Like Vintage and Free? Go here!

My bloggy-buddy Carolyn pointed me in the direction of one of the most fantastic blogs,



Seriously, if you like getting crafty, or just looking at awesome vintage pics, check it out. There are more free, vintage cliparts than you can shake a stick at! I'm lusting after enough free time to decoupage a box with vintage images...one day!!

Um, Edward who?

My husband watched Twilight with me last night.

I'm neck-deep in love/lust with him right now.

Find out why over here ---> ;)

Also, I'm feeling super excited about life for some reason, it's literally brimming over and I had to put a little bit of it down here so I wouldn't explode. Just sayin'. :)

Took The Camera-Finally!

So when we went for a walk yesterday in the gorgeous, almost too warm, weather, I actually remembered to grab the camera on the way out the door! Yay Ali!

Not to go off on too much of a tangent, but having kids seriously screws your memory capabilities. I was once famous for my detailed memory skills- it's one of the reasons I was such an awesome cocktail waitress...I never wrote anything down, not for a party of ten with all different meals and drinks. I just didn't need to. And I took it for granted. But after having kids, a large portion of my brain is constantly taken up with thoughts about them...even when I'm not consciously thinking about them. They've simply taken up a permanent spot in my brain which leaves it capable of nothing else. So now I write down all my orders, and still sometimes forget something, which drives me crazy to no end!!!

So back to the story, I finally remembered the camera, probably because it was right in front of me as I was walking out the door. So let me share some pictures with y'all! :D

This is the road I'm always going on about, that's cut into the mountain. My camera doesn't do it justice at all (I've got the oldest, still-functioning digital camera in the universe), but you can get the general idea I think.

As I was walking I was taking them (there's no stopping and setting it up with two kids who are ready to roll), so they may be blurry. This is at the top of the road-





















And about halfway down-





















And you can see the way it turns to the left down there
at the bottom-





















Onto this little road, which I'm in love with and want to live on-




















We always come on on this pond on the right-




















And Chloe starts yelling "DUH!" which is "duck", even though
we've never seen ducks on it-




















And Colin and I rush to turn around to see our favorite place-



































The little boy fishing was just so Norman Rockwell, I loved it-
The pipe he's sitting on is where that lake with no ducks across the street drains out of. All over the mountain there's drains like this, keeping the water in little pools and streams as it runs down the mountain.-
































And another view, because I adore it-
































I wish the brush wasn't on the left there, but I also kind of
like how it's all green on one side,
and gray-brown on the other-


















Then it's time to head back-
































And then my favorite time-naptime!

This Kid is FANTASTIC!

Makeup artist extraordinaire Amy Chance had this link up on Twitter, and I am SO glad I checked it out! Because this kid, Arlo, is the most fantastic dresser I've seen...especially since he's ONLY 5 YEARS OLD! And he dresses himself no less. Check it out here, and make sure you check out the slideshow link, it's awesome.

You gotta admit, this kid's got style! ;)

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood!

The weather today is PERFECT. It is GORGEOUS, FANTASTIC, and also AMAZING. Sunny, warm, with the perfect breeze to keep it from being hot. I am in love with today! And after the past few days (weeks, months...) of freezing cold, I was as ready as the kids to get out and play!

Ryan went to get groceries, and took Chloe with him (yay!), so Colin and I went for a walk around the area again. And while I'm generally extremely (overly) thorough with my stories, trying to leave no details behind, I've realized that today's walk would make for a very boring story. Play-by-play just doesn't quite capture the magic, so here's the highlights instead. :)

*Colin picked up two handfuls of dirt and threw them into the air above his head, scattering dirt all over him. The dirt here is so chock full of mica, that pretty reflective stuff you see in roads, that it litterally looks like someone poured diamonds all over the ground. With the sun hitting him, Colin looked like he was surrounded by a cloud of pixie dust, or a ton of silver Christmas glitter. It was beautiful, and he was so happy it was raining sparklies on him that I just let him do it, with a smile on my face.

*Colin adores watching water in it's various forms as much as I do. When Chloe is with us, it's go go go, but today, we spent 10 minutes holding hands by the side of the road, listening to the water running down the mountain, rushing over rocks and leaves and sticks. We threw the biggest sticks we could find into the pool and watched them float down the stream until we couldn't see them any more. We threw rocks and laughed together at the kerplunking sounds they made.

*A tiny little terrier puppy ran out of a yard we past and followed us for the rest of our long walk. When we passed his house on our way home, he stayed with us, running alongside Colin, or chasing him, or being chased by him.

