My New Heebie Jeebie For My Nook!!

AHHHHH!! I was just beyond excited when this little guy showed up at my door step!!

Isn't he just the cutest little thing ever!! I'm still working on a name for him and what feels right!! I just happened to be on etsy.com as I frequently am and was just looking at new Nook covers and stumbled upon this super cute case!! He was $39.99 and I think worth every penny!!

This is going to be picture heavy so beware of that!!

The owner of the shop also makes covers for tablets as well as other e readers. I can't tell you how fast and kind this shop owner was to me!!

The Heebie Jeebies come in different  fur colors as well as eye colors but I thought this was just the most adorable combination!

A look as to how it looks open with my Nook nestled in the monsters mouth. The case is great quality and my Nook feels very protected. There really is not alot of weight added to the case. The case seems fairly light when I am reading with my Heebie Jeebie.  On the left hand side the owner had place a really cute instruction and care sheet! I just can't handle how adorable this is and I just want to hold my case and carry it around with me.

If you would like to see more of my Heebie Jeebie as well as my to be read list for the rest of this summer please check out my video!!

#OneBookJuly2014 Week 4 Update!

Not much has really changed. It's really calmed down alot since the first week of July, so I'm not as stressed and so I feel a little less anxious about only using one notebook. It's been a challenge and it just makes me realize that I have so many journals because it helps with my creative thought process.

Journals as I've shared before are more than just notebooks, they are friends. They are companions that hold my thoughts and secrets as well as memories and drawings. Pictures and collages are contained within these books.

I just enjoy having all of my journals in front of me and working in whatever it is that I want to work in. Being restricted to work in only one has made me feel anxious at times and uncomfortable. I can deal with one pen but I do need a little watercolor in my life!

To see more please check out my video!

#OneBookJuly2014 Week 3 Update!

I have say that I have overall felt less motivated and stunted in my creativity without all of my journals. When I look at my desk and I have all of my journals in front of me and open with all of my supplies it really helps me to be creative. I like to dabble in all of them all at once and so being restricted to one I have noticed that my creativity has gone down.

I honestly thought the opposite would happen, I thought I would be creative and inspired to do all these unique things because I was limited but honestly its not the case!

I really haven't added to much else because like I shared I haven't felt a flow of creativity. I do like to put pictures with my daily journaling and found that the polaroids weigh down the pages in the Hobonichi which I dislike but I found the Pogo printer and I really love that and how it looks!

For more on the challenge check out my video!!

Erin Condren 2014 - 2015 Life Planner!

It finally arrived and I really had to restrict myself because I wanted to do an unboxing on YouTube. So the planner itself is not new to me because I used one for a portion of the year last year. I used it for several months and then discovered filofax and transitioned to that. Well after a few months I kept looking at my lonely EC planner and decided to cut it down and put it into my filofax. So I get to enjoy both worlds!!
Of course when Erin Condren released that she is putting out her new EC planner I had to get one. I ordered mine last year in august so I was due for a new one.

Here is what I picked!

It comes in a super super cut box!! The tissue paper inside is this super pretty mint green color. You also receive a catalog as well as a $15 off your next purchase gift card which is great! I am a sucker for great packaging and yes Erin Condren, your packaging is very exciting!!

The planner itself is thicker because I decided to get the 18 month one this year. The covers are interchangeable for those of you who are concerned that you might get bored with the cover. You can easily order more covers off of the website and just interchange them. The replaceable covers are $15 each. I put my covers into my filofax so it really doesn't matter to me all that much and I really like my cover from last year as well as the one that I choose for this year!!

It's so so vibrant and beautiful in person. The cover has light pink Gerber flowers and it's just so incredibly pretty. I also feel as though the covers are made of a tougher laminate this year than they were last year.  The back of the cover is just beautiful as well. 

The inside cover has an information sheet as well as the planner is just full of gorgeous quotes and colors. The months each have a themed color and you find that throughout the planner! 

I am so very happy with the planner this year and I really look forward to using it in my filofax. I love the quality of the paper because it handles most pens really well. There really is no shadowing at all and I rarely find any bleed through on the paper. Compared to the filofax paper it is far superior. It's a much heavier and better quality paper!!

Check out my video and unbox with me!!

Libba Bray: A Sweet Far Thing Book Review!!

I've finally finished the third and final book in the Gemma Doyle Trilogy!!
This book is pretty heft at 800 and something pages!

I must say that when I read the first book in the series I was hooked. It's girls in a boarding school set in old England. The fancy dresses and the idea of witchcraft I was just sucked in! I believe I read the first book in about a week! When I read the second one it got a little duller and redundant as well as Gemma evolving and growing more but I still thoroughly enjoyed it. Now the third is where I had hoped all the action would be. I was hoping that she and Kartik would fall in love and we would see more heartache and romance as well as some getting into the realms and fighting and finally bringing peace to it all.

