Blogger love and Arctic Chill

Hello there.

I'm sipping a cup of Lipton lemon tea right now.

It's delish.

Bit of honey added.

Perfecto.

It's still winter. 

I'm still freezing (hence that cup of tea).

I've decided it would be a worse fate to die from freezing to death than from heat related death.

Arctic, bone chilling weather = winter = my absolute loathing.

My sister asked me like 15 times today if I wanted to take a walk with her.

I had to clarify. "You mean outside???"

She was all like, it'll be fun. We'll walk off calories.

I was like, uhm let me think about that for a non-second. No. Are you insane?

Or just part Eskimolarbear?

  

Spring will be upon us in 51 days.

Cannot come soon enough.

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Newly created Fan Page on Facebook so you can keep up with posts.

Would love for you to hop on over. :) 

Click on image below to be redirected or on image in sidebar.

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Remember I told you about Titanic: Blood and Steel coming out in April?

Hot of the press: click below for the new promo trailer!

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Some serious blogger lovin starts now:

I enjoy posting Costume Drama Spotlights on here. Reviews of them–if you haven't noticed–are not usually indepth but purposefully picture heavy because I prefer finding you fun pictures I can mess around in Photoshop with: reviewing them–not so much fun.

But if you want to to know the meat and bones and everything else in between about whether a movie or show is worth your time or not, than you should definitely hop on 

over to my lovely friends blog for more in-depth commentary: 

(click here or on titles below to be redirected):

Scribbles, Scripts and Such

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If you're looking for a good laugh whilst reading some witty, pithy commentary on life and such, dash on over to this guy's blog. He seriously makes me laugh out loud, every time. 

Check him out here:

Boehmcke's Human Condition

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If you are starving and want some fun, creative and easy meal recipes, for sure, you should gallop on over to my friend Stacey's new blog here.

Adventures Into Healthy

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If you are look for some encouragement and real talk on life as a single today, than 

this blog will read like a treasure trove for you. Love this girl and her insights on life!
Check her out here.

Annals Of A Christian Single

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If you are looking for beautiful pictures, inspired writing and pure blog loveliness 

than check out Jennoelle's blog here:

Unoriginal Originality

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 If you are looking for more beautifully penned thoughts on life with a poetic
and super creative vibe than check out Kerry's blog here:

Throw You A Rose

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I just recently met my new blogger friend, Bonnie, and I just had to share her blog with you too.

She's a brilliant and funny. She's a teacher slash blogger slash girl I wish lived next door to me!

Check her blog out here.

Life of Bon

  

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 Yay. Hope you have fun checking these blogs out.

As always LOVE to hear from you all.

In the meantime...

Stay bundled up out there.

The End.

Chainsaw Marauders and this Wayfaring Girl

Quote by him. Design by me :)

I woke up to what sounded like raiding marauders trying to pillage their way through my back fence this morning. I should note, one of the last things I did before falling asleep last night was to watch an episode of Bones where there was an investigation into the finding of a human arm in the stomach of a bear. *It's highly likely there could be a correlation between that and my first waking thoughts*. I peaked through my blinds and was met by the site of this dude on the other side of my fence wheeling a chain saw through the air in gleeful delight. Horrors.

Is he like the Texas Chainsaw killer?? Gearing up to not so stealthily off me in my bed? Only, I guess his presence in my yard would make him the Pennsylvania Chainsaw killer. Double horrors. Chalk ten points up to the tally going for which state I should move to next. Because I sure as heck aint staying here. It's time to get the heck out of Dodge. 

Have I mentioned I'm moving?

I've moved around a lot in my life. More than most. But not as much as some.

It's been fun. Fascinating. Fantastic. Educational and character building to live in so many places and have the esteemed privilege of meeting so many first rate peoples. You should know that I'm a better person for all of you I have met along the way.

To start over again with that proverbial clean slate can be a nice thing. It can be daunting though. And scary.

Made somewhat easier as a single. No other people's to have to figure in. But somehow lonelier because of it too. Starting over by one's self is a challenge. It helps greatly when family are not too far away.

And while I like a good challenge, after all this time, I do grow weary of it. I'd like to sink some roots now.

I'm in that dreaded "throwing out slash giving everything I don't really need to take with me away" phase of moving prep. Do not like.

It is so much easier to travel light. Sometimes it can be very cathartic to throw things out. But other times I can't help but feel sad for those things that must be left behind. I think I've littered the entire eastern coast of the country with things I've "left behind".

But in the end, I suppose they are just that: things. At least that is what I tell myself.

I still have my memories.

So you know that feeling you get, when the doors in your life start to shut and you find all the windows closing? You get this gut feeling that the book is ready to be put on the shelf for this particular area in your life... And then you just get this epiphany: it's time to move on.

Well, that's where I am at. It's what I've come to feel. Again.

I'm ready to hop on the bus. Destination: next please.

Lot's to do. Decisions to be made. Plans to be worked out. But it's right. I know this.

I am once again reminded to live each day in the now. To the fullest. To enjoy where I am at. And the people I'm blessed to be with. You never rightly appreciate certain things until you are faced with a move.

