#i love those silly couple pictures on pinterest you have no idea

[lazybutsmexy]

Hey love, I've been re reading your Canary story and I find it really, really good. Every chapter is just chef's kiss. I love your writing very very much.

Excuse me if this has been asked before. I was wondering if you could tell more about how you write, your process. Some ideas of writing myself have been floating in my head but I am more of a visual person, i draw more and I have never written anything like that. (Only my university thesis 😭)

I am not sure where to start and if I should follow any guidelines or something. Any advice? 🫣

Hello sweet anon! You made my day with your kind words, and even more with asking me for advice.

I'm not an expert writer (if such a thing exists) but I can share my writing process with you. I will use some examples from BH since you've already mentioned it, and also because it's my most expansive piece so far. (Under the cut for length)

Brainstorming

Ideas, ideas, ideas! Write down your first ideas anywhere. Notes app, Google docs, a notebook you've got lying around, anything goes. This is the moment when you put into writing any ideas you've got - no matter if you think they're silly, or need a whole plot for that one idea to work - write it down. How did the process of your uni thesis start? You came up with an idea and wrote it down. How did BH start? I opened Google docs and wrote "Ghost x Reader x Soap where reader gets kidnapped and her boys gotta find her FAST. Lots of bird references. Her name could be Canary."

Rough draft

Here's where you start putting those ideas into a rough shape. More than a story, you're aiming for a descriptive text, like a review or a report on what's happening to whom, who are involved, etc. This is the moment where you may add notes about your characters, reader and/or OC, and start playing around with their personalities, how they behave in certain situations, how they think, how they feel, how they connect to other characters.

If you are a bit of a perfectionist like me, and want your writing to feel like you're watching a film, research, investigate, study from different sources on how to create a more expansive universe in your writing. If you're a visual-oriented person, a pinterest board will absolutely help you describe settings, events and characters. (read more on my personal approach on character description below)

Your rough draft doesn't need to be too long. Each chapter of BH started out as a couple paragraphs long, just a summary of what I wanted to write in each chapter. You can add whatever you like, though, even dialogues you can't get out of your head. Johnny and Simon's last lines in Ch 8 were the central piece of my rough draft for that chapter.

Writing

Now here comes the loooooongest part. Here's where you fill in the blanks of your rough draft. This is the moment when you open up all your sources, your thesaurus and dictionary, and go wild.

Character, setting and scene description gets stronger here. You could've started this part in the rough drafy - now amp it up to 100. Use as many words as you like - you will edit it later, don't worry.

Start setting the tone of your story here as well. BH has LOTS of suspense-filled moments, POV changes, and cliffhangers, mostly because that's my personal preference in readings. This is one source on how to write suspense (can't remember all the ones I looked up). Definitely research about different writing genres to see which one applies the best for your story, and set up the guidelines based on the advice from different sources. If possible, read other authors' works on the same genre you're aiming at to get a full picture of the things you should try, or try to avoid.

Take your time, if you feel stuck in one scene in particular, go on to the next one and go back to it with fresher ideas.

Editing

I don't usually spend a long time editing, but it's different for everyone. I recommend you find yourself a beta-reader who can read your story with a fresh mind and point out inconsistencies, grammar/syntax mistakes, etc. Beta-readers are the unsung heroes of writing. A good beta-reader will not only hype you up about how good your story is looking, but will also objectively help you fix anything that needs fixing, and may have escaped you during writing.

Now a few notes about character description that no one asked but I can't help it:

Fanfiction is great for beginner writers because you've already got a cheat sheet with characters that have already been created by someone else, and a fandom that fills in the blanks via headcanons.

When describing characters, I personally avoid physical descriptions like a plague, especially if that character is a reader insert or an OC. Physical description can sometimes behave like a box or a label that you put your character into and once they're there, they can hardly get out. I focus more on personality, feelings and emotions.

I also expand the character building throughout the story. Take Canary for example - you don't stop learning about her, her feelings, her emotions, her desires, her regrets, until the end of the story, and yet so much more was left unsaid. Also officer Melanie Kirk, you keep learning about what was she like even after she was gone from the story. Doesn't that make them feel more real? You never start learning about a person's character in real life anyway.

It got much longer than I expected, but I hope it helps! Happy writing!

[mydogtypedthis]

i know this probably wont reach any sort of audience but i need to type it out anyway.

I have a situation with a friend that ive had for about 11 years now. we have loose contact and different friend groups, but hang out occasionally in group settings like parties or camps. im calling her boople for the purpose of this xoxo

the thing is her friendship group sucks balls and ass. they are a gaggle of cunts, completely wretched morons who act like 5-year-olds and do not truly care a shit for her. ive never made my thoughts on that clear to her because she's a big girl and can pick her own friends. i have no place to put those comments but my own thoughts and maybe venting to the internet ok 🤫. its just that shes such a lovely person and im worried a bit of a pushover for such assholes. shes a perfect target, especially because they see her as 'childish'.

she makes a big thing of her birthday every year, as, growing up, her mother was known for throwing these amazing parties that were so extra and megaslay (i remember an alice in wonderland one where they got their neighbours in as actors for characters in little storylines from the book. there was so much amazing food. croquet. i came home with the party playlist on a cd and an alice in wonderland necklace). boople loves her birthday and i think its wonderful, she does throw great parties. the last couple years, ive had the pleasure of hearing some of these friend's thoughts over her planning. theyve mostly been about how childish it is to have games at a party or a theme, and how she needs to grow up and do something fun for once. i have my own thoughts and plans about them for that 🤪🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨🔨

anyway.

this year, shes just taking some of her closest friends to have this really sweet fairy picnic in the local gardens. think raspberry lemonade in tea cups, sponge cake, big poofy dresses etc etc. shes been planning it and talking to her friends about it for months, who all agreed to go. let me tell you boople was ECSTATIC about this, she even got her mum to help her make these dresses (shes really clever with sewing and all). ive seen pictures of the dresses and they look amazing. pinterest board bullshit. off to the royal ball. boople was so happy with them, and she and her mother put so much into them. her birthday, and the party, are in a couple of weeks, everything is planned, coming together and looking gorgeous. except today, to-fucking-day, suddenly, her friends decide they are far too good for it. today.

after MONTHS of planning and discussion about it, they suddenly decide that they cant possibly fulfill this silly little dream for their 'best friend'. i understand if its not the sort of thing you would want to attend, but i dont understand cancelling after agreeing to it for months. i dont understand not doing this simple little thing to make your friend so happy and feel so special and loved. its so special to her? she was so excited about it? there was also no formal or kind declination, just a condescending "... so hey bestie... mm no" type of attitude. 🔪 🔪🔪🔪

so basically im sick and tired and i dont know what to do. ive watched these people berate and hurt her for years and today i watched them make her cry and come home early. shes been forced to cancel the party, as even if she could convince them to come, they would be fuckheads about it the whole time. seriously im really angry. she cared about it so much, put so much love into it, and she has to go through this. she has had to deal with being friends with them. i cant think of a time shes ever wronged anyone in the 11 years ive known her.

i guess if anyone actually reads this and has a better understanding or idea of what to do than me (i have none) please help. x

- why does she keep coming back to them and treat them so kindly. all they use her for is microwave runs. they hurt her over and over again and i hate watching her go back.

- do you think this could be the last straw for her? is she finally done?

- what can i do about it from a distance? is it immoral to punch one of those pricks in the face? or should i leave it to cold glares? i really want to punch them each in the face. is there a solution that allows her to have this party when she has no friends deserving of her or of attending?

- please let me punch one of them.

-thoughts?

- and have a great day

- :)

[kkusuka]

Valentine’s day dates <3 

this is just what i think they would do for dates :)

gn! reader

characters: Shigaraki, Todoroki, Overhaul, Kirishima, Hawks, Dabi, Shinsou, and Bakugou

super fluffy and cute, that’s it!

--

Shigaraki

✴ arcade

He just doesn't know what else to do

He knew what you liked, he has it written down

But he was scared that you wouldn’t like what he would plan, and that if he messed up valentines day he would never get a second chance

But he was 100% sure of one thing, you both enjoy arcades

Specifically the retro-themed one with the roller rink

It had good food and all the games that the both of you liked to play

He was even willing to try roller-skating this time

Now he needed a gift, was he supposed to get gifts too? He was going to just in case

He knew chocolates, so he got them.

Flowers, he sent in an order they’ll be there.

Was there supposed to be something else? Just in case.

He got you a polaroid. A full polaroid camera.

Needless to say, he nailed Valentine's day.

Todoroki

✴ Picnic date

He did what he thought that he would like to do on valentines day

(I'm convinced that he’s a really good romantic bc he just does what he would want to be done to him)

He knew that it was supposed to be a super romantic day or at  least night

He set up a blanket under a tree, had two full baskets of food that he and his sister had made

And of course, he was dressed to impress, slacks and a nice dress shirt

(Natsuo made fun of him for getting so ready for a date on the grass, Shoto didn’t really care all that much)

He didn't tell you what his plan was, so when he drove you to the meadow and a walkway of candles awaited you, you knew it was going to be a good date

He had all of your favorite foods and you guys sat and drank and talked

Not to mention the games of hide and seek and tag, or when you guys rolled down all the hills you could find

Overall 10/10, would recommend

Overhaul

✴ candlelit dinner

Person hater or not, he knows how to be romantic

Just like the rest of his life, he was kind of traditional (very traditional)

He had the night planned to a T

He knew your favorite food, so he made sure to find the restaurant that has the best of that food in the entire city

He reserved an entire dining room just for the two of you

He told you to wear something nice and something that would match what he was wearing

(I'm also on the train that he secretly like cute couple shit)

He met you at the front of the restaurant with a full bouquet of red roses and a necklace with “私は月とバックにあなたを愛しています (i love you to the moon and back)” written on the back of the heart charm

(I'm not sure about the translation, I know a bit of the kanji just not the full phrase)

You talked until the wait staff practically kicked you out

But you just walked around a park and talked some more

Now he realizes that every year after this he has to make it better and better

Kirishima

✴ ice skating

This was more of an impromptu date

He had a plan, but it started to snow the day before and the lake near his family home froze over

That threw him down the rabbit hole that led him to ask you if you could ice skate

And with that he threw his date idea away, he had the rest of his life to do that date, this was a once in a lifetime thing

Well first he made the both of you dinner then he unveiled a pair of bright red custom made ice skates

(they matched his own so he just HAD to get these for you)

And the both of you skated until it was almost pitch black outside, but that also meant it was colder

You had so much fun the only way he got you off the ice was telling you that you could do more tomorrow

The rest of the time you were awake you drank hot chocolate and watched silly movies.

Now he could add something to the list of things he knew you liked: ice skating.

Hawks

✴ flight

He likes that you are so interested in flying

He doesn't take you a lot, just in case something happens, but he makes it worth it when he can

So he made a tradition that every valentines day he takes you on a flight around the city

After dinner and taking you to your favorite dessert hotspot, can't have dinner without dessert, he could feel you buzzing with excitement

He can never help but tease you when you got like this

He would change the subject when you asked him about flying

He would start hovering off the ground and you would hold your hands up to him, but he’d fly right back down and keep walking

When he finally relents, he flew you to the tallest building in the city and the two of you spend the rest of your time watching the stars

Then when you got tired he jokes about just leaving you there and flying off but you know he wouldn’t

Not unless he didn't want to get laid-

Dabi

✴ roasting marshmallows

Since he can't exactly walk into a restaurant with you because of his…… circumstances

And he sure wasn't cooking anything

(he’s never been too keen on being in the kitchen unless you were there too)

He still had to do something and he only had two hours before you said you were coming over

He had nothing, no ideas, and way very close to giving up

Then it was like the gods were finally in his favor!

He remembers one of those Pinterest bored you had seen and was telling him how much you wanted to just sit and roast marshmallows

It was easy, all he had to do was get things for smores and he was set

He also set a little blanket in front of the tv and a small coal grill and he waited

You guys just sat and roasted marshmallows while watching movies the rest of the night.

Shinsou

✴ cat cafe-ish

He was going to go to a cat café no matter what you said

But there was no need, you agreed to go with him

You guys sat in there for a while having small cake slices and drinking, as the cats seem to orbit around your boyfriend

You guys sat and spoke for a while, until dinner time finally rolled around and he took you to an actual restaurant

That was his real plan

Not known to many, but he had a real mischievous side and he lets it loose all the time

You had a lovely dinner surrounded by candles and rose petals and your beautifully bashful boyfriend.  

After he decided it was enough he took you shopping and even let you take him to the makeup counter and let the workers put some on him

Then you both went back to his house and you know what happens after that.

Bakugou

✴ home-cooked meal

Believe it or not, he loves to cook for you

He likes when you compliment his cooking so he does it as often as possible

So why the hell would he take you to some shitty restaurant that cant do it as well as him

But he wasn't planning it was a regular home-cooked meal, not his would blow any home-cooked meal ever made

He dimmed all the lights, replaced all the plants with fresh flowers of all kinds, and he set the table with the finest china he owned

He had all of his gifts lined up: a bracelet with your and his initials, the nicest box of chocolates he could find, and  a locket that had a picture of the two of you from your first date inside

He found the best wine, he had and even put the napkin and utensils in a napkin ring

After possibly the best meal you ever had he took you to a cake shop and let you choose an entire cake for the two of you

So you went back home ate the cake while watching some trashy reality shows while making each other laugh

(the both of you did finish the cake, to which you got another one the next date and he laughed then helped you finish it)  

Who knew bakugou was so good at being a boyfriend?

(you did

.

.

