Live, Laugh, Love

Been Totally MIA o.O

2011-04-06T20:06:00.000-07:00

Gah! Sorry kids! I have totally been M.I.A. However, lots of things have happened since I last posted:

1. I got tons of books, but I'm sure you knew that already.

2. I got baby caterpillars and waited while they turn into butterflies. I named them Rory and Jess "the early years," since those were the most exciting years in Rory's love life. Haha! Here are the rest of my pictures of Rory and Jess.

3. I'm waiting for my mission call. Yup! I'm going on a mission for the Lord. Don't know where or when I'm leaving yet. I should find out sometime next week. Practically biting my nails until I receive my call letter!!!

4. I have become oh so OBSESSED with Downton Abbey!!!! An excellent brit-period drama set right after the sinking of the Titanic, but before World War I... Well the first season is. Sometime next year we will get season 2!!!!!

5. I never did post the pictures from when I went to meet Hilary Duff. Personal childhood wish fulfilled! Her music was there when no one else was. You can see more pictures on my facebook album.

6. I finally got an annual pass for Disneyland! I've gone to Disneyland at least once a month since December when I got it. I have been oh so happy! I got it right along with my cousin Maritza on the same day. Loves going with her!

If you've read this far that means you still follow me. Haha! Thank you! This is all that my brain can think of as far as the past few months go. I iz sleepy now and I'm going to get reading. Thanks for reading!

Love and Sugar from me, Jess

Best of 2010!

2010-12-30T10:58:00.000-08:00

Hello dolls! With the year coming to an end, I want to work on my Best of 2010! From books that I've read, to films that's I've watched, to my favorite music of the year! Let me start out with my favorite subject, BOOKS!!!

Best series I read: The Hunger Games series

This great series ended this year, but the ride was so much fun. I had a few issues with the last book, but I've discussed it at length with a ton of my friends, so I'll just let it go.

Best Hot Scene in a book: Shiver

I can't pick a particular scene, that's too hard. This entire book is HOT! Can't wait for the last book in this series! (Out July 12, 2011)

Favorite book of 2010: Beautiful Creatures

I started 2010 reading Beautiful Creatures and it still stands as my favorite book overall, and it gets crowned as the book of the year! Going to start 2011 by reading the sequel, Beautiful Darkness!

Best Film of 2010: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 1

This film is pretty much the most awaited film of the decade! If you missed it then you better get your self to a theater to watch it!

Best of Animated film: Tangled

Disney has recreated one of the most beloved films in a heart felt way. Tangled is Walt Disney Animated Studio's 50th animated film. It all started with Snow White and it leaded up to this great film! Totally recommend it!

Best Soundtrack: Almost Alice

An entire album where the songs are just dedicated to our favorite Alice is just genius. Using today's great music artists with just one theme brought together a great collection.

Best Music Album of the year: Tell Your Mama

I've mentioned The Vespers several times this year, on my blog, on twitter, on faceobok, and I can not get enough of them! Their first album, Tell Your Mama, became my favorite of the year. I hope they release another album soon because 13 songs are not enough to explore their greatness!

Stand by for my list of most awaited books, films and music of 2011! I just need to figure out when I want to post it (tomorrow, or have it post itself on January 1, 2011).

Thanks for reading!

Love and Sugar from me, Jess

Waiting on Wednesday!

2010-12-29T11:48:00.000-08:00

For this weeks "Waiting on Wednesday" we have Rachel Vincent's fourth book in the Soul Screamers series, My Soul to Steal.

Here's the blurb!

YOU WANT MY SOUL AND MY BOYFRIEND?

Trying to work things out with
Nash—her maybe boyfriend—is hard enough for Kaylee Cavanaugh. She can’t just
pretend nothing happened. But “complicated” doesn’t even begin to describe their
relationship when his ex-girlfriend transfers to their school, determined to
take Nash back.

See, Sabine isn’t just an ordinary girl. She’s a mara,
the living personification of a nightmare. She can read people’s fears—and craft
them into nightmares while her victims sleep. Feeding from human fear is how she
survives.

And Sabine isn’t above scaring Kaylee and the entire school to
death to get whatever—and whoever—she wants.

I DON'T THINK SO.

Here's the heart wrenching book trailer for My Soul to Steal!!!

Make sure to pick of your own copy on January 1, 2011! Click on the widget bellow to purchase it, or here to purchase it from Amazon!

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Thank you for joining me in this week's "Waiting on Wednesday!"

Lots of Love and Sugar from me, Jess

And She Has Risen from Death...

2010-12-28T17:58:00.001-08:00

Oh gosh I've been totally MIA! School has been my prison for the past 3 months. I did, however, survive with nothing bellow a B, so I'm pretty jolly right now.

Christmas came and went, and I must have been a really good girl because Santa brought me a ton of STUFF!!! I'll post more on that later, but first I need mention a new "marathon" I signed up for.

In the month of January Lori from Pure Imagination is hosting...

I have a month to read at least one book from the Harry Potter series, but I plan to read all 7 before I enter school on January 25. I'm sure I won't have time to read the minute I enter school. I plan to read each book in 3 days and watch the corresponding film after I read the book. I will post about my progress as I move along. I hope this works! I will still have a few days left over if I fall a bit behind. Wish me luck because I didn't do too well in the Jane Austen reading challenge (I had a year to fulfill it... it didn't work out...).

I'm going out of town for the New Year and I'll be starting the read-a-thon there. I'll be wi-fi less while there, so I won't be able to post anything until I get back on the 2nd.

Love you dolls!

Love and Sugar from me, Jess

Waiting on Wednesday!

2010-09-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

For this week's Waiting on Wednesday I wanted to mainly show the great trailer for this book and explain a little bit about it.

Here's the synopses for Crescendo:

Nora should have know her life was far from perfect. Despite starting a relationship with her guardian angel, Patch (who, title aside, can be described anything but angelic), and surviving an attempt on her life, things are not looking up. Patch is starting to pull away and Nora can't figure out if it's for her best interest or if his interest has shifted to her arch-enemy Marcie Millar. Not to mention that Nora is haunted by images of her father and she becomes obsessed with finding out what really happened to him that night he left for Portland and never came home.

The farther Nora delves into the mystery of her father's death, the more she comes to question if her Nephilim blood line has something to do with it as well as why she seems to be in danger more than the average girl. Since Patch isn't answering her questions and seems to be standing in her way, she has to start finding the answers on her own. Relying too heavily on the fact that she has a guardian angel puts Nora at risk again and again. But can she really count on Patch or is he hiding secrets darker than she can even imagine?

I actually got a chance to participate in Barnes & Nobles Sneak Peak of this novel, so I got an Advance Reader Copy. I'm still reading it and it's getting really good! If I finish in time, I'll be able to participate in the discussion that we are going to have with the author herself, Becca Fitzpatrick.

I also got a chance to meet Becca in February:

I also wanted to share the hot trailer for Crescendo!

What did I say? HOT! Angels are sooooooooooo the new vampires!

We have these many days left until Crescendo is released into the wild!

Thanks for reading!

Love and sugar from me, Jess

Look What I Got in the Mail from Shay Doran!

2010-09-27T21:11:00.000-07:00

Yes! The day has come! We can now get mail from fictional characters. Yaaaaaaaahoooooooo!!!

Hahaha! Gosh, the people that are publishing Andrea Cremer's book, Nightshade, really know how to spread the word! Let me explain.

Shay Doran is a fictional character in the novel Nightshade. The author seems to be working on a prequel novel based on Shay's adventures in his uncles mansion, in which he is now living in. Apparently, he's creeped out and keeps finding stranger and stranger things. The latest strange thing he found was in his uncle's library. There are old books with strange drawings/marks on them and they help decipher a clue/phrase. I sent an email to nightshade@campfirenyc.com and I got a chance to receive a clue from Shay. You can learn more about the chance to receive a special package from Shay in Andrea Cremer's blog. Here is what I got:

There were two pages that were bookmarked and they had this:

If you look at where the "spirals" are you can see that they surround certain words or letters. Here is what the clues say:

Clue #1: "a part of the memory of her fearless incident was found in the mountain of Colorado"

Clue #2: "a young and beautiful girl called ROWAN join in America, a handsome fellow with a curious sense of strangeness, of discovery." I'm supposing "join" should be "joined.

I haven't been able to figure out what it means yet, but like Shay said in the letter he sent with the book, he asked that I post it on his Facebook page to others can help solve "puzzle." If you help him out, you get a chance to be named in the prequel book. Hope there's more I can do to help! You can also follow Shay's blog to read posts from him and video blogs, which you can see on his blog or YouTube page.

I'm going to also post the YouTube video where he talks about the strange books in his uncle's library.

Thank you for reading! Let me know if you get a clue, so that maybe we can solve this together!

Love and Sugar from me, Jess

Smart Chicks Hit Pasadena!

2010-09-23T15:08:00.000-07:00

I have never felt so much pleasure overload as I felt this past Monday. On Monday the Smart Chicks Kick It tour stopped in Vroman's in Pasadena! What is the Smart Chicks Kick It tour, you ask? It's a multi city book tour with not just one author, but several in each one. The Pasadena stop had 9 authors! Melissa Marr, Kelley Armstrong, and Alyson Noel toured in all of the stops and for this particular stop we also had Rachel Vincent, Melissa de la Cruz, Rachel Caine, Mary Pearson and by my 2 favorite dolls right now: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl!!!

I wasn't thinking of going. I had considered it at some point during the summer, but I never went through thinking about it until last week when I started seeing the tour pictures and video. I became very jealous and decided I should be there having fun too!

Let me give you a run through of this great evening. I got to Pasadena fairly early to grab a place line ticket. The place line ticket was meant to save a place in line for when it came down to meet the authors to sign your books. A bit before the event started I made sure I situated myself somewhere close. I was right in front of the area where they held their Q & A! I also got the chance to meet the people around. I met this nice lady who had books from a few friends that shipped her their books. I also met these sweet dolls that got a chance to win Rachel Vincent's next book, My Soul to Steal, during the beginning of their presentation. Lucky ducks! Anyways, the dolls that I sat around with were very sweet, and it made the pre-signing presentation enjoyable.

On to the presentation! Like I mentioned before, the authors had great giveaways. Melissa Marr gave away an ARC of Darkest Mercy, the last book in her Wicked Lovely series, Rachel Caine gave a copy of Ghost Town, her latest book, which comes out next month, and like I mentioned before Rachel Vincent gave away an ARC of My Soul to Steal, out on January 1, 2011. They then gave away a ton of swag! Since I was right in front, they didn't shoot anything to me, but my mom was able to grab 5 Beautiful Darkness necklaces. Love you mom!!! They also raffled off this great gift basket with books from every author on tour and this one doll won the basket.There was also one more raffle to have someones name in the audience in the anthology that they all plan to write called Highway to Hell. It will be released sometime next fall.

They also went on ahead to reveal secrets of their book series and my favorite one was that Kelley Armstrong's Darkest Powers series is going to have 9 books!!!! Aaaah!!!!! Also Melissa Marr said that her book, Wicked Lovely, in is the process of being made into a film. Mary Pearson is also having her book, The Adoration of Jenna Fox, being made into a film.

They had a small Q & A session and then they had a lightning round. Margie was the host of the lightning round. Let me explain what the means. They had random questions from the audience such as what is your favorite color, or if you could be any animal which one would it be, and then the authors had to quickly answer. I can't remember their answers, but I remember Kami saying Black Sabbath twice, one where "what is your favorite band or musician" was asked and again when they were asked what character from Twilight was their favorite. Haha! They then had a round of "Marry, Shag or Throw Off a Cliff" where audeince memebers were allowed to come up, pick an author and say who in their series would they marry, shag or throw off a cliff. My favorite was for Alyson Noel's Immortals Series. This girl said she would marry Damien, shag Roman, and throw Haven off a cliff. Totally agree!

Then it was time to get my books signed!!! Yay! I also got a chance to get take pictures with almost everyone there! I didn't take a picture with Mary Pearson because my mind was working on over drive. I also forgot to get my Lena Necklace signed by Kami and Magie (I was so excited that they liked it and took of a picture of it that I forgot to ask). I also forgot to ask Kami and Margie for a signed Beautiful Darkness poster, but Margie did me the favor of giving it to me anyways! She's soooo sweet!

Kelley Armstrong and Rachel Vincent

Melissa de la Cruz and Melissa Marr

Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia

Alyson Noel

Rachel Caine

Gosh! What a evening! I loved every minute of it and I hope to be able to go to it next year. Soooooo... Wait, what's that you say...? Oh what did I get signed? Well let me show you!

Look at my pretties... **drool** I got 13 books signed!!!

Here's all the swag that I got!

Two Smart Chicks Kick It posters signed by all of the authors that attended (one for a friend and one for me) and 3 Smart Chicks Kick It tour (one signed by all of the authors).

A ton of Alyson Noel book marks!

Swag from the other lovely authors that were there and...

All of the Beautiful Darkness swag that I got! I practically stare and drool over my Beautiful Darkness swag everyday.

If you want to see all of the pictures that I took from the Smart Chicks Kick It tour make sure to check out my facebook album.

Thank you so much for reading. You will notice that I will post very little for the next few months until December. I started school a few weeks ago and I've been having a lot of homework and readings to do. I will post when I can!

Love and Sugar from me, Jess

Enter the Darkness: Week 3

2010-08-24T12:44:00.000-07:00

Here's this week's teaser trailer Beautiful Darkness:

Gosh I hope I figure out what all of this means by the time I at least finish the book. Haha! Make sure to check out the contest that does with these teasers on the Beautiful Creatures Blog. Make sure to also check out the Enter the Darkness page for all of the teasers up to now and to keep up on all of them.

We have these many days left until October 12th!

Thanks for reading!

Love and Sugar from me, Jess

We Have 3 Winners!

2010-08-24T00:00:00.001-07:00

Yes I know, I was suppose to have 5 winners, but only 3 people entered. Let me list the winners of the signed Maggie Stiefvater bookmark!

Ari Noth from Teens Actually Read

Courtney Rae from Courtney Reads

Colleen McKie from Lavender Lines

Congrats dolls! I got your addresses from Twitter on Sunday night, so that I can ship the bookmarks later today. I'm going off to Youth Conference (Camp) with my dolls on Wednesday, so I wanted to make sure I sent out the bookmarks before then.

I'm very happy with how this turned out. I had started this contest with 19 readers. I now have 30 readers. Don't know how that happened, but I'm extremely grateful!

I do have 2 bookmarks left. I plan to give them away when Forever comes out next year. I'll see of I can purchase an extra copy of Forever and give it away with a bookmark!

Again thank you for reading, and thank you to all of my new readers. I adore you all!

Love and Sugar from me, Sweet Lady Jess

Waiting on Wednesday!

2010-08-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

Yay! This week I bring you a book that I've mentioned before.

Here's the book description:

Hell on earth.

