Category: Posts

An Offer From a Gentleman by Julia Quinn

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This might be my least favorite of the Bridgerton series so far…

That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy it, because I did. It just wasn’t any special kind of love story. It reminded me of Cinderella in a lot of ways and I’m sure I’m not the first one to think this. There were too many similarities. The masquerade ball so no one would recognize her, the evil stepmother, two stepsisters, being a servant to them after her father died. It was basically just a re-telling of the fairy tale with Benedict Bridgerton as the prince.

It wasn’t a bad re-imagining of the story, but it was just so unoriginal that it wasn’t exciting to read. I still read it quickly, but mostly because I know Penelope and Colin’s story is next and I wanted to get through this as quickly as possible.

I know the show has been renewed for four seasons, so I’m hoping they improve on this story. That’s really all I have to say about it. I hope the rest aren’t as lazy with the creativity and writing.

The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn

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I blew through the second book in the Bridgerton series. They’re definitely not quality literature, but they’re easy to read and the stories are very enjoyable.

I’m sure whoever writes the show has read the books and has written the characters to match their personalities exactly. Knowing who plays Anthony in the show and imagining Kate as Simone Ashley made it fun.

It’s interesting to me how they’ve diversified the cast in the show, but how it still works. I’ve seen Simone Ashley in Sex Education and based on that I think she’s going to be perfect in this role.

Part of me didn’t expect to love Anthony and Kate’ s story as much as I loved Daphne and Simon’s. Anthony wasn’t exactly my favorite character in the show, so maybe that played a role in it, but reading his story definitely made me understand the man better.

There really isn’t much to say about the book. It was a good love story. It was interesting how they came together and the chemistry was amazing once again. I’m sure that’ll be a theme throughout the rest of them as well. Violet approves of love matches after all, so all of her children must find love, right?

I’m sure I’ll be back soon with my thoughts on the third installment. I’m already half way through it as I type this.

The Duke and I by Julia Quinn

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You knew this was coming, right? I can’t resist reading the books when I love the adaptation. To say that I love Bridgerton would be an understatement. I’ve watched it twice already and, honestly after reading this I need to watch it again.

I loved this book. I literally could not put it down. I’m not surprised at all that they made this into a TV series, it’s so good!

I won’t pretend that there’s anything intellectually stimulating about this book, but it’s fun and exciting and easy to read. It’s definitely a nice break after the last two, which were very serious and made me think and question so many things in my life.

I just love Daphne and Simon. The characters and their chemistry are so well written. They’re not perfect people and they find each other and it’s just so obvious that they’re meant to be. How could you not love their love story?

There really isn’t much to write about this. If you loved the show, you should definitely read the book. The show follows the story line closely, but it adds their thoughts and give more insight to what was going on.

I think there are 9 books in the Bridgerton series. If you hated it you’ll probably want to avoid my page for awhile. There’s no way I’m not going to read them all.

Many Lives, Many Masters by Brian L. Weiss M.D.

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I’m really glad that I decided to read this after reading Only Love Is Real. Part of me wishes that I would have read this first because I feel like it really helps to understand how Dr. Weiss got involved in past life regression through hypnotherapy.

It was crazy to me how he just sort of stumbled onto this. While reading, you get this sort of “meant to be” feeling about Catherine and Dr. Weiss coming together. Like he was the one who was supposed to hear her messages and she needed him to help resolve her trauma.

The fact that she was able to resolve these issues in her current life by re-visiting her past lives was kind of amazing. It makes you really wonder how many thing in your current life are influenced by these subconscious experiences.

I really like, and connected to, the idea that each lifetime has these experiences that you’re meant to learn from. It’s interesting that once you die there’s this period of rest and reflection with the “masters” where you sort of come to realization of what you were supposed to learn and what you carry with you from those experiences. From what he wrote, it seems like there’s some consciousness of what you still need to learn and that you will choose your next path based on that.

I feel like we kind of accept that life has a path for us and when things don’t work out it’s because they weren’t meant to be. Maybe this is because we have this subconscious “knowing” of what we picked for this lifetime and we know that it isn’t part of the process.

It was interesting again to see her recognizing people in her current life from her past lives. It’s nice to have that idea that people who are important to you will keep recurring in your lifetimes. Death and loss don’t seem as final.

I guess the real take away from reading this book is that life isn’t always in your control. You can do your best, but things may happen to you that you don’t understand and can’t control. These things happen as lessons and it’s important to remember that you’ll grow from those experiences. Everything has meaning, and when you can learn and accept these things you’ll just come out even better in the end.

