Happy New Year!

How cute is this jacket on a scale 1-10?

I think it’s adorable but often when I see things in magazines and such I’m always disappointed when I finally get to the store and see it live.

Just because

Have I seen anything with Grace Kelly? I might have seen some Hitchcock with her but I can’t remember… She’s so exquisite and elegant, stars of today rarely are.

About top 250

Since that list is changing so much I’ll look at it on midnight tomorrow (well actually today since it’s after midnight) and that list will be the one I’ll go after.

...

It seems like it’s changing far more than I thought it would. Now “Young Frankenstein” is on 249 and yesterday “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” was on 250. But now it’s “Casino Royal” which was number 248 or something yesterday.

(Clifton Webb)

Anyway, saw “Laura” yesterday and I guess it was an okay movie, if it weren’t for Clifton Webb it would have been dull as hell. Vincent Price I didn’t even recognize in the beginning but his voice and the way he speaks gave him away, it’s like he’s always quoting his favorite poem when he speaks.

92/250

Movie 250

I’ve seen “Young Frankenstein” so many times, as a kid I watched all Mel Brooke movies. My favorite is Frau Blücher and when Victor Frankenstein puts the scalpel in his own leg. Oh and Marty Feldman of course, he is my favorite character in that movies (sorry Frau Blücher). I have to watch that again, I only have it on video… bet the quality of that tape is pretty crappy now. When I was a kid I thought this was Frankenstein, the Frankenstein and didn’t understand why it was considered a horror film.

Year 2009

I don’t even remember my new year’s resolutions for 2008, there was an awful lot I know that much and they were sort of contradicting each other since one of them was “set realistic goals” and the rest were probably pretty crazy. I’ll only list the most important things, and perhaps add some later… maybe you should have a list and cross them off one by one?

One by one
1. Go to the gyno and do a smear test or whatever it’s called (sounds like fun doesn’t it?) Check!
2. Get a haircut
3. Buy a dress or a skirt


Continuously
1. Keep a food diary to see what I need to add and remove from my “diet” Post it on the blog (and please yell at me when I’m not eating health)
2. Write X pages per X (have to figure out what amount of pages per day/week is reasonable)
3. Work on watching ALL 250 top movies on IMDB (some would call that a waste of time but…)
4. Get a pedicure (homemade, I’m pretty darn good) at least once a month.

Projects
1. Finish one longer story
2. Finish a synopsis for a movie
3. Learn how to walk in heels
4. Learn how to do a decent manicure at home
5. Try to sew something, either finish the pants I have or make a simple dress
6. Try embroidery
7. Finish my brothers shirt and start knitting in the hats (that was last year’s new year’s resolution for Pete sake!)

I want to be evil

Eartha Kitt "I want to be evil" on Swedish TV.

Merry Christmas!

I spent most of my Christmas sleeping, I have no idea why I was so tired but I feel asleep a few times on the sofa. Ate candy, cookies and cake and didn’t feel guilty at all. In the evening I put on my warm pajamas and cute cuddly socks and watched on WALL·E DVD. I won’t make a wish list next year because I got one thing that I had put on it and it was the easiest gift (a gift certificate at a bookstore) so why make the list if no one is using it?

Now I’m off to straighten my hair and then it’s off to the movies, Australia time. It premiers today here in Sweden, worried I will be disappointed.

(Picture by me)

Maybe it’s the whole Christmas thing…

But I feel like crap, everything sucks and I just want to beat someone or something into pulp with a bat! The building construction is moving along from seven in the morning and for some reason they are leaving this huge spotlight on at the end of the day, directly pointed at my bedroom window. It’s mud everywhere and that horrible sound from drills and machines and whatnot is driving me crazy…

My mom is bugging me and basically makes me want to move far far away and make sure there’s no phone.