Did all of that happen? Well sort of. I will do this review without giving away too much I don't like to do that regardless in case someone makes a mistake and reads through. I will say the book started off very promising and I was looking forward to alot more visiting of the realms and then it almost became boring. I liked that they were finding out more each time they went to the realms but I was expecting more. I was expecting Pipa to do more bad and that Fee would get more involved. It did happen to some extent but I guess I was hoping for more magic and fantasy. I thought that Gemma and Kartik would have more. I felt a little of the passion and then it was gone. I would have loved to have fallen in love with these characters. It wasn't deep enough for me to love them as a couple and I wanted more. 

There was alot of seeking for clues and trying to understand what it is that Gemma has to do but again I felt like I wanted this huge fireworks show and instead I got a lousy smoke bomb. I thought that we would have more story more action from the realms but every time she was there and interactions occurred with characters it just kind of fizzled.

I didn't have a heart to give this a low rating because I think overall the series is fantastic I just wish that being that this book is so long there would be lots more action and story development as well as me falling love with the characters more than I already have!

I do recommend this series and I hope that you do read it. It is set in a lovely setting and there is fun with magic and parties and balls. Some adventure is incorporated and it is a great read!

#OneBookJuly2014 First Week Review!!

It was a really busy week for me personally! My sister got married on July 5th and it's the 4th of July weekend which is busy here in the United States! My daughter is 18months old and she was the flower girl and my husband and I were also part of the wedding party!! It's crazy busy and I think that each week will determine how using the one journal will feel. Being that it was so hectic this week it was really tough to only turn to one journal but oddly enough liberating that I only had one!

I know I know you think I'm being silly but it's such a mix of emotions. On the one hand I like having the one notebook because it's small and I know that everything should go in it. Using only a pen I'm not trying to pack up a little bag with supplies to get everything going so it's very liberating.

The size didn't bother me so much this week as much as my watercolours! This honestly was the biggest challenge for me. I was so stressed and just needed to ease my mind and playing with my watercolors for about 10 minutes made my world a much better place.

You can see in the above picture that I just needed a few quick sketches and colors and I was just feeling rejuvinated! I was in a state of panic, anxiety and anger and after a few moments it was easily put to rest. What can I get from that....well art is really necessary for me!

I learned this week that using art is truly therapeutic for me and is something that I need in my life. It's not me failing at the challenge but instead I am learning that art is a part of my life for a good reason, it helps to balance me out.

I like to do my journaling with both pictures and sketches in my book. It's different to have them all in one place but because of the simplicity it makes it much easier for me to always be able to do it because i'm not so focused on the washi tape or the stickers or markers or pens. I always have it with me and I just need a pen.

As for planning and organizing for the day I still just use the bullet journal technique and this works just fine. I keep track of water and fitness and vitamins as well as an assessment for how I feel about my food and fitness intake.

Pictured above I incorporated my DIYfish inserts into my hobonichi. I love having this because I am able to see productivity at a glance. It's easy to create the boxes and lines because it's full of graph paper. Things that I like to keep track of are, laundry, youtube videos, blog posts, grocery shopping, spending etc. I like to see at a glance for the month or week where I stand with each of these categories. Sometimes I add during the month and sometimes I notice that I don't care about keeping track of certain things.

I am doing the Hobonichi diary daily style as well in here. I drew a picture of my sister and brother in law in one of their wedding day pictures. I find yes it's much smaller than my A5 but I have a very fine pen and it seems to work out really well. I don't know that I would want to use stickers and washi because it would take away some real estate but I do really love it for the sketching!!

If you would like to see more cheek out the video!

June 2014 Fauxbonichi Flip Through!

I really enjoy using my Fauxbonichi and especially now I have had it for several months now so the book is really filling with some great memories!! I am loving using it so so much and with that I enjoy sharing it with everyone else to help inspire. It really feels good to sit down each nite to sit down and work in this book!

Here is a flip!

This is my month spread. I do like to have it on two pages as opposed to only one! I made it a two page spread for the rest of the months. I mainly keep main events on here as well as the weather. I really enjoy tracking the weather and just looking at how much it changes throughout the month, especially since I don't live in Hawaii where it's just perfect all the time!

If you notice that some things are not colored well yes it happens....I don't always have time to color things in but I don't sweat it because I think as long as I capture the moments that is what is important and when I have a day I want to color I will!!

 The pictures shown above just go through a few of the days in Las Vegas. In the beginning of the month my husband and I went to Vegas to celebrate with my sister who is getting married in July. My sister has 20 people in her wedding party and most of them were able to make the trip and it was a great time. Even though it was a short trip it was a really fun trip so I just captured a few of the special moments.

 When we came back home our daughter was not happy with us and she was mad the entire day! Luckily it was short lived and only lasted one day and the next day she was very happy with us!! I also included a scene from Game of Thrones for those of you who are fans!