.

You knew)

[mrsalwayswrite]

Singing in the Shower (Ragnarssons x Reader)

This is just a silly little one-shot that came to mind that I could not stop thinking about. It got a bit deeper than I planned but oops?

Also my first time writing a Ragnarssons x reader! Please let me know if I did all the brothers justice. Except Bjorn isn’t in here. So its just the sons of Aslaug. Sorry, Bjorn.  

Warnings: some brief mentions of abusive/unhealthy past relationships, reader has some insecurities, the brothers being the best roomies ever but also creepers, like one or two swear words, FLUFFY GOODNESS!!! 

Words: 3700

Tag List: @youbloodymadgenius​

 (picture is from Pinterest. Not mine.)

The sound of laughter echoed around you even before leaving your bedroom. It was a Sunday night so that meant the Lothbrok brothers were all over. A tradition Ubbe started some months ago to make sure the four brothers stayed connected in each other's lives. Every Sunday evening, all of them would congregate in the three bedroom flat you shared with Ubbe and Hvitserk. They would order a stack of pizzas and enough beer to put a pub crawl to shame, and watch movies or play video games until the early morning hours. Only twice had fist fights broken out between Sigurd and Ivar with just a table and a lamp damaged in the process, so Ubbe called it a win. 

 It had only been about a year that you lived with Ubbe and Hvitserk. Sigurd chose to move in with a couple members of the band he played in. Aslaug vehemently refused to let Ivar move out due to his many medical needs that she claimed he could only receive proper attention for at home. In equal parts rebellion and to escape his mother’s suffocating attention, Ivar spent the majority of his free time and nights crashing on the couch at your shared flat. 

 At first, you were hesitant about living with the two brothers, having only known them through friends, but you decided to give it a chance. Within a couple of months, you found the strange dynamics of your shared space and your vastly different relationships with each of the brothers to feel eerily familiar….like being home. 

 Standing at your door, you listened to the brothers for a few moments, smiling broadly as you heard Hvitserk taunting Sigurd about how he was going to beat his ass if he threw another blue shell at him. Meanwhile Ivar was yelling something about the undeniable magic of Yoshi and his winning streak. They must be playing Mario Kart again. 

 It was nice to hear them all getting along. Normally Sunday nights you hung out with your boyfriend to give the brothers privacy, even though all of them repeatedly told you it was unnecessary. That was until last week. You had taken a selfie on your boyfriend's phone and went to set it as his background to surprise him….and found nude pictures of other girls and the dick pics he sent them back. Before you stormed out of his flat, you may have thrown his phone against the wall, pleased when the screen shattered just like your trust. Then you came home and cried to Hvitserk about how you were swearing off men and just wanted to be a spinster for the rest of your life. 

 Word must have spread between the brothers. For the rest of the week, they all offered their support in various ways. Sigurd texted you a few times to check on you and remind you that clearly you were better off without your ex. Ubbe gave you long hugs as if trying to soak the pain out of you, and made sure you were eating and getting out of bed. Hvitserk surprised you with a new sugary treat every day ranging from Oreos to ice cream to chocolate muffins; then you two would cuddle on the couch indulging yourselves while watching movies. Ivar threatened to beat up your now ex-boyfriend for making you cry and take pictures to send to those girls your ex had been texting. You made sure to shut Ivar's idea down quickly but pressed a quick kiss to his cheek and thanked him for offering. You hated your ex, that did not mean you wanted him dead. 

 You pushed away from your door and down the hallway. Popping your head around the corner, you saw the brothers in various positions in the living room, eyes all glued to the TV and the race happening on-screen. 

 "I'm gonna shower." You announced, receiving grunts of affirmations as they were too focused to fully acknowledge you. Smiling at their antics, you headed into the bathroom, shutting the door and starting the shower up. Once the water was at the perfect temperature, you stripped and jumped in. Of course, once the mixture of hot water and steam helped you relax, you started singing to yourself, letting the worries of the day fade away for just a moment as the words flowed from your lips and echoed off the shower stall walls like your own little stage. 

 Unbeknownst to you, as soon as the bathroom door shut and the sound of water running could be heard, the volume on the TV was muted. 

 Ivar, surprisingly, was the first one to overhear your singing. He had come over to crash for a few hours after his latest doctor appointment and to work on an assignment for a University class. The bathroom door somehow had not fully latched when you closed it, cracking open while you were in the shower….and you started singing. Ivar sat stunned on the couch at the voice slipping out of the bathroom like a siren's song. He remained there, transfixed as you sang some song he had never heard but he could feel in his chest. Once you stopped singing and the shower turned off, he quickly jumped up and hobbled over to silently shut the door, slightly embarrassed by the idea of you catching him listening in to your shower singing. 

 Later that day after you headed out to work, Ivar asked Ubbe and Hvitserk if they had heard you sing yet. Both of them denied ever hearing you sing. When asked if he knew anything, Sigurd was upset, having asked you on multiple nights to go to a karaoke bar with him and some friends. You always refused by saying you sounded Iike a beached whale. 

 Ubbe was next to overhear. He was walking by the bathroom on the way to the kitchen when he heard your voice drifting from underneath the bathroom door. Feeling like a creeper but curiosity winning out, he pressed his ear to the bathroom door to listen better. To say he had been shocked was an understatement. Sure, he had heard Ivar praise your voice, but he figured his youngest brother was exaggerating. It made him wonder why you never sang in front of others. 

 A silent pact was made between the brothers that they would never share the information of your singing with anyone outside the four of them….and whenever you jumped in the shower, whoever was the closest would go and crack the bathroom door open so they could hear you better. 

 This time was no different. 

 Sigurd was closest, so after Ubbe paused the game, he jumped up and silently cracked open the door so your beautiful voice could flow out. The game picked back up but remained on mute so they could hear you. The first song you serenaded them with was Walk Me Home by Pink. Apparently, one of your new favorites since you sang it so often. Next was Someone Like You by Adele. By the third song, the brothers had abandoned the game and were solely focused on you and the raw emotion bleeding from your voice. This time you started to sing Someone You Loved by Lewis Capaldi.  

 Ubbe spoke up, keeping his voice quiet just in case you could hear them, however unlikely. "Has she said anything about her ex lately?"

 "Not to me." Hvitserk answered first. "I thought she was doing fine."

 "Just because she's not crying all the time doesn't mean she's fine." Ivar retorted harshly, never removing his eyes from the direction of the bathroom. After a moment, he got up and hobbled towards the bathroom. 

 "Ivar…. Ivar, what are you doing?" Ubbe hissed but was ignored. 

 As quiet as possible, Ivar walked into the bathroom and sat on the toilet lid; your singing managed to cover the sounds of his movement. As he rolled his head to the side, it was to find his brothers had followed him with varying expressions ranging from concern to amusement. 

 Normally you did not spend so long in the shower but today you decided to spoil yourself. You had been doing well all week but this morning you were scrolling through your Instagram and happened to stumble upon a picture of your ex with a new girl, smiling happily and kissing at a restaurant…. the day after you broke up. And seeing them together felt like it ripped a tear into the slowly healing pieces of your heart. 

 Instead of going out like you planned to do, you laid in bed all-day binge-watching movies and feeling like an idiot. So in the shower you took extra time pampering yourself, using a deep conditioner in your hair, shaving everywhere and just letting the hot water cascade down your skin and loosen the tense muscles. 

 At this point you were feeling a little better and decided it was best not to waste any more water. You turned the water off, running your hands down your body to get as much excess water off, before you reached for your towel. Grabbing the plush towel hanging on the rack, you quickly dried your hair and wrapped the towel around your body before pulling the curtain back….

 Only to shriek as you realized you were not alone in the bathroom. 

 "What? What are you guys doing?" You demanded, eyes frantically darting between the four brothers.

 Ivar sat on the toilet lid; head tilted as he watched you with a peculiar expression on his face. Hvitserk leaned against the sink, eyes darting from your towel-clad body to the floor then back up. Ubbe and Sigurd stood in the doorway, both looking the least comfortable but still not moving. 

 "We, ah, we were…. well, we are concerned for you." Ubbe said, rubbing the back of his neck. 

 "Concerned?" You asked incredulously. 

 Ivar ignored your question. "Is this about your ex? Want me to pay him a visit?"

 "What are you talking about?"

 "Your singing. They were sad songs." Sigurd answered, leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed. 

 Heat flooded your face. You dropped your head, staring at the bathroom floor as you clutched the towel closer to your body. Honestly, the idea of them hearing your singing was far more humiliating than them seeing you naked at this point. "You…. you heard me…. singing?"

 "Y/n, are you OK? You know you can tell us anything." Hvitserk said, trying to meet your eye. 

 "Um, can…. can we talk about this when…. when I'm not naked?" 

 "Of course. Come on, brothers." Ubbe quickly agreed, tapping the door as if to signal. He and Sigurd walked away first. Only when you finally met Hvitserk's eye did he push off the sink and head out but not before giving you a flirty wink. 

 "Ivar…."

 He slouched back, folding his hands behind his head. "I'm quite comfortable here."

 "Oh gods, please, Ivar." You begged, almost on the verge of tears. 

 He stared at you a long moment before pushing himself to his feet. "Don't think you're getting out of this."

 "Ok."

 Appeased, he made his way out of the bathroom, closing the door behind him. 

 Once alone, you stepped out of the shower only to drop onto the toilet lid and place your head in your hands. Your chest heaved and your eyes stung as you fought back the tears that threatened to fall. Today was bad enough and now this. It had to be something out of a nightmare. Your own personal hell. 

 When you finally composed yourself, you quickly changed into your comfiest sweats and tank top. You wished you could make a run for your room, anything to avoid the impending conversation but you knew the brothers would follow, they were all stubborn and persistent when they wanted to be. 

 With a deep breath, you stepped out of the bathroom and towards the living room. What hushed disagreement the brothers were clearly having abruptly ended when they noticed you. Awkwardly you remained standing, unsure where to sit. The only open spots were on the couch between Hvitserk and Ivar or one of the recliners as Ubbe sat in the other one. Sigurd reclined on the rocker gaming chair on the floor. 

 Averting your eyes, you started towards the open recliner only to have a strong arm snake around your waist as you passed by and pulled you onto the couch. You squeaked as you suddenly found yourself perched on Ivar's lap. Somewhere you had certainly never been before. 

 "Where do you think you're going?" He asked, a cocky grin spread across his face. 

 "Um, over there." You nodded your head towards the other open spot. 

 "No, you're sitting here now."

 "Stop hogging her, brother." Hvitserk reached over and dragged you off Ivar. Somehow you ended up with your back against Hvitserk's side, his arm slung around you and your legs across Ivar's lap, him slowly running his hand up and down them. 

 Ubbe raised an eyebrow at the three of you. "Are you done yet?"

 "I thought we were just fine but I guess Hvitty had other plans." Ivar snarked, rolling his eyes. 

 "We're good now." Hvitserk said with a cheesy smile, making you giggle. 

 "So how are you really doing, y/n?" Ubbe asked, staring at you with those knowing blue eyes. 

 "Um, I'm alright. Today was just…. rough." At the four questioning looks, you quickly explained about what you found this morning on Instagram. 

 Ivar slapped the armrest of the couch. "I'm beating his ass now and nothing you say can stop me."

 You snagged his other hand that was still on your leg and clasped it, as if that alone could diminish his deadly intent. "Please don't. He's not worth it. I just…. I just want to move on. Ok?"

 He grumbled, but eventually gripped your hand and gave it a single squeeze in acknowledgement. 

 Now here was the part that petrified you; but you needed to know. 

 "Um, how…. how long have…. was this your first time?" Your words stumbled out, making you cringe at how ineloquent it was. 

 "What are you talking about?" Sigurd drawled; one foot propped up so he slowly rocked in the gaming chair.  

 You licked your lips, your mouth suddenly dry. You dropped your gaze, as you whispered your answer. "My….my singing."

 "What? You sound bloody brilliant! The others have heard you more than me but you always sound amazing!" Sigurd exclaimed, a beaming smile on his face. "I don't know why you haven't gone out with me before! Oh! I'd love for you to try and sing in my band, we could use an amazing vocalist like you! Gods, we could get way more gigs with a beautiful woman like you upfront singing."

 Soon as Sigurd started talking, you covered your face with your hands. The tears you managed to repress earlier flooded back. Your shoulders hunched over, cowering into yourself at the revelation. They had all heard you. Apparently more than just this one time. It was mortifying. Long ago you stopped singing in front of others, no longer able to face the ridicule, the degrading comments always thrown your way. And now, these brothers that you had become so close to…. if they said anything negative towards you right now, you were sure your heart would fully break and no lyric would ever pass your lips again. 

 Hvitserk shifted behind you, turning you so he could wrap both arms around your waist and place his cheek against the side of your head. "Y/n, talk to us." 

 You shook your head, the barely suppressed tears and poisoned words clogging your throat. 

 Abruptly, a pair of calloused hands grabbed yours, forcing them away from your face. You were immediately met by a pair of piercing blue eyes, only inches from your face. 

 "Whose ass am I killing now? Huh?" Ivar demanded in a low, menacing tone. Between his tone and the fury burning in his eyes, you knew he meant his question, and that sent a nervous chill down your spine. 

 "It's not…. it’s nothing."

 "Bullshit." Ivar spat. 

 Hvitserk nuzzled your temple, his voice lighter but still with an edge of steel in it. "I agree with Ivar. Something happened."

 Biting your bottom lip, you closed your eyes. There were a few things that were just too painful to talk about and this one, they had unknowingly stumbled upon. 

