Friday, December 14, 2018

The Ultimate Christmas Tag

 

 

I was tagged in this Christmas tag (created by Femenish) by Anne Carty. Please check out both of their posts! 

 

Rules: 

  • link back to the original post (by femenish) when you have written yours and link back to the person who tagged you!
  • tag as many bloggers as you like.
  • answer the questions! If you want to you can make up your own questions to ask the bloggers you have tagged, or you can use these ones!



1. What is your favorite thing about Christmas?


Traditions!! Tree decorating, carol singing and playing, cookie making, present making and wrapping, it's all glorious.

2. Do you have any Christmas traditions you CANNOT forget about each year?


Decorating the tree to Christmas tunes, making cookies, and giving handmade presents to my friends and loved ones. Since meeting my fiance, we've begun a tradition of watching the Muppet Christmas Carol on Christmas Eve, because in the movie one of the songs says "After all, there's only one more sleep til Christmas" and it really embodies the spirit of such a magical celebration being only a sleep away, if you can get to sleep with all the excitement.


3. Is there a song that just gets you into that Christmas spirit?


"It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" because of the lovely descriptions of the holly and Christmas trees in the stores and parks, "the sturdy kind that doesn't mind the snow".

4. What is your favorite Christmas movie?


The Rankin Bass Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Although I have some issues with it, mostly that Santa is an ableist d*ck but the claymation style of this and the age at which I watched it just solidified it as a Christmas classic for me. My favorite part is when Snowman Sam sings his classic song "Silver and Gold". It makes me feel so peaceful! I love it so much that I got a Snowman Sam collectible ornament to put on my tree, one of the only breakable ornaments I have because I try to limit things the cats can destroy. But if Snowman Sam is up there I'm protecting that tree like the Lorax- short, shouty and hairy.

I also love when Rudolph and his friends get to the Island of Misfit Toys. I love all of the toys, but especially the pink spotted elephant. As a child I wanted to give them all a home , misfit or not.


5. Which food is your must-have at Christmas time?


COOKIES! I have to make cookies at Christmastime. So many kinds, my mother's Scottish shortbread recipe, molasses gingerbread men, frosted cut-out sugar cookies, gingersnaps, snickerdoodles, so many delicious cookies.

On Christmas day I like to have a beef roast instead of a turkey or ham, as we've usually just had too much turkey at Thanksgiving. But the real reason it has to be roast beef is that in How The Grinch Stole Christmas, they have "roast beast" in their fantastic cartoon celebration with all its amazing toys and instruments, and as a kid I always wanted to have that kind of Christmas party.

6. If you had to choose between Michael Buble's Christmas album and Justin Beiber's Christmas album, which one would you choose and why?


Michael Buble. I used to like his music a lot when I was about fourteen, because the acoustics of my shower meant I could do a (to my own standards at the time) semi decent impression of his Sinatra covers while showering.

7. What is your favorite memory about Christmas?


Hmm. Most of my good holiday memories are of Thanksgiving and New Years, but one good Christmas memory I have is an early one, when I was 5 or 6 and my parents were still together. My dad had been struggling with jobs and I think that year my parents had to get our presents from the Salvation Army, where my dad was working part time. My present was a Barbie that had school clothes, a lunch box, and I think glasses or something which might have been why they got it for me. Other than the fact that I was a 6 year old girl and loved all things Barbie. But, I was also new to glasses-wearing and wasn't taking it well. I'll admit it now, I looked pretty bad in glasses up til 16 or 17 when I switched from round and oval frames to rectangles.

8. When do you start decorating your place for Christmas?


The day after Thanksgiving, as soon as I can get away with it.

9. If you were at Christmas Karaoke, which 5 songs would you choose to play?


Well, the ones I consider my favorites aren't necessarily the ones I know all the words to. I know the words to the classic carols, having caroled with my parents church and at nursing homes as a girl scout, but those ones are typically solemn and not really the karaoke mood. 

