January 2011

Tuesday Tune - Alexandre Desplat and Music from 'The King's Speech'

Welcome dear friends to the first #TuesdayTune Linky Party for 2011! It seems like forever since I have posted a Tuesday Tune.

#TuesdayTune - Alexandre Desplat and "The King's Speech."

Life has been so busy here because both of my kids have started back at school after a VERY LONG summer vacation! The biggest Metamorphosis at my home this week has been with my boy, Big Al. He has just started at a new Middle School and I have never seen him so happy! He turns 11 on Wednesday and he seems to be growing up right before my eyes...

He volunteers to do his homework without being told, runs to his classroom every morning after being dropped off and, to top off the week, he received an award for enthusiasm!

This week is also going to be a busy one on the home-front. After being flooded three times, we have decided to rip out all of our carpeting and to tile the whole bottom floor of the house. We will be shifting furniture and having a big clean up this week and then the tiler arrives on Thursday. I am so excited as I have been waiting for about 10 years to get the downstairs area tiled! I will show you the pictures of our family room metamorphosis as soon as I can.

Now, on to this week's #TuesdayTune!

Have you heard Alexandre Desplat's beautiful music? Alexandre Desplat is a one time Grammy-nominated, two time Golden Globe-nominated, four time Academy Award-nominated, and four time BAFTA-nominated French film composer.

Source

Desplat was born in Paris to a French father and a Greek mother who met at the University of California, Berkeley. After their marriage, they moved back to France, where Alexandre was born. At the age of five, he began playing piano.

Source

Desplat has composed extensively for films, in France and in Hollywood—scores and incidental music for over 100 films including The Queen (directed by Stephen Frears and starring Helen Mirren) which got him his first Academy Awards nomination in 2007. He also won the 2007 Golden Globe for his score to The Painted Veil.He also wrote the music for MR. MAGORIUM'S WONDER EMPORIUM, THE GOLDEN COMPASS and for Academy Award winner, director Ang Lee‘s film LUST CAUTION. Recently, Desplat has composed music for Anne Fontaine's Coco avant Chanel based on the life of designer Coco Chanel; Julie & Julia directed by Nora Ephron; Fantastic Mr. Fox, directed by Wes Anderson and based on the novel by Roald Dahl; Twilight - New Moon, directed by Chris Weitz; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts 1 and 2; Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer (film) and The King's Speech which earned Desplat his fourth Oscar nomination.

The King's Speech is about George VI's struggle to cure his stammer is a massively confident crowd-pleaser. What looks at first like an conventional Brit period drama about royals is actually a witty and elegant new perspective on the abdication crisis and on the dysfunctional quiver at the heart of the Windsors and of prewar Britain. It suggests there was a time when a member of the royal household experimented with psychoanalysis – disguised as speech therapy. (The Guardian)

I would say that the King goes through quite a metamorphosis throughout his therapy!
He learns about himself, about his role in society and he learns about the gift of friendship.

Today's Tuesday Tune comes from the soundtrack to The King's Speech. If you haven't seen this film yet, please try to see it-it is truly wonderful! The critics must agree too; just have a look at all of the accolades the film has received to date:

Source

I had a hard time deciding which song to share today so I decided to post two! The first piece is called The King's Speech and the second is called The Rehearsal. I hope you enjoy listening to them both!

I sure do hope that Desplat wins the Oscar for the beautiful music in what has become one of my favourite movies EVER!

Have you posted any songs on your blog recently? If so we would love it if you could join in with Tuesday Tune and share it with us!

If you would like to link up a song, please just add the url of your particular blog post that you would like us to visit to the Linky tool below. Don't forget that you can link up a song from any of your posts, old or new and please feel free to use the button below in your post to help spread the word about this weekly musical meme.

Thank you so much for joining in with my first #TuesdayTune for 2011! I hope you will have time during the week to come back to visit the other bloggers who have linked up.

Before I go I just want to invite you to join in with a Special Valentine's Edition of Tuesday Tune on the 13th. It would be wonderful if you could share your favourite Romantic Valentine's Day Song!

I hope you will be able to join me on the 13th!

Best wishes for a fabulous week,

Natasha In Oz

Please join me each weekend for the Say G'day Saturday Linky Party!

You can also visit me at PINTEREST, TWITTER, GOOGLE+

INSTAGRAM and FACEBOOK!

Giving Thanks for....Australia Day (and a Tuesday Tune reminder!)

How did you spend Australia Day yesterday?

At a park playing footy?

Relaxing by the pool?

Maybe you were at the beach?

or having a BBQ with your family and friends?

Wherever you were and whatever you did, I hope that all of my Aussie friends had a fabulous Australia Day!

I hope you enjoy this song by

The Seekers.

Source

See you on Tuesday for a #TuesdayTune, my first one for 2011!

Best wishes always,

Natasha In Oz

Auctions for the Qld Flood Appeal.

