Happy Heart Day!

Happy Valentine’s Day to all of my lovely friends and family!
 

Playing Dress Up

This blog is going to be a double feature!  Although I initially intended to write separate posts about the past two weekends, I've somehow managed to let time escape me yet again.  Therefore, it's a 2-in-1 pictorial about how I've gotten to do one of my favorite things for the past two weekends - play dress up!

Three weeks ago, my aunt, cousin and I ventured up to Florence, AL and spent the day at the Alabama Renaissance Faire. This is our second year to attend the Faire, but our first dressing up for the event. My aunt opted for the look of a noble lady, my cousin was a medieval sorcerer and I was your local tavern wench. In all, the day was an absolute blast.

Among the sites to see, there were men in kilts, trolls, ruffians & barbarians, powerful magicians, enchanted statues and, of course, the nobility.



For more pics of the day, check out Facebook.

And last weekend we celebrated my favorite holiday of all - HALLOWEEN! In case you don't know, Halloween is kind of a BIG deal in my family. As soon as one Halloween ends, we start planning the next year's theme (seriously, my cousin and I just had a lengthy discussion yesterday over lunch about an escaped psycho-Hannibal Lecter type theme next year). Anyway, this year we opted for a medical horror and it turned out better than we could have asked. We easily had 300+ trick or treaters, went through eleven large bags of candy PLUS my aunt's secret stash and still ran out by 8:30 PM.

We've spent so much time talking about how great Halloween night is that my family from Virginia decided to venture down and check out the shenanigans. That's my cousin, the devil & me this year.



Again, more pics are up on Facebook. Check 'em out if you have time! How did you scare away the spirits this Halloween?

Halloween Fever

Samhain ("sow-en") is, without a doubt, my most favorite holiday of the year.  I'm the girl that starts planning my costume sometime around January and begins dreaming up the gory details for the night throughout the year (it's kind of A. BIG. DEAL.).  This year my plans are two-fold - I'll start the night over at C.'s house with my family and about 300 trick or treaters and then end up the night at The Greatest Halloween Bash Ever, hosted by my friends.

This year, we're planning for a medical / gory / slasher / zombie setup.  My cousin, A. will be the evil doctor and I'll be the assistant nurse who was attacked by zombies on her way to work. I ordered three costumes this year, just to make sure I had a good selection.  There was the original Zombie Nurse outfit:

Unfortunately, this costume didn't fit right, even though I really liked it.  Next up was Nurse Mercy:

 

This one didn't work at all.  You know, when you order a $29 costume, you should expect it to look like a $29 costume.  Not at all what I was going for.  Finally, there was the little costume that had quite a bit of potential:  

50's style Vintage Nurse

This ended up being the PERFECT costume.  I love the style of the dress and with a pair of scissors and some fake blood, I'll be be able to zombify the dress with ease.  I'm especially looking forward to playing with my hair and makeup (especially the eyes) to get the effect that I'm looking for.

18 days and counting...

2010: 4th of July

What a wonderful weekend! I went to Charlottesville, VA this past weekend to see my mom and spend the holiday with my family. The trip was a total surprise for my mother as she had no idea that I planned on coming. When I strolled into my aunt's living room at 10 PM on Friday night, I can only say that the look on my mother's face was priceless. She literally jumped off the couch and caught me up in the biggest bear hug I think I've ever had.

On Saturday we all loaded up and headed into Scottsville, VA to see the 4th of July parade. Yes, it was the 3rd but in this small town, Sunday is still a day of rest and the volunteer firemen long ago decreed that if the holiday ever fell on a Sunday then the celebrations would be held on Saturday.

Don't let the map fool you ... I think the star representing the town might actually be bigger than the town itself.  Scottsville is the epitome of small town America -- one main street, no cell phone service, and a population of around 500 people (according to Google). But it's also peaceful and idyllic. It was nice to spend a day away from a world obsessed with iPhones, Facebook, and celebrities.

The parade was much as you would imagine --

led by the mayor,

 

 featuring bagpipe-playing men in kilts (my personal favorite!)

 

followed by quite a few firetrucks (with sirens!),

old cars,

middle-aged cars (???)

new cars, 

tractors,

 

t-ball teams and pageant princesses.

