In a mood..

Every now and then I get into a romantic, bbc peroid mood. It doesn't happen so very often, but when it does, I sort of watch them like crazy. :D I love the costumes and the hairstyles and the lovely conversations.

(One day I shall do my hair just like this.)

I would love to have the opportunity to dress up in such cloths and sweep around the landscape on a very windy day...

Actually, every time I watch one, I'm rather thankful that I wasn't born in that time frame. I am not a social person--I get self conscious and awkward in public. I believe I'd be uncomfortable if I was expected to be all out-going and mingle with rich people in hopes of making a good match. *Shudder*

Or I might be poor. And that would sort of stink.


But anyway.

There are a few BBC actors that I really, really love. Now I'm going to get a little fan-girly. This is unusual for me, I swear! *Blush*

I'm just in that mood.

Richard Armitage.
He is such a good actor! The first time I 'saw' him was in Captain America which I don't think really counts. But everyone made a big deal about the fact that it was Richard Armitage and I was like, "He's not that great. I don't get it."
Then I watched North and South and I understood. *Grin.* He was cool. Very Cool.

(Love. That. Hat.)

I also love Brendan Coyle. There is something about this fellow...he must never play a bad guy. I wont believe it. He's too nice looking. Here meaning that he just looks nice. I actually don't know if I liked his character more than Mr. Thorton's or not. It's a pretty even tie.

He just looks like the sort of fellow you would trust instantly. I think it's the happy lines around his eyes that does it. I like him.

Matthew Macfadyen. I loved him in Pride and Prejudice and he was the reason I watched the 6 hour long Little Dorrit. He is cool.

(Yes, People, Mr. Darcy is a time traveler. How else did he get his hands on the cell phone?)

I just watched the 2007 Persuasion--I enjoyed it. It was fun, but I felt it was sort of wasted. I mean, the characters were great, the story is very good, but they didn't develop it as well as they could have. The ending wasn't as satisfying as it should have been.

But I now know of Rupert Penry-Jones. Yes, his name, unfortunately is Rupert. 

*Smile*

I would watch Persuasion again just for this fellow. *Nods* My little sister has informed me that he was deadly dull. I disagree. He was just another one of those silent, serious bbc guys. :D

He plays in a movie called, "the 39 Steps" and I want to see it. So, so much!

I have no idea if it's any good. I'd have to check the rating and all that. But it certainly looks good. 

And check it out! It has the pig-man from Little Dorrit in it!

Right. I can't believe I just rambled on like this. It's obviously very late. *Grin.* I promise it wont happen again. 

Well...I really can't promise that it wont happen again. But I will make sure to space it!

Oh, before I go, this is probably my favorite Mumford and Sons song. Just to finish this post of with a touch more interest. 

God Bless!
Amy

My Hat

I have been obsessed with this hat. Seriously.

 Ever since I watched North and South I've been trying to find this hat.

I mean, it's perfect for me! I have thick hair and I usually wear it up. I needed a hat that I could wear with my hair up. But no Margaret Hale hats were to be found...anywhere. And trust me, I really looked. I found other kinds of hats and bonnets that could be worn with hair up, but they weren't IT.

 

My opinion: What you can't find, you can create. 

I found this hat at Walmart for $8.00 and I figured it was perfect for experimenting on. (It didn't come with the white line. I did that. I forgot to take a 'before' shot.)

And it was the right color. I must say, I am ridiculously happy about how it turned out. I love my hat!

Here's what I did. 

I needed to get rid of the hat depth. So I measured roughly where I wanted the hat to sit, and I sewed around the hat on a very dense zig-zag stitch to make sure it wouldn't unravel when I, well, cut if off. :-)

 It was a triffle scary, chopping a perfectly respectable hat apart. I was thinking, "Well, here goes $8.00." LOL.

I then got rid of the extra.

 I took the brim and soked it, just for a minute, in some water with corn-starch in it, hoping to help it stiffen up. I then ironed it flat because the hat in "North and South" has a pretty stiff brim. 

Straw stays wet a long time though and I don't think wetting it helped with the stiffening up part. It made it easier to work with, if nothing else. The straw was bendy. Then I cleared out as much of the residual copped-off bit from between the brim and the ribbon part and pinned the shortened hat back in.

 (the ribbon started to come away from the brim. It had been hot-glued originally, so after I sewed the hat back on, I eased some hot glue back under the brim to make sure it was pretty secure.)

(It's funny how getting the brim whet made the hat look like it was two completely different colors.)

Sewing the hat back together was a little tricky. I broke a needle on the machine and had to search frantically through the sewing box for another...the last one.  My thread kept breaking. Every few inches it would just snap, and I don't know if the thread I was using was cheap or if the hat was just so rough that the thread just wore out. Anyway, sewing around the hat was hard. But lookie at the results! It worked! 

