A few weeks ago I started a new little chapter in my life. I became an Independent Stampin' Up demonstrator! So exciting! I love crafting. I love Project Life, stamping, scrapbooking, and lots of other random crafts. In order to help spread the word and get my SU business up off the ground, I am starting a new craft-centered blog. Unfortunately, I have limited time to keep up with both blogs. So I decided to take a 2 week from this blog to help prep and get both blogs back on track. I'll be back on May 19th with my usual weekly features and a few new content tweaks.
Spring Into Horror -- Finish Line
Pages Read: 113 (Is Everyone...) + 81 (Gentleman of Her Dreams) + 137 (The Strain) + 17 (Ember) = 348
Comments: I made some progress on my reading, but once again life just got in the way. It didn't help that J got sick and hasn't been able to help with the baby all week. And we had a ton of baby related events. I did make some good headway on knocking out two books before April ended, reading my readalong section (discussion on May 16th), and starting another book. Hopefully the next readathon goes a bit better than this one.
Goals:
- Read three books (if we count the readalong section) √
- Read the first readalong section of The Strain √
- Review all books read √
- Read at least 1000 pages (not even close)
TBR PIle:
- Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me by Mindy Kaling √
- Gentleman of Her Dreams by Jen Turano √
- The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan (section 1) √
- American Gods by Neil Gaiman
- A Vindication on the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft
- What Happens in London by Julia Quinn
- Ember by Kristin Callihan (in progress)
Sunday Sunset #12
Listening To: The Beatles channel on Pandora (Arthur loves him some Beatles)
Book finished: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?; Gentleman of Her Dreams
Reading: The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogen (readalong); Ember by Kristin Callihan
On the Nightstand: A Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft; Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher; The Beautiful and the Damned by F Scott Fitzgerald; American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Making Lists: Meal plan and grocery list. We are currently eating out of the freezer while I make a new meal plan. Pulling some interesting recipes from Pinterest to try.
Around the house: After getting the house looking gorgeous for the crafting open house last week, it has slowly devolved into a mess. My problem was that we were out and about almost every day this week. Cleaning is the last thing I want to do after coming home from a long day of stuff. Amazingly the kitchen is the one area that has been fairly clean. Now to work on the laundry, bathrooms, office, and random toys everywhere.
Crafting: Tons and tons of crafting. From now on, crafting posts will appear exclusively over at The Craft Sea.
Watching: Trying to catch up on our currently airing shows from whnen J was in Romania: Parks and Rec, Community, Portlandia, Castle, Elementary. I'm also watching The Voice on Hulu. J and picked up the new Hulu Original Deadbeat; has some potential. Finally, I started watching The 100 from the CW. Cheesy teen drama, but I'm actually enjoying it.
From Nature: Overall a lovely week. Although I could have done without the two 90 degree days...
Shopping Scores: Lots and lots of crafting items bought. I'll be highlight my craft supply haul over at The Craft Sea on next Sunday.
Project: Reorganizing and destashing the craft room. I know I just reorganized the room about two months back, but I have so much new stuff that it needs a refresh. Plus, I have the added need to separate out my retired and current SU products to use in potential classes and workshops. So, I've been slowly working on a new storage configuration. Also, I think I need to buy the SU Ink Pad Carousel to hold all my ink. My current place of ink pads stacked into a bin just doesn't cut it. Especially because I am constantly pulling them all out to compare shades. I cleaned off a space on the desk, but am waiting to order until June to take advantage of the hostess deals. Other than reorganizing, I am slowly filling a box of craft things to sell/give away/throw away. I even decided to get rid of a few retired SU stamp sets, but have to wait to sell those until after June 1st. Big ongoing project, but it's coming together.
Exercising: Our usual Shoreline walks, although it was incredibly hot this week (91 degrees!) which put a bit of damper on my desire to get out and exercise.
Picture: Pam and I at the Stampin' Up Catalog Premiere on Monday. Such an experience!
FF #16: Mother's Day Brunch
I saw this dress on Polyvore and knew that I had to create some outfit around it. It screams retro spring. I decided that the dress would be the perfect Mother's Day brunch outfit. I had to step up the color palette with the shoes (very bright, but fun) and the blazer. The headband and bag just add a nice classic touch to the entire ensemble.
ladyvlondon.com
$62 - veromoda.com
Jessica Simpson platform shoes
amazon.com
openingceremony.us
Dauphines of New York 18k gold jewelry
beautybar.com
Monthly Life Goals May 2014
Before I get to this month’s goals, let’s check in on April’s goals and my progress.
April Goals:
- 30 Day Challenge: 30 Minute Daily Walk -- Failed! I walked at least twice a week, but I didn't hit everyday like I wanted to.
- 30 Day Challenge: Daily meditation -- Success! I took a few minutes each day to center my thoughts.
- Finish three more OSW sets -- Success! I actually surpassed three sets and finished all twelve sets. I had planned on finished twelve sets by Christmas and I finished half a year early. Woohoo!
- Complete a Day in the Life post -- Failed! Yet again the end of the month snuck up on me and I didn't finish this task.
- Visit three new parks with Arthur -- Success! We need to put more parks on our list soon.
- Pay off Discover student loan -- Success! One bill down.
- Visit the Farmer's Market twice -- Success! We went exactly twice this month. Once for popcorn and berries and once for sausages and popcorn. Yeah, we love popcorn.
- Pinterest Challenge: Document/plan some baby activities -- Failed! Just never got around to it.
May Goals:
- 30 Day Challenge: New Music -- Highlighting new music every day this month. Hopefully!
- 30 Day Challenge: Documentary a Day -- Yep, I'm going to try and watch a documentary a day. They may be 30 minutes or two hours.
- Complete a Day in the Life post -- Third time's a charm, right?
- Schedule a craft class -- As a new SU demo, I want to start building my business. May seems like the perfect month to start pushing forward.
- Take a day trip somewhere -- Maybe the beach. Maybe the aquarium. Maybe the zoo.
- Go on a preplanned picnic -- The weather seems perfect for this.
- Pinterest Challenge: Document/plan some baby activities -- Second month attempting this task.
Odds and Ends
Here is my randomness for the week:
- Dropping the stroller on my toes causes nastiness... Yep, that happened yesterday
- I have acclimated to Bay Area weather; 70 degrees is too cold, 78 degrees is too hot; yesterday was 90 degrees (ugh!)
- Popcorn is awesome, that is all
- Why do I love cheesy tv shows?
- Dark chocolate m&ms are my current addiction
- I need to drink more water
- I've fallen down the crafting rabbit hole this past week and yet I'm okay with that
- I'm super excited about creating our Summer Bucket List
- Baby jumpers are freaking adorable
- Sparkling lemonade is absolutely delicious
- I want more crafting supplies but I seriously shouldn't