Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs came up with an awesome idea to offer a giveaway with our Comfy, Cozy Cinema this year and that giveaway is open! You have until Tuesday, Oct. 15 to enter it and the chance to win the items pictured here and a few more we are tossing in at the last minute!
Erin and I both have included books in the giveaway – a poetry collection put together by her and the first book in my cozy mystery series – Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing – from me.
We also have a journal in there, stickers, an autumn-themed mug, chocolate pumpkins (so cute!), tea, a booklight to read your cozy books with, and I’ll also be adding a cozy blanket for you to curl up under and these cute little corner bookmarks for you to mark the page of whatever book you are reading.
To enter you can follow this link (the embed feature won’t work on WordPress for some reason).
We’re asking you to follow our blogs, our Instagram, my Substack, and Erin’s Etsy to gain entries.
We are not going to use your email addresses for anything other than confirming you followed, etc. so don’t worry that you’re being added to a mailing list. You are not. The addresses will not be kept in any way on our end.
We are so excited to offer this comfort package so please take a chance to win it! This giveaway is for U.S. residents 18 years of age or older. It is in no way associated with WordPress or Meta or any of their affiliates.
This week Little Miss turned 10 and that’s pretty surreal for me.
It truly does seem like this time with her has gone by so incredibly fast.
It seems like just yesterday – or at least only a year ago – she was pulling herself up to a standing position on her little chair at 9 months old, ready to walk so she could follow her older brother.
She didn’t crawl.
She only rolled over once.
She didn’t even Army crawl.
All she wanted to do was walk and she did – very early and very fast.
She was very short, like her mom, so there were many people who couldn’t believe what they were seeing. How could she already be walking?
I don’t know either but Little Miss has always been a very determined little girl who knows what she wants and how to get it.
We celebrated her on her actual birthday with a trip to an area restaurant because she likes to go to restaurants. The food at the place is very good but The Husband and I had only visited there as a couple and hadn’t taken the kids yet. This was their first experience and they really enjoyed themselves. It was a rainy, misty, chilly day and most of the businesses in the small town we drove to were closed so we stopped by a free little library and then kept going home.
Thursday we all had dinner at my parents’ where we also played charades because Little Miss loves to do that.
Yesterday Little Miss had a sleepover with a friend. Remember when I said we weren’t doing any more sleepovers? Well, it was the only thing she’d asked for for her birthday and it was only with one friend.
We also took them roller skating, which my parents paid for as her gift because she likes to go skating, but we just don’t get around to take her to the roller rinks near us like we should. That is probably because there are three roller rinks in our area and they are all an hour away in one direction or the other. I am glad that my mom prompted us to do this because it really was a lot of fun for the kids.
I haven’t visited the rink we ended up going to for more than 25 years, so I wasn’t sure what to expect but the place really looked great. It is located along a lakeside campground, and it has been there for years and year and years. I don’t know how many because it didn’t say on their site, but I know it’s been a very long time because I was probably about Little Miss’s age when I first visited it.
I would definitely say that they have renovated over the years based on how great the skating rink floor looks, but some of it feels the same – the big round table-like seats where you sit to put your skates on, the booths where you can sit to eat, the garbage food they served (microwaved pizza, microwaved nachos and cheese, candy and sodas).
The music they were playing was from the 90s and early 2000s so it felt even more like my teen years.
My friend – the mom of Little Miss’s friend — was there as well (she brought another one of her kids with her), and we were both chuckling at some of the music and our memories wrapped around them.
When I was a kid, we visited a different skating rink (now closed) with our church a couple of times, and my dad remembers how one night one of the ladies from the church sprained her ankle, my brother broke his thumb, and someone else was injured too, but we can’t remember how. What Dad can remember is that a lot of people came into church the next morning limping and groaning.
There was a roller rink in the town we used to live in that was over 100 years old. It is still going and still owned by the same family. I think we might try to visit that one again sometime this year, but the kids who visit that rink are a little rougher around the edges – shall we say. I visited it for one of the night skates with my nieces one year many years ago and there were these little cliques and gangs in various corners of the rink. It was like the social hub for the area teenagers in many ways. There was the cool kids group and the not-so-cool kids and then the kids who didn’t care about any of that – they just wanted to skate.
My nieces wanted snacks and I think they were flirting with some of the boys and I didn’t know what was going to go down so I finally pulled them away and took them home. It was all a bit overwhelming but it was the main place for kids to hang out in the town and the owners are good people who would keep them safe.
