I saw this movie today, and it was surprisingly funny. I hadn’t particularly wanted to go, but I was glad I did.

The entire audience laughed a lot. There were only a few really dumb things, and one character I could have written out, but the main character is so delightful and watchable and innocently kind that she is a pleasure to watch. And she holds many lessons.

There are a couple of questionable things for very young children and some bad language, but not a lot. My girls would love it, at 10 and 12. I think they can handle it.

Shelley (Anna Farris is charming in the part and makes the movie) is living the life of her dreams at the Playboy Mansion. She feels the mansion has given her the home she never had before. (The movie begins with a short montage of her early childhood spent in an orphanage, until she finally found acceptance and a sense of family. This is not dwelt upon, but you might need to be aware of it.)

Hugh Hefner plays himself in several cameos in the movie. It’s good to see his health has improved. I hadn’t realized he was in it.

When Hugh goes off for a time, immediately after Shelley’s 27th birthday party, she is presented with a letter from him giving her 2 hours to leave the premises as she is now ‘too old.’ 27 is now evidently 59 in Bunny years.

How she finds herself the housemother of what likely began as Zeta (Zeta Tau Alpha) but morphed into a close cousin in name, is part of the poignancy and fun. The girls in the house need to pledge 30 girls in order not to lose their charter. How she turns them into a viable sorority is a delight.

There is a typical sorority bitch that has shown up in several movies. (And there is a Bunny bitch too.) In a way this movie is like a female version of Sydney White, but we liked it better. (The theater rated it 3 out of 5.)

It’s easy to imagine Elle Woods living this life. (Colin Hanks plays her love interest.)

She’s definitely a likeable bimbo, and you can’t help but root for her. Many scenes touched my heart.

We went out happy.

Karin

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• Harry Potter spoilers here in comment section, not in main post

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• Saving a garden

This book is a delicious romp, with some serious issues handled through the story and the relationships, but in ways that you care about the characters and don’t look at them with a jaundiced eye. Most of us have known someone who might act this way, given half a chance. And most of us have felt the brunt of some of this, even if in lesser degree.

Again, I was struck by the cover (which was what made me choose it) — both the illustration and the clever title with its play on words to the English idiom, “Wolves in sheep’s clothing.” (It gave me the opportunity to define the idiom to my younger girls.) And because it said chic clothing, I hoped it would be as fashionably interesting as it turns out to be.

Oh my, this story is a lark! Filled with twenty-something abbreviations, it is Mean Girls grown up. I read nearly every word so as not to miss any of the humor or the abbreviations. The authors skewer anybody and everything. They even skewer themselves:

Lell: “My number-one priority is discretion…I don’t like to have people who are loose-lipped working close to me [she has security cameras trained on everyone]…I don’t gossip about my coworkers, and I expect — no, no demand the same from them. Besides the fact that we have no friends in common, you don’t seem the type to waste time on meretricious persiflage.”

Julia (thinking): Meretricious persiflage? What the hell was that? “Of course not. I am like a vault…” And God, what had she told Douglas so far? She’d need to put a filter on that.

Lell: I didn’t think so. Because gossip is really just tacky and harmful…In fact, there are two girls that I’m sort of friends with, and they have a book deal to write about twenty-something Park Avenue debutantes. I think it’s really shameful and tacky.” p 64

It has everything — a thoroughly likable main character, Julia; love; sex; morality; sexless marriage (and adultery and wished-for adultery); a pedophile married to one of the women; extreme wealth and those who have wealth, but can never keep up; four friends who are variably supportive of each other; gay men (friends with the heroine Julia) who later enter into marriage in Canada; foreign phrases used to separate the knowledgeable from the less knowledgeable…

All this is delivered with a camera’s eye, dished up with humor, while we laughingly wince at the character flaws, which are our own, but exaggerated enough to make them palatable.

Julia has naturally what the others need to develop — style with a capital “S.” She works at Pelham’s jewelry store, a mere peon in the system, until she is noticed by Lell, the store heiress, when she is asked to deliver a necklace on Lell’s wedding day. Julia is handcuffed to the briefcase containing the necklace and escorted by security. While there, she knows intuitively how the bridal attendants can successfully wear the normally staid and old-ladyish Pelham jewelry (which is delivered in a second delivery), by making some deceptively simple changes.

