Favorite Period Movies - Part I

I love winter evenings, because the sun sets sooner and everyone is indoors together and the house is cozy and warm. And in these long nights of January, we’ve been watching some period movies, old favorites and new discoveries. Here is our list of favorite period movies…always with commentary, sometimes with a plot synopsis, and sometimes with a trailer for the lesser known movies.

Wives & Daughters

Hands down, this is my all-time favorite period movie. Based on the novel by Elizabeth Glaskell, it is set in England in the 1850′s. The acting is superb! The costuming exquisite! (And you know that’s so very, very important to me.) And the movie is just so perfectly decent. While Jane Austen is pretty decent too, there’s usually the hint of a scandal somewhere. This is not so in Wives & Daughters. Humor and excellent dialogue all help to make it my favorite!

Photo credit here.

All the various Jane Austen movies:

Pride & Prejudice

I like both versions. Colin Firth, the beautiful civility, the elegance, the dialogue, and more all make me like the first version best.

Photo credit here.

In the newer version, I really enjoy: the mother being kindly and silly rather than ridiculous, the realism that runs throughout the movie (especially in the first dancing scene), and the sumptous, fabric-like feel to the cinematography. (Shown: my favorite scene.)

Photo credit here.

Sense & Sensibility

A dear friend of mine described the version with Emma Thompson as, “...a perfect movie.” So true. Can’t find one flaw in it. Perfectly acted and costumed. Beautiful cinematography. Great sets. Elegant musical score.

Photo credit here.

Emma

Our favorite is the version with Gwyneth Paltrow. Humorous story of a young matchmaker, who is quick to recognize love for everyone except herself. The archery scene always make us chuckle.

Photo credit here.

Amazing Grace

Moving on from Jane Austen movies now… Our whole family loves Amazing Grace! Inspiring, true story of Wilbur Willberforce, who succeeded in abolishing slavery from England, and his friendship with John Newton, author of the hymn “Amazing Grace”. Stellar performances by all the actors and actresses in this movie. Beautifully costumed.

Photo credit here.

North & South

Also based on a novel by Elizabeth Glaskell (as was “Wives & Daughters), this is a new favorite of ours. It has NOTHING to do with the American Civil War, but is instead set in 1850′s England. A minister’s family moves from the cosmopolitan area of southern England to a northern mill town, where their genteel manners are in contrast to the sometimes-rough tradespeople who surround them. Can the minister’s daughter find love there?

Photo credit here.

Click here for a trailer from North & South.

The Four Feathers

This movie differs a bit from all the previously mentioned ones, as it is often violent and portrays some really wretched prison scenes, but I do like it. Heath Ledger portrays a young British officer who is given four feathers, symbols of cowardice, from his fellow officer friends and his fiance when he decides not to follow his commrades to war. Beautiful scenes in England. Excellent costuming. A touching story of friendship and atonement.

Photo credit here.

And here is a trailer for "The Four Feathers".

Under the Greenwood Tree

This is the story of a young teacher who creates quite a stir when she moves to a small, English town. Soon she finds herself with three suitors. Hilarious, at times.

Photo credit here.

Little Women

A favorite, especially at Christmas time! Good for the whole family!

Photo credit here.

Anna and the King

This is one of the most beautiful movies I’ve ever seen. The costuming is flawless! The cinematography exquisite! The acting superb! Heavy subject matter at times, and humorous at other times.

Photo credit here.

Comments and other movie recommendations welcome!  More of our favorites in my next posting.

Cowboy Caviar

My family keeps asking me, "When is the Super Bowl?"  And I keep asking, "Why?  We don't even watch football.  Why do you want to watch the Super Bowl?"  And every single one of them has responded, "I don't care about the game.  I just like the FOOD!"

I haven't decided on the complete menu for the Super Bowl of Food, but Cowboy Caviar will be making an appearance.

Cowboy Caviar

1 (14 oz.) can black-eyed peas

1 (7 oz.) can Jolly Green Giant Mexicorn

1 ripe avocado, cubed

1 bunch cilantro, chopped fine

5 roma tomatoes, diced

1 bunch green onions, chopped

5 T. red wine vinegar

2 T. olive oil (can be omitted for a really low-cal recipe)

juice of one lime

Tabasco, salt and pepper to taste

Mix all together and refrigerate for a few hours to allow flavors to meld.  Serve with tortilla chips with a hint of lime.

