TILT: Halloween Goodies!!

Okay, I'm going to be honest...I am always obsessed with Halloween. I love it. But this year, it's over the top. I'm more excited about Halloween than Christmas (for now lol). I'm so excited to decorate my new apartment. My sister is coming over this Friday for a Halloween night of fun. I'm trying to convince her to watch Purge: Election Year but it'll most likely be Hocus Pocus. :D So I decided to just go with it and give y'all my favorite things I've found this year for Things I Love Thursday!

I have found so many good Halloween decorations: Target, Big Lots, and Dollar Tree have been my favorite places. (You can check out my Instagram for pics when I decorate this weekend!)

(Here's a good preview of Target's collection)

I made this Harvest/Halloween trail mix last night for work and it is so yummy! I didn't even bother baking it like the recipe calls for, just tossed it in a bowl and shook it all up. Took literally 2 minutes. Also, I got cinnamon Rice Chex, which really helped the flavor, since I wasn't adding the drizzle. Highly recommend!

Okay, are these little kitty pumpkins not the cutest things you've ever seen? I have to make some. I bought a pumpkin already, just need to steal get some ribbon from my sister. I'm not even going to bother with the big pumpkin. Just make a bunch of different sized cat ones. >.<

Are you obsessed with Halloween? Share your favorite finds/links/recipes below! Oh and your favorite spooky reads, I haven't even started on those yet. I have a few ideas, but can always use more recommendations.

Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Things Books Have Made Me Want To Do

I thought this week's TTT post on The Broke & The Bookish would be hard at first, but then I started thinking and it all just came to me. (Don't you love when that happens?) Books are made to make you think and wonder and want, so here are a few that have made me want to DO MORE. Most of these link back to my reviews, so be sure to check those out for a more in-depth analysis of each book and WHY I want to do more.

1. Amy & Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson --this book is begging you to go on an epic roadtrip! All of Matson's books make me want to have an amazing summer too.

"Tomorrow will be better."

"But what if it's not?" I asked.

Then you say it again tomorrow. Because it might be. You never know, right? At some point, tomorrow will be better." 

2. The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson --yes, I had to add 2 of her books. They're just so darn good! This one made me want to do an awesome scavenger hunt with my sisters. So much, that I actually already created a list (for our mall) and plan on doing it soon. :)

3. The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson --it made me want to create things. Anything...crafts, words, music, passion. I want to be that passionate about things, people, feelings.

"Or maybe she thinks other forms of nourishment are more important."

4. I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson --yep, I had to include both of her books as well. I don't know what it is about her writing, but she ignites that spark of creativity like no other author I've ever read.

(Kandinsky: "Composition 8")

5. Just One Day by Gayle Forman --go on a big trip by myself and become someone else, even if it's just for one day. 

I may have pretended to be someone named Lulu, but I had never been more honest in my life. Maybe that's the thing with liberation. It comes at a price.

6. The Disenchantments by Nina LaCour --start an 80s rock girl band and go on an epic roadtrip tour up and down the coast.

7. Cannery Row by John Steinbeck --ugh this book, it gets my heart and it wrings it all up and lays it out in the sunshine to bask in the glow and warmth of its words. I want to live that simple life like Mack & the boys, be inspiring and respected like Doc, run an enterprising and successful whorehouse like Fauna okay not that last one lol. And OMG why didn't I know there was a movie??!

8. Kristy's Great Idea: The Baby-Sitters Club #1 by Ann M Martin --start a baby-sitters club, duh!

9. For Real by Alison Cherry --go on an Amazing Race-esque adventure with my sister.

10.Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto --become a Crafter (capital C) again.

"The sensation that my brain cells were multiplying was exhilarating."

11.The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern --tell stories, create beautiful artwork and sculptures. Actually, I started handsewing (I do not sew at all, so this was a miracle in itself) a Blythe dress/costume based on this book. I should really finish that and take some pictures soon!

TILT: More Bookish Goodies!

