At the movies

Since last spring (April or March) Le Boyfriend and I have been “members” of the movie theatre. The membership has changed our life; from going to the movies once in two months we enjoy movies on big screen now on a weekly basis. The last day of the Old Year (today) always is a good time to look back at the past twelve months and to learn something one way or another, right? This year's  lesson: my top 9 movies, one for each month that Le Boyfriend and I have been “movie members”.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty - Blue Jasmine - The Great Gatsby
Gravity - Dead Man Down - Prisoners
Malavita - The Iceman - Disconnect

Why they're the best? Let’s put it this way, there are a few things all the movies have in common: great acting. Other things that make them my favourites: great stories, realism (sometimes in spite of surrealistic features) and lovely, dreamy, nice, cool ... settings that make the movies true pieces of art.

P.S. Happy New Year!

 source pic. 2: cinenews.be & allocine.fr

Back Beauty

Christmas miracles do happen; I was there when it did earlier this week. The Delvaux Pin bag (this one) was not even involved. What happened instead? It was late at night on Christmas Day when another present (earlier that day and also the night before (Christmas Eve) I’d received a few gifts already) presented itself. Nothing miraculous so far, I know, but the tide is about to turn: when the wrapping paper got off a vintage Louis Vuitton Soho backpack came out. 

If you know that I’ve wished for this bag to be mine ever since I was fourteen years old I suppose you see why this happening felt like a Christmas miracle to me. What makes the bag even more special nowadays: this legendary Louis Vuitton design is out of production and the only way to get such a brown back(pack) beauty is second hand shopping. In other words: the bag is a true vintage item. Anyway, I can’t but try to give my "lifelong-dream" bag the best second life it could get.

P.S. Did you have a miraculous Christmas too?

Puzzle love

I L.O.V.E. and enjoy solving crosswords (i.e. trying to). Last weekend I discovered that instead of using a whole phrase to talk about this passion, it can be done in one word too: cruciverbalist. (Oxford definition: “someone who enjoys or is skilled at solving crosswords”.)

So let’s start over: I’m a cruciverbalist. In practice this means that every magazine, every newspaper and all other printed media items that go through my hands are screened for the famous word games. No matter how difficult they are, I give every puzzle a try. Please note that I say TRY because, you see, the thing is, even after all my practicing I’m still unable to complete most of the word puzzles correctly. (It’s like Oxford says: “... enjoys OR is skilled at solving ...”)

Anyway, you’re wondering why I’m telling you all this? First of all I made a Christmas-wall-word-puzzle, as a means of combining two passions of mine (Christmas and crosswords) in one “creation”. (It’s what you see in the picture above.) Second of all: in last weekend’s newspaper I read about the centenary of published crosswords. (The first is said to have appeared in The New York Times on 21.12.1913.) After some research on the internet I said to myself “why not bore my readers with funny facts like this?” In the end the blog has been all about Christmas lately so any other topic must look more appealing to you ... right?

P.S. Now I’m done with Christmas decorations blogging. I’ll get back to you about that later ... next year, somewhere mid October or begin November I guess.

sources general information: http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/2013/dec/20/100-years-crosswords-first-new-york

Collector's items

I’m a collector. Not of one thing in particular but of all beautiful, useful things. Le Boyfriend likes to make jokes about it and doesn’t get how treasures like shells from the beach or coloured autumn leaves from the park can ever come in handy at home. No need to say that he didn’t believe a word of what I said about the functionality of the gigantic pine cones that I found in France last summer.  

Being a collector of beautiful things I just knew these natural beauties would get a second life one day in the near future (i.e. when winter would be here, basically meaning now). How many jokes I’ve heard about it ever since, you don’t want to know. However, looking at the mantelpiece in the dining room at this very moment my roomie can’t but admit that I was right about reusing the pine cones. Thanks to pinterest for some handy tips I managed to make the garland that you see in the picture above. 

Rudolph and winter stars + brown paper bag

Stocking nice wrapping paper is something I do too, you know because it is very deco-recyclable too. Look at this (picture above): a paper-bag-wrapping-paper garland that I rigged up last week ... just to get Christmas in the air for real.

P.S. A true source of inspiration when getting your place Christmas proof is The inspired room. Plenty of DIY tips and tricks there.

Hibernation

From the verb hibernate, defined in the Oxford Dictionary as "spend the winter in a dormant state". Anyway, Elle B. is dreaming about it right now, hence the lack of real blogstuff.
The perfect sleepy winter would look like this:

funny cards @ www.twobadmice.com

P.S. Have a nice weekend!

Tree talk

What about a recycled Christmas tree? I thought, and I decided to give it a try. Apart from reusing last year’s golden decorations (ribbons and small Christmas bulbs) gift bags that I’ve assembled over the years are “on duty” too. Their second life consists of, well ... hanging in the X-mas tree.

the specials: angel & sheep

Let me explain to you the “gift bags”. Basically it comes down to this: I’m a huge fan of the French statement jewellery brand Reminiscence and over the years that I’ve been together with Le Boyfriend I’ve built a Reminiscence arsenal of my own (all gifts from him). The Rem-branded jewellery always comes in Tiffany Blue gift bags; having received like ... I lost count to be honest so let’s say countless Rem items I was stuck with a whole bunch of blue bags in a box somewhere in a cupboard. To make the blue beauties useful and to justify my “collecting” (I’m a keeper) to my roomie I decided to hang the bags in this year’s Christmas tree. So um ... not only will we have a golden New Year a blue Christmas is now assured too.

P.S. What do you think about the blue tree?

all pics by Elle basi

Time machine

This Christmas I will be travelling back in time, to the sixties. How this is possible? A simple dress will be my time machine, a Twiggy inspired one that is,  the one that I’ve been working on for the past few months.

At the moment the party outfit to be is at my parents’ because Super Mother is going to do the tricky parts (i.e. sewing the collar to the body and fixing the buttonholes). However, I will finish the dress once her job’s done (my task then: the bottom and side seam). 
What the work in progress looked like before I handed it over to the specialist:

P.S. Any idea what you will be wearing on Christmas? 

source pic. 1: sbeulah.onsugar.com