Bright Star

Remember my previous post regarding Bright Star? I finally saw it last night. It actually arrived from Netflix on Tuesday, and I have been slowly dying all week while waiting for the chance to watch it.

It is a wonderful movie. Very well acted. I've only seen Abbie Cornish in Stop-Loss, and Ben Whishaw in Brideshead Revisited, but they are both perfect for the parts of Fanny Brawne and John Keats. The dialogue alone is worth seeing this movie for - almost every word between Fanny and Keats has deep meaning, and much of it comes directly from Keats' poems and letters.

The movie is slow at times, but I thought the beautiful cinematography more than made up for the lack of 'action'. The movie flows like Keats' poetry, it has a dreamlike quality, with very touching scenes of Fanny and Keats wandering through the countryside and meadows filled with wildflowers, longing for each other and dreaming together.

Maybe I like the movie so much because I have read the real story of Fanny and Keats. It is both sad and tragic, and I can't help but feel for their situation. And even though I knew how the end would come, I was still deeply upset. Be sure to listen to Ben Whishaw reciting "Ode to a Nightingale" during the closing credits. It's mesmerizing.

Dear John,

I am currently reading "The Lucky One" by Nicholas Sparks. I'm about 100 pages in, and so far, it's pretty boring. A few summers ago I read A Walk To Remember and Dear John, which were both good. Last year I read The Choice, which was just alright, not the greatest. And I started to read Nights in Rodanthe but gave up after the first few pages didn't capture my attention.

It's been years since I read Message in a Bottle. I saw the movie and was complaining to my brother's girlfriend (at the time) about how much I hated the ending. She recommended reading the book and said it was so much better than the movie. Well, the lead character still dies at the end, so for me it didn't change the way I felt about the ending. I just have a very difficult time with movies where one of the lead characters dies at the end. I want my happy ending. I don't want sad, end of the story, and knowing that they'll never be together again. I want to know, or at least think, that the couple lived on together in happiness for however long. I don't think one half of a couple dying makes a better or stronger 'love'. Romeo and Juliet was brilliant, but both of them dying doesn't make the love into more than it was. Their dying just made their love story tragic.




Has everyone seen the trailer for Dear John? I keep watching it, and it looks really good, AND I just love Channing Tatum. Yum. (Too funny!! My husband is downstairs yelling up at me "Your boy is in a new movie that's coming out." Yes dear, I know!! LOL) I really want to see this in the theatre, but I just know I would start bawling. I cry very easily. I'm sure I could get my husband to go see it with me, and if so, I'll definitely have to bring tissues!!

The song that is used for the trailer is "Set The Fire to the Third Bar" by Snow Patrol. I think the first time I heard (and really listened) to this song was when I was watching a Michael and Sara/Prison Break video. And the CD that this song is on, Eyes Open, is really good.

So go watch, listen, or read.... and be happy!!!

Grease is the word!!!

I think it's quite obvious that I like 'Grease'. Just look at my business name!!! I was flipping through the most recent fabric catalog from Hancock's-Paducah and this is the fabric that really caught my eye: Official 'Grease' fabric from Clothworks. I must have this. I must find it and buy it and rub it and love it... and I think you get the picture. It's just way too cute and way too ME.

I'm normally a law-abiding citizen...

However, I may have been breaking the law recently. I knew that. It's not beyond my knowledge. Sum*mit Ent.'s legal department contacted Etsy and had my items removed. It seems Sum*mit owns the copyright to every word, name, and/or phrase that is even slightly related to the Twi-light series. AND they own EVERY photo of everyone who is in the movie series. Hmph.

Here's the kicker: I'm not supposed to talk about this (oops) and I am not allowed to ask Etsy why items that are the same or similar to mine are still on Etsy. Sum*mit must think I'm a big fish since they are going after me. Not that you can't type "Twi-light" in the search box at Etsy and find hundreds of other sellers doing the same thing as me. I feel special for being singled out.

New Style For The New Year

I decided to make my sister-in-law (my brother's wife) and my other brother's girlfriend a new purse for Christmas. They both prefer zipper closures, so I took the same measurements that I used on THIS bag and made it with 2 handles and a zipper. They both turned out really cute!!

Mandy The Mannequin

During the summer months my Mom and Dad go to a lot of garage sales. I've been reminding my mother for years that I really need a dress form or mannequin or something that I could use to take pictures of my purses. So our family gathered at my parents house this year for Christmas, and after the presents were opened my mother called us all into my brother's old bedroom to show us this:


(My husband has now named her Mandy the Mannequin. He claims she has to have a name if she is going to continue to scare the crap out of us. I put her on our stair landing, and she really does scare us because we aren't used to having someone lurking on the stairs at all hours).

My parents walk 3 times a week. In nice weather they walk their neighborhood or go to a park. In bad weather they go to their local mall. It used to be a really huge outdoor mall until they decided to enclose it and put a roof on it in the late 1980's. Since then it's gone downhill. It's not very safe, all of the large department stores have closed, the food court is closed, the movie theatre is closed... so there's not much reason to go there except to walk. A few weeks ago they were walking in the mall and a store was closed, but they had mannequin parts laying around. So my mom went in and asked what they were going to do with the mannequins, and the guy told them they were selling them for $20 each, so my parents walked out of the mall with one for me.

It's perfect for taking pictures of my purses. I never have an extra person around to use as a model, and no one wants to see ME modeling my purses, so this is great.