Merry Christmas

Dear Friends,

Happy Holidays & have a meowy good time. Before I rest the writing pen for 2016, I’d like to share a short poem with you.

How lovely 'tis to take this time
To greet our dearest friends,
To wish them health and happiness
Before the old year ends.

Source: Copyright Nicholas Gordon

May peace, love, and joy
be with you this holiday season.

I’ll be back posting on the blogger site in January 2017.

♥ Ashlyn

Thank You

Thank you friends for reading my blogs and G+ sites, 
for sharing my posts,
and leaving comments during 2016.

I’ve had a good time sharing posts from my friends too. 
I've listened to all sorts of new music.
Read many meaningful words and quotes.
Seen an enormous art gallery's worth of beautiful pictures. 
My days and nights were brighter.
Friends, thanks for the inspiration.

Wherever you are in the world,

have a happy weekend,
and love to all.

♥ Ashlyn

Calling All Angels

The year is drawing to a close, and I thought I’d share some words about the special angels.

Firstly, remember the earth angels—they're the people who care and love others, and whose acts of kindness uplift us. Somedays, we wouldn’t get through the grind of life without the earth angels looking out for us.

Gazing up, and high above the pain and suffering of the earth are the heavenly hosts. They wait to answer our calls. Somedays, we’re not sure how this life goes.

My Christmas prayers are for respect, love, and compassion among humanity. Who better to call on for help than the Angels?

“Calling all Angels, walk me through this world.”

Are the words of a beautiful song from Jane Siberry and K.D. Lang. 

Shine your light,

love and blessings, 

♥ Ashlyn

Thank you Angels.

Writing Update

Well friends, it’s almost time for me to rest the writing pen for another year. Next week, I start my festive and short blogs. The holiday season is fast approaching and I need to recharge my energy and inspiration.

2016 – the year that was

During 2016, I reached a milestone of 100 posts on the Blogger. Woo-hoo! I remember my first post in April 2015 when I felt like a goose introducing myself and my writing to no-one in particular. My blogger site was an empty room in cyberspace.

Throughout the year, I continued blogging about new romance books, movies, and lame jokes. I revisited two of the most popular topics on my site—the Paris Bone Crypts and “The Dressmaker” movie. I also explored some different themes like Interesting Women, Female Heroes & Villains, The Celts and Small Homes.

I surprised myself when I was inspired to write about connecting with inner and outer Nature. After I wrote about the earth moving under my feet article from earthquake tremors, I started a new Google + Sacred Earth page to share posts about our beautiful earth and Mother Nature.

October is the month I blog about strange and spooky things in the lead up to Samhain/Halloween celebrations. I spooked myself when I watched a random video on youtube about UFO’s in Egypt. I didn’t know whether the UFO’s were real or fake, but they captured my interest and my thoughts took off in a new direction. I wrote about Aliens and the Great Pyramid of Egypt. I’m still researching geomorphic energy, ancient aliens and historic Egypt to write more posts in 2017.

2016 was the year on the blogger that I discovered I liked writing about lots of things. In 2017, I expect to continue writing about anything that I find interesting and readers might too. I also hope to self-publish some more short writing on Amazon.com, but I haven’t decided which stories I should focus my efforts.

The Australian summer is heating up, and I’m thinking about finishing all my work and heading to the beach in Perth to cool off. 

Enjoy your weekend.

♥  Ashlyn 

Snippets of News about “The Dressmaker” Movie

source: www.facebook.com

“The Dressmaker” movie was released to the world on different dates and even different years. In the USA, Amazon Studios with Broad Green Pictures released the movie in September 2016.

During the last 12 months, my 2 write-ups about the movie have become popular posts. So I thought I’d search the web for some snippets of news about “The Dressmaker”.

Justin Chang of Variety gave the film a positive review, saying, "Moorhouse's adaptation of Rosalie Ham's 2000 novel may lead audiences to expect a primmer, more well-behaved movie based on its title alone, but that doesn't mean it won't have them in stitches." (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dressmaker_(2015_film)

Here’s a featurette video about the story.

Actor, Liam Hemsworth (brother of Chris) was nervous about his undressing scene in the movie.

From an article over at news.com.au  (which doesn’t have a repost button for the Blogger site)....

“I didn’t eat for weeks,” he admitted to E! News about preparing for his shirtless scene in the flick. “I did some push-ups in my trailer. Anytime you’re going to come out and take your top off, it’s good to do a couple of push-ups … It’s very difficult to come out and just take your clothes off.”

