Green Sunday III: Watch yourself green

Hey you lovelies, hallo ihr Lieben,

it's time for a new Green Sunday! :)
Some of you may remember that I write a regular "sustainable" TV-programm for the bird's new nest, Edda's fabulous green lifestyle blog. Not only for that reason have I seen quite a few documentaries that deal with sustainability and/or green living in some kind or another. For this Green Sunday I therefore decided to share three of my favourites. This way you can almost "become green" by simply lying on your couch... ;)

es ist wieder Zeit für einen Green Sunday! :)
Manche von euch werden sich vielleicht noch erinnern, dass ich regelmäßig ein "nachhaltiges" Fernsehprogramm für the bird's new nest schreibe, Eddas wunderbares Nachhaltigkeits-Onlinemagazin. Nicht nur deshalb habe ich schon ziemlich viele Dokus gesehen, die sich auf die eine oder andere Art und Weise mit dem Thema Nachhaltigkeit oder Umweltschutz beschäftigen. Für diesen Green Sunday habe ich daher entschieden, drei meiner Lieblingsdokus zu teilen. Auf diese Art und Weise könnt ihr sogar fast schon von eurer Couch aus "grün" werden... ;) 

DIY Holly Golightly Sleep Mask

Hi folks,

tonight is the night! :) And as watching the Oscars in Austria, which here start at about 2am in the morning, either means to sleep when it's still light or when it's again light outside I decided that I definitely needed a sleep mask to be able to fall asleep at all. And who wore the coolest sleep mask in film history? Exactly! Audrey Hepburn in "Breakfast at Tiffany's". Therefore I decided to make myself my personal Holly Golightly sleep mask.

What you'll need

• piece of turquoise fabric (I used a thicker kind of jersey)
• piece of fleece.
• ca. 1,5 m gold ribbon
• turquoise and gold/brown sewing thread
• scissors
• pins
• needle
• sleep mask template plus eye template (you can find loads of them via Google)
• sewing machine 

How it works

Cut out the paper sleep mask and eye template and transfer it to your turquoise fabric (2 times or on double layered fabric). Add 1 cm seam allowance to your mask and to the upper bow of the eye. Then cut everything out. You should now have two masks and two eyes. In addition cut out one mask out of the fleece (without seem allowance).

Take one of your fabric eyes and sew a piece of gold ribbon (in the lenghts of the lower bow of the eye) on it. Do the same with the other eye. Then take one of your mask pieces and stitch the eyes onto the right side of it (by hand).

Lay the front side of the mask on the back side of the mask, wrong sides facing. Put two pieces of gold ribbon (each about 50cm long) between the two pieces of fabric so that the longer parts of the ribbons are inside the mask. Then pin the two sides together and stitch them together leaving an about 5cm hole.

Make some short cuts into the seam allowance. Turn around the mask and put the fleece into it. Then close the hole by hand.

In a last step pin the remaining gold ribbon onto the front side of your mask and stitch it on using a brown/gold upper thread and a turquoise bobbin thread. 

Done!

 All images by Stefanie Reichl

Our favourite movie music

Hey folks,

Katja already shared some very cool ideas for an Oscar party but of course you'll need some good music too. Therefore we made a little collection of our favourite movie songs (or at least of some of them... ;) ). We hope you'll enjoy listening!

Katja's favourite movie songs

Pulp Fiction (1994)
Chuck Berry: "C'est la vie"

"Ladies and Gentlemen, now is the moment you've all been waiting for. The Jack Rabbit Slim's Twist Contest!"
I just love this song. And John Travolta and Uma Thurmans dancing is just frequently copied but never equalled ;) Chuck Berry at his best!

Eat. Pray. Love (2010)
Josh Rouse: "Flight attendant"

I've been reading the book "Eat. Pray. Love" by Liz Gilbert lately and so I kind of had to watch the movie again as well. I really, really want to recommend the soundtrack at this place!

My favourite song is "Flight attendant" by Josh Rouse (in the scene where Liz meets David in the bar). I often love the simple things in music: this chilled-out, easy piano-riff is just so darling :)

Savages (2012)
Yuna: "Here comes the sun"

Well, if you put together a beatles song and the incredible talented Malaysian singer Yuna, only something really, really sweet can come out!

My dream is driving through Morocco with a VW bus, listening to this song when I'm on top of a cliff, watching the sun set above the sea..

The Beach (2000)
Moby: "Porcelain"

The Beach is one of my favourite movies ever. It's neither sophisticated nor critical, but it fulfills me everytime with a strong desire to just break out into the wild (see my feelings when listening to "Here comes the sun" above ;-))

Reservoir dogs (1992)
George Baker: "Little green bag"

Another Quentin Tarantino movie. I really have to admit that I would give my right arm for only one day with Tarantino's music collection!

