My Oscars

Okay, so, incase you haven’t noticed, I’m pretty excited about the Oscars. Actually, I’m CRAZY excited about the Oscars. I completely and totally love all award ceremony’s ever and it’s become a bit of a tradition in our house that I stay up and watch them (bring on the coffee) while everyone else goes to sleep and then I leave little post its on everyone’s bedroom doors saying who won. It’s pretty fun!

Although my aim this year was to watch all of the Oscar films I’m ashamed to stay I’m still a few behind and although I would love to watch 8 films before tonight I’ve got a feeling it ain’t gonna happen. As you know from previous post’s I have never seen a film I haven’t liked but despite that I do still like some films more than others, I love all the films that are nominated but I did like 5 (and it took a while to narrow it down to 5) a lot more than the others. So if I ran the Oscars, (which I totally am going to do one day) here are my five films of the year.

EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE

OK so I only watched this film last night and totally didn't think it was going to make the list but OHMYGOD it's basically top of the list. It's just just an amazing, moving, beautiful, interesting, wonderful movie and to say I cried would be a huge understatement. I have a bit of a 'thing' about acceptance. It's a big subject in life and I've had to accept a lot of things that I would have rather not to have happened over the past few years. Last year I read the book 'Never Let Me Go' which is still to this day the book in this world I've been most moved by. It helped me accept things that I never thought I would and made sense of so many things I didn't understand. This movie did exactly the same thing. It's all about finding a way to deal with life when something happens to you that you can't control and the different ways that everyone can do that. It's EXTREMELY good and INCREDIBLY amazing so I recommend you go see it. 

LIKE CRAZY

At first I didn’t put Like Crazy on here because I saw it ages ago and it doesn’t feel like it came out this year. I know I’ve described most of the films on this list as ‘beautiful’ but literally nothing (not even Kate Moss) could look beautiful when compared to Like Crazy. If you haven’t seen it yet it is one of the most amazing movies you will ever see! It’s almost completely improvised and it’s a love story. It’s hard to describe so I’m not even going to try I’m just going to say that I loved it. 

WAR HORSE

I can’t be sure of many things in my life but one thing I am 100% sure of is that never again in my life will I ever cry at another film as much as I cried at War Horse. I’d been told by everyone to watch out and to bring tissues because it was going to make me cry so I came prepared. I began crying at the first charge (the one where Tom Hiddleston dies) and once that was over I felt like I knew what everyone was talking about and that the crying was over. Cut to the end of the film when I am literally a puddle on the floor of the cinema. I was crying so much I had to pretend I was crying about something else and run home. I find that sometimes you will watch a film that gets to you and moves you so much that when you leave you feel like everything in the world is a little bit different. I had it with 127 hours last year and I had it with War Horse this year and to me that’s the best thing a movie can make you feel. 

WE BOUGHT A ZOO

I think out of all the films on this list this is my best movie of the year. Cameron Crowe is probably one of my favourite directors ever ever ever. Almost Famous is in my top 5 best films of all time and Jerry Maguire is probably in my top 15. So it wasn’t much of a surprise to me when I absoulutly loved this film. I thought it was so well put together and the story was so beautiful and I would say I cried from start to finish. I obviously loved the animals and just thought of Posy the whole way through and I thought Elle Fanning was wonderful as well. I honestly can’t believe this film isn’t up for an Oscar, it was my favourite film of the year and I think it should have been everyones. 

YOUNG ADULT

I seriously, seriously LOVED this film. I watched it twice in two days, one time on my own and then one time with my family. It was really interesting watching it like this as the first time I watched it (on my own) my mind was just blown. I thought it was funny, moving, seriously interestingly made and with some really incredible performances. I also LOVED all the tiny details, the fact that the movie opens on her in bed watching the Kardashian’s was like my favourite thing ever. Charlize) so this one definitely get’s an Oscar from me! 

Further Reading:

You can read my view on the Oscars last year here. (I can't believe I've had this blog for over a year!)