Liam Hemsworth, "Teddy" from "The Dressmaker" movie. Teddy is about to be measured up for his wedding suit.
source: news.com.au

From Hemsworth’s co-star, Kate Winslet, “When I would get to the point [in the scene] where I had to measure his waist, I would actually hear his stomach growling,” she said. “I would think, ‘Poor darling. Let’s get the scene done.’”

Looking handsome, here's Teddy wearing his finished wedding suit.

Teddy wearing his wedding suit made by the Dressmaker.
source: http://www.townandcountrymag.com/

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 Belle of the Ball

The character, Gertrude is a shop girl and she casts her eyes over the most eligible bachelor in the district and decides she wants him for herself. Here is a picture of Gertrude in her ball gown, with commentary from; http://www.townandcountrymag.com/

Belle of the Ball
source: http://www.townandcountrymag.com/

“In Gertrude's break-out moment, she wears a stunning, three-layered silk dress adorned with vintage jewelry. After she makes her debut in this gown, a flock of townsfolk run to Tilly for one of her creations.

Even before I hired a costume designer, I was doing intense amounts of research on the golden age of couture," said Moorhouse. "I studied Dior, Balenciaga and Balmain, and Jacque Fath—I loved his stuff.”

I liked this photograph of rustic charm and glamorous Gertrude so much I had to include it.

copyright Universal Pictures

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Documentary

The movie sweeps across genres with vintage fashion flair, and if you’d like to watch some behind the cameras action, a documentary has been released.

BEHIND THE SEAMS: THE MAKING OF THE DRESSMAKER

Available on DVD everywhere from Wednesday 23rd November, 2016.

If you're interested, here’s the link for the ABC shop, https://shop.abc.net.au/products/the-dressmaker-behind-the-seams-2dvd

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Well that’s me all stitched up for another week.

Remember, a stitch in time saves nine. Oh, the mending pile is growing bigger.

Sew much fabric, sew little time.

Keep calm and grab the seam ripper.

Have a good weekend. 

♥ Ashlyn 

My 2015 blog posts about “The Dressmaker” movie are here;

Blog Post # 1 The Dressmaker - A Captivating Movie
Blog Post #2 The Dressmaker Movie Trailer

The Winning Homemade Dresses at the Horse Races

The Spring Horse Racing Carnival is underway in Australia. For the second year in a row, the winner in the fashion competition at the Melbourne Cup horse race was a homemade dress sewn by a mother for her daughter. Olivia Moor from Auckland, New Zealand won the women's racewear final of Fashions in the Field. Here she is in her homemade dress.

Olivia Moor in her winning dress
source: nine.com.au 

In a family coup, Olivia’s sister, Charlotte, was this year's runner-up in the fashion competition along with Yvette Hardy. I wonder if Charlotte wore a homemade dress made by her mother too?

Charlotte Moor, Olivia Moor and Yvette Hardy
source: nine.com.au

Last year, Emily Hunter won the Fashion in the Fields competition at the Melbourne Cup Horse Race in a vintage-inspired black dress, sewn by her mother. Here’s Emily in her homemade dress that upstaged the fashion elite.

Emily Hunter, 2015 winner of Fashion in the Fields
source: news.com.au 

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After the 2016 Melbourne Cup Horse Race, the homemade success continued with another fashion competition at the Oaks Day Horses races. Courtney Moore won the Fashion in the Fields in a navy and white outfit. Her mother, a milliner, made her hat which is a hand-wired 3D head piece. Here she is,

Courtney Moore, winner of Fashion in the Fields-Oaks Day
source: www.dailymail.co.uk

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Last October/November I blogged about “The Dressmaker” movie and since then, two mother’s rocked their sewing machines and made their daughter’s winning racewear. It’s wonderful that the homemade dresses were recognized as quality fashion. 

There’s a lot of tradition and history associated with women’s sewing. Once upon a time, in country Australia, grandmothers, mothers, aunties, sisters and friends made wedding dresses for young women. Sometimes daughters wore their mother’s wedding dresses to be married. 

Ready-to-wear clothes made in factories and purchased in shops is a relatively new occurrence of about one hundred years. Before then, a lot of women sewed clothes for the whole family, darned the socks, stitched patches over worn knees and elbows areas in clothes. The last destination for tatty, threadbare clothes was the ragbag. Rags were used for cleaning and made into rag rugs for the floor. Thriftiness was needed in working class families, and also during the years of the two world wars and the Great Depression.

The vintage couture in “The Dressmaker” movie is gorgeous. It’s worth watching the movie for the fashion alone. I recently saw the movie again on satellite T.V. and enjoyed the story of the heroine seeking truth, justice and slow revenge. So sad, I don’t think I’ll get over the romance in jeopardy between Tilly and Teddy.

