Betsy Snow White Bibliophile

Category: Blogging

  • October 2 – My October Bucket List

    October 2 – My October Bucket List

    • Witch Walk 2022
    • Dark Market 2022
    • Carve a Pumpkin
    • Go to a Halloween Party
    • Celebrate our 10th anniversary
    • Attend Ren Faire at least once a weekend
    • Tales from the Crypt at Green Lawn Abbey
    • Finish and upgrade Mothman Costume for Faire
    • Read 4 books
    • Create a great basket for my spooky basket buddy
    • Have a fire and make smores

    That is a pretty good list to start. We were at the Renaissance Festival today for Time Travelers weekend. There were time lords, mandalorians, multiple tardises, and I was a triceratops.

    Photo of wenches, I am center front holding my triceratops mask to the side.

    Here is my treasure from my Halloween Advent for today…

    And my October book bingo as I read through The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik. Got several off the board.

  • Happy October 1st

    Happy October 1st

    October is my favorite month! I love the fall feeling (in Ohio we get cooler weather, leaves changing, and the whole shebang), the hot drinks, sweater weather, spoooky/witchy season, and just all of it!!

    I have my Halloween Advent Calendar which I have asked my nibling, Asher, to fill the first eight days of my calendar for me and the last 13 of the month are filled with the holiday countdown from Sucreabeille. I also bought the Kawaii Sicker Countdown by Pipsticks.

    Halloween Advent Calendar

    I am also planning to read more this month so…

    Bookish Bingo Board

    Expect to hear more from me as the month goes on. And see if I get a bingo. And check out October with me. For more random you can find me on TikTok @betsysnowwhite.

  • The Weapon of Choice

    The Weapon of Choice

    Last Tuesday I woke up around 9 o’clock in the morning. I said good morning to my husband and then I went into the bathroom to take a shower with a special anti-bacterial soap. I dressed in a pair of leggings and a sweatshirt. Around 10:45am Seth and I headed out to meet my mom at Grant Medical Center downtown. I was checked in and brought to a room where I changed into a surgical gown and socks. I waited here with my mom and Seth keeping me company until my doctor was ready. I was wheeled to surgery around 3:45pm and was in recovery around 5pm. I was in a room around 6pm and I was released around midnight to go home with my husband. We stopped at Taco Bell on the way home because I hadn’t eaten anything but crackers since around 7:30 Monday night. We ate dinner and went to bed and I no longer had any fallopian tubes.

    The official name of the surgery is Laparoscopic Salpingectomy. They made three small incisions: one on each side of my lower belly and one in my belly button. Then they removed my tubes completely. It is more efficient and safer than having the tubes tied or cauterized and there is no chance of ectopic pregnancy or pregnancy at all.

    When Roe v. Wade was overthrown by the Supreme Court I was sent into a mild panic. As a woman who has never wanted to have children and who typically utilizes the kinds of long term birth control that is also being called into question I immediately felt like some kind of permanent solution had to be found for me. I had been trying to get my tubes tied since I was in my twenties and was consistently told no. But, last year my sister who was 29 got approved for her tube removal, so I called her gynecologists’ office to make an appointment there.

    Dr. Williford walked in and said, you want to get your tubes removed. I confirmed I did. She said okay, let’s get you scheduled for surgery. I literally almost cried. It was that simple. I went in with a list of reasons, my husbands permission, etc. And she tells me that their office “believes women should be able to do whatever they want with their tubes.”

    Now here I am, a week of healing behind me. I will have some tiny scar on my belly that will be barely noticeable amongst the stretch marks already marking that skin. I cannot get pregnant anymore. I am breathing easier than I have since the day of the Supreme Courts action. Now I need to work to help others who aren’t as lucky as me. I am looking at volunteering for Planned Parenthood. I am donating to the Ohio Abortion Fund. I am voting in my best interests. This is my weapon of choice, choosing what is best for me, my friends, my sisters, my niblings, and our world.

  • On the First Day of Blogmas…

    On the First Day of Blogmas…

    It’s December. It’s Christmas Time!! And I have so many plans already. I have 2 Secret Santas, a drag show, a parade, a spooky craft show, an Elf beer tasting, a Holiday Pirate Party, and more… I am so excited.

