Betsy Snow White Bibliophile

March Onward!!

It’s March! It is my and my husband’s birthday month! I will be 39 on March 14th and Seth will be 36 on the 30th. I was very excited that The Forge Tavern is holding another Fancy Dress Party on my birthday, so we have decided to attend that as my birthday celebration. I am going to be doing some random about me posts through the month in honor of my not almost forty birthday.

On the first day of March here is a photo dump of things I got into in February.

On the 15th The International Wenches Guild Local 73 met up in my hometown of Newark at the Buckeye Winery, for a Galentine’s celebration. We also hit up the new Sand Hollow Speakeasy and The White Cottage, a shop that sells beautiful jewelry and clothing.

Last week we saw Stadium Virginium IV: Rock of Love featuring Virginia West. As usual it was an amazing show with amazing performances. I am always so blown away with the quality and production of the West Family shows. They are beyond expectations. There is definitely a reason they sell out all the time.

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February was a mixed bag with super highs and lows that included being sick for nearly two weeks but also amazing shows, several runs of dungeons and dragons, wenches, the lady gang, and amazing shows. I cannot wait to see what March brings.

March 2, 2020

Shrimp’s Oh! Strip! Show

On January 25th I brought my husband to Akron to see an amazing Burlesque show. I was lucky to get VIP tickets so we got to be part of a VIP cocktail party before the show where I got to meet a couple of my favorite burlesque dancers. The show was beyond amazing and I was ridiculously excited to see both Siomai Moore and Dirty Martini since they are regional acts that I may never have gotten a chance to see.

I bought myself a Siomai Moore pin, a couple of really pretty Bettie Page Clothing Bras and a pair of bedazzled cockroach earrings from the amazing Veronica Lockhart, The Countess of Cockroaches.

I wore a dress I bought several years ago in Vegas at the Bettie Page store. Proudly, I managed an amazing victory roll. I felt very vintage and very cute. We ended up grabbing a bite to eat before the show at Cultured Waffle and Coffee. The whole evening was lovely and I am so happy I went.

February 13, 2020

Finally Feeling Fine…Lost Weeks and Drag Queens

I had the flu, or something similar to the flu the week of the 27th. I was achy, coughy, sleepy, barely moving and just generally blah for approximately a week. I watched a whole lot of Netflix (the new season of Sex Education is beautiful) and more crappy rom coms than I can shake a stick at. I lost an entire week being barely conscious and incredibly icky.

Then on the first day I was almost feeling human (Sunday) I went with my mom and my sister to a brand new drag brunch in Columbus at Local Cantina called the Moustache Riders Drag Brunch (interesting note the name of their house margarita is The Moustache Rider.) The food, and drinks, were delicious. The entertainment was top notch. We will definitely go again.

I am finally feeling truly better and healthier and I am trying to get myself back on track.

February 12, 2020

“We are made of stardust and stories.”

I finally finished The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern on Christmas. I was looking forward to this book immensely because I absolutely loved The Night Circus. In fact I re-listen to the audio book of The Night Circus every couple of months; it is read by Jim Dale who brings such life and sympathy to the characters. I need you to know this as I tell you how I felt about The Starless Sea as I am fully aware that I am not the most unbiased source. I will say that when I read the last page of the book I cried, not because it was sad but because it was over and I had to leave that world now. It hurt my soul a little, and still does.

Zachary Ezra Rawlins is the son of a fortune teller who narrowly escapes an adventure as a child. As an adult grad student he discovers a book in the library and becomes aware of just how close. The discovery leads him into a world of stories that lies beneath our world and just on the edge of a starless sea.

The world Morgenstern created is so lush and complex, and is laid out in a language of fairy tale and myth in a way that feels as though it was written just for me. I fell into the world freely and gladly, my little escapist Pisces heart happy to be taken away and allowed to live with people out of time, and curious cats. I have read several reviews of the book that say something to the effect of “if you are the kind of person who likes this type of book you will love it but…” I guess I am just that kind of person because I thought the story was original and nuanced, and as everything is starting to come together toward the end of the book her ability to blend and reveal was beautiful and engaging.

