Please Vote

My passion is my business Katiemade Crafts.  I love making and selling my origami and origami inspired products.  But I have struggled with how to reach a bigger audience.  So back in the beginning of August I stumbled upon the Martha Stewart American Made Awards.  There are several catagories and craft is one of them.  I took the leap and entered myself in the craft catagory.  Well the voting is now open.  I need your help.  I would be so thrilled to move onto the next round but I need votes.  You can vote up to 5 times a day EVERYDAY.  So please if you can spare a minute click on the button below and cast a vote or 2 or 3 for me please!!!

Movie Monday - Jobs

Let me first warn you I am an Apple fanatic (check here for a little more background).  So I am extremely biased.  I love Apple always have and they the ONLY computers I will ever own.  I wish I could say use as well but I am forced to use PCs at work.  OK back to the movie, I saw the movie Jobs with Ivy.

Jobs is the condensed history of Steve Jobs one of the founders of Apple Computer.  We meet Steve Jobs played by Ashton Kutcher in the early 70's as a young man who has dropped out of college but still attends classes and aspires to do something great while getting high.  We learn pretty quickly that Steve Jobs is really kind of an asshole but an asshole who has a dream.  While working at Atari he recruits his friends Steve Wozniak played by Josh Gad to help him out and learns that he is building a personal computer in his house.  Jobs loves the idea so much he takes the idea and runs with it. He recruits a bunch of other misfits and nerds to help him build the computers in his parents garage.  Thus the founding of Apple Computers.  Big money then comes in thanks to Mark Markklua played by Dermot Mulroney and Apple starts to become what we know and love.  Jobs is a visionary but again also an asshole and this is made abundantly clear over and over.  Because of this he is eventually ousted out as CEO of Apple which affected him deeply.  He is eventually brought back to Apple after the company gets into trouble and it's stock falls sharply.  Being the visionary he is Jobs turns the company around with the reinvention of the cute little colored Macs and then the iPod.

 I truly enjoyed the movie.  I knew the basic history of Apple because I am such an Apple nerd but this got more in depth and gave a better picture of who Steve Jobs was.  I also thought Ashton Kutcher did a really good job playing Jobs.  But I do have a huge bias so take that into account.  Ivy who is still a relative Apple newbie liked it as well.  My rating is 4 pop corn buckets out of 5.

My Blog's Evolution

When I started this blog way back 2008 I was a stay at home mom period.  I didn't work at all outside the house.  I was cooped up all with two small children.  I needed an outlet and this blog was a place to vent, rant and generally just confess all my mothering sins.  But like all things in life, my life and my blog has evolved into something else.  I am still a mom.  I will always be a mom.  It's the most important job I'll ever have.  But my kids are now 10 and 5 and they just don't need me the way they did 4 years ago.  I've also gone back to work part time teaching adults with disabilities.  On top of that I started my own business Katiemade Crafts.  As I've moved away from being SAHM, my blog has moved away from my venting and ranting and the such.  I've thought about changing the name of the blog since The Mommy Days doesn't exactly describe what this blog is about anymore but I decided I love the name and it's staying.  So if you've stumbled upon my little blog and wonder why it's called The Mommy Days now you know.

Movie Monday - Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters

Last week was my son's 10th birthday.  How in the world do I have a 10 year old??? I can't believe I've been doing this parent thing for a decade now.  OK back to the point of movie Monday.  My son loves the Percy Jackson novels by Rick Riordan.  We've read them all in my house and seen the first movie installment a few times.  So for his birthday we went to see the 2nd movie installment Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters.

Percy Jackson played by Logan Lerman is a demigod, meaning he's the son of a mortal and Poseidon the God of the sea.  He finds this out in the first book/movie.  He attends Camp Half Blood a magical camp that trains him and all the other demigods.  The tree that protects the camp is dying because the bad guys (Luke introduced in the first book/movie) poisoned it.  The head of Camp Half Blood Mr. D played by Stanley Tucci sends some campers on a quest to retrieve the golden fleece of legend because it will heal the tree and save the camp.  Percy is not picked for quest but feels like he must go so he and his friends Annabeth played by Alexandra Daddario, Grover played by Brandon T. Jackson and his half brother cyclops Tyson played by Douglas Smith head out to the Bermuda Triangle to find the golden fleece in the Sea of Monsters.

I love the Percy Jackson books.  I've read them to my son and I've ready them myself just for fun.  They are great books! They are funny and action packed and you learn all about the Greek gods.  As much as I love the books, I hate the movies.  They do not follow the books at all.  I understand sometimes they can't fit everything in and I get that.  But it seems like the script writers wrote down all the plot points then just threw them out the window.  I also had some issues with the actors they choose for certain characters.  Tyson is not big enough and well Clarisse is waaayyy to pretty in the movie.  I also have to say that I got bored at the end of the movie.  The plot was so different and stupid that I got bored.  Maybe if you've never read the books you might like it.  But I doubt it.  Now I have to say my son loved it.  But he loved Paul Blart Mall Cop too so take that as you will.  I am giving Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters 1 pop corn bucket out of 5.

