The White Queen

I have been a fan of Phillipa Gregory's novels for a long time and just watched a mini series based on 3 of her books.

The amazon review describes the story as :

Based on Philippa Gregory's series of best-selling novels, "The Cousins War.”

Set against the backdrop of England's Wars of the Roses during the 15th century, the story revolves around women caught up in the ongoing conflict for the throne. They are some of the most ruthless players in history and will stop at nothing to support their own causes and those of the ones they love. “The White Queen” will be told through the stories of three equally driven women -- Elizabeth Woodville, Margaret Beaufort and Anne Neville -- in their quest for power as they manipulate behind the scenes of history.

I was a bit nervous about watching this but it turns out that it's a BBC production so of course it was wonderful. I hadn't read the books and wasn't that familiar with this period of English history. I knew enough that certain key events were "spoiled" but in no way did it actually spoil things for me. Seeing these three women doing everything in their power to gain control of the English throne is very compelling viewing.

      

Two Days Off

Happy New Year!

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year.

It has been such a busy time for us. We spent Thanksgiving at the lake and then had company that arrived the next day. It was wonderful to see them and I enjoyed playing tourist for a while, but it meant that Christmas came so fast. We have spent the last two Christmases in Florida, but this year it was just the four of us at the lake. It was really peaceful and we had lots of quality family time.

For New Years Eve we went to Charlotte to see the Avett Brothers in concert. Our children are 13 and 16 and we all had a really great time. The next morning we stopped at a premium outlet mall for an hour and Sophie and I ran into J Crew and Ralph Lauren while they boys stayed in the car and then we visited a waterfall and went hiking through a gorge. It was a really fun day.

Once we got home it was time to start working through my huge to do list. There were thank you letters to write, decorations to be put away and a lot of cleaning and tidying. I had a mad week getting both houses looking good again and then on Monday morning I had my wisdom teeth removed and everything...just...stopped.

I have just spent two whole days in bed! The first day I was pretty out of it, I slept a lot and read Divergent. The second day I was much better but it still hurt to move so I spent the morning reading The Fault in Our Stars and by the afternoon I was going stir crazy. I gave myself a manicure and now my nails are a beautiful red.

I bought a dress at the Lilly sale.

I found a monogrammed calendar on Etsy that will look fantastic on my desk.

The gold foil designs are different every month but will look so great with my Erin Condren planner.

I decided that I loved my red nails so much that I ordered "April" from Chanel. It's the perfect red with orange undertones, whereas Lotus Rouge is the perfect red with blue undertones.

Today I feel so much better, ready to get back on the merry-go-round and looking forward to my packages arriving over the next couple of days. 

I hope you too are full of enthusiasm for 2014.

      

Christmas Jammies

I'm on a video roll this week! Check out this cute Christmas video, and don't forget to check back this afternoon to see who won the Vera Bradley wristlet.

Evolution of Beyoncé

This will be 6 minutes very well spent!

Please don't forget to enter my giveaway.

      

Two Movies to Watch over the Holidays

I am a huge Jane Austen fan. I've read all of her books, watched the movies over and over again, and also enjoy books and movies that are inspired by her beloved characters.

My favorite movie is Persuasion.

Persuasion is the story of a single woman who becomes re-acquainted with the man whose offer of marriage she had refused eight years earlier on the advice of a family friend who felt that his financial prospects were poor. She had been in love with him but was persuaded to refuse him. Now he has returned from the war a wealthy man but the same family friend is trying to persuade her to marry someone else. Will she again be persuaded or will she follow her own heart?

My favorite movie inspired by Jane Austen is Lost in Austen.

Lost in Austen is the story of Amanda Price, a modern day girl who is in love with the romance and elegance portrayed in the books of her favorite author, Jane Austen. One day she finds herself in the world of Pride and Prejudice while Elizabeth Bennet is now in our world. Amanda manages to mess up the story at every turn, and desperately tries to fix things for Elizabeth and Darcy. I have seen this several times. It's the perfect movie for a girls night.

If you're looking for something to watch over the holidays then I can highly recommend both of these.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway.

      

Downton Abbey

This show is brilliant!

Highclere Castle where this series is filmed is less than 20 miles from my parents house! I know whats on my to do list next time I visit.

Wicked

Have you seen Wicked yet?

We saw it in New York on Saturday and LOVED it!

Click here if you are interested in the tour information, and if it is coming to a city near you then do try and go, it is AMAZING!

Glee - Original Song

I have to say that last weeks episode of Glee on Fox was one of the most romantic things that I have seen on TV for a while.

I think that they handled the issue of gay teens in a very innocent, classy way and I loved how slowly this relationship established itself.

Kurt and Blaine, played by talented actors Chris Colfer and Darren Criss can change the world.

New Moon DVD to be released on March 20th

I was in London last November just before New Moon came to the theaters and snapped this picture! A little nuts I know!

Anyway for those of you who love the movies, I just heard that you will be able to buy New Moon on March 20th.

I know what we will be doing that night!

Lost

For 5 seasons I was the only member of my household who was an avid Lost fan.

That all changed over Christmas when I bought the first 5 seasons on blueray.

Now my daughter, husband and myself are watching Lost at every available opportunity and are almost done with Season 4.

I hope we will be ready for February 2nd....

Harvard Classics

The Harvard Classics are more commonly known as "The Five-Foot Shelf", were compiled and edited by Harvard University president Charles Eliot and first published in 1909.

Eliot's goal was that the books provide a liberal education to anyone willing to spend 15 minutes a day reading from the collection.

I wanted some books for the drawing room that looked good, but that would actually be read. I scored a set of first editions on ebay and although I haven't read the complete collection, I am always very interested by what I do read.

A reading guide is available here.

Lost in Austen

When I was looking for something to watch over the Christmas break I stumbled across this DVD...

Without giving too much away, Lost in Austen is the story of a girl who loves Pride and Prejudice, and magically gets to go back and live in the 19th century world created by Jane Austen. She meets Mr Darcy and as each event in the book comes to pass she accidentally changes things.

I purchased Lost in Austen here, and just loved it.