Goals for 2017! Reading, Fitness, and Creativity

Happy New Year Everyone!!!
I'm so excited to start the new year and take on some new goals. I went a little bit crazy with the goals I've set for myself but I believe these are all relatively attainable within the next 365 days. Because I have so many goals, I'm not going to write out an explanation for each an every one (most are pretty self-explanatory) so if you'd like to know a little bit more about any of the goals I have written out here, click play on the companion video below.
Personal Goals

Create an art log of the year. Inspired by the many graphic novels and travelogues that I've read in the past, I really want to chronicle my year in an artistic way. I've bought a beautiful Leuchtturm 1917 sketchbook to draw, paint, write, and paste pieces of the year into in order to create a really nice tangible book of memories.

Track all of my work outs. Lately I've done a really bad job of tracking work outs. It's not really necessary that you track workouts in order to be successful, but it definitely helps! I want to track all of my work outs in some way, shape, or form in 2017, so this time next year I can reflect on all that I have accomplished fitness-wise!

Reading Goals

GoodReads reading challenge: Read 70 books

1. Read Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

2. Finish or catch up on 3 series

3. Start 3 new-to-me series

4. Read one classic every month

5. Read one diverse book every month

6. Use my TBR jar every month

7. Taper my book buying - buy with a purpose as much as possible!

2017 Reading Challenge

I had so much fun finding books that fulfilled the PopSugar Reading Challenge prompts in 2016 that I decided to do another reading challenge! While I had a great time, however, it did encourage me to buy a LOT of books to fulfill each prompt, something that as you now know I'm trying to cut back on a bit. For 2017, I created prompts that would encourage me to read the books that I already own! To give myself an extra challenge, the books I read for this challenge will be in addition to the books I'm aiming to read each month. (So my non-ficition, diverse, classic, and TBR jar book cannot be the same as a book I'm reading to fulfill one of the following prompts.) Hopefully that makes some sort of sense! The list of prompts I am using are below - feel free to join in on this challenge if this interests you!

1. A book with a color in the title

2. A book with a title that begins with "the"

3. A book with a name in the title

4. A graphic novel

5. A YA contemporary novel

6. A book that was published the same year you were born

7. A book-to-movie adaptation (read the book and watch the movie)

8. A book that features a character of a different religious background than you

9. A book that features an LGBTQ+ character

10. A book that is under 150 pages

11. A book set in a country you have never been to

12. The book that has been on your TBR shelf the longest

13. A re-read

14. A book with a one-word title

15. A book with a title that starts with your first initial

16. The newest book to your shelf

17. A book that features one of your hobbies

18. A book by a celebrity you love

19. A book that is 500 pages or more

20. A book with an animal on the cover

21. A book picked out by a friend

22. A short story collection

23. A book set during a holiday

24. A book set in multiple states or countries

25. A book by an author you know you enjoy

26. The first book you see on your shelf

27. A used book

28. A book by an author that is no longer living

29. Read a book with a cover from each color of the rainbow (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet)

30. A 2017 Release

I hope everyone has a very successful and positive 2017 and that you achieve all of your goals as well! Thank you for a wonderful 2016 and see you in the new year! <3

October 2016 Goals

Happy October everyone! It literally feels like I just sat down to write out my September goals. But here we are in yet another new month and it's time to set a new handful of goals to keep ourselves motivated as we head into one of the busiest times of year! October is always an exciting month for me. For the last 3 years it's been the month I've run a marathon in. It's the month we celebrate Brett's birthday. It's the month of my favorite holiday - HALLOWEEN! And it's the month to cozy up, enjoy the changing colors of the leaves, yummy warm food, football, and scary movies. I really love October and I'm pretty positive it's tied with July for my favorite month of the year! <3

1. No book buying!

September.... I went fairly crazy in the book buying department. It seems like with every paycheck I was perusing Book Outlet for new deals and filling up my cart to the brim with new reads. I feel like I'm in a place where I should cool it when it comes to book buying for a while and focus on the books that I have unread on my shelves. I have plenty! I do have a couple of pre-ordered books that will be coming throughout the rest of the year but no more book buying at least through the month of October (save for books I plan to purchase as birthday gifts for others)!