You can read my ‘10 Unlikely Things I Wish Would Happen at the Oscars 2012' Hello Giggles piece here.


P.S. My dad found this video online of Steven Spielberg watching the announcements for the 1976 Oscar nominations the year he made Jaws. It's INCREDIBLE!

The Click on This List

1. Miss Indie is making a quilt - one of my favourite bloggers of all time Miss Indie has decided to make a quilt compiled of squares sent to her by her readers. I think it's such a cute idea and am definitely going to send her one! Go over to her blog to find out how...

2. This video of Dianna Agron (from Glee) cutting her hair. 

3. The Quirky Girl Timeline by The Huffinton Post - this was put together in honour of Zooey Deschanel hosting SNL, rather sadly I spent most of our holiday in Italy searching the internet trying to find somewhere I could watch her episode online. And I'm not going to tell you if I did because that would OBVIOUSLY be extremely illegal... 

4. Mandy Lee - Love Potion Number 9 (cover)

5. The Perfect Bucket List - A super cute blog with over 2000 things on the bucket list

6. Best Celebrity Photo Bombs by Hello Giggles - Michael Cera photo bombing this random couple is definitely my favourite. 

7. Knit Relief - The donations for Knit Relief just keep getting better and I'm so excited by how well it's going! If you haven't checked it out yet please do and try and spread the word!

8. This SNL sketch about crying to Adele. 

Okay, that's enough for now, and It's only 7 minutes till my Maths lesson so I should probably get going,

Happy Clicking,

Scarly xx

The BEST Exotic Marigold Hotel

I have been thinking for a while that I would like to do a bit more about movies at TV on my blog as after knitting they are my biggest passion in the whole world. I love music but I've never really been one of those people who's crazy for it, but I've always been crazy for movies and TV so I'm hopefully going to start doing some more reviews and stuff like that on here and to start them all off I would like to talk about The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel!

Being a Teen Granny a film about older folk was bound to catch my attention and I have been looking forward to this movie for ages. Extremely excitingly I was asked by a friend to go to an early screening of this film and as you can expect I couldn't wait. And as a small spoiler to the rest of this post I will just say - This film is amazing!

It's one of those films that just makes you feel amazing about everything and I guarentee you will leave the cinema a better person. It's incredibly funny (especially the amazing Maggie Smith), unbelievably moving and seriously beautiful. I've never been to India and this made me want to go like crazy. Every performance is 100% perfect and it's such a privilege to see so many incredible actors and actresses working along side each other. Although obviously it will appeal to adults I would also seriously reccomend it to people my age (even though I call myself Teen Granny I am actually 16) as it's as funny and entertaining for people of any age. 

I don't want to say too much as I'm scared I will give too much away but all I will say is go see this movie because it's brilliant and beautiful and just generally amazing. It comes into cinemas this Friday and I would seriously reccommend going to see it this weekend. As a bonus I'm pretty sure if there was ever a movie you could sneak your knitting into (as I am always trying to do) I think it would be this one! 

Happy Tuesday!

Love Scarlett. 

Feb Photo-a-Day Monday Update

Okay so I haven't been completely perfect with the photo-a-day challenge so far and as you can see I've missed a few days! But here are all the photos from the last two weeks, I hope you like them!


Day Six: Dinner: My fondant fancies were more 'after dinner' than 'dinner' but they were just so much prettier than dinner itself.

Day Seven: Button: Cute as a...

Day Ten: Self Portrait: Me before my fringe.

Day Eleven: Makes Me Happy: Surprise, surprise, it's knitting.

Day Twelve: Inside Your Closet: One of my four (!) tutus.

Day Thirteen: Blue: Chipped blue nail polish on my disgusting nails.

Day Fourteen: Heart: Karen, who was looking after Posy while we were away sent me this photo of Posy on Valentines Day!

Day Fifteen: Phone: Me and my phone have matching teddy ears (I didn't take these off our whole holiday, coz I'm just that mature)

Day Sixteen: Something New: Fresh snow!

Day Nineteen: Something You Hate To Do: Un-pack! But Posy likes it...

