Search Results for: planner

2019 Organizational Methods: Books + Life

Posted January 17, 2019 / Goals & Planning, Personal / Information / Etc. / 3 Comments

As usual, a new year brings new planners and spreadsheets! It’s my favorite thing to organize and get settled. I’ve talked in the past QUITE a bit about my planners and spreadsheets (bookish and otherwise) because they change every year AND whenever I’m in the mood to try something new. Here are all the ways I plan to organize my 2019, now that we’re about a month in! Happy Planner As you’ve seen before, I use a physical planner for most of my life and work-related planning. I’ve tried mannnny types over the years and am still continuing to try new ones! This year I’m using a Happy Planner again. The “socialite” one I picked offers many of the things I’m looking for in a planner. I was really looking for something where boxes were customizable in some way. I prefer to label things on my own because my life has a few different elements to incorporate. I don’t have a bookish planner this year, so I knew I’d need a box to track books or blog things. Otherwise, you can see how I organize above. The top box is about bills or things due that day. Box two is a mini to-do list and errands I’ll run during lunch. There are two boxes for AM and PM, in case I have time-specific things to do before, during, and after work. Next is the book box and last is a meal planning box. The top left picture also shows the pen color […]

My TBR Cart

Posted January 11, 2019 / Personal / Information / Etc. / 8 Comments

Like everyone else in this bookish space, I got a TBR cart in 2018! (I loved reading a few posts by Jamie, Brittany, and Cristina too!) It works really well for me because I have a tendency of tossing library books wherever and running out of shelf space. I also have a shelf for planner-related stuff, since it’s something I’ve finally gotten back into and never had space to store. My desk downstairs in the living room is kind of pointless because even if I work from home on a snow day, I’m more likely to be on the couch or bed. I don’t NEED a designated space really. I do use it sometimes, but it usually becomes an annoying spot for clutter collection (like aforementioned library books and mail). I’m tempted to move it upstairs into the Lego/storage room instead. I digress. TBR Cart Early setup When I got it back in early December, I filled it with some random stuff and a very loose TBR plan. I didn’t have any library books checked out at the time but knew I’d be incorporating them sometime soon. Here’s how I set it up: Top shelf: upcoming holiday book TBR, bin with sticky notes (later bookmarks), Kindle, iPad mini Middle shelf: bags of pens/markers/planner supplies, cup of colored pens, unused bin, book sleeves Bottom shelf: upcoming physical copy TBR (two ARCs and some hardcovers) I figured that my immediate TBR and books I’m currently reading would be on the top (possibly library books), planner […]

2018 End of Year Survey

Posted December 30, 2018 / Personal / Information / Etc. / 4 Comments

I loved filling out Jamie’s survey in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017. This is the 9th time she’s hosted this survey and it’s so fun to see what everyone chooses for the categories. Last year, I didn’t allow myself any duplicates. I’m going to try to keep them to a minimum for this survey, but it feels impossible. I’ll need to have a few. To learn more about it and see a blank set of questions, check here! It was so fun to reread my answers for last year, since I copied that survey here to clean out and fill out. Number of Books You Read: 120 Number of Re-Reads: 2 | Number of DNFs: 5 Genre You Read The Most From: Contemporary 1. Best Book You Read In 2018? Totally cheating and adding multiple categories! (Not including rereads.) See a full list of my “best reads” of the year (5 stars and 4.5 stars) here if you’re curious. Best of the best: Foolish Hearts by Emma Mills Best contemporary: Love a la Mode by Stephanie Kate Strohm Best non-contemporary: The Wicked King by Holly Black Best adult fiction: Evidence of the Affair by Taylor Jenkins Reid Best sequel or companion: 9 Days and 9 Nights by Katie Cotugno Best diverse read: Dear Martin by Nic Stone 2. Book you were excited about and thought you were going to love more but didn’t? My Plain Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows just, for me, was not as good as the previous companion. I enjoyed that it followed a […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #215: Under My Tree

Posted December 25, 2018 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 7 Comments