 "Was it your mother?"

 Your eyes flew open, your head snapped over to stare at Ubbe in shock. He met your gaze unflinchingly, and somehow you knew he already figured at least part of it out. He accidentally overheard a phone conversation between you and your mother one time and once you got off the phone, he immediately pulled you into a bone-crushing hug and promised you never had to see her again if you never wanted to, that they would take care of you. Of course, you cried all over him after he promised that. 

 Ubbe leaned forward in the recliner, placing his elbows on his knees, gaze still intent on you. "What did she do?"

 "She…. she hated when I sang. Said I was just desperate for attention. That I needed to just shut up. That no one would want to listen to me anyway. If she ever caught me singing…. once she duct-taped my mouth shut."

 You could hear the gasps at your confession, followed by a round of curses. Hvitserk pressed a kiss to your temple, tightening his hold on you. Ivar squeezed your hands, still holding them within his own. 

 Ubbe nodded as if not surprised. He ran a hand down his face and sighed before stealing your gaze once again. "I have a feeling she wasn't the only one to hurt you."

 At this point, a silent tear trekked down your cheek. You sniffled, dropping your gaze down. "I had an ex who used to make fun of my singing. He used to say 'at least you're pretty'. When we would ride together listening to music, he would tell me to stop singing and 'leave it to the professionals'. At some point, it just….it was better to not sing in front of anyone. So I only sang in the shower cause I thought no one would hear me."

 Hvitserk turned your head, looking into your eyes. "Baby, listen to me. Your singing is incredible. We all love listening to you sing. Please don't be embarrassed about this with us."

 "I'd love for you to walk around the house singing, I could happily listen to that all day." Ubbe said, a tender smile on his lips. 

 "I second that!" 

 "Sig, you're only here on Sundays." Ubbe glanced over at his brother. 

 Sigurd shrugged. "So? I could listen to her sing all day. Maybe she should move in with me and actually be appreciated."

 "No! You're not stealing her from us!" Hvitserk said, practically cradling you against him, like a puppy afraid to lose its favorite toy.

 "It's not stealing if she wants to go!" 

 Ivar butted in. "I am more interested in this other shitty ex and mother...can I find them?"

 "No, Ivar. You have to stop threatening people."

 "Why?" He whined at you, tugged on your hands, your legs still across his lap. "You won't let me teach them a lesson so all I can do is threaten."

 "Also sounds like you have terrible taste in guys. Anymore shitty exes we should know about?" Sigurd asked, rocking his chair. 

 You figured at this point you were spilling all your dirty secrets so what was one more. "Um, I was talking to this one guy but when he found out I moved in here, he called me a whore for moving in with two brothers and told me I was a waste of his time." You softly admitted, having made sure none of them ever heard about that after it happened. 

 For a moment there was dead silence then….

 "I'm going to need his name right now." Ubbe said, malice dripping off every word. 

 "Yeah! Let's cut his tongue out! See what he says about that!" Ivar cheered. 

 You could not stop the laughter that came out. The idea that these brothers got so worked up over anyone that ever insulted or hurt you was both sweet and slightly infuriating, but mostly sweet. No one had ever cared about you as strongly as these four brothers. 

 "It's fine now. How about this? Next guy to hurt me, I promise I'll give you his name."

 "No! I want to cut this asshole's tongue out. Maybe slap him with it after!" Ivar smiled with a pure predatory look. 

 "I think you should just date one of us." Sigurd shrugged, watching everyone with a smirk. "Then you know he'd treat you right."

 "I like this idea." Hvitserk smiled, squeezing you lightly. "We would romance the hell out of you."

 "You guys are being silly. I don't even know what romance would look like." You giggled at the absurd idea. All the brothers were gorgeous in their own ways and could pick up any girl they wanted, why would they want you? Besides, your relationships were just platonic. "Is the interrogation over now? Want me to leave so you can get back to your game?"

 "Nope, you're stuck here." Ivar said, leaning on you now so you were sandwiched between the two brothers. 

 Ubbe chuckled. "We've told you before, you are welcome to hang out with us. Why don't we put in a movie?"

 After many arguments and some mild threats, a movie was finally chosen. You settled against Hvitserk, facing the TV, as you played with Ivar's hair, his head now in your lap. 

 As you watched the movie, you missed the silent conversation between the brothers happening around you. It was decided that your next boyfriend would certainly be one of them and in the meantime, they were all going to romance the hell out of you and make sure you understood how important and incredible you are. 

 Starting with making sure you sang whenever you wanted. 

[szopenhauer]

Are you the type of person who gets straight to the point?: I try my best to explain things but ppl still don’t understand the obvious

What was the last thing you said in complete caps?: not sure what was last

Do you enjoy playing board games?: some

Did you wear anything new today?: pineapple shirt my mom bought for me recently

Do you ever eavesdrop on people’s conversations?: hard not to when they’re so loud

Are you good at playing Hide and Go Seek?: I was because I’m tiny XD

Who or what made you smile last?: my thoughts 

What was the last song you had on repeat?: Daisy by Ashnikko :x

Do you often have that song on repeat?: no that was one time only lol  I hardly ever have a son on repeat, that happened like 5 times in my entire life, usually after breakup

Silly string or confetti?: fun but too messy and waste of money so none

How long is your favorite song?: about 3.50

What was the highlight of your day today?: it’s complicated

Do you tap your foot when you listen to music?: I tap but mostly due to anxiety ^^”

Would you rather use tape or glue?: tape 

Homemade or store bought cards?: store bought 

Do you listen to any hip hop?: nah

How about some lyrics?: I'm tired of weakness Tired of my feet of clay I'm tired of days to come I'm tired of yesterday And all the worn out things that I ever said Now it's much too late The words stay in my head (...) I'm tired of Facebook Tired of my failing health I'm tired of everyone And that includes myself Well being alone now It doesn't bother me But not knowing if you are That's been hell you see 

Have you ever had a fascination with stickers? slightly

Have you ever seen A Walk To Remember? yeah Did you ever watch Captain Planet? I did Do you think that Uggs are ugly? I love them Have you ever watched That ‘70’s show? meh Do you get along with your sibling’s friends? we don’t know each other Do you have a fashion icon? sorta, not really Do you think that iCarly is annoying? possibly

Have you ever had a really bad haircut? sadly

What are your favorite type of calendars? pocket?  Could you spend hours on pinterest? just a couple of minutes  Have you ever had to wear a school uniform? I liked that Who were your best friends in high school? K.K. E.E. E.W. Ż.B.

Would you rather sleep on the top bunk or bottom bunk? bottom Have you ever had a secret admirer that left you notes? I got a note in elementary, it’s a mystery to this day, I thought that it’s a response from M.N. after I left him one myself but it seemed to be a prank done by girls who’ve been bullying me so I threw that piece of paper angrily at him like it was his fault - I still kinda remember what was written on it, they called me a flower and left a tiny drawing - later, forgot how, I found that note again and I believe I might still have it stored somewhere  What was your favorite thing to do at sleepovers when you were younger? as a kid I had 1 sleepover (same school in which the note situation happened) my friend P.W. had puppies and I was allowed to stay for the night in her house Do you currently live in the city you grew up in? mhm What’s one way in which you’re behind the times? ex. getting a job  What’s one way in which you’re still a child? ex. collecting stuffed animals, lots What’s one way in which you’re old? ex. health issues Do you feel old or young? Or do you feel both at different times? both at different times What would be the best surprise you could receive right now? money? Do you usually forgive when someone hurts your or try to get revenge? neither, I hold grudge and don’t trust the person again, at least for a long time  Were there any subjects in school that were really easy for you? in primary most of them were, in middle school: polish, biology, chemistry and math and in high: russian, english, PE and physics (but I probably shouldn’t count it as we had it for a few months) Did you ever skip a grade or get held back a grade? - What time of day were you born? half past midnight, my mother asked me why I’m so lazy as for someone who was born on Saturday and I responded with - I was sleeping in and was late for Friday What is the best hairstyle you’ve ever had? can’t choose Do you think you look better with dyed hair or natural hair? I’m used to my color but I wouldn’t mind dyed hair Do you ever listen to Celtic music? me and John had a phase on that back in the day, I wish I remind the titles... Have you ever wanted to be a model, actress, singer, or dancer? actress When you look at your baby pictures, do you recognize yourself? pfft Has your hair color changed since you were a toddler? got darker, less red  Do you wear matching socks? always but recently I thought about changing that fact Do you have a seashell collection? Do you have a rock collection? small Flamingos or pineapples? both Cacti or seashells? same but it’s harder to take care of cacti than shells haha Maple tree or palm tree? palm, ppl say maple looks like weed - I don’t think this way but that’s annoying, still I’d prefer maple trees irl!  Dreamcatcher or wind chimes? wind chimes but not every kind Have you ever taken a picture at the perfect moment? <3

Are you a pyromaniac? Bu is :P Are you a kleptomaniac? wtf Do you like to wear belts? it’s uncomfy and not good for my belly Would you ever get dreadlocks? I could but I won’t Do you listen to Eminem? no way

Does your sibling have a significant other? my sister is married 

When and why is the last time you cried (or at least, shed tears)? yesterday?

Have you ever cried at a real wedding? not that I been to many but no

What do your flipflops look like? don’t own any

Are there any gadgets of yours that need charging right now? my cellphone is charging

Which awards show would you wanna go to the most (e.g Oscars, Grammys etc.)? I wanna go to MET gala, nothing else

Any idea what time you’ll be going to bed tonight? late

Does your significant other like the same colour as you do? she hates my fav colors besides black 

Have you ever purchased anything online? obvi

Name all your friends whose name starts with the 4th letter of your first name. ...

Have you ever ridden an elephant? I’d like to (and camel and an ostrich and a horse)

Are you the candle lighting type? am not

Coffee in the morning, yay or nay? nay

Anal sex, yay or nay? hell no

Blue lipstick, yay or nay? okay, whatever

Is this question lame: “Have you had sex?” yep

Have you ever dated someone with really crooked teeth? mine are crooked

Would you rather vacation on the beach, or in the mountains? beach What embarrassing music do you listen to? too embarassed to write down? What’s your biggest talent? talented? me? r u kidding?

If you were a candy bar, what would you be? Milky Way? Would you rather ride in a hot air balloon or hang-glide? air balloon What’s one word you want people to use to describe you? truth is most important, everything else is less 

Did you often read for fun when you were a kid? tons of books

Are you more of a visual learner or an auditory learner? I learn best with my hands (kinesthetic) but visual is probably easier than auditory to me 

Do you have any dietary restrictions? ugh...

Do you prefer Google Maps, Apple Maps, Waze, or something else? I get lost no matter what

How old does someone have to be for you to see them as an adult? about my age or older

Do you ever ‘manspread’ when you sit down? sorry but I don’t sit like a lady - I sit like a lesbian unless there’s no space for that

When was the last time you were in a crowded place, and where was it? bus this day

Have you ever turned down a job offer? had to

What was the last medical appointment you scheduled? scheduled plenty at once

Have you ever had a dream in which you died? I die often, it’s a common element in my dreams, I’m fine with it by now

Have you ever fallen asleep on public transport?  oh well... majority of those times I was able to but once it was an accident and I missed my stop while going to school

Can you touch your toes without bending your knees? almost Have you seen all the Hunger Games films? yasss Why did you last go see a doctor? control visit about my IBS, GERD, food intolerances... Are you more logical or creative? depends

What do you currently hear? parents talking, music - iamamiwhoami; shadowshow 

Did you get enough sleep last night? I slept a little over 3 hours and I feel tired  Are the streetlights on? it’s not dark yet When you wear a hoodie, do you pull the sleeves over your hands? when it’s warm for that or they bother me in what I’m doing Are you in any advanced classes at school? w moim profilu miałam rozszerzone historię i WOK (wiedza o kulturze) Did you have a good day today? it wasn’t the worst (compared) and hope it won’t turn into complete shit 

[zannaleejoy-blog]

15 Tips For ACTUALLY Writing ✍🏼

Disclaimer: Some of these tips are ones I’ve come across on social media and some are from my own personal experience and research. These tips don’t necessary apply to novel writing just really for any kind of creative writing such as: comics, fan fictions, essays, scripts, etc…

Tip #1 Reward Yourself

 Working is a lot easier when you know there is something to gain from all that work. Whatever that may be. If you are someone who has an income and at least 20-100 dollars they can set aside. Pay yourself to write, for as many amount of pages, words, or scenes you write, pay yourself and use the money to buy yourself whatever it is your heart desires. And for those of you who don’t make much money instead- reward yourself with something you love to do. Maybe it’s playing video games for the rest of the day, or watching a YouTube video, or even taking a nap or just some time to yourself. Personally, I have a piggy bank that I put all spare money into and for every page I write at the end of the month I get that money. So if I write 15 pages in the whole month I’ve got 15 dollars to buy whatever it is I want, maybe more pencils or snacks!

Tip #2 Hold Yourself Accountable: 

If you are someone who gets embarrassed easily or who has a lot of guilt find a family member or friend who can make sure you are writing. For example: If you let them know your word goal everyday is 100 words have them ask you about it and be honest with both them and yourself. Heck, a friend on the Internet or posting on your favorite social media platform your success or failure can go along way to make sure you stick to your goals. I tend to post how many words I write in a day on Twitter. My followers tend to congratulate me on my success and I like to have that positive reaction daily so I stick to meeting my goals.

