Swappy Swap Swapage!

Happy Canada Day! Wow, it has been quite awhile since I last posted! My computer is broken and so I’m using Alex’s computer to do this post. I’m not going to share everything I have ready today but I really wanted to at least share what I received from Dionne in the swap.

Dionne is so sweet and I really love everything that she sent to me! I received the package last Monday (as luck would have it the same day that Dionne received mine) and this is the first chance I’ve had to post about it.

Everything was wrapped up in the piece of fabric that you can see underneath and was tied with pink ribbon. Dionne actually designed the fabric herself (oh Spoonflower, how I love you); isn’t she just so talented? I haven’t decided what I’m going to use it for yet but I have a couple of ideas. The little bag of buttons will definitely come in handy and I love the colours. The cookie cutters are super-cute; if you can’t tell from the cover off the box the cutters have a little lip in them so that when the cookies are baked they can be hooked on the edge of a mug. I almost bought a set of mini alphabet stamps a little while ago when I ordered some Heather Bailey and Amy Butler papers from Etsy, and now I’m really glad that I didn’t since the ones that Dionne sent are absolutely darling! I actually used them last week to stamp the greeting on a card that I made for my Grandparents for their 60th wedding anniversary.

This bookmark and bookplate set is absolutely my most favourite thing that Dionne sent (so sorry for the blurriness, I really need a new camera). Again the ever-talented Dionne designed and made these for me too! Each bookmark has a different picture on the front and a different quote from either Lucy Maud Montgomery or Jane Austen. This set was made especially for me, but you can check out Dionne’s Etsy shop for more of her beautiful goodies. Thanks Dionne, you are awesome!

I completely forgot to take pictures of the goodies that I sent to Dionne until after I had taped up her package, so of course I don’t have any. When Dionne posts her pictures of my swap package I’ll post a link here for everyone to follow. I’m very proud of some of the things I made especially since I couldn’t use my sewing machine and had to sew everything by hand.

I didn’t get a chance to share the last of the fabrics that I bought, so here ya go! First up is a set of five inch Heather Bailey squares from her Pop Garden collection; I absolutely adore them. I’ve never been much of a pink girl, but I absolutely love it in fabric.



This next set is another grouping from Amy Butler’s Daisy Chain collection. I showed a set a few posts ago that are larger and are only in the grey colourway. These ones are all four inches and are to go with the aforementioned larger set.



That’s it for now, but I will try to post again as soon as I can to share some other things I’ve been up to.

Luck is the by-product of busting your fanny. -Don Sutton

I had more fabric in the mail last night, yay! I won a giveaway from The Quilt Shoppe’s blog, In Stitches, a couple of weeks ago and I’m so happy with what arrived. The ladies at the In Stitches blog decided to do a four day giveaway revolving around the time they spent at Pittsburgh Quilt Market and I was one of the four winners of the day four giveaway. We each received ten fat quarters from the new Mill House Inn collection by Fig Tree for Moda.

The package came nicely packaged, tied up with ribbon and included a business card, handwritten letter from Lani (now this is the way you package something for a business!), and a couple of little extras…

It may be difficult to discern in the picture, but the top goodie is a quilted key ring and the bottom is a tissue cozy (for those little packages of tissue that come wrapped in plastic). I really love the little extras and they really show how much these ladies care about their customers. Thanks to everyone at The Quilt Shoppe! Go on over and take a look around their store; they always have great prices and then stop by their blog and say hi!

I’m almost done reading Northanger Abbey. I had completely forgotten about how long it takes for them to actually get to Northanger Abbey in the book; I’m almost ¾ of the way through and we’re still in Bath. I’ll be done soon, but then I have no clue what I’ll read. I definitely have some books that I haven’t read yet, but there isn’t any one that is sticking out in my mind as the one to reach for next.

Today is my last day at my current job, and I was super-worried about it this morning because I hadn’t really heard anything about any of the resumes I’d sent out. I tried to network a bit at a media party that I had on Thursday and did make a couple of contacts, but wasn’t sure that any of it had been fruitful. Well, I got a call this morning from the very first place that my resume went to (over two weeks ago) and they want to see me on Thursday! Yay, keep your fingers crossed for me!

