February Goals

Life Goals:

• Start Marvel paintings. I have some fun plans for doing paintings of each of the Avengers. I have a date I’d like them to be done by; hopefully I can make it!

• Document February in my Smashbook. I got a Smashbook from my best friend for Christmas, and I’ve decided to use it to document each month, and any special trips/events that happen throughout the year! You’ll see January’s pages soon!

• Order plant/seed catalogs & plan my garden. I know it’s only February, and spring doesn’t really show up in NH until late April, but I’d like to put some time into planning my garden ahead of time this year, especially my flower beds.

Blog Goals:

• Send out three more emails to artists. I’ve gotten great responses so far to my artist interview requests (two more up this month!) and I want to keep the emails going so I can stay on schedule with those posts.

• Stick to my blog schedule. January ended up being a total crapshoot for all things blog. Being sick kicked it off, and then even once I was healthy I wasn’t keeping to the schedule I had planned for posts. I definitely want to remedy that this month, especially since I’ve got some posts I’m quite excited about!

• Finalize the switch to self-hosted! This is the biggest thing I want to talk about. I have it almost finished, layout wise, then I just need to install a few plugins and it’s good to go. However, my subscription to WordPress Custom Design runs out in TWO DAYS. Since I am so close to the final switch, I’ll be opting not to resign up for that, which means things around here may look a little funky if that expires and I’m not done with the new stuff yet. I’m hoping nothing major will be affected, but if things seem a bit wonky, rest assured they’ll be fixed soon and I can show off my new shiny layout!

Hope you have a great month!

5 Fandom Friday. On a Tuesday. Frick.

I spent the majority of last week doing all the prep for my daughter’s rainbow birthday party we just had this past Sunday! It was a big success, and they’ll be a post about, but getting everything clean, made, decorated, and all around ready for the party ate up pretty much all of my week. Therefore, blogging fell so far behind. So it’s time to play a little catch up!

This past 5 Fandom Friday topic (hosted by The Nerdy Girlie and SuperSpaceChick) is a great one – Presents I Want Santa To Bring Me! My list includes all the outrageously expensive gifts I didn’t put on my Christmas list for people as they just cost Way. Too. Much. Thus, perfect for Santa!

1. A (giant) set of Copic Markers. I’m going to contradict myself now, as I actually DID include a set of these on my Christmas list just for the heck of it, but not one this big. This is my #1 item to save money and purchase for myself next year as I am dying to use them (and have so many ideas for them!).

2. This portrait lens. You’ve seen it already on my Camera Wishlist post. Yup, still want it. 😀

3. Completely unnecessary but completely fantastic video game figurine/statue thingies. My geeky collectible shelves are dying to have some of these on them!

4. A laptop. We are planning on buying one next year (no idea what kind yet), but it’d be amazing if one just appeared under our tree.

5. A WiiU. I picked WiiU over PS4 for this as I have no plans to buy a WiiU. I’d like it, but it would a complete and total frivolous purchase. There are only a few games I actually want to play for it, and I hardly have time to play console games at it is. But I’d still love it!

 

October Goals Wrap Up

October was month packed full of plans. Every weekend was booked, and the weekdays were filled with plans as well! In a way, I don’t mind as it prepares me for the upcoming craziness that is November, and especially December. These next two months are such a busy time for us as a family!

Life Goals:

• Paint pumpkins for Halloween. SUCCESS! We carved AND painted a pumpkin!

• Go to a fair. SUCCESS! We went to the Sandwich Fair on October 12th and it was so much fun! The little loved seeing the animals, got a gigantic Frozen balloon, and of course we all indulged in some fried dough.

• Clean off our sun porch. SUCCESS!  I am SO glad I got this one done! It’s still pretty cramped out there, but at least now it’s organized and cramped!

• Complete a sketch-a-day challenge. FAIL. This was just a plain out epic failure on my part. I got to day three, and then pretty much completely forgot about it. Sigh. Someday I’ll complete one!

• Make 3 more Christmas presents. SUCCESS/FAIL. I’m calling this a success/fail because while I only completed one gift set, I have four others about halfway done!

Blog Goals:

• Purchase ad space on other blogs (for November). FAIL. I got part one done, which is find the blogs I want to pay for sponsoring on, but have yet to actually purchase space. Or upload my blog buttons, for which I have zero excuse; I just keep forgetting about it.

• Continue my 3 ongoing series. SUCCESS! WIP Wednesday, Life In Photos, and Links to the Past are all going strong!

