Let's Read Mother's Curse Together!!

So I had a very sweet subscriber reach out to me and ask if I would be interested in reading the books that her husband had written. First of all I LOVE all my subscribers and secondly I LOVE promoting and supporting people who are following their dreams!

So I decided to of course do a virtual book club with all of you. I would love to hang out with all of you and have a glass of whine and talk about books but we can't do that, well we can virtually!!! Hahha!!

I love the idea that Oprah had when she did her book club. She would read up to certain points in a book and then discuss those sections, so I will be doing the same!

Here is a break down of what I will be doing:

Book announcement September 1st, each Sunday until September 28th I will be posting on my blog about the book and what I think so far. My thoughts and comments and I encourage you to come here and post your comments and thoughts as well!

On October 1st I will be posting another video discussing the first part of the book overall and announcing the reading of the second half. Every sunday for the month of October I will be posting about the book and then on November 2nd I will post a video talking about this book in it's entirety and what we will be reading next!!

Here is a synopsis of the book:

Heirs of Cothel Series, Book 1 Sword Woman, Princess, ... Cursed Witch Tradition holds that a mother who commits a mortal sin against the gods will be cursed with a daughter born a witch. Stephenie, the youngest princess of Cothel is just such a curse. Hostage to her mother's will while her father and older brother fight a war two countries away, Stephenie must overcome her mother's plots if she is to save her father, brother, and the many soldiers she trained with. Fearful of her mother's growing traitorous behavior, Stephenie must escape Antar Castle. But to do so, she might have to rely upon her hidden powers, risking others discovering she is a witch...a risk that would most certainly result in her death by burning. With the help of a select group of soldiers and an unexpected ally, she just might survive.

If you would like to see this book on goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20888218-mother-s-curse

Where to buy the book:

On Amazon both hard copy and ebook!
http://www.amazon.com/Mothers-Curse-Heirs-Cothel-Book-ebook/dp/B00775GMYO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1409436914&sr=8-2&keywords=thaddeus+nowak

Barnes and Noble hard copy and ebook!

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/mother-thaddeus-nowak/1119131679?ean=2940013916203

Thaddeus Nowak Website, which I personally thought was really neat so check that out!!
http://thaddeusnowak.com

Let me know in the comments below if you guys like this idea! Let me know if you guys are going to do this with me!!

In the Woods (Dublin Murder Squad #1) by Tara French : A Book Review

Just finished reading this book today. I like to write my reviews right after completing books because my emotions are high and I definitely feel passionate about the book and still very much connected to the characters.

I do not have spoilers in this review just some highlights that I enjoy or dislike about the book.  I have been craving murder/mystery novels because I have been reading post apocalyptic books for the past 4 years and wanted a break. I also have been watching Sherlock which is an incredible show if you haven't watched it. I have been enjoying it so so much. I also love forensics and mystery , it's simply fascinating. 

I must say it's quite hard to find a murder/mystery book that keeps you on the edge of your seat. With that said I will be honest right off the bat and say that this did not have my biting my nails and on the edge of my seat. Perhaps I'm setting my sights too high but this book lacked a bit of that suspense. If you have watched True Detectives on HBO you know what I mean about nail biting suspense. I want a book that makes me want to stay up late at night trying to figure out what the killer did to the body, what where the motives??

In this book, character development is great. I really feel like I get to know the characters and feel certain emotions toward them. Relationships develop in a way that you are involved as a reader emotional. Leading up to clues is somewhat exciting but then quickly it kind of just plops. There isn't an incredible amount of excitement when it comes to clues int he case. Once the killer is identified you once again that so much of the story will develop but no there are no surprises, no "oh my gosh" moments. 

It's overall a decent read and moves fairly quickly but I would not say that it's very suspenseful. It does get somewhat predictable at some points. The characters are developed well and the idea is very intriguing but in this book they fall flat. Perhaps the author captures more excitement in the next two books but I will admit that it will be difficult for me to want to pick up the next two. 

Glitter and Glue by Kelly Corrigan, A Book Review!!

Another book club book choice. I'm always hesitant about my book club books if you have read any of my previous posts but this time I was somewhat intrigued.
Reading the back cover I enjoyed reading about coming to appreciate your mom. The author does a great job in this book of making you stop to appreciate your mom no matter what type of mom she was to you!

I will not be giving away any spoiler during this book review just highlights some parts of the book that I really liked. The story is very easy moving and you could get this read in a day. A good beach read because it's something that you don't really need to think too much about so if your spending the day at the pool and you get distracted it's easy to get right back into the book. 

The author shares that like most young adults we graduate college and now what?? Where is that great adventure in life? Something that we can tell our grandkids about! That most wonderful adventure and so Kelly (the main character) sets off on her great adventure to Australia. After running out of money she needs to find a job and so finds a temp position as a nanny for a family who recently lost their mom to cancer. 

