Project Life

I've been a long-time scrapbooker, for lack of a better term, and have spent countless hours creating albums and "scrapbooks" for my family. Baby books, school years, holiday celebrations,vacations, everyday living....I just love taking photos of the people and memories that make up my life. I take so many pictures, though, that it can be quite a challenge to stay organized and current with all my albums.

Last year, I decided to change from traditional scrapbooking (which requires a good bit of time, effort, and creativity) to a faster, simplified way of organizing my memories. I purchased 12"X12" 3-ring scrapbook albums and filled them with divided sheet protectors that hold either vertical or horizontal 4"X6" pictures. There is place to slip in a journaling card which makes the process quick and easy.

Now, Becky Higgins, a fabulous scrapbooker from Creating Keepsakes magazine, has created a beautiful kit called Project Life. Everything, and I mean everything, is done for you. All you do is add your pictures and jot down your details. It is most definitely on my gift-giving list this Christmas for all my friends and family members who have lamented that they just don't have the time or desire to get involved with traditional scrapbooking but love organized family photos and memories. (Naturally, I'm getting one for myself, as well.) You can visit Becky Higgins at her blog by clicking here.

Feeling Thankful

So much to be thankful for as November comes to an end....

l. I'm thankful the turkey and all the side dishes were delicious and shared with a house full of hungry family members; while I'll never be Martha Stewart, I do enjoy holiday cooking and large scale entertaining with my brothers and sister and their families and my extended family.


2. Celebrated another wedding anniversary this month and revisited the cathedral as we do each year on our anniversary.


3. I'm really thankful for the "undelete this blog" button! After believing it was necessary to remove my blog, I've reconsidered and will continue as usual. I missed my blog friends too much, so I'm hoping they'll come back and visit.

Here's hoping that your November was filled with many good things and that your December will be filled with the joys of the season!

Good News/Bad News

First, the good news: the Saints are 8-0. 'Nuf said.

Now, the bad: Hurricane Ida is on its way. No immediate danger, but for those who are still not completely back on their feet from 2005, it's chilling. Got calls last evening from the emergency systems in the kids' schools that they are closed for today for safety reasons, as is most of the Gulf Coast. Please send some good thoughts our way for everyone to stay safe in the next two days. Much appreciated. ;)

What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew by Daniel Pool

What is your Victorian literature IQ? Ready to take a little quiz just for fun? Here we go!

l. What do Ombre, Loo, Pope Joan, and Piquet have in common?

2. Where would you likely find an epergne in a Victorian home?
a. in the bedroom
b. in the dining room
c. in the study

3. Where would you live if you had the most fashionable address in Victorian London?
a. St. Giles
b. Covent Garden
c. Mayfair

4. If someone called you a tosspot, it meant
a. you are tart-tongued and sassy
b. you drank too much
c. you are the lowest housemaid

5. Most ladies' mourning clothes were made from what fabric?
a. silk
b. velvet
c. bombazine

6. True or False:
In going up a flight of stairs, the gentleman always precedes the lady.

7. True or False:
It is inappropriate for a lady to wear pearls or diamonds in the morning.

8. True or False:
A lady is always introduced to a gentleman -- never the other way around.

9. Can you name famous homes in literature that contains the following
words? grange, hall, house, park

l0. What is the proper way to address....
the king or queen?
the monarch's spouse, children, siblings?
nephews, nieces, and cousins of the sovereign?


**************

So, how well did you do? Here are the answers:

1. They are all card games.
2. An epergne was a gaudy table decoration to hold food or flowers on a dining table.
3. Park Lane, the most coveted address, was in fashionable and wealthy Mayfair.
4. b - you drink too much
5. c - bombazine because it did not shine
6. True
7. True
8. False -- A genleman is always introduced to the lady; it is considered an honor to be introduced to the lady.
9. Thrushcross Grange in Wuthering Heights; Thornfield Hall in Jane Eyre; Netherfield House in Pride and Prejudice; Mansfield Park
10. Your Majesty; Your Royal Highness; Your Highness


This is a fun, entertaining social history for anyone who enjoys reading the works of Dickens, the Brontes, Austen, and other nineteenth-century novelists, or for anyone who is interested in nineteenth-century English life.

I purchased this reference book as part of the Everything Austen challenge, and it really does enrich the reading experience of Victorian-era novels. It is very readable and filled with fun and interesting aspects of everyday matters such as dinner parties, country house visiting, sex and marriage, social etiquette, society and the "season," medicine and disease, death and mourning, transportation, the taxonomy of maids, currency, holidays, and of host of other curious topics. It contains a helpful glossary of terms and a useful bibliography for further exploration. Lots of fun!

