Military Girl

Hat: Target
Jacket: H&M
Skirt: Forever 21
Tights: Hue
Boots: Nine West

Maybe I've been playing too much Call of Duty or reading too many war books (just finished reading The Things They Carried for English class), but I decided to pull out my military jacket that I bought last spring. It's kind of a military jacket yet reminds me of Chairman Mao (not a good thing). Anyway, I thought I'd wear it with this Russian-like faux fur hat and leather boots, then mix it up with my poofy tulle skirt. Had the whole week of Thanksgiving off and I still haven't adjusted back yet. These next few weeks are going to be super busy and exhausting, with inventory at work, studying for finals, and making Christmas gifts. Thank goodness there are less than 2 weeks left of school!

The Bishop's Wife (1947)

Yet another classic Christmas film; The Bishop's Wife is a little similar with It's A Wonderful Life, with the idea that an angel comes to guide the main character to help evaluate and prioritize his own life and realize what is important. Starring everyone's favorite Cary Grant as the Angel Dudley (who originally wanted the part of the Bishop, but good thing he changed his mind!), one of my favorites Loretta Young as the title role Julia, and David Niven as the Bishop Henry. Dudley is sent to guide Henry, who has become so preoccupied with building a cathedral and his work that he has neglected his wife Julia. Dudley begins to hang around Julia too much for Henry's liking, as he becomes jealous while realizing he has been taking Julia for granted. Also in the film is Monty Woolley, one of my favorite actors, as the Professor, a friend of the family who believes in Dudley's angelic-ness. The cast really shine in their roles, especially Cary Grant! He was absolutely fantastic, from his "harp-playing" to "ice-skating" (though technically he didn't do everything), this role was really made for him! It's a great film as well as a Christmas classic. If you have not seen it, go check it out! I think they might have it on Youtube.

Haha I think they substituted Cary Grant's arms for the harp playing for the intense parts, but I think he did play (or look like he was playing) a little bit for the role!

Loretta Young on set

Cute "Trailer" with Cary Grant, David Niven, and Loretta Young trying to make the trailer for this movie:



Ice-Skating Scene (I love Loretta Young's hat!); note that the pro ice-skating is actually a stuntman...Cary Grant learned to ice-skate for this film, but not that well!

Christmas in Connecticut (1945)

I thought I'd kick off the Christmas season with a Christmas film! I finally got to watch Christmas in Connecticut after waiting for so long! Barbara Stanwyck stars as Elizabeth Lane, America's favorite housewife, who has a little problem: she isn't married, has no children, doesn't live on a farm, and can't cook, despite the facade she puts up for the public in her magazine column. However, all that is about to change when Alexander Yardley (Sydney Greenstreet), the magazine publisher, unaware of Elizabeth's true identity, insists she host a Christmas dinner with Jefferson Jones (Dennis Morgan), a sailor who has just spent 18 days on a life raft. Elizabeth has to find a farm, a husband, and a child in less than 24 hours, or lose her job; with help from Felix (S.Z. Sakall...I love this guy!), the restaurant owner and chef who has been supplying Elizabeth with her recipes, and John Sloan (Reginald Gardiner), an architect who is hopelessly in love with Elizabeth, she poses as Mrs. John Sloan, living on his farm out in Connecticut. She and John are planning to marry once they reach the farm, but she finds herself falling in love with Jeff and has to make a decision: forget about Jeff and continue with her old life, or tell the truth about her real identity and risk losing her job.

Felix prays that Elizabeth will flip the pancake without messing up.

Christmas in Connecticut is a delightful screwball comedy, a definite Christmas classic! I'm so happy I finally got to watch it, and I think it's going to be on my Christmas movie list every year from now on! I adore the cast of the film, Barbara Stanwyck, Dennis Morgan, Reginald Gardiner, Sydney Greenstreet, S.Z. Sakall, and just about everyone!

