In which I meet my first male Twi-Hard and get over caring what people think

Yesterday I got off work 2 1/2 hours after I was supposed to and so I was in a very deserving mood when I entered Target. In other words, I felt I deserve a special present for me because I was tired and had a long day.

So when I happened across the colored fine point markers and the score to New Moon...there was no hope left for my piggy bank. They were coming home with me.

The only awkward thing was taking my purchases to the cash register. The only available one was a guy..."oh great...here comes the ribbing," I thought. But I decided who the heck cares anyway? I like Twilight...why be embarrassed? I'm not a crazy fanatic fan, I just enjoy it. So I put my items on the conveyor belt and hurried over to the debit card machine, thinking maybe if I acted like I didn't know I was buying the New Moon soundtrack, he wouldn't notice either. But oh no. This is where it gets better.

"You like the music in New Moon too?" My head jerked up and I eyed him suspiciously. Was this a trick question?

"Um...yeah. I do actually." I replied, debating how to defend myself...lying and saying it was a Christmas present for the 13 year old sister I don't have was the first thing that came to mind.

"Me to!" He gushed. "I love the music in both movies. Especially Robert Pattinson's piano playing in the first movie."

"Um...yeah...me too. I was kind of disappointed he didn't play in the second movie." (Seriously...what guy knows Robert Pattinson plays the piano??)

"Yeah...I'm sure he has something in his mind for the upcoming movies. He's so talented he shouldn't stick to just acting."

"Yeah...he's really good." I'm saying all this in shock response, wondering if this guy is for real. He just kept talking.

"Yeah...I'm like the only guy Twilight fan I know...I even named my cat Esme. I was like the oldest male at the midnight showing." I just laughed and said something like..."Good for you," as he handed me my bag.

"Well, have a great day."

"Yeah you too."

I hurried off to where my mom was waiting by the front door and laughed all the way to the car. And I'm still laughing today. And I've decided...there's crazier people than me out there who don't care what people think of them...so I'm going to try not to care either.

the end

ps: this is why sometimes good old fashioned cd's are better than iTunes:

*sniffles*

Yes, I have a cold. Which is really quite annoying. But such is life.

So today my plans are to get comfy cozy and watch movies, drink some tea, and make as many fingerless gloves as I can. I'm going to try to get them into a shop in town so I want to have a few made to take in and show them this week. Scary! I always feel so vulnerable in such situations. What if they don't like them? I'll feel like they don't like a part of me. BUT...I need to get over it and not let it bother me. Right? Right.

I've been hunting all morning for the perfect yarn to make these gloves Alice wears:

*sigh* I haven't found the perfect dye lot...but I did find some pretty close so I might order it or wait until I can get into JoAnn's to see if they have it. Have any of you seen yarn like this? I think it's divine. :)

Hmm...what movie does one watch to get inspired to crochet fingerless gloves? If I had Inkheart, that would be nice. Have any of you seen this movie? I loved it. It had some of the cutest costumes and sets. I love the buttons on this coat collar:

Well, I guess I should go get started. Hope you all are having a splendid day and keeping away from the sniffles!

~Anna Kristine

hair cut and a bad day

Alright...FINALLY here is a pic of my hair cut which I had done weeks ago.

This was my hair before....NASTY. :P
After:

Yay. I love it. <3

Yesterday I had a really bad day. One of those days where you think your in a different year than you are, you hide your cell phone so well you can't find it...and spend every hour at work on the phone trying to fix problems on computers you know nothing about.

Let's just say...I was happy to get home. But I did stop by the Goodwill on the way home and picked up these lovelies:

I also got some really neat glass jars and an old vintage thread sorter to furthur help my Sewing Room organization. Which...believe it or not...IS coming along! I'm almost ready to show pictures. I'm debating eather or not to show the before pictures. I'm not sure I'm that vulnerable. It was pretty unbelievably bad.

When I finally made it home yesterday, I found two brand new TOAST catologues waiting for me to pour thorugh.

I spent the rest of the evening swooning over these, which are truly works of art. My goodness I want a better camera. Oh, and maybe be able to fly to england and do some photo shoots?

Then tucked into bed and read some beatiful poetry by John Keats. I wanted to be able to say I've read his work before going to see the movie, Bright Star, which is about him. I'm going to see it today. I'm so excited! He is amazing. I can't believe I hadn't read his work before now. New favorite. :)

BBC Robin Hood

Where have I been lately? Watching these:

I'm addicted. :P

But they're great for getting lots of hand sewing projects done. I can't wait for Season 3 to come to the US. I've been watching as many episodes as I can on YouTube.

