss Fogarty's Christmas Cake (sung here by Mick Moloney, whom I once had the pleasure of meeting in person). 

Christmas Countdown: LEGO Christmas Tree

St. Pancras railway station in London features a Lego Christmas tree this year. According to the St. Pancras website, the tree is made from 600,000 Lego bricks.

These pictures are by Andrew Smith (McTumshie on Flickr)

What work must have gone into this tree! 

By McTumshie

By McTumshie

via In Pictures: The St Pancras LEGO Christmas Tree | Londonist

Christmas Countdown: Jim Gaffigan on holiday traditions

You know, it turns out we do some weird stuff for Christmas - trees inside, lights outside - but I still enjoy it all!

I love Jim Gaffigan's take on some of our traditions - the Christmas stuff is at the beginning, but he doesn't spare any of the holidays if you keep watching...

 
If you can't see the video above, you can find it here.

Countdown to Christmas: The Sith who Stole Christmas

via @DarthVader

The dogs' (and my) favorite chair

I had to move this chair into my office to make room for the Christmas tree in the living room. It has made my little office a bit overcrowded (notice the displaced items beside the chair), but the dogs seem to be enjoying it. Now they have an extra comfy spot while they hang out with me.

This is my "Martin Crane" chair - it's kind of ugly, doesn't go with any of the other furniture, it's kind of beat up and is even missing its two back feet; but the thing is so comfy I haven't been able to part with it. Maybe someday I'll re-cover it...or I might just keep it in the office where it doesn't really matter if it matches the living room, even though that will mean permanently eliminating some things from my office.

Do you have your own "Martin Crane" piece of furniture? Do you do any major rearranging to get ready for Christmas decorations? Let me know in the comments.

Update 12/28/2011: So, the chair didn't last long. I spent my evening taking the tree down EARLY (I usually leave it up until Jan 6) just so I could get the chair out of my office and back to the living room. The room is just too small for such a big chair - it was nice for a day or two, but then the whole room started to feel like a closet and I hated to spend any time in there. And now I'm not even sure I like the chair in the living room. As soon as the basement is cleaned out, I think it's going down there. It's a comfy chair, but it's just having a hard time finding a home in my home lately. :(  (I know, I know, first world problems...)

Black Friday got a little crazy

I looked out the back window of the house yesterday morrning and spotted this stray shopping cart across the street. My best guess is it came from WalMart...what its story is, I have no idea...

A thought for the day

Photo by denipet

"If the Christmas frenzy is wearing you out,
you've missed the point of Christmas."

from Dave Ramsey's December 2009 Newsletter

Happy Thanksgiving...Star Wars style

This was just so cool, I had to share!

From the Official Star Wars Blog via Flickr

I like pumpkin pie

View on Flickr

I spotted this sticker on the ground in my parking garage at work this morning. I have no idea who or what it's from, but I thought "Yes, yes, I do!" I think I look forward to the pie even more than the turkey.

So, what's your favorite pie to have after Thanksgiving dinner? Or, if you're not into pie, what's your favorite alternative dessert?