this little life of mine

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OMG, we're at the end of January already! Yikes! I know it's only the first month of the year, but I feel like I've accomplished nothing creative at all! I intended to make Thank You cards for Christmas gifts I received, and start my Valentine's Day Cards (because I was going to stamp cards for several holidays this year as I have done in the past), but I haven't even opened my stamp cabinet to pull out my supplies. It's so depressing! I didn't even exercise as much as I'd planned to! Of course, I was sick for about a week, but really, that's not much of an excuse. Well, maybe it is. A little.

le sigh!

Anyway, to cheer myself up, here are five things I DID accomplish this month:

1.  I finished reading one book (The Curiosity - awesome!), read one entire book (Peter Pan - meh.), and started reading two other books (The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, and the Bible (which I've been trying to read for years!)).

2.  I started a 6-week ballet yoga class at Eleve Barre, and actually noticed a slight improvement on week 2! It's a super tough (but fun!) class that combines elements of ballet and yoga with some low-impact cardio (called  Vinyasa flow), stretching, and finally, relaxation (Savasana).  If she were to offer a second class during the week, say on Tuesday (hint, hint!), I'd totally take it!

3.  Chose a word to inspire me in 2015. Now I just hope I can live up to it!

4.  I repaired and mounted my faux deer head in my bedroom. I also named him Gobo.

5.  And, finally, I purchased a couple new books that I hope will help make this year - any maybe the rest of my life - healthy, tidy, and happy:

 
On the bottom: The Autoimmune Solution: Prevent and Reverse the Full Spectrum of Inflammatory Symptoms and Diseases by Amy Myers, M.D.; on top The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo

Hope y'all had a great week - heck, a great month! See you in February! Cheers!

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Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.  Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

•Grab your current read.

•Open to a random page.

 •Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page. (I tend to go over this limit a LOT!)

•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

•Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

So, I finally finished reading The Curiosity by Stephen P. Kiernan, and it was wonderful! (Here's my tease for it.) A great book and a fantastic way to start off a new year of reading! Quite simply, I LOVED It! 

Anyway, this week I'm jumping into my 2015 Classic Reading List with J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan. I don't recall having read this book before, though I am familiar with the Disneyfied version. I'm curious to see just how different the original is! This is a real life paperback book, not on my nook, and I believe I purchased it at Bucket of Books, a used book store in Atascadero. Here are my teasers from page 91:

It was at this tragic moment that they heard a sound which made the heart of every one of them rise to his mouth. They heard Peter crow.

What are you guys reading this week? Let me know in the comments! Cheers!

1. I wore my green and gold accessories all week despite my team being unable to hold on to a perfectly good lead for five freakin' minutes. I'm annoyed because, seriously, how do you throw away a perfectly good game right at the end?!? Gah! Nevertheless, I love my Packers, now and forever, and look forward to more great football from them next year! But for now, for the Superbowl, I'm going with my home-state team, so - Go Hawks!

2. My workout with Michael on Wednesday was one fo the better ones I've had since I stopped taking the prednisone. It was hard, but I lifted those weights, and climbed that stair climber, and, dammit, I just did it! And, I felt good afterwards.

3.  Yesterday evening I took my first Ballet Yoga class at Eleve Barre. It was hard. REALLY hard! My stiff muscles could barely do the poses, and I have no sense of balance whatsoever, but I'm hoping to improve over the next six weeks. Also, I really think I like yoga, and might make it a regular part of my fitness routine!

4.  I haven't called my doctor for a follow-up yet, but I will. He might not be able to help me, but maybe he knows someone who can.

5.  I really wish I'd had my real camera to get this awesome shot of the crescent moon last night, but, alas, I only had an iPhone. Still. Enjoy! Cheers!

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Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.  Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

•Grab your current read.

•Open to a random page.

 •Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page. (I tend to go over this limit a LOT!)

•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

•Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Good morning and Happy Tuesday! Since I'm still reading The Curiosity and have already teased it, I thought I'd share a teaser from another of my favourite books, The Elsinore Appeal: People vs. Hamlet by The Association of the Bar of the City of New York.  The premise is that Hamlet survives his wound from the duel wth Laertes and is tried and conviced six homocides: Laertes, Ophelia, Rozencrantz and Guildenstern, Polonius, and Claudius. This case is an attempt to overturn those convictions, and contains all the transcripts and briefs from the hearing. It's fun and interesting!

Here are my teasers from page 53 regarding the deaths of Rozencrantz and Guildenstern:

Judge Frankel: But what about Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, your adversary says you have have a corps problem.

Mr. Gillers: Oh I don't think so.

Judge Frankel: What's the evidence that they're dead?

Mr. Gillers: There was, first of all there was no challenge to it. But there was an authenticated death certificate from England brought in to the court below and properly introduced in evidence.

  Hope you guys are all having a great week so far! Cheers!  

So, just before Christmas last year I received a shipment from Modcloth.com (unboxing post here), and inside was a totes adorbs glittery, golden faux deer head. Technically it's called "Antler Me This Wall Decor", because, as you may or may not know, Modcloth tends to give their items cute, clever, and unique names. Personally, I named him Gobo (explanation here) and decided he was perfect for my woodland-themed bedroom. Sadly, however, one of his little antlers was broken. Since this was the last faux deer head Modcloth had in stock, and I really really loved him, I contacted Modcloth customer service via email to see if they knew what to use to repair the broken antler. I very quickly received a reply from Briana who not only let me know that super glue would work perfectly, but also gave me a discount on the item since it was damaged. I was not expecting that, so it was super cool! 