Trailer:


Dennis Morgan sings "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and "The Wish That I Wish Tonight":



Pictures from Yahoo! Image Search.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Picture from Flickr

Hope you are all having a splendid Thanksgiving! I don't usually do anything special except eat turkey and all that. My family doesn't come over anymore, so it's just my parents and me. My sister is off with her friends doing something, and my relatives are all with their other side of the families. Thanksgiving isn't what it used to be. Ah well. Maybe I'll do some cleaning or sewing. Or play Call of Duty. By the way, I am so annoyed that Call of Duty games are so incredibly short. There's only like 14 levels (and each level takes like 10-20 minutes to complete...for me, anyway), so there's only a few hours of gameplay. While the game is fun, it's simply too short; it's like now that I've finished Campaign, what am I supposed to do now?


Either I'm incredibly slow or stupid, but I just found out I was Teen Vogue's Girl of the Week! Whee! Unfortunately my answers are kind of stupid (I typed them up at like 1 am), but I remember I used to read the "Girl of the Week" blogs every week when they first started! I haven't looked at the blog for the last few months, but recently I decided to check it out again and submit an entry on a whim, never thinking that I'd be picked (but I don't think people really do it anymore...or I'm not sure). But anyway, I'm quite excited and thrilled!


Christina over at The Story of Wonderful has passed on the "Premium Meme Award" to me! Her blog is wonderful and she has such a distinctive style! I met her once too at that Chictopia Clothing Swap! Thank you so much Christina! I'm super thrilled and excited, but I have yet to do it (I'm so terrible with tags!). So here goes...seven traits about me (too dull to read through, IMHO):

1. I’m one of the few Chinese people who can’t speak Chinese. I speak English and English only, but in my defense I write essays pretty darn well. Oh but I did learn German for two years in middle school (forgot most of it) and Japanese for four years of high school. I’m still not fluent.

2. I’m addicted to TV and movies (as if that wasn't obvious).

3. I like to sing. All the time. At random, on the bus, wherever! Okay, maybe not by myself, but I really love to sing. Problem is, my singing sucks. Ah well, that hasn't stopped me yet!

4. I like to proofread. It’s like my pet peeve to see misspelled words on someone’s Facebook status. I literally comment just to correct their words. Or when people send me texts with misspelled words. Just send me your essays; I’ll proofread them :)

5. If I listen/watch a person speak with a certain accent or in a certain way for awhile, I start to talk like them. Like how I started to talk really fast after watching Bridget on 8 Simple Rules, or how I started to talk with a Southern accent (I forgot where I picked that up), a British accent (that comes and goes, but usually around Harry Potter time), a Cockney accent (blame Eliza Doolittle), and much more. I'm slowly starting to talk with a New York accent because of Rhoda on Mary Tyler Moore.

6. I'm not really a tomboy at all...except when it comes to video games. I'm such a video game geek. I love The Legend of Zelda and Call of Duty series. I really hate Super Mario; I personally think it's a lame game. Maybe because I'm not too crazy about 2D games.

7. I'm easily influenced by things around me. Yes I hate to say it, but I follow trends sometimes. I try not too, but whatever's at the store, I may buy. Or if I'm watching a TV series (Charlie's Angels) and start dressing like one of the characters (Sabrina Duncan).

And now to tag seven wonderful bloggers:

Daisy Dayz

Quirky Explosion

Classy-fied!

High Voltage

Urban Tease

Zebra and Meerkat

Candy Box

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Night Nurse (1931)

Night Nurse is yet another Pre Code film, featuring a young Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Blondell, and an evil Clark Gable (sans mustache!). Stanwyck plays Nurse Lora Hart who discovers a terrible crime in progress and works to prevent it before it's too late, with the help of her fellow nurse Maloney (Blondell), her mentor Dr. Bell (Charles Winninger), and her gangster friend Mortie (Ben Lyon). This film was pretty weird; maybe it was the fact that Stanwyck and Blondell kept stripping down to their underwear every fifteen minutes, or the fact that Mrs. Maxwell (Blanche Friderici) had a weird obsession with milk baths. It's definitely an interesting film to check out, especially a rather evil Clark Gable as Nick, the "Chauffeur", who beats Stanwyck and tries to kill two children.