Exuberance is beauty. - William Blake

I’m taking part in a really awesome swap, and have met a very cool girl who is not only the mastermind behind this particular swap but, by randomness, also happens to by my swap partner. Hello Dionne! Dionne writes a very funny and charming blog and also has an etsy shop (she's on vacation right now, that's why the shop is empty) where she sells the beautiful paper items (card sets, stitch prints, etc.) that she crafts. I can’t share right now what I’m making/finding for Dionne just in case she sees before her package arrives, but I’ll share after I know she's received it.

I finished What-the-Dickens by Gregory Maguire last week. I definitely did not love it as much as I’ve loved his previous books (with the exception of Lost which I also was not so keen on). It had it’s own charm and was a sweet story, but I just felt that the whole thing was a little slow and just not up to par with Maguire’s other work.

Last night I finished up Burning Bright by Tracey Chevalier. Chevalier is best known for her book Girl with the Pearl Earring (which was subsequently turned into a movie with Scarlett Johansson, oh and ya, our own Mr. Darcy, Colin Firth, is Vermeer...rent it...). This book had something different from her others (I’ve read them all), but it’s something that I just can’t put my finger on, something like a whisper. One of the main characters in this book is William Blake, and I found this to be quite interesting; Chevalier said that she was partly inspired to write this book after learning about Blake’s time spent in London in the 1790s. While I do feel that the characters were not quite as developed as those in Chevalier’s previous novels, I still really enjoyed it and do believe that I’ll read it again.

I started reading I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith once I got in bed last night, but it wasn’t grabbing me right away. I’ve heard that it’s a wonderful book with a strong narrative voice, but it just didn’t seem right somehow. I’ve put it aside for now but I will go back and read it another time. I decided this morning that I needed to read something that would make me feel good and so I decided on Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen again. I haven’t read it in a quite awhile and thought it would be nice to go back to. One of the funny things that I notice when reading Jane Austen is that I always end up with a very specific voice in my head reading in a particular way. I, of course, refer to this voice as “Jane”. I think the fact that I hear that voice is a credit to Jane, as it shows how strong her voice and style are. At times I even find myself thinking in the same style and meter that I read.

I’ve received some fun things in the mail this week. One was the official invitation to my High School best friend’s wedding (yay, so excited!) and the rest was fabric. Since I can’t share what I’m working on right now, I guess I can share some fabric that will become something in the future (most of it I already have plans for). Here’s some of it all together:

There is one set 6.5” squares and one set of 4” squares from Joel Dewberry’s Chestnut Hill collection which are going to be used to make a quilt for my Mum for her birthday in August. She doesn’t read my blog, so no worries about her seeing this!

The second set is all from Amy Butler’s Daisy Chain collection; there’s one set of 6.5” squares and one fat quarter. This is one of my favourite collections ever!

I also got 3 packs of 5” squares from Amy Butler’s Midwest Modern collection. Each pack contains one square of each fabric in the collection (sorry I don’t have a picture showing all of the fabrics).

I tried taking pictures of some of my vintage Lucy Maud Montgomery books to show (I have three or four right now that I want to share) but when I uploaded the pictures from my camera all except one were insanely blurry. I really would love to get a new camera; that would make me really happy!

My friends are my estate. -Emily Dickinson

I am almost wiped out! Alex moved into our new apartment this past weekend (I’ll be moving in slowly over the next few weeks since my lease isn’t up until June). We had six friends helping us out (Yay Caitlin, Laura, Lesley, Julie, Dilan and James; you guys rock!), and it didn’t take too-too long but it was pretty tiring. I also had to go over to my current apartment for a few hours on both Saturday and Sunday to clean and straighten up because my landlords want to start showing it soon. I cleaned the oven…which is something I don’t ever want to have to do again in my whole life; I have at least 10-12 cuts and scratches on my hands from the rust, etc. Tonight’s goal is to get the kitchen all unpacked so that at least we have somewhere to cook. Once I get all of my stuff moved in and unpacked maybe I’ll post a couple of pictures.

One of my favourite blogs to read is LollyChops and if you haven’t checked it out, you definitely should! Lolly is a great crafter, really inspiring, and a truly wonderful web-friend. Last week I found a package from her waiting in my mailbox. Here is what it contained:

I love the fabric covered magnets; and the cork butterflies are for this doing THIS tutorial on Lolly’s blog. She also sent a nice little note and one of the inside packages was sealed with a very cute sticker that I know Lolly made herself. Lolly is having gallbladder surgery tomorrow; I know that she’ll come out with flying colours. There may just be a crafty-fun care package headed your way within the next couple of weeks Lolly! Extra big pre-surgery HUGS!!

