Friday Five

Here are five things that I'm loving in 2011:

Bosu Ball This is one of my favorite pieces of equipment to use at the gym. You can use it to practice your balance, do planks and push-ups with it. My favorite use for it is balancing on it while tossing a medicine ball to a friend. Some day I will own one of these. Oh yes, it will be mine.


The Hunger Games
I got this book for Christmas and once I started reading it finished it in under a week. It's aimed at young adults and reminded me a lot of The Giver and The Lord of the Flies.


Rooibos Tea
I first tried Vanilla Rooibos during college and loved it. Recently I've been drinking plain Rooibos, which is grown in South Africa. It's got a warm, rich and a little bit sweet flavor. It's great for people who almost like Chai.

Pantene Pro-V Beautiful Lengths Shampoo & ConditionerThis shampoo is designed for long hair but is also an effort to promote the Pantene Beautiful Lengths program, which is a program that encourages the growth and donation of hair to make wigs for cancer patients. You can read about their program here. Their requirement for length for donation is 8 inches, which is shorter by a couple of inches than many comparable donation programs.


Snowshoeing

This is one of my favorite ways to get out in the winter and get some exercise. It's much cheaper than downhill skiing (especially if you invest in some snowshoes) and is a great way to spend a day. Pack a lunch and a map and enjoy scenery like this.

Holiday Books

I am nearly done with my term at school and have found the past few weeks were such a whirlwind I wasn't able to get much writing done. Well, actually I did a ton of writing. I was just writing a 20 page literature review and 3 other papers instead of writing for this blog. I am looking forward to this week and getting back into the habit of updating.

When I was young I loved to read and I always looked forward to bringing out the holiday books at Christmastime. Here are a few of my favorites:

The Starlight Bride by Paul Owen Lewis

This book is beautifully illustrated by Pacific Northwest author Paul Owen Lewis. A prince must find his bride and one true love before Christmas.

Christmas Trolls by Jan Brett has some of the most intricate and beautiful illustrations. The mittens in this book look a lot like the ones my grandmother used to knit for our family.

Kirsten's Suprise was a book based on the American Girl doll who had come to America with her family from Sweden. I still love this book because it is all about blending old traditions with new during the holidays.

This year I'd like to add Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien to my collection!

{All images via Amazon.com}

Freckleface Strawberry

I recently discovered that Julianne Moore, one of my favorite famous redheads has started writing a series of children's books called Freckleface Strawberry. It's about a little girl with red hair and freckles. I'm not a very freckly redhead, but I do have some and I love this idea for a book. As soon as I learned about it I hopped on my library's website to place a hold on it. (Sorry little girls, Madeline needs to blog about this so you'll just have to wait).

{Image via Barnes & Noble}

The book is downright charming. The illustrations, by LeUyen Pham are fabulously retro and capture the personality of the children in the story perfectly. Freckleface Strawberry doesn't quite rival the most established redheaded heroines of children's literature (Anne of Green Gables, Ludwig Von Bemelmans' Madeline, Pippy Longstocking, etc.) but this book is certainly a sweet way to teach children acceptance of themselves and each other.

I also came across this little video of Julianne talking about her inspiration for it:

Beverly Cleary

Growing up in Portland, Beverly Cleary's books were required reading. The fictitious world of Ramona Quimby, Beezus, Henry Huggins, Ribsy, and Aunt Bea were a beloved place that happened to exist in my very own hometown. One year in grade school my class took a field trip across town to walk down the real Klickitat Street and other places immortalized in Cleary's series. One day not too long ago I found myself walking down Quimby street in Northwest Portland and thought of the young freckled heroine of those books I hadn't thought of for so long. Until now, Ramona's legacy has been restricted to the original books and a 1988 Canadian mini-series starring a young Sarah Polley which I watched on PBS many, many times. On July 23rd the full-length feature version starring Selena Gomez and Joey King will hit theaters.

Gomez is of Disney fame and I after checking out Joey King's IMDB page I'm fairly certain the only thing I have seen her in is an episode of Entourage where she played "Chuck Liddell's daughter." Ramona's parents are played by Bridget Moynihan and John Corbett (wholesome twist for two actors known for their roles on Sex and the City) and the beloved Aunt Bea and Uncle Hobart are played by Ginnifer Goodwin and Josh Duhamel, respectively. I'm thrilled by the casting of Goodwin as Aunt Bea, who exemplifies the ultimate in idealized role models: the cool aunt.

It's always a risk converting a literary classic into a film. I'll admit I was and to a certain extent still remain highly skeptical that a current children's movie could do justice to the books I loved all those years ago, but after watching the trailer I feel rather optimistic. It was filmed in British Columbia, which is passable as Portland, Oregon and they seem to have captured at least some of the charm of the novel upon which it is based. It's a refreshing departure from the hyper-merchandised, trendy movies that have become the standard in the age of product placement and manufactured stardom. In fact, I believe I didn't see a single product placement in the entire promo. I plan on seeing it upon its release (likely on DVD some months down the road). Check on the trailer for now: