Spring Smashbook Pages

Hiya. I thought I'd take a brief interlude from my book bonanza and share some Smashbook pages in hopes that it will get me inspired to tackle some of the three week backlog I've got happening in my Smashbook. These are some of my March pages, cause those are already on my computer and with my stupid summer cold, I've got very little motivation to go take pictures of my current pages. I keep thinking that I want to go Smashbook and get caught up, but I can't get creatively motivated right now. All I wanna do is read teenager apocalypse books, watch Jane Austen movies, and nap. Ugh. So, please comment and help me get my butt in gear before I forget all the cute stuff that is happening right now!

This particular Smashbook was one of the ones that came in a kit, so it has those nifty photo insert pages. It's a fun little break from the regular pages, but I won't buy another book with them in it, because I don't like how they break up the continuity of my pages. I love those adorable Basic Grey letter stickers here, and my cute little hedgehog that my sister made me on her Cricut. Sometimes you gotta put something in there just because it's cute.

This is the flip side of the photo insert pages. Isn't that pocket so stinking adorable? It's one from the new line of Smashbook products for this spring.

I laid a background of pink washi tape strips for this picture of my new niece. Isn't she gorgeous?

Since I always have so many pictures of Easter and I was almost out of room in this Smashbook, I decided to make flaps for each part of the day. I also had to get a couple of the super adorable watercolor eggs we made in there, too!

 

Well, that's it for now. Hopefully I'll make some new pages in the next day or two and I can post some that are seasonally appropriate, lol. Until next time, thanks for taking a look!

 

The Imperfectionists

Well folks, it's one down and twenty-nine to go. I started my Epic Quest of 30 Books Before 30 this week with Tom Rachman's The Imperfectionists.

I picked this particular book because I had read about it several times and I love to read books about writers and/or lovers of books. I started with it because I happened to know where my second-hand copy of it was located on the bookshelf. It ended up being a perfect beginning to this exercise for a couple of reasons: first, it was modern and therefore an easy read; second, it was only a couple of hundred pages and I got through it fast, which has encouraged me that I will actually be able to do this within my timeline; third, it was really different from things I normally read but I still really loved it; and finally, it was gorgeously well written. I'm a little ashamed to admit that I haven't really read that much in the last couple of years that qualifies as well written. There are moments in The Imperfectionists where the prose is so lovely, or the turns of phrase so elegantly crafted that I actually had to close my eyes and savor them for a moment. I love words, and I really love words expertly strung together, and Tom Rachman certainly is good at words. For example: 

"What is the value in remonstrating with such a feckless triumvirate?" (77)

So good, right? That sentence was so lovely and memorable to me that I was able to pick it out of the book right now without any effort!

The Imperfectionists is a series of intertwining narratives from different characters who are affected by, and for the most part work at, an English-language newspaper based out of Rome. Each chapter effortlessly drops into the mind and life of a clearly defined  and distinct character. I am typically not a fan of books that switch narrators, as I think it detracts from reader immersion and can make novels drag when you're stuck in a plot line less interesting than others. However, The Imperfectionists could be considered a study in how multiple narrators can enhance and really, even make a novel into something extraordinary. This book could easily have fallen into a mere series of intertwining short stories, but Rachman uses the multiple narrators to weave a complete tale that illustrates the many facets of a life in journalism; the book is a love letter to the newspaper business, but still unromantic about it's realities. The sad-sack forcibly retired Lloyd Burko, and the terrified newbie Winston Cheung, illustrate both ends of a journalist's career. Never feeling like his achievements are enough, Corrections Editor Herman Cohen still finds himself inexplicably happy, and serves as a foil to bitter and lonely Ruby Zaga, who uses her job as a security blanket that she both loathes and loves. Reporter Hardy Benjamin finds herself knowingly taken advantage of and mocked in order to have a semblance of a relationship, whereas Editor Kathleen seeks out an affair with an old ex she disdains as a means to punish an unfaithful spouse even though her marriage still functions much as it ever did. Each chapter stands alone, but they perfectly blend to offer a snapshot of life at the paper. It's a beautifully crafted book, and a loving character study of less than reputable people.