So don't forget to just be. And enjoy the life given to you for this day.

That's one of the good lessons to take away from being a wayfaring girl, or the wandering gypsy as my grandmother likes to call me :))

Where is this girl moving, you ask?

Well now...who can say??  :)

To be continued––[when I figure out where exactly I'm going :)))]

the end.

Coming Soon costume dramas, please!

Cheerio friends.
I am so excited to share with you a few up and coming
costume/period drama releases!

Can I get a whoot, whoot?

First up to bat is a 12 part mini-series being released in April, 2012 to coincide
with the 100th anniversary of Titanic's fateful maiden voyage:

Titanic: Blood and Steel

This series will focus not so much on the actual voyage or sinking but on the lives
of the people and their families who constructed the ship and the sociopolitical events
that surrounded it all.

Certainly a different view and perspective from what we have seen in the past surroudning
this event, so it should be very interesting, to say the least.

Slinging a few pictures your way now:

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Next up is a BBC mini-series based on true story accounts of midwife Jennifer Worth :

Call The Midwife

Set in the 1950's in the East End of London, the series follows Jennifer, a girl

from a sheltered background who goes to work as a midwife with an order of Nuns in the slums of the city helping to bring hope and care to impoverished families.

I'm really looking forward to this one.  I have not read the book but I heard it was very good as well.

Kind of reminds me of the Casualty1900's series which I loved and if you haven't seen, should also see that one.

So keep an eye out for these gals...

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 Ohhh, and then there is this one...finally after half a century:
JRR Tolkien's

The Hobbit

An Unexpected Journey 

Oh, why hello Richard Armitage. I'm a little scared of you here.

This will of course be an amazing movie. 
One because it is set in Middle Earth. And two because Richard Armitage is in it :) 
Enough said. 
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This last spotlight is an adaptation taken from Charles Dickens and finished by Gwyneth Hughes:
 The Mystery of Edwin Drood  

I was unaware of this story until now.
It happens to be Dickens last unfinished work before his death in 1870. 
It seems a rather complicated mystery centering around the character Edwin Drood and his Uncle John Jasper, who is in love with his pupil (and Drood's fiance) Rosa Bud. Drood later disappears under mysterious circumstances and so the story goes. 
True to other Dickens works there is a good deal of obsession and stalking involved. 
Many interesting characters and lots of drama.

Alrighty, folks. 
That's a wrap for now.
I could go on and post more but there are so many pictures on this post already it's probably bringing your computer to a colossal hault with all the loading. 

So I will cease and desist.


I look forward to seeing these and I hope you found some that might be interesting to you too.

As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments.

The end. 

Secret Doors...and Treasure Hunting

Slightly hidden...

Just beyond view.

An overgrown path, just barely visible.

A shaft of light betrays it. Just enough to get my attention.

It might as well be a doorway, or passageway. A keyhole or crevice.

Hard to tell from this distance.

It hints of magic.

It caught me off guard, up to my elbows in soap suds. Although thank the land of China for the creation of my newly bought–saviour of my water logged hands–rubber dish washing gloves! You seriously can't appreciate the joy this has brought me unless you too have gone any amount of time without a dishwasher. Especially in winter! Yuck. Goodbye shriveled lady hands on this twenty something year old girly.

So there I be. Minding my own business, cutting through grease and foul food buildup with my trusty Dobie when I glance up. My gaze travels through the kitchen window pane, lands on miscellaneous dog toys in the yard, a black hairy beast, they catch a cardinal dancing between branches in the now dead tree tumbling over my fence and then bam.

About fifty feet from where I stand I stare at it, my gloves stop in mid scrub...

Where did that come from?

And more importantly how did I miss it?

It's...it's like a, nooo. It couldn't be.

No wait. It is! There's like a gnome portal in my backyard!

can you spot it??

I'm not even lying. The proof is in the picture. Wally looks so nice out there. Very handsome.

Have I read and viewed one to many fantasy stories? Pshhaw absolutely, but is that relevant when this little entranceway is plain as day in front of me?    

I swear it wasn't there a week ago. Who could have made it except enterprising little fantastical creatures? Still can't see it?

How bout a little zooming action:

I'm sorry, whaat?

Precisely door-shaped size. I wonder where it leads? 

Don't think I wouldn't have raced on outside without my shoes, right then and there if it wasn't like sub zero degrees out. And sad to say, I don't think I could get my girth through there.

But not too tiny that I couldn't gape through it first chance I got.

 

Love this.

Are you ever fascinated with secret passageways or imagine that on your dreary way to work your car will enter a time-shift in the universe and you'll be one minute on Interstate 83 and the next minute on a windy country road with hobbit dwellings on either side of you? Or is it just me?

Or that elevator you grab on your way up to the office will mysteriously stop on the 12 floor. There are only 11 in your building.

Seriously let your cool down for a moment and agree with me.  

It would be flipping amazing, no??

umm...where does that door lead, please?

I guess it is the part of us longing for new horizons. Adventure. The unexpected that equals sheer brilliance in it's complexity or pure amazement in it's delightful simplicity.