Tip #3 Writing is Practice:

 If you’re are scared that your writing is bad I can tell you first hand that not writing or being scared to write something bad is the worst thing you can do if you are fearful of sucking because you’re going to at least for a little while but the best part about humans is that if we were to do any one thing for days upon days we will inevitably get better at it. So if you write constantly than you are 100% guaranteed to get good. I have an old fan fiction that's been left on the Internet for years and I constantly go back to it to see my massive improvement and it excites me to think that I will continue to get even better.

Tip #4 Track Your Progress:

If you follow me on Twitter than you already know that I have a planner that has stickers for every 500 words I write in a day. I originally got this idea from Alexa Donne’s sticker method here on YouTube and have altered it slightly to fit my personal writing journey. I really like putting more stickers in my planner and it fulfills the child in me to see visually how much I’m achieving as well as I will purposely write more if I am close to receiving another sticker. Tally marks, or a spreadsheet on excel can also do wonders or anything that allows you to visually see your progress.

Tip #5 Set Low Low Word Counts: 

On days that I feel shitty I usually only expect me to hit 250 words because I know on my worst day I can achieve that- Also if I hit 250 I am only halfway to my regular word count of 500 so I strongly advise setting something stupidly achieve able. 20 words? 50 words? You can write that! So do that and when you've got the hang of it build it up. Just understand that the smaller the word count the longer it'll take to write it.

Tip #6 Writing Sprints: 

Writing Sprints are probably the only thing on this list I don’t practice mainly because time limits stress me out and I tend to work quickly anyway. However if you need that extra push or have very limited time to get some writing done than I encourage a writing sprint. 10 minutes to write 300 words? Or 20 minutes to write as much as you can. It prevents that critical side of you from coming out because like sonic you gotta go fast.

Tip #7 You’re Not Writing A Book:

 Now for my aspiring authors like myself understand that you, especially if you are on your rough draft, are a long way from publication and that's drafting is just putting words on paper, bad words, good words, little notes of incoherent babble. It’s a mess and you are the only person who will ever have to see it. It’s a story and it’s like telling one verbally you are just trying to convey the general message it’s sloppy and you’re mumbling and stumbling and repeating and backtracking. But as long there is a complete story no matter how sucky it’s still complete.

Tip #8 Quantity is 10x’s Better Than Quality: 

To add on to last point I suggest in prewriting and drafting to just put whatever the fuck comes to mind down. Especially in the prewriting phase when you are brainstorming and outlining just fit as many wild ideas as possible because in those times where nothing seems to be coming that will be your saving grace every single time. Because having too many ideas is better than none. When I was brainstorming I sat with my boyfriend when he was playing games and generated all kinds of ludicrous ideas but also came across a lot of awesome and happy accidents. You have to be brave and just dump whatever out and save it for later and dig through the trash.

Tip #9 Give Your Book Some Essence: 

Your book has a certain feel that only you know this comes from playlists for scenes, characters, and plot- you've got aesthetic boards for your characters, maybe you have vines that remind you of your characters. Find those things and jot them down, put them in a folder or document and hold them close. I have Pinterest boards for my characters and settings. I’ve got playlists, and these things fuel my writing and creativity. I understand my book and I am reminded that no one can write it like me.

Tip #10 Nothing is Set In Stone: 

Unless you are carving your book in a stone tablet or writing your book across the walls in sharpie than you can always go back, you can always fix and delete. We often rewrite from paper or go back into our word documents and mix things around. Write shit until you have the courage to fix it.

Tip #11 Write With A Person/Person(s) In Mind:

Writing for an audience is hard to envision for me, so instead I write for a person or a couple people in mind. Which falls in line with my writing, I’ve always written for people whether it be classmates, friends, or people on the Internet and soon when I write a book for everyone to read. Writing for me has always been about writing for others and getting through drafting and writing in general is trying to get reactions, laughs, and smiles out of my readers. If you write for someone who loves you then you will always feel comfort in pleasing them and that no matter what you write it doesn’t matter what others think because they will love it regardless. I often write for my boyfriend, mother, brother, and my best friend. The four people who are close to me and are guaranteed to enjoy my writing and I can guarantee that you too, have someone that will love what you write and you’ll want to please them.

Tip #12 Write For Children/ Write Silly:

If you feel like you have to write a story that needs to have complex prose and have subtleties and be nuanced which is nice and all but if you are struggling it’s okay to just write like you are writing for a young one, someone old enough to read but young enough to understand basic storytelling. And if writing once upon a time puts you in the mood to write more than all power to it. You can always delete that once upon a crap later. Just tell us the story. Hell I use to do this kind of stuff with outlining which was fucking hard for me at first when I was a hardcore pantser sometimes I would write really silly. For example, Henry eats food, and he falls dead, the village knows the food is bad, food is suspicious, main character Zora will find it out, it’s the storm the storm has ruined the food. Oh no! This is just a simple way for me to get many thoughts down and to easily expand and not feel like I need to write something perfect.

Tip #13 Write Dialogue First and Finish The Rest Later: 

It’s pretty self explanatory but you need to just get dialogue done first. When I wrote Dragon Age fan fiction this is when I first used this. It was a sure fire way for me to get words on paper because Dragon Age’s dialogue is a big part of the dragon age experience if you aren’t already aware. I usually get distracted by dialogue tags and description and slows me down significantly so write all the dialogue and figure the other stuff later.

Tip #14 Surround Yourself With Positivity: 

If you’ve got friends and family who support you like I am lucky enough to have people who support me, even if you don’t have people in your everyday life who support you then it’s a good idea to join a writing community whether it be on discord, Instagram, Twitter, whatever find your writer friends and hold them close because having some friends to cheer you on, support you, and fall back on does all the good.

Tip #15 Character and Setting Visual Stimuli: 

Because I am horrible with description of people and setting I found that have pictures of my characters and settings is the easiest way to describe when I can see it somewhere other than in my head. I strongly suggest utilizing this because you also add on your own little things if the picture doesn’t fit entirely.

[voibongg-blog]

Seriously what do you do in a long-distance relationship?

My boyfriend and I just celebrated our 2-year anniversary earlier this February. And during 24 months officially being a couple, we only spent 9 months with each other physically. Our relationship began when I was already in Finland finishing my freshman year, so it was natural that our relationship went this way. It was tough, really tough, but we have made it this far (wow… (seriously, wow)). I guess it is because we made up our minds already in the beginning so it was easier for us to accept the fact that this road was no flower road. Almost everyday since then, we call each other every evening. A lot of people wonder what we talk about everyday and how we do not get bored of those conversations. So in this blog, I am gonna give an answer to that by sharing some activities we do together in our long-distance relationship, and hopefully, I can help other long distance couples out there generate some ideas to spend time with your partner.

I tell him about my day and listen to his.

It sounds very simple and obvious, but this really matters. This is what we do everyday to show that we care for each other and we are not bored of it. When I tell him about my day, I tell him the interesting things happened during the day. I tend to notice the little stuffs that I find really amusing and I cannot wait to share with him at the end of the day. The story can be as simple as how slowly I walk and how I invented a game to entertain myself because it took me forever to get to the school. And he will tell me what he studied today and try to explain all Economics and Finance stuffs in my language so I am really excited to hear all about those. It is a balance between my afflatus stuffs and his knowledgeable stories that our conversations keep going on. But in the end, if you have strong feelings for someone, it does not matter (that much!!!) what that person is talking about, you just feel grateful that you have time for each other.

We found a lot of games to play with each other, and we are still searching for more!

Of course we do not spend all of our times talking about our day. As the relationship going, we found out some interesting games we could play together and it is just as fun, both online and offline! Okay, here it goes…

ONLINE GAMES

8 ball pool: This is a stable online platform for those who love playing pool, we connected to our Facebook accounts and challenged each other with many types of pool. We even created our own rules or bet on something (rather than fake coin they give us in the game) to make it more exciting.

Zynga Poker: Okay, we play poker together… But the funniest part is we play against the others in the table. We do not cheat, we only set a goal to win all the money in the table every game we play. It makes me feel like in old tales that the two of us against the world.

Scrabble: A more “intellectual” game than pool and poker. I introduced him to this game and now he is even more addicted to this game than I am. Basically, it is a word game and you play against each other or you can choose a random partner to defeat together.

Rummikub: This is also a brain-fucked game (sorry we are really into these stuffs). Basically you arrange numbers to win.

Battleship: We play in this link: http://en.battleship-game.org. It is an “ancient” game but everything gets better with bets, trust me

Go and Chinese Chess: Well it seems that we don’t fuck our brain enough with our education, we keep asking for more…

Loveball and Jellydoodle: Two more brain games, you cannot really interact with each other through these, but you can go through the challenges together (with two different phones at two different locations but yeah, still counts). It is just really nice to rack our brain together. True story!

Wordlink or Wordscapes: Words game, nothing much.

The Impossible Test, The Idiot Test, What’s in the box,…: Some other brain games if you’re interested. Cannot stress enough that we’re into these stuffs.

OFFLINE GAMES

Charades, pictionary, all those stuffs: thegamegal.com is a word generator platform for these kinds of games. There are different categories and different difficulty level for you to choose.

Whisper challenge: This is actually from Jimmy Fallon videos that we know about this game. One person mute the call, and say a sentence or sing a song, whilst the other one has to guess what is the sentence or what is the song while listening to some distracting music.

One-word song: Also from Jimmy Fallon channel. Basically you can only sing a song with one word, for example “goose”, so the whole song will go like “goose, goose goose goose, goose goose goooooooose….”. We use a song generator to random a song and thegamegal to choose the word.

5-second rule: This one is from Ellen’s channel. So my boyfriend will ask me to name three things in a categories and I need to answer it within 5 seconds. And then we switch. It is easy to find the questions by Google but we also make up our own categories like “3 things you will do when you see a penguin”. The more unique and creative the categories are, the more fun and unexpected the game gets.

Eat, befriend or fight: This is an interesting game from The Big Bang Theory. I will choose 3 animals like dinosaur, bear, and elephant; and then I will ask him to choose which animal he would rather eat, befriend or fight with. He needs to answer and give an explanation to that. We had quite a lot of fun with this game.

We also watch TV shows and movies together!

Instead of going to the cinema or sitting next to each other watching TV, we do it through Skype. We both turn on the episode we want to watch and then press play at the same time. We watched 10 seasons of “F.R.I.E.N.D.S”, 12 seasons of “The Big Bang Theory”, and 6 seasons of “Criminal Minds”. We choose series that are about 20-40 minutes long so we can watch it while we’re having meals (dinner for me and midnight snacks for him). If time allows, we would watch longer movies like “Our times”, some silly chick flicks (I choose of course) or mind-fucked movies (yeah you can tell). Recently, we do not have time to watch a long movie, so we switch to short videos from Ellen’s and Jimmy Fallon’s channels. It is soooo fun that I finally have someone to share all of these videos with. I used to watch these all alone and this really is amazing to me. Also, I watch NBA highlights with him because he’s crazy about basketball. I like basketball, not in a passionate way, but yeah I enjoy it. I never watch it all by myself, because I don’t know the teams, I don’t know who is who, and sometimes I don’t even know what just happens on the court. But it is really nice to watch basketball with him because he will not let me sit there like a potato but he will explain things to me, or give me some background information like who the tall black guy is and so on. I think we can share our interests  like this mostly because one person is willing to share and the other one is open to it and ready to find out more.

We take breaks from the fun and have deep talks too.

By deep talks I mean we talk seriously and truthfully in emotional, intellectual and spiritual aspects. It doesn’t have to be serious and stiff, we still laugh and joke along the way but we know the talk is real stuff. It can come very naturally in our conversation, one thing leads to another and we have the “deep talk”. They say that we cannot force a “deep talk” but turn out we can. We find some questions online, (they are available at thegamegal or you can use Pinterest and Google – there are plenty of them), and we take turn answer it and discuss our answers together. We understand each other much much better through this experience. I get to know his reaction and thoughts on certain situations and subjects. And through his explanation, I understand his reasons, his perspectives and clearly I could understand him better. It is really interesting how sometimes I think what I see is obvious but it turns out very differently in his thoughts.  These questions are mainly for the emotional and spiritual aspects, but it is really good to talk “intellectually” too. So when we come across some interesting topics that we both have knowledge and interests in, we discuss and sometimes, debate about that. Being in a relationship with a person means growing with them in all three dimensions. Therefore, it is important for me, and I believe for him also, that we have those talks. Also, it is really fun to prove someone wrong, so why not?

We plan something special for special occasions.

Surprise is my favorite element in life. And I’m talking about good surprise from my loved ones. I myself enjoy very much the process of planning and making presents for people I love, and distance doesn’t make it any harder. For example, on his 19th birthday, I prepared an Instagram account full with our pictures and stories to show him how much he means to me, and last birthday, I made him a playlist so that he can listen to that on the long bus to his university. We also called each other from a chicken restaurant to have a lunch date with each other – both dressed up! In return, he filled an empty USB with all the videos of himself singing and playing ukulele for me so that I could bring to Korea and listen to that when I was sad. He even wrote me a song on my birthday! There was one random day, it was after our first summer together and I already came back to Finland, he just went around in Hanoi taking pictures of places that were meaningful to us and sent them to me because “I suddenly miss you”. These special little things remind us why we do this in the first place, and show the other person that we care and we are also trying hard for our future.

These are basically everything we do during our 2 years of relationship. It has not always been fun and games and special things like I wrote above. Sometimes we just leave the Skype there and do our own work (and watch the other person do theirs) because we are too busy. But that is okay, because we know everything will turn out well for us as long as we still cherish each other everyday a little bit more and set some times to ask the other “How was your day?”

