27 December 10

Inserts from the Harry Potter: Film Wizardry book I got for Christmas. It is truly delightful, almost like a pop-up book for adults; it is so full of little surprises like this.

26 December 10

I got a new mouse for Christmas! The scroll button on my old one had been broken for months, and the tracking was starting to go too. It's pretty amazing to scroll again without using the arrow keys. Also, look how cute it is!

some makeup, and #reverb10, December 16 - 18

So a little while ago, I bought some Revlon Just Bitten lip stain and a white-silver Revlon eyeliner.

The eyeliner's not bad at all, but it made me realize that the kind of gold eyeliner I need for Chanel S/S '07 eyes needs to be yellow-gold, not dirty-gold. As for the lip stain, I thought it was awesome at first, because the color didn't budge at all, not even on a stick of white lip balm after several bowls of soup, and the color was excellent and potentially both vampy and childishly lollipop-bright.

Then I tried it a second time, but I had to use makeup remover to get the application even, which is gross, and then my lips started burning and part of my lower lip got swollen, so I decided to keep it only for the balm end (which is really nice, by the way).

[EDIT: For my own clarification, my lips actually started burning when I put the lip stain on, so I tried to take it off with makeup remover. So it wasn't the makeup remover that made my lip swell up.]

So I gave up on lip stain.

To make up (makeup!) for my newfound inability to wear that deceitfully promising form of lip color, and because I was feeling very 90s, I bought the cheapest brown lipstick I could find, Wet 'n' Wild's 506B:

And then I looked like this:

And I declared myself sufficiently 90s.

Some more late #reverb10 prompts after the jump.
I write stuff after the jump.

Review: Star Wars - Red Harvest by Joe Schreiber

Find out what could be so horrific as to send the Sith running scared in Red Harvest, a novel set during The Old Republic era of Star Wars.

Red Harvest primarily takes place on snowy planet of Odacer-Faustin, home of a school where future Sith go to learn. The students go about doing their usual routines of trying to kill one another and generally advance themselves while at the same time cutting the legs out from their classmates; because there are rumors that the headmaster of this school is up to something truly dark in his tower overlooking the academy, and that only the best students ever get to find out what it is.

Darth Scabrous, like many Sith who will come before and after him, is looking for a path to eternal life. He believes he may have come upon it in the form of a liquid dispensed from a black orchid – but this is no ordinary plant, it has sentience and requires the ministrations of a Jedi in order to remain alive. Fortunately, a bounty hunter named Tulkh has just delivered Jedi Agricultural Corps worker Hestizo Trace and her plant – and a failed student provides the needed volunteer to undergo the procedure of being injected with the fluid.

Meanwhile, Jedi Knight Rojo Trace learns of his sister’s abduction and goes off in search of her, not knowing that he’s heading right into this zombie-like plague; where a bite or scratch from someone infected will in turn make the wounded person infected. The zombies can lose limbs and even their heads and continue to function in some kind of hive-like mind state. And the zombies are ensuring everyone in the academy will have a chance to join them – by barricading them all inside.

I felt that Red Harvest was a vast improvement over Death Troopers (Joe Schreiber's Star Wars horror book from last year); a better, more suspenseful horror story, and just a better story overall. It's a little like a Victorian gothic horror book - like Frankenstein with the mad scientist, his castle, his "creation" which then goes berserk... plus it's got a Sherlock Holmes vibe with Jedi Knight Trace, who's trying to track down his sister using logical deduction.

Obviously the bulk of the book takes place at a Sith Academy; very much like the one in the Knights of the Old Republic game (for those familiar with it). It's a great setting, with lots of potential for fun Sith students and aggressive characters - all of which are well utilized by Schreiber (similar in many ways to all the prisoners in Death Troopers).

Red Harvest probably has all the same weaknesses as Death Troopers though, it's a very focused book - this is what's going on, we don't have much of a look at the outside galaxy; only the immediate impact on these characters. I think the build-up might be more intense in Death Troopers (while things are "going wrong" or we're waiting for things to go wrong) - but I think the actual horror of what's happening is better presented this time around, the actual event of the zombie plague being more important as the characters try to then survive moment to moment. It's very similar in the "who will live and who will die?" question Death Troopers keeps the reader guessing about - only in this case, because there are no "special guest stars" anyone is fair game. The author makes the most of that, and he had me going up until the very end wondering who was going to make it out alive.

