{"@attributes":{"version":"2.0"},"channel":{"title":"A Pebble in My Shoe","link":"https:\/\/isabellecs.livejournal.com\/","description":"A Pebble in My Shoe - LiveJournal.com","lastBuildDate":"Wed, 02 Mar 2011 18:42:07 GMT","generator":"LiveJournal \/ LiveJournal.com","image":{"url":"https:\/\/l-userpic.livejournal.com\/101988108\/804298","title":"A Pebble in My Shoe","link":"https:\/\/isabellecs.livejournal.com\/","width":"100","height":"100"},"item":[{"guid":"https:\/\/isabellecs.livejournal.com\/401887.html","pubDate":"Wed, 02 Mar 2011 18:42:07 GMT","title":"it's been nice!","author":"isabellecs","link":"https:\/\/isabellecs.livejournal.com\/401887.html","description":"I'm still very much around but I think that for the time being I'm closing this badboy, I'm never on it. I'm mostly on my Tumblr: Isabelle Hernandez<\/a>

=)","comments":"https:\/\/isabellecs.livejournal.com\/401887.html?view=comments#comments","category":"bye bye"},{"guid":"https:\/\/isabellecs.livejournal.com\/401566.html","pubDate":"Thu, 03 Feb 2011 16:11:55 GMT","title":"Movie Reviews: True Grit & The King's Speech","author":"isabellecs","link":"https:\/\/isabellecs.livejournal.com\/401566.html","description":"I said to myself that I needed to get over this dislike I have for the Oscars in general since Pan's Labyrinth got jipped. I had to get over it, let it go. Move on. So I decided to start watching some of the contenders this year. This week I needed to play a bit of catch up and I saw both True Grit & The King's Speech.

So... some reviews...

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Movie: True Grit <\/strong>(Coen Bros)
Staring: Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin & Hailee Steinfeld
Rating: A

Thoughts: I loved it. I'm a fan of the Coen Brothers in general, loved No Country for Old Men and this one I liked better. I'm a Westerns lover as a whole, so this was right up my alley. The direction was phenomenal, the actors were on par, the script was great, cinematography etc. Excellent. I think this one is going to take the Oscar for Best Direction and Hailee Steinfeld totally has a chance of winning Best Supporting Actress, she definitely steals the film from right under these seasoned actors.

Jeff Bridges was perfection, as always, as Rooster - an old cowboy with a speech impediment (quite honestly I didn't understand half of what he was saying) and a sour outlook on life. His chemistry with Hailee was right on, he plays the classic grumpy man that is bothered by the inquisitive teen and thus changes his life in a heroic manner. He definitely gave The Duke a run for his money as Rooster. However, despite his awesome portrayal I do not believe Jeff will take home the Oscar for Best Actor. I think that is going to go in the direction of Colin Firth as I will explain later.

Matt Damon was awesome. I know a lot of people (critics) felt he was out of place but to me he was right in there. He was meant to stand out, he was meant to be awkward and he did just that. Matt plays a Texas Ranger who is all talk and little action until the end. He's got a thing for young teen girls and still manages to be endearing and a hero at the end. I loved everything about his portrayal from the lisp he's got to develop halfway through the film to his relationship with Mattie (can we say odd sexual tension?) to his animosity with Rooster and his overall opposite of the Rooster character. I cheered in the end and wished we saw more of him in the end.

Josh Brolin was perfect as this larger than life outlaw who when you finally meet him he's a dim-witted fellow.

Another one worth a mention was Barry Pepper as Lucky Ned was such a pleasant and welcomed surprise. Everything from his makeup to his little time on screen he really was the only one who Hailee couldn't steal the scene from.