2. Finish the Green Mountain Marathon

Gah! The Green Mountain Marathon is happening in just 5 DAYS I'm feeling super nervous and not really feeling all that prepared, but I'm pretty sure that's how I feel before every marathon that I've run. Again, the goal is to finish. I was toying around with the idea of hitting a sub-5 hour marathon this time around but considering how the tail end of my training has gone (read: not great because September eats my whole life every year) I'm again, just shooting to finish. (Though beating last year's PR of 5:08:24 would be icing on the cake!)

3. Read 6 books

I have 6 books I want to finish this month (which does not include the books I plan to read for the readathons I have planned for October):

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald  

A reread originally intended for Tackle Your TBR

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

Originally intended for Tackle Your TBR

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Buddy reading this with Shannon!

What the Dog Knows by Cat Warren

A non-fiction study of dogs who work with police and in other investigative capacities

Bloody Mary by J.A. Konrath

For the PopSugar prompt "A murder mystery"

This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab

This has gotten such positive reviews AND it's about monsters so totally appropriate for October

4. Participate in Inktober

I'm going to try my hardest to participate in Inktober this year. Inktober is a month long challenge that prompts you to create one drawing using ink each day. I've been sharing my drawings on my Instagram so make sure you're following me there to see my progress! I'm not sure if I'll complete all 31 days, but I'm definitely going to try to do as many days as I can!

5. Participate in SpookAThon & BookBuddyAThon

These are the two readathons I will be participating in this month! SpookAThon will be taking place from October 17th to October 23rd and encourages you to read (you guessed it) spooky books! There are a few prompts to this readathon which follow the theme of reading thriller/horror novels and include:

-Read a thriller
-Read a book with red on the cover
-Read book with a spooky word in the title
-Read a 2016 release
-Read a book with a paranormal character/creature

BookBuddyAThon is a readathon that you participate in with a buddy! My friend Shannon and I will be participating together. This readathon overlaps with the SpookAThon by two full days and will be running from October 22nd to October 28th. There are also several prompts for this readathon which include:

-Read a book with a title that starts with the same initial as your book buddy's name (since I'll be reading with Shannon I have to choose a book that starts with 'S')
-Buddy read a book with your book buddy (We'll be reading Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn throughout the month and have chosen to count it as our buddy read for this readathon as well!)
-Read a book with pictures in it
-Read a book that you really want to read
-Read 5 books

TBRs for both of these readathons will be going live the week before they begin, so be on the lookout for those! I'm looking forward to another month filled with reading and getting to know people in the bookish community!

6. Prepare and officially announce BorrowAThon

I've been mentioning this in my YouTube videos and very briefly in my Reading Challenge Update that I posted last week but I am hosting a readathon in November called BorrowAThon! You'll be getting all of the information about this readathon on both this blog and my YouTube channel this month but please go follow the BorrowAThon Twitter page for more information for the time being! :) Hope you can all make it in November!

And those are all of my October goals! I hope you all have a fabulous month and accomplish everything you want to in the first official month of fall! <3

To read my update on my September goals, click "read more"!

A Few of my Favorite Links {#21}

April....PHEW. 

It's been a whirlwind y'all, as it usually is. If you've been following this blog for a while now you can totally tell when things are crazy for me at work because that's when posts get a bit more infrequent (usually September and April every single year). I guess that's just the trend in my life! Anywho, we had our final *major* event of the year - Pangy Day - on Friday and it was super successful! We were gambling hard with the weather. All week called for rain and even thunderstorms but kept going back and forth on when the rain would actually begin. We had outdoor activities planned from 10:30AM to 3PM, and according to all of the weather sites rain wouldn't start coming down until right around the time we would be packing it in for the day, so on Friday morning we made the official call to stay outside and we. hit. the jackpot.

