My Dream Author Confrence

This month I’ve been writing down a list of goals for the new year and one of those goals is to blog more. So that’s why, when I heard about the 'dream author conference' post trend, I thought I'd give it a shot! The trend/post idea comes from Eventbrite a website you can use to find conferences and convention in your area. It's where my BroadwayCon ticket is! (For clarity, this post is not sponsored, and I'd love to read more. So kind of think of it as a tag...and I tag you!)

Okay, so, who would I love to hear talk on a panel about books? They can be authors alive or dead, or even characters. Honestly? I’d love the panel to be focused on the writing process, world-building, and how to keep long series interesting.


World Building - Tolkien
First up would be the legendary J.R.R. Tolkien. His ability to create an entire world, complete with different languages and lineages is amazing. I love getting lost in descriptions of his. The beauty and detail of his world is something I don’t know if I’ll ever begin to come close to, but it’s inspiring.


Drive and Confidence - Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
Next, would have to be Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. She wrote a vampire series, starting with 'In The Forests of the Night,' when she was 13 years old. I’ve written countless stories since I was that age, but nothing complete or even near being published. I have not re-read her books since I was her age but I remember loving them. I'd love to have that kind of drive to write what I wanted, despite the voices (from myself or others) saying it's not likely to happen.


Endurance - K.A. Applegate
I'd want to learn how to keep a series going for a very long time without losing the interest of your readers. There are so many series that span many many books but the one from my childhood that springs to mind is Animorphs by K.A. Applegate. I’ll be honest, I did not read every single book in the series but I read most. (Including the Megamorphs offshoots and other specials about other alien races in the universe.) That kind of series endurance would be so great to get right.


Foreshadowing - J.K. Rowling
Lastly, I can't forget J.K. Rowling. The foreshadowing in her books is so much fun, especially on a second or third read. I'd love to learn how she planned everything out, if she knew each and every plot twist and turn at the start or if the story reviled it'self to her as she went and cleverly took things that already were there to make all the connections. I want to learn how to do both.




There are so many more people I could add to this list but these four feel like a good start. Thank you Eventbrite for the great idea...now I feel like opening scrivener to start planning my epic series...





Project for Awesome 2016

There's one more day left of P4A! This year it happened during my travels so I have not been as good at promoting as I have been in last years. For those of you who don't know, once a year the YouTube community comes together to raise money for charities and non-profits. It's called Project for Awesome. This year, I am supporting the World Resources Institute. Their mission statement is to “move human society to live in ways that protect Earth’s environment and its capacity to provide for the needs and aspirations of current and future generations.”
 
For more information on P4A: http://www.projectforawesome.com 
For more information on Heifer International: http://www.wri.org/ 
Don't forget to comment on the video to help!

I'm going to be on a cosplay panel!

BroadwayCon is coming back and guess who gets to be on a panel about cosplay? Me!! That is, if I can get my costume done in time... With my consulting work, Etsy shop holidays traffic, and traveling to CA for 3 weeks (3!!), I'm really really running out of time.

So far the only information we have on the panel is that it's called 'Curtains Up On Cosplay' and it's moderated by my new friend Lindsey of Phantom on a Budget. The other panelists are Enchanted Sea, Viscountess Designs, and Inked Alchemist. 

More news will be updated here as it comes! If you're attending the convention, please come to the panel and say hi! 

What I'm Thankful For

Feeling sad but thankful for the amazing people in my life.

Lets take a moment

I’ve been having a hard time blogging on a schedule since my wedding and my cross-country move. I’ve written a few different “I’m back!” posts since then but nothing’s seemed to stick. (here, here, and here.)  Adjusting to a new state and coast, working from home, being far away from family, and struggling a bit financially for the first time, are some of the culprits. All of those have led to poor mental health and worry. (Honestly, it’s amazing I’ve managed to keep up with making videos.) The reason I'm mentioning all of those things here is to remind myself that I can’t blame last week on my blog’s failure in the future. Last week was just the straw. That awful orange straw and I'm the donkey camel with the broken back. (Though it's anything but minor...more like the sledgehammer that floored the poor camel.)