My Christmas Wishlists 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. The original topic was BOOKS I hoped to find under my tree this morning, but I asked for shockingly few of them. I thought I’d highlight some of the items on my wishlists this year. I have one for my mom/stepdad and one for my dad/stepmom, but broke everything down by category. Also, don’t judge me for the amount of things on this list. First of all, my parents like a lot of options so I don’t know exactly everything I’ll be getting and they can choose what they think is most fun/interesting. Second of all, these lists/items make their way to four different parents, who also share with grandparents. [All of the images came from Amazon but I am way to lazy to link everything – comment below if you’re curious about something!] Books / Planner Happy Planner budget insert for my new planner, plus a Happy Planner sticker book with basic icons | Sightwitch by Susan Dennard | Hand lettering book so I can finally learn some more modern calligraphy | I’ll Be There for You by Kelsie Miller (my mom, the Friends lover, will totally get this!) | Cravings (both books) by […]

Holiday Hallmark Movies

Posted December 17, 2018 / Media, Personal / Information / Etc. / 2 Comments

I honestly wasn’t into Hallmark movies until last Christmas, when I discovered their wonderfulness and large amount of Candace Cameron Bure. I just recorded some that looked interesting and reviewed them on the blog throughout December. This year, I downloaded the Hallmark Christmas Movie app, pre-planned which new ones I wanted to watch, and recorded a bunch on my Sling DVR as needed. I figured I would toss ALL of them into one post with some quick thoughts (I’m posting this now but will ADD TO IT LATER). They’re listed here in order of me watching them. Christmas at Pemberly Manor While I’m not a Pride & Prejudice fangirl, I can often appreciate a “retelling” without knowing the source material very well. This was a cute movie overall! I’ve seen that some people don’t like the female lead very much but I’ve liked her over the years (and really only know her from the 90210 reboot I loved). The male lead was decent too. It was a classic story of a girl putting on a Christmas festival and getting the grumpy workaholic to take some time off for loooooove. Christmas Joy This one was super cute. A market researcher is forced to return to her “hometown” after her aunt suffered an ankle injury. She takes over on the annual Cookie Crawl while trying to balance her work AND the cute Christmas-obsessed guy she used to know from high school. I thought the two leads had really good chemistry and […]

Lauren Lately | December 2018

Posted December 15, 2018 / Features, Lauren Lately, Wrap-Ups / 5 Comments

Because my Bookmark Lit Bulletin wrap-ups got out of hand, I wanted to break up my monthly wrap-ups into two posts: one personal and one bookish/bloggy. I created Lauren Lately here to highlight all of the personal happenings in my life: events, activities, shows I’m addicted to, things I’m obsessing over, recipes I’ve loved, and goals for the next month. I decided to space them out so this wrap-up happens around the mid-point of the month and the bookish one happens at the end of the month. ✨ Check out my most recent bookish and bloggy wrap-up HERE ✨ Dogsitting and birthday celebrations | I stayed with my mom’s new puppy overnight when the went to Newport with their friends. Riley is so cute but soooo needy. Definitely reinforced that I do not want a pet in my life right now. We also had Korean BBQ to celebrate a few birthdays in Chris’s family; it was delicious but I didn’t take any pictures. Day in southern Connecticut | We took a mini road trip to the nearest LL Bean outlet to get a few things for Christmas. While we were down there, we went to Donut Crazy (amazing) and got poke bowls on the way back up for dinner. They opened a new Donut Crazy in West Hartford, which is closer to us, but it’s way too busy still; this one is more established and was empty at 3 PM! My sister’s last band event, hiking, and Christmas decorating | The night before Thanksgiving, we […]

What’s Up Wednesday Nov.2018

Posted November 28, 2018 / Weekly Memes, What's Up Wednesday / 0 Comments

What’s Up Wendesday is a linkup with The Larson Lingo, Sheaffer Told Me To, and Mix & Match Mama the last Wednesday of each month, in order to catch up on what’s new with you from the past month and upcoming month. The prompts can be found on their blogs or answered below by me! November 2018 What I’m eating this week Sunday: Zero Point Chili, Thanksgiving leftovers One of my favorite WW recipes is this chili that’s worth ZERO points. All of the ingredients are beans, tomato sauce, veggies, seasoning, and super lean ground turkey… which makes the whole pot worth about 2 points (and therefore individual servings are zero). It’s great for days I plan to eat a lot more and need one free meal. Otherwise, lots of Thanksgiving leftovers this weekend! Monday: Out to dinner with an old favorite teacher! I recently learned that one of my HS teachers is now a principal at a school near my house, so I reached out to meet up for dinner. It was really great to see her and catch up on everything. We went to an Irish pub because the place we originally picked closes early on Mondays apparently. I got a cajun chicken flatbread that was pretty decent. Tuesday: Sausage, broccoli, and mac and cheese One of my go-to easy meals is sliced up sausage links + various veggies mixed in olive oil and seasoning, cooked on a sheet pan in the oven. You can also add potatoes if you’re looking for a starch too. I […]