Time for another Things I Love Thursday? I think so! I've got a couple of lovely wearables plus some cute crafting items, so let's get started! And as always, share below anything you are loving this week!

(if you do not want your item featured, please contact me!)

Bird Page Bag by Retrofied --this is such a cute bag, I love the fabric and the shape! Would be perfect for a quick trip to the library or maybe for an afternoon at the bookstore.

Book Lovers Masking Tape at LightLife --seriously??! I NEED this tape! Love it so much and cheap! I've been getting into the washi/craft tape lately (not a good idea, so addicting) and I fell in love with this one as soon as I saw it. Just think of all the things you could do with it!

Build Your Own Penguin Book Truck at Penguin.com --okay, this is just adorable. I'm going to print me one out soon and build it. Maybe I'll take it on adventures around town too lol.

Shoes of Note on ModCloth --more adorableness!! I can't stand it. :) I saw some others recently that were the cheap white canvas sneakers with notebook paper lines drawn on and I think I might try to recreate them. I'll let you know how/if they work out!

Mid-Year Resolutions Update

Okay, it's a little bit past mid-year but I've seen several other people updating this week and it reminded me that I did, in fact, make resolutions, so I figured I'd better go see how I was doing. You can view my 2013 resolutions, but I'll recap them some here too.

My not-so-bookish goal was to create more and I have done fairly well with it. I am keeping up with my 365 Pic a Day project, which I am so so happy about. I transferred over to Instagram at the end of May and I love it so much more than (new) Flickr. I've made new friends, gotten lots of new toys because of it, and really enjoy taking my pics for the most part. As far as my other craftiness goes, well...it could use some improvement still. I did start on a Night Circus inspired Blythe doll outfit, which has been a source of great pain and annoyance. It's actually almost done though and as soon as I get the right background stuff for it, I'll share it! And this week I am making and sending out happy mail to some lovely online friends. :) I just feel like I need to do *more* though. Anyway, enough rambling about that!

My book/reading goals: 

1. Enjoy my reading--absolutely, yes I have! I have found and refound so many good books so far this year. I reread my favorite graphic novel series, Strangers in Paradise, found a new favorite in Locke & Key, and talked my sister into joining me in my Annual Summer ReRead of Harry Potter. :)

2. Continue my Classic a Month--I have read a classic every month but I haven't had any super-amazing-blow-my-mind reads like last year. Any suggestions to get me out of my slump? Grapes of Wrath helped some (which I will be reviewing next week), but not all the way there.

3. Goodreads Goal of 130 books--I am doing super wow good with this lol...I've read 89 books so far this year, which is 68% of my goal.

4. Read my Shelf!--erm no...I was doing really good, I made a (rather lofty) goal at the beginning of summer to not buy any books for Jun-Aug. I made it thru the end of June. :) I did read several off of my shelf, but then I replaced them all so...back where I started. Actually 3 more than, bah.

5. Baby-Sitters Club--this is where the goals start going way downhill. :( I've only read/reviewed 5 BSC books this year. I did set up my master list. That's something, right? No? Dang it. And I keep dangling that giveaway in y'alls faces and not doing anything about it. So. I am making a goal for THIS WEEKEND to GET THE BSC GIVEAWAY STUFF TOGETHER AND POSTED FOR MONDAY. Yep, all caps people, I MEAN BUSINESS!

6. Expand my Genres--hmm, does reading more graphic novels count? I didn't think so. Oh wait, I did read a bio of Harper Lee! And I read Twelfth Night by Shakespeare! And...that's about it. Help me! Give me suggestions for nonfiction!

7. Blog More--nope. :p Summer kills me, I just want to go swimming every night and this year has been even busier than usual with birthdays, graduations, holidays, parties, it's hard being popular. Haha j/k!!

8. Blog Redesign--I still want to change it up but I need time and help for that. Maybe this fall. I did do my About Me post.