I guess I might have to say Baby It's Cold Outside, as much as I don't like it. And I don't dislike it because it's rapey, I dislike it because I hate when people can't just tell one another what they mean and a society that makes stupid social games necessary.
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Have a Holly Jolly Christmas, Jingle Bells of course, and if it's an option then the Heat Miser song from The Year Without a Santa Claus. The heat miser is my spirit animal, I sing his song often throughout the year and I am indeed too much.


10. What are your top 4 Christmas movies?


Again, I do have to go with the Rankin Bass classics- Santa Claus is Comin' to Town, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, The Year Without a Santa, and Jack Frost, because they are so Christmassy and gave such wonderful songs to the theme of Christmas music that don't have to be sappy or religious. Also, I will ride or die with Rankin Bass because of the versions they made of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, long before Peter Jackson. Did you know they also produced Frosty the SnowmanThe Wind in the Willows and The Last Unicorn?

Other ones that are very classic are things like White Christmas and Holiday Inn but they're just so intolerably cringey to watch now, with how useless and easily manipulated they portray the women. 

11. What does Christmas really mean to you?


Christmas itself, Dec. 25th, I think is a good reason to spend a day with people you love and enjoying holiday traditions.  As a religious holiday, I can't give it much credence. It's kind of one of those "You made this? I made this." situations that really overshadows a whole month of beautiful cultural celebrations. That's why "Happy Holidays" is my preferred greeting and isn't at all anti-Christmas, it recognizes that the month of December contains a lot of holidays. It's anti Christmas-exclusive I guess, because the fact is that lots of political and cultural systems may still run on Christian-appropriated holidays, but the people of the world don't.

12. How old were you when you stopped believing in Santa?


About nine, I think. My brother and I had already caught our mom putting presents in the stockings on Christmas Eve, and we got the news broken to us a little after that.

13. What do you think makes Christmas so magical?



Winter is the season of one of my favorite holidays, but not being religious in terms of Christianity means my view of Christmas is one of an outsider. I think it gives the whole month a sense of magic, and a reason to indulge in all the things that increase that sense of Christmas magic and nostalgia- whether it's making cookies, decorating with lights, and hand making, wrapping and giving presents. But the greatest part of generating those feelings with holiday traditions is sharing it with others, which is how that holiday feeling stays so strong when you go out and people are happy, being more generous and sharing cheer. When you make cookies, send them to people you love. Donate your time serving food at soup kitchens, buy or make extra toys and donate them to toy drives, if you make hats or mittens make a few extra for your local NICU ward. Christmas means indulging in and sharing traditions to keep the magic alive in your own home and in your community.

14. Share your favorite photo from a previous Christmas

I can't pick just one. Sorry! Here is a photo of our tree and decorations a few years ago in an old apartment. And then some bonus pictures of one of the best things about the holidays for me!
































Tag others!

Samantha @SamSpace Blog samspace.blog
Victoria @Victoria Austin Blog victoriaaustin.co.uk 
Bailey @Bailey Leah Blog baileyleah.com
Char @LunarChar Blog lunarchar.com




Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed, and have happy holidays all month, and a happy new year!



Friday, November 30, 2018

My Pinterest Page

Ta-da!! A Pinterest page for my blog!



I started a Pinterest page to branch out & promote my blog and have pinnable pictures of my art put neatly together on boards. And I gotta say, they're looking awesome!!

Also new, and you can see on the right hand side if you're in desktop mode- my new Pinterest button. Do me a favor and follow me on Pinterest, won't you? pinterest.com/weearthboundstars






As I continue my blogging journey, my boards will get more numerous and interesting so please stick with me as I go!
Because blogging is such a peer-dependent thing, I couldn't have made it to this point without inspiration from my blogging peers so I want to shoutout my fellow blogger pinspirations. Please check out what things they have pinned and give them a follow to stay up to date with new and awesome content!

