Showing posts with label winter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label winter. Show all posts
How is it already Winter?! Wasn't it just Fall?! Time passes so much more faster as an adult and the fact that this is literally a fact blows my mind. How unfair. Wish someone had told me this was another side effect of adult hood lol.
Texas weather is crazy; we've gone from 30's and next week we're going back up to 80's. Clearly Texas doesn't play by seasonal themes. At all. Which wouldn't be so wild if it at least didn't make it Winter and Summer in one week.
I attempted to do holiday photos yesterday and it went... not as I expected what so ever. But at least I attempted, I guess? It's super difficult with kids who like to randomly just run off for any given reason. Like, this is why parents have those leash bags. Crazy kids.
drink hot cocoa
Okay this one I already did at The Dallas Farmers Market. And we had a Hot Cocoa night with the girls. I do want to go somewhere and get one more cup of Hot Cocoa from somewhere. Maybe a bakery or something, I haven't decided yet but somewhere possibly fancy. But a nice cup of Hot Cocoa sounds super festive and cozy. Throw in reading the last few books of the year in there!
see holiday lights
We drove around the higher end of Dallas and saw some amazing lit up houses along the way. Like, big ass houses that just had a whole light up display. I don't do this as often as I use to, so I'm glad I got to this year. I've always wanted to do those drive up light displays but now I can't seem to find any of them!
go ice skating
I would go ice skating with friends every year when I still lived in The Bay Area and we'd go to San Francisco and spend the afternoon ice skating before spending the rest of the afternoon playing DDR. It's been years since I last went ice skating and I know my oldest has been asking to go lately. I really want to take her but she's still at that age where she gets really upset if she can't do something she's never done perfectly on the first try. Soooo, I'm not entirely convinced I should take her but it would be fun to let her try it. Or it could be the worst idea ever, but hey, that can apply to any choice lol.
bake holiday cookies
I've had a KitchenAid for like, 4 years now, no joke. And normal pre babies me would be super excited about that but just thinking about baking anything already got me tired. Just thinking about it. Shame since I went to culinary school for baking & pastry and I haven't done shit in a really long time.
That said, I actually got cookie cutters and all kinds of other shit so I wouldn't have any excuse to not bake cookies this holiday season. We'll see how that goes.
refresh my gaming set up
Since getting my new upgraded gaming pc, I've been wanting to redo my whole desk. The problem is that it's an L shaped desk but it's pretty small. So instead of feeling like I have more desk space, I end up running into the longer part with my chair a lot. I even have it placed the opposite way I had it in the last place because I kept banging my knee/leg getting in and out of my chair and ended up with bruises everywhere. Like yo, this shouldn't be so damn difficult!
Other than that, I want to redecorate the whole area itself. I have my floating shelves up but I need to organize what exactly I want displayed up there. As well as on my monitor shelf. I'm wondering if having an actual sound bar was a good or bad idea. It does take up some space but I don't really want separate speakers either. And of course, you can't have enough RGB items... despite my gaming chair, my sound bar, and my extension tower all light up. Oh and of course the side of my pc that's open and the front. Still doesn't feel like enough lmao.
make one cocktail drink
Typically my husband is the one who makes me drinks. Which is fascinating since he doesn't drink. He's never had a drink and he doesn't really believe in it. He's one of those straight edgers or whatever. I don't know, nor would I know lmao. But for someone who doesn't test drink what he makes me nor knows what alcohol tastes like other than my off the wall ass descriptions, there are some drinks he's made that I've loveeeeeeeeeeed.
And while I'm not trying to take that job from him, I do want to learn how to make my own drinks and mix something up that I like. My brother (as in my real biological one) is/was a bartender for a very well known club in San Francisco for a few years and I'd run into him in the living room or kitchen or wherever he decided to practice his drink mixing and he'd usually be mixing drinks during our holiday parties.
Just something new I'd like to try. Honestly I'm more into mocktails now that I'm older but this also sounds like it could be fun.
re-evaluate my shops & businesses for 2026
Re-eval as in have a better idea of what I want to accomplish for each shop and each stream of income. While having a vague idea has been working, I feel like it's just contributing to my brain fog even more, if that makes sense. Not just that but I want to start a test shop to test a potential shop idea, but even that, I need to have a much more clear idea of what exactly I'm trying to test.
I'd love for all of this to be a bit more organized.
