"Jane Eyre" and rewatched movies...

I feel so guilty about neglecting my blog for this long. Almost every evening I planned to get on, but something always happened. Most often it was that I couldn't pull myself away from my sewing machine or my book. See, I've been in a reading and sewing frenzy over the past week. I was making several things for Mom's birthday. I really want to put up some pictures, and I can, now that I've given her her presents. I'll try to take some tomorrow. I made her an apron out of this adorable black, red, and white apron fabric she's been admiring. It has red bias tape trim, which turned out a lot better than I thought it would. I also made her a pink and brown tote and matching wallet. So that took up a lot of time last week. Besides the fact that I was reading "Jane Eyre," a lovely and very interesting book! It was similar to Jane Austen's books, in a way, except darker and more suspenseful. I read it in less than a week, because I just had to find out what was going to happen, while it took me over two weeks to read "Black" (a thriller). I guess that just shows that this is the kind of story that interests me. It was so good! I liked the plot and the characters and, of course the ending. There was one point a little over halfway through, when I really disliked the book a lot, because I couldn't figure out how things could work out in a happy way, and I thought that Jane was going to make a really big, silly mistake. But everything came together in the end. "Jane Eyre" definitely measured up to all of my expectations. Now I'm getting ready to tackle the Lord of the Rings trilogy. This will be my second time all the way through, if I can make it, LOL. I love the stories, but the books are so detailed and long! When I read all three a few summers ago, it took me well over a month.

This weekend I rented two movies that I had seen before, and that I felt very differently about..."Miss Potter" and "Becoming Jane." I loved "Miss Potter" the first time I saw it, even though I've never been especially interested in Beatrix Potter. It's just a good, sweet, clean movie. Very sad, though, after a certain point. I had to keep grabbing tissues. It has a hopeful ending, though. Then there's "Becoming Jane." I really wanted to like it. It's about my favorite author (she ties with C.S. Lewis), plus it has country dances, lovely old houses, and beautiful, green countryside. It even has Anne Hathaway, who I like very much, and James McAvoy, aka Mr. Tumnus and the hero in "Penelope" (not to mention Mrs. Weasley and Professor McGonagall from HP). But still, I didn't like it the first time, and I didn't like it this time. I just don't think that Jane Austen was really like that. I think that she was bold and fiesty and outspoken, like she was portrayed. But, as far as I can tell, she was a Christian who wouldn't have made the choices they had her make in "Becoming Jane." The biggest thing is, I don't think she would have fallen for (and nearly married) a guy like Tom Lefroy was portrayed...a guy with very flawed morals. Or I hope she wouldn't have, anyway. I like the end and certain other parts of the movie, but overall, it disappoints me. Too bad. A movie of Jane Austen's life could have been really good!

Until next time,
Kristin (missvintagegirl)