While it was quite humid (we were expecting thunderstorms, after all), the sun was shining for most of the day, everyone was in their summer clothes and summer spirits, and everyone was having a blast. It was truly such a perfect day (I keep joking that Mary Lyon was looking out for us) and the weather held right until we got the last person and last piece of equipment inside after breaking down at 4PM when it immediately started pouring, thundering, and lightning-ing. Perfect timing, to say the least! With a smattering of other weekend events, we closed out our year of student programming Sunday afternoon and I can officially say I made it through my first academic year as a professional! We only have Senior Week and Commencement to worry about before we can officially call it summer time! :)

I have a few really awesome links for you today which (per usual) involve 3 of my 

most favorite things in the world - food, dogs, and Game of Thrones. I hope you enjoy!

Super Filling Sweet Potato Tacos

If you've been following my weekly vlogs or if you were around for this blog post, you'll know that I've been making a bit of an effort to be a bit more conscious when it comes to eating meet and dairy products. I by no means have cut them completely out of my life, but lately I have been pausing to consider possible alternatives, often making the decision to take a vegan or vegetarian option when it's available, and have recently made the choice to completely stop eating pig meat all together (yes, including bacon) which was a pretty easy choice as I never was too crazy about it in the first place. It's a journey and while I don't think I'll ever go completely vegan or vegetarian (then again, who knows?), making these decisions little by little will help in the transition.

Source

Enter, this recipe. I just stumbled upon it yesterday and it is completely vegan! It looks freakin' delicious and honestly not that much different than a regular taco recipe. Just really replacing the meat with sweet potatoes which sounds pretty amazing in my opinion. I definitely want to try these out the next time I'm in the mood for homemade tacos!

Pet Portraits by Incandescent Design

Source

As I've come to find out, I'm all about customized pet products that create a fun memory of your beloved furry friend. Incandescent Designs offers up these fun pet portraits for a modest (sarcasm) $200. With a finely detailed drawing, a pop of color, and a little twist to show off your pet's personality, I think this would be a fun addition to any room in your home!

Chart of 40 Different Kinds of Pizza

Source

I'm not sure when I came across this chart but I do know that I came across it when I was borderline hangry and of course fell heart-eyes-emoji in love! There are some items on this list that I wouldn't really want to try, but the vast majority of these pizzas - sign a lady UP. I think the top three pizzas I would need to try at some point in my lifetime are the Scottish Pizza Crunch, the Pizza Cone, and I really want to try Cauliflower Crust Pizza as well! What one would you want to try?

9 Times Actual History Was More F*cked Up Than Game of Thrones

Source

In honor of Game of Thrones finally returning, I obviously had to include a GoT related link of some sort! This one showed up on my Facebook feed, as most BuzzFeed articles do, and I had to click on it because I love when fictional stories are put into historical context. It's crazy just how messed up the world was back in the day and it was just considered to be normal. I mean, could you imagine hearing about a party reminiscent of the Red Wedding happening in real life?! Yikes.

What links have you been loving lately?

Watercolor Play

I've been wanting to mess around with watercolors for a little while now, and tonight I finally sat down (on the floor - my fave place to paint) and cracked open my palette! I used to love watercoloring back in my high school art kid days and I forgot how fun they can be. They're an easy way to play around with color and blending and get used to the feel of a brush in your hand and I totally fell back in love with them in my little 90 minute session this year.

When it comes to watercolors I don't do anything fancy - I'm perfectly happy with a dinky little Crayola pallet that you can find in any kids arts and crafts section. I've never tried a tubed watercolor (though I'd love to) and I don't think you really need to in order to create something beautiful. It's all about learning to balance the water and the paint to get the right density which you can easily do with a little $5 pallet from Target or Michael's.

I feel like I say this every time I paint or draw, but I really want to make more time for creativity. It's tough and is usually the first thing that goes when things get busy, but it really makes me feel good an connects me back to myself unlike anything else does. When it's just me and my brushes I don't have to worry about anything else. I hope I can make this a regular part of my schedule once everything settles down a bit.

A Few of my Favorite Links {#20}

This is the 20th installation of my favorite links posts which is crazy! I really have been enjoying throwing these lists together as posts to share with you all. As I look back at my older favorite links posts it gives me an insight of what I was into at that point in time. I hope you all enjoy them as well!

