modestly witchy

So I'm still managing to work some pastels in here but overall I felt like this was pretty full-on Halloween. The lace-up dress seems very medieval to me for some reason, so I had to buy it even though I had no idea how to wear it with a bra. This lacy tank top was the perfect solution so I can still be witchy, but modestly witchy.

My favorite part of this outfit though is definitely the tights!!



I'm going on my first cruise next week! I'm not sure how pricey wi-fi will be but I'll have to check into my work emails while I'm away anyway so if I can I'll try to post an update or two here as well. I'm really excited about the outfits I'm packing so I'm definitely going to try to take photos of them while I'm on board. In the meantime I'll try to post here again tomorrow to show off my Halloween costume. I posted a little sneak peek on my instagram last week if you're too curious to wait ;D

dress - asos | brooch - gift from Casey | shoes - asos (similar)

oujia breezy beautiful

Ahhhhhh worst quality photo ever! RUN FOR YOUR LIFEEEEEEEE

I've worn a few outfits that are intensely Halloween-ish this year (like the one that I'm going to be posting tomorrow) but I've also had fun assembling looks that look pretty normal except for one special spooky detail. In this outfit it's the cardigan, which is all business in the front and party with the dead in the back:

dress - charlotte russe | sweater - modcloth | tights - old | shoes - old

music complete

New Order released a new album, Music Complete, in September and I'm a horrible fan who just got around to purchasing it. But I'm beyond obsessed with it already (I may have a few songs memorized and I just got the album on Sunday, oops) My favorite songs are Singularity (you can listen on youtube here) and Superheated (you can listen on youtube here.)

Brandon Flowers from The Killers does the vocals on Superheated and SOMEHOW I wasn't super familiar with them beforehand, except for Mr. Brightside. But I loved Superheated so much I ended up binge-listening to their songs on youtube and then buying all of their albums on itunes. I have a somewhat large itunes library (mostly due to me acting impulsively like I just did with The Killers) but my actual listening habits tend to be very focused on one single song or artist. I'll listen to one song on repeat for weeks sometimes. I don't end up trying to find new music too often because I get so compulsively attached to the songs I'm already listening to.

Maybe that's why whenever I do find new music that I love I fall completely head over heels. Music just makes me happy in a way that few things do. It reminds me of Leslie Knope's quote about taking risks ;) "Amazing. Tingling sensation throughout my whole body. I feel flushed. My muscles are relaxed yet I feel awake. Just waves of pleasure. I wish there was something physical that could make me feel this way."

ps. If you're like me and were somehow unaware of The Killers, these are my favorites so far -- Human, Spaceman, Change Your Mind, Read My Mind, Joy Ride and All These Things That I've Done. Go forth and listen!! :)

dress - asos | cardigan - old navy | shoes - bait footwear

I. Emma Gost

I had a few outfit posts sitting on my memory card, three of which are Halloween themed, so I figured I better start posting them! They ALL came out incredibly dark and grainy somehow (well it's entirely because I'm still a camera novice.. but let's go with "somehow") and kind of greyish-green, but since Halloween is only several days away how about we all pretend that I'm going for a ghoulish look for my photos? ;P

Won't it be fun when I finally get my camera totally figured out and I stop talking about my camera settings all the time? Although, then maybe I'll have absolutely nothing to say?? Maybe I'm like those people who only talk about the weather, except instead of clouds I talk about ISO and f-stops.

Also, I didn't get a closeup picture but my brooch is a headstone that says I. Emma Gost (pun love!) It's available here.

dress - asos | shoes - bait | cardigan - ?? | brooch - my shop

thirty before thirty

Okay, I'm still technically 28... but 29 is only a few weeks away and, to be honest, I've been freaking out about this birthday ever since I turned 25. It's just feels like a deadline -- society tells us that we should have certain things figured out by this age. It seems like most of my peers are married, engaged, parents, home-owners, etc. while I'm stuck in perpetual adolescence. I've definitely accomplished a lot in my twenties, and I enjoy my life immensely, but it's hard not to feel like I'm missing invisible benchmarks.