    December is always a little weird for me as I get super anxiety, but I love the holidays so I am trying to stay upbeat and positive. I am doing my 25 days of sockmas again this year and will be sharing here. I will also be sharing some of my favorite holiday things, thoughts, memories and such. I hope you will join me for the month.

    Christmas Dinosaurs is kind of a theme for me.

    Today in the mail we received our first holiday card from Seth’s parents, Mark and Sarah.

    And…I got my Krampus pallette from Widow Witch Cosmetix. Did I need this pallette? No. Did I want it badly? Yes. So I ordered it. I have a couple of their other pallettes (She Creature and Halloween) so I know they have great makeup, and this pallette made up of reds and greens was a must have. I swatched it tonight and I cannot wait to use it.

    Welcome to December!!

  • Death, Life and Piecaken

    Death, Life and Piecaken

    On October 26 I received a text message from my husband while I was at work asking me to call him. Now, I don’t know if it is true for everyone, but certainly for me if Seth asks me to call him while I am at work something is wrong. So, I walked off the floor and called him not knowing what to expect. Seth’s Aunt Margie had passed away suddenly, and his mom had just called him to let him know. We were all in shock. Seth’s Grandma has been sick and is also dealing with dementia so honestly all of us, including my mother-in-law, thought the call was about her. Margie has not been the epitome of health in recent years, but we had no idea it had gotten so bad. She had a really scary medical issue about 10 years ago where she got pneumonia which converted to a lung infection that almost killed her, but against all odds she recovered with medical issues that were minor compared to what they could have been. She was so strong through everything and maintained her amazing spirit. She will be greatly missed.

    Friday we headed to Springfield for her funeral. On the way I received a text message from my sister-in-law Niki that said:

    Moira, my oldest nibling, is very goth which they get honestly because both their mother and myself were/are goth. (I am not always in black anymore but I have heavy goth leaning tendencies.) When the family finally arrived to the funeral home Moira had red eyeshadow with heavy black eyeliner, a black line across their nose and black lipstick. Apparently, this was the pared down version as the original makeup included spider webs, and witchy sigils. Moira was insistent that their parents were ashamed of them, etc. Niki was insisting honestly that she loved the makeup Moira had done, but it has a time and place and a funeral is not the time or place. I agreed with Niki, and told Moira they looked amazing in the pared down version. Honestly several family members complimented their makeup. I love that kid so much. They are an amazing artist in many ways including makeup.

    A couple of weeks ago we were hanging out with Chris and Niki, and they asked Seth and I if we would be the legal guardians of the niblings if anything happened to them. We of course said yes. I love those kids like they were my own.

    After the funeral we went home to feed the pets and then went over to Chris and Niki’s to wind down and play some D&D. We are playing and laughing and began to discuss Thanksgiving plans. I explain that my Mom decided that since we are walking 5 miles in the morning that can be our family get together so we are open that day. Niki says they can host for that side of the family then, and I laugh and say that I am going to buy this hundred dollar dessert I saw online for the day because it keeps coming up and I am curious. They laugh and ask what I am talking about. So I share with them…The Piecaken.

    Picture of an incredibly ostentatious dessert courtesy of Goldbelly.

    What is a Piecaken you ask? It is a pecan pie topped by a pumpkin pie topped by a spice cake topped by apple pie filling and all of it held together with a cinnamon buttercream. It is the brainchild of Pastry Chef Zac Young and is a fever dream of a dessert and you can order one to your home for $99 through Goldbelly.

    Niki immediately says she will pay for half if we want to do this thing. I laugh and go to the site where
    I realize that if you sign up for their news letter you can get an immediate $20 off. I do it and pretty soon we have ordered our very own insane ostentatious dessert to be delivered to Chris and Niki’s later this week to wait in a freezer to be premiered on Thanksgiving day. I am not at all sure about this, but I feel like it is going to be fun no matter what. I will let you know if it is worth the eighty dollars.

    Tell your friends and family that you love them. Do things that make you happy including wearing all the makeup. And eat the dessert. Life is short, do the things.

    Photo by Jess Bailey Designs on Pexels.com

  • November has come!

