WLW: Random Lovely Things

Hello lovelies! 

Renovations are complete, they were complete on Saturday, but I've been using the time to attempt to recenter myself and bring back the calming energy that seemed to have vanished for the duration of the time my house was in chaos.  So, let's get back into the swing of things! 

Anyway, today's wish list includes a few things that support fantastic causes, some books that I want, and also a few supplies for my bullet journal, because you know my wishlist wouldn't be complete without supplies for my bullet journal!

The #GirlLove Rafiki is high up on my wish list.  It was created by Lilly Singh, aka iiSuperwomanii.  This project, which began on her birthday last year, was inspired by her trip to Kenya.  Each bracelet sold helps to fund education for girls in Kenya.  At $15 it is super affordable, I just have to find the extra funds to get it.  I'm loving the design and the fact that it helps to give young girls an education that they so desperately need is just a bonus to owning this absolutely wonderful bracelet, that is actually handmade by a woman in Kenya.  If you want to purchase one for yourself, you can find them here.

I am by far and away in love with anything Studio Ghibli, but My Neighbor Totoro is by far my all time favorite (Sorry Spirited Away...just kidding you'll always be my #1).  I want a snuggly little Totoro to cuddle up with because he is just so totally adorable.  This one is $10 on Poshmark and I am seriously considering ordering him when I get paid.  If you want this lovable little guy you can find him here.

If you've seen my bullet journal or yesterday's video you know by now, that I am totally in love with Washi tape, and well...my WLW wouldn't be complete without some washi.  These are on my wishlist through AliExpress, and I totally love it.  I don't mind waiting a few weeks for it because usually, I forget that I've ordered from them until it shows up in my mailbox :D  If you want to see these patterns or other that are offered from them you can go here.

I think that's all I got for you this week! <3 

See you next time! 

Wishlist Wednesday: Jan 2017 Releases

There are loads of books coming out this month and I'm absolutely looking forward to all of them!  Seriously!  I want them all and I want them now!  Gimme!  

Ahem...I mean, now I'm done channeling my inner Varuka from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.  Let me share with you the fantastic books that I want to get my hands on this month! 

The final book in the Fever series by Karen Marie Moning.  I am anxious and a bit saddened that this series will be over so soon.  However, I have absolutely loved every single pulse-pounding moment of this series.  I cannot wait to see what conclusion has been crafted for MacKayla Lane and Jerricho Barrons.  This one hits shelves on Jan 17th and I must have it! 

This book is the first book in a new series by Veronica Roth.  This one, I'm a bit critical going into it, however, I am looking forward to it.  It is touted as a book that will appeal to Star Wars and Divergent fans so we will see how this shapes up.  I did enjoy the Divergent series, and I am a Star Wars fan.  I am willing to give it a chance, and eventually, I will be offering my own review on this book.  It just might take some time.  This one will hit shelves on Jan 17th. 

City of Saints & Thieves! This cover is absolutely eye catching and totally makes me a sucker for wanting this book.  Well, to be honest, I'm looking forward to the story that's written on the pages as well!  This thriller is set in Kenya and involves a girl who essentially doesn't exist. She attempts to figure out who killed her mother and it takes time before she ultimately begins to find out what she has been waiting for.  This one will hit the shelves on Jan 24th. 

This is a story about a landmark civil rights case that allow for marriage between races.  Richard and Mildred Loving were the subjects of this civil rights case.  They faced discrimination, hatred, ultimately their love won and interracial marriages were legalized.  This story will hit shelves on Jan 31st. 

What books are you looking forward to this month? 

WLW: Bullet Journal

Two months ago, I ultimately started bullet journaling.  The end of June I started, and my first full month was July and by the first week of July I was one hundred percent addicted to the freedom it offered me.  I've been struggling with productivity, and organizing my thoughts.  I absolutely love everything about bullet journals.  Everything.  

I can be as creative as I need to, and ensure that I have organization for the projects I'm working on things of that nature.  Especially now that I am working on getting my crew trainer title back at work.  So, here are a few items on my wishlist for my bullet journal. 

The notebook I want: 

I've been going back and forth between this one and the Moleskine, however, this one is ultimately the one that I want, because of some of the features that it offers that put it a step or two above the Moleskine.  This one has numbered pages, index, as well as stickers for archival processes.  Thus, this is the one that I will hopefully be buying this month.  For now, I am using pocket sized sketchbooks. 