In the back of the book, there is an interesting interview between the author and writer Malcolm Gladwell (whose book The Tipping Point is also on my list!). This quote <----- is taken from that interview. I did a paper once on almost this very subject; how reading can enhance our ability to empathize and relate to one another. He goes on to add:

"What I wonder is whether any of this sympathy for fictional characters translates into greater sympathy for people in life." (277)

In my opinion, reading anything helps makes us better people. In books we can live a thousand lives, experience a thousand perspectives, which hopefully helps us "replace our snap judgements about people with the actual empirical evidence about themselves that they offer us"(Malcolm Gladwell says it so nicely). The Imperfectionists takes us through eleven different ideas about what it means to be a journalist, and it allowed me a chance to rethink my notions of writers, and to explore some mores I might not have otherwise been comfortable with. Good books always have a way of correlating to your life, to something going on with you, and this one was no exception for me. I often struggle with being a stay-at-home mom, with sacrificing a career, something that I typically equate with success, to nurture and raise my kids. I found myself contemplating, or maybe re-evaluating, my definition of a successful life with this book. All the characters have what I would consider a successful life, a job writing or working for a paper and living abroad, but very few of them are happy. And the ones who are, are generally happy because of family or close relationships. Living life through all these heads made me think that maybe being successful means living a life full of love, regardless of what you do for a living. So yeah, that was encouraging.

I have the quote on the left up on my Pinterest "Book Nerd" board, and I though it was applicable to this discussion. There were a few moments in this book that resonated with me, thoughts I believed were particular to me. This one:

"She is a wonderful nerd, and he hopes this won't change. He'd be distressed if she were cool- it'd be as if his flesh and blood had grown up to be purple." (31)

I often think similar things about my own children. I want them to be happy, always happy, but never cool. Then there is this:

"He and Jimmy are not, as Herman has always believed, gradations of the same man-he the middling version, and Jimmy the superlative one." (94)

I think it's awfully easy to think of yourself as the "middling version" of the person you're meant to be. How often do we wish we were living up to our potential, wish we were living the bigger, grander version of the life we had?

"All this has been the most extraordinary surprise; he had expected an unhappy life, yet ended up with the opposite. It's barely credible." (94)

This is my favorite quote from the book. I think it's so beautiful, and so very sad. Herman is chugging along his whole life thinking he is unhappy, when the very opposite is true. How much time did he waste wishing for happiness when he already had it? How many of my blessings am I missing wishing for others?

"Technology was not merely luring readers; it was changing them." (245)

This is something I worry about- how my life is changed by technology, how different my children will be because of it. I worry that they will become so inundated by technology that they will forget how to communicate with one another. I worry that they will lose the tactile joy of a paper and ink book. I worry that we will all forget what it means to empathize and connect and seek in the ease of getting what we want on the internet.

"What I really fear is time. That's the devil: whipping us one when we'd rather loll, so the present sprints by, impossible to grasp, and all is suddenly past, a past that won't hold still, that slides into these inauthentic tales. My past-it doesn't feel real in the slightest. The person who inhabited it is not me. It's as if the present me is constantly dissolving. [ ] The personality is constantly dying and it feels like continuity." (37)

Okay, so this one is not something I've ever really thought before, but I thought it was terribly interesting and clever, and it made me think.  And one last quote:

"Here is a fact: nothing in all civilization has been as productive as ludicrous ambition." (38)

Gorgeous! It was such a gorgeous book, and despite finishing it at 1:15 in the morning, I lied awake for a long time with my brain buzzing with all these new ideas and thoughts. That's the mark of a great book, one that keeps your brain going long after you should be asleep. And while I do think it's a bit pretentious to include discussion questions in the back of your book, I did have little diatribes to myself about each and every one of them, which in turn, inspired this mammoth post about The Imperfectionists, which may or may not have gotten away from me a bit. Clearly, I miss going to school. I can't believe I even cited my quotes! But hey, once an English major, always an English major.

 

Harper Lee- another on my list!

Well, if you've stuck with me through this whole post, kudos and I hope it inspires you to go get a copy of The Imperfectionists for yourself. I'm so glad I read it, and so glad I'm on my way through 30 Books Before 30. I'm not certain every book will get it's own paper-sized review like this one did, since it might actually take as long as reading the books themselves, but we'll see how inspired I am. This book really filled me up, and it's so wonderful to read something like that again. I've been toiling in vampire books for far too long! Hopefully most of the books on my list will serve to remind me why I studied literature in the first place. 

Next up: Tess of the D'Ubervilles (cause I know where that one is too).

