A sense of Elinor

I would never forget when I first came to the US how I was terrified that I am taking a huge step back, leaving everything I have worked for behind, knowing that it will be a very long time before I feel home here. I knew very little English and I never received formal English language instruction with a teacher and all, so it was even scarier that it will be quite a while before I learn to think in English and express myself as well as I would wish to without the inhibition of the language barrier. 



If you know me, you know that I love reading and the first thing I did when I came here was to get a library card. There was one significant problem though, I had no idea who the ( present) worth reading authors are, so I decided to " go back in time" and start from the classics. 

I sure tried Byron and Shakespeare, (original versions of course, I always say that if an author took the time to write something in a particular language, he did it for a reason, so you should take the time to understand why) and I won't get into details, but it was painful. I was reading with the dictionary in hand and I was losing the enjoyment of reading because some of the expressions you couldn't even find in the dictionary. 

You can't learn a language from a dictionary! It is an inevitable evil to use one, but you simply cannot rely on it all the time. Unless you want to get beat up somewhere for the "proper" language you used. But, you can learn language from books and that is exactly what I did.

Anyway, I decided to start with something easier and then Jane Austen caught my eye. This is how I fell in love with her, the century she writes about in her works and with English language altogether.  Of course I learned not only to love but also to appreciate the language too, but that wasn't until I took out all the words I didn't know from Bronte's "Jane Eyre". Believe me, you don't want to know how long that list was.

What does this have to do with my Art and Craft section you will ask? Well, it has been a long time since I first read  " Sense and Sensibility"( a great movie with Emma Thompson too, by  the way!) but when I first made the card in this set, I was thinking of Elinor. I felt that it is only proper to name the set after her and I hope you appreciate it as much as I do. Here she is, coming to life under Austen's quill : 

"...She was stronger alone; and her own good sense so well supported her, that her firmness was as unshaken, her appearance of cheerfulness as invariable, as, with regrets so poignant and so fresh, it was possible for them to be..."

The "Elinor" set includes 

- a bookmark

- a gift box

-a greeting card

I will be glad to hear your comments or questions or simply if you want to say "Hi" .

Annie