It was Laura’s birthday on Friday. I got here these really neat Monster Magnets made by Mudpuppy:

I finished up Pride and Prejudice last weekend. Of course it was amazing; it’s one of my favourites! I can never say enough about it. No matter how many times I read it, it never seems stale or loses any of its brilliance. I also read Star Sullivan by Maeve Binchy in about an hour last Saturday. I didn’t like it as much as I’ve liked others by her. The ending was kind of depressing; I get what she was trying to say about the main character and about who she had become, but it fell a bit flat. Still, it was a super-quick read and I love Maeve’s style. All in all it was time well spent. Currently I’m reading Katharine Graham’s autobiography Personal History and I’m enjoying it so far.

My fabrics also arrived last week, but I forgot to take a picture of them to share. I’m trying to figure out what fabrics I need to order for various things around the new apartment. Alex and I had decided on one of the prints from Moda’s Arcadia collection for the living room pillows, but then when we moved in we realized that the living room walls were more of a sage green than a blue-gray like we thought. I recall the colour being a tad different, but I think it really depends on what time of day it is. I’d really like to do them in the Moss Painter’s Palette from Erin Michael’s Lush collection, but I think mostly because I’m in love with the fabric and can’t think of anywhere else I could use it. I know…my name is Kaye and I have a problem.

Because I mentioned it last time, here is my 1917 (26^th impression) edition of Anne of Avonlea. As far as I know it is the earliest pirated edition (Grosset & Dunlop) of this book. Here’s the cover (sitting in front of my sewing machine):

The frontispiece is badly foxed and the tissue paper overlay was torn out when I got it, but I still love it:

Just for fun here is the front cover of my 1940 edition of Anne of Ingleside:

You can see just a small part of my Lucy Maud Montgomery collection in that picture also (some astute readers may see three copies of Irene Gammel’s Looking for Anne in the picture. I explain what happened in THIS post and THIS post). My 1911 edition of Kilmeny of the Orchard is actually being hidden in this picture; maybe I should take pictures of it to show too! I can’t wait until I’m finally moved all into the new apartment so that I can take pictures of whatever I think of when I think of it.

Before I forget, Lolly and FujiMama have teamed up and are doing a whole week devoted to cupcakes! You can check out either of their blogs to get the scoop.

May the 4^th be with you (I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist). Happy Star Wars day!

To add a library to a house is to give that house a soul.- Cicero

I found something that makes me absolutely giddy yesterday! But let’s not begin there. First off, I finished Syrie James’ The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen last week and I really enjoyed it! I’ve never been a fan of those books that continue Jane Austen’s novels and stories, but this was different and highly readable. It was exciting to read what may have been and it was nice to imagine that Austen had a passionate love affair that inspired the emotion in her novels (who knows? It really could be true). I’m currently reading Pride and Prejudice again (after reading James’ book I was in serious need of a Jane Austen fix) and am still reading Elizabeth Waterston’s book whenever the mood strikes. I also picked up a copy of After Green Gables: L.M. Montgomery’s Letter to Ephraim Weber, 1916-1941 by Hildi Froese Tiessen and Paul Gerard Tiessen on Saturday ($4.99 at BMV!) and have been thumbing through that. Why do I persist on reading three or more books at a time?! It’s baffling and I always feel like I’m not making good enough progress through them. Oh well, at least there’s always something around that I want to read when certain moods strike.

Alex and I rented a few movies this weekend and I must say that all of them kept my attention. On Friday night we watched Tropic Thunder; I thought it was really funny and the way that they filmed some of the scenes (especially the ones where they were trying to make it look like a serious movie) were beautiful. I love Ben Stiller and Jack Black and Jay Beruchel (who I’ve adored since I first saw him on Numb3rs; and he’s Canadian!) but Robert Downey Jr. totally stole the movie; he was amazing and hilarious!

