2 be Bliss, as I dance along the road to Nirvana...

movies we've watched recently: Going to School in India : a well-made documentary about children who live in various locations in India and the interesting places and ways they school. English and several Indian languages. English subtitles Kamikaze Girls : a comedy-drama about a teen-aged Japanese girl who lives in her own world. she loves the Rococo era and dresses in a style the Japanese refer to as Lolita. she accidentally takes up with a biker chick and chaos ensues. Japanese with English subtitles Private Fears in Public Places : a weirdly romantic drama about people who can't connect in meaningful ways. i liked the cinematography and the way the characters' lives intertwined. French with English subtitles Raise the Red Lantern : period piece set in 1920s China. four wives (each referred to as "mistress" and a number that tells which wife they are. i.e. first mistress, third mistress) compete with each other for their husband's attenti...

hey y'all. baby bliss and i have been crocheting like mad hens over here. she's making a neck muff for her godmommy. (i don't think she reads my blog so i guess it's okay that i told.) i'm working on two scarves for no one in particular tho i do have an idea who i might give each one to. i'm almost done with one. the other i just started. i'm also working on a basket for the church holiday craft bazaar. which might not get finished cuz we're sposed to take stuff up there tomorrow and i'm not done. maybe halfway... that brings me to my dilemma: i have lots of rings and a few other pieces of jewelry all done. even a few dog leashes. but i haven't labeled or packaged anything yet. grrrrr! and i've been toying with the idea of donating all the stuff for the silent auction and kid's booth sales instead of doing a booth myself. i've also been asked to help vendors set up the night before and act as auctioneer on saturday. uh oh. i don...

I will start with this disclaimer: this is my own unbiased opinion of a novel I read this summer. I was not compensated in any way for this review nor do I expect to be. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it to those who love learning about other cultures. * * * This is a book about love, marriage, family, food, and relationships. Monica Pradhan did a great job of explaining the subtle layers of Indian culture for me. In The Hindi-Bindi Club , three young-ish Indian-American women learn through their relationships with their moms that living up to the expectations of their families can allow room for their own individuality. I learned many things from this book. For example: - If I choose to cook more, I can try the yummy-sounding Indian recipes found through out this book. - People are basically the same when it comes to family. Most of us want what's best for our families. Sometimes we're pushy but hey, it's what we know. :-) - Maybe arranged marr...

hey y'all. i almost forgot to tell y'all this. i belong to a couple of online reading groups/book clubs where you can create an account, list your favorite books, rate them, and write reviews (if you want). about a week or so, i got a nice e-mail from the author of my favorite summer read, Monica Pradhan , author of The Hindi-Bindi Club . she'd seen my rating of her book and thanked me for rating it so well . i think it was absolutely wonderful of her to take time to do that and i told her so. i thought it was so nice in fact, that i decided to write a full review on Hindi-Bindi Club. i did and i'm gonna blog it in a separate post. i'm also thinking about posting on amazon.com. (if i can remember my login info...) .

hey y'all. a friend just sent me an e-mail with a link to her elf self. well, i couldn't pull her up but i'm making my own elves right now. it's funny and goofy. of course i haven't made any with my face. only baby and mr. bliss. LOL if you wanna make your own elves, go here: ElfYourself . you'll need to be able to upload photos from your own 'puter or else you'll have to do random elves. have fun!

hey y'all. i was determined not to get caught up in the Black Friday hype. just cuz i never do. but i couldn't resist taking a peek at online specials. then i remembered that i really did need to buy some stuff. like business supplies so i could offset some business income. so i ordered a case of paper from office depot. it was less than $20. then i made the mistake of going to walmart.com. and i saw a digital cam on sale for less than $70. it came with a 1GB memory card and something called XtraDrive, a little device that turns my extra SD/MMC memory cards into USB thumb drives. i thought, "wow. what a deal." i wanted a new camera but couldn't justify (to myself) spending $100 or so on a new one when i already had one. i also needed a flash drive but couldn't decide which one to get. i also didn't want to pay a lot for one because as tech savvy as i am, i didn't really understand how they worked. the paper i ordered came yesterday but...

