reading

Hello! I have no idea if anyone will even see this post because it has been soooooo long since I have posted. My last post was in 2021, five years ago.

I have been super busy during these past five years. I finished up my senior year of high school, and then promptly started college, where I spent four years getting a creative writing degree. It has definitely been a full but fulfilling five years. Unfortunately, because I was balancing classes, assignments, friends, family, and the scraps of free time I could find during my days, there was no time for continuing this blog.

However, I just graduated in May, so I am beginning a new stage of life. I’m figuring out what I want to do with my degree…and with the rest of my life (yikes!). Of course, I am still a writer. I want to write, publish books and short stories, and earn the term of “author.” But, as writers don’t have the most stable incomes, I am still figuring the rest of my “career” out.

Now that I am more fully stepping into my career as a writer, I figured it would be a good time to hop back on to this little space on the internet that I created a while ago. Writing, after all, was always supposed to be the main inspiration and topic of this blog — whether it’s just documenting my journey as a writer or giving more practical tips and advice on the writing process.

A huge part of this blog used to be my posts about my bullet journals, the spreads I created each month, and the advice I could give on that type of journaling. It has been a few years since I kept a consistent bullet journal, mainly because of the busyness of college life and because I was a little burnt out. I don’t know if that will be a topic that I will incorporate back into my blog because I don’t know when I will incorporate it back into my life yet.

The last main aspect of this blog was books — books I read, books I reviewed, and books I loved. Books are still a huge part of my life — first and foremost because I love reading. But books are also an essential part of my life because I am a writer. Reading is both inspiring and essential for refining my craft.

So… to make this a little more than just an update post…

What I Read in May

Here’s what I read in May!

I read the first three books (or volumes, as the author calls them) of the series called The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion by Beth Brower. Here are my thoughts:

Overall, it is a wonderfully delightful series that I have not been able to put down. Each volume is made up of Emma Lion’s journal entries about her life. It is set in 1883, St. Crispian’s (a town in London). It is a town that has all the wonderful odd quirks that create the typical small town charm. Emma interacts with those she knows in the town and occasionally gets into some escapades and scrapes that are humorous.

Volume 1 has a lot of exposition about the town of St. Crispian’s, Emma’s house, Emma’s history, and her current situation. As any avid fan of the series will tell you, the first volume can be a little slow. However, by the end of Volume 2, you should (and will) be thoroughly enjoying yourself. Volume 2 has a lot more dialogue, which starts moving the story along at a faster and more enjoyable pace.

So far, Volume 2 has been my favorite. My interest caught at the end of Volume 1, so when I started Volume 2, I was fully intrigued by the quirky town and characters. I thoroughly enjoyed the second volume and could not resist moving straight into Volume 3.

I am very interested to see where the series goes. There are currently eight published volumes, but the author has stated that she has plans for 25 volumes when the series is fully finished.

I have also been reading a memoir, but I’ll save my review for when I’ve read the full book.

The Future of This Blog

So, this post is really a test to see who’s still out there reading my blog, so I can get an idea of where I’m at. It’s also me just tentatively stepping back out into the blog world to remind myself of what it’s like to write a post and get out my thoughts about where I’m at in life and as a writer.

I still love the idea of capturing my journey as a writer and a creative person, just like I did eight years ago when I started this blog. So that will still remain the cornerstone of this little corner of the internet. I am perfectly happy to still incorporate book reviews because I am still an avid reader. As for what else…. We’ll just have to wait and see. I have a few more ideas in mind, but I’m also happy to hear any ideas/requests from readers.

So, maybe I’ll see you again here sometime soon. Until then,

Signing off,

Corinne

“Why, my soul, are you so dejected? Why are you in such turmoil? Put your hope in God, for I will still praise Him, my Savior and my God.” (Psalm 42:11 CSB)

Hello and happy Fourth of July, everyone!

Today, I’ll be giving you my monthly recap for June!

If you haven’t been to my blog before, a monthly recap is a post where I share the things I accomplished during the month. Today I’ll be sharing info about the books I read, my writing, art progress, blog posts, bullet journal progress, what happened in my life during June, and looking ahead at July. Wow, we’ve got a lot to look at today! We’d better get started!

This month, I read three books.

First, I read The Hobbit. This was a really fun read! I really enjoyed the storyline, and I think it was great literature. I hope to read through the entire Lord of the Rings Series at some point (I have a long reading list right now).

Next, I read the first book in the River of Time Series: Waterfall. Oh. My. Goodness. I LOVE THIS SERIES! This is my first time reading it, and I am SO into it. Basically, a girl and her sister fall through a time portal and get sent back to medieval times. I highly recommend this book if you are up for an exciting read! WARNING: This book does have several intense moments! Living in medieval times was a lot different than living today!

