we did it!

we survived christmas!! not everything got done that i wanted done (but that involved tearing down a wall) but the dining room was set up nicely, there was way too much food for everyone (turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, shredded sweet potatoes with garlic and fresh sage, chestnuts braised in port, red peppers stuffed with fennel, and green beans), even if it was all a little overdone because someone didn't tell me three o'clock that our guests had confirmed that they would arrive at four (i had asked them to arrive at three for dinner at four), and then they didn't arrive till gone four-thirty anyway...

no matter! tg loved the gloves i knit him, baby siena's mum loved the hat and mittens i knit for her, everyone was suitably impressed by the shelves, and more importantly, our guests did all the dishes! and we have enough leftovers i won't have to cook for days.

and speaking of leftovers, i almost forgot the best part: when we were little, we used to always have a sara lee frozen pecan coffee cake on christmas morning. after going without for decades, a bought one maybe five years ago, and... it was foul. it tasted like aluminum with a sprinkling of vanillin and msg. so after failing to google anything that looked right to me, i freestyled a recipe and was extremely pleasantly surprised with the results - not least because i have had no success with yeast-raised things in years, not counting the nyt no-knead bread. so i was thrilled that it rose at all, more thrilled with how puffy and light and moist it was, and also thrilled with the taste (the proof of the pudding being in the eating).



so here is my recipe:

christmas morning pecan coffee cake

dough:
1/2 cup warm water
3/4 tsp white sugar
1/4 oz yeast (one package)
2 1/4 cups flour
1/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, melted

topping:
2 tbs soft butter
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup pecan halves
2 tbs flour
milk for brushing

frosting:

2 tbs soft butter
1/2 cup icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 TBS milk

dissolve sugar in warm water in a bowl. sprinkle yeast over and allow to sponge (about 10 minutes).

combine flour and sugar in a large bowl. make a well in the centre. pour in yeast mixture.

beat egg together with milk and pour it into the flour as well. stir together, add melted butter, and stir until well combined. cover with greased waxed paper (or a butter wrapper) and set in a warm place to double in bulk (about two hours).

meanwhile, make topping by creaming together the butter and sugar. put 3/4 cup of pecans (save the rest for decoration) in a food processor with the flour and pulse until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs, then add to the bowl with the sugar and butter and mix together.

punch down the dough, dump out on a floured board, and knead for five minutes, until dough feels silky. add more flour if necessary, but it should be quite soft.

roll out into a circle about 1/4 inch thick and 16 or so inches in diameter. make 12 cuts from the outside edge about 1/2 of the way to the middle.



lift the dough gently into a greased and floured pie plate or quiche dish. sprinkle topping in the middle. take one of the twelve strips of dough, twist it once, fold it in towards the centre of the plate, and sprinkle with topping. repeat with remaining strips so they all overlap towards the centre. sprinkle with remaining topping and pecan halves. set in a warm place to rise until double (another two hours).

brush with milk and bake for 35 minutes at 350 F.

make frosting by creaming together the butter and sugar; stir in vanilla and milk. drizzle over coffee cake and serve hot or cold.

feeling guilty, or not

okay, so i was feelign kind of guilty that i haven't sent out all our christmas cards yet. about a third went out weeks ago, a dozen went out today, and the rest are still to be glued/signed. argh.

but then when i mailed today's lot, the mailboxes were so full they wouldn't close properly. really. i guess i'm not the only last-minuter.

so what's left to do before the 25 december rolls around?

i've knitted & felted the baby's stocking, but haven't lined or embroidered it yet. my own stocking doesn't even have my name on it. i dream of having a cute new dress and making pyjamas for the baby; we'll see. living room is sorted. dining room is a mess. tg's gloves are almost done (one finger to go!). there is some baking to do, and of course the cards. and ordering a turkey and making stuffing.

i need more time off!

yahoo!!

