A Trip to Austenland!

Well not really... I wish!

But it's almost as good
because I get to go see, hear and meet
the author of some of my favorite books!

Shannon Hale is doing a book tour to promote
Forrest Born
her newest book in the Bayern series.
{this is number 4 and should be just a beautiful as the first 3}


I hear she's a fabulous speaker
and if her blog is any indication she's super nice as well!

My favorite book of hers is Austenland
{can you guess why?}
but my copy of the book is in Utah with my sil,
so I'm going to take the dust jacket for her to sign instead!

I hope she gets a kick out of it...

If you live in Boston and want to go, check out the details here!

A Fair Day for the Faire

So we went to the Renaissance Faire this weekend!
Wow, what an experience.
It was surprisingly crowded and not everyone was in costume
{unfortunately including ourselves - we decided to go for warmth rather than "authenticity"}
but I think I can still say we were some of the most normal people there
{and attractive, if we do say so ourselves}.



The cool thing was that it was basically set in a forest as you can see in the pictures.
I felt like I had walked into a Robin Hood movie or something.
The whole thing was a little village and there were stages with performers scattered throughout.

They accept all thy cards of credit:
Master Card, Lady Visa, New World Express and Lord Discover


Trying on wreaths at one of the shops



We mostly just walked around looking in the shops and staring at all the people.
There were some people who really went all out with their costumes
like this Troll
{this woman actually asked him to pretend like he was cutting off her head... yeah}

And this living Gargoyle which was also pretty cool.

My favorite guy was this performer who, while wearing a kilt, rode a unicycle and played "Star Wars" on the bagpipe.
It was pretty funny. And he was pretty cute.

Which led to the question:
Would you ever date someone you met at a Renaissance Fair?
And if you would, would you admit to how you met?

I think I would, even though it's a little quirky,
cause I'm kind of a nerd myself in some ways.
Plus I think it'd be a hilarious story to tell.

What about the rest of you, married or not?
Would you date someone you met at a Ren Fair,
or would you admit it if that's where you'd met your loved one?

Flashback Friday

I've been thinking a lot lately about how I've been in Boston for almost 4 years.
That is just crazy to me!
I seriously feel like time has almost stood still since I moved here.
{which hopefully means that I can still claim to be 26, right?}

Boston is a great city and I'd always wanted to live here,
but before I moved out it was kind of an emotional time saying goodbye to everyone.
Especially my family.


It's a miracle you can't tell in this photo but I had been crying my eyes out.
This is the last time I was together with my brothers and sisters {the ones in Ut anyway} before moving out to Boston.

My life is so much better in so many ways than it was before:
I have an awesome job {my dream job really}
I've made some incredible friends
I've been able to visit so many new places
I've been able to take classes at Harvard{!}
I've really just been so blessed.

The only thing that's been difficult
{other than the non-existent dating life}
has been being so far away from my family!

They are truly my best friends in this world and there's no one I'd rather hang out with. Which is why I'm so glad my parents are coming out to visit me in just two weeks!
My Mom's been out before
but this will be my Dad's first trip.
I'm really excited!
It's going to be fun times!

Once a Pirate Wench...

Always a pirate wench. Or so I hear!

My friends and I are going to the King Richard's Renaissance Faire this weekend.


I'm thinking it's going to be a total blast.
To really get into the spirit, we're dressing up.
So I'm breaking out the Pirate Wench costume!
I'm sure I'll take a ton of photos of the weirdos nerds cool people we see.
I guess after this you can count me among them!

Guilty Pleasures

I have quite a few guilty pleasures.
Here are three I enjoy simultaneously:

1. Dr. Pepper
2. Gummy Raspberries
3. Teen Vampire Fiction (current read, Vampire Diaries)

What are some of your guilty pleasures?

A Weekend at the Lake

My 4th ward campout was a success.

New friendships were formed,
bonfires were enjoyed,
moonlit dancing occured,
stars were gazed
{facilitated by Edwina of course},
the lake was canoed,
diet coke runs were made,
like I said, complete success!

We had Ward Olympics.
It's the only time I broke out my camera.
As a warm up a few people built a pyramid.

Check out our spirit!

Then we crammed 14 people onto a homemade raft of blow up swimming pools, tubes and floaties.
I was not one of those people.


A few other events took place.
In the end our efforts were not enough to secure the gold,
but I think we could still consider ourselves champions.

I thought the highlight of the weekend was the Campfire Cabaret.
Seriously hilarious. And an impressive show of talent!

So all in all, good times can be had in New Hampshire!
{Especially if you get to sleep in a cabin...}

How could I be so remiss?

As to forget to post the adorable photos (and videos) from my trip to see my adorable niece and nephew!

Let me fix that right now.

Can you handle the adorableness?


Are you dead yet?

Jack loved my shoes.



How can you resist this face?

Oh and we had a dance party. Jack loves to dance.

Just ignore silly Aunt Carly...
Oh and did I mention that my phone now takes video?
Thanks Edwina!

New Hamp-shire!

{Said in Bill Murray's voice from "What About Bob"}



So I'm heading up to NH this weekend for our annual ward campout.
Hoping to get a cabin...
otherwise I'm sharing a tent with my friend Trent.
{hey that rhymes}


Last year they tried to make me sleep in a spider infested boy scout tent.
There is no way.
Hopefully the cabins are spider free!
I hear the showers aren't.
Guess I won't be showering tomorrow!

Busy Busy...

I've been consumed with planning my Halloween costume for this year!
Can't wait to get it all done.

For now here's what's helping inspire me:






Can you guess what I'm going to be?
I think I've made it really easy for you.
{OK, some of you already know the answer to this one...}