Tuesday, January 31, 2012

2012 SAG Awards - Fashion Hits and Misses

I did not realise how close the SAG Awards were to the Golden Globes, so thank goodness Twitter alerted me to the red carpet arrivals that had just started. Otherwise I would totally have forgotten to pour over the images last night.

I suspect Rose Byrne may also want to forget everything about this look.
Rose, the 1970s called. Even they don’t want this look back.

I bet Anna Wintour is fuming and throwing three thousand dollar couch cushions around in her office at Vogue because of Rose’s copycat bob.

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Monday, January 30, 2012

Monday Morning Melody - Colbie Caillat

Even though it's been so gosh darn hot in Melbourne this weekend, this song is a nice little tune for Summer.





Almost makes you forget about the sweat running down your back.




Almost. Pin It

Friday, January 27, 2012

Fun Friday Links

It's award season, yay! Oscar nominations were announced this week (I SO hope Jean Dujardin wins for The Artist - if you enjoyed his performance, you should definitely check out the OSS:117 films he's in. Think a French version of Get Smart. Hilarious). Some of these links are related to the Oscars, some are not. Regardless, I hope you enjoy all of them!

- If 2012's Oscar-nominated film posters told the truth. I think the Leonardo DiCaprio one might be my favourite.

- Vulture has a great slideshow of what some of those For Your Consideration Oscar movie posters should really say. I really wish there was a category for Best Beard.

- I get that people are sick of those Sh*t Girls/Guys/Whoever Say videos, but I kind of love this one featuring Liz Lemon. Mostly because she's a huge dork who says the kind of stuff I often think.

- So, in the States, they have the Superbowl, which is basically like our AFL Grand Final. But they also have Puppy Bowl. Here's this year's line up of players (hint: contains lots of adorable dogs!), and I just learned that the dogs are all from animal shelters and throughout the match, information on how people can adopt them is shown. Awww! And for your viewing pleasure, here are some links to past matches.

- Finally, in shameless self-promotion, I'm linking to the fabulous Summer giveaway I'm currently running! I will post this prize pack to anywhere in the world, so you don't have to be in Australia to enter! Contest is running until next Tuesday, so make sure you enter ASAP.

That's it for this week - seen anything else good online? Hit up the comments and let me know! Pin It

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Summer Giveaway!

I've been wanting to do a giveaway for aaaages, and Summer seemed like the perfect time to do it. So I thought about the essentials for Summer. For me, it's a good book, a sassy, bright beach towel for lazing around on the sand and brightly coloured nail polish for pretty toes in strappy sandals.

So I decided that those would be the three things I'd give away! Behold the Boredom Abounds By Julia Summer Giveaway prize pack:


**WINNER** thanks to all who entered! The winner (chosen at random) is Courtney! Courtney, I'll be in touch shortly to arrange postage of the prizes!

The pack includes an Espirit Miami Hot Beach towel, a five pack of Models Inc. nail polishes, and a copy of Jenny Colgan's book Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe (which you'll recall I reviewed quite recently). Total prize pack value is $80AUD!

If you want to win this super hot Summer prize pack, just do this:

Mandatory entry:
1. Leave a comment in this blog entry (make sure you leave your name in the blog comment if you don't have a Google account).

Bonus entries:
For extra entries, just do any of the following:
1. Tweet about the giveaway with the following line: I've entered @BoredomAbounds super hot Summer giveaway over at Boredom Abounds By Julia!
2. Become a follower of Boredom Abounds By Julia on Facebook.
3. Become a Boredom Abounds By Julia follower on Blogspot.
(note that each bonus entry can only be done once - for example, no matter how many times you Tweet about the giveaway, you will only receive one extra entry):

Note that you MUST leave a comment in this blog entry to be eligible to then the additional forms of entry. 

If you do any of the four additional types of entries, you MUST leave the details of which additional entry type you've done in your original blog comment so I know who you are in the various forms of social media!

Best part? I will ship this prize pack anywhere in the world! So as long as you have a valid street or postal address, you can totally enter this contest!

Contest closes at midnight Melbourne, Australia time on Tuesday, 31st January, 2012, with the winner announced the following day.

Good luck!
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Monday, January 23, 2012

Monday Morning Melody - Etta James

Singer Etta James died over the weekend. Let's all pause to listen to her gorgeous voice.



One of the greatest love songs ever written. I have never heard anyone cover this and sound better than Ms. James.
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Friday, January 20, 2012

Fun Friday Links

This week we have video links. You may have already seen most of them, but they're just too clever for me to ignore!


