February Round Up

My February

Hey guys! I'm still alive.  Life has been crazy lately.  The renovation is still going on at my house (since October, I'm getting super sick of it!) and I've kind of been in a reading slump.  Alexander Hamilton is amazing, but it's so blasted long!  I've only completed one book so far this year, and I keep putting off writing a review for it.  Along with being overworked and coming home to a construction zone I did something stupid, I bought a PS4...then this happened.

Nate is so awesome, I love him!  But then my friend kept talking about the game he started playing, so I abandoned Nate and started playing the new game... I'm coming to the conclusion that my friend is a bad influence, he needs to stop finding things to obsess over, because he talks about to the point where I start getting into it and I get equally obsessed.  First Hamilton and now this:

I spend pretty much every free second playing this game, it's really not good, but the game is really really fun.  Not only does my friend play, but my brother plays to, so it's something we can do together since he lives almost 4 hours away.  I'm trying to readjust my schedule to accommodate reading and gaming, but my current Destiny obsession is just too great and the books I've been reading are so dense.

Right before my obsession got to be full force I even started writing a bit, something that I haven't done since high school, but that turned into I need to do way too much research that the internet isn't helping much with.  And of course, it took away from Destiny time.

One amazing thing happened this month (actually since the New Year since I haven't done one of these since December) I got to see Book of Mormon!! So good, so amazingly good.  I love Trey Parker and Matt Stone!

I went into the city with one of my best friends kind of on a whim, but it was an amazing day, things were still set up from Valentine's Day so there were golden hearts in Times Square which were pretty cool.  We also killed time in Forever 21, and unfortunately it looks like 90s fashion is back.  Hooray for pleather and overalls!

I'm still getting my OwlCrates, and I really should do more unboxing stuff, but they get delivered to work and how crazy things have been I didn't even open this month's until I got home and looked in was like AMAZING! then put it back in the box to play Destiny...did I mention I have a really bad problem with that game?  But I digress, in January I got an awesome Dumbledore pop figure.  He's now joined Loki and Yoda as my work desk guardians.

I'm intrigued by the January book, Words of Ink and Shadow.  It's about the Bronte sisters, I've never read their works, so I'm really not in too much of a rush to read it.  Not to mention it doesn't fit into my current historical period obsession (founding of the US)...or the time period for the research I need to do (1910s).

February's box was way cooler, I can't wait to pick up The Love that Split the World.  That one's been on my TBR for a while.  There was also an awesome tote bag with all the couples from the Lunar Chronicles!  

February's Artsy Stuff

So, I didn't really do anything in February.  Not even my nails - it's difficult to play well while not smudging the nail polish!  March should have much more.  I signed up for a jewelry making class to learn new tricks and skills.  My first class is tonight so I'm excited!

February Blog News

Because of the renovation I had to clear out all of my bookshelves, and now I'm refilling them, but in doing so I'm doing my best to purge books.  There's going to be a huge giveaway (similar to the summer one, a few winners that get a nice collection of books each) at some point in the near-ish future.  I'd like to have it done by May, but we'll see how ambitious I am.  There's going to be a small giveaway this month, so keep your eyes open for that.

I'm trying really hard to get back into the swing of blogging.  The reno should be done at the end of March, so by mid April my life should get back into some semblance of a routine, so bear with me for another month or so.

I meant to keep up with the Top Ten Tuesdays and Waiting on Wednesdays, but for the former, the topics haven't been much fun and required too much of my time to figure out what I'd do for them, and the latter...I'm lazy.  And I typically write entries while at work but I've been so swamped since December that my back log got used up and now Thursday mornings I go 'crap! I missed both days, oh well, next week!' rinse, recycle, repeat.  I actually went to do a TTT today then realized I forgot to write up this post. 

Be patient with me!  TTT and hopefully WoW will resume next week and tomorrow respectively. Good things are coming in the future, I just need to stop playing my PS4 and get stuff done!  At the very least in May/June there will be (hopefully) lots of reading on my travel days.  That is, unless my friend gives me something new to obsess about while we're away.

