One more day to vote!

Sorry I didn't put up the mid-voting progress for this round. I have been a little busy (why must teachers leave due dates around the same time?). There won't be a review this week because I haven't had any time to watch anything. Once this week is over, I'll have some more time (yay!)

Anyway, you have one more day to vote in Round 4. Then it will be onto the final round to decide the winner!

If I have some time, I'll see what I can do about putting up some buttons for the final round. Maybe tommorow, but maybe Saturday. I'll have to see.

Future Tournaments?

First, I want to thank everyone for participating so far in the tournament. Throughout all of the rounds, there were big turnouts for all of the polls. Thank you! Let's keep this up for the final rounds!

So, since "The Period Drama Heroine Tournament" seems to be going well and I got a lot of positive feedback, I wanted to do another tournament soon after this tournament (not too soon, but soon). I want to ask everyone a couple of questions about future tournaments. If you would like to answer the questions, please leave a comment:

1. How do you feel about having another tournament? Would you like another tournament?
2. Would a "Period Drama Hero Tournament" be agreeable to you next?
3. If the next tournament were to go well, what other ideas would you have for future tournaments?

I would like to know your opinion on these questions. If you could take a minute or two to answer, that would be great!

Thank You!

Review: Sense and Sensibility (2008)

I had gotten a couple of requests on here about this version of Sense and Sensibility. I was a little skeptical about this version, since I am so fond of the Emma Thompson version. I know with the Emma Thompson version, they did leave out a lot of scenes and characters (which I found out as I was reading the book), but I still liked it a lot despite all that was missing. Then I watched this version, and I still liked it, but I did notice some similarities and differences. Here are my thoughts on this version. Note: I do tend to make comparisons to the 1995 movie in this review, so be warned. :-)

Box Art

Synopsis - Taken from the review for Sense and Sensibility (1995)
Sense and Sensibility follows the story of two sisters: sensible Elinor Dashwood (Hattie Morahan) and passionate Marianne Dashwood (Charity Wakefield). When their father Mr. Henry Dashwood dies, his property, Norland, is passed to his son from his first marriage, John Dashwood. Before he died, Henry Dashwood made John promise to take care of his current wife and three daughters (Elinor, Marianne, and Margaret). John promises to take care of them and wants to give them some money, but he is persuaded by his wife, Fanny, not to. Meanwhile, the Dashwood women prepare to receive John and Fanny, and when they arrive, Fanny announces that her brother Edward Ferrars (Dan Stevens) will be joining them. Edward arrives and him and Elinor form an attachment, which is broken off by Fanny.


Characters
There are a few actors and actresses that you might recognize. Linda Bassett, who was Mrs. Jennings, was on Lark Rise to Candleford, Dan Stevens (Edward Ferrars) is on Downton Abbey, and Hattie Morahan was on one episode of Lark Rise to Candleford.

A lot of the characters that were left out of the 1995 movie were included in this miniseries. We get to see Lady Middleton (she was dead in the 1995 movie), the Middleton children (there were no children in the movie), Harry Dashwood (John and Fanny's son who wasn't in the movie at all), Anne Steele (who wasn't in the movie), and Mrs. Ferrars (who was only mentioned in the movie). There were also scenes that were included in this version that were left out of the 1995 movie: Willoughby's confession scene, the dinner with Mrs. Ferrars, among others.

Anne and Lucy Steele talking with Elinor.

The addition of Anne Steele, Mrs. Ferrars, and the Middletons were very good editions. I have always wondered with the 1995 movie what it would be like if those characters were added in. Anne Steele was very amusing: Spoiler the scene where she tells Fanny about Lucy's engagement to Edward was hilarious! End of Spoiler I thought, however, that there should have been more scenes with Lady Middleton and Mrs. Palmer, but definitely with Mrs. Palmer. She wasn't in the miniseries as often as she should have been. I was happy that they included the dinner with Mrs. Ferrars; the 1995 movie left out that Edward was supposed to marry Miss Morton, but I'm glad that they included that with the dinner scene.

