Alice Valentine

A busy week!

Last week was crazy. I had so much homework that I was up past 4AM multiple nights working on projects.

Movie Monday: Cold Mountain

 

Cold Mountain

This is a Shakespearean love story to be sure. A love only hatching is broken apart by war. Jude Law plays a southern soldier fighting for the confederacy while his Southern belle, played by Nicole Kidman waits back on Cold Mountain for his return. 

The visuals in this movie are what sets it apart from the crowd for me. It was nominated for an Oscar for best cinematography. It was nominated for seven Oscars in fact. There are many endearing sub stories as the movie jumps from place to place. Another highlight of the movie for me was Renee Zellweger's character. Her performance must be seen to be believed. Quirky, amusing and a little bit amazing.

 

Movie Monday: Grey Gardens

 

Grey Gardens

A couple of weeks ago Alice and I were at our local independent video store and she rented a new Drew Barrymore movie called Grey Gardens. When we went to pay the gentleman at the store asked us if we had seen the documentary. We hadn't so he gave it to us for free saying it was almost mandatory viewing. After seeing both movies I agree with him that they do add a lot of depth to each other. In retrospect I see what a phenomenal job the actresses did in the new film recreating the real life characters. Trust me, characters is the right word. Drew Barrymore will be nominated for an Oscar, I'm sure of it. The new film helps to put the documentary into context by giving you the family history before the snapshot of time that the documentary encompasses.

Both films are centered around the relationship between Jackie O's Aunt and cousin. Little Edie and big Edie as they are known. They were shut-ins living in a 26 bedroom estate in the Hampton's that the mother was left from a divorce. Neither of them earned an income. They lived off a small trust fund given to big Edie by her ex-husband. The trust eventually ran out and they had no means to support themselves. Big Edie refused to sell the estate and over the years it fell into disrepair. And by disrepair I mean they end up living in the one hospitable room while cats and raccoons take over the rest of the house and a tree grows through a wall upstairs.

Oh, and you are treated to some fantastic song and dance through out the two films. These women are a few eggs short of a dozen.

  

 

Puppies!

Jarod and I took Gizmo to the breeders house today for him to see his family and for us to see our one week old puppy!

I think the first one is Gizmo's mom. They have eight Boston's, not including the four new puppies, so it's hard to keep track of them all!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gizmo was having so much fun - but he was kind of scared and kept hiding near us.

 

 

 

We were so excited to see Gidget (I'm pretty sure that's the name we're going with). We will get to take her home nine weeks from today. She was born last Sunday, October 11.

PS: I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to go to the Dead Man's Bones concert next Saturday at the Venue in Vancouver, but they are sold out : ( If you have two tickets that are up for grabs please let me know!

The Vegan 100

1) Copy this list into your blog or social networking site profile, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out or italicize any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment on this post linking to your results.

The Vegan Hundred:

1. Molasses
2. Cactus/Nopales
3. Scrambled Tofu
4. Grilled Portobella Caps
5. Fresh Ground Horseradish
6. Sweet Potato Biscuits
7. Arepa
8. Vegan Coleslaw
9. Ginger Carrot Soup
10. Fiddlehead Ferns
11. Roasted Elephant Garlic
12. Umeboshi
13. Almond Butter Toast
14. Aloe Vera
15. H and H Bagel NYC
16. Slow Roasted Butternut Squash
17. White truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Freshly ground wasabi
20. Coconut Milk Ice Cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Orchard-fresh pressed apple cider
23. Organic California Mango (in season Sept-Oct only)
24. Quinoa
25. Papaya Smoothie
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet or Habañero pepper
27. Goji Berry Tea
28. Fennel
29. Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie
30. Radishes and Vegan Buttery Spread
31. Starfruit
32. Oven fresh Sourdough bread
33. Sangria made with premium fruit and juices
34. Sauerkraut
35. Acai Smoothie
36. Blue Foot Mushrooms
37. Vegan Cupcake from Babycakes nyc (But I will in January!)
38. Sweet Potatoes and Tempeh combo
39. Falafel
40. Spelt Crust Pizza
41. Salt and Pepper Oyster Mushrooms
42. Jicama Slaw
43. Pumpkin Edamame Ginger Dumplings
44. Hemp Milk
45. Rose Champagne
46. Fuyu
47. Raw Avocado-Coconut Soup
48. Tofu Pesto Sandwich
49. Apple-Lemon-Ginger-Cayenne fresh-pressed juice...with Extra Ginger
50. Grilled Seitan
51. Prickly pear
52. Fresh Pressed Almond Milk
53. Concord Grapes off the vine
54. Ramps
55. Coconut Water fresh from a young coconut
56. Organic Arugula
57. Vidalia Onion
58. Sampler of organic produce from Diamond Organics
59. Honeycrisp Apple
60. Poi
61. Vegan Campfire-toasted Smores
62. Grape seed Oil
63. Farm fresh-picked Peach
64. Freshly-made pita bread with freshly-made hummus
65. Chestnut Snack Packs
66. Fresh Guava
67. Mint Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
68. Raw Mallomar from One Lucky Duck, NYC
69. Fried plantains
70. Mache
71. Golden Beets
72. Barrel-Fresh Pickles
73. Liquid Smoke
74. Meyer Lemon
75. Veggie Paella
76. Vegan Lasagna
77. Kombucha
78. Homemade Soy Milk
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Lychee Bellini
81. Tempeh Bacon
82. Sprouted Grain Bread
83. Lemon Pepper Tempeh
84. Vanilla Bean
85. Watercress
86. Carrot you pulled out of the ground yourself
87. Vegan In-Season Fruit Pie
88. Flowers
89. Corn Chowder
90. High Quality Vegan Raw Chocolate
91. Yellow fuzz-free Kiwi
92. White Flesh Grapefruit
93. Harissa
94. Coconut Oil
95. Jackfruit
96. Homemade Risotto
97. Spirulina
98. Seedless 'Pixie' Tangerine
99. Gourmet Sorbet, not store bought
100. Fresh Plucked English Peas