I'm also going to be updating the blog links and stuff as well.  The twitter link doesn't work (thanks for that Words and Peace!) and I'm not sure what else doesn't work, so I'll be looking into that.  

December Round Up

My December

So December has been insane, which is why there haven't been many posts, and why this one is posted late. I had so much vacation time that I had to use so I took a trip to New Mexico to visit my cousin, which was awesome. We went on lots of hikes and I found some really cool pottery and worked stone (top and bottom respectively in the right picture) as well as dinosaur fossils and petrified wood (the fossil is in my hand in the left picture).

The scenary in New Mexico was amazing, I've never been to that part of the country before, I've really only done the coasts and Chicago.  Note the snow on the ground, it was colder there than it was in Connecticut!

Then I got back to work and was slammed with extra stuff to do, and to top it all of the renovations on the house are still going on and so my life is a hectic disarray.

I went into the city to see Allegiance, sadly my only Broadway show this fall, which was amazing!  Lea Salonga and Telly Leung were brilliant and George Takei was awesome.  I'm so happy I got to see it with the original cast!  I hope it can beat out Hamilton for some Tony's...

When I was in Time Square I saw this billboard and it made me smile.

Unfortunately when I went in it was Santa Con, so it was crazy, but I did get some good laughs at what people where wearing.  I even saw some Whos from Whooville (not pictured).

I got my December OwlCrate right before I left work for the year.  I'm excited to read Da Vinci's Tiger it sounds really cool!  I also got a really cute to-do list, a scented candle, a super adorable Le Petit Prince magnet and a journal to list the books I've read - it's pretty much obsolete because of GoodReads, it's what people would have done 15+ years ago to keep track of their books, and the way it's set up you can't even really re-purpose it.  Oh well.

December's Artsy Stuff

I didn't do too terribly much this month.  When I was in New Mexico I made some pottery on my cousin's wheel.  It was the first time I'd ever used one.

I also learned how to turn a wooden bowl from my cousin's husband.  The bowl on the top had a crack in the wood so it shattered when I was hollowing it out, so I have a pendant that I can make a cool necklace out of as well as a shallow bowl.  The bowl on the bottom was my first attempt at it and I love it!  The wood I used is awesome too!

I made this guy for my friend for Christmas, I absolutely love it!  I almost wanted to keep him for myself!  I think he's my favorite mouse I've made (narrowly beating out my Link mouse I made a few years ago for another friend).  It's the 11th Doctor (Matt Smith) from Doctor Who if you couldn't tell.  I even made him a sonic screwdriver!

I did some of my typical over-the-top baking as well - my annual Bûche de Noël aka Yule Log, aka Yule Bûche (according to my brother).

Also, I did my nails twice this month (well, aside from plain colors)

This is Miss Jen Fabulous's design (if you like nail art, check her out, she's amazing!), the polar bear is super cute!  I did this one for Christmas.

This was my New Years Eve design, I found a similar one on Pinterest.  I absolutely loved this one, it took forever to do and sadly didn't last long.

December Blog News

Since I've been so busy I haven't had much time to read, let alone write/post.  I'm going to try my hardest to get back on track for January, but stupidly I grabbed two insanely long books to read, a biography on Alexander Hamilton (I'm a little bit obsessed with the musical right now - I blame my friend 100% for that) and The Way of Kings.  I'm going to try to break up the reading with shorter books so I can get some reviews done, but it may be difficult to get away from Hamilton, he's so interesting!  Don't give a history nerd an amazing historical figure to read about when they don't have time to devote to it.  Seriously, I'm itching to write a thesis on the revolution and I can't stop reading about all the players in it!

November Round Up

My November

This month has pretty much sucked for me.  I barely got any reading done, I didn't get much crafty stuff done, even my nails were even polish-less for 95% of the month, and I'm single again: whoo hoo!