Last week was devastating. There is no bright side, there is no selfish escaping to other countries, there is is just the overwhelming realization that we are facing what could be a very hard 4 to 8 years. The push and pull of politics is the reality of this country. However we don't have time for a 'push and pull' about the environment. Along with fearing for the immediate rights of people, I fear for future generations living on this planet. ""We can’t unmelt the Arctic or magically remove carbon emissions from the atmosphere. We make decisions today that future generations must live with."

I'm working up the spirit to get back to *business, but I can’t continue on this blog (or any other public place I exist online) without acknowledging what’s going on, yet I don’t want to rant on forever without taking action. I’ll read up, plan, act, and fight. I’ll go back to creating what I create. I just can’t let him take away one of the things that makes me happy, and I can’t feel guilty for being positive and happy about other things in my life. 

Take care of yourselves, really.

*This blog, YouTube, and other fun internet-related hobbies.

Lavender Tea + September and October Reading Wrap Up

Drinking lavender tea and sharing my September and October Reading Wrap Up. Subscribe⇢http://bit.ly/SubMagicCatJenny
Patreon⇢http://patreon.com/MagicCatJenny Goodreads⇢https://www.goodreads.com/magiccatjenny

Shilo (Repo The Genetic Opera) - Halloween 2016

Six years ago I dressed up as Shilo from Repo! The Genetic Opera for Halloween. It was her ending song outfit, covered in blood, I was just missing the gun. This year for Halloween I'm dressed as Shilo yet again in her opening number outfit, from the song 21st Century Cure.  I had been saving items from way wardrobe to put this together for years and forgot all about it. When I moved I found it all and now I’ve finally finished it. Here are some more photos and a video of how I made it at the bottom of the post.

art

This is art. This is how I could make music. This is avoiding getting in front of a camera. This is an excuse to re-live old videos. This is probably pretentious crap. This is a satire about creating art. This is only 31 seconds.

The Problem with Travel Vlogs & Daily Vlogs

I'm not someone who can make great videos and enjoy time with friends and family at the same time. Too much context switching. Let me know in the comments your feelings on the topic. As always, thanks for watching and subscribing. If you missed it, my Sweden travel video is here.

A Montage of Our Sweden Trip

This year my husband and I went to Sweden, one of my favorite places in the world. I put together a short travel montage for those interested. As I say in the video, I will be writing about our trip and posting photos here soon. Thanks for watching and subscribing!

Blind Mag - Repo! The Genetic Opera

This makeup was half awesome and half fail. I've photoshopped eyeballs on my nails (my idea of using hardboiled eggs was the biggest fail of this) and I've of course messed with the brightness and contrast. If you'd like to see me apply this makeup (and slowly lose my mind singing and such) the video is below. Thanks for watching, let me know in the comments what you're dressing up for this Halloween!

July and August Reading Wrap Up

Time to play catch up with videos on this blog! Here's my booktube 2-months-at-a-time Reading Wrap Up video from July and August. In it, I mention that I reviewed Flawed recently and you can find that here. Thank you for subscribing! Thank you for supporting me on Patreon! Add me on Goodreads if you want to find out what I'm reading right now. Oh, and thanks for watching!

Jadzia Dax Makeup - Star Trek (Deep Space 9)

Back in June, I attended a local fundraising event for a new theater my city is planning on building. It was an outdoor concert and mini-convention called Naptown Nerd Fest. They encouraged costumes so I quickly threw this together. It's Jadzia Dax from Star Trek Deep Space 9. I just drew on her Trill spots and made a quick communicator pin. I wore dress sort of in her uniform colors and gray leopard print tights. I've done her makeup before but this is the first time since watching the whole series. (It's my favorite Star Trek series!)

Cats Broadway Revival Review

Here's my review of the Cats revival on Broadway and a haul of what I bought. Cats has been my favorite musical since I saw the PBS filmed version back in 1998. Interested in more of my showtube videos? Watch me dressed as a Jellicle cat at BroadwayCon here or watch my Hamilton Review here.

Flawed by Cecelia Ahern - Book Review & Giveaway

I recently read and reviewed the book Flawed by Cecelia Ahern. I really liked Flawed! It's the typical dystopian YA teenage girl saving the world story that I absolutely love...when done right, and Flawed does it right!

