Thursday, February 28, 2013

Oh What a Beautiful Morning....

well...not outside...but here...on my blog...

I present to you and morning full of sunshine and beautiful things.












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I want to go to this beach. It is for real.











Are you smiling yet?


Lots of love!!!

Donna Elsie







Wednesday, February 27, 2013

A very lovely quote for another snowy day.

"For small creatures such as we
the vastness is bearable
only through love."
~Carl Sagan


Jep shared this quote with me.
Isn't it beautiful!



*****




The only thing I wanted to take pictures of yesterday was Katie.

Katie and the wind.


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The never ending snow and gray clouds are getting to me....
I do not feel inspired to shoot the outside at all.

But Katie girl and her vivid self cheers me up.


Wishing you a splash of color and abundant love!

Encourage one another,
Donna



Tuesday, February 26, 2013

DWTS: Season 16

Today the cast of Dancing with the Stars was revealed and I groaned thru the first nine names and
squealed with glee at the last two ladies.

So here we have the list and who will be partners;

Wynonna Judd with Tony D.
D.L. Hugley with Cheryl B.
Jacoby Jones with Karina S.
Lisa Vanderpump with new dancer Gleb Savchenko
Andy Dick with new dancer Sharna Burgess
Victor Ortiz with new dancer Lindsay Arnold
Zenday Coleman with Val C.
Aly Raisman with Mark B.
Ingo Rademache with Kym J.
Kellie Pickler and Derek Hough
Dorothy Hamill with Tristan MacManus


I, of course, love Dorothy Hamill.  I do not know how she will dance but I am very happy she is on the list.
Kellie Pickler is my second favorite star.  I have liked her since she was on American Idol.
She is very sweet and very ditzy.  She is dancing with Derek so.....maybe she will win!!

I know Wynonna and I think she will add COLOR to the show.  DL Hugley is a comedian and he will add laughs. Lisa Vanderpump will add cleavage....and Andy Dick will also add humor and maybe a little heart.  He tries to get it right...and fails over and over.  Wishing him well.

Everyone else I will have to look up to even see what they look like.

The show premiers on March 28th.

Go Dorothy!
Go Kellie!!





My Dorothy Hamill haircut. Circa 1978


I wonder if this International Student Idenity Card is instead of a Passport...or was needed with a Passport?
It was sooooooo long ago I can not remember.

Between Junior and Senior year at Hilldale College I went to Switzerland, Austria and Italy with a friend named Brenda.    We carried backpacks and stayed at Youth Hostels.  It was a fantastic trip!
She is from Ohio.  She lost touch almost immediately.  We did not argue or fight...I don't know what happened there.  One of those great mysteries in life.

But the reason I am showing you, as I am sure you have already guessed, is because of my Dorothy Hamill haircut.  I started getting it cut this way when I was at Stephens College in Missouri.  There was a very very good stylist who did a fantastic job.  I loved it.

I found a stylist in Ann Arbor Mich who did a nice job...so I was able to keep it up during my Hillsdale years.

After that....I started growing it out again.


And there you have 'The History of The Haircut.'



Wishing you good haircuts and modest darts,
Donna Elsie







Monday, February 25, 2013

The Academy Award Fashion Blog.

Good morning!

Oh! What a night!

Almost everyone was beautiful last night.  Really.

I am going to show you the dresses that stood out to me.
I am not going to show the worst dressed because I think everyone who watched knows who it was...and I just don't want to pick on her.

So here we go....

Source: popsugar.com via Donna on Pinterest



This is Adele on the red carpet. Once again I love her style.

Source: mirror.co.uk via Donna on Pinterest


Here she is singing Skyfall.
She even won an Oscar for best song.
Good for her.

Love this look too.

BTW.  She is 5'9".... nearly six foot tall with her shoes on....

She has a great advantage wearing clothes being that height.