    Happy November First! The last day of the Ohio Renaissance Festival was yesterday, and while I am sad that the season is over, I am happy to be free to devote time to some other parts of my life. This season of the festival was one of the best I can remember. Wench Collecting took off this year in a way that was unexpected and led to our local growing almost doubling in size as the season moved on and more wenches are planning to join in the off season. We were able to sponsor five wenches into the guild, and have the money for several more. Being the Madam for the local is one of the most rewarding jobs I have ever taken on and I am so proud of what this group is becoming. And we have so much more on the horizon, including the groups first election since 2018 when we formed the group and I became madame. I have no idea if any of my fellow wenches would like to take up the mantle and run to be madame next year, but I know that whether I am madame again or I am unseated the impact of this inaugural privy council has laid an amazing groundwork for the leadership to come.

    Beyond this I have a lot planned for the month of November. One I am participating in Nanowrimo this year, but rather than a novel my goal is to blog every day for the month of November. In the past I did Blogtober, but I just couldn’t swing it this year so I decided to do November instead. I am also doing my first walk in a long time on Thanksgiving, a five mile Turkey Trot. I am attending the Witches Ball, doing a lot of holiday crafting, attending some other events with wenches and the lady gang. Who knows what I might get into? I hope you will come along for the ride, enjoy the scenery and keep me company along the way.

    On the first day of November I am thankful for my amazing husband who took all of the photos below for me without complaint, following me around the Festival as I chased down all the wenches. I love that man with my whole soul and I don’t know what I would do without him.

    So many Wenches!!!!

  • How the hell is it already April?

    How the hell is it already April?

    It’s April. Crazy. March flew by and I barely noticed. We had my birthday, Seth’s birthday, my sister-in-law Niki’s birthday. Traci and I went to New Orleans. I got my first dose of the Moderna Vaccine. I made a new friend through roller skating and got to try out my new babies for the first time. I dyed my hair blue/teal. Generally it was a good time.

    We recorded and released the first episode of Girls, Ghosts, Ghouls Podcast! (you can listen/watch here.) We also did a live reading of Hop-Frog; Or, The Eight Chained Ourang-Outangs by Edgar Allan Poe. I bought a new mic after the first recording and am waiting to receive a ring light so the visual and sound on my end will be improving.

    We have officially announced this month’s film which is…Psycho!! I am a huge fan of Hitchcock’s work, even if he was kind of a disaster of a human, and Psycho is one of my favorite horror films of all time. I also have a bunch of stories around the film, so I am going to ramble a bit which I’m sure will be exciting for all.

    I added the footage of our most recent live reading of The Masque of the Red Death by Poe recorded on Saturday April 3 below. The beginning is a little odd because we were having issues getting the live stream to work, but after some chatting and silliness the reading is pretty fun. So, enjoy.

    This month we are obviously recording another episode. My mother, sister, friend and I will be going to a socially distanced drag show. Seth and I got new hiking shoes, so we are planning to go hiking soon. I am going down to Newark this weekend to take some photos for a story I am working on. So much happening.

    Oh, and I gave the blog a spring cleaning. What do you think of the new layout? Yes? No? Let me know.

  • I turned 40 in New Orleans

    I turned 40 in New Orleans

    In January I got a test message from my sister, Traci, that said: Hey. So…Happy Birthday early, Betsy! You and I are going to New Orleans! I booked us flights and we have a hotel from March 13th -March 17th! (Mom helped me pay!)

    I was shocked and excited and probably a little trepidatious but mostly excited that I would be starting my 40th year in a city I have wanted to visit for so long. Our room would be located right in the heart of the French Quarter and centrally located to many famous local attractions. We began to plot and plan and make a share pinterest board, like you do.

    On the morning of March 13 my husband brought me to the airport where we met up with my sister, and we flew out to New Orleans by way of a 4 hour layover in the Orlando airport. We finally make it to New Orleans around 6pm and we go to our hotel in a memorable Uber ride with a semi-racist who was definitely homophobic, but who I was able to distract with the fact that I am a Saints fan. He drove us by the Superdome after I said this, which was nice, but you know not that nice.

    Once in the city we ran out to find a place to grab dinner, and because it was very much dinner time we found a cute little mexican/cuban restaurant to grab a margarita and some food. After that we were wiped from a full day of flying so we went back to the hotel, set an alarm and headed to bed so we would be rested for my birthday the next day.

