That I Would Be Good

Feb 20, 2011

My last minute entry to PTI's Make It Monday! I have been working this week on submissions for a paper crafts call, hence the dark cell phone pic here.

Sex & the City 2

This is the chick flick follow up to my last movie selection.

I'm giving this one another Wow. But for completely different reasons...

Where do I even start with this ball of horrificness???

Okay, I was okay with everything until maybe an hour and a half in. I really was. Carrie and Big having problems, Charlotte worried about the young hot nanny, Samantha in menopause. Not exactly exciting stuff, but okay.

I was even okay with the totally weird and random trip to Abu Dhabi (or wherever they went). I was even okay with the even more random sighing of Aidan (that was a lot of evens). Mostly because John Corbett is so hot.

BUT. Then things took a turn for the worse. I don't want to give the ending of the movie away, but let's say things were so ridiculous and SO random, I cannot get past it. And I absolutely HATE when movies make American tourists into stereotypical American tourists. Not necessary!!!! And I just really felt the characters would not do the things they were doing.

Yeah, so...this one is a complete bust. Though I will watch it again because I actually purchased it at Target and I kinda feel obligated.

A reminder of the one redeeming quality of the movie:

Into the Wild

This is my most recent Netflix pick.

I think I added this to my queue when I got a hankering for some Oscar nominated, critically acclaimed, really good cinema. As opposed to my normal chick flicks and cheesefests.

All I can say about this movie is Wow. Emile Hirsch was amazing. Simply amazing. To basically carry a 120+ minute movie all by yourself?? Who beat him for the Oscar, cause they must have been galactically good. Okay, I just read that the movie basically got snubbed for any Oscars, which is categorically INSANE.

I knew Chris McCandless dies in the end of this movie, I think pretty much everyone knows that. But the whole journey leading UP to it, and just his life in general left me with this overall sad feeling. Like what must have been going on in his head to feel that he had to shun his parents, his family, his friends, and society THAT much. The only thing I can say is that it really seems like he was happy doing that though.

I believe much of Jon Krakauer's book was based on the actual journals of Chris McCandless, so I think the portrayal of his happiness with his choices is fairly accurate.

Just wow. What I'll take away from it is that everyone's dreams are important. And they're not all the same. And if your ideal life is to live in the Alaskan wilderness, then do it. Or at least give it a try!

Powerful stuff for me. Wow.

Happy Valentine's Day

Ray and I are not much for Valentine's Day, we never really have been. But I saw a cute idea on Becky Oehler's blog where she explained the story of how she and her husband met and got married. So I thought I would share as well.

Ray and I met in October 1996. I was a freshman at Immaculata College, living in DeChantal room 268. My next door neighbor (room 269) were two girls named Susan and Maribeth.

(side note - there were three rooms in a row of freshman music majors - me and Meredith, Susan and Maribeth, and Deanna and Stef. What is up with that housing dept?? Meredith and I were the only ones that graduated.)

Susan also lived in my hometown, about 30 miles away. She went to public school and a different church than me, so our paths had never crossed. So in October, two guy friends of Susan's were coming to Immaculata to hang out. Trust me when I say, there is zero to do at Immac. So we did what any teenage girls would want to do - we went to the mall. Maribeth and I wanted to get our ears pierced.

Ray was one of the guy friends that came with us. He walked in the dorm with a seatbelt around his waist. Outside of the car (obviously). I thought he was an idiot. Not funny at all. (I still don't think that was funny)
And things got worse as the night went on. He thought I was bitchy (I was) and I thought his jokes were stupid (some of them were). So that was that. I do remember I was wearing this gray fleece skirt that I loved. And I did get my ear pierced, thankyouverymuch.

Over Christmas break, Susan called me (remember, we lived in the same town) to go shoot some pool with her and some friends. Ray included. I don't know what happened, but I guess we started talking and somehow started getting along.

Sometime in January, he came out to Immac to see me - he was living at home with his parents while going to school - and our first official date was to see Romeo and Juliet - the Leonardo and Clair version - at the horrible movie theater near school. THen we went to Dennys. I know, so romantic.

And from pretty much that point on, we were together. Talking every day, together every weekend, etc etc etc.

Here's one of our very first photos together. We were on the Atlantic City boardwalk. We were both 19, so we couldn't go in the casinos!

We got engaged in November 1999. I don't remember the exact date but it was before Thanksgiving. I was student teaching at the time. Ray surprised me in my dorm room. I opened the door and he was there on his knee.

We moved in together in April 2001 and got married on April 20, 2002. So that means 9 years this spring.
Here we are on our first anniversary. Which was kind of not good because Ray's grandparents both passed away days (PopPop) and hours (Grandma) before this photo. ANd it was Easter Day.

We bought our first house in September 2006 and got our little Lab Bailey in December 2006. We'd love to add to our family, but it hasn't exactly been in the cards for us yet. But we'll see. No matter what, we have each other. We have been through thick and thin in our 15 years together. Sometimes all in the span of a few months! But every day I get to wake up with him is one I am thankful for.

I wish I had some more pics on this computer...We've been to seven countries together, we've been through friendships, jobs, homes, cars, bills, fights, and so many hugs and kisses. There's no one else I'd rather go through this life with!

PTI Color Challenge 2!

Another card, another cell phone photo!

This one uses Heather Nichols' combo of ripe avocado, spring rain, dark chocolate and kraft.

PTI Color Challenge

Once again PTI is doing their color challenge for their anniversary. And once again it's on a weeknight when I have very limited stamping time!!

Here is my take on Melissa Phillips combo of hibiscus burst, sweet blush, ripe avocado and spring moss.

PTI make it Mondays

We have had quite a day in the Hopkins house. The hot water heater broke last night. Ray replaced the elements but that didn't do the trick. So he heated water on the stove for my shower this morning. Then he realized the hw heater has a reset button in case it gets tripped. Yeah! Scalding hot water!! We were without for 23 hours. Safe to say I will not be going on a show like Survivor anytime soon.
In the midst of all that our computer had to be service by Dell. Which Ray had to take to work with him since they don't have evening service hours. So I'm posting for the PTI contest from my phone!
This card is for a friend that just got a job offer after over a year of searching! So excited for him. Thats why I tried to keep this manly. I definitely plan to use the sentiment collage idea again when I have some time! Thanks for the inspiration PTI!

Jan 11, 2011

I know this is a terrible photo, but I needed to get this card in the mail! This is for my friend Geoff's birthday on Thursday. Super simple, no embellishments in sight!

All PTI products.

PTI Tags

As part of the PTI anniversary, Nichole has given out a tag from each of the 2011 stamp designers. Unfortunately I don't have a ton of time to make cards today, but I managed to get one CAS card done!

Sorry for the super low aperture, I had to take this when it was already dark out and didn't have a ton of light to work with.

The Simply Chartreuse cardstock is stamped with the Hero Arts Fabric Background (loving that lately!). The round filigree thing is from Round and Round. The tag is by Heather Nichols.

THanks for visiting!

Favorite Papertrey Project

So February is Papertrey's anniversary month. Today's prize is HUGE!!!! To enter, you have to post your favorite project of the year.

So I started looking through my cards and photos to pick one to post.

Easier said than done. Much easier.

So here's a couple favorites:

Woodgrain Impression plate = LOVE

This has the Hero Arts Fabric Background behind vellum. Vellum, Signature greetings, glitter = YUM.
This all might technially be older than 2010 products, but it's still a newer project that I love.

Again, might be older products, but I just love this color combo and giant sentiments. Love it.

Thanks for looking! ANd thanks to PTI for the opportunity to win!