Margaret Dashwood's character, I could nearly swear, was taken from the 1995 movie. In the movie, she was hiding under a table in the library and was prone to be a little shy. Here, they have her hiding under the bed, hiding up trees, and (in a similar scene) she was crouched down behind a table in the library at Norland and from the screen view almost looks like she was hiding. Also, like in the movie, they show the friendship between her and Edward, something that was not in the book. I am glad that they made Margaret thirteen instead of a few years younger like in the movie.

Left to Right: Colonel Brandon, Edward Ferrars,
John Willoughby, Marianne Dashwood, and Elinor Dashwood.

Elinor and Marianne were portrayed well. I thought that Marianne should have been a little more emotional (just enough to prove Jane Austen's point on how over-emotion can be a bad thing). But overall, I thought these were good portrayals of Elinor and Marianne.

I thought that the actor who was Willoughby was too creepy for his role. I know he isn't a good character, but the Dashwood women were supposed to notice how handsome, charming, and unthreatening he was. Here, it seemed that anyone would be creeped out by him and you couldn't trust him just by looking at him. *shudders*

Scenery/Scenes
The scenery was a little dark for an Austen adaptation. I know Sense and Sensibility isn't as lighthearted as Pride and Prejudice or Emma, but I didn't think that it was very dark, just serious. The colors were also a little washed-out and dull for my taste; it seemed like many days were cloudy for the Dashwoods. The scenery would have been much better if there was more color present.

There were a couple of invented scenes. Like the 1995 movie, invented was the scene in which Marianne goes out for a walk in the rain at Cleveland, gets sick, and needs Colonel Brandon to bring her back. There were also scenes added to develop Edward's friendship with Margaret.

I also want to include a small note: I did not watch the first scene of this miniseries. A while ago, I saw what it was and turned it off. It was a bit of a mature scene (which I thought was out of place since Jane Austen didn't go into detail about that part). But when I heard that it was the only mature scene throughout the whole miniseries, I gave it a second chance. I can assure you that throughout the rest of the miniseries there weren't any more mature scenes.

Elinor, Marianne, and Mrs. Jennings at the ball in London.

Costuming
I did like the costuming, although I found the dresses to have a rather low waistline for the Regency era. The costuming seemed to go back and forth between Regency era gown to Gregorian gowns, which for some characters I found a little confusing, namely for Mrs. Ferrars. Mrs. Ferrars is rich and in London, in the middle of the English fashion world: why, then, was she wearing out-of-date fashions for a dinner party? I would imagine her character buying the latest fashions, not using old gowns. I noticed that Mrs. Jennings occasionally would wear older gowns, but she also had Regency gowns.

Elinor and Marianne both dressed nicely. I liked Elinor's dark purple over robe that she wears on the cover; it has a similar build to the over robes in the 1995 movie. Marianne tended to dress in bright, colorful gowns while Elinor's tended to be more sedate (showing their contrasting personalities).

Music
The music was okay, but it was mostly serious. Most of the songs had a sad overtone and were a little slow moving. There was one piece of music, however, that I thought didn't fit in with the time period. In the scene where Colonel Brandon goes out to look for Marianne at Cleveland, there was kind of an odd beginning to the piece, almost as if it came out of an 80's action movie. It seemed a little out of place, but it was a small issue.

Overall: 4/5
I'm still partial to the 1995 movie (in fact, I probably like that one a little bit more). For the 1995 version, even though characters and scenes were left out, I thought that the overall gist of Sense and Sensibility was capture (overtones, character personalities, etc.). Here, it stays closer to the book as far as scenes and including characters goes, but I thought it was a little darker than what Sense and Sensibility was written to be. But I did enjoy watching this miniseries. I wouldn't be sorry to watch it again!