about my grandma but changed my mind. it's not that my thoughts were uncharitable. i was just gonna complain about her attitude. but i think i'll pray about it instead. '-) so what did y'all do for the holidays? we were busy. on wednesday, baby bliss and i drove to get a friend so he could go with us to T-day dinner at our church. he treated us to lunch at his job then we all hit the mall where he picked up a few uber-expensive (for my budget) pieces of clothing at ultra-trendy shops. some time ago he had promised baby bliss a top and he told her it was her day to collect. i could not in good conscious allow her to pick out anything in the stores he got his stuff from. he's a good friend and all but i don't want baby bliss to get a taste of that kind of lifestyle. not that our friend makes a million bucks or anything. but he's waitstaff at a popular restaurant and i'm pretty sure his weekly tips are substantial. i steered baby bliss to a ...

try your local library. we're still here. baby bliss is on the PC and i'm on my laptop. there's a young(er) man sitting at the table across from me. he's a cutie. dark, smooth skin, pleasant face, nice smile. maybe it's my imagination, but i think he's watching me. not that i'm paying attention. okay, i am. but only cuz i watch every one around me. so i can feel safe. if i was single and childless, it might be a hook up. if...

hey y'all. it's been movie mania at our house. which is kinda good. network t.v. has gotten to be too predictable for me. i still like "House" tho. last night we watched " The Method ": several job applicants were left in a room to psyche each other out as a means of eliminating the competition. things get heated, etc. i liked the concept but not the execution . there wasn't enough tension or drama for me, for the type of movie i thought it would be. Spanish with English subtitles. * * * "The Taste of Tea" was pretty good. it was funny and real despite its surreal-ness. it was the story of an unconventional Japanese family going about their every day lives. they all did normal stuff but always seemed to be in the middle of abnormal goings on. Japanese with English subtitles. * * * " Separate Lies " was a British thriller about the horrid occurrences that resulted from a wife's affair with a dashin...

we watched Curse of the Golden Flower ( Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia ) last night. it as a chinese martial arts film starring Chow Yun Fat and Gong Li. the story: the story of an emperor's family life during the Tang dynasty. drama, betrayal, tragedy and more drama in the palace in the Forbidden City. beautiful imagery . don't expect Jackie Chan-style stunts. in Chinese with subtitles. * * * Strangers with Candy , starring Amy Sedaris, was an all out nut-fest . a 40-something ex-convict/ex-trixie/ex-addict goes back to high school in hopes of waking her daddy from a coma. not for the little ones. * * * Hijas de su madre: Las Buenrostro this one was funny . dark humor. set in Mexico. a family of women who married for money . and made sure they outlived their husbands to reap the rewards. in Spanish with subtitles.

hey y'all. thanks to everyone who send healing energy, prayers, and other forms of positivity my way. i'm feeling a lot better and have been taking every possible moment to relax. i wanted to share an interesting tidbit with y'all. remember i said i had an ugly bruise on my arm from the i.v.? well, it got uglier as the days went on. friday it was about the size of my palm (and i have big hands) and it was a dark maroon color. saturday it looked about the same. saturday, baby bliss and i went to yoga. a few hours later, i noticed that the bruise looked a lot better. a lot better. yesterday i forgot to look at it. today, you can't even tell it was there. amazing. i'm guessing the asanas got my circulation going really good. i know it got my muscles all stretched out. my body was ache-y in weired places when i got up sunday morning. today i felt good tho. like i want to do more yoga this week. :-) any way, now i'm wondering if anyone else has ever experienced a ...

hey y'all. i'm late with this but i guess it's cool right? "-) thanks to Mama Loves Baby for tagging me for this one . here are the rules: Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog. Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself. Tag 7 random people at the end of the post and include links to their blogs. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog. here are my 7. i used to have a gap in the middle of my teeth (front top) when i was in high school, i bit my thumb nail too much and it got infected. my momma took me to the doc and he "lanced" it. lanced = cut me with a razor blade-looking thing then squeezed all the blood and pus out. i thought my toes were ugly and i wore socks with sandals until i graduated from high school. when i was in elementary school, i used to lick the dirt off my grandma's venetian blinds i won a book as a prize in a dance contest when i was...