[melzwrld]

From Trash To Treasure ~ Pallet Wood Crafts

So, quite a few years ago, we had an easy supply of pallets to get ahold of. We also took advantage of it. Needless to say, I used what I could and got busy with other things. This huge stack of pallets was never far from my mind (partly because it was stored in my hillside house clearing), so a couple of years ago, I decided to undertake a rather large project (for me). While I still love the idea I had, it is an idea that did not come to fruition like I was hoping and is now being taken apart to be used in other ways.

The Beautiful Failure

I am always looking for durability. Free wood, kids, animals and carpets make for an interesting mix. Pinterest only fuels the fire and can send me into a tailspin of manic creating that can last for days sometimes. Since the carpet was really old anyway and about demolished, I decided it would be more sanitary to take it out. This would be the venture that puts me in a seemingly endless supply of various sized wood pieces for all my pallet wood crafts.

Finding out that nails are damn near impossible to put through these boards without a drilled pilot hole, made the decision to glue them down with the Hard as Nails stuff even easier. This is about a quarter of the way into the room. I was cutting, fitting and glueing down.

Just a Few Issues

One big thing that I didn't take into account was how tough these boards are. I had used boards that were a variety of different thicknesses thinking that I could somehow sand them out to be somewhat even. I never even made it that far. By the time I was three-quarters of the way done, it had been almost a couple of years, so it got thrown together very quickly just to cover the chipboard. The floor has never been sanded, grouted or sealed in any way. I also ran across a huge sale and got about 4 car garages worth of flooring that helped me to slack on this project and start the measures of undoing what I have done. So currently, the floor is ugly! It is a work in progress still, but isn't everything?

So while my pallet flooring didn't get finished like I had thought I might get it. I did learn that I have a hard time working on creative projects like these with others. I also learned that kids and dogs can tear up a floor pretty quickly. So to feel better about all the sweat, tears, screaming and cussing that accrued over me trying to do this floor, I have decided to honor it by reusing the wood.

A Few Pallet Wood Crafts

These next pictures are just a few items that I fixed up pretty quickly with odd ball stuff that I had been hanging onto just for the occasion. I also like to create things to use in my background photographs for the second-hand goodies that I put into the store.

Sanding, painting, polyurethane and then some add on bits and pieces to hold it all together and a final coat of shellac.

Kids Art Work For Decor

One of my kids decided to be silly and drew me a creature on a board. Reminded me of the Loch Ness monster so I decided to use it on one of my kitchen puzzle walls. I had spiffed up the board with a little paint and old fingernail polish for a shimmery effect. I sanded everything and glued it all together with craft glue. I even added on a couple of little pieces off of my old trellis and some of those nature sticks ...lol.

Tool Time

I got the great surprise of my hubby finding a tool that I've never owned but have always been curious about playing with. He found me a great used dremel and it came with the bit piece that was in it. I decided to grab a piece of pallet board and do a little doodling. It's just a simple "Love" sign. It was actually quite soothing to just swirl little circles on the wood. After that, I sanded it down a bit, smeared some old paint on it and slapped a layer of polyurethane over it. I still plan on touching up the sides and putting a coat of shellac on it before I hang it up. :)

Thanks for checking out my stuff! Hope you enjoyed or at least just got flooded with your own massive set of ideas! I still have plenty more happening, so come back often and see what's happening next!

[hollywoodx4]

First Valentine’s Day

Alternately titled Beets.

(This can be read as a standalone, but is part of my Schuyler Series. we’re a few months away from this in current timeline, obviously I had to post it today.)

<Also I live for our dear Eliza’s happiness>

Alexander and Eliza have been seeing each other for almost five months now. He’s not quite sure what the standard celebration of the holiday would be for a couple of their status (and he greatly fears going overboard and facing rejection) so he decides it would be okay to discuss what they should do. They come to a mutual agreement to do something small, just the two of them.

After the month they’ve had, it only seems right. And then there’s the fact that she knows, she just knows that every self-respecting paparazzi will be out. And really, there’s nothing more she’d hate than having a night ruined by the anxiety and pressure put on by the mere thought of those jerks.

“We can go out, we can do whatever.”

“But that wouldn’t make you happy.”

“Honestly? No.” She’s treading lightly over the conversation, tapping her fingers along the table of their Starbucks booth. He lets her linger on the thought for a moment, sipping his coffee and looking back at her with comfort. Security. It makes her smile, the way he’s waiting-the way he’s found continual patience with her lately.

“You know what we should do?” It’s Alexander who speaks again, suddenly alight with an idea. It’s another thing she admires, the way he’s turned from hushed and reserved to sitting with lifted posture, licking his lips and re-tying his hair in a messy ponytail at the nape of his neck. Her enlightened Alexander-she teases him often about his sudden shifts in persona.

“What should we do?”

“We should cook.” She can’t help but hold in her laughter at this point-only a slight chuckle surfaces, but it’s enough to make his eyebrows raise in question and feigned offense.

“It’s not that I don’t think that’s a good idea but since when do you cook?”

“Since now,” He’s put on an air of confidence, and once Eliza sees his shining, hopeful eyes she knows she can’t say no, even if she’d wanted to. “It’ll be an adventure.”

“Okay, it’s a deal. As long as you pick the recipe.”

“Deal.”

“I can’t wait to see what you come up with.”

It takes him a considerable amount of sifting through websites to find it-John’s directed him to some DIY-inspired website he barely understands, but he manages to get a hang of it with all of the researching he does. And then he finally settles on one-the photograph looks fancy, yet fairly easy enough. There’s the small fact that he knows next to nothing about vegetarian cooking, but it’s pasta-he figures it can’t be that hard to mess up, especially with Eliza in the kitchen

….

“I think this one’s the winner.” He holds a piece of paper up to her, a proud smile crossing his features as he looks it over once more. “I found it on Pon-Pin….”

“Pinterest?”

“Yeah, that one. It looks pretty good.” When she finally gets a hold of the printed recipe she stifles her laughter-it’s not just one page, it’s three, with a photograph between every paragraph and a detailed and very wordy page of instructions.

“It’s not that I don’t trust you but my god, you really think we can pull that off?”

“Sure we can, it’ll be easy. Honestly, look at that picture and tell me it looks ridiculously hard. Plus, it’s vegetarian fancy, not vegetarian cardboard.” She shakes her head and cracks a smile at his joking, holding the printed recipe in her hands. Eliza’s warmed by the effort. And the thought. Which leads her to nodding her head, tucking the printed recipe in her backpack.

“Alright, pasta it is. This should be fun.”

…

“Are you a thief? Because you stole my heart.”

“Seriously, Alexander?” From her place at the stove she rolls her eyes, a thick and consuming blush decorating her unfiltered grin. She chuckles, stirring the sauce and taking in the night; he’s chosen a particularly difficult Italian recipe-we can do this, Eliza, easy-and she can’t help but stare as he struggles in chopping the vegetables they’ve set out to add to it. He’s still smiling, though, cracking jokes as they come to him.

Who in the world decided that beets were something humans could eat? I can’t even cut this the right way. And why does it smell like I literally just pulled it from the soil?

She laughs at him before moving to help, a hand over his as they work through the pile of taxing vegetables together. He tells her it’s only a ruse to get her closer to him. She kisses him in spite of it.

               It’s a nice addition to the soundtrack of the moment; he’s put on Ella Fitzgerald. (He just wants her to sing-he hangs on every note of her dulcet voice, pausing in his chopping and prepping to watch her dance around the kitchen. And when she notices, somewhere between a bout of scatting and another verse, she keeps hold of the spoon in hand and grabs his arms, leading him to the middle of her tiny kitchenette to dance.

               Alex isn’t much of a dancer.

               He dances his heart out for her.

               And, much to his utter bliss, she continues to sing. It’s a bit more reserved now that she knows his full attention is on her, quiet and careful, but he doesn’t mind. He spins her, getting into the silly mood of the music and the red wine, trying his best to replicate Ella Fitzgerald’s powerful vibrato. Eliza laughs, the unfiltered sound erupting from her belly, and holds his shoulders so she won’t fall. His hands move to her hips, drawing her closer. As her laughter subsides they sway gently, her head falling light on his shoulder. Her heart is full, her entire being relaxed. It’s as if the entire world has become background noise to this moment, her mind settling into a happy daze, where it’s only the two of them in her tiny kitchenette. She can keep her head on his shoulder; she can kiss him whenever she feels like it. In their little bubble she’s allowed the world, and she’s taken this rare moment of uninterrupted privacy with the greatest care.

               She tips her head slightly to kiss him then, moving her hands to the back of his neck. Gently, she’s pulling him in, and Alexander’s gladly accepting her request. And then she’s consumed, drinking in his familiar comforting scent; old books and dark coffee, and then…

               She pulls herself away from him, abrupt and shocking, and at first he’s left looking on extremely guiltily, wondering what he’s done to illicit such a strong reaction. But then he smells it too-like coals on a campfire-and his own heart is racing in a completely different direction than it had been just a moment before.

               Eliza’s standing at the oven, pulling a tray of darkened wedges from it before setting it on the counter, turning on the fan.

               “Eliza,” He moves to comfort her, to apologize, but then she turns around. Her eyes are laced with tears and she’s rested one hand on the counter for support. It takes her a drawn out moment to catch her breath, and when she does she’s suddenly erupted with laughter, tears spilling as the hearty sounds come in waves from her bent over frame.

               “Who-who even eats these damn things anyway? They do smell like dirt!”

               The gift she has-this complete, unintentional ability to create a living artwork from the simple sound of her laughter-he’s enamored by it. It’s bright yellows and minty blues, sunshine and lemonade and freshly grown flowers emitting their scent into an empty, sky-enveloped field. It’s an artwork, he decides, that he wouldn’t mind living the rest of his life in.

               And although he’d known it before-felt lingering hints of it in the back of his mind-the realization hits him so suddenly that he’s laughing along with her, unhinged and completely consumed in bliss. I love her, this is it. She’s it. And later, as they’re sprawled on her living room floor surrounded by layers of takeout, he knows that it’s true. He wants to spend the rest of his life making her laugh like that-even if it means living eternally with the lingering, earthy smell of burnt beets. For her, that’d be worth it.

[jemacfarlandgo]

Exactly 1 year ago today, on August 18, 2019 Leisa and Beau were supposed to say “I Do” at their dream venue, Castle Hill Inn. Instead, this bride to be spent her intended wedding day in the hospital recovering from brain surgery. When their second date got moved out due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this positive couple didn’t get the change get them down. Instead, they saw the opportunity to lean into love and appreciate every moment they get to spend together. Thank you dearly to Leisa and Beau for sharing their story with us!

“I’ve never been the type to believe in fairytales. Even as a high schooler, I never fully understood drooling over boys or the idea of soulmates. It felt so silly, so much like a waste of time to constantly wonder if he liked me, to imagine myself in a white dress walking down the aisle to a prince charming.

Perhaps, naively, I was far more obsessed with my aspirations. Don’t get me wrong, I was familiar with love, my parents a beautiful, real model of what I dreamed of, the hard work and deep reward of this favored topic of philosophers, poets, writers, and scientists. From their example, I felt like I knew love.

But it wasn’t until I met Beau that I finally understood love. Suddenly, I found myself daydreaming about a home with overgrown hydrangeas and a fireplace mantle dressed in photo frames showcasing those classic “happily ever after” moments of our wedding day. I wondered if I’d wear a veil? Would my dress be simple or intricately embroidered with lace? A silhouette fit or an A line?

With Beau, there were always questions I never had to ask. I never wondered if he would propose, if this was real. Because I knew, it just…was. The way he looked at me, the way he cared for me and made me stronger, happier, better, each and every day. The way he was patient when I was stubborn and a voice of reason when I was illogical. And the way it made me feel to be with him, to be accepted and cherished and chosen, always, as me. With him, I was home.

The night he hid my engagement ring in a pizza box and asked me to be his wife was nothing and everything like a fairytale, all at once. In fact, it was absolutely opposite of what I had imagined, yet everything I wanted, slow dancing with him to Alexa playing Frank Sinatra in my comfiest pajamas — an Ohio State sweatshirt shriveling at the collar from being worn far past its obvious expiration date — and a bare face, clean after my nightly scrubbing of all the day’s makeup residue. I was unpolished, unmanicured, and completely over the moon with child-like excitement to start calling my parents and sister, text our entire families to make the announcement. I remember reaching for my phone and him gently grabbing my hand, insisting on one more dance to internalize, relish the moment. He said, “Once we start calling, it’s everyone’s moment. So let’s just wait, one more song, maybe a glass of champagne? Let’s just be together to keep this moment ours.”

Wedding planning quickly ensued. We chose August 18th at Castle Hill Inn in Newport, RI — the first place Beau and I had ever taken our own romantic getaway. As if from nowhere, my mom began pulling out magazine clippings that she seemed to have saved in her own closet for years and emailing me every picture she found on Pinterest that might possibly align with what I envisioned for bouquets and table settings. My future mother-in-law suggested Kleinfelds and I booked an appointment. I must have tried on 30+ dresses in total before going back to the first. When I opened up the fitting room door, my mom was an adorable mess, tears streaming down her face. Beau’s mom cried, too. But when my sister started crying, I knew I had found the one.

On July 26th, Beau left for his bachelor party in Costa Rica. I had an early appointment with an eye doctor before work, and although I wanted to cancel, I had made a new commitment to myself to stay attune to my health. My mom had recently been diagnosed with cancer and it instantly became clear how I needed to stay up-to-date, to be whole, to be strong, to be there for her. So I kissed Beau goodbye and told him to return in one piece, making him promise that he would come home on Monday exactly as I had left him — no cuts, scrapes, viruses or broken bones. He told me that August 18th was going to be the best day of his life.