So I picked up a bottle of this Krazy Glue at my local Big Lots. I love that it had a brush applicator at the end! This was going to make it SO much easier to fix the antler than if I had to deal with a regular tube of super glue. Past experiences with super glues have included having way too much glue spew out, and end up getting all over the item I'm trying to fix as well as my fingers and work surface. This brush, however, applied just the right amount of glue to each of the broken ends of the antler and no where else!

After gluing Gobo's antler back together, I let it sit so the glue could dry completely. There was a small seam visible, which wasn't too bad or obvious, but I still wanted to conceal it as best I could. I considered my collection of acrylic craft paints, rubber stamp ink pads, and glitter and embossing powders, but none of them were the right colour or glitter consistency. Then I checked my nail polish collection, and found this little tube of gold glitter accent nail polish - Stripe fx -  from Nailene, and lo and behold! It was a perfect match!

Now you can barely tell there was a break, and now it's time to mount it! I originally wanted to put Gobo up to the left of my bed between my dresser mirror and my closet. Sadkly, there is no stud in that space, and I really want to hang it on a stud. Yes, Gobo's not that terribly heavy as he's made of plastic, but when you live in earthquake country, you don't like taking any chances! So, I moved him over to the wall on the right side of the bed, found a stud, and, voila! Here's Gobo!

   

I love Gobo SO much, and I'm thrilled to see my room start to come together. Now I just need a new clock, and maybe a new phone (preferably wall-mounted since I have no room on my dressers to set anything else), some art, and maybe some woodland decals.

Oh, and before I go, I should mention I added a Command picture hanging strip to the back of Gobo's mount that would adhere him to the wall to a little added stability. Sorry I didn't photograph that part, but I was quite excited to mount my deer head, and wanted to get back to watch the Green Bay Packers beat let the Seahawks kill a perfectly good lead right at the end of the game, and go to the lose their chance to get back to the SuperBowl, so I forgot.*

le sigh.

It's a pretty simple step, though, and I'm sure y'all can figure it out! While I was at it, I also used a Command strip to mount my silver daisy cross on the wall right above my owl light switch. I have one other cross to hang up, but it's not as easy as this one, as the hole that the nail is supposed to fit into is almost non-existent, so God knows how I'll get that to stay on the wall! Stay tuned for that entry! Cheers!

* When I first wrote this entry, the Packers were winning that game, and half the Seahawk fans had left. The Hawks made an amazing comeback at the last freaking minute, and won the game! Oh, well! As a born-and-raised-Washington-state girl, I guess all I can say is, Go Hawks! Kick those Patriots' asses! (Also, maybe it's a sign?) Anyway, it is what it is. Cheers!

Oh, my frog, you guys, I'm so sorry I haven't been around for, what? A week? I made myself a promise at the beginning of the year I was going to keep up on my blogging like I did during Holidailies, but I got sidelined with a nasty cold that I've only just recovered from. Barely. I'm still suffering from the last annoying little bits of it like the nasal congestion, sniffing, and nose-blowing, along with the horrific cough that lasts for months, but basically, I'm back! (and thank God, too, because there's nothing worse than being sick!)

So, anyway, here's what's been going on this past week:

1.  Early last Friday morning (around 3AM, to be exact), I woke with a horrible sore throat. Thinking it was just because my throat was dry, I had some water and went back to sleep. At 6AM, my throat was still sore, and was, in fact worse. So, I took a sick day and I spent the day sleeping, drinking OJ, and eating Campbell's classic Chicken Noodle Soup with mini saltine crackers. It was not a fun day.

2.  Because I wasn't feeling well,  I accomplished very little over the weekend except get groceries, watch the Packers game, and sleep. I planned to start stamping Valentine's cards, mount my faux deer head, and do some organizing, but I just didn't have the energy.

3.  Over the course of the week I have gradually been feeling better, but am still dealing with my other medical issue, and am still waiting to hear from the rheumatologist. Since it's been just about a month since I saw him, got my labs done, and received the results in th e mail, I'm a bit annoyed. I know I should just call him, but I need to calm myself down first, so I don't end up giving him a piece of my mind! there aren't very many rheuamtologists in the area - one I know for sure isn't taking new patients, and it took  three months to get in to see this guy! - so I really don't want to alienate him. Still. I'm ticked!

4.  On the exercise front, I only went to the gym  this past Wednesday (I was still too sick to go on Monday and didn't feel well enough to even do a half hour of treadmill on Tuesday), but I was able to work out really hard! At least as hard as it is possible for me right now. It felt good, and I'm looking forward to getting back into my regular routine. Also, next Thursday I start a new class - Ballet Yoga at Eleve Barre. I'm hoping the stretching will help ease the stiffness in my muscles.

5. I haven't been keeping up with my photography this week, but I did manage to catch this gorgeous sunrise from the wrong side of the bus on Wednesday. (Please ignore the glaring bus lights and people's heads!) Enjoy!