( I was so shy that first night I saw him I wished I could disappear! )

I didn't want to neglect Lizzie and Eugene with all my Bella & John love, so they got their fair due! I don't think it's my fault that there are slightly less caps than those for Bella & John.

I hope you enjoyed these as much as I enjoyed making them. :)

( I was forcing myself to be constrained as required by our agreement. But there — Let's go on. )

One of my favourite things about Bella and John is that we get to see them as a married couple. It makes my fangirl heart happy.

And not to be forgotten: ( a second video summary )

Missed part one?

I can't deny I'm procrastinating from studying... but this is much more fun. It's no surprise that I love Our Mutual Friend and it never gets enough love. I felt like making a picspam a couple of days ago and this felt like an obvious choice! A little stupid considering how long this series is, but I hope you all enjoy it!



( We never could have pretended to harbour any true affection. I was hardly likely to like this John Harmon. )

Conclusion? Bella + John = love — they're very sweet with enough angst to compete with the more popular couples!

And because this is my journal this picspam would not be complete without: ( a video summary )

Go see this if you haven't already!

(More to come — Bella & John, Part II and Lizzie & Eugene)

In no particular order:

Remember that Robin Jones Gunn contest I entered? I WON!!!! Along with nineteen other people, I won an autographed copy of Sisterchicks Go Brit!. I'm so excited because, a) it's about England, so that puts it at the top of the Sisterchick list, and b) IT'S SIGNED BY MY FAVOURITE MODERN AUTHOR!!!!!!!! How amazingly exciting. I still can't believe it.

There's another 1991 version of Robin Hood that I just recently discovered, via UKTV's list of the top 10 Robins. Shortly after, it was on TV so I couldn't help but watch it. The most exciting part? David Morrissey plays Little John! That takes my interest level up by few thousand. Not exactly George Kennedy, eh? But a very good Little John nonetheless. And they had a Much the Miller, and Will Scarlett was Robin's right-hand man. And Uma Thurman was Marian, which bizarre. She had the modern girl spirit, but still, I much prefer Lucy Griffiths. I didn't like that Robin and Marian didn't know each other before the story began — I like the idea that they have they're own complicated history. This version also focused on the tension between the Saxons and the Normands (eek, spelling?) which I didn't know was part of the "Robin Hood" story. So all in all, it's been worth watching, but nothing worth keeping. But I did like this quote:

Maid Marian: [watching Sir Miles Folcanet ride away from them] My future husband is sulking.
Will Scarlett: [watching Robin Hood ride up to them] Oh, I don't know, he looks quite happy to me.

I'm sooooo addicted to The Supersizers Go... TV series. It's about two people who go "back in time" for a week and eat only the food of that period. It's fascinating and usually very disgusting. (A Victorian boiled calf's head, anyone? Or a Restoration pie with every kind of meat you can imagine, including whole chickens heads?) They also experience how the people of that time lived — roles of the wife and husband, things they did for pleasure, how they entertained, etc. It's very funny and educational, and Sue Perkins and Giles Coren make a great team. I started a little backwards and watched the Victorian episode first, followed by the Restoration and the Wartime episodes. I'm most looking forward to the "Regency" episode! I just love seeing history and how people used to live...

David Morrissey and Lucy Griffiths to be in a new ITV film about a stalker. At first I thought David Morrissey was going to be the stalker which wouldn't be hard to picture given his Bradley Headstone role in Our Mutual Friend, but no, he plays the guy being stalked. Lucy plays a new love interest... Should be interesting.

Lots of new dramas from the BBC. There's a new Little Dorrit in the making, whose cast includes Freema Agyeman and Matthew Macfadyen! The BBC always does wonderful Dickens adaptations, so my hopes are high. Yet it sounds like they're trying to cash in on the success of Bleak House:

Adapted by acclaimed writer Andrew Davies (Sense And Sensibility, Bleak House) Little Dorrit will play out in soap opera format with 14 half-hour episodes following an initial hour-long episode.

Also, it looks like Tess of the D'Urbervilles is the next fall drama for the BBC. I've never read the book (by Thomas Hardy) but I know enough of the story. I prefer happy stories, but that doesn't mean I won't enjoy this — I guess I'm just not looking forward to it as much. but oooh, Hans Matheson!

I finally got to the library today and picked up A Room With a View by E.M. that I've been wanting to read for ages. I also found Mansfield Park (1983) and Vanity Fair (1998) on DVD, and the books Enthusiasm by Polly Shulman (which looks good and has good reviews) and The Dashwood Sisters' Secret of Love by Rosie Rushton, which has less-than-favourable reviews but looked too fun to pass up. (It seems like the other five Austen novels are much more neglected, so a Sense and Sensibility remake/tribute is at the very least a fun read... hopefully.) It's exciting having some books that I want to read! I've been in a lull for awhile.

And last but not least, I watched The War Bride the other day with Anna Friel and I really enjoyed it. It's about a London girl in WWII who falls in love with and marries a Canadian soldier. Soon she finds herself sent with her little girl to live with his family in the prairies of Alberta. Nothing extremely unique, but it was still well done — good acting — and a very enjoyable story about history and romance and enjoying life through hardship. Definitely worth watching.

Oops, one more thing — I found this video on YouTube which features the 1976 version of Our Mutual Friend. I though some of you fellow OMF fans would like to see it. I wish I could see the actual series... (And how bizarre to see other actors playing Bella, John, Lizzie and Eugene?!)

I was watching "Love in a Cold Climate" the other day and I was excited to see the house from "Our Mutual Friend"!

( As seen in pictures )

And Steven Mackintosh in "The Other Boleyn Girl". ( &c. )

I really have so many things I should be doing instead ... :P

I actually made this ages ago, and I never publically posted it because I wanted to add to it. Seeing as that still hasn't happened, I thought I'd share this with you. It's feel-good Bella & John fluff!