(Found on ChickieUngie)

She's Crafty...She's Just My Type

Part of my resolutions for this year was to be more crafty and create more things. Well, I always participate in a Secret Snowflake on this website I'm a member of and it has really helped me get my crafty mojo going again. :) This year, my partner wanted something Anne of Green Gables inspired and as you may or may not know, I fell in love with this book (and movie) and was very excited to come up with something. I was pretty happy with what I ended up with, so I decided to share it with you!

I knew I wanted to do some kind of embroidery, so I found these vintage sewing cards on Pinterest and thought the black-haired girl would look like Anne. Then I had to try and draw her. I am not an artist. My drawings (especially people) usually turn out very badly. Like Michael Jackson/Lord Voldemort post nose surgery. Yeah. But, I was very careful and copied her line for line and did a lot of erasing and this is what I came up with.

Pretty decent, right? Once I decided I liked her (and got approval from my sister who is a MUCH better artist), I had to figure out what to put her on. I had a thin canvas tote bag and thought that would be perfect. I decided to add a quote from the book and thought I was going to embroider that too, but realized that would take way too long. So I painted it on using fabric paint and freehanded the quote. I'm not crazy about the painting, I didn't give myself enough time to wash it and start over if needed, but it's okay. Nobody's perfect. :) Then I had to draw Anne again onto a piece of cotton with the washable marker and I got to embroidering. I was very happy with how she turned out, that is some of the neatest stitching I've done in a long time lol. (And it has been a very long time since I've even done any embroidering.) Here she is all done:

And here is the bag with the quote: "It's delightful when your imaginations come true, isn't it?"

What do you think? Did I do Anne-girl justice? :) I hope you've enjoyed this special crafty post. And here's a bonus shot of my Snowflake's gifties all wrapped up. Oh and she loved it btw!!

TILT: Bookish Christmas Trees

Things I Love Thursday is going to be Christmas themed for one more week! :) How about some bookishly awesome trees? These are all from Pinterest, which as you may know, is hard to get links for. I've gotten (almost) all the links for the crafty book page trees, but have left the book sculptures out...but there are lots and lots of different book trees out there, if you are interested in making your own! (And I'd love to see pictures if you do!)

Click to make bigger!!

(if you do not want your picture on here, please contact me 

& I will take it down immediately!)

Starting in top left corner, clockwise:

Stacked Paper Christmas Tree on Scrapbook Abundance

Folded Book Pages Tree on Unknown?

Shimmering Stacked Trees on Martha Stewart (of course)

Paper Trees in Pots on Handmadeology

Sparkle Christmas Trees on Joyworks

TILT: DIY Book Crafts

Are you a reader and a crafter? I am, when I'm in the mood lol. I do lots of papercrafts (cards, ATC's, bookmarks, art journaling, etc...), make jewelry, embroider, knit (long, rectangular scarves only please), glue magnets to anything and everything and probably lots more. So I gathered up a few fun possibly DIY book related crafts for today's TILT. If you craft, I want to hear about it and bonus points if it's book related! :) Maybe one of these days I'll share my book related crafties too.

(if you do not want your picture & link listed, 

please contact me & I will remove immediately!)

Labrador Bookends by PBTeen --these didn't start out DIY, but how easy would that be to do? Find some plastic toys at the thrift store, glue them to a block of wood, spray-paint and tada! I love it.

Book Button Bouquet by @JulzReads & found on BookRiot --these are so cute, I'd love to have some sitting on my bookshelf by the window. And these are my kind of flowers, no watering!

Where the Wild Things Are Globe by ArtOnGlobes --this is seriously awesome. Those images are cut out individually so you can still see the map around it. I don't think I could do that (I have issues cutting straight lines sometimes lol), but just covering an old globe with book pages would be neat.

Book Spine Bookmarks by GreenPaper --great way to reuse old books (and you can use the pages for button bouquets or covering globes!) and they were awesome to give some tips and tricks down at the end of their post!

Things I Love Thursday: My New Blog Planner!