Yesterday, we rented Enchanted and Slumdog Millionaire. Enchanted was tons of fun (Disney will always be in my heart); I loved the concept and all of the songs. Even Alex was smiling and laughing through the “That’s How You Know” number in Central Park. I most enjoyed trying to figure out which scenes were based on scenes from Disney animated classics. We watched Slumdog Millionaire last night and it was really well-done. There were definitely some really painful moments, but the whole thing was just superb (story, filming, acting, etc). I don’t want to give anything away as many people may not have had the opportunity to see it yet, but just one last thing: I loved the closing Bollywood dance number!

On Saturday, when Alex was out having dinner with some friends, I watched Penelope again! It is one of my favourite movies and I would really recommend it to everyone. The story is so great, and the colour and creativity of the whole thing are amazing!

Now, on to the good stuff! Yesterday morning Alex and I went to the St. Lawrence Antiques Market (across the street from St. Lawrence Market and happens every Sunday). I really have a good time every time I go; even when I can’t afford to buy some of the things I want, it’s just nice to go and look at everything and dream. I usually go to look for books, and vintage linens and fabric. Literally the first box of books I went through held exactly what has been making me giddy for over 24 hours now. I found a first copy of Pat of Silver Bush by L.M. Montgomery…and it has its dust jacket! Here’s the front cover:

It’s not in the greatest condition, but the guy sold it to me for $3.00! He said that it wasn’t about the money, he just wanted to make the box lighter. Now that’s my kind of seller! I’m just so happy and even though the dust jacket is a little beat-up, the book itself is tight, and just looking at it makes me smile. Here’s a picture of the frontispiece (see how nice it is!):

I want to see if I can find someone in Toronto who will put the dust jacket into a Mylar cover for me. I’m a little scared to do it myself since there are little pieces trying to come off. It was really hard to take pictures of the cover and frontispiece since the background of both pictures is silver and the flash kept glaring; it wasn’t working out so well when I tried to do it without the flash (and my hands kept shaking too). Maybe I should take some pictures of my 1917 Anne of Avonlea to share with everyone; that could be fun!

I’m just waiting for my shipment of fabric to come from Quilt Home, hopefully it will arrive tonight and then I can share some pictures of that too (oh, and my butterflies from Lolly)! Nothing much more to say really other than that I hope everyone is having a great Monday (even though it is gross, gray, and rainy here). I will be spending the evening with my bestest friend Evan, watching some America’s Next Top Model and eating Chinese (because I am no model)!

A good book on your shelf is a friend that turns its back on you and remains a friend. -Author Unknown

Wow, I cannot believe that it’s been a month and a half since I last blogged! It’s kind of funny actually; things have been way crazy-busy in my life as of late, yet I’ve actually been finding more time to read (probably because I’m on the subway more often going here-there-and-everywhere).

Let’s see…I’ll begin where we last left off. I finished up Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. I don’t really know what to say about it since I’ve read it before, and Jane Austen is always amazing. I will say that I find a lot of people think that Jane Austen is old-fashioned (the number of people who think this is probably directly proportional to the number of people who think Jane is sheer awesomeness), but I don’t think Jane Austen is old-fashioned; I thinks she’s witty and intelligent, and I find that even though circumstances are different now, her plotlines still hold a strong resonance with the modern situation. I can’t rank Mansfield Park; Pride and Prejudice is my favourite, Emma is my least favourite, and all of Jane’s other writings are tied in the middle.

After Mansfield Park I read The Coffee Trader by David Liss. Liss sort of has his own unique niche-genre; he writes (for the most part) suspenseful historical fiction that revolves around the stock exchange, and commodities trading and speculation. The Coffee Trader is set in 17th-century Amsterdam, and centres on a Jewish immigrant named Miguel Lienzo. Miguel loses all of his money in a sugar scheme gone wrong, and wants to regain his position in the community. Being Jewish, in 17th-century Amsterdam, Miguel is directly under the influence and power of the Ma’amad (the Jewish governing council), and must keep his money-making scheme, and dealings with the Dutch, secret in order to not incur their wrath. Miguel becomes involved in coffee futures (coffee was a little known commodity in Europe during this period), and must lie, plot and connive in order to get what he wants. The whole complex story is way too involved to get into here (plus, I don’t want to give it away since it’s so good), but it’s quite a bit different from anything I’ve read before. The book was a little longer than I thought it needed to be, but I also think that it would have been very confusing and difficult to enjoy if Liss had shortened it and not spent the time plotting out the steps. I really did enjoy it, and look forward to reading his other books (which are on my Christmas list).