Source: fabsugar.com via Donna on Pinterest


This is very pretty.
Octavia Spencer.  This pale color really looks nice on her...
It just dark enough.
She reminds me of cotton candy in this dress :o)


Source: fabsugar.com via Donna on Pinterest


Amy Adams wore my favorite Oscar de la Renta.  It is my favorite style, isn't it?
I liked this very much but felt it was washed out and would have preferred a darker color.

Source: fabsugar.com via Donna on Pinterest


I love this silhouette.
Congratulations Anne for winning best actress.
Again...the color is so barely pink...you almost can't tell it is pink.
I was not a big fan...but I want to show you anyway.


Source: fabsugar.com via Donna on Pinterest


This is Jennifer Lawrence.  Her dress is Dior.
It is a great dress.  Again I think it had some pink in there.

This dress however made Jennifer trip and fall on the steps as she went up to get her award.
Poor honey.
She recovered well and well she should have as she is Hollywoods darling for some strange reason and she beat out fantastic actresses for playing a dopey easy role.
I'm still bitter.


Source: fabsugar.com via Donna on Pinterest


Oh my goodness. Reese Witherspoon, you look wonderful.
Her hair.  The color.  The fit and shape.
Really really great!
(wearing all Louis Vuitton)

Source: popsugar.com via Donna on Pinterest


So beautiful.




This is Kerry Washington.
Kerry wore this gorgeous color with such an interesting bodice.
Her dress is by Miu Miu.
This dress grew on me and made my list when I saw it on stage.

Yeah.  My dress would be a moomoo too.

Source: fabsugar.com via Donna on Pinterest


This is for those of you who just love the dresses with a little, ahem, cleavage.
It's Samantha Barks from Les Miserables.

I like it just fine.
It got my attention :op


Source: fabsugar.com via Donna on Pinterest



Here is Natalie Portman in the exact opposite dress as Samantha.
She wore this to the after party.  I happen to love this.  A lot.

I'm all for a big baggy dress on a tiny wisp of a girl.


Source: fabsugar.com via Donna on Pinterest


Stacey Kiebler-never-ate-a-cookie looks fantastic.
Halle Berry had a black dress with embellishments a little like this...and I hated that one....
But this dress is gorge on her.

Source: popsugar.com via Donna on Pinterest



Sally Field is really lovely to look at.  She is doing something right...or she just really lucked out in the genes department.  Man.  How old is she?

Speaking of older ladies.  Barbra Streisand looked amazing last night singing Memories for the dearly departed ....especially Marvin Hamlish.  It was very big of her to get up there...she is a nervous Nelly and you know this is not her favorite thing to do.  But she did it beautifully.  Sue loved Barbra so much and it made me cry.


And the winners are.....

Source: fabsugar.com via Donna on Pinterest


This woman is born to wear gorgeous clothes. (Charlize Theron)
Wow.  She looked amazing.
There were crystals on the peplum.  It was divine.

And then! She came out and danced with....who was her partner??  ummmm....
She had on a chiffon dress when she dance and that was so pretty too.

haha.  I just looked it up.  It was Chantam Tatum.
I kinda wish she had danced with John Travolta.  Cause even tho he is weird and has issues,
I think he is nice and nobody in this generation dances like Johh Travolta.

Why am I not in charge of everything???


Source: fabsugar.com via Donna on Pinterest



And there she is....lovely and down to earth, everybody loves....

Jennifer Garner

I LOVED this Gucci dress because the back was fabulous and the color was really right on.
She was gorgeous and she stood out.  She even looked comfortable.

And THEN her darling husband won BEST MOVIE with ARGO.....
and he said the weirdest, most awkward thing to her...about working on the marriage...and it came out all wrong and embarrassing.

Oh my.  Ben was so flustered and babbling....but...his biggest moment was not so great in the wife department.






So that's the quick run down.  I've gotta run....a few things to do today instead of sitting here reading comments all day.  Darn.

Please feel free to share what you loved about the clothes and show....
and what you did not love so much.

I have plenty of opinions...I spent the night on Facebook blabbing away....
you should have been there.  ha

Now it's your turn!

What do you think?