▷Win a copy of Flawed here!

▷Watch more of my booktube videos are here!

And here's the review:

Hamilton & Burr Duel Collar Pins - Birthday Outfit

I have not shared these with you yet but these are photos from what I wore during the day on my 30th birthday back in April. The day was lovely, I had crepes for lunch with friends (a birthday tradition since college!) and walked to St. John's College for the annual croquet match against the Naval Acadamy. Outside of a few gorgeous costumes, the event was really a bust for us. Too many young drunk college kids for our liking and not enough actual croquet...go figure.

After that, we visited my favorite places,the appropriately titled Annapolis Bookstore. They sell new and used books and the building itself is old and magical. I'll have to do a full photo tour of that place someday, it's marvelous. We took these photos in the garden out back of the shop.

These collar pins are from my shop and feature an old illustration of the famous duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. Ever since the musical came out my Hamilton inspired pins and magnets have been doing fairly well. I love this very wearable piece perhaps the most. You'll see these pins again soon in other outfit posts and perhaps I'll design some new collar pins in the future. If you have any ideas or requests for me, be sure to leave them in the comments below. Thanks for reading!  Photo Credit: Mike Hannum

Outfit Details

Dress // Modcloth *affiliate link

Bag // Jo Totes

Glasses // Zenni Optical

Shoes // DSW 

EtsyUp! Haul and Vlog

Let me just start by saying that never have I been to a conference or convention with a more generous swag bag. This was probably due to there only being 400 attendees and the (kinda high) ticket price. The EtsyUp! swag bag itself is beautiful, I mean look at that art! There was also an Etsy banner/flag thing, a stainless steel water bottle, and that's my name tag with one of my buttons on the left.

This cute mug was given to us at the end of the conference, as a surprise last gift. It was made by Small Glow. We also received 3 books in our swag bags:

• New Order by Fay Wolf
• Dinner the Playbook by Jenny Rosenstrach
• Self Made by Nely Galán

Each author spoke at the conference and each was inspiring and uplifting in their own way.

Here is the schedule and map, a notepad with tag ideas (SEO!), an adorable notebook, a luggage tag from Special Event Keys and the other side of the mug.

I visited the pavilion and got a ton of free samples and business cards and flyers. The most valuable part was actually talking to the representatives from Etsy and other companies.

One fun surprise was being one of the few people to win the raffle for swag bag from the San Francisco Etsy Team! Their bags are really great quality and I have been to San Francisco so I don't feel like a fraud toting it around, lol!

So the first thing I pulled out of the bag was another bag! It's a leather backpack by Vincie. It's wonderful quality, limited edition, and I think my laptop will just about fit inside.

Next was a bunch of soap and lip scrubs. (Seriously so much!) The lip scrubs and large soap bar are from Pixie Rocks Crafts and the other soap samples are from Etta + Billie and A Slice of Delight.

In the last group of stuff was a sleep mask from Lights Out Go Bed, a button from Stephanie Hatch, wall hanging/ornament photography on wood by Cuppa Fog, and a wooden necklace from Bottle of Clouds. I am LOVING the cat/night theme here...definitely my aesthetic!

Overall I think I got more free goodies than I ever thought possible. Thank you EtsyUp and the San Fransisco Etsy Team. Now, enjoy my EtsyUp vlog!

Collecting vs. Minimalism

I'll be honest with you, I've gotten a bit behind with this blog. The 'real world' and blogging for business has taken somewhat of a precedence. Don't get me wrong, this blog is 'for profit' (more in the sponsored-post-reviewing-products sense than the you-pay-me-to-work-for-you sense) but this place has been more of a scrapbook or a journal for me. And I LOVE that about this blog, that's why, though it's mostly just for fun, I'm gonna try my hardest to not forget this place.

That being said, I've got a few videos to post, a few forgotten outfit photos, and those wedding photos (yes, I know I've had my one-year already, they're coming!) to share with you. Today I'm sharing my Collecting vs. Minimalism Update video below. (If you missed it, check out my How I Make Videos video from the week before!)

current events and creativity

It’s okay to keep creativity and current events separate. Stop feeling guilty about that.  Tessa's video and Hank's video.