After finishing up The Coffee Trader, I felt that I needed some non-fiction so I decided on False Impressions: The Hunt for Big-Time Art Fakes by Thomas Hoving. Hoving is the former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and has some great stories, but dude (and I love him) he’s got a huge ego! His ego however is a major part of the reason that I find him so enjoyable to read. Hoving styles himself a fakebuster, and in this book he recounts how he started in his career, the fakes and con artists that he’s encountered, and how museum politics affect the world of art forgery. I just love Hoving; the fact that he uses words like “chicanery” makes me love him even more! Hoving is definitely not a born writer; he has a tendency to jump around a bit whenever something pops into his head, but all of his stories are so interesting! I also have another book by him, Making the Mummies Dance, that I have to read; it’s sort of a memoir about his time at the Met.

Now onto my traditional Christmas reading! I didn’t read Dickens’ Christmas Books this year, because I just wasn’t in the mood, but I fed my yearning with three others. First off was The Christmas Tree, authored by Julie Salamon and illustrated by Jill Weber. It’s a cute little tale about finding the Christmas tree for Rockefeller Center, and the special relationship that a nun, Sister Anthony, has with her Norway Spruce (which is eventually picked to be the Rockefeller tree). It is a very sentimental story, I really like it, but it doesn’t have a lot of real substance; the pictures are cute though!

No Christmas would be complete without a little Lucy Maud Montgomery! Every year I read Christmas with Anne and other Holiday Stories, which is a collection of Maud’s holiday themed stories and holiday chapters from the Anne books. There are two chapters taken from Anne books (one from Anne of Green Gables and one from Anne of Windy Poplars), the rest of the stories are ones that Maud had published in turn-of-the-century magazines. My favourites are “Aunt Cyrilla’s Christmas Basket” and “The Josephs’ Christmas”. These stories (I know it sounds cheesy) fill me with warmth, and happiness, and just pure bliss! I love Maud, I love Maud!

My last Christmas-themed read for the season was Maeve Binchy’s This Year It Will Be Different and Other Stories. Maeve Binchy is great; I haven’t talked about her books here yet, because she’s only released one book since I started blogging and I haven’t read it yet. I’ve read everything that she’s written, except for Silver Wedding (only because I bought it, but the pages were all screwed up and I haven’t found another copy yet). Maeve Binchy’s stories and books are always about people and situations that could be real, but she writes in such a wry and witty manner that even mundane daily details become amazingly interesting!

I started reading Measuring the World: A Novel by Daniel Kehlmann (translated from the German) and found it intensely boring from the beginning. I tired to get through it, I really did, but just couldn’t. I’ve put it back on the bookshelf for now, and maybe I’ll try it again someday. Maybe it’s better in German.

After that boringness, I decided on Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel Garcia Marquez; Marquez is never boring! I just finished it yesterday, and it was fabulous. I know that I’m reading him in translation, so I can only imagine how poetic it would be to read him in Spanish; everything he writes is so wretchedly beautiful that I don’t really know what to say. It’s more of a feeling that I get when I read, it’s nearly impossible to put into words, but it’s as if Marquez knows something I don’t or has seen something beyond beauty that I will never see. I loved this book (even more than I loved Love in the Time of Cholera, and that’s saying something!); I know I’ll read it again.

I’ve been shuffling along through Return to Treasure Island and the Search for Captain Kidd by Barry Clifford (with Paul Perry). It’s one of those books that I can only read when a certain mood strikes, so I grab it whenever it does. Clifford is an archaeologist and he’s pretty famous in the marine archaeology community for his devotion to finding shipwrecks. He is best-known for finding the wreck of Black Sam Bellamy’s Whydah (Black Sam was a pirate), and the Whydah is the only shipwreck discovered that has been conclusively identified as a pirate ship. In Return to Treasure Island, Clifford and his team go in search of the burnt and sunk remains of Captain Kidd’s The Adventure Galley. Clifford and his co-writer Perry also give a thorough background history on the islands themselves, how Kidd came to be a pirate, and how his story inspired Stevenson’s Treasure Island. So far, so good.