I am in love with today, with the weather, with the world, and everyone and everything in/on it. Days like today are what I live for.
As close to perfection as I think we can get this side of heaven. I drive past this on my way to work. It's the wrong season (I took this from a local realty website) but still...gorgeous!

Completely Pointless. And Sexy.

I got sucked into Twitter for a good solid half hour earlier today, time which was already dedicated to putting away some portion of the laundry mountain threatening to take over the bed. As I'm sitting here now, I can see in the mirror the laundry mountain behind me. I'm ignoring it in the hopes that it will eventually all either a.) fall to the floor, where I will put it away piece by piece over the next week, or b.) all get worn in the next few days so I don't have to put any of it away.

Anyways, once I was sucked into Twitter, there was no escape. So many funny/silly/smart tweets to read! And the thing I love about it is that it's a quick and dirty form of communication. Not dirty/perverted, but in the sense that, since there is a limit to the number of characters you can use for each mini-message, you have no space for flowery, rambling speeches. It's like distilled thoughts, only the necessary keywords needed to make what you're trying to say coherent. Or not. It's entertaining to read celebrity tweets which are purposely vague or misleading, and wondering what they really mean. And it's even better because (most of them) actually do their own tweets, so it's like a quick connection to a star...and who doesn't love that? While people like Obama have staff members upkeep their Twitter accounts, others like Ingrid Michaelson, Tina Fey, and Dane Cook are on regularly, and often reply to fan's queries.

It was Dane Cook's page I was on earlier when I saw a link to something that made my heart stop suddenly, and then beat furiously, sending my pulse flying along with it. I wanted to share it with you, but beware: you may experience trouble breathing during and after watching this. I did.

DON'T FORGET TO BREATHE!









So...

How do you feel?


Yes, I know. It's a trailer for the new Terminator movie, starring Christian Bale. Probably not quite what were you expecting, huh? =)
Christian Bale is like lust personified. Seriously. His face, his eyes, his VOICE, his unbelievable acting skills, his ability to do any accent in the world. (He's Welsh in real life, by the way. You'd never guess it from his movies, all of which have a different accent. Just a little trivia for you. No, I'm not obsessed.)

And aside from the fact that he is really, really, really ridiculously good looking, and a great actor, he chooses the best movie roles. I mean, I've never been a huge fan of Batman...or even a little fan. But I watched Batman Begins, and went from completely apathetic about it to watching it every time it came on TV. And then Dark Knight came out...and I don't have to say more. A+, times a billion. Seeing him play the snobbish, haughty, gorgeous Bruce Wayne next to the haunted, humble, gorgeous Batman just makes him doubly hotter.


And Terminator, while I enjoy it as a sort of classic, something that brings back fond memories of younger days more than any sense of really liking the movie, and I'll watch it on TV maybe once every 3 years or so, has never been anywhere close to my idea of a great film. But you add Christian Bale to that (along with a slew of awesomely talented people in charge of location, CGI, screenwriting, directing, ect.) and I cannot wait to see it.

But the one I'm really excited about is Public Enemies, which comes out this year. Let me just say, whoever the casting director was deserves a Nobel Peace Prize. Okay, maybe not a Nobel Prize, but something really awesome, like a chance to make out with Christian Bale......sorry, totally sidetracked myself. In case you're too lazy to click the link, or just don't realize what you're missing out on by not doing it, I'll give you a hint:

Christian Bale,
(yum yum yum

yum yum yum
yum yum yum
yum yum yum)











Johnny Depp,









Billy Crudup,
















Channing Tatum,





















Giovanni Ribisi,










David Wenham,






















Stephen Dorph,



















and

Rory Cochran

(from Empire Records!)


make up the male cast.



Um, can you say GORGEOUS?!?! I mean, how many good-looking guys can you squeeze into one movie?! And then, to cap it off, the female lead is played by





Marion Cotillard,


whom you may remember from her Oscar winning performance in La Vie En Rose, where she played the troubled and famous singer, Edith Piaf.








Also starring is Leelee Sobieski, whom I've always liked for her completely non-classical beauty, and her strangely piercing eyes, and her very quirky choice of movie roles.









and

Emilie de Rahvin,

who is best known for her character Claire Littleton on Lost, a show I've never seen before.











Also in it is Carey Mulligan,
who played Kitty Bennet in my all time favorite, Pride & Prejudice, and has a surprisingly large indie-credit list.










Needless to say, I'm excited to see this movie.

And now, some more completely gratuitous, and gorgeous, photos of Mr. Bale. And for all you out there who are going, "yeah, he's hot, but he's a jerk, didn't you hear him freak out on that guy not too long ago?", and the answer is yes, I did hear the entire thing. It only makes him hotter. ;) Trust me.