48 out of 100 : (

Puppy Love

When Jarod and I got our Boston Terrier, Gizmo, we had planned on getting a female, but the litter only had two boys. We decided to go ahead and get him, but we agreed that we would get a female in the future.

Three years have passed now so I recently mentioned to Jarod our little agreement. He's not one to back out on promises, so we contacted the breeder to arrange a visit for Gizmo to meet his family and discuss getting a puppy in the future. 

It turns out that they just had a new litter last weekend with three girls, and one of them has half a white face. They are pretty sure that when she opens her eyes she will have a blue eye, just like Gizmo! They haven't had any dogs with blue eyes since Gizzy so it's a funny time for us to contact them.

If we want her we can have her! We're going to visit the breeder this Sunday and meet her, I am SO excited. We're planning on naming her Gidget :)

I will for sure bring my camera, so get ready for puppy pictures!

haircut and gizmo kisses.

Today I got a haircut! Nothing fancy, just a trim because I'm trying to grow it out really long, but I also got bangs!

Before

 

After

When I got home I tried taking some pictures with Gizmo but he wouldn't stop trying to kiss me!

In. Spired.

We had a guest speaker in class today who made me so freakin' excited about art.

Growing up I was always known as the artist. In elementary school I was always among the top artists in my class and I knew that when I grew up I wanted to be an "artist". Then I graduated from high school and took a two year diploma of Fine Arts at college. I discovered that there were lots of other people who had grown up being the artist, and suddenly I wasn't the best any more. Not only was I not the best but I found that my crafty style wasn't really being accepted by my instructors. Apparently "crafty" is a bad thing in fine art school. 

I got my diploma and had a variety of jobs (including working at a craft store, a chocolate shop, a scrapbook store, and a credit union) while I tried to figure out what to do with my life. That's when I discovered the Illustration and Design program that I am currently in online. I put together my portfolio (luckily I had lots of work because of my diploma of Fine Arts) and applied. There were more than 100 applicants and I was one of only 30 accepted that year for the three year program. That made me feel pretty kiss-ass. Until I started my first day and found that once again, there were a lot of people who are much better drawers/painters than me. I was a bit nervous to show my crafty style, but when I finally did I was surprised to find that this time my instructors actually liked it. I found that when I tried to do what everyone else was doing my work kind of sucked. When I followed my heart and picked up my scissors or needle and thread, I made some pretty cool stuff. 

In second year we were given computers and started learning how to use Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and more. We were told to focus on either design or illustration. I fell in love with typography and decided that after graduation I wanted to work for a design firm (since my illustration skills weren't really up to par with some of my classmates). I had a two month internship at a local design firm that has won numerous awards, and had a wonderful time. But my heart was missing something. It's not that I don't love design - I do. It's just that I don't really want to spend my life making ads for cheese companies.

Now that I am in my final year of school we are starting to put together our brand and portfolios. I have been having a really hard time trying to decide what I want to do when I graduate. A part of me would like to get a position at a design firm where I will get a steady pay cheque, be able to go on maternity leave, etc. Another (and much bigger) part of me wants to create beautiful works of art, create a line of greeting cards, show my work in galleries, make patterns for paper and fabric, and follow my heart. It's practical vs the unknown. Until today I was set on doing the practical.

The speaker we had today graduated from Harvard in Psychology. Then he decided he wanted to make art, so he did. He created beautiful works of art from paper and they were shown in galleries. He made GI Joes out of wood. He and his wife moved to New York and freelanced together. He designed collateral for a coffee shop and then was asked to do the interior design for it too. He created a paper city for a music video. He made a video for a fashion designer. He made a book. Then curated an artshow and made another book.

His presentation inspired me.
I love being inspired.

So what's my plan now? Well I don't really have one. I'm just going to start making whatever my heart tells me to make and see where it takes me.

Movie Monday: The Professional

The Professional

This film also goes by the name Leon. It stars Jean Reno, Gary Oldman and Natalie Portman in only her second film as a young girl. The movie takes place in New York and centers around an eccentric recuse named Leon, who happens to be a contract killer. 

He and Natalie Portman's character live in the same building and through a sequence of events he becomes responsible for her. The most interesting part of the movie surrounds their relationship. They make quite a pair. Garl Oldman also delivers an exceptional performance as a deeply disturbed crooked cop. 

This movie is a must see. 

Pretty Birdie

I am in love with an etsy shop. Stephanie Teague has created some spectacular designs in her shop, Pretty Birdie. My favourite part? She uses antique quilts and feedsacks in some of her dresses. Simply stunning.