Hi friends! I am loving this long weekend, how about you? If you have to work today, I am sincerely sorry. I understand though; I used to have to work every other weekend and most holidays. I love my new schedule! Anyway, here are a few things buzzing around in my head today.

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The Bachelorette Recap & Review

My brother is one of the main contributors to the blog ApeDonkey (I have no idea why it’s called that), which features mostly TV reviews. Since it’s only guys writing the blog they tend to feature masculine shows. I asked him jokingly if he was going to recap The Bachelorette this season, and he in all seriousness suggested that I do so. And because I don’t have anything else going on in my life right now, I said yes. I’m not ashamed to admit that I quite enjoy this show despite its ridiculousness and cheese factor. Anyway, I watched the season premiere late so my first recap is just now up. Read it and comment please! It was my first attempt at writing a TV show review, so hopefully I’ll improve throughout the season. :)

Reading Challenge

Here’s yet another thing that I’m taking on this summer: Ashley’s Infinite Jest in a summer challenge! I love read-a-longs and book challenges, and after reading the summary and reviews of Infinite Jest (apparently it’s kind of a modern classic) I decided that it’s something I’m definitely interested in. Although the book is 1000+ pages long, we’re reading it all summer which boils down to about 15 pages a day. I think I can do that! I’ve purchased it for my Sony Reader so I don’t have to lug around such a fat volume, and we start reading June 1st. Visit Ashley’s blog if you want to participate!

Nursery Progress

This weekend we finished painting the nursery, installed new blinds, and put all the furniture together. It’s starting to actually look like a baby’s room now! There is still a lot of work to be done: put up curtains, repaint an old rocking chair, obtain crib bedding, put up wall decorations, and organize. But still, it’s exciting.

Call For Blog Ideas

I feel like I’ve been neglecting this blog a little bit, and although I’ve sort of done it on purpose because it can’t be my priority right now, I’ve been brainstorming ways to put some fresh life into it and keep it fun. One thing I love in other blogs are recurring features or series of posts. I’ve got a few ideas in mind, but I was wondering, what are your favorites? My goal is to use my weekend downtime to get 2-3 posts scheduled for each week, and if I have some features planned it’ll be easier to meet that.

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Thanks y’all! Enjoy the rest of your holiday, and I hope your week goes by fast!

First of all, I’m so happy with the results of the reading polls I posted at the beginning of this week! Not one person said they don’t read at all, and most of you read one to five books a month. I personally usually read two to three, up to five in a good month. Overwhelmingly your favorite genre is literary fiction & classics, just like me. The majority of you do most of your reading on the couch or in bed, but I get most of my reading done on the bus.

Now that I know I for sure have some fellow book lovers out there, I’m hoping you’ll come check out my brand new book blog! It’s not perfect and it’ll be expanding soon, but it’s been released to the public. If you’re interested, please come check out my introductory post over there and look around. Notice the new link in my header that says “Reading”: that will take you where you need to go from now on. I’ll continue to post book reviews every so often here as well, but the majority will probably only pop up over there.

Now let me know: which of you considers reading to be one of your primary hobbies? Do you read book blogs, and do they interest you? What kind of posts would you like to see there?

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I’ve installed Google Friend Connect on my blog, and I’d love it if you click through and become a follower. I only have five right now including myself, and that’s just sad. :)

Also, coming up in the near future I’ll be launching an ancillary blog dedicated to books, reading, and other literary thoughts. Reading has always been my primary hobby and lately I’ve been getting into the whole book blogging culture. I want this space to stay dedicated to personal stuff and I don’t want to bore those of you who aren’t as interested in books, but I do want to explore that area of my life in more depth. I’m really excited about how it’s coming together, and I hope some of you will check it out when it’s ready!

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Ever since the other weekend when I treated myself to a Starbucks mocha frappuccino I’ve been craving them. What I don’t crave is the $5 price tag, so I decided to learn how to make them myself. I had no idea it would be so easy. I’ve been using this guide from Savory Sweet Life except that I adjust it to taste which usually means extra chocolate syrup!

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I bought new heels recently for a wedding, and this is something to be recorded because one of my 101 goals is to buy three new pairs.

They are the perfect height, are actually extremely comfortable (even pregnant – but notice the tiny amount of extra room since I know my feet will grow), and I love the peep toe and the cutout at the heel. I chose a beige/nude color because they’ll go with lots of things. The brand is LifeStride and I got them at Famous Footwear.

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Today is the day that I finally break down and buy some more clothes. I’m not going for full-on maternity stuff, just some regular t-shirts, tank tops, sundresses, and yoga pants that I’ll be able to wear even when I’m not pregnant.

That’s it for now! Enjoy the rest of your weekend. :)

When I first read this prompt, I had no idea how to answer it. The thing is, I don’t consider myself a writer. I’ve never had any dreams of getting anything published. I understand that many people who want to be writers start out blogging because it’s a way to start writing and make connections. But blogging and emailing are the only kinds of writing I ever do and they’re the only kinds I have a desire to do.

