5 Books On My Wishlist

Because I've been more or less broke the entire summer, buying books has been near the bottom of my priority list. Now that I have a year-round job, once I have a little extra spending money, it will finally be time to hit up the local bookstore where I used to work :) There's a decent number of books I'm hoping to pick up, and some of them haven't even been released yet, but I'm still excited to get my readin' on!

#1: Girl Online: Going Solo by Zoe Sugg! Been waiting quite a long time for the 3rd addition (probably the end?) of this series. I've reviewed both the first and second book in the Girl Online series by the beloved Zoella, and I have mentioned that both of these books were there for me at pretty difficult times in my life, and the anxious main character is somebody I can easily connect with. I loved how she is seeking out being independent and pursuing her dreams, and I can't wait to read more about how things will go for her in the next edition of this series.

Upcoming Goals - October

With the multiple times I've been MIA on TWW(s) this year, I've been trying to organize my time better, while still working through moving to a new place and starting a new year-round job. This month, I wanted to plan ahead and set some goals for the coming month. Maybe I'll even get into the habit of setting monthly goals and I'll update you on their progress as time goes on. For now, I'm not going to start out too crazy, but there are definitely a few things I'd like to get done - or at least started - during the month of October.

#1: Buy A Planner.

While I do currently have a planner of my own, I've been wanting to upgrade to a new one for a long time now. After doing quite a bit of research online, I've decided that when the time comes, I'll be buying one of the new 2016 Happy Planners - which means that a trip to Michaels is in my future :D If I get to do a major haul, I'll make sure to show you guys all of my new crafting goodies!

An Anxious Girl's Guide To Tackling A Project

Quick Note: Mental illness is a serious issue, and I am very aware of this fact, as I suffer from anxiety and depression among other things. Included in this post are my opinions about my own personal experiences, and I am not in any way attempting to make a bold claim about mental health as a whole.

You have something that you need to get done, but you feel that you just can't. You have a mental block that is keeping you from finishing that very important project. Maybe you have an essay that is coming due. Maybe you need to clean and organize your room, which currently resembles the sea of decay. You realize that to most this might be an easy task, but you just can't figure out how to work past this growing anxiety that's churning in your brain.

I completely understand how you feel. More often than not, I have become a slave to my own anxiety, and it has effected my quality of life on a number of occasions. It has even kept me from updating this blog at times, but after getting to know myself, my own needs and desires, I've started to work hard at quelling those anxious thoughts and trying to make my situation as painless as possible. That's why I've decided to create this little guide with a few tips to helping others with anxiety and other mental health issues to finish those pending projects and helping them work at meeting their own deadlines.

So you've picked a date when you would really like to start tackling that project head-on, and even the day before you're starting to dread the goal you've set for yourself. Worry not, because you haven't set yourself up for failure. It helps to figure out the day before how you would like to start your "big day" and then making any preparations the night before that will make things easier for you. Perhaps picking out clothes the night before will help you feel better prepared the next day, even if your project is an at-home one where nobody will see you. It's all about your state of mind, and anything that will make you feel your absolute best is valid.

You also might want to consider pampering yourself a bit the night before, so that you will feel positive, refreshed, and fully rested when you wake up in the morning. Some of my personal favorite ways to lead up to a big day are to take a relaxing bath or shower, put on my softest PJs or a robe, curl up in a bed with clean sheets, a glass of water at my bedside, and then I like to put on a couple episodes of my favorite show. Whether it's something I'll actively watch before turning in, or something I've seen a million times to put on in the background as I doze off. Set up the best conditions for yourself so that you get your best start in the morning, and try to take deep breaths whenever you catch yourself worrying and obsessing about the next day.

Pokemon Go Book Tag!

I found a post with this tag on Lazy Lady's blog and I thought that it might be a good spot of fun! Like the rest of the world, I am obsessed with Pokemon Go, and still enjoy trips out with my boyfriend to go out and find Pokestops and to walk enough to hatch our respective Poke-Eggs. Big thanks to Read At Midnight for creating this tag as well as all the awesome graphics.

I used to read a lot in grade school, but lost interest for a little while in the 7th grade, then in high school I started reading manga non-stop, then my friends convinced me to read the Twilight series, which led to other vampire YA fiction, which led to me reading everything else. Still, I'd hate to say that Twilight started my love for reading in my young adult life, so I'm going to say Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen. It was turned into an awesome movie a few years back, but before that it became a book I loved followed by a book I had to hunt down because I couldn't remember the name of the title or author anymore. It took me years to finally order myself a hardcover copy for my collection :)

Animal Onesies - HELP ME CHOOSE!

Hello all! So this post is going to be a little different, because I need your help with something - For a while, I've been wanting to order myself my very own animal onesie. In my mind, an animal onesie would be the perfect thing to wear on those evenings where I'm feeling anxious or blue and need to snuggle up with my favorite snacks and my magic blanket. Thing is, there are SO MANY, and they're all SO CUTE! I figure I could use some outside opinions, so I've decided that I'm gonna share my favorite ones with you, and you can tell me in the comments which one I should get :)

The Sloth!

This is an obvious choice for me for a few reasons - I'm incredibly lazy, I'm not the fastest person out there, and I love to curl up and take couch naps whenever I can :)

Settlers Of Catan Cupcakes

Let's face it - nobody can possibly beat the awesome birthday cupcake cake that me and my boyfriend worked together to prepare & decorate :) Tabletop nerds all around the world will be envious of my awesome baking skills! XP I'd probably brag more if this was my original idea, but tbh this idea was originally created by Nerdy Nummies (you can find her video here) and a lot of other people have re-created Ro's inspired treats, and it was her video and the various Google images I found of other people's attempts of Settlers of Catan cupcakes that made me want to try my own.

One great thing about making these cupcakes is that you can use your favorite cake recipe to make these cupcakes, any kind works! I've seen pictures of vanilla cupcakes, chocolate cupcakes, and I'm sure even marble would work perfectly well. It's the decorating that matters! For mine, since it was my birthday, I decided on a Rainbow Bit boxed cake recipe.

As for the decorations, there's no strict guidelines or rules - there are SO many options to help create every resource found in Settlers of Catan, and you can use whatever you can find in your local grocery story, candy shop, Bulk Barn, etc. Here is a list of what you need, along with some suggestions on what you might use for each resource.

I'm Back & What's Been Happening

I'M BAAAA-ACK! ..... Again :P

I promise that I will get out of the habit of going on long hiatuses as soon as humanly possible. But it has been a very busy & productive summer! Trust me, when I first came back from a long absence, I intended to stick around, but maybe a week later some real-life stuff happened and I thought "Oh... Guess I'm going to end up disappearing again XP

Tbh, I'm not 100% back yet - due to one of the things that I'm about to tell you about very shortly, I can't really start blogging about fun things in full force just yet, but I promise you that it's going to be happening soon. Since I haven't been around to blog too much about my summer in detail, I thought I'd share the highlights with all of you in this little catch-up post :) So here we go, starting with the biggest event.

#1: I'm Moving!

It's the end of an era - a 19 year-old era to be specific. That's how long I have lived in my current home that I share with my mother and my 8 year-old adopted puppy Rocket. I was 5 when I moved in here 19 Septembers ago, and the time has come for a big change. I will continue to live with my mother, but the three of us will be moving in to my grandmother's house early this fall. For a number of reasons, we've decided that my grandmother could use some extra company, so we've spent the majority of this summer packing up everything in the house and getting it ready to sell. We're nearing the finish line, but there still some work to be done (including packing up my entire bedroom, which is terrifying to think of XP )