Book 46 of 2013: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Since I've been studying Children's Literature I've been making a real attempt to read more books written for children and young adults, particularly those that have been getting a mention in my course books. One of the first ones to be mentioned was Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll and as I had it on my Kindle, and it's one of the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die, I figured I'd give it a go.

 

Alice is a little girl who is supposed to be studying with her sister, but she's distracted day dreaming and suddenly spots a white rabbit. Following the rabbit, she takes a tumble down a rabbit hole and finds herself in the weird and wonderful Wonderland. Once there she grows and shrinks so much that she is quite confused about who she is and what she's doing there, and no idea how to get home.

 

I decided to start reading this after watching the Disney version of Alice in Wonderland so it was good to see the similarities and differences between the stories. Plus it had also warranted a mention in the course book and even though it's not a text that we're studying, I thought if it was worth a mention then it was worth reading in the context of the other Children's Literature classics that I'll be studying. In some respects I'm glad that I'm not having to study it because otherwise it might have sucked some of the fun out of the story.

 

I really enjoyed reading this as it was very quick, just under one hundred pages. It made for a nice quick read; started one day and finished the next. I think it would make for a good series of bedtime stories for children because it's nice and zany but it wouldn't take long to get through - there's nothing worse than having a long bedtime story so everyone starts forgetting what happened at the beginning by the time they get to the end.

 

I think that it's a story that's stood up to time really well. Although it's obviously taking place in the past, there's nothing that dates it that much. It's a fantasy so Alice could belong to any era and I think that's something that would help kids to relate to the story.

 

I also felt like there were little nods to the adults who would be reading the story to children. I read this many, many years ago when I was a child, but I don't remember picking up on some of those little jokes when I was younger. It's similar to when I re-read Winnie the Pooh, there were bits in that that I'd never noticed before but which are obviously there for the benefit of the mum or dad or whoever who is reading the bedtime story.

 

At some point I'm planning on reading Through the Looking Glass as well, it'll be interesting to see how that one compares to this now.

Puff, Puff, Puffin'

Some time ago, while looking around Ravelry, I found a pattern called The Beekeeper's Quilt. It's a gorgeous looking hand-knit quilt made by knitting these little hexagonal pockets which are then stuffed and sewn together. It takes 384 of these little 'hexipuffs' to make a quilt for a double bed and it's a pattern I've been wanting to try for quite some time.

As I mentioned around a week ago, I was lucky enough to be gifted the Beekeeper's Quilt pattern on Ravelry. New Year's Eve I sat down and spend a good long time working on a hat that I'd decided to knit on a whim, finishing the actual knitting of it shortly after the bells rang in the New Year. Once I'd sewn it up on New Year's Day I didn't have any other knitting with me to work on, so I pulled up the PDF for the Beekeeper's Quilt and have been hexipuffin' away on and off since then.


My first little puff was done in the multi-coloured yarn that I used for the stripes on my first pair of knitted socks. It's nice and colourful and bright, perfect for the first day of the year. I'm trying to do at least one a day (on average) because if I can do two or three on some days that'll give me enough for a whole quilt by the end of the year.

They do knit up very quickly, the first one, which I did actually have to start over because I realised that I was missing the second round of the pattern and had just been doing the first all the way round, only took me about three quarters of an hour to do. And the longest bit was getting it started and finished, mainly because both require me to do something slightly different to what I've done before. Obviously I'll speed up as I get used to that.


I'll try not to spam my blog with too many hexipuff posts because I'm sure that it's not something that'll interest everyone, but I'll try and update regularly with my progress because I think it's going to be fun watching this grow.

Project 52: All Over

And I'm wrapping up my Project 52 for 2013. I didn't actually get around to posting all of the photos that I took over the course of the year, but I've got them all on my computer and can pull them out for future blog posts, whenever I need something relevant.

Yesterday we spent the day taking down all of our Christmas decorations. It took us quite a while because we've got a lot more this year than we've had in previous years, plus I'd decorated up the staircase, and we had lights outside, not to mention all the birthday, anniversary and Christmas cards all over the walls.