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013)
David Bowie: Space Oddity

I'm not really a big David Bowie fan and I've heard "Space Oddity" when watching this movie for the very first time. But I felt in love with it instantly and ever since listened to it about 300 times I guess ;)

Le concert (2009)
Pjotr Iljitsch Tschaikowsky:
Violin Concerto in d-major, op. 35

I know. Sounds weird to put a violin concert into a "favourite film songs" list. But I love classical music and this piece is something very special to me. It seems like the soloist (in this great movie played by beautiful Mélanie Laurent) plays for her life.

O Brother, Where Art Thou (2000)
Soggy Bottom Boys: "Man of Constant Sorrow"

This is my favourite Coen brothers movie. The music is just incredible! And I was really shocked when I found out that the "Soggy Bottom Boys" don't really exist! The lead vocals are not by George Clooney, but by Dan Tyminski, a member of the band Union Station. But hell yeah - the guitar player for sure had to sell his soul to the devil for playing this kick-ass good!

Cruel Intentions (1999)
Aimee Mann: "You could make a killing"

This is my "i'm-in-a-bad-mood-but-everything-is-going-to-be-allright"-song.

Soothing, ain't it?







Toy Story (1995)
Randy Newman: "You've got a friend in me"

Finally a kid's movie! I swear I could do an own "favourit music songs" list with only kid's (especially Disney and Pixar) movies!

Randy Newman is a genius anyways and I really like this song.





Steffi's favourite movie songs

Blues Brothers 2000 (1998)
Aretha Franklin: "Respect"

I really like Aretha Franklin and her great, big voice. And although I think that Blues Brothers 2000 wasn't even half as funny as the original Blues Brothers movie from 1980, I think that the soundtrack was great however.

The Hunger Games (2012)
Taylor Swift ft. The Civil Wars: "Safe and Sound"

I already mentioned that I love the "The Hunger Games" movies in this post and although I am usually no great fan of Taylor Swift I have to admit that she did a really good job on this title song for the first Hunger Games movie. ;)  

Cruel Intentions (1999)
The Verve: "Bittersweet Symphony"

The "Cruel Intentions" soundtrack is one of my alltime favourites and I still like to listen to it from time to time although I have probably heard the songs for 500 times already...  

La Grande Belezza (2013)
Kronos Quartet: The Beautitudes

This may seem a little odd, but I didn't even see La Grande Belezza yet, although this piece of music definitely raised my motivation to do so by about 500%. 
We currently work on a choreography to this music in my dance class and I immediately fell in love with it. It's simply so beautiful!

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013)
Of Monsters and Men: Dirty Paws

For me "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" was one of the best movies of last year! I felt extremely happy after watching it and I just wanted to grab my backpack and travel to Iceland or Greenland (or anywhere else ;) ).

500 Days of Summer (2009)
Regina Spector: "Us"

This is one of the cutest love movies in my opinion although it doesn't have a typical happy end like you would expect it.
The soundtrack is pretty cool too featuring songs by The Smiths, Regina Spector, Feist and many more. 

Garden State (2004)
Frou Frou: "Let Go"

"Garden State" is one of my favourite movies and the soundtrack is simply awesome! I even had to buy the CD twice because I killed my first one through heavy listening... ;)

Once (2006)
Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova: "Falling Slowly" 

Another beautiful love movie and again packed with great music...

Drive (2011)
College feat. Electric Youth: "A Real Hero"

I think that Ryan "Babygoose" Gosling is currently one of the coolest actors in Hollywood. And a good one! Loved "Drive" and its soundtrack! 

The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)
Radical Face: "We're on our way"

If you want to see a good film about adolescence you should definitely watch "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" based on the novel of the same name by Stephen Chbosky! I laughed and cried at the same time while watching that film...

Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
"Please Mr. Kennedy"

This is another one of last year's greatest movies and I think it's kind of a tragedy that it wasn't nominated for the Oscar in any other relevant category than Cinematography. Oscar Isaac would have definitely deserved a nomination for best actor for his characterization of the struggling folk musician Llewyn Davis!

It's Oscar time...

Ladies and Gentlemen!

Therefore (and because I'm kind of a movie geek ;) ) we decided to dedicate this week to this upcoming event and to movies in general.
I'll start on this beautiful day (at least in Vienna the weather is quite lovely and for me it's usually good weather = good mood) by introducing my favourite movie costume designs. These are not necessarily from Oscar movies however. But see for yourself...