They have a new costume designer for this season so it's a whole new look. Looks like a lot more leather, which is awesome!

And there's some new characters, which I'm excited about.

Kate, from Locksley. I'll admit I wasn't to excited about her at first but after watching a few episodes with her in it I'm warming up to her! :) I think she and Alan-a-Dale would make a good couple. But I have a feeling that's not the way it's going to end up. We'll just have to see. :P

I'm super excited and can't wait for Isabella, Sir Guy of Gisbourne's sister to come into the show. Should be interesting! :)

And finally! Friar Tuck joins the cast...he's pretty awesome. :)

Anyway...apologies to all of you who could care less about my Robin Hood obsession at the moment. I just can't help myself. :)

These Days

I'm all about books on tape. They are so much nicer than movies while your sewing because you don't have to watch! :) My favorite of late has been James and the Giant Peach. My favorite is the Centipede! :D

I'm also all about designing my own wardrobe. I think it's the downside of being a seamstress, you start to be more picky about clothes because you would like this sleeve with that cuff and those buttons...So, I'm going to TRY and make myself make me some clothes, and not sell them. haha I have a bad habit of selling everything. But that's good too, right?

And...I'm all about washing with baking soda...

I put about a 1/4 cup in every load of laundry along with the soap and everything comes out so fresh and clean! I'm a bit obsessed with it. :)

So anyways...I've been sewing, cleaning, and today I even made gingerbread! It almost feels like Spring today as the sunshine has come out and there's some tulips or something popping up in the garden. Yay. :)

Inspiration: Catherine Martin

It's true...I'm currently obsessed with Catherine Martin. Two-time Academy Award winner, costume designer and production designer for her husband, Baz Luhrmann's films Australia, Moulin Rouge, and Romeo + Juliet, Catherine Martin knows how to take the mundane and make it truly stand out in a beautifully bold way.

She now offers a line of rugs and wallpaper that I'm deeply in love with. :)


Peony Rug:

Feathers Rug:

Sparrow Wallpaper:

Eucalyptus Wallpaper:

Lace Wallpaper:

Most recently I fell in love with her beautiful production and costume design in the epic film Australia.
Catherine took her production team around the country to search for the perfect pieces to create the look and feel of the Faraway Downs homestead.
I'm in love with the results.

Catherine with her husband Baz Luhrman at the premier of Australia: (They make a brilliant team!)

Baz Luhrmann, Catherine Martin, Nicole Kidman, and Hugh Jackman at the premier of Australia.

Whoever said you have to stick to one thing...here's proof you can dabble in a bit of everything. Catherine is a phenomenal costume designer and has recently put out a clothing line inspired by the film Australia. They're amazing. But I'll gush more about her clothing design a little bit later on The Art of Clothes. For now I shall just dream of what I can do to my room. :)

Quilt Squares and Jane Austen

After ironing 25 yards of muslin today I decided to do something a bit more fun. I was inspired by Pleasant View Schoolhouse's post this weekend on starting a scrap quilt so today I decided to take the plunge and the result is the neat little pile above. So blissful compared to the brambles they were before. :) But indeed, this is just the beginning. I've hardly touched my scraps. Though I did make a dent. :) It feels so much nicer to have them in even pieces. Once I get a good collection I'll start sewing them together. Mmmm....I do love order. :)

While cutting out my quilt squares we watched Emma, this was the first Jane Austen film I fell in love with when I was around eleven. I still adore it to this day. :)

Don't you love that tea cup?

Now that I've finished reading North and South....maybe I ought to read through Emma while I'm waiting for my next book club book to arrive? ;)

I think it's a good plan. :)

Crusoe in Danger

Why is it whenever a show comes on tv that I actually enjoy...they cancel it? I read something online that said the last episode shown on 1/30/09 will be the last ever. It's so upsetting! It didn't even conclude anything...in fact left you hanging. I've been getting so into this show the past few weeks because it's all leading up to something and then there, they've gone and left you hanging. He's left on the island trying to get back home to Suzannah who is having her own struggles in England.

This is such a great family show and actually really clean and wholesome. Perhaps one of the reasons it's not so popular?

It's really well filmed and the acting is great. I love the sets and location...the costumes and props are awesome! It reminds me of the good old tv shows I used to watch.

