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Sherlock Holmes was AMAZING.  Neither of my parents like it, but well, my dad hates all movies and there wasn't enough pretty scenery for my mother since she doesn't watch movies for content, but only pretty pictures.  Whatever.  I thought it was brilliant.  And wow.  So. Much. Gay.  Seriously.  Friggin hilarious!  Everyone did a fantastic job.  Rachel McAdams was great, so was Jude Law, who I'm not usually a fan of.  And then that one guy (one of the bad guys) just drove me crazy because every time he came on screen all I could think was 'MORDRED'.  I'm hoping someone out there knows what I am talking about!
Anyway, brilliant movie, everyone should see it.

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Also saw Princess and the Frog last week and loved it.  I'm such a huge fan of old Disney and have been so horribly, horribly disappointed the past few years.  But this one was right on track.  Hand drawn and with music.  Fantastic.  And New Orleans made me homesick :)  I enjoyed mixing it up with the art deco number and the jazz music.  A bit different for Disney.  The story was fairly obvious, the villain was terrifying, but all around a good Disney movie! The Prince confused me though.  His accent sounded Spanish but he would occasionally throw out Russian phrases, was from the mythical Disney kingdom of Maldonia and has a Hindu name.  I was perplexed.  But another rec for anyone who used to enjoy Disney.  It was cute.

And I'm going to see Avatar on Monday!  Finally!  No one I know has really had terribly awesome things to say about it, so I'm not going expecting much, but I'm sure it'll be very enjoyable.

Oh, and I also watched an old black and white movie tonight called 'It Happened at Sun Valley'.  Stay away from that movie.  I found it very offensive.  And the 'lead' woman was a horrible, manipulative, obnoxious harpy.  I was not hoping she would win to say the least.  She infuriated me.  She just wanted to get herself a husband so she could cook and keep house for him.  So he finds someone, is amazingly deceitful in trying to actually 'compromise' herself so that his girlfriend would break up with him.  It was a terrible movie.  Not even the Glen Miller Band could save it.

Hope everyone had a fantastic day!

~Nikki

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So, the winter wonderland may be somewhat melted or iced over by Christmas, but this latest snow storm was GLORIOUS.  Okay, so maybe it is obvious that I haven't lived in a snowy place for a while, but I love the cold and the snow.  Always :)  And here we are.  First winter in Massachusetts and we get the storm of the decade.  Brilliant!

Mostly self explanatory pics.  Not much in the way of artistic.  That fourth pic in is poor Frodo, totally covered.  He got rescued today, no worries.  Then today (pics 6 and 7), all nice and sunny, I decided that I wanted to see what a snowy beach looks like :)  While I didn't trudge through the snow to get to it, I could still see it from where I was.  Pretty awesome!  Snow right up to the water!  Not something I've seen before.

Anyway, I quite enjoyed my first Massachusetts snow storm (not my first storm, I lived in upstate New York, this was NOTHING to that, but still quite awesome!).  Nothing when I went to sleep and a foot+ when I woke up!  Very fun.  And the streets are still totally covered, which is neat looking.  Makes me feel like we traveled back in time and don't have paved streets. 

But eek, the sun today means ice tomorrow morning.  That'll suck.

~Nikki

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Finished my dress last night!  Just in time to see Wicked today.  People really don't dress around here.  I don't know why you wouldn't, it is so much fun to dress up when you are going to something like that.  Anyway.  Wicked was fabulous, and I was very happy with my dress.  I wore it with some fantastic shoes that didn't show up in the picture, some cream coloured oxford-style booties, they were different, not your typical heels, but I liked them :)  My hair looked better earlier.  These pics were at the end of the night after I had a hat on and everything.

The pattern and design were all my own.  Took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do with that gorgeous red velvet fabric and I think it worked really well in this dress.  Plus, I have a BUNCH left over, so I can make something else as well.  I don't know if you can see it in the pictures, but the velvet has a gorgeous pattern/texture.  I've never seen anything like it.  The top is made of a creamy silk and has some fantastic buttons on the sleeves (purely for decorations).  The skirt is floor length and has a godet in the back which makes a mini-train.  The skirt is also lined and makes a wonderful sound when I walk :)  The sash thing around the middle/top is a red and sort of sparkly sheer, randomly ruched and stitched up.
It looked more Edwardian than I was expected, but I love the way it turned out.  One of the first that I completely made the pattern and concept for, so I'm proud of it.   The thing fits like a glove, one of the perks of making your own patterns, and I love the way the skirt hangs.

Anyway, lots of fun! 

~Nikki

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Wow, haven't posted in a long time!  Everything was so busy with the holidays and everything.  I took some pictures of a couple of gifts that I made this year!  And I had at least one present for everyone that I wasn't able to finish.  Oh well.  Since we had an early Christmas this year when my sister came to visit, I can post these without worry.