finito! well, i haven't done any painting obviously, and i do want to drive a few more nails for stability's sake, but other than that, voila!


please ignore the dusty footprints on the sofa... the world is my stepladder.


and note the artful placement of paint cans in hopes of flattening out one of the shelves that has a bit of a wow to it.


and now, i am going to finish off my bowl of leftover mincemeat, and sleep for as long as possible.

holiday madness day three - finished! or not!

five o'clock - time to tidy up & get baby. i've got all the shelves installed on one side (yay!) but not the other (boo!) fortunately the cutting & installing of shelves is the fun part. quick and easy. here's the done bit:


and here's the day's biggest time-user: the part where i had to shape the wood to fit around the crown moulding:


this old radio is completely non-functional (bought for $5, i intend to replace its innards with innards that function) but works great as a weight.

holiday madness day three - morning update

well of course i am massively behind schedule (i blame everyone else - home depot for their stupid truck, young marmaduke for soaking himself in juice which cost me about ninety minutes yesterday) - the original plan was one day building, one day painting, one day organising. instead it's three days building, painting postponed till january, and hopefully i will get some organising done at some point...

anyway this morning at breakfast i plotted out each and every step needed to finish the bookcase; there are fourteen steps, and i've got done one through seven. now, i am off to get a gouge (and some fresh air).

holiday madness day two

okay, taking a quick break as my hands are vibrating and ears are ringing due to a combination of scroll saw and circular saw, and i need a bit of fresh air before i get back to it... but i am feeling quite pleased with myself! the project is really starting to take shape:

the tricky bit is that each piece of wood needs to be precisely measured due to the general wonkiness of the house. but i'm quite proud of the job i did cutting the boards to fit around the moulding at the top of the window:



the paint's peeling on the woodwork around the window and you can see that it's a lovely dark wood underneath... part of me wants to strip it (and all of the rest of the woodwork around the windows and doors, and the baseboards) but that would take forever. sigh.

eta: the end effect is meant to be something like all of the bookcases in those gorgeous manhattan apartments that woody allen's characters inhabit... the only pic i could find (without wasting too much time is not ideal, but it will do (from hannah and her sisters )

holiday madness day one

this week, i have taken three days off work in order to get a crapload of stuff done before the holidays. mainly, our dining room needs to be "reclaimed" which means the stuff in there needs to move to the storage room which means the storage room needs emptying/organizing which means i am building bookcases in the living room. our living room is tiny, and our house is old and slightly wonky, so in addition to being less expensive that buying nice shelves, building them means they will fit properly. for example: the idea is to have shelves on either side of the window. but the window isn't exactly centred. it is kind-of-centrish, just centrist enough for you to think it should be symmetrical and for it to look stupid if the shelves are flush to the window on one side and there is a two-inch gap on the other. and then there is the levelness issue.

anyway i started today, day one, at home depot being disappointed by their stupid delivery costs and stupid rental truck (there is only one, first-come, first served, i.e. it is possible to buy a ton of lumber and find there is no truck to get it home with). so instead i headed to my neighbourhood hardware store/lumberyard, the oddly named new canadians, where a nice guy with cool glasses helped me with an endless selection of questions (do you have storm doors? magnetic paint? can you recommend a glass-cutter?)

delivery, however free and prompt, was not instantaneous, so i spent the rest of the morning & early afternoon doing christmas baking-type stuff: cooking the mincemeat, baking a cranberry loaf and chocolate-chip cookies with homemade candied orange peel, and trying to invent a recipe for strawberry bark.

so tg wasn't exactly thrilled when he came home to find a bunch of lumber in the hall and the living room a mess (i should have taken "before" pictures... sigh), but there has been productivity!

yes, prime minister

this short film seems strangely prescient all of a sudden... or else canadian politics is just massively repetitive.

crazy or just stupid?

the world's slowest knitter has just decided to cast on for a christmas gift on the first of december. am i kidding myself? probably. i foresee some furious lunch-hours and sore fingers.