In the last few favorite links posts, I've been giving a bit of a life update at the beginning to let you all know what I've been up to if you don't watch my weekly vlogs, but I've recently posted two entries about my travels to Fort Lauderdale and to Montréal and those are really the big things that have happened in my life recently so I figured instead of repeating myself here, you can go check those entires out instead! As for now, I'm going to hop right into the links I've been loving lately!

Everything You Should Know Before Trying to Cut Down on Sugar

(Source)

I'll be the first to admit that my sugar addiction is out of control. I've had the biggest sweet tooth my entire life, and I know it's a huge problem as an adult. I've been trying to cut down on my sugar intake here and there (though admittedly, stopping by Dunkies every morning does not help!) but it is tough. Sugar intake IS an addiction, and I was delighted to stumble upon this article which provides insight on how to prepare to reduce the sugar you add to your diet. If you're like me and have a sugar addiction, I would highly recommend reading this quick article to better understand on how you can cut back in a safe/sane way.

Mac Miller Unloads on Donald Trump

This is awesome. Mac Miller, a multi-platinum rap artist who is particularly famous for a song he wrote a few years ago called Donald Trump, basically unleashes hell on Donald Trump and it. is. incredible. He uses his privilege as a white man to say what basically all of us are thinking. There's really no words to describe how amazing not only his speech is, but the pure joy that Miller gets from ripping Trump to shreds is written all over his face. I love it and could literally spend all day just replaying this video.

Video Game Themed Stained Glass

(Source)

These pieces of art are equal parts beautiful and awesome. I have no idea how you make stained glass, let along manipulate to pattern to make amazing replicas of video game characters and items, so needless to say I'm thoroughly impressed. The best part - all of the ones displayed on this post are Nintendo-themed which, in my humble opinion, is the best gaming company ever. Of course, my favorite ones were the Pokémon stained glass pieces, but I can definitely appreciate all of the other designs as well!

Elephants That Think They're Lap Dogs

I think there's really no reason for me to explain why I love this so much. My friend Cullen put this on my wall with the comment "Is this your dream come true?" ...Uhmmmm OBVIOUSLY. I basically cried tears of joy and jealousy watching this video. So cayuuuttteee. Someone get me to a baby elephant sanctuary pronto so I can live there forever, please and thank you!

Lap elephants!
Posted by The Huffington Post on Thursday, March 10, 2016

25 Before 25: Take Another Art Class (#5)

Sunday evening I took my mom out to Muse, a paint bar in Manchester, NH, for her birthday! This is something we've both been wanting to do for a long time now, so I figured it would make an awesome birthday present and a fun bonding experience for us. We went to the "Whimsy Tree" class, which was surprisingly full for a Sunday night. Our instructor was great and made it extremely easy to get the right look of the painting! We had a great time and we are definitely planning on going on many more of these paint nights!

I'll be posting a vlog on my YouTube channel tomorrow with some footage from Sunday (make sure to subscribe!), but for now here are some photos from our experience:

Work-in-progress #1 (L: mine, R: Mom's)

Took a break for a glass-bottle Coke (the best kind!)

Work-in-progress #2

Work-in-progress #3

Finished products!

*I'm attempting to reach 25 goals before I reach the age of 25! Want to see the whole list? Check it out here!

25 Before 25: Finish a Painting (#16)

HELLO! I haven't forgotten about this list! 

I know it's been a while since I've posted about or accomplished any of these goals, but it's often in the back of my mind that I definitely need to step up my game in the 25 Before 25 department. But I've recently been able to cross out another item on my list - 16. Finish a painting.

*The photo is making the colors look a bit different than what they look like in person.

I did the bulk of this painting in August/September when I was going through a bit of a stressful point in the transition back into classes/internship/etc. and just needed a creative outlet, and I just put on the finishing touches yesterday evening. It felt so good to pick up a brush again, something I haven't really done since probably my junior year of college. I'm actually pretty impressed with myself to just pick up a brush and experiment, and I actually think the final product looks really cool.