Before you feel as though this book is too sad it's not and there isn't too much sadness about cancer. It's not like a Fault in Our Stars at all in fact it's the family moving forward in their lives. As Kelly spends her days as a nanny to these children she begins to have experiences about her mom and what her mom meant when she did these things as Kelly was a child. We sometimes don't understand why our parents do what they do when we are kids but as we grow older and become parents we better understand. 

I never understood what my mom meant when she use to tell me "you'll understand when you have your own daughter, " or my favorite " just wait til you have your own daughter if you will let her ....". Well the day has come that I do have my own daughter and I COMPLETELY understand what my mom meant. 

As the book moves along the author has many cute realizations and shares many moments about her mom that she now loves and appreciates. She brings up the most obvious that we don't always appreciate and love our mother. We always think that someone else's mom did it better but as adults we realize that wow she did do a great job!

Overall my thoughts on this book are that it's an easy read. A feel good book that is perfect for the beach or the pool. If you love your mom or you struggle with your mom I think you will enjoy the book!

Turning My Erin Condren to a Discbound System!

I was still trying to perfect the Erin Condren Life Planner. I love it and I love the paper but I had to still make it so that it would give me planner peace!
What was my thought process.....well.....I like a spiral actually because you can fold it over and more portable in my opinion. The problem is that it's not customizable or so I thought. I was at Staples and remembered the Arc disc bound system. I stood in the aisle for a long time staring at the system trying to decide if this was something that I wanted to commit to. I finally decided yes I think so and I can't even tell you how incredibly happy I am with it!!

You do need to invest in a hole punch but to be honest I started turning everything into a disc bound system, including a cook book. All the recipes I find in magazines etc I can just punch it and put it into the book!!

The system can really work with any cover and all you need are the discs and the hole punch. I opted to purchase the larger discs so that they can accommodate up to 250 pages. 

I also loved putting my Erin Condren in this system because I recently stumbled upon Leonie Dawson and her life workbook.  I wanted to print this workbook out and put it in with my daily book as well. I wanted to stuff what I wanted with me at all times as well as flip it over on itself so that it doesn't take up as much space as a filofax! 

If your someone that likes to put in your accessories such as a folder and plastic pocket you can surely do that as well!

It's been a great and exciting adventure and so far I love my creation. If you would like to see more...Here you go!!

xoxoxo

How I Manage Time...Using a Spiraldex!

Being a stay at home mom now is hard for me to look back at the day and see where my time went! I went from working in an office and had about 50-60 hours that were full of meetings and all managed by my online calendar! Now being at home my life has done a 180. I find myself looking back and trying to figure out what did I do today? Did I really get alot accomplished?
So after doing some research and watching tons of videos on Youtube about people getting organized and managing time I found something called a Chronodex.  It's absolutely genius and I'm always amazed with how brilliant people are. The creator is Patrick Ng and he has a great blog and Facebook page that shows the many uses for it and it's honestly just awesome!!

So I printed one off and tried to manage my time but got stuck. It was hard to understand how to manage time when I am no longer someone who has a "9-5 job". I'm a mom now I get up at 3 am. I also stay up til 2am or 3am sometimes in order to get things done.  So I searched of course for more and found a video by Kent from Oz and his spiraled.

Ahhhh.....what a beautiful concept. Very easy to follow and it's something I could follow for 24 hours!!

How does it look and how am I using it?

This is a blown up version of the one I am using. I am using a much smaller version to fit in my Molang Diary.  I put in all the times and start in the inner circle with 12 am and go all the way around until I get to 12 am again. I have 5 colors and they are all designated for different categories during the day. Then at the end of the day it looks something like this.

You may notice some writing around the spiraldex. I right tasks around it for the week, kind of like a bullet journal system of my own as well as lines that pull out of the spiraldex that explain what the gaps of the time mean.

Pictured above is what an uncompleted week looks like as well as a week that is completed. 

Now it's a great system but I am still working on it to tweak it and allow for more multitasking. Alot of times I'm doing two things at once and I would love to be able to capture that somehow so I guess it's a work in progress. 

To see more  please check out my video!

Molang Diary...What's in Mine and a GIVEAWAY!!!

So I would call what I have is a mild addiction to asian stationary!! It started with the Hobonichi and well...it's just been down hill since then!! I love how a.) cute it is b.) how the books lie flat c.) the size and the list goes on. I just can't get enough. I love the little diary stickers, pens it's just so adorable. So during my searching I found a Molang Diary. Anytime I find something I want to see the inside of I search on Instagram and Pinterest. I was just flooded with adorable pictures of peoples diaries.  The first thing I noticed was that it was undated!! I LOVE that!! No pressure I can fill it in as I please!!