What I expected to be an easy appointment turned quickly into an inconceivable nightmare. From the doctor’s office, I was directed to go to the hospital immediately for an emergency CT scan. From there, I was strapped and transported in an ambulance to another hospital for an MRI, my heart shrinking in fear. I just wanted Beau.

The next morning, two people in white lab coats walked into my hospital room and my heart collapsed into the depths of my stomach. Within moments, I was officially diagnosed with a Meningioma brain tumor. We talked for what seemed like forever, me firing questions as swiftly as my mouth could eject the words, all the while my fingers swiping the unending tears flooding my cheeks. After probably the seventh time of receiving the same answers to the same questions, I gathered the courage to finally ask — What about my wedding in two weeks? The neurosurgeon, composed yet soft, promised me he would be as careful as possible and only shave the necessary sections of my skull, but if I didn’t have the neurosurgery immediately to remove the tumor from my brain, I would likely be showing up to my wedding blind.

The instant we hung up the phone, Beau booked the first flight home and my dad immediately jumped into his car and drove 13 hours from Ohio to New York. My sister was taking her bar exam to become a lawyer and my mom was awaiting her own surgery. I was in the hospital for the entire month of August recovering from the drastic procedure (as well as an additional 25 seizures) and spent the whole month of September rehabilitating with therapy, as well as overall healing. I am now blind in my left eye and a small section of the tumor remains in my brain (a certain percentage of the tumor could not be removed, as its elimination would risk additional damage/harm to my nerve and blood vessels), meaning that I will likely spend a great deal of my future monitoring the tumor with the help of my neurosurgeon, neurologist, optical neurologist, and endocrinologist.

To be forced into postponing our wedding and spending our “big day” in the hospital, trying desperately to reignite my short-term memory and regain my strength is not something that I would wish upon any couple. It was heartbreaking. And yet, I felt blessed to be on the road to recovery, reinvigorated with a new gratitude for life, for family, and for love.

As I started to make significant progress and show positive signs of returning to the person I once knew myself to be, Beau and I began to again become excited for our new wedding date: May 10, 2020.

A little over a month ago, our second attempt at a wedding was abruptly halted, this time due to a global pandemic — the profoundly unthinkable place we, as a world, find ourselves to collectively confront. This time, the cancellation was attributed to a reason that was bigger than us — much bigger. An unsettling circumstance of heavy-hearted uncertainty. Subjecting our loved ones and jeopardizing the safety of our families, our vendors, the venue, the world, was so trivial in the grand scheme of things, and associating our special day with that surmount sense of fear was just not an option.

However, I must admit, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t devastated, remembering all that we had been through to finally reach the cusp of our vows. I spent May 10th imagining what Beau and I would have looked like, standing before our entire family in front of the gorgeous Castle Hill arbor, clocking the beginning of the ceremony, the start of cocktail hour, and anticipating the toasts that would have been shared at our reception. I repeatedly imagined the smile I had fantasized, over and over, overcome his face while I walked down the aisle, to him.

Regardless, I still felt thankful. We were healthy and safe and in love. That night, Beau sat with me on our bed and asked me if it would be okay if he started referring to me as his “wife” as opposed to his “bride,” because that better resembled who I was in his heart. How could I not be filled with gratitude?

Of course, Beau and I wanted a wedding and will still be in absolute adoration for the celebration if it comes (prepare for a wild party), but truthfully, at the end of the day, the depth of our love, tested through so many unpredictable, perturbed times, IS the fairytale. My prince is a punk rocker and has stood, anchored by my side through the toughest, scariest, most severely unforeseen moments of my life, again and again, making me feel always like his center, his universe. Sure, I may never get the exact celebratory moment I once dreamed of, but I can state, without a single breath of hesitation, that I am with the man I always dreamed of.

If I’ve learned anything in the past five years, it’s that love — an inexplicable, yet tangible, tender force that when strong enough, truly cannot be smothered. A wedding, in so many ways, feels like a fairytale. But Beau has taught me, unknowingly, purely by example, that real magic lives in our everyday life, in the beauty staring directly at us at all times, often in the crevices of routine normalcy, in plain sight; in the small, conjunctive moments that weave each of these minutes into sequence that, when noticed, make us feel complete. Simple moments like snuggling on the couch or hearing his laugh that make the ordinary extraordinary.

And that, this, us, right here and now, is the realest fairytale I could have ever imagined.

To all of our family and friends, thank you for your patience, understanding, and profound support throughout these challenging times. We love you all so, so much.

To all of the brides who currently feel hurt, sad, even betrayed that their special day was stolen, please know that the celebration will come, but the gift, your personal fairytale, is still right beside you.”

  Leisa and Beau’s engagement photos got postponed due to COVID but the couple did an impromptu photo session in their backyard with a phone on a tripod and the perfect barefoot backyard slow dancing. In case you needed a reminder today, every moment we get to spend with the ones we love is precious. Embrace the moments you get and take every opportunity to show love.

When a brain tumor and a pandemic stood in the way of "I Do" this couple choose to lean into love despite the challenges Exactly 1 year ago today, on August 18, 2019 Leisa and Beau were supposed to say "I Do" at their dream venue, …

[dirtdiggersanddinosaurs]

Congratulations!

If you are reading this you’ve successfully survived 100 days of lockdown – whoop, I’m giving you all a virtual, socially distanced and gloved pat on the back!

Reaching the milestone this week gave me a nudge to look back on what we have (or haven’t) achieved so far. To be honest, I have had more than a few moments of mum guilt and feeling like I’m failing to juggle everything properly as, [I imagine] we all have at some point?

We’ve muddled through with some really good days and some god awful ones that we must never speak of again! On the whole though it’s been lovely to have this extra time together, and we have done some pretty cool things on our journey into home learning. I’m not going to use the term home schooling because really it’s been anything but, let’s just say I have a whole new level of respect for all the teachers out there!

We’ve been completely disorganised…no detailed schedules/planners here I’m afraid! Things have been inconsistent, surprisingly spontaneous and sometimes we’ve just been downright lazy. We’ve also never put any pressure on ourselves. Keeping safe and well has always been our priority and very much still is, so that in turn means that we’ve also had a lot of fun along the way. Read on to see a few of our more enjoyable home learning projects:

Egyptians

This was our first foray into a proper topic. It started with an innocent share of a virtual tour of Queen Meresankh’s Tomb to my Facebook group and quickly snowballed as our friends commented. It was decided our friend group would learn together about Egypt and then have a 3 way videocall at the end of the week for a ‘show and tell’.

At this point we were in full lockdown so everything we made was from repurposed household items and using what we found in the depths of the craft bag. We started by researching Egyptians online and I printed out the hieroglyphic alphabet. We decided to have a go at making our own ancient scroll. To age the paper I gave Stanley some cold black coffee and he painted the paper all over (while complaining about the smell, I might add). Once dry I used a lighter to carefully singe the edges and create blackened areas to give an appearance of age (I wouldn’t recommend letting any child under 10 years do this part as it was quite tricky). I then gave the paper back to Stanley and he used the printout to lookup the letters needed for his name then wrote ‘Stan’ in hieroglyphs.

Stanley’s ancient name scroll

The next stop was to go back to our original plan and explore Queen Meresankh’s Tomb online, this was really interesting and Stanley recognised some of the hieroglyphs, however I think James was just hoping to spot a mummy! This led nicely into looking up pictures of the Pharaohs and Queens and what they looked like.

We decided to make some Egyptian jewellery to jazz ourselves up a bit for our video call, as you do! Paper plates came to the rescue, we cut the centre out, leaving just the rim of the plate. We then painted them with silver paint (we didn’t have any gold, budget conscious Pharaoh’s here). We cut some jewels out of tissue paper using pinking shears and stuck them on. Stanley drew some scarab beetles working from an illustration we found online and coloured them in. We stuck these to our collar necklaces to make the centre pendant. Using a similar technique on a empty toilet roll Stanley made a wrist cuff, and my headband was made from thin card and tinfoil. I drew the serpant because by now I was fully invested!

For more Egyptian craft ideas see my Pinterest board.

Cleopatra coming atcha!

After a quick rummage in the shed I found some weed suppressant fabric and I became Cleopatra, the eyeliner came out and my eyebrows had a less than subtle makeover too. A couple of old sheets were artistically arranged, and we were ready for our videocall. Luckily we have friends who are just as crazy and wholeheartedly threw themselves into the theme too!

Talk like an Egyptian

Space

This was a week long project that coincided with National Space Day (May 1st), which just goes to prove I can actually plan things when I try!

Stanley has always been interested in space and rockets so he was more than happy with this subject. We started off by watching the moon landing on YouTube which he was absolutely glued to, and he told me all about the lack of gravity which I admit really impressed me. From there we watched a Facebook live from the National Space Centre explaining the phases of the moon, which was really informative in a child friendly way. Stanley drew all the phases of the moon and coloured them in. He then cut them out with a little help from me. I covered some thin card with black tissue paper and Stanley used white paint and a toothbrush to ‘stipple’ and splatter what looked like the night sky. Once dry we stuck on the moon phases in order and Stanley labelled them.

Learning about phases of the moon

Have you ever made moon sand? If not, I really recommend it. I know that many people inwardly cringe at the idea of moldable sand, but I love it as a rainy day activity. It’s one of those things that can keep my boys entertained for hours, so a bit of mess is totally worth it for a quiet cuppa. It’s also really easy to make requiring only 2 ingredients that you’re likely to already have in. We used 8 parts flour (a mix in our case of bags that had been in the cupboard for quite a while) to 1 part oil. We used baby oil, cooking oil would work too but might not smell as nice. You can also add food colouring to make different colours but we stuck with natural colour sand to represent the moon’s surface.

Homemade moon sand

Next, was a space themed craft session that everybody enjoyed joining in with while Eli was down for a nap. I honestly don’t know what we would have done without the humble paper plate during lockdown, this time we saw them transformed into an alien spaceship via some tinfoil and an empty yogurt pot. They also became an alien mask, and impressive solar flare.

Tony Hart would have been proud!

Again, we did a show and tell with friends at the end of the week which started off well but descended into silliness and Messenger games. It was lovely to see the boys catching up and playing together though – if you can’t be silly when you’re 6, when can you?

UFO spotted in Leek, Staffordshire

For more Space based learning inspiration head over to my Pinterest board.

VE Day

I’m not going to lie, this was my absolute favourite topic. If you haven’t got a pen then grab one now, you are going to want to write this down….ready? I put my boys on RATIONS for a whole week leading up to VE Day! OMG it was amazing, we saved approximately eleventy million pounds in snacks alone! Joking aside, [it wasn’t a joke, it really WAS amazing!] it helped to bring home the hardship that people endured during and after the war years in a way the boys could easily understand.

James didn’t look this happy about it towards the end of the week!

I cut up an old colouring book and designed the front cover with some details from the original ration books. Inside I made a page for each day, listed snacks (of my choice) and then cut slips that could be torn off as ‘coupons’ and handed over in exchange for the desired food item.

Best mum hack EVER!

After introducing the ration books Stanley had lots of questions so we looked up what was available on ration during and after the war. We talked about how food was never wasted and had to last.

We also learned about Dig for Victory and how people were encouraged to grow their own fruit and vegetables to help with food shortages. Stanley drew pictures of the veggies that we have planted then labelled them. We then found some examples of Dig for Victory propaganda posters online and had a go of recreating one in our backyard. I think it was a reasonable effort, what do you think?

Our recreated propaganda poster.

My boys have always been interested in anything with an engine so we looked up the Spitfire which of course was designed by Reginald Mitchell who was a Stoke-on-Trent man, so local to us. Stanley remembers going to see the Spitfire at the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery with his Grandad. I ordered some cheap model airplanes online, see similar here and we had a flying competition and measured how far they flew.

Honing his flying skills

Anybody who knows me in real life will know that I like to celebrate, I’ll go all out to make something special and VE Day itself deserved some special recognition. So, I set to making some decorations out of crepe paper from our bottomless craft bag and cut up some old Aldi carrier bags. I know that I tread a fine line between being resourceful and just plain tight!

VE Day decorations in the making

We had already read about evacuees and how parents sent their children away to the countryside to keep them safe. So on the morning of VE Day I had outfits ready for my three little evacuees who I was keen to welcome home. School polo shirts and trousers provided the majority of the outfits and I added flat caps to finish them off. All evacuees were labelled so that they got home safely. The labels I made from a pack of luggage tags and Stanley being the eldest was in charge of carrying the gas masks (gas mask case made from an empty washing tablet box). They looked so cute!

My evacuees were home at last.

Meanwhile, I channelled my inner land girl in a khaki jumpsuit and red lippy. We listened to 1940’s music together and tuned in to hear Winston Churchill’s speech. We looked at photos of how people celebrated VE Day with huge street parties and Stanley commented that “we can’t do that today because of the virus germs” so I told him not to worry as I had our safe party planned.

This landgirl complete with her essential gruffalo gardening tools

To round off our week of interactive history lessons we celebrated Victory in Europe in style with a traditional afternoon tea party. The weather was lovely so we had it outside, I’d arranged for more afternoon teas to be delivered to my mum and sister too, and we scheduled a group videocall so that we could all enjoy the treats ‘together’. It was a fab day and a great end to that week’s project.

To plan next year’s VE Day celebration or to get inspiration for a WW2 project visit my Pinterest board here.

