Merry Christmas!

Sending you lots of holiday cheer!

Whether you are celebrating this holiday weekend with family or friends, I hope Christmas brings you laughter and love!

Early Present

Christmas came early for me; I received this gigantic Stila makeup palette on Saturday.

 The four colors in the center are blushes; the top quarter of the smaller circles are lip glosses and the rest are eyeshadows.  Stila eyeshadow is, in my opinion, one of the best.  So needless to say I'm very excited to make use of this gift. This is apparently the Costco version of the Stila holiday palettes in Sephora and Macys. If you're in need of a last-minute gift for a makeup junkie friend or relative, I definitely recommend this!

Etsy

 After 17 shows and shopping nights, the holiday craft show season is now officially over for my mom and I.  We are definitely ready for a break!  Sunday I spent some time putting up items in our Etsy shop:

Now that I've helped lots of others buy their Christmas gifts, I have to get on to finishing my own shopping!

What I'm Reading Now

 I must confess that I'm not ordinarily a big mystery reader. But Her Royal Spyness series by Rhys Bowen came up as "you would also like..." on my purchase of C.A. Belmond's most recent Rather book (see my October 28th post).  So, I decided to give them a try and I am hooked!

Set in the early 1930's in England, the series centers around Lady Georgiana Rannoch. Thirty-fourth in line to the throne and broke after her brother the duke of Rannoch cuts of her allowance, she decides to leave the family castle in Scotland for London where fun and mystery ensues. 

I am currently in the middle of book #2, A Royal Pain, out of five in the ongoing series. If you are a fan of all things British like I am, you will love these books.  They are light and full of funny moments, for example, in A Royal Pain, Lady Georgie must entertain a young German royal who has learned English from watching American gangster movies. But they are also page-turners because you want to learn the answer to the mystery.  I also love the mixture of fictional characters like Lady Georgie and real characters like the Queen, the Prince of Wales, and his notorious lover Wallis Simpson.

Happy reading!