Sense and Sensibility is available on DVD either on it's own or can be purchased in a collection along with Persuasion (2007). It runs for 180 minutes and it is divided into three episodes.

Tournament: Round 4

The polls for Round 4 have been put up! There are only two polls this round!

Poll 1

Margaret Hale (North and South)

Elizabeth Bennet (Pride and Prejudice)

Poll 2

Elinor Dashwood (Sense and Sensibility)

Jane Eyre (Jane Eyre)

Comments? Like before, this is a regular blog post that you can comment on. Any tough polls? Rooting for anyone? Leave a comment.

And since a lot of the characters in the current buttons for the tournament have been eliminated, I made two more buttons!

<br /> <center><a href="http://elegance-of-fashion.blogspot.com/2011/02/period-drama-heroine-tournament.html"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm9bEW4mzLYdaGrNd1cfAHGlk1oNdBsqVJJEg757IRqFVkrsf9-CMiJ9O1SqSqKAwnx_5gQBSHwAE8rOIiQsef9UUMeoNHxbB_NHB-T_7hoINOqewK24mfctEnlAp1Pr5KbsAPCYJKnfbG/s320/round4_button.jpg" /></a></center><br />



<br /> <center><a href="http://elegance-of-fashion.blogspot.com/2011/02/period-drama-heroine-tournament.html"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA2f6_0Dj2q-2GJQnPw8Nm-kHXo-AvGEmBNPxs_UDVLTUJ-PhQt0wZCCOl3rqMcyVWk5Q9BAO0FVXWHmTXcG1M74KRQM3GM8n_FLor1FJGMi96vE_1TrGKKRJQg8T1jwIngpkYISqg5k2r/s320/round4_button-2.jpg" /></a></center><br />

Tournament: Round 3 Results

Here are the results for Round 3! These are the heroines that will be moving onto Round 4!

Jane Eyre (Jane Eyre) ~ 5 votes

Elizabeth Bennet (Pride and Prejudice) ~ 21 votes

Elinor Dashwood (Sense and Sensibility) ~ 8 votes

Margaret Hale (North and South) ~ 13 votes

Jane Bennet (Pride and Prejudice) will not be moving onto Round 4, as she had only 3 votes.

Any thoughts on Round 3? Happy about the results? Sad? Can't wait for Round 4? Leave a comment.

LOVE HAUTE STYLE

Full article here: http://frolic72.blogspot.com/2011/03/london-fashion-week-autumnwinter-2011.html

  

Photos in courtesy of  Late and Missed Rishi Mullett-Sadones

One more day to vote in Round 3!

There's only one more day to vote in Round 3 of "The Period Drama Heroine Tournament"! If you haven't voted and would like to, please vote now!

Voting Progress

It's about half way through Round 3! Here is how the poll is going! The heroines in italics are the ones that, from these results, will be going onto Round 4

Jane Eyre -- 3 votes

Elizabeth Bennet -- 15 votes

Elinor Dashwood -- 7 votes

Margaret Hale -- 7 votes

Jane Bennet -- 3 votes

Both Jane Eyre and Jane Bennet are tied for the elimination. If they are tied by the end of Round 3, one will be randomly selected to be eliminated.

 If you haven't voted, go do so!

What do you think of how the poll is coming along? Is your favorite heroine winning? Who would you like to go onto the next round?

Hopefully, for the next round, I'll have a couple of new buttons (since a lot of the characters on the current ones have been eliminated).

Review: Downton Abbey - Series 1

I had heard about Downton Abbey before it came out on Masterpiece Theater, but I didn't think too much about it. When my mom and I were at Barnes & Noble, we picked it up and bought it along with North and South (which I will review soon). I knew there were a lot of actors and actresses from other period dramas, so I was a little curious about seeing them in Downton Abbey.