My house is currently under a massive renovation, which leaves us with only one bedroom, the dining room, the kitchen, and the living room mostly intact.  It's been rough.  Especially when the idiot cats get themselves stuck in the wall.  It was our black cat, so I had a nice Edger Allen Poe moment.  We only noticed he was there because of the crying.

At the beginning of the month I was in NYC for a work conference for a couple days, one of which was a Friday.  So three of my friends joined me in the city for dinner then a speakeasy.  I went back into the city two days later with my mom and we walked a crazy amount.

My friend from Long Island came up to visit and we went to the Two Roads Brewery with another friend of mine.  It was a great day following by watching some Rick and Morty and playing games (Exploding Kittens is awesome!) while drinking extra Two Roads beer.

I was back in the city a third time this month for the Holiday Spirits Booze Cruise we do for my friend's birthdays (the cruise is right in between the two).  It was a blast, despite the rain.

When I was in high school I was involved in a youth symphony, this year is the symphony's 60th anniversary so they had the alumni come back to play in their fall concert.  It was a weekend of binge violin playing since I haven't picked it up in a while.  But the concert went well and it was a lot of fun hanging out with my friends playing.

I returned to Cape Cod to have Thanksgiving at my brother's.  It was my sister-in-law's first time having to do a Thanksgiving meal, so good times!

Today I'm en-route to New Mexico to see my cousin.  It was an impromptu trip due to me having way too much vacation time that I was going to lose.  But plane rides mean reading time!

I also received another OwlCrate, so now I'm 2 for 3 for receiving books I already own signed copies of.  I loved the Cinderella tea and the strigoi battle tattoo is really cool.  The rest of the stuff in the box I thought was kind of lame.

November's Artsy Stuff

I really didn't do anything remotely artsy this month, I redid an old nail design at one point though.

November Blog News

I've been slacking on the blog front.  I've had no motivation to write reviews, so that paired with my minimal reading this month does not mean good things.  I'm hoping to get my act together in December and do some more reading and writing.  But we'll see.

October Round Up

My October

Another month that has been crazy for me.  I really wish this trend would stop.  I didn't do too much this month.  Construction started on my house, so that's been awful.  It's supposed to be done before the end of the year.  I think the contractor is going for before Christmas.  We'll see.  I got pretty sick early in the month, and that paired with construction workers at my house forced me to go into work every day except for one when I finally decided it was too risky for me to be operating a car and I stayed holed up in my bedroom (one of the few rooms that isn't having work done - at least not until December).  

I did get to go up to Cape Cod to visit my brother and sister-in-law for their birthdays.  It was so gorgeous out there, we had lots of hikes with the puppies.

I received my second OwlCrate.  This month I got a book that was on my TBR list, but I didn't own, so that was awesome!  I'm going to start reading it once I'm done with my current book.

October's Artsy Stuff

I was able to get some artsy stuff done this month.

I made this for my boyfriend for our one year anniversary.  I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

I started a hockey watch.  I need to do some more work on it, I was waiting for charms I had ordered to come in.  But it's made with an actual hockey skate lace.  I made a bracelet too that matches, but is also unfinished.

I also made these snitch earrings.  I was pretty hesitant on them at first, but I think I like them.  I think I would like to open an online store, maybe through this blog, to sell them on.  Would any of you be interested in them?  Or other book-related items?

I made this for part of my Halloween costume.  They're elf ear cuffs.  I want to try to make another pair to see if they come out any better.

A testament to how blegh this month has been, I only did my nails once, for the hockey season opener.  My left hand was the Ranger and my right hand the Canadiens.  The numbers are my favorite players (Zuccarello (36), Brassard (16), Stepan (21) and Lundqvist (30) for the Rangers, Eller (81), Pacioretty (67), Subban (76), and Price (31) for the Habs) The logos I did free hand, and damn the Canadiens logo is difficult to do, it looks so simple...so deceiving while the Rangers was the exact opposite.

