And if your style were a label who would it be...

Okay -

So I have some new goals for the new school year and one of them is to get through this "project" of making my house look better. As I mentioned before I started on the master bath. Here are my before and after photos. I know, I know, it doesn't actually look like I did all that much, I agree - but using the camera did help me see things I had been ignoring or not paying attention to for quite a while. This bathroom used to be Restoration Hardware "Celery" and I changed it to this peppier Winter Ice Blue last winter. I think it was a vast improvement, but alas, I do not have the before photos of the previous color. The Celery thing was hip for a while but I found it boring and bordering on a greeny ho-hum gray. I just can't have boring colors in my house.

Sometimes I go into someone's house who has used all sedate grays or browns or beige or taupe and I think "geez, what is wrong with me, I should grow up and use more of these sedate colors in my decorating...so mature of them...so very Calvin Klein of them...so very....hmmm...well...uhmmm...so very boring really. Scratch that, I'll stick to my colorful house, even if it is slightly more immature















and Christian Lacroix 'y' .







Because let's be honest - I admire Mr. Klein so very much but....would you rather wear this?



or this?











I mean sure, if you're going to a PTO meeting, you're way better off with the Calvin Klein, ditto a business meeting...but I don't spend a lot of time in PTO meetings OR business meetings either one, so I'd opt for the flouncing red any day.


But I digress...the before:

this is fine...it's the inside of the shower - you can see where I got all 'restoration hardware' and 'pottery barn-ish' with spelling out "bath" on the wall. I'm very over it, but I need something really great to go on that wall instead - I found the perfect painting at a gallery last week but I'm trying to resist spending money on art right now so "bath" it shall remain until I figure out something else. (the photos don't do them justice, but how much do you love these Henry Stinson paintings for that wall...I know...perfect!)


























































Anyway - when we round the corner of the tub we find a bigger problem:

Here I actually found a painting I really liked last year for the other wall. It used to say in pottery barn letters "relax" (I guess I was trying to remind myself what I was suppose to be doing while I was taking that long hot bath) I took the letters down but since I had paid full pottery barn prices for them, I really didn't want to just get rid of them, so I propped them in the window. That looks retarded! But I didn't even really realize it until I saw it in the photo.


And here is a totally cluttered sink area which is doing me no favors in the looks department either:












And look at those photos propped up on that shelf above the toilet. That just looks like more clutter. I have several photos of us on vacation in Mexico in this bathroom, because that was kind of my theme for the whole bathroom - relaxation, vacation and blue like the ocean with a re-occuring beach/water theme in the paintings. But those look really dumb up there.














This isn't too bad, but it just needs to be tidier.























So with some minor changes, putting things away, moving some photos and getting rid of those letters in the window, I think it looks much better.











By the way, I love this Brian Boner painting of this little boy.












































(this photo is a smidge darker than the others, but doesn't that whole window thing look a TON better)






























Now if I could just afford the Stinson....

Movies I Recommend

These are my top ten movies....sorta....I mean I do love all of these movies to a totally irrational degree. But there might be other movies I love almost as well. These are the ones that made the cut today. To read Shannon's movies or her take on my list please visit her blog tomorrow when we will have another blog there. And by the way if you go to rotten tomatoes and type in my movies, nothing got less than a 70% approval rating and most were between 90 and 100% (in fact two of my movies got a 100% proving I must have incredibly good taste). Mamma Mia only got a 52% - so that means that while 52% of the people liked Mamma Mia - 48% (that's almost every other person!) thought it was a rotten tomato. I'm just saying.





This is a classic 80s flick brought to us by the Fantasic Mr. John Hughes who was also responsible for 16 Candles, Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Some Kind of Wonderful, etc. All fabulous movies. But Pretty in Pink holds a special place in my heart. I soooo wanted to BE Molly Ringwald in that movie. And have Andrew McCarthy as my boyfriend. And drive a Carmen Ghia. And have Duckie as my best friend. And work in a record shop. And shop vintage clothes. And be the coolest person on the planet.