is there anything more hateful in the world than frogging mohair?

nuff said.

holidays

ooh, what happened to me for the entire month of october. busy is what! work is mental busy, due to my beloved coworker leaving me for another job, boo. and, more mediaplayer madness, but now with the bugs all worked out i think? check out denis villeneuve's take on politics if you're not sick of the whole game yet: 120 seconds to get elected

in other news, as you may know, yesterday was hallowe'en. the wee one went on his first trick-or-treat ever, and had no clue what was going on (makes it so much easier for us to steal his candy). the house is now covered in bits of grey fluff, but it's so worth it:



the best bit is little red riding hood, stuffed in his tummy (you know the wolf devoured her in the original story, right?):



she is based on my felted kodama dolls pattern, and knitted out of leftovers. the wolf itself is a pattern i made based on one of his sleepers.

and now that that is over, another christmas is nearly at our throats - this year i am determined to send out cards or die trying. i made up a batch of forty of these tonight:



(no, i don't really know how to play the piano in the background... yet.)

in the original photo i traced, the little one was in the bath, i just added the christmas stuff in around him. the plan was to watch match point (another gratuitous film reference in order to justify calling this "filmcraft") while cutting out the pictures and glueing them on, but somehow our version is dubbed in spanish? something is very wrong with this picture...

gingies

mmm, ginger snaps... one of my favourite cookies. i make health-style ones for the baby, in the ongoing half-hearted effort to keep him from finding out about sugar. my mum got me some great alphabet cookie cutters, so i thought - perfect! a way to make him eat healthy stuff and learn something at the same time!

but yikes, just try getting the dough out of these suckers...


i had to coax each part of each letter out with a chopstick. ugh. i did one alphabet's worth (plus one extra "r") and then gave up...



... and made people instead!


health-style baby gingies

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup molasses
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups whole-wheat flour
1 tbs ginger
1 tsp mace
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbs baking powder

combine first four ingredients. sift dry ingredients together and add to wet ingredients to make a stiff dough. chill in fridge for half an hour. roll out to 1/4" thick, cut out whatever shapes cause you the least stress, and bake for 12 minutes at 350F.

smells good, sounds better

my final tiff movie excursion was with erin to the extremely awesome sounds like teen spirit: a popumentary. think about all of the things that make the annual eurovision song contest great - the costumes, the dance moves, the glorious cheese from the continent that brought us limburger, corvo, wensleydale, gruyere, and mimolette - and multiply those factors by a thousand for the goodness of junior eurovision - open to entrants aged ten to fifteen. these kids pour their hearts and souls into their music. twins with accordions! dancing sisters! some are shockingly professional, some are shockingly adult, but most are just kids, full of enthusiasm and hope. the film settles on four entrants - a band from belgium, soloists from georgia and cyprus, and a girl in a bulgarian band, with others making cameo appearances along the way. all of the glorious angst of teenhood is here, along with some really touching stories. it breaks your heart to watch basically an entire georgian village cluster around a fuzzy tv set cheering for their girl, especially knowing the recent troubles the country is going through. riveting, entertaining stuff.

so that's tiff. back in the real world, there is an arbour loaded with grapes that need harvesting; i brought a few in today.


and then an entire crate full.


so far i have made grape pie (!) and a lot of juice. let's see if i get jam made before the rest rot!

i love serbia

so here was a film i almost didn't see - almost didn't even look to see it was *about* due to my anti-bleakness sentiments - based on the title alone: tears for sale. probably about child trafficking or something equally horrible and dire. i get enough of that in the newspaper. but i checked the synopsis anyway, just to be sure.

and hm, it sounded interesting. and it was, it was!



visually arresting, engaging characters, compelling plot, completely bonkers. i loved it.