And on a more personal note....

I was cleaning and organizing paperwork in my classroom last week and I came across something I wrote back in April when I attended a workshop for my teaching job. The workshop was about strategies for how to teach writing.   We actually tried out a lot of the strategies in the workshop.  One of things I ended up writing really touched me and I still tear up when I read it.  I really don't remember what the prompt was but we just had to free write on the prompt for a set amount of time.  Here is what I wrote.

"I just lost my Nana. Well really it's almost been a year. She died on Mother's day 2012.  How has it almost been a year already? The house she lived in with my Granddad just sold this month.  I spent 36 years loving to visit that house.  I  hope I always remember the sound of the front door as it slammed shut. The sound of my Nana puttering around in the kitchen late at night or working at her desk while watching TV.  The sound of my Granddad whistling to the birds outside while he worked on his flower beds.  The sound of the train in the middle of the night.  The smell of rain on the prairie through the open windows during the summer.  I miss my Nana and Granddad and I will somehow miss the house on East Beaver almost as much.  I really didn't realize how much until I spent my last day in it last August."

When my Nana passed last year I didn't write about it on here.  It was just too abstract and painful for me to deal with.  I'm still not sure I've really realized that she's gone.  She lived in Hawaii most of the year so I didn't see her very often, so sometimes it still feels like she's here but just on vacation (which she loved to be on).  But she is gone and there is a big hole.... and when I stop and think about it, I realize how much I miss her.  She was hilarious, fun, accepting and loving.

Mark Your Calendar!

I will have a booth at this Artisan Market on August 25th from 11 AM to 5 PM.  Please come out and see me and all the other talented artisans!  Oh and there will be a raffle table (I will be donating a sheet music origami ornament!) that benefits Handmade Wilmington a wonderful group I am part of. 

 

Movie Monday - We're the Millers

My hubby James turned 40 this weekend and part of the celebration was to go out and see a movie.  He had the pick of any movie out in theaters and he choose We're the Millers.  I was slightly surprised because I figured we'd see something like Elysium or Pacific Rim.  But he said he wanted to see something funny so We're the Millers is was.

We're the Millers starts with pot dealer David played by Jason Sudeikis being strong armed into being a drug mule and smuggling a crap load of pot over the boarder from Mexico.  He comes up with the brilliant plan to smuggle the pot as an all American RV vacationing family.  Being that he doesn't have a family this is slightly problematic.  He ends up hiring a dorky kid Kenny played by Will Poulter from his apartment building to be his son, an aging stripper Rose played by Jennifer Aniston from his building to be his wife and a homeless "gutter punk" Casey played by Emma Roberts to be his daughter.  The movie follows this fake family on their screwed up adventure trying to get the shipment of pot across the Mexican border and back into Denver.  They encounter rival drug kingpins, a wholesome home schooling RVing family, and a tarantula all of which bring lots of laughs.  It's not the best comedy I've seen this summer (The Heat was funnier) but it was funny and it was very cool to see all the Wilmington locations used in this film.  Oh I forgot to mention this movie like The Conjuring was filmed here in Wilmington, NC.  There is also the added bonus of the Jennifer Aniston strip tease.  My husband said that was the main reason for his picking this movie ... but she looks AMAZING!!  It's rather sickening how good she looks for her age.  The breakout star of the movie though was Will Poulter who plays Kenny.  He's so goofy and sweet and steals the show with his TLC rap to Waterfalls in once scene.  I would give this 3 1/2 out of 5 pop corn buckets.

Movie Monday - The Conjuring

I have to start out by telling you that Friday night I got text from Ivy telling me to make sure I got a lot of sleep over the weekend because we were seeing The Conjuring on Monday.  My first reaction was WHY?!?! I'm not a fan of horror movies and neither is Ivy.  In fact we cringe and hide during the PREVIEWS for horror movies. So why in the world did she want to drag me to this.  Well the answer is two fold.  For one thing it was filmed here in Wilmington, NC where we live and two it was getting really good ratings, especially compared to the other movies out that we hadn't already seen.  So we waffled for awhile but finally we steeled ourselves and went.

The Conjuring is about a family that decides to leave the city and moves into a beautiful old farm house in the country.  Pretty much as soon as they move in weird and disturbing things start to happen.  Woven into the story line of the family is the story of Ed (played by Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine (Played by Vera Farmiga) Warren who are paranormal investigators.  The movie shows their back story and what they do to help people, which I found incredibly interesting.  Things in the family's house keep getting worse and worse so the mother Carolyn (played by Lili Taylor) seeks out the help of Ed and Lorraine Warren.  They agree to help solve the mystery and help the family get rid of the dark presence in the house.

It's creepy and scary and I jumped or covered my eyes several times.  Ivy and I were also talking obnoxiously through the scarier moments to break the tension.  BUT it was good!!! It scared the crap outta me at times but the story was compelling and fascinating.  I also found that because it's not really all that bloody or gory I liked it better than other horror movies like Saw.  So my rating is 4 1/2 pop corn buckets out of 5!!