Picture Wall/Mantelpiece Makeover

So, this is basically what I did all day. I had the idea last night after getting the antique camera that I got yesterday, but I didn't have time to start it last night. I was almost done when I realized that two of my frames didn't have hooks on the back. Infuriating? I think so. Anyways, I have some before and after photos for you. I'm very impressed with myself!

Before

Before 

After!

AFTER

*Pat's self on back*

Downtown discovery, April 19th, 2012

As it was another beautiful day out yesterday my friend Sarah and I decided it would be a great chance to go for an adventure downtown. We didn't really have a plan, but once we got down there we remembered an antique store we wanted to check out last time we were there, but did't have time to check out. We walk into this place (Livyer's Antiques) and there are about a million things in there. Its crazy, but amazing. So much history. Its really hot out, so its twice as hot in there, and I'm about to go ask Sarah if she's ready to go when I see she's standing in front of the most beautiful sight I've ever seen. A collection of antique camera's. I've always enjoyed photography, and after learning all about it this year in my classes, I couldn't pass it by. So here she is, a No. 2-C Autographic Nokia Jr, apparently they were released between 1923 and 1928. I want to look into getting it restored. I don't really care about getting it working, but its in pretty rough shape at the moment. It is my new baby. Enjoy.

Visit to The Rooms, April 17th 2012

On Tuesday, April 17th, I decided I would visit the local Museum, The Rooms, for the day. It was probably the nicest day of the year so far, but I didn't want to go walking around downtown alone so I thought I'd enjoy the beautiful view from The Rooms(pictures below). After I went to all of the art galleries and museum exhibits I decided to go to the Archives which are located inside the building. The archives hold all of the documents(ie birth, marriage, and death certificates) for the whole province of Newfoundland. You pay a $10 entrance fee, and then you're a member for life! Pretty sweet deal in my opinion. I didn't have a chance to find much on the first visit because by the time I got set up, I was starving as it was supper time.

Here are a couple of pictures of St. John's from the  viewing gallery on the second floor of The Rooms. Beautiful.

Easter Weekend

How was everyone's long weekend? Mine was wonderful! Actually, not so wonderful.
After a very stressful week full of assignments, I was super excited for the long weekend. Thursday was bad enough as the 5th is a rough day for me (I'll explain later), but when I came home around 9, my room mate and I were sitting on my bed chatting, and we were talking about mice that had been in our kitchen, and all of a sudden she jumps up on my bed screaming like crazy. She saw a mouse. IN MY ROOM. Argh, so I had to deal with that all weekend, and even now. But, luckily there were also great things about my weekend! My two dear friends came in for the weekend so I had an amazing time showing them around the city! Here are some pics from the weekend!

Online shipping

So, I might have a slight online shopping addiction. So, here are my latest purchases. My favorite website is www.boohoo.com. Great prices and great quality clothing!

DIY: Spray Painted Mason Jars

Spray paint used : Green Apple

After

Finished product

Holding my desk things

Items:

• Mason Jars
• Spray Paint

How To:

- This was also a super easy project. Wash your mason jars, once they're dry bring them outside (again very important to be in a well ventilated area when spray painting)

- Follow the instructions on the spray can. Do thin coats, if you get too close to the jar, or spray too much paint it will start to drip(you can see this in the second photo pretty clearly.)

-Let them dry, and then do whatever you want with them! I've seen people use them as I have as storage, others have used them as flower pots, or a place to grow herbs. They have thousands of uses!

DIY: Large Painted Flowerpot

Terracotta Pot before painting

While spray painting 

Spray paint used

Final Product + Flower

Items needed: 

• Spray Paint
• Terracotta Pot
• Soil
• Plant/Flower

How to:

-This is actually an incredibly easy project. Go to your local dollar store and find the flower pot, bottom, and soil. Then you should be able to find the paint at Walmart, and you can get all kinds of flowers from your local grocery store(I got mine from Sobeys). 

-Once you have all of your items, go outside (don't do this inside unless the area is well ventilated), then  follow the instructions on the spray can, make sure you do thin coats, if you get too close or spray too much, the paint will start dripping and that's no good. 

-Once the pot is dry get the soil and put some in the bottom. Get your flower and take it out of the pot-like thing its in. With the smaller flower I broke off as much of the soil it was already in as I could so it would have lots of new soil, but since this was such a large pot I just stuck it in the middle. Then fill in the soil around the plant until its even will the top and its as high as you want it to be. 

That should be it!

Good luck! This one is fun!

Entering Free Contests

So I've been trying to come up with a good blog post that isn't movie related as I haven't been doing anything worth blogging about I decided I'd do one on Win Free Stuff. I've been using this site for over a year now, and even though I've yet to win anything.. its a great way to find Canadian contests. They have contests for anything, and they have them organized perfectly so you can find anything you need. The biggest selection is for Trips, which is fine by me because thats what I want most. I don't just mean trips to Toronto or other parts of Canada(they do have those) but contests to travel all over the world! All of the contests are legitimate company contests. I entered one today hat was for Toyota, but there are other contests for all kids of other big companies so its none of those stupid ones where you get a phone call and they ask for your credit card number. These are totally free! There are some contests that have restriction on your location, but 90% you can enter from anywhere in Canada. Seriously, check out this site. It only takes a few minutes of your time, but you could win big! -www.win-free-stuff.com

Kiwi Film Review: 12 Angry Men

IMDB: 8.9/10
IMDB Top 250:  #6
Rotten Tomatoes: 100%


Release Date: April 1957

Stars: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Martin Balsam
Written By: Reginald Rose
Directed By: Sidney Lumet


Described by IMDB as "The defense and the prosecution have rested and the jury is filing into the jury room to decide if a young Spanish-American is guilty or innocent of murdering his father. What begins as an open and shut case of murder soon becomes a mini-drama of each of the jurors' prejudices and preconceptions about the trial, the accused, and each other. Based on the play, all of the action takes place on the stage of the jury room."


