Dressing up

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Despite being way too busy, I did find time for some quick sewing this weekend. The lass has decided one really needs a “dress” (skirt or dress will both do) for dancing, and so I thought I’d increase our store of everyday finery. I copied the dress-pattern from Børnetøy du selv kan sy some time last year, and now was finally the time to try it out. The outer fabric is a piece of an old duvet cover that I got in a swap, it was juuust big enough, and it’s lined with new – but fairtrade – pale blue cotton. The buttons are thrifted, the bias tape from a stash I purchased on sale.

Dress

The skirt is made from four matching fat quarters I purchased this autumn intending them for a skirt. The pattern I made up as I went.

Skirt

Boil-in-bag – a bemused rant

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What exactly is so b****y convenient about boil-in-bag rice?

We received some samples recently and have been testing them, and the one advantage over un-bagged stuff we have found is that you can use the same pot to boil both rice and vegetables. I don’t think that makes up for the drawbacks, however.

Supposedly Good Thing # 1: It takes a shorter time to cook than conventional rice.
True, unless you normally use the fast-cook stuff, but honestly, I’m used to putting the rice on before starting anything else, and I’ve never perceived it as a problem that it takes “so long”. If I need something “instant” I use couscous. And with boil-in-bag there is the drawback relating to cooking time that I never remember to check the time when I throw the rice (or pasta, or anything else) into the boiling water, so I go by “feel” and check the rice (pasta, whatever) when I think it might be done. Question: How do you check the doneness of bag-encased rice?

Supposedly Good Thing # 2: Less washing up.
Bull. I don’t burn rice as a rule, so a pot is not particularly difficult to clean after boiling conventional rice. And I do wash the pot after boiling the boil-in-bag rice (normally we end up “decanting” the rice into the pot once it’s finished boiling anyway), do the producers imagine you wouldn’t feel the need to wash it?

Supposedly Good Thing # 3: Conveniently packaged.
Well, except it means you better fit with the producers’ idea of serving size, as boiling half a bag is rather difficult.

Also, despite the bags having so-called “cool corners” this doesn’t change the fact that you somehow have to handle, open and empty bags of steaming hot rice. I haven’t burnt my fingers yet, but I have gotten uncomfortably hot and cursed because I’ve dropped the bag.

Not to get me started on the excessive packaging thing, of course. The plasic bag ay not be that big in the great scheme of things, but they are still there. Or the fact that switching to non-fairtrade rice again after using fairtrade rice exclusively for at least six months is not really something we’d want to do anyway.

Those pesky bricks

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It’s a well-known fact that the only reason I thought having kids was a good idea was because it would give me an excuse to buy obscene amounts of Lego. So far I have actually managed to stick to Duplo, applying severe self-control. However, I suspect I’m getting to the point where I’ll abandon all pretences and start buying boxes of “real” lego simply because I want them. Then, when the lass is old enough, she may, if she’s really interested and really good, be allowed to play with them too. Maybe.

To start with, this is a must for the wish-list. I guess one needs to chose a main theme to collect, unless one has unlimited resources and the land to build one’s own Legoland, and “historic” sets definitely appeal to me the most, though there may be some Mindstorms in my future, too.

Set numbers 10182, 10185 and 10190 seem like a good place to start, actually. I think I’d like my own little town. Or steampunk! How great is this?

I guess it’s a matter of stocking up on bricks and getting to it.

Intellectual (?) fodder

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I spent the weekend alone, having sent the husband and the lass off to Hitra in order to get some peace and space to tidy/clean/organise at home to make the change from a crib to a “big bed” possible in the lass’ room. It was a busy weekend.

Saturday morning, however, I took some time out to visit an exhibition whose flyer has been on the fridge since I picked it up last June. Recycling the Looking Glass – Trash Art – Found Objects – I thought it was at Kunstindustrimuseet and went there first, however, it was at Trondhjems Kunstforening. To be honest, it was kind of disappointing. There were a couple of good pieces though. I liked this:

Vigdis Haugtrø & Johannes Franciscus de Gier - Triptyk (2008)

Which I think is by Vigdis Haugtrø & Johannes Franciscus de Gier  and called Triptyk, though the information sheet was only partly informational, so I might be wrong. There was also a video of leaf-cutter ants with pieces of paper with various international symbols interspersed with the leaves, which I’m pretty sure was Coexistence by Donna Conlon (and in fact, Google has just confirmed this – the portfolio page describing the video is here). Anyway, that was good, too.