set in serbia roughly after the first world war, tears for sale takes place in a mountain village with only one man left - the others all went off to various wars, never to return. the local economy depends upon the vineyard, which the second last man, in trying to protect all the helpless women, sowed with landmines (you can guess how he met his end); during the harvest season, the remaining women draw straws to see who will attempt to enter the fields for reaping. there are a lot of funerals in this village, and our two heroines - orphaned sisters - work as professional mourners, offering a variety of services (sobbing, tearing of hair, face-scratching) for a fee. at the wake for a soon-to-be customer, she makes the girls promise to lose their virginity to the village's last man, a frail elderly fellow. he dies (although not necessarily in the way you'd expect), and the girls are sent away to find a new man for the village - not an easy task in the repeatedly war-torn serbia (and one of the brilliant things about this film is that it is anti-war in a completely non-didactic way - it is just a huge celebrations of life in all life's crazy exuberant grandiosity). tears for sale is a road-trip, a love story, a magic-realist experiment, and just plain awesome. i hope it gets distribution, it would be a shame if it got passed over for being too obscure or something.

the morning after

okay so yesterday was my first tiff film and i thought seeing a film at 9:30 pm and going to a clothing swap at 4 o'clock in the afternoon was a perfectly reasonable plan and would allow me to go home between to drop off my stuff.

ha. not when there was vinho verde involved.

anyway, last night's film, in keeping with my policy of going to see stuff that isn't likely to end up in wide release, was still walking by japan's hirokazu kore'eda. a drama that explores 24 hours in the life of a family that lost one member decades earlier, its gentle humour was a little more subtle than i was looking for, considering the content of my bloodstream. i think i would have enjoyed it more on a rainy sunday afternoon with a cup of tea. sad as it is to admit, i had enough to drink that i don't have much to say beyond that.

i can, however, say that when i get my swap loot (left with our charming hostess) i am keen on doing some recon, most especially using a black leather skirt in size huge - which the donor had also planned to use for sewing projects, before eventually admitting to herself that it just wasn't happening.

i also got a top back that i had passed on at a swap a couple of years ago - when i was getting bigger and it didn't fit right - but now that i am smaller than before post-baby, i am thinking it could be quite cute.

oof

the film festival has officially begun for me: i ate about ten thousand pastries today at brunch. got to chat with lots of people i like (karen hines, the makers of cattle call and pat's first kiss, shane smith whom i met when i worked on wsff, etc. etc.) and drink several dozen cups of coffee which was extra-good as i fell asleep the night before remembering that i had polished off the very last bit of coffee that morning and there wasn't any left in the house.

after the brunch there was the traditional tiff dollarama field trip, at which i bought some crafty supplies, and a side trip to kitchen stuff plus, where i bought a much-needed mandolin for half price!

then after erin and i picked up our tickets, we found a set of tickets to the gala for the secret life of bees, a film which neither of us really cared to see. after a brief dither (use them? sell them?) we decided to track down headset lady, and just as we did, she was set upon by an anxious-looking woman who had dropped her tickets. she was extremely grateful to us, and i'm sure that karmic retribution will ensure that we win the lottery or something in return.

oh, wow.

i'm the last one to know as usual, but i just heard that the jim henson company is producing a film version of edward gorey's the doubtful guest, to be directed by brad peyton! so excited to see three favourite people (dead or alive) on one project! yay. here's a clip of some of brad's earlier work to give you a taste.

in other news, i finally got around to installing the zipper in the boy's blue jay cardie, but it is still too hot here for him to wear. if it doesn't get really cold really soon, i'll have to put it straight into storage for the grandchildren.

also, tiff is just starting! whee. i won't likely get to do much with the bambino around, but i am brunching with filmmakers tomorrow, so that's some free food at least. i was offered a ticket to see the women, but like everyone else in the office, i turned it down.

whee!

i know, what has this got to do with movies? shut up. i promise to not make this blog all babies all the time forever and ever, but meanwhile, look at the wee feller's new quilt and pillow:


of course, he can't have the pillow until he is in a big-boy bed, as he will use it to climb out of the crib (trust me, he will). but please notice how excellent the piping is.