I definitely still want to do some type of past life regression. It’s so interesting and I’ve always had ideas of what I experienced in my past lives. It’d be so cool just to see if any of those things really happened and to maybe understand things a little better. I also would totally love to see if I recognize anyone in my current life from the past and what the relationships were. Seriously if anyone is reading this and knows where I can get this done, let me know!

Self Portraits Are Hard!

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This is definitely a delayed post. For Mother’s Day I painted this photo of myself as a gift to my Grandma. It was a photo that she took of my when I was little and had always wanted to paint. Guys, this was HARD! It’s so hard to look at yourself and to put that to canvas. I’d stare at it and just think things like “my eyes don’t look like that” “the nose isn’t right” “why does my hand look so weird”.

In the end, I think it turned out pretty well. The cat looks cute at least!

Breakfast at Tiffany’s Holly Golightly & Paul Varjak Black & White Watercolor Painting

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I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but Breakfast at Tiffany’s is one of my all time favorite movies. If I’m in a mood or feeling down, this is my go-to movie for a little pick-me-up. It’s a strange movie to be honest, but it’s well-written and interesting and I love the chemistry between Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard.

I’ve been really wanting to paint more and have been slacking on actually sitting down and putting the paint to canvas, so it really only makes sense that I get back to painting with an image from one of my favorite movies.

I have some big plans for more portraits and possibly some landscapes coming up. I’m really excited to see where this goes and how my skills develop over time. It’s kind of nice to keep a record like this.

I have this painting for sale on my Etsy account so that maybe paintings won’t just keep piling up in my house. Check it out here.

Only Love Is Real: A Story of Soulmates Reunited by Brian L. Weiss M.D.

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I’m not going to lie…I definitely only read this book because I saw Kylie Jenner post about it on Instagram. I’m not ashamed to admit that I love and absolutely keep up with the Kardashian/Jenners and all that they do. This time I’m so glad I decided to screenshot her recommendation.

I’ve been wanting to read this for awhile, but have had other books already on my list that I wanted to finish first. Now that I’ve finished it, I wish I would’ve read it sooner because it’s absolutely confirmed so many of my beliefs.

I really don’t want to spoil anything for anyone that hasn’t read it, but to summarize Dr. Weiss is a psychiatrist and hypnotherapist who uses past life regressions to treat his patients. In his first book (which I’ll be reading next) he was able to help a woman deal with traumas and anxieties in her current life by taking her through a past life regression. In this one, he began working with two patients who had recently experienced losses of people who were close to them when he discovered that the patients (who did not know each other in their current lives) may have been acquainted in past lives.

This book was so interesting, I literally read it so fast and really didn’t want to put it down.

I’m someone who already believes in soulmates, past lives, reincarnation, destiny etc. so maybe that’s why I felt so drawn to this story. At one point, Dr. Weiss describes his findings as being magical and honestly they really are.

I’m not necessarily someone who believes in God, but I do feel that I am spiritual and I do believe in a higher power and that your soul will continue on once you die. I believe that you have past lives and that our souls are reincarnated into new bodies. I believe that we come in contact with souls that we’ve met before on our journeys. All of this is kind of confirmed in this book.

Personally, I feel that I’ve experienced meeting one of my soul connections. When I met this person, I felt immediately that I knew them my whole life and possibly even longer. They felt familiar to me, and when we were together in person I always felt safe and comfortable. Almost like having that person feel like home. Even before reading this book, I looked into our connection with astrology and found that my Vertex is conjunct his Venus. Vertex conjunctions are said to represent karmic relationships with people from past lives.

After reading this book I feel even more so that this person was destined to be a part of my life in some way, and honestly when I look back at our time together I do recognize that he’s had a huge impact on my own personal growth. We aren’t currently in contact with each other and sometimes it feels like a part of me is missing, but after reading this book I feel like maybe this is just part of our journey. Maybe we knew each other in a past life and something difficult happened that is keeping us apart this time. Maybe we’ve fulfilled our purpose with each other in this life and we’ll meet again in the next. Maybe we needed to do more work separately before coming back together.

The one thing that I’ve really taken from the book is that the possibilities of your lifetime are limitless. There’s always another opportunity. There’s always growth that will happen. Your life and your soul are limitless. It’s kind of amazing.

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to find a hypnotherapist now to do my own past life regressions and see if I recognize any souls. It’s just so interesting. Maybe I will eventually, maybe we all should.

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

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I really enjoyed this book. I watched the Hulu adaptation probably about a year ago and really loved it, so I’ve had this book on my list to read for awhile.