Because I had fun with my last "picspam," and I wanted more pictures for Bella & John/OMF icons, I bring you many pictures from episodes three and four — Bella & John at their sweetest. :D

( &c. )

With, yes, another Feist song. (I couldn't help it — the music just fit the best out of the other options...)

Anyway, I hope you like it. It's not completely in chronological order, but I hope it makes sense. It pretty much continues where my last video left off. John and Bella are newlyweds living in their little Blackheath Cottage. :)



(Apparently Mortimer Lightwood is their only neighbour, and a frequent visitor, haha. I just wish it was a different main picture, not Mortimer and Bella. :P)

You guys, I am way too excited about this, but I have made my own music video! It's so cool!

Can you guess who it's about? I guess there are a few options, but you won't be surprised to hear it's about Bella & John, eh?



Seriously, those two are so cute at the end. I know the ending is kind of abrubt — I was working in chronilogical order so as not to drive myself crazy, and I ran out of room for more clips — but I just had to leave it like that because it fit well, and they are adorable.

Anyway, the song is called "Secret Heart" by Feist, and was inspired by blancwene in a way, because I got the song from her Bella/John fanmix. Plus, she's the one who introduced me to Our Mutual Friend in the first place! (Thank you!!)

I'd love to hear what you guys think! I tried to fit the transitions with the music, and for the most part it worked well, but some parts are a little off. :/ I might also go back and do a more complete version with more important clips, but right now it focuses on the couple before they get married.

Did I mention how excited I am? I've loved watching all these videos on YouTube and now I can add to the collection! And Bella & John need lots of love. ;D

Ohmygoodness, I am getting zillions of emails through my "Sabrina" fanlisting from random spammers, putting all their dirty websites in the comment pages. It's driving me nuts, so I ended up creating another database and moving everything over. (On another note, woohoo for me knowing what I was doing, and it all working. Yay.) Oi. But at least it's all dealt with now. I hope! *crosses fingers*

So, according to AustenBlog, guess who is going to be te new Colonel Brandon (in BBC's Sense & Sensibility this fall?) David Morrissey. A.k.a. Creepy Bradley Headstone in Our Mutual Friend. It's just so weird, because I've only seen this guy in that one role, so it's hard to picture him as the steadfast romantic hero. Then again, Alan Rickman was always playing the evil villains, so it's not that different. But how cool would it have been for Richard Armitage to be Brandon?

Here's a picture of Mr Morrissey — smiling! I don't think I've seen that before, but again, I've only seen him as Bradley Headstone. ;)

I've changed/tweaked my userinfo, with a lovely banner made by naybob. Doesn't it look nice? I like the colours and how everything matches. I also changed my layout (ingenu0us) — I finally found something I really like. And I added a polka dot background, because I have a thing for little polka dots. ;)

I've been browsing through YouTube and all the music videos (because fan videos are love). More specifically, I've been looking for Robin Hood videos and making a mini directory of sorts at the fanlisting. At the moment, it's mostly Robin/Marian videos. *sheepish grin*

I came across a video and I recognized the song immediately, though it was a surprise — "Lost Without You" by Delta Goodrem. Actually, I know the version by Jaci Velasquez, so on another note I was surprised that it was sung by two singers. It's not often you come across a Jaci Velasquez song, right?

Well, here's the Robin/Marian video: ( &c. )

Then, to my delight, I found a Margaret/Thornton video with the same song sung by Jaci Velasquez! ( &c. )

I was struck by how perfect this song is for Robin and Marian — well, for both couples actually. It has inspired me to make a fanmix for one of my fave couples, so that song will be on there. Here are some of the lyrics:

I know I can be a little stubborn sometimes
You might say a little righteous and too proud
I was looking for a way to compromise
Thinking maybe I could work things out

I thought I had all the answers
Never givin' in
But You loved me all along
And I admit that I was wrong

All I know is I'm lost without You
I'm not gonna lie
I could never be strong without You
I need You by my side

If I ever thought we'd never be together
'Cause of all my foolish pride
Don't know what I'd do
I'm lost without You

More?

It's perfect for Margaret and Thornton, too, no? I also love the song "It is You (I Have Loved" by Dana Glover. Perfect for R/M — from either Robin's or Marian's points of view. And Bella and John, as a matter of fact, like this video (it's just a slideshow of pictures, but the song is great, it's one of the only OMF videos!)

But now I know just who you are
And I know you hold my heart
Finally this is where I belong
It is you I have loved all along

It's no more mystery
It is finally clear to me
You're the home my heart searched for so long
And it is you I have loved all along

More?

And you've got to see this video of Guy of Gisborne — it's great! I think I have a thing for using old fifties/sixties songs.

I'm afraid my attention span has been lacking lately — I have no focus to even read through all my friends list and give though-out comments. I apologize. I'm in that kind of a funk where I never want to do anything, at least not something productive. :/

I was browsing IMDb.com yesterday and came across Steven Mackintosh's page (who plays John Harmon in Our Mutual Friend). Anyway, it turns out he's in "A Muppet Christmas Carol"! Who knew? He plays Scrooge's nephew Fred.

( Click for a comparison )

Aw, he's so cute and happy! Like Bingley... on caffeine. He's so happy I don't think I would have recognized him as being the same John Harmon. His long hair definitely changes his appearance, too, and his voice sounds different‚ probably because he's full of Christmas cheer instead of, well, emo pining.

I also realized that both of these stories are Dickens! I wonder what Dickens would have thought of his "Christmas Carol" being performed for kids with Muppets? The tones of each movie couldn't be more different.

(I've got a Bella & John picspam I need to post soon, too.)