Christmas, is it over already?

So, I have been a bad blogger, I am truly enjoying having no assignments or papers to be dreading and the blog got set on the back burner but I do have some things I want to share so here is just a little catch up of my Christmas.Here we have the young ladies in our clan, Colbie- my cousin Shane's awesome girlfriend, me- the awesome EmbroiDiva herself, Brianna- my cousin/older sister/best friend/cowboys fan, and then who else but my favorite little sister and fellow Homestar/Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings/Twilight/Jane Austen/Bronte/Etsy/Anthropologie enthusiast Shannon aka Miss Sannon aka Miss Shandon.
Isn't Bri pretty? Her hubby is dodging the camera at all costs.
...Wonder why?
My uncle Keith gets really excited when I let him play with my Canon Rebel and set it on Rapid Fire so he just snaps like a zillion pictures and after a while his subjects give in and start playing along, capturing great faces.
This is my new favorite ornament, my little Partridge from the flower shop in van "Beyond the Garden" so now I am on the hunt for more Christmas decor with Partridges. So, dear reader, keep your eyes peeled for me!
Some of my favorite gifts! Nutella (YUM), second hand classics (craft!), adorable notebooks (not for school), and a Green shopping bag from Joann's (birdies!).
I was most excited about this one I think, I saw it months ago and was torn between getting it or putting gas in my car, I chose the latter :( however, mom remembered and BAM! happy little girl on December 25th!
And here is dad's gift from me! If you know the Snows at all, this is the stuff of life, Diet Coke in a Can, there is nothing better. As you can see I didn't even wrap it, no need.

Jane Austen's Birthday Face Book Party

On Thursday, December 16th ladies everywhere will be celebrating a magical day indeed! So I created a facebook event so all my fellow Janeites can have a small celebration of their own.

All you have to do is some tiny thing Austen-esuqe! For example:

Drink a cup of tea
Eat a scone
Write a novel
Break off an engagement
Don't get married until you find Darcy or die
Write a letter to your sister and insist she burns it after reading
Embroider
Ride into town and buy yourself a new bonnet
Speculate about those around you
Take a turn about the room
Wear a petticoat and corset
Try not to kill Mr. Knightly's dogs
Put on a secret theatrical in your uncle's house while he is out the country
Explore a spooky antiquated Abby, and open the forbidden door
Go to a resort town and Take the Waters
Fall for the bad boy!

Pass this on to any Austenite and please add to my list of acceptable party games!

Happy Birthday Jane!

Pride & Prejudice & Pale Ones

"How quick come the reasons for approving what we like!" yes, dear reader, the great she said this. Let it be known that I do NOT approve of the hack job Summit did of making the Twilight series into movies, they... never mind if you haven't read the books, don't see the movies because they will send you running and screaming.

That being said! The movies do represent Edward Cullen, who is made up of:

1 part Fitzwilliam Darcy (Pride & Prejudice)

1 part Gilbert Blythe (Anne of Green Gables)

1 part Edward Rochester (Jane Eyre)

Simmer until brooding and steamy, serve with a can of diet coke and craft project. Yields one fantastic afternoon!

So naturally I DO approve of this trailer which had me snorting with laughter waking up my poor old dog Snowball.

Etsy Treasures in time for Christmas

Janet Hill is a Canadian artist and my absolute top favorite Etsian! I have yet to own one of her prints but soon, dear reader, soon! After a semester of Jackson Pollock, Pablo Picasso, and an onslaught of contemporary junk with the label of "Modern Art", I just soak up her vintage colors, the cozy textures and the charm of these lovely oil paintings.

I found her while searching “Jane Austen” (don’t hate). Her paintings are so feminine and elegant, they will look great in any room, especially mine, hint hint Santa. If they were chocolate scented I would just have to die! Here are some top favorites.

Austen Dresses

So...obviously!

The White Owl Dress

Shannon loves this one, anything with owls!

Saturday Morning at Pemberly

If you can't tell me why I loove this one, you hurt my feelings!

Lovebird Patisserie

Again, this one should be chocolate scented!

Library Ladies

It's me, Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte!

Visit her Etsy Shop here or her website here.

