Raining on the Red Carpet Parade
Live from the corner of Hollywood & Highland, we're T-minus about 20 minutes for the scheduled start of the Red Carpet Arrivals for the 80th Annual Academy Awards.
It's been raining most of the week and a good part of the day. The Red Carpet is covered with a tent. Once the people start to arrive, and with all the lights and bodies under the cover, it's going to become very hot and humid. The human terrarium. Should be great to see how the women, their hair and their strapless dresses go with the weather. The sun is starting to break through but the carpet is still a little soggy in spots.
Some photos from this year's extravanganza. Some of the crowd that's lined up for the limo arrivals at the corner of Hollywood & Highland. They've been here since early this morning.
The line of Oscars on the Red Carpet.
Me on the Red Carpet
Corie, me and Sandy by the big Gold Guy. I'm so happy to be playing with both of these girls. I miss Corie so much on BB. And Sandy, who I've known for years, it's been so much fun being able to actually work together. Big bonding time.
Enjoy the show. I've seen none of the nominated films except for "Enchanted". I probably won't do too well in the pool.
BIG NEWS!
As some of you may or may not know, the scrapbooking world has tons and tons of websites, product lines, magazines, etc and most of them have what's called a Design Team. These DT's are the "creative" for the website or product to create layouts and projects to provide inspiration for the world at large.
There's a new website/message board called
Jewish-Scrapbooking and I stumbled upon it about 6 weeks ago. I've been participating on the message board, entering some of their opening contests etc and took the risk to apply for their inaugural Design Team. Well, it's official. I MADE IT! My very first Design Team! I'm really excited and yes, a little bit nervous. My dear friend
Lisa also made it which is doubly fabulous. I hope I can come up with some cool, inspiring projects and have fun with it. They don't all have to be of a Jewish theme but I presume most of them will be. I'm so excited. I had to share and brag. This is a first for me. Yay for me!
Whaddaya know?
Sometimes, I even impress myself.
So I started my day at 4AM when my alarm went off. Thanks to the psychopath "Big Brother" hamster Parker, we had to come in two hours early. Even Starbucks wasn't open when I arrived at the studio at 5AM. It was another insane day at BB but we got through the show. Wacky Jen and insane Parker were evicted. Chelsia and James won HOH. It'll be another volatile and always interesting week in the BB house.
Here's where my "good for me" moment comes in. So at C's school tomorrow it's 50's spirit day. Poodle skirts, rolled up jeans, saddle shoes. This is my child who won't wear jeans and trying to explain what a poodle skirt is, forget it. I called a few friends to see if they had a poodle skirt in their costume stash but no luck. So I had to come up with something myself. I stopped at Joanns on my way home from BB to look for some material and something poodle. So I find two different pink flannels and I buy 2 different poodle patches. Now, what do I do with it? After much thought on the drive home, I realize I need to pull out my sewing machine. My handy dandy hand me down sewing machine from my quilter mom. I haven't used a sewing machine since I think 8th grade. How do I thread the darn thing? How do I get the bobbin to come up? At least I had thread and threaded bobbins so I didn't have to deal with that. A call to 1-800-MOM and I was ready to take the plunge.
I took two of C's skirts and eyeballed measured the material. Wrapped elastic around her waist to measure how much I'd need. I ended up doing a curtain rod loop across the top. Okay, first sewing machine success. Then I spent about 30 minutes trying to thread the elastic through above mentioned loop. Then did a bottom hem. Ooh, I'm getting the hang of this thing now. Then I stitched the elastic down at the two ends so that I wouldn't lose them (did that once and thought I'd lose the plot). Then lined up the two ends and did the full attach to make the skirt. Well, darn if it didn't look pretty good. All from eyeballing too. I ironed on the poodle patch and we're good to go. Okay, it's not a big flounsy, skirt with lots of folds and pleats but it'll do. Now, if C wears it tomorrow, I'll be golden.
Here's a picture of my handy work. I don't think I'll become a seamstress in my next life but I don't think I'm afraid to use my sewing machine anymore. I guess I could consider myself crafty after all. Considering I have been up since 4AM, and did the whole thing in about 2 hours (including some "American Idol" watching time), I'm pretty darn stoked, if I say so myself.
