Monthly Rewind: December 2015

look at our happy little dude!!

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1. I really enjoyed some time off from the blog before the holidays:  I try to scale down a bit in December just for some R&R and to get my head straight for the next year. And plus, every year traffic and interaction goes down during this month especially around this time. Last year I decided to do my A Very Handmade Holiday series with spotlights and giveaways for bookish Etsy shops and businesses. It still gave me content but it was easy to set those up ahead of time and not spend the week leading up posting other stuff that probably won’t really be read. I did it again this year and I really enjoyed the time off while still having some amazing giveaways and spotlights of great businesses and talent.

2. I continued on with Harry Potter — I read book 1 last year and I finally decided it was high time to continue so this month I read book 2 and some of book 3 but didn’t finish it before the new year. So ready to continue on!!

3. ALL OF THE CHRISTMAS PARTIES AND GATHERINGS: I had some really great holiday parties to make the season even better! We had my book club holiday party which was so fun! Will’s work Christmas party which was fun but errrrm somebody that runs this blog may have drank a little too much and spent the next day puking…like literally until 7pm. NOT MY FINEST MOMENT OKAY. I had a party two days after that and couldn’t even look at alcohol so at least I learn. Then I had a Christmas party with some new lady friends and it was really great to hang with them! Plus our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day plans were with family and were a good time as well! Felt really overjoyed to look at the great people in my life and spend time with them!

4. Had a really fun and chill New Year’s Eve with friends– We did hibachi with our friends and then one couple came back for a sleepover in which we wore onesies (because we are bonafide adults, y’all), drank beer, ate yummy snacks, played card games and just laughed a whole lot. Fun way to ring in the new year!!

5. Will and I got our new camera we ordered on Black Friday: We got a really good bundle deal for a Canon Rebel T6i, a nice lens and a huge ass printer. No literally it takes up half my kitchen table. It is a monstrosity. BUT I can print out ALL THE THINGS and PICTURES OF SO MANY SIZES. Soo much of 2016 will be learning how to use it properly and maybe getting better with photography. Soooo any tips and guides and anything at all useful…let me know! Because basically I know how to turn it on. Will knows maybe 3 more things on it. WE DID figure out the self timer for family pictures on Christmas Eve so GO US.

I put all my Monthly Rewinds in a Spotify playlist so you can listen to them here !

I feel like I barely listened to much music outside of Christmas tunes this month to be honest but here’s what I was listening to (besides my 10 faves album of 2015)

1. It’s All In Vain — Wet


2. Lifetime Ago — Greg Laswell

3. Monster Lead Me Home — Sara Hartman

4. Start A Riot — BANNERS

5. Devil Side — Foxes

6. Future — KALK

Check out the rest of my December playlist

I read a total of 10 books this month!

1. When We Collided by Emery Lord: OMG THIS BOOK. THIS BOOOK. I know it doesn’t come out for a while so I don’t want to say too much but I freaking loved it!!! If you haven’t read Emery’s first two books you should do that before this one comes out — Open Road Summer and The Start of Me and You!

2. Saga Volume 1: Raced to get Volume 2 because I need to know what’s going to happened next! Loving the graphic novels and comics these days!

3. Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear: This one was super inspirational and there were some great quotes to remember in it — at which I’ll be posting some of those at a later date!

Well, I really only had my mini-reviews and my review of (the amazing) Just Visiting by Dahlia Adler so I can’t really say I had a most popular review when I didn’t have many.

1. My whole Handmade Holiday series — Was excited to do this again this year! I love highlighting Etsy shops and small businesses — especially when they are bookish! A couple of the giveaways are still open!

2. Reflections On Taking A Year Off From The Goodreads Numbers Based Challenge: Last year I didn’t set a number of books to read for the year and I decided to reflect on it!

3. Farewell 2015, I’m Coming For You 2016: I recapped 2015 and shared my word that will guide my resolutions and goals for 2016!

4. Best of All Things Not Books In 2015: I always love sharing my favorite albums, tv shows, movies and more!

5. Top 10 Favorite 2015 Releases : You should also check out my favorite debuts, best backlist books I read and books I think deserved more attention!

My review of this amazing book!!

NOTHING.  But I haz goals for the new year….and that fancy new camera sooo.

1. What This Book Gave To Me – Estelle is my book blogging soul sister because we both tend to write pretty personally about what we are reading and she’s always coming up with new ways to talk about books that aren’t actually reviews. I LOVED this post and seeing the books that taught her something this year. Desire to read all the ones I haven’t yet is STRONG.

2. Are Blog Comments Dying Out?: Really interesting read! A topic near and dear to many a bloggers heart and one I know in the book blogging world we’ve lamented. I’ve internally mulled over it when I see that posts just as good as ones a year or two ago aren’t getting even half that. It’s easy to take it as a sign that nobody is reading but it’s not true. I love what she says “the conversation hasn’t stopped..it’s just moved.”

3. 5 Questions To Ask Yourself on New Year’s…or really any day: I feel like it’s hard sometimes to focus on what you want your goals or resolutions to be but I feel like answering these questions can give one clarity. I tend to do a check in every month asking myself similar questions…but totally using these 5 questions every month!

4. Y U Unfollow Me: A good reminder! I don’t have any apps or anything anymore that tell me who unfollow me (I did for like 5 months and I obsessed over it) but every once in a while I will notice someone unfollowed me and like I know that in the grand scheme it’s not THE END OF THE WORLD but sometimes it stings and I also find myself obsessing over WHY. WHAT DID I DO? But really…my logical brain (not the one I use when I’m clearly obsessing over it) KNOWS all these things she’s saying in this post.

5. A Year of Coffee Dates (And Notes on Friendship): I loved this post from Christine! It’s a short post but holds a whole lot of wisdom and was probably more impactful than any long post I’ve ever read on friendship. “One of the things that I believe the most about friendship is that showing up is the most important thing: you just have to be there, and you have to be able to be relied upon. And that’s exactly what a year of coffee dates illustrated most clearly. More than anything, this year has reminded me just how possible things are when you’re intentional about it.” THAT LAST LINE THO…”how possible things are when you’re intentional about it.” UM YAS. I think I’m writing this all over my planner for 2016. Intentional — in friendships and in other matters!

What is one thing you hope to accomplish in 2016??

Pick a category (or 5… or all of them) and tell me what went on in YOUR life this month!! What sort of things were noteworthy for you this month? New obsessions? Any new song recs?? Best books you read this month? Great posts I missed on your blog? Answer to my question of the month?