I love that we still have these old roller rinks around here. They are just good, clean fun for kids and gets them out of the house and doing activity that isn’t too strenuous but isn’t too boring either.
These two roller rinks near us still host the skating games they used to do back in the old days – limbo, four corners, and other games. Little Miss won the game of limbo and earned a free pass for another night of skating, so we hope to visit the rink again sometime in the future. They offer daytime skates in the winter so we plan to do that since this rink is located in the middle of nowhere where there are plenty of deer to it at night.
When we first left to drive there – at 6 I laughed and said, “I usually have my pajamas on at this time and am cozying up for the night.”
The Husband and I have always been homebodies and rarely go to events after 5 pm. Part of the reason I prefer not to drive at night is because I have horrible night vision. I can’t see well and our car’s headlights aren’t great. It makes me very nervous. Another reason I don’t like to go out after 5 or really socialize much at all is I had my fill when I worked 50-70 hours a week at small town newspapers covering every event imaginable.
As a natural introvert I had to force myself to be social to get the story and I forced myself so often I think I broke something in me. Now that I’ve been gone from newspapers for so long, even going to a store and having to talk to the clerk stresses me out.
The Husband doesn’t like to go out on his days off because he socializes constantly all week long in his job as a small town newspaper editor and reporter.
When we got back to the house after skating, I thought the girls might just fall right to sleep. They had spent the entire day playing outside (the trampoline, riding scooters, jumping in leaves, and then two hours of skating). They lasted a little longer and then fell asleep so hard that Little Miss’s friend didn’t even change positions for five hours.
We all slept downstairs – them on an air mattress and me on the couch. In our area there are a few ways to tell it is getting cold. One is that you start to see people around town wearing light, but still warm, jackets. Two, you’ll start to smell woodsmoke as people begin to light their fires. And three, family cats start to cuddle more.
Our cats are fairly aloof all summer but around anywhere from mid-September to the middle of October they will gradually begin to come inside earlier after being outside hunting, lurking, or harassing other neighborhood cats, all day. Once they are inside they will stare at one of the humans for a few second or minutes – usually me – and then pounce – running up onto the body of said human and laying on their stomach or chest, expecting the chosen one to be honored and in awe that they have been chosen.
They will then kneed, curl up, purr, rub their faces and body all over the chosen one and attempt to make the chosen one their bed for the next few hours, whether the chosen one wants it or not.
Our youngest cat (Scout) is the one who curls up on me the most but last night she picked The Husband as the chosen one before bed. About 5 a.m. Scout woke me up by crawling onto my chest and anytime I get woke up my brain tells me I have to go to the bathroom so I did that and came back to the couch which is when Scout made my hip her bed. Two hours later I was up again and had to move her for another bathroom break. At this point the older cat, Pixel, who normally hates to be anywhere near Scout and hisses at her for even existing, decided she’d put with Scout simply so she could now use my body as her bed.
At this point Scout was curled up on the couch by my knees and Pixel was using my hip as the bed. The couch isn’t very wide so this was a very uncomfortable position to be in but it is also a very rare occurrence for them to be so close to each other without Pixel smacking Scout repeatedly in the head, so I did my best not to move and upset the experience.
My hips, back, neck, and – well – my entire body paid for that the rest of the day but I think it was worth it.
Little Miss’s friend has gone home now and we will all be in our own beds tonight. I am truly looking forward to that because if the cats do curl up on or next to me, at least I’ll have more room – in theory anyhow.
How was your week last week? Do anything exciting or interesting? Let me know in the comments.
I’m so glad you are here and participating in our weekly link-up of family-friendly, fun, educational, interesting, crafty, fashionable, and whatever else posts. I hope you’ll tell your followers about our post (feel free to copy and paste the graphic) and visit the blogs in the link-up.
Now it is your turn to link up your favorite posts. They can be fashion, lifestyle, DIY, food, etc. All we ask is that they be family-friendly. You can link up posts from last week or even from years ago. You can share up to three links each week.
We are always looking for additional hosts so let us know if you want to help out and we are also looking for more links from fashion bloggers so let your fashion bloggers know!
Also, please take the time to visit the other blogs on the link-up and meet some new bloggers!
Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I are watching Comfy, Cozy movies this September and October and this week we watched Kiki’s Delivery Service, a Studio Ghibli animated movie.
We are also announcing a very fun and exciting giveaway for a comfy, cozy gift basket which you can enter to win at the giveaway link at the bottom of this post!
