I missed my own blogiversary *dabs*

Welp my blogiversary was three days ago

And I missed it

Well

Happy blogiversary to me lol

Keep an eye out for the post coming out Wednesday

Fairy Tale Central {Blog Tour}

Once Upon a Time two girls had a dream. A dream of a fairy tale site, an internet library, if you will, for all the fairy tale lovers of the land to gather and converse. To learn, to read, to fangirl/boy, to bask in the goodness that is fairy tales. As this dream blossomed, the two girls recruited a third. Because, after all, all good fairy tales come in themes of three. With the third member in place, the girls got to work. The dream began to take shape, until it was no longer just a dream. But something real. Introducing…

FAIRY TALE CENTRAL

This newly launched site run by Arielle Bailey, Faith White, and Christine Smith, is your source for all things fairy tales.

Every month a single fairy tale will be featured, and posts will include:

• Reviews for retellings/shows/movies/etc.
• Essay, origin, and discussion posts on the featured fairy tale
• Interviews with fairy tale retelling authors
• Galleries featuring fairy tale artists and artisans
• And a whole lot more!
  
  

The FTC’s goal is to unlock the magic that is fairy tales and build a community of fellow fairy tale enthusiasts. Arielle, Faith, and Christine are thrilled to share this new fairy tale centric space and connect with all you epic fairy tale fans!

You can CLICK HERE to find the site and join the Fairy Ring! (Don’t worry, you won’t be enchanted or cursed.) And, if you want to connect even more, you can find the FTC on:

• Facebook 
• Instagram 
• Twitter
• Pinterest

(If you’re inclined to share about the FTC in those places too, you may or may not be blessed by a fairy godmother. *smile, smile*) Do tell a friend, or a dragon, or the fairy living in the hollow tree behind your house. All humans and mythological creatures alike are welcome!

You Know You're Best Friends When. . . {Part Two}

 

Remember when I posted the first part and was like



How cute I was

Anywayssss, here I am, and here is part two

Again, this goes out to Seena and Kiki <33

You know you're best friends when. . .

You count down the hours until you go visit them

You burst out into screams and hugs when you see them

You try to take a "normal selfie" but end up with something, oof

You stay up past midnight with them to make sure they don't kill themselves doing the dishes (or aren't murdered by something else)

You know you're best friends when. . .

You plot to stir up some friends but it backfires on you

You drag them onto the dancefloor

You are milkshakes

You get onto the same group chat video call on different devices even though you are like, five feet away from each other

You know you're best friends when. . .

You randomly text each other to complain about violin (Bruch and tenths specifically)

You're trying to direct them to your location and using the word "portapotty" waaay too much

You paint each other's nails the whole time wondering why you decided to that

You both low-key stalk another friend

You know you're best friends when. . .

You see a movie together and fangirl and freak out the whole time

You accidentally break them by making faces

You keep up the pretense that their fictional boyfriend is real

You compliment each other while shooting down compliments about yourself

You know you're best friends when. . .

You work your bottom off so you can go to a camp with them in the summer

You are going to see them this summer if you have to walk to their house

You bawl in front of your gate after leaving them

You cry in front of the whole hotel while hugging them to say goodbye



Love you two to pieces, and I WILL SEE YOU THIS SUMMER <33333333

I LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE

Hehe

*waves shyly

guess who's still aliveeeeeee

So yeah

I do know that I kindasortamaybedid disappear off the face of the earth after November.

Gonna be honest with y'all, November was a really rough month for me. With Nano and my violin competitions and SCHOOL (oh the joyyyy) I was really in over my head. Then December came and I just felt no urge to blog. I was still extremely busy with school and I had to set my priorities straight. So yeah.

I will be posting more regularly (hopefully a triple book review will be posted Sunday). And I will get to responding to comments and reading all of your FABULOUS posts.

Love you all <33

~Ceci

~ How Do I Love You? ~

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of being and ideal grace.

I love thee to the level of every day’s

Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

I love thee freely, as men strive for right.

I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.

I love thee with the passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.

~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning ~

(just a quick fyi, that poem was used in a platonic way xD)

How can I properly say how much this girl means to me? I can't. And what I'm going to say is what all of her friends feel. She is such a blessing to us (and I am deliberately not using her name).

