Design: Movie Night

My creative outlet has a new beneficiary and I could not be more excited! I am now officially the PR chair for the Officers' Spouses' Club (OSC) here at our current base. I loved this position so much at our last base and and I am so thankful the spot at this base opened up for me. I am just getting into the swing of things and will not have a whole lot to do until the end of summer since the club takes a break over the summer.

Knowing that I would be in this position and because I anticipate organizing more Alpha Omega Alumni Chapter events, I decided to purchase a Shutterstock subscription. Whenever I make invitations or fliers, I find so many cute images from Shutterstock. But to use them (without the annoying watermark) you have to buy them or have a monthly subscription. I was tired of being limited.

For my first OSC flier, I was asked to create something for the upcoming movie night. They have these once a month. I downloaded my first Shutterstock image. It was so hard to choose because they have thousands of images. I plan to use this template for each month's movie night but update it with the new movie. It will be quick and easy to edit and post.

Fonts used:
Broadway
Bodoni MT
Milasian Circa PERSONAL

My goal for the OSC PR position is to create some new "branding." We may be merging with the Enlisted Spouses' Club and a fresh look sounds like a good idea. Part of new branding is finding some go-to fonts. My newest addition and my pick for the new logo is Milasian Circa PERSONAL. I love finding new fonts!

A visit to Stars Hollow

Another reason I wanted to visit SoCal is to step into the world of Stars Hollow. I saw a post on Pinterest once that said "Visit Stars Hollow" and linked to the WB Studio Tour. I knew I had to go!

The Starbucks barista at the WB lot spelled my name right!

The WB Studio Tour is pretty cool and very informative. Our guide, Jose, was excellent and pointed out all the cool things about the studio lot. You can tell he loves movies and TV. Before coming on this tour I felt like I watched a lot of TV. That was not the feeling afterward.

Well, because they are in the midst of filming the Gilmore Girls revival for Netflix we were not able to see as much of Stars Hollow as I hoped. I was pleased with the small parts I did see--Luke's diner and Lorelei's house and car.

Just a small piece of Luke's Diner

This was the Pie Hole from Pushing Daisies at one point

Everything was Batman vs Superman theme for the new release

The prop house

I've never really watched Friends, but this photo op was a must.

Oscars are quite heavy!

We also went to Medieval Times! We had the blue knight. He ended up dying, but he lasted awhile. It was a fun show and good food!

You should try this...

Yesterday Charles and I had a little date day. We started with a late lunch at BJ's Brewhouse. Even though it is a chain, they have some really yummy food. I love their fried artichoke appetizer. We both had small deep dish pizzas. Delicious!

Then we saw the new movie, A Walk in the Woods. It is based on the Bill Bryson book with the same name. We both read that book and love Bill Bryson books. The movie was really good. Of course, it was not as good as the book. The movie made me wish I loved hiking. The scenery is so beautiful.

We ended our evening by visiting the much-hyped Parlor Ice Cream Puffs. The concept is a donut stuffed with ice cream and toppings. Genius! I had a glazed donut with cake batter ice cream and Nutella. It was amazing! The donut is somehow warm while the ice cream inside is cold and melty (in a good way).

Movie Review: The Grand Budapest Hotel

I have not shared my opinions on any movies I have watched lately. We still do the Netflix disc in the mail and have watched several movies lately. We also sometimes stream movies on Netflix, but we mostly stream TV shows. 

The last disc we received from Netflix was The Grand Budapest Hotel. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. It was definitely quirky and a little strange, so it is not for everyone. It reminded me a little of Pushing Daisies, one of my all-time favorite TV shows. People didn't really get that one either which is why it only lasted 2 seasons.

One of the things I liked about the movie (and Pushing Daisies, for that matter) was the intentional style of the set. The set was quirky to fit the movie, but was interesting to watch.

The characters were weird, but fascinating. They had a story to tell and it made you want to learn more about them. One of the characters had a distinctive birth mark on her face. I like details like that in movies. I appreciate when writers notice small, seemingly insignificant, features in a person.

Color Run

This past weekend Charles and I participated in the Color Run. I thought it would be a fun thing to do together. We spent the night in Sacramento so we would not have to get up at the crack of dawn to drive down to the race. The night before we saw Wish I Was Here with Zach Braff. It was a good movie! I recommend seeing it.

The next morning we woke up and got dressed in our white shirts. I wore my tutu from my Color Me Rad race in October.

Pre-race

It was a tough 3 miles for me because I haven't run in a while. Poor Charles just wanted to run and I am too slow for him. I don't think I got as colorful in this race as I did in the Color Me Rad, but there were more freebies afterwards. 

Movie review: Chef

A couple weeks ago Charles and I both had a day off on the same day. We decided to make a day of it. We had some lunch and saw a movie. He suggested Chef; I hadn't heard of it, but he said it looked good so that's what we chose.