I've spent WAY too much time this year actually dreading my birthday. I mean, on New Year's Eve after the clock struck midnight I looked at my mom and said "I'm going to be 30 NEXT YEAR." It was the first thing that crossed my mind. It's horrible! I feel like my brain is sabotaging me, I just can't stop thinking about it.

Well, brain, I've got news for you. We're not going to spend the next year freaking out and having panic attacks every night.  When I turn 30 next year it's going to mark the end of one of the best years of my life. I'm setting my OWN benchmarks for what makes my life fulfilling and productive!

I'm super serious about this list, it's not just like a new years resolution that I'll forget about one month later. I really want to stick with it and make sure that 30 feels more like an accomplishment than a waste. And even though there are a few silly things on the list, a lot of the items are designed to help push me out of my hermit-like comfort zone and maybe lead to my 30's being a little more adventurous than my 20's.

I'll come back and cross these off as I (hopefully!) accomplish them! Okay, in no particular order -- here are 30 things I'd like to do before I turn *dun dun dun* thirty:



1. Start to learn French. I actually wanted to learn Latin, but I was watching a French film the other day and thought it would be incredibly cool if I could understand what they were saying instead of reading the subtitles. They don't make many movies in Latin so French seems like a better idea ;) I'm going to be using the Duolingo app, and I'm going to try to watch one French movie a week to see if I start understanding the dialogue as my lessons progress!

2. Learn to read music. I bought a balalaika last year but I can't play until I know how to read music. I'm tired of looking at my sad little instrument sitting silent in my bedroom.

3. Learn how to play the balalaika! This obviously depends on #2, but I'm hoping I can at least make progress.

4. Travel to Europe. I'm not sure where yet, but I'm saving up my airline miles already and ideally I'd do some kind of 30th birthday trip next year. I'm leaning towards Italy or France. I'd really love to do this alone on some kind of group tour, but I don't know if I have the courage.

5. Travel somewhere alone. I've flown alone but there's always somebody waiting for me at the airport when I arrive. If I don't get the nerve to travel to Europe alone, I at least want to go somewhere in the US. Probably New York, since I'm already very familiar with it and I think I'd feel comfortable on my own.

6. Complete a 30 before 30 watchlist. I got this idea from Andi's list on letterboxd. I haven't made my list yet (I'm going to be neurotic and wait until my 29th birthday to start it) but I can already think of a ton of must-see films I haven't watched yet and some not-quite-must-see films that I've been wanting to watch for years.

7. Start driving. I've had a car since 2013 and I've been practicing a lot this year but I still don't feel comfortable driving without someone in the car to advise me.

8. Listen to the entire New Order catalog. I mean I want to focus on listening. I don't want to do anything else but play the music, close my eyes, and listen.

9. Write my first book. I actually have four concrete ideas for books -- one is a children's book, one is an art book and two are DIY books -- now I need to get to work on making them.

10. Write a pilot. This is kind of crazy, but I have an idea for a sitcom (I chalk it up to watching too much Parks & Rec, The Office, and 30 Rock, and getting majorly inspired by Felicia Day's book) and the pilot has been writing itself in my head A LOT lately. I need to learn how to format a script and start transferring it out of my brain. I don't anticipate anything happening with it, but I just want to write it anyway.

11. Loosen up. I'm almost too laid back about things like schedules, being on time, plans gone awry, etc. but I'm insanely uptight about stuff like dancing in public, singing out loud when other people are around, clapping, being in the same aisle as other people at the grocery store... I just get anxious easily about really stupid things. I need to get outside of my head and loosen up a little.

12. Embrace my flaws. I highly doubt this is do-able in one single year but I want to really try. As you can probably tell by what I write in my outfit posts, I dissect every aspect of my appearance. I need to just cut it out. I never notice physical flaws when I look at other humans, so I need to stop seeing them in the mirror.