• Look into/install Disqus. SUCCESS/FAIL. Another success/fail, this time because while I looked into Disqus it turns out you can’t install plugins on a WordPress site, unless you are self hosted. We are in the process of getting hosting set up, so hopefully by December I’ll have made the switch.

• Contact people about artist features. FAIL. This was actually a purposeful fail. I was looking over my list of projects, blog stuff, etc and realized I don’t want to take on this feature project until 2015. So I’m postponing sending out the emails until next month or December, in order to get everything prepped for January.

• Promote my posts on Instagram. SUCCESS! I promoted a few posts on IG and they seem to be well received! Yay!

Also, as you may have noticed, I decided to nix WIP Wednesday for yesterday. But it’ll be back next week!

My little miss is so excited for trick-or-treating tomorrow (as most not-quite-four-year-olds would be!) and her costumes is prepped. How did October treat you?

5 Fandom Friday

Another Friday, another post for The Nerdy Girlie and SuperSpaceChick‘s awesome linkup! This week’s theme:

Characters I’d Love To Dress Up As

I haven’t actually done too much dressing up in my adult life. I did have one year where I went all out with a Rocky Horror costume, which was both terrifying and liberating all at the same time. But other than that, there haven’t been many! I’d really like to change that in the coming years, especially as my daughter is now old enough to really love dressing up. I would love to do family Halloween costumes!

1. Princess Peach
My love for Princess Peach has nothing to do with the Mario games. I developed a love for her thanks to Super Smash Bros. Melee, where she debuted as a playable character. There is something so inherently satisfying about kicking ass in a poofy pink dress and heels. And let’s not forget my favorite part: smashing someone in the face with a cast iron frying pan. As a housewife/SAHM, I just find a cast iron frying pan hilarious as I can see using one as an actual weapon if necessary (those bad boys are so heavy!).

2. Dark Elf/Drow
This would probably be the most challenging to ever do. My biggest concern: How the heck would I darken my skin without being completely (yet unintentionally) offensive?? Plus, many of the costumes have a lot of complex armor elements of which I have no clue how to make. But I’ve always loved the Drow and think it would be awesome to portray one someday!

3. Aerith
As one of my favorite characters of all time, I’d love to dress up as her! My friends and I want to have a Final Fantasy themed Halloween one year, where we each pick our fave FF character to portray, so I think this one is doable at some point

4. Wizard from Harry Potter
This one is definitely doable. My hubs and I both want to dress up as a wizard (he’d be Ravenclaw, I’d be Gryffindor) and we have our little miss be our owl!

5. Link
Even though I love the Legend of Zelda series, I don’t really have a desire to dress up as Princess Zelda. I’m all about Link! Plus, I’d have fun making different items from the games! Ideally I’d make this a family costume, but I’d have to do some serious convincing of the hubs. Though I think he’d make an awesome Ganondorf. My little could either be Princess Zelda (she would love that) but I’d really like her to dress up as Tingle! I think it’d be so cute! And in case you don’t know Tingle, here’s a pic.

Seriously, how cute would that be for a four year old?! Though I’d probably leave off the goatee. 😉

Iced Pumpkin Spice Cookies

It’s no secret that baking is one of my favorite fall activities. I love to bake goodies for people. We celebrated my best friend’s birthday this past weekend, and she absolutely loves my pumpkin spice cookies. So of course I had to make a fresh batch! These pumpkin spice cookies are one of my absolute favorite cookies to bake. They bake up soft (the only way to go if you ask me), and have a perfect balance of sweet between the cookie and icing.

These cookies always seem extra special to me as I only make them in the fall. I suppose I could make them any time, but they are just such a perfect fall cookie (especially since pumpkin spice is all the rage!). Whip up a batch with the recipe below!

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups flour (I split mine half white flour, half whole wheat flour)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar (I cut mine down to 1 1/4 cup – it makes a difference with how sweet the icing is!)
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

• Preheat oven to 350F.
• Mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt. Set aside.
• In a larger bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. Beat in egg and vanilla until creamy, then beat in the pumpkin until smooth.
• Add in dry ingredients, and mix thoroughly together.
• Drop tablespoonfuls onto lined cookie sheets (foil or parchment paper). Bake for 15 – 20 min (I find 16 minutes perfect!).
• Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Make sure they cool completely before icing them.

Icing Ingredients:

2 cups confectioner sugar
3 tbsp milk
1 tbsp butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla

• Combine all ingredients in a bowl until a semi-thick icing is formed. Add more milk to thin if necessary.
• Once cookies are completely cooled, just smear some on with a knife. The icing will harden some on the outside after a bit, but it never gets crunchy-hard – it’s one of my favorite icings for that reason. The perfect texture!

