November Favourites

Source: http://wallpaperus.org

What have I enjoyed the most about last month?

First things first - the most important article of last month was Things You Should Know About Introverts. Yes. Someone finally understands me!!!! I am an introvert, but am good at switching on an extroverted personality when the occasion or social settings around me demand it. Then of course you have to make people understand that, no, I'm not unhappy just because I'm being completely quiet and not interacting - I'm re-charging so I can be around you!!!
Of course, not all aspects of this article apply to me, but points 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, and 11 really make perfect sense.


And we have to have a new favourite blog - the Freckled Fox. I've half-heartedly skimmed through a few pages every now and then whilst 'blog-jumping' but after having a good read I really enjoy it. And her sense of style (though not always what I would wear) is impeccable.


How to Create a Blog Button (the simple way) Hopefully this still works. It helped me heaps, as I willingly admit that I really don't have much of a clue when it comes to blog design.


15 Things All Dads of Daughters Should Know Very important. My father's had six daughters to practice on but if more men could choose to be with and try to understand their daughters, then the domineering attitudes that so many women hold toward men could be quite different.


The Dinner Guest This is a short film/skit that I was part of with a couple of friends. We had an absolute blast writing a script, creating characters etc, and I'd love it if you hopped and gave us your views...


I'm Just Not Attracted to Him...  Read this!!!!! What if you admire a young man's heart but can't find it in you to admire the flesh that holds his heart? I highly recommend this article, and in fact this whole blog. I'm constantly on it. :)


Quaintrelle Another little gem of a blog that's worth following.


This soundtrack I LOVE IT!!! Way before I'd seen the movie, I used to cuddle up on our old couch with a good book and listen to this on tape. So many good memories! I have unashamedly declared to my whole family that I want to walk down the aisle to some of these pieces. :)


And to finish with, something timeless that seems to have escaped from my long-restrained romantic side - 9 Chivalrous Habits of a True Gentleman That Make Women Melt My personal favourites? Numbers 1, 3, and 5. Take note, single men.

Enjoy reading, and let me know if you found anything personally challenging...

Book Review: Rebecca

Description: (from Amazon)

"Last Night I Dreamt I Went To Manderley Again." 

So the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter remembered the chilling events that led her down the turning drive past the beeches, white and naked, to the isolated grey stone manse on the windswept Cornish coast. With a husband she barely knew, the young bride arrived at this immense estate, only to be inexorably drawn into the life of the first Mrs. de Winter, the beautiful Rebecca, dead but never forgotten...her suite of rooms never touched, her clothes ready to be worn, her servant -- the sinister Mrs. Danvers -- still loyal. And as an eerie presentiment of evil tightened around her heart, the second Mrs. de Winter began her search for the real fate of Rebecca...for the secrets of Manderley.

(Apologies for this somewhat gothic and un-realistic description, I was too lazy to write my own)

It's not often that I come across a book which I wish I could say that I'd written - it's easy to admire talent from afar and marvel at the splendour and skill involved without desiring any part of it. It may sound ridiculous to a non-reader, but there are some books that simply get under your skin, live and breathe before your eyes, play their scenes out in your head, and that you perfectly understand and yet still know nothing about. That's kind of what I felt about 'Rebecca'. 

I'd fallen into a 'non-reading' rut and hadn't really found anything interesting to catch my fancy, when I remembered an article that I'd read years ago about this book after coming across a beautiful, history-filled copy from 1940 in my dusty local bookshop. It ended up siting on my bursting shelves for several weeks with the very best of intentions, but it wasn't until I finally decided to have a peek that I realised it was too beautiful to put down. And really, "too beautiful" is all that sums up 'Rebecca'. 

It's harsh yet tender, whimsical yet broken by reality, the perfect gothic thriller with the simple touch of ordinary humanity. The true strength of it lies not in it's storyline, (the 'mystery' surrounding Rebecca's death and character is not difficult to solve, I guessed it from the very start), but in the beauty of it's writing. Du Maurier's use of metaphors and descriptive writing gives an amazing depth and allows the story to breathe through what might have been a rather dull and tedious work. The young woman who narrates it is never given a name (despite the fact that Maxim tantalisingly tells her -and us - "I told you at the beginning of lunch you had a lovely and beautiful name...") - a stroke of genius on the author's part, so that even though we can read her deepest thoughts and dreams there is still some part of her that remains hidden and sacred. Maxim himself is slightly wooden in his controlled and structured denial of the past; it's not until the slowly devastating end that his character is understandable. Mrs Danvers is cruel in her devotion and non-believable in her love for Rebecca.

