Ogre Doll

One of the drive-in movies we saw last week was Shrek Forever After. In the movie, Shrek's daughter has a little ogre doll...and it was so cute that I was inspired to make my own...

4 Year Anniversary!

Sorry for the lack of blogging this week. CJ took a vacation week and was home all week, and when he's home, I tend to want to spend time with him...so I was barely on the computer at all. The reason CJ took vacation was that Thursday, June 10th was our 4 year anniversary! Wow...I've been a married woman for 4 years! Can you believe it? At the risk of sounding cliche`... It feels like it was just yesterday!

We didn't "go" anywhere (as in...go out of town), but we relaxed at home and spread the fun out over the week. We went to the local drive in theater TWICE...once Wednesday night and once Friday night. I love the drive-in. Two movies for the price of one, we get to bring in our own snacks (but the snack bar is pretty reasonable!) and we get to bring the dog! We saw Prince of Persia" and "Iron Man 2" on Wednesday, and "Marmaduke" and Shrek Forever After" on Friday. The first movie last night made me want to hug my dog, the second movie made me want to hug (and kiss!) my husband!

On Thursday we went out to dinner at Applebee's...because I LOVE Applebee's! Give me their Oriental Chicken Wrap with the Triple Chocolate Meltdown for dessert and I'm a happy girl!

Mmmmmmm...Triple Chocolate Meltdown... (ie: Lava Cake!)...

Nubbin-ized Na'vi

Movies inspire me. After seeing the movie "Avatar", I got inspired to make a "Nubbin-ized" Na'vi (the tribal, blue, "cat-people" aliens in the film).

My husband called dibs on this one as soon as he saw it, but I might be willing to make another if one is specially requested. (but I should probably call it "Tribal Blue Cat Person" to avoid getting sued). I like the design though. If I made one in different colors instead of blue, it wouldn't be recognizable as a Na'vi.

"Cat people" huh?...see any resemblance? ;)

Speaking of cats and movie inspiration...and blue...I love the blue stripes on the Cheshire Cat in Tim Burton's new Alice in Wonderland movie...and am dying to make a Cheshire Cat Nubbin/pillow/hat with blue stripes now!

A Small Rant About Movies & Book Covers...

So...I hate it when...
A book gets turned into a movie and all of a sudden, the new copies of the book no longer sport the originally-published cover image, but rather have been replaced with the movie poster image.

I don't know if it's just that I like the design better or what...but when I get around to buying Twilight, I want to make a point to buy the original cover...if I can still find it. But maybe they'll keep the original cover around since it goes with the other covers of the other books in the series that haven't been turned into movies yet.

I remember being happy that I was able to get a copy of Memoirs of a Geisha with the original cover after the movie came out and every copy in the bookstores had the movie poster cover (I got my copy at Goodwill). I also have the original cover for Wicked (also obtained at Goodwill), as opposed to the one I saw at the store today, which is the poster for the Broadway show...

Not that I don't like the design of the movie poster image for either of those books...I like the designs. But it bugs me for some reason that as soon as something gets "big" that they insist on changing it. I know...that's the nature of marketing...it's just the way it goes. It still bugs me though. Stupid...I know. Maybe it's because I imagine if I was the one who designed the original cover...I'd be ticked off that my design got shoved aside for some shiny new movie poster image.

With as much as I love movies (and movie posters) how ridiculous is it that that this is something that irks me?


By the way...currently reading Twilight (I finally found it at the library!) and I am LOVING it! (as I also loved the movie).
I literally find myself swooning and sighing as I'm reading it (I am such a GIRL!) Oddly enough, it makes me swoon and sigh partly because (no joke) it makes me think of my husband. Don't ask me why...it's something in the character's personality and the relationship dynamic...not in the physical description (my hubby doesn't have honey colored eyes, super pale skin or a Greek god physique). And plus...vampires are just hot. Especially when they are protecting you rather than eating you. (I'm such a GEEK girl!)

Oh my gosh...I just said that "vampires are just hot". My friends (and my mom) who read this blog are going to think I'm so weird! But they should have known that already. ;P

I am following my pattern of reading the book after I've seen the movie so I feel like I'm getting something extra...being more impressed with the book instead of reading the book first and being disappointed with the movie because it "didn't live up to the book". Let me tell you...FEW movies ever completely live up to the books they are from. But I still find movies that are based on books enjoyable...because then I get to go out and read the book and get the "extra" bits and insights of the story!

"People who are scared of buttons must lead terrible lives..."

So, when I looked up "fear of buttons" last night to find out how to spell "koumpounophobia" (pronounced "koom-poo-no-fobe-ee-ah") (thank goodness for copy & paste!), the site I went to that explained what the phobia was had all these comments at the bottom from people who ACTUALLY have this fear! One person said they can't even stand to hear the WORD "button" and cries when people make fun of her and say the word over and over again to tease her. I'm fascinated and saddened all at the same time!...because I LOVE buttons!

So would that make me a koumpounophile?...as opposed to a koumpounophobe?
I actually have some button eyes I need to sew onto some monsters today...and I think I'm going to be giggling the entire time now.

Incidentally, after being engrossed in Coraline videos and trailers online last night, I had the urge to put on the movie MirrorMask before I went to bed (I like putting a movie on to fall asleep to). I was watching the opening credits, and just happened to see that Neil Gaiman (that delightfully creepy British man in the video I posted last night, who wrote Coraline), also wrote the screenplay to Mirrormask!

Coincidence?...hmmmm. Maybe I'm just drawn to delightfully creepy things written by delightfully creepy British men. Or stories of girls who don't appreciate their lives or the people in them until they get sucked into a magical dreamland that is just as dangerous as it is magical...examples: Labyrinth, MirrorMask, Coraline...essentially the same story with different circumstances.

Koumpounophobia...

This video will either make you laugh...or creep you out.
Or both...



By the way, Neil Gaiman is the guy who wrote the book "Coraline" (the book upon which the movie that is coming out tomorrow is based). Guess what I'm going to be looking for to check out at the library (unless everyone else has the same idea).

Either way...I'm looking forward to seeing "Coraline". If you liked Nightmare before Christmas or Tim Burton type stuff, you'll probably like it. I've wanted to see it ever since I saw a 3D needle come at me in the teaser trailer last year when CJ and I went to see the Nightmare Before Christmas in 3D. If you click the link oabove to watch the teaser trailer (that someone obviously recorded on their cell phone in the theater...there's a better quality version here), note that collective "Whoa!" from the audience when that needle comes through the button! That happened when I saw it too! When you have those 3D glasses on, that thing looks like it's going to poke you in the eye!

I think it's cool that stop motion animation hasn't yet become a dying art due to computer animation. What a brilliant job to have! Go check out some of the other videos on Coraline.com.