The Oscars; The Show

I highlighted the fashion earlier today and now it's time to get into the actual show. When I heard Anne Hathaway and James Franco were hosting, I was excited to see how they were going to be. Anne is very talented and James can be hilarious (though I'm not a big fan of him as a whole), so that combination should have made for a great show, right? In this case, not so much.

James Franco was the downer to Anne Hathaway's upbeat  personality. Their chemistry was mostly non-existent and there were too many awkward moments to keep track of. It was nice to see all of Anne's costume changes, but at one point, I thought they told James to just go home early because he disappeared for awhile. The opening montage was pretty funny but that was the highlight of their hosting.

Some other interesting moments from the Oscars:

• Melissa Leo was so excited about winning, she dropped the F-bomb. Good thing the censors were on their toes that night!

• Kirk Douglas was hilarious, but it was also a little hard to watch. I bet all the best supporting actress nominees thought that was the longest presentation ever!

• Justin and Mila started off strong with Justin claiming he was Banksy, but after that, it turned into the most awkward of presentations. I hope they have more chemistry in their movie together.

•  Anne's musical number for Hugh Jackman was forgettable, but seeing James Franco dress as Marilyn Monroe will haunt me for days. 

• Billy Crystal was back and got a standing ovation... I think the audience thought he was taking over hosting duties. 

• Helen Mirren and Russell Brand were quite funny when they presented foreign language film. After that bath picture came out, I'm sure they're on very friendly terms.

• I love you Christian, but please shave that ginger beard off!
• Speaking of Christian, is it funny that both Batman and Queen Amidala won Oscars last night?

•  I love you Mr. Darcy! Congratulations on your Oscar win :)

What did you think of the show?

The Oscars; Fashion

One of the main reasons I tune into these awards shows is to see what everyone is wearing. It amazes me how a dress or a hairstyle can make or break someone's look and this year was no exception.

The fashion at the Oscar's was mixed with duds, safe looks and winners. Let's start off with the worst dressed:

 Love the color on ScarJo, but the actual dress doesn't seem right.

 This was probably one of the worst dressed. This dress does not flatter Nicole at all.

 I love the drama of this dress but the neckline is way too high on Marisa

A lot of people loved this dress but I think it's a tad odd on Cate

Then there were the safely dressed:

 Amy looks great in this color and silhouette but there is no pizazz

 Stick straight hair, plain but pretty dress; Gwyneth does it again

 I feel like I've seen Halle in a dress like this before but she is always gorgeous

Dame Helen has to be the hottest old woman ever!

Anne was a vision in red

And, finally, here are my picks for best-dressed:

 This dress looks exquisite on Celine and I love the color

 Jennifer had to have been the sexiest woman there, and she's only 20!

 I love this color and dress on Mila, she looks amazing

 Natalie is such a cute preggo and this color is gorgeous

 Hottest couple there and Penelope just had a baby 3 weeks ago!

 Definitely not what you'd expect on Reese but I love how form-fitting it is. Her hair was great too.

Sandra was stunning in red 

Who were your faves on the red carpet?

Ready For The Weekend

It's been a long week and I am definitely glad it's Friday. Usually the weekends are quiet around the house but this weekend is an exception.

Our alma mater, USF, is opening up their brand new baseball stadium tonight and is inviting people to attend for free to see it. I'm not a big college baseball fan but I do like how the campus is expanding and can't wait to see the new stadium.

Saturday is my friend's bachelorette party. They are having an afternoon bbq before the night festivities begin at Channelside. I have promised myself to be on my best behavior and not drink like I did at the last bachelorette party.

That being said, one thing I love to do is buy ridiculous adult items for gifts and this time will be no exception. In Tampa, the place to get all bachelorette and adult items is at The Todd. I have been here several times to buy my friends stuff for their bachelorette parties (and I might have picked up things for myself as well, haha) and it can be very intimidating. I love buying novelty items but I definitely have to throw things in there that they might actually use. Chocolate whipped cream, handcuffs, dice, etc... why not?

Sunday, I am hoping to enjoy this beautiful weather by spending time at the pool or having a picnic. I might even go to the beach!

What are you doing this weekend?

Lost and Found: The Adventures of my Diamond

This is a picture of my wedding rings. You see that bigger stone in the middle? Yesterday, it decided it wanted to fall out of my ring and scare the hell out of me. Guess what... it worked!

Here's the story; I was standing in line at the Post Office and I happened to look down at my ring and see the large diamond missing from it. My heart seized and I immediately started looking on the floor to see if it had dropped somewhere. I couldn't find it and I began to have a small panic attack. I retraced my steps and went back to my car, where I prayed I would find the missing diamond.

I couldn't find it in the car, so I decided to look in my purse since I remember reaching in there for something. Lo and behold, my diamond was hanging out at the bottom of my purse, celebrating it's escape. At that point, I had started to cry, so when I found the diamond, I was totally relieved.

I had to drive home, find my receipt, and head to the jeweler to get it fixed. We found out that two of the prongs just broke off (how does that happen!) and that's why the diamond fell out. Luckily, even if I had lost the diamond, our policy allows them to replace it for free. So, now I am without my ring for a week but extremely relieved I found it.

Has anything like this happened to you?

Goodreads

I want to start out by thanking everyone that commented on yesterday's post. You guys give some great advice and I certainly appreciated each comment :)

Right now, I have got books on the brain. I was on 2 book swap sites before I realized that the number of books that I owned and haven't read were overtaking the number I had read. Therefore, I figured I needed to take a little hiatus from book swapping so I could start to catch up.