It was such a good movie. I definitely recommend checking it out. It is about a restaurant chef who likes to be creative with his cooking. His restaurant is visited by a food critic and the restaurant owner convinces him to stick to the menu instead of trying something new for the critic. Well, the critic was not impressed with the food. What follows is funny and heartwarming. He ends up with a food truck and travels across the country with his son and sous chef. The ending is happy. It's just a feel-good movie.

Austenland: Review

A while ago, I saw a preview for the movie Austenland. I love Jane Austen books, especially Pride and Prejudice. When I realized it was a book, I decided to read the book and wait for the movie to come on Netflix. The book made for light and quick reading, but it was a cute story. It is such a short book that you could read it in a day or two.

Last week the movie came in the mail from Netflix and we finally got around to watching it on Saturday evening. From the very beginning I knew I wasn't going to like it. As with most movies based on books, they deviated quite a bit from the book.

The other thing about the movie that I did not like was they made it too cheesy and ridiculous. Some of the characters were just annoying in the movie. I do not remember them being that way in the book. Only one character from the book and movie were pretty dead on.

In summary, I suggest reading the book and skipping the movie.

Christmas Traditions

The holidays are full of traditions. I thought I would share a few of mine...

- Decorate... I don't know if this really counts as a tradition since most people do it. But you cannot have the Christmas holiday without decorations. Some of my favorite decorations are my two German houses. I grew up with these types of houses from when we lived in Germany. My mom's collection seemed to grow each time my Dad went to Germany on a business trip. Then a couple years ago when my brother-in-law lived in Germany, he gave me one of the houses. It was the best ever!

- Christmas breakfast... growing up it was either sticky buns or coffee cake. And then at some point we added quiche. When Charles and I got married, our Christmas breakfast tradition became chocolate french toast. Yum, yum, yum! And when we visit my in-laws, we enjoy waffles!

- Christmas pajamas... I don't remember when this started, but it was one year when I was a kid. We begged my parents every year to let us open a present on Christmas Eve. Thus the Christmas pajamas started. The nice thing about that is you have new pajamas to wear on Christmas morning.

My 2012 Christmas pajamas...I love the sheep!

- Christmas Eve service... I love the Christmas Eve service at my parents' church. The church is large and they have the traditional choir and orchestra. Normally that is not my cup of tea at church, but on Christmas Eve nothing is better. They always pass out candles that we light towards the end of the service. The lights in the sanctuary are turned down and everything is illuminated by the individual candles. It is kind of magical.

- Watching movies... we would usually get a movie for Christmas. After all the presents were opened and the wrapping paper mounds disposed of we sit around and watch one of the new movies we received. It's a nice way to spend time together on Christmas and enjoy your new presents.

I just love Christmas! There are so many fun traditions that families can have this time of year.

The Great Gatsby

I know that I read this book at some point during my years in school. However, for the life of me, I could not tell you what it was really about. Thankfully I can be slightly redeemed after seeing the latest movie version of the book.

This afternoon I got off work early and the local movie theater offers $5 tickets on Wednesdays. It seemed like the perfect opportunity. The theater was packed. I am really glad I got there about 15 minutes early. If not, I would have been stuck with a front row seat. I did sit next to some idiotic girls. One of the previews was for a movie based on the Shakespeare play Much Ado About Nothing. They were convinced that wasn't the name of one of his plays. I was sooooo close to leaning over and letting them know it actually is a play. Instead I just shook my head at their ignorance.

I found the movie enchanting. It was on the longer side with it being over two hours, but I never got antsy for the ending. The music was different, but worked. There was one song that plays throughout the movie; it is haunting. The song is called Young and Beautiful. It's such a beautiful song that I instantly had to download it when I got home.

It was definitely worth seeing in the theater. I don't know how true it is to the book, but it made me want to re-read it.

On a side note, it did make me think about how Leonardo DiCaprio is getting older. I don't even know how old  he is, but you can definitely tell he has aged in his recent movies.

Movie reviews

I've seen a few movies lately that I wanted to share with you.

Argo

We saw this movie while in Columbus a few weeks ago. It is based on the true story of some Americans that went into hiding in Iran during the Iranian Hostage Crisis. I do not know much about this period of history, so it was interesting to learn more. It was a great movie and very intense. I highly recommend seeing it in the theater.

Jeff Who Lives at Home

This was our most recent Netflix movie. I read about it when it was at a local theater that plays indie movies. It sounded interesting. The movie starts off with the main character (Marshall from How I Met Your Mother) talking about the movie Signs. That is one of my personal favorite movies, so that was a good start. It was about these two brothers and how their lives are not going how they want. They reconnect and somehow fix each other's lives. It was good. There is some drug use, lots of language and an awkward moment with their mom, but overall it was worth seeing.

Wreck-It Ralph

This movie just came out and we saw it yesterday afternoon (love matinee prices!). It was such a cute concept for a movie. It is somewhat similar to Toy Story; after the Arcade closes, the video game characters get to do their own thing. There were some lines in the movie that I didn't think were 100% appropriate for children, but Disney movies are never totally geared towards kids. And the movie really made me want to eat candy since a lot of the movie takes place in a game called Sugar Rush where everything is candy related. I recommend seeing this one, too!