And finally Hailee Steinfeld basically owns this film as an inquisitive, smart-mouthed teen who bites off more than she can chew. She's both precious, annoying, awe-inspiring and kick-ass in this her first film. I was supremely impressed by her talent that actresses twice her age wish they had. She keeps getting described in the film as ugly and plain but the truth is that as the film progresses you find her more and more impressive until she becomes this unexpected heroine. I adored her and really cant wait to see more of her. She knows how to play off the chemistry of the actors and outshine them. Have to give her credit for it.

Overall, the acting was awesome and if you remotely enjoy some historical westerns you will most likely love this film. Like I said, I see it taking the Oscar for Direction and Hailee will give Helena a run for her money as Best Supporting Actress.


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Movie: The King's Speech <\/strong>
Staring: Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter & Geoffrey Rush
Rating: A

Thoughts: This film is in most likelihood will take the Oscar for Best Film, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor\/Actress. It's a great film but to me the best part is Colin Firth, Rush and believe it or not Timothy Spall (Harry Potter's Peper Pettigrew) as Winston Churchill. The entire cast was great but those are my favorite and let me point out that Helena was also fantastic as Queen Elizabeth, spot on.

Colin Firth plays King George VI 'Bertie', a man who had a horrible stutter which embarrassed his family to no end. He grew up with no friends, an isolated life and always thinking little of himself despite his position in life while his older brother (King Edward\/Guy Pearce), the rightful King grew up handsome, famous, popular with the ladies and the people while Bertie grew up in the shadows and that horrible stutter. He's lucky enough to have Elizabeth who is extremely supportive and completely believes in his capability as a leader. Firth's portrayal of a lonely and reserved man who has never had any interaction with common folk is precious and you really want to put him in your pocket. He's completely devoted to his older brother and never wishes the throne upon himself. I think he just wanted a quiet life with his wife and daughters and be left alone yet when the time comes for it he steps up and fulfills his duty despite his own physical incapability. In comes Geoffrey Rush.

Rush plays a self-taught man who helps with speech impediments by going to the root of the problem; the psychosis. Through talking with the Prince he realizes that Bertie's problem really is psychological rather than physical and working through this and other hilarious methods he makes a King out of the man.

The saddest scene to me was when Bertie finally confesses about his childhood and how his nanny used to pinch him before he would be introduced daily to his parents so that his parents wouldn't want to interact with him and preferred Edward over him. My heart completely broke because he's singing and yet it's such a sad and lonely story about the most powerful man in the world. I also about died when he breaks down crying after his father dies and Elizabeth goes to him in the study and tells him that she knew he was going to be a good King and that she fell in love with his stutter. The scenes with Bertie and his daughters were also precious and I loved them.

Churchill was awesome despite only having like 4 scenes, I wanted to put him in my pocket and squeeze him.

The other scene that made me and my roommate melt into a puddle of happy goo was when Bertie meets Myrtle, the wife of the therapist... now for us fundamentalists we knew exactly what this meant. It was as if Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy had a sudden reunion. Jennifer Ehle has such a small role and it's such a small scene and one sentence that they say to one another but I still died. It's known that Jennifer and Colin had a relationship while filming Pride & Prejudice so this made it even more spectacular. =D

In the end, expect this film to win a lot more than people will give it credit for, it was a really great film.

Overall.. I enjoyed True Grit better. Mostly because it's more adventure and those are the types of films I'm attracted to. But see them both, you wont regret it :)","comments":"https:\/\/isabellecs.livejournal.com\/401566.html?view=comments#comments","category":"movies"},{"guid":"https:\/\/isabellecs.livejournal.com\/401231.html","pubDate":"Wed, 12 Jan 2011 18:51:20 GMT","title":"TV Review: The Cape","author":"isabellecs","link":"https:\/\/isabellecs.livejournal.com\/401231.html","description":"I have some reviews coming! I been meaning to post them before this but honestly a project at work has taken over my life plus I am back to watching Novelas. I know, I promised 5 yrs ago I was quitting. I lied.

