Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Happy 240th Birthday, Jane Austen!

Jane Austen
Today we celebrate the birthday of a most beloved authouress--Jane Austen!!! The outstanding creator of Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, Northanger Abbey, and Mansfield Park was born two hundred forty years ago today.
Therefore we must celebrate.
I began my celebration by dressing in my Halloween costume, which was a semblance of Elizabeth Bennet, heroine of Pride and Prejudice.

I really should make a spencer or an empire waist coat to go with this dress, since it's December. I guess my shawl will have to do. (And here, it's supposed to be in the 50's-60's this afternoon! December indeed!) My dress bears a slight resemblance to the dress Jane Austen is pictured wearing above.
My celebration will continue as I read more of Emma (which I am in the process of reading right now) and parts of the other books. 
I sadly own paper copies of only these three. 
To continue on in honor of Jane Austen...Here are my favourite quotes from or about my favourite Jane Austen heroes:
(Sorry about using movie pictures, particularly if you haven't seen or didn't like that version of the movie, but movie pictures are kind of all there is.)
Mr. Darcy quote
Mr. Darcy...of course that quote. And for this picture, the movie picture really is Mr. Darcy. Seriously. 
Mr. Knightley quote
Mr. Knightley--What more is there to say?
Captain Wentworth quote
I LOVE CAPTAIN WENTWORTH!!! Even Mr. Darcy cannot write letters as well as Capt. Wentworth. I mean, it's not really your fault, Mr. Darcy--Nobody can beat Capt. Wentworth's letters. Short, sweet and very to the point (Yes, Mr. Darcy, your letter was about three pages long with only a couple paragraph breaks...And you didn't say the sweet things Wentworth did...Okay, I'm done...)
Edward Ferrars
So this is not an Edward quote, but it's a quote about Edward and Elinor from Jane Austen. My favourite Edward quote might be "Forgive me, if I am very saucy." (Yes, dear Edward of course you are...At least you would be if such a thing were possible.)
Mr. Tilney quote
How could anyone not love this quote? Of course, one can love it better if they understand the context. But definitely this is my favourite Mr. Tilney quote. 

And if you are wondering about Edmund Bertram of Mansfield Park, I have two reasons for not including him: 1, he didn't have any particularly good quotes and 2, I have not seen a movie version and in two of the movie versions I saw pictures of, he was Mr. Knightley and Mr. Elton from another version of Emma...So no. 

There you have it--Jane Austen hero quotes. 
I might make a cake with these quotes later if I have time. If so, I'll update this post with pictures!*

*Here's Jane Austen's birthday cake! I know it's kind of messy, but...I had to fit six quotes from Jane Austen on here.
"The person...who has not pleasure in a good novel must be intolerably stupid." Mr. Henry Tilney, Northanger Abbey
"You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you." Mr. Darcy, Pride and Prejudice
"If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more." Mr. Knightley, Emma
"I have loved none but you." Captain Wentworth, Persuasion
"He certainly loved her." Jane Austen about Edward loving Elinor, Sense and Sensibility
"Edmund became as anxious to marry Fanny as [Fanny] herself could desire." Mansfield Park



Happy Birthday, Jane Austen!!!






Sunday, December 13, 2015

What Shall We Give as Christmas Presents to Invite Jesus' Christmas Presence?

Well, first of all--I love puns and this is a great one. I guess that shouldn't be "first of all" but now I can get into the real message.
This says, "Seek the best Christmas Presence. This year, instead of getting all wrapped up [another great pun...Mormonads are full of them...] in unimportant things, invite the Savior into your celebration." (See Isaiah 9:6)
How can we invite the Saviour into the celebration? What can we do to have Christ be a constant part of our Christmas season?
How can we make our Chrismas presents invite His Christmas Presence?
What shall we give to Him?
Which brings me to my favourite Christmas video ever..."What Shall We Give?", a music video from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
Why do I love this video? (Well, isn't it obvious? It's great!) I think the first reason is that it reminds me of my dad. Everything these men and boys do in this video is something my dad would do. He would stop and help anyone...even if he were running late. :) And what is important about this? Service is our gift to the Saviour. If we serve others, we are serving Him. And that is what we can give to Jesus Christ this Christmas season. We can serve our brothers and sisters--His children. By doing that, we serve him; thus inviting His Christmas Presence.
"And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."
-Matthew 25:40

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

These are a Few of My Favourite Things

Hey! This is my very first post, so...About me (a name I call myself)! 20 Facts/Favourite Things:
1-I'm a Mormon.
2-I'm a homeschooler!
3-I play the flute.
4-I love to Sew (a needle pulling thread)!
5-I am a huge L. M. Montgomery fan (Anne of Green Gables is just the beginning. I love them all.)
6-I'm a huge Pride and Prejudice (and Jane Austen) fan. And the best adaption of P&P ever is the 1995 BBC version with Colin Firth. No question.
7-I like to bake.
8-I'm the second oldest of 6 children,
9-My favourite dinner is lasagna.
10-My professed favourite colour is purple.
11-I like to spell the British way (Why? See 5 &6)
12-I play the piano.
13-I sing in a Homeschool Children's Chorus which I helped organise.
14-I like musicals. (In case you couldn't tell, the Sound of Music is included in that statement.)
15-I am a grammar nerd. Shamelessly. (Except that I have a bad habit of sentence fragments...)
16-I like to write but I only dream of the day when I'll actually finish writing my novel.
17-I don't like math. At all.
18-I love photography.
19-My favourite Christmas song is probably "What Child is This?"
20-My favourite musical genres are classical and songs from musicals and Disney movies.