So Apparently No One Else Finds Chaplin Interesting...

Alright, so I FINALLY finished Charlie Chaplin's autobiography. I loved it. So very interesting. But as my husband has told me, pretty much no one else is interested in Charlie Chaplin....

 

How can this be? Apparently I am alone in my fascination with him, and in general people did seem pretty surprised that I was reading a book about him, and merely polite when I'd start to ramble about the things I had found out about him.

 

He's so interesting. Here's a man, who after being born in the poorest area of London goes on to become one of the most iconic men in cinema. Face it, you may have never even seen a film of his, yet you know who the Tramp is - big clownish shoes, baggy pants, tight jacket, bowler hat, can, and "Hitler-esque" mustache. They reference Charlie Chaplin everywhere - The Simpson's, news, anything having to do with black and white pictures, heck, even Pam from The Office dressed up as him for Halloween - though it didn't go well without the hat on.....

 

I find him so fascinating and his autobiography was wonderful. Now, it was long, and man did the guy name drop. Seriously. He met everyone - Gloria Swanson, Winston Churchill, HRH Prince of Wales (not the current one), the Einsteins (yes, the e=mc2 guy), Woodrow Wilson, Walt Whitman, H.G. Wells, Rudolph Valentino, Igor Stravinsky, Gertrude Stein, Upton Sinclair, George Bernard Shaw, Laurence Olivier, Louis Ferdinand (grandson of the Kaiser), Sir Thomas Lipton (yes the tea guy), Nikita Khrushchev (leader of Soviet Russia), Sir Henry Irving, Aldous Huxley, Edgar Hoover, Albert Hirschfeld, Howard Hughes (of "Aviator" fame), William Randolph Hearst, Jean Harlow, Samuel Goldwyn (MGM guy), Mrs. Gandhi, ....anyway, you get the idea. If they lived during Chaplin's life, and had any importance in any field, chances are he met them.

 

So, once you get past the name dropping, the book is great. I am just so intrigued by him. He worked his butt off doing whatever he could to make money, then once he had it, it was so foreign to him that he didn't really know what to do with it. And his fame took him by surprise. He couldn't believe that people knew him without his makeup on. When he started making silent films, his thought process was so basic - he took a simple set up like the Tramp (his iconic character) gets a new suit and then just ran with it, threw in some gags and called it good. No real structure, just him improvising and then meticulously editing and reshooting, and editing again, and again, and again til it was perfect. He would often shoot two hours worth of film, only to have twenty minutes of it actually become the finished film because he wanted things perfect.

 

Then once he became super famous and rich, America's darling and a great movie star, he was basically boycotted, harangued, and eventually kicked out of the U.S. for good, and for no real reason other than they were upset that he didn't hate communism enough, never got his citizenship for America and asked for second front during WWII (which incidentally the U.S. government asked him to say).

 

How do you go from poor nobody, to ultra famous actor, to vilified outcast? Anyway, as you can see, I thought his life probably more interesting than most.

 

On the off chance someone out there does want to read about him, I won't say much more, and let you discover how interesting he is in your own way. Or... you could ask me, and I'll talk your ear off... :)

 

Happy Reading!

 

 





Book Reviews

I am a reader. A crazy avid reader. And I read just about anything; sci-fi, fantasy, biographies, young adult, historical (non)fiction, you name it. The only thing I don't really read is romance. I am living my happily ever after, so I'm good. :)

My love of books and reading came at an early age. My sweet Mom would read to me every night. The classics like Secret Garden, and favorites like any books by Roald Dahl. The BFG is one of my favorite books. I remember snuggling into bed, and having her sit next to me reading the next chapter in whatever book we'd chosen. We had reading lists to do in the summer. Ah, I loved it! I still remember the personal satisfaction of reading my first "big" book - it was The Never-ending Story and it was 400+ pages of small type. I was in the fifth grade.

This nightly tradition of reading is one that I still do today. There are few things that I consistently do every day, beyond the basic necessities of course, but reading is one them. I don't go to bed without reading a bit in whatever book I'm working on. And now that I'm married, and we have no room for all my books (by far my husband's least favorite thing to move) I read Kindle books on my phone.