The Epic Quest of 30 Books Before 30

Some time ago, back before my 29th birthday, I stumbled upon a list of 30 Books Before 30. The idea resonated with me; I do love to read and I would like to have something concrete accomplished before my thirtieth birthday since my "career goals" include teaching Ben to pee before he does a number two so he doesn't pee all over the bathroom floor every damn day. Of course, I didn't like the books on that particular list, so I decided that I would make my own list of 30 Books Before 30. And then I was too lazy to bother with that, and my birthday came and went without any goal setting whatsoever, except maybe stop getting drunk and humiliating my ownself. 

So fast-forward to today, when in a Day-Quil coma I happened to read Entertainment Weekly's list of the 100 Greatest Books of All Time, and I finally decided to challenge myself to a literary adventure and do 30 Books Before 30. This led me to look for best books lists from slightly more reputable sources; I love EW, but they aren't exactly literary experts. I looked at the NY Times list, the Modern Library, and Time's Greates Books of All Time. I do have a degree in English Literature, so I've read a fair chunk of the great classics, but I still have lots of incredible authors to experience for the first time. I didn't want my list to be all books I'd read for classm though. I decided to research some of the great modern novels, since I find myself sadly delinquent when in comes to contemporary fiction, with the exception of those that touch on the magical (Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell!). And, since I do really want to expand my reading parameters, I threw in spme classic science fiction, some mysteries and noir, and even a little non-fiction (I never do non-fiction!).

I have 281 days until I turn 30, so that's roughly one book every ten days. That's not terrible, especially for me, except that I have no intention of forgoing my usual reading of things that look interesting at the library and my endless reread of the Wheel of Time books. So going to be an actual challenge, a difficult challenge. I can't wait to get started.


Here's my list:

• To Kill A Mockingbird  -Harper Lee
• Middlesex  -Geoffrey Eugenedis
• Freedom  -Jonathan Franzen
• The Imperfectionists  -Tom Rachman
• Tess of the D'Ubervilles  -Thomas Hardy
• David Copperfield  -Charles Dickens
• The Secret History  -Donna Tartt
• On The Road  -Jack Kerouac
• To The Lighthouse  -Virginia Woolf
• A Portrait of a Lady  -Henry James
• Ulysses  -James Joyce
• American Gods  -Neil Gaiman
• A Room With a View  -E.M. Forster
• The Tipping Point  -Malcolm Gladwell
• Lolita  -Vladmir Nabokov
• One Hundred Years of Solitude  -Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• The Road  -Cormac McCarthy
• The Sun Also Rises  -Ernest Hemingway
• The Age of Innocence  -Edith Wharton
• Ender's Game  -Orson Scott Card
• Dune  -Frank Herbert
• The Big Sleep  -Raymond Chandler
• Infinite Jest  -David Foster Wallace
• Rebecca  -Daphne Du Maurier
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn  -Mark Twain
• The Complete Sherlock Holmes  -Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• Murder On The Orient Express  -Agatha Christie
• Treasure Island  -Robert Lewis Stephenson
• A Clockwork Orange  -Anthony Burgess
• The Devil in the White City  -Erik Larson
• 
  

and a few alternates, in case I find one of the others intolerable:

• Bonfire of the Vanities  -Tom Wolfe
• Rainbow  -D.H. Lawrence
• House of Leaves  -Mark Z. Danielewski
• The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao  -Junot Diaz
• 
  

The list isn't in any particular order. I think I will start with The Imperfectionists, since I know I have a copy waiting to be read. I'm going to attempt to write a new post every week when I finish each new book. I hope you'll stick with me! You can help keep me accountable and on track, dear reader. Please leave a comment, to let me know what you think or even suggest your favorite book. Off I go to put my nose in a book! I'm gonna make 29 count!

More of May

Hello people of the world. I am back again with some more Smashbook pages. I'm going to endeavor to keep it short and simple, since I'm fairly certain I do way too much blathering. There is no theme today, these are just more of my May pages that I never got around to posting. I just finished up my June ones this afternoon, so there will be some fresh pages up soon. Hopefully. I seem to be rather terrible at updating on a regular basis. Oh well.