The characters, including our hero Zachary, are unusual, complex and quirky as are the settings. I learned from this book the names of the lions on the steps of the New York Public Library (Patience and Fortitude). I fell a little in love with all of the characters including the cats and with the beauty of the Starless Sea. AS said previously this was obviously a book that was written for someone like me, and I found it beautiful.

If you are the kind of person who likes this type of book I cannot recommend The Starless Sea more. I plan to read it again and again while waiting for Erin to write me another beautiful tale.

January 25, 2020

These Are Things that I’m Gonna Do.

I had so much fun working through my bucket list for the last quarter of 2019, so I decided to do more of them in 2020. Here is what I have so far…

~~Create 2020 Vision Board~~ – Done!! Photos Below.
Get prettied up for Shrimp’s Cocktail Party!
Meet Dirty Martini at Shrimp’s Cocktail Party! on Saturday.
Buy a pair of Veronica Lockhart’s rhinestone cockroaches.
Go with the Wenches to Pub Sing at Dub Pub.
Wench wine meet up in February.
Be under or close to 200 lbs by my birthday March 14.
Visit Prologue bookstore.
Sew new Viking garb for Seth.
Write 30,000 words in my work in progress.
Go to Mustache Ride Drag Brunch
Go to Archery Range
Visit Elizabeth’s Records
Set up new Entertainment Stand.
Set up Stationary Bike.

Vision Board – The lovely Molly Roberts held a live event for her Patrons all about creating a vision board. I decided to get in on the action and began building up images and words for my board. I just bought myself a brand new Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary (as previously stated my favorite dictionary) so my old falling apart one became fodder for my vision board. I found these battery operated lights I bought at Target a couple of years ago that have glitter in bulbs around the lights and I decided they would look amazing on my vision board. I bought a shadowbox style wooden box to use and painted the inside neon pink and the outside silver. I used glitter infused mod podge to place my images on the board. I began with bright colored images and then added words and pieces from the dictionary. I found some star shaped push pins and attached the lights to the edge with them. I am really happy with how it turned out. It is going to live on my new altar for 2020.

January 23, 2020

Do you D&D?

Among my myriad of side quests I indulge in on a regular basis one of them is playing tabletop role-playing games and especially playing Dungeons and Dragons. I began playing in my mid to late twenties (so 2005-2006 ish) with my future brother and sister in law. They gladly began running a campaign when I expressed an interest in playing. We played in 3.5 because 4 wasn’t out yet, and I rolled up a human bard name Philomel. Several weeks and one angry barghest later I rolled up a human battle nun named Beatrice which was more fun for me as a newbie.

Since then in various campaigns I have been a halfling rogue, a halfling bard, a gnome rogue, a half-elf sorceress, and more I can’t remember off the top of my head. Some of these were one shots, and these were in 3.5 mostly, as we only played 4 for a very short amount of time. Currently I am in two (technically 3 but one is on a brief hiatus) campaigns in Fifth Edition (5e). 5e is much more fun to play than 4, but not as clunky as 3.5. I am really enjoying playing it in a way that I haven’t in a long time. In fact we are beginning a new campaign tonight with several people who have never played before.

My active characters are a Dwarf Barbarian named Ingemar Thunderblood and a Half-Orc Fighter Eldrich Knight Iva Battlemancer. This weekend I painted up my figurines for these characters, and I am really happy with them, especially with Iva. Ingemar has the red skirt and Iva has the axe and shield. These are photos with my phone, but you can get the idea.

I also painted my copper dragon this weekend. This is my favorite type of dragon and I had so much fun painting her.

Seth and I are also planning to attend Origins Game Fair this year in June, so expect a lot more gaming and geeky goodness from me.

Do you play any tabletop rpgs? Do you play D&D?