A key holder for my mom.   Bought the wood at Micheal's and the hooks at Lowe's.  I'm actually quite proud of this, I haven't painted in years and I'm so happy the rabbit turned out well!  The shading was such a pain.  But I love it.  My mom loves rabbits, btw, and she had a metal key holder with rabbits on it but the hooks are so small that everything just slides off.  So I made her a new one :)

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Yea, I'm so not ashamed that my sister and I 'get' Shakespeare jokes :P  I thought it was so clever.  "Exit pursued by bear" from A Winter's Tale.  :D  Pretty funny right??!  I came up with the exit sign idea all on my own :)  Just rounded the edges of a scrap piece of wood I had in the basement and started painting!

Anywho, those are all I have pictures of right now!  At the moment I'm working on a dress that I'm going to wear to see Wicked this weekend.  I know, cutting it close. I'm going to be SO overdressed, but I'm still so excited about it.  I love making fancy dresses, I just never have anywhere to wear them.  My own design and everything.  I'll post it when I'm done!

~Nikki

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Well, I've had a request for the Pumpkin Cupcakes.  They were wonderful.  I wasn't able to take a picture of those.  But I made half with and half without chocolate chips (just add them after filling half the cups) since my mom doesn't like pumpkin and chocolate.  They are a bit dense, but they were still delicious.  I'll highlight the small change I made:

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cupcakes with Cinnamon Icing
Makes 12 Cupcakes

Ingredients
1 cup canned punpkin
1/3 cup oil (I split it oil/apple sauce)
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup soy milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup AP Flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
I added 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c choc. chips
--Cinnamon Icing

Direction:

1.  Preheat oven to 350F.  Line muffin pan with cupcake liners.
2.  In a medium bowl, stir together pumpkin, oil/apple sauce, sugar, soy milk, and vanilla.  Sift in flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon/pumpkin spice, salt.  Stir together with a fork--don't use a handheld mixer, as it will make the batter gummy.  Once well combined, fold in the chocolate chips.
3.  Fill liners two-thirds full.  Bake for 22-24 minutes.  Transfew to wire rack and let fully cool before icing.

Cinnamon Icing
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (also added some pumpkin spice)
2 Tbl margarine, melted
1 Tbl soy milk
1.2 tsp vanilla

1.  Place sugar and cinnamon/pumpkin spice in a small bowl.  Add the margarine, soy milk, and vanilla and stir with a fork until smooth.  Keep at room temperature until ready to use.  The mixture should look opaque and honey brown.  If it's glistening a lot or looks too liquid, add a little extra confectioners' sugar.

Assemble:
I just used a spoon and drizzled the icing on -- the book tells you to pipe it on.  Whatever.

Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World: 75 Dairy-Free Recipes for Cupcakes that Rule

Isa Chandra Moskowitz

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A nice little hiking trip in Purgatory Chasm...

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More pictures of trees.  I just can't help it!  The colours are so beautiful!  These are just from a short walk I took around my neighborhood.

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Some pictures of when my sister was here to visit last weekend!  Right in the height of fall.  The colours were gorgeous.  The first day we went to the Shakespeare Company (in western Massachusetts) and saw a play, Hound of the Baskervilles turned into a comedy, Monty Python style.  It was HILARIOUS.  Anyway, it rained that entire day, which was a bummer, because that part of the state is gorgeous.  Well, I got the first shift home to drive and guess what?  THERE WAS A SNOW STORM.   I kid you not.  SNOW.  Everywhere!  Fantastic :)  I'm the only one in my family with the patience to drive through the traffic and snow, so it was probably for the best, but because of that, I don't have any pics of it.  Very awesome though.  First snow of the year!  Even if it wasn't directly here. The rest of the weekend was gorgeous though.

These are from a trail by the ocean.  Fantastic weather, but the ground was a bit wet (notice the flooded trail.  Also not helped by the tide).  Once again, fantastic colours.  I really love fall.

A couple pics from our last day in Boston.

Oh oh!  And my dad just got new internet service.  SO glad to finally have some speed!

Hope you enjoyed the pics!

~Nikki

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I've had these pics sitting around a while so I thought I would post them!  This is one of those franken-patterns.  Much adjusting was done, but it turned out just like I wanted it to when I bought the fabric.  The fabric is wonderful, btw.  Nice weight, texture.  I enjoy it :)  I wore it on a tour of the cemetary (morbid, I know) and got some comments on it.  Always a nice feeling when someone comments on your clothes or asks where you got it when you know they didn't know that you made it yourself!

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Just a bit of fall colour here on the South Coast.  I've seen some gorgeous trees and colour while driving, but I haven't been able to take many pics.  Maybe I'll go out for a drive in the country sometime on my own so I can stop and take pics.  There are some gorgeous scenes along the freeways, but for the life of me, I can't figure out how to get to them.

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Oh, and there was a ginko tree in the cemetery.  It hadn't turned yet, but I plan on going back to snap some pics.  I remember the ginko trees in Beijing, they were spectacular.

~Nik

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