Anne @ Forever the Wanderer blog- pinterest.com/foreverthewanderer
Becca @ Becca Blogs It Out- pinterest.co.uk/beccablogsitout
Nicole @ Navigating Darkness blog- pinterest.com/navigatingdarkness 
Ruth @ Ruth in Revolt- pinterest.com/ruthinrevolt
Jenny @ Jenny in Neverland- pinterest.com/jeninneverland




Saturday, November 24, 2018

Fluid art prints

The following prints are going to be available in postcard and sticker form! Keep an eye out for the upcoming release of my latest painting series and my 1k giveaway!












Friday, November 23, 2018

My Bookshelf tag

This week I figured it's time to show you guys my bookshelf. I have moved 10+ times including across the country in the past 5 years, so my book selection has been massively pared down from what it once was, and doesn't reflect the collection I want to have someday when I'm in a place I know I'll be for a while, and have the money.

In those years I've been reading mostly in ebook form and audiobook form through Project Gutenberg and Librivox.org, both of which I *cannot* recommend enough because they are absolutely 100% free and legal, as it's all content that's in the public domain and volunteer read. There are also apps to make it more accessible.

I'll take you through which books are on my shelf and the stories that go with them. I'm also going to tag a few of my fellow bloggers that I think are really interesting, and I'll bet they have great collections!




My Books


Flatland , Flatterland, Sphereland (and "The Dot And The Line" which I don't have yet)- my favorite series-not-series by five different authors



In 10th grade math class, I had a teacher that for the first time explained math in a way that I understood. It was after I had discovered Flatland and started reading it, and we were having a class on plotting formulas on a graph and somehow the discussion of the 4th dimension came up, and the teacher went into an explanation on how it would look to pass a 3D ball through a 2D plane.
He said it would look like a dot on a piece of paper getting bigger and bigger and then gradually smaller, as only one tiny slice of the ball would be in the 2D plane at the same time. Then he went on to tell us to imagine a tiny sphere appearing in our world, getting bigger and bigger and then smaller til it popped out of existence, which would be what a 4D ball would look like passing through our 3D world.  My poor tiny teenage mind exploded.



The Phantom Tollbooth



I love things that play with words and ideas, celebrating nonsense and forcing you to look at things in a certain way, or at least give them a second consideration. I read it as a child, and listened to its book-on-tape form on cassette in my elementary school library.














Katherine



This book I found at a house that was preparing for an estate sale. Most things had been packed up so what was left we were sorting through and could take home free. It's taped up at the edges and has no identifying writing on it, so I just took it on a whim. It's historical fiction that follows the life of a girl, set in the 13-1400s with rich descriptions of palaces and scenery but also deep interpersonal drama and conflict.






One Ballerina Two, Goodnight Moon

These are children's books that I feel formed my aesthetic and influence my art style and I count as inspiration in a long-running project I haven't yet written about, my children's book I've been illustrating very infrequently for the past few years.












 Next, a couple books on gardening and herbs, a book of beautiful fairy illustrations,

and a reference book to help me find specific books in my local library for a long-running mermaid/siren mythology project.























 Moby Dick

I had started reading Moby Dick around 2009, when I began going through the classics that I felt like I should at least know the plot of, if not fully understand, before becoming "a real adult" (I'm still waiting for that, btw) but couldn't really get into it, as at the time in school for my different classes I was reading things like the Great Gatsby , 1984 and the Iliad and Odyssey in school and everything felt like forced reading.
It was a few years later that I was at my dad's house on a Sunday and something on the History channel was playing in the background as I surfed the web and it was going over an account of a shipwreck, and referenced a passage from Moby Dick to illustrate a storm at sea, and the passage stopped me in my tracks to listen and gave me goosebumps, so I had to buy a copy. This is my one gilded book and the one book that I've treated myself to a nice copy of and spent a little money on, which is why when I'm not reading it, it's not on my shelf and is actually in a safe in two waterproof bags, with things like passports and important photos.


