“Go to hell real life, I’ll punch you in the face.”  This is why I’m getting an xbox live account.  Game on is right.

It has, however, totally put me in the mood to watch the 6 hour version the BBC made forevs ago.  Other things that put me in the mood to watch Jane Austen movies

-Any piece of British literature circa 1600s-1925

-Mad Men (because it is also a costume drama)

-Being in a group of more than 3 women (since that’s usually what I do with my shefriends and sisters anyways)

-Taking walks

-Playing lawn games

-Wearing anything remotely resembling an empire waist dress

So, I get in the mood to watch Jane Austen a lot, but now especially.  Husband has never seen Jane Austen, and therefore does not appreciate.  Christy and I have plans to watch P&P with him so he gets the full experience of watching the movie, because stereo chortling whenever Mr. Darcy does anything really makes the experience.

Maybe I can butter him up by making him watch this

Ooooo!  I hadn’t seen all of these My Little Pony Mods.   BuzzFeed ranks 50 of the best.   They make me smile.  Here are my favorites.

Hell, I kind of love them all.

*credits to artists after the jump.

I have girl arms and I’m going to answer this call.  I tried reading ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ while on vacation.  I kept hearing how everyone loved it.  I made it through the Eat portion and then wondered, “Why the hell am I reading this?!  I don’t give a frak that you had an orgasm over a pizza in Naples.”  I threw the book from my floating raft across the pool to scrape along the deck and hit a lounge chair.   (Sorry roommate for returning your book unread, water logged, and gouged with pool deck grit.)

So much geeky goodness!

I decided to make the dough and frosting recipes that came with the cookie cutters.  It ended up being a generic sugar cookie with royal icing.  I’m not a big fan of sugar cookies, so it was good enough for me.  However, it wasn’t a great royal icing recipe.  Next time I’ll probably do a buttercream because it tastes better.  I think my favorite part about these cookie cutters is their design.  Do you remember making cookies when you were little?  And how the dough always seemed to stick to the cutter and you had to slap the cutter onto the palm of your hand even though you floured the cutter?  Well, that’s no longer a problem.

Equipped with a spring-loaded stamp, the cutters are as swift and precise as lightsabers – and a lot easier to work with.

Use the edges to shape your cookie, then gently press the stamp into the dough to create imprinted detailing.

Why yes, the FORCE is with me.

After the dough chilled for 2 hours, we're ready to roll. Would have been nice if I owned a rolling pin.

I tried to force punch the imprinting...

I went to a Troll 2 party last night, so I made cookies for that as well.

The cookies seem to come out best if you use firm pressure when imprinting.  I was giddy the whole baking time, just waiting for a delicious Stormtrooper.

I forgot to buy parchment paper which would have helped with the uneven browning on the edges.

This decorating pen worked the best. $2.95 at Williams-Sonoma.

Frosting fail! This Yoda looks more like Piccolo from DragonBall.

Getting a little bit better, but this one looks like the love child of Chewbacca and TK-421.

Yay! Finally, a cute Stormtrooper.

My new Star Wars friends.

I’ve discussed some better frosting options and techniques with my sister April, who is currently finishing up baking school.  Hopefully, next time they’ll be a bit prettier.  Overall, I give these cookie cutters two geeky thumbs up.

You may have noticed that there were also Star Wars Pancake Molds in my bag.  They’re up next.  I’ll let you know how it they turn out.

Just a heads up, the salesperson told me to hang onto both the cookie cutter and pancake molds because they’re selling fast.  Both retail for $19.99.

Destiny paintbrush.

Yep, that’s right.  Autumn is destined to do laundry.  And now she only has to look up to be reminded of that.  This is a pictorial highlight of a geeky sleepover Autumn and I had where we painted Starbuck’s mandala on the wall of Autumn’s laundry room.  Please keep in mind that we listened to Battlestar Galactica music to help channel destiny into our painting strokes.  I may have also gone one step further (since really, I have no real artistic ability…really, just ask Autumn) to channel the help of the one true Starbuck and painted without my pants on.  Also, I’m pretty sure that in years to come when Autumn is surrounded by piles of underoos, t-shirts, and towels used as capes by her destined to be geeky children, yelling “You’re going the wrong waaaaay!” at all the dirty laundry will just make everything better.

Redwall – I’d say one of my biggest introductions to modern fantasy was not Lord of the Rings, or The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (I wasn’t a fan of the Hobbit and couldn’t get into Prince Caspian, things have changed since I got older, but at the time, no).  Redwall, however, had all the adventure and excitement and awesomeness of high fantasy, with the accessibility of fuzzy animals.  Let’s just say 11 year old Autumn was sold.  Maybe I had my own rat at the time. Maybe she had a cape.  Maybe that was especially awesome because rats can leap, and a leaping rat in a cape is a sight to behold.  I can neither confirm nor deny.

Wrinkle in Time Series – ok, so pretty much everyone has read The Wrinkle in Time, but that book has nothing on some of it’s sequels.  A Wind in the Door still gives me the shivers and Many Waters is beyond amazing.  I don’t want to spoil it, never does an author combine science, fantasy and human nature with such grace as L’Engle did here. 

Momo – This story is insanely popular outside of the US (there’s even an opera, also written by the author) but never got much attention here, it’s by Michael Ende, who also wrote “The Neverending Story” (pictured above, as I don’t have my own copy of Momo).

Voyage of the Dawn Treader – I recently read all of The Chronicles of Narnia and this one BY FAR is my favorite (though I don’t recommend reading them out of order).  It’s got a boat, what can I say.  It’s kinda like the road trip story of the Narnia series, and there are some absolutely beautiful passages along the way.  Plus I guess I have a thing for sword fighting mice…

Boy Proof – I highly recommend reading everything by Cecil Castellucci, but most especially Boy Proof.  It’s the story of a young nerdling living in LA who’s obsession over the latest Sci Fi movie has led her to take on the persona of the main character.  It’s an outer symptom of inward turmoil that comes with the territory of being a nerdy girl.  Plus I totally made Cecil’s day when I asked her to sign my copy in line for Star Wars.  Also check out her “Plain Jane” graphic novels.  If you’ve read The Guild comic the artwork is done by the same guy, Jim Rugg. 

A Great and Terrible Beauty - This one is also about a young girl, but this one living in 18th century England.  A modern take on the Gothic novel that makes me giggle with awesomeness while I read.  I’m already a fan of the genre, having read all the classics, so it was fun to read a modern version of the same type of novel.  It’s part of a trilogy, and I still haven’t read the third one, looking forward to it!  Nothing like a little boarding school witchcraft!

What’d you recommend?

I heart Geekologie!  They found Boba Fett hiding in the ESPN logo.  Though, I think my favorite part is their tags.

I still occasionally squish my Dad’s face and say, “There you are, Daddio.”

Check out this Legend of the Seeker inspired shirt that our own Autumn co-designed with Jon Martin.  Available at Shirtoid.