Double the bakes!

So it's breadstick/rolls month here on the Great Sara Baking Show and I've made twice the buns as we'll be off for vacation all next week and I don't want to bake. It's okay. I make the rules.

Dinner Rolls

Burger Buns

Both were quite successful, I think. Perhaps I'm finally taming this beast of an oven!

I may take one of my free pass days and not post next week, because a real vacation is sounding really good right now. We'll see! There will certainly be very big news upon our return. :)

2017 Best Animated Pictures

Per goal #45, I'm watching every film nominated for Best Animated Picture and this week I finished those nominated for this year's Academy Awards.

• Kubo and the Two Strings - overall, my favorite. The animation was stunning, and I do have an affinity for origami. I also loved the music - especially the Regina Spektor cover of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."
• Moana - but I also loved this one! Again, great music - thank you, Lin! But most of all, I loved the story. I loved that Moana was in line to be the chief with no man to qualify that position. I loved that she saved her people and opened up the world to them again. Tears were shed.
• My Life as a Zucchini  - this one was enjoyable, but in a more subtle way. When his mother dies, Zucchini is sent to live in an orphanage and the movie follows his experiences there. There's some heavy material, but it's treated in a light manner. We watched the making of and saw how they created the models and filmed the dialogue - all the kids were untrained actors, just regular kids - and I really liked that.
• The Red Turtle - Hands down the worst film on this list, and also a terrible film in general. The animation is beautiful, as Studio Ghibli had a hand in it, but from what I understand, they let the director have free reign on everything else. I think it was supposed to symbolize man's relationship with nature or something, but I didn't find the story gripping. It felt like a short film that was stretched out for a longer run time.
• Zootopia - I also loved Zootopia. I think it was really close between this, Kubo, and Moana for me, so it's quite alright that Zootopia won. This was probably the funniest of the five, and it had a great message. Also a shout out to Shakira/Gazelle's "Try Everything" - I got chills when Judy was listening to it riding into the city for the first time.

I'm really enjoying this goal - I just wish it was possible to see them all before the Oscars themselves, but some weren't released in the US until after. I had already seen Kubo, Moana, and Zootopia when the list was announced, but I had to wait for Zucchini and The Red Turtle. Many thanks to the Orem Library for their excellent DVD collection that make it possible for me to watch those two.

Victorian Slum House

Have you seen the House shows on PBS? They take modern people and throw them into the past. There's Colonial House, 1900 House, 1940 House, Manor House, Frontier House (my personal favorite), and Regency House Party, among others.

I discovered that they filmed a new one, Victorian Slum House in 2016 and it's currently available on pbs.org. I'm undertaking the ridiculous task of watching a documentary for every feature film that I watch during the list, and I'm letting each episode of a series count as an individual documentary. We binged 4 episodes on Sunday, so that's 4 feature films canceled out!

This House show is unique in that they take the families through the decades. The first episode is 1860s, and they work their way up to the 1900s. Each episode brings changes, like in the tailor family where they started doing piece work, then had a sweatshop, and eventually opened their own tailor shop. It was harder for other families who didn't have a trade.

I'm slowly getting Hubster caught up on these and we just have a few more series to watch. I think I'm going to let myself count ones I've seen before for the list, because I'm sure I'll still learn things the second time around.

Do you guys have any good documentaries I should watch? Let me know, because I'm going to end up watching a lot of them!

Monthly Projects

So I'm in the midst of 2 years of 30-day projects. They say 30 days is long enough to make or break a habit, and I think it's a good way to try out things I may want to develop either into habits or bigger goals.

So far I've done daily dishes, banjo practice, wearing earrings, reading for one hour, and brush lettering. Each month I've definitely felt an impact from my project and I've tried to keep up on them when I finished.

This month I'm focusing on my morning routine. Let me tell you about how I usually spend my mornings. I usually don't even bother getting out of bed and I scroll Facebook, or most recently, tend to my Magikarps in Magikarp Jump. We're talking like a full hour of mindless phone stuff.

Now, I'm taking time to read in the mornings - I don't even look at my phone - as well as doing some stretching and thinking. I go through my bullet journal every morning and pick out one or two things to do right then if I can. It's great to already have accomplished something before I even go to work, and it helps me feel more focused for the day.

Maybe once I get a handle on the overwhelming daily to-do's, I'll be able to pick something for my 101 list to do every morning. That would be pretty great, but might also be enough for it's own 30-day project.

Any other ideas for me? I have 18 more of these to fill!