Movie Review: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

We Totally enjoyed that movie.

In the new land of millennium age animation: Sony makes splash with this flick against giants Dreamworks and Pixar. A solid entry by Sony nevertheless.

Ratbirds were genius, they remind us of our woofers (but they can't fly).

Although we think the labradoodle looks like a flying squirrel when he jumps down stairs.

This would of been fun to see in 3-d!

Linkage to some photos:

Photo 1 Widescreen

Photo 2 Widescreen



Rating: 8.5/10.0

Car Wash

Don't you hate this time of year when you can't see out most of your windows of your car due to the grime and salt of melting snow. Gross...time for a car wash.

Movie Review: Max Payne

Let me first state these facts.

1. Max Payne is a video game.
2. Max Payne 2:Fall of Max Payne was the video game sequel
3. I have played and beat both games.
4. The soundtrack to the video games were at the time second to none.
5. This movie stinks.

Now to the movie....Mark Wahlberg looks like Max Payne, but he never fully won me over in the role of Max Payne. Wahlberg seems not able to change his tone of acting, he seems always stuck in the same gear when you look at most of his movies. Even SNL made fun of how he acts in movies. Who would been a better fit? I dunno, but not him.

Max Payne the video game was based on a comicbook Noir mood. Noir, is a type of movie that hollywood has done in the past 70 years, such movies recently like Sin City, Mulholland Drive, and Pulp Fiction are examples. This movie was never even close to expectations I had for these games. The movie was so terrible, I actually turned it off and did not finish it after watching 70 minutes of it. So to tell you the ending was crap, would be a lie, I didn't even finish it. This movie had terrible reviews when it opened, which automatically placed it on my DVD watch list And the great soundtrack from the video game was never adapted for the movie! Seriously?!?

Oh and finally, Rapper Ludacris had a role as a Police Detective. I have a hard time following a movie to find a celebrity/star from a different genre who is seriously acting. Most cases the out of place celebrity takes away any seriousness the movie had going at that point. I thought Ludacris was going to start dropping some lyrics and lines during the movie. Maybe he did toward the end of the movie, but I couldn't finish it.

Congrats to Max Payne, you knocked out Catwoman out of my top 5!

My Grade: I-incomplete!~0/10.0

My top 5 Awful Movies...

5. 8MM
4. Zardoz
3. Max Payne
2. The Spirit
1. The Whole Ten Yards

Washington DC Pano Shots!!

In the Air and Space Museum
Inside the National Cathedral
At the Jefferson Monument, (statue is dark, hard to see)
Inside the Rotunda at the Capitol Building. Absolutely the coolest room ever!

M

Crib Set Crafts!

The last two weekends, I have been busy at work working on pieces to my crib set. So far I have completed the crib skirt and I am one step away from completing the bumper pad. For the bumper pad, all I have to do is sew closed each section by hand - ugh, not looking forward to it! Next up, I plan on making the fitting sheet, which for now will just be a solid cream cotton fabric.

I am really happy with how these turned out! So far I think this entire crib set will cost around $60 or less ~ I will give a more accurate cost estimate later!

The next three photos are of the bumper pad. The honeycomb pattern is the exterior. The two long interior side panels have pockets on them.









This photo is of the crib skirt:



This photo shows both bumper and skirt:





~H

Capitol More!

A huge bust of President Lincoln.

The city of DC is created from a circle and this is the direct center of the city under the capitol.

The location for the first 50 years of the Supreme Court. The earliest historically significant cases were founded here.

This pillar is original to the capitol, it survived the attack of the british in 1812. You can see the war damage.

The original pillars were designed with american history in mind. The top is designed with Corn, significant to the days of Columbus and the Pilgrims transforming the nation.

Capitol

This is looking into the senate side from the rotunda. Visitors are not allowed to enter either side unless special arrangements are made.


This is a zoomed photo of the rotunda painting of George Washington. If you look, he is in the middle of the photo with lady liberty on one side and a angel on the other looking down from the heavens. It took many years and 4 painters to complete, according to our tour guide.


The newest statue, Ronald Reagan of California. This statue is bronze unlike many of the others, see Jefferson below.

Capitol

Visitors Center Intro and Rotunda.

The Visitor Center is located underground and away from the Capitol. After Walking by foot via escalator and stairs for 5 minutes you arrive at the Rotunda; the middle of the building.

You may remember the painting of the Declaration of Independence from the movie John Adams.

The bottom statue is a replica of what is on top of the Capitol.

Capitol Photos

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The Capitol. An amazing structure. The details in the outside and inside of the building are second to none.

Statues: Every state can have 2 statues of important people placed in the Capitol. The states cannot have more than two.

For example, California had 2 prior to last summer. A statue of Ronald Reagan was unveiled to be placed in the Rotunda (VIPs of statues), one California statue had to go back to California.

This statue of Jim Swigert, Astronaut of Colorado; was played by Kevin Bacon in the Movie Apollo 13.