13. Actually read the books on The Middle Ages that I've been buying this year. I've acquired my own mini library but I've only read two of the books I bought. I'm so obsessed with this era and the only way to learn more is to start reading.

14. Break some of my bad habits. I wait way too long to pee, which is going to ruin my bladder (TMI, sorry!), I only do laundry when I run out of underwear (I'm one of those people who has actually BOUGHT underwear rather than do laundry. What's wrong with me??) and I drink way too much soda (which is probably why I have to pee so often..) All of that has to get fixed.

15. Volunteer. This will depend on whether or not I accomplish #7, but ideally I'd like to volunteer at the local non-profit movie theater.

16. Watch all of Hitchcock's sound films, in order. I've wanted to do this for so long! I've seen almost all of them already, but I really want to re-watch them in order. It seems like such a fun challenge!

17. Start vlogging. I've been holding back on this because I'm self conscious about my voice (I hopefully probably have made so many comments about my voice that by the time you finally hear it you'll think "well that's not as bad as I was thinking it would be") but I really want to make videos. There was a point in time where I wouldn't show my face in an outfit post because I was too insecure about my looks.. it's all about taking the first step.

18. Take advantage of my location. Like I said a few posts ago, I might be moving out of state relatively soon. Until that happens, I live really close to the Atlantic ocean, New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC.

19. Make an animation that's at least one minute long. I don't think anything ever makes me feel as accomplished as completing an animation. I've only made 3 (I think?) and they've all been SUPER short.

20. Go to ComicCon. I'm aiming for NYCC next year because SDCC seems impossible to get into. I really, really, really want to go, though. If neither of those are plausible then maybe Paleyfest instead.

21. Learn a new craft skill. I kind of want to just wander around Michael's and pick something on a whim. I don't want to monetize the craft for my shop, I just want it to be a hobby.

22. Try to spend my time more wisely. During one of my "woe is me, I'm almost 30" spells recently I thought about how 8-year-old me would react if she could meet me now. And I realized that she'd probably think I was pretty awesome. She'd be thrilled that my hair is pink and that my job is being an artist/person who makes stuff. She'd be really glad that I'm still playful and didn't turn into a stuffy grown up. But she'd be SO UPSET that I waste time goofing off on the internet. I spent so much of my childhood wishing I didn't have to go to school so I could draw instead. I played restaurant because I couldn't wait to grow up and cook real food. I can actually do those things all the time now, so why the heck do I spend so much time refreshing instagram?

23. Go to more comedy shows. I saw Chris Hardwick perform live this year and it was SO AWESOME. I don't think I've ever laughed as hard(wick) as I did that night. My skin isn't showing any wrinkles yet but I want some intense laugh-lines by the time I turn 40.

24.Make more custom Pop Vinyl dolls. I really want to make an Ian Malcolm doll, and some classic movie ones, too! I'd love to try my hand at sculpting instead of just doing custom paint.

25. Maybe possibly try online dating. Ugh, I can't believe I'm thinking about this because I'm literally the shyest person who has ever existed. Just writing this is making me flush. I mean, the cashier at Michaels was nice to me the other day (I repeat, NICE, not even remotely flirting) and I started blushing and couldn't even look at him. I'm HORRIBLE. At least I'm figuring if I try doing it online I can say upfront that I'm shy and then see what happens. I'm really iffy about this one but I'm putting it on the list anyway.

26. Go to a Spice Girls reunion tour concert. It's going to happen, okay?

27. Volunteer in the 2016 presidential election. I used to volunteer in every election since Clinton's 1992 campaign (I was six but I helped my dad volunteer) but I haven't done anything since '08. I felt like knocking on stranger's doors was incredibly ineffective, but I think I'd rather do something potentially futile than do nothing at all, which is 100% futile.