y'all know we make the most of our wonderful county library system . and i've written before about all the great movies we've been checking out. we've been checking out lots and i've been forgetting to tell y'all about them. my apologies. yesterday we watched " Shirley Valentine ", a British movie about a woman who took a vacation and found a new life. it was a comedy of sorts. it got me thinking about my own life and all the things i plan to do as soon as baby bliss flies the coop . :) now we're watching a "bollywood" movie called " Picture Perfect ". it's in english and one of the indian languages. i'm thinking punjabi but i'll have to find out for sure. i don't like subtitles cuz i have to read them. which is hard to do while i'm blogging. but i love foreign films and a lot of them don't have the "english version" option. but even when they do, it's kinda weird. even baby ...

but not me cuz i'm still here. hallelujah! i've missed it here. but i've been taking a break. it's not that any one thing was more hectic than any other thing at our house. it was a combination of things actually: stress in months past, weird electrical happenings all around that seemed to be signaling me to take action of some sort, mr. bliss's subtle badgering (yeah, i know it sounds like an oxymoron) for me to perform my wifely duties, baby bliss being so mouthy (thanks to my mother for being the fairy godmother who bestowed that gift upon us), me wanting to do more crafty stuff and feeling like there was no time between doing laundry/home schooling/washing dishes/working from home/vacuuming/cleaning the tub/keeping up with routine maintenance on the car/making sure all the bills are paid on time... in other words, there was a lot to do and only one of me. last week, my body/mind/spirit said "enough!" i had a small flutter of chest pain t...

hey all y'all blogging moms, mamas, mommas, and mommies. i have a crafty challenge for y'all. i'm thinking this will be a fun one. hoping. praying. :-) for everyone who said they want to take up a hobby, do it! something fun with a low learning curve. like the baskets. LOL it took a few tries for me to get a decent one but you do get a basket (of sorts) on your first go. if you stick with it. and it can be a small one. any way, learn something that will generate an item or two. then you can proudly display your stuff on your blog and your window sill. or bedroom dresser. or give them as holiday gifts. and no, making snowflakes with the kidddies doesn't count. our library has all kinds of instructional DVDs. maybe your's does too. (oooh, speaking of the library, i've got a few overdue items. not good.) so get at it y'all and show us some pictures!

howdy y'all. i see that folks have been checking out the crafty posts. :-) thanks for all your comments, ideas, suggestions, pats on the back, and requests to buy things. it feels good when people show appreciation for my crafts. especially because i am thinking about selling my stuff online. i mean, it's one thing when family likes your stuff. you expect them to say nice things. ;-) y'all have really touched my heart at a time when i need it. (i'll tell y'all more about that later.) now for the fun part. the challenge: coming soon to a blog near you.

i started making the baskets after we moved south. i hadn't crocheted much in a while but i still had a big stash of yarn. and somehow it began mysteriously multiplying while mr. bliss wasn't looking. i knew i had to do somet hing with it or risk mr. bliss noticing the ever-increasing volumes of brightly-colored balls of fluff. so i got online and searched a gazillion websites for yarn crafts and crochet patterns. one of the things i found was a how-to for baskets. of course mine didn't come out like the ones in the picture. (it never does...) but i didn't give up. i began experimenting with color and materials. i learned something interesting: the baskets already know what they're gonna look like when i start. i'm just a vessel for bringing them into view. '-)

some of them are no-brainers. meaning i didn't have to come up with a design. i just saw a nice charm and hooked it on. but there are still some things to consider, like weight and color. you can't put a heavy charm on a light-weight ear wire. and i'm not too fond of silver ear wires with gold-tone head pins. more...