As you can see above, the living room is quite pleased to be going back to normalcy again. Those are the strings that I'd hung all the cards up on this year (not pictured, another four strings like this above my chair and behind the living room door!) but they look like a smiley face, so I snapped a quick photo before I took them down.

Now the living room looks all empty and bare, except for all the little bits of glitter and tinsel which we keep finding all over the house (we'll be vacuuming that up until next Christmas, I think). We rearranged things a little bit to make room for the tree, but we're planning on not moving the TV back to where it was before because we've realised that gives us extra room for another bookcase. As our TV and film collection continues to grow and grow, another bookcase would be very handy.

As for my photos for the coming year, I've decided to do Wordless Wednesday posts instead of a Sunday photo post. I've always posted my photos on a Sunday because that's the day that I have internet access, so logically it was the best day for getting everything uploaded and posted. It'll probably take me a few weeks to adjust to making sure that I've got things posted on the right day, so please forgive any hiccups.

I'm also planning on posting a mix of new and old photos, depending on how I'm feeling that week. I think that'll help to take the pressure off myself to find something to photograph each week, regardless of whether or not that's what I feel like doing and help to keep it fun. I'm hoping that as the weather improves during the year I might be able to get some really nice and interesting photos taken.

And what about my Sunday posts? I'm not entirely sure what these'll become, but it'll be fun figuring that out.

Film Review: The Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey - Extended Edition

Yes, I know I've reviewed The Hobbit before but for Christmas I received the latest iteration of the first of the three Hobbit films. I know that people's views of the Extended Editions of the Lord of the Rings trilogy are somewhat mixed; it's either a cash cow to pump people for more money, or it's a new way of watching a favourite film. I view it as the latter and ever since we went to see The Hobbit in Glasgow I've been looking forward to the Extended Edition.

I'm one of those people who loves not only watching the film, but also really enjoys hearing how it was made, I love the hours of special features on the Lord of the Rings Extended Editions and I'll happily watch the film six times in order to listen to all the commentaries. I've not even touched the special features on this box set yet, so I'll just talk about the film itself.

Firstly, the case is so cool! Mr Click got me the Blu-ray 3D box set. This is a great deal because the film was made in 3D (which got mixed reviews, but I loved it) but obviously we don't have a 3D TV setup. Not a problem because this set also includes the regular Blu-ray and a digital copy of the film as well. Now you can't see it in the picture above but that image on the front cover is in 3D as well. It's a sort of holographic cover and it just looks awesome. I kind of want to just prop the case up on the bookcase so I can see it all the time because it looks like there's a little Bilbo trapped in there!

As to the film itself. Well, it's not got a much longer runtime, it works out at around fifteen extra minutes of footage, most of which was not really missed from the original theatrical cut. That said, it does help to add a little more depth to the story and builds up to things to come.

Mr Click and I watched it the Saturday following Christmas and played 'spot the extended scene'. The first we spotted was right at the beginning which helped to show the rift between the Elves and the Dwarves. I'm glad they've popped that back in because it makes the later scenes when Gandalf leads the crew to Rivendell make more sense in terms of Thorin's reluctance to go.

Some scenes just have slightly different shots, like the view of the dragon attacking Erebor. Again I can see why that was cut; the dragon was barely revealed in the theatrical cut because, hey, he's going to be the main attraction in getting bums on seats for the sequel. Now that's out in cinemas, they can throw viewers a bone and let them see a bit more of him at the beginning.

There's also a nice little addition of baby Bilbo at Old Took's birthday party when Gandalf did a pyrotechnic display. It's a really short little scene but it helps to establish Gandalf's place in Bilbo's history and sets up the later scene when Gandalf is talking about the 'young hobbit [he] used to know'.

I like that the Extended Edition includes a little bit more of Hobbiton and a bit more of Rivendell. I have been predicting extra Rivendell scenes since we saw the film in the cinema, but the Hobbiton scenes were a pleasant surprise. One of these Rivendell scenes is a bit of a marmite one by the looks of what I've seen online; people either love it or hate it. I'm of the opinion that anything extra is good so I love it and rather than try to describe it, or post screencaps that might not make it clear what it is, I've found it on YouTube:

 

The stuff in Rivendell is a lot more light-hearted than the Rivendell scenes of The Fellowship of the Ring, and I think that's how it should be. At the time of The Hobbit they're enjoying peace, this is Rivendell in it's summertime, by the period shown in The Fellowship of the Ring it's the Autumn of the Elves and they're beginning to decline and leave Middle-earth. Sauron is causing problems and no one is carefree and relaxed anymore.