1) The Hunger Games & The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2012 & 2013)

I don't know whether or not it's a little embarrassing for a 27-year old person to admit this but I LOVE (love, love!) "The Hunger Games". Not only did I read all the books twice, I also watched every of the movies at least three times. And I really do love what Judianna Makovsky (The Hunger Games), who also designed the costumes for "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", and Trish Summerville (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire) did with the costumes there!
I think that especially the crazy costumes of the "The Capitol"'s inhabitants perfectly illustrate the decadent lifestyle they are living there and that these costumes form a nice contrast to the rather simple (and partly retro-looking) outfits the two ladies came up with for the people living in the outer districts.
By the way am I apparently not the only person who fell in love with "The Hunger Games"'s outfits as when the second movie came out the online retailer NET-A-PORTER even launched a whole line by Trish Summerville inspired by her Hunger Games costumes. 

photos by Murray Close, © Lionsgate

2) Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)

One of my all-time favourite movies is "Breakfast at Tiffany's" with beautiful Audrey Hepburn. I honestly think that there couldn't have been a more elegant lady out there and I really like the character of Holly Gollightly she embodies in this film.
Most of Audrey Hepburn's costumes in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" were designed by French fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy who also dressed women like Jacqueline Kennedy. Costume supervisor for "Breakfast at Tiffany's" was the famous Edith Head, who was like THE costume designer of her times and made the costumes for (according to IMDb) 439 (!!) film productions.

3) The Great Gatsby (2013)

Another movie with a great costume design is in my opinion "The Great Gatsby" film version of last year. All these beautiful 1920s dresses in this totally over the top, colourful, glamorous staging by Baz Luhrmann. Loving it! The costume design is from Catherine Martin, who is also known for her work on Moulin Rouge and Australia. 

Photo by Courtesy of Warner Bros. Picture - © 2013 Bazmark Film III Pty Limited

4) Down with love (2003)

As you have probably already noticed, I am a great fan of vintage clothing. Therefore it's no big surprise that I am really into the costume design of "Down with love", a very cute, funny and slightly modernised (especially regarding the perception of women - luckily there have been changes since the 1950s) sort of remake of the Doris Day movie "Pillow Talk" from 1959. The costumes were designed by Daniel Orlandi. 

Photos by Merrick Morton/Doug Kirkland - © 2003 Twentieth Century Fox - All Rights Reserved

5) The Fifth Element (1997)

For me "The Fifth Element" is a modern, 1990s, childhood film classic. ;) I've probably seen it already ten times (at least) and somehow I always have to watch it again when it's broadcasted on TV. Furthermore I am really into the futuristic costumes by (watch it!) Monsieur Jean-Paul Gaultier himself. My favourites are (of course) the outfits of Chris Tucker (Ruby Rhod) and I really wouldn't mind looking like THAT (see below) if I was basically only wearing some thicker stripes of tape on my body like Mila Jovovich in her first scene in the movie.

© Sony Pictures Entertainment

What are your favourite movie costumes?

Have a great day!

Yours,
Tulip

Favourite Christmas Movie Outfits

Hey folks,

we allready showed you our favourite christmas movies in this post. Today I want to share my favourite christmas movie outfits with you :) Allthough fashion of the 80ies is not so much my thing, I really love the crazy christmas sweaters they were wearing in the movies at that time.

When I saw "Bridget Jones" for the first time I instantly felt in love with that cute reindeer-sweater from Marc. Here's a nice collage I found to bring it back into your mind.

And here is my Bridget Jones movie outfit inspiration for you. You can find all details on my Polyvore profile.

Best christmas movies ever - seriously!

Hey out there,

we hope you enjoy our advent calendar here on the blog so far!
Tonight it was snowing and now it's really cold and windy outside. The best weather for watching our favourite christmas movies! Today we want to show you our top 3 christmas movies.

Here are Lily's top three:

Home alone (1990) "I made my family disappear" - cutest and most funniest christmas movie ever!

Bridget Jones (2001) I love the scene where Bridget (Renée Zellweger) sings "All by myself" and when she tries to speak German while her skiing holiday in Switzerland :)

Scrooged (1986) Bill Murray at his best! I can't imagine christmas without this lovely and funny film adaption of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol

Steffi's top three are somehow much more childish than Katja's but that's probably simply because she has such a big inner child... ;)

Disney's A Christmas Carol (2009) I think "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens is one of the greatest Christmas stories ever and I love Disney's movie adaption of 2009. Jim Carrey as evil Ebenezer Scrooge is just too great.

The Polar Express (2004) Another Christmas movie I have to watch every year is Robert Zemecki's "The Polar Express". I love that scene where they get hot chocolate served on the train and I'm always moved to tears when the boy is finally able to hear the small bell. :)

The Santa Clause (1994) This is really one of the funny, cute ones! I always love at the scene when he comes back to the little girl he had treated really unkindly in his first night as Santa Clause (he is really grumpy and sarcastic) and he takes a sip from the milk which tastes horrible. And he asks her what's wrong with the milk and the little girl (who is absolutely adorable by the way) answers: "You said you were lactose-intolerant".

Apart from those six movies there are of course many more other Christmas movies you shouldn't miss. Like these:

• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
• Love Actually (2003)
• Single Bells (1998)
• The Grinch (2000)
• White Christmas (1954)
• Blizzard (2003)
• etc.

What are your favourite Christmas movies?