28. Go to the movies more often. I just got a MoviePass so I'm planning on using the heck out of it. In the last year I've really fell in love with the movie-going experience in a way I never felt before. It's almost like a drug, the way it makes me feel completely removed from my own thoughts.

29. Let go of things I shouldn't be holding onto. I don't want to elaborate a lot here, but basically I grew estranged from someone who used to be very important to me and I need to let it go. I'm holding onto that pain, and it's way too heavy. I want to feel lighter again. Maybe typing this out will help..

30. Go to Disneyland, ride in an airplane, kiss Peggy Fleming, live in a house with stairs, beat up a Russian. (High five if you understood this one.)

unraveled

This was one of those outfits that looked SO GOOD when I got dressed and looked in the mirror, but then when I took pictures of it I thought I looked really crummy. Honestly if I could only see myself in mirrors instead of on camera I'd have much higher self esteem. I mean, sometimes I'm checking myself out in a public bathroom and I'm like "you know what, you look pretty darn great today, Kate!" and then I have a little extra skip in my step the rest of the day. When I get dressed in the morning I tend to think I look put-together and not half bad. But show me a picture and all of my self-confidence comes unraveled.

Is talking about bras TMI? Because I think that was my issue with this outfit. Is talking about letting your laundry pile up for way too long TMI? Because that's why I didn't have any good clean nude bras to wear with this shirt. I had to wear an old one that has zero support and paired with a higher neck that just doesn't create the most flattering figure. UGH. Maybe I should just do my laundry once in a while.

I didn't mean for this to be a super embarrassing post but what can I say, I open my mouth (or fingers? because I'm typing?) and embarrassment comes pouring out. Anyway, there is ONE photo from this batch that I am super smitten with and it includes a fluffy little furball who has never taken a bad picture in her life.

shirt - miss patina | skirt - f21 | bow - asos | shoes - don't remember

two in a row

Two posts in a row, what is this madness??

Yesterday I started working on my new 2016 flapper doodle calendar (all my previous designs are still available with 2016 dates, too) I didn't do any new drawings last year because my new ones never sell as well as my old designs. I know this year won't be any different, but I want to make one anyway. Ever since I started making my living from my artwork I've struggled with the whole notion of making things because I love to make things vs. making things because I need to make money. Very often the fact that something doesn't sell will effect what I make in the future, and I kind of hate that. I really want to get back to where I was when I first started out, just making things for the sake of art and not letting sales stats influence me.

I mean, obviously when ALL of your income comes from what you make, your stats do need to influence you at least a little. My puns intended stuff hardly ever sells, so it would be silly for me to start devoting 100% of my efforts to new punny paintings. BUT, it would also be foolish to never make a new puns intended piece ever again simply because they don't sell well. I need to find a good balance.

Anyway, all that being said, I'm making a new calendar whether anyone wants it or not, lol.

dress - asos | shoes - asos | necklace - my shop

why didn't the skeleton dance at the party?

Because he had no body to dance with!

So, I'm slightly in love with this dress. I had originally purchased this one about a month ago but the top was way too long on me so I either had to alter it or send it back. It sat in my mending pile for about a week before this dress I'm wearing was listed for sale and I decided to do an exchange. I'm SO much more happy with this one! It fits me perfectly and I like the pattern better. It reminds me of the Mutter Museum skull collection.

I'm obviously still pretty obsessed with Halloween. I started working on my costume this week and I'm stupidly excited with how it's coming together. I might post a sneak peek of some of the costume components on instagram this week if you're interested :)

Also, here's another brooch from my Halloween collection:

dress - modcloth | shirt - vintage | shoes - bait footwear

belt - asos (old) | brooch - my shop

adventures in lighting

I moved back in with my parents last year, and since I work from home full time I got to move into a larger room in the house to accommodate my workspace. We're thinking about moving out of state next year but to be honest I'm REALLY going to miss this room if we do. It's been my favorite place I've ever lived, I love it even more than my old apartment!