That includes writing down and planning new launches, self. This also includes idea's and rebranding concepts, thanks.
do a deep in my soul purge of non joyful things
I hesitate like a mf to get this one done. I want to let things go, but I don't want to feel like I'm abandoning those parts of me or my life, which I get that I'm not, but as someone who constantly had the things they held close and dear either be broken in front of them (on purpose) or taken away from them growing up -- it can be hard.
It's hard for me to let go of anything because of that reason. I cling to my things even more because that's how me and my stuff were treated my entire life until I moved out and even then, the boys I lived with always felt like they had a right to throw my stuff away. And some without even telling me. How anyone thinks that's their right, their choice to make or think it's even okay is way fuckin beyond me. You don't touch someone else's stuff, period.
But over the years I've let go of a lot of people I thought I'd have in my life for life. I've realized that we outgrow people and things. We outgrow memories. And that's okay, as long as it's within our timeline. Not someone else's.
I know why I'm like this. And I know why it's hard for me to even think of letting my stuff go, but I also know that I have to let go of older stuff, stuff that doesn't even serve me anymore, to make room for new stuff and stuff that just might.
And I'm hoping to do the majority of this before New Years Eve... that's the goal anyway.
What are some things on your winter bucket list?
When I was 16 I went through my first major break up and at the time it was devastating as I guess every first break up is; but my ass took it way too hard. I stopped going to school. I was too depressed to do anything, even get out of bed. I just couldn't understand why I wasn't enough (so glad I got over this set back in my 30's). And after we broke up my ex gave me the coldest shoulder. I mean, ok, I was a little psycho back then with no remorse but still! This dude hurt me. It's been almost 20 years and he still won't talk to me lmao!
During that time I did my first self reflection. Learned about rebuilding myself and knowing myself better. I rented a ton of movies that I still watch every winter. I got more serious about blogging every single day... literally. Back when Xanga and LiveJournal ruled the blogging world. I learned to love myself regardless of what he or anyone else thought about me.
So this time of year reminds me of the sadness I endured but also the obsession with rebuilding and getting to know myself.
Movies
| Serendipity
It also made me super obsessed with trying Serendipity (a very real place in NYC). My mom actually went and tried it FOR me, brought me back some Hot Chocolate mixes and a cookbook! In 2009 when I got married in Vegas I finally got to try it and OMG their Frozen Hot Chocolate? AMAZING. I love it. I'm sad to hear they closed down the Vegas location. I went every year for my birthday after that!
| Bring it On
I mean, I don't think I need to say much about why I love Bring it On. But this is definitely one of my favorite parts lmao. I still think they shoulda beat they asses!
| Next Friday
Well, here go my ghetto showing. My brother got tired of hearing me watch sappy rom-com's so he made me sit down and watch Next Friday. I can't remember if we were high at the time or not but I do remember I could NOT stop laughing. Even when I watch it now (also 19 years later) I still crack up at the same parts.
DaeDae and Baby D always got me rolling. How he talks about how she got them bootleg snacks. My cousin use to throw that scene at me every time I got excited about snacks lmao.
Reads
These have nothing to do with being 16 or my first breakup lol. I was a serious book buchlogger in 2009 up until I did my Disney College Program in 2011. Working 16hrs a day gave me no time to read. Let alone sleep. But in those years I found a lot of favorites.
I miss my book blogging days because I'd come across so many awesome reads. I miss the feeling of falling in love with a book. There's only one book I try to read every year (which has now become a Netflix original)! The rest are books I'm hoping to get to this December!
| Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
I honestly had ZERO idea what I was getting into when I picked this one up. I don't think I got this for review, but I did get the second one for review.
I fell in love with both Dash and Lily; mostly Lily. I loved the idea of "meeting someone" in a book store. And the secrecy of who they were was really cute. I haven't watched the show yet but I plan to, hopefully BEFORE Christmas.
ON MY TBR
| In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren
I read Hazel & Josh's Guide to Not Dating a year or two ago? And absolutely loved it! I admit I haven't picked up any of this author's reads since then but there was no way I was going to pass this one up! It's currently what I'm reading/listening to on audiobook. Thanks Scribd!
| The Twelve Days of Dash and Lily by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
I haven't finished reading this series, I'm not really sure why besides the last few years have been really bad in terms of reading. I'm trying my best to do a better job of playing catch up but Dec has made it a bit difficult.
| A Wild Winter Swan by Gregory Maguire
I have this unrealistic expectation of Gregory Maguire books; I know I'll love them, but this is like, the highest fantasy I've ever read and I tend to get confused or you know, the book is just so damn thick it's intimidating. I'm doing this one on audio (yes thanks to Scribd) as well and the first chapter was in a whole different language??
| Love Your Life by Sophie Kinsella
I'm not even going to express my love for Sophie's work. I wasn't a big fan of Confessions of a Shopaholic which is weird since I love me some good retail therapy but I did fall in love with I've Got Your Number.