Rewind to about a year ago. I barely knew this amazing person. I remember popping into my latin class for orientation and recognizing her name and being, "I kinda know her".

A year later, this beautiful person is one of my closest friends in the world. And it did begin with a little conversation here and there. Which became even longer conversations (followed by a geometry-book-burning-ceremony *coughs*). And I care about her soooo much. Everyone who knows her does. 

At the beginning of this year (and still a bit now), I've been having some emotional issues. I remember just posting something asking for some prayers because I was going through some things and she private chatted me in less than 10 minutes asking if I was okay. 

And she wouldn't let me take the blame. She told me that what I was feeling was okay and just listened to me rant. And if I ever said something that even hinted slightly that I was feeling down she asked me if I was okay.

I. . .

You guys don't know how much that means to me.

Not to detract from the main purpose of this post, but for you to somewhat know how much this small act means to me you have to know that I'm the type of person who would rather say she was okay than go into detail. 

This beautiful, beautiful person wouldn't lay off until I told her what I was feeling, and I've needed this person in my life for such a long time. She came into my life at the perfect moment, when I began struggling emotionally with some things. 

My heart also went through a little stint a while ago, and you probably saw this coming, but this amazing girl also helped me. I had been cooping up my emotions and was getting really upset until I offhand asked for prayers. I didn't expect anyone to say anything to me privately but she did. And she helped me talk through my emotions. 

You guys don't even know what an amazing person she is. 

She's so beautiful.

And not just on the outside

But especially on the inside.  

The only downside to our friendship is that we are separated by many, many miles. I feel like people don't talk about the heartache between long-distance friendships. And I know many people who know what I'm talking.

So this was an appreciation post to one of my very best friends. All her friends know why I'm posting this today, and she will remain anonymous unless she wants to comment. 

I just want to tell you that I love you so very much, and honestly, my life would be so much darker without you and all of our ridiculous antics. 

Dove you <333

Ceci 

100th Blog Post + Some Inspiration

Can you believe it??

This is my 100th BLOG POST??

Woah

#mindblown

I mean, it seemed like forever ago that I posted this mess of a post, and now I'm on post 100

Jeez

How time flies

Anyways, 100 posts seems somewhat monumental so I just wanted to say that this was post 100 and to thank all of you for reading and commenting on my blog posts. All of you know how nice it is to see that someone either commented or followed.

So yeah, thank you my lovelies <33

If you have taken/or are taking Mother of Divine Grace's Medieval European History & Lit. you'll remember reading (or you may be reading it now) Chesterton's The Ballad of the White Horse.

(for those of you who haven't read or heard of The Ballad of the White Horse, it's about how King Alfred of England drove the Danes out of England after a devastating loss)

Anyways, I haven't finished it yet, but I'm enjoying my first read with Chesterton. This isn't a review, so let me give you that bit of inspiration that I promised.

At the beginning of the epic, Alfred is desperate and has no hope. Like I mentioned earlier, he has just suffered a devastating loss (on Christmas no less). He is moaning and groaning and then Our Lady appears to him.

She gives him a comforting speech that says that he might not win in this world, but he will win in the next.

The whole passage is really beautiful, but there is one line that just gives you chills (and if you've read Regina Doman's The Shadow of the Bear, you'll recognize this)

She says:

"But the men signed of the cross of Christ

Go gaily in the dark"

Wow. Just think about that for a second and read it again.

"But the men signed of the cross of Christ

Go gaily in the dark"

I'm getting chills right now.

We, as Christian's, are the men signed of the cross of Christ. The world is dark and scary, but we must go gaily in the dark.

Sorry that this was a bit short and random, but I hope you enjoyed it! Have you read The Ballad of the White Horse? Did you like it? If not, you should read it! 

I SHALL RULE THE WORLD

Well, Lina here. Since I've been SHOVED IN A CORNER SO LONG, I decided to rebel and write a post all by myself. 

Naturally, that crazy woman wouldn't let me, but I'm doing it anyway. And it has been put off for quite some time *glares* BUT IT IS FINALLY HERE

Since I consider myself the "evil" (that child does not have an evil atom in her body tho, so not really evil) side of that person, I'm not doing one of her crazy, unorganized posts, but a post on my top 11 villains.