Crusoe and Friday are such an example of true friendship and they so often lay down their lives for each other. And I love the fact that Crusoe and Suzannah stay faithful to each other over the years, neither knowing if the other is dead or alive.

Has anybody else been watching this show? There's a petition to sign which I'm not sure if it will help but would be worth a try! I'm hoping if they don't continue the show that they will at least give us a conclusion.

Here is the petition and be sure and watch past episodes by visiting the link on the side of my blog. I love this show. I really hope they will keep it going. Seems I never have popular taste anymore.

I understand that they need to keep shows on that are the most popular and that the most people watch...but really...at least give those of us who do watch it and ending!

Oh Happy Day...

It's been one of those days...the kind where everything gets on your nerves, nothing goes the way it's supposed to, and you just want to throw something across the room. I haven't thrown anything yet though, so I guess I'm doing pretty good. :)

Anyway...ironically I was going through my music for something that wouldn't get on my nerves and landed on Tim Hughes. I only have one Tim Hughes song though and guess what it's called?

Happy Day :)

Anyway...that kind of made me rethink my mood by reminding me life's a lot bigger than just me. That's actually such a relief to be reminded of now and again. I mean, if all the world counted on me having it together every minute, I think I'd be in more than a bad mood.

So while I was hunting for that video to show you, I ran across this one, which I just found encouraging. I stinkin' love Tim Hughes. I went to a couple of his seminars at Soul Survivor last Summer and was just so encouraged by his heart for worshiping God and serving people.

I was thrilled recently when I discovered you can buy mp3 downloads of the seminars on Soul Survivor's website! I bought one a couple weeks ago...love it. I might buy another one tonight.

Anyway...I hope you all are having a "happy day" and remembering who we belong to and where we're going!

My Birthday :)

I had a wonderful birthday. :) We just spent the day watching movies and drinking tea. It was quite lovely.

We watched Ladies in Lavender as it's filmed in Cornwall, England. I love this film. It made me a bit homesick but it was good to hear a proper Cornish accent again and watch them have tea and toast and pasties. :)

My favorite album at the moment I think is Hillsong's This is Our God. I love it so much. Could have something to do with the fact that that's pretty much everything we sang at Soul Survivor. Lots of memories behind those songs. But they are pretty awesome songs. :) Love it. My sister gave me an iTunes gift card for my birthday...I'm thinking of buying most of this album with it. But I might want some Tim Hughes too....oh, I don't know! :)

I bought myself a box of tea for my birthday with my World Market gift card my brother got me for Christmas. I LOVE this stuff...but it always gives me the jitters as it's pretty high in caffeine. But...I really really do love it.

Because Gen is the coolest...she got me a hot water bottle and made me the coziest fleece cover for it. She knows me well. :D I fell in love with hot water bottles last Christmas while I was staying in England. Auntie Ann would fill one up for me every night and it was the most comforting thing. :)

And she gave me the coolest book ever....

It inspires me! I love it. :)

My brother gave me Persuasion on DVD and my sister gave me candles and bubble bath and hand cream from a British cosmetic line.

Hmmm....kinda funny everything seems to revolve around England. I know I probably talk about it way too much all the time. I miss it so much. I'm slowly learning to get involved where I'm at. But one day I'll go back. I'll see the rugged coastlines and cobbled streets again and give and get warm hugs from friends and family.

In the meantime, I'll enjoy the friends and family I have here. :)

Bride Wars

My sister took me to see Bride Wars for my birthday and um...yeah, it's pretty much the funniest thing I've seen in a long time. Kate Hudson never fails to make me laugh.
So....get your girlfriends together and go see it, okay? :)

Then tell me what you think. ;)

Peppermint in the Snow

It's been snowing here for over a week and it's so lovely. The other day I finally tromped out into the cold to take some pictures...I accidently deleted the good one...so there all you get to see is my wellies. That's another thing I'm loving about the snow. I've worn my wellies twice! But I mostly just stay inside because it's too cold. My favorite thing lately is Twinings peppermint tea...I got addicted to this stuff when I was in England. Mmm...it's wonderful.

You know what else is wonderful? Peppermint marshmallows. Mmmmhmm. My friends got some one day and yeah...we love them. Put them in your hot chocolate and...it's divine.
And I just think they're pretty. :)

So, pour yourself a cup of tea or hot chocolate, maybe read The Little White Horse (my new favorite), and enjoy the holiday season. I hope you have snow too!