hope springs eternal

maybe an extra round of blocking will help?

the promised photos

here it is, the latest almost-finished project, already too small:


is there any chance i can stretch it out a bit by blocking it?

help!!!

aaaaagh!

so no photos yet, but i did a quick try-on last night, and even though i measured the pieces against the baby as i went when i started this project a mere six weeks ago, to make sure it would be big enough... well, it looks like baby is going on a diet so it'll still fit when the weather cools down. grr.

finito!

i am using up the last precious minute of my lunch hour to annouce that the bluejay cardigan is finished, thanks to the miracle of ravelry yarn swaps! woo hoo! all that's left is sewing on the front zip, and running in the ends, which should only take about five months.

pics to come tonight!

where the heck have i been?

hmm, i had been doing pretty well for a while, but then life got in the way. a quick run-down of recent events:

- tg's dad arrived from africa
- tg left on canoe trip
- took baby to sil's house to see mil and fil
- fil invited himself over for dinner, implying that he had discussed it with tg although this was not so
- manic housecleaning
- baby got sick
- paediatrician prescribed steroids because he had fluid in his lungs :(
- moments before fil was due to arrive for dinner, tg returned from canoe trip with an injured foot
- follow-up paediatrician appointment
- manic packing for trip to the lake
- week of relaxation and crafting!!

so now i'm back, with (of course) a half-finished project in my bag - a roy rogers-style cowboy shirt! i'm embroidering the yoke and cuffs prior to putting it together, here are a few pics of what i've done so far:





also, there was much scrabble: some good, some bad, some just unfair. note lack of vowels:



then i got this:



... and finally, some vowels.



ugh.

help!

this past weekend i started and almost finished a cardigan for the baby - but ran out of yarn! and the yarn has been discontinued! so now i am faced with either unravelling the ribbing from the bottom up and reknitting it with stripes, using the saved bits of yarn to knit the collar, or (preferably) getting some patons classic merino in the "stone marl" colourway from someone's stash.

help! will trade anything!

brilliant.

someone posted a link to this chart of standard body measurements/sizing on ravelry - it is brilliant! whether you're trying to re-size a pattern you've made or are trying to fill in the blanks in a pattern you've found in a book, it has all the standard sizing measurements you need.

in other news, the in the mood for love sweater is done! i put a craptastic picture on ravelry and will post here as soon as i have a picture that is not embarrassing.

the sewing part

in the home stretch finally! i feel that i must get this one finished asap, for the good of toronto. we've had some really cold weather lately, and i know that as soon as this sweater is ready for me to wear, it will suddenly get too hot for it. so.
here it is with the elements laid out for sewing:

and here's a closer look at a finished bit, and how i've pinned down th i-cord - it's tricky to pin down without everything bunching up, so i've just put the pins through the sweater and not actually through the i-cord:

argh

so last night as i was leaving work, i kept feeling i was forgetting something. it wasn't until i was on the subway that i realised what it was - my knitting! bah.

so here i am at work, on my lunch break, thinking i can finish the endless in the mood for love sweater. i dig in, and discover there is no yarn needle (so i can't finish the blanket-stitch edging) and no regular thread (so i can't sew the finished flowers etc. on the body).

bah! will this never end? at least i am geting the centres for the flowers done...

every time i get close to finishing, things take a little longer

ok... flowers are done, leaves are done, i was ready to sew them on to the in the mood for love sweater and do some chain-stitch for the stems and whatnot, and then i thought - i-cord! so now i've just made a ton of i-cord for stems and swirls, all branching off in different directions and tapering at the ends, and finally all i have to do is sew it all down.

unless i think of another way to make this long-term project even more labour intensive.

frogs

woo hoo!

almost there! really!

