Today is a day well worth celebrating!

Do you know why????????

I'll give you a hint. No, in fact I'll just tell you. It's because this very day 202 years ago one of the most funny, witty, well-written books ever was published.
 It was called Pride and Prejudice by a certain Miss Jane Austen. :) And who is a very distant relation of ours, who we call our very dear cousin.
Now, seeing as it on our calendar as our official Jane Austen day we've put together some things we're going to do.

1. Pick a scene out of the better-than-best '95 version to act out and hopefully film
2. Complain about how we want to go to Brighton
3. Take a turn around the room
4. Go for a walk to Meryton (So just a walk down our driveway)
5. Thump out a P&P sounding tune on our pianoforte (Umm *cough cough* keyboard)

6. Read some parts out of the book in different voices for fun.
7. Do embroidery
8. Make a display of Jane Austen books

A picture of Mr. Darcy because he is amazing

9. Make pound cake
10. Make tea
11. And most importantly have them while we watch one of the greatest mini series of all time.

And don't forget:
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

God Bless

 

What I've been reading, listening and watching........lately

Hi everyone.
Well, holidays are almost finished here. Which means that next week we're back to school. In some ways I'm happy and in other ways I'm sad. I'm glad that we'll have a routine more so than we have had in the holidays. But I'm sad because the holidays are really slow days which actually go quickly. :) Anyway, that wasn't the reason I'm writing this post so I'll just get to the point. I'd like to share what I've been doing, as the title suggests, so here we go.

I haven't been reading that much,. *shock gasp horror* I know, it's just that I've been watching a lot of stuff. The few things I have been reading are:

Return of the King. This being only a little bit. I'm up to the 'Field of Cormallen' but as I've said I have only read a tiny bit of it. I'm so proud that I'm going so well with it. :)

Castaways in Time: The After Cilmeri series book six. This is another time-traveling book which is highly enjoyable. It is what I would term more lighter reading. Still, if you are in the mood for medieval times, welsh characters and an interesting story-line I then  go for it! It is a bit more adulty though, here and there. My favourite is still Prince of Time, but any of the series is good. :)

 Heroes of Olympus: The Blood of Olympus. So this is probably the one I've been focusing on most. I don't know how many of you remember Mabel, but she finished House of Hades and then she said she reckoned she'd finish it before I did. And being the none competitive person that I am, I agreed. NOT. So now I'm pretty confident I'll finish it before her. :) It's true I'm enjoying reading it, it's better than the Lost Hero but it still cannot beat Son of Neptune or Mark of Athena and the reason I'm saying it is not better than House of Hades is because there are actual Percy and Annabeth points of view in them whereas we have in Blood of Olympus:
Jason = Dull
Piper = Alright
Leo = Funny
Nico = Good
Reyna = Good.
Whereas if we had Percy's point of view I'd rate it as:
Percy = Awesome. :)
It's a good book it's just not as enjoyable because Percy gets shoved to the back as a secondary character. And because it needs to be said: Percy Jackson is way better than Jason Grace. Seriously, he is. :)

What I've been listening to.
So Autumn showed me this video the other week and so now I have it on my I-Pod and I've been listening to it a lot.
It's called 'I'm so Catholic'. You won't get it unless your Catholic though. Oh, and I can sing some of it, too.
But recently as in since about Thursday I've been listening to two other songs more, they are:
Hooked on a Feeling
Come and Get Your Love. Honestly if I didn't have Hooked on a Feeling off GOTG I'd say that it was junk. :) I'm just loving listening to these two, I hope that the sequel has more of these kind of songs (as in the Awesome Mix 2).
Weird Al Yankovic. He is so funny with his parodies. The one that I've been listening to the most is:
Ode to a Superhero 
Anthem Lights. Saxon got me the album 'You have my Heart' and my two favourtie songs of it are
Dear Hollywood and Closer than the Angels.
'Dear Hollywood' just seems so true to life and 'Closer than the Angels' makes me feel happy. :)
I've added a healthy dose of Brandon Heath and then yeah, that's what I've been listening to.

Now onto watching.....This is fun. :D

I've started watching Sherlock with Rogan as he now has permission to watch it! He really likes it. :) We've only watched 'A Study in Pink' and 'The Blind Banker' so far. Hopefully we'll be watching 'The Great Game' tonight. :) He can't decide if he likes Sherlock or John better. :) And he loved the whole John-being-Sherlock-mix-up in episode two.
I've also watched some Gilmore Girls but now after some thinking on it, I don';t want to continue watching the series anymore. Just a bit more than I want as once again, it's a bit more older. Oh, and can you guess what I've mostly been watching?