*cackles*

They will help me rule the world!!!

Kylo Ren

[Star Wars]

Darth Vader

[Star Wars]

Mr. Willoughby

[Sense & Sensibility] 

Sir Louis

[Doctor Thorne]

Thomas Barrow

[Downton Abbey]

Carter Doone

[Lorna Doone]

The White Witch

[The Chronicles of Narnia]

Selia

[The Goose Girl]

(there was none of Selia so I found this)

Darth Sidious

[Star Wars]

Queen Levana

[The Lunar Chronicles]

(again, no photo, but I found this)

Sauron

[Lord of the Rings]

Yep, these guys will help me take over the wooooooooooorld

*an unsuspecting Ceci comes in*

*sees what's written above*

I swear

I had nothing to do with that. . 

But I would like to point out to Lina that some of these "villains" are (or will be) redeemed

A Rant

So I didn't have this post on my schedule, and I know that I just posted yesterday (A book review of A Rumored Fortune which you should check out) but I needed to rant a little.

Before I go on, let me give you some background info that will help you understand this rant. I have always loved the Phantom of the Opera. Yes, I've only seen the 2004 movie and I love it. I have read the book and honestly didn't like it that much. But the Phantom of the Opera was the first musical I saw (I saw it as a young child) I mean to listen to the stage version one day, but for now, I only have the movie to go off of.

So what's this rant over? The Phantom and Christine

Mostly how I hate it when people ship them

I am a total Raoul and Christine shipper, I honestly don't understand why people hate Raoul so much. Okay, in the book I hated him, but I love him in the musical. Basically, Raoul + Christine = Meant to be together

I have always thought that when Christine kisses the Phantom at the end, she did it to save Raoul. In fact, I say it everytime we watch the movie. She didn't do it because she was "choosing" the Phantom. Like, he's a father figure to her.

Let's get this straight

Phantom + Christine = Lust

The Phantom might "love" Christine, but from what you see of it, it's lust. Don't confuse love with lust. And she always looked up to him as a father-like figure until she actually met him which just makes their "love" (coughnotlovecoughcough) weirder

But

Raoul + Christine = Love

Raoul did everything in his power to protect Christine. They were perfect for each other! Just listen too "All I Ask of You". They're there to love, protect, and support each other.

Now let's get down to what really sparked this rant

I absolutely hate it when people do sequels where Raoul and Christine's love goes south.

Like

Wut

No

No

No

I saw this "sequel" to the book version of the Phantom of the Opera where Raoul has an affair and like WHAT NO RAOUL WOULDN'T DO THAT OKAY

And, apparently, Andrew Llyod Webber wrote a sequel to the musical where again Raoul and Christine's love flunks NO MR. WEBBER HOW COULD YOU (apparently I'm not the only one with this opinions, the show got such bad reviews that no one funded it or whatever)

BASICALLY

RAOUL AND CHRISTINE BELONG TOGETHER OKAY THEY LOVE EACH OTHER TO THE END OF THEIR DAYS AND HAVE A HAPPY MARRIAGE, LOTS OF KIDS. CHRISTINE DOESN'T REGRET CHOOSING LOVE AND NOT LUST SHE KISSED THE PHANTOM TO SAVE RAOUL.

Like

SHE WOULDN'T HAVE THIS

ON HER TOMBSTONE IF IT WASN'T TRUE

YOU SEE THAT

"BELOVED WIFE AND MOTHER"

SHE WAS HAPPY WITH RAOUL AND NO ONE CAN CHANGE THAT SO STOP SHIPPING CHRISTINE AND THE PHANTOM

Rant over

Please tell me what you think xD

SOS HELP HELP HELP

I REALLY NEED HELP

(yeah, mental help)

NOT YET LINA

NOT YET

So I decided to make a cover for Courage For Those Who Have None, but I wanted to make a really good cover. Not a quick one. So I spent all afternoon looking up graphic design and book cover making sites. I finally downloaded a program and made it my mission to learn how to cut an image out.

My.

Goodness.

The program crashed once (because my computer never has any storage space) but I FINALLY figured out how to cut a picture out. 

