Inside Kimmy's Mind

Valentine’s Day: a day deemed the most important day to show your significant other that you love them.

False.

This shouldn’t be the only day you show your loved ones that you love them. This also shouldn’t only be a day for couples, it’s a day for everyone to show their love. My mother surprised me with a card, she was like a ninja and hid it in my room the last time she came to visit me. I’ve been saying this a lot, but love comes in so many different forms so why shouldn’t this day, along with every other day, be a day you show love?

Yes, I am in a relationship, but I don’t usually make a huge deal in doing the typical couple-Valentiney-things. I spent a lovely evening with the boyfriend, we ate dinner, dessert- he made me a strawberry cake- and watched Avatar. I loved it. I love him. He makes every day special because loving someone isn’t something that can be expressed once in awhile. It’s not something that is only shown in order to make a pretty instagram photo. It’s something that isn’t always seen but you feel it. I feel loved every time Matt looks my way, when my siblings tease me about something, when my mother answers the phone when I call, or when my dad saves the day when there’s a storm brewing. I am indeed lucky. And I bet, if you took the time to see all that is around you, you’ll feel the love too.

So please, treat this day like any other day, don’t let the candies and flowers make you feel as though you don’t matter. Relationships are great, but loving yourself is just as great. I hope you spent this day with loved ones, and I hope you spoiled yourself because you deserve it.

That was my 2 cents on this Hallmark Holiday.

Thanks for reading.

♥

Several bloggers (Hey Georgie) have been writing letters to their past selves. It’s nice, because you have gone through the hardships that, that you has yet to experience. Has yet to learn from and has yet to grow from those experiences. But I would like to address a letter to the future me. The me that is experiencing the things I will one day experience. I’ve used the site Futureme.org and it’s exciting when I get a letter from past me so I’ll do it here, today,  right now. For Future Me to read.

Dear Future Me

2.6.17

I hope you are still very much happy with where you are in life. You have never been happier, even though you enjoyed school, you are so glad to be done with it now. You worked hard and I hope you continue to do so. If you’re no longer working at the museum, I hope you’re somewhere fun and that you enjoy it. I hope you’ve managed to move into a 2 bedroom apartment by now. If not, no worries, your time will come. I hope Vera loves hanging out with her cool tia, and loves for you to read all the books you’ve acquired for her during her first year. She’s growing up so fast it truly is amazing. She’s picking up things quickly and already has three teeth! Even though, at this moment in time, you have soooo many things to be happy about, know that if some of those things have changed in YOUR time, that’s ok. My only hope is that you maintain your strength and don’t lose yourself.  Until then…

I’m ready to keep on growing, and I look forward to seeing where I end up. That’s all for now.

Thanks for stopping by.✎

As a Christmas gift, Matt gave me a weekend trip to Austin. I was so excited for this trip, 1. Because I was going with Matt <3 and 2. I haven’t had the opportunity to travel much so packing for a trip and going on said trip had me all excited.

I might have taken things a bit far when it came to packing for this trip, but in my mind, I didn’t want to forget something that I might need. I had plan on filming things so I could create a travel vlog, however, my camera remained in it’s case the entire trip. -.- I was sick for the majority of the trip, Matt had caught a cold the week before last so I knew I’d also catch whatever it was he had. Saturday was the worse, and I know what you’re thinking…“Kim! Why didn’t you just reschedule?!” I didn’t want to! I was looking forward to it, and I had already cleared it with work. Had I been seriously ill, then yes I would have rescheduled. But I was fine! I was feeling much better by Sunday, but I didn’t let the blah cold prevent me from having fun during the weekend. Matt was so attentive and just all around amazing. He even let me go to Modcloth to try on clothes, it was a fit store so you try on the clothes and then they order and ship it to your house. I wish it were an actual department store but it was still lovely to visit. I may not have any video to show but here is a collection of photos, which is just as good.

I wish I had taken more photos while on this trip but sometimes I just wanted to enjoy the moment.  It was a wonderful trip and we’re already wanting to figure out where we will go for our next trip. I’m also hoping not to be sick whenever we do go on another trip. To Matt: This trip was wonderful, I enjoyed every moment of it and can’t wait to travel with you to other places. ?

The travel spark has been ignited and I’m looking forward to taking more trips this year. Perhaps even board an airplane? 🙂 Do you over pack for trips or have you figured out a happy medium? And do you have any fun trips planned this year?

Thanks for reading!

It took me a while to finally finish editing this video but here it is! I sort of took a break from buying books during those months and wasn’t reading as much either. But hopefully, I’ll return to reading more books, I didn’t reach my goal of 50+ books in 2016 so now I’ll try again in 2017…haven’t gotten off to a great start but no sense in giving up. 😀

Here are the books I mentioned in the video:

• Bitter Sweet Love – Michael Faudet
• The Universe of Us – Lang Leav
• Fresh Romance
• Gabi,  a Girl in Pieces – Isabel Quintero
• Beauty and The Beast and Other Classic Fairy Tales
• Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, Illustrated Edition – T. S. Eliot
• Crimson Bound – Rosamond Hodge
• The Sandman Collected Covers – Dave McKean
• Jane, the Fox and Me – Fanny Britt

Going to try to get back on a vlogging schedule and try to read more. I have a Book Outlet Haul coming up and I can’t wait! What books have you been reading lately?

