Twenty-one.

Yesterday was my birthday. :) I turned twenty-one.

I don't feel as wise and mature as I thought I would by this age. I mentioned this on my last birthday, but when I was younger, I thought people who were in their twenties were so grown up. Ha. :) I am one-and-twenty {as our beloved Austen heroines would say}, and I don't have all the answers. Most of the time I feel like I don't have any answers.

Sometimes I still feel so young. And other times I feel sort of old. Like when I realize that if I were an item of clothing, I could be sold as "vintage" on Etsy. Or when younger cousins can't seem to wrap their minds around the idea of being twenty-one. Or when I find grey hairs (boy, does that make me nervous. Don't tell me if you or your aunt or grandpa or whoever started going grey at twenty-one because I don't want to hear it. I'm too young for grey hairs. :).

I don't know what the next year holds. I don't know what things will be like when I turn twenty-two or thirty or any other age. But I'm trusting God to write a magical and quirky story for my life. And for now, twenty-one seems like a pretty nice place to be. :)

"Every man's life is a fairy tale written by God's fingers." - Hans Christian Andersen

Anyway, I had a lovely birthday. It was a busy day, full of food {Mexican food and frozen yogurt and birthday cookie}, a movie, a museum, and time with my parents.

{A family friend, whose birthday was also yesterday, made me this amazing birthday cookie! It was so good and so pretty-yellow flowers are my favorite. I'm not too crazy about traditional birthday cake, white cake and white frosting, so I always get a cookie instead.}

After lunch, we went to see Mirror, Mirror. I've loved fairy tales for as long as I can remember, so you know I couldn't pass up a Snow White film. :) It was a pretty good- just sort of a silly, goofy, fun movie. A bit over-the-top at times, and sometimes it seemed like it was trying too hard to be funny. The dialogue wasn't always great or clever. But overall, it was good. It was silly and random in a way similar to The Princess Bride, only not as completely unforgettable. :) Sometimes the movie throws in these modernish comments that seem to be spoofing fairy tales, but then again, sometimes it goes full-fledged into the whole dramatic fairy tale thing.

The movie was visually gorgeous, with all of the incredible costumes and colors and lighting and everything. Lily Collins (Snow White) looks so much like Audrey Hepburn in certain scenes, especially when she has short bangs. The seven dwarves are amazing and pretty much carry the film. :) {I want a pair of their stilts.} Also...Snow White and the prince swordfighting- each other? Interesting little twist there.

Did I mention that the movie was just really fun? :)

After the movie, we stopped by a little museum in town. Because I'm the sort of person who goes from one extreme to the other...fantasy fairy tale film to historical house. :)

We stopped by the museum because they're currently having a small Titanic exhibit, and I really wanted to see that. The house is the birthplace of Nancy Astor, the first woman to sit in the British House of Commons. She was related by marriage to the John Jacob Astor who was the richest man on the Titanic. Her sister, Irene, was the wife of artist Charles Dana Gibson, and the inspiration for the iconic Gibson Girl.

{Our little town has quite a bit of interesting history. It used to drive me crazy when I was a teenager (as I can say now that I'm *ahem* an adult :) and kids my age always talked down about our hometown and about how it had nothing to offer. You just have to know where to look.}

 {My mom's going to get me for posting this picture.}

Some historical costumes of the period:

Part of the Titanic exhibit.

A poster advertising a benefit concert for Titanic victims, with an illustration by Charles Gibson.

An exercise machine similar to one on the Titanic:

The parlor of the house (and the gorgeous piano).

So that was my birthday. :) I came home and cross-stitched while watching Andy Griffith. It was a good day.

P.S. Thanks for all of the amazing feedback on my handbound journal! I will definitely do a tutorial soon. I won't promise when, exactly, but sometime over the next couple of weeks. I'm feeling motivated and inspired with ideas for my Etsy shop right now, and I need to take advantage of that, so the tutorial may have to wait a week or two. But it will come. :)

Until next time,