i've been actually getting things done lately, believe it or not. totally inspired by ravelry i am almost done an argyle cardigan for young marmaduke (just in time for the warm weather!), and have found the long-ago in the mood for love sweater, blocked it, and begun the ornamentation phase! sooo excited.
of course, i have no idea what happened to the flowers i started knitting ages ago, or how i made them. so i've knit more, just making them up as i go along. i'll post the pattern later:

here's a sketch of what i'm trying to do, roughly:

whee!

ha!

after double-checking that yes, russell brand is indeed in forgetting sarah marshall (the film with the most annoying ad campaign ever, hence no linky), i noticed that he is also in a remake of st trinians! that started me thinking - if they are remaking that, then a carry on revival can't be far off. and yes, there is something in the works - although apparently they've been promising to start production since 2003.

but all that is beside the point. the exciting news is that this led me to discover the best discussion thread on the internet ever:

Why London will fail like Columbus
by matthew-reynolds2 (Wed Feb 13 2008 09:59:44)
Just see my review on Amazon.co.uk ( that you can vote on ) on the VHS of Carry On Columbus which states why the failure of the 1992 revival means that the 2008 endevour is also doomed . To avoid writing the same stuff again I just thought that I would direct people to my review of the Carry On Columbus VHS which I have written under the name Mr Carry On Fan . I have also written reviews of Carry On Dick , Carry On England , Carry On Behind and Carry On Emmanuelle as well as Carry On Laughing and Grace & Favour aka Are You Being Served Again . To save me writing it all over again I thought that I would just direct people to Amazon.co.uk where under the name Mr Carry On Fan I have written reviews of these films & TV shows . I hope that they are of interest .

I find Amazon.co.uk very useful as you can read other peoples reviews & vote them as part of deciding whether or not to make a purchase . It is very helpful indeed !

Re: Why London will fail like Columbus
by Kagey_B (Thu Mar 13 2008 06:16:51)
Please note, other online retailers are available.

Re: Why London will fail like Columbus
by WesJones-1 (Tue Mar 18 2008 12:12:36)
you could, of course, just simply copy and paste.

Re: Why London will fail like Columbus
by matthew-reynolds2 (Mon Mar 24 2008 10:03:05)
Good point ! I am still a learner when it comes to computers !

oh, internet, i love you so.

whee!

i am so excited. i have been wanting and wishing to find one of these, but hadn't actually looked for one or anything. imagine my delight to see them while waiting for my order to be filled at my beloved lee valley! now, there is nothing to stop me from heading over to the leather & sewing supply depot on my lunch and digging through their scrap bin... yay.

and speaking of the supply depot, here is a good list of similarly useful supplyers for all your crafting needs.

how come i've never seen this blog before?

this morning i came across the blog of gillian rode while looking for something else (instructions on how to wear an olena zylak shawl). she's a props maker among other things and has great shots of what goes on behind the scenes at the canadian opera company. which apparently has its own craft show in november and december! why didn't i know that?

ravelry!

okay, so i finally joined ravelry! it is kind of shaming to see how much yarn i have that i haven't done anything with. and i have only input a small portion of my stash. and that's not even counting fabric and lumber and seeds and everything else. bad, bad, bad.

but!

i am thinking maybe i can unload some things which have been hanging around unused for far too long.

that, or i can actually get to work and get some stuff made. this weekend i pulled out the recycled sari silk i got via a swap (i think? i can't remember even, it was so long ago... all i really remember is that i got it from an individual stash-addict as opposed to a store) and i'm close to half-done a little sweater. so there!

so near and yet so far...

for years i have this vague image in my mind of the ideal man: dashing, squinting into the distance, a lovably rascally look to his curling lip, arms folded across his chest as his scarf blows in the wind, pencil moustache...

moustache?

okay, i have to say i have no love for the stache. except, of course, on clark gable, the sexiest man ever to have lived. well, at least he's near the top of the list.



so when my lovably rascally baby boy started eating his hearing aids regularly, turning him into a dashing aviator seemed the obvious option!