If you’re interested in reading my 2015 blog posts about “The Dressmaker” movie, here’s the 2 links.

Blog Post #1 The Dressmaker - A Captivating Movie 

Blog Post #2 The Dressmaker Movie Trailer

Maybe I should pull that shirt out of the mending pile, and sew on the missing button. Or restitch the hems on a pair of trousers. But I’d prefer to be sewing dancing costumes or making a quilt. Or writing a book!

Enjoy your weekend. 

♥ Ashlyn 

Napoleon's Nightmare & The Great Pyramid

Hello Friends, this week I’m taking a different direction with the Aliens and Great Pyramid theme. I’ve been writing about the external or outside characteristics of the Great Pyramid. This week I’m writing about Napoleon Bonaparte’s mysterious encounter inside the Great Pyramid.

In 1798, during the time of the French Revolution, General Napoleon Bonaparte led a scientific and military expedition to Egypt. Lost treasures were discovered, uncovered and studied by his scholars. One of Napoleon’s soldiers made a significant find, or some say, the most important Egyptian artifact was recovered in modern history—the Rosetta Stone found in the town of Rosetta (Rashid) in the Nile delta area.

 The Rosetta Stone in the British Museum photographed by Matija Podhraski
source: wiki commons 

 The slab of black rock had the same message carved in 3 different languages which allowed scholars to compare and finally translate the meaning of Egyptian hieroglyphics. The world of dynastic Egypt inscribed on the walls of buildings, artifacts and written on papyrus scrolls could now be interpreted.

Napoleon didn’t succeed in overthrowing the Turkish rule of Egypt or thwarting England’s access to its colonies. But Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt changed his life, and he returned to France to overthrow the government and become Emperor. (In my recent Paris Bone Crypt 2 post  I wrote about Napoleon’s grand ambitions to transform Paris into a modern, beautiful city.)

In August of 1799, before Napoleon left Egypt, he made a special visit to the Great Pyramid. Military leaders from the ancient world like Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar had reportedly spent a night in the King’s Chamber of the Great Pyramid. Napoleon Bonaparte wanted the same experience for himself.

Bonaparte Before the Sphinx painted by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1867-1868
source: wiki commons

Back then, access inside the Great Pyramid was a challenge with low ceilings and the blocks of stone to climb around. While his soldiers waited outside, Napoleon reportedly spent 7 hours alone inside the King’s Chamber. When he emerged, he was said to be pale and visibly shaken. He refused to speak of what he’d experienced inside the Great Pyramid, and never wanted it mentioned again.

On Napoleon’s death bed, a friend asked him about the mysterious night he’d spent inside the King’s Chamber.

He hesitated, and then replied, “No what’s the use. You’d never believe me.”

Speculation remains over what Napoleon experienced inside the King’s Chamber. Was it a bad dream? Contact with aliens? Hallucinations? Or prophetic visions of himself and his future? 

Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, a leader with significant achievements took his secrets to the grave. “The scholars' research in Egypt gave rise to the Description de l’Egypte, published on Napoleon's orders between 1809 and 1821. Napoleon’s discoveries in Egypt gave rise to fascination with Ancient Egyptian culture and the birth of Egyptology in Europe.” source: wikipedia

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Well friends, writing about Aliens and The Great Pyramid was something that came out of the blue and caught me by surprise. I find myself wanting to do more research but the end of the year is fast approaching. So in 2017, I intend to come back with more Egypt posts and I hope you can join me again. In the meantime, I have more romance writing to complete before the holiday season, and some posts influenced by “The Dressmaker” movie to plan.

Enjoy your weekend. 

♥ Ashlyn

P.S. After I wrote this blog post, I did more research and published a short book.

One man’s nightmare led to a major turning point in history…

Blog Post Link

Amazon.com

Enjoy!

Aliens & The Great Pyramid - Part 2

Hello Friends, this week I’m back in the armchair and travelling to Egypt for Part 2 of Aliens & the Great Pyramid. In my Part 1 blog, I raised a few questions. Is the Great Pyramid a destination on a Galactic highway? Is there a reason for the alien connection or a mysterious purpose as to why the Great Pyramid was originally built?

I found some more images of aliens visiting the Great Pyramid? Around 2013, tourists recorded two short videos of an alien mothership hovering near the Great Pyramid. The videos were taken of the same mothership by different people from different angles. I’ll leave it to you to decide if the film footage is real or fake. 

Video #1

Video #2

The building statistics for the Great Pyramid are astonishing. Experts have made lists about the mathematical and geometric principles employed in the construction, the accuracy of leveling the Giza plateau upon which the Great Pyramid was built, and the precision of the millimeter wide joints between the blocks of stones.