The only downside has been the light fixture. It came with the house and it's one of the only lamps that my parents never changed. It hangs crooked and every time I had to change the light bulb I was positive it was about to fall on me. It hung high enough that my 5' body had no trouble walking underneath, but anytime I had a taller visitor they'd bump their head.



Here it is! The crooked chandelier. That would be a good name for a mystery novel, wouldn't it? Maybe someone is strangled and left hanging from a chandelier, and it always hangs crooked after that, taunting the guilty party with its crookedness until they finally can't take it anymore and confess their crime.

Actually is this even a chandelier? I think it's just a lamp? Anyway. It was here and I carefully cropped it out of every photo for the last year and a half. Last month I was at IKEA and I saw an awesome 60's mod light fixture that seemed like the perfect replacement. It was one of those "last chance" items so I HAD to get it.



I have no idea why this picture is so grainy but the lamp isn't up anymore so I can't take a new picture :\ Isn't the shape and style awesome, though?! It's basically my dream lamp, if I was the type of person to dream about light fixtures.

So a few weeks ago my dad installed this for me. It took three of us about three hours to get this thing installed. I normally love IKEA but in this case I felt like it was one of those products that everyone complains about... the design is very flawed, the directions were impossible to understand and nothing seemed to actually work. When it was finally up and running we switched the power back on and.... it's essentially a night light. You could barely even tell it was on. Which would be fine if this was hanging over a nightstand I guess (?) but it's supposed to illuminate my work area.

So I started searching for a new lamp. Can I just say, it is REALLY hard to find nice lamps that aren't hundreds of dollars. So many of the ones in my price range looked a lot like the one I had been trying to replace from the beginning. I would have been happy with a simple sphere or something but even the simplest modern fixtures all seemed to be over $300.



Somehow I ended up finding this scalloped lighting fixture from pottery barn kids. It's nice and simple, not super expensive, and the scalloped border adds just a little me-ness ;) And best of all -- it takes two 60 watt bulbs so it should be bright enough. SCORE!

Yesterday we decided to install it, thinking it would be a breeze after that horrible IKEA one. "We'll have this done in 30 minutes, tops!" We were so naive. The wiring went smoothly, but once it was time to actually screw it to the ceiling we ran into multiple setbacks. The screws weren't long enough, so we rested the fixture on a box that was precariously sitting on top of a ladder and ran to Lowe's to get longer screws. Even then we still couldn't figure out how to line up the screws to the holes in the lamp, though. I ended up asking my brother to come over and help, since he's more handy than the rest of us. He managed to get it screwed on (yay!) so I handed him a 60 watt light bulb. And it didn't fit.

It turns out this lamp takes SPECIAL 60 watt bulbs. (Actually they're just the kind that are shaped like candles that go in chandeliers, which aren't too special.. they're just not the kind I keep on hand..) So I still don't have a functioning lamp yet. I'm going to Lowe's later today to see if they sell the right light bulbs. Honestly I think at this point even if it turned out that every store on the planet was sold out of the bulbs I'd just let it go and live without a functioning light fixture. I'd rather my eyesight suffer than have to spend one more minute, nay, second, installing lighting!

Anyway... the new lamp is so pretty though, isn't it? :)

everest

I got this dress last year because I'm a sucker for anything that has an all-over photographic print, and it turned out to be the absolute perfect thing to wear to see Everest yesterday. I mean, it has a mountain on it. How many dresses have mountains on them? Not a ton, I'd guess.

From the previews I was seeing all summer I was expecting Everest to be like an IMAX nature experience with a little story thrown in for good measure. The trailer just seemed to emphasize how amazing the 3D graphics looked, and honestly that's the only reason I wanted to see it. So it kind of threw me for a loop because the story really grips you and it's horribly, horribly sad. I knew it was based on a true story, but I didn't know anything about the 1996 hiking trip they were depicting in the movie. It's REALLY sad. I actually had the whole theater to myself and I was legitimately crying at the end, like wipe-your-nose-not-just-your-eyes crying. It was brutal! The cinematography really was breathtaking, though, and even when the movie was beating my heart up with a hammer I still thought it was beautiful.