All the stores hate me; they have like no rubber boots at all. One pair (the crappy brand that didn’t last a year without holes in them) in an entire shoes store and we are in Sweden where it gets pretty damn wet this time of year but it’s cute little pumps everywhere you go, they will come in handy when I’m taking the dog out…

I am so going to move…

I can’t find anything to eat, everything taste like crap, I don’t like food.

Dislike

• When people don’t write where they found the pictures they are posting on their blogs
• Modern architecture

Sunday...

03:24 I can’t sleep! Tossing and turning and I’m not tired! There’s nothing to read and I don’t know what to do! Horrible, horrible, blah! What to do? One two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven...


03:42 My body is obviously tired, just knocked a flower pot over, straight into one of my desk drawers, at least I know what I’ll be doing tomorrow (aka later today).

13:11 Managed to fall asleep around, five… Bored out of my mind, I have nothing to do, dull dull dull… I’m so bored I’m reading my junk mail, “Heloo princess…”

Someone wants me to be a good little girl and help decorating the tree. I don’t want to, call it creative differences if you want.

Love...

Saw this commercial on TV the other day and then I started to wonder, will this be aired worldwide? Doubt this one will be aired in the Deep South…



More on Björn Borg

Just because

I think she lied…

In Dita Von Teeses book she said that she’s 168cm tall and weighs 48kg, which makes her BMI 17, which makes her underweight. Sure BMI isn’t a hundred percent but I think she lied about her weight. She looks healthy too me but like someone who works on staying fit.

Um…

I have 349 sek at this store, Bikbok, I never by anything there. It’s from my birthday when I was given a horrible cardigan and returned and got store credit. What should I get? Would you buy at this place?

Brazil

Saw my first Brazilian movie, and liked it! "Ciade de Deus", been wanting to see it from some time and then it was on TV the other day. It’s apparently based on a book, maybe I should read the book? I loved that all of the characters had weird nicknames (maybe because I never have had one?). Favorite character, Bené, the nice gangster. If you have the chance to see it, you should.

Just because

Three more movies

First I saw “O Brother, where art thou?” and it was okay, reminded me a little of “Big Fish” but it’s not a movie I’m likely to ever see again. I wanted to see what happened but then at the end I was like, “So…?”

I hate to see Johnny in bad movies, I don’t like to hear him say cunt. He wasn’t even good in this movie which he usually is even I crappy movies. The best parts of “The Astronaut’s Wife” was when I squinted and pretended it was Mia Farrow and not Charlize Theron. It was quite recently I realized what a beauty she is, Mia that is.

(Mia Farrow)

Then I watched a Danish movie, a thriller called “Murk” and it was like Swedish movies, dull, grey and “real”. There’s a wedding scene and if it had been an American movie it would have been bright and funny, laugher and spontaneous singing but there it was stiff and dull and people were sitting in rows with pieces of paper with the lyrics on singing along looking bored and uncomfortable. The plot was okay but the execution wasn’t.

How cute is this!

She looks like a stewardess or something. I love the suspenders under the corset (at least I think they are under the corset because in the info about the corset I can’t see anything about any suspenders), not sure how comfortable that would be but it’s cute! The corset is from Maya Hansen, more info on this corset here.

Behind the red door

Looks a cute cozy county house in France, bet things are falling off the building if you slam the door too hard or if a truck drives by.

The window shutters and the door seem to be the only thing touched for the last fifty or so years.

Doesn’t look that worn-out and simple from the backyard does it? I love this backyard because of the contrast to the front of the house. A secret little courtyard, how cute is that?

All pictures are from Shootfactory. This house is in La Poste. More pictures here, it’s a real dangerous site because you might be stuck for HOURS

I like!

Not a hundred percent happy about the roof and it’s a little too rustic for me but it’s so adorable! I don’t even mind the fact that the door isn’t center of the house, I’m sort of obsessive about things being symmetrical but here it works anyway. In my head the balcony/porch faces a big glassy lake.

The bushes by the door are a little small; they should get some big rhododendron or yew and get rid of those potted things on the stair.

