Holiday Movie Fest! Hosted by "Holidays With Jane" authors

Ugly Sweater and Christmas Movie Party!

My fellow authors and I all *love* the plethora of cheesy, adorable, super-sacchrine Christmas movies on ABC Family, Hallmark Channel, Netflix, etc. They are somewhat predictable but we really do love them!

And...there are some of us who believe that "Die Hard" is a Christmas movie, so it will be included on the list. We have a plan to have a movie fest between all of us (even though we are separated by many miles!)

Join our online Christmas Party!

Saturday, November 22

We'll wear tacky Christmas sweaters, eat yummy treats, make cute ornaments, and watch sappy movies. Instagram or tweet a pic of yourself wearing your fanciest/tackiest Christmas sweater and you'll be entering into our "12 Days of Christmas Cheer" giveaway! (See Rafflecopter entry form below.) I'll be heading to my local thrift store to find a sweater, preferably with puffy snowmen on it. Or Rudolph with a blinking nose. Whatever I find/make, it will be epically adorable/horrible.

Join us as we live tweet the movies we are watching on the 22nd. (We'll give a countdown on our Facebook page as to when we'll each start a movie. Use #holidayswithjane on your tweets/Instagram so we can see what you're saying.)

Watch your DVDs, TV, DVR, Netflix, Amazon Prime...whatever!

OR!!! You can borrow movies from your local library! Be sure to reserve your copy early.

On Netflix:
"The Mistle-tones"
"Christmas Crush"
"A Christmas Kiss"
"Desperately Seeking Santa"
"Christmas Bounty"
"Christmas Cupid"
"12 Dates of Christmas"
"All I Want For Christmas"
"A Princess For Christmas"

Hallmark Channel:
"One Starry Christmas"
"The Nine Lives of Christmas"
"A Cookie Cutter Christmas"
"Northpole"

Amazon Prime Instant Video
"Christmas Crush"
"Elf"

Other movies on our list

"Die Hard"
"If You Believe"
"White Christmas"
"Meet Me In St. Louis" - Judy Garland sings "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas"

And, of course, you can purchase a copy of HOLIDAYS WITH JANE: Christmas Cheer and snuggle up with a cup of hot cider (or cocoa or coffee) and visions of Mr. Darcy/Wentworth/Henry Tilney/your fav Austen hero will dance in your head. ;-)

We will be picking winners for the Rafflecopter giveaway below. There will be 12 winners (though possibly more if we have more prizes!). We tried to go with the 12 Days of Christmas song for our theme and threw in some Austenesque fun. If you have a preferred prize, include that in your blog post comment. :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Melissa-ish Monday: Indiana Jones Party edition

Happy Monday! (or not so happy. Daylight savings, losing an hour of sleep, blah.)

Indiana Jones Party! 

Saturday was the day of the Epic Indiana Jones Party! My 10 year old wanted to be Indy and I was happy to comply with this request. (My ringtone on my phone is the theme song to Indiana Jones.) I found LOTS of ideas for party games, decorations, food, etc. on the interwebz. I couldn't do all the things because of time, money, enthusiasm, working 4 out of 5 days last week. The party was still fun.

I love making cakes for my kids' parties. I searched for an Indy figure to put on top of the cake. I could not find one and time was running out. I asked my husband to go to the grocery store bakery and ask if they had an Indiana Jones cake decorating set (it could happen, right??). He walks in to the store and THERE at the bakery counter is a fully decorated Indy cake, ready to go! What?! He called and asked if he should buy it, of course I said yes, and we had a great cake and no more stress! I made some cupcakes so we would have enough sweets. 'Cuz everyone loves cupcakes, right?  (And I wish I had more pics! I'll have to see if my mom has some.)

Decorations

Vines and streamers hung from the tree in our backyard. An old steamer trunk with old books, a clock, a candle set up. My son's friend dressed up as Indy. (Face blurred for anonymity.)

Cake

Dressed up!

My awesome husband dressed up like Indy! (Leading the "Guess the Weight" game)

Games
"Snake Pit Crawl"
"Treasure Hunt"
"River Dash"
"Guess the Weight of the Golden Monkey Idol"



A fun party and my son and his friends all had fun. Goal met.

Updated word count (keeping accountable!) 540 words. That's all. Very sad. I'll work on getting this up this week. For reasons about such small word count - see above post. ;)

Melissa-ish Monday - Pride and Prejudice Edition

On this Melissa-ish Monday I'll tell you all about the "Pride and Prejudice" (as in Jane Austen!) themed party that I went to on Saturday night.

For those of you who don't know, I'm a HUGE Jane Austen fan. I've read all of her completed novels. And I own them. My favorite novel (out of ALL novels I've read) is "Pride and Prejudice." Elizabeth Bennett is my kind of heroine: spunky, intelligent, able to speak her mind. Awesome.

My friend's family threw her a surprise 40th birthday party with a "Pride and Prejudice" costume theme! You know that I was all over that like butter on bald monkey. I set out to find a dress. I knew I wouldn't find the "perfect" dress at a thrift store but I thought I could get close.

I went to the Goodwill near my house and found a dress that was the perfect fabric, color, etc. BUT the dress was the wrong style! I needed a Regency style gown. Sewing machine skills to the rescue!

I dissected the dress, starting with the bodice.

I cut the top of the bodice into a square neckline then sewed it back together (with the lining intact).

I shortened the sleeves. The dress was a size too small so I added a panel on either side of the zipper to make it bigger. I cut off the drop waist to create an empire waist.

I then needed to add some material or the dress would have been about five inches too short! Many Regency style gowns had a wide ribbon or silk belt around the waist. Perfect solution! I had an extra scrap of silk fabric from a previous sewing project.

I rouched the back of the material where it would gather on either side of the back by the zipper. I sewed everything back together and I like the way it came out.

My mom had just gone to Hawaii and brought me back some pearls that were perfect for an accessory. I had long white gloves that worked out nicely.

The party was SO much fun! We had a lovely dinner, followed by a dance lesson in the "ballroom." We learned how to do the Virginia reel and the waltz. There were 5 different birthday cakes to choose from for dessert, along with tea. WOW. This was a fantastic party!!!