After it was done, I got heavy-duty starch and went to work. I ironed and starched and ironed and starched andironedandstarched! It stayed stiff for a while after that, but the starch doesn't last. My brim starts to go a tiny bit limp. but that's okay. 

Over all, this was a fairly easy project. It only took me about three hours to do it and on my first try, even. I think if I do this again, I'll be faster than that. I have a feeling that this wont be the only hat I over-haul. :-)

Well, I hope you enjoyed that. 

God Bless!

Amy

So, so, random...

So, I have to post something, because time is slipping by and I haven't up-dated in a long time...
I will not be held responsible for the weirdness that comes through in this post, though! I am in a 'visual' mood. So...

First, I finally watched "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol" and I loved it. Mainly because of this guy.

He is awesome.

And it just so happens he's going to be the main character in the up-coming, "Bourne Legacy." Need I say more?

 This guy was the comic relief.

And he was pretty cool too.

It's a really fun movie and other than a rather skimpy dress at a party, it was clean. (As far as I can remember. )

 Here's a funny clip from the movie.

I have been reading a lot lately. A LOT. I was loaned a bunch of books by the amazing author, Georgette Heyer, (I wasn't loaned books by Georgette Heyer...A friend loaned me books written by Georgette Heyer. Just wanted to be clear on that. :-) I have been reading one lovely story after another. I've read, "These Old Shades," "Regency Buck," "Powder and Patch," "The Talisman Ring" and I've just started one called, "Sylvester." So far my favorite has been...um...it's a toss-up between "Recency Buck" and "Talisman Ring." It's actually useful reading for me, since these are all period drama/romance/adventure books, I'm getting some good pointers on how to make tough male characters, how to make the whole conversation thing 'period' and how to slowly reveal the whole story and not try to crowd all that I want to say about my characters into their opening scenes. LOL. So, see? I'm really not waisting time.

And to finish up this very random post, I am in the mood for:

ORANGE LEAF!

 If you have never been fortunate enough to go to a yogurt bar, do yourself a favourite,and treat yourself. At least once. They are so yummy! You get to choose the different yogurt/ice creams you want, and then you can dress it up with fruits (yes, fruit is amazing on it! I never would have thought it!) and nuts and chocolates and cookie bits and brownie bits and candy bits and, and, and...HEART ATTACK! :-) 

What I like to do, is put fruit on half and the chocolaty stuff on the other half. (And for the record, mine is never as big as that picture. You are charged by weight. lol.)

I wish I owned:

This hat.

Ever since I watched North and South, I've been keeping my eyes open for a hat like this one. It's boarder-line impossible. The reason being, it sits basically right on top of your head, (I think I'd have to buy a hair pin to keep it one. Which is no problem for me, by the way.) and in this degenerate age we are living in, they don't make hats that still need hat pins. That make over sized, floppy straw hats. What I love so much about this hat, is you can still wear your hair up in a vary large bun and still put the hat on! See?

That, my dear readers, is the hat for me! (Listen to me! "Dear readers..." I told you I've been reading-and watching- a lot of period drama!) If I am able to find a hat like this one, I will post it...and share where I bought it from, just in case one of you wants one too. If you actually watch North and South, I think you will. Oh yes! And I promise to work on my N. and S. hair tutorial and post it soon-ish.

And my last bit of randomness. I am hoping to watch;

The Midnight Showing of...

THE AVENGERS!

 (The fellow with the bow and arrow? That's the same fellow as on 'Mission Impossible.' *Grins*)

I hope this post was fun and interesting for you all. I told you it would be random! But it was fun random, right?

 God Bless!

Amy

Period...

I have been having a 'bbc period movies' spree! I watched "Little Dorrit" and really like it and "Wives and Daughters" and really liked it and now I'm watching "North and South." I. LOVE. IT! So far...I haven't finished it yet. But I will probably have it done by tonight. LOL. I've never seen Richard Armitage in anything before this,(except for the very brief part he played in Captain America) but he is a really good actor and he does a brilliant job with his roll. I likes him...quite a lot. :-) It's pretty much impossible not to.

 

And I really like the girl character in this one. I sometimes get a little bit tired of the girls in these shows. But Margaret is a really neat girl.

 She's brave and she's kind without it being obvious. And she does the right thing, even when it's hard or even dangerous.

She's very pretty too. I like the way she looks. It's not 'movie star' pretty. It's much more real.

Okay. There you have it. I am going to figure out how she does her hair and do a tutorial for you all. I promise! I don't think it will be that hard to figure out actually. I just...well, to be honest, I procrastinate a tiny bit.

So let's see. Coming up, hair tutorials and hair pretty tutorials...right. Well. I will do my very best to get on that and do some. This week if I can manage it.

Thank you for reading! And in honor of my 'North and South' obsession, here's the trailer. :-) I really encourage you to find this and watch it. It is really good and far less 'frilly' than a lot of theses period shows tend to be.

God Bless!