Movie Review: Looper

On Friday, I took the day off from work to attend Charles' office get-together at Young's Dairy. Afterward, we decided to see the movie Looper. We hardly ever see a movie on opening weekend, but we went around 4pm and we got a free ticket from some reward points I have through work. There were like 10 other people in the theater with us.

Looper intrigued me because both Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Emily Blunt are in the movie. I think they are both good actors and have enjoyed their more recent movies. Plus, the description sounded interesting.

The movie is a little more violent than I was expecting. And it was a little sci-fi. But it was an captivating story. It takes place in 2044 (and according to the movie the world seems like a horrible place to be at that time). Time travel was invented 30 years from 2044 and is only available on the black market which the mob controls. The mob sends people back that they want killed. People called Loopers are given notice that someone is being sent back and they wait and shoot them immediately.

I won't go into too much detail more about the plot because I do recommend seeing it. The ending was good and not exactly what I was expecting.

Review: The Pacific

Our most recent Netflix viewing was The Pacific, a miniseries from HBO. We enjoyed Band of Brothers and this was a similar series. My favorite period of history to learn about is WWII era. Life seemed some black and white. Of course, life is never truly black and white.

The Pacific was good, but not as good as Band of Brothers. I found it a little difficult to get into the characters at first. They all look the same in uniform.

Charles made a good observation last night as we watched the last part. This series was much more psychological. It showed you more the emotional effects of war on the individuals. That is the hard thing to see about war--PTSD, disease, etc. Some parts were so heartbreaking.

If you enjoy WWII era and haven't seen The Pacific, I recommend it.

Blessings Monday

I haven't done one of these in a while. Mondays always seem so busy. I get to work and have to catch up on all the things I left on Friday and all the emails. And then when I come home or lunch or after work, I'm wiped out. I'll be ready for summer to be over so things can chill off for a while.

This Monday, I am thankful for Netflix. Whoever invented Netflix is amazing and a genius! I love not having to drive to Blockbuster and look through all the movies you don't want to see to find the one you're looking for. Netflix also offers a ton of options that are totally random. Most of those choices have been really bad or boring movies, but I like having the opportunity to watch something different. Every once in a while, you find a movie that is really good.

Plus, it's so awesome that we can watch our Online Queue through our PS3! Netflix has really solved my boredom issues. And since we don't have cable, it has allowed me to watch what I want without having to sit through commercials or scan hundreds of channels to find it.

Indoor camping...that I can handle

My husband enjoys camping. I've been camping once in college. My roommate freshmen year begged me to go with her. I reluctantly went and and enjoyed it about as much as I thought I would. But it was good that I experienced it and can say with certainty that I don't enjoy camping.

Charles was gone basically all day on Saturday and I thought it would be fun to surprise him by setting up the tent for indoor camping. We enjoyed hot dogs and s'mores while watching 127 Hours. That is the movie about the guy who cut his own arm off. It was the closest outdoorsy movie we have, I think. My husband was pretty impressed that I set all this up for him.

Here are some pictures of our indoor camping:

We made hot dogs and topped them with cheddar cheese and BBQ sauce. We had never tried that before and it turned out pretty good.

My mountain range (I didn't want to leave the desk exposed)

Of course we had to have s'mores. (I think that's why I didn't like my only camping experience...we did not have any s'mores!). For our campfire, I used some taper candles. Instead of Hershey bars, we used Reese's peanut butter cups. Much better! Like my tree in the background? I cut a paper grocery bag and made the best tree I could.

Gotta camp under some stars!

Movie Review

I've thought for months now that I should dedicate a post every once in a while to review my latest disc in my Netflix queue. To date, have I done that? No. Today, I am going to do just that!

Last night, Charles and I finally watched the disc that has been sitting around for a couple of days. Usually we're very on top of our Netflix watching because we have a very long queue. Last night's film was Everyone's Fine. Netflix thought we would give it 2.7 stars. I thought it was very good. I have to consult with Charles, but I would give it 4 stars (a movie has to be spectacular in every way to get a full 5 stars).

Basically it is about a man whose wife had passed away and she was the one who kept in touch with their 4 kids who were all grown up. He was preparing for them all to come visit, but at the last minute they each cancelled. He decided if they couldn't come visit him, he would surprise each of them with a visit. His first stop was NY to visit his son, the artist. However, his son was not home when he was there. Then we went to Chicago to visit his daughter, followed by Denver and Las Vegas. All the while, you can tell the kids are keeping a secret from him regarding what is really going on in their lives and what was going on with the first son.

The movie made me cry several times, which in my mind makes it a good movie. The ending was very sad, but the dad was able to become closer to his kids.

One scene that made me cry was after the dad had a bad experience with a homeless guy, he called his house so he could hear his late wife's voice on the answering machine. That's what helped him feel better.

I definitely recommend this movie if you want to watch a movie that will make you cry and appreciate your Dad.