Thanks for reading

This past weekend was wonderful.

For the three day weekend, I spent it over at Matt’s. Now, this isn’t the first time but I’m typically a homebody and enjoy being lazy, watching movies,  or knitting…you get it. But my weekends with him are always just so wonderful. So here’s a breakdown on our weekend:

• Friday: We went to a pre release for the new Magic cards at Asgard Games, ran into some friends there and I played one round. I’m not really that great at the game, but it’s fun.
• Saturday: We hung out with Matt’s friends for a bit, and enjoyed some yummy food and dessert. We also started watching the Netflix Original: A Series of Unfortunate Events. Loved the books, so I was looking forward to reading the books.
• Sunday: We woke up early, but didn’t really do anything until mid day. (Matt was also starting to get sick…which surprise surprise, I now have what he had/has)He was feeling up for getting out of the apartment so we decided to go to The Mad Potter to do some painting. He painted a mug and I painted a soup bowl. I forgot to take any before photos though. Very unlike me. Sadly, we have to wait until next week to pick up our master pieces because we won’t be here on Friday. I’m excited to see how they turn out. I might have put too much pressure on it, but luckily Matt was there to remind me that this was for fun. And it was a lot fun, when I suggested we go paint mugs, I didn’t think he would actually go with it.  Not because he wouldn’t want to, but because it was just so spur of the moment. And because of that we sort of ran out of time but I’m excited to see how they came out. Matt painted a mug, splitting it down the middle, one side with his white kitty Eve and the other side with his black kitty Marco. It’s pretty adorable. and I painted a mint bowl with white orchids. After that we went to Barnes and Noble where we picked up two new Magic decks and a copy of Stardust by  Neil Gaiman. We ended our night out with dinner at Sushi Choo Choo.
• Monday: Matt woke up feeling really bad, so I went and got him some medicine and cooked him some eggs. We spent the day watching movies and didn’t leave the apartment at all. We had our lunch and dinner delivered to us via Ubereats. Amazing! I’ve never used Uber before, but using it to bring food? So convenient and totally helps me maintain my hermit like behavior. The night ended with some reading and cuddles.

Such a great weekend, I hope my cold doesn’t last too long though. We have another wonderful weekend planned and I don’t want my boogers to ruin that. We have a trip planned, more on that next time. 🙂 How was your weekend?

? Thanks for reading ?

 

While in school my concentration was in Creative Writing, and I struggled with characters, and creating different voices for each character. But I still enjoyed writing each of the different stories I came up with. Story Genius by Lisa Cron stuck out to me because of its catchy cover but also because of its subject matter. It never occurred to me to continue writing stories after college, I haven’t made any effort to write creatively but this book brought back a lot of those college semesters.

What I liked about the book was the voice of the narrator. Very funny and it was almost as if I was discussing literature with a peer. Another thing was the humor, especially when it brought up Fifty Shades of Grey. (If you like this series, take no offense, you are entitled to like any book you like. And hey, if this series made more people read, then right now!) It poked fun at it for sure and explained how ‘beautiful writing’ isn’t enough to get readers interested. It’s the story itself, how does it capture your audience? In the case of this, it had readers wanting more…

The next thing I liked about this book was its helpful prompts…or exercises. The ‘What to Do’ sections. I thought it was an interesting way to sprinkle those in every once in awhile and not beat with it over and over again.  If you are the type of writer that struggles with finishing or developing your story, I suggest giving this a try. If anything, it might just help you think out the parts of your story that you haven’t really put much thought into in the first place. It also made for an interesting read.

Happy reading!

*I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

I enjoy the holiday season, the nice cool weather, when we have it, the yummy smelling candles and spending time with family.  But also because I really enjoy making/finding and wrapping gifts for my loved ones. I’d like to think I do a somewhat-good-job at the whole gift giving thing. Sometimes?

I try to anyway. However, there are times when I can’t seem to figure out exactly what to get and this is one of those times. Well, I have something but every time I look at it I get more and more doubtful. The gift I’m speaking about is for a special someone, yup- for he who is known as boyfriend. OK, that was a bit dramatic of me, but it’s still odd for me to even type out. His actual name is Matt and I adore him. He, of course, is great at the whole gift giving thing. He bought me the Cogsworth Funko Pop figurine! (Pictured above) It’s been one of those things I kept meaning to just order online but never got around to it. He just surprised me with it, a thank you for cat sitting his adorable kitties. And then he surprised me with a Pastry Pet that he got on a recent trip to Seattle. Meet Nilla the Mini Donut Cat, made by MarninSaylor. It’s so cute!!! These unexpected gifts make me smile, he makes me smile.  I hope to become as attuned with him and the things he likes as he is with me. I get excited whenever I learn something new about him so I don’t see being unsure about his gift as a bad thing…I just hope he likes it.