If you’re not an icing fan, these cookies are just as yummy without icing. I love them plain with a cup of tea. If you are making a plain batch, I highly recommend using the full 1 1/2 cups of sugar so they don’t taste too bland or get a bit overpowered by the spices. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

My Blogger Confessions

The Nerdy Girlie has been hosting a link-up of blogger confessions, and it’s been such a blast reading others. Definitely makes me feel better knowing bloggers I admire share the same struggles as myself!

I feel like I could sum up all my confessions by just screaming, “I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I’M DOING” but I’ll elaborate a bit.

1. I have no clue about my blog numbers. With the exception of how many bloglovin’ followers I have, because that shows up when I go to my profile. But in terms of pageviews, followers via other means (WordPress, email) I am clueless. I’ve honestly never checked. Even though I’ve been blogging for over a year, I only recently feel like I’ve become comfortable with it, so I’ve yet to really dig into that stuff.

2. I only recently started planning my posts. As mentioned, I’ve been blogging for over a year, and almost that whole time I was winging it. Rarely writing posts ahead of time, or planning out content. Let me tell you, planning is so much easier and less stressful. Being organized about my posts has given me a whole new love of blogging.

3. I knew nothing about blogging when I began. Normally I’m the type of person who has to research something to death before I dive in. But I knew if I did that with blogging, I’d get way too full of self-doubt and never start one. So I just read a couple blogs, picked a free layout in WordPress and dove in. I think it definitely made my first year rockier, but at the same time I learned a lot about what I like and don’t like for my own blog.

4. I still don’t feel like I fit a category. I often feel like my blog isn’t too cohesive as I blog about such random topics. From art, geek stuff, pop culture, heavier topics, recipes, music – I tend to just write about whatever I feel like sharing. I like that, but I do wonder what my readers think.

5. I finally feel comfortable blogging! This is such a big step for me! I finally feel like I am comfortable in my own blog, and that I’m writing in my own voice. It definitely took me a long time to get here, but now that I am I can’t wait to keep going with my blog!

Make sure you check out The Nerdy Girlie’s original post, and then write your own to link up!

Links to the Past

• One of my favorite indie shops, Scrawny Girl, has just started selling earrings!! I want them all, but especially this fox pair.

• Lately I’ve been feeling unsatisfied with my apartment,interior design-wise, so I’ve been having a blast fooling around in these home design sites: Homestyler and Room Sketcher. I love that I can input the dimensions to be able to design for rooms I already have. Also, really handy for down the road when we are ready to build our house!

• In the same vein, if you’ve never been to Houzz, check it out. Think Pinterest for room design – so many beautiful rooms to look at! And super easy to add to your idea book. I love that you can add notes, so if you only like one specific thing about a room image you can mark it.

• I’ve just discovered LittleGeekyFanArt on Instagram and I’m drooling at all the fabulous bright colored art!

Today’s fanart is a bit different. . .

This video is almost fifteen minutes long, but for me the time just flies. I love watching time lapse art vids, and this one is just amazing. The compositional layout is just crazy! This is the poster for the 25th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda, and it’s stunning. In fact I love it so much I have a linen print of it in my living room!

The NovelTea Book Club

One of my favorite bloggers, Kristin, from My Life as a Teacup (check out her blogger portrait!) has started the NovelTea Book Club for this summer! I’ve joined, and it should be great fun.

This month’s book is Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. I can’t wait to dive in! I’m getting this one on my Kindle simply for the instant gratification factor. I am way too impatient to order it online and wait!

Click the button for more info, and come join the fun!

July Creative Daily

Good morning! Today being the last day of June, that means a fresh round of #creativedaily starts tomorrow! What is that, you ask? A fun, totally commitment free daily photo challenge for social media hosted by the fabulous Lu and Ed.

The rules are simple: a photo prompt for each day, snap a pic interpreting it however you like, post it to Instagram (or any social media you wish!) with the hashtag of the days prompt, and #creativedaily. Boom!

I love this challenge, as I love deciding how to interpret the prompts, and seeing what everyone else posts! Plus, there is no pressure to do it every day. I did most of June’s, but there were a couple I missed and that’s just dandy. Feel free to play along!

Giveaway Winner!

Congratulations to Magda Marsh for winning the custom portrait giveaway!

Thank you so much to all who entered – I got a really good response with this so I’ll have to do another giveaway in the future!