THIS! TADA!!! :D I am just so totally loving it! I think I might like it better than Sherlock. :) Or at least there even. It's been so much fun watching Person of Interest because My Dad likes it and Rogan can watch it too, which means that we've all been watching it together. :) And the characters are now so dear to me. John, Harold, Carter and Fusco. And we're just on season 2. And John rescued Harold and Root is such a good bad guy and I have no idea what is going to happen next! Oh and we haven't heard anything from Elias in a while and what is Kara doing back and Fusco and Carter know they're on the same side. And John and Harold are really good friends and John's got a dog and Harold's reaction to it was so sweet. :) It's all just, so very, very, good. And as you can see I'm fangirling. :)

Anyway I'd better go. :)

God Bless
 

Guest Post! Kat on How to get your blog out there!

Hi everyone how have you been? So yeah I've been AWHOL a bit but I'm here today to share a guest post that the lovely Kat over at Almost Completely Mad wrote for me. Thank you Kat! :)This is my first ever guest-poster and I'm very excited! 
Hi readers of Vellvin’s blog! I’d firstly like to thank Vellvin for letting me guest post here on her awesome blog.

Now, onto what I have to say! I thought that I might write about some of the best things you can do to get your blog OUT THERE!

One. My biggest tip is to visit other people’s blogs! I know this seems like a no brainer, but really it helps a lot. If people see your nice comment on someone’s blogs, they’re likely to go and click onto your blog and visit. Remember to leave a comment though, just following doesn’t do much help unless the author of the blog is always looking at they’re follower’s bar!

Two. Leave a link to your blog in your comments. It doesn't matter if you’ve visited that blog before or if you don’t want to push your blog in people’s faces, leaving a link in a comment is a great way to get people to pop over to your blog. Just seeing your name might not be enough! If you want to learn how to leave a link in a comment, feel free to pop on over to my post over at my own blog, (Almost) Completely Mad.

Three. Write often and with good content. Let’s just say that people don’t want to read a blog if they’re nothing to read. But that doesn’t mean you should write three times and days and extremely long posts! It just means make sure you write regularly, at least three times a week, and that you take some thought over what you write. Ask yourself if you’d read it or if this is the best way to write your post. It’s all about how it’s written.

Four. Have good post titles. A post title is the first thing a person sees of your post, make sure it’s good. I’ve clicked on posts simply for the title before! But if someone just writes ‘untitled’ or leaves the space clear, then I don’t feel like reading so much!

If you’re writing say a fashion post or a lifestyle, something catchy like, ‘Where I Blow Up My Mum’s Hairdryer’ is intriguing, but if you’re writing a tutorial post or a list like this, just write what it is, like, ‘Five Ways to Make Time to Reply to Comments’. That way people know what the post is and they’re sure you are actually talking about that!

Five. Reply to your comments. People are less likely to stop by on a blog whose blogger doesn’t reply to comments. They feel you don’t care if they read or not. By replying to those comments you sound friendly and they want to know you better.

Six. Don’t go overboard on social media. I know everyone says social media is important to blogging, and it is to some extent, but don’t do what I did. I joined everything and couldn’t keep up with it all. Instead, just join a few things and be active on them.

Seven. Show good spirit. Sounding friendly and interested is the best way to get people to like you! Trust me. Everyone wants to know the person who leaves jokes and comments on your blog sounding like they care about what you’ve written, but no one wants to know the person who moans and laughs at what you say. Remember that!

Eight. Be yourself. Enjoy blogging and what you write. Don’t copy, write your own things. You’re unique and so act it!

I hope this helps you get your blog out there!

If you’re interested, you can find me over at my blog, (Almost) Completely Mad, or twitter where I’m normally writing really random things that have nothing to do with anything!

Thanks so much for guest-posting Kat! I really need to work on five. I'm pretty bad when it comes to that. :) Oh and I love eight! :D

Kat is the lovely writer of 'Almost Completely Mad'. Where she blogs about anything under the sun. She loves Dr. Who, (Why when Sherlock is better. :P ) is a bit of a geek and a voracious readed. She is a catholic convert just like me! She also lives in Australia which is a big plus. :) 

God Bless
 

Person of Interest....Our current obsession.