Kiki’s Delivery Service was released in 1989 in Japan by Hayao Miyazaki, a Japanese animator and filmmaker, and was based on a book called Witches Express Delivery Service.
The movie was animated by Studio Ghibli (which Miyazaki was a founder of) for Tokuma Shoten, Yamato Transport, and the Nippon Television Network.
According to information online, “The English dub was produced by Streamline Pictures for Japan Airlines international flights in 1989. Walt Disney Pictures produced an English dub in 1997, which became the first film under a deal between Tokuma and Disney to be released in English. It was released to home media in 1998.”
This was a very sweet movie with little action but a lot of heart.
First the background – Kiki is a witch and the tradition is that witches leave home at the age of 13 and travel away from their family for a year to learn what their skill in life is.
Kiki’s mother insists she take her old, reliable broomstick so Kiki flies off into the night with her all black cat JiJi and finds a small town to settle in. She ends up living with a baker and starts a delivery service – delivering packages with the use of her broom.
The bakery is owned by Osono and her husband, Fukuo, who are expecting a child.
Kiki also meets a friend – a boy named Tombo who wants to be her friend more than she wants to be his for most of the movie. Tombo likes to invent things – especially things with the potential to fly. At one point he invites Kiki to his aviation club but Kiki gets wrapped up in deliveries and gets caught in a rainstorm. This causes her to become very sick but Osono nurses her back to health and then pretends to have a delivery sent to Tombo so Kiki can see him and apologize.
During her first delivery, Kiki loses the toy she’s supposed to deliver and then she and her cat – who talks by the way – work to find a way to get it back to the child it belongs to.
Much of the movie is like this – just little stories or adventures that aren’t very exciting in some ways, but are calming and sweet.
It isn’t until more than halfway through the movie that more conflict arises because Kiki seems to be losing her powers, which she first notices when she can no longer understand JiJi.
Studio Ghibli is the design studio for many Japanese animated movies. Later many of these movies are dubbed into English and sometimes feature well-known American actors. In the one I watched (which was the Disney dubbed one from 1997) Kiki was voiced by Kiersten Dunst and the cat was voiced by Phil Hartman.
Kiki’s Delivery Service focuses on themes of independence and finding your place in this world.
It was the first Studio Ghibli film to find commercial success soon after being released – earning $31 million.
I wasn’t as swept up in this one as in previous Studio Ghibli films but as it continued it grew on me. It was a very quiet film and some of the Studio Ghibli films have a little more action so I wasn’t ready for it to be so toned down. Once I got into the story, though, I enjoyed it. The scenery and art, as in all Studio Ghibli films, was really beautiful.
I was rooting for Kiki – especially once she lost her powers and seemed confused about her next step.
While the makers of the movie and critics said the movie focuses on themes of maturity and independence, I also saw a strong theme of friendship, family, and trust.
Coming up next week will be the 1945 version of Blithe Spirit.
Feel free to link up your own impressions of the movies at our link-ups. The links close at the end of the week but feel free to leave your blog post on future link-ups, even if it is for another movie.
Also, Erin and I are announcing our Comfy, Cozy Gift Basket Giveaway today.
I’m just going to copy what Erin wrote to share here because I am lazy *wink*: “We have some fun little goodies to be sent off to one winner, with more surprises to be added as well! We want to celebrate the season and this is just one way we would like to do that this year.
You can enter anytime between today and October 15th, and the winner will be announced on our blogs on Thursday, October 17th. Please enter via Rafflecopter and it is only open to those 18 or older living in the US.” You can enter here: https://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/3614a4fa2/?
Book Title: Trouble Shooter (A Hopalong Cassidy book)
Author: Louis L’Amour
Genre: Western
Description:
Hopalong Cassidy is one of the most enduring and popular heroes in frontier fiction. His legendary exploits in books, movies, and on television have blazed a mythic and unforgettable trail across the American West. Now, in the last of four Hopalong Cassidy novels written by Louis L’Amour, the immortal saddleman rides againthis time into a lonely valley of danger and death.
Hopalong Cassidy has received an urgent message from the dead. Answering an urgent appeal for help from fellow cowpuncher Pete Melford, he rides in only to discover that his old friends has been murdered and the ranch Pete left to his niece, Cindy Blair, had vanished without a trace. Hopalong may have arrived too late to save Pete, but his sense of loyalty and honor demands that he find that cold-blooded killers and return to Cindy what is rightfully hers.
