We are constantly in search of what to watch on Netflix. I didn’t think I was a documentary type of girl, but I’ve been completely smitten with them lately.
Here are 6 fascinating documentaries that we loved watching.
<<Being Elmo>> Everyone is so enamored by Elmo that we almost forget about the man behind the puppet. This is the story of Kevin Clash, the journey he took to become a puppeteer and how he came to give Elmo life. It made me love Elmo even more.
<<Indie Game: The Movie>> The film follows several independent game designers as they develop their games and hope for breakthrough success. It also explores the quirky sensibility these personalities bring to their art form. I added this to the queue because I thought Dave would love it, it has coding and geekery aplenty, I’m not even a video game fan and I was totally rooting for them by the end.
<<Winnebago Man>> You get to meet Jack Rebney, who became an Internet sensation after a grainy, nearly 20-year-old video of him furiously swearing up a storm while filming a Winnebago sales video made the rounds online. Filmmaker Ben Steinbauer tracks down Rebney -- who's become known in underground circles as the "Angriest Man in the World" -- and tries to discover what makes the loner tick. Have you ever wondered about the real people behind some of the funny shit that is on YouTube? Jack is a character and a half that you will fall in love with despite the constant barrage of F-bombs. If hearing swearing makes you cringe, you’ll want to skip this one.
<<Exit Through The Gift Shop>> Filmmaker Thierry Guetta's project to chronicle the underground world of street art takes a fascinating twist when he meets elusive stencil artist Banksy, who turns the project around to film Guetta while he reinvents himself as a street artist. This was another that Dave and I both loved and were really surprised by.
<<The September Issue>> Several years ago a film crew followed Anna Wintour, editor of Vogue as she and her staff put together the famed September Issue. Fascinating glimpse into the world of high fashion and the infamous Anna.
<<Dear Zachary>> Filmmaker Kurt Kuenne makes a tribute to his murdered friend, Andrew, and tells the story of a child custody battle won by Andrew's ex-girlfriend and accused killer. Dave and I both were sucked into this film, it is an absolute must watch. And grab the tissues.
Have you seen any of these? What are your favorite documentaries? We’d love some more suggestions!
Do you have pets? Monty the poodle and Dexter the giant cat.
Three things close to you. Cell phone. Vanilla lemonade. Fireplace.
Do you have a driver's license? If so, did you ever have an accident? I’ve had a few fender benders. The worst was getting home at 7 am from a trip to Florida and a woman hit me within half a mile of my house.
When did you wake up today? 7:38 am
Your last movie: The Queen of Versailles. It’s a documentary about a couple who is building the largest house in America and happened to fall right when the market crashes. Crazy.
The last text message you received: Dave saying “Dinner?”
When did you take your last shower? Yesterday afternoon.
What's your ringtone? Drifting Downstream… it’s an SIII ringer.
Did you ever visit another country? France a couple times, Belgium, Luxembourg, Ireland, St Martin, um Canada a bunch, Mexico. I think that’s it. Oh, England too.
Do you like Sushi? Yum. Yes. And fun fact, I hate most cooked fish. Figure that one out.
Where do you go grocery shopping? Mostly Kroger, in the summer mostly the Farmers’ Market.
Did you ever take something to sleep better or fall asleep easier? Advil PM.
How many siblings do you have? 6 a crazy blended bunch, my friends.
Laptop or PC? Laptop.
How old do you turn on your next birthday? 37. That looks old when I write it.
Do you have glasses or contacts? I’m supposed to wear my reading glasses, but I couldn’t tell you where they are.
Do you color your hair? I have. I should. I haven’t lately. I need to.
What are your plans for today? Taking Finn to school. Cleaning. Shopping. Making dinner for my brother + sister.
When did you last cry? This weekend. Something little reminded me of something else.
What do you think is the perfect pizza topping? Pepperoni, pineapple, + fresh mushroom.
Hamburger or Cheeseburger? Cheeseburger.
Did you ever have an all nighter? Staying up all night in college? A few.
What's your eye color? Blue.
Are you able to tell Coke and Pepsi? Yes and Coke will win every single time.
Want to answer the 24 questions yourself? Please do!
She wants to do everything herself. Eating. Choosing things. Getting dressed. Brushing her teeth. Brushing her hair. Things take awhile around here while we let her figure it all out.
She loves her brother more than anyone else in this house. By far. He stayed the night at Gigi and Papa’s house and as soon as she saw him the next morning, it was non-stop hugs and “Hiiiii Buddy!” over and over. And over.
It’s not all sunshine. When you take something away from her, she screams, “Mine! Mine! Mine!” If Finn comes too close during ‘her’ cuddle time, she’ll yell, “Mine Mama!”
This is Janet {for those of you are new here, Janet is my mom} at Costco. While she wasn’t looking I snapped a picture of her WRITING AN ACTUAL CHECK. Because she still does this. Not just for things that must be mailed, but like at actual stores.
She is pretty much Dave’s shopping nightmare, the old lady writing a check.