DC: WH

DC: Jefferson Memorial

DC: National Cathedral

This photo shows the future structures in faint pencil above the wall.

This structure is simply huge.
Always seen on TV as the nations cathedral, a tour is worthy if you are in town.

Craft-o-matic!

Ok, so I have been busy at work over the holiday breaks being a craft-o-matic up in my craft cove (take that man cave, ha!). I have made a slue of projects from the book "Little Stitches for Little Ones" by Amy Butler. Below are my handiwork's:

[1] Diaper Bag

Truth is, I started this project a long time ago, like think all the way back to September. I had it all going pretty smoothly and was about 80% done; but then I just stopped. Couldn't bare to continue. I think I was freaked out by the remaining steps. I was not believing that the instructions before me would unfold so nicely as they were explained. Finally after seeing the interior and exterior linings in my craft cove for way too long, I tackled the final steps. The final steps weren't so bad, although I don't think my machine can handle multiple thick fabrics (i.e. trying to sew together the lining and exteriors) causing the exterior stitching to be a little wonky ~ Oh well, it works for me!

Oh, and the hot pink interior I kinda regret now...too much pink for me. Next time, I will put more thought into my fabrics....

[2] Car seat Canopy

This project is the only one that is not from the Amy Butler book. I saw this project at my favorite local fabric store, Harper's Quilt and Fabric Store. They called it a car seat blanket. When I first saw this project, Harper's was selling the pattern with pre-cut fabric in 3 different fabric combo-selections of gorgeous Amy Butler fabrics and minke fabric. I decided to wait to come back to purchase this with possible Christmas monies. With Christmas gift cards in tow, I happily went to their store the day after Christmas, only to discover they sold out of them. But the beauty of this local store and me being the only customer, the lady allowed me to pick my own fabrics and trim and give me the pattern!! I was so giddy! I choose two new Amy Butler fabrics from her LOVE line and a soft like-butta black minke fabric.

Compared to the two bags that I have made, this was super simple with not too many steps. The only new learning experience for me was how to correctly to attach the rick-rack trim. I think I did it ok, however not sure if I did it the way your supposed to.

I modified this car seat blanket pattern to attach some ribbon ties on two places near the center of this blanket to make it a car seat canopy ~ so it can be tied to hang from the car seat handles to keep the child warm and covered from the elements if needed.

I am sure this also could be used for the stroller.

I am so giddy about this project. I loves the fabrics. I loves the minke. I loves the rick-rack!

Loves it!

[*] A special thanks to Parents-in-law: your gift card bought all of the fabrics for this project. Many thanks!











[3] Baby snuggie, or what I like to call the Baby Burrito Wrap



What do you get when you have some lime green modern print flannel and some cream chenille-terry cloth fabric? A fun excuse to make the baby burrito wrap with hoodie!!

Again, like project [2] this was super fast and easy to make! I like the combination of textures, which I think will be comforting yet fun for the baby to snuggle in. I must admit, I think it would be loverly to be wrapped up in this right now...

The only step I have to do is make two button holes in the center and a tie strap so that you can tie the burrito wrap in place (not to tight, of course).

[4] Project Soon to Start: Baby Crib Set and then some

I am about to embark in making a full baby crib set. Count them 4 items in the set and some extras:

-fitted sheet
-bumper pad with pockets, with different interior and exterior fabric patterns
-crib skirt
-quilt
-rocking chair pads (Bonus!)
-pillows (Bonus!)

I searched, searched and searched for fabrics that went with our color palette of lime, blue, aqua, and chocolate. And I found these three fabrics from the the same collection from Amy Butler ( I swear I wasn't limiting my search to just her collections...).

I know some people may say this is bold, but I love the modern patterns. I know the pictures doesn't do it justice, but the lime and the aqua in the three fabrics are exactly the same, and they look more vibrant in person.

I am so happy with want I found. And thank goodness for Etsy.com, people selling this fabric way cheaper that other fabric warehouses online. I am now addicted to that website.

I can't wait to get sewing...I think I will start this weekend! Wish me luck!

I wanted to also thank my Mom for the awesome rotarty cutter and board ~ seriously it saved me hours of cutting fabric already! Thank you sooooo much :0)

Also, Thanks again to my parents-in-law, the new sewing needles you gave me are 1000x better than what I was working with before: they are longer and stronger and since they have a color button piece on top, they are easily found if I drop them on the ground. All of us humans and dogs are happier now without having the fear of stepping on needles!

I cant wait to get going!
H

Happy New Year, meet the dentist!

Happy New Year!

Well let's hope it starts better than my filling breaking and needing to be fixed today. Ouch! Another Winter Blast to hit the area tonight/tomorrow. It would be nice to hit the trails, but with snow and ice, it will have to wait until April. Although the weatherman/woman go crazy if we get hit by a half inch of snow. I think it is their way to keep going until tornado season starts.

The hybridwoofers will be very happy to find some new snow that they can go eat and rejoice in.

The newest biggest loser season is starting tonight; the heaviest contestants yet.