All in all, it was a great display of small town America with a heaping helping of USA pride thrown in.

L. and I, beating the heat with some frozen kool-aid pops

(notice I'm sporting my fave new shirt, courtesy of Piper!)

my mom and I

After the parade, we packed up our chairs and spent the rest of the afternoon with family friends, eating massive quantities of BBQ and splashing our feet in the pool.  

my cousin, A.

 check out that beautiful sight

L. was absolutely enthralled and decided that she MUST have this car.

On Sunday, my family hosted our own party and quite the crowd show up for some great food ... hamburgers, hot dogs, potato casserole, potato salad, two kinds of macaroni salad, cake, and peach ice cream. Nom. Nom. Nom.   

My cousins and I scrounged up a few sparklers and pop pop snappers. We finished off the night by seeing an amazing fireworks display hosted by the town at McIntire Park.

(image courtesy of http://george.loper.org/weblog/?p=1295)

On Monday, it was back to reality and time to head home.  My aunt and I geared up for the 622 mile journey home which we accomplished in a little over nine hours.  And although it was a great, great weekend, I was more than glad to be home in my own bed on Monday night.

Éirinn go Brách!

May the lilt of Irish laughter
Lighten every load, 
May the mist of Irish magic
Shorten every road,

May you taste the sweetest pleasures,
That fortune ere bestowed,

And may all your friends remember
All the favors you are owed.

Sláinte!

Perhaps the best Yuletide decoration is being wreathed in smiles...

The Christmas spirit finally found me on December 24th - as it does every year!

I really do love Christmas -- the good food, the time with my family and the tacky decorations. But I detest Christmas shopping. My ability to procrastinate is legendary and this year was no different than many Christmas' past. Of the 20 something gifts I bought and wrapped, all but three were purchased the day before Christmas. I was still wrapping gifts on the Sunday after Christmas!

My Christmas officially started mid-December with a visit from my mom. I only opened one of my presents while she was here, wanting to save the rest until Christmas Day. But I picked a good one - a $100 gift card to Pottery Barn! I surprised Mom with two tickets to see Wicked in Richmond, VA the weekend after her birthday.

On Christmas Eve, I spent time with Dad, Mitra and her family. We had a blast decorating a gingerbread house, drinking wine, eating dinner, and opening presents.

From Christmas 09

From Christmas 09

I spent Christmas Day with Dee, Papa, Cheryl and Alex. It was a quiet day, replete with good food and family fun (our version of family fun involves me doing shots of tequila with my grandfather). The family that drinks together, stays together. Or something like that. We opened a few more gifts and although it's hard to choose a favorite, I think it might be these:

Christmas festivities ran through Sunday, when my aunt and two cousins arrived from Virginia. We had our *official* Christmas dinner on Sunday night. And opened MORE presents. My grandfather racked up this year - a new GPS for his car and a new net book.

Although I love all of the gifts that I received, the most thoughtful Christmas present came from my cousin, Amy - artist extraordinaire. She took an old snapshot of Issy and hand drew me a portrait of him. She definitely knows the way to my heart is through my cats.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I'm not sure how much blogging I will get to do in the next two weeks, so in case I forget:

A little pre-Halloween fun...

Check out my mad creative skillz (courtesy of Picnik). But the best thing? It was FREE!


My fur-babies are almost as excited as I am about Halloween. Can't you tell?

It was a star-spangled night.

First, thanks to EVERYBODY for making Saturday day and Saturday night such a great time! I can't believe I pulled off having twenty-five people in my condo, but it happened! We had some excellent food, some excellent drinks, and some excellent fun!

My friend Desi took 143 pictures of the night, so I've heisted a few from her Facebook to share with you here.

Miss Mia, Katie and Darlene

Darlene and Rachael




Fireworks galore!

Lots o' shots!

Angela and Daren

Ivan and his lovely, Karissa

Troublemakers. All of us.

The REAL troublemakers.

The start of a very long night...

Devising the perfect toast.

Angela is such a bad influence on me. Or me on her.

He didn't need any outside influence!

Desi - striking a pose!

Bronson's done.

Issy and Beau were still trying to recover on Sunday.