Search Results for: blog shakespeare in love

In the Name of Love

I heart all of the heart-shaped scrapbook embellishments that line the shelves of my local craft store.  Valentine’s Day is the perfect excuse to spread the love you have for your favorite people, places and things.  Of course, there is no better place to document that adoration than in a love-themed scrapbook.  Whether you are looking to craft layouts featuring treasured Valentine’s Day sentiments or you simply want a place to store inspirational love-themed mementos a memory book is a terrific option. To help spice up your heart-astic pages consider the following: Lollipops:  Create heart-shaped lollipops from patterned or plain … Continue reading →

Shakespeare and Romance: Romeo & Juliet

One of the reasons why I often like to facilitate discussion about my type of romance is because I feel that it isn’t represented much in the media. We draw some ideas of our cultural norms from the media, so others like me might be led to feel that they’re not normal. Interestingly, one of the most famous examples of my type of romance, or at least extolling against silly romance, is often misinterpreted: “Romeo & Juliet.” People will call an ideal male lover a “Romeo,” when in fact that was the opposite of what Shakespeare intended. Shakespeare liked to … Continue reading →

Old Love Letters

Valentine’s Day when you are single is not quite as much fun as when you have a significant other. I generally try to do something nice for myself and several years ago I came up with a way to do something positive and clear some space in my life. We all have mementos from every relationship we’ve been in. Even if a relationship only lasts a week or two we seem to wind up with little things, a movie ticket stub, napkin from where we had our first drink, whatever it is, these little things add up. I admit to … Continue reading →

Love is in the Air

Valentine’s Day is a popular holiday for beginner and avid scrapbook fans. With so many love-themed embellishments on the market, it’s almost impossible not to get caught up in the excitement of crafting a heartfelt tribute to a special someone in a single or double page layout. Whether you are designing a few pages or devoting an entire scrapbook to document your Valentine’s Day activities, you can’t go wrong by including some special love-related quotes. Famous phrases or sayings that focus on love are ideal for scrapbookers who struggle to express their own feelings in journaling blocks. Rather than racking … Continue reading →

The Greatest Love Story

What do you consider to be the greatest love story ever told? I’m sure we might all have different opinions on that. On Thursday night Mick and I and another couple of married friends went to see a production of William Shakespeare’s, Romeo and Juliet. To many people this story of star crossed lovers from warring families is considered to be one of the great love stories. Certainly our local drama company put on an excellent performance which we enjoyed immensely, as we do nearly all their production. We quickly became caught up in the story unfolding before our eyes … Continue reading →

Scrapping Love Quotes

Even on the most amorous day of the year it would be highly unlikely that I could wax poetic about love the same way that Shakespeare or even Charles M. Schultz did. I’ve tried to write fluffy marshmallow proses and toyed with penning puppy dog, unicorn and rainbow haikus, but the end result always spells F-A-I-L more than L-O-V-E. This inability to express my heartfelt feelings on paper makes it tough to come up with original love-themed layouts for my Valentine’s Day scrapbook. Fortunately, what I lack in originality I more than make up for in ingenuity. For the last … Continue reading →

Shakespeare Graphic Novels

Recently we have embarked on studying Shakespeare in our homeschool. Shakespeare is essential teaching to anyone with a literature, classical or Charlotte Mason approach. In fact, at some point all students are given exposure to Shakespeare. One of the most common complaints by students is their lack of understanding the Old English used in all of Shakespeare’s writing. While I find it one of the most beautiful aspects it is source of frustration for even many homeschooling moms. This is understandable as the Old English is quite different than today’s modern language. One advantage my children have when reading Shakespeare … Continue reading →

52 Romantic Movies You Either Love or Hate

Dale’s blogs about some of her favorite romantic movies (see “Favorite Romance Movies” and “Favorite Romance Movies-Part 2”) has inspired this next one from me. The idea took hold because I sympathized with a comment one reader, deedee1231, left on both blogs regarding the movie Casablanca. She wasn’t a fan. (Though she didn’t begrudge Dale for including it on her fave list.) Deedee1231 thought Casablanca was overhyped. (Though she also admitted she’d seen it so many times she was just plum over it.) I chuckled with sympathy when I read her comment. Though it wasn’t Casablanca I had in mind, … Continue reading →

Love’s Labour’s Lost (2000)

I’m so confused! I don’t know if I just saw a corny musical, a Shakespeare play, a strip club dance number, or a war film. I just finished watching “Love’s Labour’s Lost,” which is a Kenneth Branagh film, a remake of the Shakespeare play. I really was not expecting what I got. The basic story is that the King of Navarre and his three best friends make a vow that they will stay in college for three years and devote themselves entirely to study, and that no woman will enter the court until those three years are up. There are … Continue reading →

The Effects of the Media on Romance

Where do our irrational romantic impulses come from? Are they just something we naturally want; after all, everyone likes to be spoiled. But often we equate all romance with grand gestures, or expect our relationships to play out like fairy tales. We have the media to blame for that. I know I sound like a broken record sometimes, and it must seem like I think we shouldn’t watch movies or television. I don’t believe that at all, but I can testify that too many romcoms, or at least, not approaching them in the right way, can have a negative effect. … Continue reading →