That’s what it’s like for Luce to be apart from her fallen angel boyfriend, Daniel.
It took them an eternity to find one another, but now he has told her he must go away. Just long enough to hunt down the Outcasts—immortals who want to kill Luce. Daniel hides Luce at Shoreline, a school on the rocky California coast with unusually gifted students: Nephilim, the offspring of fallen angels and humans.

At Shoreline, Luce learns what the Shadows are, and how she can use them as windows to her previous lives. Yet the more Luce learns, the more she suspects that Daniel hasn’t told her everything. He’s hiding something—something dangerous.
What if Daniel’s version of the past isn’t actually true? What if Luce is really meant to be with someone else?

The second novel in the addictive FALLEN series . . . where love never dies.

I read Fallen this past January and I loved it! Torment is the sequel to Fallen. I've said it once and I'll say it again: Angels are the new Vampires! Hotness!

I'm going to post the trailer for the book again, so that your heart can skip a beat...

We have 41 days left until the novel comes out! Mark September 28 on your calendars!

Thank you for reading!

Lots of Love and Sugar from me, Jess

P.S. My contest for a signed bookmark by Maggie Stiefvater is over on Monday. Make sure to enter for a chance to win one. I have one entrant as of the time of this post. Your chances are pretty high if you enter now! There will be 5 winners.

Enter the Darkness: Week 2

2010-08-16T19:04:00.000-07:00

Here's this weeks teaser trailer for Beautiful Darkness:

Ridley equals pure trouble! Keep in mind that these teasers are clues into the new book. I have no idea, of course, what these might mean. I'll figure this out when I my hands on this book. Haha! Maybe after the other teasers come out, I'll put them together and make a few hypothesis'...

There are these many days left!

Make sure to also check out the Enter the Darkness page to look at last week's teaser, this week's teaser and the many more that are to come. Make sure to also read up on the contest that going on right now by the great authors themselves on their blog for this week's teaser.

Thanks for reading!

Love and Sugar from me, Jess

Things I Love Thursday!

2010-08-12T08:00:00.000-07:00

Here's another week's "Things I Love Thursday!"

The minute I saw this on Juju's Blog, Tales of Whimsy ... I knew I must have one. Do you have that one special book that you have to display in all it's glory? Well there's a creative way to do so. Frame your book! Or change it a little and it becomes a vase, or change it one more time and it becomes a wall hook. You get just one frame and 3 different ways to make it beautiful! Go on over to The Framed Objects and get one today! On my wish list!
Make sure to check out Juju's origi nal post!

I really love this creative idea with bottles and great faerie art! Check out Faerie Lites! My favorite art being from the great Jessica Galbreth. Check out her page to see other pieces of art in different forms.
Sometimes books are meant to be immortalized and what better way to do it than on a t-shirt! Out of Print Clothing offers a great range of books that must be on your "To-Be Read" list. They also have a women's tee range. Totally digging them all. Wished they had To Kill a Mockingbird though...
For those of us that can't have a garden, why not have a dancing, solar powered garden?! These sweet flowers dance and are powered by the sun. Perfect for the early morning pick-me-up. It's available in a pink pot or a blue pot.

This Alice in Wonderland underwater photo shoot by Elena Kalis is absolutely gorgeous! You can check out the rest of the shots on yatzer!

I'm sooooooooo a California Gurl and this necklace shows my love for this great state! The shop on etsy also features other great states! Look for your state in the shop!

A little while ago I went to my doll Adrien's house to watch Up and I loved it! Pixar's masterpiece! I found this cute Grape Soda Bottle Cap Badge. I must have if you love the film!

That's it for this week's, "Things I Love Thursday!" Thank you for reading!

Love and Sugar from me, Sweet Lady Jess

In My Shopping Bag!

2010-08-08T13:00:00.000-07:00

I got quite a few things week! This summer keeps getting better and better!

At Costco I got The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. I've been wanting to read this book and watch the 8-Episode series based off the book, but I don't want to watch it until I've read the book.

My brother also got a job this summer. He bought himself a bunch of stuff and he bought me Season 4 and Season 5 of House. I'm almost done with Season 4. Love my little bro!!!

This fall, Bath & Body Works is launching it's new scent, Dark Kiss. Let's just say that I loved the scent! Right now, the scent is in it's preview stage. The lotion is $1, the body spray is $2 and the candle is $5. Not that bad considering the original price for each.

I saw this tee online and I just had to have it! I absolutely love The Hunger Games series! Hot Topic released a few t-shirts based off the book series. I got the "Down With The Capital" tee.

I also went to Michaels this week and I found this on clearance. I started making one and man it took me forever to place the beads on the peg board. It looks pretty good!

My mamma also got me this piggy bank. She figured if I wanted the nook, I might as well start saving it for it now! Haha! Man I hope I make it. The piggy itself is pink and very cute. Mamma got herself a purple one, even though she wants to take my pink one. Hahaha!

Thanks for reading! Loves you all!

Love and Sugar from me, Jess

In My Mailbox 7 and From the Stacks!

2010-08-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

For this week's "In My Mailbox" and "From the Stacks," I have a few things to share. As you can tell I combined the both since I only got one item in my mailbox.

I won a copy of Linger! Hahaha! Lol I know, I have my own copy and it's personalized and signed. I'm still grateful to The Well-Read Wife for giving me this copy. I also won a wolf bookmark. I plan to keep the bookmark and I plan to give Linger away, I'm just not sure to who yet. I just have to tell this person that this is the second book of the series.
I also got three books and two films from the library. I picked up Eat, Pray, Love, We Hear the Dead, and Alice in the Country of Hearts Volume 1. I hope I finish Eat, Pray, Love before the film is released in theaters on August 13.

I then went browsing a little and found The Curse of the Golden Flower and The Fountain. I've been wanting to watch both of those films for a while.

That's it for this weeks "In My Mailbox" and "From the Stacks!" Thanks for reading!

Love and Sugar from me, Jess

Enter the Darkness

2010-08-07T15:17:00.000-07:00

Gosh, the words just give me a chill! I can not wait until Beautiful Darkness. I have gushed over the first novel so much, you must be sick of hearing it from me. Well, my love for this great series is not going to end any time soon, and I want to extend the gushy-ness by presenting each week the small teaser trailers that have a special message about the new book. Here is this week's trailer:

You can keep following the new teasers every week by going to the "Enter the Darkness" page. You can also enter a contest to win great gear from the gorgeous authors themselves. Head on over to the contest page to learn more.

Man, I can't wait until the new novel!!! We have these many days left:

Thank you for reading!

Lots of Love and Sugar from me, Jess

Like Out of a Dream...

2010-08-07T08:00:00.000-07:00

I never thought it would happen... I have been given a blogger award!

Cue Angelic Song: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...

I wish to thank the ever gracious and partner in crime, Ari from Teens Actually Read, for giving me this award. I absolutely love you hun! You can not even imagine how much this means to me. I'm very honored.

Along with this award, there's a few things I need to do:

1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you this award (Check!)
2. Share 7 things about yourself (It feels like the first day of school all over again!)
3. Pass the award along to 15 bloggers who you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic. (Oh gosh, this is going to be hard!)
4. Contact the bloggers you’ve picked and let them know about the award. (Will do!)

Now 7 Things About Me:

1. I'm actually considering getting a nook. I know I told everyone I know that I would never get one because I love the feel of a book and the smell of a new book. However, I'm running out of room to place books in my room and under our entertainment system. I see many eBooks in my future.

2. I can cross-stitch (I say this every first day of school. Hahaha!)

3. I'm about to start my fourth year in college, but I'm not graduating until one more year. I'm working towards becoming an elementary teacher.

4. I'm not good at writing reviews, so that's why you don't see any on my page. However, I haven't practiced enough, so I'll try harder in the future.

5. I love drawing for fun, but I don't know if I'm up for showing any of readers my work. I really haven't done that much anyways. I use it as a stress releaver, just like I use this blog for the same reason.

6. I wish I could live in the Haunted Mansion in Disneyland.

7. I'm mostly into YA Paranormal books, but I do hit the occasional adult novel like novels from Nicholas Sparks and Sara Douglass. I use to be into, what I call, "everyday" YA, dealing with teens and everyday situations.

I would now like to pay this award forward to the great new bloggers I have found. In no particular order:

Write-Brained: This doll blogs about everything and everything. My personal goal for my blog. I hope that I can accomplish that.

Tynga's Reviews: Love this doll's reviews and the fact that she posts trailers with her reviews. I love visuals!

The Undercover Book Lover (Not Really): Love the rating system in her blog! Excellent idea!

The Story Siren: Love the look of her page. Makes it oh-so alluring!

The Heart of Dreams: Love this sweet dolls page. A good amount of info on books and giveaways!

The Cozy Reader: Love all of the information on books. I also love how she breaks down her rating. Very informative if you need a quick view on a book.

The Book Shopaholic: The title of the blog sounds just like me.

Tales of Whimsy...: I wish I could be this doll! Love her blog. She's a sweet doll too! She comments on a lot of my posts. Loves you JuJu!

Book Reviews from Inside an Igloo: Her posts are fun to read. It feels like I'm reading a letter from a friend.

Red House Books: Thank you for the great contests! I haven't won any from you yet, but I still love the contest!

Pure Imagination: Envy the look of the blog. **hypnotized** It's so... pretty... I want to touch it...

Procrastination Station: Hasn't been on her blog in a while, but man am I jealous that she's met Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl.

Once Upon a Twilight!: Life after Twilight in one page!

Novel Thoughts: I totally love the author interviews this doll has on his blog. Enjoy reading them!

Let Them Eat Cupcakes: Marie Antoinette! 'Nuf said!

Keep in mind that I didn't pick bloggers that I knew already received this award or else I would have picked Ari's blog or Courtney's blog, who gave Ari her award. I love both if their blogs too! If I picked you for this award and you have been awarded before, I was not aware of it. Sorry! I will be contacting the winners of the award a bit after this post goes public.

Thank you again for reading! I placed my lovely award on the bottom right sidebar.

I will keep saying this: I love you Ari!!!

Love and Sugar from me, Jess

Waiting on Wednesday!

2010-08-04T08:00:00.000-07:00

Reporting of the vast books in my wishlist is this week's Waiting on Wednesday! For this week, I'm giving you Clockwork Angel by the genius mind of Cassandra Clare.

Here's the description of the book:

Magic is dangerous—but love is more dangerous still.

When sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother, her destination is England, the time is the reign of Queen Victoria, and something terrifying is waiting for her in London's Downworld, where vampires, warlocks and other supernatural folk stalk the gaslit streets. Only the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons, keep order amidst the chaos.

Kidnapped by the mysterious Dark Sisters, members of a secret organization called The Pandemonium Club, Tessa soon learns that she herself is a Downworlder with a rare ability: the power to transform, at will, into another person. What’s more, the Magister, the shadowy figure who runs the Club, will stop at nothing to claim Tessa's power for his own.
Friendless and hunted, Tessa takes refuge with the Shadowhunters of the London Institute, who swear to find her brother if she will use her power to help them. She soon finds herself fascinated by—and torn between—two best friends: James, whose fragile beauty hides a deadly secret, and blue-eyed Will, whose caustic wit and volatile moods keep everyone in his life at arm's length . . . everyone, that is, but Tessa. As their search draws them deep into the heart of an arcane plot that threatens to destroy the Shadowhunters, Tessa realizes that she may need to choose between saving her brother and helping her new friends save the world. . . . and that love may be the most dangerous magic of all.

I can not wait for this book!!! August 31 is too far away! This book is the prequel to her Mortal Instruments series, which consists of City of Bones, City of Ashes and City of Glass, which I have read and love like there's no tomorrow!
We have these many days left until the book is released!!!

Visit the Infernal Devices website!

That's it for this week. Thanks for reading!
Love and Sugar from me, Jess

More Gorgeous Covers!

2010-08-03T08:00:00.000-07:00

Here's another round of great covers!

As you might have noticed from yesterday's post, I purchased The Dark Divine. You might also remember that I read it during Spring Break and I loved it. I had to get the book the minute I saw the cover to the sequel, The Lost Saint.

Gorgeousness!!!!!! Here's the books side by side:

**sigh** Bliss...

This is the cover to Carrie Ryan's third book, The Dark and Hollow Places. I have the first book in this series, The Forrest of Hands and Teeth, and it's signed and personalized, but I haven't gotten around to reading it. It's on the list!

Here's the cover to another books series I haven't read. This is the cover to Tempestuous. I had to show this cover though! It's sooooooo hypnotic... Lovely!

This is the cover to the last book in the Wicked Lovely series, Darkest Mercy. I really love this cover. Very ethereal. I've read about half of Wicked Lovely, and I let it go because I ran out of time to borrow it from the library (I couldn't renew it), and the book wasn't catching my attention. I want to give the series another try and I will. Promise!

Well that's it for this week's covers. Make sure to enter my contest (by clicking above) to win a signed Maggie Stiefvater bookmark! Thanks for reading!

Love and Sugar from me, Jess

Poster Swap!

2010-08-02T13:40:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning to excellent news! Well not news, more like a fantasy. The poster to Beastly has been remade with a new picture, new title art, and the new date at the bottom.

Here's the old poster:

Here's the new one!

I like the new one way better. It's more... HOT! That's the only word that I can think of that describes the poster. Loves it! What do you dolls think?

Love and Sugar from me, Jess

In My Mailbox 6

2010-08-02T13:30:00.000-07:00

Gosh the mail is taking forever to bring my stuff! Haha! With that in mind, I decided to go on ahead and post what I've gotten in the mail to far. Here we go!

I won a signed copy of The Emerald Talisman by Brenda Pandos and a signed bookmark! Yay! The book was also personalized which added a great touch ^_^

My doll Joo, from Cal State Long Beach was giving away books in her Facebook page and I chose to receive Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. She pretty much gave it to me as a birthday present, which I totally appreciate. Loves you Joo!

You might recall that in May I purchased The Iron King. Well I won another copy of The Iron King, but this one was signed and came with a $25 gift card. Score! I used most of the gift card to purchase Lament and Ballad at the Maggie Stiefvater sig ning.

I won a copy of The Demon's Lexicon! The book series looks really good and I'm lucky that I won the first book.

I also won a copy of Must've Done Something Good by Cheryl Cory. It was signed and personalized! Along with the book came a post card.

I also got a bit of swag! A Shadow Hills bookmark, a We Hear the Dead bookmark and a postcard of We Hear the Dead signed by the author!

After I got back from Disneyland, I had a bit of birthday money left over and I went on a book spree on Amazon. I purchased Thirst No. 2, Linger, The Dark Divine and The Iron Daughter (I got the book about 2 weeks before it was suppose to be released!). I ordered one more book, but it was a pre-order and I'll be getting it soon. I'll post it here when I get it.

Well that's it for this week's In My Mailbox. I'll be going to the library soon to get more books, so expect that post and a few others this week.

I also wanted to remind you that I'm still holding my Maggie Stiefvater signed bookmark giveaway. Thanks for reading!