*All images from her etsy shop*

Melting Snowmen! Oh no!

It's a truth universally acknowledged that a snowman located in a Texas must be in want of a cold climate!
Shannon and I made these soupy little sweeties tonight and laughed the whole time. Well, getting all the sticky mess off of my fingers wasn't so fun for me.
Shannon is a genius and added the ear muffs, they look perfect.
Some of them are melty-er than others.
Yeah, he's just chillin'
This one was inspired by the sweet Nellie Grace and her spectacular assortment of hair bows and flowers. :)
We had some silver sprinkles left over from something and I thought they would look like frost, but unfortunately they just look odd.
I go the idea from Crazy Domestic, a great blog btw.

This one's for you Amber.

I should NOT be posting right now! I have an 8 page paper to write, Art History final to study for, (both due on the same day btw) and my last few finance assignments to finish up... however, I love my ginger and so I'll share some of my surroundings with you.

Some frilliness from this vintage apron I got from Oma.
My craft station/inspiration shelves!
Snowball is old and half deaf but she sure can hoist herself up into a comfy chair.


One of my favorite ornaments. She has a husband in the corner there...

Here is my favorite lady... Shannon sang Jesu Bambino (how do you spell that?) in her recital. I did her hair thank you very much! We didn't get a good picture of her, but she looked just like Audrey Hepburn and sang like Christine Daae!I just want these from Anthropologie. :)
I love pennants...
And here is just a little dream I'm trying to make a reality...

Southern Bell-atrix

For every Harry Potter midnight movie premier I have attended, I have gone dressed as Bellatrix Lestrange, the craziest witch ever! She is so deranged, unstable and down right fabulous! Who else could pull her off? Well, we start with a plain Jane, fine haired lass as shown:

Add more styling mouse than is healthy for the environment and blow dry upside down until her face is purple. The now, fluffy hair is rolled using two sets of hot rollers. (These things are my new best friends, they hurt my fingers like crazy but beauty is pain right?)

Let them cool completely and carefully unroll. This will give her a Scarlett O'Hera look that must be frozen in time with half a can of hair spray. (I'm not exaggerating, I bought a can a week ago and its almost gone, I have rolled my hair twice since then!) never the less, spray like the yankees are coming woman, SPRAY!

Next an assistant is needed to back comb and tease all the pretty, ringlets into what hopefully will look like the hair of a woman who was one aristocratic but has been locked in prison for way too long.
Tease, tease, tease! The bangs will remain un-teased for the most part and lend their sweeping drama to the Souther Bell-esque look of our hair-do.

Now if the curls were intact still instead of the volume of rat's nests, this look could pass as "presentable", it's almost flattering to the plain Jane's facial structure don't ya think?

However, this is Bellatrix we are discussing! Add a great, handmade costume and that blood thirsty twinkle in her eye and we get: Southern Bell-atrix Lestrange!

Pretty Pleasant Day!

Texas Women's is actually a co-ed university, contrary to it's name. People make comments but out of the zillions of colleges I have been to this one has the nicest campus. It really is peaceful place, now I'm not saying that if there were more men it wouldn't be peaceful, but, yes thats what I'm saying! Who am I kidding, us ladies walk nice and calm, no shouting or fighting. Plus there are less Stupid Girls trying to snare their attention so less distractions. It's lovely. Now, I'm not, nor have I ever been, much in to team spirit, well except for Team Edward, Team Darcy, Wentworth, Rochester you get the idea. But today, I have been really happy walking around campus for a multitude of reasons:

1) I got a SUPERB parking spot this morning. I usually have to park a block away from campus but today was curb side by the art building. Practically free valet.

2) I had a thermos of peppermint mocha goodness.

3) these awesome little phrases are littered all over the sidewalks!

4) and lastly, in art history (the class I was failing because I bombed the midterm due to illness) I got back an extremely important paper on which I needed a good grade. Writing is SOO ho ho sooo not my thing and I HATE essays, alas, this is college. He hands it to me and asks, "Do you really want it back?" I just stared at him and held out my hand. He asked a similar question when I failed the midterm so I was starting to get queasy. If I failed this paper, I would fail the class. On the last page, there at the bottom, under a cloud of his pencil scribbles and markings is "A 96 Bravo!" I walked to my car streaming tears and thanking God for the friends who helped my write it. I could have walked 4 blocks to my car at that point.