Hello guys how have you all been? I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and new year. :) I did.
Anyway, I don't know how many of you remember but a while back I did a blog post on the Disney themed birthday party I went to, it was my friend Mabel's actually. And I've been at her house the past few days doing stuff together because it's holiday. :) And that has included watching 'Person of Interest' which we have both decided is awesome. I introduced it to Mabel and she likes a lot.
Mabel is blue I'm red.

Say hi Mabel! :) 

Hi everyone :)

So today we're talking about Person of interest which I think is probably my favourite tv show after Sherlock. And yeah, that's what we're doing. 
And yeah lots of spoilers btw. 

So far we've only watched 8 episodes, but they've been amazing!!! 

Two words. Jonathan. Nolan. Basically the guy who absolutely adores putting twists in everything. True story. :)

It's basically about a ex army/special forces guy, named John Reese (and he's supposed to be dead).



And his association with a guy by the name of Harold Finch. (Don't tell him I told you that he's a very private person. :P ) (And he's supposed to be dead too. 
So, Mr. Finch built a machine that would find potential terrorist attacks so that they could stop them before they happened. But it started picking up not only on terrorist attacks that would happen but also anyone involved or about to be involved in situations that would threaten someones life. Finch separated the names into two different lists. Relevant and irrelevant.


So the relevant list was only for potential terrorist attacks but the irrelevant list was for anyone involved in criminal intent, perpetrator or victim.


And the authorities don't do anything about the irrelevant list, in fact they don't even know that Finch still has access to it, but seeing as he built it he made himself a back door. And the irrelevant list haunts him, because he can't do anything about it by himself.

So Finch finds Reese and hires him (after freaking him out a bit). to save the people on the irrelevant list. Finch also helps Reese with info on people and hacks places for the information they need at the time


Anway, in the first episode just before Reese meets Finch he ends up at the police station in trouble for bashing up some guys who were being really rude and irritating :) And he's marked a duhduhlah! Person of Interest. :) 

Which sets Detective Carter on his trail. Now, Carter becomes totally obsessed with finding this vigilante (in a suit) who tends to interfere (help) with some of her cases. She's a by the books person too, but still a good character. 


Meanwhile Reese gets an inside man, Detective Lionel Fusco. Who Reese blackmailed into giving him info on police reports and anything else he can think of, and keeping an eye on Carter for him.
Lionel Fusco was a crooked cop, he worked for and with fellow crooked cops in drug dealing, lying in court, ect. he's weak and easily manipulated, although we believe that under it all he has a good heart (as he shows in episode 5) 

A new gang comes to town and nobody knows what the leader looks like, all they know is that his name is Elias. We do now! Mindblown! :D


Each episode there's new characters, which keeps it fresh, and interesting. :) 

Basically if you haven't watched this T.V. show your missing out on soooooooo much! I'm already starting to obsess over it and I've only watched eight episodes so far. 
What do you think, Mabel?

Well you know how quickly I start to obsess, but this is quick, even for me!! 

And there is four seasons 'hint hint nudge nudge kick kick shove shove' 

Yay, something for me to watch while I wait for Sherlock season 4! 

Totally agree. :) Okay, bye guys! and remeber what we said, watch it. ITSSSSSSS GOOD!! :)

BYE!!!


God Bless,
Vellvin and Mabel

It's eight years.....

Hello world! How are you all? Honestly I did not mean to be gone for so long but it felt really good anyway! I hope everyone has been well. I certainly have and I'm getting excited for Christmas, too! :D But then something equally awesome and amazing happened for me and my family eight years ago on this very Sunday.

We became Catholic! We became new members of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. And seriously it's the best thing we could have done. :)
In a world where morals are being rolled around by what people 'feel like' at the time, not by what is actually right, the Church is a steady point, and anchor in a sea of chaos. And I thank God that he opened the door and we followed. God is so amazing that he led us, and showed us that this is where we truly belong.
So a very Happy Anniversary to me! :D (And hopefully I'll actually be posting again now. :P )



God Bless

A Disney Birthday party.............

I'm not quite sure how to start this post.
I remember I was going to post this ages back, but then I got distracted and I needed permission to share some of the photos and you know, one thing led to another. So anyway enough rambling and on with the post! :D The Disney birthday party which Eden, Saxon and I attended was our very good friend Mabel's 16th birthday party. I remember her telling me at Homeschool group that us three were invited to it. I am so glad that she did because it was so much fun! The dress code was Disney fancy dress. Come as any character made by Disney.

