June SFS

I enjoyed the $0 last month so much that I was going to be good, not even take advantage of the bonus but then Krystal lets the gang know that she found Disney Kinkade kits at an amazing price, and would we like them. Well of course my response was "If there's a Lion King on, then hell yes!!!!" So there went my $0

Which means my spending for June is $15.11,

I thought since I had less hours at work this week I would get more stitching time, didn't really work out that way. Some company arrived, so I had to be social.  Also our town's main phone company is switching over to fiber optic so we had techs around switching out our internet, and then they had this deal to that if we switched to there TV service, we would get a free PVR for each TV.  as we didn't have any sort of PVR before, we jumped at the deal.  Also looks like we may get another free gift for bundling everything together.  more on that if it happens.

Three of the Safeway Grads

 And look!!!! Tardis Dress!!!!

Also Thursday was Grad for our town, and it's a longstanding tradition that all the grads get dressed in all their finery and get a group photo down at the lake.  So for around two hours all the pretty dresses are on display, and I love it. I love looking at the dresses, so I appointed myself official photographer of our store, and go take pics of all the stores graduates that I can find.  It's really just an excuse to go down without looking like a creepy person.




So Cindy did get some work done, also, after much thought I figured out how to make her more portable so now that I'm down to two projects I'll be able to get more done on her.

And since I finally finished everything else last week, I'm just getting ready to start this kit that my brother gave me for Christmas several years ago. There's a lot of half stitch in this, so it shouldn't take too long.

As for what I watched this week:

Robotech: The Macross Saga E17-25

Teen Wolf - E04-E01 The new season begins.

Random TableTop Episodes - Cause I was in the mood to rewatch them.

Tiger Eyes - From the Judy Blume book, that I read and read and read again, and this is a decent adaptation, makes me want to read it again, it’s been about 20 years since the last time.

The Dark Knight -  Despite Aaron Eckhart and the brilliant Heath Ledger, this is my least favorite of the three Nolan Batman movies. That’s not to say it’s not amazing, I just prefer the other two.

The Dark Knight Rises - Man, I forgot how good this one is.  This is the first time I’ve watched the trilogy at once, and wow is it amazing. But this one, this one rises above the others Bane was done perfectly. A movie is only as good as its villain, something that was proven in all three. Catwoman  was a bit superfluous  but still well done, and I love the nod to Nightwing, my all time favorite comic book character of any company. Nolan made the movies feel like the comics, it’s a hard thing to do without getting corny or over the top, He made the necessary changes to make it work as a film, without compromising the basic character of the people. I mean, Wow, just wow.

IHSW June, part 2

I was very late to the chat on Saturday, but still got in a good visit, stuff was discussed, but very little stitching done.  Then just as I'm going to bed Saturday night, I get an invitation to my brother's house for Sunday supper, seems his step-son's family is going to be there.  Well this is the nephew whose son that I'm stitching the tractor for. And I have the brief thought that if I stitch like mad after work, I may be able to finish it and give to them that night.  Nope. Didn't happen. Didn't even get the nap I wanted either.  However, one day late I did finish it. Now it will sit in the gift closet until they are back or my sister-in-law goes up to visit them. The kid is already a year old, a little longer won't hurt.

IHSW June

I love strawberries, but I really hate picking them. There isn't a point to this, I just needed to vent
The boss is away so YAY!!! more hours, unfortunately that also means less stitching, I won't even be able to join tomorrows hangout till late afternoon.
However, despite the less stitching time, I did manage to finish my little Springtime Bunny, I loved this pattern, she is so cute and now I want to get pretty fabric and stitch the other three, don't let me near Nordic Needle until the feeling passes.

I did get some done on the tractor and Cindy though, in fact I think I finished #762

 
And my stitching was stitched to
Merlin S04 E08-12

Robotech : The Macross Saga  E06-16

Game of Thrones S04 E09-10 Another brilliant season over, can’t wait for next year.

Back to Hannibal - The Return of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn - I love Tom
and Huck, they are some of my favorite books, which is why I tend to be disappointed in the movies. But this one is fun and takes place 15 years after the books, when newspaperman Huck and Lawyer Tom go back home to help Jim, who has been accused of murdering Becky Thatcher’s husband, it’s all fairly predictable, but also enjoyable.

Maleficent - The original Disney Sleeping Beauty is one of my all time favorite movies, at least in part because of how good a villain Maleficent is.  So I was both looking forward to and a bit wary of this movie, I didn’t want my childhood ruined  (no that’s not a melodramatic statement at all), but I very much wanted to see Angelina Jolie play this role. I’m not a huge fan of hers but she was perfect for the role. And I was happy with how it was done, different enough from the first to make it an independent movie, but with enough little nods to the original to make me happy.

Beyond the Edge - I’m not sure how to describe a Warren Miller movie unless you've seen them,  there are hoards of them and I watched all the yearly skiing ones form the late 80’s and all through the 90’s.  After that Warren turned the narration and writing over to his son and Bode Miller, while they still have amazing scenery, the main reason why this non-skier loves the movies, they are now lacking Warren’s dry wit and deadpan delivery.

Batman Begins - The best part of these last series of Batman movies is the absolutely perfect casting of Michael Caine as Alfred.