Found picture here

Tihi!

I was just goofing around and writing down an imaginary tea party with Aimée and it turned in to a story. First draft ready and I’ll clean it up this weekend and maybe I have a story for my story bank. I have to wait awhile and see if I really like it, sometimes a story seem good but when you’ve let it cold a day or so it turns out to be crap.

Imaginary tea party II

I need a place to have the tea party and come up with a menu, oh and a guest list of course. Not too many people. And a date, saturday maybe...? Is this a good mix of people I wonder?

1. Albus Dumbledore
2. Snow White
3. Freddie Mercury
4. Edgar Allan Poe
5. Jane and Edward Rochester
6. Catwoman

Treehouse

I don’t know why but I like small houses like shed and little cottages (like the one in that movie “The Holliday”) and treehouses. But even if I start looking for a treehouse in the area to have tea in, I have no one to keep me company. (I wonder if I could persuade my dad to build me a treehouse even though I’m not twelve?)

Books about treehouses
The treehouse book
Treehouses: The Art and Craft of Living Out on a Limb

Picture found here

10 Places for tea

You can have tea anywhere but some places sounds more interesting than others. The best place I have had tea is sadly my own garden. I hope I’ll be crossing off some of the places on the list real soon. The most important thing when having tea is, of course, good company.

1. Treehouse
2. Cute cottage
3. Dartmoor national park
4. Lighthouse
5. Gazebo or similar during a thunderstorm
6. Tasmania
7. Rowboat
8. Porch
9. The desert
10. Ghost town

Snow!

It snowed a little on… Saturday I believe and then again yesterday. The ground is still warm and the weather isn’t that cold so it melted away fast but still, snow… I don’t like cold weather and ice. And soon it’s December and I haven’t bought a single Christmas present! (Well I have actually bought a little something to three people) I’m already feeling stressed out.

I did buy some cookie cutters though, smaller than I expected but they were cute. A kangaroo, shark, whale, bat, camel, fish, seahorse, giraffe, pear, maple leaf and a moose, who said gingerbread cookies had to be hearts and pigs?

Picture from Formina (where I got my cutters from)

Not a lot of movies lately

Instead I have been watching “Seinfeld” on DVD, I love Kramer. I have a few movies recorded, there was a Danish movie on the other day and I can honestly… no I have seen a Danish movie before… Idioterne by “Lars von Trier” which is one of the weirdest movies I have seen. I don’t know how I managed to see the entire movie, so strange, I saw an interview with Lars and he’s pretty damn weird too. Anyway… soon I’ll start watching some movies again.

Monday November 17

00:46 My internet isn’t working!! What to do?! I have restarted the computer twice and it’s still not working! What if it’s not working tomorrow (today) either? What if I have a whole bunch of great wonderful emails? What if there are some interesting posts at all the different message boards? I’m not sure I can go to sleep before I check my mail and the message boards… Maybe it’s working now… It’s not! What the… ?!

Watch some Supernatural and see if it works later, or go to bed? Watch a little Supernatural and check if the net is worker later. (By the way, the fourth season sucks so far...)

00:54 What the… Now my player isn’t working? God is out to get me! Restarting the computer…

00:57 My player is working, haven’t check the net but I doubt it… hey, the computer just said, “Virus database have been updated”, does that mean I have a connection? (dramatic pause) I have no new messages… My net is back!

01:03 Nothing new anywhere…

01:07 So, should I go to bed or should I watch Supernatural? I don’t know why I pretend to even consider go to bed, I know I’ll stay up…

Writing exercise

For some reason I am under the impression that most people have alter egos, I do, I several. My favorite one is “Shelly” and I really wish I was like her but... Anyway... Take a normal situation, grocery shopping, an hour on a train or similar and write down how your alter ego would act and what he or she would do in situations. What kind of groceries would he/she buy? Will he/she walk there, ride a bike because it’s better for the environment, take the bus or will he/she drive up there in a fabulous red 65 corvette stingray?