Scantily dressed was apparently normal with Pre Code films...or at least this one.

A scene from the film:



Pictures from here, here, and Flickr.

Platinum Blonde (1931)

Another Pre-Code film I watched was Platinum Blonde, which wasn't exactly about a platinum blonde. The film was more about Stew Smith (Robert Williams), a poor reporter who marries socialite Anne Schuyler (Jean Harlow) and gives up his pride, reputation, and lifestyle to become Anne Schuyler's husband. Throughout the film, he realizes he's given up too much of himself and returns to his old ways in the end, divorcing Anne and marrying Gallagher (an 18-year old Loretta Young!), the girl reporter and best friend of Stew who has been in love with Stew all this time. I was kind of annoyed with Jean Harlow's character because they made her out to be kind of too snobby and superficial, while Stew Smith was kind of a jerk. Loretta Young wasn't really in the film that much, just a little in the beginning and in the end. So really, the film was kind of misnamed, in my opinion, because it wasn't really about Jean Harlow's character, but rather Robert Williams' Stew Smith. I didn't especially love this movie, and I doubt I'd watch it again, but I thought I'd write about it anyway.

The magic of Photoshop in 1931

Pictures from Doctor Macro.

Christmas Tree Lighting at the Pier

Sweater: Eddie Bauer
Dress: H&M
Tights: Target
Oxfords: Vintage

Wore this same sweater today. I really love it! So warm and cozy :) I was going to wear these red tights but I changed to my thick black ones later on for an outing with my friends!

We had a busy day today; first lunch at The Cheesecake Factory (that took more than an hour!) then the mirror maze and the tree lighting at the Pier. Christmas in Downtown is amazing! So many pretty decorations, and the Macy's Holiday Lane section is to die for. I'm so overwhelmed by everything every time I go there. I took way too many pictures today so I'll just post the essentials.

The kittens from the SPCA at the Macy's windows

My letter to Santa (and my handwriting with my left hand): I want to graduate from college within the next 2 1/2 years. And get into my BIOL 211 class next semester.

The Christmas section at Macy's is amazing and so overwhelmingly beautiful!

Penne Bolognese

So delicious-looking (so much cream cheese)! Unfortunately we didn't get to eat it.

The view from the restaurant was so beautiful!

I swear, this seagull was literally standing right next to me.

So many people at the Pier!

The view at the Pier is so beautiful as well!

Magowan's Mirror Maze, a new attraction at the Pier

The tree at the Pier

The Christmas displays at Westfield

We also took forever at The Cheesecake Factory, waiting for seats, deciding what to order, and eating. I'm a slow eater, but we kept getting distracted by crazy pigeons and seagulls and some man throwing bread at us (at the pigeons really, but his stupid bread crumbs kept landing at our table). Plus our meals were too huge for us. So we didn't get to order that red velvet cake with the extreme cream cheese. Ah well, next time.

After spending way too much time in the Macy's Holiday Lane department (my friend Jen became immensely attached to a peacock tree), we rode the bus to the Pier. I'd have to say, tourist-wise, the Pier and the Wharf are my favorite spots in the city. There's something really fun and unexplainably cool about the Pier...maybe all the sights, or how pretty it is down there, or the fact there's so much to do (and too expensive to afford). My friends and I love going down there! It's so much fun :) I really should go there one day after school, just to sit and do some people-watching and just stare out at the Bay...it's so beautiful down there. Yeah, maybe I'll do that soon. Anyway, we wanted to check out the new attraction, Magowan's Mirror Maze. So cool and so much fun, and it was only $5. It's basically a dark, rainbow-lighted maze of mirrors and basically you have to find your way through without running into a mirror. Which we did a couple times. But we spent a good deal of time there, then headed back to the front to see the tree light up. I've only been to the Pier at night once before, but it's really pretty, especially with the Christmas tree there! Can't wait to go back again soon!

Time to go to sleep :) Oh, and sorry for the crappy photography, but I'm really not a good photographer.