Suddenly Julia becomes the pawn in Lell’s and Polly’s makeovers. Both see her potential and feel it will reflect well on them if they are her mentor. Lell really has nothing to prove with the snobbery to bring it home, but Polly is playing catch up. Julia finds herself thrust into the world of trust funds (and lack of), loveless marriages, the milieu of high fashion, and more. She loses herself for a bit, but never completely loses her good sense, her kindness, her sense of seeing the good in everyone, even when they treat her crassly.

I rate it a 5. I chuckled out loud more than once, and I look forward to reading their first book on the off chance that it is similar to this one.

BTW, this would make a great movie!

Have you read it? If you like the relationship between the women in Sex and the City or the cattiness of The Devil Wears Prada, this is a book you will thoroughly enjoy.

Karin

If you are looking for interesting jewelry or bridal attendant gifts, look to Inky Productions. You can find more information at her blog. Her MySpace.

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When it comes to facial treatment products, I find that I like to at least sample products that friends have led me to. If a friend recommends a product as accomplishing what it is hyped to do, I rely more on their judgment than an ad campaign.

How about you? Have you tried (or bought) something recommended to you by a RL or online friend? Did you find yourself more satisfied with it? (Or trying something you might never have found or tried on your own? There is such a plethora of products now, who can sort through them all?)

There’s something about it that makes me happy. Maybe there is even less buyer’s remorse or second guessing.

Since I was about at the end of a couple of products, I bought something completely new to me on the strength or recommendations. They are significantly less money than the products I have finished. I’ll let you know what I think of them after trying them for a couple of weeks or so.

Karin

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I love spring. I was out bike riding with two of my girls today and thought about how much I love spring — and so, not in any particular order, here are 10 reasons:

1. The temperatures — so much of the year it is terribly hot here. It’s a wonderful respite to have mild weather.

2. The colors — the new greens of the grass and the budding trees, the colors of flowers.

3. Flowers and flowering trees. Some of this reminds me of spring in Michigan and the sweet alysum that my mother used to plant along the walkways — alternating years were either white or purple. Somehow I would be surprised to see them newly planted, then they would take off in profusion.

4. Scents in the air — a plus for someone who loves perfume. A friend has a beautiful purple flowering jacaranda tree — the whole area outside her home smelled of these flowers yesterday. I made her come outside to smell them — and I pulled down one of the branches to smell the flowers up close and personal. Very lush!

5. Bike riding — one of life’s pleasures. Tonight waxy yellow flowers of the plumeria trees scented the bike path.

6. Enjoying my porches. I especially love the front porch during a heavy rain. The porch is tiny, but it provides enough shelter that I am only wet with the spray in the air. I love the sounds and the smells of the rain. In earlier years I would sit on the porch during a storm with my oldest Chinese daughter who was at that time petrified of storms. She would sit on my lap, and we would see how beautiful it was, the lightening, the thunder, the rain — how it couldn’t hurt us, we were perfectly safe.

7. Birds singing.

8. Perfect weather — I know I already wrote this, but it bears repeating twice. It is such a pleasure to get out in it. It’s hard to stay inside. Yesterday we washed three cars and enjoyed doing it.

9. Listening to the frogs at night. They are currently ’singing.’

10. Newness of life reminding me of all the goodness that is on offer if we just get out in it and put ourselves in the middle of it.

How about you, what do you like about spring?

Karin

• Lovely spring morning here

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This article about Vivian Cherry, an almost 90 year old NY street photographer, is quite fascinating.

Be sure to click the accompanying interview with her. It shows pictures of her earlier life when she was dancing and many stills from her newly published book, Helluva Town: New York City in the 1940s and 50s.

She says she is practicing taking photos, much the same as a dancer practices, so if she isn’t pleased with something, she was just practicing.

I’m always on the look out for women leading interesting lives. It’s something to think about.

Karin

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This article was posted at another list I’m on, but it is worth passing along for the folks not on that list.

I think it is a really great idea! A polish that turns color in the sun, but is nearly colorless inside, for those who are not allowed to wear polish at school or wherever.

Karin

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I don’t know about you, but I like looking at the clothes and jewels of Oscar night.