Last night I made an offhand remark to my besties, “when you’re forty” as if it were so far away… and Jackie gently reminded me that it’s only FOUR years away. Three and a half if we’re being honest.
What?
Oh yeah. That is right.
Huh? Really?
I don’t feel like ‘almost forty’ feels like it should feel. Shouldn’t that feel somehow older? Forty. More mature? Forty. Shouldn’t I feel like everything is falling apart? Forty.
When I was twenty, forty felt almost as if a foot would be in the grave.
And yet? Notsomuch.
I forget that next year will be my twentieth high school reunion.
Are we really that old? And should I even be saying it that way?
“That old.” As if it really is.
Getting older is much weirder than I thought it would be. That first twenty years felt like it took forever and then the next twenty are gone in just a blink.
1. Pin original content. OK, I get it… there are SO many pretty things on Pinterest, but there are also a million awesome things that aren’t… yet. Do us all a favor and pin new fun things!
2. Pin directly to the {correct} source. I love a good roundup post as much as the next girl, but click on those links and pin directly to the source instead. Bloggers and website creators work really hard to bring you awesome original content, make sure they are the ones getting pinned and credited for their hard work.
3. Permalink. You don’t want to pin something from So Wonderful, So Marvelous right to the main page of my blog. Why? Because as I add new content, it pushes the old content to the far reaches of the dusty corners of the cobwebby underbelly of the blog. So that fabulous recipe for Guiness Cupcakes is lost and people have to go searching. Instead, click on the post title, then pin from there. This is called a permalink. Lots of bloggers and websites have a handy dandy little ‘pin it’ button on their posts to make it ridiculously easy for you.
4. Check those re-pins! So we already covered pinning original content and how to create a permalink. Sometimes though there is awesome content that you want to re-pin, right? But before you click on that re-pin button, you should do this one thing. Follow the link. Does it lead to the correct place? If it does, great, REPIN. If not, find out where it should link to and pin directly from there rather than re-pinning. And for the love of all things holy, ‘report pin’ immediately anything that goes to something spammy.
5. Don’t copy and paste an entire post in the comment when you pin. This happens a lot with recipes. It creates a ridiculously large pin and it also deters people from clicking over. Decidedly not awesome for the person who actually created the work. A little snippet to let you and your followers know what it is or why you pinned it, that’s all you need.
6. Don’t steal someone else’s board. If you find a Pinterest board you love, follow it. You want to re-pin a few things that you love to your own board? Go for it. But don’t be that asshole that re-pins 80% of someone else’s board and call it your own. FYI, people can see when you re-pin 22 things from their board.
7. Promote awesome Pinners. I love finding new people and boards to follow. I follow people who have 32 followers and 4 million followers, awesomeness isn’t just a numbers game on Pinterest. There are so many fun things, you can find a board for anything your little heart desires. I love that I’m seeing a lot more dudes joining in on the fun too. Here are some crazy awesome {and a little weird} boards that I follow that I think you should too:
<<a Mini Farm is a dream the Davester has crushed so thank you Brandy for letting me live through your board>>
<<I challenge any girl from the 80s not to fall in love with Gina’s childhood>>
Would love to know what you would add to the ‘how not to be an asshole on Pinterest’ list AND I want to know your favorite boards and pinners! Leave a comment!
We were so spoiled with a perfect sixty degree day on a Saturday! In January! In Ohio! What? How much more awesomeness can you take? I know all of you west coast peeps are probably rolling your eyes at me right now, but you mid-westerners know what I’m saying, right?
We decided to take full advantage of our top secret spot at the park for brunch along the river again. Sure, we had to bundle up a bit, but everyone was so excited to be outside enjoying the weather. The kids played non-stop and found a secret fort down by the river. A sweet older couple stopped to say hello, tell us what a great idea it was, and mentioned that they could smell the bacon frying all through the park. It was such a relaxed {except chasing that menace to society daughter of ours} and fun morning with great company.
Thanks Amy, Em, and Steph for a great morning and delicious food!
“You have got to be kidding me. It’s called Butt Paste?” That was my response to her recommendation. I laughed at the name, though it certainly made clear its intended use. I had tried seemingly everything. One famous diaper cream had left Finnegan screaming in agony when I put it on. I couldn’t wipe it off fast enough and you guessed it, more screaming. Another, a natural brand, hadn’t even touched it. We tried baths. We {with wet results} had let him run around in his nudie butt. His skin was still bright red, chapped, and looked incredibly painful.
We were lucky that we had avoided any major diaper rash until toddlerhood. Winter weather, coupled with soaking toddler diapers, and an antibiotic for an ear infection had brought it on in full force. It was like Rashadon attacking Butt City.
Once he had it, it was a vicious cycle of wet diapers, more pain, and more attempts at trying to fix it. As a first time mom, you never want to feel helpless or see your child hurting. I didn’t know what to do, so I asked a friend. She didn’t just recommend Butt Paste, she raved about it.
So we tried it.
It worked so well that I am now the raving mom recommending it to my friends. I tell every new mom to add it to their ‘must have’ list. Registry or not, I buy it for every baby shower I’m invited to. It is that good.