Box Art

Synopsis
When the Titanic sinks, the heir of Downton Abbey it is discovered was on there and presumed dead, leaving the future of Downton in question. Robert Crawley/Lord Grantham (Hugh Bonneville), Earl of Grantham and lord of Downton, feels that his daughter, Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery), should inherit Downton, but the entail will not allow her to. Downton instead will have to go to Matthew Crawley, Lord Grantham's third cousin and a lawyer.

The episode plots include plot lines that involve both the Crawley family upstairs and their servants downstairs. For example, in addition to the whole entail business, there is the sibling rivalry between Lady Mary and Lady Edith, the maid, Gwen, looking for a secretary job, Matthew and Isobel Crawley adjusting to life near Downton, etc. The episodes continue one after the other, so one episode will end with a cliffhanger that will lead into the next episode. In that respect, it kind of acts like a miniseries, but it is actually a new TV series (in fact, Series 2 is already in production, so I hear!).


Characters
There are a lot of actors and actresses from different period dramas... A lot. At the end of this review, I'll list the ones that you may recognize. I set it up in a table (kind of) that includes the actor or actresses name, their character in Downton Abbey, and another period drama they were in.

A small group of the servants that run Downton Abbey.

In addition to the lives of the Crawley family, it was also interesting to see the lives of the servants. In a lot of period dramas, you don't usually see what needs to happen to get food on the table for a grand party at a big estate: it's just there. Usually, you don't get the back stories of the servants, unless they happen to be a main character in the story, but even then, it might be only one or two servants. In Downton Abbey, you really get to know most of the staff that runs the estate and a little bit of their back story. Not only do the Crawleys have their family secrets, but so do the servants. Past lives of the servants come into the episode plots as one of the main focuses. Sometimes, the plots of the servants intertwines with the Crawley's plots, and vice versa. Somehow, most of the plot lines are intertwined by the end of the episodes.

Maggie Smith was hilarious in Downton Abbey! She plays the part of Lord Grantham's mother, Lady Violet. She constantly goes to Downton and voices her opinions. She has had a couple of funny remarks during her visits or when she comes for dinner. One of the plots that goes on is the "rivalry" between her and Isobel Crawley, Matthew Crawley's former nurse mother.

Lord and Lady Grantham (Hugh Bonneville
and Elizabeth McGovern)



Lady Grantham (or Cora, her name) was supposed to be American, but I didn't think that her accent sounded American. The actress was actually born in America, but I didn't think she sounded American, unless I am mistaken with her accent and it's just an accent that I am not familar with. She was a likable character, although you had to feel sorry for her because she places a lot of trust in O'brien, her maid, except O'brien is out for her own interests.

Brenden Coyle left Lark Rise to Candleford to be in this new series. Let me say... His character here (John Bates) is so much more likable! In Lark Rise to Candleford, his character, Robert Timmins, was getting more and more disagreeable to me, but here he's a lot more likable here. Here he is Lord Gratham's old friend who becomes his valet. At first, a lot of the other servants do not think that he should be working there since he has to use a cane to get around, but they do accept him and befriend him eventually. He really is a sympathetic character.





Scenery
As usual, BBC succeeds in bringing an interesting period drama with lovely scenery! The colors are absolutely stunning. Scenes take place inside of Downton Abbey, both upstairs where the Crawleys live and downstairs where the servants work and live. Scenes do take place outside on Downton's grounds and inside a hospital and a cottage.




Lady Mary dressed for dinner.



Costumes

There must have been some of the best costuming that I have seen in Downton Abbey. A lot of the evening dresses are very ornate and very pretty to look at. Some of the dresses had transparent sleeves, which I usually do not see in period dramas (at least the ones that I have seen). Some of the day dresses are also very nice to look at.

Some characters seem to favor a particular outfit. Lady Violet is seen often in her purple hat and outfit during the daytime making calls at Downton. Lady Grantham, when on an outing, has a white jacket with black frogs (not the animal, of course) around it.

