Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!!

I went to a Christmas party a few days before Christmas. At this point, I was 99% sure I was getting a record player, in fact, I had already ordered a few myself. I had Michael Martin Murphey and a few Elvis records. At this party, I took part in a White Elephant gift exchange. I stole three records from someone that didn't even have a player! Though at the time, neither did I.

My bounty- West Side Story, Fire Goddess, and Funny Girl

On the day after the party, it was baking day for Christmas Eve and day. I got a recipe from friend Margaret for peppermint bark. The first try, I neglected to put vegetable oil in with the white chocolate chips, so instead of melting, they got hard. I fixed it the second time.

After a messy first batch, we realized we could put the mints in the blender for a more efficient and less messy smushing

We then had so much dust left over that my sister and I had to run to Hobby Lobby for a jar and some ribbon.

I told them when I eventually move out, I'm taking my peppermint dust jar with me

Merry Christmas Eve!

On Christmas Eve, I got an awful lot of vintage stuff. I got two new dishes and a Dutch Oven (this was new.) I also got a cake breaker and a tea spoon thingy that looks like a medieval torture device. The highlight was a huge, heavy box that was unexpected filled with records. They all belonged to my Numa and most were in pristine condition.

There was a Nat King Cole St. Louis Blues and an Ella Fitzgerald and a lot of 50's dance music.

On Christmas morning, it was finally time to see if I was actually getting a record player or not.

I got one!

During the opening, we listened to the Nat King Cole Christmas album, Michael Martin Murphey, Frank Sinatra, and Doctor Who.

I also got new lifting shoes, but those aren't as cool as the record player

I forgot I had got my sisters to get my the Murray Gold first two seasons of Doctor Who records until I opened that. 

The first two seasons of Doctor Who music on vinyl

Broadway shows and people I've heard of 

Everyone else

All in all, I got 70 records over the course of two days. I have a few coming in the mail that I'm excited for too. I've been listening all day!

Literary Art Day

edit: I know I spelt "remember" wrong in my painting. I've fixed it now.

The day after Thankgiving is traditionally a boring day at my house. After we all band together to transport boxes from the attic to downstairs, we do nothing while my mom begins the Christmas decorating process.

We decided that would change today.

Firstly, my mom decided that she would clean out the attic after getting all of the boxes down. During that, she found me a few new toys.

This is a toy that my great-grandpa got for my mother. It's a little wooden outhouse bank. You load up a mousetrap inside and then put it together carefully. If you aren't careful, it falls and then the mousetraps pops and almost cuts off your finger. After that, you get a friend to drop in a quarter. It sets off the trap and they scream.

This is a salt and pepper shaker from the 50s. My mema and papa are in that picture.

When you turn the dial, out pop the shakers!

Secondly, my sister and I created a new holiday. The day after Thanksgiving is now Literary Art Day.

Last week, I created this:

My sister was supposed to paint with me, but I got home before she did and was bored, so I forgot about her. Today, we painted together.

My work-in-progress

I was worried about the blending of the black and red at first, but I think it worked. It looks better in the finished product. I promise I am not a Coyote!! :)

Kacie's work-in-progress

Kacie fretted for an hour over how to write her words. She couldn't decide what to do in cursive and what to capitalize. In the end, she wrote it all in lowercase except for a few words.

She chose a quote from John Green's "The Fault in Our Stars"

I chose a quote from Erin Morgenstern's "The Night Circus." I messed up on the "e" and had to paint over it. 

Kacie's art

My finished project 

All three of the quote painting things I've done. 

The hard part about this quote was that I didn't follow one that had been done already. The other two paintings had been created by others and posted online. I just copied them. This one, for myself and Kacie, were blank slates. The lines at the top are supposed to be kind of like the circus tent.

One hour after finishing and taking all of the photos, I was uploading the picture to Tumblr. I realized I spelt a word wrong.

I rushed into the kitchen and painted over the egregious error.

I think aesthetically, it looked better before I fixed it. I had to though. I couldn't leave an error like that.

Thirdly, after we painted, we succumbed to the Christmas spirit and decorated our trees.

Kacie's belongs in a Dr. Seuss book.

Here's my little Christmas display!

Happy Literary Art Day!!