Favorite Quote from Pretty in Pink: "Blaine? Blaine? That’s not a name! That’s a major appliance!"




One of two movies on this list staring my boyfriend, Mr. John Cusack. Mr. Cusack has made a lot of great movies and I could do a whole top 10 list of just his movies (The Grifters, Max, Identity, Better Off Dead, The Sure Thing, Say Anything, Grosse Point Blank, True Colors and America's Sweethearts) but if only two of his movies can make it on to this list then Grosse Point Blank has to be one of them. Any movie that I constantly quote in my life and my 18 year old quotes constantly is a totally cool movie (also because my son is really smart he thinks this is the best movie ever as well). This movie is smart and funny and hip and self-aware and all of the things a great 90s movie with 80s nostaligia should be. If you haven't seen it, you have no idea!

Quote:

Marty: I'm a professional killer.
Paul: Do you have to do postgraduate work for that?




I sometimes really love foreign films. There's something so great about watching a film in a language that you don't speak and spending the first 5 or 10 minutes reading the subtitles and then getting all the way to the end of the movie and realizing that you did not read any subtitles at all...or did you? Yeah, you did, but the movie was so great you got totally caught up in it and you thought you were understanding french for a full 2 hours. This is that kind of movie. And it's sooo beautiful, it's almost heartbreaking. Everything is rich greens and oranges and reds and yellows. Warm Warm Warm. And the character of Amelie is so engaging and innocent and wonderful. It's absolutely lovely. A movie to restore your hope in humanity.

Quote: These are hard times for dreamers.






Say Anything. This movie gets 100% on Rotten Tomatoes for good reason. NO ONE doesn't like this movie. I happen to love it. Talk about restoring hope in humanity the entire subtext of this movie is that love makes the world go round, everything works out in the end, good conquers all, etc. etc. But it does it in the totally charming and not syrupy and non-saccharine way that doesn't make you want to stab your eyes out while you're watching it. It makes you want to fall in love and stay that way. Get a cool boyfriend like Lloyd Dobbler and have a happy life forever. I married my Lloyd Dobbler so there you go. (AND Kirk used to dress like Lloyd too so there's that whole trench coat thing with the punk tshirts...which is why I still like it when he wears his CLASH shirt, but I digress)

Favorite Quote (and Lloyd is infinitely quotable too):
Lloyd Dobler: I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that.





This one is kind of obscure. Not very many people saw it...it came out in the mid 80s and it's a love story with Meryl Streep and Robert DiNero. I have to say I thought it was very romantic but also very realistic. There are some of the most incredibly romantic and heart-pulling scenes where you are so angst ridden about what is going on with this movie you're just pulling for these people with all your heart while worrying about them at the same time and maybe just as unsure as they are about what is going on and whether it should be going on or not. I love this movie because it makes me feel something everytime. And oddly, always leaves me happy, though it's not sappy at all. That's a hard trick to pull off.

Not a real "quote" type of movie. In fact, it's kind of quiet and it's one of the things I love about it.





Uhhh....speaking of obscure....Christ Stopped at Eboli is pretty darned obscure. I saw it at BYU on campus at the French and Italian Cinema Series during the summer of 1987. I loved it so much I went back three more times that week and sat through it for 3 hours each time (it's a long movie). It's beautiful and moving and sad and thoughtful and I just couldn't watch it enough times. Christ stopped at Eboli is about a painter who is also a surgeon who is exhiled to a small village in the mountains of Italy after he is exposed as a anti-fascist. The title refers to the Italians saying that even Christ never ventured further up the road than Eboli, which is the last town of "civilization" - the town the painter is exiled to is past Eboli. Again, you'll think you learned to speak Italian and you'll leave the movie feeling you'd like to visit Italy again and again.





Another foreign film. This one is Swedish. Kurt Vonnegut is quoted as saying "My Life as a Dog" is my favorite movie. Any movie that Vonnegut says is his favorite has to be pretty awesome. And it IS. It's a coming of age drama - if I tell you it's about a little boy who's mom is dying of cancer and he has to go off and live with relatives in another part of Sweden - that's not going to make you want to go see it, is it? Yeah, I didn't think so but you SHOULD see it anyway. Just take my word for it. It's little gem of a film. Honest.