My kindle has quite a few books on it: The Giver, A Monstrous Regiment of Women, Little Women, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Life of Pi, Ender in Exile, The School of Essential Ingredients, The Help, The Art of Racing in the Rain, Busting Vegas, Hatchet, Lectures on Faith, The Maze Runner, Temeraire: In His Majesty's Service, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Wind, Island of the Dolphins, A Wrinkle in Time, Ender's Game, The Host, Unbroken, The Lost Gate, In the Garden of Beasts, Holes, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Joy for Beginners,  Eragon, A Dance with Dragons, Circle of Magic, Fahrenheit 451, Everneath, The Count of Monte Cristo, Treason, Neverfall, The Hobbit, The Peculiar, Beautiful Creatures, The Simarillion, Pope Joan, The Handmaid's Tale, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Circle Opens, World War Z, The Book Thief, The Gate Thief, The Hunger Games, Inferno, The Night Circus, Divergent, Matched, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, City of Tranquil Light, Mortal Instruments and My Autobiography: Charlie Chaplin.

Whew! That's a fair amount. I LOVE BOOKS!!

So here are my thoughts about a few of these - especially the ones I think not many have read/heard of.

A Monstrous Regiment of Women: This is a book about what happened to Sherlock Holmes after he got older and "retired." He meets a young woman as bright and eager as him in solving puzzles and they work out the best kind of mysteries. BUT - you should read first The Beekeeper's Apprentice. It is fantastic. Subtle hints about who's behind it all, but delicious to try and puzzle out for yourself.

Uncle Tom's Cabin: One of my favorite books ever!! My physical copy of this book is marked up galore. I love this book. It made me cry, but not in the usual places. A must read

The School of Essiential Ingredients: This one was recommended to me by a cousin and I loved this book. It was a quick read, but the characters were so delightful to get to know. The premise is how one cooking class made up of strangers become better people and how simple ingredients in their lives have made up who they are. Wonderful.

Busting Vegas: If you watched the movie 21 about card counting in Vegas, this is the book it is based on. Crazy how intense it gets.

Unbroken: Incredible!! A true story about one man's struggle to survive when his plane crashes in the ocean during WWII. Just when you think it can't get any worse it does, and the whole time you are rooting for him to just make it through everything.

Everneath: This is written by a Utah writer who places her story in Park City, which I enjoyed because I knew many of the places she was referring to. It  is the story of a girl who follows in Persephone's footsteps down in the Underworld. A great retelling.

The Count of Monte Cristo: This book took me a while to finish - and I read fast. But the movie doesn't come even close to doing this story justice. Ah, the intrigues, and maneuverings of a man wronged and who plans his revenge beautifully and carefully. It was a bit slow and there are so many people to try and keep track of, but as the book gets closer to the end  it was a joy to watch all the subtle machinations of Edmond Dantes come to fruition. So so good.

Pope Joan: the "true" story of a woman who hid her gender in order to get an education and who ended up becoming pope. I say "true" because officially the Catholic church has denied existence of her, and there isn't much proof that Joan was a real person, but since many writings were destroyed about her, it's more the lack of proof that makes her story real.

The Night Circus: What if some people had actual powers, and in order to use them without suspicion, they worked at a circus that only opens at night and travels to cities without warning? It's really good. The circus is actually an arena for two magicians to pit their apprentices against each other. You'll love trying to figure out what happens and who wins in the end.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children: The author of this book found a bunch of really creepy old black and white photos and created a book to tell the story behind them. The photos in the book are so haunting and disturbing and once you know the created story behind the photos, you'll be hooked.

City of Tranquil Light: This was recommended to me by my mom, who shared it with dad, and her book club, and ladies at church, and her sisters, and her friends and basically anyone she could. A book this highly recommended and shared had to be good - and it was. So so good. It made me cry, and love, and hope for the characters. It's based off of real stories about missionaries working in China before WWI and the changes that were happening in the country with the government just make a good story even more compelling. It was so incredibly good. I loved this book. I devoured it. I stayed up till four in the morning reading because I couldn't stop.

If you need any book recommendations, or have one for me, I'd love it! I'm currently reading the autobiography of Charlie Chaplin, and it's fascinating. I'll let you know how it goes. :)

Happy Reading

DIY Totes

Alright, well I "got my craft on" today. I decided to work on a DIY tote bag to carry my little man's stuff in when I don't feel like looking like I'm carrying a diaper bag, but don't need much.

