Here are some goodies I picked up a week and a half ago. Why has it taken so long to post, you ask? Because the Philadelphia Film Festival started on Friday.  It took every spare second to get my tutorial posted on Monday.

I picked up the yarn for a Film Festival project I'm working on. The floss is to match with felt I have stashed away. The Hello Kitty notepad has origami instructions on the back so you can make the neat little box (in the picture, too) if you just don't have anything to write about. How could I resist?! The little box is now on my desk full of lucky stars.

The yarn is TLC Amore. It's a super soft terry-like yarn. Ack - I just realized I bought two more skiens - but they are Red Heart Plush. (time lag) I just scrutinized them side by side and they look exactly the same. (another time lag) I just checked Coats & Clark's site and they manufacture both of them, so I guess I'm not crazy. They really are EXACTLY alike. Weird.

Last night we figured out that we have seen movies in film festivals every year we've been together. One San Francisco Film Festival, two Sundance Film Festivals, and this is our third Philadelphia Film Festival. This year we are seeing 10 movies! I came up with a simple crochet project to fill in the time while we stand in line and sit in the theater waiting for the movie to start. I need to get cracking, though, because we've already seen 6 of the 10 movies and I'm not even half-way done.

Philadelphia Film Festival Rundown

Just in case anyone in crafty-land is into independent or foriegn films, here's what we've seen so far:

1. Lucky Number Slevin (USA) - Lots of Hollywood actors (Bruce Willis, Lucy Liu, Josh Hartnett, and a ton more), which normally would make me suspicious of it's independent-ness. No need to worry, though; this revenge-ganster-mystery-lovestory is very good and very fun.

2. Hell (L'Enfer) (France) - This is the second in a trilogy written by the late Krzysztof Kieslowski: Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory. Each will be directed by someone different. This was very well done. I could actually imagine that Kieslowski directed this himself. Wonderful and heartwrenchingly human.

3. A Bittersweet Life (South Korea) - There are great fight scenes in this movie, but they are not the point. This is an incredble and subtle movie that transcends the ganster genre's thrill-a-minute and cheap-jokes limits.

4. The Descent (UK) - Scared the bejesus (that word is acutally in the dictionary?!) out of me and I loved every screaming second of it. Adventure seeking women embark on a spelunking adventure that goes horribly horribly wrong.  I think this one will get a wide-release.

5. Reincarnation (Japan) - By the director who did Ju-on (remade as the Grudge in the US) and Marebito. This movie is much more linear than either of those, but no less wierd and disorienting. Very good, very scary.

6. Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (South Korea) - EXCELLENT. I knew this would be good and was totally looking forward to seeing this movie. Chan-wook Park is an incredible director. Andrew and I suspect that he is explicitly referencing Krzysztof Kieslowski's White throughout this movie. The humor is blackest-night black, the story is intricate and engaging, the themes are deep and thoughtful, and there is sex and violence galore. Everything a gal wants in a movie!

I'll tell you all about the last 4 movies after the festival when I unveil my waiting-for-the-movie-to-start project.