New York City - Part II

Here I am by the giant button and needle in the heart of the New York Garment District, which includes fabric stores.

Near the giant button was this statue.



We spent most of the day shopping here, on 39th Street, which is just one fabric store after another. It drizzled slightly on us, but nothing in the way of daunting rain, for which we were very grateful. I found the selection incredible, but the prices not as good as L.A. Still, I was able to find some great buys on linen, cashmere, and ribbon. More on that to come.



A sweet sign in a shop window on 40th Street.



Here I am, just shopping the streets of New York City! I believe if you walked a few blocks beyond me, you’d be at Times Square.

Then we walked down to 37th Street to experience the most famous store in the district, Mood Fabrics. According to others who are “in the know”, Mood Fabrics is featured in the television show “Project Runway”…never watched it, so I have no idea. We took this elevator (that man is the elevator operator) to the thrid floor location of Mood.



Hands down, this is THE MOST amazing fabric store I have ever expereienced! The top floor, this one, holds only linen and wool. This is just one row of wools.

I didn’t even know that alpaca yardage existed. But just look at the selection they have here…and pictured is only about half of it.



The bottom floor has decorator fabrics. And the main floor has apparel fabrics and trims. This is just a glimpse at some of their trims. The first five veritcal rows of ribbons on the right are just velvet ribbons! Oh my! I putchased some chestnut brown velvet ribbon from here.

Finally, with our suitcases stuffed, we turned our minds to lunch…at 4:00 p.m. If I’d known how late we would eat lunch, I would’ve eaten more than a bagel and juice for breakfast. We spotted this tempting restaurant name, and headed for it.



They served up sandwiches, soups, pizza, and build-your-own salads. I opted for a small salad and a large slice of pizza. Technohubby had pizza.

Without a doubt, I wanted to stop at Macaron, a new bakery that sells miniature macarons in delightful flavors.

This box, plus two more in a small bag, were my purchases. We took them home, cut each one in fourths, and shared them all. The flavors are, from left to right: dark chocolate, raspberry, chocolate-coconut, honey-lavender, caramel fleur de sel, and blackberry. And in the bag (not pictured) were: pistachio and creme brulee.

None of us had ever had a macaron before. We didn’t know what we were missing! When you bite into them, they are soft as a pillow. Then they are chewy and squishy all together. And the flavor! It’s a veritable burst of flavor in your mouth…and taste exactly as the flavors they are. On any return trips, a stop at Macaron is a must!

Next up…a glimpse of the fabrics I purchased.

New York City - Part I

Ever since we moved to New Hampshire, I’ve been searching for fabric sources. We have Jo-Ann’s, one little store that carries an eclectic mix of stuff (most of which I would never use), and three other stores (two of which are an hour away from me…in opposite directions). But none of them compare to the L.A. Fabric District…in selection or price.  (If you happen to live in New England and know of any great fabric stores, could you leave me a comment or email me?  I would be forever grateful.  And not just fashion fabric stores, but decorator fabric stores as well.  Thanks!)

For my birthday two years ago, Technohubby took me in to Boston to explore the Boston Fabric District, which turned out to have shrunk from a bustling area to just one store.

So, this year for my birthday, I asked for a trip to New York City to explore the fabric district there. I was inspired to try when I discovered a blog devoted to the New York fabric district!  The blogger is so thorough, that her site includes: a map, a list of shops, where to go for high-end fashion fabric, where to shop for bargains, where to stay, where to eat, and even which stores have public restrooms (no small detail). We carefully planned out our trip, especially to be on a day with good weather (and since it has hardly snowed all winter, we weren’t too worried). Then the forecast changed suddenly, and when it was too late to change our reservations, and we were expecting 6″ of snow at home, and rain in New York City. Oh dear. Oh well.

So off the two of us went to the Big City! We got lost, in the dark, in the rain, because our GPS refused to recognize a main street in midtown Manhattan. Whatever. We were just happy to finally find it, and get settled in, although the rain and the late hour deterred us from walking a few blocks to Times Square. (Incidently, if you think actually staying in NYC is terribly expensive, I’m here to tell you that you can get a decent hotel, in this case a Comfort Inn, for less than $150/night! No pictures of the outside of the hotel, because it was undergoing some renovation and was encased in scafolding.) However, I did take some interesting photos inside. I took some photos from this trip with my good camera, and some I snapped quickly with my phone, so the picture quality is not always great.