Rainy Tuesday or How to Cure a Headache, Guaranteed!

Fist off, something crazy is going on and I can't get it to stop underlining everything! oh well, its just all SOO important I guess.

These first 2 images are the subjects for one essay that was due today Turing them in instantly rid me of the nagging spot headache I had behind my right eye, my sinuses have been pounding! Like, 6 Advil pounding. It's all better now! LAAAAAA!

The first is Dynamism of A Dog on A Leash and the second is Dynamism of a Soccer Player. Don't ask me to explain them, I won't do it. If you just absolutely must know you can contact, Erica, Amber or Bri, my secret editing task force. If they hadn't helped me I might as well drop out now! grrr this underlining!!!!!

This third picture is mega cool and I will explain why! My second paper was over Abe Morell, a super cool photographer I have admired for years. What he basically does is covers up all the light sources in a room so its total black, then pokes a small hole in front of a window covering. He sets up his large format camera (think old timey head under a sheet and a hand held shutter release button like in Lady and the Tramp) and takes a picture of the wall opposite the window. But this isn't a normal "click" and your done, the click or shutter speed is 8 hours to 2 days long! Hey, you just got some photography school'n! That will be $3,573 please. Well, all thats left for this essay is a power point I am presenting in an hour and a half to my online class. Ick. 5 minutes are longer than most realize until all you can think to say is "this ones really cool. so is this one. I like this one."

Well to celebrate the completion of my papers I decided against a bottle of Barefoot Moscato white whine, which anyone who really knows me knows I dont' touch alcohol because it all tastes like hairspray or gasoline. BUT this stuff is sooo good, it tastes like Sparkling Cider. So after the glamourous thought of buying a celebratory bottle or whine to share with... oh thats right all my friends live elsewhere...I went with the next best idea, HOBBY LOBBY!!!!! and MICHAELS!!!!! Really what was I thinking? Duh! Well, I had a fabulous time, I discovered Embroidery Paper! Its the same stuff you see in the machine-monogramed coffee mugs and things like that. Look for them featured in this year's hand embroidered Christmas cards! SQUEE!

Oh and what sounds cuter than a cupcake christmas tree???? Nothing!
Lastly dear ready I leave you with these. sigh. I wish I was brave enough. I love LOVE them. So christmasy right? Tights have been on my shopping list since Penelope came out on DVD. One day.

Craftastrophie! or How to Dumpster Dive for Craft Supplies!

This EmbroiDiva had a HUGE supply of crafty rejects bestowed upon my person by a person who also bestowed to me her looks, my Oma, who I look just like when she was my age, but much MUCH shorter. (my Austen dialect is lacking these days, it's been weeks since I have been involved with anything Jane, true sadness). Her wedding photos are my favorite pictures of all time so I have to find them and show you. I have plans to re-create one in particular of her in her white lacy gown surrounded by all the women fluffing and admiring the full skirt and tiny waist.

Allison was eager to dive in with me and see what was salvageable. We had too much fun trying what the heck the stuff in the box was used for! Just let me tell you, ugly! Yuckers! Some items proves to be quite fashionable for us and so a lovely game of dress-up ensued. Enjoy!

So after all the fun, we divided up the few usable things to keep. I put mine is a small cardboard box I brought along with one of my pink and green tubs that are all mine and no one in my family is allowed to use but me! Mine! SO anyway, she helped me take the tub down her apartment stairs to dump all the rejected rejects in their dumpster . . . Thats when the craftastrophie happened, she didn't know the cardboard box was my "keep pile" and tossed it in! She flipped out even after I told her it was fine and nothing in there was really important at all but she insisted we at least try to retrieve it for the empty stinky dumpster.

see my cute tub? Since I am doomed to roam like a nomad for the rest of my life I decided I would do it with style. But here we see her trying to grab the box with a pair of nice golf clubs she just happened to have in her trunk!
It didn't work, and we ended up smelling quite foul. Fun times.