Title: What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox-Hunting to Whist--the Facts of Daily Life in 19th Century England
Author: Daniel Pool
genre: nonfiction
416 pages
Simon and Schuster, Inc.
1993

Have a spook-tacular weekend!

Click Here For Images &
Happy Halloween Pictures

Tears of Pearl by Tasha Alexander

from the publisher:

"Even before Emily steps off the Orient Express in beautiful and decadent Constantinople, she's embroiled in intrigue and treachery. The brutal death of a concubine in the sultan's palace allows her first foray into investigating a crime as an official agent of the British Empire -- because only a woman can be given access to the forbidden world of the harem. There, she quickly discovers that its mysterious, sheltered walls offer no protection from a ruthless murder."

my thoughts:

Tears of Pearl is the fourth installment of Tasha Alexander's Victorian mystery/romance series, and we find the ever-elegant couple, Emily and Colin Hargreaves, embarking on their honeymoon in exotic Turkey. The Orient Express has barely left the station when the mischief and mayhem begins.

For those who may not have read Alexander's previous novels, Tears could easily be a stand-alone read as the author neatly recaps characters and details and quickly brings the reader up-to-date. Despite the lavish setting and aura of mystery and intrigue of a sultan's harem, however, this newest mystery offering fell a little flat and had me losing my way with some forgettable characters. The writing just didn't have the same clarity as her previous novels. I was no where near as enchanted with Lady Emily and her escapades as I was with the first three novels. On a positive note, I did enjoy that the couple was at long last experiencing marital bliss, and the further development of Emily's character as she contemplates indepedence versus providing a future heir added another dimension to the story.
A light, quick mystery with an exotic setting -- easy afternoon read.

What I really loved (and highly recommend) are Tasha Alexander's photos from the research she pursued in writing Tears of Pearl. She has posted a glorious display of photos of the palaces of Constantinople, inside views of the rooms which housed the concubines, and the beautiful scenery around the palaces. I viewed this photo gallery prior to reading Tears, and it really helped bring to life the sultan's world. Click here to visit this fascinating photo gallery.

Title: Tears of Pearl
Author: Tasha Alexander
Minotaur Books
306 pp.
2009
genre: historical mystery/romance

The Witching Hour by Anne Rice

From the publisher:

"On the veranda of a great New Orleans house, now faded, a mute and fragile woman sits rocking. And The Witching Hour begins......"

My thoughts:

Like J.K. Rowling and Diana Gabaldon, Anne Rice has that magic touch that just draws me into another world, another era, where, like a wizard, she mixes up an intoxicating brew of witchcraft lore, wicked tragedy, and gothic romance. We are introduced to the great dynasty of the Mayfair witches beginning in the seventeenth century Scottish Highlands, and follow four generations through Europe, the lavish Maye Faire plantation in Port-au-Prince, Saint-Domingue, to a decaying antebellum mansion in New Orleans and present-day San Francisco. Each generation is haunted and tormented by the powerful and seductive being, Lasher. Beginning with the beautiful Suzanne, the Queen of the May Fair in Scotland, and ending in the present-day with Dr. Rowan Mayfair, renowned nuerosurgeon and healer, will they be able to break the evil spell that binds them tragically to Lasher?

I first read The Witching Hour in 1990 when it was first published and absolutely loved it for its rich, historically accurate depiction of life in New Orleans. I often wonder if readers who were not born and raised here would notice the wealth of details Anne Rice includes in her writings, from architectural depictions, accents, street names, pronunciations, neighborhoods, schools and churches, cultural celebrations and traditions, social commentaries...things that are unique to our city but completely ordinary in our way of life. She is a master of seamlessly weaving historical detail and plot.

On this second reading, I noticed interesting details that are also part of the Outlander series that I so enjoy reading. The second part of the novel is devoted to the history of the Mayfair witches as documented in files by the secret Talamasca organization....their motto is, "We watch.....and we are always here." For example, in describing the origin of the Mayfair witches and their connection to Lasher, we learn that it all began in a circle of standing stones while celebrating an ancient pagan feast:

p. 293
"To which they explained that the people of Highland villages were most attached still to the old customs, and that on the eve of May 1 they built great bonfires in the open grass, these being lighted only from the needfire, and they danced all night about the bonfires, making merry."
p. 311
"Out into the field we went, feeling for the stones before us, and finding the very middle of the circle and standing stock-still in it to feel the wind...I heard the humming as she held my hand; then in a circle we danced together, making small circles round and round as we did. Louder she hummed and then the Latin words she spoke to call the demon, and then flinging out her arms she cried to him to come."

Her writing is enthralling, guaranteed to make you go deep into yourself and examine your own values and truths....highly recommended!

Title: The Witching Hour
Author: Anne Rice
genre: fiction
pages: 1038
publisher: Random House
1990