Tea/Knit Swap Box

I can finally post this.  Elin in Sweden and I were partnered up through Ravelry, a knit/crochet community website, and we joined a Mad Hatters Tea Party Swap Box forum.  I shipped mine off last Tuesday, and she received it yesterday!  I was so excited that she loved it.  I worked hard to make sure it catered to her and what I thought she'd love.  I had so much fun knitting up the mug hug for her.  Although I used Bethany Dailey's Cabled Mug Hug as a jumping off point, I pretty much just made it my own and made it work for the mug I sent Elin.  I also made my first Scrubbie-O whilst doing this swap and I LOVE it!  I can't wait to make more....I have made 2 more so far, but I just want to keep making them!  I'll post some pics now of the box I sent her.  I'm so proud of it!  And I'm starting a smaller swap for the beginning of May with the Yahoo! Group Gettin' It Pegged, and I'm also part of a - wait for it- HARRY POTTER themed swap through the Odd Ducks Swap Group on Ravelry!  I'm BEYOND excited for that one!  Oooooh, I can't wait to do it!  But I won't find out my secret partner till the beginning of April, and I won't know who's sending to me either....so exciting!  I'll be posting pics of both those swaps when they're done and received by my respective swapees.  And I may even post when I receive Elin's box!  Hopefully I'll get it when I'm recovering this weekend from my knee surgery....which is this Friday the 23rd.  That would be a nice fun surprise!  All right, picture time!

Movies and Music

I love the feeling of listening to music from a movie, especially the ones that started out as books.  You can just absorb yourself into the music, picture the movie, picture the even-bigger detail of the book that goes along with that.  See the inspiration for the music that you're listening to. 

This is all prompted, of course, by the Hunger Games that is coming out on Friday.  But the album was released on iTunes and I am listening to it.....going through the harder songs, because I'm dealing with a raging migraine right now.  But I have to just say that I have never heard Jayme Dee....and I can't find anything else that she's sung....but the song on this album "Rules" is not only beautiful, but it just goes so deep into the book/movie that it's amazing.  I also like Taylor Swift's "Eyes Open", it's deep into it as well.  I can just picture Katniss sleeping in the trees during the games, staring at the sky, watching the Tribute's pictures above.  And that's just from the book.

It did take a while for me to like "Safe & Sound" by Taylor Swift and The Civil Wars.  Although I think a better fitting song for this movie overall is Metric's "Blindness", but they didn't ask me.  But "Blindness" truly is a nice, overall theme of all three books, actually.  But they didn't use Metric, they went, it seems, in a much more mellow direction music wise.  I would have thought much more alternative as opposed to more Indie sounds, but as I'm listening, the Indie does fit nicely.  It was just surprising, is all, from the fast-paced, hard-edge the book has, especially during the games.

But they did introduce me to The Civil Wars....which is a fantastic duo.  I got their CD and I love them.  Love their feel and their sound. 

Anyway, that's my take.  I say it's a great album to get, though.  Worth the money. 

I do feel the same way about the Twilight Series movies, although there's a few choices it took a while to get used to and some I just absolutely dislike.  But overall, I think the tone of their CDs fit the books completely as well as the movies they were made for.  And of course, Harry Potter.  But those are Classical music and just go sooooo well, that they need no explanation.  You listen to a few chords and you know exactly where you are in the movie, taking you to that portion, pulling you into it.

It's a lovely feeling, being absorbed by music.  Any music, for that matter.  But when you can put it into actual words/pictures from that movie reel that runs in your brain from a book you read....amazing.