The pens: 

These pens are some of the most common used for bullet journals.  They don't bleed through and the come in a variety of colors and are good for fine line detail.  The current pens I use are good, but I want these to add detail and more color to my bullet journal and it will allow me to actually color code various tasks in such a way that it will stand out a bit more.  

Washi Tape..:

No, seriously...washi tape.  Do you have any idea how addicting this stuff is?!  GIVE IT TO ME!  All the colors.  ALL THE THINGS! 

It's good for quite a few different things in a bullet journal, and I need quite a bit more :D 

Do you bullet journal? 

Wish List Wednesday!!

I am a bibliophile.  There will always be books and book related things that I want.  This is just a fact of life.  If you've not gathered this fact then you are in for a somewhat harsh awakening.  However, I am much like Ariel with her want for gadgets and gizmos...I want more.  Loads more! 

Here are some of the books on my wish list :D 

 

  

Wish List Wednesday: New Releases

To echo the gif above...I am seriously excited about all these books that are on my wishlist...because well DUH! Books.  I want them in physical copy, I want them in digital copy.  Yes.  Both.  Why? Because I'm a cover whore, and I absolutely love pretty covers and they look good on bookshelves!  Digital, so I can cart them around wherever I go on my Kindle! 

Anyway, without further adieu here are a few of the books that are on my wishlist: 

THAT COVER! So pretty and bloody...and just Stephen King.  The third installment in the Bill Hodges Trilogy...and it is out NOW!!!  Chances are my hold from the library will come in within the next few days once they get their copy and things...and then I won't be able to talk to my roommates about it because I'll have been the only one to read it!  Why does it have to come in when I have to go to work and can't sit up and read all night?!  WHY?!

This book caught my attention (and not just because of the eerie looking cover), because the description puts it along the lines of Pan's Labyrinth and John Connolly's The Book of Lost Things which I've not had the pleasure of reading yet.  However, I've seen Pan's Labyrinth and adored it.  So, I'm looking forward to getting my hands on this one. 

Okay, I've at least read the first two books of this series, and now it appears that I need to get my grubby hands on the third book and wait patiently for the fourth book in the Asylum series by Madeleine Roux.  Patient (yup, I can be that...honest!)

Wish List Wednesday: Released this week

The words on the image above could not be any truer when it comes to me.  I am always reading, always carrying a book with me.  There are always new books coming out that I want to have in either physical or digital copy.  Eventually I will get the books through the library or I will use coveted gift cards for birthdays and holidays to get the books that I desire.  Here are a few new release books that are on my wish list...

COVER.  LOOK AT THAT COVER.  SO PRETTY!  This book by Melissa Marr is newly released on 3/1, and I WILL OWN IT just because the cover is so very pretty.  

AGAIN WITH THE PRETTY COVERS! Yes, they all have pretty covers.  This one is pretty on a mysterious kinda level, and that's why I like it.  The story even sounds really really good.  The setting from Narnia meets the action of Alice in Wonderland so we shall see if the cover isn't the only pretty thing about this story.  Newly released on 3/1

Okay, another pretty cover and a story that chances are will have me running for my tissues.  However, I think for the moment I will just stare at the pretty cover of this book.  Newly released on 3/1. 

What books are on your wish list that came out this week? 

Wish List Wednesday: Released This Week

Welcome to this week's Wish List Wednesday!  There have been SO MANY good books released recently, and so many good books that are coming out soon!  The books featured this week are books that I want to grace my shelves and further enrich my life, and the best part is they released this week!  Yesterday to be exact!  So, without further adieu, here is this week's wish list! 

Okay, I have to admit, this book grabbed my attention simply because of the cover and the title.  Like seriously, that title.  How could it not make you go huh?  Either way, this collection of stories by British author Helen Simpson is one that I would be proud to own.  Simpson writes with wit, candor, and warmth about the complexities of modern life and her collections have been compared to such authors as Flannery O'Connor and Alice Munro.  This book released 2/23 in paperback in the UK.  Its original release date was Nov 5, 2015 in Kindle format, physical copies were released this year.

Prose and I are good friends, as are poetry and I.  I love reading them. D.J. Taylor's The Prose Factory only logically would end up on my wish list.  This book is gossipy, entertaining and an all around fantastic read full of details and anecdotes about the great minds of the twentieth century.  It holds so many up for scrutiny.  I look forward to ultimately getting a copy of this book in my grubby little hands in any format.  Though hardback would be most appreciated...because look at that awesome cover! 