For ages (as you've probably heard) I wanted to come as the cartoon Maid Marian. But the idea of finding a costume exactly like hers was not easy. I was also glad because someone else who I didn't know came dressed as the cartoon Robin Hood. :)

 The day was fun. We played quite a few games. One of them was celebrity heads. Disney themed so that meant that you got popular Disney characters. Mine was Mickey Mouse. :) Tantor was also in our group. :) We split up into four teams. Mabel and I were on the same one. Sadly ours came second and we didn't get the chocolate prize. :( The wii was hooked up to a T.V. and you could play Disney Just-Dance on it. I tried doing 'Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' with Mabel's youngest sister but sadly I stepped on my gun and broke it. :(
We played 'How well do you know Mabel?' Which was basically a quiz with 30 questions on it. I teamed up with one of Mabel's friends who she had know for years and who I"d been looking forward to meeting. We won! :D I was rather proud that we did. :) We had pin the tail on Eeyore. I went pretty good with it but didn't win. :(
I actually can't remember what other games there were. There was a nice bit of mingling and te party food was very nice, too.

This was Mabel's birthday cake. As you can see, it is rather Disney-themed. :P
I suppose you're all wondering about the costumes, I mean after all I've talked about them before but never posted any pictures of them except Saxon's. Well here they are. I had permission to show you Mabel and her family's costumes, too. :)

Here is Eden as Esmeralda from the Hunchback of Notre Dame. She got one of the runner-up prizes for her costume. She definitely deserved it! I mean she was stressing about it the night before and only finished it late the night before. She was originally going to come as Alice in Wonderland but changed her mind. Honestly her costume is awesome! I'm so proud of her! :D

Another view of the cake. 

This is Mabel's older sister. She had been planning her costume ahead of time for months. She came as Barbie from Toy Story 3. She even painted the heels pink. :) Oh, and that's a wig if you are wondering. :P

This is Mabel's younger brother. He came as Marty from Pirates of the Caribbean. There was actually quite a few people who came as people from POTC. We had Elizabeth, Angelica, and a random pirate from POTC 4. 

This is me. Finally you can see my outfit! I'm Peggy Carter from Captain America!  As you can see, my gun is broken as I'm not holding it in the photo. I wish I'd gotten a couple of other more detailed photos of my outfit. But that's the general gist of it.  Mummy curled my hair and did my hair in Victory rolls. They were quite a nice hair style.

This is Mabel and her wonderful Belle dress! Isn't her outfit awesome!? She wore a corset and and then had trouble blowing out her candles. :)

This is Saxon as Walt Disney. He couldn't decide for ages who to come as then settled on Disney.  He actually sort of grew the moustache but coloured it black as all the boys in our family when they try to grow facial hair have ginger, so far. :)

This is Mabel's second youngest sister. She came as Mulan after watching the movie and totally loving it! :)

And this is Mabel's youngest sister. She is Rapunzel. :) There were actually three Rapunzel's at the party. :)

Mabel with her Mum and Dad. Her Dad came as Joe from Princess Diaries. I can't remember who her Mother came as.

Cutting the cake. As you can see Saxon photo-bombed. :D

The day was very fun and I was so glad I was invited! :D And to Mabel, because I'm sure you are going to read this: I'M SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG!!!!

God Bless
  

When going on a pilgrimage................

So you all may be wondering why and where and how is it that I haven't been blogging. Life's busy But beside life, I also went on a pilgrimage. And it was very fun.

The characters:
Frodo (me)
Sam (Saxon)
Merry (Eden)
Pippin (Rogan)
Gandalf (Dad)
Legolas (a good friend)

'It was in the 2014 in the Shire reckoning that four hobbits and their wizard friend went on a great journey that would take them many leagues and leave them with sore feet, tired eyes and no pints of which to speak. They were going on a great quest (the pilgrimage).
The trip was very long to get to their starting point. Mind you, if they had know what was in store for them I'm sure that Frodo and Pippin wouldn't have been so keen on the idea. Sam and Merry, on the other hand were veterans and quite happy to introduce us to any and all the exciting and exhausting things that would happen to us.