Oh, by the way, I never mentioned how I liked The Martian! It was AMAZING. If you've read the book, you should like the movie. If you've never read the book, you should like the movie (and then you should read the book.) Definitely one of my favorite movies I've seen all year and I'm absolutely going to go see it again.

dress - asos | shoes - bait footwear | shirt - modcloth

pastel witch

This is the face of someone who a) is really excited about Halloween, b) just put on false eyelashes for the first time and feels really uncomfortable blinking, and c) is frustrated that the lighting is so bad in the afternoon this time of year

I don't know what it is but I am just SO pumped (do people still stay pumped?) about Halloween this year. I want to wear dark makeup and black clothes and watch horror movies and eat pumpkin everything. Fall is always my favorite season (everyone usually qualifies this by saying they were born in autumn, and.. well.. I was.) but my Halloween fever is burning hotter than usual.

Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go peel off my eyelashes and watch Dracula.



This was the reason for the falsies in the first place - I want to start wearing them when I'm in my own product shots and I took this as soon as I was done with my outfit pictures. I made a small batch of Halloween brooches and this is my favorite, it's Luna from The Mark of the Vampire. They're all available here.

dress - forever 21 | jacket - vintage | shoes - bait footwear

It's beginning to look a lot like Halloween

I just finished adding some Halloween touches to my room! I go overboard at Christmas, but for Halloween it's just some subtle spooky touches here and there to make my room more festive. To be honest 90% of my decorations involve me taping glittery spiders all over the place and putting tiny witch hats on all of my little figurines. At some point I REALLY want to design Halloween costumes for every single Funko Pop vinyl and bobblehead. I think that would be so fun!

My favorite decorations are my zombie flamingo (pictured near the end of this post) and my French poster of The Bride of Frankenstein. I love the idea of switching out that poster for every holiday but, surprisingly, I'm having a really hard time finding a Christmas one that I like. Ideally I'd love a Christmas in Connecticut poster, since that's my favorite holiday movie, but the only reproductions are posters of the DVD cover (like what the heck? why?) and the original posters are WAYYY too expensive.

Oh also I took a giant heap of pictures of my room before I decorated for Halloween, too, and I'm planning on doing a tour post. I had planned on doing it last year before I stopped blogging and obviously never got around to it. I might even do a video tour *gasp!* If you're interested in viewing my old room and my old apartment I have tons of pictures in my room tour tag here.

fangirl part 2

Last weekend me and Casey went to the Supernatural convention in Secaucus, NJ! It was our second year going and just as fun as the first time!

I got a photo-op with my favorite human being, Misha Collins. I was literally planning my outfit for this since I bought the tickets last year. I'd buy dresses thinking "ooh, this would be great for my photo-op!" and then when the day finally came, I went with a plain black dress that I've had in my closet for years, lol. I always seem to do stuff like that! Oh well! The photos are taken with a really ugly red curtain background. I was going to link to my picture from last year to show you the red curtain and then when I went to grab the link I saw that I made it b/w last year, too! haha! This year I decided to photoshop it out of the picture entirely. I wish I wasn't so picky about color but I can't help it!!

You might be wondering why I'm making a kind of weird face in this picture. Or maybe you're not wondering, but I'm going to explain anyway. When I walked into the photo-op room I noticed that Misha was making this face in every single picture:



And I thought it would be fun if I made the same face, right? So I did. And then I picked up my picture two hours later and saw that mine was basically the only photo where he didn't make the face, haha! So I just look like I'm absolutely crazy and he looks normal. I think it makes for a kind of funny story though.