How to annoy your neighbors part three

The trumpet is a wonderful instrument which you don’t hear very often, why not change that? Take a trumpet class and practice makes perfect. I love youtube! I have to ask and see if he wants to come and live with me...

How to annoy your neighbors part two

Christmas is upon us so why not spread some love and festivity and put up some decorative lights? More info here

Annoy your neighbors part one

(Sign found here)

Get a neon sign. The best thing would be to buy one and make sure that it’s obscene, impropriate or just scary. But anyone with bright lights will do, make sure they can see it from their bedroom. Call it art if anyone complains.

First out is Norway

Okay, so Mr Third Wheel, there for the comical relief I wonder… “Cold prey”, silly (and not in a good way) and predictable but hopefully not the best thing out of Norway (of course not, Turbonegro and Espen Knutsen are the best things from Norway).

Half way through and I’m really tired of this movie, feels like a 70’s-80’s crap horror. Slow and dull…

I’ve managed to watch 1h and 10min so I should be able to make it through the last 20minutes.

I made it though… by the end of the movie I don’t remember the person’s name… not good. Best part of the movie, the end where they play Turbonegro “All my friends”. Mr Third Wheel is funny at times, silly name Morten Tobias (what’s with Norwegian people and double names?) He looks like a Norwegian stereotype and since we are on that subject, how more Norwegian can you get when you are trying to escape on skis, hilarious. Apparently they made a sequel…

Mr Third Wheel aka Mr Comical Relief aka Morten Tobias played by Rold Krisitian Larsen. The can opener broke, what are the odds of that?

"She's been chopped to pieces!" Mr Positive

Movies from all over the world

I’ll try to see more foreigner films, perhaps try to see one from each country, how many countries are there? I’ve seen movies from, China, Japan, England, America, France, Mexico, New Zealand, Australia, Germany… but I have never seen an Norwegian movie. This has got to change. So, more foreign films on TV please.

(Oops, I lied… Looked around and I have seen at least one Norwegian movie… but still, I should try and see something other than just American and English speaking movies.)

Memoirs of a geisha

My first audio book and I’m not sure I’ll give it another go. To listen to someone reading a story is odd, this one was read by a woman and she would speak with a hoarse voice at times because the character did. Sometimes reading really slow and she put a lot of feelings in things. Sounding mean or angry with there was nothing in the text that said that the person was angry. Story-wise I got a little annoyed with all the similes and such, every other sentence contained some bad poetic description and it was too much.

After I had listen to the book, I saw the movie and there were a lot of changes, some understandable and some just annoying. Since I had “listened” to the book I felt I understood everything that was happening but perhaps it would have been less so if I hadn’t? Love the clothes and the surrounding but the movie was pretty dull. The people I recognized were all Chinese; surely there are some Japanese actresses they could have used? And then there was the language, it was hard to understand what they were saying and again, happy that I had listen to the book so I knew what was going on.

In both the books and the movie the girls virginity was auctioned out and I have always been under the assumption that geishas aren’t prostitutes so I had to check it out and apparently Arthur Golden took that from a similar ceremony held by Oirans.

I should read Mineko Iwasakis “Geisha of gion” instead; perhaps that one will be more accurate?

Christmas wishlist

I never want anything for Christmas, well I do but I don’t make lists because it feels so, I don’t know, more like demands and not wishes. So I end up with a whole bunch of stuff that I don’t want or need so this year I’m thinking about making a wishlist.

CHRISTMASLIST 2009
Gift certificate at Adlibris and/or Bokus
Gift certificate at Sockdreams
Gift certificate at Twilfit
Teacups (you can never have too many teacups)

And this year I will do my very best and make sure I have all of my Christmas shopping done before December, or at least most of it.