Back to Normal

This week was far less eventful than the last couple, it is nice to get back to the old routine. So a little more stitching got done on all three pieces. Next week the new boss is on vacation so yay more hours for me.
The tractor is coming along nicely, as is Cindy, here with just page 5 section since all I've really worked with is the very pale 762, but look close and you can see the progress


And Bunny is down to the flowers and then back stitch and there's a lot of it, but who knows, might get it done by next week

As for what I watched, I'm back to the normal amount, which is far more than it should be

Merlin s04 E02-07

Bird on a Wire - Remember what said about my thing for Mel Gibson?  This is one of my favorites, a nice well written, not over the top action movie. 

The Librarian: Quest For The Spear - There are three of these Librarian movies, that I quite honestly never

heard of before, but a series is been made from them starring a favorite actor of mine, so I thought I’d check them out.   What fun, I mean they are clearly a Raiders rip off, but that doesn’t mean they are not good.  Looking forward to the other two, and now can’t wait for the series.

X-Men: Days of Future Past.  The X-men movies have all been well done, but I have been a bit ambivalent about this one. But not enough to not see it.  The original Days of Future Past comic, was actually the very first comics I read (besides Archie), so I have very fond memories of it.  I knew the movie changed it beyond drastically, so I had to put my memories aside and just enjoy, which ended up to be fairly easy as it was a really good movie. 

The Normal Heart - This is a recent HBO movie.  I was wandering around on Tumblr and found a gif of

Mark Ruffalo and Matt Bohmer flirting, as I am a fan of both actors I looked up what it was from and found this  movie about the AIDS crisis.  I takes place in the early 80’s just as awareness is starting, it is wonderfully done and very sad. Not my usual thing to watch but well worth the watch

Robotech: The Macross Saga -  E1- 5 I can not tell you how happy I am that I own this now.  This wasn’t’ the first anime I watched but is has always been the best,.

Bring it On - It’s a dance movie, a sports movie and a rom/com, there’s no reason not to enjoy this silly piece of fluff.

Vancouver

I'll start by saying I didn't do any stitching this last week, first because I went wandering off to the city, and then when I got home, I worked one day and promptly got the stomach flu which led to me calling in sick for the first time in around 9 years, bad me. Even after the ickiness left, I still felt like a narcoleptic piece of lint and ever time I sat down I dozed off. I'm feeling great today, but as a result of the ick, no new stitching, so here's some old stitching instead.... the very first one I did, from a learn to craft kit, and somehow this taught me to stitch right to left, I don't know how, but it's too late to change that habit now.

Beware, the rest of this will be photo happy
But on to my awesome, awesome weekend. I took the long way to Vancouver, as my friend Aaron didn't get of work till 3:30, and I had plenty of time.  Some people like to drive for the speed, I on the other hand, love winding roads, also I found a trail I don't remember seeing before, so of course I had to take it, and it

Random waterfall, just because

led me to this wonderful old bridge. When I arrived at the coast I met up with Aaron, dumped my stuff at his place and then we went to Ikea and Metrotown (huge mall) to shop, didn't actually buy anything, but it was fun to look.





We spent the next day on what I'll call Aaron's "let me show you all the cool places I've found" tour. I bought a day pass for local transit and we spent the day wandering the city on foot, by bus and by skytrain.

 

We met up with his friend Nick for supper at Aaron's new favorite restaurant and then got more of a tour from Nick as he's lived there longer, it included the Olympic Torch which I've wanted to go to for four years.

Then they came up with the brilliant idea of renting a Mini Cooper for a couple hours and checking out some Supernatural shooting locations.  Nick doesn't understand our obsession with the show, but he was happy to drive..

Chuck Hughes

The next day was  Eat!Vancouver and Cirque du Soleil's Totem. We spent all day at the food show, mostly watching the Celebrity Stage which featured three well known Canadian chefs, Vikram Vij. an indian chef, Rob Feenie, a local Vancouver chef who was the first Canadian to win Iron Chef America.  And Chuck Hughes, who has had a couple different shows, They were all wonderful, but I lucked out with Chuck.  He made this amazing cake

that looked relatively simple to make and when I got his autograph I asked him about it, he tried to give me the recipe, but said he made it up just last night and wasn't sure what all the measurement were.  Well the way the stage works, is the chef will ask the audience a couple questions, and the two people that get them right, get to eat what they prepare.  Aaron wasn't going to Cirque with me, so he met up with some friends, and I stayed at the show a while longer as Cirque was just a short walk away.  I went back to Chucks second show where he made virtually the same three course meal as the first show.  But one of the questions asked had been mentioned in the first show.  I knew the answer so I got to eat, a raw scallop and

prawn with chili sauce appetizer, a main meal of sable fish, potato salad and caviar, and for dessert HE MADE THE CAKE AGAIN, and I got to eat it, it was amazing, even better than I thought it would be.
Then I went onto Cirque, and it was amazing, as they always are, if you ever get a chance, go see them. It doesn't matter which show, they are all awesome.

I came home the next day, took the short route this time, about 5 hours if you don't stop and wander, which of course I always do.  I had to stop at the Othello tunnels, a pathway along an abandoned railway that leads into the amazing Coquihalla canyon.

As for what I watched, this was mainly before I left

The West Wing S07 E19-23 - All finished, it had a great ending too. Not sure what series I’ll start next, torn between Robotech and  a rewatch of Veronica Mars now that it has a decent ending due to the new movie


Merlin S03 E09- S04 E02 Ohhh Morgana is getting deliciously evil.

Brenda Starr - This is a thoroughly  ridiculous  movie, I love it, of course have a suave Timothy Dalton in it doesn't hurt.

Godzilla - When visiting a friend in the city you have to go to a movie right? And for me that means a disaster movie. This was a fun one, though the price of Vancouver theatres gave me a heart attack.