I want to take notice of what's around me more.

I'm not sure about you, but I feel I skip over things in life way too quickly.

Hidden treasures abound and yet, they are so easily missed. 

I'm pretty sure this gnome portal thingy has probably been in my backyard for at least a few weeks, maybe even *gasp* months, and I just haven't stopped to notice it. My head is either focused down at tasks or too high in the sky with cares and concerns to see clearly.

Makes me wonder all the other things I've missed right in front of my rather prominent Italian nose.

So I am determined to stop in my tracks. Just like this. More often.

So my point in relaying all of this, is not to reveal to you how batty I actually am, but to remind you and me of what a friend once encouraged me with. She said, take notice of every little thing you can around you. Because God likes to leave surprises and joys to uncover everywhere. Sometimes you have to look hard. But there is always something there. So often we never notice His spectacular creation buzzing alive and beautiful around us. It goes unnoticed.

And I think, for every little and big thing we miss–which He has set on our path–– I imagine He gets a little disappointed each time, when we fail to take notice of it.

So let's not forget to regard life around us with eager expectation. 

And let the treasure hunt begin!...and it never hurts to add a little imagination either :))) 

Tick Tock and Austen's Emma for two

Okay, so this is me demonstrating my "pondering-over-which-movie-you-should-watch" pose for this week's Period Drama Spotlight. Yeahh...I realize I kinda look like I have a nose twitch and about to pass out by the looks of my pasty white complexion. Niceee right?

Oh well. I did try for you.

Moving along.

I was told very forcefully and quite dramatically the other night by an older gent I know, who was attempting to dispense great words of wisdom to me, at least from his point of view, about how I needed to get out and "live my life before it was too late" because it didn't sound like I was doing much to "get myself out there".

Translation: Those lines and bags under your eyes are clearly visible to the general populace and there are grey hairs starting to gleam atop your head from under the fluorescent lights above our heads––and well, honey, you're getting old and time is running out.

At least that is what I inferred from his statement. And I'm pretty sure I not so gracefully choked on my spit at this point.

This advice came after I had just eagerly attempted to explain to him how although I spend a great deal of my time either working my one job at the hospital or working on my computer for my other job ...and sure it's like working two full time jobs but I do this so I will have the funds and designs to launch a new business in the works for awhile.

Yeahhh, so not the response or encouragement I was hoping to get from him.

He wasn't impressed. At all.

As I've run this conversation through my head a few dozen times to gauge whether he's right or not...I've come to this conclusion: True I may not get out nearly enough and yeah, I don't party like other friends of mine ever–er um–I mean all the time, but I do enjoy what I do and the goals I have and the hobbies I keep.

To me, that's a good life. And I've got a plan! I'm not a total hermit, promise, although my friends might argue that point a little :)) And okay, okay spending 12 hours over the course of two days to watch a movie series that I really like and have seen um, a couple-ish times before, might not be the best use of my time and could contribute to my blanched-from-lack-of-sunlight complexion but you know, sometimes movie therapy is a good thing. And blogging therapy ranks top as well!!

So while time may be running out for me, and evidently we don't have many minutes to spare before old age dumps itself upon me...I couldn't not post a period drama spotlight for you. It would be cruel and I would feel deprived on your behalf.

And I am all too happy to spend my precious time on here doing so for you. Huzzah!

So while I am sure, my dearies, you have all heard of Jane Austen's Emma and in particular the newest BBC version with Romola Gari and Jonny Lee Miller:

\Which is of course LOVELY to behold...and my favorite Austen story– right now (I change periodically)...

But what I'm wondering is if you've seen this lesser known take on the story down here below:

Aisha is the Bollywood version of Emma!!

For some reason when I hear the word Bollywood it makes me want to eat brightly colored gumballs. Is that weird?

I bet you had no idea of this Austenesque gem set in India with mucho style, sass and flair. It stays true to just about the whole story with adjustments to some of the scenarios because well, I don't think there is a Box Hill in Mumbai. Aisha, like Emma, loves to get involved in everybody else's business whether they want her butting in or not. She's rich, headstrong and much to her best guy friend's chagrin (you like that word?) she wont heed his advice to stay out of things.

Havoc ensues...

When Jane Austen penned this tale in 1815 she wrote, "I am going to take a heroine whom no-one but myself will much like."

Silly Jane. How wrong you were. This is a timeless story of love and friendship. And the trouble we can fall into when we don't set a guard over our mouths...

This particular version is very fun and meant to be much lighter and more jovial than the usual telling.  

The costumes/clothing used is a feast for the eyes–translation: I want the lead's wardrobe!! 

The soundtrack is great. 

The chemistry between the leads is fabulous.

You seriously have to rent this flick online or offline, you can get it anywhere... 

Yes, there are subtitles but don't be scared!!!! You don't even notice it after the beginning, I promise. You have to give this one a chance.

If you've seen neither, you must see at least one version of Emma.  For me. And Jane. She would want you to.

That's your homework assignment. Got it? :))

And report back if you've seen any of these! Tell us what you think... :))
 

The End.