Jr. Critic at large,
Miz Boo








Saturday, February 23, 2013

Thoughts on the Academy Award

Such a great year for the movies!
I have seen five of the nine nominated movies.

I have seen Argo, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Les Miserables, Lincoln, and Silver Linings Playbook.
All five movies I have come here and said....THAT was a great movie.  GO SEE IT!

I have not seen Django Unchained, Amour, or Zero Dark Thirty or Life of Pi.
Two very violent and dark and one sad and dark and one is...strange looking.

Yeah.

I am the happy critic, I guess.

I also saw The Sessions and it made me cry.  The lead from The Sessions should be nominated for Best Actor, but he wasn't it.




Helen Hunt is nominated and she was fine...but her fake Boston accent bugged me.
John Hawkes on the other hand was brilliant.  I believe him completely.  He plays a man who had polio as a young boy and can not move much and sleeps in an iron lung.  It is a true story and it is indeed
triumphant.  Lots of nakedness in this film, it is for mature audiences and not for everyone but I thought it was a touching (ha) and beautiful story.


****

My biggest issue is for Best Actress.
Jennifer Lawrence is nominated from Silver Linings Playbook.  She is winning all the awards so far this year.  I don't see it at all.  She is a nice girl and a good actress but I was not necessarily impressed with her acting in this part.  Seemed pretty run of the mill to me.  The best actor from this movie was Robert DeNiro.  He was fantastic as the father in a family that is struggling with mental illness.

I liked this movie very much.  Just not Jennifer.

I still think Quvenzhane´  Wallis should win best actress as she carried Beasts of the Southern Wild.
It should be her.  But it will not be.

Source: glamour.com via Donna on Pinterest


So what do I think will win best movie of the year.
It is between Argo and Les Miserables and Lincoln and Silver Linings Playbook.

Argo has the big momentum.  That is very important in Hollywood.
I really liked this movie but don't think I would watch it over and over.
I would watch Beasts and Silver Lining many more times and I would watch Lincoln once more time.
Don't think I really want to see Argo again.  (I'd rather watch Salmon Fishing on the Yemen again.)

Stepping back and looking at these movies, I wonder, what should represent the industry this year for best movie of the whole year.  I actually think it should be Les Miserables.






Anne Hathaway should win for Best Supporting Actress.
Daniel Day Lewis should win best actor for Lincoln.  (Sorry Hugh, it is an impossible year with Daniel being perfection in a part.)
My pick for best director is David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook.


The awards will be spread around, I am sure.
I just hope voters have not forgotten about Les Miz.





And remember Hushpuppy.



Encourage one another,
Miz Booshay the Happy Critic

Come back on Monday for the Fashions!!!!






Friday, February 22, 2013

Pictures taken with different cameras.

Black and white world. Even in color.

This is one of the first pictures I took with my iPhone 5.  It is a panorama.
Just this week I downloaded a free app called #whitagram that makes it possible to add white bars
on the picture so you can keep it a rectangle and not a square.

I drive this road every day.  I almost slid off this road into a ditch last icy snowfall.
It was scary.


Paws

Ginny's funny poses make me laugh.  She has long gangly moose legs.


...it's full of secrets

Katie was standing on a small trunk and I saw some pretty light.  That is the ceiling as a background.  I rarely shoot from below but Katie does not have chin issues...so it turned out pretty.  I made it blurry on purpose.

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This is the original.

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I liked the shape of Ginny's mouth.
This picture was taken with my Nikon and Lensbaby.

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This one too.  Ginny likes to sniff.



“You don't make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.” 
Ansel Adams

What a great quote!!

Encourage one another,
Donna








Thursday, February 21, 2013

Fun Facts with Patrick. Salvator Mundi. And Cougar Town.


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Last night Patrick asked me if I knew about the newly discovered Leonardo da Vinci portrait of Christ?
I said, "Jesus?" cause I am getting a little deaf.
He said, "Yes."

So I went to google and found that a painting called Salvator Mundi (Savior of the World) has been recently attributed to Leonardo.