- Libraries are great for the borrowing of all the books. And they've been used in a bunch of films - watch this. Can anyone tell me where I could buy a vintage card catalogue cabinet? Seriously. I need one of those ASAP. Have you been to your local public library lately? GO!


Seen any other good clips online this week? Drop me a line in the comments. Happy weekend everyone!

Oh, make sure you check back here next week - I'll be doing the first of two awesome giveaways!


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Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Adventures in Cooking - Choc Chip Cookie Bars

A few weeks ago we went to a little cafe up in the hills for a lovely brunch. Afterwards, we bought a couple of sweet things to bring home to have later. My choice was a choc chip and walnut cookie bar, that apparently was made with Lindt chocolate. Sounds delicious, right? Wrong. It was the driest, most tasteless thing I've ever eaten in my life. My people, choc chip anything should not be dry and tasteless. EVER.

I started thinking I could make my own version. So I did.

Behold:

Choc Chip Cookie Bars!

Ingredients
125 grams butter (room temperature)
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 egg
1 3/4 cups self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
125 grams good quality chocolate chips
50 grams chopped walnuts or hazelnuts (optional)

Total prep and cooking time: about an hour.
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Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Golden Globes Fashion Hits and Misses

Yay, award season is here! And what better way to kick off the Boredom Abounds By Julia fashion hits and misses posts with the award ceremony where celebrities get drunk on camera. Woot!

It was so kind of Madame Tussauds to loan out their Angeline Jolie wax figure for the evening.

She really adds to the formality of the occasion with her "Bitch, please" expression, no?
(That being said, she does look FIERCE. I love the pops of red)
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Monday, January 16, 2012

Monday Morning Melody - The Wombats

It was dreary, grey and rainy last Friday morning as I drove to work. So when this song came on the radio it was a welcome pick-me-up for a boring drive. Take a listen - I guarantee you'll be in a better mood afterwards.



See? Told you. Pin It

Friday, January 13, 2012

Fun Friday Links

Yay, Friday! We don't have a lot planned so I'm hoping to get stuck into reading Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy before the movie comes out. What are you all reading at the moment?

- If you read Dooce, you will have already seen that she linked to this awesome wedding photography blog called Moment Junkie. Thing is though, it's just single shots from weddings, that amazing, specialone-off shot the photographer manages to capture in a split second. You'll get lost in here for hours.

- Love books? So do these people - so much that they spent many "sleepless nights" organising the books in this bookshop to create a really cool stop-motion animation. Worth a quick look just to ogle all the gorgeous, gorgeous books.

- Sometimes Google turns up really, really weird image search results (couple of these photos are NSFW).

- The newest beauty product to take the world by storm - Fotoshop. Everyone needs to watch this, if only to remind us all that the images presentded by the media, particularly fashion magazines are TOTALLY FAKE AND UNACHIEVABLE. Scroll down the page to see the video.

That's it for now - we're watching The Untouchables and it's up to the scene in the train station on the stairs. Such a great movie. 

Happy weekend, everyone!

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Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Movie Review: The Adventures of Tintin

The Movie: The Adventures of Tintin
The Players: Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig
The Makers: Steven Spielberg (director), Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson, Kathleen Kennedy (producers), Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright, Joe Cornish (writers)
Run time: 107 minutes


Tintin (Jamie Bell) is a young journalist living in a European town with his dog, Snowy. While browsing in a market one day, he spots a model sailing ship, the Unicorn, and purchases it on the spot, pleased with such a great find. Before leaving the market, Tintin has offers from two other gentlemen to take the ship off his hands for a decent sum of money, which he attributes to nothing more than a strange coincidence. When Tintin refuses, one of them issues an ominous warning that he will be cursed as long as he owns the model ship.

Back home, after a scuffle with the neighbour's cat, Snowy destroys the model ship by accident, and eventually they discover that the ship holds part of a secret that leads Tintin to Marlinspike Hall, the residence of Ivan Sakharine (Daniel Craig), one of the men who offered to buy the ship from Tintin at the market. While at the mansion, Tintin notices that Sakharine is also in possession of a model of the Unicorn and his curiosity it piqued. Returning home, Tintin discovers that his model ship has been stolen, and moments later he is shot at and abducted.