Most of all, I just really enjoyed getting back to painting. I remember in high school I would just sit in my room or out on our deck and just paint. I missed the mixing of colors, the smell of the paint, getting paint all over my hands and clothes, and the feeling I get when something comes out just so unexpectedly awesome. The cool thing about painting is that you can't really control it. You can guide it along but it ultimately comes out the way it wants to. I know I sound pretty hipster and lame right now, but the experience I have when I paint just puts my perfectionist tendencies in check and I really enjoy being able to do that from time to time.

I really want to continue painting more regularly, and although I may not have all the time or energy in the world to do so at the moment, I would love to start creating pieces for friends, family, and colleagues who might want an extra piece of art in their homes or offices. Because I don't have a ton of money at the moment to purchase supplies for this endeavor, I would probably charge a small fee to do so (likely from $5-$30, depending on what you'd like), but my ultimate goal is to experience the joy that painting brings me while also creating a piece you'd love to have in your home. If you'd like me to paint something for you, please reach out to me so we can make my goal of painting more frequently and your goal of a new piece of art in your possession a reality! [/salespitch]

*I'm attempting to reach 25 goals before I reach the age of 25! Want to see the whole list? Check it out here!

Last Few Weeks of Summer

I've been soaking up what little free time I've had with Brett for the last few weeks and we've been up to some fun things! Last Saturday (July 26th) we woke up early and headed over to Foxboro to watch Patriots practice! I've never seen any NFL event in person, so it was really cool to see the guys we watch every Sunday up-close and personal. Aside from the other spectators being obnoxious (a story for another time), we had a blast!

The sun got pretty intense, so we stopped into Bass Pro Shop to wander around and cool off for a little bit. There's a shooting game in there so we had to try it out. We even made it a little interesting by placing a wager on it - whoever got the least amount of had to do pushups in the middle of the store. Check out the vlog from that day to find out who won! (You can probably tell from the thumbnail... but you should watch anyways! ;) )


Last week I took a Creativity in Counseling course as a summer elective. It was a week-long intensive, meaning I went to class for 7 hours a day for 5 days, and then it was all done! (I have the rest of this week to finish the course work, but the class is all done meeting.) I have to say it's one of my favorite classes I've taken... ever.



I went into the class with no real expectations of what it was going to be like, and came out of if with such a better understanding of myself and how to connect with the people around me. If you have the chance to engage in art therapy in any way, I highly recommend it. It has the potential to make you see things in a multitude of different perspectives.

Saturday, Brett and I went out to lunch with his friend Kyle at Szechuan Garden (#chinesebuffetlife) followed by some delicious Black Cow ice cream (which I successfully spilled all over myself when I crunched the end of the cone... typical) and a marathon Mad Men sesh (We're so close to being all caught up with the series! This is one of the only shows we'll sit down and watch together without one of us skipping ahead). It was a solid way to spend a rainy Saturday!

Brett accompanied me and acted as support crew at my race(s) on Sunday (which I will post about later in the week) which was LIFE SAVING because I was basically falling apart as I crossed the finish line at the end of the day. It was good to spend the morning with him because he had to move back to his place closer to his work in the afternoon. We won't see each other until next week at some point which is sad :( but we had a wonderful summer together with lots and lots of memories! <3

Work life will be seriously ramping up soon with trainings, retreats, and beginning of the year prep. I'm going to try to sneak in a beach day or two before retreating inside for the season, and eat as many ice cream cones as I can before the homemade ice cream stands close for the winter. I wish summer would never end, but I guess we have to have the winter (UGH) to appreciate the summer, right?

How have you been spending/how will you be spending your last few weeks of Summer?

Doodle People

Happy Friday, everyone! I'm spending my time off by playing around in some fun art apps on my new iPad. I came up with these quick little doodles of Brett & I and I thought they were so cute and fun that I had to share! I'm sure once I get a better hang of drawing on a electronic device that I can start creating some awesome artwork for the blog.

Do you have any tips for iPad artwork?