   

My favorite part of this page (aside from the lovely picture of my handsome young man) is that WTF card! I ran across these on the internet one day and cheated and printed a couple. This was my last one, so I will soon be scouring the interwebs for it once again. (If you know where I can find them, please comment with the link!) I also heart the little "we've got class" tag; it's cut out from a sheet of paper with all kinds of adorable vintage-y school images. Old school stuff is pretty much my favorite. Not like "old school," but like classroom things from the 50's. You know what I mean.

 Yeah, so I doodled a picture of a creepy old guy and put it in my Smashbook, what? He looks like Vernon Dursley and I like him. I think Molly's picture is probably better than mine, but whatever. My Smashbook is a record of my life, weird subpar doodles and all.

I got some new stamps, so that's pretty fun.

I finished another Smashbook! They seem to be lasting less and less time the more I get into it. It always feels like such an accomplishment to finish a whole Smashbook, so I can never resist adorning the last page with a few pretty things and a little note.

I had a lot of Mother's day goodies, so I added a pocket and stuck them in there. I loved the gorgeous card from my hubby and wanted to put pictures of me with the kids on there, so there wasn't much room for the thousands of things I had to say about Mother's Day. I did my journaling on some pretty paper and put it in the pocket with the cards my munchkins made me and a picture I liked but wouldn't fit. And those adorable little flag clippies, which found themselves on the first page I made after buying them. Aren't those silhouettes of the kids precious? Now that they're made, I have the feeling they're going to be showing up in lots of places around the house!

 I showed this Sookie page in my last post, but here is it's mate.

 

My kids draw cute things and I made a page about it. That red polka dot washi tape looks pretty good on the blue paper, don't you think? I couldn't resist drawing a few art supplies to add to the page, but I think they turned out pretty cute. We're such a crafty family, lol.

 And, just to show that not every page is a masterpiece, here's one that just got cobbled together with all the rest of the junk from May.

Well, I hope you enjoyed taking a peek inside my Smashbook. It's been so miserable and yucky here lately that I haven't been taking as many pictures or feeling as inspired lately. Plus, I checked out The Forsyte Saga from the library, so that's like 12+ hours of loveliness taking my attention. It's nice to share pages, since it always makes me want to go create more! Comments would be lovely, and might even encourage me to post more often. Just sayin'.

My Craft Room

Hey friends! I'm amazingly adding another post and it didn't even take me four weeks! Woo-hoo! Today I thought I'd show you a few quick pictures of my craft room. 

Now, you may be asking yourself, 'Why on Earth would she want to share that chaotic, messy space she calls a craft room with the internet?' Well, you're in luck because I'm going to tell you! I've seen lots of pictures on the internet of perfectly organized and color-coordinated craft rooms with custom tables in the center and extensive cubbies with wicker and cloth baskets where everything is put away and looks beautiful. But you rarely see pictures of realistic craft spaces where real people do the real dirty work of making things. Hence, me sharing mine. While my craft room may be chaotic, it's an organized chaos. I know exactly where every little thing belongs and where it can be found when I need it. Besides, I am a firm believer that creative spaces need to be a little messy.

This is my main workspace. I have a corner with two desks and a bookshelf where I do almost all of my creating. It took a while to get this configuration right, but now it works pretty well for me.

I use a cheapy folding table that I hope to replace one day soon with one that doesn't rock insanely every time I use my sewing machine. Hopefully with a thrift store bargain, since it with invariably get covered in paint. The wall behind my desk has cork board squares on it, but as you can see, they covered nowhere near enough space, so I just started pinning things straight to the wall. Eventually, the cork board ended up being where I keep things I love to look at- pictures of my favorite people (including John Krasinski and the Doctor), my kids' drawings, an old fork I found at my Grandpa's house, and always pretty paper. That and a place where my old earrings go when I lose their mates. I like to have my sheets of stickers and doo-dads right in front of me so I remember what I've got. The black box next to the Cricut is also filled with that kind of stuff- paint chips, journaling squares, library cards, all the accoutrement I use in my Smashbook. 

I keep a blotter handy for when I stamp or need to practice writing or doodling something. My desk also holds a container of my favorite pens, markers and glue, as well as a vintage mason jar of washi tapes. The wooden desk serves as a spill over area, where I keep my materials when I'm working, and where my husband dumps all the random detritus he collects from around the house that he knows I'll want to keep. The baskets on top hold more Smashbook products- pockets, tabs, tags and more of the ephemera that I so love to collect. The bookshelf in between the desks holds my paper cutter and other supplies I need close at hand, as well as my Cricut mats and paper.