The hats are very striking. I was never a fan of the big hats of the early 1900s, but I did like some of these. They were trimmed very nicely with bows, ribbons, and flowers.

Music
The music is much more serious in Downton Abbey than most other period dramas. In Episode 1, I thought I detected a soundtrack piece from Little Dorrit (2008). If you have seen Little Dorrit, you remember the music that plays whenever Fanny Dorrit and Mrs. Merdle meet? I think that song (or an incredibly similar one) played during the first episode. If that is the case that it is the same song, that song keeps with the serious nature of the show.


Overall: 4.5 / 5
Why, oh why did it have to end with so many cliffhangers? I really wanted to know what happens next! Well, I guess I'll have to wait for next year to see Series 2... Anyway, this was a really gripping series: at the end of each episode, I really wanted to know what happened next! There was a chance to get to know each of the characters, upstairs and downstairs. Just a warning: there were some mature themes and accompanying scenes, although I would say that the scenes were mostly in the first couple of episodes (the 1st and the 3rd, specifically). In the rest of the episodes, there is a scandal that is talked a lot about, but that was about it. I would still watch this at your own discretion. But overall, this was a very good series: great costumes, great acting, and lovely scenery! I can't wait for Series 2 to come out!

Downton Abbey - Series 1 is available on DVD and Blu-Ray. There are seven episodes in it, the first and the last being one hour long while the others were about 45 minutes long.

Recognizable Actors/Actresses

Actor -- Role in Downton Abbey -- Other Period Dramas

 

  Hugh Bonneville -- Robert Crawley -- Mr. Grandcourt from Daniel Deronda

Michelle Dockery -- Lady Mary -- Ermina Whyte from Return to Cranford

Maggie Smith -- Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham -- Lady Gresham from Becoming Jane and Betsey Trotwood from David Copperfield (1999)*
Jim Carter -- Mr. Carson -- Captain Brown from Cranford

Brendan Coyle -- John Bates -- Robert Timmins from Lark Rise to Candleford and Nicholas Higgins from North and South*
Dan Stevens -- Matthew Crawley -- Edward Ferrars from Sense and Sensibility (2008)* 

Penelope Wilton -- Isobel Crawley -- Mrs. Hamley from Wives and Daughters

Samantha Bond -- Lady Rosamund Painswick -- Mrs. Weston in Emma (1996)

* Information from Melody from Regency Delight ~Jane Austen etc.~. Thank you, Melody!

Some Possible Upcoming Reviews!

I know I still haven't seen Amazing Grace yet, but it is still on my list of movies to watch, so hopefully soon I'll watch it and review it! I still can't wait to see it!

Last week, my mom and I went to Barnes and Noble and we bought two more DVDs.

I heard about Downton Abbey a little bit before it was announced that Masterpiece Theater was going to play it earlier this year, but I didn't know too much about it. It takes place in 1912/1913/1914, so in the Edwardian era. It's about a noble family and it's servants that live at the estate Downton Abbey. There are quite a few familiar faces to those who watch a lot of period dramas: Hugh Bonneville (Daniel Deronda), Maggie Smith (Becoming Jane, David Copperfield), Brendon Coyle (Lark Rise to Candleford), just to name a few. My mom and I just finished watching it. It was interesting, but be warned: there are some mature themes (with accompanying scenes) present in this series, but the scenes were only in the first couple of episodes.

I heard about North and South a while ago, and finally we bought it. I know that the book was by Elizabeth Gaskell, who also wrote Cranford and Wives and Daughters. I heard that it was good (and it's main character, Margaret Hale, has done well in "The Period Drama Heroine Tournament").

And I also got recently...

...the 1971 version of Sense and Sensibility. I had heard about this version, that it includes Joanna David (who was Mrs. Gardiner in Pride and Prejudice (1995)) as Elinor Dashwood, and Patricia Routledge (who was Hyacinth Bucket in Keeping Up Appearances) as Mrs. Jennings. I had only seen one version of Sense and Sensibility (the 1995 movie), so I wonder how this will compare.

