Category: Lifestyle

Summer Plans including TBR and Bucket List

Posted June 22, 2022 / Book Lists, Features, Lifestyle, Personal / Information / Etc., TBR Lists / 2 Comments

I used to make seasonal TBRs and bucket lists (aka the different trips I wanted to take or plans to make during that season) when I was blogging more regularly. I was working on my TTT the other day for my summer TBR and was thinking it would be fun to bring back this “feature” to share what I hope to do and read this summer. It has also been a bit less fun to write posts like this because I’m reading like half as much as I used to, but here’s a “wishful thinking” TBR for this season at least! Summery TBR Review Copies I have a number of review copies that are publishing this season but these three will likely have the most summer vibes! I’m excited to get to all of them within the next couple of months. New Releases I have a TTT post coming up next week that lists some new or upcoming releases on my summer TBR but decided to pick a few summer-specific books to include here. These three books are coming out this summer and will likely be fun and light reads. Summery Stories I reread the first book in Han’s Summer series a couple of years ago and have plans to finish off my reread via audio this summer, since the TV show is now out. They were renewed for season two so I’d like to get books 2-3 done before they catch up to the show! I also hope to […]

2021 Year in Review

Posted January 10, 2022 / Lifestyle, Personal / Information / Etc. / 2 Comments

I used to post a lot of life-related updates here when I was blogging more frequently (aka 2019) and the past two years have been kind of a blur. Aside from Covid ruining a ton of things for a long time, we managed to squeeze in our wedding when it was mostly safe to do so. (We didn’t have much of a choice from a contract perspective, but that’s a whole other issue…) I thought I would do a “year in review” kind of wrap-up here since my monthly Bookmark Lit Bulletins literally only discuss reading updates and my Lauren Lately posts fell by the wayside a long time ago. I hope when life is normal again… someday… they’ll resume. For now, here’s a month-by-month recap of my year and the few things I managed to squeeze in when I was able to! January We had a low-key NYE with our friends that we essentially quarantined with (they were the only people we saw when safe to, aside from immediate family members) – just us and our pups. I got really into cooking, finding recipes, and acquiring cookbooks. We had a lot of fun food in 2021! I also continued my obsession with nail wraps from Etsy – I’ve done them on and off and it’s been nice. Unfortunately Chris’s grandfather passed away in January and we had a small family-only Buddhist sendoff for him. I went wedding dress shopping twice in January – once at the beginning of the […]

A Day in the Life // Work From Home (3/10/21)

Posted March 12, 2021 / Currently, Lifestyle, Personal / Information / Etc. / 2 Comments

Another round of a quarantined work day in my life! This is my first installment with the pup, since we got Miller about a month after posting my last one in May 2020. Here we go. My work-from-home routine during the pandemic has definitely evolved and changed since March 2020, a year ago this month (!). I used to be in my pajamas until noon, shower during my lunch break, and have an easy day on the couch. 3 months into it, we got a puppy – and my whole day changed! Luckily my boss is flexible and realistically as long as I can make meetings/interviews happen when needed and get everything else done in time, I can spend time during the day with Miller when needed. I wish I did one of these around early fall to just show how different my routine is now. Oh well – here’s how my day went on March 10th! Miller used to sleep until after 8am but lately he’s been waking up and wanting to go downstairs somewhere in the 7:00 hour. This morning he was definitely up closer to 7am so we headed down to get the day going. We go out to the bathroom first and foremost. I made my coffee and had a bagel thin with veggie cream cheese for breakfast. Miller gets his Greenie for his dental health to start the day. I took a shower (please enjoy our duckie shower curtain), brushed my teeth and hair, and […]

A Day in the Life // Work From Home (5/22/20)

Posted May 25, 2020 / Currently, Lifestyle, Personal / Information / Etc. / 2 Comments

Another round of a quarantined work day in my life! It’s Friday y’all, right before a long weekend, and I have to say… I am in desperate need of a day off. So, this is a very welcome Friday!! If all this corona stuff didn’t happen, I would have had a day off last weekend for my friend’s bachelorette trip so I am definitely feelin it right now. Here we go! I woke up early this morning and dicked around on my phone as usual. I downloaded the Philo app to the TV so I could watch my movie. I had to pee (lol) so I got out of bed somewhat quickly, compared to usual, and came down to find Chris making our now traditional morning smoothies. Our Vitamix is amazing! He usually delivers it to me in bed when he leaves for work around 6:30 but I snagged it from him, grabbed my piece of banana bread, and decided to try a cappuccino with my new coffee machine. Yes, we’ve upgraded all of our appliances basically lol. I took my two beverages back up to bed to watch the latest Aurora Teagarden movie from Hallmark on demand. I tried to watch the other day but ended up getting distracted with other things, so I restarted it to catch up and finish. It was a solid one as usual! I don’t know why I’m such trash for these movies. I did a bit of meal planning on a new app (Favoreats) […]

A Day in the Life // Work From Home (3/18/20)

Posted March 20, 2020 / Currently, Lifestyle, Personal / Information / Etc. / 2 Comments