Of Love and Desire by Louis de Bernieres.  A collection of love poems that had been written over a lifetime and effectively capture love in its many forms.  There is rapture, infatuation, urgency, sorrow, heartache and disillusion.  This is de Bernieres' second collection and there are traces of many influence ranging from classical Persian poets, Neruda, Quintus Smyrnaeus, Brian Patten...and many others.  The illustrations, beautiful things, are done by Doland Sammut. 

Rick Riordan.  Percy Jackson.  Greek Gods.  Gods in general.  Synonyms.  Seriously.  I absolutely love the rich world that Rick Riordan created with the Percy Jackson series.  This book includes a full color illustration by John Rocco, who was a Caldecott Honoree.  In this particular book, the son of Poseidon adds his own magic - sarcastic asides - to the classics.  You get Percy's personal take on the Who's Who of the Ancients from Apollo to Zeus.  If you are expecting restraint from the son of Poseidon, you will be disappointed.  I love the cover on this book and I can't wait to see the pretty illustration from John Rocco! 

Okay, I've read some Gena Showalter before, namely Alice in Zombieland which I was kinda lukewarm on.  However, I'm willing to give her another chance with this new release.  Once I can get a copy in my grubby little hands...either through the library or purchase or gift.  Ya know.  With this book, it seems an interesting concept.  Life as we know it is a dress rehearsal...real life begins after death.  Yeah, you read that right.  Our heroine, Tenley "Ten" Lockwood is seventeen and locked in Prynne Asylum - not for the reason you might think (her obsession with numbers) but for the reason that she will not let her parents choose where she will live when she dies.  Yeah, that.  Two realms exist in the Everlife - Troika and Myriad...both want Ten.  It seems interesting and eventually I'll let you know how I like it! 

What books top your wish list for new releases this week, this month? 

Wish List Wednesday: End of the Month Releases

WISHLIST WEDNESDAY!!!

Every booknerd has a wish list...it's usually a synonym for their TBR pile...which as we all know grows exponentially every time another book is read.  Seriously.  God forbid you've read the first book in a new series...EVERY other book that comes out in that series gets added to the TBR pile.  Don't even try to deny it...you are all guilty of it!  I know I am, unashamedly so! 

Anyway, here are some of the books that have come out in the last day or so that have wormed their way onto my wish list (read TBR pile)! 

The Selection is one of my favorite series, and the fact that Kiera Cass has a new book coming out that isn't in the series, makes me happy.  I want to see more from her.  I am still missing a couple of books from the Selection, but I'll fix that eventually.  For now, I want this book...seriously.  The cover is pretty and the premise of the story sounds absolutely fantastic.  

The following is taken from the blurb,

"You must never do anything that might expose our secret. This means that, in general, you cannot form close bonds with humans. You can speak to us, and you can always commune with the Ocean, but you are deadly to humans. You are, essentially, a weapon. A very beautiful weapon. I won't lie to you, it can be a lonely existence, but once you are done, you get to live. All you have to give, for now, is obedience and time..." 

Cannot wait to get my hands on this in print or ebook. 

Charlie Jane Anders is the editor-in-chief over at io9.com and this book has definitely caught my attention.  I am definitely looking forward to this book, I love reading her reviews over on io9.com, and I've not had the privilage of reading any of her books before.  I will have to remedy this situation...seriously!  Beyond that, I think part of the reason this one ended up on my wish list is because the cover is absolutely WONDERFUL.  The birds against the background...really does make it look like birds in the sky.  Sorry, I'm a sucker for a pretty cover...which tends to lead me into trouble with books... but oh well!  

Here's a bit from the blurb - 

But now they're both adults, living in the hipster mecca San Francisco, and the planet is falling apart around them. Laurence is an engineering genius who's working with a group that aims to avert catastrophic breakdown through technological intervention into the changing global climate. Patricia is a graduate of Eltisley Maze, the hidden academy for the world's magically gifted, and works with a small band of other magicians to secretly repair the world's ever-growing ailments. Little do they realize that something bigger than either of them, something begun years ago in their youth, is determined to bring them together--to either save the world, or plunge it into a new dark ages.

What books are you looking forward to?