The Phantom Moon

Of Kites And Cherries

Summer is finally making it's appearance, which means that today is the start of our first official heat wave.  Oy vey.  This weekend was glorious though.  Breezy but not too warm, which of course makes for the perfect kite flying weather.  We flew our kites for a good two hours at the park and then came home and enjoyed the first burgers of the season as well.  Very nice.

Today I pulled the very first cherries from our cherry tree in our yard.  And let me tell you, they were delicious.  The tree is still a baby so she's far from producing huge quantities (I can dream, can't I?) but the fruit we've gotten so far ... well, it's enough to make my mouth water just imaging what it'll be like in just a few years.

Our poor little peach tree produced so much fruit that I had to pull off at least 95% of it just to get her to straighten up once again.  All of the fruit I pulled weighed 2.2lbs ... yikes!  She was definitely swollen with fruit, and that's a word I don't use lightly.  But fret not, she looks fantastic today and I can't wait for her to continue to grow up nice and healthy.  When we purchashed the trees, one of the experts said that we should pull ALL of the fruit this year and next year.  Yes, ALL of it!  Since I'm short I left a few peaches at the top (I can't reach) so we'll see what those will taste like in a few weeks.

Coming Along

I was seriously dragging this morning and barely able to keep my eyes open, when my hubby asked if I was feeling okay.   Besides feeling a little under the weather (again :P), this whole daylight savings thing has been kicking my butt.  I looked at my sweet hubby and said, "the temporal shift on sunday has me really out of whack ...".  Without skipping a beat he said, "Honey, you're watching too much doctor who".  I don't know if I should be concerned for myself or happy that I'm slowing converting my husband to the "new" Doctor Who.

In the meantime, I've been working on a new proejct that I hope to photograph when there is finally some decent sunlight.  Care to guess what the theme is?

Late Night Crafting Take One

I've been MIA lately and I do apologize.  The holidays, homeschool, life and Holiday craft shows have been taking their toll and using up almost every last ounce of free time I have these days.  Not to mention the fact that we've already started taking turns passing colds around in the Phantom Moon Villetta.  Oy vey!  Things are finally slowing down again and before they race to warp speed again, I thought I'd quickly check in.

I have a lot of new collections and items that I'll be adding to my online shop that I can't wait to share in the next couple of days.  Many of these have made their debut in the Holiday craft shows I've attended and I'm so glad with the enthusiasm they've been met with!  It's so awesome to create something that people get excited for, ya know?  Most of my creating has been during the wee hours of the night and if you know me, you know that sleep is my number one enemy.  If I'm too still in one place that is quiet, warm and comfortable, chances are I'll fall asleep.  So to keep me from face planting into the tabletop during my late night sewing sessions, I usually employ my secret weapon .... Netflix!  I've caught up on movies, tv shows and countless documentaries to last me a lifetime.  Then again, I mostly heard them rather than actually watched them but they, it's better than nothing right?  So here's a breakdown if you're interested:

Movies I'd completely recommend:

Brave: I went into this thinking I wouldn't like the film, that the daughter would be a total brat and I'd never watch this with my own daughter.  Though I still think I won't watch this with my daughter, it's not a matter of never but a matter of when ... it's a great movie but for her age (5), I think she's a wee bit young to get the Mother / Daughter story that is as beautiful as the film itself.  Of course I cried in the end (who doesn't with these movies?) and when my baby is older, I plan on watching this with her and crossing my finger she gets the struggle and why her Mother is so hard on her ... a Mom can dream, right?

First Position
Snow White and the Huntsman
October Baby
The Avengers
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

The Secret World of Arietty (Studio Ghibli rocks!)
The September Issue
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry
The Walking Dead: Season 3 (I can't wait for February!)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer - re-watching Seasons 5-7

Downton Abbey
Love Actually

Movies that were a bit ... meh:

Prometheus - I went into this not knowing it was essentially the prequel to the Alien franchise.  So throughout almost the whole movie I kept thinking, "seriously?  This is so like Aliens!  Do these people think this knockofff is something people will buy?".  And the ending got here and it clicked and I realized what I fool I'd been.  But hey, Michael Fassenbender was in it and he's total eye candy which was okay.
Underworld: Awakening
The Darkest Hour

The Muppets
The Big Year
Vegucated
Red Dawn

Movies that sucked big time:

Silent House

American Reunion - the really should have stopped at American Pie ...

The Lorax
The Woman in Black
The Skin I Live In

So that's my list, folks.  And yes, I've made some iffy decisions but variety is the spice of life, right?  Ah well, my queue is now filled with Christmas movies so that should be interesting ...