Ultimately, I enjoyed Red Harvest a lot and thought it was stronger than Death Troopers (which I also enjoyed) but I think anyone reading Red Harvest who has read the previous book will know what they're getting into - you're likely to have the same feelings towards this book as you had towards the previous. I do think the combination of The Old Republic era and lack of characters you know have to survive both help this book rise above Death Troopers. While it might be a stretch for those looking for more books in this era (due to the upcoming videogame), I do think there is enough of The Old Republic setting to make it worthwhile to those readers as well. It also stands well enough on it's own so that you don't need to have more of a passing knowledge of the Star Wars movies in order to be able to read this book - it does not require having read any other Star Wars books, not even Death Troopers - so from that point it's very approachable. It's not the best Star Wars book I've ever read, but it's far from the worst - and if the idea of a horror themed book set in that galaxy far, far away appeals to you, it's worth a read.

25 December 10

Kenny, looking dapper on Christmas Day while playing with a magic trick Riley gave him. I actually have the best family and I love them all to death.

miniature photo dump and #reverb10, December 13 - 15

One time, my roommate canned tomatoes. I was like, "How Berkeley can you get?" She shot me a look over her bowl of organic yogurt and granola, picked up her mason jar, and sipped her tap water superciliously. I responded by pushing my glasses up my nose and staging a protest by sitting on our plants and refusing to eat.

A couple of her tomatoes were deformed (not a euphemism). We staged a scene.

We also found a worm friend in our leafy greens.

One time I took this many bobby pins out of my hair in one go, and then I remembered that time I couldn't get past the TSA metal detectors because the pins in my hair kept setting them off.

Our stain remover is totally awesome. Like going back to Hogwarts after summer holidays.

Our apartment had a pre-Thanksgiving dinner, which consisted of butternut squash soup, salmon, dinner rolls, mashed potatoes, and green bean casserole. It was delicious, like the plums in the icebox.

Our method for photographing all of us with the food was quite innovative. Also dangerous.

Some #reverb10 prompts after the jump.

I write stuff after the jump.

24 December 10

Spent Christmas Eve day sleeping late, wrapping the last few gifts and playing on tumblr. Jeff and I went to his mom's place for dinner; this was some of the food we ate. We then went to my parents' house and had some wine and popcorn and 'watched' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and went to bed at the respectable hour of 2 a.m.

23 December 10

Roommate gift exchange! This is Jesse with the socks I gave him (I also gave him some cufflinks made out of typewriter keys). He gave me the new Coupland novel and Sarah gave me a necklace she made out of crystals and a bullet casing. Awesome!

a catch-up post: stuff i bought and #reverb10, December 9 - 12

Holy crap. Here's stuff I bought ages ago. For my mom's birthday, caramel apples from DaisyandDelilah:

To be honest, the caramel was hard instead of tacky like I was expecting, so it was kind of a disappointment. However, the service was good, and there were 4 different apples: regular caramel, caramel with peanuts, bourbon caramel, and dark chocolate with sea salt. I couldn't say no.

Two dresses from Target, because they were on clearance. I was really surprised there were so many left. Why wouldn't you buy these?

Generic functional underwear (I am really proud of myself, you guys) from macy's, two longsleeve tees from Target, and two pairs of socks from Target.

Above, Dr. Bronner's lip balm from Target. Neutrogena lip balm and gloss-thing from Walgreen's. (I like greasy lip balm, okay?) And an e.l.f. eyeliner. (The pewter's not that vivid, but it's beautiful how soft it is, and the built-in sharpener is perfect.)

Some very late #reverb10 prompts after the jump.

I write stuff after the jump.

22 December 10

I helped Jeff split up some of the rum pot to give as gifts. Delicious, boozy gifts.

21 December 10

Iain and Steph came over so I could give them their Christmas presents. We ate dinner with Jeff and Jesse, and then... this happened.

*Cough* *Sniff* *Gasp*

*Blink* It's Monday isn't it? I should be posting huh? I've got that awful cold that's going around and all I'm doing is mouth breathing while I watch my kids play with the Wii. Sounds fun huh? You totally wish you were me don't you?