CHA
Yeah, I'm a week behind. What else is new? Last week, thanks to my dear friend
Ginger, I was lucky enough to go to the
Craft & Hobby Association trade show. I got to see all of the new products being released in the world of scrapbooking. And oh, there are some really yummy products coming out. Now, I just have to work on saving the money to invest in some of them.
There were a lot of chipboard and acrylic word albums. That seemed to be the trend of the show. I did a chipboard album recently for my BF that said "Friends" and it was of our trip to the Grand Canyon last year. Here's the cover.
It came out really nice if I say so myself.
There were a couple of paper lines that I thought were awesome.
Heidi Grace was beautiful and I've never been a huge fan but this was stunning.
Teresa Collins new stuff is just fab.
Basic Grey always makes me drool.
Sweetwater is also one of my very favorites. I used to get their monthly kits, which they've stopped doing, but their new paper lines are fantastic. They said they'd offer them on the website and I'll be getting all of them. I love their products. And
gel-a-tins have wonderful acrylic stamps. Last year they released a set of NHL team logo stamps. Hockey and scrapbooking. Who could ask for more? I love their products. And a company called
Boxer Scrapbooks just released a Judaica stamps set.
Very cute for cards and always have to support any company who produces Jewish products.
I got lots of great ideas from looking at layouts on display. Took a bunch of photos to give me
inspiration which hopefully I'll do justice to the great creativity of the product designers. Spent the day with a bunch of Fabulous Foxy Friends. We had a great time. And saw a few people that I knew which was nice. Like Maria, Teresa Collins, Stacy Panassidi (who at least feigned that she might have seen me in another life). I saw Janna Wilson and Karen Burniston from afar but didn't get a chance to say hello. Bummed I missed Karen and we've exchanged the "we suck for not searching each other out" emails. We will definitely hook up next time and I look forward to that.
Sorry for the boring, indulgent post. Just had to post what's been going on this past week. Boring for you readers maybe, but fun for me.
Hitting the links
After about 5 months of golf lessons, I finally went out on the golf course for the first time today. G and I went to a 9 hole course in Van Nuys. It was a par 30 and I think I hit around 70 (okay, not quite but close). I enjoyed it in spite of my severe frustration with myself. I don't quite understand how I can hit the ball on the driving range and then not on the course. That does not compute to me. The one thing I can say for myself is that once I actually hit the ball properly, at least it goes straight. I know I need to work on my short game (pitching and putting) but I was hoping I'd do a little better with the tee shots. Ugh. I guess it's like skiing and I just need to keep taking lessons. I don't expect to be the next Anika Sorenstam but I was hoping for a little better. I know it's a frustrating sport and clearly I am one with a short fuse. Not something to be proud of but hey, it's the truth. Off to the next lesson on Tuesday. Here are a few shots. Too bad none of them were on the green. Although I did do ok on the 9th hole. I made a 5 on a par 3 which should've been 4 but I completely whiffed the putt. Doh! (that last sentence was edited because I clearly don't know my golf terminology. G corrected me)
Happy Chinese New Year!
Got
this link from Wendy. Check out your Chinese horoscope. Here's mine for this year. Except for my soulmate has already appeared, I hope some of this works out (even though I'm not much for horoscopes)
Dragon : 1916, 1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000
The rat is a good friend to the dragon. The new cycle that starts this year will bring prosperity to the dragon after what may seem like a long time of struggle. The stream of good fortune that you saw coming your way in a trickle last year will reach fullness this year. Your energy is strong after resting in the year of the pig and you will find that difficulties are able to be overcome. You will need energy to keep up with the social whirl coming your way. While much of your focus will be on friendships and love, put some of that energy toward career networking opportunities that will develop this year and will benefit you throughout the next cycle. The conservative nature of this rat year may give moments of frustration to the dragon who cannot tame a fiery nature. This is a time to begin ventures that will benefit from the steady nurturing earth influence but you will need patience and persistence to see them through to success. The signs are very good for your soul mate to appear. Take care to recognize this most special person or the opportunity may be lost in your busy social life. Home influences are strong and if you have been dreaming of a major purchase - of a home or for your home - this year is a good time to see the dream fulfilled.