Love and Sugar from me, Jess

Things I Love Thursday!

2010-07-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

A short but simple Things I Love Thursday! Yay!

These gorgeous editions of some of our favorite classics look just as great as when they were originally published. I only have the Sense & Sensibility edition and the Pride & Prejudice edition. You can read about all of them on the Penguin Classics official website.

I am so coveting this personal organizer! It's pink and it's calling my name! I must have it!!!! It is known as a Filofax Metropol Personal Organizer and it shall be mine and I shall call it squishy. Tee hee!

Someone has actually made a gorgeous replica of Lizzy's dress from Pride & Prejudice! My heart skip a beat when I first saw it. I think it's going to replace my dream wedding dress. **sigh**

The best movie of this season is Toy Story 3. YOU MUST WATCH THIS MOVIE! It is funny, it is sad. It will make you laugh, it will make you cry. It sure happened to me! Haha! If nothing else, these two words will make you want to go watch it: Spanish Buzz! Now go!

I went to see the World of Color when I went a few weeks ago to Disneyland. It's so beautiful. Thanks to music, color, water, fire, and projections, we get a gorgeous view of the many masterpieces that Walt Disney and his company have made. Totally worth a trip just to see this. Go and see it!

My favorite medical show is [H]ouse!!! Every case is soooooooo scandalous and crazy as the last one. Dr. House is the head of diagnostics, and him and his team get some the most whacked out cases ever. Some episodes are best watched by not eating. Haha!

Thank you for reading and make sure to check out my giveaway for a signed Maggie Stiefvater bookmark! It ends on August 23!

Love and Sugar from me, Jess

From the Stacks!

2010-07-28T00:01:00.000-07:00

The library has been my friend all of this summer and it has not failed me yet. Here's the two new books that I got from the library.

I got my hands on the sequel to Once Dead, Twice Short, Early to Death, Early to Rise, and I'm very excited to start reading it! I think it's going to be the next book I read. So many to read before the summer is over!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! I can do this!

Now I'm not having a wedding! Heck, I'm not even dating, but that doesn't stop a girl from dreaming... **sigh** Come back Jess... I'm back, I'm back! Hahaha! Anyways, I wanted to borrow Disney's Fairy Tale Weddings so that I can look at the pictures. I've gone through the book once and I loved a lot of David Tutera's ideas. Very chic, very cute. I plan to scan a few of the pictures and keep them in my "Dream Wedding" file that I have in my PC. Tee hee!

That's it for this week's "From the Stacks." I'm waiting on a few more items from the library. Hopefully they come in soon, and I hope to finish reading everything that I still need to return. Haha!

Love and Sugar from me, Jess

Maggie Stiefvater Signing and Giveaway!

2010-07-27T00:30:00.000-07:00

I just got back from a great time from the Maggie Stiefvater signing at Borders in Glendale. I got a lot of books signed and stay tuned for my first giveaway ever!

A few weeks ago, Linger was released! Yay! To celebrate the release, Maggie is on a book tour. I was able to attend her Glendale event! She gave us a lot of funny anecdotes about her past and her writing. Love this doll!

There was also an art contest with a bunch of beautiful pieces. One doll did an excellent job by writing a full song, singing it, and having the music to the song play in the background. The winners were determined by the applause from the audience and the three judges, one of them being Maggie. Here are the winners:

The third place winner was the Shiver "mock movie poster." She won a copy of Linger. The second place winner was the doll that sang the song that she wrote. She won copies of Shiver and Linger. The first place winner was the doll that made the top most piece of art, showing the titles of the three books in the Wolves of Mercy Falls series (Shiver being the first book, Linger the second book, and Forever is the last and final book which comes out some time next year). She won all four of Maggie's books.

I also got a chance to take a picture with her before I left. You can see the rest of my pictures from the signing on my Facebook album.

I got Shiver personalized, since she already signed it from winning it a few months back. She also signed Linger, and while I was there I purchased Lament and Ballad. Both of those books are from a different series of hers, and I've yet to read them, but they are next on my list of books to read.

Now for the giveaway! Maggie was kind enough sign 7 bookmarks for me (One for me, one for my doll Rachel, who I was able to get a copy of Linger signed), and 5 to giveaway!

They are double sided, but she only signed the side with the quote from Linger on it. My purpose in running this giveaway is to gain more readers. I love my 19 readers, but I wouldn't hurt to have more, so here's how this giveaway is going to work.

There will be 5 winners. To enter this giveaway you need to be a follower. I also need you to leave a comment with your name and email address. Please leave your email address, or I won't be able to let you know you won a bookmark.

There's also ways to gain extra entries!

+1 Entry for following me on Twitter: @SweetLadyJess Please leave your username so that I can see that you are following me.

+1 Entry Each for Tweeting, Facebook post, Sidebar etc. Please leave links so that I may see that you tweeted, posted etc. Here's how to directly link tweets, and for facebook it's pretty much the same.

I'm going to draw the names the old fashion way. I'm placing your name, times the number of entries on a piece of paper, and I'll place the piece of papers in one of my totes. I'll draw the winners that way. I want to give this giveaway 4 weeks, so that I may get more readers. This giveaway ends on August 23, 2010 11:59 PST. US and Canada only please! Post is a bit much for me (I don't have a job).

I really need you to keep in mind that I'm doing this giveaway so that I may have more readers, so please spread the word!

I also wanted to have my readers know that the title of my blog has been changed from "Live, Love, Laugh" to "Live, Laugh, Love." I felt like it rang better and it reminds of the film Eat Pray Love, which I really want to see!

Stay tuned this week for a "Things I Love Thursday," "From the Stacks," an update from my Disneyland trip, and a future "In My Mailbox." One of the things that came in my mailbox that you have already seen is my copy of Linger from Amazon. It's a lot cheaper on Amazon. I'm still waiting for things to come in, so the "In My Mailbox" post will come in a lot later. I've won a bunch of books and swag again!

Thank you for reading!

Love and Sugar from me, Jess

Another Pure Moment of Glee!!!

2010-07-24T20:55:00.000-07:00

The great Captain Jack Sparrow is sailing again! He needs a great crew and this is where you come in...

Countdown starts now! 300 days left until Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

My moment of glee...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!

Ok that's enough. Haha! Thanks for reading!

Love and Sugar from me, Jess

From the Stacks!

2010-07-16T00:01:00.000-07:00

I know I said I was going to stop talking about books, but in this "From the Stacks!" I'm also going to mention music! Yay!

I've been wanting to read Once Dead, Twice Shy by Kim Harrison for a while, and I finally got the chance to borrow it from the library. It took me about a week to read and I loved it! I had a really slow start with it, but the ending made me really want to read the second book in the series, Early to Death, Early to Rise. I'm going to order it from the online library catalog once it starts working again! >:(

Next month, for church in the Young Single Adults organization, we are going to have a Broadway night. I knew about this since April and I had the rest of the dolls in our branch choose a Broadway show to dance and sing to. I listed the ones that I was familiar with. I've never gone to one, so I chose the ones that I has some idea of what the music was like. We all ended up choosing Mamma Mia! Sounds like a lot of fun. I've seen the film with Amanda Seyfried and I really liked it. I grew up listening to music from the musical on Radio Disney, so I pretty much know a good portion of the songs. I got the soundtrack from the library so I wouldn't have to buy it. Wish my luck when I get them all together to actually practice for the Broadway night. The good thing is that we only have to dance and sing to one of the songs, but we need to be in costume and have a background.

My cousin Maritza let me borrow the film, Message in a Bottle, adapted from the novel by Nicholas Sparks. I need to read the book before I watch the film, so I borrowed it from the library. Hopefully they are both good!

I've also been wanting to read Beauty Sleep, a retelling of Sleeping Beauty, for a long while. Sleeping Beauty/Aurora is my favorite princess and I have to read this book! I read Midnight Pearls, a retelling of The Little Mermaid, from the same series and it was excellent! Hopefully it's just as good!

For those of you that may be following me on Twitter may have noticed that I have been watching Disney films for the past two weeks and that is because by the time you read this on the morning of the 16th, I'll be at Disneyland!!!! I've been putting myself in Disney mode for these past two weeks! My doll Adrien works as a cast member at the park and has allowed an old friend of mine, Genesis, her boyfriend and me to go to the park with him! I've been looking forward to this trip for a loooooooong while! Yay! So to get me more into the Disney spirit, I borrowed three music CDs from the library. The first one pictured above is The Essential Disney Love Song Collection.

I also got Disney's Princess Collection and...

Disney's Princess Collection Volume 2!

I've been listening to all of the music as I was writing out this post. I'm still waiting for a few more things from the library. It might take a while. I'll also post pictures from my Disneyland trip when I come back. Thank you for reading!

Lots of Love and Sugar from me, Jess

Trailer Thursday!

2010-07-08T15:10:00.000-07:00

Hey Hey! Here's a new segment I might want to update and keep. Let's just say I'm testing the waters. And for this first "Trailer Thursday" I'm going to give you the newly released trailer for Torment by Lauren Kate, the second book in the Fallen series.

I think my heart skipped a beat... **drool**

Such a teaser!!!! I actually got a chance to meet Lauren Kate when she went on tour for Fallen.

Very sweet doll! Hope she goes on tour for Torment! Eeeeeee!

Well that's it for this week. I think I need to lead myself away from books. That's all I've been blogging about. Any suggestions? I'm open to suggestions. Love you all!

Love and Sugar from me, Jess

Happy Birthday to...

2010-07-03T00:01:00.000-07:00

On this day, many moons ago, a great queen was born...

Hahaha! Yup! ME!!!!

These 21 years have been quite a ride. I've been living, dreaming, and laughing like there's no tomorrow. Can't wait to make it through another 21 years. Love you all for the support you give me through this blog and in real life. Bless you!

Thank you and keep on reading!

Love and Sugar from me, Sweet Lady Jess

Covers Covers Covers!

2010-07-01T10:21:00.001-07:00

Here are a few cover reveals that I found this week!

One of my favorite cover is for Kimberley Derting's second book and sequel to The Body Finder:

It's pink! Adding it to the list of books to read! You can read more about Desires of the Dead on Amazon. Out March 15, 2011

You've heard me talk about The Immortals series and how I'm currently reading the fourth book in the series, Dark Flame. Above is the cover to the fifth book in the series, Night Star. Very lovely! Out November 16, 2010

In May, I went to Kelley Armstrong's signing for The Reckoning (Darkest Powers series) and now she revealed the cover to first book in her extension series known as the Darkness Rising series. Love the shade of blue on the cover. You can read more on the The Gathering on Amazon. Out April 12, 2011

Now, you know about my obsession with the Caster Chronicles (Beautiful Creatures and Beautiful Darkness) and they recently changed the cover to it.

Here's the old cover:

Here's the new cover!!!

They changed the cover because they felt like the new one would fit the story a lot better. Apparently the steps on the cover are very important in the book. We'll see come October 12, 2010. If you grabbed the widget on my left sidebar, the cover to the book was automatically changed. No work for you!

These are the only covers that I've been looking forward to seeing. Wait patiently for my post on Saturday morning!

Love and Sugar from me, Sweet Lady Jess

Waiting on Wednesday!

2010-06-30T00:01:00.000-07:00

Another round of "Waiting on Wednesday!" I've converted about 3 people into the series. It really is fabulous and then some! Now I'm dieing for the last book in the series!

Here's the description:

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that she’s made it out of the bloody arena alive, she’s still not safe. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge. Who do they think should pay for the unrest? Katniss. And what’s worse, President Snow has made it clear that no one else is safe either. Not Katniss’s family, not her friends, not the people of District 12. Powerful and haunting, this thrilling final installment of Suzanne Collins’s groundbreaking The Hunger Games trilogy promises to be one of the most talked about books of the year.

Best series ever!!! 1984, meets V for Vendetta, meets Battle Royale. August 24th can not come too soon! Well yes it can because if the date gets here, then I have to start school a week later. And school is never a good idea... Hahaha!

That's it for this week's Waiting on Wednesday. Join me next week when I announce another great book I'm waiting for!

Love and Sugar from me, Sweet Lady Jess

From the Stacks and In My Shopping Bag!

2010-06-29T00:01:00.000-07:00

Doing a double header this time around since I only have one item to present for each one.

I got my hands on Dark Flame by Alyson Noel! Yay!!! I'm pretty sure I'm the first one to read this particular copy because the day after the book was released I got an email from my local library to pick it up. It sure looks new and smells new! Bliss!

I added another film to my obsessive Johnny Depp collection. It's a small collection but another film is pure **Glee**!!! I increased my Johnny Depp by adding Edward Scissorhands at Target for $5!!!! Total score!!! Woot Woot!

So here's my Johnny Depp film list:

Eward Scissorhands (1990)
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
Corpse Bride (2003)
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)
Sweeney Todd (2007)
Alice in Wonderland (2010)

Short list... I know! Still love all of these films! Always accepting donations! Hahaha! Joking! Joking!

That's it for this week's "From the Stack" and "In my Mailbox." Stay tune for "Waiting on Wednesday" tomorrow and a special post on Saturday... Very mysterious... Oh yeah you should totally be exited!!!

Lots of Love and Sugar from me, Sweet Lady Jess

In My Mailbox 5

2010-06-26T10:40:00.000-07:00

Finally! A new "In My Mailbox!" Yay! I was waiting for several things to get in to do it in one BIG swoop.
I HIT THE JACK-POT!!! I entered a contest given by Scholastic to win this!!!

A finished copy of The Sight, 11 Birthdays, and Wherever Nina Lies.

Advance Reader Copies of The Keepers' Tattoo, The Deadly Sister, and I Now Pronounce You Someone Else.

Advance Reader Copies of Sellout, And Then I Found Out the Truth, and What's Your Status?

A red Scholastic tote (all of the books where in it).

And a double sided bookmark for Shiver and Linger!!!! YAY!!!!

Best contest ever! Love all of the stuff that I won!!! Eeeeeeee!!!!!!! I also won this...

I won a signed personalized copy of Forgive My Fins by and from Tera Lynn Childs. On her website she ran a contest and I won!! YAY! She also gave me a tattoo, and two double sided bookmarks.

Thanks the great authors of Beautiful Creatures, Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, who ran a contest on their page, I was able to win a signed copy of White Cat by Holly Black. Yay!!!

I also won this month's June book for Book Club. I won Wicked and a Book Club bookmark!

Lastly, thanks to Disney Movie Rewards, I traded some points for the film Tuck Everlasting! It has Alexis Bledel in it! What more do I need??? Love her!

Well that's it for this weeks "In My Mailbox." Thank for reading!

Love and Sugar from me, Sweet Lady Jess

What's Behind Jess' Door?

2010-06-25T00:01:00.000-07:00

Last year I did a "What's in Jess' Bag" post and I thought I would do a "What's Behind Jess's Door" post, since I change the stuff behind my door often.