I thought given the current situation of staying home and isolating, I’d share what my day looked like once this week! I’m bad at remembering to take early morning pictures so I apologize we’re missing the coffee-and-Kindle situation from when I first woke up. I fell asleep super early last night so I was really hoping to wake up around 5:30 to finish my book and relax with YouTube. As usual, I forgot to press snooze and woke up naturally at 6:15 instead. My boss and I had worked from home the day before since I had a cough in the morning. We were planning to kind of play it by ear since our office has two people in it and we could easily work from home. I expected to go in this morning when I woke up. I got out of bed to make my coffee, eat some pistachio loaf, and go to the bathroom. Chris left for work a few minutes before. He works as a machinist so he has to go in. I spent the morning finishing up SUPER ADJACENT for a blog tour coming up in early April. I also watched Book Roast’s announcement for OWLS, which I’ve been meaning to do for a while, and hopped in the shower. While showering, my boss texted that she would be working from home again today. I was surprised and a little mad I rushed myself in the morning, but overall happy to stay home for now. I got […]

A Day in the Life (8/14/19)

Posted August 19, 2019 / Currently, Lifestyle, Personal / Information / Etc. / 4 Comments

True story: I’ve been attempting to write this post for a while now but I ALWAYS get halfway into my morning routine (or even arrive at work) when I realize I forgot to take photos of my day. I finally remembered to get an early start last Wednesday so here we are with a day in my life! 5:45 AM – 6:00 AM – Alarm goes off, venture downstairs I went to bed fairly early last night so I set my alarm accordingly. I usually like to wake up somewhere within the 6:00 hour but love when I can get up even earlier. I like seven hours of sleep; any more or less than that isn’t great for me haha. I went downstairs and chatted with Chris, who was starting his morning routine. I made my coffee and went back upstairs. 6:00 AM – 7:30 AM – Lounge in bed I will usually do a number of things in the morning before work, like update my bullet journal, watch YouTube or a television show, or read a book. Sometimes I just play Candy Crush and call it a day lol. This morning, I put YouTube on while updating my bullet journal with the book I had finished the day before. I caught up with Kristen and a few others I’ve been into lately for Amazon hauls and more lifestyle-oriented content. When I finished the bujo, I just scrolled on my phone and played Candy Crush while YouTube played in the […]

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 […]

Mini Trip Recaps: “BEA” and Bay Area

Posted June 12, 2019 / Lifestyle, Personal / Information / Etc. / 4 Comments

June has been a super busy month so far and we’re not even halfway through yet! When I was pulling together my Lauren Lately post, I realized that I had quite a bit I could discuss on the vacation/trip front. I went to NYC for a BEA-related event but didn’t actually go to BEA or Bookcon, so that necessitated a post. I also went to the Bay Area for Cristina’s wedding the following weekend and turned that into a long weekend trip with some friends. We split our time between the Livermore area and downtown San Francisco. BEA Party When I was invited to the Big Honcho party during BEA weekend, I knew I had to make it happen this year. I was invited last year when living in Maine but obviously that wasn’t feasible at the time (at least compared to when I live in Connecticut!). I went down to the bottom of the state Friday afternoon and took the Stamford train into the city before the party. I met with Natasha (my friend you’ll see in the SF recap below) for dinner before heading to Madalyn’s hotel. I got to meet her friends Chelsea and Alexa before heading into the party. IT WAS SO GREAT TO MEET MADALYN IRL because she has been one of my favorite people in the community since she joined Novel Ink. Long overdue meeting, folks. We also caught up with various other bloggers and booktubers, including Kristin, Alexa, and Rachel. It was great […]

How I Use Google Keep for Organizing My Life

Posted March 14, 2019 / Goals & Planning, Lifestyle, Personal / Information / Etc. / 7 Comments

I’m a big proponent of Google’s document services and other apps. I love that I can sync everything up on my phone or computer instead of having things in one place, like when I use Microsoft Office. I’ve talked a lot about how I organize my bookish life with Google Sheets, but I figured I’d share some of my Google Keep love today! If you don’t know, it’s an app and website service from Google that essentially makes various sticky notes on a board. They can be lists, plain text, drawings, and more. I use the checklist option the most because I frequently use it for groceries and weekly to-dos. I know there are more sophisticated planning apps that use calendars and such, but this one really works for me for now. Here’s how I use it. Pinned Notes – Priorities When you make a note, you have a bunch of color and style options, as well as the ability to pin it to the top. I like this for my priority items for the week. As you can see below, I have different grocery shopping lists for each store I frequent. I also have a list of meal plans for the week. Sometimes the meal planning note lists out each meal for each day (like below) and other times it’s just a list of ideas for dinner based on groceries I have on hand. The pinned ones below show the weekly meals, priority shopping list for Target the day […]

2018 Favorite Products

Posted December 20, 2018 / Lifestyle, Personal / Information / Etc. / 0 Comments

I circled back through my Lauren Lately posts to round up some of my favorite new products, purchases, etc. from 2018. As you’ll see, it’s mostly makeup and healthy/beauty related because that’s where most of my money goes. Sorry, not sorry. [Links will be mostly to where I bought the item, or on Amazon if it makes more sense.] Skincare / Body / Hair Body Anti-Chafe Balm | This was great when I went to NYC for a weekend and walked everywhere! I’m not a city gal and don’t often walk around, but when I visit cities in the summer? This will be my go-to from now on. I love wearing shorts or breezy dresses to keep cool during those months, but walking 20,000+ steps around a city requires some kind of anti-chafing system. This worked well and I didn’t even notice it was there! Keep it in your purse if you have to reapply. Thayer’s Witch Hazel | This stuff just feels so nice on my skin. I learned that witch hazel makes a good toner and this is the one I use during the daytime. It’s light and doesn’t feel like anything, but refreshes my skin. I don’t massage it in with a cotton pad – I just kind of let it absorb and apply the COSRX liquid (below) right after. Revlon One-Step Hair Dryer and Volumizer | I know I just talked about these in my last Lauren Lately but they’re both already favorite purchases this year. I love being […]