Today's "Thing I Love Thursday" is something I made: my new blog planner. :) I do a lot of my organizing and stuff online, but sometimes I just want pen and paper, you know? I'm pretty excited about it and even though it still needs some tweaking, I wanted to show it to y'all anyway! I got the idea, via Pinterest of course, from Infarrantly Creative (Beckie) and then made a few slight changes to mine.

(big ol' spoiler for that top book lol, sorry!)

(I apologize for the not great pictures, hopefully you can get the idea!)

I loved the idea of making it for my left-handed self (it's a special torture having to write in a right-handed person's spiral on a teeny-tiny right-handed person's desk in college!) and having the monthly calendar and then the weekly on the left. I also really liked how she had the calendar flip out, but I didn't really want to pay to get the spiraling done (since I wasn't sure I would keep up with it yet), so I decided to wing it and make my own version.

I took Beckie's page ideas and made my own from scratch, adjusting my boxes and titles for what I wanted: 4 Post Idea/Project boxes; Top 10 Tuesday; TILT; To Do. Added a cute background and printed. I printed enough for the end of the year, just to see how I like it. (If you like my pages, I would be more than happy to email them to you!)

Then I picked up a few folders at Target one day (folders are soooo cheap you guys, I wanted to buy like 50!!): one in a dark blue, heavy plastic with brads and pockets; one green regular, cheap folder with brads and pockets; and one pretty one with owls all over it with pockets that alas, I couldn't use because it didn't have brads. :( Then I sat down and thought about what I was doing for about 45 minutes, bugging my sister to help brainstorm with me. She refused. I finally figured it out on my own. :)

For the monthly calendar pages, I wanted them to flip out to the right, but still be able to remove them and keep them each month. So I took the green folder and glued it to the inside edge of the blue folder. I had to trim a little bit off the left side and top to make it fit inside, then I glued about 1/2 an inch after the brads to the inside of the folder. Then I folded the right side backwards over the back of the blue folder, cut it to about 1 1/2 inches and glued that to the back of the folder (with hot glue) to make it more secure. I wanted to use the owl folder on the outside to cover up that ugly, but it wouldn't work. :( So now I have my flip out calendar with folders behind it (with my cute Pixar stamps in the back!). And I used pretty tape to make the pockets and brads more secure.

The front pocket has my to-buy list printed out for easy usage or to give to my family at Christmas. :) The right side shows the back of the weekly sheets and that list is the books that I still need to review for the year. Eep.

Like I said, it's not totally perfect. The size is a little too big to carry around, I'd like to either find half-sized folders (do they make those?) or go get it spiraled next time. Also, I realized I need more boxes or lines on the back for extra ideas, to-buys, etc. And I need to make my Top 10 box bigger, I write too big lol. Overall, I'm really happy with it though. It's already helped me stay more focused and organized. This is obviously not for everybody, but maybe some of you will like it and get inspired to make your own! I'd love to see it if you do. Or if you have a different way to stay organized, tell me about it! My sis is trying to get back on track with her blog (Dash of Dazzle) starting in September and she wasn't crazy about the hand-written planner, so she's doing hers all in her phone calendar. She even made her a pretty leopard banner lol.

Happy Friday!

I forgot to do my TILT yesterday. :( But I have something very cool today, so that's okay right? My sister first showed me this mobile made from an old book on CraftGawker. Are you on CraftGawker? If not, you should be! Loads of inspiration and fun to be had!

And after following the linky-do, I found out Lisa Occhipiniti sells them on Etsy under TheShopHouse and she has some very cool items in her shop! Give me another example, you say? Okay! :) How about this wreath? I would love to have that hanging on the wall over my bookshelf or even on my front door in the fall!

While browsing in her shop, I read her welcome message and she also has written a book on crafting with books! How serendipitous. The Repurposed Library has 33 projects made out of books and I am going to the library tomorrow to see if they can order it for me. And if not then I'm heading to the bookstore!

I hope you all have a wonderful, book-filled weekend and if you happen to already have this book and want to show off your own take on one of the crafts, please do!!