Civic Duty
Inspired to blog this by Wendy, I proudly voted on Super Tuesday. It's one of the few elections where I've felt like my vote would actually count. I knew who I was going to vote for but it was nice to know, for once, that no matter who I voted for, it was a worthy candidate. Therefore whoever gets the Democratic nomination, I will wholeheartedly support. This is a very interesting election year and as long as Georgy reign of insanity is over, then the world will be on an upswing.
And since we're in the election season, C's class held their own election on Tuesday. The big decision? What's their favorite dessert? These are issues that can cause great debate, great indecision, and strong opinions but it seems that the TK class took a vote and came up with winner. DONUTS! Yup folks, if you want to know what to feed a bunch of 4 and 5 year olds, think donuts. Here's C's marked ballot.
And yesterday, they had a donut party to celebrate their favorite dessert. I'll have to see if anyone took any pictures. What a fun idea for the class.
On another note, Thelma and Louise escaped again yesterday. G had to climb the back fence and Keely, at least, stayed and listened. Tazzie ran away. Not a surprise for a dog that clearly has a mind of her own. About an hour later, having lost her collar while crawling under the fence, showed up on the front doorstep. Both were covered with mud and needed like the hosing that they received. And I hope "Bill and Ted" enjoyed their last big adventure. This is way too maddening to leave them outside unattended. Our yard is secure unless you want to dig your way out, which apparently, if there's a will there's a way. My dogs are nuts.
Post Super Bowl
Well, the Giants pulled off the upset and beat the Patriots 17-14. Great 4th quarter. Halftime show was pretty good. I mean, it looked great and all that. It's just a matter of taste if you're a Tom Petty fan. I like some of his songs, luckily they were the ones he sang, but I'm not a huge fan or anything. It looked good though and that's all that matters. Here's another shot of G in the end zone, taken today before the game.
I saw this today on
Lisa's blog and then went to the source on
Ali Edwards blog. Someone she knows detailed X number of things that happened to her over the past year. This person listed them with photos and words and the X number corresponds to her birthday. Lisa posted it on her blog since it was her blessed day of birth yesterday. Like Lisa, I don't know if I can scrap them all but it's a fun idea to come up with the list. Since my birthday is coming up in about a month (the 15th anniversary of my 29th birthday), I thought I'd start to work on my list. I'm blogging the idea now so that it gives me a goal to work towards and perhaps challenge one or two of you out there to think along the same lines. I'll get started and I'll post it on my birthday. Stay tuned! (And thanks Lisa for the inspiration)
Super Bowl XLII
Super Bowl is tomorrow.
The 18-0 New England Patriots vs
the 13-6 New York Giants
I couldn't care less who wins. We don't have a football team here in LA so there's no local rooting interest. G is from Chicago so I care about Da Bears who blew it last year. Dad is from the 'Burgh so I pay attention to the "Stillers". Other than that, who cares? I will admit it might be kind of cool for the Patriots to go undefeated. That only rarely happens in college football to then go on and win the National Championship so for it to happen in the pros, that might be neat.
G's in Phoenix working on the Halftime show which has Tom Petty performing this year. I got these two photos today emailed to me of G in the skybox as they were rehearsing the pre-game performances yesterday.
And a shot from the field.
I hope he can take some fun photos tomorrow during the game. If Garth Brooks had followed through with being the Halftime show, I would be there too. Maybe next time.
It's been raining most of the week and a good part of the day. The Red Carpet is covered with a tent. Once the people start to arrive, and with all the lights and bodies under the cover, it's going to become very hot and humid. The human terrarium. Should be great to see how the women, their hair and their strapless dresses go with the weather. The sun is starting to break through but the carpet is still a little soggy in spots.
Enjoy the show. I've seen none of the nominated films except for "Enchanted". I probably won't do too well in the pool.
