Another Year Older

Not so sure about the wiser part but let's hope. I got to celebrate my birthday several times this past month and it is nice to have an excuse to do something fun. 

Saturday night (my actual birthday) I went to dinner at Liberty Market (big surprise I know) with some friends it was fun to get together and laugh. Here is my birthday cupcake. 

Melissa got me these awesome vintage pictures, Debbie has some and I have always loved hers but mine are so very Victorian! Now I just need to find the perfect place for them.  

 Debbie bought me the most beautiful book bag EVER!!! I am pretty much the coolest cat at the library now!

Sunday I celebrated at my parents, Debbie got these shots for me. 

My mom found this Eiffel tower and filled with candy for me. Lindsey I am going to try and save some mints for you.

 I was cleaning my desk this week and picked up a stack of pictures and saw this, probably my favorite picture of myself. Is it any wonder that my family says I haven't changed very much of the past thirty years!

Palace of Stone

After hanging out with Stephanie Perkins Debbie I couldn't stop saying how super nice she was. Case in point Stephanie told us that she had been given an advanced readers copy of Palace of Stone so she could blurb it (you know when you turn a book over and there is praise by different authors). Well she gifted it to Debbie and I since she knew how much we loved Shannon's work as well.  

Wednesday night Shannon Hale came to Changing Hands for the release of Palace of Stone, the sequel to Princess Academy. Since it is my birthday week my mom thought it would be fun if we made a party of it. So she my sister Debbie and sister in law Angie all came, we had dinner first and then all got to enjoy the hilarious Shannon. 

After my mom & Angie left not wanting to stand in the long line. Debbie and I eventually grabbed a bench so we could sit. See us sitting while everyone else is standing. 

Debbie and I were wondering if Shannon would remember us but when she got up to hug us and talked about Project Book Babe it made our night! I then told Shannon how we had met Stephanie Perkins (a aspiring author at the time) at Project Book Babe and how awesome it was to be having Shannon signing a copy of her book that Stephanie had blurbed!

My mom was right it was super fun and exactly what I would have wished to done to celebrate my birthday week!

Watercolor Books & A Wishbone

My birthday buddy Lauren was in town so we last minuet decided to do a little get together. Debbie came up with the idea of dressing up like a book character & having water color and paper to paint on. 

 Gracie helped me paint a little. 

We got pizza from Le Grande Orange and Lauren made Salt River Bars.

 Lauren dressed up as Arya Stark from Game of Thrones

 I dressed up as Madrigal from Daughter of Smoke and Bone for the party. I had a hard time deciding between Karou & Madrigal and my mom brought me the blue wig from the kids costume box.

 I had been saving the temporary tattoos for a year, I had gotten them with the book sampler. 

We didn't take any pictures till the party was over of course but others dressed up as well. I wish we would have gotten pictures they were great and it was fun to see so many friends. 

Discoveries

After reading and enjoying the book Edenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson I saw the author listing her inspiration as Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer. I had tried to read one of Georgette's books before but didn't get very far but decided I should give her another chance, and I am so happy I did! Her books sometimes take awhile to get to the plot but they are so much fun once you get there. I read my first Georgette book in June and have since read six of her books so far but guess what she has written something like 50 books. I feel like a kid at Christmas the only sad thing is WHY DID I NOT READ THEM SOONER? As I have been looking on Goodreads and reading reviews it breaks my heart to hear others say they have been reading them since they were a teenager, I feel so left out. Another problem is they are not all that available in the library, but I did find that I can download their audio books from my library. AND GUESS WHAT I found out that Richard Armitage (aka Mr Thornton) narrates a couple of the audio books.

While trying to find said audio books from the library I discovered OneClickDigital  I downloaded the app and now can listen to a fairly big selection of audio books. Sadly they did not have any Georgette Heyer but they did have Midnight In Austenland by Shannon Hale, some Eva Ibbotson and Sarah Dessen. Overdirve another site provided by my library also has digital and audio books! 

Also I wanted to bring up The Lizzie Bennet Diaries again, I am still watching and liking them more and more. The girls no longer wear orangey make up and look how cute Mr Bing Lee is.

I want more people to watch so that way they can afford to keep making them and I can see their Darcy. You can check them out here. 

Birthdays

July is a popular month for birthdays around here. Debbie's friends discovered that all their husbands birthdays are in July. So naturally they had to throw a party and of course it was off the hook. If you have read my blog for any amount of time you know that Debbie's parties are amazing. Now add her friends Jessica, Angela and Kayleen and you have a rocking party! 

On Russ's actual birthday I watched the kids at my place so Debbie and Russ could go to dinner after we did cake at my place. 

Monday was miss Gracie girl's birthday and I can not get over that she is 5.

She told me that she will always invite me to her parties and Debbie says I am always first on her list. Her love fills my heart till I am sure it will burst!