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TV Show<\/strong>: The Cape (NBC)
Show Rating<\/strong>: C
Best Line<\/strong>: “Say hello to Dorothy, bitch.” ~ Rollo
Best Special Guest:<\/strong> Vinnie Jones as Scales. Why isn’t he a regular???


Thoughts<\/strong>: Like the majority of TV shows there’s always weak-links whose acting skill is quite honestly determined by their pretty looks. Lack of talent seems to bother no one when casting these fools, however it’s pretty seldom that you get the main actor to be such a link. The Cape has plenty of corny lines, predictable storylines (with the exception of Max not dying, thank the freaking Gods of TV) and an awesome supporting cast. The main hero’s storyline? Not so compelling. An honest cop whose world is turned upside down when he’s framed by his diabolical nemesis and fabulous English actor, James Frain. Boohoohoo<\/em>. Perhaps it is my general apathy towards wholesome goody-two-shoes characters that plays an essential element in my general dislike for ‘The Cape’ and his family, but regardless of what it is I just don’t feel them. On the other hand, I’m very interested in those around him.

Summer Glau’s acting begs for someone in LA to grow a brain and get her, her own TV show. Granted, this character she plays is not as amazing as River (Firefly) but she holds her own as a sexy internet blogger and hacker with a mysterious source of endless money and unknown motives. I like. It’s sexy, intriguing and lies happily in the gray area.

Then there’s Max, played by the actor with the most panty-wetting voice ever, Keith David. I’ve had a love affair with Keith’s voice since he did the voice of Goliath in ‘Gargoyles’. He’s your stereotypical soulful black man who stands around to give ‘The Cape’ (or whatever his name is) advise. I about had a heart attack when you think he’s dying, I was ready to turn off my TV because if I can’t hear Keith’s voice then what is the point of it all? However, in a turn of rather brilliance the writers let him live to fight another day. I liked it! There’s more to Max than meets the eye.

Of course, the big bad. James Frain plays the “bwahahah”-villain ‘Chess’. Yes, you heard right. His name is ‘Chess’. I can’t even. Anyways, can’t dwell on it let us focus on James’ fantasticness. James comes on the screen and all one can think is ‘this just got good’ and it pretty much lets you survive past those cringing moments when he’s being all Bwahahah-evil-cause-I’m-wearing-evil-contacts. I know there’s a story behind that because from I could gather while I curled my lashes he’s been hurt before, his family destroyed. Predictable plot: ‘The Cape’ will feel he’s turning into ‘Chess’ since they have probably gone through the same only James Frain did it with more hair (The Cape seems to be balding).

The rest of the circus bank robbers are a lovely cast of characters which I rather watch than ‘The Cape’s wife and kid mourning him. I’ve said this before, I don’t always get sucked in per the premier. Premiers tend to suck but I’m having a really hard time getting over the main being so white bread. I will still record it and watch it Monday mornings as I’m getting ready, it’s the least I can do for Glau, David and Frain.

In closing<\/strong>: I don’t think this baby will last long which works out well for Glau lovers as this may give her the exposure she needs to finally have her own show. A+ I’m also afraid this will turn as corny as Smallville did because really how many times can the city come close to being destroyed? NBC cancels shows faster than people sleeping together in Grey's Anatomy so let us see... only time can tell.","comments":"https:\/\/isabellecs.livejournal.com\/401231.html?view=comments#comments","category":["tv shows","reviews"]},{"guid":"https:\/\/isabellecs.livejournal.com\/401052.html","pubDate":"Mon, 03 Jan 2011 20:57:12 GMT","title":"girly is better","author":"isabellecs","link":"https:\/\/isabellecs.livejournal.com\/401052.html","description":"Posting some makeup pics!