At the top of the Door: D23 Expo crown
Labyrinth movie poster
Opened CD slip from Taylor Swift's Fearless Platinum album
Pictures of Cullen Family and Wolf Pack from Burger King burger shots box
Signed picture by Peter Facinelli (Dr. Carlisle Cullen) that came with Cullen Family jewelry set
The Vespers vinyl sticker
Aztec gold necklace from Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl
Captain Jack Sparrow patch
Jack Sparrow tattoo
Blue October patch
Blue October Approaching Normal CD slip
Aces Alice in Wonderland cards from the D23 Expo
"Off With Her Head" queue card from my Alice in Wonderland performance
D23 Expo Mickey art card
Jessica Galbreth Cancer Fairy patch
I Love Lucy patch
Labyrinth quote sticker
Burger King burger shots New Moon cut out
V for Vendetta non-original signed picture
David Archuleta poster from CD slip
Blue October sticker
Card Captor Sakura print
Alice in Wonderland headband packaging

Waiting on Wednesday!

2010-06-23T00:01:00.000-07:00

The next book that I'm waiting to be released is...

Here's the synopsis:

In Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver, Grace and Sam found each other. Now, in Linger, they must fight to be together. For Grace, this means defying her parents and keeping a very dangerous secret about her own well-being. For Sam, this means grappling with his werewolf past . . . and figuring out a way to survive into the future. Add into the mix a new wolf named Cole, whose own past has the potential to destroy the whole pack. And Isabelle, who already lost her brother to the wolves . . . and is nonetheless drawn to Cole.

At turns harrowing and euphoric, Linger is a spellbinding love story that explores both sides of love - the light and the dark, the warm and the cold - in a way you will never forget.

As you may recall, I won the first book, Shiver, in an online contest and it was signed by the author. I read it and loved it! Love, kissing, wolves, cold! Best words to describe the book. I kept imagining Sam, the main character and the wolf, as the actor that played Jeremy in The Vampire Diaries.

Steven McQueen is totally wolfy material! I've been looking forward to the next book, Linger, for a while and I'm anxious to get it! It comes out on July 20!!! You can order Shiver, Linger, and her other books signed here. Totally going to go for this!
Lastly, here's the trailer for Linger made, created, and cut by Maggie Stiefvater herself!

Soooooo creative! Wish I had the patience to do that (paper cuts and all, lol)!
Thanks for reading and stay tune! Still waiting for things to come in the mail to do one BIG "In My Mailbox."
Love and Sugar from me, Sweet Lady Jess

In My Shopping Bag 5

2010-06-18T00:01:00.000-07:00

Wow! I've been blessed with more stuff this week! Eeeeeeeeeeee! Here we go for another round of "In My Shopping Bag!"
I saw this book at Borders when I purchased To Kill a Mockingbird. I read the back and it really appealed to me. The cover also said that a movie was being made based off the book. I went home, saw the trailer and wanted more than anything to watch this film! The story appeals to me too much. So I went to Barnes & Noble last Friday with my dolls, Dakota and Isabel and I decided to purchase Beastly.

Here's the trailer to see why I'm sooooooooooo excited about this film! I just don't like the fact that the film has been pushed forward for a March 2011 release because in the original release date both Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens (who's in the film) were going to have their films released and instead of moving Zac's film, they moved Beastly. Not kewl!!!!

I really love the song in the trailer. You can listen to the song bellow:

The 2010 FIFA World Cup started on the 11th and I've been trying to keep up with all of the different matches, especially my home team, MEXICO!!! Woot!!!! My mom and me have been dieing for team jersey and we finally got one! Totally worth it! Wore it yesterday since they played yesterday. 2-0!!!!! Eeeee! Excellent game! They are also playing on Tuesday the 22nd and we'll see where they go from there.

A year ago I mentioned that I loved Bath and Body Works. I still do and right now they are having their Semi-Annual sale! I took advantage of that by dropping by and picking up a new scent. I bought a small lotion during their sample month a few months ago and I loved the Summer Vanillas in Berry. Best Summer Scent Ever!!! I got the body mist, body lotion, shower gel and matching lib gloss. Love it!!!!! Make sure to check out the store. It was suuuuuper packed the day I went.

It's the summer season and flip-flop season. You need to start our your summer with a comfy pair of flip-flops and I found the perfect ones at JC Penny! They're pink and oh so comfertable!! Make sure to get some!

I'm sooooo ready for Eclipse that nothing is going to stop me from going. I decided to get ready by purchasing a new T-Shirt for when I go and see the film. I saw this tee and it was mine!!! Love this Eclipse tee because this way I don't have to chose sides. I have both Edward and Jacob in one! Yay!

Lastly, I saw Avatar a few nights ago and I loved it! I've been thinking about since I saw it! A movie like that needs to be added to my collection and it soooooooooooo is! Going to see it throughout this weekend, since I'm going out of town.

Thanks for reading! I'll be posting a "In My Mailbox" soon, but I'm just waiting for a few things to get in.

Lots of Love and Sugar from me, Sweet Lady Jess

A Moment of Glee!!!

2010-06-17T11:11:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning and saw this!!!!

Believe me, I am beyond exited to watch this film! I knew The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader was in production but I hadn't heard a peep as to the release date. Saw Bin-Bons (Uh... Ben Barnes) in the trailer for like a second! Best second ever! Here's Bin Bons in all his hotness!!!

He was in the second film, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, which you should also watch.

Now, you surely can't see the second film, let alone the third film, without watching the first film, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Check both of them out!

Thanks for reading my moment of glee. Stay tune for a post tomorrow!

Love and Sugar from me, Sweet Lady Jess

From the Stacks!

2010-06-17T00:01:00.000-07:00

Welcome to another "From the Stacks." I don't have a book to show you. Just a film, but not just any film! I got To Kill a Mockingbird!

As you can see from last week's "In my Shopping Bag," I purchased the book To Kill a Mockingbird. I loved it soooooo much I just had to watch the film!!! Best film ever! The film was very similar to the book. They dropped a few characters that could have made the film better and made the book excellent, but it was still good. Loved that fact that it was in black and white. Gregory Peck was excellent Atticus, and the children that played Scout and Jem were really cute and were great actors. Totally recommend this film, whether you have read the book or not. It's one of those films that can change your life. I say this because the views, situations and problems are still around in our time as it was during the Depression.

That's all for today dolls. Stay tuned for one more post tomorrow!

Love and Sugar from me, Sweet Lady Jess

Waiting on Wednesday!

2010-06-16T00:01:00.000-07:00

I've been following Alyson Noel's immortal series for about a year now and for this week's "Waiting on Wednesday" I want to talk about the next book in her series, Dark Flame, which comes out next Tuesday, June 22nd!

Book Description:

In Alyson Noel’s most darkly seductive Immortals novel yet, Ever fights for control of her body, her soul—and the timeless true love she’s been chasing for centuries.

Ever is trying to help Haven transition into life as an immortal. But with Haven drunk on her new powers and acting recklessly, she poses the ultimate threat—exposing their secret world to the outside. As Ever struggles to keep the Immortals hidden, it only propels Haven closer to the enemy—Roman and his evil companions

At the same time, Ever delves deeper into dark magick to free Damen from Roman’s power. But when her spell backfires, it binds her to the one guy who’s hell-bent on her destruction. Now there’s a strange, foreign pulse coursing through her, and no matter what she does, she can’t stop thinking about Roman—and longing for his touch. As she struggles to resist the fiery attraction threatening to consume her, Roman is more than willing to take advantage of her weakened state…and Ever edges closer and closer to surrender.

Frantic to break the spell before its too late, Ever turns to Jude for help, risking everything she knows and loves to save herself—and her future with Damen …

This series has it all! Hot immortals, love, betray, and archenemies! Dark Flame is the fourth book in the Immortals Series and I know there's at least one more coming on November 16 called Night Star. The previous book, Shadowland (book three) ended with a huge twist and I'm anxious to find out how Ever, the main character, deals with it. Make sure to also read the first book, Evermore and the second book, Blue Moon!

Well that's it for this week's Waiting on Wednesday! Until next time dolls!

Love and Sugar from me, Sweet Lady Jess

In My Shopping Bag 4

2010-06-09T00:01:00.000-07:00

Yay! Shopping, shopping, shopping! I've gotten extremely lucky this week because I got a few things! Woot!

I have been wanting to read To Kill a Mockingbird for a while, especially after reading Beautiful Creatures, since it was To Kill a Mockingbird that inspired Beautiful Creatures to be written. As you can tell a bit from the picture, I was in the process of reading the book, but I actually already finished it. I loved it and I'm dieing to see the film based off the book. Waiting for the film to get it from the library.

You've heard me gush over one of the greatest films ever! Alice in Wonderland came out on the 1st of June! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee! I got the three-disc Blu-ray/DVD Edition. I don't have a Blu-Ray player, but if I ever get one, then I'll be ready!

I've been dieing for anything, ANYTHING written by Stephenie Meyer. She finally released a book. Well more like a novella. It's called The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner. I've started with the first few pages, and so far so good. I just adore Stephenie's writing style. I've missed it so much!

I've also been waiting a long while for the Eclipse soundtrack because they usually get a bunch of great songs together. Really love The Bravery's (one of my favorite bands) song in the soundtrack called Ours. CAN'T WAIT FOR THE FILM!!!!! 21 DAYS LEFT!!!!!! EEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!

That's it for this weeks "In My Shopping Bag." Thanks for reading!

Love and Sugar from me, Sweet Lady Jess

From the Stacks 2

2010-05-26T18:41:00.000-07:00

More books! Yay! Not mine, of course, but books none the less. I sparked my Marie Antoinette love by reading this great book!

The Bad Queen: Rules and Instruction for Marie Antoinette was excellent. The author, Carolyn Meyer, used real people that Marie Antoinette knew, and direct quotes used by the people around her from letters written to her or by those she knew. I had to borrow it from my cousin Maritza's county library system, since mine did not have it. It took me three days to read it. Hahaha! It's on my wish list, that's how much I loved it! Getting it in the future!

I've also been borrowing the Kingdom Hearts manga from the library for a while now, and I've had the song "Simple and Clean" by Utada Hikaru from the video game soundtrack for a while now. My doll Isabel gave it to me a looooooooong time ago, but I couldn't find it so I decided to borrow the Kingdom Hearts Game Soundtrack from the library.

Real soon we are going to get a new TV series!!!! Yay! Starting on June 8th on ABC Family we are going to get Pretty Little Liars, based off the book series by Sara Shepard by the same name. I really want to read at least the first book before the show starts to I got this!!!

I have about a week to read this book, which I think I can do... I hope... If it's good... lol

Alright, that's it for this week! Take care dolls!

Lots of Love and Sugar from me, Sweet Lady Jess

In My Mailbox 4

2010-05-26T15:18:00.000-07:00

Yay! Another great "In My Mailbox." Tons of stuff for this week! Weeeeeeeeeeeee!

I won another contest! I won a signed The Tudor Wife by Emily Purdy (Known as Brandy Purdy in the US), a UK edition of The Boleyn Wife. It was offered by the author in her blog. I won this contest by making a comment about her cat Tabby. Very cute! You can see the information about the contest information here.

Guess what? I won another contest!!! This time around I won a ton of Romantic Times Convention 2010 swag. LOTS OF IT! Let me give me an overview of the items that I won.

Lots of bookmarks!

Note pads! (Love the one with the fangs. Tee hee!)

Mouse pads, preview audio books, and romance book sneak peaks.

Buttons and magnets

Miscellaneous stuff!

More Miscellaneous stuff!

I won this stuff by commenting about an argument between Kari Stevens, a big fan of Romance novels and Chain Cow, her stuffed animal... Yeah... Anyways, I won a bunch a stuff. I'm only keeping about half of it. I'm not into romance novels. At least not the contemporary ones. You can read about the contest here.

Now there was a magnet that I loved:

I don't have a use for a magnet, so I decided to make it into a button by destroying one of the other buttons. I needed the pin portion of the button to attach it to the magnet.

Here is the end result before I attacked it with the glue gun.

Remember how I L-O-V-E free stuff? Well I got some free stuff in the mail!

I won this shirt through the above website on Facebook.com/YoplaitPledge. They don't have anymore left, but the giveaway went well. 1,000,000 t-shirts in a few hours. Love the shirt. My mom loved it too! Tee hee! Going to wear it soon.

Lastly, you may remember last weeks "Things I Love Thursday." Well, I finally got the tote, the jour nal, The Iron King and Thirst No. 1 from Barnes & Noble! Yay! I have been waiting for the UPS guy all day!!!! He came at about 6:00 or so.

That's it for this weeks "In My Mailbox." Stand by for "From the Stacks" sometime by the end of the week.

Lots of Love and Sugar from me, Sweet Lady Jess

In My Shopping Bag 3 and Free Nail Polish!

2010-05-26T13:09:00.000-07:00

For this weeks "In My Shopping Bag," I have books (Yes!), and something free!

I'm starting a book club with my doll Isabel, and for the next few months or so we are going to read Sundays at Tiffany's, The Iron King, Thirst No. 1, and Wings. We haven't decided what books we are going to read after those four, but we dig the whole Paranormal/Romance stuff so we'll probably stick with that. I decided to purchase Wings since we are going to read it soon. I've been wanting to read this book for a while. I also know that Wings is going to be made into a film some time next year starring the ever lovely, Miley Cyrus (Ugg! Not!). Hope it's good.

The other book that I purchased was Vampire Kisses. I've been wanting to read this series for as long as I would remember, and this book has the first three books in one. Score! Can't wait to start it. I had a hard time choosing between this book and the first volume of Vampire Diaries. I put that book on my wish list.

My cousin Maritza and me L-O-V-E free stuff!!! I wish I could find more free stuff and this month's Seventeen magazine offers it's readers a free Nicole by OPI nail polish. You too can bask in the chance at getting free nail polish. Go to this link to print out a coupon and then head out to your closest ULTA and get a free nail polish! I got the polish that's above. It's a silver polish named "Positive Energy." I've been wanting a silver polish for years! Totally worked out well!

That's it for this weeks "In My Shopping Bag." Take care sweets!

Love and Sugar from me, Sweet Lady Jess

Things I Love Thursday!

2010-05-20T00:01:00.000-07:00

Haha! Another Things I Love Thursday! Sweeeeeet! This weeks TILT is going to be random again. Some things might be connected, others might not.
I absolutely love this film! No one can tear this great Queen apart and this film is great at showing her strength. I recommend it to anyone that loves historical films, political films, or romance films. Here's the trailer to get your taste buds flowing (Yes I know you can't eat a film, but you know what I mean...):

This tote is going to be mine real soon! It's double sided and it has two quotes. My favorite side is the one pictured above and its says: "When I get a little money, I buy books; and if any is left, I buy food and clothes" by Erasmus. The other side is pictured bellow and it says: "My best friend is a person who will get me a book I have not read" by Abraham Lincoln.
It seems like you can only get this tote at Barnes & Noble or online. It's very sturdy and made of great material. My cousin Maritza is one that told me about this tote. Will get it soon!