True, it has it's fair share of faults - it moves slowly, so much so that you feel almost dragged into the everyday, and the conversations between characters can be at times meaningless. For a realist like myself there is perhaps the occasional overdose of hopeful sentimentally - we realists like to have sense to prevail. But you can't read 'Rebecca' like a novel. It's really just a journal, quite literally the 'breathings of the heart' of a naive young girl with a beautiful and unusual name.

I've had a hard time choosing just one passage to share with you, but in the end I decided on the beginning of chapter 5, it perfectly illustrates Du Maurier's writing style and takes what could be called commonplace, making it beautiful to read about.

"I am glad that it cannot happen twice, the fever of first love. For it is a fever, and a burden too, whatever the poets may say. They are not brave, the days when we are twenty-one. They are full of little cowardices, little fears without foundation, and one is so easily bruised, so swiftly wounded, one falls at the first barbed word. To-day, wrapped in the complacent armour of approaching middle age, the infinitesimal pricks of day by day brush one but lightly and are soon forgotten, but then- how a careless word would linger, becoming a fiery stigma, and how a look, a glance over a shoulder, branded themselves as things eternal. A denial heralded the thrice crowing of a cock, and an insincerity was like the kiss of Judas. The adult mind can lie with untroubled conscience and a gay composure, but in those days even a small deception scoured the tongue, lashing one against the stake itself."

October Favourites

Source

A collection of the articles, blog posts, blogs themselves, giveaways, online items/wish-list fodder and other random things that I really enjoyed this October. (And maybe a couple in November too!)

Ten Things You Shouldn't Say to Singles  This one speaks for itself. And the fact that it's first on my list says enough already.

This girl's style   It's so beautiful and vintage, not to mention she has an awesome photographer!

Consulting Fangeeks  This etsy store is the best yet that I have seen, far too many fantastic items and tons of Sherlock deliciousness!


Are You Fighting the New Greed?  Interesting article about how as women we can become dependant on technology for affirmation and purpose.

Out of My League  Yes, guys, this can be a great compliment, but quite often it's just an excuse not to be a man and fight your heart out for what you love. And that in itself is a far greater compliment then any sentiment you could express.

This amazing giveaway!   Have you heard of the P&P95 Forever club? If not, make sure you head over and indulge in some Janite rantings about how Colin Firth is the only Mr. Darcy. Their giveaway has only one prize available for aussie readers - there are more for those from the US, but it's still worth entering, and maybe even joining the club. ;)

This song  It's not generally something that I would enjoy or find entertaining, but, hey, let's keep surprising ourselves.


15 Honest Questions the Person You Marry Should Be Able to Answer  I don't agree 100% with every detail of this article - just because you can answer these questions doesn't mean you will be able to keep your answers when life gets hard. But I do believe every couple should be able to say why they love one another. "I love you because I love you" is a weak hope for a stable future.

Enjoy reading!

The One

Source:www.gettyimages.com.au

I thought about you again tonight. Your face wasn't clear, your image simply a blur on my mind's horizon. Your words were distant and not in any tongue that I could understand or grasp the meaning of.

And I thought about how, one day, that will be so different. I'll see you driving toward me in a battered white ute replacing the prince's horse, churning dust from under your wheels as you drop the window and ask, "Do you want to go get lunch?" And I'll laugh, toss my loose mane and jump in beside you on the journey that can be only taken by two. We'll sing along to the radio, laughing at our squeaking notes while the engine hums a lover's lullaby and the trees flash by in a haze of green and gold mingled with dappled shade. You'll open all the doors for me and try to buy everything, but I'll appreciate the gentleman and mock the would-be millionaire. We'll share hopes and dreams, love one another's families for who they are, debate politics and pretend that we actually know what we're talking about, share jokes with a split-second glance, get dirty while working our hearts out and glorify God in everything together. We'll understand each other to the core, get sick on French pastries and black coffee, comfort each other in pain and grief, pretend to be lost in our own backyards, mock and judge films in comfort, and - maybe - even ride into the sunset together. In short, we'll be perfect.

At least that's what the image in the horizon whispers to me. It entices me with candy-coloured dreams and Jane Austen worthy story lines whilst demanding that I proclaim loudly that I deserve to be loved.

