Month: July 2019

Digital Planner: Artful Agenda

Posted July 31, 2019 / Goals & Planning, Personal / Information / Etc. / 15 Comments

I’ve talked so so so so many times about my planning methods and how I’ve always struggled to find what’s going to work for me. I’ve dried faux doris, bullet journals (for life stuff – the bookish one is working well currently!), Happy Planners, Erin Condren planners, Day Designers… seriously, you name it. If there was a trend or the latest thing in planning, I’ve tried it. Of course I’ve hopped on another trend recently and couldn’t resist sharing it as I work through. I first was introduced to digital planning when Kendal shared her digital planner on her iPad Pro. I don’t have a fun iPad or Apple Pen so I wasn’t sure I’d have success with the one she purchased. I highly recommend reading her post and investigating that planner though, because it’s gorgeous and reminds me A LOT of the paper planners I love so much. It’s a more creative option for sure. I had just purchased a new, smaller Happy Planner because I was tired of leaving my huge one on my desk at work just because it was too big. (My friends would ask if I was free for something and I’d have to wait until work the next day to check my planner. Not the best option.) I liked the small planner and daily schedule inserts, but thought it might be better for planning my work days and leaving it on my desk for a good reason. Then, I saw a post by one […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #246: Freebie – Amazon

Posted July 30, 2019 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 5 Comments

Favorite Amazon Purchases of 2019 So Far Top Ten Tuesdays were started by The Broke and the Bookish and are now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, where we make lists of our top ten books (or something else!) based on that week’s prompt. The topics are provided ahead of time and can be found here. Book links bring you to Goodreads or my review. I decided to go non-bookish with this TTT! I hope you don’t mind 😉 I thought it would be fun to do a round-up of my top ten favorite purchases from Amazon so far this year, now that we’re over halfway through. I do monthly posts including my purchases from the month but they’re never exclusive to Amazon. Here we go! Reusable makeup remover bamboo cotton rounds I love these! I used microfiber towels before, which were nice, but these work way better with my facial oil. I remove my face makeup with the oil, wet one of these rounds, and then use it to remove the oil and makeup from my face. There’s 16 of them so you can use them for a few weeks straight, one per day, without having to wash them ASAP because you ran out. Ear hooks for headphones I bought a pair of these over a year ago and they got smashed in my purse, so I bought a new pair. These are amazing for me. Headphones (like the Apple ones) don’t fit correctly in my ears and constantly fall out. These […]

[ARC] August TBR

Posted July 29, 2019 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 3 Comments

I can’t post today without noting how we lost an integral, wonderful part of our community last week. Grace from Rebel Mommy’s Book Blog passed away from her hard-fought battle with cancer and she hasn’t left my mind since. I’ve organized a digital “card” for bookish people who knew her to sign. We will share it with her family this week (Thursday) so please share what she meant to you for her husband and children to read. If you knew her, you loved her, because she was such a bright spot online, with her thoughtful comments and never-ending positive attitude. Donations can be made in her memory to her charity organization of choice, METAvivor, here. I will also be organizing a simple reading challenge, #ReadForGrace, to take place on her birthday this year (October 14th) so stay tuned. <3 My monthly TBR feature here shows my progress based on last month’s TBR, my plans for this month, and anything else I might be thinking about from a reading perspective. Sometimes I feature a little poll at the bottom so you guys can help me figure out a certain title I should read from a group of books. July Progress This past month was actually kind of segmented on a week-by-week basis. The first week involved some good summer stories during my staycation. The second week was for week-long readathons and/or book clubs (Faerieathon and All Grown Up Book Club). The third week was for reading blog tour books. The fourth […]