Tis the Season! | Holiday 2018 Plans

Posted November 16, 2018 / Book Lists, Features, TBR Lists / 5 Comments

I feel like I’m more excited for Christmas than ever before this year. Not sure why, but it’s true y’all. I found myself getting the itch for Christmas movies in late September and I’ve been holding myself back until Halloween to finally listen to Christmas music – that’s always my deadline. Otherwise, my decorations are up after Thanksgiving and we get our tree the first weekend of December. This year’s holiday posts will be plentiful because I’ve already started reading some light holiday books. Keep reading to see what’s happening on the blog over the next month and a half! I pulled this TBR together back in mid-October because I LOVE CHRISTMAS. It also happened to be because I was in the middle of planning my November TBR and I knew I wanted some holiday reads on there. You’ll see that I have four books for review, four books pulled from last year’s TBR that I didn’t get to, and six books that are either newly published in 2018 or just new-to-me. Mistletoe Cottage by Mason | The Best Little Christmas Shop by Morrey It Started with Christmas by Hale | The Corner of Holly and Ivy by Mason I have one egalley from last year that I never got to – CHRISTMAS SHOP – so I definitely want to catch up on that. I also have three more books. I have a physical ARC of MISTLETOE COTTAGE (plus an egalley by the same author – CORNER OF HOLLY/IVY) and […]

Lauren Lately | November 2018

Posted November 15, 2018 / Features, Lauren Lately, Wrap-Ups / 2 Comments

Because my Bookmark Lit Bulletin wrap-ups got out of hand, I wanted to break up my monthly wrap-ups into two posts: one personal and one bookish/bloggy. I created Lauren Lately here to highlight all of the personal happenings in my life: events, activities, shows I’m addicted to, things I’m obsessing over, recipes I’ve loved, and goals for the next month. I decided to space them out so this wrap-up happens around the mid-point of the month and the bookish one happens at the end of the month. ✨ Check out my most recent bookish and bloggy wrap-up HERE ✨ Friends’ wedding | Two of my friends got married in October and it was a gorgeous ceremony! They had it outside in front of a waterfall with a lot of fall-time accents, like pumpkins. It was in the middle of nowhere though; the bus from the hotel to the venue was 30 minutes! We had a lot of fun celebrating with a bunch of my friends and the afterparty involved a lot of Domino’s pizza in the hotel conference room. Lazy, rainy Saturdays and sports | This entire fall season has involved too much rain to really do anything fun and outdoorsy. We had a few Saturdays in a row where we would hang out at home, with me reading and Chris playing video games. We also had a period where we were watching way too many sports at once! Between the World Series (go fucking Red Sox!!), football games, and wrestling shows/PPVs, we once […]

Top Ten Tuesdays #209: Bookish Merch

Posted November 13, 2018 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 8 Comments

Bookish Items / Merchandise 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 don’t acquire a lot of bookish merch, if I’m being honest! I’ve tried to buy less and less THINGS over the past few years (I’ve moved so much since high school that I’m so tired of lugging items everywhere I go!). The two bookish things I like to collect the most are candles and bookmarks, so here are some of those (and more). Some items below are specifically on my wishlist while others are just favorites in general – I’ll mark them so you know. All photos are credited to the original websites/shops or were taken by me if noted. Favorite Novelly Yours Candles Full disclosure: I am incredibly picky about candles. Most are too sweet for me and give me a headache, but I knooow I can count on a few specific scents to work perfectly. Usually they involve apple, but not always. Brittany’s candles are some of the BEST out there and I have a couple of go-to scents. I thinkkkk Winter is still my favorite here because it’s the most apple-y of them all, but the close second is probably Brave. I love the pumpkin pie scent mixed in! Cabeswater is […]