January 21, 2020

The Ugly Ornament Exchange 2019/2020

Our family (Meaning my mothers sisters and their families) started a tradition a couple of years ago where instead of buying each other presents we instead do an ugly ornament exchange. We always hold our family Christmas on New Year’s Day now, and the ornament exchange has become an important part of these traditions.We do it much like a white elephant exchange using our family’s rules for that which is slightly different from the traditional white elephant. Our rules are this:

Everyone brings a gift wrapped ornament and places them under the tree. Generally we try to over decorate, because you want your present to be incredibly tempting.
We draw numbers/ or this year went youngest to oldest to pick a present.
When it is your turn you can choose a package from under the tree, or you can steal from someone else.
You cannot immediately steal a package back, there has to be another action between the steals.
Usually we set a 3 steal limit, meaning on the third steal the gift stays with the person who stole it.
Once we all have gone and everyone has a package we open them and see the rewards of our work.

It is immensely satisfying when your package is highly sought after when you know that your ornament is absolutely horrifying. Of course, ugly is in the eye of the beholder and some of my absolutely favorite ornaments are ones that have come to me by way of an ugly ornament exchange.

Some of the best places to find ugly ornaments: Michaels, World Market (both of ours came from here this year, as well as a gift of a tacosaurus ornament for my cousin Robby and his new wife Sharon), Target and ,sadly, Hobby Lobby. Though I no longer shop there many of my family members do. My mother swears by Walmart as well, but I have not had the luck she has. Joann’s is a crapshoot.

All this being said, below are the spoils of this year’s exchange. Seth and I came home with a giant pug head and a rather frightening ballerina. My mother and sister a toilet and a monkey. My aunt Gayle’s family took home a sasquach, a cow, a vw bug wearing antlers and a giant mollusk shell. My aunt Cathy’s family gathered a clip on palm tree, a baby in a buggy, an angler fish (my contribution and man is it ugly!) and a seahorse. My older sister will be receiving my husband’s choice in the mail which is a six pack of santa beer. Photos below for ogling and horror.

January 2, 2020

Entering the Roaring Twenties

2019 is almost over, and so is this particular decade. I am also going to be, gasp, 39 in March. I am moving into this year with a passion and a purpose that I haven’t felt in a long time. I am feeling more creative too, and I am ready to get into this new year and make things happen.

I have decided on my word of the year for 2020. In case you haven’t seen or read this about me I choose a word every year to give my year focus in lieu of a resolution. Last year my word was Brazen, and I feel like overall my year was guided by that word. I was really putting myself out there and I made a lot of amazing connections. My word for this year is…

Wordsmith = a skilled user of words. I was looking for a word that would focus me on working on my writing, but that was more interesting than just the word writer. I did a synonym search and wordsmith pulled my eye immediately. I love the feel of it so much. I also found a beautiful design on TeePublic that I am going to get myself a hoodie, a phone case and some stickers so I can keep the word on my mind.

I am pumped to get going in the new year. Do you set resolutions? Or make a word of the year?

December 30, 2019

What I got done in the last three months…

~~Wench photo with the Queen!~~
G~~et my major changed to creative Writing.~~
~~Attend both days the last weekend of Ohio Renaissance Festival~~
~~Get autographs from Rasputina (Melora Creager)~~
~~Finish Blogtober strong (I get a book if I do)~~
Rennie outing to Book Loft?
Get Wench tattoo
~~Participate~~ and succeed ~~in NaNoWriMo (Are you participating? Link me BetsySnowWhite)~~
~~Do a writers night.~~
~~Photo with Krampus!~~
~~Wench invasion of the Krampus Walk~~
~~Photo with Santa and the Wenches~~
~~Wench invasion of Columbus~~ and Cincinnati Zoo.

Wench invasion of Columbus Zoo was a small but mighty event. We got our picture taken with Santa. The invasion of the Cincinnati Zoo is happening this weekend.