The show did a really good job adapting the story for the screen. There were definitely a few changes made, but I don’t think they messed with the story much at all. I did think it was interesting that the author never specifically mentioned Mia and Pearl’s races, yet the show made the decision to make them African American. It’s interesting to me that they did this because I feel like it hinders where the story could have gone.

***MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD***

Something that was really interesting in the book was how Izzy felt that Mia could have been a better mother to her than Elena. She loves spending time with Mia, she listens to the things that Mia teaches her, she even at one point says that she fantasizes that Mia is her mother.

Honestly because I watched the show first I pictured Mia and Pearl as being African American, so reading this was the first time that I realized that oh, if she thinks she looks enough like Mia to possibly be her daughter than that means that Mia must be white.

I’m sure that race was changed in the show to draw even larger differences between Mia and Elena. I thought Kerry Washington was perfect in the show, so I wouldn’t change it, but when adaptations do this I feel like we need to question the change and why it was made. Wouldn’t it have been more shocking to Elena that a woman who looked like her chose this lifestyle? Did we really need to make a black woman this sort of nomad who’s perceived by Elena as being unstable with the way she lives her life? The book already deals with elements of race, so did it need this added layer of racism?

It’s definitely interesting to think about and adds more to the discussion when reading the book, but I can’t help but wonder if doing this was really necessary to the story.

Also, I feel like it really hinders them from creating a second season of the show. At the end of the book, Izzy is headed to Mia’s parents’ house. She knows everything about Pearl and Mia’s brother and her parents from the file her mother kept and she’s looking for Mia by going to her parents.

If I was a writer for the show and wanted to create another season, I could definitely see a situation unfolding where Izzy (who’s around the same age as Pearl) tells Mia’s parents that she’s the baby. It would definitely create a conflict and force all of the characters to come together again, but since they have different races this wouldn’t be something that they can do now.

Maybe they have other ideas, and I don’t think the show has been renewed yet, but I do wonder if this was part of the conversation. Anyone else think the same?

I Burn For You…

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Is there anyone who hasn’t binged Bridgerton at this point? Personally, I’ve been considering starting it over for the third time. I was so glad to hear that it had officially been renewed!

When I was in high school I loved doing portraits, but always just did them with pencil. I’ve never attempted portraits in watercolor before, so decided to give this a shot. I had some watercolor cards on hand, so thought this would be cute as a love/valentine’s/anniversary card if it turned out well.

I have to say, I’m pretty happy with it. Simon turned out so well, I sort of impressed myself. Daphne could use some work, but I’m still pretty happy with it.

I decided to put it up for sale on my Etsy account. It’s one of a kind and hand-painted, check it out here.

I definitely want to do more of these, maybe some more famous couples in television and film? We’ll see!

I Finally Did It! Check Me Out on Etsy!

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So something that people might not know about me is that I love making art. When I was in kindergarten, my grandmother would bring me along to art lessons that she would take and I fell in love.

All throughout school, art was always my favorite subject. In high school, I took as many art classes as I could. I really enjoyed portraits back then, and would always be drawing pictures of my friends and favorite celebrities.

I *almost* decided to go to school for art, but ended up choosing journalism as my major instead. Even then, I kept up with my interest in art and ended up working as a blogger for the Tyler Student Life page at the Tyler School of Art. I got to talk to students and artists, see their work, and start conversations about art and working as an artist. It was something that I really enjoyed.

Life’s gotten in the way a little bit since then, so I haven’t really had the time to sit down and draw or paint, but thanks to my current job I’ve been able to travel the world. Seeing the beautiful architecture in other countries, visiting art museums, and just enjoying life have really made me want to get back into the art world.

Then came COVID and here I was sitting at home bored out of my mind. Like many others, I decided to order art supplies from Michael’s and Amazon (which wasn’t easy because everything was pretty much sold out). I finally picked up the paintbrush again! And I’m actually not that bad at it.

I decided to open an Etsy account so that my artwork doesn’t keep piling up at my house. It’s really just something for fun, but I appreciate any one who’s willing to check it out.

I have tons of photos from my travels that I plan on painting and selling on the shop, BUT FIRST! I’ve been painting photos of my family’s dogs on ornaments and decided to offer it as a custom ornament on the shop. It’s just a start, but here’s a link if you want to see it for yourself: Custom Hand-Painted Dog Ornaments.

Anyway, that’s all I wanted to share. Thanks so much for taking the time to read and check out my new venture 🙂

Visit KaylaCropperArt on Etsy!