The little diary from what I found on Ebay came in like an ivory, fuchsia pink and robin egg blue colors. The seller that I purchased from asked $9.95 and they came in about a week from Korea to the U.S. They also came with a few diary stickers that are just adorable!!

Here is a month spread and as you can see you date it as you please!! I just love that and I went out and purchased some really cute date stamps from Target and the smash book section at Michaels!

I just can't get over all the adorable pictures inside of the diary!! They are just too cute!!

And I love the detail because I think alot of us stationary nuts love these cute little details!

The week at a glance starts on a monday and ends on a Sunday which I love. I like to have my weekends together because I usually plan for the weekend and don't love it when Sunday is on the next page. 

There is also a to do list at the beginning of every month, I like to use this as an index as well as highlights of events to make it easier to reference later!

Just love the little details. There is a pen loop hidden in the back!!

Just love this little guy! Bought myself another one and also one to giveaway to one of you!!

Giveaway Rules!!!

1.) Open for two weeks August 9-23, 2014

2.) Must be a YouTube subscriber

3.) Must follow this blog

4.) What will you use this diary for?? Leave it in the comments!

5.) Winner will be emailed so be sure to leave your email with your comment so I can get in touch with you!!

Good Luck to everyone! It's open for everyone!!

Thank you everyone for your love and support!

xoxooxo

Vicky

The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith aka J.K. Rowling Book Review!

Finished this book up and my first thought was....OKAAAAY...aaaaaannnnddd!!!

I purchased this book because all the books I wanted to read I had read and I was looking for a murder mystery book. Just finished watching True Detectives on HBO and it's a brilliant show by the way..any way wanted something to fill the void of solving a mystery!! Picked up this book because I was curious. I'm a HUGE Harry Potter fan but I did not like Casual Vacancy. I thought it was very long and very boring and had a hard time keeping my attention in the book.

So, getting back to The Cuckoo's Calling, thought overall that it was a good book and I do recommend it. I was not on the edge of my seat except for the last few chapters. My interest was peaked during that time but then I felt like the book just was rushed in the ending. There was all this build up and a slightly disappointing ending. It was an ending that was somewhat easy to figure out.

A quick synopsis of the story is a high profile model falls from her balcony and plummets to her death. Her brother hires a detective to investigate because he doesn't believe that she committed suicide. The media and everyone else in the world thinks that she did but her brother is convinced that someone did it. The detective he hires Cormoran Strike isn't interested at first but he has just left his fiancé and he has no place to live and definitely needs the money.

A relationship develops with Strike and his temporary secretary. As the case moves along she is someone who helps him significantly with the mystery as well as she begins to care for him and vice versa. Strike moves through the case and finds different clues and interviews alot of the models friends and family.

The story at times is a bit slow but for the most part keeps moving. Can't say that it's nail biting jumping out of your seat type of a book or that you will be shocked by the outcome but an interesting read if you are looking for a book this summer. Did you read this book? How did you like it?

Taking Apart Your Erin Condren Planner!!

I know that the Erin Condren planner comes packaged so beautifully and you think there is no way that I can take this masterpiece apart. I know that I felt this way as well and then I ended up not using and it sat on my shelf last year because I thought it was too beautiful but I really like and prefer the filofax way of keeping my planners!!

So all I can say if you fear doing it is don't you want to use it? Isn't this why you purchased it? Is the system not working for you?

I love how the pages look and feel. They are fantastic quality pages and I love that but I really want my hot pink domino filofax and honestly it looks just as beautiful in there!!

If you are convinced ...great! If not and you feel bad perhaps about the cover or you have multiple covers. The great thing is that you can fit the cover on most notebooks!!

I decided to put it on my kind of everything spiral notebook that I customized!!

Even if the cover is slightly larger it works for the best because it protects any tabs or papers that might be sticking out. The E.C planner is very strong and durable and so taking it on and off is not a problem and once it's on it's on. The covers are $15 so they aren't all to expensive if you just want to customize a notebook!

I simply pull out approximately two pages at a time and trim as close as I can to the little eyelets. Once that is done I just use my hole punch and bang...it's complete!!

Hope you give it a try!! I absolutely LOVE using mine this way!! Best of both worlds!!

The Final #OneBookJuly2014 Challenge update!

It's proved to be a challenge and I can finally say that I'm done and I can finally use whatever journal I want!! I initially thought that I was stunted in my creativity but now that the challenge is over I realized that that isn't true! I think that anytime your forced to change a 'system' that you are using it can bring on some new ideas. It has done this for me because I was still purchasing journals and I think I have come up with a great system to work for me  now. I will have a fair amount of upcoming videos on how I have revamped my system!

If you would like to see a flip through please watch!