The Little'uns





The Prophet, given to me by a friend











My fiance's copy of The Perks of Being a Wallflower












A book of poetry by a personal inspiration of mine, Jane Kenyon, and the pre-publishing copy of my own book of poetry- soon to be released! 












My only DVD, in my possession since ~2008 and very reflective of my teenage obsession with Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst

















My all time faves that I currently don't have copies of and things from my Thriftbooks wishlist-

Basically everything by J. R. R. Tolkien, all the Oz books, The Dot and the Line, Madeline and the subsequent Madeline books, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, all illustrated Winnie the Pooh stories, a few books on the Waldorf teaching methods, Bread Overhead and The Wanderer by Fritz Leiber, and Monet's Years at Giverny : Beyond Impressionism



Tagging Rules 

Share your book collection (if you have a ton, just share the ones you feel explain a little bit about yourself, your interests, and your background) and part or all of your wishlist, then tag friends you'd like to see do this post!

I tag -


Amy weston- bl0g- amywriteslife.com  vlog channel-  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnE4GD03M4dJt294Lgs8bjA/featured

Anne Carty- blog- foreverthewanderer.ie

Ruth Skelley- blog- therollingtwenties.com



Friday, November 16, 2018

The Boyfriend Tag

First of all, thank you to Anne at Forever the Wanderer blog for the tag! This looks like a fun one. You are given questions to answer by the person you are tagged by, and you have your boyfriend/partner answer them!
I have some memory problems from being in hospital, however, and he's got a shoddy memory so there may be lots of ummmmms and errrrrs along the way.

*Note- I have changed the text color in this post at least ten times and cannot get it to stay the way I set it, so I apologize for the odd text color changes.




 The Boyfriend Tag


Where did we meet? 

"We met first in the parking lot at your old apartment. Well, we met online first."


That's right! I wasn't into the idea of online dating but a friend who had recently reconnected with an old love after a really traumatic relationship convinced me to give it a try so I did. I didn't hit it off with anybody or even accept a date from the people I matched with until we matched and I realized we only lived 45 minutes away, and he had gone to the same school as my half brother so we might know some of the same people.
 

Where was our first date?

"It was that Mexican place, right? Or was it the 99? It was after you got your blue dress, I think."


I thought it was Fridays, and it was the black dress? I don't remember either! 😅 But I know we took a cab there because neither of us had a car yet. There's few options in a small town!



What was your first impression of me?

"She's just as pretty as I thought she would be."


MAD blushing right now.



When did you meet my family? 

"When we went out to dinner with your dad, and (Sister's name), and (BIL's name) and all the kiddies that I definitely know all the names of."


😂  There are seven nieces and nephews to remember, I don't expect him to remember them all. To be completely honest I can't remember if he has 7 or 8, but I know there's another on the way so god help us both in remembering all of that!



Do I have any weird obsessions? 

"Why do these 'Most Compelling Police Interrogations" keep showing up in my recommendations?"

I'm often susceptible to clickbait. What can I say? I'm human.


How long have we been together? 

"Four years and seventeen days."


Um. Okay.... Mr. Exact Numbers. It helps that we just had our anniversary last month.


Do we have any traditions?

"Eh."


I'd have to agree, honestly. We used to order in Chinese from a specific place every other Friday on pay day, but we don't have any holiday traditions yet or anything. 


Where was our first holiday?

"I guess our first was going to see Ingrid 2 years ago when we were in Portland. That was awesome."


It was soooooo awesome. We stayed in a hotel connected to the theater that had a heated salt water pool, so after going out to eat and seeing one of my real life heroes, Ingrid Michaelson, we came back to the hotel and relaxed in the pool. I'd worn heels which I do rarely, and my poor feet were so sore! But I didn't care, we'd just seen my hero in concert for the first time ever. I can't wait to see her for Christmas this year!!! Ingrid + Christmas, two of the best things on Earth colliding.


