Music Monday: Gary Clark, Jr

Gary Clark, Jr albums Blak and Blu is going to be in heavy rotation for quite a long time.

Enjoy!

Bright Lights  

Don't Owe You a Thing

Ain't Messin' Round

Sunday Confessions: Projects, Technology and Books

Project Life: I know I said I wasn't going to do it, but when January 1st rolled around I just couldn't resist the challenge. I am ONCE AGAIN attempting to complete a 365 Days project. But this time with a twist. A friend posted on her first photograph of the project (it's good to be doing it with others!) that she was going to follow Project Life 365 (or at least some of it). When I looked it up, I fell in love with the idea and have decided to do so as well. I think having a daily prompt, even if I don't follow it closely will be a huge help in actually completing this year. PLUS it will be a fantastic feeling to be able to cross "Complete a 365 Days Project" off my 35 Before 35 list! You can follow along with the project here: Three Hundred and Sixty Five
Year of the Project: Along with the Project Lift 365, I also have a few other projects sucking up my time this year. There is of course:

• The Daily Square
• Reading Challenge
• Gratitude Journal

What can I say.....I like to stay busy!

Technology Waste: I have been lusting after an iPad ever since they were released. I could read books. I could work out ideas on the go. Save paper! It would be an awesome time saver. Well. I finally got one (my mom handed me down her old one after receiving a new on for Christmas) and do you know what I've done with it? Played Tiny Tower and hidden objects games. That's pretty much it besides dowloading apps to help with my original plan for why I needed an iPad. So yeah. 
Books. Books. Books!: Thanks to receiving an Amazon gift card for Christmas my "to read" list has grown exponentially and is now at a level of "out of control!". Right I'm making my way through three books: 

1. Savage Cinderella, which is not holding my attention at all.
2. Straight to Hell, which is kind of getting pretty good. And is even a little funny.
3. Rock the Heart, which is awful. Thankfully it only cost $1.00 and is most likely going to end up in the "did not finish" list very soon. 

On a Cold Winters Day

This morning after running our errands, Sadie and I head out to the lake. She needed to run and I needed some fresh air and a bit of time to think.

Here are some of my favorite photographs from this morning.

Gettin' My Read On: Bout of Books 6.0

Every year I set up a reading challenge for myself: read XX number of books between January 1 and December 31.

Thus far, I've not managed to reach my goal and let's be honest, it is dreadfully annoying.

I love to read. 

There have have been many a night (or week) when I've been up into the wee hours of the morning because I am so consumed by the story I don't want to stop. Or, I've put off finishing a book because I have fallen in love with the cast of characters and don't want to say good-bye. 

But I also tend to get sucked into genres and read the same types of books over and over and over and get bored thus resulting in a lack of interest in reading and not making my yearly goal.

This years reading goal is the same as it has been for the last two years: 52 books read at the end of 2013. I've said it before and I'll say it again, reading one book a week shouldn't be so difficult. But alas, apparently it is.

To help me actually achieve (or even surpass) my goal, I am once again signing myself up for the Bout of Books reading challenge!

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 7th and runs through Sunday, January 13th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 6.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. -From the Bout of Books 6.0 team

I've done it twice before: once I totally rocked it and the other was a complete disaster. I'm hoping this time out has the same results as my first time participating and not the second.

My goals for this time around aren't terribly lofty, but I'm absolutely o.k. with that. At this point, I simply need attainable!

The goal for this time around is as follows.....
--Read one book of translated fiction/non-fiction (perhaps Life of Pi by Yann Martel)
--Read one banned book (thinking The Awakening by Kate Chopin)
--Read one book of my choosing (taking suggestions!)

Have you signed up for the challenge yet?

Welcome to a New Year

 

Happy 2013 everyone!

A new year for new beginnings. A fresh start. A clean slate.

Or Tuesday depending on how you look at it.

I'm somewhere in between. 

If you visited the blog yesterday, you may have noticed a post lamenting the fact that I was struggling that I couldn't come up with some positive things to say about 2012. It's not that it was a "terrible" year or that bad things happened or didn't go my way or blah blah blah. It's just that when you're feeling a little funky, it's hard to see past it and find the good in things. 

SO...on a whim I decided to take a Pinterest idea (o.k....I'm sure it existed before Pinterest but honestly, does anyone even remember life before Pinterest? No, didn't think so0), turn it on it's head and whip it into submission (I need to stop reading a certain genre of books). I took one of the extra notebooks I had hanging about the house and started a "gratitude journal" for 2013.

The plan is to write something good about every day....let me repeat that....EVERY DAY in 2013.

Even when things are low or I'm feeling blue (I feel like that could be a line to a blues song...sorry...focusing....getting back on track), I'm bound to find somethings, ANYTHING that makes me smile. Whether it's watching Sadie zip around the front yard like a lunatic or hitting the snooze button a half dozen times before getting up in the morning, there is always something that makes things a o.k. And those are the things worth remembering and holding onto.