Category: Personal / Information / Etc.

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 […]

Guide to Holiday Movies Releasing in 2021

Posted November 1, 2021 / Media, Personal / Information / Etc. / 0 Comments

Usually this is my first post of the holiday season, but I ended up doing a Christmas in July post that highlighted upcoming 2021 holiday releases I was looking forward to. I also usually like to get this post up in October, right before the first Hallmark movie premieres before Halloween. Due to my October blog break, I decided to hold off and draft some early November posts as I was not actively posting on the blog. Here’s my usual spiel, without further ado! Everyone knows that this season begins for me basically on Halloween or the day after. I just want to enjoy my Christmassy stuff for two full months instead of one, and it costs you $0 to mind ya business and let me be happy. I normally refrain from making blog posts until we’re nearing the end of November, but I thought it would be fun to do a holiday movie round-up post BEFORE posting any of my holiday movie reviews, which always come throughout December. This means I’m sharing ALL of the holiday movies on my radar that are releasing this year. I wanted to get this post out early enough for people to make plans, set their DVRs, and order Disney+ in preparation. Without further ado, here are all the movies you could see this year and where to find them! Again, these are broken down by where you can find them. I thought I would get the smaller lists done first, so if Hallmark […]

Currently

Posted June 23, 2021 / Currently, Personal / Information / Etc. / 0 Comments

I’ve been doing some kind of Currently post on and off for many years. Ironically, Hannah at So Obsessed With credits me for inspiring her to finally make a Currently post… and now here *I* am, stealing *her* Currently prompts. I just like the way she lays them out and it’s a nicer format than some I’ve done in the past. So here’s credit-ception for you. Bookish Currently reading: I’ve been attempting to read RULE OF WOLVES since it came out basically. I just haven’t been motivated to read fantasy lately. I had a similar issue with taking forever to read ACOSF. I finished a bunch of romance novels in a row on my Kindle and this one has been sitting around. I also just started WAIT FOR IT last night because I got approved on Netgalley and started reading it right away because I actually thought it was something different lol. Currently audiobook-ing: Even more embarrassing? I have RULE OF WOLVES on audio too. I’ve been mostly listening to podcasts though. Currently recommending: Seriously, the last 4 romance books I read received 4-4.5 stars, with the majority receiving 4.5 stars. If you want mostly fun rom-coms, try out: ROSALINE PALMER TAKES THE CAKE by Alexis Hall TO SIR, WITH LOVE by Lauren Layne SATISFACTION GUARANTEED by Karelia Stetz-Walters THE SOULMATE EQUATION by Christina Lauren Currently on hold at the library: I actually have run out of library holds, for the most part. The only one remaining is THE HEART […]

Eating Lately via My iPhone

Posted April 16, 2021 / Food & Drink, Personal / Information / Etc. / 2 Comments

Like everyone during quarantine, we’ve been doing a lot of cooking and baking! It’s been so fun to find new meals, work with what we have, and bake tasty (well-deserved) treats. I was inspired by Communikait and her “what I’m eating lately via my iPhone” posts. They’re simple photos of meals she’s had and a little description about the recipe. I’ve been on a Skinnytaste recipe kick lately. I purchased two of her books within the last month or so. This is a blackened salmon with an avocado cucumber salsa and wild rice. So good! We made carrot cake for Easter for the first time, even though we didn’t go anywhere or have any plans that day. Another Skinnytaste recipe and made with pineapple – so good. I love a cream cheese frosting. Half Baked Harvest has been another favorite recently, website and books included. She’s been making some copycat restaurant recipes lately. This is a Taco Bell crunchwrap supreme dupe, so it’s a regular crunchy taco with a soft taco baked on the outside with cheese in between. We’ve been wanting to use our blender more so I made some smoothie bowls with frozen fruit, avocado, blueberries, coconut, nuts, and granola. So good. I don’t even remember what recipe this was – it’s a riff on a Half Baked Harvest one with some kind of meat and Asian flavors lol – but we added an egg. I think it was a Korean bowl with steak? So good regardless haha. […]

Listening Lately

Posted March 26, 2021 / Current Favorites, Media, Personal / Information / Etc. / 2 Comments

I’ve always done podcast roundups on here but I thought it would be fun to share alllll of the things I’ve been listening to lately in 2021. I’ve done a decent mix of podcasts and audiobooks, compared to my usual all-or-nothing philosophy. Music is generally on the back burner but there are some key playlists or radio stations I pop on when cleaning and cooking on weekend mornings. Podcasts Someone Knows Something (S2, S5, S6) // I’ve had this podcast on my radar forever because it’s known as one of the OGs in the true crime community. I slept on it for a long time and randomly decided to listen to the most recent season. Each season is about a new case and S6 had just wrapped up posting. It was really good and addicting, so I went backwards to Season 5 and then Season 2 based on my interest in the case they covered. I’ll probably listen to Seasons 1, 3, and 4 at some point too. Tom Brown’s Body // I was alone with the pup one day when Chris went snowboarding and I listened to this podcast from start to finish all day. I absolutely was addicted and highly recommend it to anyone looking for a single story/case throughout the season. I still cannot figure out what the hell happened to Tom Brown. This is Important // I’m a huge fan of these four guys from Workaholics, stand-up, and literally anything else they’ve been in over the years. This […]

