Life of Pie

That's right. I made A Life of Pi Pie. Or to make it a bit simpler let's just call it A Life of Pie. I was so proud of it I actually did a little dance around my kitchen once I was done. And as there was no one home I made Posy and the cats and even Gary the tortoise admire it for a full 10 minutes before they returned to their busy schedule of sniffing things and pretending not to have been fed. 

If you don't understand the reference or just simply don't understand how I could be this much of a geek I made the pie to celebrate not only the brilliant film that is 'The Life of Pi' but also to celebrate the fact that it's the Bafta's tonight! There is quite literally nothing I like more than an award ceremony and an award ceremony that actually starts at a reasonable hour! Well that's just too much. A few weeks ago I stayed up till 5 in the morning to watch the Golden Globes which was kind of worth it but also kind of totally not worth it at the same time... Anyway as you can see I'm very excited! And when I'm excited I like to bake. Life of Pi was one of my favourite films of the year, I've tried to see all the Oscary films this year and I think in the end Life of Pi and Silver Linings Playbook were my favourites. But it's harder to come up with a Silver Linings Playbook themed dessert, so I just settled with Life of Pie. For anyone that hasn't seen it, this picture might explain. And yes, I know there's no sail, but without a sail my 'boat' just looked like a mouldy pea pod...

I used a recipe I saw on A Beautiful Mess for Buttermilk and Honey Pie. The only reason I went for it was because I actually had some buttermilk in the fridge which basically never happens! So I got all over excited and made this. I used Agave Syrup instead of honey because I'm not a huge fan of the actual taste of honey and it turned out really well! I decided to make mine 'Halfway Homemade' as well and I bought some mini pastry shells from M&S as well as a big one. The recipe made enough filling for a big pie and 6 mini pies so I ended up with kind of a lot of pie! I probably shouldn't say this but buying ready made pastry shells was amazing! The whole thing took about 5 minutes and the result was probably yummier! 

Life of Buttermilk and Honey Pie Recipe.

From A Beautiful Mess. 

Ingredients:

- 3 eggs,

- 150g caster sugar (2/3 cup)

- 1/2 cup of honey or agave syrup. 

- 2 tbsp plain flour.

- 1 cup of buttermilk.

- 1 tsp vanilla extract. 

Step One - Whisk the eggs with the sugar and honey and stir in the other ingredients. 

Step Two - Pour into store bought pie crus (or homemade!) and bake at 174C (350F) for 40 minutes (the mini pie's took 20 minutes) or until the sides are golden brown and the pie is set (it will still have a slight jiggle at the centre). 

Step Three - While your waiting for your pie to cool make a little boat! I made the boat and the rubber ring out of black fondant (available from Waitrose) and then I stuck a cocktail stick into the boat with a sail shaped sticker attached. I drew the line with writing icing. 

If you decide to make your own Life of Pie (remember, it could be any pie!) for tonight please tweet me a picture and also if you come up with any Bafta movie related food puns. My only other idea was Argo Fro-Yo but I'm not sure how to make frozen yogurt... 

Lots of Love Scarly x 

Lena Dunham and The Lexi Cinema

I wanted to write a blog about a very interesting evening I had the other day. To most people it wouldn't seem too exciting, it was just a trip to the cinema. But it was a trip to a truly extraordinary cinema and to see a truly incredible film. So I thought it deserved a blog. 

The cinema was a little cinema in North-West London called the Lexi and it was my first time there. This is how the Lexi describes itself:

The UK’s first social enterprise independent boutique digital cinema – that ticks quite a few boxes, doesn’t it? We donate 100% of our profits to charity and are staffed predominantly by passionate local volunteers. We like to think we’re improving the quality of life for everyone in our little corner of northwest London and at the same time making a difference to the quality of life for a very different community on the other side of the world.

That's right, it's a beautiful independent cinema showing all your favourite films that donates 100% of it's profits to charity! When we found out we couldn't believe it. Especially because it was one of the nicest cinema's I have ever been in. The building is absolutely beautiful and it's filled with friendly people. The cinema is just the right size and filled with very comfy seats and there is a bar at the back that sells drinks, snacks and has a girl with a bow in her hair at the till. I mean what more could you want! As I said it was my first time there but I am definitely going back! You can read more about the Lexi here on their website. 