Blog Tour Cover Colors: Notes from a Former Virgin – Chloe Snow’s Diary

Posted July 26, 2019 / Book Reviews, Cover Colors, Features / 1 Comment

I’m not usually one to enjoy covers with real human faces on them (I like illustrated people most of the time though!) but these covers are so playful and in tune with the books themselves. All of the covers for the first three books really reflect Chloe’s kind-of goofy personality quite well. I love the color scheme for this one too! Some of my favorites. I’m kind of obsessed with this collection that I pulled together! I have the focal point of the cover as one of the main pieces of the collage: big blue heart-shaped sunglasses. I included a planner/diary that matches the cover’s color scheme because obviously this book is written as diary entries. There’s a pretty close replica of Chloe’s pink sweater and some denim shorts with blue sandals to go with it. I include some pinky/purple makeup items, like the blush, lipstick, and eyeshadow palette. I also added a contour kit for bronzed skin and a backpack for her to take during junior year of high school. Amazon: 2019 Stay Focused Planner // Jansport Superbreak Backpack // Meyison Heart Sunglasses // Floopi Sandals // HOCAIES Jean Shorts // Winjoy Casual Knit Pullover Sweater ||||| Ulta: NARS Orgasm Blush // Anastasia Beverly Hills Norvina Palette // Tarte Tarteist Glow to Go // Urban Decay Vice Lipstick in Backtalk About the Author Website || Twitter || Goodreads Emma Chastain is a graduate of Barnard College and the creative writing MFA program at Boston University. She lives in Brooklyn with her […]

Blog Tour Review: Truly Madly Royally

Posted July 25, 2019 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

More purchase links: iTunes | Book Depository | Google Books | Kobo Review I’m new to royal-related fiction. This is primarily because I don’t love the real-life royals, compared to other people, but I HAVE turned a corner on fictional royal romance. I’ve loooooved a few books/series on the topic and have been opening myself up to them a lot more lately. I thought this blog tour would be the perfect way to keep my momentum and feels going. This royal romance featured an interracial couple, which was a breath of fresh air. Zora was an extremely passionate and dedicated character, who spent all of her time thinking of ways to improve and showcase her community of Appleton, NJ. When she meets the Prince of Landerel, Owen, she can’t deny their chemistry, despite all of their differences. While Zora was fully developed and vibrant, Owen fell a bit flat for me. He wasn’t anything special IMO and it was harder for me, as the reader, to feel their chemistry as a result. The plot moved very quickly and touched on a lot of events in a short amount of time. Therefore, much of the book felt rushed and underdeveloped. That includes her relationship with her father (something that was essentially dropped by the end), the budding romance between her friend and brother, and more. It was a light and breezy read with little drama, which I certainly appreciated. The synopsis implies that the royal wedding invitation is a major part of […]

Getting Organized: Budgeting, Debt, Groceries

Posted July 24, 2019 / Goals & Planning, Lifestyle, Personal / Information / Etc. / 6 Comments

Over the last month, I’ve become kind of addicted to watching Jordan Page’s YouTube channel and reading her blog, both called Fun Cheap or Free. I’ve followed, attempted, and adjusted many of her methods to fit my life. I’ve mentioned before that I’ve struggled with reducing my debt (hi, million-dollar student loans!), curbing my spending, grocery shopping using only the money I need to spend, and just generally budgeting my entire life CORRECTLY. In conjunction with the Artful Agenda (link will work next Wednesday), I’ve organized juuust about everything in my life. I thought it’d be fun (and hopefully helpful for some of you!) to share my favorite videos, explain what I’ve pulled from them, and how I’ve adopted them to my life. Groceries / Meal Planning I want to note before I get into this section that I’m someone who already knows a LOT of grocery shopping tips and hacks. I’ve watched videos before and been like “what? These are real tips people don’t already know?!” so I will say that Jordan Page has some other more basic shopping tip videos if you need those too. The ones I’m linking have some basic things but also include better tips that I’m implementing! How to meal plan using your fridge Summary: This video is about meal planning using what you already have in your fridge, pantry, and freezer. The whole “you’re doing it backwards” thing in the title card is because most people (myself included…) would browse Pinterest or various […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #245: Settings

Posted July 23, 2019 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 4 Comments