 The wall on this side works even harder than the other one! I have always dreamed of owning a ribbon holder since the days of shopping at Jutenhoops when I was a tween, and last year my aunt gave me this one for Christmas. I was so delighted that I cried! The first thing I did was to sort all of the ribbon by color and size, and now it proudly sits, beautifying my space and ready to offer a bit of ribbon or rick rack whenever I need it. I also have a shelf full of paints, which also used to be color organized before my paint buying got out of hand. And of course, there is my peg board wall, which may be smallish, but goes a long way towards organizing and keeping in sight all of my goodies.

I bought the peg-board from Michaels, so they're smaller squares instead of one large piece. I did that mostly because at the time, I hadn't discovered Pinterest, and didn't know you could paint the wood ones from the hardware store. The best part about the smaller pieces is that I can add more when I need more storage. The baskets are thrifted, and the paint one is actually for a shower. I love my pegboard for storing and showcasing my washi tape collection. I also used baby food jars and tiny wedding favor buckets from the dollar store to hold brads and buttons and gems, as well as paper flowers and extra bits of trim. My bakers twine resides on an extra dowel from my ribbon holder that I just rested on two hooks. The bar and basket on the bottom were bargains from Ikea. The whole peg board system here cost me less than $40.

So that's my crafting space! If you noticed that I didn't include two of the walls in the room, it's because those go from lived in messy to disastrous messy. It's mostly all bookshelves anyway, except for my little old lady green recliner in the corner for reading and my kids' craft table. My craft room is my favorite room in the house; it's the room I escape to when I just want to be me for a while and let my hands work and my mind turn off. Thanks for taking a little tour with me. Feel free to comment on how messy it is, or how awesome. I'd love to hear from you!

Flip-Flapper

Today I'm sharing some of my Smashbook pages that all have a common element: they feature flaps! I've recently come to really love this little interactive element because it allows me to include three or four times as many pictures as I would otherwise be able to have, and because it makes my Smashbook just that much more fun to look through. 

On this first page, I wanted to highlight my daughter's graduation from her Sprouts class, but I also wanted to sort of conclude the Awanas for the year for both kids. Her accomplishment was the more important one, so that picture made the front flap. 

When you flip the little tab, you can see the comparison picture underneath. I like to use the back of the top flap as extra scrapping space. Here I added a little paper tag and a bit of journaling. I almost always have something to say about every picture I put in, so that little bit of extra space for notes or stickers or whatever helps. You could add another photo to the back of the top one to really maximize the number of pictures you can get in the space. 

Generally, I make my flaps using washi tape. It works pretty well to secure the flap while still allowing for movement. I use a strip on top of the flap, just as if I was securing it to the page regularly. Then, I flip it over and add another strip to the underside where the first strip is on the front. You can use a fingernail or a bone folder to gently crease it on both sides, just to help it move a little easier. Just be careful not to tear your tape! I prefer to use the same tape for both sides, but you could switch it up if you were so inclined.
 

After laying my flaps down and taping them, I like to add a tab to make turning them easier and to show that there is more to see.
I make my tabs with this awesome punch from Fiskars. On my sister's graduation page to the right, I used a little bit of the scrap paper I had left over from making the banner for her party. Sometimes I tape them down with washi tape, but more frequently, I just staple them. It's easier and stays better through handling. There's extra interactivity in this page too, since you can pull her graduation announcement, party invitation and senior picture out of the envelope. The whole point of Smashbook, for me at least, is to have a place to keep that kind of precious memorabilia on hand. In a pretty way.

On this page, the flap situation is a little different. As we've previously established, I'm a bit of a nerd and like to document everything I read. With the final Sookie Stackhouse book having been recently released, I decided to re-read them all in preparation for the very last new Sookie story. And, since there are thirteen of them, I wanted to have a little cheat sheet for what happens in each book.

I used some old Rolodex cards that I found at the thrift store for a dollar. They were nicely aged and yellowed, but I did define the edges a little bit more with a yellow marker. And then I filled up all the pages with my untidy ramblings and brief plot outlines. So, if you haven't read the books, don't read my notes because they're full of spoilers.