After I finished Of Love and Other Demons last night, I grabbed Toby Young’s memoir How to Lose Friends and Alienate People off my shelf. I’ve heard some really good things about it and got it used, so I figured I’d give it a shot. He’s hooked me already: he mentioned Evelyn Waugh twice, Woodward and Bernstein, and the Whaleship Essex all within the prologue and first ten pages. So far he’s a man after my own heart, if he wasn’t my Mother’s age…anyways; I think it’s going to be a good one!

Okay, I’m done for now (and out of [metaphorically-speaking] breath). Merry Christmas/Hanukkah/Festivas/whatever-holiday-you-do-or-do-not-want-to-celebrate to everyone!

There is more pleasure to building castles in the air than on the ground.-Edward Gibbon

Tuesday, on the subway, I finished up Owen Chase’s The Wreck of the Whaleship Essex. It’s an absolutely crazy account, although I guess not that crazy since it did actually happen. Basically, the case of the Essex is the first recorded incident of a whale purposely ramming a whaleship (twice actually). After the second ramming the whaleship foundered, and the crew was left to survive in three whaleboats. Over the course of months spent at sea, the three boats end up separating from each other, rations run out, members of the crew start to die, and the remaining members resort to cannibalism to survive.

Chase’s account is very to the point and factual, without any frills or over embellishing, but that’s part of what makes it so great. Even though the reader knows that it must have been an absolutely harrowing experience, we are spared the crews inner thoughts and spoken words, and thus the work doesn’t begin to take on the veneer of fiction. I believe that it would be very difficult for a reader (at least me anyway) to stay attached to this story if there was too much detail; it would be just too graphic and desperate. However, if you like that sort of thing, there is also Nathanial Philbrick’s In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex. I’m not sure I can read that one though.

I began reading Mansfield Park by Jane Austen again (third time, I think), but yesterday I was at the thrift store and spotted Sophie Kinsella’s latest Remember Me?. I read the entire thing last night (it’s near 400 pages), and I liked it. Kinsella’s books are great when you just need a breezy, upbeat, good-ending type of read. I’ve read everything by her now, except the stuff she has under another name. I really liked this one because it had a different kind of struggle for the heroine than any of the others. This one is really about being your “authentic self” (as Oprah would say), and what happens when you change who you really are for other people, money, ambition, etc. I liked it, although I would have liked a slightly different ending, but that’s just me. I really needed this type of book right now, it’s been a rough few days since my Grandmother had a heart attack on Tuesday and has been in the hospital since. I hope she’ll be okay.

Now we’re back to Mansfield Park again…again.

This is an occasion for genuinely tiny knickers.-Bridget Jones

I will not be talking about a book today, because I've only just started The Ghost Map, but I came across an article I really enjoyed and decided that I'd like to put in my two cents worth (okay, probably more like half a cent's worth). The article is called In Defense of Chick Flicks, written by Martha Brockenbrough.

I think that so-called "chick flicks" need to be defended (in actuality that shouldn't have to be defended at all), because there is absolutely nothing wrong with them. Brockenbrough goes into more depth than I will, putting a bit more intelligence and feminist-thought into her article than I feel I need to; mostly because she's already done it for me. In general, I find these films to be quite enjoyable. I don't watch them after any specific event, or at any specific time. There are exceptions of course. I'm going to start off by discussing only Jane Austen and Jane Austen-based adaptations (since apparently Jane Austen is considered "chick lit", although I do know one straight man who thinks Pride and Prejudice is a fantastic novel), and then maybe throw a few other favourites in at the end.

I thoroughly enjoy watching the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice while it's raining. I like all of the various versions of this film, since Pride and Prejudice is one of my all-time favourite books, but this version is the only one I own. Frankly, I like to watch this even when it's not raining; it's just one of the best (Matthew Macfadyen is Darcy), there's just no getting away from it. The book itself is a masterpiece (if you don't agree with me, I don't know if we can be friends), I actually need to buy a new copy because I'm pretty sure the next time I read mine, it's going to disintegrate in my hands. While I love the BBC-Colin Firth version, it is rather too long to watch all of the time, but the 2005 version is just about the right length to watch at any time (for obvious reasons: mini-series vs. feature length). There is something about Pride and Prejudice that makes one believe that mistakes aren't always permanent and that a first impression (the novel was actually originally titled First Impressions) can be changed. The 2005 version does a great job of relaying this. Although I'm not a big fan of Kiera Knightley in general, I do like her as Elizabeth, although she's not quite the way I pictured from the book (granted, a mite better than Elizabeth Garvie from the 1980 version, who kind of annoyed me). The movie is also shot beautifully, and was actually Joe Wright's feature length directorial debut.