Interview with The Swelle Life, by Denise Grayson

 

To read the interview please click here: 

http://www.theswellelife.com/swelle_life/2011/03/interview-textile-designer-angela-hooker-for-felder-felder.html

Felder-Felder in sunny Portobello market, London

 

Photo in courtesy of lukefoy.com
***
To see the full article and more of these fabulous photos please visit: http://lukefoy.com/wp/?p=359

Photos by Christian Bragg

Make up by Kate Lindsay, Hair by Ali Pirzadeh.

FELDER FELDER Joline dress b+w printed long cotton jersey dress with leather strap

Photos in courtesy of studiojojo.co.uk - to see the full page please visit this amazing website: http://studiojojo.co.uk/1009995/Felder-Felder-SS11

FELDER-FELDER @ DOLCE&GABBANA SPIGA2

FELDER-FELDER summer collection has arrived at SPIGA 2, the new DOLCE&GABBANNA designer department store in Italy
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www.spiga2.dolcegabbana.com
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Photos in courtesy of http://le-paradox.blogspot.com/2011/03/milan-fashion-week-spiga2-fashion.html

LFW: THE 3 GRACES visit’s Felder Felder

FELDER-FELDER printed dress S/S '11

Photos courtesy of the-three-graces.com
***

To see the full article please visit: http://the-three-graces.com/2010/10/07/lfw-intricacies-at-felder-felder-marjan-pejoski/#comments

Felder Felder Lili Blue Print Skater Dress available online!

www.cseeboutique.com 
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http://www.cseeboutique.com/products/Felder-Felder-Lili-Blue-Print-Skater-Dress-.html

Felder Felder illustrated by Bunny Bissoux

Witty illustration by Bunny Bissoux for Nothing Bad Magazine

http://bunnybissoux.blogspot.com/2011/02/lfw-felder-felder-for-nothing-bad.html
You can see more of Bunny Bissoux work on her website:
www.bunnybissouxart.com

HAPPY BECAUSE...OWL IS BACK!

To see the full article visit:http://happy-because.blogspot.com/2011/02/lfw-aw-11-day-1-snapshots.html

Top photo courtesy of HAPPY BECAUSE blogspot

 

Photo above courtesy of Lookbooks.com

***

Rebecca backstage wearing Lilli dress with owl feather digital print

Tournament: Round 3

I can't believe Round 3 is already here! In Round 3, there is only one poll. In this poll, there are two characters from the same story, which could not be avoided since there is only one poll. You will vote for your favorite heroine in this poll, and whoever has the least votes will not move onto the next round.

Round 3

Jane Eyre (Jane Eyre)

Elizabeth Bennet (Pride and Prejudice)

Elinor Dashwood (Sense and Sensibility)

Margaret Hale (North and South)

Jane Bennet (Pride and Prejudice)

There is the poll! Go and vote! You only have one week!

Comments? As usual, this is a regular blog post that you can comment on. Rooting for anyone? Leave a comment.



Tournament: Round 2 Results

Here are the results for Round 2 of "The Period Drama Heroine Tournament"! Winners are bolded.

Poll 1

Jane Eyre (Jane Eyre) -- 33 votes

Mary Smith (Cranford) -- 7 votes

Marianne Dashwood (Sense and Sensibility) -- 16 votes

Poll 2

Molly Gibson (Wives and Daughters) -- 15 votes

Emma Woodhouse (Emma) -- 7 votes

Elizabeth Bennet (Pride and Prejudice) -- 35 votes

Poll 3

Laura Timmins (Lark Rise to Candleford) -- 6 votes

Estella Havisham (Great Expectations) -- 3 votes

Elinor Dashwood (Sense and Sensibility) -- 48 votes

Poll 4

Anne Elliot (Persuasion) -- 16 votes

Margaret Hale (North and South) -- 23 votes

Amy Dorrit (Little Dorrit) -- 14 votes

Poll 5

Miss Matty (Cranford) -- 18 votes

Harriet Smith (Emma) -- 4 votes

Jane Bennet (Pride and Prejudice) -- 33 votes

Thank you everyone for voting in Round 2! Round 3 will be up shortly!

