Surprise, Surprise! (I haven't died)

Life has been sparkier than a bundle of Independence Day firecrackers SO I thought I'd give you the low-down in a concise list of highlights:

Sarah is interning with Generation Joshua for the summer. We miss her.

I am nannying 3-4 days a week and stuffing family life and my writing in the cracks.

Daniel and Abigail Taylor are engaged after two years as an "official couple". <3333333

I am working the iGovern camps with Generation Joshua again this summer! So excited.

My Cinderella-retelling, The Windy Side of Care was just published in the Five Glass Slippers anthology by Rooglewood Press! Interested in reading it? Check out the book's Goodreads page and add it to your "To Be Read" list.

It might have been an age since I wrote a fashion post for this blog, but I've guest-posted about how to achieve a Cinderella-inspired makeup look on Clara Diane Thompson's blog!

I am super busy rewriting my mystery, Anon, Sir, Anon, due out this fall! If you like classic English murder mysteries, you'll want to keep an eye out for this one!

And last but not least, I'm attempting to post a vlog on The Inkpen Authoress so if you'd like a verbal catch-up, try heading that direction!

Since Coming Home...

I've been cooking. Kind of a lot.

I've given haircuts...

 

And received one!

I have seen Les Miserables live on stage and then prepared Abigail and Daniel to go off on their little date the next day for the same. Isn't she gorgeous?

Aw <3

I've played around with makeup-techniques a little bit, and planted our garden, and procrastinated with my writing. Oh! I've watched a little Larkrise to Candleford (it half annoys me and have pleases me so I continue to watch it until Thomas gets on my nerves one too many times), and I've listened to Cabin Pressure. Which, by the by, you simply must get your ears upon ASAP. It's a BBC radio-comedy starring Benedict Cumberbatch and John Finnemore among others, and it's a corking good show. I love it and never fail to laugh. I am especially indebted to Daniel Tate for this pleasure, btw. 

Ahhhh. Amazing radio-show. :)

Since coming home, I've also phone-banked with Americans for Prosperity, getting folks to register to vote this year, and I've watched Iron Man 3. 

So yes! All in all I've been rather busy since coming home. How about you? What have you been doing these past several weeks? :)

Daniel + Abigail = Fun

A series of photos, because life where Abigail and Daniel are concerned is so much fun. :)

We go contra-dancing (and nearly faint) and we write senseless greetings on our left-overs.

                 

We hang at creepy gas stations to fill up before making trips...

We draw pictures on the windows....

We draw pictures on feet....

We suit up in barncoats and hideous ponytails and pretend to be chicken-thieves when we have to help BJ move the roosting hens after dark.

We find that the Smithfield ice-cream parlor spells "Sherbet" the way everyone says it and not the way it's properly spelled at all.

We take pictures of the soda-jerk in a manner that makes him think we're actually taking self-portraits.

We giggle over nothing and everything.

We hang out at DMV while Daniel registers his car singing "The Song of the Lonely Mountain" time and time again while we wait for him in the frigid air. 

We found a chap from the shoppe across the street who looked like he belonged in Downton Abbey.

We sample everything in the store and pretend we are food critics...

We hold hands and sing random songs just because we like to think we live in a musical.

We make Shirley-Temples and discuss how many fun drinks you can make that have absolutely no alcohol in them.

We admire daffodils displayed in blue glass, and model ships displayed in antique stores.

Daniel and Abigail are my peeps. I love them both so very much. :)

Snowday!

One day it was 70+ degrees...

....the next day we had snow.

What?

We live in Virginia--it's typical.

Snow-birds....

This species eats snow as a couple...part of the courtship ritual, perhaps?

...snow in my hair...

Due to cancelled mall-plans, we all went on a walk in the snow, and I brought my lady-bug umbrella to keep the snow off my face so my makeup wouldn't run. (Yeah, I'd gotten ready to go out and didn't wish to have to wash off eyeliner and everything because it smeared.) Anyway, I rather lost my head out there and pretended to be a mad postman and...yeah...don't ask. But it was hilarious. 

"Through rain and snow

The mail must go,

But NOT ON SATURDAYS!"

-and-

"MEN! The first sign of hypothermia is the growth of white fur on one's belly. MEN! Do you have white fur on your belly?" (brushing snow off my coat)

-and-

"CHARRRRRRGE!" (like Teddy from Arsenic and Old Lace) with my umbrella down the road when the snow blew starting blowing in our faces.

Think the Mad-Hatter plus the US Post Office, plus me with a red umbrella and you'll have a partial picture. It would probably scare some of you, and make the rest of you incapacitated with laughter.

 I promise you I'm a little more shrunk than the pictures show. I look short and dumpy because Abigail took these from the top steps so I resemble an oompa-loompa.

We repaired to Panera later on to warm up for a bit and buy a movie for family movie-night...

Yes, I chose some hot chocolate and a toasted bagel. Who cares when you're freezing in snow and slush and ice?

I ended up dictating to Sarah to use the money she owed me to buy Gregory Peck's version of To Kill a Mockingbird (which I'd never seen) and so we came home and loved it. Atticus Finch is a forever hero....and Mary Badham as Scout was too adorable....now I've also got a whole second disk of special features and documentaries and fun facts. Like, did you guys know that Gregory Peck delivered Atticus' entire 7-minute courtroom speech in one take? Mmmmhm. That's an awesome actor for you.

Fun times, folks. Fun times.

Did you get any snow?

This is a picture from one of my friends who got 6 1/2 inches at her house! <3

God's creation is just gorgeous!

"...the gull's way, and the whale's way..."

"I must go down to the seas again, to the gypsy's vagrant life,

To the gull's way, and the whale's way, where the wind's like a whetted knife;

And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow rover,

and a quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over."

-John Masefield "Sea Fever"

I have always loved the fact that we live near the historic triangle...Jamestown, Williamsburg, Yorktown...living near someplace as amazing as the James River is a real treat. Not many people can lay claim to dipping their toes in a body of water with so much history. Lucky for us, there are many places roundabouts where you would hardly realize the land has been touched. Fort Boykin is one of those places. Such a beautiful little spot nestled along the cliffs of the James...almost a secret beach, really.

It's Abigail's birthday on Monday so we have turned this weekend into a bit of birthday-trip for her including taking her to this secluded spot. It was a beautiful day--just the right mix of hot and cold so we could still put our feet in the water in tolerable comfort. :) Indian-summer at it's best.

These funky green things were Osage Oranges...unfortunately inedible.

From darkness to dawn...

Surprisingly, the oysters smelled divine...like salt and sea and all things adventurous. I wish I could have bottled the scent to snuff when that old wander-lust comes upon me.

Lovely evening, lovely day, and lovely people. All credit for pictures goes to Sarah, who kindly lets me take them and show them off. She and I were naughty, crossed a No Trespassing fence, and walked along the waterline so our prints would get erased...we hoped no one was by to shoot at us. {Obviously no one was, or else they were feeling kindly} Feeling clandestine already, I also stooped to stealing sea-shells.... ;) My magpie-self couldn't help lovely the Shiny!

How did you spend your first weekend in October?