To read about the challenge and join in click here.

To read my first update click here.

In a slightly different kind of update, Knit-Relief has got off to an AWESOME start! Amazing people are already donating all kinds of things and I'm so excited by how lovely people have been. I'm also almost too excited to say that famed knitter Lauren O'Farrell (@deadlyknitshade) has written a post all about Knit Relief on crafty crafty! You can read it here. It was so kind of her and will hopefully help to get loads more people involved! 

Happy Monday (if that's possible)

Love Scarlett x

KNIT RELIEF

There has been much talk over the past few weeks about what the now legendary Twit-Knit Club was going to do for Sport Relief and I think after a lot of pondering (one of my favourite words) on the subject I have decided on something that everyone can contribute too!

On March the 15th (10 days before Sport Relief) The Knit Relief eBay auction is going to begin! It is going to be a place where all Twit-Knit Club members and any other crafty/knitty folk can have the opportunity to auction off their knitting and crafting abilities (even if there not that impressive) to raise money for Sport Relief. You can enter anything into the auction be it a promise to knit a pair of socks in the winners chosen colour or something you have already made, even if it's as small as a knitted bow or a sewn purse.

I am going to auction off two personalised knitted figures (like the one I made of my mum) and we already have a few brilliant things entered into the auction! 

- A hand-made apron from Queen of craft blogging Cherry Menlove herself!

- A pair of socks knitted in your favourite colour from Twit-Knit Club member Emma Pooley (@goldenblades)

- And a hand knitted raincloud from Emma Pooley (@goldenblades)

If you are interested in entering something for the auction (no matter how good you are at knitting/crafting) please send an email to scarlettcurtis@mac.com with information about the item you would like to auction and a picture if possible!

I'm so hoping that the Twit-Knit Club members will all get involved and encourage their friends and family's to bid on items! I think it's going to be very fun and we are going to try and get as many people involved as possible.

I will be tweeting and blogging as more things get entered and then on March 15th we will have the very exciting launch!

Lots and Lots of Love Scarly xx

Taking a Break...

Due to the fact that me and my family are going skiing (okay fine more like getting cosy, knitting and reading) this blog is going to be empty for the next week! But don't worry as I will be knitting like crazy while we are away and will return with many a tale of knitting in the snow. 

Have a lovely week and I hope you enjoy the English snow while I am enjoying the Italien snow (who even knew there was snow in Italy!)

Love Scarlett. 

Fondant Fancies

As long as I can remember Mr Kipling fondant fancies have been basically my favourite food ever. You know those ones that come in little packs with the dollop of icing under the top and are basically just super duper yummy. Well I thought valentines day was the perfect time to try out this BBC food recipe and make some! 

The recipe begins by baking a simple square vanilla cake which is always my fave thing to bake and the one included in the recipe is a really great one. Then you slice the cake in half  ready to ice. 

Okay this was the bit where I cheated a bit! You are meant to use sugar syrup, jam and HOMEMADE buttercream in the middle but seeing as how it was a bit of a late night bake (I find I work better at 2am) and we had a whole tub of super yummy betty crocker in the fridge I thought I would cut at least one corner. After icing the centre you coat the top of the cake in marzipan. 

              

You then have to slice the cake up into lines and then into squares. I was tempted just to improvise but I really wanted these to come out perfect so I used a ruler to make sure all the squares were the same. 

Then I made the icing which was of course my favourite part! I searched and searched and finally found some fondant icing sugar so I used the whole pack and then split it into three and died one pink, one lilac and one blue. 

I used the iron cooling wrack to ice and placed the cakes on top of it then simply poured the icing over the cake. It all drains through the wrack so you get a perfect finish. I topped the cakes off with litte decorations and then put them in the fridge to chill. 

As you can see this was a pretty high maintenance bake and had loads of steps. But in the end none of the steps were too hard and I'm so so glad I made the effort!

Happy Friday! 

Love Scarlett. 

