chiquitita tell me the truth…

Filed Under review, summer, thoughts | 8 Comments

Okay, the truth? Here goes:

Mamma Mia is an amazing movie!!! Mom and I went last night and let me tell you- it was like one big party. We’ve seen the play in Toronto, but that was too long ago to remember, and I’m so glad they made a movie! From the set, to the actors to the costuming (ESPECIALLY the costuming- simply amazing!), this movie had me and mom going from laughing hysterically and singing to almost crying. I was pleasantly surprised by Amanda Seyfried’s performance though. I remember her from Mean Girls and Alpha Dog, and in those movies she was acting as kind of a (excuse my language), slut. haha. In this movie she was the cutest thing ever! You can probably see this from the picture though. Mom is a huge fan of Meryl Streep also, and said it was nice to see her in a happy, mom role, instead of a serious role, like in The Devil Wears Prada.

If you are planning on going to see it, you HAVE to stay to watch the credits! They are HILARIOUS!

Thanks for reading! Did you know you can get Five Blondes delivered (semi) daily? Just click for our RSS feed. See you soon!

Jun

20

My Kid Could Paint That

Filed Under review, television, thoughts | 7 Comments

Last night my friend Laura and I had a girls night, our husbands were having a boys night at the Coors Light Maxim Golf Experience. I made Laura some amazing Linguine & Chicken Thighs and she brought over a movie- My Kid Could Paint That.

I had heard of it before from Rosie O’Donnell’s blog. The movie hits close to home for Rosie because of all the paintings that her kids do. It’s almost similar to the movie because she often tapes them all painting in their painting room, it’s amazing.

I was mesmerized with the movie. It’s a documentary about Marla Olmstead, an adorable and shy 4 year old. She started painting when she was 2, and they always loved her work, but really all parents love their children’s work. A friend of the families owned a coffee shop and offered to put her work up in the shop, just to see what might happen. As it turns out a gallery owner saw the painting and loved it, after finding out that it was done by a 4 year old the story just grew and grew. And that was just the beginning. She has art shows and her paintings sold for anywhere between $250 (the first one) - to $25,000. Issues arise when people start questioning whether she had any help from her father, an amature painter himself. The documentary does an amazing job of making you really think about it. In the beginning you are so amazed with Marla’s painting, that you believe she does it all herself. Further into the movie after they tape her painting and compare it to other works she has completed you wonder whether she did in fact have help from her father. The painting that she was filmed painting (called Ocean) looks a lot different from the other paintings that she completed (for example Building & Zane Dancing [Zane being her younger brother]) the others are tight patterns and are very symmetrical, the one she painted on film was not. In the end of the movie you are left to decide for yourself.

I honestly feel that it doesn’t matter if she had help, the pieces are still amazing, but if she had help they should have said from the beginning that it was father-daughter work, and not that she did it all herself. The parents were adamant in the movie that she did it all herself and the only help she got was with setting up the canvases, that she did all the painting by herself. The father seemed a bit odd in the movie, and I think it may have been possible that he was helping out. Laura found Marla’s manager to be really weird, and I agreed. He never seemed to give the right answer when people were asking questions and after a documentary about Marla ran on CNN he was filmed screaming at a camera who was asking him questions. Quite a creepy guy also.

I really want to believe that she made these herself and I would highly recommend seeing this movie, so you will know what I’m talking about because this may seem like a lot of mumble jumble. And please let me know what you thought of it!

Oct

4

Feeling Scrab-U-Lo-Riffic! FiveBlondes + Scrabulous = Love

Filed Under Family, erica, facebook, friends, games, internet, life, review, scrabulous, technology | 2 Comments

So I’ve been watching Scrabulous catch on among my Facebook friends over the past few weeks and months (over 10% of my FB friends have it!) and have been thinking to myself “Oh, seems cool, but I won’t have the time”. Finally early this week Mom-the-fabric-snob sends me a request to play a game with he. I thought, ‘why not’, and installed the app (I don’t like to install FB apps generally).

I’m addicted. It’s amazing. I love it. Before this week, Scrabble has always been an occasional family event at my Oma’s house that reminds me of my Opa, who was always up for a game of Scrabble. Or Rummikub. Now that would be a great game for a Facebook app (hint, hint). But I digress - back to Scrabulous. Playing a casual game game of Scrabble in this format allows you the time to really look for words and make the most of all of your tiles. I actually played one word that used ALL of my tiles! GRANOLA - 62 points. You can play with many friends at a time, no matter where they are! Right now we have a game going on with Leah, Micaela, and I…although Micaela hasn’t made a move yet and Leah and I have made 2. Time for a friendly nudge.

Another fun part of Scrabulous is that you can play with absolutely anyone, anywhere. I put out a call for a game with someone random, not necessarily a friend, and am now playing with “Janet C”. After several moved I wondered to myself, who is Janet C? Turns out Janet is from Los Angeles. Pretty neat.

So if you’re looking for a way to spend a little time online and improving your vocabulary at the same time, try Scrabulous. Fun in every move - guaranteed!

Oct

1

Blog Review

Filed Under agriculture, blogging, farming, review | 1 Comment

I recently came upon a new blog, that I felt the need to share with the world and express my love for it.

Confessions of a Pioneer Woman

This blog (updated daily) is written by a woman, who in her earlier years was city woman who went to college in Los Angelas. She moved home after college and met a man she calls ” The Marlboro Man” whom she eventually married. Marlboro Man is a cowboy rancher in Oklahoma and Ree always has interesting stories of life on the ranch. Together they have 4 adorable children.

Here’s Ree’s bibliography from her website:

“I’m Ree, a.k.a. Pioneer Woman. Welcome to my frontier!

I’m a thirty-something ranch wife, mother of four, and moderately-agoraphobic middle child who grew up on a golf course in the city. I attended college in Los Angeles and wore black pumps to work every day. I ate sushi and treated myself to pedicures on a semi-regular basis. I even kissed James Garner in an elevator once. Now I live in the middle of nowhere on a working cattle ranch. My days are spent changing diapers, chipping dried manure from boots, washing jeans, and frying calf nuts. I have no idea how I got here, but you know what? I love it. Don’t tell anyone.

I hope you enjoy my website. Here, I write about my decade long transition from spoiled city girl to domestic country wife. I post frequent audio clips of my children mispronouncing simple words and of me doing Ethel Merman impersonations. I also share delightful audio clips of different styles of burps as well as photos of my son picking his nose. I’ve been known to record phone conversations with my retarded brother, Mike. Please don’t be offended; I’m a Middle Child. And I’m just keepin’ it real.

I’ve embarrassed myself a lot. Once, I spilled a pot of hot tea on Gary Coleman’s lap.“

love taking pictures and post frequent photos of my life on a working cattle ranch. And semi-regularly, I hold “Give That Photo a Name” contests, in which my readers enter suggested photo titles for a particular photo I’ve posted. The prizes are fabulous, and I get to swim around in your creativity for a day. Don’t miss ‘em!

In my spare time, I also manage to write, take pictures of nature, and compose ridiculous poetry in an effort to chronicle this bizarre, beautiful, and often hilarious journey I’m on. Thank you for allowing me to share it with you.

Also, check out my separate food blog, The Pioneer Woman Cooks! There, I post step-by-step pictorials of all the cowboy-pleasin’ dishes I’ve had to learn to cook over the years. You’ll love ‘em.”

You gotta check this blog out, it’s official I’m hooked!