The Muppets' Memory and Novelty Lane

After an excruciatingly painful, long wait... The Muppets finally reached our shores.
You have no idea how my boys waited for this day!

I was a bit worried though.  The Muppets were pretty much alien to my boys.  They knew Kermit the Frog from a couple of old Sesame Street TV reruns, and they've seen the frog with Gonzo in some homemade Cute Mario Brothers excerpts on YouTube.  But other than that, they never knew the glory of hand puppets.  In fact, they were excited for the movie for the sheer novelty of hand puppetry.  Imagine, a kiddie movie that wasn't CG!  That is sooo freakishly radical!

So how did the movie fare?  From my boys' point of view, it was cool!  Miro was cynical at first, going, "I can tell there's a hand moving that frog."  LOL!  But as the story progressed, I can see that The Muppets have not lost their tongue-in-cheek humor and their sarcastic quips are still as funny as ever.  My boys ate that all up!  It wasn't as action-packed as the movies my boys were used to (it was a love story more than anything), but there was an explosion, a series of punches and falls, and the songs were nice.  Although my boys did get weirded out when I sang along to The Muppet Show theme song when it came on and actually shed a tiny nostalgic tear.  Kenji was like, "Mimi, the song wasn't sad."  Double LOL!

It's a great show for kids, even those who've never heard of Rowlf, Beaker, and Fozzie.  It opens them up to that incredible age of hands-on, imaginative play... way before the time of wii and PSP.  For movie viewers in my age group, it's beyond awesome.  The movie fills you with constant flashbacks to wonderful memories of youth.  It's not just a fun family movie, it brings you back to a simpler time when all you worried about was keeping your pig tails neat even after play time.

Downside (for me anyway), I thought Animal was given very little 'animal time'.  Animal has always been bad ass on the drums and he only got a few seconds to show us his mad skills... and during the Rainbow Connection' number at that!
Gonzo was not fired from a canon.  Huwaaat?!!  Gonzo always --ALWAYS-- has to fly off from a canon into a death-defying fall.  That's a signature!
And, there were no Muppets toys available at the cinema store, the mall, and even as freebies in any nearby fast food joint.  Marketing downer there.  My boys were ultimately pumped to try out puppetry right after the movie, and we couldn't find a single Muppets merchandise!  This could be an isolated case.  I don't want to believe that the city has become devoid of old Muppets play things.  We shall continue the hunt this weekend.

To close, do watch the Muppets with the whole brood.  If your child has only been exposed to CG animation and tech toys all his young life, THIS will be an exhilarating eye opener.
And if you're as ancient as I am, THIS will definitely, lovingly bring you back home.
"It's time to get things started..."

Our Best Food Forward 2012 Binge

So what does a new food bizman do on his spare time?  Research.
And what better place to do that but at the Best Food Froward 2012!  And thanks to Nuffnang, I have free tickets.  Woot!

I would've taken more food shots but it's just so hard to stuff your face with food and shoot, ya know.

There, I have never seen my husband so fueled for inspiration. There was just so many delectable goodness all around us.  So many great ideas for menu expansion.   If I had x-ray vision, I would certainly see the wheels in his brain turning at neck-breaking speed.

The event buzzed with the excitement of food tasting and the exhillirating success speeches from participating gastroentrepreneurs.

But still, Jing had to go around stall-hopping, harassing food merchants to spill the beans on good marinade, secret ingredients, and such.  Lol!  No one gave in though.  So he bought their food to 'study' and unlock their secrets when we get home.  Everything just has to be a spy game with this hubby of mine. :D

Overall, sweet (spicy, tangy, yummy, etc) event!  And successful, judging by the large turn-out of people and the goony smile on our fully-stuffed faces.

The Best Food Forward 2012 is still happening today, March 25, at the NBC Tent.  If you're a food entrep or just a plain lover of food, you'd be crazy to miss this food glorious food escapade.

"I'm putting up my own food place."

A few weeks ago, Jing just got up and announced, "I'm putting up my own food place."
Just like that.  And the rest, as we say, is history.