This journal is everything I could possibly want in a journal! It's all about books, and it's called the Books to Check Out Journal. It's a great way to keep track of books you have read, are reading, want to read, or are lending out to friends. It's a bit like the Moleskin Book Passion Journal I mentioned a few posts back, but this one is cheaper and more colorful. The cover is really darling! You can purchase this book at Barnes & Noble (that's where I first saw it) or on Amazon.

My new favorite person is Michelle Phan! She is an absolute genius! She has online YouTube tutorials on makeup and beauty. The first video I saw was her Sailor Moon transformation video, but I have two favorite videos from her. The first one is the Squeaky Clean Brushes! tutorial:

This tutorial is amazing because I've been hearing about all of the germs that can be on your brush if you don't wash it. She provided an easy and inexpensive way to clean our makeup brushes. You also hear about The Brush Guard in this video, which if you can remember from Sunday, I received in the mail a little while ago.

My next favorite video is her Theme Park Makeup video. Whether I'm at a theme park or not, I have issues keeping my makeup on my face. This tutorial is cute and easy. Loves it!!! Going to try it the next time I go to Disneyland!

My favorite beauty product right now is Clinique's All About Eyes cream. It actually does what it's suppose to do. It diminishes the appearance of puffy eyes, dark circles and fine lines. I use this at night and my eyes look a little less puffy and dark in the morning. Love this product a lot!!!!!

I totally love this House of Night jewelry. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this jewelry before, but if I have, awww well, I still love it! I've yet to get the jewelry for myself, but it's on my list! I plan to get the set you see above, but instead of the "Fire" tag, I want to get the "Water" tag, since that is my element. You can see the entire collection here.
Lastly, here's the last piece in my House of Night obsession. T-Shirts! Everyone loves T-Shirts. This CafePress House of Night Shop has excellent T-Shirts. The one pictured above is just one of the many that are available. Take your pick! I would want the one above and the one that says "Affinity" but the water one.

Well that's it for this weeks Things I Love Thursday. Can't wait to blog all summer because today was my last day of class!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wooooooooooooot!!! ***Goes to burn all her text books, but decides that she can get money from them, so she doesn't do it..***

Till next time! Love and Sugar from me, Sweet Lady Jess

Waiting on Wednesday

2010-05-19T00:01:00.000-07:00

Hey hey!!! I wanted to welcome you to this great Wednesday by working on a new feature! It's called Waiting on Wednesday. I found the feature by wandering around in a ton of other great blogs. Again, it will mostly be about books, but if I'm really anxious to tell you about another item, I'll just post it here. For the first Waiting on Wednesday feature, I want to talk about a new book in the House of Night series that's coming out this year.

Now keep in mind, this is not the next novel in the series. The next novel in the series is Awakened, which is set to come out on January 4, 2011. As you can tell, I'm also waiting for this novel, but the book that I'm showing above is a book which can be read about in the series. In other words, it's a book within a book. The Fledgling Handbook 101 is a manual that all new, incoming fledglings are given when they enter the House of Night. It's really cool for us non-fledglings to be given a chance to read it! I can not wait for this book. I don't really have to wait long, it's going to come out on October 26, 2010!!! Yay!!!!

Here's the trailer for the new book, Burned, which came out a few weeks ago (and I've been waiting to borrow from the library and finally got).

I'm off! Expect at least one more post this week. You know what tomorrow is...

Love and Sugar from me, Sweet Lady Jess

How to Make a Book Wreath and Update

2010-05-18T00:01:00.000-07:00

Hello sweets! I've been meaning to update you guys on the progress and finished product of my book wreath. Well, here it is! HAHA! Better late than never! Let me you give you an overview of the steps and pictures of the progress.

Here are the supplies you are going to need:
-Brown acrylic paint
-White 10 inch foam wreath
-A book (Take that George Bush!!!)
-Glue gun
-Extra glue gun sticks
-A pencil
-Some ribbon
-Paper towelsStart by placing paper towers on your work space. Then grab an extra paper towel and squeeze some paint on the paper towel. Rub the paper towel with paint on the edges of the book (except the spine of course). Make sure to coat it evenly. Let it sit for about 15 minutes or so until it dries. Look for the first page that has a lot of words. You want to fill your wreath with pages that have words on it, not blank pages. Follow this tutorial on how to roll your pages to place on the foam wreath.

You are pretty much going to go once around the edge.

This is how it looks like when you flip it around to add the full body of the wreath. You then start adding more pages by going up and around the wreath. Make sure to go around once in the inside edge of the wreath. Add any fillers if you find holes in the wreath. Lastly, make sure to glue on a small strip of ribbon to the back to hold up the wreath and you are done! Make sure to hang it on your house in a nice place! Here's where my mom placed it. She loved it!

Keep in mind that I just gave you the shortened version of the instructions. To see the full instructions head off to this link.

Hope you enjoyed my update. Keep reading!

Lots of Love and Sugar from me, Sweet Lady Jess

From the Stacks!

2010-05-17T00:01:00.000-07:00

Hey there dolls! Here's the first edition of "From the Stacks!" I finally figured out a name for posts involving books or other items that I borrow from the library. For this week's From the Stacks, I have three things to share with you.

As you may recall a few posts back, I won a book called My Soul to Save by Rachel Vincent from an online contest. Well you might also recall that the book was the second in a series called the Soul Screamers. So, to read the second book I need to read the first book called My Soul to Take. I borrowed the book from the library a little while ago, and as you might notice my bookmark in the picture, I'm already reading it. So far so good. The concept is kind of cool. Love it! The third book in the series, My Soul to Keep comes out on June 1, 2010. It's odd that Amazon already has it for sale though...

You can also read the prequel novella called My Soul to Lose, which you can read for free from this link. (Note: Your going to need to install the Kindle app to your phone or computer to be able to read it)
As a treat, here's the book trailer to My Soul to Take. Enjoy!

A loooooooooong time ago, I ventured into the great beyond known as the Cal State Long Beach Library. I put on hold a film called I Have Found It. This was more than a month ago. They finally got the film in and I picked it up this past week. I was also informed that a second copy was in it's way to me. What the????

Anyways, I've been wanting to watch this film for a while now because this film is the Bollywood version of Sense & Sensibility. Too darling! I borrowed, from the same library, Bride & Prejudice which, as you can guess, is the Bollywood version of Pride & Prejudice. Loved that one a lot!!!!! Can't wait to watch this film!

Now, I hate being tricked! It's not cool! So when I go to the library, I expect to be able to pick up the book that I put on hold, especially since I was told it was ready to picked up. This was me several weeks ago. I was emailed again last week and told to pick up Burned by P.C. Cast and Kristen Cast. My reaction: FINALLY! YESSS! I got the book! I've been wanting to read this book really BAD!!!!!! Can't wait to crack it open.

Well that's it for today's post. I'll keep you updated of my reading and stuff as school winds down. Expect more posts this week!

Love and Sugar from me, Sweet Lady Jess

In My Mailbox 3 and In My Shopping Bag 2

2010-05-16T00:01:00.000-07:00

Yay! Another edition of In My Mailbox and In My Shopping Bag! I'll start out this week with the items that came in my mail box.

I'm a big fan of Disney movies and if you register with DisneyMovieRewards.com, you can trade in codes in each movie for points that you can redeem for stuff! Everyone loves stuff. I've redeemed a few points before, but for virtual items for an old online game called Virtual Magic Kingdom (it was shut down in May of 2008). This time around I redeemed my points for an actually item I can hold in my hands. Haha! I was able to get the Alice in Wonderland poster you see above. I already hung it up in my room, on my closet door actually. Totally loves it. So if you like free stuff, get it, or other Disney stuff.

I won another contest! Yay! Hahaha! Like my cousin Maritza said, I'm on a roll! The contest was made by the sweet doll over at Delightful Reviews. Here's the contest info. I won The Naughty List (Stop giggling! Stop that! It's not what you think! It's a Young Adult book, what would you expect in a Young Adult book...? Certainly not strong Adult themes...) by Suzanne Young. It was signed and had a cute message in it. I also won a signed book mark, which you can see a little closer bellow.

Lastly, I got these great Brush Guards in the mail this week. What is a Brush Guard you ask?

The Brush Guard can help protect your brushes from getting dirt on them and can help you clean them if you slip a washed and clean brush through a brush guard, turn the brush upside down so the water slips downwards and you can do this without ruining your brush!

Here are my bushes being protected by The Brush Guard! There are different sized guards and you can buy them in different packs. I got the variety pack and it was just $5.50. All packs are $5.50 and shipping is already included in the price. Check out TheBrushGuard.com to get your set today!

(Just for your info, I was not payed to say all of that. I just like them that much!)

Now, for the item in my shopping bag! This past week I got the chance to purchase The Young Victoria! Yay! I've seen the film twice since I've purchased it. Too lovely!

The film is a bio-pic based on the early years of the reign of Queen Victoria, the sovereign that ruled England the longest! The film is also about her relationship with Prince Albert, her husband. Totally recommend it!

Well that's it for this week's In My Mailbox and In My Shopping Bag. Keep reading. I'll be posting more as my semester wraps up. Expect more posts this week!

Love and Sugar from me, Sweet Lady Jess

P.S. Happy Birthday little bro, even though you don't read my blog. You're legal now!!!

Happy (Late) Blogoversary to Me!!!

2010-05-15T00:01:00.000-07:00

I was suppose to announce this in April, but I let the day pass...

HAPPY (LATE) BLOGOVERSARY TO ME!!!!!

I started blogging as of April 11, 2009 and it is now May 15, 2010! I have officially stuck with something that's lasted more than one year!!! Hahahaha! (A year and a month to be a bit more exact)

I have 12 happy followers, which I appreciate a lot! When I publish this post, I will have about 31 posts!

You have stuck with me through all of my randomness and I promise a lot more! After all, I am the Queen of Random.

With that note in mind, I want to end this post with a great fan made video featuring clips from the film Marie Antoinette and my new favorite song The Queen by Velvet (Now, if only I could purchase it or find a way to get it online...). Enjoy and remember to bow to the Queen of Random!

Love and Sugar from me, Sweet Lady Jess

Kelley Armstrong Signing!

2010-05-14T00:08:00.000-07:00

As you may recall, I mentioned that I was going to Kelley Armstrong's signing at Borders in Torrence. Well, I went!!! Yay!!! I was practically counting down the days until her book signing! Here's a report!
I got to Borders at about 6 or so. The seats had been set up and my doll Sergio had saved seats for my mom and me.

Kelley came a little past 7 and started off by reading the prologue to her next book in the Darkest Powers series, which is called The Gathering (to be expected some time next March, April or May, I can remember right now...). You can read for yourself the passage that she read to us by going to this website, scrolling down a little, and clicking on where it says "exclusive sneak peek at The Gathering."

She then took questions from people and to get it rolling, she offered two mouse pads with this image (or something like it, since I put together this image):

The mouse pad had the Chibi (Cutey) version of the main characters from the book series. I didn't get a mouse pad, but a ton of people asked questions. The ones that I felt where the most important where if she was going to write any more novellas besides Dangerous, which can be found here. Keep in mind that novella means short story based off a book. Stephenie Meyer is going to do that soon with The Short Life of Bree Tanner. Can't wait for that book.

But back to the signing: She mentioned that she's going to write two other novellas. One based on the time that Tori and Simon were together, alone, in The Awakening, and the other one is about Simon and Derek and where they were after they escaped Lyle House in between The Summoning and The Awakening. Can't wait to read those!
She also explained about the meaning about the different stones in the covers. In a nut shell, the persons that designed the covers made her add the idea of the necklace/stones into her story. She didn't like it for the first two books and they didn't make her explain the purple stone in the third book. However, don't tell her publishing company I told you this... ^_- Hahaha!

We then got the chance to get our books signed, take a picture with her and get a piece of swag! She was giving away buttons with the pictures of the characters from the book, like the ones in the image I provided above. I had a hard time picking just one! Kelley said that people usually take all the Derek ones first, the Chloe ones second and the rest up until there is only Simon ones left. She was sort of sad about that. However, I took the Chloe one and my doll Sergio took a Simon one. Kelley was very happy about that. Haha!

Here's Sergio's button (Picture provided by Sergio. Thanks doll!)

Here's the button I got along with a picture of the button on my backpack and all of my other buttons on it.

Lastly here's a picture of my books signed by Kelley. To get a close up of the messages that she wrote on each one, head off to my facebook album and you can see those pictures and many more from the signing to your hearts content.

Well that's it for my report on the signing. I hope you like it and keep reading!

Lots of Love and Sugar from me, Jess

A Star is Born!

2010-05-13T21:49:00.000-07:00

For those of you that might not have known, I took a Story Telling course this semester. Little did I know before I enrolled that it would turn out to be a drama/acting class. It was very intense because I had to add characterization, movement, emotion, tone, voice, and a whole bunch of other stuff. Plus, I had to memorize my scripts. That was the hard part. I have never had so much trouble trying to get something down to memory! Ugg!

Let's just say that it was a loooooooooooooong semester.

Anyways, I decided to upload the videos on YouTube and show them to the world. Keep in mind to be nice to the actress, since she has had little experience in acting.

This first video was suppose to be a 1 to 2 minute performance on a randomly chosen Cultural Tale. It's called the Christmas of the Animals and it was a folk tale from New Mexico. My particular story was not random because I traded with another classmate that didn't want to do it. I was allowed to call "Line" if I didn't know the next line and I did so twice. I got a "B" for this performance and was told to slow it down. But how could have I slowed down if I went over the time allowed??!!

This second video is of my second performance. It was suppose to be 3 to 4 minutes on a Children's Story of our choice, and I decided to do Disney's Alice in Wonderland (Yes, this is how obsessed I am with it). It went well. I got another "B" on this one because I still went too fast and called "Line" twice. Overall, it was fun to do, and I can't believe I got the courage to do it. Well, I had to do it. I didn't really have a choice.

Now I had one more performance, which I did today. I won't be able to get the video for this one because the semester is practically over. I take my final exam for this class next Thursday, but let me tell you a little about it.

The theme for the third and final performance was about the 1992 Los Angeles Riots. We all chose a person/script based off that person's experience during or after the riots. I first picked a Korean woman that got her store looted, but I traded my story for a different one. I ended up playing Katie Miller. She was a very angry African American woman that felt like expressing her views based off who the blame was meant to be placed on and how Paul Moyer was a jerk (loosely summarized... if you know what I mean...) . I felt like I did it well. I called "Line" twice, and the class seemed to be very happy with it, including the professor because she was psyching me out before I even entered the class for not being in total character (e.i. She said, "Hello Katie Miller." I said, "Hello," but in not in character...). I also went under time. This performance was to be 5 to 6 minutes and the grace period was 4:30 to 6:15 and I did about 4:2o something. It's bugging me a bit because I'm going to lose points for the time and for calling "Line," but it's over. Aww well!