 

The songs the Elves sing in The Hobbit with their 'tra-la-la-lally'ing was never going to fit into this film, but I feel like these scenes help to recapture the mood of that part of the book. And yeah, it's got naked Dwarves in a fountain too. It made me laugh.

 

There were also more scenes with the Goblin King as well as more singing in general. Over all I love the Extended version of the film and I know it's one I'll happily watch over and over again. Hopefully I'll get to see the second film soon and also get through some of the (over) nine hours worth of special features on the discs with this set.

 

Look out for my reviews of those here in the future!

Random Acts of Kindness

While reading forum posts on Ravelry at the beginning of the week I found a group called Random Acts of Kindness. The idea is that you post a wishlist and then read through other people's wishlists; if you see a wish you can grant, you go ahead and do so, and hopefully someone will grant a wish for you as well.

I loved the idea of this and so I went ahead and joined the group. But being a new member and it being close to the end of the month I didn't feel like I could post an actual wishlist. Instead I just asked for people to do some simple Random Acts of Kindness of their own.

I asked for people to handwrite a thank you note for one of the gifts they had received and post it to the person who'd given them the gift; to be totally selfish and pick something to knit just for themselves; or to go to a 'Finished Items' thread on a Ravelry group and pick six items to 'love' (which is kind of the Ravelry equivalent of 'liking' a post) which they thought needed a bit more attention.

I didn't expect anything back from that but I looked through the wishlist thread to see what I could give back to someone else. Imagine my surprise when I logged onto Ravelry the next day to find that I had been sent a pattern as a gift.

A very generous person had treated me to the pattern in memory of a family member. It wasn't even a pattern I had mentioned wanting in my wishlist, I'd mentioned it in my New Year's Resolutions post and she obviously looked it up and found it for me. I can't wait to start.

As I'd already decided to treat myself to it at some point in the future, on Sunday I put the money I was going to spend on that pattern towards a pattern for someone else in the wishlists thread. It felt so good that I can't wait to do more Random Acts of Kindness.

Have you ever done anything like that?

Day Zero Project: Buy a dress I feel confident enough to wear

I have always tended to wear clothes that I feel comfortable in, rather than whatever the current fashion is. This inevitably means I wind up wearing jeans and t-shirts. Or when I get dressed up it's black trousers and a smart top

It's a self-confidence thing more than anything. I feel self conscious of my chest, thighs, bum and some of the bits in between as well, so the best way to avoid drawing attention to them is to wear something plain and not too showy, because that way people won't pay attention to me.

Well, in recent years I've found that my confidence levels have grown and grown. I've gone in for things at work that I never would've considered going in for before. Now when Mr Click tells me I look beautiful in something, I'm rather inclined to agree with him, rather than think he's just saying it to be nice (which I'll admit, some of the time he probably is).

Wearing dresses is one of those things that I don't do very often, but back at the beginning of 2012 I put it on my list of things to do. I have short chunky legs and for years I've struggled to find outfits that don't make me look too short and frumpy. I have kind of chunky knees and so always used to wear skirts that came to below my knee, to hide them, which in actual fact just made me look shorter.

So when I discovered I needed a dress for a posh awards thing, I decided I knew exactly what I wanted. I wanted a dress with a white bodice top and black skirt which came to just above my knees. I found exactly what I was looking for in New Look:

You can't see my legs in this photo, but believe me they're there and they look good. ;-)

And now I've got not just one dress which I look good in, but two:

So yeah, that confidence thing is kind of a thing of the past!

Happy New Year!

Just a quick post to say:

Happy New Year!

Hope that everyone is recovering from their celebrations last night and you're not suffering too much.

 

Here's to a good year, lots of new and happy memories, trying more new things and meeting lots of new people.

 

And hopefully no five day power cuts this year!