I was a little disappointed that I didn't end up with a "me and Misha are both making funny faces! hahaha!" kind of photo, so, since I am apparently completely shameless, I bought another photo-op the next day and asked him to make goofy faces with me. I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE I GOT THE NERVE. I am so shy, I literally can't even make eye contact with the cashiers at the grocery store let alone look at/talk to the most awesome human being on this planet. I seriously don't know where this sudden burst of chutzpah came from??? Anyway, we had to leave early the night of my second photo-op so I won't get to see it until they post them online in a couple of weeks. I'll definitely share that picture when I get it! I mean, we did bunny ears, too! WHAT THE HECK!!?



I also got Misha to autograph my photo in the 2013 GISHWHES book! It's so special to me because it's not just on the cover or inside, it's right on my picture! This actually reminds me that I still haven't shared any of my pictures from GISHWHES this year. I'll have to remedy that very soon! Me and Sammi did one of the tasks while she was visiting and it was so weird and fun and the picture is perfect! :D



This was the line for Misha's autograph! @_@ I actually had ticket #6 but they called all of the people who had purchased the big convention packages first (it includes tickets for the whole weekend, the best seats during Q&A panels and autographs with basically every star from the show) so I had to wait a verrrrry long time. WORTH IT THOUGH!



The one annoying thing about the Supernatural convention is that the event planners have basically nothing for you to do 70% of the time. During the day they have a lot of photo-ops scheduled, and nothing else. So if you are finished with your photos or don't have any at all, you basically have to just sit and wait around for hours until the next Q&A panel. Me and Casey knew about this from last year so we decided to bring my Supernatural Clue board game along with us! You can technically get by with 2 players but it's much more fun with four! So we asked two other convention-goers to join us! We had so much fun!! Aside from all-things Misha, this was hands down one of my favorite parts of the convention.



This was me and Casey when I was in line for my (first) photo op. I was so nervous, as evidenced by my terrified grimace/smile. And, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that Casey got the most epic photo-op ever -- it's called the Supernatural sandwich photo and if you're a fan of the show your jaw is going to drop when you see this. She posted the photo on instagram, here.

It's so fun getting to hang out with a bunch of people who love the same thing that you do. It makes me want to find a way to SDCC so badly (I keep thinking that next year they'll probably have a panel for The X-Files because it comes back in January, and getting to do the convention thing for TXF? I would die. I'd actually die.)

If you're interested in more Supernatural fangirlness you can read my post from the 2014 convention here.

the martian

I'm going to see The Martian tonight and I am so excited I could burst! I read the book in January and it's one of my favorite books I've read all year. If you're not familiar with the story, it's about an astronaut on a mission to Mars who is abandoned on the planet after his fellow crew members think that he perished in an accident. I read this while I was on vacation in Disney World and I couldn't put it down -- I was actually sitting in the park reading this rather than going on rides. It's that good.

I had already heard that Matt Damon was cast as the titular character before I read the book, so that shaped the image of the character in my mind. I can be very picky about books that I like being made into movies. I still haven't seen any of the Harry Potter films because, with the exception of Ron, none of the actors came close to how I had imagined them while I was reading the story. And I'm putting off watching The Hunger Games as well because Liam Hemsworth looks nothing like the picture of Gale that my brain was conjuring up. But since I was already imagining Matt Damon in this role as I was reading it, I don't have many reservations about seeing this particular favorite book play out on screen.

Oh, and in case it isn't as obvious as I was hoping it would be, I decided to do an outfit interpretation of the book cover today! It's pouring buckets outside so I might have to substitute my heels for rain boots before I leave the house, but I'm pretty happy with my theme dressing on this one. I was originally going to go with a galaxy-print dress but I thought this was a little more specific to The Martian and still kind of subtle :)

dress - asos (I think?) | cardigan and shirt - f21 | shoes - blowfish

belt - h&m | neck tie - asos | book - amazon