No quotes because I don't speak Swedish (well, I know a girl is a "Flicka" and I can count to 20 but one of my best friends in elementary school had a bi-lingual home I spent a lot of time in and her mom's first language was swedish...but that doesn't help much in this case)



This movie is perfection. I love Sophia Coppola's movies. Scarlet Johanssen and Bill Murry fall in love while they are both in Japan. Except their love is completely innocent and never fully realized. But it's so great to watch it happen. Sophia's movies tend to be kind of quiet too - I guess I really like that feel in a movie where it's slow and quiet and contemplative. To be honest, I've met people who don't really like this movie. But I don't get it. I think they must have watched the first 10 minutes, didn't get it right away and lost patience. Stick it out to minute 15 and I swear you'll love it.





Muriels Wedding. An Australian movie so no subtitles to bother with - this is the movie that Mamma Mia wanted to be and couldn't even approach becoming. This movie used ABBA's songs as a logical plot point of the movie. You root so hard for Muriel the whole time and there's the whole happy ending thing except maybe not the happy ending you were planning on but even better thing going on. LOVE it.


The Graduate is a totally classic and awesome movie about adult onset angst. Benjamin is every one of us who wondered why were in such a hurry to become an adult. The Simon and Garfunkle soundtrack is simply awesome and you can never tire of watching this movie. Plus there's a boatload of symbolism here courtesy of director Mike Nichols. I notice something new everytime I watch it. Totally quotable too.

Fave Quote: Mr. Braddock: Ben, what are you doing?
Benjamin: Well, I would say that I'm just drifting. Here in the pool.
Mr. Braddock: Why?
Benjamin: Well, it's very comfortable just to drift here.

House Beautiful

Lately I've been looking through a lot of interior/exterior design magazines for inspiration. We're getting ready to do some new design options with the backyard sometime in the next 5 or 6 months and I have to spend a lot of time thinking about something before I can commit to it. Sometimes all the options are a bit overwhelming to me.

So I've been reading Domino and House Beautiful and Phoenix Magazine, etc. looking for ideas.

And it's making me sort of irritated with my own house.

There are times when I like what I've done with the house and times when I think it looks good, and other times when I feel frustrated with it.

Does your house look like these photos?


Neither does mine.

But I'd like it to -

I kind of feel like I'm a little tiny bit part way to it looking good and then...it just doesn't quite measure up.

I walked around the house today with my camera and tried to just look through the lens objectively - like if you were taking photos of your house to submit to a magazine how would it really look?

The results were not good. I didn't even take any of the photos because it was kind of disheartening.

But I think it's a good idea. It really helps you to see things more objectively, more like someone who's never been to your house before probably sees it.

So that's my plan - try to approximate something more like the rooms I love in these magazines and less like what I've currently got going on. I think more than anything it's a lack of structure and organization within my rooms. So my goal for the next 7 days is to take one room at a time, photograph it objectively and then try to fix the problems. I'll try to upload the photos here and see if I can make some progress...anybody want to join in the fun? Come on Shannon...aren't you at least game?

As I near my "Break"

Soon I get to go on nearly a month long break on the diet. It will be nice to go back on in September and see the loss speed up again for a while (It has a tendency to slow down over time as I near the end of four months on the diet)

Thanks for all the support from every friend who has said nice things, done nice things, encouraged me on this diet and eaten at whatever restaurant I suggested (I've been a bit of a control freak on this diet in that way I suppose making everyone cater to my whim).

Thanks also to Kirk for being really great about everything.

The other day we were getting ready to go somewhere and he was very complimentary and nice about the loss and he said one of the nicest things he ever could have said - he told me he knew I wanted to lose more and that he was supportive of whatever I wanted to do - but that he wanted me to know that I looked great and he didn't care if I lost another pound because I already looked really good.

