The Phantom Moon

Emma & Jane

Last night as I was watching TV, I discovered that WHYY was airing a new version of Jane Austen's Emma.  I immediately sent a text off to my sister telling her to tune in if she was still awake.  Usually, if it's not a cartoon, BB doesn't really give a hoot about what's on TV but for a few minutes, my darling little girl was transfixed by the world of Jane Austen.  I'm not sure if it was the rich colors that burst through the TV (we were watching it in HD after all) or whether she was hypnotized by the gorgeous gowns worn by the lovely ladies on screen.  She watched for a few minutes then left to find "little girl" but I have a feeling we have a new Jane fan in the mix!

Though we both have our favorite versions of Jane, we decided to enjoy the newest re-telling and watched the rest of last nights episode (it's broken down into 3 parts I believer) together, texting each other every 5 minutes or so when we noticed something we liked.  We did have a controversy about one of the actresses that I was able to research this morning.  Please indulge me for a moment while I clear things up:

Laura Pyper, who played Jane Fairfax also played Ella from the BBC show Hex ...

Romola Garai, who played Emma also played in Vanity Fair (played as Amelia Sedley) and Dirty Dancing Havana Nights (we tried to sit through this movie together years ago and had to turn it off :P ) ...

(side note: her father is Dumbledore!)

Oddly enough, both ladies acted with the same actor - Michael Fassbender- at different times in their career. He played the character of Azazeal in Hex (with Laura) and Esme in Angel (with Romola).

 
Another tidbit, Laura also played with Christina Cole in Hex (she played the main character - Cassie) as well as in this version of Emma (she plays Mrs Elton).  What a small world!

Hmm, speaking of Jane though, I just remembered I promised Sara another "Jane" type doll to accompany the one she already has.  Looks like I'll be sewing again very soon.

All images found courtesy of Google Image Search

Change

On Friday, I decided to paint my nails a nice shade of dark purple - Deep Violet to be exact.  You know, since all the young kids are doing it these days (at least that's what I told my husband when he asked about my color choice).  I needed a bit of change to spice things up for me a bit.  I wasn't sure what BB's reaction would be.  In my experience she doesn't like change too much so I wasn't sure if she'd like it or request that I "clean" my nails. 

So I painted them and waited.  It didn't take long for her to notice the change on Mommy's fingers and to my great surprise, she liked it!  I guess it should come to no surprise that the girl who loves Pumpkins and Skeletons would like dark nail polish too.  She immediately requested that I paint hers as well and I told her that only Mommy's color their nails this color but I would be glad to paint hers pink.  She changed her mind and marched away, singing Jingle Bells and adding her own lyrics here and there.

Yesterday while I was sitting at the dining room table, little Miss BB climbed into the seat next to me and quietly eyed my hands.  I watched her out of the corner of my eye and after a little bit, she nudged me and said, "Mommy, can you paint my nails now?".  "Pink, right?" I asked her.  You could tell from the look in her eyes that she was weighing her decision.  In the end she said yes and I proceeded to quietly (and urgently) tell my Mom to grab her camera to document this historic day.

My little girl made me paint her nails with 3 coats of pink nail polish and one of "white" (really a clear top coat).  She sat quietly the whole time and when it was done, kept staring at her nails as if they were the coolest things she'd seen since the Wonder Pets Christmas special. 

The BB of 3 months ago would never have allowed me to paint her nails let alone sit still for it!  And it was at that moment that it hit me.  My little baby is a baby no more, even though I still see her as that some days.  She is changing just like we all are and before you know it, she'll be in 1st grade, then High School and College and then the sky is the limit!

So I'm determined now that every time I get a little frustrated when she takes 5 minutes to walk up a flight of stairs (she examines everything), or doesn't want to eat a certain food (I think she's a vegetarian) or decides she doesn't want to share her toys that this time too shall pass.  She will soon change into a young girl who understands more, who shares more and who can run laps around her mother.  She will change because that is inevitable and I hope God gives me the ability to embrace all of the change He has to throw at me.  And I'll change too, hopefully for the better.  But in the end, the one thing that will never change is the fact that she will always be my baby. 

Shelby Drink Your Juice!

My dear friends, I had an anxiety attack yesterday.  It happened at the dining room table just as my Grandmother was entering the front door.  My mother, worried I would fall out of my chair told me to lay down for a minute on the living room couch and instructed my Grandmother to give me a cookie to get my blood sugar back up.  Then they started talking about me and what caused said anxiety attack.  Yes, dears, I had a Shelby moment.

What could have caused me to begin hyperventilating enough to bring on such an attack?  I, my friends, was making a quilt.  Not just any quilt though.  It was a quilt I had been working on for BB since October of last year.  This stinking quilt was riddled from problems since day one and had plagued me for the last week as I attempted to finish it.  First I measured half of my quilt blocks incorrectly and had to re-cut and size all of my 280'ish squares.  Then I started sewing them together into nice little neat rows.  Or so I thought.  When I began sewing the rows together it was pretty clear I either didn't re-cut all of the blocks properly or I just suck at sewing those buggers together properly. 

I was determined though!  I'd continue on and it would just be a little wonky which totally gave it the handmade look I was going for (that's one of the lies I told myself to get through this process).  Then I cut the darn backing too small and had to improvise.  Again I was determined to continue on.

I pinned the quilt top, batting and backing together with the help (not!) of BB and my Mom (God bless this woman) and began sewing the quilt closed.  After sewing one side together I realized the quilt had shifted which meant I needed to use the seam ripper and undo the entire row.  After undoing my mess, I re-sewed it closed and began the quilting which resulted in more frustration since the darn thing shifted *again* and I had extra fabric that had to be semi-hidden with my Mom's help at the edge of the quilt.

By the time I was able to begin sewing the binding on the quilt, 3 days had passed.  3 days filled with frustration and migraines.  After I sewed on one side of the binding ... I realized I had done it wrong.  That's when I started to hyperventilate, tears filled my eyes and I felt light headed as everything around me started getting brighter and brighter.  And that my friends, is when my I turned into Shelby and my Mother & Grandmother came to my rescue and helped me finish BB's quilt.  My friends, without my little heroes I would probably be in a deep quilt depression right now, hiding in the corner with a mug of hot tea and muttering about binding and quilting blocks.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a pretty tough cookie most times and can usually take things like this pretty calmly.  But this quilt ... it broke me.  I'm so thrilled that it's done and despite it's wonkiness, I love it and BB loves it too.  But I can guarantee you that I will not be quilting anytime soon again.  At least not until I can think about quilting without getting a knot in my stomach.  Ugh, time for another cookie.