A Pretty Project

We had a beautiful spring-like day for our Conversations with Jane meeting! Why, you might ask, do I mention a beautiful spring-like day? Did we do our meeting outside? No! I was just excited to go out of the house with a light jacket on and not freeze to death and step in snow, so it is worth mentioning. It doesn't take much to excite me. :) So, we met at Sharon's house. She and Robin have the cutest items to display food on! Case in point, the beautiful tier thingy pictured below. Doesn't it look more scrumptious just because it's on this cool little thing?!

Many of us showed up wearing hats (including yours truly). It must have been the spring-like weather *grin*. Hadley was able to join us for tea this time and Miss Sharon set a place at the table for Aly (making her day). Hadley and Sarah have not been able to join us very often of late because of their college schedules. We miss having them.

It was then time to finish our discussion of Persuasion. The books we chose for extra reading have really enhanced our studies. Jane Austen for Dummies, Miniatures and Morals, and What Jane Austen Taught Me About Love and Romance have been full of little tidbits. Often, we have already talked about something that appears in these books. Then there are the times that one of them will point out something we hadn't considered before. Sometimes I find one of the books summing up what I was thinking better than I could have said it. Of course, there are times that I totally disagree, like in Miniatures and Morals when the author is discussing Sense & Sensibility...the guy was hard on Marianne Dashwood, not winning any favors from me LOL. One of my favorite quotes (that we discussed) from Miniatures and Morals about Persuasion was this, "In part, the limits of persuasion depend on what is being persuaded. Anne can be persuaded to end an official engagement, but the heart is much more difficult to persuade out of love once persuaded into love." I, personally, had been so focused on Anne being persuaded out of her engagement that I hadn't stopped to consider that over the years she was still persuaded to be in love with Captain Wentworth.

After discussion and the sharing of their blog projects, we began our Regency activity for this month, making Shoe Roses. As usual, I found the idea here. Now I had read the instructions thoroughly, looked up other step-by-step instructions, and found a You Tube video. This was 10x more difficult that I had anticipated! The girls and I all spent some time trying to get this right, sometimes combining a couple different steps. You can see our attempts below. Stay tuned for the rest of their blog projects and favorite quotes!

Victoria trying a different type of ribbon to see if that will make a difference...

it seemed to be working a little better for her than the wire-edged.

These were the two that I managed to get together. I don't know that I could do this again!

These were the two Elizabeth made. Calleigh and Skyeler's are not pictured. Calleigh left before I could take a picture and I probably thought I would take a picture of Skye's when I got home. I guess I forgot :)