Tuesday, March 2, 2010

In Love with Jane Austen


Its good to know I am not alone in my admiration of Jane Austen and her literature. I have been wanting to post this for months now, so I hope I'm not the last one on the planet that heard about the TV-miniseries "Lost in Austen"...
One day last fall as I was visiting my parents in Finland, I just happened to turn the TV and see the second episode of the Lost in Austen series. I was hooked at once and was very troubled since my vacation was almost over and I would not be able to see the rest of the series. Also, as I had missed the first episode, I was not entirely sure what was going on. (Well, I've seen and read P&P for about 20 times, so I knew that part...)
Well, lucky me, as it happens to be, the series is available in many places. I ended up watching it on YouTube, but you can also get it on Amazon or rent it I'm sure. They even have a webpage dedicated to it. So if you are like me and adore Austen, and have not seen this yet, you have to check it out!

In celebration on Jane Austen, I wanted to pick out some things that were inspired by her books and characters. I could revel in these kinds of things all day long. Especially with my husband deployed, I can indulge all I want, without any looks from under some eyebrows. First, I just love these cards by Austentations. I had to put it here as a big picture. The card itself is witty and I would love to receive one of these, even if I wasn't sick. I love her photography too! As you can tell from her shop name, it is dedicated to Austen inspired cards and little boxes.

Here is my "things" section. Some more beautiful cards by Pearl Marmalade and Yardia. The latter has a lot of beautiful and funny letterpress cards and journals inspired by Austen's characters. The wall decal is by PopVinylStudio and Magic Pug has a whole section in her shop dedicated to Austen digital collage sheets. I am a big fan of cross stitch patterns and this little needlepoint from The Time is Now just cracked me up! Oh, Mr. Darcy.... Who wasn't in love with Colin Firth in P&P... If you are not a fan of Mr. Darcy the shop has many other men to choose from. On the very top are two mugs from Brookish. She has an awesome store also inspired by Austen. There are paperweights, these lovely cups, dishtowels, ornaments, cards etc. A great shop to stop by, everything is so pretty, I had a hard time choosing just one or two things!

Here is a little collection of Austen inspired jewelry. Something old and something new. The beautiful lace necklaces are by White Owl. They were so pretty, I had to choose two. The round earrings and button are from Wicked Pen's store. Wicked Pen also has a selection on beautiful items- some are not directly Austen, but they evoke the spirit which makes them useful as everyday items. The black necklace Random Prefect is made out of a recycled vinyl record! How cool is that. Oh, and it you don't like Austen, her store has so many other designs to choose from. Love the bird necklaces. The earrings on the bottom, were from Aqua Art Studio, but she is closed at least right now as I am writing this post.

I don't see many occasions arising where I would have a chance to wear the kinds of dresses they wore in Jane Austen's time. It would be so fun though. I often think of it, it's alwasy nice to have dreams... These dresses are from (left to right): Matti Online, RedThreaded, and Matti Online.
I almost forgot! I had made a little pendant for a friend myself a while ago. We started with a photograph of her husband's face in profile. We used the transparent shrinky dink, and traced it. Then it was cut out and shrunk. I made a white backround for it to dangle against out of felt and red embroidery thread. It looked very cool. :) Next post, I will be blogging about a fun idea for your loved one who either travels a lot or is gone on deployment like my hubby.

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