    The 14th we woke up early(ish), got ready and headed out to go to Cafe DuMonde for breakfast, because in New Orleans that is what you do. When we arrived there was a line, but people were social distancing pretty well and everyone was masked. We were in line for about 30 minutes before we reached the front and were buying our beignets and iced cafe au laits. (Fun fact: If you go make sure you have cash because they are cash only, but if you don’t the store across the street has an atm and the fee isn’t too bad at all.) The beignets were delicious and in spite of the fact that I was wearing head to toe black I managed to wear very little powdered sugar which was a true birthday miracle.

    Then we headed out to explore and shop. We had no solid plans except that we knew we wanted to go to the Museum of Death, as two gothy murderinos it just seemed like the right thing to do. We made our way to the museum and we found several shops we wanted to check out as they opened for the day. The Museum of Death was fun, they had some interesting displays and information, but Traci and I agreed that it was nothing we hadn’t seen before online. My favorite part was the funerary and mortuary historical pieces. As we left I bought a tank top, an enamel pin and a patch from the gift shop.

    We walked around a bit more, bought books in a cute little bookshop, and then grabbed brunch (yep, we ate again) at an adorable restaurant called Evangeline. We then headed to one of the shops we had walked past earlier, Road Kill, where I bought a dress, a bag, sunglasses, two patches and two pins. They suggested to us that we check out two Vampire themed shops they thought we would like. I mentioned it was my birthday and one of the people in the shop pinned a couple of dollars on me, which was added to by a patron of the shop. We browsed a couple more shops, but didn’t make any purchases, then found another place to stop for drinks Cane & Table where I had what might be my personal ideal cocktail Sardi’s Delight which is “A passionfruit daiquiri with gin, a touch of pomegranate, and island spices.”

    We wandered back to the hotel to drop off bags, and then headed back out to find Boutique du Vampyre. The shop was fun, and had an amazing collection of Vampire books, so I bought a couple and then we walked over to The Vampire Cafe next door. We grabbed a couple of drinks there as well as Deep Fried Deviled Eggs which were delicious.

    We ended the night of my birthday by eating at Cafe Amelie (Mostly because I loved the name. Amelie is one of my favorite movies.)

    The next two days we walked around to take many photos, eat so much food, have some amazing drinks. On Tuesday we made it our mission to get a drink at the famous Carousel Bar in the Hotel Monteleon. We befriended a super nice woman from Houston and her adorable and lightly crotchety husband in line, and she decided to adopt us so we could all get on the Carousel at the same time. And It worked!! I ordered a drink that had Absinthe in it, but it is not listed on the menu for the bar and I cannot remember what it was called. It was delicious. The bartender there reminded me a bit of Penn from Penn and Teller, so there is that.

    What I am saying is that New Orleans is amazing, even when wearing a mask, and I am ready to return in order to explore more, especially since we never even made it to the Garden District. Now for an absolute photo dump.

  • 28 Days of Blogging

    Hello February! In she comes with snow and ice, but that is okay since I barely ever leave the house right now. Imbolc/ Candlemas is upon us to issue in the last bits of Winter before Spring swans in all sun and flowers. If you are so inclined then the Groundhog will determine whether we will have 6 more weeks of Winter. If you are me you are beginning the final countdown to 40 (March 14th) and the anticipation of things to come.

    This month in my personal practice I am using Crow Tarot by MJ Cullinane to do the daily, weekly and monthly readings in the Writual Sacred Planner which I bought in order to use my tarot more, and get to know some of the decks I don’t use as often. This deck was a birthday gift from my sister, Traci, a couple of years ago and while I have used it a couple of times this is the first time I am using it regularly. I love crows so this deck is a huge draw for me, and I have no idea why it has taken me this long to get it out to play with it. The visuals are gorgeous. I included some of my pulls from this morning below just to show off the gorgeous imagery.

    This month I am co-hosting a podcast, having a wenchy meeting, with luck doing some roller skating, crafting a bit, writing a lot, undertaking a vintage skate case rehab and generally getting things done while mostly staying at home. I am also going to blog every day for the next 28 days because I can.