Now, onto the film itself. As I'm sure you've already guessed the film was Tiny Furniture starring/written by/directed by the amazing Lena Dunham. Now, I've wanted to see this film for SO LONG. I mean I've wanted to see this film for so long it's actually becoming hard to remember a time in my life when I didn't want to see this film. So when I heard it was being released in the UK I was jumping for joy. And then, the dreadfulest thing happened... I forgot. That's right. I missed it. I'd been waiting all this time and then I missed it. As you can imagine I was heartbroken. I was going to have a wait a whole month before it came out on DVD and was severely upset. And then we drove past the Lexi... and I saw a poster for it outside... and it was on there... the last cinema in the whole of London showing Tiny Furniture was 5 minutes away from my house!! It was amazing. 

I don't know if you've picked up on this yet, but by the time the film started, I was pretty excited. And believe it or not but it was better than I had hoped! It feels like Lena Dunham is pretty much all anyone can talk about in America at the moment but due to messed up TV and movie schedules she is not as famous as she should be here yet. But oh my god she's so amazing. This film is funny, moving, original and strange all at the same time and I have already added her to my list of role models. She's proof that you are never ever too young to do something (that's kind of the theme of this blog) no matter what anyone says and she is someone who I think will be very amazing for the rest of  her life. If you missed this film in the cinema I would really recommend getting it on DVD because it's very very good.

Okay I'm finished with my late night rant and I'm off to bed. Have an amazing week!

Love Scarlett x

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 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. 

Some Movies I Saw and Liked...

Okay so anyone who knows me would laugh out loud at the idea of me giving anyone advice on what movies to watch as it is widely known that I love every movie I see. But I feel like although I do like pretty much every movie I like them all to different amounts so can hopefully still be relied to talk about them.

 As you can see I've been watching a lot of movies recently! And to tell you the truth I've pretty much liked all of them. I like to think of the Oscars as like a second Christmas but only like 20 people get presents, still, I'm pretty happy it's Oscar season again. So here's a little bit about what I've been watching recently...

Like Crazy

I think it's safe to say this is in my top 3 movies of the year so far, it's. just. so. good. It's beautiful, the acting is amazing. It's a very indie movie but unlike most it's actually got a plot! and some of it was filmed very near my house. It's just amazing. 

Young Adult

I also REALLY liked this movie. I actually watched it twice in one week. One time at like 2 in the morning on my own and another time with my family. Juno was one of my favourite movies ever and although this is very different from Juno it's still amazing. Charlize is just so good, I've never really seen her in anything before and I just couldn't get over how good she is in this. It's definitely one to watch. 

Martha Marcy May Marlene

I was really excited about this film and although I enjoyed it, it wasn't quite as good as I thought it was going to be. The performances are really great and it looks beautiful but I found it a bit of a weird mixture of scary and creepy but also a little boring at points. That said, I'm still glad I watched it and it was worth it for Elizabeth Olsens performance. 

The Descendants

OK this film is actually amazing. I thought it was going to be really sad and was all ready for tears, although I did cry a bit, it's mostly just a really funny, charming, lovely movie. It's one of those movies that just slowly tells a really great story instead of forcing you into a crazy plot line. And yes I did just read that back and no it doesn't make any sense but still, this movies really good. 

50/50

Bleugh I'm getting very bored of liking all these movies now and am re-thinking writing this post as I can't come up with any more words to say 'amazing' but surprise, surprise this film is also amazing. I think the problem with this one is that it was kind of advertised as a 'huge comedy about cancer' and although it's really funny, you would have been disappointed if you were looking for a cry yourself laughing comedy. Instead it's just a really emotional, funny, at times very sad, and extremely well acted movie that I really enjoyed. 

Tree of Life

I didn't really enjoy this film that much but I was so proud of myself for sitting through the whole thing that I had to put it on here...

Beginners

Guess what? This films also really great! It's not like completely gripping but it's got some really charming and creative bits in it (especially the bit with the dog) and I must say I know have a massive girl crush on Melanie Laurent.

The Help

I don't know if I blogged about this already but I was so excited about The Help that I read the book super quickly before I saw it and just fell in love. So when it actually came to watching the movie I was a little nervous, especially after watching Film 2011! But it's AMAZING! It makes you feel so proud to be a girl because the actresses are just incredible. Emma Stone is one of my favourite people in the world and she's as good as ever and the whole thing is just brilliant! 

Carnage

Well I have a bit of a complicated relationship with Carnage because I watched it and really enjoyed it but was also slightly traumatised! To me it seemed like a really serious, sad movie about the collapse of relationships and it wasn't till I woke up the next morning and googled it that I realised it was supposed to be a comedy!! I don't know if this means I'm just really stupid or if other people found it much more serious that expected but either way I definitely enjoyed it even if it wasn't for the right reasons! 

Okay well, that was what I thought of these movies, please comment to tell me if you agree and if you haven't seen any of them then get your ass to the cinema because there all great (except maybe Tree of Life)

Love Scarlett

xx