I am not a thin girl yet. In fact, many people would look at me and say "she could stand to lose a few pounds". But it's so nice to be married to guy who loves me no matter what. And maybe that's been part of what has made this easier for me. So thanks.

If you want to hear me rambling on about the food and the diet, etc. you can always check the food blog HERE - but this is just to say Thanks to everyone for helping me get to this point.

I appreciate it!

I am not a "Conservative"

I am a bit of a political junky. Sometimes I grow weary of it all and leave on the backshelf for a few days.

Yesterday a friend forwarded an email which is part of an attack campaign on Obama. He forwarded it to give me an idea of what kind of crazy things are being said. Many people we know from church are conservative (the friend in question is a bit more of a libertarian than anything) - and many times there are emails flying all over the place back and forth regarding such things that we never get (usually, people know better than to send them to us). Sometimes one slips past because a well meaning church member didn't get the memo. Mostly, I am glad I do not see these emails.

The emails themselves are disheartening - usually they are such thinly hobbled together pieces of nonesense it is difficult to understand why people would outright believe them. But the more disheartening aspect of it for me is to see that long list of people who are forwarding and being forwarded these emails. People I respect and like sometimes.

I grew up in a conservative home. I understand the positions very well. I understand and agree with the idea that everyone has a right to ponder the the big political questions and make their own decisions. It's one of the things I like about this country.

Do you know how many negative emails I get from fellow democrats/liberals which attack conservatives?

Zero.

I am on all kinds of email lists with liberal organizations that I think are important. I have friends and relatives who are also Democrat. We simply do not waste time on such things.

I'm not saying they don't exist...maybe they do...but I've never seen them.

By all means let's examine the issues on both sides, let's follow some sort of logic, let's find out the facts.

But I really hope that people do not make choices based on fear and misrepresentation. I really hope that is not what the political debate in this country has evolved into. If you get an email claiming all kinds of outrageous things, please check it out at www.factcheck.org They do a really good job of examining chain emails as well as television ads for the "facts".

Happy Birthday To Me...

Happy














Birthday




To Me!



We ended up getting the tickets and going to Eddie Izzard at the Orpheum last night.

It was Awesome!

I adore him, it was the perfect birthday present.

Share the Fantasy of Chanel No. 5

Shannon and I just returned from a quick trip to Disneyland with our youngest children. It was kind of spur of the moment and just a two night - one day at Disney and a few hours at the beach kind of trip. It was fun and the kids had a good time. Here is a photo of the three of them in line for the Haunted Mansion:


(I'm having some problems with these photos, they look fine on one monitor but not on the other)

But the surprising aspect of the trip for me was the time spent at the pool in the middle of the Disneyland day. We ended up going on all the big rides several times before 2 pm and had time to go back to the hotel across the street and relax for a little bit. I ended up taking the kids out to the pool for awhile.

Remember a while ago I posted that old Chanel no. 5 commercial on here? That's what my time at the pool felt like. Perfect Sun. Perfect Pool Temperature. Perfect Clear Blue Water.

I'm such a sucker for those Chanel no. 5 commercial "I am made of blue sky and golden light, and I will feel this way forever...Share the Fantasy." When I was a kid a would come running from the other room when I heard that commercial start. Possibly because I lived in the frozen tundra of Idaho and the idea of sunbathing was so very appealing.

I loved the silly St. Tropez Ban De Soliel commercials. That idea of being dark, dark, tan. I know it's wrong and all but I still have a hard time letting go of that idea. Because the sun just feels so darn good on my skin and I like being tan dang it.

Anyway - it was just a fabulous day by the pool. I almost had more fun being at the pool than going to Disneyland - I mean, you can't really compare those two things but the pool was awesome. Even though I have a pool, I can't just go out there and sit by it whenever I feel reading my Vogue magazine like I was in California. Because I end up feeling lazy and I end up worrying about other stuff that's not getting done.

So that's my idea of a perfect day - at the pool, perfect weather, just hot enough to want to get in the water, but not too hot, Hawaiian Tropic suntan lotion, and a Diet coke with a magazine.