The first night, that is the night before our actual journey started, we slept in a hall. There were all manner of races sleeping, snoring or even talking. Not surprisingly the ones who were most interested in talking were the elves, after all, they wouldn't really need to sleep anyway. It was hard that first night to get to sleep. I missed my soft feather bed. I imagined the Sackville-Bagginses and the soft beds which they slept in, and Gandalf went pretty much straight to sleep and his snoring was kind of annoying.
The next morning me being the extremely smart hobbit I was an eager to get up early and be ready had set the alarm for 5:00 am in the morning. It's okay, though, don't freak out. Everyone had to be up for 5: 30 anyway.

It was a very long journey, Merry was particularly exhausted and so tended to hop in one of the carts (buses) that the Rohirrim had provided. Gandalf did a couple of time, too. Pippin and Sam walked the entire way. :P Good for them. Me being the ring-bearer and all, I had to have one cart trip, right? And yes, if you're wondering Sam did pull me along a bit at the end of the first day when I needed someone to hold my hand an help me.

There was tons and I mean tons of lembas (Subway) for lunch each day and by the third day I was heartily sick of it. Apparently it is suppose to sustain you for an entire day? I'm not sure about that but maybe the cookies they had could?

Legolas joined us the first morning and mostly stayed with Pippin and I. We were right up the front so we wouldn't fall behind all of the 'big people'.
We listened and talked and prayed. Pippin and I only got one or two blisters each.
Now, you may be wondering in all of this where Sam was. You know, he's suppose to be the one who makes sure that I keep going, right? He was telling people to get off the road! And I thought that was my job. :P

He was with a group of mixed Rohirrim and Rangers (Marshalls) making sure that we kept off the road, and that no black riders (cars or trucks) came by. He did that for most of the walk.

By the time we got to Sunday morning I was so glad. We were almost there! That morning before second breakfast (morning tea) we came to the big hill which apparently people race up. There were shouts of 'Gondor' (Victoria) and 'Rohan' (New South Wales). Rohan won but a lot of people ran anyway.
A little late on, I even considered going on the cart again but soldiered on. When we first saw the spires of our destination we all knelt down and prayed. But we still had a bit to go. The mixed group of Rohirrim and Rangers had the most difficult time keeping everyone safe.

Our meeting with our King (Jesus) at his place of domain (the cathedral) was a long one. But very good nevertheless. Throughout our journey he had been present in it. But then, it was all about him anyway.

And now, it is time for second breakfast, and then elevensies, and luncheon and afternoon tea, so obviously I have to go and do that.

Frodo Baggins signing off. '


So for three days we walked, talked and prayed. I found it very exhausting adn finally decided that seeing as I wasn't seeming to get much 'spiritual' that I was just going to walk for Jesus. That worked pretty well. Each day there was Mass. On Saturday it was actually outdoors but it was really lovely. If I hadn't of been so tired, maybe I would have concentrated more instead of being interested in just sitting down. :)
This blog post might sound a bit mish-mashed, and I'm sorry for that. But really, I'm quite tired and I don't really feel like writing a longer blog post than this. I went on a pilgrimage and it was an interesting experience.
And when we got home on Sunday night it was like Sam at the end of Return of the King. 'I'm glad I'm back.'

God Bless

I thought you'd like to meet him...............

Yesterday at 11: 30 am we got a call from Braedon. Mum put him on speaker. And this is what he said:
 'We have a little boy. His name is Balian George.'
He was born only an hour earlier and we spent about three hours going shopping for presents! :)
Then we got to go and see him. He is our first ever nephew or niece. Us kids and Mum and Dad are all very proud.
But the proudest of course, are Braedon and Anna-Lisa. They brought this little man into the world and he is just perfect. :) Congratulations to you both! <3
He's got red hair! :D

And another picture because I can. :)

God Bless
 

Love doesn't count Chromosomes

Hi everyone!

Just popping in to say did any of you know that October is Down Syndrome Awareness Month?
Now, if you've been reading my blog for any amount of time you would know that I'm am absolutely pro-life. And Down Syndrome babies, children and adults come under that umbrella.

They are beautiful people! They have just as much right to live as anybody else does. And do you know what? An extra chromosome is a silly thing for ppeopleto go on about!
God creates us all for different things. He has a special plan for each and every one of us.
I'll be displaying a picture at the top of my blog to show my support for these darling angels. I hope you might consider to do the same. These people are blessings from God! And it's our job to let the world see!

I'll hopefully be posting again more frequently. :) Life has been good. :)

God Bless