Colonel Justin Tradwar, criminal kingpin of the town of Kachina, is the owner of the sprawling Box T ranch, and he has built his empire with a shrewd and ruthless determination. In search of Pete’s killers and Cindy’s ranch, Hopalong signs on at the Box T, promising to help get Tradway’s wild cattle out of the rattler-infested brush. But in the land of mesquite and black chaparral, Cassidy confronts a mystery as hellish as it is hauntinga bloody trail that leads to the strange and forbidding Babylon plateau, to $60,000 in stolen gold, and to a showdown with an outlaw who has already cheated death once… and is determined to do it again.
My Thoughts:
Trouble Shooter by Louis L’Amour was not listed under L’Amour’s name when it first came out in 1951. Instead, it was released under the name Clarence E. Mulford, the original creator of Hopalong Cassidy, the main character of the book. When Mulford retired, he asked L’Amour to carry on Hopalong’s tradition in four novels, which included Trouble Shooter, The Rustlers of West Fork, The Trail to Seven Pines, and the Riders of High Rock.
The books were published on L’Amour’s name in the 1990s when they were re-released.
I ended up liking Trouble Shooter a lot more than I thought I would when I first started it. Once I realized that the book was written in the style of another writer and that it was written in the 1950s, I began to adjust to the style of writing and storytelling. I found myself pulled into the story a bit more as it went along, despite the old style of writing, which included what writers call “head hopping.” This is where the thoughts of each character involved in a scene are shared instead of the point of view being from just the one character. This can get a little bit confusing but L’Amour didn’t over do it.
The way the sentences were structured threw me off at times but I thought the prose really was well-written. I wasn’t as interested in the lengthy description of Hopalong Cassidy climbing a mountain or riding long distances in the middle of nowhere and would have loved for the female characters to have been flushed out a bit more, but I still liked the overall story.
I didn’t expect the ending to take such a dark turn since most of the book was mild when it came to the discussions of violence. There was very little to no descriptions of violence at all and any descriptions offered were very surface level. There were no obscenities in the book and no sex at all – not even hinted at.
This was definitely a stripped back Western. There were some descriptions but none of them went on for pages. There were some slow parts for me but I wanted to know the answer to the mystery introduced in the beginning so I kept reading.
A couple of lines I enjoyed and thought were well-written:
“Hopalong Cassidy had drawn his gun as he always drew, with flashing, incredible speed. Once his hand was empty, then filled, and the gun blasting death.”
“The heat was a living thing, and he touched his lips only a little with the water in his canteen, then pushed on. Dust devils danced across a vast, empty distance marked by nothing but the trail of two riders. And then out of the north came another trail, a trail of several riders that moved in and obliterated the trail they followed.”
“Through the storm clouds the afternoon sun sent streaks of cathedral light across the sky and first spattering of drops fell, dappling the ground and making the dust jump.”
“Even if he isn’t dead, he might have reformed, and if a man has reformed, I’d have to judge him according to what he is now, but I’d advise him to keep his name to himself.”
If you would like to read more about Louis L’Amour, you can do so here:
A Simple Deduction by Kristi Holl is part of the Amish Inn Mystery series published by Annie’s Fiction.
The series is written by different authors but features the same characters and location.
Description:
Liz is offering something new, A Sherlock Holmes weekend. She asks for help from a magician to pickpocket the participants and then give the items to Liz for safekeeping. But more possessions start to disappear even with people locking their doors. Liz needs the help of all her sidekicks to solves this mystery.
My thoughts:
I have read two other books in the series before this one and when I started this one, I wasn’t sure I was going to like it as well as the other two books written by Rachael O’Phillips. Once I got into it, though, I was swept up in the mystery and wanted to know what had happened.
In this book, Liz Eckhardt, the main character, hosts a mystery weekend at her Amish-themed inn. Liz isn’t Amish herself but her mother was before leaving the order and her friends are as well.
Her friends Sadie and Mary Ann own a sewing supply shop that they run out of the other side of the inn, renting the space from Liz.
In this story, Liz is caught up in her planned mystery and also some thefts that happen that are unrelated to the mystery weekend.
She has six guests staying at her inn and thinks that they will have a nice weekend but when personalities clash and possessions of the guests start disappearing, she has a bad feeling things aren’t going to go as well as she hoped.
I felt like I was able to get to know Liz and her friends better in the other two books. In this book her character felt very flat for the majority of the book. I wanted to know a little bit more about her as a person – her likes and dislikes, etc. but I didn’t really get that until halfway through.
