Inside Kimmy's Mind

Another video!!! I’m still trying to figure out how to edit using Movie Maker, it’s not the greatest of programs but I manage.  I remember older versions allowing more freedom than this windows 8 version. The sound gets a bit low in some areas but luckily it doesn’t really happen until the end.

Books that I mention in the video:

• Coraline by Neil Gaiman illustrated by P. Craig Russell (graphic novel)
• Coraline by Neil Gaiman illustrated by Dave McKean
• Mirrormask by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean
• Slog’s Dad by David Almond and illustrated by Dave McKean
• The Unruly Alphabet by Aaron McKinney
• IRL by Cory Doctorow and Jen Wang
• Anya’s Ghost by Vera Brosgol
• Jinchalo by Matthew Forsythe

I’m pretty picky when it comes to art styles, and I might have been a bit harsh when it came to P. Craig Russell’s style of art.  It’s just not the type of style I like. My tastes rage from super cute and colorful to gritty and a bit creepy. It might be the way it’s colored, so it might be the colorists fault for why it doesn’t sit well with me. But don’t let my opinion change yours, this is just my opinion and tastes.

I’m thinking of making this a series, we shall see.

Thanks for reading

So I’ve been coveting a lot of things recently and for this entry, I would like to share them with you because you might also like them as much as me. :3 Most of them are book related.

Subscription Boxes!!!

• OwlCrate– “OwlCrate is a monthly book subscription box that sends newly published Young Adult novels and assorted bookish goodies to your door. Each month’s OwlCrate is tailored to a fun theme (past themes include MAGIC, MYTHS & LEGENDS, and DIVERSITY) and will contain one new Young Adult novel, as well as 3-5 other bookish treats to help you get your nerd on. “
• Illumicrate– “Illumicrate is the subscription box for book lovers everywhere! We are dedicated to bringing you the best new releases and other fun things that book lovers are sure to enjoy. “
• Lit-Cube–“Lit-Cube is a monthly subscription box for readers. We strive to pair hand-picked books with high quality literary themed products to bring you a magical reading experience each and every month. We mail out a variety of books & genres. We are *not* a YA only box subscription.”
• Blind Date with a Book-“Gift wrapped, tagged with clues and delivered to your door. It’s a literary guessing game, it’s wonderful fun! And if you can’t find a date let us help find one for you.”

I’ve been noticing a lot of these bookish monthly subscription boxes and I’ve fallen in love with them all. I find myself looking up unboxing videos on youtube. They are just too cute! My only hesitation is spending $30+, and some of them are out of state, so the s+h will cost extra. Blind boxes sometimes stress me out, because what if I don’t like the book I receive? But then I just figured, I could easily gift the book to someone else. I have tons of literary friends that would appreciate getting a book. I would at least like to try it out once. There are a few more that I didn’t mention, but these are the ones I’m most interested in.

Books! (A few on my to buy list)

• Copygirl by Ana Mitchael and Michelle Sassa- Being an advertising minor, I would love to read about a female protagonist in the advertising world.
• Love Fortunes and Other Disasters by Kimberly Karalius  – The cover is just too cute! It’s a Swoon book, the sequel has an adorable cover as well.
• Every Anxious Wave by Mo Daviau -Time travel and love? What more could you ask for?

• A Darker Shade of Magic by V.  E. Schwab- I’ve been contemplating this one,the sequel was released the other day I’m just not sure if I will fall for it as much as I’m hoping I will. But I still want to give it a chance, might just buy it on my nook first before buying a hard copy.

Other Book Related Items!

• Totes, Pillows and Mugs- Bookwormboutique– Instagram strikes again!!! I’ve been seeing all of these bookgramers showing off all of their bookish items. I especially love the throw pillows! They are too cute, my favorites are this one, this one and this one! Ok, there are a ton of cat pillows that I would like as well. Same with the totes and mugs! I’ve added them to my list!!! It just keeps growing, but I’m totally ok with that because even though I can’t purchase them all, I love finding new things to love!

That’s it for now, I’ve gone on and on for too long already. So I’ll end by showing you my true love! R2D2!!! I was lucky enough to be in charge of another Star Wars party at the museum. I love having Star Wars themed parties, especially when they go all out and have fancy balloons for me to love on!!!

As I mentioned before, I’ve been spending time with my friends lately. Helps keep my mind off of things. My friends and I celebrated a belated Xmas together. Even though we haven’t spent very much time together they still know me very well. Look at some of the goodies I received. The trooper goblet!!! And the Socks!!! Gah! It’s all fantastic.

After having a bit of lunch and exchanging gifts we went around Rice Village for a bit. Stopped by Half Price, and then off to Urban Outfitters. We then made our way out of the village and stopped by Cactus music where I splurged and finally bought my favorite Tennis Vinyl – Cape Dory. Love their music! Bought it as an early Valentine’s gift to myself. After browsing through records for a while we went and had some bubble tea and then ended the night wondering around Target. We spent the entire day together, which was nice. 🙂

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I hope your holiday was as wonderful as mine, I spent a few days at my parent’s house, now that we are all adults we usually open presents on the 24th. For some reason my mom wanted to prolong it this year.