That all for this post. I'll be posting on the Kelley Armstrong signing by tomorrow (Friday). Until then, take care dolls!

In My Mailbox 2 and In My Shopping Bag

2010-04-25T13:30:00.001-07:00

Hello dolls! I'm back with another "In My Mailbox" and a new feature called "In my Shopping Bag." Most of time, it will be about new books I've purchased. I plan to also post on books that I get from the library, I just need to find a good name for the feature. Let me start with what came in my mail box.

If you dolls remember, I had quite a few books lined up for Spring Break. I loved The Body Finder and The Dark Divine, but the book that struck a surprising chord is The Hunger Games. I read that book in two days. I absolutely loved it! So much so, that I bought the second book, Catching Fire, the next day (I'll discuss this more at the bottom). So look what came in the mail for me...

I need to have a copy of my own because I love it that much! The third and final book, Mockingjay, comes out on August 24 and I'm dieing to have it in my hands! You might have also noticed that I have a countdown for Mockingjay on my page. I also purchased another book, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I'm trying to figure out what all the hype is about because it's been on the New York Times bestsellers list for a while. I'm not into crime novels, but I'll let you know what I think about it later.

The sweet doll over at Pride & Prejudice (2005) Blog ran a Keira Knightley Birthday contest. I entered by wishing Miss Knightley a happy birthday as a comment on a post. There was to be two winners. Since another doll and me entered, we both won! The above picture is of the prizes I won. I won a Pride & Prejudice film, a Pride & Prejudice film bookmark (loves it!), a memo pad, a small notebook, and sweet letter from Jeane, the great webmistress of the page. You can read the letter below.(Darling card from Miss Jeane)

I also won second place in a House of Night contest over at Novel Novice. I have talked about the House of Night series before, and the seventh book, Burned, is coming out on April 27. In two days!!!! Now, the contest was to either write a story describing how you would feel about entering the House of Night, draw a tattoo, like described in the series, or discuss your favorite character and why you like this character. I decided to draw a tattoo. Here it is!

The prize was an advanced full copy of Burned. I didn't win the book, but they liked my tattoo so much that they gave me the option of picking from a few books as a prize. I picked My Soul to Save by Rachel Vincent. Here's my prize!
My Soul to Save is actually the second book in the Soul Screamers series. I need to borrow My Soul to Take from the library. The series seems very interesting and very promising! You can read about the contest here and the winning post here.

I also entered a small contest where I could win a signed bookmark by Kelley Armstrong, the author of the Darkest Powers series. In the series is The Summoning, The Awakening, and her newest book, which just came out on April 6th, The Reckoning. I entered the contest by heading over to Crissi's Blog, but I first heard about the contest by following her Book Club on facebook. I just needed to prove that I followed Kelley and Crissi to enter.

(Zoomed in picture to see Kelley's autograph. Sorry for the flash glare)

Now for what's in my shopping bag, I had mentioned before that I purchased Catching Fire. That was on the 5th of April. This week I purchased The Awakening and The Reckoning because I'm going to meet Kelley Armstrong on the 12th of May at Borders in Torrence, CA!!! I already own The Summoning. I can't wait!!! I love this series really bad, and meeting the author is just going to be a treat! I'll post pictures of the event after I go.

Well that's it for this weeks post. I can't wait to get out of school so that I can post more. School is eating my brain! I know that I was also going to post on the book wreath I made. I finished it, and my mother loved it so much that she already put it up, but I'm going to need more time to work on that post.

Loves you a lot and thanks for reading!

Things I Love Thursday!

2010-04-01T00:01:00.000-07:00

Yay! It's time for another "Things I Love Thursday!" I haven't done one of these in a while! Let me give you a list of great stuff that I have "discovered."I have yet to get one of these Cheshire Cat tails, but they are at the top of my list the next time I visit the Disney Parks! They look sooooo yummy and I want to see if I can get one to display in my room! Here's hoping it lasts long. In other words, I hope it doesn't melt or start getting mold or something along those lines...Speaking of Cheshire Cats, Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland is a must see film for anyone! I have heard great comments and reviews from people I know, and awful backlash from critics. I love it! I'm sure you'll love it too! I wouldn't really recommend watching it in 3-D, even though that's what kept it at #1 for three weeks. Ten minutes into the film, my eyes started to hurt. Let's just say I left the theater a little dizzy... Watch it soon before they get rid of it in theaters or you can wait less three months to get it DVD. From what I heard, they want to get it out in three months from the release date. Let's hope this is true!

Still along the lines of Alice in Wonderland is Almost Alice! An excellent tribute/song collection dedicated to Lewis Carroll's original books, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, the 1951 Disney's Alice in Wonderland, and Tim Burton's new Alice in Wonderland. I'm actually listening to it right now as I'm typing this...(Signed picture I purchased at the D23 Expo last year from Margaret Kerry's booth. Sticked it on my wall next to my monitor, so that I can always look at him... Sigh..)

The cover of Almost Alice makes me think of one person... Johnny Depp!!! THE HOTTEST MAN ALIVE!!!! Squee >_< A hatter always offers tea and why not drink it in this charming mug. You know about my obsession with Jane Austen and this mug has just the right touch of my favorite Jane Austen hero. The BBC America online shopping website is the only one to offer this particular mug and it's just too darling!!!

These next items don't particularly match the chain I had above.
Moleskine's Passions Journals! My particular favorite is the Book Passion Journal (of course), but there are journals for Film, Wellness, Recipes, Wine, and Music. I have yet to get a Book Passion Journal, but I will.
I have been waiting for this album for quite a while. Last year a band called The Vespers friend requested me on MySpace. I went to their page to see if their music was good, and man did I love it!!! Their music is a mix between Folk, Indie and a little bit of Blue Grass, even though they don't consider themselves to be Blue Grass. You can listen to samples of their album here, or you can search for them on iTunes. You can check out their MySpace, which serves as an official band page for the time being, and you can check out their online store where you can purchase tees and a copy of a physical album. You can also hear full songs from their MySpace page. Totally recommend them like crazy!!!
This tote is extremely cute! This LA Hobo tote bag is made from natural cotton and features a map of Los Angeles! I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it! This same tote is also featured in different styles and colors, but I loved this one more. They even have different cities on their website. They might even feature the one you live in! Check out the Maptote website and look around to see if you find anything you like.
Lastly, I wanted to talk about lip gloss... but not just any lip gloss. This lip gloss can tell your fortune! Well not really but it also serves as a Magic 8 Ball. Ask it a "Yes or No" question and it give you an answer. As a plus, it fits in your pocket or the bottom of your bag. This gloss is going on my shopping list!

Well this is it for this "Things I Love Thursday!" Let me know of any items that I may be interested in and I may feature them here! Thanks for reading!

In My Mailbox

2010-03-30T23:50:00.000-07:00

Well today I was happy to receive an excellent gift that I won from a contest thanks to the dolls over at the Behind Yellow Eyes, the ultimate Shiver fan page. I haven't read the book yet, but I was fortunate enough to enter their contest and win a signed book by Maggie Stiefvater.
I had actually purchased a copy from Amazon, but never got around to reading it. What to do with my extra copy...? Who would enjoy reading it? I've been having a hard time trying to figure this out. I have a few people in mind, but I'm starting to get the feeling that the people around me are not enjoying me talking about all the YA novels I'm reading. Let you me know if you'd had enough.

On a very similar note, I'm almost done reading The Body Finder. I'll probably finish by tonight. I might post a review. I'm not sure if I'm good at it. Maybe writing reviews gets better with practice.

Lastly, I've noticed that I've been mostly posting about books. Well I'm not done talking about them. I plan to make my next post about a craft that can be done with a book. A BIG WARNING! The craft is not for the faint of heart, or at least those who would not like to see a book destroyed. The sweet doll from Living with Lindsay put together a fun way to turn an old or unwanted book into a beautiful wreath. It's a simple and inexpensive craft that I can totally see myself making.

The instructions for the wreath can be found here. I really want to make this before I have to start school again on Monday (dread). Here's hoping it work's out. I'll be posting pictures of this project as I get along to it.

Lots of Love from me, Jess!

Spring Break Reads and a Contest!

2010-03-29T14:35:00.000-07:00

This day marks the first day of my Spring Break, and boy do I need it. This semester isn't so bad (I've noticed that I've gotten more time to write here), but we all need a break. This week is going to be filled with mind-numbing TV, movies, and books. Lots of books! I recently borrowed 2 books from the library and one from my dear friend Arthur!

I'm looking forward to reading all three and my doll Cassey wants me to see if The Hunger Games is any good. Arthur let me borrow it and he said it was good. I placed the trailer of The Body Finder a few month ago on a post, which you can see here, and I've been looking forward to reading. Lastly, I've heard a lot of great things from The Dark Divine and I want to see what all of the hype is about.
Speaking of The Dark Divine, the sweet doll over at Laina Has Too Much Spare Time is running a 250 Followers Contest to win a bottle of The Dark Divine nail polish. It's the shade that's featured on the cover, which I absolutely LOVE!

Head on over to her page through this link to enter and be one of the four people to win a bottle! Good luck and I'll keep you posted on the books!

Loving the Caster Chronicles (And a Contest!)

2010-03-09T17:05:00.000-08:00

Twilight move over! I've discussed Beautiful Creatures before, but I'm soooooooo exicted to announce the title of the next book in the Caster Chronicles that I just couldn't help myself.

The title of the next book is...

Beautiful Darkness

Here's the gorgeous tag line...

Some secrets are life-altering...
Others are life-ENDING.

And the date...

BEAUTIFUL DARKNESS, the anticipated sequel to the New York Times bestselling, BEAUTIFUL CREATURES is coming on OCTOBER 26, 2010!

Lastly, here is the gorgeous cover!!!

Here's the link to the official showing of the cover on Beautiful Creatures the book.

Yay!!!!!!! Only 231 days until Beautiful Darkness comes out!!!!! >_< Click here for the official announcement in the Ning online community.

Here is the box to my Ning account:

Visit gatlincounty

I'm so obsessed with this series I went on ahead and made my own necklace like Lena Duchaness, one of the main characters the series. I also sent pictures to Novel Notice, an excellent YA book site. Click here to see my necklace featured on their site.

I also want to post a link a great contest! Click on the image below to find out how to enter!

Till I write again dolls! Toodles!

Why not?

2010-03-08T19:13:00.000-08:00

This totally inspirational video asks the question "Why not?"

Why not take a chance? Why live in fear? Why not get out of your comfort zone?

While I have been struggling with the same questions myself, I do consider myself in the process of getting out of that comfort zone. I'm still the little shy girl, but at time I do give myself personal points for reaching out of this box.

Along with this video is a great contest. Re-post this video and get a chance to win a copy of Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins. You can read the info of the contest here.

Take a chance, and live..

First Book Read in the Jane Austen Challenge!

2010-03-05T17:17:00.000-08:00

For the Jane Austen Reading Challenge, I should have started with one of her works, but I was already reading Mr. & Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy by Sharon Lathan. Now for a review...

The author was inspired to write this book because she loved the film Pride & Prejudice (2005) with Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen. I love this film! I made that very clear in my Jane Austen post. This book on the other hand... Don't take me wrong, I was thoroughly amused, but I don't know how the author was inspired to write the happy couple's first 6 months in Pemberly and no where else! I actually felt stuffy of being in Pemberly after a while.

Here are my issues with the book:
The characters themselves took on a new form. I understand that Mr. Darcy was bound to get out of his shell with the help of Elizabeth, but the dude is an animal in the novel! Elizabeth too! They spent more than 3/4 of the book in bed or some variation there of. Come on! I expected them to go out more so that Mr. Darcy can show off his new bride, even though he isn't the socializing type. I was expecting Lizzy to insist on going out, or something!

Next, I had issues visualizing Keira's and Matthew's face in the new roles they were taking on as husband and wife. The only time I was able to get their faces clearly was when the author referenced to the film, which was when I was happiest. There were a few flash back scenes or extensions of certain scenes. My favorite would have to be the extension of when he proposed to her the second time, in that one foggy morning.

I loved that we got to meet new character's or meet on a deeper level people that we met in the film, such as Col. Fitzwilliam and Georgiana. I love being able to understand people from my favorite films!

Lastly, I loved the little drama that was in it. At times a novel can drag on if there is no conflict, which I didn't find until past the second half of the novel.

I rate it with 4 stars because I was amused over all. I do want to read the next book because it ended with the changing of the season. They are off to Netherfield and Hertfordshire! A change of scenery can do anyone good. However, I'm not in a real rush to read Loving Mr. Darcy.

I'll be reading Sense & Sensibility soon to continue in the Jane Austen Reading Challenge, and I'll be looking forward to that!

Till laters Loves!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

I Love A Good Challenge

2010-03-03T01:17:00.000-08:00

This year is starting out better than I thought. This year happens to be the year of Jane-Jane Austen that is. I could not be more happy than to embark on a challenge of great accomplishment. A sweet doll over on the great blog called The Life (and Lies) of an Inadimate Flying Object has created a personal challenge, as well as a challenge anyone can join in and take on themselves. Haley Mathiot has created a Jane Austen reading challenge where one is welcomed to read as many of Jane Austen's works as one wants. I consider myself a Jane Austen virgin and I will be delighted when I finally finish her works. I want to challenge myself to complete this challenge to the "Fanatic" level. First, though, I plan to start out on the "Newbie" level. Here's the requirements for that level:

**Newbie: 2 books by J. Austen, 2 re-writes, prequels, sequels, or spoofs (by other authors)

Here are also the requirements for "Lover" and "Fanatic":

**Lover: 4 books by J. Austen, 4 re-writes, prequels, sequels, or spoofs (by other authors)

** Fanatic: 6+ books by J. Austen, 5+ re-writes, prequels, sequels, or spoofs (by other authors)

I'm currently reading Mr. And Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy by Sharon Lathan, which is a sequal to Pride & Prejudice. I also plan to start over Sense & Sensibility, since I spread out my reading of it too far out for me to grasp the full concept of it.

I can't wait to give my full report on my progress as I go along. I'll posting the books I'm reading for the challenge on my side bar. Wish me luck! I have until the end of the year to do this!

Link to the Challenge:
http://haleymathiot.blogspot.com/2009/12/jane-austen-challenge.html

Book Craze!

2010-01-22T13:22:00.000-08:00

Winter must be an excellent time for good books. I keep reading about books that have been released since December or are about to be released soon! I'm going insane with reading all of the great reviews, and picking and choosing which ones I'm going to read. I already have a large selection of Nicholas Sparks books lent to me by my cousin and her dear friend that I must read. And on top of that, YA novels are springing out of the middle of no where (or at least that's what I feel). I feel like I've been living under a giant rock because there are too many books out there to tempt me. I wrote about one that's driving me nuts, now let me give you the trailer to another great book that's coming out soon.

Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend since childhood, she is more disturbed by her "power" to sense dead bodies—or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes that the dead leave behind in the world... and the imprints that attach to their killers.

