Busy Busy Busy

 I haven't posted in who know's how long! (Or do you know because you just went to check?!) Anyways, seeing how crazy long it's been since I have written on this blog that my wonderful awesome friend and I share I decided it would be a good time to create a post.

What has been going on in my life? Well...Let me tell you. What has currently been on my mind of course is Christmas. I mean it's December 11th isn't it? Who doesn't have Christmas on the brain! Unless that is you think the world's going to end on the 21st and you're trying to sale everything you own. I'm sorry for you and hope everything works out.

Going along with the season, last night I watched parts of two adorable movies that had some strange similarities. The first I watched part of was Hallmark's Holiday Engagement. I only watched a portion of it but what I gathered was cute, funny, and very Christmas-y. (not a word I know, but it's seasonal!) The other great movie was ABC Family's Desperately Seeking Santa. This
film is about a workaholic lady desperately trying to increase her mall's profits in order to get a promotion with the help of a very funny "Sexy Santa." It's cliche but still very cute and seasonal.

Also recently (and by recently I mean about 2-3 weeks ago), I read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (real name Charles Lutwidge Dodgson). This classic novel, that you've hopefully heard about, is about a young girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit hole. This story is rather strange and I imagine you'd have to be more than a little mad to have written it. Oddly enough, I never even liked this tale as a kid. In fact, it even scared me a little. Seriously, what's more frightening than crazy people throwing tea pots and an evil queen beheading everyone in sight!

More recently though I've come to some more positive outlooks of the fantastical journey and have even found myself to love it. I can give some special thanks to Disney's 2010 film, directed by Tim Burton, Alice in Wonderland. Also I more recently discovered a magnificent modern outlook on the tale with Syfy's miniseries, Alice, which happens to be on Netflix, just saying. I especially love the portrayals of the Mad Hatter by Johnny Depp and in the latter, Andrew Lee Potts. 

While I'm on the topic of Alice in Wonderland, I feel like it's a good time to mention one of my favorite artists, (and one of the few modern artists that I keep up with) Julie Dillon. How is this relevant? Julie works especially in digital media, and one of my favorite art pieces of hers is titled Solitaire. She made it for a "Alice: Madness Returns" art show. I love the colors she uses andher fantastical style. Please check out her other artwork on her website at www.juliedillonart.com 

Now that everyone knows what is going on here, stay warm from the cold (Starbucks doesn't hurt), enjoy life, and Merry Christmas (or at least Happy Holidays)!!! 

Christmas!

I don't know about yall but for me Christmas was great. I went to my Papa and Kiki's (mom's parents) on Christmas Eve, opened presents at my house Christmas morning, then went to my Memaw and Pepaw's (dad's parents) for lunch, and ended it up by coming to my brother and sister-in-law's Christmas night.

The lovely couple lives in Fort Worth. Today we had a shopping spree! :) When we left the house we were all starving so we headed to the Montgomery Plaza where we enjoyed ourselves at Pei Wei. The food was great, especially the "chicken lettuce wrap" which I had. Afterwards we went to Luke's Locker (also in the plaza) because I needed some new running shoes. When we left I had purchased a nice pair of Asics, some vibrams (the shoes with the toes,) and a nice headband for soccer. Also while there my brother found a neat brochure for a Cross Country Camp taking place in the summer that is hosted by the University of Dallas. The camp sounds amazing but running camps are definitely not cheap so if I want to go, I'm going to need to save up.

  After leaving the Plaza we headed to the busy University Park Village where we visited Apricot Lane Botique, Barnes & Noble (one of my favorites,) and  Anthropologie.  I didn't buy anything there but I was very close numerous times. Each place had tons of neat objects. ALB: about $400 boots by Corral Boots, a chic mannequin, TOMS; B&N: this great how to Digital Photography Book; and A: too many to say but for sure the set up was outstanding and I fell in love with this french cookbook. unfortunately everything was super expensive and I was trying to save some of my Christmas money.

We finished our final rounds of shopping at the Ridgmar Mall. There were many stores to see but my mom sister, and I only made it to two before we were shopped out. They happened to be Macy's and Victoria's Secret. Here I finally cracked and spent more money but I think it was worth it. What did I get, you might ask. Well...M: a white long-sleeve pullover sweater (super cute!) and a black 3/4 sleeve pullover sort of sweater. My closet could definitely use some vamping up (know that does not mean being more vampiristic, even though I have a love for vampires) and these are some tremendous additions to the usual t-shirts and hoodies hiding out in there. VS: ok, I know you're thinking lingerie but NO!!!!! I got some lip gloss, some desperately need mascara (ok, not that desperate since I hardly wear the stuff,) a cute compact mirror (my last one shattered but it was from Claire's so not too surprising. Then again it was in my backpack. I wonder...?)  make-up removing wipes, and a great make-up kit that was thrown in with a sale of being reduced to $10 (it comes with ten gorgeous eye shadows, some eyeliner and a sweet little eyeshadow brush.) Thanks a ton Victoria, now I may actually start wearing make-up on a regular basis. Before leaving we were going to run by the Forever 21 but after the day we where pretty shopped out. I had been especially keen to see it since Rumi Neely (ultimate fashion blogger and creator of "fashiontoast") has modeled for them before but even I was too tired. 

We finished the evening by eating at a homey little burger joint called Dutches (located here) that is near TCU (Texas Christian University) which, I guess, is around central Fort Worth. Before heading back though we saw the beautifully lit trees around the color changing Chesapeake Plaza building and the elegant homes *cough mansions cough* in Mistletoe Heights. All in all, it was a wonderful day. I bought some cute clothes, ate some great food, saw the sights, and got to spend a whole lot of time with family.

sorry the pictures of the trees are so blurry but they were hard to take in a moving car with a cell phone (which is my norm.) Here are a few more pictures of Fort Worth that I liked.

 

I almost forgot to tell what I got for Christmas. I got a lot of things, so I can't name them all but let me list some of the major things (in no particular order, of course.) Let's see:

• TOMS with black sequins on them (can dress them up or down. yay!)
• about a bajillion gift cards. I have five from Books.A.Million alone (thats $90 to one store!)
• the album Ceremonials by Florence + The Machine (that's like my favorite band! I'm actually listening to "No light, No light" from the CD on my ipod right now.)
• clothes!
• money (and a lot of it)
• pajamas
• some art supplies (I love to draw!)
• movies: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (the epic finale,) a 4 pack of the Batman movies: Batman, Batman Returns, Batman & Robin, and Batman Forever; and to top it of Batman-wise, The Dark Knight (I've recently become somewhat obsessed with Batman and what not so I'm really glad to get these.)
• and last but definitely not least a Wii (its actually a family gift but I'm not complaining!)