Suffering from a wee bit of lit-nerd upset

Let me state, I am a Tolkien fan. I have been a frequent visitor to Middle Earth since I found The Hobbit at the age of 10.  I even knit and hoard themed knitting patterns.
 I am a huge fan of the Lord of the Rings movies that were made.
I had heard some complaints about the current hobbit movies, but had yet to see them myself...till today.  I finished my latest re-read of the novel last week, so Husband suggested a viewing of the first installation of the Hobbit movies. 

I found myself complaining.

The rearrangement/ addition of situations made me twitch.  Did Thorin really need the extra angsty background?  I rather felt he had enough issues to deal with in the novel.  I disliked the way details were changed (there were lots), it shifted the tone of the story. Was it aimed to appeal to the populace at large?

The scenery was, of course, stunning.  The Eagles were amazing.  Rivendell, a joy as usual.  I loved the actors. I will put myself out there and say, I don't think the Dwarves were too attractive.  The attractive ones, in my opinion, were part of the royal line, shouldn't they be the slightly prettier ones?

All in all, I find myself rather lukewarm about An Unexpected Journey.  I love Middle Earth. I will see all the movies.  I am just a bit disappointed by their "improvements" to the story thus far.

With a color name like that, it was a need.

I don't buy yarn without a project in mind much anymore, but Bat Sh#t Crazy from Miss Babs had to be mine.
I used the Wayfarer pattern from Doomsday Knits.  The picture really doesn't do it justice.  The simple lace works wonderfully with the highly varigated yarn.  The colors in the yarn are my favorites with a predominance of green (of course). A corset laced shawl? Fantastic!
The only sad part about this shawl?  I finished it in time for summer in Texas. :-(

I had to dress up a wee bit....

Husband and I went with some friends to go see Maleficent this weekend.  How could I not wear a black dress and shoes with ravens on the toes?

I will admit, Maleficent is a personal favorite character of mine.  After seeing the new movie, I may actually adore the character more than I did before.  I announced to Husband when leaving the theater that I wanted to grow up to be Maleficent...luckily, he laughed. ;-)

Mojito cupcakes!

I decided these cupcakes would be a good way to celebrate Friday the 13th, the Honey Moon, and Father's Day all in one go.  They aren't very pretty, but they do taste good!

Lime-mint buttercream frosting on top of vanilla cupcakes flavored with yet more lime and mint...and a tiny bit of rum.

The good kind of silence

There was a lull just after dinner tonight.  That kind of comfortable silence between lovely food and having to clean up afterward?  Everyone in their space in the living room; Girl curled up with the latest Dresden novel, Boy with his nose in the latest Discworld novel,  Husband re-reading the Dresden series, the cat curled up in the shoes by my feet napping.....and me, clicking away.

It lasted ten or fifteen minutes.  The loudest sound was my metal needles scritching against each other as I churned out another row. 
And then, it was time to clean up, with much bashing of pots and pans and turning on of the dishwasher.  That's okay though, I wasn't the one having to do the dishes tonight. ;-)

These may require more research....

So, yesterday was apparently Doughnut Appreciation Day, which is how I managed to stumble across this.  I may have mentioned it...loudly, to all members of the household.  Today, we decided a trip to get doughnuts and ice cream was in order. :-D

Darling Daughter went with a cherry iced doughnut and green tea ice cream:

Boyo decided on chocolate doughnut and coffee ice cream (with plans for a maple doughnut and coffee ice cream later this evening):

Husband went with a favored combination, chocolate doughnut and mint chocolate ice cream:

I personally went with a plain doughnut and coffee ice cream:

All I can think of is all the different combinations you could make of these! Why not mint chocolate cherry? Maple green tea? It takes effort to not taste test all of them!  They are a decadent, delicious, five minute treat...just remember, pace yourself! ;-)