The time I saw the filming of the Dawn Treader

My Narnia pop up book on the Dawn Treader page

I know this is a bit late because I saw The Voyage of the Dawn Treader a few weeks ago when it came out here in Aus. We saw it a week earlier than most people. As I've mentioned before, they filmed the majority of the film here in Australia. Mainly in my state of Queensland and even better, a lot of the filming took place in Cleveland which is only about 20 minutes away from where I used to live.

I enjoyed the movie. It still held the wonder I had for the books when I first read them. They changed the story by adding a few things and changed the order of the events in the book, but it worked well.

Plus I was absolutely delighted to see the scenes in the movie that Jason and I saw being filmed. We went there about twice and each time was utterly fascinating. 

What I was proud of was that so many of the extras are Aussie. Drinian who is Caspian's captain of the ship is Gary Sweet an Aussie actor. I got to see him and Georgie Henley (Lucy). Unfortunately I never got to see Ben Barnes, though I know he was there often.

Since I don't remember if I ever shared some photos from set, here they are.

I kind of like that you can see the cranes and other bit of equipment. I really felt like I was on set. 

The guys who played the minotaurs and one of the dwarfs. They came and talked to people through the fence. 

Gary Sweet talking. 

You can just make out Lucy :) 

A horrid pic of me. I worn a strapless dress because last time I tanned fast and was left with strap marks :p

A bit of a close up.

The guy in the hat is Douglas Gresham, who is CS Lewis' step son. I love that he's always involved with the film. 

 

One of my fave pics. 

I had a whole lot more photos and some video footage too but this is probably enough for now. It was definitely a great experience. These photos were from our second trip out there and we brought a fancy camera that belonged to Jason's brother Brodie. This is why we had better close up pics. 

Anyway, I have to work until midnight tomorrow (bleh). And the lovely Illy is having a giveaway for $25 credit for my shop on her blog. Check out this post :) I have answered some interview questions too!

Enjoy!

I belong in Narnia

Concept Art by Ben Wootten via Narniaweb

For the longest time I have loved the books Chronicles of Narnia. I first read the books when I was about 14 and since then have read the books at least once a year. Those books got me obsessed with fantasy worlds.

I thought it was the most beautiful place (in my mind). I love that C.S. Lewis left a lot to the imagination but I guess that made it difficult to make a movie because everyone had their own version of Narnia in their head. That concept art picture is pretty perfect though.

I love fantasy books because they inspire the imagination to create worlds that exist in your dreams. Which is why I'm also a fan of Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Alice in Wonderland and a whole lot of other books.

From The Voyage of the Dawn Treader set. A sneak peak at my photos :)

The next movie is The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. They filmed a fair bit of it here in Australia. And not just Australia, some of it was filmed only 20 minutes away from where I live. This was last year sometime. So being such a fan, Jason and I went to visit the set.

I will write more about this next post because I haven't got the photos here on my comp. Although there were a lot shared on Narniaweb. I thought I would share a few bits of merchandise which I would love to own. And I made a little page in my inspiration journal (the one I wanted to start).

Via The Noble Collection

This is a jewellery box. I would love keep some precious items in here.

Via The Easton Press

Leather bound versions of the book. I have all the books that my mum bought 10 years before I was born in this little bookshop where she used to work (My love of reading came from here)

Bob Siemon design via Narniaweb

A little wardrobe necklace. I love that it opens up to reveal Lucy in Narnia.

Via NarniaWeb

I love the look of pocketwatches, so why not a Narnia one.

Via Twostraycats etsy

This would look sweet on our lounge. It's an illustration that's taken from the books. Pauline Baynes is the illustrator.

Via Bindme etsy

This isn't actually something Narnian but it reminds me of Narnia. I wouldn't mind this journal for all my dreams.

I love Narnia so much I even joined a swap on Craftster. Although I checked when this was and was back in 2005! So my craft skills weren't that great. But my favourite thing I made was my Lucy doll.

I made this 5 years ago and I look at it now and think it's cute but oh my. It was the first rag doll I had ever made. It had to be hand sewn too.

And this is the journal page I made yesterday. I took the photo this morning and it's pouring down with rain so the lighting is a bit off. That quote has nothing to do with the image obviously but The Silver Chair is one of my fave books in the series.

Well that is just a part of my love for Narnia. There is more merchandise that I would love to own. Next post will centre around the movie set. To end...this is why I adore children's books so much. The feeling of wonderment and the beauty of the imagination. I know my future kids will be bombarded with fantasy worlds created by books.

Big work week finished

I have finished that huge work week. 8 days in a row. Ugh! I only had one day off and then had to work yesterday and meant to work tonight but I'm not feeling too well. I think it's from over tiredness.

Anyway, I have tried to create and catch up on letters and other things. I tried to create a letter set as I love to write letters and always wanted to try and make my own stationary.

It's really quite basic. I bought some great brown kraft paper and some parchment paper bought a damask stamp and just tried to figure out where to stamp the image. I have ideas on personalising it and making full sets with stickers. It's something I'm thinking of adding to my future Etsy shop. What do you think? As this is just a trial run so my stamping skills are the best right now. (To see images better click on the picture).

And since I was playing around with photo shop I thought I would make an 'aged' photo with a letter writing quote which I thought was appropriate. Yes my photo shop skills aren't great either as I know it doesn't really looked that 'old.'

This is a little thing I made in photo shop when I was going through a 'I want to design' day. I've loved this Audrey Hepburn quote for ages now and I like to use it all the time.

I watched this movie twice!! It had only come out in Australia on June 6 but I had to work from 10-9:15 pm so I watched it the next night. I loved it! I've been a Narnia fan for years! I have a goal to purchase all the books in different languages and to try and get different sets of it.

Here are just some of the versions I would like to own. Books and the stories on cd, original illustration covers by Pauline Baynes, and a leather-bound version as well. There are heaps of bits and pieces I would love to get.

I also bought this book last week at work. It's a Narnia pop-up book. The pop-ups are amazing!! I think it's worth it if your a fan.
Here is a sample of one of the pages. I took this image from Amazon. It's beautiful!

There are a few other things inspiring my right now but I will leave it for the next post. Narnia inspires me to think of beautiful leather bound books, journals, ink and quills, letter writing and the more. Not sure why maybe because of the feel of the movies and books.

Until next time take care xox