Lacy tops

I am not really a fashion posting person, but I enjoy fashion, so I want to share what I like with you all. 

I tend to avoid wearing white. I am constantly in terror that I will spill something and permanently stain it. That in mind, I think I would make an exception to these white lacy tops. They are so cute! 

I really like the two peace dress look. It looks like a dress and a skirt while being just one piece. I love the blue of this one, and the ribbon adds a nice touch. 

This is really not quite a lacy top like the others, but I have included it anyways. It looks so soft and flowing, a little more length would be perfect! I love the girls hair too!! 

This is so nice, the collar is sweet. 

This is a 50s style, and is just perfect. The skirt has a delightful fullness to it. 

The color of the skirt is once of my favorite colors, and the sleeves are so pretty. Not to mentions this girl has amazing hair too! 

What do you think of the lacy tops?

Which of these is your favorite?

Blessings

~Elizabeth

The Effect of Words

"It was enchanting to meet you" or "call me maybe."? which would you want someone to say to you? These are such different things to say. Each conveying different ideas and images.

So I know I set up a blog(D-Major D-minor) to talk about music on, but I am using Taylor Swifts song as a demonstration of what I want to talk about on this blog. What I want to talk about is how what words you use can greatly effect what people think of. Words are dangerous, and powerful tools.

Just look at the difference between the two examples of telling someone you were glad to see them. I really, really, REALLY don't care for the second, but the first makes me think of Jane Austen, the Victorian time, and fairy tales. It just has a much better image for me. Taylor Swift is a talented writer she knows how to use words, I will give her that. Part of the reason I think she is so popular is that she knows how to write a good song( I will take a moment to admit that I am a kind of Taylor Swift fan). Some of her stuff is cheesy, but happy.

Words are something that I really like to pick apart and look at what they can really convey to the reader, or listener. They are extremely important, and something that everyone should learn how to use, and use well. I enjoy writing and often feel like I am not sure of what words to use to best convey my point. I hope that I will get better with time and practice.

This was something that struck me while listening to this song, and I felt it went with what I tend to write about on this blog.



Blessings
~Elizabeth
PS. I found out that Taylor wrote this song for Adam Young, the singer for Owl City. Fun fact for the day. :)

A New Blog

Music is a huge part of me. I love it! It is like my air. It is my career choice.

That being so. It is something that I want to talk about music a lot. If I posted half the music that I wanted to post here it would completely dominate this blog. This blog is not a music blog, it is a place for me to be me, and post about what I want to. I have posted some music, however I need a bigger outlet to release all the music I want to talk about, be it classical, modern, religious, folk, Celtic, or anything else. Enter D-Major D-minor. My musical outlet. I am pretty excited about it actually. :)

I hope you go over and check it out!
Blessings
~Elizabeth

Anne Boleyn

When I came across this on Tumblr. It brought up all the controversial feelings that I have about Anne Boleyn. The person who I saw post this strongly disagreed with what the picture said. It was interesting to see what she said. I have decided to do a post to vent all of the conflicting feelings, thoughts, and ideas that come up when Anne Boleyn's name in mentioned.

This could get a little crazy so please bear with me as I muddle my way through this.

I do agree with the picture that I am really sick of hearing how good and wonderful Anne Boleyn was. I sometimes feel that some people forget the fact that Henry divorced Katherine of Argon to marry her. It just seems like forget some significant parts of her life. They also seem to ignore his reasons for marrying her. I will list the ones that I have so far come up with from all that I have read.

1) He wanted a son. Katherine was not giving him a son, and he believed that Mary would not do a good enough job, because she was a girl.(let us ignore the fact that her reign was pretty bad, but things might have been different if her father had not divorced her mother and had all those marriages). It is interest that of his three children it was his daughter Elizabeth who ruled the best.

2) He wanted Anne. She was pretty, cocky, and different from Katherine. He was tired of Katherine. It is really very sad how unfaithful he was to Katherine, and Anne I am sure. I really can't thing of any other reason he would want Anne, she came from a nobody family, and she had no money really.

Those are the two that always seem to come up. Not many, but very important..

One more thing I would like to just clear up. I have read many many time about how Anne was so great for the reformation in England. Even when I was a Protestant I would laugh to myself at the idea. Sure because of Anne major changes happened to the church in England, but I really really don't think Anne cared about what Church was in England. She wanted to marry Henry and the Catholic Church would not let them get married. Henry reforming the Church and to her advantage because it made it so that Henry could pass his own divorce, and marry her. I have always wondered what people would think of her if Henry had not broken with the Catholic Church, but still married her. We would probably all still feel sorry for her since she might still have gotten her head chopped off.