I bought some blank pre-made totes at Michael's (it came with three) and did one for my Mom for Mother's Day. For my Mom's I found a cute owl stencil at Michael's that I knew I could alter a little bit to look the way I wanted, and got some felt poms. 

I did this bag with Sharpies, instead of fabric markers or paint because I wanted a slightly fuzzy look. The sharpies bleed a bit on the canvas, and since I was using felt balls (which are also fuzzy) and was putting an owl on it, I kind of wanted an unkempt look to the whole thing. 

After fiddling with the owl stencil a bit, and then picking colors that would match the felt, I traced it onto the bag. Then free handed the branch he'd sit on. Once he was down, and I let him dry for a bit (maybe 20 minutes), then I placed the felt balls on the bag. 

I didn't want to hot glue them down (although that would have been a huge time saver) because I wanted them to be on there really well so you could use the bag without having to worry about them falling off. Sewing them on made the bag much more durable. 

Bam! There is the finished bag. I liked it so much that I bought a second set of felt balls so I could make one for myself at some point. The longest part of this whole project was sewing the balls on. But I felt that it was worth it in the end.

Then today, while my little man took his afternoon nap, I decided to make a quick tote for myself. This one was much faster and didn't require much in terms of supplies. I still had some canvas totes left over from my craft run at Michael's, and my sweet sister-in-law bought some fabric markers for me for my birthday. BTW, birthdays and Christmas are awesome times to ask for things to build up your craft supplies, plus it gives people an easy gift to get you, and most are inexpensive - especially around the holidays.

So, masking tape, fabric markers and a blank tote and you are set. Now you can do any design you want, but chevron is really popular right now, and easy to do. I've seen some really cute geometric designs, like triangles, and abstract looks done with masking tape as well. 

I decided that I wanted a chunky look, so I spaced my stripes out a lot, but it would be easy to do a smaller look. First, you tape the bag out. I did it the easiest way I know, and it helps keep the points in line with each other. You just put the tape down in diagonal stripes all over the bag, and don't worry about trying to tape in a chevron pattern.

Then once you have the whole bag patterned out, then you go back through and cut the extra tape bits out, leaving a chevron pattern. The most important part is making sure the tape it securely laid on the bag - no bubbles, or open parts - especially at the points.

Then taking your fabric markers you get to coloring - and stay in the lines this time. I choose fabric markers for this project instead of sharpies or paint because fabric markers are permanent after 24 hours and can be washed. While I was using one color, I set the other marker upside down so that the ink would be ready to go when I was done with a stripe. It helped it flow easier and made the project go faster.

The most important part of doing this project is to get the edges crisp and thoroughly painted in. The better you do on the edges, the more defined your chevron pattern will look.

With fabric markers just make sure you have a set look you want to do, because how you color it in, is how it will look. So my green/teal area is kind of spotty looking and my blue area is stripey looking because that's how I colored it. So keep it consistent.

Then once you get the whole thing colored in - let it dry with the tape still in place to help prevent it from bleeding.

Now it said to let it dry for 24 hours, but I waited five before I took the tape off, however I won't use it till tomorrow just in case. I don't want it bleeding onto my clothes or arms.

Peel the tape off carefully and admire your new bag!

I'm Back!!

Alright, after a much unanticipated hiatus, I'm back! I've decided that since I'm now a stay-at-home mom that I've got time here and there to show what I'm interested in, making, crafting, cooking, reading etc. 

Since it was the Fourth of July just a few days ago, and since I have been on a crafting kick, I decided to finally get into the spirit of things since 1) I'm no longer working retail which kinda sucks the fun out of holidays, and 2) Last year I was UBER pregnant and just wanted little man to make an appearance.

So I got on Pinterest.....Btw, I'm a major Pinterest junkie. I check it everyday. More than once. More than twice....  okay I'm a total addict. I can't help it - there is so much to make, cook, exercise (though I rarely do this one) and just yeah - I love it. Plus I think it helps me continue to be creative and exposes me to some seriously talented people out in blogger world that I wouldn't know of and having found them, I feel like I'm a better person because of them. Deep, I know. :)

Anyhow, I found this awesome pin for a holiday wreath (HERE) and decided that I could do that my way for our door. So I went out to Michael's and got all the stuff I'd need - foam wreath, yarn, and stars. I already have a glue gun and sticks, and ribbon to hang it with. Now, I learned some good and bad things with this craft; one is that it takes a surprisingly longer time to do than I thought. I figured I could do it while little man was taking his two hour nap and be done - nope. It takes longer for reasons I'll go into.