Violet has never considered her strange talent to be a gift; it mostly just led her to find the dead birds her cat had tired of playing with. But now that a serial killer has begun terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he's claimed haunt her daily, she realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.

Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet on her quest to find the murderer—and Violet is unnerved to find herself hoping that Jay's intentions are much more than friendly. But even as she's falling intensely in love, Violet is getting closer and closer to discovering a killer... and becoming his prey herself.

The Body Finder comes out on March 16, 2010. This one is surely going on my list! ^_^

You can find out more about the book and the author, Kimberly Derting, on her website.

(Note: I updated my Beautiful Creatures review to include the trailer for the book, since I just figured out how to do it! Haha!)

First Book Review!

2010-01-18T09:34:00.000-08:00

Well for those of you that know me, I am not without my books. I always have a book that I am reading (or 3), and I practically devour books in days (or a day). I also always carry at least one book with me.

At the beginning of the year I've had the chance to join the Barnes & Noble First Look Book Club and we are going to read Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver. After I finish the book I need to post a review and since I've never really written a review (except the few that I wrote in high school), I wanted to practice here on my new favorite book, Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. I also want to include a great chance to win a personalized signed copy of Beautiful Creatures by Reverie Book Reviews, an excellent blog dedicated at providing stunning YA reviews on the latest books, or books that are coming out soon. You can see the link for the book contest entry at the end of my review.

Now let me head off to Google: "How to Write a Book Review"... Ha! 544,000,000 results!!! Uh....! Never mind. Let me try doing this my self:

There were no surprises in Gatlin County.
We were pretty much the epicenter of the middle of nowhere.
At least, that's what I thought.
Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong.
There was a curse.
There was a girl.
And in the end, there was a grave.

Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.

If you think that Twilight by Stephenie Meyer has an incandescent forbidden love story, then you have not read Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl.

The darling duo has sent us to the South, where I personally never been nor had the chance to experience it the way the authors have set it. You vividly see the small town of Gatlin and become one it's residents. You are either an insider or an outsider and being an outsider has its horrible price, and this is where Lena Duchannes comes in. Lena comes along with a curse that can change her fate and that of the southern native, Ethan Wate.

The chapters are spaced out to cover the time that Lena is in Gatlin up to her 16th birthday. I feel like I read it too fast because I was just too inpatient to get to Lena's birthday. If you are me then you spend your time counting down and getting anxious as Lena's 16th birthday gets closer and closer.

Also like the Twilight series and the Cullen family, I feel in love with Lena's family, even her mysterious uncle, Macon Ravenwood. It's Lena's family and the town of Gatlin that brings the beautiful love story of Lena and Ethan to life.

Lastly, in the past I have had a difficult time getting through books where the first person perspective is that of a male (e.i. Hard Love, Stargirl). Yes, you can call me sexist, but I'm just use to reading books where the first person voice is that of a female. I did have a hard time starting it because in the first chapter/prologue, I assumed that it was in the perspective of a girl, and the next chapter just threw me out of sorts. I then had to start over once I realized that I was not in the head of a girl, but in a young man's head.

From then on out you spend your time following the love life of this fated couple, up until an important twist is reveled, a twist that can change their relationship for the worst...

The characters, the events, and the setting provides darkness, suspense and a just the right amount of humor when it is needed to supply us with a book that will leave you wanting more!

You can read more about the book at the official book website created by the authoresses them selves. There you can find out about their tour and where you might be able to see them. The book has also been optioned by Warner Brothers to be brought to us in the big screen. You can see the article confirming the film here. Also you can stop biting your nails because there is going to be four more glorious books to follow this series (this is also confirmed in the same article)!!!

Here's the book trailer just to tempt you even more!

Now, for the finishing touch! Like I mentioned before, Reverie Book Reviews is having a contest where one of the lucky entrants will have a chance of winning a personalized signed copy of Beautiful Creatures. You can enter their contest by clicking here. You have until this Thursday, January the 21th, to fill the form because they are going to meet the lovely authors this weekend. Good luck to you all!!! ^_^

Jane Austen: My New Inspiration

2009-12-16T00:01:00.000-08:00

The greatest writer of all time, Miss Jane Austen herself. She had been a credit to all lovers of love stories and a good novel.
The great authoress herself would have turned 234 years old today. So as a tribute to her I want to dedicate a blog post to her.
Miss Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775. While she went about writing her work, she published it anonymously. She published Sense and Sensibility in 1811, followed by Pride and Prejudice in 1813, Mansfield Park in 1814, and Emma in 1815. While in her life time she was not celebrated for her works, she became recognized as one of the greatest writers after her life. After her death in July 18, 1817, with her sister Cassandra Austen holding her in her arms, two other books were published. In 1817 Northanger Abbey was published along with Persuasion in the same year. There are other works that she wrote such as the short story Lady Susan and Love and Friendship along with a few other early works. There are two pieces of work that she didn't finish and that's Sandition and The Watsons. There are many more, but most are early works or just pieces that didn't get published. I personally have her six novels and Lady Susan in one beautifully leather bound book by Barnes and Noble, and is a must buy for any Jane Austen enthusiast. Let's just say it makes reading her books more authentic.
Many countless books have been published by other authors who wished to extend Jane Austen's original novels. Anywhere from the daughters of Mr. Darcey and Lizzy to weird editions about Zombies or Sea Monsters. Any Janeite (a fan/fan culture developed that's centered on Austen's life, her works, and the various film and television adaptations of them) can enjoy many different adaptions of their favorite Jane Austen novel.
I myself am just starting on the Jane Austen journey. I'm currently reading Sense and Sensibility. I've also had the great chance to read Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler and Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Ad di ct by the same author. While they are both works of fiction where the idea of turning up in Jane Austen's time or coming from Jane Austen's time to our time was just too fun to read. I highly recommend both of them, even if you haven't read any of Jane Austen's works.
All of her novels have been turned into television specials and major motion pictures. I've seen three so far, with one based on Jane Austen's life.
Becoming Jane is based off the biography written by Jon Spence called Becoming Jane Austen, and is set around Jane Austen's own love relationship when she was in her twenties with a young lawyer named Thomas Lefroy. Anne Hathaway stars as the young authoress and the yummy James McAvoy plays the Irish-born Mr. Lefroy. Anne does a great job at portraying Jane Austen, though at times it peeved me a bit that she isn't British, and thus lacks the proper accent. The score/soundtrack to the film is very gorgeous and is a must buy if you just want a little bit of Regency Era-type (the Regency Era is the name of the era in England during Jane Austen's time) of music.
Pride and Prejudice is by far one of my favorite films. Keira Knighley stars as the independent thinker Elizabeth Bennet, and along side her is Matthew Macfadyen, the most gorgeous Mr. Darcy I have ever seen!!! Both with their heads on too tight, they embark on a journey that takes them to a great understanding that their perceptions of each other were wrong in the first place. The soundtrack for this film is also gorgeous and my dream is to dance to the song that Mr. Darcy and Lizzy dance to at the ball for my wedding. The song is called "A Postcard to Henry Purcell." I purchased the special gift box edition of the film so it came with the film, the soundtrack, a ticket to see Atonement (also with Keira Knightley and James McAvoy), and a making-of book describing the characters, the clothing and everything else about the film.
Lastly, I've seen Sense and Sensibility and thanks to my cousin Maritza, I have this film. This movie has Emma Thompson as the shy Elinor Dashwood and Kate Winslet as the scandalous Marianne Dashwood. This film, along with the novel, concentrates on the lives of the two sisters, and how they cope with their circumstances. It's more about sisterhood than it is about romance. Emma Thompson did an excellent job writing the screenplay and received an Academy Award for Best Screenplay in 1995, two Golden Globe for Best Picture and Best Screenplay, and it won many other countless awards for me to mention them all here. It's just that good.
If anything Jane Austen has been an inspiration to me and she will keep on developing my love for the art of the novel. She has inspired me so much that my dream wedding dress is designed with the Regency Era in mind.

This gorgeous dress is very cute and very appropriate to get married in the temple. Naturally, I'm not even set with a boyfriend, let alone a fiance, but a girl always dreams of her wedding day, along with her wedding dress. The jewelry is also very cute and simple, which I can also purchase from the same etsy shop.

Here are a few Austen must haves:
The Jane Austen action figure
The Jane Austen Little Thinker plush doll (You better belive I have this one! ^_^)
Jane Austen Is My Homegirl tee (I totally want this in teal!!!)
Jane Austen: Her Life and Letters: A Family Record (A collection of letters written by Jane Austen placed together in one book by her grand nephew and great-grand nephew)
Jane Austen's Guide to Good Manners (An etiquette book based on the times of Jane Austen. You won't think about her world in the same way again)
Jane Austen Finger Puppet (Because your fingers need a little personality. Haha!)
Jane Austen Sparkling Pendant (This is the most beautiful way to wear Jane Austen around your neck)
Jane Austen's Little Instruction Book (A Little Gift Book)
Pride and Prejudice (The Comic book version of Pride and Prejudice!!! I can now die happy!!!)
The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen (A work of fiction, but it's not less fun to read than any other fictional book)
Lost in Austen: Create Your Own Jane Austen Adventure (It's a "go to this page to do that" kind of book)
Becoming Jane: The Wit and Wisdom of Jane Austen (The Miramax film edition, different than the one below)
The Wit and Wisdom of Jane Austen: Quotes From Her Novels, Letters, and Diaries
Everything this shop has is cute!
Your own Jane Austen lip balm!
A Jane Austen tote bag

So as I finish this post I want to wish a Happy Birthday the great Jane Austen. I wish you were still alive today to see how much happiness your novels have brought the world.

As a fun activity I found a website that had a quiz where you can figure out which Jane Austen novel heroine you are. I am Elinor Dashwood from Sense and Sensibility.

Here's what is said about my results:
You are Elinor Dashwood of Sense & Sensibility! You are practical, circumspect, and discreet. Though you are tremendously sensible and allow your head to rule, you have a deep, emotional side that few people often see.

I want to challenge all who read my blog to take the quiz themselves, even if you haven't read any of her novels. You could end up finding out you are a particular character and you might want to read up on the book that your character was based off from. You can take the quiz in link. Then I want to ask you to post your results on the comments section of this post. Happy quiz taking! ^_^

Quote of the Day!

2009-12-11T00:09:00.000-08:00

"Dance like no one's watching, live every day like it's your last, and love like you've never been hurt."
-Unknown

I don't know who said this, but I love it. I had it on my MySpace headline for a long while before there was a space to have a headline. There's no headline space anymore. I sort of thought of the film Labyrinth, which I'll discuss in a later post, but now, there's this...

Do You Know What I Did This Summer?

2009-12-10T20:00:00.000-08:00

Gosh, it seems like the minute I got out of school and went back in for the the Fall, this blog ceased to exist, but here I am ready to give you another great update. This past summer was long, particularly because I didn't do much.

Let me give you an over view of the summer. I used June to plan out Girls Camp for the Huntington Park West LDS stake. Well for the Maywood Branch anyways. I was called to be Camp Director for our branch. It real went well. A bit stressful while I was there, but it was a good time. Lots of hiking this year... Hahaha! You can see pictures from Girls Camp in my facebook pictures.

I was also called to go with two of my girls to Youth Camp. It was totally last minute, but I was needed. Here are my pictures from Youth Camp.

I also went to Disneyland in July for my Birthday!!! I had so much fun! You can see pictures of my Disneyland trip here.

I also did quite a bit of reading. I can't remember that well all of the reading I did, but I think I can track it.

I finished up Chosen by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast. The beginning was slow and I thought I was going to stop reading the entire series, but I'm glad I was persistent and that was thanks to a sweet assistant is Borders in Cerritos.

Along with Chosen I also got to read Untamed by the Casts. It ended with a GIANT climax to the series and I was hungry for the next book, but alas I wasn't able to borrow it from my cousin. Yet...

The same day I got the suggestion from the assistant at Borders to keep going with the House of Night series, she also suggested another series, The Immortal Instruments series. The first book is called City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. It's was really good, but I had a slow first half start.

I then started to read Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, and I had a slow start with it, and it kept going slow. I felt like I had to read it because it's a classic. It's just one of those books you have to read before you die. I don't regret reading it. I never got the chance to read it when I was in school, so thought I would read it on my own. I paused half way to read a different book...

I was able to borrow The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold from my cousin Maritza, who borrowed it from the Long Beach Library. I told my cousin about the movie that's going to come out based on the book. We've both seen the trailer and it looks like the movie is going to match the book really well. You can see the trailer to the movie and a small featurette on the official movie website.

For my birthday, Maritza gave me Love, Lucy by Lucille Ball. Actually my cousin and me have been having I Love Lucy marathons from our own homes. It was a lot of fun laughing at all of Lucy's crazy antics and schemes. Love, Lucy is Lucille Ball's official autobiography. I was so fascinating to know how she grew up to be the person she is now.

A movie that I got to see during the summer was The Time Traveler's Wife with Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana as the main characters . When I went to see My Sister's Keeper I saw the trailer and loved it! The book was pretty good, but I ended up liking the movie waaaaaay more than I liked the book. It's up to you to judge though. Give The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger a chance. The DVD for the film comes out February 9, 2010.

A year ago I started The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory after I heard that the movie that was going to come out with Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson and Eric Bana. I loved the movie, but I saw it with without finishing the book. I don't think I even get a quarter in when I stopped reading it because of school. I decided I wanted to pick it up after I found out Eric Bana was playing Henry in The Time Traveler's Wife. I wanted to see The Other Boleyn Girl before seeing The Time Traveler's Wife, and I decided I should finish the book, so I did.

I then sort of started City of Ashes, the second book in the Immortal Intruments series (I didn't get very far), but then I was able to borrow Hunted by the Casts from the library, so I figured I would stop to read the book that I had 3 weeks to read. I finished Hunted and then picked up City of Ashes again after I got it back from one of my girls from church that I had let borrow the book.

I then started The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong with a book club that I was able to start with a couple of friends. The book club is called The Order of the Moon and you can check out our blog at www.theorderofthemoon.blogspot.com, though we haven't updated the blog in a looooong time.

I did a lot more reading than I thought I would, and I'm looking forward to a lot more reading. I then read more this past Fall and I'll post a list of books that I read during the semester later.

I saw a few movies this summer too. Like you remembered, I mentioned My Sister's Keeper, it was a good movie, but I didn't cry in at as much as I thought I would. I went with Maritza to watch that movie. My dear friend Carolina, or Carol like I call her, let me borrow 5 movies while I was in the Spring semester and I didn't get a chance to watch them before the semester ended. She let me borrow Too Many Girls, The Long Long Trailer, and Forever Darling. All 3 of them had Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in it. They both met each other when they were working on Too Many Girls. Carol also let me borrow Yours, Mine and Ours with Lucille Ball. It was really weird to see Lucille with another man besides Desi. She also lent me Stone Pillow which was her last movie that she made before she passed away. It was a very sad movie and she was very much aged.

