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.

Shallow Reviews from the Film Festival

Space Battleship Yamato

it's the year 2199, and the Earth is under attack! and the space battleship, Yamato, is our only hope! so it's sent on an epic voyage across the universe to save the Earth. and there are epic space battles. it's epic! and filled with drama and romance and thrilling heroics. also, the hero has awesome hair. and there's a ship's cat! and the Yamato looks kind of like a shark. in space! check it out:

Drive

hey girl, this is that movie where Ryan Gosling is a total badass. and a very good neighbour. he's a stunt driver by day and a getaway driver by night. and he helps out the cute girl next door when her husband's in a fix. and when things go wrong he goes all angel of vengeance on the bad guys. it's directed by the guy who did Bronson. so there's some ultraviolence. you should know that going in, so you can cover your eyes when that happens. it's a good movie though.

Random August Post

The film festival is on (29 July - 14 August) and I've booked tickets for "Space Battleship Yamato" (2 August) and "Drive" (14 August) so there may well be a Film Review in this blog's future.

I've also got a stack of books from the library - have finished "The Forest of Hands and Teeth" by Carrie Ryan, and am currently a third of the way into "The Golden Compass" by Philip Pullman. If I ever finish the stack (which includes Seanan McGuire, Gail Carriger and another Carrie Ryan) then there just might be a Book Review also.

And there is a review pending for un petit film I watched the other day (rented from Aro Video) called "12 and Holding" but I've asked some friends of mine to watch it as well, and give me their take on it first. (For those of you who were reading my Shallow Reviews over on Facebook ... yeah, I'm sorry about that. I just could not find a way to write a shallow review on "Bronson" and "Stuart - a life backwards" ... they're kind of heavy films.)

Oh, and this here's a picture for Liz and Miriam:

You're welcome.

Miss Kaylee Presents... more kimono madness!

I bought a second bundle of kimonos from madeinnippon, plus a lovely vintage half kimono (Haori). Once again, Kaylee-cat helped me take the pictures:

Isn't she adorable?

As a result I took close-up pix of the fabric to show you all the patterns, rather than full-length kimono pix. (I think I take better pix this way, actually.) This is a close-up of the one on which Kaylee is sitting:

There's also a Pale Green kimono:

And a Striped kimono, which I think may be Silk:

Also a man's Haori (kimono jacket) in Brown & Red:

And a lovely Red & White patterned lady's kimono:

This is the lovely Pink lady's Haori which I also bought:

And finally, the pretty kitty poses on a dark blue kimono (which was free with the Pink Haori, and that I think will be given to my sister to use in a quilt):

Kimono Madness Reigns!

5 kimonos for $50 (total; includes shipping) from madeinnippon on trademe. There are two haori (short kimono jackets) and three long kimonos. Kaylee-cat helped with the photos. There are also two bonus pix of Kaylee on her sheepskin, due to undeniable fuzzy cuteness.

What I scored at the clothing swap

1 purple skirt, made of felt -- it's muppetastic! I love it:

1 black & white striped shirt, with cute detailing/tailoring:

I know, I know, I take awful photos. The clothes are cute; you'll just have to take my word for it.

The Five-Dollar Kimono

No, really. There's a little place tucked away in the eastern suburbs called the Asia Gallery (23 Bay Road, Kilbirnie, Wellington) that has a table stacked high with vintage kimono for five dollars each. (The Dreamstress has done an excellent review over at her blog; check it out.)

I have to set myself a five-dollar limit every time I go there and dive into the stack; "you're only allowed to buy one" I tell myself.

Yeah, so the last time I was there I bought two. Still, that's a pair of kimono for ten dollars. Awesome.