After seeing the trash, I went back to the Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum to see their exhibit, which was a showcase of their acquisitions over the last two decades.

Just around 1989 when this sculpture by Chuck Wissinger was made, my brother was dinosaur mad. He would have loved it. I rather like it now.

Sculpture by Chuck Wissinger (1989)

The Tea Set by Ken Eastman fascinates me.

Tea Set by Ken Eastman (2006)

And I wouldn’t mind a full set of plates by Paul Scott.

Plate by Paul Scott (2008)

The latter, however,is the only piece which really comfortably fits the “decorative arts” tag for me. As Wikipedia says “some distinguish between decorative and fine art based on functionality” – I do. The plate, therefore, pleases me more. But I do like the tea set.

Square-eyed

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Or not.

How many of these best-picture Oscar nominated movies have you seen? Bold the ones you’ve seen, regardless of whether you saw them in the cinema, on TV/video, or on a plane years after they came out.

1980. Ordinary People, Coal Miner’s Daughter, The Elephant Man, Raging Bull, Tess

1981. Chariots of Fire, Reds, Atlantic City, On Golden Pond, Raiders of the Lost Ark

1982. Gandhi, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Missing, Tootsie, The Verdict

1983. Terms of Endearment, The Big Chill, The Dresser, The Right Stuff, Tender Mercies

1984. Amadeus, The Killing Fields, A Passage to India, Places in the Heart, A Soldier’s Story

1985. Out of Africa, The Color Purple, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Prizzi’s Honor, Witness

1986. Platoon, Children of a Lesser God, Hannah and Her Sisters, The Mission, A Room with a View

1987. The Last Emperor, Broadcast News, Fatal Attraction, Hope and Glory, Moonstruck

1988. Rain Man, The Accidental Tourist, Dangerous Liaisons, Mississippi Burning, Working Girl

1989. Driving Miss Daisy, Born on the Fourth of July, Dead Poets Society, Field of Dreams, My Left Foot

1990. Dances with Wolves, Awakenings, Ghost, The Godfather Part III

1991. The Silence of the Lambs, Beauty and the Beast, Bugsy, JFK, The Prince of Tides

1992. Unforgiven, The Crying Game, A Few Good Men, Howards End, Scent of a Woman

1993. Schindler’s List, The Fugitive, In the Name of the Father, The Piano, The Remains of the Day

1994. Forrest Gump, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Pulp Fiction, Quiz Show, The Shawshank Redemption

1995. Braveheart, Apollo 13, Babe, Il Postino (The Postman), Sense and Sensibility

1996. The English Patient, Fargo, Jerry Maguire, Secrets & Lies, Shine

1997. Titanic, As Good as It Gets, The Full Monty, Good Will Hunting, L.A. Confidential

1998. Shakespeare in Love, Elizabeth, Life Is Beautiful (La vita è bella), Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line

1999. American Beauty, The Cider House Rules, The Green Mile, The Insider, The Sixth Sense

2000. Gladiator, Chocolat, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Erin Brockovich, Traffic

2001. A Beautiful Mind, Gosford Park, In the Bedroom, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Moulin Rouge

2002. Chicago, Gangs of New York, The Hours, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Pianist

2003. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Lost in Translation, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Mystic River, Seabiscuit

2004. Million Dollar Baby, The Aviator, Finding Neverland, Ray, Sideways

2005. Crash, Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Good Night and Good Luck, Munich

2006. The Departed, Babel, Letters from Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine, The Queen

2007. No Country for Old Men, Atonement, Juno, Michael Clayton, There Will Be Blood

2008. Slumdog Millionaire, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Milk, The Reader

(Via)

So, uhm, not terribly surprising that I got the most hits in my years at Uni, perhaps. Also not so surprising that I seem to have stopped seeing any movies at all after 2003. I have seen some movies after 2003, obviously, even at the cinema, but I no longer get along to seeing even the ones I want to see, never mind the masses that people tell me I ought to see or that we end up randomly picking because it happens to show at the right time. And I don’t seem to find the time to sit down to watch a whole movie at home much these days, either. There’s always a book I’d rather read when I have time and energy to concentrate.