If you get one movie for the Holidays, let it be UP.

Even if your kids are too young or too old for Disney movies, get UP.

If you don’t have kids, at least rent UP.

UP is my favorite Disney Pixar movie, and you know the good company it is in, coming from the Pixar family. UP makes you cry, UP makes you laugh and you will sit on the side of your seat just waiting what will happen next in this amazing story of what happens when you get old to realize that your life has been full of then-when’s (you know – then we’ll travel when kids are older), and you have once last chance to make it right.

I saw Up with my family a few months ago, but I can’t wait to get the DVD and watch again with my kids. Such a touching story, and something for everyone in the family to think about regardless of age.

AN INTERVIEW WITH PETE DOCTER: DIRECTOR OF DISNEY/PIXAR’S UP

How did you come up with the movie’s storyline?

Pete Docter: A number of years ago, I was sat in a room, throwing around ideas with co-director Bob Peterson and a lot of the themes we came up with were about ‘escape’ and ‘getting away’. We kept coming back to the idea of this floating house that felt cool and poetic – and the idea of ‘getting away from the world’ seemed to strike a chord with us.

What made you choose a 78-year-old man as the protagonist in Up?

Pete Docter: Well, we had always wanted to do something with an old man – specifically, someone with a lot of attitude. We had fun playing around with the idea of this grouchy guy who would slam the door in people’s faces. It was something we hadn’t really seen before in animation.

You’ve created a story about a 70-year-old man in a society that’s obsessed with youth… Carl doesn’t have hairs on his ears or too many liver spots. Are you trying to keep an ideal vision of growing old?

Pete Docter: It’s definitely idealized and caricatured, but I look at the veins in my own hand and I think, ‘Well, you wouldn’t want to see that on a cartoon character.’ Everything is simplified to be more appealing – and we certainly did that with Carl’s wrinkles and the pockmarks on his nose. He’s definitely a senior citizen with his hearing aid and walking stick, but he also has a fun look to him.

In the movie Carl travels to South America, why did you pick South America?

Pete Docter: Early on, the story was set on a tropical island because I’m a big fan of tropical islands. I thought to myself, ‘Well, if we have to do research on a tropical island, that won’t be so bad.’ But there have been so many movies where a character gets stuck on a tropical island and we wanted something different, so we had to think up something new. We needed a location where Carl could get stuck with this kid. It couldn’t be somewhere where he could just turn to the police and say, “Here, take care of this youngster.” We wouldn’t have a movie if that was the case.

So you decided on the tabletop mountains of Venezuela?

Pete Docter: Exactly. One of the guys at Pixar had a video of these mountains in South America called the tapuis – and they were perfect. Why? Well, one of the major themes of the movie is adventure. If you think about adventure, South America is one of the few places in the world where new things are being discovered all of the time. Even to this day, you hear stories of a new species of monkey being discovered that nobody has heard about until now. That’s amazing. This place is so full of secrets, darkness and mystery. That seemed like a good setting.

Where did you get the idea of the talking dogs?

Pete Docter: The dogs came from an idea that Bob Peterson and I developed early on. We tried to make the dogs think about subjects that real dogs think about, like food and squirrels. We had one idea where Dug was a failed science experiment from a Russian satellite that crashed in the mountains, but ultimately we came up with the idea of Charles Muntz – the main villain in the movie.

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Pixar is famous for incorporating sneaky hidden references throughout their movies… What hidden gems can fans find in Up?

Pete Docter: There are loads of hidden references, but I’m not giving everything away here. At the end of Monsters, Inc. Boo holds some toys and one of them is a fish, which is Nemo from Finding Nemo – but the audience didn’t know that at the time. Finding Nemo hadn’t been released at that point, so he was a secret character put in there. There’s a character from Toy Story 3 that you don’t know about yet that turns up in Up. Good luck finding it…

INTERVIEW WITH JORDAN NAGAI – THE VOICE TALENT IN UP

Jordan Nagai provides the voice of a wilderness explorer Russell in Up. Like Pete Docter, the director explains in the video clip above – Jordan was pretty new to acting before being a voice talent in Up.

Tell us about your new movie, Up

Jordan Nagai: Up is about a young wilderness explorer called Russell. Russell needs his last wilderness explorer badge – the Assisting The Elderly Badge – so he goes to his elderly neighbor, Mr. Fredricksen, to see if he can get it.