Even though the hotel was a modern chain hotel, the building it was in was old and had some fun features! Can you guess what this is? It was next to the elevator on the fourth floor, where our room was.

It’s a mail chute! You place the mail in this little slot just above the eagle’s head, and it goes shooting down to the lobby. And you can watch it through the long glass windows on the chute!



Down in the lobby, it lands in the U.S. Mail Chute Box built into the lobby wall. Isn’t it just too cool? Now that’s a way to get children to write postcards!



It rained all night long, and we awoke to light showers the next morning. This was the view from our hotel window, where the top of the building near us was shrouded in clouds.



The next morning, we enjoyed the complementary hotel breakfast buffet in the beautiful dining room.



Then we checked out of the hotel and walked to the parking garage. It was a multi-story structure with 100% valet parking. We wanted to store some stuff in our car, so we had to wait for an attendant to walk us up to it. While we were waiting, we saw the most amazing thing! These parking attendants, to avoid having to walk up and down multiple stories all day long, have a personal elevator! It’s basically a series of holes, slightly bigger than a manhole, cut through all the layers of the parking garage. Up and down, through this hole, runs a conveyer belt. And, every so often on the conveyer belt, is placed a block. The parking attendants step onto the block and tuck their arms in, and up (or down) they go! Technohubby’s thoughts, “That’s really dangerous!” Here’s my sketchy picture of it, with the block just a bit too high for anyone to catch a ride this time.

Here were the posted safety rules for the elevator. My favorite, “Don’t daydream.” That, along with a healthy attachment to my limbs, prevents me from ever using such a device.

So we stored some of our overnight belongings in the car, and we set off with two small rolling suitcases (to hold fabric purchases) to find the New York Fabric District!



Cuteness

Sometimes the cuteness around here, of one kind...



or another...



is wonderfully overwhelming!

Delights of the Last Week of the Year

Joys…simple and somewhat unexpected…have happened this week.

We had long, lazy, pajama-clad mornings of game playing. (The game was Settlers of Catan. Very fun!)



Max had a birthday! Waffles were requested for breakfast. We saw the new Sherlock Holmes movie in the afternoon. Then Walter, Felicity, and Theo came for dinner of Baked Potato Soup, dessert of chocolate cake and ice cream, and present opening.



Coming home from a mile-long walk, I discovered a large package by the back door. It was marked all over – “Fragile – Glass”. Oh my!!! Recognizing the label and daring to hope, I carefully but gleefully carried it inside. And I was right! Oh the joy! A whole gallon of the world’s BEST fresh-pressed apple cider! Apple heaven on earth! What fabulous friends we have! Sent all the way from California! Like a gallon of liquid gold! We are savoring every drop. I may be found attempting to lick out the empty jug once we’ve drained every precious drop.

And Thursday afternoon, we got an invitation to a spaghetti dinner with Mitt Romeny! We accepted, and last night we went. I haven’t decided who I’m voting for in the January 10th primary election, but I was curious to hear him speak. It was held at the V.F.W. in a nearby town.

LOTS of people were there.



But we did get to meet him, and shake his hand, and say “how nice to meet you”, and pose for a picture. Five of us posed for this picture…Mr. Romney and the four of us. Unfortunately, the complete stranger I handed my camera to to take the picture managed to get just this. Brilliant, eh?

Dinner was served and it was really delicious!



And so ends the last week of this year. A very HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all!

Christmas

Well, it’s been a few days since Christmas. I haven’t blogged because I’ve been l-a-z-y…and it felt GOOD! I hope you had a lovely Christmas. We did! It was Theo’s first Christmas, so that made it a very special one! I was so busy enjoying each moment that I didn’t take many pictures. But here’s a small glimpse at our Christmas celebration.



Theo checks out the frog pull-toy we gave him.



Walter and Felicity are too cute…sharing Technohubby’s chair. And Bailey was sporting a red bow for the day.



Colette was happy with some new DVDs from Grandma and Grandpa.