Since I have accumulated so many books, I wanted to find an Iphone app that let me organize and list my books so I could keep track of what I still needed to read and have that available. I came across Goodreads, which was free, and figured I'd give it a try. It was exactly what I needed!

The site lets you list every book you've ever read, want to read, or are currently reading. It allows you to make "bookshelves" so that you can better organize the books you own and also offers a book swap if you are looking for books for cheap. You can comment on people's books, updates, and reviews and even participate in book challenges (like I have 45 days to read Jane Eyre before the movie comes out, so I'm reading it now).

If you are a bookworm such as myself, I highly recommend you check the site out. You can even put info on your blog like I did. Here is the link to my library page in case you'd like to join and be friends on there:

My bookshelf




More of Amanda's books »

Happy reading!

Babies

So the hubs and I are nearing our 3 year anniversary and we've been getting a lot of baby-related questions from friends. When we got married, we said we were going to start having kids in 3-4 years. Well, 3 years is here and we are not ready! So, we've been pushing it back each year. But, friends don't forget comments like that so I've been getting the whole "I guess you guys are going to start trying for kids soon, huh?". My answer..."Nope, not yet".

The way I see it, we are enjoying our married life and are finally going on a much needed vacation this year to Cali, which we probably couldn't do if kids were in the picture. We still have things we want to do both traveling and house-related and they will require money, money that would be spent on kids. So, the way I see it, if we are not mentally or financially ready, then we should wait. It may sound selfish, but we're still young! Besides, we know some people who definitely wished they had waited longer after marriage to have kids, so we also get a lot of support for waiting.

Although, I did tell my hubby that if we went to Italy at the end of the year for his brother's wedding, that would be the perfect place to "start the process" ;).

To all my married followers without kids, have you gotten lots of questions about babies and what is your reason for waiting? Is it your choice or is it more complicated?

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

Over the weekend, I watched the classic "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner", starring Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, and Sidney Poitier. I am ashamed to admit that I saw "Guess Who" first, the movie with Ashton Kutcher, Zoe Saldana, and Bernie Mac. Our generation probably assumed that Guess Who was an original, but I knew it was a remake and reversal of the 1967 classic.

What I love about the movie is how confident and happy Joey is to bring her fiance, Dr. Prentice, to meet her family, thinking everything is going to be fine. Knowing that those times were different, it seems a breath of fresh air for someone to be so confident of something that would readily cause trouble. I also love when Katharine Hepburn's character, in discussing the engagement with her husband, states that they taught their daughter not to pay attention to race but character and personality, and that they shouldn't be surprised if she actually listened.

A surprising plot line in the movie was the colored maid Tillie's opinion and reaction at Joey's fiance. She was probably raised to believe that blacks and whites were separate and should never be together, which would account for her anger towards Dr. Prentice. He believed she would understand, but she evidently did not.

Some trivia from the movie:

• The character that played Joey was actually Katharine Hepburn's niece in real life.
• Spencer Tracy died just 17 days after filming was completed. He died of a heart attack.
• The bronze statue in the movie was actually of Spencer Tracy and was made by Katharine Hepburn herself.
• Katharine Hepburn was so upset over the death of Spencer Tracy that she never saw the completed movie.
• In the scene where Spencer Tracy's character is giving his moving speech at the end, you can see Katharine Hepburn crying. Those are real tears; she knew how ill he was and was moved with his remarks.
• Both Katharine Hepburn and the director, Stanley Kramer, had to put their salaries in escrow since Spencer Tracy was dying and insurance companies would not cover him. 
• Spencer Tracy received a posthumous Oscar nomination for Best Actor but didn't win. Katharine Hepburn did win the Oscar for best actress.

Have you seen the film?

This and That

It's almost the weekend and I couldn't be more excited... work has been super busy and I need a break! Some things that have been going on:

• We got our new washer last weekend and I love it! It's a front loader and I've spent many minutes sitting in front of it watching it go. It's amazing how it can use so much less water than what we used to have.
• I had an amazing wine last night called Bottego Rosso Fragolino. I've never had a Fragolino before but it was a dark, sparkling wine from Italy and it was pretty awesome! 
• All I want to do is read recently. I made myself a challenge to read 50 books in 2011 and I am 7 books in so far. The book I am reading right now seems like it will be very interesting.
• A new World Of Beer (which is a franchise of beer bars) opened up near our house recently and we are excited to go. It's so much closer than the other one we went to and they always have a great beer selection.
• I just realized two of my bullets are about alcohol....

And with that, I leave you with this awesome someecard:

The Help

I attended my monthly book club meeting yesterday and we discussed the  book "The Help". The book is set in the 1960's in Jackson, Mississippi,  which is largely segregated. The book follows 2 colored maids and a young white woman who are trying to change their situations by writing an anonymous book all about the lives of colored maids in Mississippi. The maids chronicle their lives and what working for rich, Southern women is all about and the young woman writes it to start her writing career. In the book, you find a large spectrum of Southern housewives; from the wife who wants to control her friends, to the wife that follows the leader, and even the wife that doesn't see the boundaries put up between her and her colored maid.

This book brings people back who lived during those times and educates readers who may not have been around what it was like in the South. The book is purely fiction but the author, Kathryn Stockett, was raised by a colored maid and uses her experiences to fuel the book. When you read her story in the back of the book, you start to wonder what characters she modeled herself after and what experiences in the book were actually from life.

I thought it was a eye-opening and stirring book and I highly recommend it to everyone. My grandfather grew up in Mississippi during those times and it makes me want to learn more about how life was at that moment.

Have you read The Help?