The Click on This List - Video Special

So, as I was assembling my click on this list for this week (that's basically just my excuse for browsing the internet all day) I realised that I've found LOADS of what I think are very funny youtube videos recently and I actually had enough to do a whole post on just them! Suprisingly I actually have a deep routed hatred of youtube videos! It's not that I actually hate youtube videos, I mean who could hate videos of laughing babies, it's that I hate when you're with someone and there suddenly like 'oh dude I have to show you this video' and then everyone crams round a computer to watch it and the second it ends everyone else goes 'dude I HAVE to show you this video' and it goes on and on and literally doesn't stop till someone orders a pizza (you may be able to tell from this that I have three younger brothers!)

Anyway! Stop my rambling and here are the videos to enjoy in the privacy of your own home, when your alone, and not with me!

1. Follow The TV Reference. 

2. Lana Del Rey - Hunger Games Parody

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3. Harry Potter Cast Having Fun on Set

4. Funny or Die - Kristen Bell's Body of Lies

5. Erin Foster is the Worst Babysitter Ever.

6. Have You Seen My Sister Evelyn Music Video. 

I think we can all agree that was a half an hour truly well spent!

Love Scarlett. 

Twit-Knit Club Valentines Update

I thought I would start this update with some old pictures of a present I made for my mum to give to her best friend. I found a tutorial for a crocheted envelope one day while browsing (scroll down for link) and decided to have a go at knitting one!

It turned out pretty well and I'm thinking of making some more for V-day to put little notes in side of! For this one I crocheted a little heart to put inside. 

Twit-Knit Valentines is going very well so far! Knitting and love go so well together (especially if you love knitting) and it's been so fun looking at everyones creations. For this post I've put a few links to some more ideas for what you could knit or crochet and I've got some pictures of what everyone's been making so far... ENJOY! 

Some Inspirational D.I.Y.s. 

You can make one yourself with this easy little tutorial for a crocheted envelope. I made mine by knitting a square instead of crocheting and it was just as easy and effective! 

Or you could have a go at these beautiful crocheted frames! If you are planning to give someone a present you could try sticking your favourite photo of them in the middle! I definitely want to give these a go. 

And Finally... and most importantly... here is what Twit-Knit Club has been up to so far. 

@addiebabe made these super cute little crochet hearts! I need to give these a try. 

@mhairigirl made this beautiful pink and purple hearts chain! 

@kateeroberts made this super SUPER cute red heart with a button on the front.

I'm still in shock from @louisefcampbell beautiful chain of hanging hearts. I would kill to make one of these. 

@vicksG didn't have the time to make anything so she submitted this very pretty picture of a heart shaped window. 

It seems chains of hearts are very popular at the moment. These lovely ones are made by @vikki_butlin.

and possibly most AMAZING of all @addiebabe has actually knitted the I Love U sign! I'm in such shock I can't believe how beautiful it is! And I love the non-traditional colours as well. But if you know her boyfriend keep it quiet because she has had to knit it in secret!

I'm so proud of everyones work and remember to keep on knitting and tweeting your progress!

Happy Valentines Month.

Love Scarlett x 

SCREAM!

This made my so excited I had to run around my room doing a little 'ah i'm so excited dance' which Posy mistook for an 'danger! danger!' dance and went and hid under a stuffed elephant. 

February Photo-a-Day Sunday Update

So technically I've only been doing the Feb Photo a Day challenge since Wednesday but I want to get into the habit of doing an update every Sunday so here is my first one! I'm enjoying so much and it's such a good opportunity to look at things differently and take a few photos. I'm having to resist making every single one of Posy though! It's pretty hard...

Day One: Your View Today: The beautiful church outside my window.

Day Two: Words: The first page of Pride and Prejudice which I just finished and loved more than I could imagine!

Day Three: Hands: My new rings on my crazily long fingers. 

Day Four: Stranger: A picture of a stranger walking in the snow! (confession! this isn't ACTUALLY a stranger it's my dad but seeing as how you can't see his face I think it's okay)

Day Five: 10am: Our snowy garden.

Happy (or not so happy) Sunday.

Love Scarlett.