Theo was tickled with the giant Bernese Mountain dog that Max gave him.



Even the doggies got gifts…stuffed Canadian geese. Bailey adores hers. Chase is scared of his goose.



Christmas Plans





We awakened today to find snow!!! Not much. Just a dusting. And some of it melted. But we still have enough that it looks snowy, so we are thrilled! And it’s supposed to be cold tomorrow, so it shouldn’t melt anymore, and it’ll be around for Christmas day! Yay!

Tomorrow will be spent mostly indoors, not only because it’s only supposed to be 30 degrees, but because we’ve got lots of kitchen fun to create! Colette is going to make the trifle and the rolls. And she and Technohubby are going to run to the store for the potatoes I forgot to buy. And I’m going to prepare the egg casserole, potato casserole, and raspberry coffee cake for Christmas breakfast. (I made the cheeseball today.) And they’ll be some light dusting, some sweeping and vaccuming happening too. Then, about 5:00, we’re going to sit down to cheese fondue for dinner. And at 7:00, we’ll attend our church’s Christmas Eve service. It’s always so lovely! The handbell choir will play Christmas hymns. They’ll be an excellent sermon. And then we’ll all hold candles and sing “Silent Night”. Then we’ll come home and Colette and Max will open their Christmas Eve gifts.

On Christmas morning, Technohubby and I will be the first ones downstairs. I’ll put the egg casserole and the potato casserole in the oven, and then we’ll call Max and Colette down. They’ll open their “big gifts”. Then we’ll have a casual breakfast in the family room…all comfy and cozy. After that, we’ll get ready to go to church, since Christmas is on the Sabbath this year. What a joy to go worship with other believers on Christmas day! After church, Walter, Felicity, and Theo will come back with us for the day. Theo's first Christmas! We anticipate that he will like the wrapping and boxes the most. Felicity will be more than happy to eat breakfast leftovers. As she says, “I am here for the food!” (Quote from “Muppets’ Christmas Carol”.) Then we’ll all open presents together. I can’t wait to see how everyone likes their gifts! When present opening is over, the cheeseball and crackers will come out for a snack to keep hungry people happy while we make dinner. Dinner will be served on our Christmas Spode china, a collection that began as a wedding gift from my boss in college. Then there will be trifle. Yum! It will, Lord willing, be a very joyous Christmas day!

And a very Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Christmas Party

Last Saturday was our annual Christmas party! This is the 17th year of our family hosting a Christmas party.  When we lived in California, it was a "Cookie and Caroling Party".  But when we moved here, it beccame a "Cookie Party".  We don’t carol here, mostly due to the fact that I don’t want people slipping and falling on icy and/or snowy streets, AND it’s very dark out here in the country at night, AND it’s cold! Put all that together, and only the most adventurous would consider caroling. Most would rather stay inside, warm and cozy, sipping wassail. Another difference is that New Englanders just do not eat many sweets. We always had so many cookies leftover after the party, and last year I felt like people hardly ate anything. So this year we added savories to the menu. Surprise! People not only gobbled up the savories, but ate more cookies too! Win, win!

We made six types of cookies: gingerbread men (of course!), Chocolate-Mint Parfait Bars, Chocolate-Raspberry Bars, Scottish Shortbread, Chocolate-Peanut Butter Bars, and Chocolate-Cranberry Brownies. Mmm.

For savories, I wanted to serve appetizers that didn’t require me to be pulling hot things out of the oven (and putting in another batch) all night long. I really do not like that degree of fussing in the midst of a party, as I'd rather devote time to my guests.  So I made it easy on myself. We served:

-four different types of cheeses (set on a cutting board with cheese knives, so people could cut it themselves), served with assorted crackers

-Cowboy Caviar with tortilla chips with a “hint of lime”

-baked brie with a coating of brown sugar, maple syrup, dried cranberries, and toasted pecans, served with crackers (sounds better than it was)

-meatballs in sauce (Bought the meatballs, frozen, at Costco. Topped with a mixture of barbecue sauce and Hot Pepper Raspberry Chipotle Sauce…both available at Costco.) Positively delicious!

And Colette made her annual gingerbread creation for the party! This year’s was a tardis, a time-traveling device from the BBC series, “Dr. Who” (all my kids are fans).