Knitting…

Trying to knit my hats but for some reason they don’t turn out the way I want them too. Holes in all the wrong places or I’ve knitted for days with cables and such and then realize that somewhere I messed up and then have to start all over again. Right now I’m knitting without a pattern, let’s see if I can come up with a hat.

This weekend

Watched horror movies, but unfortunately only bad ones, but in my opinion good horror movies are hard to find and I get really scared so perhaps it’s a good idea that most of them are so lame?
First it was “The Fog” the re-make and what the… I hate when there are lose ends in movies and the whole thing about the guy cheating with that Stevie girl, what was that about? But it did look nice on that island, I like picturesque islands and I wouldn’t mind living on one someday.
Then it was “When a stranger calls”, also a re-make and come on… loads of loose ends and no real story. The house was pretty cozy though but far too much wooden panels for my taste.
“When a stranger calls” (1979) Oh my god what a piece of crap… The girls voice is irritating and the whole story is just messy and not at all scary. I understand why they changed a lot when they did the remake; I don’t understand why they called it a remake, why not just take the old story with the creepy phone calls to the babysitter and make a whole new thing? I just don’t understand the logic in horror movies. If I was that Jill chick I would take that shotgun and carry it with me at all times, and I would have all the lights on in the house at all times until the guy was caught.

Pumpkins spotted: 5 (but most of them showed up on Saturday, isn’t that like getting a Christmas tree on Christmas day?)
Trick or treaters spotted: Five (two of them on Saturday)
Trick or treaters knocking on the door: Zero
Christmas lights spotted: Five

Finished

Read my first (and maybe only) Sonya Hartnett book, "Stripes of the sidestep wolf". I wanted to read one of her books since I was her on TV when she won the Astrid Lindgren memorial award. It was boring, all books I read these days are boring… (well not ALL books but good books are rare).

Best in the book: The tassie tiger of course

Worst thing in the book: I got really annoyed when there was a rubber tree in Australia, someone probably translated gum tree to rubber tree… as far as I know there aren't any rubber trees in Australia.

Knock on wood

I’m doing okay with the short story. I couldn’t come up with anything so it’s based on a true experience and will be illustrated with pictures. I got it down and now I just have to tidy it up and get the ending done.

And knock on wood some more, I have an idea for a new story (thanks Aimée, you don't know it but you gave me the idea. It's a tricky one so I might not be able to do the plot justice and not go through with the idea but…The more I think of it the more it feels like this is way out of my league… First thing first, finish the first story, focus damn it!)

I don’t know if it was the translation or what…

But I didn’t really get “Alice’s adventures in Wonderland”. I quickly realized that there are plenty of puns and such and they were most definitive lost in translations but how much less got lost along the way? She just kept bumping into weird creatures and shrinking and growing… didn’t quite understand what’s so brilliant about it (sorry).

Best: "Thank you," said Alice, "it's very interesting. I never knew so much about a whiting before."

Some numbers

Smiles given to strangers: 2
Smiles received from strangers: 1
Books received in the mail: 1 (unfortunately it came along with a bill)
Minutes amazed how wonderful the world is: ½ when I caught a glimpse of a Japanese maple
Plans for the weekend: 0
Books currently reading: 4 (might be five later on)
Words written on the short story: 0
Pumpkins spotted: 1 (but it wasn’t carved)
Cups of tea: 2

Thursday

Today we, J and I went birthday shopping for B and a little for me.

Keep your fingers crossed. So I bought the nighty but for some reason I didn’t try it when I was trying on some of the bras (none of them were good, which is good for my economy)… So, now at home I will try it and it better fit because you can’t return underwear. I hope it fits… It fits! It fits nicely without clinging to my jelly parts, so cozy! You should feel the material, oh and I got the cozy angora socks and some tea with almond, apple, cinnamon which was really nice (but I think you need a little sugar in it and I don’t have sugar in my tea), will be perfect along with all the books I got at the library ( I did not like the new library but at least there were no kids there playing video games, but it was way too loud). Got two books with short stories in them and hoping for some inspiration, so far I get very little of what Virginia Woolf is trying to tell me. Only read two of her stories The mark on the wall is one of them.