The third book I read was the second book in the River of Time series: Cascade. This book was even more exciting than the first! This book continues the story of the two sisters and their mother from the first book. I will definitely continue reading through this series!

Writing

Okay, I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t get much writing done this month.

I did start a new story, though, based off of one of the prompts from my post 26 Writing Prompts for You, You, and You! I didn’t get that story done in time for this post, but hopefully I’ll be sharing it with you guys sometime in July.

Blogging

I did a total of three posts this month. My goal was to post on time each Friday, but I was mostly late each time.

Here are all of the posts I did this month:

Art Progress

As you may know if you are a returning visitor to my blog, I recently did a page in my new bullet journal where I could track my progress on all of my art projects (view this post if you want to see all pictures of my new bullet journal).

I only did two projects last month: my Diamond Painting and my new bullet journal.

Here are the stats on my new bullet journal:

This was my third bullet journal.
It took me 11 days to complete.
The “Fun Scale” rating was 10/10!

Here are the stats on my Diamond Painting:

This is my first time sharing my Diamond Painting with you guys, so I’ll go ahead and explain what it is. It’s pretty much a paint by number, but with tiny diamonds (not real diamonds of course) instead of paint. Mine is Harry Potter themed!
The canvas is sticky, so all I have to do is use my special pen to stick the diamonds on.
I got this for my birthday, so I’ve been working on it for almost two months.
So far, I’ve really enjoyed doing my Diamond Painting. It’s really easy to do, and it’s so fun to watch it come together! Below is a picture of what I’ve completed so far:

You can find these on Amazon, if you want one of your own.

Bullet Journaling

First, I’d like to show you guys a few weekly spreads I did last month that I’m particularly proud of:

This spread was for the week of June 15-21, and I really like the way this one turned out! It’s supposed to look like a pond with lily pads as the daily sections, and branches kind of hanging over the water. This was probably my favorite weekly spread this month.

This spread was for June 29-July 5 and is sky themed. The daily sections are clouds, and there’s also a rainbow, a sun, and a flying cat (I wanted to incorporate a cat in some way, so I added wings to it. Looking back, it seems kind of weird, but I can’t change it now…).

All of the weekly spreads I did this week were in this layout, with the circles as the daily sections.

Now I’ll go ahead and show you all my spreads for July!

First off, I have my July Monthly Overview. On the left page, I have a red, white, and blue themed popsicle and also fireworks (I used gray as a substitute for white). Next I have sections for goals, memories, books I read, and blog posts. On the right page, I have my calendar and spaces for events and notes. I also added a cat waving a USA flag to celebrate the Fourth of July.

Next up, I have my tracker for how my day went. I wanted to call it my mood tracker, but it’s not really a mood tracker. I’m not really sure what to call it 😉 . It’s painting themed (if you stick around and finish this post, you’ll see why), and all I have to do is color the strip the appropriate color according to how my day was.

I’m having a lot of trouble reaching my water goal each day, so I’m hoping a tracker will help motivate me. Across the top, I have the amount of cups I will drink numbered (1-8+) and down the page I have the dates. I will use a colored pencil to shade in how many cups I drank each day.

Here I have my money tracker, which is the same as always. I’ll do tally marks for how many shifts I work, write down my checks, and the total amount of money I earned. I’ll divide that money into spend, save, and tithe money and record it. I’ve also saved a space for spending ideas.

Finally, I did my habit tracker. This habit tracker is different than the ones I’ve done in the past, but it’s pretty self-explanatory. The habits are written on the left, and if I’ve completed a habit, I’ll circle the date.

Looking Back at June

Looking back at June, I can see where my month went… bad? No, it didn’t go bad. I just mean that things went from super productive to not productive.

I was super motivated the first week of summer, so I got a lot done.

Then, we got a kitten!

Everyone, say hello to Luna! The first week we had Luna was very hectic, as we had to adjust our schedules so we could take care of and play with her. I didn’t have much free time for a few weeks after that, and by then, I unfortunately wasn’t very motivated to be productive any more.

Looking Ahead at July

I am super excited for July, because… (drumroll, please!) … I’m starting a new project: redecorating my room!

This project is probably going to take several months, but I can’t wait for the end result I’ve already been dreaming about! We moved into this house last November, but I haven’t really decorated my room much yet.

Basically, I want to paint my room, get a new bedspread, and decorate my walls. This month, we’re going to paint and then I’ll start looking for a new bedspread.

For July, I’ve got several fun posts planned, so stay tuned!

Until Next Time…

Whew, that was a really long post! I hope you guys enjoyed it! Comment and let me know if you did and also tell me how June went for you! I’ve love to talk to you!

Thanks for reading! Happy writing!

Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers. But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night. (Psalms 1:1-2 NLT)

Tag: reading

I’m Back! (+What I Read in May)