On the weekend, I turned 27.  to celebrate, we had a literary themed party.  We asked everyone to come dressed as one of their favourite characters from literature.  I had a few ideas for characters to dress as, but in the end I settled on dressing as Susan Sto Helit from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series.

Susan is Death’s granddaughter, and she features in several of the Discworld books.  She’s a major character in Soul Music and Hogfather, which are two of my favourite Pratchett books.  Susan has a very no-nonsense approach to life, and operates under the mantra, “Don’t get scared, get angry”.  She has some supernatural powers and often steps in to take over the family business when Death takes a holiday.

A few years ago, a movie was made based on The Hogfather and it’s become one of my favourite Christmas movies.  Here’s a little clip from it that shows Susan, just to give you an idea of what she looks like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnaQXJmpwM4

Ross came dressed as Death, so that our costumes would match somewhat

I’m quite seriously thinking about wearing my Susan costume to Oz Comic Con this year.  What do you think?

Other noteable costumes included Dr Jekyll:

Captain Haddock from Tin Tin

And Ichabod Crane from Sleepy Hollow

Of course, it wouldn’t be a party without plenty of party food.  My ‘no sugar’ kick went out the window for the night.  I made little placecards to go with each dish, and we tried to think of food that fit with the literary theme.  We had Turkish Delight from The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, Nanny Ogg’s Hedgehog slice, Minny Jackson’s chocolate pie (from The Help) and Velveteen Rabbit cupcakes.

I got loads of gorgeous presents for my birthday too.  There were too many to photograph, so I just chose a couple of my favourites.

My parents got me this Shaun of the Dead shirt, printed with Shaun’s plan to survive the zombie invasion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeJzHSxRq40

Ross bought me the newest installment in the Shanower/ Young comic adaptation of the Oz books.  I can’t wait to read it.

Ross also got me these two limited edition Urban Decay palettes.  These were released to coincide with the film  Oz, The Great and Powerful and I wanted them from the moment they were announced.  Sadly, Urban Decay don’t ship to Australia, and Ross had to go through all sorts of crap to get these to me.  He’s been fighting with Urban Decay for about five months now.  But they arrived just in time for my birthday, and I couldn’t be happier.

There are two palettes, one for each of the witches.  This one is the Glinda palette, with loads of shimmery, ethereal shades.

The Theodora palette is much darker and more dramatic.  They are such good quality and I’m so pleased to have them.

All in all, it was a really great birthday.  Now all that’s left to do is clean up the mess!