From Pride and Prejudice we move to another "chick flick"/novel loosely based on it: Bridget Jones's Diary. The novel was written by Helen Fielding, and she co-wrote the screenplay. Although I'm really not a Renee Zellweger fan, I really dislike her most of the time, I don't mind her as Bridget Jones. She is also saved by the fact that she's starring with our Mr. Darcy, Colin Firth, and the ever-enjoyable Hugh Grant (who's movies I have a secret love for), although he does play a cad. This one is entertaining because Bridget is sort of the anti-heroine. There are a ton of movies where the main female character is all dorked-out and then suddenly blossoms into beauty and wins over the "popular" boy (think along the lines of She's All That), but Bridget is who she is; kind of overweight, and not very pretty with terrible fashion sense. She doesn't all of a sudden lose weight and get better clothes, but she does get a better job, toss off the jerk, and go after what she wants. That's why I like it, it's not about transforming into someone different, and it's a great one to watch while eating a pint of ice cream (it's doesn't seem so bad when the character in the movie is doing it too).

I do have to say that I really, really dislike the 1996 Gwyneth Paltrow version of Emma. It's pretty bad. Jeremy Northam = awesome, Gwyneth Paltrow = blech! However, it's super-fantastic-contemporary-teen sibling, 1995's Clueless is pretty close to perfection! While it is considered a teen-flick, it is also still considered a "chick flick", but I actually don't know many guys who don't think it's pretty funny. We all remember when it came out, and how big it was. I remember having pens with the feathers on top, just like Cher. I also believe I may have started wearing knee-socks after that (with my Le Chateau plaid skirt that my uncle bought me). I think Amy Heckerling did a fantastic job at adapting Emma for a contemporary audience, without losing a lot of the soul of the book (although she did say that she was actually unintentionally plagiarizing when she started writing the screenplay, realized it, went back and read the novel again, and then adapted it intentionally). It has a lot of vibrancy, great characters/actors, and the "love stuff" isn't too over-the-top, but rather just right for a teen-style flick that can be enjoyed over and over.

Another one of my favourites would have to be 1995's Ang Lee-directed Sense and Sensibility. This one is great because it combines two of my secret film loves: Jane Austen adaptations (not so secret anymore apparently) and Hugh Grant. Although, I wouldn't have picked Edward, he's a little too reserved for me. I'm more of an Elizabeth than an Elinor anyway. I also love Alan Rickman; although more in a he's-awesome-kinda-way, than in a he's-hot-kinda-way. Also, Hugh Laurie, I mean come on, who doesn't love Hugh Laurie?! Although Emma Thompson is far too old for the part of Elinor, I think she did a fine job, even though I pictured Elinor as slightly more lively while reading the novel. Though Sense and Sensibility is not my favourite of the novels, there is something about this movie that I fell in love with. I could watch it a thousand more times and still feel the same way. Again, I think the magic of Jane Austen is that mistakes can be corrected, one isn't always doomed to live by them, and that love is often unexpected. There isn't anything other than period adaptations of Sense and Sensibility that I can think of, except one Bollywood film.

Patricia Rozema's 1999 adaptation of Mansfield Park is great because the Fanny Price (Frances O'Connor) character isn't half so annoying in the movie as in the book, but there is some stuff added into the movie that I didn't think was necessary. The 1995 version of Persuasion is a huge disappointment, Amanda Root as Anne Elliot drives me insane. I think I've only been able to watch it twice. I really enjoyed the 1986 version of Northanger Abbey, it has just the right amount of spook, satire (Austen wrote this to poke fun at Gothic novels of the day), and schmaltz (good schmaltz, not bad schmaltz). I haven't seen any of the recent adaptations that were airing on PBS, but I plan to.