Science

Who doesn’t love a good science project? Well, after being fascinated by Professor Pumpernickel‘s show (he’s a mad scientist with blue hair) at Timber Festival my boys are pretty keen on anything that has the potential to explode, smoke or ooze.

We had a go at creating our very own lava lamp, and again all the ingredients were already in our cupboards. From what I’ve seen there are a couple of ways to do this, but our method was fairly simple.

Starting off slowly

We added a generous layer of bicarbonate of soda to the bottom of our ‘lamp’, then carefully filled with cooking oil. In the paper cups we had food colouring (yellow and blue) mixed with vinegar. Slowly Stanley poured the food colouring mixture into the lamp, a few drops at a time.

Building up the colours

Here’s the science bit: the oil and vinegar do not have the same density. The vinegar is more dense and does not mix with the oil causing it to sink to the bottom. Once at the bottom the vinegar (acid) reacts with the (alkaline) bicarbonate of soda and releases (carbon dioxide) gas bubbles which then rise back up to the surface.

It worked surprisingly well and the boys were very impressed. You can read about our other bicarb science lesson where we made a volcano here.

Nature

Again, if you know us beyond your screen it will come as no surprise that we’ve been learning more about nature more than anything else. We are (usually, pre Covid19) an outdoorsy bunch. We like being surrounded by nature in all its leafy, feathery, slimy, furry and muddy glory. So it was very easy for us to bring the natural world into our lessons.

World Bee Day is celebrated every year on 20th May so we took this as our starting point and focused on bees for that week. I printed off a bee spotter sheet and released the boys into the yarden to burn some energy off. Luckily the weather was perfect and the bees were a’buzzin.

Image Credit: Wild About Gardens

Next on the list was to learn about how bees construct their hive. We watched a live stream from a local apiary that explained the process. I then set Stanley the task of making a honeycomb from an empty toilet roll.

*at this point if it can’t be made from a paper plate, tinfoil, yogurt pots or empty toilet rolls then we’re not interested *

I cut the toilet roll into sections and armed Stanley with some sticky tape. He soon had a decent looking honeycomb although he was quick to point out that they weren’t the right shape.

Busy bee making his honeycomb

Once completed we looked at the life cycle of a honey bee using toy figures. The boys played bees for a little while together using the honeycomb we’d made.

Learning through play

Afterwards Stanley completed some worksheets I’d printed, he labelled the different phases of the bee life cycle and then completed a bee themed wordsearch.

Wordsearches are great for word recognition, sounding out and hand eye coordination too.

Staying with the bee theme we tried a little science experiment involving honey. Supposedly you can tell how pure your honey is by doing this.

First pour some runny honey into a bowl, add a small amount of hot water and move the bowl to swirl the water over the surface of the honey. If the honey is pure then the heat from the water makes the honey react causing the cells ‘remember’ their last state so they start to reform a honeycomb pattern.

As you can see we did get a pattern but I’m not convinced on the scientific merits of this experiment but it was fun and easy to do. Unfortunately we only had one type of honey in the house, but it would be a good experiment to do with different types of honey to see if they produced different results.

We also rescued a bumblebee that was a bit worse for wear in our backyard, Stanley made up a teaspoon of sugar solution and let the bee get its energy back. The boys kept going out and checking on it and finally got to see it fly off which was great.

Rescue mission

We did a similar study with the frog life cycle, I had every intention of finding some frogspawn and raising the tadpoles but as we’ve been shielding we didn’t get out far enough to find any. But, never the less we learned all about the stages of the life cycle and the boys made their own little froggy habitat using gravel and water. I made my own ‘frogspawn’ using cornflour and peppercorns for the boys to play with. It was good old messy fun, which was very much confined to being outside!

Making a frog habitat

For those wondering, I found the life cycle toys here. We have still got the mosquito, butterflies and ant lifecycles to explore so plenty to go at yet. More kids life cycle activity inspiration can be found on my Pinterest board.

So there you have it, 5 of our best bits – the projects that we’ve really enjoyed doing over the last 100 days. I’ve tried to combine fun with learning to keep my boys interested and entertained, hopefully one day they will look back on our time shielding in lockdown with a smile. I dread to think what my offstead rating would be though, coffee always seems to rank quite highly in my teaching priorities!

100 days and counting…

If you’ve enjoyed this post, or found it helpful then please come and over and join my Facebook group. I set the group up at the very beginning of lockdown as obviously my usual days out and activities were non existant, it’s called ‘Let’s Do This Instead’ and is packed full of ideas for home learning, entertaining the kids and having fun. We are now over 1.3k parents strong but the more the merrier!

All images are my own unless otherwise credited and must not be reproduced without permission.

100 Days of Lockdown Learning: Our Best Bits Congratulations! If you are reading this you've successfully survived 100 days of lockdown - whoop, I'm giving you all a virtual, socially distanced and gloved pat on the back!

[drink-n-watch]

  Genre : Slice of Life, Comedy, Supernatural

Episodes: 26

Studio:

  If you think your job is tough, imagine having to make sure Hell runs smoothly. It’s not exactly a place full of the most dependable people, after all. Keeping everything smooth and on schedule is an impressive feat and you don’t have the courtesy of putting it off. Only the most impressive bureaucracy can survive under those circumstances. But it’s all good. As long as you have the right administration in place, anything is possible. From delicate PR relations to the daily grind of dealing out the appropriate punishment to fit every imaginable crime, to the mundane bookkeeping and manual labor required to keep such a gargantuan operation running, all you need is someone devilishly organized and wickedly rigorous. Luckily Hozuki is here to show us how cooler heads can prevail.

As some of you may know, I have a particular fondness of Japanese mythology (or in fact mythology of all types) which really attracted me to the first season of this series. Because of the episodic structure of the show, it was easy to take a break between seasons without losing track of the story. Now I’m back to see if the second season lived up to the first.

favourite depiction of eternal torment ever!

Hozuki has always been a very interesting looking show. Backgrounds are rendered in classical ink wash painting style, which look like traditional paintings, while character designs are bright and crisp adaptations of folklore creatures. For me, I think everything is really brought together by the beautiful rainbow of colors that contrast hell’s stark panoramas with the surprisingly joyful looking bureaucratic and diplomatic offices that keep the place running.

Basically, it’s fun to look at. Even paring down the screencaps as much as possible, I ended up with a completely unreasonable number of pictures I just liked too much to trash. Don’t worry, I’m not going to dump them all in this post and freeze your computer. OK, I’m going to dump a lot in this post. I’m a simple soul, I like pictures.

I like the little skull, it’s cute

Once again, I want to point out how fantastic Hozuki’s voice actor is. For the record that would be Yasumoto, Hiroki I really think this is one of his greatest performances and it goes a long way towards creating a memorable character. The voice cast in general is really good, but he stands out, alongside Tanezaki, Atsumi as Mustard and Matsuyama, Takashi as the pheasant. Hearing the interaction between these three actors really highlights how important performances are. Although in a vacuum I don’t notice Yusa, Kouji performance as Hakutaku all that much, the interplay between him and Hozuki is also delightful. They make for a very charming comedy duo and I wish they would have shared more scenes this season. Finally, newcomers, the Zashiki Warashi twins have a distinct expressionless delivery which is likely either going to annoy or charm viewers. I was solidly in the latter camp; however, it does take some getting use to.

I rarely go on this much about voice acting. However, as an essentially talkative comedy, voice delivery is particularly important to the enjoyment of a series like Hozuki’s Coolheadedness and I’m happy to report the actors really came through.

As for the story (stories) such as it is, Hozuki continues to be a slice of death anime with very loosely connected vignettes portraying the often mundane daily tasks of an official in hell, and it’s absolutely divine. Ok, that’s an exaggeration. I just wanted to make the pun.

Fact is, whether the writing and cast just found their footing or whether I was just better disposed to the show, I ended up enjoying the second season considerably more than the first. Episodes regularly left me grinning from ear to ear and I found the ritual of watching a couple (or 6) at the end of a long day to be a genuinely comforting experience.

The mix of Japanese mythology and modern sensibilities is still there but the supporting characters are better integrated and somehow the pacing seems more fluid and natural. A lot of irreverent and referential jokes have been added to the mix for quick punchlines, mixed in with the more general humor that comes from the silly treatment of grim situations and old timey theology.

what a pleasant looking river of blood

Basically, it is in many ways just charming. The experience feels tailored to a Japanophile like myself, but is still presented in such a clearly accessible way that you do not feel like your sitting through a lesson of any kind.

I wanted to compare Hozuki to a more popular show to give those who have not seen it an idea of what they would be in for and I’m afraid I’m drawing a blank. If any of my readers have seen another series like this, please let me know in the comments.

In a way, this feels very much like a western workplace sitcom. Realization just dawned on me; this is the adult workplace comedy anime I was looking for. Once you strip away the layers of mysticism and esotericism of the setting (i.e. classical “Japanese” hell, as it is referred to in the series – as opposed to European heel which is also referenced), the actual meat of the show is really just a series of zany interactions and silly situation set in hell. Not unlike The Office if it was full of demons and damned souls. Guys, I’m really happy with this description. I think it’s quite apt.

complete with quirky pretty girl

Do I recommend this show, yes I do! Unless you openly dislike situational workplace comedies, I think you will find something to enjoy in Hozuki’s Coolheadedness.

Favorite character: Hozuki

What this anime taught me:  Taoism is surprisingly close to Voodoo

Carrots could improve your vision but alcohol can double it!

Suggested drink: Gates of Hell

Every time we see goldfish in any form – take a sip

Every time we see peaches or physalis  – take a sip

Every time we see a rabbit – squee

Every time Hozuki wears his hair in a Chinese bun – take a sip

Every time Ichiko and Niko laugh – question your conflicting feelings

Every time anything meows – take a sip

Every time you spot a Ghibli reference – take a sip

Every time anyone sings – clap

Every time there’s a mention or image of pooh – get a snack

Every time Hozuki’s solution is violence – nod

I didn’t know where to add this but I loved the second OP. I couldn’t find the show version,. The closest I managed to dig up was this full version:

I tried to pick out some of my favourite screen captures and as usual, I will be uploading the rest to pinterest.

The second season surprised me in many ways. Hozuki’s Coolheadedness II – Hell is Other People Genre : Slice of Life, Comedy, Supernatural Episodes: 26 Studio: If you think your job is tough, imagine having to make sure Hell runs smoothly.

[japanheart88-blog]

Elf'd Up

We welcomed our mischievous little elf into our home about 6 years ago.  Over the last six years, I've realized this little trickster sure is the cause for quite a bit of controversy. 

You either:

A)  Hate the elf and keep him far away from you and your family.

B)  Think he's too creepy for Christmas

C) Feel like it's cruel to tell your kids the elf is watching them I mean, after all, they should want to behave on their own merit, right?!  If you're using him as leverage, you're doing something wrong as a parent, right?!

D)  Want to punch all the "bored moms with nothing better to do" in the throat for going to such elaborate lengths to position the elf in such ways that make you feel like a slacker

E) Have feelings about the elf that can only be explained through expletives

F) Love the idea, but not the trickery...ain't nobdy got time to stage the elf and pick up his mess 

OR...

G)  You're all about getting elf'd up...bring on the creepy faced little nugget and all his elf'in shenanigans :)

Let me just tell you that I've pretty much experienced all of the above.  

For the last few years, I fall into category G.  I am that "bored" mom with "nothing better to do" than place my little elf into mischievous situations every (ahem...ALMOST every) night before I go to bed.  

And I do it for two simple reasons...

These two :)

They get SUCH a kick out of the elf.  They anxiously wake up every morning and scour the house for his hiding places.  They can't wait to see what crazy thing he does next.  Sometimes our elf doesn't move and the boys typically assume he's too tired to fly.  We try not to make a huge deal about it.  Our elf is for FUN.  He's become one of our favorite Christmas "traditions" can I count him as a tradition?!?!?  

He doesn't go back to Santa and report...he just flies back to the North Pole to rest and give Santa hugs, drink syrup, and play reindeer games.  And when the holiday crazies set in, I'm not ashamed to admit that I use him as leverage..."do y'all think y'all should do that?!  Y'all don't want Elfabet to tell Santa tonight, do you?!" ...but those times are few and far between.  Not because they're angels...lawd, no.  But we've always wanted him to be just something fun...and magical... for the boys.  He really does make our holidays extra magical.  Just one of the fun little things for my boys to add to their Christmas memories :)

Our elf's name is ELFABET.  My oldest named him when he first arrived at our house.  That's a teacher's kid for ya ;)  Here are a few things he's done over the years.  Maybe he'll give you some new ideas?!?!  Or prove how bored I really am?!?!  Or maybe you just want to punch him in the throat.  

Elfabet arrives every December 1st and brings the boys breakfast, random trinkets, and pajamas straight from the North Pole (aka:  North Pole Breakfast). 

You can check out this years breakfast HERE.

Below are the elf ideas I shared with you last year, but before you get to those I wanted to share what he's been up to in the few days he's been here this year :)

Snap, crackle.....ELF?!  (I found this one to be particulary creepy, but funny nonetheless)

A little game of Pie Face for the win.  I used Cortizone cream for the whipped cream so that I wouldn't wake up to a milky mess come morning.  The boys always wake up before we do and there's no way I was going to wake up early to stage this one. 

It took the boys forever to find the elf in the fridge.  In fact, they woke up at 6:30, scoured the house, and said they figured he was too tired to fly back to our house so they gave up.  It wasn't until we woke up and went to the fridge for breakfast stuff that we alerted them to his hiding spot.  Haha.

And yes...Elfabet needs a bath.  In a bad, bad way.  How disgustingly dirty is his hat?!  Gross.