October Blog News

Nothing really to report.  I did a lot of scheduled posts this month, so I ended up not missing any Short Story Sundays (whoo hoo!) or missing any days when I felt like death.  So I'm going to try to keep up with that.  Have reviews and other stuff set up for at least a week in advance so if something happens I don't fall crazy behind.

As I mentioned earlier, I've been toying with the idea of selling my jewelry, I looked into Etsy and their business model sucks, so I want to do a poll to see how many of you would actually be interested in buying stuff from me, if I should put in the effort to have a shop within my blog.  Let me know your thoughts in the comments, or just vote a simple yes or no in the poll here.  The link to vote is also in the side bar on the left.

September Round Up

My September

Despite the month flying by it seems like Labor Day was ages ago.  I threw a party out at my yacht club which was a blast.  Then on Labor Day the club threw a party with a live band and everything.  I got to race in another club race, this one we received a DNF (did not finish), there was absolutely no wind once we got slightly offshore.  That night I acutally got stuck on the island due to rain, but ended up having an amazing time, someone had his guitar out there and we saw the best sunset of the summer.

Aside from sailing related stuff I took a day trip up to Vermont for a wine and liquor tasting festival.  It was gorgeous up there even though the leaves haven't turned yet.  I may go back on Columbus Day weekend, the foliage is awesome then, especially seeing it from the top of a mountain.

I received my very first Owl Crate.  Unfortunately the book this month was Dumplin' which I already received a copy of (signed to boot!) so I guess that means I'll have to do a giveaway for it at some point soon.  The other goodies from the box were pretty awesome though.  Here's the unboxing photos

In clockwise order I received a dauntless tote bag, a Daenerys Targaryen funko pop keychain (of which I removed the keychain part), an arrow necklace, a meowbox coupon that has a drawing of Hermione and Crookshanks on it, a Hermione print, and Dumplin' by Julie Murphy

Daenerys Targaryen has joined Thor on my computer (for now, we'll see how easily they fall) and Hermione's picture is currently on my wall.  

One of these days I'll have to do a photo-tour of my work desk.  I'm pretty proud of the geekiness of it.  Or I can let little things can surprise you guys in my pictures.  Can you find Harry Potter on my desk?  He makes an appearance in two photos!

I've also been busy with my ballroom showcase I did at the end of the month.  It was fun and went well, minus my slightly sprained ankle.  I go through years of dancing with heels and multiple run-throughs the day of the showcase, and I roll my ankle halfway through the actual performance.  Go me!  Fortunately it's not that bad and I was able to complete the routine, without obvious errors (nobody even noticed that my ankle rolled except my partner who thought I had just stumbled).

September's Artsy Stuff

Despite how busy I've been I did get some craft time in.  

My butterfly wing nails 

This design I found on Pintrest

 My Doctor Who nails, I did them to celebrate the start of the new season.  There's a TARDIS on my thumb if you look closely (it was difficult to get it in the shot)

This design is my own, but is inspired by galaxy nail art and dalek nail art.

I made this watch, and I'm totally obsessed with it.  I think I'm going to do another one in a similar style soonish.

I don't think this bracelet is done, it's definitely missing something, it's so plain and boring right now.  I'm thinking about adding small blue beads in between each ship wheel, but I'm not sold on if that'll do what I'm going for with this.

I made these earrings for fall, I want to do another pair in bronze, since I have bronze leaves as well.  I just need to make a necklace to go with them now :)

September Blog News

The summer giveaway was a success, there were four winners, and miraculously all of their top pics were different, so everyone got the set they wanted!  Congrats Dani, Lauren, Kimberly, and Tara!

As I said above I'll most likely do another US-only giveaway for Dumplin' (the actual released book, not the ARC).   I also wanted to do an international one for Winter or Immortal Heights, I'm not sure which.  I may postpone the international giveaway until early next year.  We'll see how crazy life is going to get for me.  I'm currently in the calm before the storm work-wise.