On a related note, Dead Ever After was... better than I expected, but just kind of okay. Charlaine Harris bizarrely decided to narrate from other characters perspectives for the first time in the whole series, which gave away a lot of the mystery, not to mention detracted from the last of our time with Sookie. My speculations for the final outcome were mostly correct, but not the way I expected. It also felt mildly unfinished, so I'm thankful for the news that there is a "what happened next" book scheduled for the fall. I've been a fan of the Southern Vampire series for a long time, and I'm sad to see the conclusion. True Blood starts back in a couple of weeks, but last season was so atrocious (and that's likely because they completely stopped following the books) that I'm not sure that we'll watch anymore. So this was really kind of my last hurrah with Sookie. Well, until I read the books again in a couple of years. 

That's it for now. I'll be back in a day or two with more Smashbook pages and even (gasp!) a peek at my craft room.


 

Listomania!

So, I'm pretty much obsessed with lists. I could speculate about a dozen semi-psychological reasons why that might be, but I'll spare you. Suffice it so say, there's a list of some kind on nearly every page of my Smashbook.  

Yes, I read the 50 Shades books. Don't judge.

I like to include a list of all the books I've read in the section for each month. Yes, I know I'm a nerd. But, I have to tell you, I wish I had done this in some form or another for my whole life, because how amazing would it be to have a master list for all the books you've ever read? That is pretty much my wet dream. I'm sort of proud of being a book worm, and since I typically don't go around in real life telling people about all the books I've read in the last month, at least I get to document it somewhere. Plus, at the end of the year, I'll be able to brag that I've read x amount of books. Oh, so nerdy. And, what better medium to record my book lists than library cards? I LOVE library cards.

Okay, more list pages. I made this one to commemorate my birthday a couple of weeks ago. Don't you just love that scowly picture?

My daughter gasped and said, "Mommy, why you so grumpy?"

29 random facts about me right now, some of them serious, but most of them silly. I used to do these on my myspace back in the day, and I've always loved reading lists like this, but holy crap was it hard to come up with 29 of them. I'm too old. Next time I'll get some kind of prompts first! I liked the pattern on the Smashbook paper, so I left it pretty much the way it was, just adding the turquoise dots to mat the picture and ground the title. I was pleased to find the RANDOM FACTS tag in my stash, since it fit so well, and I used lots of the numbers from old alphabet sticker sheets. I tried to differentiate between the different numbers with different pens and boxes and whatnot. It's a messy page, but that's the way I like them!

#10: I am grateful for chilly winter days in which I can wear a sweater and my new books. High of 65!

Here's another list page that I created back in November. This one is even more straightforward; just a black pen and all of my many and myriad blessings. I challenged myself to record something I was grateful for every day until Thanksgiving. It's so important to be cognizant of all my many gifts in life, and focusing on what I have instead of what I wish I had can be incredibly transformative. Every time I start to feel sorry for myself or obsessed with wanting something out of reach, I make myself sit down and write a list of all the things I'm grateful for, just to remind myself of how unbelievably lucky and blessed I truly am. It doesn't always bring me out of my funk, but when I look back in ten years, I want to remember trying to see the good in my life. 

This page is a little bit more scrappy; I prefer them that way. While I like my handwriting okay, it's nice to have pages that aren't all text. Last spring, I made a page like this for each member of my family to commemorate all the little things we were into. They are some of my favorite pages, because this is all stuff I have already forgotten. How precious are these tiny things?! I've only been Smashbooking a little over a year, and I'm already so grateful that I took the time to preserve these memories. I think I just inspired myself to make new ones like this for this year. Thanks, self!

And, since I can't help myself, one last picture. I bought my next Smashbook tonight! I've got about 10 pages left of my foxy doodle book (How awesome is that felt fox? I love it so much I can hardly stand it.), but I have the suspicion that it wont last me through the end of May. After much deliberation and angst, I decided to go with Smart Style, since my Little Mister will be starting kindergarten soon! Also, can you see how much fatter the red one is than the blue one? Once they're finished, they're so fat that they can't stand up anymore, and they have to be rubber banded shut just to fit on the shelf! There's something so lovely about a new, flat one. They're so much easier to write in in the beginning.

That's it for tonight, friends. Thanks for reading! Hopefully, I'll be better at updating in the next couple of weeks. I intend to post my Easter page next, so watch out for that. Feel free to leave a comment and tell me what a dork I am, or share your Books of April list and brag about how many more books you read than me.