A month of preps and I was surprised to find that we actually have our very own food business.  And that my husband, an art enthusiast, is suddenly putting all his enthusiasm in the name of num-nums!

Ok, ok, maybe it wasn't that big a shock.  My husband has always loved cooking.  Adored it even.  He was always in front of the mac that I overlooked the fact that his best place was always in the kitchen.  We fought about who would cook dinner everyday --we both love cooking.  And whenever he wins, I never regretted it.  He's THAT good. And when you're that good at something, you embrace it, you make big of it, you make something happen out of it.

And so BULALO MISMO! was born!
Obviously, bulalo is the specialty dish.  But my husband throws in other delectable surprises every now and again.

You'll get the dish on these awesome dishes at His Homecooked Hawtness.  I update this food blog like the devil, specially since my husband updates his menu like the devil himself. :)

If you're smacking your lips right now, don't worry.  I was drooling on the keyboard before posting this, too.  Lezzeat!

My Clipix Fix!

This mom (points to self) organizes like a freak! I have notebooks and Post-its deployed everywhere in the house --so when I see something I feel the need to remember later on, I can jot it down and get back to it at a more appropriate time. Yup, I’m a cross between being OC and being an info hoarder.
I have the same ‘condition’ online. That’s why I have a notebook for a mouse pad. See? Freeeeaky. Can you imagine the paper trail? And somewhere in the middle of the woods, a bunch of trees is plotting to kill me.

Thank goodness, before any uprising and ‘uprooting’ could ever happen, I discovered clipix. So useful. So organized. So free. Here’s how it works. At clipix.com, I simply dragged the CLIP icon to my bookmark bar. Aaand… That’s it! Now the fun begins.

Moving on, I see (like I usually do) a bunch of noteworthy stuff online --from interesting articles, to helpful gardening tips, to pretty pictures. So I just click on my clip bookmark and these items get clipped on my personal clipix online clipboard which I have carefully segregated into categories of my own whim. Coolness! I could never do that with my notebooks! Right now, I have everything from creative ideas for family fun to my personal footwear wish list. And I’m not done.

So what does clipix do for me aside from the very obvious feeding my need for collection and manic organization? It gives me something to look forward to, something to plan for my boys (husband included). Like trips activities, projects. With clipix, I don’t think I’ll ever run out of ideas again!
Speaking of sharing, clipix.com also has Syncboards which allow you to collaborate with friends and family in filling them up. You can also keep your clipboards private, of course. Or set them to hyper social networking meddling of the minds by sharing them on Facebook or Twitter.

Now if all this boundless joy becomes an addiction, I’m right there with you. There’s a clipix app on your iPhone which even lets you clip the pictures you’ve just taken. Now you can clip anytime you want, anywhere you are!

And that’s how I started organizing my life, planning a wonderful future, and hugging a tree all at the same time. Whew! What about you? How do you plan to make clipix change your life?


Promoted Post

Project : Plushie

So Miro challenged me to make a Kirby plushie.  I took on the challenge.  And failed miserably.  Miro says I did great though.  Such a sweet child.  But really, I did terrible work.  It was shoddy with thread sticking out everywhere, stuffing popping out of badly sewn seams, and the face --dear Lord!-- just how do you sew on features?  I opted for felt cut-outs and the glue gun.  Again, shoddy, shoddy work.

And then I saw these.

Super Mario plushies made by the magically inspired hands of Jessica Elayer!  I saw these on DeviantArt and fell madly in love with them on the get-go.  And what a cool idea --instead of sewing on or gluing on the face, PAINT IT ON!  God knows my success rate is more favorable with painting than sewing.
All you need is felt, fleece, and acrylic paint... and tubs of skill.  Sure, the sewing skill is something I badly need to work on.  But  I'm pretty confident I've got the painting part squarely on.  I think.

Jessica has other plushies which she ships locally and internationally for crafts-loving fans.  Very stimulating work this woman has.  She mixes pop with her own brand of uniqueness.

Armed with this brand new inspiration, I'm off to make my second (and hopefully better) plushie.  This time, by my own challenge.  

By the way, Miro insists that I post a picture of that horrid Kirby I made.  Purely for laughs.  Such a sweet, sweet child.