That’s all for now…more to gush about next time. I wish you a happy holiday, I’m looking forward to the new year and I hope you are too.

Thanks for reading.

Something new is evolving and I am beyond excited about it. Last weekend, I went on a day trip to Lockhart, Tx with Matt (<3) and his friends. I’m terribly awkward when in a group of strangers but it was a lot of fun and he and his friends are a wonderful group of people.

The reason for the trip was to try out BBQ at several different places because Lockhart apparently has the best BBQ. Now I love food, usually I stuff my face even after I’m full. I don’t recommend doing that. But I have a sensitive stomach and have learned how to take care of it…especially when traveling. I was prepared to hold back and only eat a bit from each place. We hit 3 different places…

1. Smitty’s Market
2. Black’s
3. Kreuz Market

Now, I skipped the third place and only had a bite at the second… I was off my game but was also worried I would destroy…ahem things. TMI. I was playing it safe. Even though I didn’t eat a lot, I still think #1 was extremely delicious. And I liked all of the antique stores that were in the area. We walked around a bit before heading to the third place. It was wonderful. And the area we were exploring reminded me a bit of Stars Hallow or the kind of feeling I imagine Stars Hallow would have.

I sort of wish I bought something from one of the stores we explored, but nothing called out to me. But I did manage to snap a few pretty photo souvenirs. One of the most magical coincidences is that Abby, a now new friend, has been on a quest to find an antique compact mirror. Which brought up the chance for me to mention my compact that my mother had given me while I was in high school. It’s a silver compact with an embossed design on it. And there in the store, snuggled under other compacts, just happened to be the same compact! This one was engraved with initials and in much better condition than mine. I really wish I knew the brand of compact and a bit more about it’s history. It was my grandmother’s beforehand, and I just loved the idea of owning something that was handed down. I hope it lasts long enough to continue being handed down. Abby bought it along with two other compacts, should I ever come across the same compact, I might end up buying it. But what are the odds of finding another one, who knows?

We walked around a cemetery before hitting the 3rd place but Matt and I skipped out on eating anything from there. Next time, we will have to start there so as to actually get a chance to try the food. It’s been wonderful getting to know him and I’m looking forward to continue getting to know him and spending time with him as often as I can. 🙂 That’s all for now, expect more gushing next time. And hopefully I’ll actually get up the courage and ask him to take an actual selfie with me. I was too nervous/embarrassed to ask.

Thanks for reading and commenting.

I love affirmations and being positive is something I myself am working on and it’s a bit difficult sometimes. I try not to become a “negative evidence collector” but I find myself leaning more towards negativity rather than positive thinking.

Think Happy by Karen Salmansohn is the pep talk everyone and their pet cat needs. Now this book doesn’t just automatically change the way you view life. However, it helps you slowly want to change. But if you rather remain on the gloomy side, then this book won’t do much for you. I just want to express that.

The cute illustrations and happy go lucky attitude is just the bright light you may need to want to see that rainbow you seem to be ignoring. This book is small and the perfect addition to your coffee table. The cover alone brings a smile to your face and actually reading the different sections was eye opening for me. I found myself agreeing out loud.

My expectations when reading this book was that I figured it would be generic information that, if you’re not always a shiny, happy person, then it would just be annoying to read. I thought this would be the type of book that made me feel bad for not always feeling happy. After reading this little book, I felt myself feel motivated. Motivated to see myself in a more positive way. I expected the line, “If we all saw ourselves the way others see us, then we would all be happier.” But that’s not how this book was written. It was written in a way for you to feel inspired about being positive. And I’m glad the book wasn’t at all what I expected.

Learning how to be something is difficult, there are many tools available and having someone tell us what worked for them might not work for us. But this book isn’t exactly telling you how you can be happy. Only you are capable of finding happiness. I just feel as though this book motivated me, and I don’t want to be a pretzel!!!

*I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

Thanks for reading.

Here are the books I bought in the month of July, and I can tell you that I have made up for the lack of books in July jut in the first two weeks of August. But in July I just was taking it easy and trying to make time to read the books on my TBR.

• Maybe in another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid
• Roses by Rose Mannering
• The Oxygen Thief by Anonymous
• Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

I have three videos in the making and I’m hoping to make some time to get them filmed and edited, but I also have a few workshop possibilities that I need to work on….aside from my full time job. It’s all about balance, and as long as the other things don’t disturb my day job, then I’m good. But here’s hoping this outside stuff works out. I hope you’re doing well, what are you reading or what have you recently purchased?

Thanks for reading