Hello my dear friends! Welcome to Natasha In Oz!

I am so sorry I haven't posted for a while but I am sure you understand why I have lost my blogging "mojo". I am quite speechless these days and still get very teary when I think about the enormity of the terrible natural disaster that has devastated three states here in Australia.

Footage shot by David Jutsum in Toowoomba shows cars being swept away.

We were on a family holiday in Singapore during the worst of the floods and we watched it all on cable TV from our hotel room. We felt completely helpless and were continually worrying about our family and friends back home. My parents were also on holiday with us so we were able to share the grief together. Thank God our family homes were not flooded and for that we are so truly grateful. Unfortunately my cousin and his family lost most of their possessions in the flood in the Lockyer Valley but they are safe and are being looked after by friends and family.

Image: Torsten Blackwood/AFP/Getty

However, amidst the stories of sadness and loss are stories of hope and community spirit. There have been so many stories about people helping complete strangers and thousands of volunteers are getting in amongst the muck, the mud and the debris in Brisbane and Ipswich in an overwhelming show of support to get the community back on its feet.

Source-The Australian

The people whose lives have been affected by these floods near more than just help with the cleaning up-they naturally need financial assistance. My friend Fiona from the blog nicobelle design, has become involved in a wonderful fund raising idea that has been launched by Toni Coward. She has launched the Queensland Flood Appeal. As a contribution towards this Appeal, Fiona is holding an auction for the gorgeous skirt below:

This is a double layer twirl skirt made from 100% cotton fabrics by designer Heather Bailey. The underskirt provides added body and twirl and the skirt features lovely trim detail with an elastic waist for comfort and ease of dressing. In gorgeous sunshine shades, it is sure to brighten up any little girl's wardrobe. It is a generous size 6 (so will also fit a small size 8). Waist measurement is 58cm (23 inches) unstretched and length from waist to base of skirt is 46cm (18 inches). This auction is open to everyone and Fiona will pay postage to anywhere in the world!

Payment is by donation to the Premier's Flood Relief Appeal - for details on how to donate, please visit the website. You can place a bid by leaving a comment on Fiona's Blog with your bid amount and email address. Please ensure that your bid is higher than the previous bidder. The auction is open to everyone and Fiona will pay for the postage to anywhere in the world!The auction will END at midnight on Monday 24th January 2011 (Brisbane time).

UPDATE!

*****I have also just found out about another auction from the sweet Sandra who lives on Cumberland Island, GA. She is auctioning off this beautiful quilt for the appeal. Thank you so much Sandra! Please click here for the details!*****

There are so many other people raising money in blogland. The very sweet Tina from Rubie's Place has decided to donate all profits from sales for the month of January and even Nie Nie has spread the word and posted about Retro Mummy's Quilts for Queensland appeal. If you would like to see a list of all of the talented and creative artists and bloggers who are helping to raise money for the the Flood appeal, just click to visit the QLD Flood Auctions MASTER LIST.

Before I go, I just want to thank you for your kind messages. I will try to get back in touch with you all soon but it might take a while as we are now getting ready for a new school year here in Australia and I have books to cover and school uniforms to name. My boy Big Al is moving to a new Middle School this year and he is very apprehensive and daunted about it all. Just please know that your friendship means so much to me and I am so grateful to be part of such a caring and loving community of bloggers.

Blessings and Best Wishes always,

Natasha In Oz

Thank you and a prayer request.

I just wanted to thank all of my dear blogging friends from around the world who have left comments or sent me emails asking if we have been affected by the terrible floods that are happening in North Queensland. Thank you so much for thinking of us and my fellow Queenslanders. We are so lucky in our corner of the state as we have avoided most of this terrible rain and flooding. However, more than 22 towns in North Queensland have been cut off or flooded across an area larger than France and Germany, with more than 200,000 people affected.

The main areas that have been flooded are Rockhampton, Emerald, St George, Theodore, Dalby, Chinchilla and Bundaberg.

Flood waters are expected to reach nine metres (30 feet) today and peak at 9.4 metres on Wednesday, threatening thousands of homes.

So, as you can see, things are not looking good for our friends in the North so if you could please keep them in your thoughts and prayers I am sure it would be appreciated.

Thank you again for your kind messages-I truly appreciate your concern and friendship.

Blessings and best wishes always,

A trip down memory lane...blogger style!

Happy New Year, dear friends!

Wow, I can't quite believe that it is now 2011! Doesn't time fly when you're having fun?!

2010 was a such a fabulous year for me and I want to thank all of you, my dear bloggy friends, for helping to make blogging such a joy for me. I hope that 2011 is just as fun and rewarding for all of us.

I have seen that many people are doing a review of the year by blogging about some of their favourite posts from the last year. I love this idea and I had so much fun reminiscing and choosing a few of my favourite posts from 2010.

Here is a quick review of 2010!