So, uh. I guess I'm on an unofficial vacation until I can breath through my nose again.



In the meantime, I'm going to go play with the Nookcolor I got for Christmas. Makes being sick a little more bearable...



Hope you all had a nice Christmas.

20 December 10

After work I went to Dennis's to exchange Christmas gifts. I came home and wrapped a few other gifts, and woke Theo up with the click of the shutter when I took his photo.

19 December 10

It was a strangely warm day for late December and I walked to the grocery store wearing only a jean jacket and a scarf over this. Later I went to Malloreigh's for a Christmas baking exchange, where we all chatted over tea and delicious vegan goodies. She also gave me a gift: a zine she and Kaylie made of recipes of theirs, along with a little bag of nutritional yeast and a box of fenugreek leaves :)

18 December 10

After the hockey game, I met up with Iain and Steph and others for sushi and then theatre sports on Granville Island. Always a good time, and man do I love having Iain back in town!

Happy Holidays!

I love love LOVE my Lanvin ♥ H&M dress so much and knew it would be a perfect Holiday dress! I adore the poofyness of it. It's so girly and happy and the perfect shade of red. I wore it with my nude patent Christian Louboutins. Perfect.

Here are some crappy quality photos from our company Christmas party. I'm 5 tequila shots deep at this point...

 One of our very favorite couples, Marc and Jess. Jess is the Badgley Mischka and Charles Jourdan shoe designer. She's so talented and just as sweet as can be.

 Sascha kicks ass and takes names over at our wholesale company!  She was one of my beautiful bridesmaids too ;)

 The most amazing man alive. No big deal. There's the second most amazing dude back there... My dad :) Haha

 My amazing sister Katie. Hi sissy!

♥ ♥ ♥

To all my AMAZING readers, I hope you have a wonderful holiday and a happy healthy New Year! I love you guys and and so happy to feel so connected to so many of you. 

Here's to 2011!! I can't wait to see what adventures it brings for all of us.

XOXO

Your Shoe Girl,

Celine

17 December 10

Sarah hosted a Solstice party (a few days early) at our place. It was a fun time full of booze and food. I don't think any glasses even got broken, which usually happens at our parties.

16 December 10

Imagine my disappointment when, upon opening this box at work, it contained only a bunch of bug spray and fly paper.

Merry Christmas

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday.

15 December 10

This isn't that great of a photo, but how often do you see a plane ridin' down the freeway in pieces?

14 December 10

Alice triumphantly displaying our baker's dozen from Voodoo Donut. Sarah took us there after a delicious dinner at Navarre (and a trip to Fred Meyer for bottles of pinot noir to bring home). In the daytime we went to Powell's where all of us spent over $100 (I don't know if it's even possible to leave there and spend less) and got caught in a rainstorm when we tried to leave, so we sought refuge in a café/cinema nearby for warm sandwiches and soup. After dropping off books and leaving Alice to study and shower, Mom and I headed out to Macy's and Nordstrom Rack, where basically, this was me.

It's Christmas Baking Day!

Oh yeah! I look forward to this every year.



Who doesn't love Christmas cookies? I make them right before Christmas to give to family members when I see them Christmas day. Fun fattening stuff.



This year I'm keeping the list small. Hubby and I have managed to lose all of our extra blubber this year (thank you Weight Watchers) and neither one of us wants to gain any weight back. So my list is about half as long as usual. Here's what I decided would make this list this year.



Pistachio White Chocolate Cookies

I usually make the macadamia/white chocolate variety, but my husband looooves pistachios, so I'm going for something different this year.



Candy Cane Cookies **Sugar Cookie Recipe**

I tweak the sugar cookie recipe I have linked here, add some peppermint flavoring and roll them into candy canes and they come out awesome every year. They have become a family staple.



Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

I tried these at a party and the chocolate/peppermint combo is to die for.



Chocolate chip BACON cookies.

Sounds insane-- I know. But they are so freaking good. I made these a few weeks ago and everyone who tried one wanted more. I've had many requests to add these to my Christmas list.



Peanut Butter Blossoms

My daughter specifically requested these-- so onto the list they go.



If I don't write another post soon, it's because I'm in a sugar coma.