But I'm a realist. I know that one day, we will fight over the fact that someone doesn't want to get sushi for dinner, you'll forget my birthday, and when yours comes around I'll have no idea what to get for you. I know that one day I'll weight more then the beautiful princess you thought you married and that your eyes will wander unconsciously. I know that we will hurt one another more than we could ever know, because only when you understand a person's heart fully can you kill it. I know that there will be harsh words from me about little things and annoying indifference from you over petty matters. I hate my heart and brain for being so different, but the truth is that my brain is stronger and always wins in the end.

But the figure on the horizon and in my mind says differently. It tells me "all you need is love", it mocks my brain for "having no faith", and dares me to never stop searching until I find 'The One.' It tells me love is amazing and I am incomplete until I am with my soulmate.
I admit, ashamed, that over the years my schoolgirl's wins and wishes have tried to decipher the face of this figure, pin-point it to only one wandering soul. And I admit, bruised, that I am too young to know or even need to care so much about something so small.

And now I think that I understand. The One that I think of, imagine dancing the night away with is not my prince, come to 'save me from from my singleness' and bring meaning to my life. He is not my personal Mr Darcy who is going to come to stir my wits and living mind into full flirtatious bloom. Sometimes, I do know, he is but a harmless stick figure, the sketching of an idle hand.

But more often then not, he is my worst enemy.

I build my castle-in-the-clouds at his hazy feet and expect it to last. I centre my hopes and dreams on something that I now believe can never truly satisfy, never quench a thirst for endless sentimentality. Idle hands aren't the devil's playground, it's the lonely aching hearts.

My heart and my brain are both wrong. Sure, maybe one day some fellow will drive up to my front door in a Toyota ute and we'll get lunch together, but that will happen when I'm not expecting and planning for it. Yes, it would be amazing but there are two sides to everything - we will laugh and cry, we will promise and then break those promises, we will look terrible after only three hour's sleep and we will enjoy peaceful sunlit evenings together.
But I don't need these things.
There is never any figure on the horizon in real life, just blood, sweat, tears and love. I was born complete, as I am, as I was meant to be. I will always be growing, changing, maturing into the person that God made me and maybe one day with the spouse that He chose me. But if not, who cares? There can only be something different for me in life, some purpose that I will serve better alone. This figure that all young women sometimes think and dream of is simply another blister on the road of singleness. Thank God He has the bandaids.

Edit

I'm having to write this in a new post as the previous one will not let me edit it from my iPad (stuff Apple) , suffice to say that I've done a bit to research and managed to connect Google Friend Connect to this blog - happy days! :)

Anyway, if you want to follow, that option is now available.

Welcome!

Welcome to Little Black Jelly Bean!

Look out for the different, interesting, delightful and sometimes just plain strange posts and pieces that I will typing across these pages in the next few months and hopefully years, that my fingers have been itching to write and my mind to create. Don't expect sense all the time, or even consistent posting, just lots about what I enjoy in life and what I want to share with you.

That's why I have started the L.B.JB.

Some of you may have migrated over from my previous blog, Mi Isla (also previously known as Isla Creations) and are probably wondering why I felt the need to move on. It's simple really - I need a change. (Gosh, doesn't that sound so arrogant in print?) I started Isla with a friend's help several years ago, and while I greatly enjoyed meeting new people and conquering (though I technically still am) blog design, it will always be the little blog that I started out to sell homemade jewellery, despite several attempts at trying to adapt it to my maturing tastes in blogging. So now I've decided to move on, and leave Isla (for now, at least) as the lovely little landmark that it's become.

I've got plans for Little Black Jelly Bean - I am now starting to love writing for itself, for the fact that it's really just art with words and I want to be able to use it more outside of the shadow of jewellery marketing. ;) I'm also passionate about history and vintage, and as the owner of three feet of hair, I have had to create tons of tutorials especially for hair like mine that now I can share with you! Some more plans include movie and book reviews, outfit posts and fashion guidelines, art posts and monthly favourites. I would love to be able (when I have enough followers) to start monthly link ups and also have the occasional giveaway.

If you would like to join to receive regular updates, and also just to let me know that you are enjoying reading what I'm writing, then you can follow me through bloglovin' - the link is at the top of the right sidebar. Another alternative, if you don't have a bloglovin' profile,  is following through email - the box to subscribe is just below the bloglovin' one. As Google Friend Connect no longer exists (to the best of my limited knowledge!), they are the only two options at the moment. And if anyone knows if GFC is still available, PLEASE let me know, it was so useful! There is also a little button for this blog on the sidebar, so (shameless self-promotion!) if you feel like sticking it anywhere I would be very grateful.

So thanks for reading, I think that was all that needed to be said, so please sit back and enjoy the flight.