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

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.

Snow

Last week the weather gals and guys couldn't wrap their brains around the weekend weather (can they ever?).  In one breath they said it would be a cold & dry weekend and in the very next, they would say that there was a chance that we'd be getting a little bit of snow.  I didn't think much of it to tell you the truth.  They've been threatening snow for a few weeks now and had yet to deliver.  Until this weekend.

Now, normally I would share some purty photos with you of our house, piles of white fluffy snow on the sidewalks and street, and cars buried under what seemed like mounds and mounds of marshmellows.  Except I can't seem to find the charger for my camera and have unfortunately worked that baby to the bone.  So I decided to take a page from SAJ's book and draw a picture of how I felt that day.

Yes folks, I looked that bad at the end of the day.  Actually, both Saturday and Sunday.  My poor husband.  I'm glad he loves me 'cause I can assure you I was a sight for sore by the end of both nights.  In the end, we wound up getting a whopping 2 feet of snow.  I now have muscles sore that I didn't know I had and aches in my knees and joints that make me shiver as I imagine what it will be like when I get older (now I know why Mom hates going up and down the steps!).

I can't complain though.  It was a pretty good workout considering I shoveled my parents yard, their driveway and steps, my grandparent's steps, my parent's property across the street and it's driveway AND our house (which I thank GOD we aren't living on the street right now) - all multiple times mind you.  Those lucky ducks with their snow blowers :P .  And the cookies and hot chocolate at the end of every shoveling session were totally worth it. 

But Lord, although I am thankful that you blessed me with a body that can deal adequately with hard labor, please don't bless me with anymore "fluffy" snow.  At least not until the aches and pains are all gone.