Goodbye Sparkles

So, we actually saw "Breaking Dawn, pt. 2" last month, and here I am only just now writing it up. Oh, well. Annalee Newitz wrote a really good movie review over at io9.com (which made pretty much all of the points I had wanted to cover) so you may just want to read that instead.

SPOILER ALERT: Bella gets to be a vampire, FINALLY. It only took four movies' worth of moping and one killer pregnancy. And of course she is the sparkliest of them all.

Also, she has an Uncanny Valley super-baby with a stupid name and a built-in babysitter/bodyguard/boyfriend; how SUPER EFFICIENT and not at all creepy.

Then the evil Volturi get all huffy with the Cullens, and there's a pose-off which the Cullens and their Super-Friends totally win because of course they do.

Things that I liked: hey, Bunk from "The Wire" is in this movie! Just for one scene, but still: WENDELL PIERCE, y'all. Also, Lee Pace gets to wear guyliner and be a Sexy Rock Star Vamp, which I guess is good practice for being a Sexy Rock Star Elf in "The Hobbit" movies.

Things that provoked maximum hilarity: Jacob coming out (as a werewolf!) to Charlie, Bella's dad.

Things that I will miss about the "Twilight" saga: Charlie's moustache. THAT IS ALL.

The Sparkly Walk of Shame

Oh, the things I do for the sake of my girl K. Stew ...

... Yes, that's right; I saw "Breaking Dawn, pt. 1" on purpose. It is of vital importance that you do not do this alone or sober. There are four steps to surviving a Twilight movie:

Step 1: round up the Sparkle Posse. (thank you KTSL; I owe you big time.)
Step 2: go to Sweet Mother's Kitchen for margaritas and tacos; get good and toasted.
Step 3: go to multiplex; get all excited by trailer for "Mission Impossible 4", 'cause Simon Pegg! Jeremy Renner! then see dreadful movie; try not to heckle too loudly.
Step 4: go to Cha for sweet tea and to complain about dreadful movie; arrange to see pt. 2 this time next year. 'cause we're masochists like that.

Things that were good: K. Stew is pretty. Bella's dad. Bella's dad's moustache.
Things that were done well: genuinely disturbing CG effects to make Bella look anorexic as the DEMON BABY is sucking the life out of her; shout-out to director Bill Condon's "Gods and Monsters" ;-)
Things that provoked maximum hilarity: the wedding night scene; also known as "Twilight: Breaking Headboards". Bonus points to K for her well-timed heckling, er, advice: "One word ... Bondage!"

TL;DR: Twilight bad, Kristen pretty.

My recommendation: go and rent "Innocent Blood" with Anne Parillaud and Anthony LaPaglia; they know how to do it right.

Got My Hair Did

Have gone from Dirty Blonde to Soulless Ginger.† Pix to follow.

† Some of my best friends are ginger.

Updated Wednesday, 23 November, to add pix:

I like smells

I bought half a dozen perfume oils from Demeter Fragrance recently. I was inspired by reading Sadie's posts about perfume; also I've always wondered what their "Dirt" fragrance actually smells like. So this past week I've been wearing Dirt, Gingerbread, Laundromat, Pumpkin Pie, Russian Leather and Whiskey Tobacco.

Dirt is actually very subtle, at least on me. It does remind me of the scent of freshly-turned earth, and also of something else that I can't quite define.

Gingerbread and Pumpkin Pie smell as spicy and as sweet as you would expect. Me gusta.

Laundromat was a bit of a surprise. I was expecting something a bit more like washing powder, but on me this smells kind of coconutty, like sunscreen. That's not a bad thing at all, as I like the way it smells.

Whiskey Tobacco reminds me of a rich Xmas pudding. Definitely alcohol and cake, which are two of my favourite things (just look at my status updates for evidence of that).

Russian Leather was the real surprise here. On first application it really does smell like old furniture, which I like, but more of an old-wood than an old-leather smell. After it dried down though it was -- I don't know how to describe it -- rich, sweet, powdery? Anyway, it was something I definitely wanted to roll around in. And now I'm considering what to get for my next order, and thinking that if I combine this with "Paperback" then I will smell like a sexy library.

O Hai

This is a quick post as it's Friday night and I have beer; and also a cat on my lap. (Jayne says hai, everyone.)

I went to the Asia Gallery on Tuesday and bought 4 kimonos (2 long & 2 short) and 1 skirt. I took some fast & dirty pix of them this afternoon; as you can see Kaylee still sat on them even though they were still in the wrapper from the dry cleaners.

So, from the top: Kaylee sits on a dark chocolate brown, long kimono (1st & 2nd pix) -- you can see in the second pic that the kimono has cute round buttons on it.

The other long kimono (3rd pic) is dark red and has no sleeves attached -- it's a light gauzy material which I think is destined to be turned into a summer dress.

The 4th & 5th pix show the two Haori (short jackets) -- one is purple with black & white speckles and the other is green & yellow and kind of plaid (and check out that rich dark choc lining!).

I also bought a gauzy, long skirt in salmon pink which I think is a petticoat to wear under a kimono (pic 6).

And finally, pic 7 is a bonus picture of Jayne, who was quietly napping on the fleecy bed while all this was going on.

My Cat Likes Kimonos

I bought another bundle of kimonos. Let's see how long it takes for the cat to show up ...

Sparkly silver haori (kimono jacket) --

Lining of sparkly jacket --

Stripey charcoal/grey kimono --

A wild Kaylee appears! --

Sitting on a light blue kimono --

Close-up of light blue kimono sleeve --

Pink & Blue patterned kimono --

Reverse side of Pink & Blue kimono --

Red & Black swirly patterned kimono --

Kaylee says "this is mine now" --

She spent a happy afternoon there, watching the tuis swooping around in the kowhai trees out in the back yard.

Tui (bird)

Kowhai

Random Spring Post

Yes, it's spring here, random hailstorms notwithstanding.

Photo by nzff -- view original here

Thankfully I was indoors (at the hairdressers) when this happened.