Here's my crafting loot - 

Now don't go crazy with the yarn - one bundle is PLENTY. I got a 12" foam wreath, some simple wooden stars, and yarn in a deep red, a dark blue and a sort of creamy white - to match the wooden stars better since stark white looked odd with everything else. 

The foam wreath was a blessing and a curse. The yarn loves to stick to it, so wrapping the wreath in the yarn was a serious pain - and the main reason why this took so long to do, but the one major advantage to having the foam was that since the yarn loved to be connected to it so well, it meant that i didn't have to glue down my yarn all the time - just when I was starting or stopping a color - so that part rocked. But the foam did get everywhere and I had to sweep up a bit so little man wouldn't crawl along and eat the foam snow that ended up all around me. I've seen it done with straw before, so I'll leave it up to you. Pros and cons to both methods. 

After having done this, I would definitely recommend you mark where you want your yarn to start and stop to give you a better chance of making the wreath look uniform. I didn't do this til the very end and as a result my wreath is a bit off, but it's not bad.

See my super tiny marks?

Alright, one quarter of the wreath is straight blue, and I wanted red to be the color next to the blue on both sides, so after marking it all out, get wrapping. This takes a while. I just glued down a little bit of yarn and put on a movie and went at it. Now since there is no way to get it to line up evenly since the inner circle will always be smaller than the outside, you will overlap. Try your best to make it look uniform and still keep the yarn straight. I did pull my yarn super taunt on this one, so it could have gone by quicker if I hadn't, but I liked the more polished look it gave to the project. 

 Keep at it for a while, sweeping up and letting your hands take a break every so often till you get 3/4 of the way done with your stripes then do the blue quarter.

Now I bought five big stars, since the little ones ended up looking so much darker than my cream/white yarn, but only ended up using two on the wreath itself. But you could do buttons, smaller stars if available or whatever you happen to think of. The button version of this is pretty cute.

Then just position the stars however you think best and hot glue those suckers on. And Bam! Fourth of July wreath!

You can hang it however you want with ribbon or dangling down. I just glued a strip of ribbon across the back that my hanger can slide into so that a ribbon wouldn't get in the way of the yarn or detract from it in any way.

To also help me get into the Fourth of July spirit I found this adorable printable (HERE) and put it in a white frame I have out for the seasons. Then I made some cute sugar cookies and called it good. The sugar cookies were inspired by this blog (HERE) and I made them using this cookie genius - Sweet Sugar Belle. Her cookie blog is awesome.

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!! GO AMERICA!!

The Greatest Thing Ever Happened

That's quite the auspicious title isn't it.... but so true!!!

Saturday afternoon, after the retreat (which was awesome by the way - I'll post on it later...) I was at home with my husband when I mentioned something that one of my cousins had told me.....there was a new Russian store that opened in Draper, Utah.

This is epic.

Seriously.

While Portland, OR has a nice Russian population, and therefore grocery stores to support that, Utah is a bit lacking. The one we did find in Salt Lake kinda stunk. We couldn't get bread, pelmeni, chocolates, tea, really anything. So we hopped in the car, and decided to immediately check out the new store in Draper.

428 E 12300 S Draper, UT 84020-9503 US

This place is AWESOME!!! They have tea (chai), chocolates, bread, kielbasa, cookies, cheese, just so many good things! I'll admit - Lance and I went a little bit overboard. We were like two kids in a chocolate factory (which incidentally we've been to the Russian chocolate factory - twice). If we saw it was remotely close to something we remembered, then we bought it. If it was shiny... we bought it. We got a little carried away, but it was just so exciting. Finally! A Russian store that carries Russian food that we actually like and would definitely get.

We picked up some pelmeni  - which is a Russian meat filled pasta that Lance is an EXPERT at cooking. Of course some chocolates, cheese, kielbasa, mayonnaise, kinder eggs, and the best chamomile tea in the world. So so so happy about this.....