Tired… want to put on my nightie some socks and just go to bed.

Started reading “Alice in Wonderland”

After finishing the lame Bridget Jones I started reading “Alice in Wonderland”, I’ve started a few times but never finished it. It’s a big book with illustrations on every page so it’s not like I can take it with me and read it on the bus.

Illustrated by Helen Oxenbury

Totally blocked, again…

I just don’t understand why it’s SO hard to get one short story down. I honestly believe that everyone has a story inside of them wanting to get out but when I’m trying nothing is coming out, I don’t get it. Should I start over and try to come up with something new or stick with this piece of crap I’m working on? Why can’t I come up with anything decent? I am that bad?

Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason

The main reason I picked this book from the bookcase was because I remembered that the first one was easy to read and with 101 books in 1001 days I need books like that but it ended up taking quite some time. I really didn’t like this book. I don’t remember much from the first book but I don’t think it was THIS bad. Bridgets seems to drink on a daily bases (do people in England really drink THAT much?) and act like a total nut job. I don’t like any of the characters and… well I just don’t understand this book or how people can like it. The movies was better but that’s doesn’t mean it was a good movie. All the things they had removed in the movie were good, like Gary for example and the subplot with her parents and Wellington. The Rebecca plot works better in the movie as well. Mark Darcy is much more charming in the movie...

Books so far

Here was my day (I think, if I remember it correctly)

1. Got out of bed, late like always
2. Took the dog for a walk
3. Watched soap
4. Spent a frustrating hour or so in front of the computer trying to write a short story. I suck!
5. Some more dog walking
6. Getting Aimée package/letter ready
7. Made some dinner, same stuff as yesterday since that was all I had home.
8. Um… dog walking?
9. More frustrating time in front of the computer before giving up on writing and watching “Supernatural” instead.
10. Pining up my hair to see if I would look good with a fringe.

Just because

This illustration by Arthur Rackham is my main inspiration for my story, it will most likely suck but hopefully I will finish it. That’s the most important things right now, finishing something.

Arthur Rackham

You don’t need a reason to post some nice Rackham images. I should get a book with some of his work in it.

Perhaps because it’s autumn

But the darker the better. I just hope I don’t scare myself too much, I have a habit of doing that. I like this painting, “Nightmare” by Henry Fuseli (bad picture but it was hard to find a decent one).

Short stories

I really do need to get some routine when it comes to writing, I never finish any of my stories so I suggested to Sarah that we should try and write one short story with each letter… Writers block immediately. Then it loosed up after reading a lot of short stories but then I pitched the idea to my brother and he was not impressed. Sigh… I’m back to square one…blä, I suck! Why is writing so difficult?

I love lingerie

I have made plans to go to Swedish lingerie store Twilfit real soon and try on some of their goodies. I don’t really have the body for lingerie but I can’t help it. Lingerie isn’t my main priority right now, it’s buying clothes that will make me not freeze to death during the winter but… a girl needs a little treat every now and then right?

Never had anything corset-ish in my life because they rarely have that sort of thing in a A cup because we “don’t need” them so I have to check this one out. (Wanted it black but you can’t have it all)
Corset 449kr/49,59USD

Panties 149kr/19,74USD

Cute black balconette which is hard to find in my size (Rarely fits so keep your fingers crossed)

269kr/35,64USD

Panties 169kr/22,69USD

Garter belt 179kr/23,79USD

A nighty that really caught my eye and is the main reason I’m heading towards the store in the first place. 499kr/66,11USD

Love this rode but it’s 999kr/135,35USD so…

Cute cuddly angora socks with my name on it! It’s an autumn-must-have for 159kr/21,06USD

Hmm… I hope some of this stuff doesn’t fit or is extremely unflattering or uncomfortable, something or I’ll be broke...