Showing posts with label Book Rat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Book Rat. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Jane in June, This Time She Means Business!

Ok, so I added the little summer blockbuster speil... but then again, Jane has always been better than a summer blockbuster. You can turn on the AC, curl up in a chair and be transported to England, and not have to deal with crowds or trailers, sticky floors or spilled popcorn. Can you imagine ads before you were allowed to start reading? Sheesh, and total tanget. Anyways... Jane in June! This month, as she did last year, my friend Misty over at Book Rat is having another Austen spectacular. Jane all day everyday! There are prizes and interviews and read-a-longs. In other words, more fun than you can shake a stick at. I am therefore totally pimping her site and her work, and hopefully contributing her on my blog. My single goal is to finally finish Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. It's been a few years since I started... I really should finish it. I should aim for the head right?

Same as last year, I'm going to have a little giveaway here. When I think of the first time I watched Pride and Prejudice, I think of that hot summer day, I believe it was a Friday. I started around 3 in the afternoon and kept going. Nearer nightfall, came the famous scene where Lady Catherine has the urge to have a showdown, which resulted in quite the opposite effect she had intended. So, here's a high quality giclee print of my piece "This is not to be Bourne!"

The Prize:
Oh, pretty Giclee depicting a scene from Pride and Prejudice, signed and numbered!

The Rules:
1. Open to EVERYONE, just because you haven't been following me all along doesn't mean you don't matter, you just get more entries if you prove you love me by following.
2. Please make sure I have a way to contact you if your name is drawn, either your blogger profile or a link to your website/blog or you could even include your email address with your comment(s).
3. Contest ends Thursday, June 30th at 11:59PM CST
4. How to enter:

Answer me this (not required, see below): Colin Firth or Matthew MacFadyen?

5. And for those addicted to getting extra entries:

  • +1 for answering the question above
  • +2 for becoming a follower
  • +10 if you are already a follower
  • +10 for each time you advertise this contest - blog post, sidebar, twitter (please @MzLizard), etc. (but you only get credit for the first post, so tweet all you like, and I thank you for it, but you'll only get the +10 once). Also please leave a link!

Friday, April 29, 2011

Once Upon a Fortnight

As Fairy Tale Fortnight draws to a close, today is a very real example of why we love Fairy Tales. Today, the world has one more Princess. There may be earthquakes and tornadoes and havoc the world over, yet the world turns it's eye to a cold damp little island where today Fairy Tales do come true. While I sadly did not receive my wedding invite, letting a wondrous absurd hat opportunity go to waste, I at least got to be a part of Book Rat's celebration of happily ever afters. While we can't be certain of Kate and William's happily ever after, today is the day where it begins, where the future holds endless possibilities, and there just might be a happily ever after to come... here's wishing the royal couple well.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Fairy Tale Fortnight

Starting this week, my friend Misty, aka The Book Rat, along with one of her friends, is doing a Fairy Tale Fortnight. To which I proclaimed, "I'm in!" I have always loved Fairy Tales, and even now that I'm "grownup" (yes, it does need quotations), I still gravitate to stories that have the feeling of Fairy Tales (capital letters a must). I hope for the happily ever after, I weep with delight at retellings and reinvisionings. Some of my happiest times as a child were reading my Mother Goose and my big Fairy Tale book with my grandmother. One was the typical checkered one, the other, a forest green. There was always one story I loved more than others, which, once I tell you, you'll probably understand my warped mind a little better. It was about this guys who jumped in and out of thorns. I remember nothing else, just that. It was my grandmothers favorite as well. It was located to the back of one of the books and we always wanted to read that one. We could never remember which book of the two, and we never started at the back and worked our way in reverse. We always started at the front and read the whole thing, and if that wasn't the right book we'd do the same with the other. Because, while we both loved that one story, it wasn't just that story that enlived the minds both young and old and brought us together, it was all the stories. I will never grow too old for fairy tales, and if my grandmother is any proof, it runs in the family.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Jane in June

My friend Misty over at Book Rat (yes, she has her own label below, see below, and is tickled by that) is having a month long celebration of one of my favorite writers, Jane Austen. I just could not not participate. I remember the first time and each successive time I've read all her books. I remember scouring bookstores for anything, from unfinished stories to childhood riddles that she'd written just to get a little more Jane. I've seen, probably, almost every adaptation there is from Bollywood to Bridget. I have developed an unhealthy obsession with Andrew Davies' adaptations and have finally come to realize the greatness of Northanger Abbey. So in the spirit of the month long event I will be having posts about my introduction to the word of Jane, both good and bad, reviews, recommendations and just plain Jane! Even if she could really never be further than plain.