i'm thinking this might be better in 2 parts cuz i do have quite a few pics. making the earrings is still a work in progress. i gave up before i perfected the technique that makes a nice round connection from ear wire (the part that goes in the ear) to head (or eye) pin (the part that holds the actual earring i.e. beads, shells, etc.) i said i wasn't gonna make any more earrings then i got inspired to make a few special pair. i don't have pics of those (yet). the pics are all earrings i made about 2 years ago. these are some i've sold and/or given away:

hey y'all. how's the weekend so far? mine has been relaxing. baby and mr. bliss got up early for a trip to the mall. he promised her a new pair of boots and she went to collect. she and i talked about new boots. we even went online and checked out the pair she liked and an alternate (that i suggested). so tell me why my husband brings her back in here with a pair of suede boots with a 3 inch platform? i'm guessing he thought it was okay cuz most of our flip flops are the platform ones. they're just more comfy somehow. but i think there's a big difference in a tween wearing wedgie flip flops and one wearing suede platform boots. yeah, she can walk in 'em. but i just don't like it. i guess i'm really shocked that mr. bliss--the daddy who monitors skirt lengths, amount of lip gloss, tightness of pants and tops--thinks the boots are just fine. . .

hey y'all. mr. bliss got home on time for once. so we watched a few movies. the first was The Painted Veil , with Ed Norton. it was okay but not what i expected. the scenery was what i liked best, it think. i can't believe it was still a rental from the library. :-( then we watched Hotel Rwanda . horrifying. great acting tho. even Nick Nolte was believable. now i'm watching Boca a Boca . it's hilarious so far. last night baby bliss and i watched Babette's Feast . we both really liked it but she hates subtitles and i can't read them and do other stuff (like blog) at the same time. so i only got bits and pieces of the story until close to the end.

did y'all see my post last year about the snowflakes? you can make them at this website Popular Front . last year each snowflake donated to charity. this year i'm not sure cuz i didn't see anything relating to it. but it's fun y'all. take the chaps (that's "children" for those of y'all who don't speak southern) and let them make snowflakes. it will keep them outta your hair for a few hours. guaranteed. but i warn y'all: it's addictive. if you only have one computer in the house and you'll need your's that day, you've gotta have something really spectacular planned to get it back. . .

5:29 p.m. while i was drafting this, baby bliss and i were watching Brief Encounter , an old B & W movie about a British woman who had an "affair" with a doctor she met. it's an old movie so there's no real hanky-panky shown. just some kissing and a lot of talk. but it was good and gossipy . the woman lived in a small village and she and her paramour were spotted around a few times by women she knew. all the woman's ducking, hiding, and narrative soul searching turned what could have been a boring movie into relatively high drama . baby bliss and i noted -- and remarked on -- how much tea was drunk by the characters and what they ate with their tea . that led me to thoughts of "high tea" and we researched it online. we learned that what most people think of as "high tea" isn't what most people think. we also learned other interesting tidbits about afternoon tea. then we decided we're gonna do our own afternoon ...

here are the links to previous posts with photos of crafty bliss. some of it will be sold. i really do have a ton more stuff in here, some that's been photo'd and some that's waiting for its 15 minutes of fame. i promise the next crafts post will have pics in it. i didn't want this one to get too long. and also it's after 11:30 p.m. and i've got an early bell tomorrow. for those of you who haven't seen them before, enjoy. if you have seen 'em, oooh and ahhh like it's your first time laying eyes on 'em. many thanks to the mommy who inspired this post (and the one coming). you have my sincere gratitude. :0) the bracelet i call it the "Fertility Bracelet". it's explained in the post... the rings fall - red and gold (i'm gonna add a small dangling charm to this one but only if i find something that complements it perfectly) winter - blue and white (this one won't be for sale) baskets Sunni Daze - my first Luv Handle - one of t...

more photos of my crafty stuff. lest y'all think i'm tooting my own horn, i've had a request from one of my blog sisters (mommy to the cuter-than-cute Stella and Thomas ). i've posted photos here before but it's nice to have someone ask... i'll also link to the previous post(s). note: i'm really writing this to myself as a reminder. otherwise i'll forget. carry on.