I feel like my Star Wars fan status should be revoked.

At least, it should have been revoked for the last five years or so. Granted, I was busy with life, going through college and getting married and moving and such. But I've lately been inundated with Star Wars news because of the movie being in production, and I realized there's a lot of Star Wars stuff that I have missed. Star Wars has long been my favourite movie saga, though the prequels do leave a lot to be desired. I loved them as a kid/teen and I'm not going to throw that love entirely out the window, but I digress.

I used to be an avid reader of the Star Wars Expanded Universe (EU) novels. My father handed me a copy of Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn when I was eleven and I didn't look back. The Thrawn trilogy remains at the top of my book list, and I discovered a character who would quickly become my favourite character in any book/movie/game universe ever. Her name? Mara Jade. She never appears in the films, but she is honestly the best. I have cosplayed as her more times than I can count. And the last Star Wars book that I read was the one in which she was brutally killed. That was shortly after I started college, and I was so devastated that I basically quit Star Wars for a time. I just couldn't continue the Legacy of the Force series. I was literally heartbroken, and possibly more heartbroken than I've been in my life. Probably not but whatever.  I was so angry with the author, Karen Traviss, even though I know it wasn't really her decision completely. And I think Timothy Zahn was angry at his character being killed, so that makes me feel a tiny bit better. The fact remains that couldn't handle her death and it's taken me a long time to get back into the EU and various aspects of Star Wars.

But I'm back in now. I've played a few games, I've read a few novels, Scoundrels by Timothy Zahn being the one I'm currently reading, and I've been getting into the online world of fellow Star Wars fans. My favourite thing right now is a new podcast called Jedi Alliance. It began in August, and I'm in love with it. It has its really weird moments, but it's a solid 45 minutes of Star Wars nerdiness. I can't argue with it. They've got everything from random trivia to fan stuff to obscure parts of the universe to news on Episode VII. Ken Napzok and Maude Garret are hilarious, and the obvious dedication they have to such an incredible saga is fantastic. You can find it on iTunes and on YouTube.

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This was a hard post to write. Roll your eyes all you want, but I had to write it. This is my personal blog, and these are my thoughts. Star Wars has been central in my fangirl life and I'm finally admitting that I can move on. Though I'm still not *that* excited about Episode VII.

sci-fi pies

This post is a little later in being written than I intended, but here goes.

Last week Wednesday I decided I needed to bake a pie to use up the many cherries I had purchased on sale. So I found a guideline online for cherry pie filling from scratch, and whipped up a pie crust using this recipe from Clearly Delicious. The pie filling was actually based off one of hers, too. Then that morning a friend shared a photo of a pie from some Facebook page that had the top pie crust cut to be the Hydra logo...and I knew that's what I was going to do.

Those cherries though...mmm.

I threw in some fresh basil for added flavour.

Before baking.

Of course, I also had purchased a few pints of blueberries on sale to make a blueberry pie for my husband's birthday the next day, because cherries aren't his thing. (We each had a pie to ourselves, see how nice I am?) So after a discussion with my friend Jaimie (who blogs over at JaimieRamsey.com), I knew that the top crust for the blueberry pie was going to be the Imperial logo.

These blueberries were perfect...

Blueberry pie filling goodness.

I cut this freehand.

It didn't transfer very well.

My husband knew about the Hydra pie, but he didn't know that I was going to make the blueberry one for him...so that was a fun little surprise! Thinking back now, I should have done something Harry Potter related because he shares his birthday with him, but there's always next year. ;)

Hail Hydra!

A bit broken, but (as a friend pointed out) so is the Empire!

friday loves (in which I prove what a nerd I really am)

As I listen to Rush Limbaugh and bask in the warm air coming in my windows, I realised I have quite the collection of links to share with you. This is a wishlist kind of post, so yeah.

I'm looking for a swimsuit for the summer, and while I love most of the swimsuits on ModCloth, I found these two adorable swimsuits from Black Milk Clothing. Since I can't seem to get nicely proportioned photos on here, one of them is R2-D2 and the other is Alice in Wonderland. I've been sort of in love with the Star Wars one for a few years now, but the Alice one is so neat, too! I'll probably end up going with one from ModCloth since I can't decide...

This Book of Sith I also would love to have, because Star Wars, duh. And I have The Jedi Path already. Maybe this will be a lightning deal on May the 4th like the Jedi one was last year. I'll be watching!



I haven't had a new funky beach towel in probably ten years. We do have some very nice ones, but I need a geeky one just because. And what would be better than a TARDIS towel??? That's right, nothing. Well, except the real TARDIS with the Tenth Doctor inside.

Have a fantastic weekend, and allons-y!

May the Fourth be with you.

Happy Star Wars Day, everybody!

Need a few crafty ideas to celebrate your inner nerd?

Try this crochet pattern from Etsy to make an adorable little Ewok!

Or click here to try your hand at Star Wars inspired snowflakes!

How about some Star Wars cookie cutters for the nerds in your life that have a sweet tooth?

And of course you could always pick up a copy of Wookie Cookies (or one of the other Star Wars cookbooks) and whip up a nerdy meal or snack!

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What am I doing to celebrate Star Wars Day?

Wearing my "Casual Friday" t-shirt from Woot, of course!

"That's no moon...it's a space station!"

Or, as this article so candidly points out, "that's no moon...it's Pac-Man!"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8594101.stm