What was the first thing you noticed about me? 
 
"Well, first I thought you were cute. Then I opened your profile and saw the pictures of you and your guitar, and you and Roscoe (my father's dog), and I thought you were nice. Then I saw we liked all the same stuff, the Princess Bride and Doctor Who and all that."



It's true what they say about dogs. They ARE babe magnets! I'm glad I put my interests on my page now, because mutual interests are what really sparked our relationship and getting to know eachother. Once we discovered our mutual love for Josh Ritter, we were sold on one another.

What is my favorite restaurant?

"You always just want to go to Applebees! It's because they have french onion soup, I know." 


It's true, unless I have a specific place in mind I wanted to try. We moved closer to the city this year and have been trying out fun little places, but Applebees always has 2 for $20 deals if I know I want steak and potatoes, and their peach mint sangria is one of my favorite drinks.



What do we argue about the most? 

"Money."


Ugh, true. And the situations money puts us in, and the situations that lead to us not having enough money.  e_e
 
Who wears the trousers in the relationship? 

"You do, one hundred percent."




Eh..


If I’m watching tv, what am I watching? 

"If you're watching anything it's on YouTube and it's games and commentary."


That's true. We've never had cable and only have a TV to cast shows, movies, and streams onto.
 
What is one food I don’t like?

"You don't like maraschino cherries. And almond flavor."




That's the fake cherry flavor!!! Real cherries are delicious and amazing. Fake cherry is made from almond flavor which I hate. Disaronno can get the hell out of my face, I will barf.
Pro tip to parents- don't drug your children on flights to keep them quiet. It'll put them off cherry flavor for life, and maybe also they needed ear surgery and weren't just fussy. End rant.




What drink do I order if we go out? 

"Usually one of those fruit lemonades, or a Sprite. You like those muddled peach drinks at Applebees too."


He knows me too well.

What size are my feet? 

"Nine."


WRONG. Nine and a half. I have long ugly Gollum feet and nines pinch.



What is my favorite kind of sandwich?

"BLT with mayo and pickles."


😍😍😍 I want to marry this man. Oh wait, I'm going to.



What is one talent that I have? 

"You're really good at knitting."




😊 That feels nice to hear.
 
What is my favorite cereal?

"I don't know. Sometimes you like oat cluster things."



Yeah, we don't eat a lot of cereal. Sometimes granola with yogurt. We're both lactose intolerant so if we buy lactose free milk, we usually save it for cooking and for putting in coffee and tea. But if I do eat cereal, I like Frosted Flakes. 
 
Where was our first kiss? 

"At your apartment, on that grey couch."

It was the first time I felt a spark. It made sense what people had been talking about. I've never been a super fan of kissing, putting your slobber on someone else's... but this time I was like oh! That's what the spark is!
 
What color are my eyes?

"One blue, one green."



Yes! Well, sort of. Blue and then one has a blob of yellow. Sectoral heterochromia, woo!



What is something you do that I wish you wouldn’t? 

"Yell at video games."




Yep. Scares the shit out of the cats, too.
 
What kind of cake would you bake me for my birthday? 

"Probably a lemon cake. "




Mmm, I love cakes that have fruit in them. Like vanilla cake with a layer of raspberry jam, mmmmm.

 
What can I spend hours doing?  

 "Fawning over the kitties, definitely. Or knitting."


  

He makes me sound like a crazy cat lady... but he's not wrong.  
 

If I could live anywhere where would it be?

  "Scotland."



100% spot on. I daydream of running a B&B in the Northwest of Scotland.


And now we get to the part of this tag I'm not sure about. As my interests & audience include a lot of LGBTQ areas, I found it hard to tag anyone because it feels sort of unfair to single out certain peers or followers to tag because of their relationship. Maybe if I were also tagged in LGBTQ related and/or aro related tags I would feel better about including more people, but as it is I think for the first time I may not pass on this tag.