We're going back on Wednesday.... :)



Juice > Chocolate Milk

Ok, now I know that chocolate is a serious contender in quenching my thirst, but nowadays, juice is number one. While I still love love regular milk and water, sometime juice is simply.... divine.

And thanks to some good friends, we have found the best American juice out there. Now, I say American, because Russian juice is so so so good. Just imagine a nice box of juice that is more puree than watered down and sugar filled - basically just pure delicious juice. And what will really blow your brain is strawberry juice. Yes, it exists, and yes, it is wonderful! There were months when all I wanted to have in Russia was bread, cheese and strawberry juice. Not the best staple, but certainly the tastiest.



And when i came back from Russia, it was a mad search to try and find some sort of alternative - nothing too sugary, watered down, carbonated or what have you. Just plain straight up juice.

Introducing: Bolthouse Farms. Thick, fantastic, good for you juice. They have so many varieties, but right I'm having a love affair with Mango Lemonade. Now I know most of you have enjoyed flavored lemonades at restaurants and I'm not exception, but this is the real deal. Not just regular lemonade with flavored syrup squirted in. It's fantastic. It's..... well, you HAVE to try it. I won't be offended if you don't like it, but I just don't see how that is even possible.

Mango Lemonade - Nectar of the Gods, and my latest find.



Well, as always life gets a little crazy and I neglect to write all about it. It hasn't been overly busy, just lots to deal with.

I work at a jewelry store (they pay me to play with diamonds....not too shabby), and there have been lots of goings on there - sales, end of year (our fiscal year ends in March) sales, and of course, the big inventory of the year. Now, when I say inventory, I mean that we have to count EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF JEWELRY!!, and in a store that's a fairly good size, that means lots and lots to account for. It usually takes a couple of hours, and this year was no different. Now, I'm not saying that I hate inventory, because oddly, I really don't mind it, but it always seems to sneak up on me.... I know it coming.... then.... BAM!!! It's here. Catches me off guard when I am busying working with clients, helping out in the store and just doing my job in general.

Then of course is what I've been major focusing on for the past year - the retreat. I don't know if you know this, but I'm a board member on a non-profit charitable organization called Evergreen. It's been around for nine years now, and while I haven't sat on the board that long, its definitely a new experience for me. Sometimes its maddening how we have to keep going back and forth on issues and where we want to focus our efforts and where we want to contribute, but when I look at what we accomplish, I'm very proud to be a small part of it. We've given to the Christmas Box House, donated hygiene kits to various disaster relief aids, send doctors and medicine to Haiti, helped out with Hurricane Katrina, given blankets to the Huntsman Cancer Hospital, teddy bears to terminally ill children, and lots and lots of other things.

What I'm getting at, is that each year, we hold a retreat. It acts as a fundraising event for the foundation, as well as helping all the members (who are all the women in my extended family over the age of 14) to have a chance to get together. We have speakers, guests, crafts, humanitarian projects, good food, and of course insanely great company. My family is awesome - really wonderful inspiring women, who even though they are often older than me, there is a lot to learn from them.

And this year, it's my family's turn to host the retreat, get things organized and come up with a theme. We decided we wanted a kick-butt kind of retreat - the kind where we hope all the women leaving empowered and uplifted. So we're calling it "Women of Strength." oh, and the best part..... we're focusing on superheroes!! :) I'm so excited!! We are helping (hopefully) the ladies realize that they are already super heroes and need to stop living as their secret identities. I mean, Clark Kent is a great guy, but he's also kind of a dork, and then BAM!!! He's Superman - and way confident and well..... super. :) We have Bam! Pow! Whoosh! signs all over for decorations, and I've drawn a comic book cover to have on the notebooks we are providing for notes, and well, I just hope it goes off as well as we have planned. My husband says we've planned way too much, but that it's like when you are going to give a talk in church, or give a lesson - you always plan more than what you actually use.

Did I mention that it's this weekend? Well, it is..... hence the rush and running around to make sure we have done our very best to make it a memorable and uplifting weekend for all who can attend. Wish us luck! Maybe I'll post pictures afterwards..... :)

Anyway, just saying that's why I haven't been super good about keeping up with this, but I'll get better. I keep following all those cute blogs out there and hoping I get as good as you guys.

And by the way -  YOU ARE ALL SUPER HEROES!!! BAM! POW! ZOINKS! GADZOOKS! YOWEE!