PLAYING IN THE PAGES: 24 Karat Magic: My Birthday Haul!

Well, it's official: as of this past Sunday, I officially turned 24. While it's weird contemplating yet another trip around the sun, thankfully, my existential dread has been put on hold for a moment... so I can play with all the new toys I got!

(Just kidding. To be fair, though, I'm really most excited for is for the new bedding I ordered to arrive tomorrow afternoon, so I can rest easy in Garnet Hill Signature Navy Toile Flannel Sheets, instead of on the as-to-now-sheetless double bed I was handed down earlier this year.)

Still, I'm not joking when I say my parents (and friends! and siblings!) are awesome, and took advantage of my inability to buy my own books in order to pick out a few just for me. Resolution 2017 is still holding strong, but my shelves still get filled with oodles of awesome new reading material... and that's the best bday present I could have asked for!

thrifted fashion reference books for women's styles in the 1800s
While my birthday itself was mostly spent in Seattle, Washington, playing Dungeons and Dragons with some of my sorority sisters (and biological sister), I had gone thrift shopping with my other younger sister the day before, and she was determined to use the excursion to find the perfect present. She did, in these reference books for 1800s women's fashion, focusing on European styles in the later half of the century. While I'm mostly planning on using them for scrap-booking, but also think that some pages will look amazing in the new gold frame I picked up on the same trip!

The Purloining of Prince Oleomargarine, by Mark Twain and Philip Stead, illustrated by Erin Stead
My mom knows that I read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer every year, and that Twain is one of my all-time favorite authors... which is why she made a perfect guess in picking up this new picture book, based off of stories that Samuel Clemens told his own daughters before bed.

Dear America: The Fences Between Us: The Diary of Piper Davis, Seattle, 1941, Kirby Larson
I've been a long-time, hardcore fan of the Dear America series since I first started reading them as a kid, but this has probably been the first that I sought out specifically because of its content. Not only is this 2011 release set in my city of choice - Seattle, WA - but it deals with a historical moment that has been close to my heart throughout college: the West Coast Japanese internment during WWII.

Before the Devil Breaks You (The Diviners #3), Libba Bray
To be perfectly honest, my younger brother - with whom I share a love for this series - and I definitely did not realize that its most recent release was due for publication just weeks ago. Whether it's the lengthy waiting time between each installment of this fantastic series, or the fact that the publisher is changing the cover style for the third time with the third book, we were taken completely by surprise! But not too surprised that he couldn't run out and buy me a copy... with the expressed intention of reading it right after me, of course.

The Lemonade Cookbook, Alan Jackson and JoAnn Cianciulli
Lemonade LA - one of the most Instagrammable restaurants in existence, touting fresh salads, cafeteria-style desserts, and over fifteen different candy-colored flavors of its titular beverage - has long taunted me due to the sheer distance I'd need to cover to taste its fare. Now, there's no plane ticket required, because I've finally got my hands on some of its "California comfort food" recipes!

of course, it wasn't all just books...

One of the presents I was most excited for, actually came two days after my birthday, on the 17th: the season one DVD of Starz's American Gods - based off of the Neil Gaiman book of the same name, which I freaked out about only last summer - has finally arrived!
And while it's not based off of a book of its own, it might as well be: influenced by the enduring legacy of British period crime novels (like those penned by my beloved Agatha Christie), and serving as the reason why Julian Fellowes was able to give us Downton Abbey so many years later, the Academy-Award winning Gosford Park is one of my favorite rainy day movies... and now I can watch it whenever I want!
I've been geeking out about my beautiful Tombow dual-brush pens for a full year now, as I only received my first set of them for my birthday last year. Now, the obsession is back... and in pastels!
Like I mentioned before, I spent my birthday playing D&D. While the hobby itself can be a relatively cheap one - all you really need is a set of dice, a Player's Handbook, the Character Sheet app on your phone, paper and pencils, and some good friends to play with - it's always fun to upgrade with game-specific goodies. That's why I'm so excited I got a HeroForge gift card from my friend Bernie: this complete-customization mini-figurine company allows you to build one that looks just like your character... so you don't have to just use a d6 as a stand-in on battle maps, like I've been doing for the past two years!
True, I took sewing lessons as a kid. But now, as an adult, my Project Runway and thrift-flipping obsessions have made themselves manifest once again, in a request to take some Joann's classes on improving my non-existent skills. So I'm signed up for three of them!
And, of course, one of the rare and few benefits to spending all of my time at home, is the fact that I get to rock Zella Live-In leggings whenever I want... which is probably why the pairs I've owned since freshman year of college all recently bit the dust. No worries, though: the two new pairs I got for my birthday should keep me comfortable for a while!