Name: Amanda Flynn / Age: Nineteen / Location: Massachusetts, USA

Interests (in no particular order): Playing the piano and violin, singing, reading, writing, drawing, vintage and irish step-dancing, exercising *gasp * :), designing historical and modern apparel, dressing up, film production brainstorming, my love Cape Breton, spending time with my family and friends, and (of course) SEWING!!!

Join me at my Style and Beauty blog:
AmandaBeth Online

Or visit my store:

Moving On - Tuesday / July 29th, 2008

You may have figured out that I am not going to be updating very often any more... and you're right. I have enjoyed expanding this site for years and have put countless hours into keeping everything up to date.

But over the past year I've started to slack off. It has become increasingly harder for me to update, not always from time contraints, but more so from lack of inspiration. I think I am moving into a new phase.

I have been writing a new blog for 4 months now, and I encourage you to pop over there and see what I am up to. The blog is not a replacement to this site, but rather it is a new endeavor more suited to where I am now, and I hope you enjoy it. I WILL post pictures there of any great new fashions I create! :)

Also, please visit (and publicize!!! ;) my online business! I've got some great new items and I'm so happy to be able to share this with you!

May God bless you all richly... and check back every so often. Who knows when I will post a sporadic update! ;)

Sincerely,
Amanda Beth Flynn

In love with Etsy and "Prince Caspian" (meaning the movie; not Ben Barnes ;) - Tuesday / May 27, 2008

Wedding sewing continues with a vengeance. We are well on our way to finishing the bridesmaids dresses and I hope to dive into Melissa's gown next week. I am about halfway through listening to "Cranford" and have ordered about half a dozen other books on tape, so... this is getting serious! ;) Please pray for everyone involved in and working on this wedding! God's hand has been ever-present through all the difficulties and I know we'll need His help in order to finish it all off.

And now, the biggest news I've had in a while... :P

DRUMROLL...AmandaBeth Boutique is now up and ready for business!!! *parties*

You can click HERE or hop over to my new style blog - AmandaBethOnline - for more info. I am really thrilled by this whole process and looking towards the future with much excitement. I've been doing tons of reading and researching on Esty (which I absolutely adore) and I know it will continue to take lots of time, hard work and patience, but it's so encouraging to know that I have God and my parents' full support in this (mom is so excited!). It's been lots of fun. :)

So please step over and take a look and then POST A COMMENT on my blog to let me know what you think. My head is swimming with loads of ideas for new projects, so I'd really appreciate your prayers in this area.

Fashion in Film: It's been a while, but I just saw some great costume films. The first was the new adaptation of Northanger Abbey, which was absolutely adorable. Despite Andrew Davies "spicing" it up - viewer discretion is advised - it was phenomenally put together. Felicity Jones was just darling and the leads had great chemistry. Not to mention that the outfits were incredibly sweet, even if they may have not all been 100% authentic. :) I recommend this film warmly (with the caution that it should be previewed for it's suitability for the whole family).

And then we have the film that we have been waiting for over two years to see: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. What can I say? This film was absolutely amazing and just thrilled me to the core. I don't want to go into tiny details about all the characters and et cetera, but I will say that I think I enjoyed it even more than the first Narnia film. I think that when I went to see TLtWatW that I was more uptight about it being faithful to the book. In this case I watched it feeling much more relaxed, didn't seriously mind any of the additions to the story and only wished they'd left in one or two different things. This movie was just meticulously crafted. Everything; the acting, script, cinematography, costumes, sets, props, FX - it was all a step up from the first movie. I was caught up emotionally in the story from the beginning and it held my attention until the end. Five Stars!!! This film has a rather strong PG rating for violence and will probably not be suitable for the entire family (we brought ages 11 and up) but I highly recommend it. If you haven't seen it, you'd better do it now. :)

God bless the rest of your glorious month of May!!!

It Might As Well Be Spring - Sunday / April 20, 2008

My sincere apologies for the long time without an update - things have been absolutely crazy around here. I spent the month of February working on a film for a Christian Filmmakers 24 hr. filmmaking contest, which took place on March 1st. We placed #7 out of 71 entries and I was pretty pleased with the final result. Learned a lot of things throughout the whole process, especially what NOT to do next time. :) You can view our entry here.

The next big thing was the death of my beloved grandfather, John Warren (Jack) Flynn on March 2nd. That's right, just after the contest. If I hadn't been having a tough enough time with all the stress from the film production, this event kicked up a whole new set of emotions that I didn't even know existed. The time was definitely "the best of times. The worst of times", the best being that we had so many loving family and friends around us supporting us and had some great times together (I think we broke the stereotypical Catholic funeral to bits - it was awesome. :) but the worst being trying to deal with the sadness and anger that kept raging inside me. Not against God, but against most of the people who were just trying to help me out.

Fortunately, God wouldn't let go of me and things are getting better. Life is too beautiful to waste in "the depths of despair". ;)

Sewing News: Well, we've been working like crazy on wedding things. We have the flower girls 99% done and are digging into the bridesmaids now. We have been so blessed through this whole time - God has really provided everything we could ask for. I can't wait to see the finished results! :)

I completed a few new samples for my classes at Jo-Ann's and I absolutely love them - will try and get the pictures up here soon!

Fashion in Film: Well, I have watched some great new costume dramas in the past few months, including "Miss Austen Regrets", "Jane Eyre" and "The Moonstone". None of them were quite so grand as I'd hoped, but hey, they're COSTUME MOVIES!!! :) Will try and get those reviewed and up here soon.

Other Updates: And for all of you who have been patiently waiting, I'm sorry, but I won't be putting any Fezziwig Ball pictures online. It's been so long, my heart really isn't in it. There are so many things to be doing, I really have to pick and choose.

Also, please check out my new fashion blog at amandabethonline.blogspot.com . I have created it to supplement the Etsy.com store I am currently building (more updates on that later). Don't worry, I will keep this diary running, but it's going to be for more of my personal projects than a fashion review. If you feel like the latter, check out the new blog and tell me what you think - I hope you like it!

God bless... :)

AmandaBeth - Celebrating the Beauty of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow...