Upcoming Goals - February

Just one more day until February - is everybody ready for it? I hope you are all doing well and keeping up with your New Year's Resolutions thus far, and that 2017 has been treating you well in general. Since I was focused on setting my New Year's Resolutions in January, I didn't bother focusing on any month-specific goals, but I thought about adding a few of those in for this month might be a good idea to keep me in check, both to help me stay on track with my resolutions and to just keep on trying to achieve as much as possible. We'll start off by rewinding a bit to 2016, since I never got a chance to let you guys know how my goals in December turned out.

If I'm being completely honest, I think I may have put a little too much on my place for December to try and get done while also working a whole lot of hours at the store at the same time XP So I wasn't able to make my own Christmas cards, let alone buy any and send them out, and I didn't have a chance to catch up on any of my snail mail. But I didn't do too badly with my Christmas shopping, and I did actually have time for some Christmas baking thanks to Kurt's mom who helped me, and we baked a lot together in her kitchen which was a big help and also a lot of fun. I'll have to remember if I'm lucky enough to still be at my current job next year to not expect to have a whole lot of free time in December for too many extras, and that I should try as hard as I can to try and do some of my Christmas shopping in the months before the rush really starts.

My Insta Love #3

Time for more fun pictures, whee!

My Captured Moment #6: First Toronto Trip of 2017 PART 2!

Hello again! I do love that I had so much to tell you guys about my first Toronto trip of the year that I had to split it into two separate posts. I apologize for getting this one up a little later than I had expected to, but nevertheless, here it is! And if you missed Part 1 of my recent Toronto adventures, just click here so you can catch up on the first part of the trip which involved checking out an amazing exhibit at the AGO.

Anyway, most of our time was spent at that exhibit - we got there not too long from closing, so we didn't have much time to check out the rest of the gallery - we'll be saving that for another visit. We were able to browse the gift shop a little before we left, then we hightailed it to the subway and headed to Snakes and Lattes. By some miracle, even though we had a group of 5 of us asking for a table, we were able to be seated right away, which NEVER HAPPENS! I thought we were being punk'd at first, and I actually straight-up asked the lady behind the counter that, which got her laughing.

Just a quick reminder on names, Morgan is on the left, Tory is on the right. Not sure they actually knew that I was taking this picture... :P

5 Films in 2017 I'm Excited About

Yes, I am still backtracking with these #5FandomFriday prompts :P Well, at least not as much as last week, because I went and I actually got myself informed about some movies that will be coming out later this year. I won't just be listing some movies that I watched the trailer for and I thought "Hmm, that might be good" either, because I thought that about a lot of films, such as Wonder Woman and Ghost In The Shell. I'm sure those movies will be great, and I'm more than positive that the boyfriend will be dragging me to the cineplex to go and see them, but they're not films that I'm genuinely excited to see, at least not yet. So the movies listed below are films that I am honest-to-goodness excited to go and see in theaters!

#1: Beauty & The Beast! First words I said upon seeing this picture: I'm. In. Love. I didn't even have to debate what would be my #1 pick, because this was the only 2017 movie that I actually knew that I would be running to go and see as soon as humanly possible. I love Emma Watson, both as an actress and as an equal rights and women's rights activist. I loved reading about how she refused to wear a corset during the filming of this movie. And this was of course one of my favorite Disney classics as a child (which underlying messages made me really sad when they were pointed out to me as an adult, but since Emma Watson is starring in a recreation of this story, she must have some good reasons, right? Which means I have no guilt in loving this movie!)

Sims 4 Vampires Game Pack - From The Gaming Enthusiast

Anyone that has known me long enough for me to start chattering their ear off about video games knows that I have been a huge fan of the Sims franchise since I was ten years old (would've been earlier but the day before my brother promised to lend me his game disc and show me how it worked, one of our cousins sat on it while they were all hanging out in his room - years later I still suspect there's more to that story...). I've played the game since Sims 1 and excitedly purchased and installed every expansion pack and almost every stuff pack that has ever been released by EA and Maxis who produce the Sims titles. It took me until the first expansion pack for The Sims 4 was released for me to get genuinely excited about all the potential Sims 4 held that went beyond its predecessors - and with the newest Game Pack, Sims 4 Vampires, they have gone above and beyond my expectations!

This newest game pack not only brings the first occult series into The Sims 4 (discounting Aliens - they're not so much occult as they are our neighbors that live in the sky ((or, y'know, right next door, hiding behind human skin)).), but the pack is chock full of new items in CAS (Create-A-Sim), Build & Buy mode, and it even presents fellow Simmers with a whole new world to explore called Forgotten Hollow. But we all know that getting to play as and interact with other vampires is where the real fun starts with this pack, and that's where I thought I'd focus on with this post.

My Captured Moment #6: First Toronto Trip of 2017 PART 1!

If there's one thing I get excited for more than anything nowadays, it's planning a trip to Toronto, especially when it involves bringing along friends that haven't visited Toronto with me before. This past Sunday, the 22nd of January, we had it all planned out to head to Toronto to visit this special exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario, followed by our traditional stop at our favorite board game cafe, Snakes and Lattes.

From left to right, this is Morgan and Tory. We've been to Toronto before, but it's been a while since we've traveled here together, and I've never gone with them for one of these one-day excursions before. They were good sports about posing for a picture as soon as we got out of the car in the Eaton Center parking lot (though originally I took 3 pictures, and when Morgan took my phone, insisting on taking a picture of me, she deleted one of them because she hates having her picture taken XDD Suppose that's fair).

My Insta Love #2

First and foremost, thanks for all the love you guys showed me for all the InstaLove I showed for a few of my favorite Instagram shots last week :) I had so much fun picking out all of the photos that I've decided to do it again and showcase a few more photos, along with the people on Instagram that have uploaded them. Just like last time, click on the photos to arrive at the Instagram profiles of the owners of each pictures, and I've also included any additional links that were tagged in the photographs. Enjoy!

5 Nerdy Places I Want To Travel To

Oh how I've missed 5 Fandom Friday posts!!! This was one of the first link-ups I ever participated in, and it will always be my absolute favorite. I've already gotten a bit behind with these posts, but since I'm also not very up-to-date with the movies and TV shows of 2017 that I should be looking forward to, I decided to take a step back, and today I'm posting about nerdy places I'd love to travel to. One ultimate bucket list goal of mine is to travel more. It's something I wish I could afford to do, and as I grow older and earn more money I hope it's something I'll be able to afford to do more as time goes on. I especially hope that I'll be able to travel with my amazing boyfriend in tow :)

#1: The Ghibli Museum, Japan! The #1 reason I would like to visit Japan someday, aside from a lifelong love of the culture, would be to get a chance to visit the Ghibli Museum in person. Ever since I received a VHS copy of Kiki's Delivery Service for Christmas when I was 8 years-old, I have loved movies produced by Studio Ghibli, and it would be so amazing to get to go and see this museum of wonderment where all of the worlds of these animated movies have been brought to life. Plus, imagine all of the cool stuff you could buy at their gift shop!!! I actually have a number of Studio Ghibli movies that I haven't even watched yet, which is downright criminal! I should probably get to watching those before I even consider booking my plane tickets...

My Insta Love #1

Like a lot of other people on the internets, I spend a great deal of time on both my computer and my phone scrolling through my Instagram feed, liking photo after photo posted by those that I follow. There are some photos that I downright love and that I feel an immediate compulsion to share with others, but usually there isn't a proper outlet for it. That's why I've decided to share a bunch of photos on my blog once a week that have stuck in my mind from my Instagram feed!

You can click on the photos themselves to see the profile of the person who posted them, and I've made sure to include any additional links that the user chose to tag in the original photo. If you'd like to see one of your photos featured on here, just follow me on Instagram @xxthewrittenwords for a chance to see one of your photos posted on this blog!

@katespadeny @starbuckacanada @studiooh @chaptersindigo

My Captured Moment #5 - Happy Planner 02/01/17-08/01/17

Howdy, folks! I've decided to add a fun new twist to the My Captured Moment post series, where occasionally I'll be showing off weekly layouts from my Happy Planner - you'll not only get to see what I've been up to in the past week, but you'll get to check out how I've decided to decorate the pages of my planner, and even see some of the photos that I took that week and stuck in my planner. Enjoy the photos, and let me know in the comments below if you're a fellow planner enthusiast :)

2017's New Year's Resolutions

Out with the old, in with the new! Goodbye 2016, hello 2017, etc., etc! I'm honestly looking forward to this new year ahead of us - 2016 didn't end well, with a lot of family emergencies and hearing bout a lot of deaths, both with celebrities and within the families of people I'm close with. But looking back at the end of last year, it still makes me feel good to see all that I've accomplished in the past year. At the end of 2016, I have a part-time job, I've been dating the love of my life for over a year now, I've moved into my grandmother's place with my mother, and overall I feel like I have more direction in my life than I did the previous year. I feel much more confident setting these resolutions, and I hope that I can stick with each and every one of them :)

Resolution #1: Move in with My Boyfriend Kurt by the End of 2017!

This is definitely the biggest one by far, and it's something that's obviously not entirely dependent on me, but it's still a goal of mine, and something I like to aspire to and strive towards in my life. It was only a couple of months ago that we decided that we liked the idea of the two of us moving in together - one day, when we could afford it, and when the two of us are ready. Because my new living situation with my mother and grandmother is a bit more cramped, saving up with this goal in mind is going to be a big priority in 2017 for me.