Any thoughts on Round 2? Happy about the results? Sad? Can't wait for Round 3? Leave a comment.

One more day to vote in Round 2!

There's one more day to vote in Round 2! The polls will close tonight at 11:55 PM. If you wanted to vote but have not done so, vote quickly!

The results will be put up as quickly as I can put them up. Round 3 (I can't believe it's already here!) will be put up sometime on Thursday (March 17th).

More Garments added to Pride and Prejudice Wardrobe

With the tournament going on, I didn't have a lot of time to post about the "Pride and Prejudice Wardrobe", but I was able to get a couple of more garments done!

Elizabeth Bennet's Pemberly Gown

Georgiana Darcy's Pemberly Gown

Georgiana Darcy's Blue Spencer

Elizabeth Bennet's Dark Brown Bonnet

Review: Lark Rise to Candleford - Series 3

I love Lark Rise to Candleford! When I finished Series 2, I could not wait for the third series to come out. I was anxious to see what would happen since Series 2, since a lot of changes took place in the storyline.

Warning: this review contains spoilers! If you don't want to know what happens in this season until you've seen the others, you might want to skip over some parts of the review. If you are interested in Lark Rise to Candleford, you can find the review for Series 1 here. I also reviewed Series 2 here. I highly recommend this series!

Synopsis
Daniel Parish, a journalist, arrives in Candleford to inform Emma Timmins (Claudie Blakley) that she inherited a fortune from some relatives; meanwhile, Laura (Olivia Hallinan) takes a liking to Daniel since they share a love of writing. Thomas Brown and Margaret Ellison were married at the end of Series 2, and now they begin married life together. Dorcas (Julia Sawalha) adopts Sydney and strives to make him comfortable. At the stores, Ruby (Victoria Hamilton) and Pearl Pratt are keeping secrets from each other: Pearl hasn't told Ruby that their business is not doing well, and Ruby hasn't told Pearl that she has been writing letters to a man in Pontefract that she found in the personals section of the newspaper
Characters
Laura continues to get on my nerves a little more. It seemed kind of fake how in the first episode, she says that she wants to hate Daniel, but she can't, even though she would naturally be quite angry with him with what he did. I think that ever since Fisher came in Series 2, Laura has been getting increasingly annoying, which is sad because I really liked her character in Series 1. Oh well...

Laura Timmins (Olivia Hallinan) and Daniel Parish (Ben Aldridge).

Most of this season, I really disliked Daniel! I think it was around episode 8, 9, or 10 that I actually started to think he was tolerable. I guess I still thought that what he did in the first episode was really bad and it took me a while to, like I said, find him only tolerable. Spoiler However, when Fisher returns to Candleford to try to win Laura back, I thought that Laura should stay with Daniel (since I disliked Fisher from the start and never grew to like him). End of Spoiler

Sydney is a pleasant addition to the show... when he appears on screen. There are some episodes in which you wouldn't even know he was in the show, but he makes an addition to the episodes in which he does appear. Dorcas becomes his adoptive mother and their mother-son relationship develops throughout the season.

The relationship between Minnie and Alf begins to develop in Series 3, although a question remains: what happened to Nan from Series 2? Not that I liked Nan all that much, but it seemed that her and Alf could almost have been married, and then all of a sudden she is gone? She just disappeared in the third series. They should have written her out somehow. And Alf also got over her pretty quickly. Still, the Minnie/Alf relationship is a good plot line to have in the show.