Shades for Summer

It is HOT! Not the dry desert heat I'm used to growing up in Southern California, this heat is humid and sweaty and kind of exhausting...even when you're just taking outfit photos for fifteen minutes. I don't think I could have lasted any longer than that honestly.

So what inspired these photos? Well, I've been needing some new prescription sunglasses. When I moved I got rid of all mine that were not prescription and so I only had the one pair from my eye doctor. So getting a new pair online was on my to-do list. Then, completely by chance, GlassesShop.com reached out to me! I buy eyeglasses online often. The thing is, I hate wearing glasses and since I have to I might as well make it fun by trying out weird styles, right? So in exchange for this review, GlassesShop.com sent me a pair of prescription sunglasses to try. (They have lots of prescription glasses as well.) The ones I picked out are the Lauren Square - Multicolour model, and they have been my go to pair ever since I got them.

The glasses are great, but don't take my word for it...here's a 50% off coupon code: GSHOT50 
It works on eyeglasses and sunglasses with free lenses (sale frames excluded). If you do use it, I'd love to see what you end up getting!

Since it's so hot here I've been loving these light linen shorts I got on sale ($2!) from Forever 21. The jelly sandals are from American Apparel, I bought them for our honeymoon in Hawaii last year. They're perfect for kayaking or beach trips...just not long walks...(but with my feet problems, not many sandals are). The top is actually a hand-me-down from my mom. Oooo, vintage! *cue hipster voice* Probably 70s or 80s.

I try and keep the sponsored posts on my blog to a minimum and when I do I make sure they are honest and I only try things that I want to. (Prescription sunglasses and eyeglasses are always high on my list since it's something I can't avoid in life.) As a reader, you're incredibly important to me, so if you ever feel my sponsored posts are too frequent/fake/making you roll your eyes, etc. please send me an email or reach out, let me know your thoughts! I don't wanna to come off as one of those bloggers who just wants free stuff. That's not me.

Thank you so much for reading!
♥ Jenny

Scar Makeup

On Monday I became an evil lion...for fun. The Lion King is my favorite Disney animated movie and since I've done Simba makeup already, I decided to become the villain of the film. I added a bit of Jellicle details but mostly stuck to the cartoon. I filmed the application process so anyone can try it out! I think I did okay, what do you think?

Ilvermorny House Sorting | Harry Potter Pottermore

Guess who's 30 today!?

Come on, heard it was your birthday! Come on, heard it was your birthday! Come on, heard it was your birthday! Come on, how old are you now?

Jim!!!! You're 30 today!! Can you believe it? We've known each other for...like, 13 years now, and you continue to grow and change and get smarter and even more awesome each day. We've been through so much together and I keep loving you more and more. We've traveled the world, gotten married, and took turns following each other's dreams. I can't wait to find out what more adventures are in store for us. I love you so much!!

Love,
your wife and best friend
Jenny

(I love this fun blog tradition, check out the past birthday posts: 29 | 28 | 27 )

Reading as Inspiration and my May and June Reading Wrap Up

My May and June Reading Wrap Up and some talk about how reading can help inspire your own fiction writing (also audio books, not sure if they're for me)

Photo an Hour: June 30th, 2016

Three years ago I did a project where I took a photo every hour of the day for one day a month. Last week felt like doing that again so I did! I'm not sure if I'll keep it up or not but I hope you enjoy my day!

7am // The rose bush outside our house is mostly dead (our neighbor doesn't take care of it so we might have to commandeer it...) but I found this little flower flourishing.

Found Favorites #28

What! I have to show my husband this SPAM Banjo!

(via Guitar Pick Collection)

Erin Condren Planner Unboxing | The Geeky Wife

Click here to get $10 off your first Erin Condren order!

Should you talk about mental or physical health on YouTube?

Should you talk about mental or physical health on YouTube? There are reasons for and against and I honestly don't know how I feel yet.

Mount Vernon and Homesickness

Visiting Mount Vernon in Virgina and homesickness for California. Last week was not the best for various reasons. Don't forget that love is love is love.

The Alpha Drive by Kristin Martin | Book Review & Giveaway

My review of The Alpha Drive by Kristin Martin! The giveaway link is in the YouTube description!