While Anne did do many things for people( I am sure she did as it would have been good for her to do so when she was so politically unstable), and she was extremely intelligent and clever, she was very well educated, and I don't think she would have made her way up to being Queen of England otherwise. She is not the what some people portray her to be, or want to think of her. I admire her intelligence and bravery when she was going to her death. I was very into Tudor history, and I still am, I often want character to be better than they are, but I need to be truthful. I am sorry it I offend anyone with this post, but I needed to get it out.

Blessing
~Elizabeth

Julius Caesar & The Hunger Games

So for School we were working on the play Julius Caesar by Shakespeare. As we were reading the play my sister and I started to pick up on things that made us think of The Hunger Games. We had several discussions amongst ourselves as to who was who, and this character really doesn't fit, and how they aren't exact replicas but the similarities are really cool. Now I am going to share with you some of the things I, and my sisters, noticed.

I am going to go through it character by character from the Hunger Games comparing them to character(s) in Julius Caesar. I would like to note that if you have not read the books do not read any further. There are spoilers. 

Cinna: Cinna was the first to draw us in, it was his name. There are two Cinnas in Julius Caesar, one is a conspirator, the other a poet. Cinna in the Hunger Games designs cloths that are so beautiful it is a kind of poetry, but he also is later in the series a rebel hence a conspirator. It was interesting to see two characters in one.

Katniss: After much thought my sisters and I decided that Katiniss best fit with Brutus. They are both the tragic heroes of the story. They are both caught between two groups. One is persuaded to stab Caesar; the other is brought to rebellion.

Now am going to go off on a tangent for a minute so bear with me. In Shakespeare's time to kill a leader in such a way was completely intolerable. It was considered down right wrong, it didn't really matter how bad they were, though people could be brought to a point were it might be exusable but even that was thought of as a very extreme.  People would automatically dislike Brutus when he kills Caesar, so Shakespeare had to make Caesar as dispicable in his play as possible. Now in our day and age people might not have as much of an issue with overthrowing a leader. We have seen some very bad leader who should, and sometime are overthrown(Hitler for example). Because we have seen such things as dictatorship, we would have less of a problem with people rising up against a leader. Brutus has become more understandable for us now.

Capitol (or Snow): This was a difficult one. eventually I decided that Caesar was the Capitol/Snow. If you read the paragraph above it might make more sense.

Rebels (or Coin): For rebels/Coin  I have decided that that would be Cassius and the other conspirators. They bring Brutus to their side so that they may use in image of goodness, honesty, and honor to make their cause seem good to the people(which it may or may not be, though Cassius's reasons for killing Caesar are of a jealous nature).

Peeta: Peeta was the most difficult to identify. As far as I can really tell Peeta has not counterpart in the the play Julius Caesar. Though he shares some characteristics with a few characters.

Mark Antony is talented with words. It is most easily seen in the famous speech he makes "Friends, Romans, countrymen! Lend me your ears!." He manipulates the crowd with his words so that they want to kill Brutus and the conspirators. Peeta is good with works as well and can manipulate crowd just as well as Antony can, but Antony is never really close to Brutus. In this case Portia is like Peeta. Portia is loyal to Brutus. She loves him and cares deeply about what troubles him. In this They are alike. Peeta is not one character, his is several characters mixed up together.

That is really all I have. I am sure there are more characters I could put together, but those were the ones that stuck out to me.

Blessings
~Elizabeth

Funeral March

I really really REALLY want to learn how to play the Funeral March by Chopin. I have fallen in love with its sad, mournful, and powerful sound. It is such a very moving song.

I found on youtube a recording of Rakhmoninov playing the Funeral March. It is very interesting. It was a little to fast for my taste, but still very cool!



 Blessings
 ~Elizabeth

Oh dear!

haha!!! I don't think these people realized what that might be taken for. :) LOL

Book Review: The Throne of Fire

Title: Throne of Fire
Author: Rick Riordan
See my review of the first book The Red Pyramid.
Rating: 3/5

I must say that I think I like this book better than the first, and I cannot wait to read the next one(there are over 100 holds on the next one at the Library).

A lot of what I said in the first book holds true for the second book. There is only one thing that really bothered me, before I knew there would be a book after it for sure I was trying to guess if there would be. On the one hand there were a lot of questions left unanswered, on the other it felt like how a book feels when it is ending a series. It was very confused as to weather this was the last book or not, it almost felt like it was.