It turned out to be fine, though, because I became more interested in the mystery itself and still found Liz and her friends likable. I would have liked there to have been more of Sadie and Mary Ann like there were in previous books, but again, I still enjoyed the book.
This was a very clean cozy mystery with some prayer mentioned, but no faith message at all other than some mention of forgiveness.
Today for Fiction Friday I am interviewing Dawn Klinge who has a new book out. Kristen is the ninth book in the Apron Strings Book Series, a multi-author series I am also a part of.
Each book can be read as a standalone with the only connecting factor being an old-fashioned cookery (recipe) book called Mrs. Canfield’s Cookery Book. Each book takes place in a decade from 1920 to 2020.
Dawn’s book takes place in 2002.
First, a little about the book:
Kristen Borstad has always taken the scenic route through life. It’s 2002; fresh out of university with a master’s degree in English literature, she returns to the cozy ambiance of the local bookshop she’s worked at throughout college.
When the bookshop’s owner presents Kristen with an opportunity to take charge for a few months, she accepts. As she delves into the daily responsibilities, Kristen begins to discover her passion for the job.
Amidst the book-lined shelves, Kristen hires an employee who ignites a flame within her heart. As their friendship blossoms, Kristen grapples with conflicting emotions, unsure if the love she’s found is just a delightful distraction or a signpost pointing her toward the future she truly desires.
Will Kristen realize that her dreams have been waiting for her right in front of her eyes? Or will she continue her quest for fulfillment, forever searching for what might already be within her grasp?
Join Kristen on a tender and uplifting journey as she navigates the crossroads of life, faith, and love. In this heartwarming tale, discover the extraordinary potential that lies within embracing the present and opening one’s heart to the unanticipated blessings of life’s sweetest surprises.
Now a little interview with Dawn:
1. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Writing has been a source of joy since childhood, but for years, I hesitated to call myself a writer. It wasn’t until fifteen years ago that I finally mustered the courage to claim that title, though in truth, my path had always been quietly preparing me for a life dedicated to storytelling.
I experienced the thrill of seeing my words in print at the age of eight when I entered a children’s magazine contest and was delighted to see my story about a teddy bear named Growly published. At the time, I began telling others I wanted to be an author—until the practical voices of adults warned me about the difficulties of making a living from writing.
Though I considered studying history after high school, I followed a more practical path and earned a degree in special education, teaching at the elementary level for several years. Yet writing remained a quiet but persistent calling. About eighteen years ago, I started a blog that reignited my desire to write for an audience. It became a creative outlet where I experimented with voice and tone, receiving feedback from readers and honing my skills. These years spent writing nonfiction for platforms like Grown and Flown and Crosswalk gave me my first taste of working with editors, an experience that built my confidence and prepared me to pursue my true passion: writing fiction.
Despite knowing the challenges of fiction writing, I understood that I had to write. It’s an integral part of who I am. As an avid reader, I’ve always recognized the power of stories to inspire and positively influence others. With my deep love for history and research, I naturally gravitated toward historical fiction, where I could blend rich historical settings with compelling characters. This passion led me to self-publish several historical romance novels: Sorrento Girl, Biltmore Girl, and Palmer Girl. I have also experimented with writing contemporary romantic fiction with my books America’s Favorite Christmastown and Kristen.
Currently, I am enrolled in Oxford University’s Undergraduate Diploma in Creative Writing program, where I’ve had the opportunity to explore various forms of writing, including short fiction, life writing, screenplays, and stage plays.
2. What is your latest book about? Who are the main characters and when and where does it take place?
My latest book, Kristen, is about a young woman learning what it means to rest as a beloved child of God. She’s an achiever who has been looking in the wrong places for approval, and now, right out of college, she’s at a crossroads, trying to decide what’s next. The story takes place in 2002 in the small town of Moscow, Idaho.
3. Did you learn anything about writing or yourself as you were writing the book?
I’m still undergoing the same journey I put in front of Kristen. I saw a lot of myself in this character. Learning to balance being and doing in my spiritual life is a lifelong pursuit.
5. Where can readers find out more about you and your projects?
I’m so glad you are here and participating in our weekly link-up of family-friendly, fun, educational, interesting, crafty, fashionable, and whatever else posts. I hope you’ll tell your followers about our post (feel free to copy and paste the graphic) and visit the blogs in the link-up.
Now it is your turn to link up your favorite posts. They can be fashion, lifestyle, DIY, food, etc. All we ask is that they be family-friendly. You can link up posts from last week or even from years ago. You can share up to three links each week.