Maybe five thousand years ago, the Great Pyramid was designed by expert stone masons. The Great Pyramid is the only one of the seven wonders of the ancient world that wasn’t destroyed. The structure was built to last and it has withstood the elements, earthquakes and earth movements for millennia. So let’s take a closer look at the marvelous mansion of eternity.

Location

Starship Earth – was exact center of continents but the land masses have moved since construction. Built on a platform of limestone rock on the Giza Plateau (☺ Last month I wrote about the old Roman limestone mines in the Paris Bone Crypts).

Geometry

The Great Pyramid has eight not four sides. The walls are also concave or indented which adds to the wonder of its engineering. The 8 sides are not easy to see without getting above the Great Pyramid and observing the shadows from the sun as it passes over. The eight-sided geometry also lends itself to seeing smaller 3D shapes within the larger. I can see 4 pyramid shapes on each corner, and so on. Shapes within shapes, the overall geometry seems more complex than a basic pyramid. 

source: https://sharethyknowledge.quora.com/

Orientation

The northern side of the Great Pyramid faces toward the North or more accurately toward earth’s magnetic north pole. The earth’s magnetic north changes over time and since the Great Pyramid was built, magnetic north has deviated toward the east. Interestingly, if a line was drawn through the earth, north-south, and another line was drawn east-west, one place where the two lines intersect would be at the Great Pyramid. It’s another example of the ancient engineering wow factor. I can’t help wondering what the coincidence means.

I wanted to see the north-south, east-west alignment in action, and also the easterly deviation of mag north so I went to Google Earth. I drew a north-south line through the image of the pyramid, along the middle seam of the north and south faces (the join line in the 8 sided geometry), and then drew an east-west line in the same way. The north pointing compass on Google Earth and the orientation of the Great Pyramid closely mirrors the four main directions of the compass.

“Ikhet” means the “Glorious Light”

Ikhet is an ancient Egyptian name for the Great Pyramid.

The Great Pyramid was built to be a highly visibly structure that could be seen from a great distance. It was originally capped with polished white limestone, which would have acted as mirrors of the sun’s rays. Greek historian, Herodotus, born 484 B.C, wrote the Great Pyramid had a metallic apex of electrum—an alloy of gold and silver, which also reflected sunlight. Some people speculate that the intact Great Pyramid would have been a powerful beacon of light that could be seen from the moon.

Purpose

Egyptologists believe the Great Pyramid was built as a tomb for Pharaoh Khufu from the Old Kingdom and his grave was robbed thousands of years ago. Perhaps the building had more than one purpose. Studies are ongoing, and from time to time new theories are put forward. Like the ideas about the Great Pyramid amplifying, and or producing energy.

Earth Energy

The earth’s electro-magnetic field is generated by its inner core of turning metals—mainly iron and nickel. The field extends into space where it interacts with solar winds made of charged particles that stream from the powerhouse generator of energy—the Sun. The human body has its own electro-magnetic field which is generated by its moving metallic core-the iron in the blood pumped around the body by the heart. Nerve impulses in the cells and the firing of neurons in the brain generate electricity.

Ancient wonders, megalithic stone circles and sacred sites align with lines of the earth’s electro-magnetic energy. Some other examples include Stonehenge which aligns with the Michael line. The dragon lines of China. The song lines of the Australian Aboriginal people.

Lines of earth energy are said to cross-over at the Great Pyramid. Intersecting ley lines are places of heightened energy. We don’t know why such sites were significant to ancient people, but modern people like visiting them too.

A Giant Power Plant

The second idea is that the Great Pyramid was built as a giant power plant for microwave energy. The energy was made from a chemical reaction and vibrations from the earth. When the layer of salt—hydrated Zinc on the walls and dilute hydrochloric acid were combined in the Queen’s Chamber, they produced hydrogen in a microwave that could go on for centuries. Watch the next video to see how the giant power plant idea works. 

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No one has put forward an explanation which fully describes the purpose of the Great Pyramid. Is it an empty tomb for a pharaoh and his queen? A mansion of eternity. A museum of earth science that showcases in stone, the principles of physics, mathematical relationships and advanced geometry. A construction that harnesses the energy of intersecting ley lines and magnifies earth energy through the apex. Is it an energy generating plant in its own right?

The Great Pyramid marks the high point of a civilization now lost.

The extraordinary intelligence of the builders and the connection with Aliens, past and present, remains a mystery, but I don’t think it will stay an enigma forever.  Especially not in the age of smartphones and people's interest in paranormal activities, UFO's and ancient mysteries.

I hope you can join me again. 

Enjoy your weekend.