What happens when Russell meets Mr. Fredricksen?

Jordan Nagai: Mr. Fredricksen has just lost his wife and he is about to lose his house, so he decides to go on an adventure by attaching balloons to his home. He sails into the sky, but Russell accidentally goes along for the ride.

What is Russell like?

Jordan Nagai: Russell is an active, enthusiastic and determined 8-year-old boy. He loves animals and he loves the wilderness, so he has a great time exploring when they land near Paradise Falls. Russell is a funny, helpful and smart boy – and he wants to get this last badge to please his father. I like the way that he’s funny. He makes a lot of jokes – and he sometimes shows off what he knows from his wilderness explorer camp. He shows Carl – Mr. Fredricksen – different knots and the different calls of animals.

How did you get the part of Russell?

Jordan Nagai: The principal at my school sent out an email to all students saying there was a audition for 9 and 10 year old boys. My brother was 9 years old at the time and he went to the audition, so I went along with him. Even though I was only 7 years old, I was allowed to do the audition too. I did several auditions after that – and finally, I got the part!

How difficult was it to record your voice in the sound booth?

Jordan Nagai: It wasn’t very difficult, but I had to repeat the same lines over and over again. I also had to stand for a long time, so it was a little tiring. The director – Pete Docter – tried to make it easier for me, so I took a lot of breaks. I had a lot of fun recording the voice!

What do your friends think of your new fame?

Jordan Nagai: They are all very excited for me. We went to see the movie together on opening day. They like the movie a lot and they think that I’m very lucky.

Get the Disney/Pixar UP on DVD on November 10th.

It’s time to order the Holiday cards!

This Holiday season I am showing more and more my “true colors” and featuring things that have a little bit of a Scandinavian look, even if they are not Scandinavian. Here are some suggestions for your personalized cards this Holiday season, and they all remind me of home in a way or another; reindeers, snow, simplistic beauty and nature. Also I included a few eco-friendly options. Most card prices vary by the quantity, so please check with each company the exact pricing.

Pear Tree Greetings doesn’t just offer cute cards with Christmas trees – in fact they offer cards that save the trees! They have a huge collection of recycled holiday cards that look modern and are eco-friendly. They also have nice customizable photo cards.

Prices: $0.65- $2.50/ card

Special offer: $15 off Holiday Photo Cards on orders of $75 or more at Pear Tree Greetings. Enter NOV09 at checkout.

POSH PEACOCK

Posh Peacock reminds as one of my favorite stationery and card stores. You can customize the high quality cards with your message, and the cards come with envelopes that usually have contrasting color to the cards making it very chic.

Price: $1.50-$2.20/card

Special discount: email to info (at) poshpeacock.com and mention Skimbaco, and you will get 20% off your order!

BEAU COUP

Personalized Holiday Plantable Seed Cards from Beau Coup are actually party favors, but why not get some envelopes, add some photos of your kids that you printed yourself or kids own drawings in the envelope and send these for family and friends as a Holiday greeting. Eco-friendly plantable seed card! I love these cards, can’t get any greener than this (unless you email your card)! These cards are handmade paper embedded with White Spruce seeds that grow when you plant them. You can personalize them with your message, great custom card that will make you and the recipient to feel good.Available in 4 designs, 3 paper colors and 6 print colors.

Price: $1.65/card

VISTA PRINT

If you want to save money on your Christmas cards, the best place to get good quality cards with very little money is Vista Print. I have ordered business cards, post cards and other products from them for a few years, and while the quality isn’t as high as the other cards I recommend here, it is way better than the cheap price suggests. You get the best bang for your buck from Vista Print. Their Holiday card selection this year is really wide, and you can always totally custom design your card for a little bit extra money. And if you want to see the quality first – order a test pack of 10 cards for $3.99 to see it yourself.

Price: Starting at $0.44/ card – now on sale for $0.22 per card!

Special offer:Use this link and get 10 FREE Holiday Cards & 50% Off Larger Quantities!

HOLIDAY CLASSICS

Holiday Classics has a wide variety of cards made with 10% to 30% post-consumer fibers with nice traditional pictures. You can customize your own message inside the cards. The minimum order is 50 cards, so take that in consideration when checking Holiday Classics out.