Winter is my favorite time of year to just stay in bed and bundle up watching movies or reading books. I wish I had a reading chair, maybe that's something I'll look into for 2021!
2020 hasn't been the jam for most people; I guess this is our version of The Great Depression. I've been away from home since 2013. That's the last Christmas I spent with my family and the last time I saw my dad. I was really hoping to go home for the holidays this year, be around family. Because in the light of losing my dad I realize just how important your own family and support system is. My friends and my cousins have always without judgement or question had my back since day 1. And I'm so lucky to know some of these friends for 30-something years. Nothing compares to them, that, or our bond.
And with people trying to step in claiming they're my support system when they don't or don't even care to get to know me; it's really put a lot of things in perspective. But toxic narcs will always be toxic narcs and that's fine. I'm 100% fine sitting here with my girls, my snacks and my movies.
What are some of your favorite movies or reads for winter?
Christmas time definitely has me a lot to be excited about --- there's just something so magical in the air during this time. All the lights, Peppermint and Gingerbread flavored everything, all the colors, all the cute holiday gift sets to view in the stores, all the decorations put up everywhere!
I was hoping to be a little bit more prepared for Vlog and Blogmas this year and yet I wasn't, I'm SLIGHTLY disappointed in myself but not by too much. I just don't really like scrambling to figure out content for THAT EXACT DAY. I use to be so much better/more organized when it came to blogging. Whatever did happen to those days?!
I've been adjusting to the cold weather here in Texas; I've grown so use to 90* year round weather from living in Florida for the last years that adjusting to a cold winter again after that long is a pretty hard transition! It was snowing in Austin a few nights ago but so far no snow here in DFW! Sucks! I'm waiting on it! It snowed last year, the weekend AFTER I went home. Other than that the fact I've had a cold since October that seems to never be going away and just increasing and decreasing has been rather annoying. So I've been coughing my nights away and feeling drained during the day.
Still, I won't let it stop me from enjoying as much of a real winter and a real Christmas as much as I can!
I still have yet to decide to bake anything this holiday season and while I've filled up my Pinterest boards with loads of idea's I haven't still decided on one particular one to try out just yet. I mean I've decided on one, so hopefully next week I'll get to attempt it!
I've also got to do something about my kitchen set up because I still have the Halloween runner on the table and that's just gotta go! It's just getting all the bits and bobs off that table (that shouldn't even be there to begin with) that's part of the problem. Ugh.
I've decided go cut down on the things I have going into 2018 because it's just all starting to drive me nuts, then again I say this pretty much twice a year. So we'll see how that goes. But I'm really hoping to tidy up my place a lot more before Christmas and New Year's gets here! Having a dizzy cat who tacks cat litter everywhere certainly doesn't help but I need to see what I can find to help her keep that litter off her tiny little paws.
There's not very many adventures planned this month sadly like there was last year but it's okay, adjusting to this weather and to other things are a little bit more important to me at the moment and I'll make up for it next winter when I hope to be more prepared for 40* - 30* days! Thankfully my mom sent me some cute winter clothes she had found and Bubba got me some fleece pj's I had wanted from Target yesterday when he went to grab me some stuff. And he also got me this really cute Grumpy Care Bears fleece poncho with a hood! I'm pretty obsessed with it already! I just threw it in the wash so I don't have pictures.
Speaking of, I need to make it into a habit of taking more photos with my actual cameras and less with my phone (which I've also been saying for years...) just because the iPhone photo quality is starting to bother me a bit. Sometimes it's really nice and clear and other times it's blurry af. I don't know why that is but sometimes it just is. So yeah, I need to make it a point to start using my actual camera.
I'm 18 books behind on my goal of reading 36 books this month, whomp. I highly doubt I'll be able to catch that up by much but I could try. I borrowed some shorter Middle Grade books from the library from a series I wasn't aware was still being made and Bubba let me open one of the Middle Grade books he got me for Christmas called The Magic Misfits by Neil Patrick Harris so those are definitely going to go on my TBR pile for this month.
What are some of your plans this month?
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