In the middle of the series, Ruby leaves (NOOO!), so there is more time to develop Pearl's character. She becomes much softer towards the end of the series than she was at the beginning of the show. She even shows signs that she even cares for Laura towards the end.


Episode Plots
As the season goes on, the episodes do get better. The first couple of episodes I did not like, specifically episodes 1, 2, and 4. Episodes 5 and 6 weren't too bad. The rest from then on were good.

Episode 2 had a lot of superstitions in it, which is why I didn't like it too much. It seemed to revolve too much around the superstition. It seemed to be more fantasy than realistic in my view, and Lark Rise to Candleford is supposed to be about daily life in Victorian England.

A character from Series 1 comes back in Episode 7! Lady Adelaide, wife of Sir Timothy the squire, returns for one episode. I'm only sorry to say that Sir Timothy did not return; I would have liked to see how he behaved towards Dorcas since he left at the end of Series 1.

There are some episodes with scandals in them. While Episode 10 included a more serious scandal, other episodes such as episodes 6 and 8 had less serious scandals.

Scenery
Lark Rise to Candleford continues to have lovely scenery! Scenes still take place in Lark Rise (inside the hamlet houses and outside): in this season, we get to see more of the fields that many of the Lark Rise men work on. In Candleford, scenes still take place in the usual spots with an addition of the Brown's home, since they were married.


Pearl and Ruby hide secrets from each other in Series 3.

 Costuming

The costuming continues to be lovely! Everyone pretty much has their usual style of clothing. The exception would probably be Minnie. Before, we would only see her in her maid's uniform, but in this season, she begins to wear more of a variety of clothes, which are nice and very pretty.

Overall: 3.5/5
I still love Lark Rise to Candleford, but this season wasn't as good as the earlier ones (the first was the best). The first couple of episodes I didn't really like, but the rest of the episodes were good. There are some more double entendres than there were in previous seasons, but Lark Rise to Candleford still remains PG.

Lark Rise to Candleford: Series 3 is available on DVD. There are twelve episodes that are one hour long in this season.

Voting Progress for Round 2

It's about the middle of Round 2. Here is how the voting is going. Leaders are italicized.

Poll 1

Jane Eyre (22 votes)

Mary Smith (4 votes)

Marianne Dashwood (13 votes)

Poll 2

Molly Gibson (12 votes)

Emma Woodhouse (5 votes)

Elizabeth Bennet (26 votes)

Poll 3

Laura Timmins (3 votes)

Estella Havisham (1 vote)

Elinor Dashwood (37 votes)

Poll 4

Anne Elliot (9 votes)

Margaret Hale (19 votes)

Amy Dorrit (8 votes)

Poll 5

Miss Matty (12 votes)

Harriet Smith (2 votes)

Jane Bennet (26 votes)

For some of these polls, it could be anyone's game! If you haven't voted, go do so!

Like for the last round, what do you think how how the polls are coming along? Are your favorite heroines winning? Some races are really close: who do you think will win in those?

Regency Cake Recipes

Since it's my birthday today, I was curious on what kind of cake there was in the Regency Era. So I headed over to The Jane Austen Center's website and found a couple of Regency recipes. I never tried to make any of these recipes... I wonder how some of them taste! I think a couple of them include rose water, which I never used in cooking.

Rich Pound Cake

Gingerbread Cake

Different Kinds of Wedding Cake

"Spunge" Cake (The Recipe references Mansfield Park, I think)

There are also other recipes at the Jane Austen Center. One of these days, I should try some of them!

They're Selling Bonnets at JCPenny now?

So, my mom and I went shopping one evening a couple weeks ago at JCPenny to buy some new shirts for the spring. I walked away to put something back, and when I returned, my mom had grabbed a hat...

Or maybe it was a bonnet!

This would be perfect for anyone looking for a straw hat to make into a bonnet! If it wasn't $17 (on sale), I would have bought it. Maybe as the season goes on, the price will go down. :-D