In the picture above I captured some visitors and house guests that came to stay with us!!

If you would like to see more check out my video where I flip through each day in June!!

4th of July EASY Manicure 2014!!

I don't know about you but I love a cute and fun patriotic mani!! I love to show everyone how proud I am to be celebrating this holiday! It's a great time to have fun with your nails as well as showing how patriotic you are!!

I purchased the formula x nail polishes from sephora a while back and they have some great colors as well as glitters. The formula is just perfect!!  It looks like you have a gel manicure and most of the time you only need one coat and it's enough!!

Let's begin by painting every other nail or just two whatever you like with the red nail polish!!

Once you have that on then the remaining nails will get a goat of a gorgeous blue! I used 'Omni" from the formula X collection and it's pretty on with the blue from the American Flag!

I always let my nails dry a bit before I add any glitter or even a top coat. So if you like your nails now then just throw on a top coat and your good to go. If your like me and you want to add some sparkle then hold on....add some 'Turbulent' by formula X on top of the blue and be prepared to be blown away!!

Ok it doesn't stop there with some fun sparkles!! Gonna add one more pretty little glitter.

I added 'Wham' onto my thumbs to make it look like some really pretty fireworks in the sky!!

Viola!  Happy Fourth of July!!

#OnebookJuly2014 Challenge, Which Pen?!?

I never shared with all of you what pen I chose to go with for the #onebookjuly2014 challenge. It wasn't easy to come up with one but I did a few pen tests and I found one that I really thing will work for me for the month of July.

Here is how I went about choosing my pen....

First I went and choose the pens that I normally use in all of my journals. I love fountain pens and that is usually what I use in all of my journals. Most of the journals paper quality can handle the fountain pen and dry time. 

Top is my Metropolitan Pilot with Noodlers Ink

Next is my Metropolitan Pilot with Diamine ink  in Ultra Green

Followed by my Lamy Safari with Noodlers Ink again

Then a good old fashioned Sharpie

A papermate Flair

Just a pink highlighter

A fine tip Sharpie

When doing a paper test in my Hobonichi planner I found some interesting things.....

I first just compared the line size. I love the fountain pens so I went through those initially. The Metropolitan is one that I actually prefer for writing over the Lamy. The Lamy has a bit more ink coming out of the nib and I like the finer nib on the metro. I also love the ultra green ink and it dries very very quickly but I'm not sure I want the whole month of July in green. So then moving into some other favorites. I checked with a Sharpie just because and found that it bled through as well as creating a very thick line. The paper mate flare smudges a bit and when I used a highlighter over it it completely smeared the ink!! A highlighter on it's own works fine and dries quickly.  The Fine Sharpie has a perfect line size and dries relatively quickly as well as working with a highlighter.

The Sharpie bled more as time went on which I really did not like. The fine sharpie shadows the least and I really like how small the line is and it forces me to draw and write smaller.

So the winner ........

A Fault in Our Stars, My Book Club Watched the Movie!!

So last night I went with my book club to see the movie A  Fault in Our Stars. We almost didn't end up going because there were some terrible storms that came through my area and then one of my friends said "no we have to go". I'm so glad that she did that because I LOVED the movie!!

It's always so much fun to go to the movies with your girlfriends and I think that this movie is perfect to go with a group of girls. I think that it's a great date night movie but you will cry tons so if your worried about getting your makeup all messed up then it might not be a good idea.
Anyway, back to the topic!! The movie! I loved the actress Shailene Woodly. I think she did a fantastic job playing Hazel Grace. She is very believable as someone who is suffering from a terminal illness. In the book I felt like Hazel is more angry and sarcastic. She is more whitty then they portray in the movie but the character is pretty close. I also felt like in the movie she looked like a cool hipster and in the book I felt like she was more thin and sickly and not as appealing but it is a movie.

As for the character who plays Gus, Ansel Elgort, oh my goodness what a cutie pie!! He is perfect for this role. He is so adorable and so incredibly lovable. His loving and giving personality shines on the screen. Of course in the book I felt it more than on screen. I don't think I would have as much emotional involvement if I didn't read the book.

I understand that the movie can't cover everything that a book covers but I was disappointed that we didn't really get to see too much of Gus' parents and in the book they are really involved and really really sweet!! I thought that we would have gotten a bit more into that. You don't know the intense relationship that Hazel has with Gus' family. Isaac is also not very involved in the movie. In the book you really see the emotion that he goes through with his breakup and how good of a friend Gus is to him. You don't feel the awkwardness of being in the literal heart of Jesus. I think I can go on and on but that's why I always think the book is better than the movie.

With that said if you read the book you should definitely see it, if you didn't read it, still go see it!! Great movie but make sure you bring plenty of kleenex!!