Seventeen months and Tate has only had diaper rash once. Normally, if I see a hint of redness I put a little bit on proactively, but we were out... not a mistake I’ll make again. Same scenario as her big brother, winter weather brought with it a cold and diaper rash. That meant misery for our baby girl. Luckily, twenty four hours of Boudreaux’s Butt Paste at each diaper change and it was completely gone. No screaming, no crying, no prolonged trying to figure out what to do, just one simple cream with a funny name.
I knew it must have done its job when I caught her playing Mama and pretending to put it on her baby doll’s diaper.
Not only do they produce the best diaper cream around and have a great sense of humor, Boudreaux’s is also partnering with BlogHer to give one So Wonderful, So Marvelous reader a $100 Visa gift card. Tell me, how do you kick some rash? I’d love to hear your best diaper rash fighting tip, you just might help a new mom out there!
Sweepstakes Rules:
No duplicate comments.
You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:
a) Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post
b) Tweet (public message) about this promotion and/or to share the above video; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: "#SweepstakesEntry"; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post
c) Blog about this promotion and/or the above video, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post
d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.
This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.
The Official Rules are available here.
I am ridiculously excited at the prospect of 58 degree weather here on Saturday. Do you know how rare it is for warm weather in January here in Ohio? We’ve got some special plans with friends to take full advantage. I can not wait to share it with you next week. If you had one perfect weather day in the midst of lots of snow and freezing weather, what would you do with it?
And if you haven’t yet… leave an idea of a post you want to see here and one of you is going home with this fancy Target gift card. So far sex, randomness, and food are at the top of the list, I see where your heads are! Thank you, the writing floodgates have been opened and I’m going to get to every idea you suggested. Well, everything except the clean eating and diet… I am so not the person to be giving advice on that, but you all can go visit Clean Green Eat Repeat and get your healthy fix there.
If you want butter, stick around. Get it. HA! Stick. Because butter comes in sticks. Ha. Um. OK, just pretend you laughed. Do it and then watch this, because you will actually laugh. A lot. Even Dave liked it.
Writer’s block can suck it. Oh, I know, I know… we’re not supposed to talk about not being able to write. Blah blah, no one cares about your stupid writer’s block Michelle. I get it. It still sucks when I pay you off for some ideas. {See the end of this post.}
Tate got vaccines on Friday, normally I try to limit her to one combination or two shots max, not because I think she’s going to get autism or anything, but because she always has a reaction. It has happened every time since she was little. My normally happy, crazy, independent girl wants nothing more than to be on my person at all times. This time though, she needed three and I thought the benefits outweighed the fact that I knew she was going to be miserable. This time she got a 103. + fever on Saturday night and was wide awake delirious talking until we had to give her an excruciating tepid bath at 4 am when the Motrin didn’t touch it.
So yes, back to that writer’s block. What do you want to read? Leave a comment with something fun you’d like to see here {up to 5} and I will randomly pick a winner and send them a $25 Target card, just because. Disclaimer: Not sponsored by anyone, but the Davester who doesn’t even like me to hang out in Target for fear that I’ll spend all kinds of money on fun things that we don’t really need. That Target sucks you in like a vortex of awesomeness, doesn’t it? You have from now until Friday, January 11, 2013 at noon EST. Make sure you leave a way to contact you if your email isn’t linked in your profile.
Updated: CONGRATS KATIE! You are the winner of the $25 gift card!
Katie said... DIY home improvement posts with before and after pictures with your hilarious stories and wit...because we all know that DIY home improvement usually involves a Davester story. I seriously am still laughing about the story when he checked on a neighbor's house. Janet stories? Sister stories? Anything that involves food - recipes, parties (party planning), etc. Did you ever post about your bedroom that you were working on? I fell of blog-land for awhile...
I’ll be back to my regularly scheduled posting next week. I know, I know… the rest of the world is back to work. Dave went back after twelve glorious days of vacation. We only wanted to kill each other for a quarter of those days, so I’d call it a win. Finnegan is still home until Monday. We’ve been doing things like getting flu mist, taking afternoon naps, and patiently letting our sister watch Sesame Street. Needless to say, he is more than ready to be back to school with all of his buddies.
Here are a few shots of our holidays. Until Monday, my peeps.
Christmas Eve dinner.
Christmas morning.
Post Christmas dinner.
*No babies were harmed in the taking of these photos. Sparkling grape juice for Amanda.
Tate received this amazing, gorgeous, unbelievable quilt for Christmas. There are not enough adjectives to describe it’s awesomeness. She is so in love with it. It was meant for her dolls, but she has been carrying it around and sleeping with it every night since it was opened.
It was painstakingly, lovingly made by my friend Jen. She has more sewing talent in her pinky finger than I have in my… well, I own a sewing machine, but I have no idea how to work it, if that gives you any indication of my sewing skills. She chronicled the entire process, giving me sneak peeks along the way, and provided links to the fabric {Cuzco by Kate Spain for Moda} and pattern she used at her blog Sew Fishy. If you sew, you must check her out and even if you don’t, stop over just to see the whole crazy process.