but this would be no average balaclava helmet. this one would have special features for my little guy: mesh over the ears (no point in putting expensive hearing aids on a kid and then covering up the microphones), and a button at the back (out of reach!) to ensure that the hat could be snug enough that he can't take it off, but still put-on-able and get-off-able with a parent's help.

i thought about it how to begin, measured my guy's head, selected my yarn (kroy socks - wooly warm, durable, washable) and began. i should have thought more. the mesha was loosey goosey, the hat was all over the place. i frogged and began again. i got something that looked like it might work, but after a short time on an actual babyhead, got all stretched out of shape and was soon backwards, and the aids were getting chewed once again. then i frogged and ended up working on the wrong sized needles. more frogging.

finally, i thought i had it sorted. i switched to smaller needles for the mesh bits so they weren't so floppy. i ribbed around the hole where his face would go, to have a snug firm edge. finally, it was done! i put it on, and it was snug. really snug. but doable. and maybe it would stretch? or not. i have the perfect hat for a baby the size he was six months ago. yeehaw. so do i frog and start again? or say to hell with it and forget about it until the fall?

meanwhile, i did manage to keep it on his head for one little walk:




the matching mittens he's not so keen on.

almost there

well i can't seem to upload photos today on either of my blogger sites, grr. but, i am just about done something i have been working on for ages. i have knit and frogged and knit and frogged and knit and frogged and i seem to have finally worked the bugs out and am close to finished! it seems almost impossible with the amount of frogging i have been doing, and i can't offer any photographic evidence at the moment, but i swear it is true...

shameless plug

okay, i did take a moment today while the baby was napping to dig out some half-finished projects, so there will be some real filmcraft content posted here soon.

but for now, allow me to present jill murray, author of break on through, which is being published tomorrow! jill and i used to co-host a reading series in toronto, and we've read various versions of each other's unpublished novels, so i am extremely excited to read an actual published-by-a-big-publisher novel. amazon had better deliver tomorrow, or i will be pretty mad.

also, if you're in southern ontario, tune in tomorrow (that's tuesday 12 february) to cbc radio 1's here and now, where jill will be doing interviews. i nearly had a heart attack when i randomly heard the promo for it on the weekend.

go jill!

i met the walrus

one of the shorts we funded got nominated for an academy award! woo hoo! it's called i met the walrus and all the info is available here. it's screening at sundance this week, too. i sense a busy month coming up for bravo!fact...

the story behind the short is interesting - when he was just a kid (14 years old), jerry levitan talked his way into john lennon's hotel room to conduct an interview. that tape is the soundtrack for some gorgeous animation. huge congrats to jerry and director josh raskin for their awesome work!

(edit)

while i'm at it, here's the trailer:

a new year, a new start

well, looking at all of my posts so far, i realise two things:

1. my favourite title for posts is "whee"

2. i got nothing done once wee h came along

and so, in an effort to get myself in gear, i've decided the best inspiration to do more work is to give myself more work to do! so, i'mk going to redesign this blog, since it looks pretty dull. and since i'm too cheap to go pro with this site, filmcraft is moving to blogger. so - today a new url, and renovations to follow shortly!

2008 already?

well, i was planning for christmas 2007 (aka "the christmas of extreme poverty") to be the christmas of unfinished craft projects (i.e. finishing them and giving them as gifts), but a combination of thing - the unexpected moving, packing, unpacking, being unable to find things, mostly - meant that didn't happen. at least i have the sewing table put together! although at the moment it is just a repository for laundry waiting to be folded.

also, i am back at work, and that + babysitter pick-ups takes up a lot of time (no surprise there).

all of this blather to say there are no new crafts, and no new news, except for this irrelevant item: a year ago, i posted on my long-abandoned vox blog about a weird thing i saw at the florist. well, i randomly discovered what it is! it's a member of the nightshade family.