To kick the month off right there will be a giveaway, Austen themed of course, but a little closer to my heart than some of the other giveaways I've run. This time I'm giving away something I've created! A few years back when an undergrad, we were assigned an art project centering on the concept of a series. It could be a series of anything really, the pictures just had to relate. I decided to do a Jane Austen series. For years I'd been enamoured by the illustrations done by the Brother's Brock and thought that they needed a little updating, and a little context, and perhaps, just that little bit of femininity and color. So to work I went. This piece, from Pride and Prejudice, is entitled "It is enough to know they are discovered." For this piece I did a watercolor and gesso painting on fibrous paper that had plant particles. You could win you very own Giclee (ie, high end printed reproduction signed and number by me! You know you want my signature!) So enter here! Also be sure to check out the others in the series, all trying to capture a little more of the feeling that I think the scene conveys that the Brocks lacked.

THIS GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED


The Prize:
Oh, pretty Giclee depicting a scene from Pride and Prejudice, signed and numbered!

The Rules:
1. Open to EVERYONE, just because you haven't been following me all along doesn't mean you don't matter, you just get more entries if you prove you love me by following.
2. Please make sure I have a way to contact you if your name is drawn, either your blogger profile or a link to your website/blog or you could even include your email address with your comment(s).
3. Contest ends Wednesday, June 30th at 11:59PM CST
4. How to enter:

Answer me this: Favorite Austen book and favorite Austen adaption... they definitely don't have to be the same!

5. And for those addicted to getting extra entries:

  • +1 for answering the question above
  • +2 for becoming a follower
  • +10 if you are already a follower
  • +10 for each time you advertise this contest - blog post, sidebar, twitter (please @MzLizard), etc. (but you only get credit for the first post, so tweet all you like, and I thank you for it, but you'll only get the +10 once). Also please leave a link!

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

And the Award Goes to...

Me! Who'd you expect? (But you might have a little something coming your way...) I'd very much like to thank Misty over at Book Rat for this lovely summery themed Lemonade Award, pretty and thirst quenching, I kid you not. Go check out her site, it's pretty darn awesome, though perhaps she should be reprimanded for introducing me to Better World Books (mmmm more books), and help her get some more followers, everyone needs followers!

The Award:
Lemonade Award!

What's it all about (Alfie)?:
The Lemonade Award is for sites which show great attitude and/or attitude!

Rules:

1. Put the logo on your blog or post.
2. Nominate at least 10 blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude!
3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Nominate your favorites and link to this post.

The Nominees:
Esme at Chocolate & Croissants, Writings About Cooking, Travel, Everything French

Pixie, Stacey and Jess at Page Turners...Better Underneath the Covers

Austenfan at Reality Bites, Fiction Does it Better

Abby at Abby (the) Librarian

Genevieve at Genevieve's Blog...Something Bookish

Briana at The Book Pixie

Meghan at Meghan's Book Blog

Liyana at LiyanaLand!

Book Butterfly at The Book Butterfly

Yan at Books By Their Cover

Also, because I'm so lazy, I won another award, the very sweet Humane Award, awhile back from the lovely Kristen over at Bookworming in the 21st Century but have yet to post it or spread the love. So more nominations for my fellow bloggers and book buddies, many from goodreads!

The Award:
The Humane Award

What's it all about (Alfie)?:
Is to honor certain bloggers that are kindhearted individuals. They regularly take part in my blog and always leave the sweetest comments. If it wasn't for them, my site would just be an ordinary book review blog. Their blogs are also amazing and are tastefully done on a daily basis. This award is to thank them for their growing friendships through the blog world.

Rules:
I didn't get a number as to how many, so I'm just doing my five favourites!

The Nominees:
April at Good Books & Good Wine, you get an award!

Misty at Book Rat, you get an award!

Kate at The Neverending Shelf, you get an award!

Erica at The Book Cellar, you get an award!

Susan at Well-Mannered Frivolity, you get an award!

Well, I bet you're all exhausted after that lengthy awards ceremony, that Martha Graham dance number inspired by the complete works of the Russian masters was unique...but I hope you are all leaving happy and have found some new blogs to follow (after mine of course). Also don't forget my 50th Post Competition is running till the end of the month and it really looks like I'm going to hit 50 followers, so I'll have to think of something really cool and special for the winner (rubs hands together diabolically with slight maniacal laugh).

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