Here's the result:

Now I wanted to get like a layered look, but THAT WAS EVEN MORE STRESSFUL

WHY WON'T IT BE EVEN

LIKE WHY WON'T IT SHOW LIKE I WANT LET MY JUST TRY USING THE ORIGINAL ONE BUT THAT PROBS WON'T WORK oh look it did.......................................................

......................

................................

..........................................

#overthinker

I made the same image twice but with different backgrounds

So right now (to yourself) say which one you like better. To be honest, at this point, I was almost 100% sold on the first one but was like, "Why not make mock-ups for both of them? It's probably going to be the first one."

THAT WAS A MISTAKE

BECAUSE

LOOK

I LIKE THEM BOTH WAY TOO MUCH

SO I NEED YOUR HELP TO DECIDE WHICH ONE

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

(I have another post in the works - this was unscheduled - that should, SHOULD, be out on Wednesday)

You Know You're Best Friends When..... {Part 1}

(part 2 will come out sometime in June and HOPEFULLY with pictures)

(and I know I said I would be gone till about the middle of June but guess what, you have to be tortured by my insaneness again)

This post is dedicated to two of my bery best friends Kiki and Seena

You know you're best friends when........

You send each other awful selfies

You can fangirl over about everything together

You get yelled at (OVER CHAT) to do something

You rant about Disney potentially ruining Star Wars

You know you're best friends when............

They are willing to drive a lot just to see YOU

You send each other weird Latin sayings your teacher came up with

You great each other in ALL CAPS WHEN YOU COME ONTO THE GROUP CHAT WHICH YOU BARELY GO ON CAUSE OF SCHOOL

When you burn your geometry books....

You know you're best friends when.......

You talk about how cracking knuckles creeps you out

You can fangirl over Anastasia and Hamilton and Les Mis and the list goes on

YOU TRY TO CONVINCE SOMEONE THAT SHE'S AN AMAZING VIOLIN PLAYER

You call yourselves Luke and Leia

You know you're best friends when.......

You get into fierce debates over how you're THE RAAC TWINS

You video chat real quick but your mic doesn't work so you're forced to communicate with facial expressions and gestures and it's just hilarious

You have a long conversation using JUST CAPS

You know you're best friends when....................

You say the same thing at exactly the same time

You talk about literally five different things at once and yet still understand each other

You send pictures of a random METAL BAR on your desk

You're super behind together

They can make you laugh even when you're feeling down


Love you two!! <3333333333333333333

Would I Rather....

Be sleeping or awake

HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Okay

Sowwy

(stop)

Fine

But, anywho, next week is my ONE YEAR BLOGOVERSARY???

okay, so yeah. I recently did a "Ask Me Anything" in November. So I guess for this I'll do "Would I Rather?" So yeah, y'all can ask (if you want, of course, I'm not forcing you :P) until Tuesday the 24th.

CECI OUT

What'd I Miss?

GUESS WHO'S BACK AND NOT DEAD

(I'm thinking I like that gif a liiiiiittle too much :P)

But yeah, not a huge post, but just an announcement that I'm actually still alive and breathing.

New Blog Look

Yep, I changed it. My header went from this



to this



and can I just say that I am really pleased how the header turned out. Actually, scratch that, I'm in love with my new blog look!!

What do y'all think?

Merry Christmas {Memes to Make You Laugh}

I hope you all are having a wonderful Christmas! I sure am :D

(it's kinda awkward writing that since I'm writing this a couple weeks before.....BUT I WILL BE HAVING A GOOD CHRISTMAS AND I BET I AM BY THE TIME YOU READ THIS)

As my Christmas present to all of y'all for sticking with me through my insanity, here are some memes :D

Enjolras's face xDXD

THAT IS SO ME. I DO THAT ALL THE TIME XD

lol xD

THIS ONE. Y'ALL, I WAS LAUGHING SO HARD I ALMOST CRIED XD

oh, yep, me :P

should I be worried that this is true??

Well, I hope y'all laughed xD I didn't mean for there to be so many, but you know what it's like with memes :P

And, again, Merry Christmas :D

{Writing in present time}

Hey y'all! Sorry I have gone MIA, but we're in Mexico and I barely come on the computer, and starting tomorrow I'll be without internet for a week. So I won't be able to respond to your comments till later, sorry!