Snowy manages to track Tintin down where he's being held captive aboard the SS Karaboudjan, which has been taken over by Sakharine. As Tintin and Snowy escape, they discover the ship's captain, Haddock (Andy Serkis), a bumbling drunk with a temper who is also being held captive. Haddock reveals that his ancestor, Sir Francis Haddock, was captain of the treasure-laden Unicorn when it was attacked by pirates led by Red Rackham, Sakharine's ancestor, and sunk. It is revealed that there are three model ships that each hold a piece of the puzzle that will lead them to the buried treasure, so the trio decides to find the other two pieces of the puzzles and beat Sakharine at his own game.

Based on three of Hergé's original comic books, I think The Adventures of TinTin is one of the best animated films released in years. The plot is set up nicely and without too much laborious explanation of Tintin's backstory, so the audience is able to get a grasp of adventure-loving Tintin's life and his talent for solving mysteries as the story moves forward at a cracking pace. Tintin, with his curious nature paired with Snowy, his mischeiveous dog are a delightful duo, and once they team up with the unpredictable Haddock things become action packed. 

Critics may take issue with this film for a seeming lack of humor, or sit down expecting to watch a cute, fluffy film, thus completely missing the care and attention to detail the creators have taken with this adaptation. Light-hearted and funny (particularly when the bumbling Thomson and Thompson are on screen), Tintin, Snowy and Haddock make an entertaining trio of adventurers. While the character of Tintin would have benfitted from a little more personalisation to help the audience connect with him on a deeper level, the creators can't be faulted for their faithful portrayal of such a beloved comic book character.

 
The animation is simply stunning - scenes in Morocco are richly layered with the most intricate details, and the characters' faces are so emotive it's hard to believe what you're watching is an animation. The film is action packed and offers viewers a rollicking good ride full of thrills, spills and a nice, old fashioned goodies versus baddies battle. It's also great to see the plot doesn't rely on a traditional male/female love interest story to hold the things together, keeping the mystery and adventure front and centre for the duration of the film. Tintin, Snowy and Haddock's journey to defeat the bad guy is all this movie needs to keep you on the edge of your seat.

While fans of the comics and cartoons from years gone by will love this spectacular update of a comic book icon, it's also a nice movie to introduce kids to as an alternative to the often formulaic Disney and Pixar films. Definitely something for the whole family to enjoy!

In a word:
great

Sidenote: if you're ever travelling through the Loire Valley in France and have the opportunity to visit Château de Cheverny, the mansion Marlinspike Hall was based on, I highly recommend it. It's set on beautiful grounds, has luxurious interiors and if you time your visit to coincide with the hounds' feeding time you'll be in for a real treat!
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Monday, January 9, 2012

Monday Morning Melody - Kate Nash

I've never really heard much of Kate Nash's music, despite her being around for a while. But this song came on our digital radio the other day and the opening piano notes really caught my attention.



It's boppy and cute and really just a fun song to listen to! Any recommendations for some of her other songs that are worth checking out?
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Friday, January 6, 2012

Fun Friday Links

First links of 2012! These are ones I would have posted last week before New Years Eve, but we had our internet disconnected for a few days while we painted part of the house and moved the phone connection and cable points around. When I say "we", I mean "my husband" when referring to the phone and cable stuff. Obviously. They're sort of 2011 best of type of things, and they're always entertaining.

- Of course you know all about Damn You Autocorrect. Here is a list of the best 25 autocorrects of 2011. Number 12 is hilarious and creepy at the same time.

- One of the great things about Twitter is using it to tweet stuff about TV while you're watching a particular show. This list is 30 of the best TV tweets from 2011. Number 25 might be the most amusing tweet I've ever read. And there are probably a bunch of TV nerds thinking "YES. A jetpack fueled by internet rage should be a REAL THING."

- These lists from TIME for the top 10 of everything in 2011 will keep you occupied for hours. There are SO MANY lists to get lost in.

- Also from TIME, the 50 best websites of 2011. Another rabbit hole to get lost in, trust me.


Seen any other good best of lists? Hit me up in the comments! Pin It

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Summer Days

Summer Days

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Monday, January 2, 2012

Monday Morning Melody - Snakadaktal

Happy New Year, everyone! Many thanks for your support of Boredom Abounds By Julia in 2011 - there's some big stuff happening this year, so stick around!

For now, though, enjoy this very chilled out song from Triple J's unearthed band Snakadaktal, titled Air.



Blogging will resume as normal next week - we've been without internet and doing a bunch of stuff around the house, so my time in front of a computer has been minimal this week.

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