We are always looking for additional hosts so let us know if you want to help out and we are also looking for more links from fashion bloggers so let your fashion bloggers know!
Also, please take the time to visit the other blogs on the link-up and meet some new bloggers!
Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I are watching Comfy, Cozy movies this September and October and this week we are discussing Ladies in Lavender.
Ladies in Lavender stars Judi Dench and Maggie Smith. It was released in 2004 and was written and directed by Charles Dance, who is also a well-known British actor (Game of Thrones). It was his directorial debut. The screenplay that Dance wrote, according to information online, is based on a short story by the same name written by William Locke in 1908. I also thought it was interesting to find out that a play based on the movie was later developed.
I watched it on Amazon Prime for free (with a membership) but it is also free on Peacock, Tubi, the Roku Channel, and PlutoTV.
Janet (Maggie Smith) and Ursula Widdington (Judi Dench) are spinster sisters living in a small coastal English town. Their life is pretty slow and mundane from what we can tell at first. They clean and knit and have tea but not much else.
One morning Ursula is looking out her upstairs window when she sees a man on the beach. She and her sister run to him and with the help of the local doctor bring him inside. They believe he’s been washed up from a shipwreck of some sort.
As they nurse him back to health they realize he doesn’t speak English. After some effort they discover he speaks Polish and his name is Andrea (Daniel César Martín Brühl González – A German/Spanish actor who is known to comic book fans as Helmut Zemo/Baron Zemo).
Since this is right before World War II this makes the people in the small town a bit anxious when they learn of where he’s from later on. It doesn’t help that there is also a woman living in the area who speaks German. This puts everyone on edge but at the same time, people begin to like Andrea when he is able to move around.
First, he is nursed back to health by Janet and Ursula and Ursula teaches him some English.
At one point Janet is playing piano downstairs. Andrea has been upstairs recovering and when he hears the music he covers his ears and asks for it to stop. Janet has a book of German and knows a few words so she finds a way to communicate with him and learns he loves music but prefers the violin. So the ladies find the local fiddler player who plays a few tunes for the recovering Andrea. We can tell that Andrea is trying to be polite but that he’s not excited by the man’s inferior performance. He asks if he can play the fiddle and ends up kicking a much more polished and classical version of the folk song out, which tells us he is an accomplished violinist.
I won’t lie – I did worry that this movie was going to go a bit weird at one point because Andrea had to stay with the sisters while he recovered and Ursula became very infatuated with him but it didn’t go where I worried it would.
To explain a bit without giving too much away – Judi Dench’s character becomes enamored with Andrea and though she knows she’s too old for him she sort of imagines what it would like to be younger and be able to fall in love with him.
Both she and her sister really become attached to him but more in a matronly way for Maggie Smith’s character. They both want to take care of him. He brings such happiness and love into their lonely lives. He brightens their otherwise mundane existence and reveals to them experiences they never had – being wives and mothers.
They are afraid he will leave them when they see his talent and they see the German woman, who is also an artist, speaking to him and becoming friends with him.
This is a very artistic movie with beautiful scenery, superb acting, and a sweet story. I wouldn’t say it is the best movie I’ve ever seen as if feels like there was more that could have been done with some of the characters – especially Andrea who I would have liked to know more about in regards to his background and upbringing.
Still, I enjoyed this one and find it a very comfy, cozy watch since the characters are so endearing. The sisters are caring and sweet in their own ways and the housekeeper is very funny. She’s a bit rough on the edges but even she becomes attached to Andrea.
The short story that the movie was based on was first published in Collier’s magazine and later included in a book of other short stories by Locke called Faraway Stories in 1916.
Dance said Smith and Dench were the only ones considered for the roles and if he had not been able to get them, he wouldn’t have made the movie. He asked them when they were in a play together and accepted the offer without even seeing the script.
This was González’s first English-speaking movie. I also thought it was very interesting that he did not play the violin in the movie. Instead, it was the famous violinist Joshua Bell.
I thought it was interesting that we chose this as a comfy, cozy movie for this year and a New York Times critic said of the movie “[Dench and Smith] sink into their roles as comfortably as house cats burrowing into a down quilt on a windswept, rainy night… This amiably far-fetched film… heralds the return of the Comfy Movie…”
Next up on our Comfy, Cozy Cinema is Kiki’s Delivery Service.
And here is a list of the rest of the movies we are watching through November.
Feel free to link up your own impressions of the movies at our link-ups. The links close at the end of the week but feel free to leave your blog post on future link-ups, even if it is for another movie.