I don’t hanker after any of the jewels as they are way out of my reach, so I can look without angst. And I remind myself that most of them are on loan from the jewelers, they are not owned by the wearer. But the craftsmanship (artsmanship) of some of the pieces are worth looking at, if nothing else. I really admire some of the work of (especially) antique jewelry. Much of it cannot be duplicated today. An artist is an artist.

Karin

Here’s a rundown:

Cuffs sparkle at Oscars 2008

2008 was a blingin’ year on the Oscars red carpet.
Conservative gowns and understated hair meant that the fashion drama
of the evening was concentrated in the jewels, with many actresses
opting for large, diamond-encrusted cuffs…the kind even Mr. T would
have approved of.

Tilda Swinton’s huge Damiani Diamond Sahara Cuff,
featuring 1865 Diamonds, was a show-stealer, with Renée Zellweger’s Cartier 1930’s Art Deco diamond bracelet ($563,000) and 1926 priceless diamond strap bracelet also adding some major sparkle to the red carpet.

Heidi Klum sported a ruby and pink diamond wrist
cuff from her “Heidi Klum Collection for Mouawad”
collection. Set in 18k rose gold, the cuff alone was worth a quarter of a million dollars.

Other cuffers included Amy Ryan, Olivia Thirlby,
Tia Carrere, Lisa Rinna, Hilary Swank, and Jennifer Garner.
Sassy, wearable, and glamorous, this is one red carpet trend that might actually stick.

Oscar accessories rundown:

Nicole Kidman: diamond Sautoir necklace by L’Wren Scott

Marion Cotillard: Chopard’s 64-carat champagne-diamond necklace

Julie Christie: custom pink scarab necklace by Neil Lane

Jennifer Garner: Van Cleef and Arpels 1928 Art Deco diamond necklace

Penelope Cruz: Chopard’s ruby and diamond drop earrings

Jessica Alba: “Creole” hoop earrings by Cartier

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I only recently heard of Irena Sendler, a Polish Catholic 97 year old woman who rescued 2500 children in the Warsaw Ghetto from the gas chambers in 1942-3.

After getting the children out, she arranged ‘adoptions’ by non-Jewish families (I admire them too for the risks they took) to protect them, documenting their names in a jar which she buried, so that one day she could tell the children their real names.

She was captured and tortured, eventually escaping, but she did not betray what she had accomplished.

She was up for a Nobel Prize in 2007 which she did not win, but she won a far more nobler prize.

You can read more about her at this website.

Karin

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If you are lucky enough to have a Soho kiosk near you, then you have seen some of the lovely hair accessories that they have. They are not inexpensive. But they are very elegant, though they can be worn with jeans.

You can search to see if there is a location near you. I also have a business card they gave me that lists their locations.

The good thing is that they will show you how to use them and let you try every color or color combination or style until you find what works for you.

They also have hair extensions that really are amazingly good matches for people’s hair. I’ve seen them sell one or two every time I’m at their kiosk. (I have a couple that I’m not wearing that are not from them, so I haven’t yet decided to buy one. And my hair is plenty long on it’s own. The question is whether I want a fast way to put it up. And then, of course, if I would ever do it. Shades of the 70s revisited, but updated. I wore plenty of them then.)

I first saw them in Las Vegas, but since have seen them in a couple of other malls.

Don’t be put off by the styles necessarily showing on their website. Some are over the top.

This piece is beautiful in clear.

These are pretty sprinkled in the hair along the sides. They are even nice when used in multiple colors, either in rows of separate colors or alternating. On blond hair, I liked amber or clear. The amber is more subtle.

Here you can see other ways to use them. Using the half rounds with little stars or flowers is very nice too.

One style I bought in LV was difficult to get out of my hair because it snapped so tightly. They made an exchange for ones of the same style that opened more easily. Using these (they are crystal circles that snap together) makes it look like my hair is braided without braiding. I haven’t tried the looser ones yet. The tight ones necessitated by daughter helping me remove them so as not to break my hair. The above styles do not do that. But I thought their service was excellent!

Karin

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I was just sent some amazing pictures of New England with the leaves beginning to turn. They were as beautiful as anything you’d see in museums.

I miss the leaves turning and the first snows. I don’t miss the long winters or any shoveling, though I expect all that is passe now with snow and leaf blowers.

How about where you are? Are you seeing images of fall?

Karin

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