I was glad to see some of the same characters and to meet so many more. To learn more about characters already there. I always enjoy learning more about characters in books.
Blessings
~Elizabeth

An Award from The Cultured Enthusiast

I have been awarded the Liebster Blog award from Paula at The Cultured Enthusiast! Thank you so much! :) 

The Rules: 

1. Share 11 random facts about yourself

2. Answer the 11 questions asked by the person that tagged you.

3. Tag 11 people

4. Ask them 11 questions

Random facts about me

1. I love to sing.

3. I love any kind of water, lake, ocean, river, a glass of water. 

4. I have discovered that I like to play Bananagrams.

5. Books are my addiction. 

6. I get annoyed with people who only watch move and don't read the books. Even books I don't care for or ever want to read. Like Twilight.

7. Music is also an addiction. 

8. I feel very passionately about education

9. I like to write poems sometimes, though I am very bad at it. 

10. I like to read multiple books at the same time. 

11. I am reading currently about 7 books right now. That is not even counting the nonfiction books I read for school. 

Questions from Paula

1.What are your most treasured books?

Hmm...That is a difficult question. I have so many that I love that is impossible to say. looking at our shelves though I would have to say Jane Eyre, Till We Have Faces, North & South, Chronicles of Narnia, Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, and probably at least a dozen more. There are so many that I love and enjoy. 

2.What books have you read more than once?

Can I include currently rereading? 

-Jane Eyre 
-Pride and Prejudice 
-North and South
-Percy Jackson and the Olympian series
-The Hunger Games series
-Angel on the Square
-The Chronicles of Narnia
-probably more

3.What’s your favorite bookstore?
um... I really prefer Barnes and Noble, although I do really like the little book stores that you come across here and there. 

4.Do you buy books online?
I personally have never purchased a book online, but I would say that I mother has bought books for the whole family online. So kind of. 

5.Do you stop reading books half way through?
I have. Most of the time though I finish them because I hate to leave things unfinished. 

6.What’s the last movie you watched?
uh....I mostly watch TV series so I am having trouble remembering the last movie I watched. I think the last thing I watched Despicable Me with my family.

7.What’s your favorite genre?
Of books or TV? If is is books then I would have to say historical fiction, novel, and fantasy. 
For TV, that is such a wide variety of things it would be a really long list. though Sci-Fi, and Period Dram appear to make up most of what I watch. Also most anything done by the BBC. 

8.In which movie/book would you like to live in?
I have pretty much thought about living in every book or movie I have ever seen, some more so than others, so this question is a really really difficult one. I really can't think of one I would like to live in more. 

9.Which character do you think has a great style?
Interesting. I have not really thought about that, and I have not really paid much attention to a characters style so I will just say what characters like best. 
If I go with strictly book characters, I am faced with a difficult problem, I am going to say Elinor Dashwood, she is sensible, kind, and knows how to behave herself. If I go with strictly movie characters....hmm. Daniel Jackson, he is smart, loves ancient history, and is a pretty nice guy. 

10.Do you go to the movies by yourself?
No, I have either gone with my family, or with the youth group at my church. 

11.In the movies: popcorn or no popcorn?

I don't really like popcorn. It can be messy, and sticks in my teeth. Also it can be expensive at the move theater. 

Questions for those I tag

1. Would you call yourself an eclectic person? 
2. Do you prefer cloths with dark undertones or bright? 
3. Would you call yourself an optimist, or a pessimist, or neither?
4. What is your favorite summer treat? 
5. Beach or mountains? 
6. Your in line waiting to take the SAT and a random stranger asks to borrow you phone. What would you do? 
7. What is more practical information for the public to know? Health or how a nuclear reactor works? 
8. Do you think trees have a personality to them? What would you say the personalities of a pine, a maple, and a willow? 
9. What is something that fascinates you most?
10. What kind(s) of music do you prefer to listen to? 
11. How fast of a reader would you call yourself? 

Who I tag

1. Mel at But when the young lady is to be a heroine 
2. Anastasia Ricks at In the Shadows of life
3. Miss Woodhouse at Elinor, Elizabeth, and Emma
4. Joy at Fullness of Joy
5. Stephanie at The King's Bookworm
6. Cari at A writing maiden 
7. Tess (my mom) at Circling through this life
8.Raewyn at My Spare Oom
9. Abby at Newly Impassioned Soul
10. ThinkGreen at Think Green Love Purple
11. Samantha at Reilly Clan 13

Anyone else though that likes the questions that I have asked, is more than welcome to participate in this tag. Just send me the link to your post in the comments. :) 
Blessings
~Elizabeth 

PS. I looked up what Liebster means, and so far as I can tell it is a German word that means sweetheart, beloved person, darling.