That said, blogging and emailing are quite important to me. I do enjoy the writing process, and I highly value the connections I’ve made through my blog. And I keep up with some of my best friends, who live in other states, through emails. They are pretty impressive emails, too. I’d like to think that if any of us got famous one day they’d want to publish those emails.

So what keeps me from blogging and emailing more?

Well, the rest of my life. I only have a few hours every evening after I get home from work and before sleep takes me by force, and there are other things I’m interested in too, like spending time with family, eating, playing with my dogs, reading, whipping my house into shape, and a few–only a few–select TV shows.

All of the things I have going on in my life are things that are important to me, and I’m not willing to eliminate them. I honestly don’t have a lot of time-wasters happening. So instead of exchanging one habit for another, I’ll just have to work on balancing it all.

Well today I can finally tell you what it’s all about! I have teamed up with a company called Open Sky who is making online shopping what it should be. I don’t know about you, but when I decide to buy something I don’t just want to choose it randomly. Online reviews help, but how do I know that I can trust the reviewer? The way that I end up buying almost everything is from personal recommendations, and that’s what Open Sky is bringing to online shopping.

Starting August 10, I’ll be launching my very own store! I will be handpicking the items that go in it, and I guarantee that they will only be products that I personally own, love, and believe in. These aren’t going to be things that you can find in any big box store, they’re going to be mostly from small, independent businesses; another reason I’m in love with this.

The shop will be small to begin with, but I’ll add products as I try them out. Those who are closest to me know that I defend the things I love vehemently (just try to say something negative about Houston), and I get so much pleasure out of sharing those things. I’ll highlight some of my favorites here, and on a related note I’m going to begin reviewing other things as well. I already do books, but that will be expanding to include movies, products (not just those in my shop), and even activities.

The great thing about Open Sky is that it’s completely my own; they just make the connection happen. That means if you have questions about an item or want to see something specific added, just ask me! I’ll bend over backwards to help you out. Also, guess what? You can open your own shop too! Just visit the Open Sky website, fill out a contact form, and they’ll be in touch. It’s so easy and fun!

I can’t wait till it all goes live. In the meantime, let me know if you have any questions or comments. Want to know how I got started with this? What the process is like? Is there anything specific you’d like to see sold? As of now I’m focusing on pets, fitness, organic, beauty, and home accessories, plus some other random things. I hope you love it!

And if you don’t feel like watching it, I’ll just tell you: CW won! Yay CW!

And now, I’m going to bed.

I want to thank Elizabeth for coordinating Her Cozy Swap. Getting a package in the mail full of fun stuff just for me completely made my day, and thanks to Renee’s awesomeness (she was my partner) I’ll be enjoying it for a long time to come!

Check out what I got. SO fun!

The box packed full of possibilities & fun!

A mug, new teas to try, and chocolate. Can't go wrong there!

She started me out with my first microfiber cloths. I might have used them before taking this picture.

An adorable scarf. I'm excited about it because I've been wanting to accessorize more. :)

Reading material! Perfect for me.

Wasn’t that a lovely package? I think we need to do these swaps more often. :)

Yes, the web design of my dreams is within reach, and all I have to do to get in a better mood now is look at the preview of what we have so far. The unfortunate side effect is that now I can hardly stand to look at my current design, but on the other hand I am full of ideas and plans for the future.

Because of this my blogging enthusiasm is running high, and in an effort to keep myself on some sort of posting schedule, I’ve come up with a plan. Whether or not I stick to it is a different matter, and of course it all depends on how I feel that day or if I’m working for 12 hours. But the point is to be a more regular presence here, which I hope I can achieve.

Monday, I will enthrall you with my weekend antics, unless I have been utterly boring that weekend and done nothing but work, and then I will enthrall you with some other sort of life tidbit.

Tuesday, I will attempt to answer Chelsea’s Ten on Tuesday questions, unless I don’t have any good answers.

Wednesday, I will write about whatever I want. You’re welcome.

Thursday, I will discuss things of a literary nature, since apart from blogging reading is my #1 hobby.

Friday, I will offer up my weekly letters, which I said were going to become a regular feature last week, yet I’ve already skipped a week of them.

Weekends, I will post if I have something burning inside of me that just can’t be held in any longer. Such as this.

Are you on the edge of your seat? I’m not, I’m lounging back in my husband’s armchair that I commandeered while he went to run an errand and now I don’t think I’ll ever give up. (It may be ugly, but it is comfortable.) But mentally, I’m totally excited, and I hope you are too.

I would really, really like to win this computer. Not for myself, because once I went Mac I don’t think I can go back. But for my husband, because his laptop causes him to curse at least once a night, if he can even bring himself to use it. I had to use his computer myself when my hard drive crashed awhile ago, and I don’t know how he puts up with it. Sadly, a new computer is not in the budget for either of us anytime soon, hence my effort to win this giveaway. And maybe if I won, he’d start to like this blogging thing a little more. :)

Enter the giveaway here!

Posting every day isn’t something that is a priority for me to continue, but I have gotten into the habit and I think I’ll be a lot more frequent than I used to be. I really appreciate everyone who has encouraged me this month, who have told me how much they enjoy my daily posts. I love the creative outlet that my blog is to me, but the main reason I keep it up is because of the community and the people. Thanks, y’all.