Prices: $2.14-$3.05

FINNSTYLE

While these Marimekko cards can not be personalized by anyone else than you, these cards designed by Sanna Annukka from FinnStyle would be perfect for unique Christmas cards.

Price: $2.00/card

Special: Win $100 Gift Card to FinnStyle

I have a confession to make… I wear dressbarn clothing. I had never visited dressbarn before, and was invited to a special VIP evening of shopping while I was at Type-A Mom Conference a while ago. The evening was so much fun – they had closed the store down for our visit and we had snacks and live music – and a nice staff helping us to shop!

Photo: Michelle Lane, the Secret Agent Mama.

A fun evening. Friends. And shopping.

I have to confess… I can not wear polyester, at all. I don’t know why, probably because I never wore polyester or acrylic when growing up, my mom was very particular about that, and taught me to look for high quality fabrics. And dressbarn had a lot of polyester and acrylic in their clothing. They had so many nice styles, that it left me hoping that the sweaters had been cashmere or wool, the blouses silk. I was surprised by their jeans and suede jackets, and sweater dresses – very trendy, and the prices were so low! I chose jeans, black sweater, zebra print scarf, newsboy hat, and the cutest ankle boots, which I use almost every day. I didn’t even know dressbarn carried shoes, and their styles were awesome, I had actually really hard time just choosing one pair. I also liked dressbarn’s accessory selection – great bracelets and I loved the scarfs!

Robin and me – and I don’t know who took the photo – it’s one of my favorite photos from the whole trip, I love Robin, and we had such a great time, sharing our shopping trip – and sporting our hats.

If you haven’t been to dressbarn lately – give it a try. Even Oprah gives her OK for dressbarn – check out the gorgeous dressbarn coat in the November issue of the O magazine.

Dressbarn is giving away evening clutches for the Holidays – for everyone who shops for over $100 in their stores this week! And I have one here to give for one of the Skimbaco Lifestyle subscribers.

DRESSBARN EVENING CLUTCH GIVEAWAY:

Prize: An evening clutch from dressbarn.

Deadline: November 25th, 2009, midnight est.

Enter to win: Subscribe Skimbaco Lifestyle in your email box and leave a comment you are a subscriber and a way for me to contact you in case you win. Have you ever shopped at dressbarn?

FULL DISCLOSURE: I received an outfit from dressbarn and attended their VIP event in North-Carolina this fall.

One of the Finnish Design stables is Maribowl, a glass bowl that started as a sugar bowl, but now is used in numerous homes around the world serving so many additional purposes. The design is originally from the 1800’s, and not even from Finland, but from Germany. The first manufacturer for the bowl in Finland was Riihimäen Lasi, and there were other similar type of glass products in the same series, but Maribowl is the one that really took off.

It is unknown how the sugar bowl became Maribowl, or Mariskooli, as it is called in Finland, but Armi Ratia, the mother and the legend of Marimekko saw it in the 50’s and fell in love and she wanted to buy the design for Marimekko. One of the stories is that her son Ristomatti Ratia was sent to buy a serving bowl and bought it for her. Another story is that she Marimekko designer Vuokko Nurmesniemi introduced it to her when she was leaving Marimekko by making a farewell window display with Marimekko fabrics and the sugar bowls and text “Skool Marimekko!” – cheers Marimekko. Either way – Armi Ratia fought for a few years to make this glassware part of Marimekko, and in 1959 Marimekko finally owned the design.

Nuutajärvi Glass, Nuutajärven Lasitehdas, started making the bowl in 1959 for Marimekko and it officially became the Maribowl.

Today iittala glass company has the manufacturing rights for the Maribowl, and Marimekko still owns the design rights, and Maribowl is sold in 25 different colors and in two different sizes around the world. You can find yours from FinnStyle.com

Win it! I am hosting a $100 FinnStyle Gift Card giveaway at Skimbaco Home – you can get a Maribowl for you AND your friend with that gift card!

I will be have my annual Holiday Gift Guide this year too, and in addition I will feature Scandinavian Holiday traditions, gift ideas and even some recipes this Holiday season here at Skimbaco Lifestyle and as well at Skimbaco Home. I’m kicking this off in a few days with a Very Cool Giveaway, stay tuned!

PS. If you know a great product to be featured, contact me!