Some more nail swatches and now I'll include some eye-looks I've done in the past few months. Again, I post these in my twitter account as I do them so feel free to skip if you've seen them there already :)

Nails
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Holidays Manicure #2: China Glaze's Party Hearty on top of China Glaze's Peace on Earth


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OPI's Merry Midnight

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Butter London's All Hail McQueen

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Essie's Sew Psyched

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Rescue Beauty Lounge's Anne

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Rescue Beauty Lounge's Catherine

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Barielle's Cashmere or Loose Me

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OPI's Lincoln Park After Dark SUEDE w\/ top coat

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Ulta's Violet Velour with top coat

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OPI's Bastille My Heart

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Orly's Flagstone Rush

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Zoya's Kelly

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Zoya's Cheryl

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Color Club's Sexsea

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Color Club's High Society

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My Christmas party manicure: China Glaze's Party Hearty on top of OPI's DS Illuminate

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Color Club's Who are you wearing?


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Eye-looks
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MAC's Mutiny pigment on lid & MAC's Black Tied on crease


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MAC's Paradisio on lid & NYX's dark brown on crease. MAC's Vanilla as highlight. UB's 24\/7 pencil in Lucky

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Shady Lady Vol.1 by TheBalm. Easy Wheezie on lid, Risque Rene on crease. Liner Smashbox's Picasso

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Fyrinnae's Cookie Dough on lid, Heavenly Natural Product's Kitten & NYX's Smokie Mountain on crease

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Using the blues from this Smashbox palette<\/a>, smoked it out with NYX's Black (best-black-matte-omg)

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I can't effing remember... I think it was using my Shady Lady palette. One of them. I was soo sick that day that I didn't even notice what I was doing.

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Stila's Viola on lid, smoked w\/ Stila's Twig

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NYX's Daffodil on lid, crease Makeup Forever #92

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Stila's ChaCha on lid, on the crease Too Face's Lucy Charm & Detrivore's Crypt to smoke it
<\/a>","comments":"https:\/\/isabellecs.livejournal.com\/401052.html?view=comments#comments","category":"beauty"},{"guid":"https:\/\/isabellecs.livejournal.com\/400835.html","pubDate":"Fri, 31 Dec 2010 13:32:26 GMT","title":"Movie Review: Tangled","author":"isabellecs","link":"https:\/\/isabellecs.livejournal.com\/400835.html","description":"

Movie Rating: 4\/5
Conclusion: The perfect 'classic' Disney film

Since Mom has been feeling better and she's been dying to get out of the house I decided, unexpectedly, to take her to the movies. Originally I wanted to take her to see Harry Potter or Narnia but the shows started too late for her, she gets tired early. So I decided on Tangled, which I'd been wanting to see and since my younger niece lives in Puerto Rico and I had no excuse my excuse was my mother :)

She loved it, roared in laughter and chatted non-stop about it during dinner afterward.

I thought it was very reminiscence of old-Disney which is what a lot of people had said about it. For starters we're back to enchantments, Princesses, good songs, animals with awesome personalities. What I do have to commend this is on the actual animation of it, it was pretty darn amazing. From the hair on the horse to Rapunzel's nose and freckles and Flynn's eyebrows. It looked really amazing up close. I also loved the songs, especially 'Mama knows best'. I also must say that it was pretty hilarious, most especially Flynn. This is a strange thing as the main guy is usually never funny but he was, in his plotting and freaking out over her hair it was comical. I have honestly no complaints, my favorite line being Flynn stating at the end that he has a thing for brunettes, that's always a nice touch :)

The theater was filled (packed) with little tiny children that all became very confused when the wicked witch dies and for a full 5 min you could hear the whispers of mothers attempting to explain that she wasn't really dead. She had just disappeared. Kids are smarter than we think and I am pretty sure the two girls next to us didn't buy it for a second.

I must also say that I absolutely loved that the entire band of braggarts was gay, it took mom a second to pick up on it but the mime did her in.

It was a nice-fluffy movie to watch and I think I may buy it just to keep it around whenever kids drop by (and you know to enjoy it myself).

Also, check out my wallpaper of the fabulous, super arrogant and conceited Flynn.