This entire film takes place in one room, which is very different as far as I can tell. There are only maybe, 15 people in the whole film, so its pretty impressive that it remains interesting throughout the whole film. The entire movie rests on the story, and the acting. No action scenes, no love story, nothing that today's films rely on. I also really liked that even though they could have filmed in colour by that time, they didn't even need to rely on that.. just the story. It was nominated at the 1958 Academy Awards for Best Director, Best Picture, and best writing.


This film is about a young man who's too poor to hire a decent lawyer and has to rely on a single man (Henry Fonda) to convince them otherwise. It was so interesting to hear civilians tear the stories apart when a lawyer couldn't. I absolutely loved the part where they're arguing about the knife and and he slams his own knife that looks exactly the same into the table. At that point I knew for sure that he was was going to change everyone's minds. I just can't get over just how brilliantly they kept this film going. The thought that I could sit through an hour and a half of watching 12 men argue with each other in one room is amazing, but I just wanted to hear more each time. It wouldn't have been the same even if it had been in a courtroom, just the fact that regular people could tear this trial apart.


I'm going to give this film an 8/10. Its #6 for a reason!

Kiwi Film Review: Titanic 3D

Heart is racing, eyes are leaking... you know what this means. Titanic 3D Review

IMDB: 7.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 84%
Roger Ebert: 4/4 Stars


Original Release Date:
3D Release Date:

Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Kathy Bates, Bill Paxton, Victor Garber.
Written & Directed by: James Cameron


Described by IMDB as "84 years later, a 100-year-old woman named Rose DeWitt Bukater tells the story to her granddaughter Lizzy Calvert, Brock Lovett, Lewis Bodine, Bobby Buell and Anatoly Mikailavich on the Keldysh about her life set in April 10th 1912, on a ship called Titanic when young Rose boards the departing ship with the upper-class passengers and her mother, Ruth DeWitt Bukater, and her fiancé, Caledon Hockley. Meanwhile, a drifter and artist named Jack Dawson and his best friend Fabrizio De Rossi win third-class tickets to the ship in a game. And she explains the whole story from departure until the death of Titanic on its first and last voyage April 15th, 1912 at 2:20 in the morning."


I'm not even sure where to begin on this one. You've all seen it, we all love it. The only word  can really think of to describe it is "masterpiece". There is no one in the world who would be better suited to make this film then James Cameron. By 2005 he'd made more then 30 trips to the Titanic. What other film maker could do a better job? I say not a single person. James Cameron as a boss. Quite possibly the real life "Most Interesting man in the World." 


There are so many things I love about this film. First off, I really love the fact that they included lots of footage of the Titanic as it is now, at the bottom of the ocean. Even though I've watched a bunch of documentaries on the Titanic, including one on how the film was made, so I know how a lot of the scenes were filmed and the special effects work, everything looked so realistic. Its amazing the quality of the special effects for the 90's. They even had to create some of the technology the used. Impressive to say the least. 

I also love the fact that they show the modern day Rose. It really makes the story complete. In fact, for me the saddest part of the whole film was at the very end when she dreams that she's back on the ship and everyone is there to greet her, and she walks up the stairs and Jack is there waiting for him. I actually started bawling at that point. But besides that, it shows that even though Brock Lovett(Paxton) desperately wanted to find the heart of the ocean, and did't care about disturbing the Titanic wreckage, in the end he realizes that its a real story, involving real people, and Rose shows him that. There were some scenes that really got me. Like the ones where they show a wide shot where you see the Titanic with nothing but ocean surrounding it for hundreds of miles. It showed how alone they were in the middle of nowhere. 


Finally, I love how much effort was put into this film. They rebuilt half of the entire ship to film. The cast was so great. Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio were so young and beautiful. I know it must be hard to move past a role like this for them, but they were so brilliant in it. I love how they used almost all real stories; Molly Brown(Bates), Mr. Andrews(Gaber), most of the crew, and then added the story about Rose(Winslet) and Jack(DiCaprio). Even this is a mystery because even though the characters are fictional, it is unknown  for sure who stayed in the room that Rose was using. If you're as obsessed with the story of the Titanic you should check out some of the documentaries. The 2005 National Geographic show with James Cameron is a great one. 


I'm actually quite surprised with the IMDB  rating, I would'v thought it would be higher, not that 7.5 isn't a good score. I loved the film beforehand, but seeing the documentary I saw on how the film was made was made me even more impressed, sort of like how The Social Network made me more impressed with Facebook.

I'll give this film a 9/10, my highest score yet. Honestly, anyone who debates how amazing this film is, is wrong and crazy. I can understand not enjoying "romance films" but this is so much more then that, its one of the most important films of the last few decades. I know you've already seen this film.. but if you're younger than 25, chances are you haven't seen it in theatres, and even if you have, you have't seen it in IMAX or 3D. It makes it so much more. Plus, its not like it was a surprise ending the first time you saw it. Spend the money, go see this film. Its even better then you remember.