Valentine's Day is coming up and here is a wonderful collection of beaded hearts from different talented designers. I found it hard to pick this selection as there were so many good ones.  

First is the beautiful lacy heart tutorial for earrings or pendants shown above by Ruxandra of Margiques.  I have featured this talented Romanian designer before - she specializes in delicate and dainty designs. 

This beaded bracelet tutorial for a chain of hearts is unusual. It's from the creative mind of Moldovian bead designer, Iulia of BeadedTreasury. She was previously featured here


This stunning ice blue beaded heart pendant has a heart crystal surrounded by tiny seed beads. The design tutorial is by Romanian bead artist, Roxana of AriaMagicalJewelry


This elegant pair of heart earrings feature both crystals and pearls. The Slovenian designer of this tutorial is Svetlana of CrystalLightStudio. I previously featured her lovely dainty designs before here


This gorgeous open frame heart pendant with the off centred round crystal is by Italian beaded jewelry designer, Natalia of nataliasavastonoart. I featured this design and her other work before here


These beaded heart Christmas ornaments will be fast to make! The easy tutorial is by Hungarian designer, Assza of AsszaBeadingArts. She is a prolific bead artist whose work has been featured many times on my blog!


British designer, Katie Dean of Beadflowers is a whizz at designing beaded boxes. This is her beaded heart box tutorial.  I featured quite a number of her amazing beaded box designs before here


3 Love Songs from Film and Musical Theatre
I have always enjoyed film scores and musical theatre. Here are three awesome love songs and vocalists that I hope you will also enjoy listening to.  

1. First up is On the Street Where You Live, the Lerner and Loewe classic from My Fair Lady. This is the studio recording of the outstanding Jordan Donica as Freddy Eynsford-Hill from a fairly recent production of the musical at the Lincoln Center. Not only does he have a gorgeous baritone but the talent to act with his singing. Nails the upper class English accent. You can also see/hear his Lancelot (If Ever I Would to Leave You) from Camelot and a Music of the Night excerpt as the Phantom from the Phantom of the Opera. 

 

2. When French writer Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) wrote his adventure novel, The Count of Monte Cristo in 1844-45 - he also penned The Three Musketeers - he  could not have guessed how popular his work would become in the centuries after his death. The Count of Monte Cristo has been made into movies at least a dozen times since the silent movie era. The 2002 movie is a delight if you have time to watch it. The latest is a 2024 French version.

The story begins in 1815 when Edmond Dantes, a young ship's captain, is cruelly betrayed by jealous friends. He is separated from his beloved, Mercedes, and falsely imprisoned for years. He befriends a fellow prisoner who educates him and shares with him the secret of a treasure. Dantes eventually escapes, launches a masterful revenge plan and finally finds redemption. 

A seriously underrated musical based on the 2002 movie's plot is Frank Wildhorn and Jack Murphy's Count of Monte Cristo (2009). This is the beautiful love song, I Will Be There sung by Thomas Borchert and Brandi Burkhardt. If you love musicals, listen to the highlights from this wonderful musical here. Some of my favorites includes Everyday a Little Death, Hell on Your Doorstep, I Know Those Eyes/This Man is Dead.


South Korea, the land of K-pop and K-drama, loves musicals and this musical is a particular favorite. They have had 5 productions since the musical's 2009 debut. Listen to Eun Sung Ko and Ji Hye Lee from the latest 2023-4 cast sing this song in a studio recording. Even when we, including myself, don't understand the language, the music and lovely voices still shine. 


3. The 1992 film adaptation of The Last of the Mohicans (trailer) is a masterpiece with superb acting, lovely soundtrack and a strong historical background. James Fenimore Cooper's 1826 historical adventure romance novel was set in 1757 during the time of the French and Indian War (1754-1763) in North America. This war was also known as the Seven Years War  (1756-1763) in Europe at a time when the French and English with their Native American allies were trying to gain colonial dominance not just in North America but around the world. Winston Churchill considered this war, the actual First World War.  The French and Indian War in North America started a couple of years earlier than the one in Europe because George Washington, then fighting for the British, sparked it all off. 

The British eventually won but at a cost. Financially in a bind, they started taxing (without representation) their colonies including the American colonies which led to their bid for independence.

The characters including the protagonist, Hawkeye (Daniel Day-Lewis), in the movie, were all fictitious. The filmmakers did a great job for historical accuracy - costumes, acting, action, casting, frontier life, weaponry, early American militia men etc. See the History Buff's review and historical rating on this movie

 I Will Find You is the love theme from the Last of the Mohicans. Separated from his love, Cora, Hawkeye tells her to be strong, to stay alive and that he will find her, no matter what.  This lovely song is by Clannad, the Irish group. 


The beautiful and moving soundtrack from The Last of the Mohicans has a recurring main theme, The Gael, by Scottish composer and singer Dougie Maclean. 



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This blog may contain affiliate links. I do receive a small fee for any products purchased through affiliate links. This goes towards the support of this blog and to provide resource information to readers. The opinions expressed are solely my own. They would be the same whether or not I receive any compensation. 
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Original Post by THE BEADING GEM