This right here is the boy's all time favorite .  They still talk about it to this day!

Elfabet got a hold of my phone and went around the house snapping elfie selfies with all of us sleeping.  He left the boys a note  (and some cookies) telling them to look through the camera roll.  If you could've heard their laughs this morning, ohmiword.  Best alarm ever.    They were in hysterics!  He even changed the wallpaper on my phone!  Sneaky son of a gun.  

This is what he got into last year that had the boys in stitches...

Left to right:

He packed the boys a nutritious lunch full of syrup, chocolate syrup, icing, sprinkles, and junk food.  All the essentials for a delicious meal.  And one night he couldn't quite make it to the bathroom in time so he left a little mess on our coffee table.  SO disgusting and so hilarious all in the same breath.  I live in a house full of boys and the potty humor even makes me laugh :) 

And finally there was one night he decided to help himself to some cookies, but he realized how awful those tasted and left a note for the boys letting them know he didn't like them at all.  Silly Elfabet!  Dog biscuits are for DOGS!!  Hahahaha

1.  Elfabet always arrives with a North Pole breakfast.  He brings Christmas socks, Christmas jammies, a Christmas book, and a Christmas movie.  And candy canes, too :)  The menu always consists of hot chocolate and snow covered donuts.

2.  He got into mommy's jingle juice.

3.  Drinking syrup in the pantry...after all, it's one of the 4 main food groups :)

4.  He turned the milk green...and my husband refused to drink it (and we wonder why my oldest is so picky?!?! ;))

5.  He rode a reindeer into town and didn't want to get off.

6.  He loves sugar and processed food as much as we do!

7.  Bless.  He's stuck outside!!!

8.  Reading to his Smurfs.  Smart little fella.

9.  He strung a clothesline from the Christmas tree to the drapes.   Then he hung up the boys underwear and himself...upside down!  This was one of their favorites!

10.  Drawing a picture of he and the boys.  Ha.

11.  Drawing faces on the boys in their Santa picture.  This is the one that scarred my youngest...FREAKED him right the heck out.  He pretty much screamed...then cried...and the picture came down.  This is when I was feeling like option E above.

12.  Wrapped the tree with toilet paper.  I felt like option F and decided this wouldn't be something we do again...once was enough :)

13.  Elfabet is a big fan of The Office, so he made himself a bowl of marshmallows and some hot cocoa while he watched.

14.  "The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear."...singing while wrapped up in Christmas sheet music.  See what I did there?!

15.  Taking a bath in a sink full of marshmallows.  When I woke up, my boys were helping themselves to a few for breakfast.

16.  Stuck under a glass in our cabinets.  He stayed there for a couple of days.

17.  The boys were worried he wouldn't follow us to Indiana for Christmas, so he wrote them a letter telling them he'd be there.  Reassurance :)

18.  Another ride on the reindeer...he likes riding in style.

19.  Watching "Elf" under the covers :)

20.  He got into the leftover Halloween candy...and then we had to throw it all away thanks, Elfabet!

21.  He made a shoe mountain and climbed to the top.

22.  Fishing for goldfish in the potty.  With a candy cane.  Landon's personal favorite.

23.  Made himself a little TP hammock in between the boys' stockings.

24.  Coloring a little something special for the boys.

25.  It was a particularly rough day at school for me, so Elfabet hopped in a cop car and pulled over a school bus :)

26.  Even Elfabet knows the real reason for the season.  He stayed here for a few days, too.

27.  A marshmallow message to remind the boys why we celebrate Christmas.

28. Ziplining on tulle right for the tree.

29.  He hung the boys undies on the tree.  They laughed like crazy, and then they were all, "are you gonna take those down before people come over?!?!?!"  Ha.

30.  He was tired of coming up with ideas, so he hung upside down from the chandelier.

31.  Telling Santa what the boys want for Christmas.

32.  He hung the boys Christmas pajama pants from the stocking holders.  This was the year the boys would walk by the display and run their hands along the pants.  Then the stocking holders fell over and all broke.  That was a last for that idea. feeling like option E again...dang elf!!!!

33.  Okay.  This one was a family favorite.  We all laughed pretty hard.  Elfabet stuffed himself inside of a roll of toilet paper and rolled down the stairs.  Hahahaha.

34.  He set out the M&M's for our Christmas cookies and decided to eat a few, too.

35.  See boys, it IS cool to do chores!!!!!  However, please don't use Soft Scrub on my mirrors.

35.  A little Christmas camouflage.

36.  Reading under the Christmas tree.  We recycled quite  few ideas :)

37.  Sack races with the other stuffed animals!

38.  I don't even know where to go with this one.  Mr. SPouse was all, "why would a Purdue guy do that to Elfabet???"  Ha.

39.  Instead of hanging from the chandelier, he hung from a wreath and dropped down a line of candy canes.  

40.  A little underwear swingin' next to the Christmas cards.

41.  Elfabet likes chalk art, too!

If these ideas are lame, head on over to my Elf'd Up Pinterest board and see what I've been pinning over there!  A few new...and pretty darn funny...ideas!!  

Source: http://pearls-handcuffs-happyhour.blogspot.com/2016/12/elfd-up.html

[lotsofdogs]

Things I’m Loving Friday #256

Hi friends! How are you guys doing? We had quite a week over here but it was filled with good things.

On Tuesday, Ryan and I celebrated our 8 year wedding anniversary!

(One balloon floated out of the frame but I attached little notes with 8 reasons why I love Ryan to 8 balloons as a little anniversary surprise. Thank you, Pinterest, for this idea!) 

We kept things pretty low key but really enjoyed talking about the past 8 years of our marriage. Something about anniversaries always makes me want to reflect and we both said it’s hard to believe that the past 8 years have been filled with three moves (Orlando, Ocala and Charlotte), buying our first house, two kids, some amazing travel opportunities (both in the United States and abroad), job changes and plenty of wonderful memories. Also, when I shared a picture from our wedding on Instagram on our anniversary, I had quite a few of you chime in and say you remember reading about our wedding on the blog in real-time 8 years ago. That truly means more to me than you know and I want to say a big thank you to the long-time readers out there for following our family for so long! You guys are the best!

And now let’s move right along into this week’s Things I’m Loving Friday and chat about what we’re all loving most this week, shall we?

Things I’m Loving Friday

Halloween 2018

To the parents with older children, is Halloween one of those holidays that just gets better and better as your kids get older? I thought Halloween with a two-year-old was so fun last year but Chase’s enthusiasm took it to another level this year! He was so into trick-or-treating with two of his best friends and watching his little dragon-dino tail wag as he sprinted up various neighborhood driveways was too darn cute.

We ate pizza and went trick-or-treating with our friends and their little ones and had the best time! Ryder sported the same pumpkin costume Chase wore that my mom made for him when he was a teeny little guy back in 2015 and handled my desire for a million “baby’s first Halloween” pictures really well!

Flying pumpkin!

(My hair ribbon was another recent American Eagle find!) 

Also, this is kind of random but I am officially declaring Halloween my all-time favorite day on Instagram. I get the biggest kick out of seeing everyone’s creativity come to life in various costumes (the costumes with the puns are the BEST) and I just found myself smiling all day long on Wednesday! Maybe next year we’ll feel a little more motivated to tackle the whole family costume thing because those are always so cute!

The Queen of Hearts by Kimmery Martin

I briefly mentioned this book on the blog earlier this week, but add it to your must-read list if you are a fan of medical dramas! I absolutely loved reading The Queen of Hearts and thought it was a great break from some of the more suspenseful thrillers and murdery books I’ve found myself picking up lately.

The book follows the lives of Zadie and Emma, two best friends who met in their early 20s when they were in med school. Now successful doctors with families they love and adore, a blast from the past in the form of a former chief resident, Dr. Xenokostas, reappears in their lives when he accepts a job at the hospital where Emma works and brings with him pain, secrecy, regret, guilt and the ability to potentially cause a long-lasting friendship to unravel.

If you like TV shows like Grey’s Anatomy, I think you’d also love this book (though it absolutely has more depth to it)!

Gap Factory Baby Clothes

A while back, I remember reading somewhere that the clothing sold at Gap Factory stores is manufactured specifically for the factory store. When I was browsing Banana Republic Factory’s website for my leopard slides, I clicked over to Gap Factory and was pretty darn excited to see the exact same baby clothes I had my eye on at Gap for sale online on the Gap Factory website for way cheaper. I’m not sure if this is always the case but I considered it a major score!

I absolutely love Gap’s zip-up footie onesies and couldn’t resist nabbing a few for Ryder and Callie. (The black and white stripe onesie on Ryder in the above pic is part of the set I bought for him that also came with the cutest penguin onesie!) Aaand I may have put a couple more in my cart when I stumbled upon their holiday pajama section as I was typing up this post. (And just FYI, they’re currently having their Friends & Family sale so everything is 40% off + free shipping with the code FFTIME.)

StitchFix Kids Delivery

StitchFix did it again! They sent some big-time winners our way in Chase’s latest fashion fix and we ended up keeping six of the 10 items. I requested some comfy tees for layering, a nice sweater and a hoodie for playtime and they nailed it! This may sound silly but I get incredibly excited for Chase’s StitchFix deliveries because I often feel uninspired when it comes to dressing him but at the same time I can fully appreciate quality kids’ apparel. I also love the price point of the clothes they sent our way (our items ranged from $12 – $35 and the most expensive item was the jacket) and I am looking forward to his next delivery already!

Friday Flashbacks

How to Keep a Toddler Entertained on a Long Road Trip (With the holidays on the horizon, keep this blog post on your radar if you have little ones to entertain during holiday travels!)

Crock Pot Coconut Chicken Cauliflower Rice Stew (Healthy comfort food in a bowl, this Crock Pot Coconut Chicken and Cauliflower Rice Stew is the perfect weeknight dinner to serve when the temperatures outside begin to dip.)

Question of the Day

What was one of the most creative Halloween costumes you saw this year? 

What is one thing that made you smile this week? 

[Read More ...] https://www.pbfingers.com/things-im-loving-friday-256/

[call-it-carefree-blog]

Do what makes you happy

it sounds simple. we see it all the time plastered everywhere, in some vague, pinterest-esque land quote with a picture behind it trying to glorify the simple idea of “doing what makes you happy.”

I find a couple things wrong with these bold and very general statements, as someone inching closer everyday toward death and trying to help others find happiness as they are also.. Inching closer toward death.

First off, not too many people have figured out what makes them happy. And secondly, if they did have something, sometimes its not necessarily a good vice or hobby (good being from the standpoint of health and general well being). I know a lot of people who think certain things make them happy, but a few years down the line admit, with regret that they were poor decisions. I also find that a lot of people generally do things because they feel OBLIGED to. What a shame, to feel chained to do something and then try to continue doing it because they are “happy”. 

Its alright to dislike things. Its alright to have discomfort and not enjoy some aspects of life. That is life! I am finding as I grow up (because I am 25 and still am learning every day!) that the more I do things to challenge my thinking and my comfort levels and the bigger the challenge the more HAPPY I become with myself. Now, this isn’t a technique for everyone and it wasn’t until recently I discovered this. But when we find out what we DISLIKE and what makes us UNCOMFORTABLE- if we can face those moments of despair there will be a character building thought process attached to that- and its easier to tell what will in turn make you HAPPY.

You can dislike work. I think a lot of people feel obliged to say they “love their job” or are “super happy” at work and then they get very burnt out. Because not only do they dislike their job but they are also having this emotional struggle with admitting they hate their career choice or current situation. If you admit you dislike it and admit that you don’t have any control over that feeling its much more FREEING and may even be easier for finance sake to stay there until you can make a choice to move to a different facet of work. 

Its okay to admit you are unhappy.

Now on a less career/ life related note, there is the simple truth that comes from the innocence of being a child. 

Take fingerprinting for example. Its something a LOT of us would get stoked about as lets say three year olds. We don’t know how to use brushes too well, hell, so our hands work great! We make all these cool pictures and mom and pop put them on the fridge (and eventually disappear somewhere but we don’t ask where and now we are old enough to admit our parents pitched them in the trash...) Lets say we all loved fingerprinting and it made us SMILE and HAPPY.

So then we get brushes. We learn how to use brushes and from there on out the frequency that we practice this craft that used to make us happy is less and less. Then eventually, we aren’t painting at all anymore. 

We SUBCONSCIOUSLY stopped doing something that made us HAPPY! 

WHY?

Could it be because we had better tools at our disposal? Could it be because we figured out that we sucked at it and our pictures looked terrible? Could it be because we were too wrapped up in other things that promise us a “great future” full of other things that will replace this one tried and true hobby that made us happy?

I don’t have the answer. I don’t. It varies from person to person. BUT- if there is one thing I can tell you it is to think about a time that you were super super happy and RECREATE that moment. Maybe you and a friend had a dance party in your parents basement to some lame songs. Find a new friend and just ask them if they’d be down to do something like that. Sounds silly- but I bet you’d have a blast. 

Back to our painting example- go back to the basics. For fucks sakes. Finger paint! Finger paint your fucking dog. Finger paint your ideal home. Finger paint you sitting in your college class hating your life and LAUGH about it. Hang them up on your fridge. Your friends will think you are weird but WHO GIVES A FUCK! IT MADE YOU HAPPY!

Why do we stop doing the things that make us smile? Why do those things always have to be more complex or be compounded on? Enjoy the small things. Do things that might make you feel embarrassed temporarily and enjoy your life. 

Don’t be ashamed of what makes you happy. Just go out and do it.