♥ Ashlyn

Halloween 2016

To those people who celebrate Halloween, the scare fest is coming soon.

What is the scariest movie you’ve ever watched?

I don’t mind admitting I’m a big chicken when it comes to watching horror movies. I’ve declined invitations to watch “The Conjuring” movies several times. However, recently, I did sit through one of the “Paranormal Activity” movies. I think the horror genre was ruined for me when I watched “Carrie”, a movie based on a book by Stephen King. If I try really hard, I can remember the gruesome, blood splattered movie scenes, and the cruelty toward the girl, Carrie. I wish I could unremember the story, unsee the scenes and erase it all from my mind.

source: http://www.picturequotes.com/

Do you know people who like to tell ghost stories?

For Halloween 2016, I thought I’d write about my last ghost encounter which occurred a couple of weeks ago.

At the Camp Fire

But first let’s get into a spooky mood…let’s pretend it’s night time, and we’re sitting on cosy blankets around an open fire. The logs crackle and catch alight. Soon afterward, the fire hisses and spits and fills the air with the fragrance from the burning oils in the wood. Smoke spirals upward in wispy patterns.

Above us, the sky is clear, midnight black and jeweled with stars.

We hear a creaking sound.

Is it a door?

How could it be a door? We look around us. There are no buildings near our wilderness camp site. We must be hearing things or our minds are playing tricks on us.

Over in the east, the arc of the moon is rising above the horizon. Suddenly, pearly light shines over us…and…it illuminates a procession of ghosts who have walked out a distant graveyard.

Aaarrrr! It’s Halloween and someone has opened the crypts of the dead. (Just joking—my real life ghost story is not that scary)

The Ghost Going Somewhere

As I mentioned earlier, my last ghost encounter wasn’t very long ago. The house I live in is located on an old path to a local freshwater hole in the ground (the site is now a hotel, and there are no signs of the natural, rockhole—said to have once been an Aboriginal site.) 

The path is now a spirit path that lingers in the ghost dimension from ye olde days—just over one hundred years ago. Spirits from the colonial days sometimes walk through the house as they follow the track to water. Unfortunately, some of the early pioneers in the district died of thirst, while others were so dehydrated that they crawled back to town on their bellies. 

I sort of live on a water ley line in a parched, semi-arid place. One night a couple of weeks ago, I was busy writing my romance stories on my laptop. I took a break to go to the bathroom. It was an automatic thing to do, walk to the bathroom, flick on the light switch, and walk into the room. I’ve done this action a thousand times before and I don’t think about it.

On this occasion, I turned on the bathroom light and kept walking. It took me a second for my eyes to go from darkness to seeing the grey/white outline of a ghost. His body was invisible and he was standing right in front of me. By the time my brain worked out what I was seeing, it was too late, I’d walked straight through the spirit person. I came to a stop soon after. I flung a hand over the solar plexus area of my body in a strange gesture of warding off a ghost possession. Seconds later, my emotions caught up with me. I was shocked, hardly believing what had just happened. Then I was a little bit scared. All in all, my emotional reactions caused a rush of energy through my body, and during those seconds, I believe the ghost harnessed the energy and took off.

Fortunately, I wasn’t possessed by the ghost, and I did wonder afterward if the ghost had been waiting for me to visit the bathroom. I think he somehow used the living energy of my body as a boost to go off to his next destination. Hopefully he was going to where he needed to be, like returning to the light or going to heaven or wherever was the right place for him. I had the sense that the ghost had whooshed off, and left my house for good. 

In the days that followed, I made myself, turn on the light, stop and pause before walking into the bathroom. Now time has passed, I sometimes forget to stop….

Back At the Camp Fire

Meanwhile back at the Camp Fire, the procession of ghosts dissolve in the moonlight. Thank goodness the haunting is over. The doors to the crypts of the dead are closed once more.

It’s time to have a drink and toast the marshmallows in the fire.

Oh no…all of a sudden the flames turn purple and leap high into the air.

We quickly scramble away from the burning logs.

A dog howls a spine-tingling message. Is it a shape-shifter? A wolf or a werewolf?

Closer still, snap, crunch, another animal walks over dry twigs and leaves.

With a hand over our fast-beating hearts, we see the glowing eyes of a cat, watching us back.

Cloaked riders on broomsticks streak across the face of the moon. The witches are coming!

Black night and pearly light,

Witches gather to dance,

and sing,

casting away,

monsters, ghouls, and everything,

hiding in the shadows,

of Samhain’s eve…… 

source: http://www.picturequotes.com/

The Halloween bogies are coming.
Have a cackling good weekend.

♥ Ashlyn