My favorite part of the story.  It's most recent purchase price was 45£ in 1958.
It is thought to have been owned by Charles the First.  The painting was painted over a few times and was a hot mess. It was cleaned up by it's current owners (New Yorkers) aka restored...and what they found under all that paint and goo was this masterpiece.

Leonardo-da-Vinci2

Although it is not for sale...the painting is worth one hundred and twenty million £.
(Look what I learned this morning.  £ £ £  )

The painting was displayed in the National Gallery in London last year.
For the first time.  The gallery wanted to show it alongside other da Vinci's to see how it measured up.

Fascinating.



****


At the other end of the spectrum.

I, Miz Boo, will never stop trying to get some of you to watch Cougar Town.
It is now on TBS and they are even showing reruns.  I swear to you.  It is not Cougar-y AT ALL.
On or two episodes at the very beginning Jules dated a younger guy.  But it is really like Scrubs and Friends 'put together'.
Gosh! it is quick and funny, nutty and weird.

I love it.

Here is a clip from an older show that was on yesterday.

I want to be on the beach with a warm breeze.
I love this song!




So even if you won't watch Cougar Town with me....

I wish you warm breezes and friendly hugs today!


Encourage one another,
Miz Boo and Patrick





Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Vivian Maier. Amateur. Artist.


Yesterday I clicked over to The Novel Woman's blog.  I know I had been there before...I wanted to reacquaint myself with her blog.

A Novel Woman

On her blog I watched this really cool trailer from the documentary "Finding Vivian Maier".
Thank you Pam.








I am going to say something unpopular but true.

Not everyone who loves photography needs to go into business.  It is not required.
People will ask you to take their pictures when they see you make pretty pictures...
but business is completely different than loving photography.

Vivian did not go into business.  She quietly and secretly made her art with her camera.
Mysterious and Inspiring.


I have been following a girl on Flickr for years named Allison; She calls herself Snippets from Suburbia.
She is THE most creative and talented photographer I know.
She is an amateur.

Be inspired.

Snippets from Suburbia: Explored


****

Thank you for the wonderful recipes and ideas yesterday.
Melinda says 'people love to talk about food.'
Katie says 'people like to be asked questions.'
I say, "It was great! Thanks!"


Encourage one another,
Donna Elsie








Tuesday, February 19, 2013

She's going to be alright.



Last night Michele Dockery aka Lady Mary Grantham went out with friends in London.

So you see...
Everything is going to be alright.


****

Can you think of a character leaving a show that has caused you so much angst?

I was very sad when Denny died on Gray's Anatomy.  In fact, I didn't watch much after that.
And George.  He died too.  Bad.
Remember when Anthony Edwards died on ER?
Brain tumor. Hawaii. 'Somewhere over the rainbow'...
I wasn't watching when George Clooney left ER, but gosh that show went on and on...
Lost.  I can't recall a beloved character leaving Lost.  I was just mostly scrambling to understand the whole thing anyway.


*****


What is your go to dish to bring to a grieving family or a new mother?

When our parents died one of our parent's friends continued to bring us a meal once a month for almost two years.
I don't think it was just one year.  It seemed a long time.  The funny thing was....it was icky.
They same thing every time.  It was called Hillbilly.



Hillbilly Goulash
1 pound ground beef
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 cups dry macaroni
10 oz can condensed tomato soup
14 to 16 oz can diced tomatoes (we use Petite diced)
6 oz can tomato paste
2 paste cans water
1/2 teaspoon each salt and garlic powder
Black pepper to taste
1 Tablespoon sugar

It was very similar to this but it had corn in it too.
To this day I do not like corn in anything.  

Corn on the cob. Yes.
Corn with butter. Yes.
In something. No.

We were not ungrateful.  This lovely woman drove from Elmhurst to Wheaton with her casserole and gave Nancy a break from cooking for one night.  She was thinking of us.  Thinking of Esther's children...and that is precious.


