Profoundly Loved Blog Party

I have been rather sporadically doing some sewing, and other vintage related activities, but have not got around for a while to posting anything. Oh well. My schedule is beginning to settle a bit, so I aam hoping to be posting much more regularly in the next few weeks.

A few weeks ago, the lovely Esther from Dolly Creates nominated me for the Profoundly Loved Blog Party. So without further ado, here are the questions and answers!

1. Tell me about something you love and why.
My great love, that lies outside of the scope of this blog is history. I am currently completing the research year of my undergraduate degree in medieval history, and am loving every minute of it. History as a discipline is something I am passionate about. Understanding our past and culture is an incredibly important way to understand ourselves and the present and I believe is able to make us better rounded people, with deep perspective.

2. What is one thing you do that makes you feel like "I could do this forever"?
I am a reader. I have been reading everything for as long as I can remember. Whilst my reading output has slowed in recent years due to competing time demands, the lure of a good book is always strong. I read predominately history books, historical fiction and classic fiction. My favourite authors include Jane Austen, Emily Bronte, Sharon Penman, Kate Morton and Daphne du Maurier. My love of all things old fashioned probably took off from Victorian literature. I love character driven plots, and novels about manners and society. Books are precious to me; they have taught me more about life than anything else could have.

3. What do you love about yourself?
I am a non conformist. I have never felt much need or desire to fit in in the traditional sense. For me being true to myself has always been more important. One of the reasons I dress vintage is in a sense a rebellion against what I do not like in modern society. I also hold more old fashioned, non-mainstream views on most matters of politics, society, and culture. I have always appreciated my ability to think critically, and often cynically.

4. What advice would you give somone who doesn't think he/she is beautiful?
Beauty, in a physical sense is a vry fleeting characteristic. To me, whilst someone's physical appearance is the first thing you naturally notice, after I get to know someone, their personality for me trumps any first impressions. Beautiful people can sometimes hide an ugly interior, and after a while that is all you notice.
In a more practical sense, I am of the opinion that good grooming matters more than beauty. A "plain" but neatly dressed person will always look better than a very beautiful person in disheveled clothing.

5. What is the best piece of advice you've ever received about confidence?
You are probably worrying about how you are presenting much more than other people are noticing you. So relax.

6. If you were your own daughter, what important thing would you tell them?
I would tell her to stand firm in her own convictions, to be gracious, and to never cling so dearly to a point of view, that you cannot concede and see the other side. I would tell her that life does not follow a predetermined course, and as much as we can plan out our lives, things will always arise, whether good or bad to throw us off. Lastly, I would encourage her to maintain wide ranging interests. There s too much life to live to be bored.

7. A verse, poem, sonnet, ancient old proverb, that inspires you to love yourself and others?
This quote is from the wonderful novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin. I first came acrss it on a wedding programme many years ago, and it exemplifies how I feel about my husband.
Whilst de Bernieres is talking here of romantic love, I feel this quote captures beautifully a profound truth about all love that we often forget in our romance saturated world; love is primarily not about emotion, but about the deep commitment made rationally between two people.

Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being in love which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two.

Thank you to Esther for the nomination. I am passing this along to these lovely ladies, but please feel no obligation to answer if you so do not wish.

Emileigh from Flashback Summer

Freya from Freya May Makes

Beth from Sewing Soothes the Soul