<3 him.","comments":"https:\/\/isabellecs.livejournal.com\/400835.html?view=comments#comments","category":"movies"},{"guid":"https:\/\/isabellecs.livejournal.com\/400466.html","pubDate":"Sat, 11 Dec 2010 14:37:14 GMT","title":"still alive","author":"isabellecs","link":"https:\/\/isabellecs.livejournal.com\/400466.html","description":"Just a quick update to let you all know that Mom is doing much better, her surgery was on Tuesday and she's mostly now at home complaining but she'll live. Yes, she needed surgery. They had to re-construct her bone with screws and bone grafts and all sorts of gross stuff but at least it went well, without complications. I have been so incredibly busy between her and this huge project we needed to do this week at work I've barely been online and present buying for the Holidays.... So THANK YOU for all the good wishes and concerns, I really appreciate it :)

I have my company party tonight and I have a packed schedule from dying my hair, getting it cut, curling, practicing my most bitchy patronizing look and doing my nails! I wish everyone has an AWESOME weekend and I'll try to post later on this week =D","comments":"https:\/\/isabellecs.livejournal.com\/400466.html?view=comments#comments","category":"life"},{"guid":"https:\/\/isabellecs.livejournal.com\/400282.html","pubDate":"Mon, 06 Dec 2010 16:31:14 GMT","title":"oh DC... thou art a heartless bitch...","author":"isabellecs","link":"https:\/\/isabellecs.livejournal.com\/400282.html","description":"So I have spent the last week in DC, from Tuesday to Friday for work and then I flew my family up to DC for a mini-vacation. Mom, Dad and my brother arrived on Friday night. Everything was going well until Saturday 1pm. We got to have a night tour of DC on Friday night, took the family to the Arlington Cemetery, enjoyed that a lot (as much as one can enjoy such a sad place), checked into the hotel, visited this lovely Holiday festival and we were walking towards the National Mall to hit our first stop at The Museum of Natural History when mom tripped over uneven sidewalk, landing forward on her arm. Thank god she was wearing like 5 layers of clothes because it was bitterly cold but it was still enough damage to not only dislocate her shoulder but to break her arm. So we spent Saturday from 1pm to 5:30pm in the hospital. Disaster. Of course she's crying and not letting my brother or father help her get up from the pavement, holding to her oddly-turned arm. I knew it was broken when I saw it.

So needless to say it's been an insane weekend. We just flew back today and she's seeing an orthopedic that the guy I'm kinda-sorta seeing recommended and he will determine today is she needs surgery or not.

Christ, so our mini-vacation was ruined, we hardly got to see anything, it was totally sad. Now this happens right before Christmas when we have so many plans and such and at the very least its going to be a few months before she's back to her old self, especially at her age.

I told her I couldn't take her anywhere.","comments":"https:\/\/isabellecs.livejournal.com\/400282.html?view=comments#comments","category":"life"},{"guid":"https:\/\/isabellecs.livejournal.com\/400084.html","pubDate":"Sat, 20 Nov 2010 15:43:41 GMT","title":"Movie Review: Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Part 1","author":"isabellecs","link":"https:\/\/isabellecs.livejournal.com\/400084.html","description":"
<\/div>

Movie Rating: 4\/5
Harry Potter Rating: 3\/5
Conclusion: The good out-weighs the bad

I always try to see the HP movies on opening weekend and in years before I have been totally spoiled, seen clips, watched interviews that revealed clips, watched as many trailers as humanly possible etc. This year I went cold turkey because I found that it messed with me, I ended up seeing the entire movie before it even aired.

Deathly Hallows is in my top 3 books of the series, it's actually number 3; I want to re-read it someday. Not today but someday. I was so happy that they split the book in half they should've done that with the last 3 movies<\/strike> they were able to capture more details. Scenes still slipped through the cracks. And scenes, for some odd reason, where added... that will be further on...


High Points: