whatcha readin'? {it's a brand new year}

February 6, 2017 Arlene Giddings

as i apparently have no photos of books on hand, here is a photo of a fairy tale looking forest that makes me think about something i would read in a book. :)

i went into 2016 with a goal of reading 12 books.

the year before
i had only read 8.

8 books.

me.

8 books...in a WHOLE year.
my face is still burning with embarrassment.

so i had set the bar low for 2016
(but not as low as EIGHT for crying out loud)
and set it at 12...
i read 18 in total, so yay me!

considering i have no weddings this year,
i am raising the goal to 24 (and hoping to exceed).
one down already!
off to a good start, heeheehee.

on a related topic,
i am trying to complete some of my 50 before 50 list
(because you know...50 is coming...faster than it should be, but definitely coming)
and one of the items on my list is to read everything by
LM Montgomery...including the journals.
i have already read a good number of her books
most of them many, many times
but am going to try to re-read them all anyway...
i have never read the journals so i'm looking forward to that, too.
(first i have to find them...i don't really want to buy them all...
but may have to).

Also open to book suggestions for this year....fire away!
:) :) :)

catching up on the bullet journal

February 5, 2017 Arlene Giddings

and....it's done!

i liked the idea of doing a "doodle a day" challenge
but was finding it hard to follow the prompts
so i thought that, for december, i would do my own.

i used my "word" for the year, ADVENTURE, as a bit of a loose "theme"
and built on it from there.
every day, i added a little something to the page.
some days it was a big thing
but most of the time,
it was a tiny star or a flower...
and i colored it in a bit as i went
and finished coloring it in today.

i really enjoyed doing this...
i am going to do it again for february
with a heart/valentine/red/pink theme...
stay tuned!
♥ ♥

hello february!

February 4, 2017 Arlene Giddings

i have not been here on the blog for awhile.
i know i said i was going to be
but january was a mix of finishing up weddings
and tearing my kitchen apart to reorganize
AND getting completely lost in
snuggling on the couch with that guy i love
fuzzy pjs with blankets & diet coke & popcorn
watching true detective and the 100...
soooo good.
and so gawd damn addictive....
(both the shows and the snuggling)
heeheehee

so, to celebrate finishing and delivering the LAST of my weddings
for 2016:) :) :) :)
i decided to completely reorganize my little "corner".
SIDENOTE: one of the things i love about S. is that he does not care
at all
when i take over a quarter of the living room
to house my pencil crayons, markers and smurf collection.

SIDENOTE #2: i know have at least 80 smurfs...almost 99!
but, i have like 5 smurfettes so really, they don't all count.

i had totally forgotten about my ceramic mushroom
until i was cleaning out the kitchen cupboards...
the woman that owned our house had a ceramic studio
in the barn and had a ton of ceramics stored there...
when i saw the smurf mushroom house in the barn,
i took that as a direct sign that S was right,
we had to buy this house...it was meant for us.
she let me keep the mushroom...
but not the kiln...which i would have loved to have kept! :)

and yes...i know the smurf on the mushroom is wearing red
but shouldn't really be wearing red unlesssssss
he is a young papa smurf before the beard...
so...that's the theory we are going with.

i absolutely love how this looks now...
i didn't have enough space on the desk before
& i needed to find a place where i could put my camera
that would be both
accessible to me without too much work
but
NOT accessible to the cats/feline destruction team...
now that the weddings are over,
i want to try to get back to
actually using my cameras again
without being scared
something may happen to them
with a wedding coming up...
and now i can use them without fear!

so now instead of brides and
wedding bouquets, i hope you are ready to be
bombarded with photos of smurfs and pugs,
my feet, the felines,
and a multitude of sunrises/sunsets...
:)

here's a cute pug to start the bombardment off right....

tuesday truths

January 10, 2017 Arlene Giddings

♥
i've made a lot of new years resolutions this year
but, you'll be relieved to know,
giving up diet coke
was not one of them.

♥♥
i am in love with this show
and cannot believe that more people
are not raving about it...
it. is. so. funny.

♥♥♥
speaking of tv's...
ours decided last night that it no longer
wanted to exist in this world....it finally broke for real...
after warning us for months that this was coming...
which has made us very sad
and slightly panicky...
WE HAVE NO TV.

♥♥♥♥
i almost forgot to tell you this
but it's very, very important.
i loved the book "girl on the train"...
like...loved it....
but ohmygawdthemovie was SO freakin' bad.
and i LOVE emily blunt....normally...
what has happened.
i mean, i am used to and slightly expecting
that a movie is not going to live up to a book
but this....
this was painful.

♥♥♥♥♥
i dropped my phone twice yesterday.
do you have any idea how absolutely
terrifying that is...
if i break my phone,
THERE IS NOTHING TO REPLACE IT WITH
UNTIL THE NOTE 7 STOPS EXPLODING.
it's like carrying around a limited edition
12" EP of little red corvette that was pressed
by Prince himself in his own studio in the backyard
of Paisley Park and autographed
in his own blood
every day...
it can't be replaced and
it could break AT ANY TIME...

♥♥♥♥♥♥
one of the new years resolutions
that i DID make
is to blog more
so...
consider yourself warned.
heh.
but the good thing is
my resolve to follow resolutions
is
generally short lived.
:)

whatcha readin'? {2016::book 18 - goal 12}

January 9, 2017 Arlene Giddings

i wanted to love this book
as much as i loved the Book of Negroes
but i found it difficult...
it might have nothing to do with the book itself
and more to do with the fact
that i was trying to fit it in over
work, Christmas, wedding photo editing, emails
and multiple trips to Moncton
to pick up and take back my girl.

maybe a period of undivided time
would have suited this book better.

regardless, it was still a very good book...
the dialogue felt a little stiff/not fully believable
in places but again...i just dropping in and out of the book
and not giving it my full attention.
i would still totally recommend this...

and that brings me to the last of my books for 2016!
i had set a meager goal of 12 because the year before
i think i had only read 8
(i am literally hanging my head in shame as i type that...
8...8 books....what happened to me???)
so this year i beat my goal of 12.

for 2017, i am aiming for 24 but am hoping that because i
will be done of weddings soon...i will have SO much more time
to indulge in books...any recommendations?

3.5 out of 5 ♥♥♥1/2

NEXT UP: BOYS IN THE TREES - CARLY SIMON