Settings I’d Like to See More (Favorite Settings!) Top Ten Tuesdays were started by The Broke and the Bookish and are now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, where we make lists of our top ten books (or something else!) based on that week’s prompt. The topics are provided ahead of time and can be found here. Book links bring you to Goodreads or my review. I made a super quick list in my head when drafting this post and realized that I really just went ahead and listed my favorite settings. The topic is technically about settings I’d like to see MORE of, and a few of these are fairly popular ones, but still – I’d love to see more of my favorite settings too of course! 😉 Here are some of my favorite settings and/or ones that I don’t see enough and need more of! Boarding School I’m huuuuge fan of books set in boarding school. Yes, I chose a Zoey 101 gif because who didn’t want to attend PCA with them?! Good lord, that was the best show. ANYWAYS I’ve talked about my love for boarding school or private school settings a lot, with recommendation lists and read-bait posts, and could ALWAYS use any and all books set in boarding school. I do feel like it stems from that desire we all had as kids to live at a boarding school with a bunch of other people our age, living on a campus away from parents long before college. Beach […]

ARC Reviews: Stealing Home and The Wedding Party

Posted July 22, 2019 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

I love a good sports romance. Football is always my favorite but baseball is usually my next best bet. There’s something about it that just grabs me (at least from a fictional perspective – watching baseball on TV isn’t my favorite but going to games in real life is so fun!). I’m happy to say that the baseball-related elements were large and in charge here. The main character, Ryan, was super into helping her dad run their minor league team (and wanted to take it over someday); she knew everything about the baseball business. When a top recruit heads to their team, sparks fly between the two. Ryan is a rule-follower though, especially when it comes to her beloved team, so she refuses to allow them to act on their feelings. I’ll be honest: I didn’t feel quite as much chemistry as I was hoping. For a super-slow-burn romance, I need to FEEL the tension dripping from the page in order for the eventual payoff to be worth it. That was very much not the case here. Sure, I was rooting for them to get together and they were good for each other, but I didn’t feel that magnetic pull toward each other like I want in this kind of romance. The ending, for this element of the story, was incredibly rushed and stilted. Aside from the romance, the other major plot point is that half of the team might get sold, and Ryan is determined to stop that from happening. This […]

Reading Rush Sign-Up and TBR/Challenges

Posted July 19, 2019 / Book Challenges, Features / 3 Comments

I’d heard of Booktubeathon on and off over the years, but definitely assumed it was more for Booktubers. With the recent name change to Reading Rush (learn more and sign up there), I decided to finally investigate and participate! The gist is that you just try to read as much as possible during this week. The coolest part of the challenge, in my opinion, is that there’s a website you can sign up for and track your reading progress. All of your stats will populate and you can really see how much reading you got done during the readathon. Add me as a friend HERE! I’d love to hang out and track with ya 🙂 More information is here in the video: Goals This Reading Rush readathon will be taking place from July 22nd through July 28th, so I am trying to mold my July TBR into this challenge without having to skip books I’m supposed to read, or read too much outside of the initial TBR I picked. I can’t imagine that I’ll read 7 books for this one because I do have weekend plans that will hinder reading. I’d love to finish 4-5 books during the readathon and only finish/read books that meet challenges below. A few books from my July TBR will likely get read this week to finish off the month, but I’m hoping to sneak in a few other books I’ve been meaning to read (if I finish everything else in time!). The reason for this is that ARC August […]

ARC Review: How to Hack a Heartbreak

Posted July 18, 2019 / Book Reviews / 1 Comment

When this book was pitched to me, I jumped on the opportunity to read it. I already had it on my TBR and was eager to check it out. I’m always intrigued about books where women are working in male-dominated fields, because I experience it as a recruiter who works with primarily manufacturing companies. I knew it would make me rage at times and hopefully cheer for the main character by the end. The premise of the story is that Mel, a help desk technician at a tech incubator, gets tired of bad dates from online dating apps. She invents JerkAlert, where women can share their bad experiences and sort of “review” guys that stand them up, are secretly married, lie a lot, etc. in order to warn others when online dating. She starts dating someone from her office and ends up keeping the website (and what she finds on it!) a secret from him. I’ll be honest: this book was a bit of a rollercoaster for me! I was incredibly intrigued at the beginning and engaged in the story, then lost a bit of steam toward the middle (when I got frustrated with Mel), and then picked up again at the end. Mel was an interesting main character. She was kind of a wet blanket, in my opinion, and some of her actions were SO frustrating. I could see why she wanted to keep some things a secret from Alex but she made very immature decisions for someone in […]