What I’ve Been Watching

Posted March 19, 2021 / Media, Personal / Information / Etc. / 4 Comments

I was really in the mood to get back into some normal TV shows and movies once the holiday season passed. I usually am ONLY watching Hallmark or other holiday movies for like 2-3 months! I need to find a better way to balance that next year haha. In any case, turning the page to 2021 means a fresh slate of shows to work on or movies to see. Recently Finished The Undoing I feel like I’m in the minority here but I didn’t love this. It was pretty addicting because I kept getting kind of hooked at the end of each episode or at the “cliffhanger” moment. I just wanted more from the ending? I don’t want to give anything away but I feel a big ol’ MEH about this one. (I finished this months ago but this post has been in my drafts forever haha.) Night Stalker I’ve mentioned this on here before, I think, but this was pretty good. It was sort of background noise for me because I’ve already heard about this case on a million podcasts. The last episode was really powerful though because the way this case “ends” is insane. The Boys I’ve been obsessed with Chace Crawford since Gossip Girl so when Chris randomly mentioned this show, I was in. He’s a shitbag (like many other characters in this show… literally all of them basically???) but it’s fine because I get to see his face. This was really interesting overall – we lost […]

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 […]

2021 Planners

Posted January 13, 2021 / Goals & Planning, Personal / Information / Etc. / 2 Comments

I always love sharing my planner setup for the year! I did still use my planners last year, for the most part – I know 2020 was a bizarre year to try to plan but I usually need SOMETHING to physically or digitally keep track of things, even if it’s just monitoring daily to-dos for work or blogging. I have a lot of planners this year because I personally found that I need to keep things separate in order to be successful. Personal Planning Artful Agenda I still use my Artful Agenda, as it syncs up all of my digital calendars and keeps them in one place. I will admit that I don’t currently use the to-do lists as much or the daily page planning, but I do sometimes! I just have a lot of planners and find that I don’t keep this tab open on my computer screen like I used to when working in the office? Not sure why. You can read my detailed review from when I first got this HERE. This is my current planner for events (lol – what are events?) or appointments. Productivity Planner I linked a lot of videos by Jordan Page (Fun Cheap or Free) and while I don’t think I love her from a personal perspective (feel free to do your own research), I think a lot of the tips and methods make sense. I purchased this Productivity Planner based on the block scheduling system she has, which I talk about […]

Favorite and Recently Purchased Cookbooks

Posted December 14, 2020 / Food & Drink, Personal / Information / Etc. / 2 Comments

I’ve been talking a lot this year about cookbooks – it all started when I finally got the Cravings cookbook by Chrissy Teigen… and ordered her second one while I was still reading the first one. I’ve been following cooking blogs for a while for recipes and Skinnytaste has always been on my radar, so I also ordered the One & Done cookbook. From there… it’s been a slippery slope! I’ll talk more about each cookbook and how I came to acquire them below but basically I’ve turned to them more so than Pinterest. It’s been fun to get into something new and meal plan from them instead! I came up with the idea that in general, I’ll pick one cookbook each week to pick 6-7 recipes from and use as the basis for our meals (I’ve done similar things in the past with Cravings and Skinnytaste). I’ll rotate through all of them to make sure everyone gets used and enjoyed! I posted some polls on Twitter and Instagram for which to start with and ended up picking Half Baked Harvest Super Simple from the results. I’ll probably share more about this experience later, but for now – I thought it would be fun to give you guys a rundown of the recent cookbooks I’ve acquired and my thoughts so far as if these are book reviews. First, what do I personally want in a cookbook? (1) I want recipes that are unique and interesting enough where there aren’t a […]

If We Were Having Coffee…

Posted December 11, 2020 / If We Were Having Coffee, Personal / Information / Etc. / 2 Comments

I LOVE reading personal posts from other bloggers and seeing Jamie’s “If We Were Having Coffee” feature take off is so fun. Laura and Lindsey also have some great spin-offs of this feature too. I was very tempted to also make mine margarita-related (like Lindsey) but coffee is so ingrained in my daily life that it just makes sense to keep it. If you’re not familiar, it basically involves a fake little conversation about what’s been happening in our lives lately. Read on to see what’s been happening lately and feel free to chat back in the comments! If we were having coffee… I’d ask you how you’re doing. How is anyone doing really? I’ve had a pretty good year from a personal perspective, all things considered, but feel guilty saying that when the world is in shambles. It’s hard to believe how fast and slow this year has been. How is it already the end of 2020? Like everyone, I welcome it, but changing to 2021 doesn’t mean the pandemic or racial injustice or anything else terrible from this year will just be fixed. If we were having coffee… I’d talk about my wedding. When we got engaged in late 2019, we knew we didn’t want to rush planning and go for a 2020 wedding. We picked 10/9/21 and I think, with vaccinations on the horizon, we have a pretty good chance of having a normal-ish event? I’d definitely ask your opinion on that! Honestly though… I have no interest […]