When I had a baby or a ruptured appendix...ha....and then had both at the same time...
The ladies from church brought us many meals.  Someone brought a big kettle of soup.
I loved that.  I loved not having to cook.

Lasagna is super popular so I try to stay away from that.
But Ree's Chicken Spaghetti is a good one to bring for something a little different and appealing to many palettes.



What have you loved getting?
What do you take?


Encourage one another,
Donna

P.S.  Thank you for your thoughtful and long comments :o)
I never mind the long winded ones.  I love those.

P.P.S.  I hope I spelled palettes right.






Monday, February 18, 2013

Diana....and Matthew Crawley. Downton Abbey Season 3 Finale.

Once upon a time there was a girl who lived in a castle.



She was a Lady.




She married a Prince who would one day be the King of England.

Source: bbc.com via Donna on Pinterest



They went to Scotland for their honeymoon.




They had a baby boy and named him William.  One day he would be King.




While the family was in Balmoral, Scotland.  Diana died in a car accident in a tunnel in Paris.


Aug. 31, 1997


This was my real Downton Abbey.  I watched Diana and Charles for seventeen years, with joy and sadness.  I bought books and magazines so I could see Diana's beautiful clothes and lovely pictures.
I was obsessed.

I stayed up most of the night and didn't leave the television for days when she died.  Family and friends called with condolences.


Imagine this morning when I realized the parallels to the story of Diana and Matthew.

It is not so very far-fetched that a beloved person, beloved parents, beloved spouse dies in a car accident.  Not really at all.

When I read that Dan Stevens wanted to leave the show and that he was killed off just moments after  becoming a father I was furious.  But since I have seen the episode and had time to think about it I do not think the show has 'jumped the shark'.  In fact, after thinking about Diana's life, the show is not really that much of a soap opera after all.  Terrible things happen.  People don't get along. We make big mistakes and little ones.  The wrong people die.  Again and again.

Jillian Fellowes (and writers) gave Dan the most beautiful send off.  They didn't have to.
His dialog was filled with love and joy last night.  It killed Katie and I since we knew what was coming.  We would look at one another each time he said something lovely and she would have a furrowed brow and I would have tears.

Source: piccsy.com via Donna on Pinterest





Most likely Downton Abbey will be redeemed next season.  We shall see.
I think I will be watching with my heart at an arms length.

Matthew and Mary were my main reason for watching the show.
Yes. It's gonna be an adjustment.





Oh Matthew.  Darling sweet perfect Matthew.

I wonder will Fellows skip ahead a whole year.
I just wonder;

Who will run the estate well now that Matthew is gone.
Who will love Mary just as she is?

We know Carson will play with the baby.  What will they name the baby?

Source: tumblr.com via Donna on Pinterest



What will happen to Tom/Branson? How I felt for him last night.



How I love Mrs. Hughes.

Oh! She can purse her lips like no other!

More things to think about...

Rose stirring things up at Downton Abbey.
Matthew telling Mr. Gregson he should back off.
(Which I completely and entirely agree with!)
Will we see a bride for Tom?
A baby for Bates and Anna?
(Who was so dang darling last night!)
That sad, depressing, couple in Scotland.  eek.
The maid who was even more droll than O'Brien.  Ha!
Daisy and Ivy arm and arm.  (Sweet)
Is Matthew's mother really clueless about the Dr.'s advances or was that her way to
set him straight?
Oh! Mrs. Patmore and that cheeky fellow!  Oh my.
Who knew the word 'slut' was used back then.  (shocking)


I have a feeling Mary will be bitter and mean at first. No one who sees her
like Matthew did.  (and me!)
I suspect by the end of the season we will see a handsome man come into her life.

Here is my list of acceptable actors to play the next love interest for Mary.


Source: tumblr.com via Donna on Pinterest







They will do.

I'm trying to think of a Midwestern Cowboy type that I would approve of...
Haven't thought of one yet.


I know your hearts are broken and you are mostly shocked.
Feel free to blubber and wail in the comments.

I know to many of you.....they are real.


My sympathies,
Donna