I didn't get much of a chance to watch to TV except a bunch of reruns of SpongeBob SquarePants during the summer. I also got rid of the cable in my room because I noticed that I stayed up to watch Nick at Night before I went to bed and I ended up sleeping late. I also noticed that I got sleepy a lot faster watching TV and I lost the desire to read before I went to bed.

Now lastly, music. I had a lot of tracks for the soundtrack of my summer, but I found out about a bunch of bands and music artists. Silversun Pickups became one of my favorite bands. They have a very unique sound and I love them now. I L-O-V-E LOVE Carolina Liar. Gosh, what's not great about him... uh... yeah... well I can't describe him, but he has an excellent indie sound to his music. I was looking forward to Muse's new album The Resistance all summer long. Their single from that album, Uprising, became one of my favorite songs of the summer. Pheonix's song 1901 also became another favorite, along with Fireflies by Owl City. I also got a chance to listen to Killswitch Engage. My Curse and Starting Over were part of the soundtrack of my summer, even though they are scream-o. I was also able to go and see No Doubt in concert with my cousin Maritza. Paramore was with them and I was happy they were there.

Well this is pretty much my summer in a nutshell. Better late then never. Stay tuned for more posts and an overview of my Fall semester. I'll be ending my Fall semester in about a week.

Winter break count down: 8 days!

Quote of the Day!

2009-11-12T15:20:00.000-08:00

“Beneath the makeup & behind the smile I am just a girl who wishes for the world.”
— Marilyn Monroe

Quote of the Day!

2009-10-16T08:38:00.000-07:00

"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward."
-Vernon Law

This is one of my favorite quotes. I got it from one of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books, by Ann Brashers. The author placed at the beginning of every chapter a quote and it kind of gave you a clue as to what to expect in that chapter, but from all of the four books, this is the only that I liked.

Things I Love Thursday!

2009-06-11T07:00:00.000-07:00

'Ello every one!!! For this weeks "Things I Love Thursday," everything is very random.

First of all, everyone needs a planner to make sure that their days turn out well. Well Moleskine has the best planners ever! They even have sketching notebooks, blank notebooks, watercolor painting notebooks, story board notebooks, and music notebooks. These notebooks have been used by great people like Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso and Ernest Hemingway. That's how cool they are. The one I want is the 18 Month one, so that I can start using it now. You can find other great ones on Amazon or moleskines.com. You can also find a small selection at a Borders near you (you might want to look around close to the cash registers, or at least that's were I've seen them).

I LOVE Sephora's line of Harajuku Lovers make-up bags. I prefer the "I Love Ice-Cream Collection" because I Love Ice-Cream!!!! I think I like the little pencil case bag more because I can use it for school or for carrying all of the little things I have in my every-day bag. All of them are every darling. Sephora also has a "Summer of Lovers Collection" and it's also cute!

Bath and Body Works has some of the best smelling lotions ever! They are not greasy and absorb quickly into your skin. My favorite scent is S we at Pea. It's tones are very soft and just right for any season. Right now, Bath and Body Wor ks is having it's Semi-Annual Sale, so why not take advantage of their great deals on-line or in store?
Another great item from Sephora or any department store with Benefit Cosmetics items is the Benetint Lip Balm with SPF 15. It's cute because it's a lip balm, a lip stain (its a rosy colored stain that will stay on your lips for a loooong time), and it has SPF 15 so it will protect your lips from the harmful rays of the sun. What more could you want in one product?

These sandals by Chales David are incredibly cute!!!!!! I love them in Pink and in Blue, but they also have them in Black and Gold/White. Why not get ready to dance the night away by ditching the killer heels for these glam, bejeweled flats?

Books are an important accessory and item in my life. I'm a crazed reader and right now I'm crazed over the House of Night Series by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast. So far I've gotten my little cousin Joss into the series. You can check out the series' official website and you can purchase them at your local bookstore like Borders or Barnes & Noble, or on Amazon. I've read Marked, Betrayed, Chosen, and Untamed. I've yet to get Hunted from my cousin Cindy, and I think I might crack soon and end up buying it because Untamed left you on a big cliff hanger with all hell breaking loose (literally). The sixth book, Tempted, doesn't come out until October 27, so I do have a while to the read the fifth one.

My family isn't big on pets, and if you're like me, you want one! Why not carry it around your neck? This cute little Pet Gold Fish necklace is too cute to pass on. It might not be able to hold a real gold fish, but it's just as cute!

I LOVE Chinese Food! I recently got back into Panda Express, after eating Chinese Food from this little place close to my house called Orange Chicken. So with my love of Chinese Food comes this charm bracelet! I love all of the little trinkets it has! It even has a pair of chop sticks! Hahaha! Too cute!!!

I love the work that Tarina Tarantino does with her jewelry and accessories! Everything is cute and sparkly. I couldn't just pick one piece to show here. I really love all of her jewelry. It's just too cute! Some things have Hello Kitty on them with Tarina's trademark pink hair (which I would love to have ^_^), or she picks a place like LA and makes jewelry based on the place like her new City Girl LA line.

And speaking of Pink Hair! Tarina Tarantino also released, along with Barbie Collector, a darling and sweet looking doll. The doll wears a lime dress, pink shoes, Tarina Tarantino mini accessories, a silver tiara and PINK hair! This is one of the dolls of my dreams!

That's it for this weeks "Things I Love Thursday!" I wish you an excellent and sparkly weekend!

Quote of the Day!

2009-06-05T07:00:00.000-07:00

"Don't Cry Because It's Over, Smile Because It Happened."
- Dr. Seuss
Congrats to my Grads: Khrisna, Arisbel, and Alba!
Woot Woot! Class of 2009!!!

What's In Jess's Bag?

2009-06-05T00:00:00.000-07:00

Coach Indigo Patchwork Carly Bag

My Borders and Barnes & Noble Coupons (Cause you can never save too much at a bookstore, especially if you are me ^_^)

Coach Sofia Black sunglasses and case

Kleenex Anti-Viral Tissue (One can never know when you would get a runny nose)

Mini Advil pack

Clean and Clear Oil Absorbing Sheets

Maybelline New York Mineral Power Finishing Veil Powder

Tide to Go Instant Stain Remover (Cause it looks like my food ends up on my shirt, not my mouth)

Pink CSULB pen

Korres Cherry Full Color Lip Gloss in Beige Pink 32

Blistex Silk & Shine Lip Balm (Thanks to my cousin, Maritza for suggesting this because it really works, unlike ChapStick)

Purell Instant Hand Sanitizer (Cause it kills 99.99% of Germs)

Mini Coach Coin Purse (Thanks to Maritza for giving it to me a few Christmases ago)

Lucy's Predic-a-Mints in Peppermint (Cause only Lucy can hold your mints)

iPod 30 GB and Pink Case (The pink case was given to me by Maritza last Christmas)

My House keys, Sephora Insider card, Borders Rewards card, and Hallmark Gold Crown Rewards card, and my Twilight Cullen Crest keychain

My Pink BlackJack II (I love it and can't live with out it!!!)

Queen of Freakin' Everything/ Marie Antoinette Metal Hinged Wallet (I freakin' love this wallet! It's very cute and just my size)

What do you think? What do you have in your bag? Hope your weekend goes off with a smash!

Things I Love Thursday!

2009-06-04T07:00:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I last updated this blog, and I thought I would add another "Things I Love Thursday!"

For today's Things I Love Thursday, I sort of went eco-chic.

First, PRETTY BOWS!!!! Gabby Estep and Emma Hartman are these sweet girls that make bows out of duct tape. They are darling and cute and purdy! Plus, they sell the bows to give a portion of their proceeds go towards stopping Global Warming. You can buy a bow in their website and you can also check out their blog to learn more about their cause.

Flowers in a can! This is toooo cute! Why not use recycled cans to grow flowers?!!

Buy a bag, feed a child. If you purchase one of these bags, you save the use of a plastic bag and you feel one child for a full year. This program was started by Lauren Bush and you can purchase a bag and learn more about her project on the FEED project website.

I L-O-V-E loooove make-up and my cousin Maritza can vouch for me on that, and what better way to love make up than to buy eco friendly make-up. CARGO has a great line of make-up that's organic, it has biodegradable packaging and even the boxes they are purchased with can be watered and planted to grow your own little garden. Check out the line at a Sephora near you or on their website.

I love these totes! Mostly because there's one with my favorite Zodiac (Cancer) Fairy, but they are really cute. I'm waiting for mine to come in the mail! They are organic and spacious to carry your things in. You can check them out on eBay or the actual website.

Shoes! Who doesn't like shoes! These shoes by Keds are made from organic cotton, recycled rubber, and soy-based inks and dyes. What better way to walk on this earth than with shoes that are good for the earth.

I like to listen to my iPod out loud usually when no one is around, or when my friends want to hear what I'm listening to, but it's too much work to carry my iHome around. These speakers fold up so that you can travel with them easily and they are made from recycled plastic. You can find these cute speakers and in other shapes and colors on the Fashionation website.

Whether it's your shampoo of your eye shadow, changing just one product in your beauty regimen to a natural or organic one can be a great first step. Teens Turning Green is a great organization that created products that we use everyday, but they are natural. Check out their line to see if there is something that you can change.

Etsy is one of the greatest websites ever invented! It works just like eBay, but it's more of a market place for hand made things. They also have recycled items, or vintage items. In other words, you buy and you reuse something that might have ended up in a land fill. I love it because it's the best place to find one-of-a-kind things, or gifts for people that are hard to get gifts for. Check it out!

Lastly, and this is my latest addiction (and my cousin Maritza's as well)...
YOGURTLAND!!!!!!!! ***Angels sing***
It is the best self-serve frozen yogurt store ever!!!!!!!!!! If you've never been, then you need to. It's sooooo gooooood!!!!! I'm going to get some today! Check out their website for a location near you. The reason they are eco, or at least the reason that I know of is that the plastic spoons that you use to eat your delicious fro-yo is biodegradable. That's eco enough for me! Hahahaha!
(My favorite: NY Cheesecake and Strawberry frozen yogurt, topped with strawberries, raspberries, cheesecake bits, and white yogurt chocolate chips, along with a bit of caramel syrup! *** More Angels sing***)

This is it for today. I'm off to get fro-yo. I WANT SOME NOW!!!

Fairy Day!

2009-05-25T07:00:00.000-07:00

For those young at heart, here is a holiday we could all rejoice in celebrating! Fairy Day!

Fairy Day was invented by the one and only, Jessica Galbreth, the artist I talked about in my last post. She's so great that she invented a holiday!

What is Fairy Day, you might ask, and what do you do on that day? Let me fill you in from a quote from Jessica Galbreth and her official Fairy Day website:

"Fairy Day is a holiday sprung from the imagination of a fairy artist and believer, and brought to life with the help of many of her talented friends and fellow fairy lovers. With the world enjoying a surge of interest in all things fairy, we feel that now is the perfect time to introduce a yearly holiday to celebrate the fae. This holiday is for everyone who believes in the magic of fairytales. It is for those imaginative souls who dare to dream impossible dreams. It is for the children of the world, wide eyed and open to the magic that surrounds them. It is for adults too, who long to capture a bit of that magic they remember from thier own childhood. Please join us in supporting this wonderful holiday."

- Jessica Galbreth, fairy artist, founder of Fairy Day

There's lots of things that you can do for this special day like,

Have a banquet lunch outdoors with friends and family in a beautiful natural setting!
Plant some fairy favourites in your garden- St Johns wort, Blue Bells,Clover and Foxglove are all loved by fairies!
Light a small bonfire, or candle at night (remember fire safety first!)
Stay out late on Midsummers Eve! Look for Will-o-wisps, Midsummers is the best time to see them. Be careful not to chase them though, they are not always friendly.
Pick a bouquet of 9 flowers and put it under your pillow at night to dream of love and magic.
Look for fairy rings and oak trees.
Create a candle boat! Build a small paper boat and fill it with flowers, then light a small candle in it and set it adrift (again, remember fire safety first!).
Make yourself a daisy chain necklace!
Dress in all your fairy finery and sprinkle fairy dust where ever you go!

Pretty much Fairy Day is an annual holiday where those souls who love all things fairy can celebrate our interest in this mythical and magical genre. It is also a time to celebrate nature and our environment, and just shamelessly BE a fairy!

It's up to you to make the most of this beautiful day because June 24th, close to the northern hemispheres Midsummers Eve, is a magical time of year long celebrated for its link to the fairy world. You have a month away to prepare your self for this holiday, so get to it!

(Suggestions and other information gathered from this website, and the official Fairy Day website this one)

Come, Follow Me...

2009-05-24T18:27:00.000-07:00

The beautiful and magnificent fantasy and fairy artist, Jessica Galbreth!
Gosh, does she have a hand! I admire her beautiful art and work that I feel special to share the same name as her! ^_^ Here's a little quote from her:

"Come, follow me through twining vines and twisted trees...
to a secret realm rich with myth and magick. An enchanted
place awaits, filled with gossamer fairies and haunting deities.
A place where enchantresses weave their spells beneath the
light of the full moon, and faeries dressed in their finery stand
pensively before gothic arches and twisted trees. This is my
world...a world I have created and wish to share with you..."

- Mythic Fantasy Artist, Jessica Galbreth

She has excellent talent. Her colors and shapes are very smooth, very lifelike. She emotes feeling in everyone of her paintings. The colors are very complimentary or hang in the value scale. Her paintings might have natural colors, baby colors, or bright colors. It just depends on who or what she tries to portray. She gets inspiration from of Celtic goddesses or Gods. She creates seasons with the stroke of a brush. She can create every emotion with a painting. She also looks to the zodiac to bring to human form the attributes and characteristics of each zodiac symbol.

Here's mine:

This is pretty much how I found Jessica Galbreth. I stumbled upon this ornament on a website and I just had to buy it!

It now hangs from a wire on a base in my room. I just love it! I also have a matted print like the one above. My journal bares on the cover the same print, and I have a matching patch, key chain, sticker, bookmark, and a few other things that I can't think of. This painting is by far my favorite of all of her work. There are a few things that I still need to collect that have this print in some way like a travel coffee mug, a ceramic mug, a tote, an 8 inch figurine (it's bigger than the ornament, and on her website you can buy it signed!), a jewelry box, and a few other things.

Her art book (which I also have) has an art portfolio of all that she has painted or drawn up to the year 2006, which is when the book was released. Her website has a lot of her recent works, along with any hand made things she has created. I'm very grateful to have found her work, because she really does transport you to a world of myth and magick.

If you would like to learn more about Jessica Galbreth and her work then check out her website. If you ever have a hard time finding a gift for someone that is very unique or seems to have just about everything, Jessica's work or items are very beautiful, and I might just bet your friends might not have heard of her before. She really is worth a look around her website. You might want to sign up for her newsletter. She gives the scoop on what she might be working on, secret sales, and you get to be the first person to find out when things are placed on her website.

That's it for today. I'm done gushing over Jessica Galbreth, though this might not be the last time I do so ^_-