Now to end, I'm going to list some of my other favourite "chick flicks". Some of the stuff that's included I know how been thoroughly enjoyed by those of the straight male persuasion (i.e. All About Eve and The Devil Wears Prada, just to name a couple), and some were made to be movies for everyone (like Titanic), but have come to be regarded as more "chick flick"-y. In chronological order, they are:

1933, 1949, 1994: Little Women
1939: The Women
1947: The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
50s/60s: Anything with Audrey Hepburn :)
1950: All About Eve
1953: How to Marry a Millionaire
1984: Sixteen Candles
1987: The Princess Bride
1989: Say Anything
1989: When Harry Met Sally
1991: Beauty and the Beast (and yes, I do mean the Disney cartoon)
1997: Titanic
1998: Dangerous Beauty
1998: Ever After
1998: You've Got Mail
1999: An Ideal Husband
1999: Notting Hill
2002: The Hours
2006: The Devil Wears Prada
2006: The Holiday

What is an imagination for if not to enable you to peep at life through other people's eyes? -L.M. Montgomery

I was adding some links over on the side, and realized that most of my favourite websites have to do with Lucy Maud Montgomery. I knows (and yes, the "s" on the end is there on purpose) I am a little LMM obsessed, but it's an entirely different kind of obsession than I have with other authors. I love Charlotte Bronte, I have a girl-crush on Jane Austen, Gregory Maguire makes me smile, and Evelyn Waugh makes my laugh (cynically). But Maud, oh Maud, now SHE has my heart. So this little entry-0-good-times will be all about Maud (right after I mention that I only have about 50 pages left to go of The English Patient, more tomorrow when I'm done).

This year marks 100 years since the publication of Anne of Green Gables, and as such there are tons of celebrations, lectures, and conferences going on. This was the first of Maud's books that I read. When I was about 11, my Grandmother let me go through a box of books she had bought. Inside I found this book, this portal to happiness unknown, I had never heard of it before. I was a little leery at first, because I had never read any books marketed towards my age group (I was reading Jeffrey Archer at 7, oh Mum!), but when I began to read something inside of me clicked and I was hooked forever.

Over the next few years, I gobbled up any of Maud's books that I could get my hands on. We were poor, and buying new books was considered a luxury. I often took them out of the library, or managed to find them at a used bookstore. This is where most of my small allowance went, and I still have those old, beaten-up copies to this day. When I was 15 I got my first "real" job at a bookstore, and with the discount I received, I managed to get all of the novels, the short story collections, and few other Maud-related items (such as The Alpine Path). Now, when I have the money, I'm amassing Maud's journals, biographies,and anything else I can. I've even got a few early editions, such as a first edition of A Tangled Web, a 1917 edition of Anne of Avonlea, and the first American edition of Anne of Ingleside. I have multiple editions of almost every book. I even have my Mum's copy of Pat of Silverbush from the 1960's, which I'm almost 10o% sure she never read, but she kept it for sentimental reasons.

There is something about all of those books that feels like home. Something in the pages that sparks imagination, and hope, and love, and something I can't even describe. A feeling of peace, a feeling that I belong. Maud knew. Maud still knows, and always has the answers.

It was dangerously exciting for me when I found out we were related (albeit distantly) through two lines of my family. It's hurts me when someone criticizes her books (although I know everyone can't feel the way I do), or calls them juvenile. I'm trying to make the-Jen read them all, I gave her a bunch of extra copies I had (sometimes I get a little over-zealous) and bought her a bunch for her birthday. I want to share them with her, to see if she is of "the race who knows Joseph", to see if she understands. I don't think she'll feel just the way I do, but I know she'll get it.

People have asked me who I think I'm most like. I don't think I'm an Anne, definitely not a Sara or a Marigold. I think I'm most like Emily with a dash of Valancy thrown in, spiced up with a bit of Pat and Jane. Maud was an Emily too. It would be too hard to pick a favourite book, impossible actually, but I don't think my favourites are the most common either. I faithfully love The Blue Castle, Kilmeny of the Orchard makes me believe, the Pat books feel homey and comfortable, the Anne books are always there as a beacon, and Emily will always be there as a reflection. They are who I am.

"He stuck his head in on purpose but the rest of him fell in zacksidentally." -Davy, Anne of Avonlea

"Almost all of the evil in the world has it's origins in the fact that some one is afraid of something." -John Foster, The Blue Castle

"I don't crochet, woman! Is one contemptible doily going to blast a man's reputation forever?" -Cyrus Taylor, Anne of Windy Poplars