Receiving gifts is a lot of fun, and even though the holiday isn’t supposed to revolve around such things it’s fun buying, wrapping and unwrapping gifts. My mom likes to buy us each a big gift that is then surrounded by smaller gifts. She’s adorable. I couldn’t imagine what she would give me this year but she surprised me with a new camera. I’m not a fancy photographer, but I’ve been wanting a new camera for blogging/vlogging purposes. I hope to return to vlogging a bit more, even though I no longer have Premiere, with the right camera I think I can have fun making vlogs again. First impressions: Compact body and a great zoom. It looks easy enough to use and takes pretty good quality pictures and video. It’s a Samsung WB350F, a point and shoot camera, I think it will do what I need it to do. Plus it has wifi share capabilities which is pretty neat. 🙂

This camera makes my third Samsung product and I’ve been loving Samsung a lot. My Samsung Galaxy 6s cell takes wonderful pictures and video so I’m hoping this new camera will take just as good if not better quality pictures. I’m excited to test it out and start vlogging again, just need a nice case for those vlogging outings. Never did get to that point where I could vlog openly in public, but who knows maybe I will this time. I want one of those pleather body cases that allows me to take pictures without removing the case. The quest to finding one begins!

Moving on….

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Halloween this year was spent dancing with the boyfriend, well attempting to dance anyway. I’ve never been one for dancing, but it’s really cute to see how happy he becomes when the music starts. He seems to really enjoy it and for him to share something that he loves with me makes me happy, even if I’m not always in the best state of mind.

For me I enjoy the idea of dressing up for Halloween, but sadly I never have enough time to devote to making a full costume. My sewing skills aren’t the best but I still enjoy the process. I personally, love staying in for Halloween. Getting comfy and watching scary movies while eating candy is the best. But this year, the bf invited me to a Masquerade party, and even though he wanted to still dress up in costumes, I just wanted to dress up in a pretty dress and just have fun being elegant for the evening. I went shopping all over Houston trying to find the perfect dress. I was also hoping to use this perfect dress for a friend’s wedding that is coming up soon. Just when I was about to give up, Ii walked into this small boutique, a boutique that I wouldn’t have normally noticed. A mannequin was wearing this beautify tulle dress with pretty trees and deer sprinkled on it. You can’t tell from this photo, which hopefully next time I take more pictures, he’s not a fan of photos. I was really happy with this dress, plus it was only 5 bucks! The store was having a huge sale and thankfully this dress was a large, it’s fro China so  I was lucky that it fit me. Feeling comfortable in what I am wearing at least makes things for me a bit better when I’m not sure about a situation. I’m not the best at blending in or even with being social and when I’m uncomfortable I shut down and just keep to myself. But thankfully the bf danced with me and did his best to teach me how to Lindy Hop. Not easy. But still, fun. I just wish I had more rhythm. :/ A work in progress.

 Didn’t get much candy that night, nor did we have time to watch any scary movies, but it was a nice weekend. I managed to have both Saturday and Sunday off, so it was nice sleeping in for a change. For the next few weekends I’ll be working a lot so no sleeping in for me any time soon. After Halloween, the boyfriend and I went on this bike ride that left me super sore afterwards. I’m so out of shape, and wasn’t prepared for such a ride….even if it wasn’t as intense as some bike rides are. I totally should have stretched before riding and definitely need a new bike seat. >.< Bike riding is a lot of fun though and hope to continue pushing myself so that next time I won’t complain as much.

 Always hiding from the camera, but it’s the challenge of capturing him that makes it so worth while. That’s all for now, until next time.

Thanks for reading and commenting.

I’m excited to share a review with you today.

I’m sure most of you are aware of the recent trend that are…”adult” coloring books. I’m not a fan of this term, being creative should be acceptable for all ages. Not all of us can express ourselves creatively, and these coloring books can give you a project without needing a time frame or an end product. You’re free to color and take your time, like you did when you were younger.

The Time Garden is a beautiful coloring book, on my version there is a beautifully drawn tree which is featured more throughout the book. The dust jacket has gold foiling on the title and so do some of the leaves that sprinkle the front of the book. Moving on to the inside, the actual cover has a field of stars surrounding a little girl,her face hidden. This page is also featured later on in the book, so you can have the thrill of coloring this page.

One thing I feel that sets this book apart from a few of the other coloring books out in the market is that there is a story that is connected to it.  A story that makes me think- Nutcracker meets Alice in Wonderland yet at the same time maintaining it’s own story. 

The pages are a nice weight, I’m using a mixture of color pencil and my Staedtler Triplus fine-liner to color in the pages. If you press too hard or go over an already colored section too many times with the fine-liner there may be bleeding on the other side. But you shouldn’t run into that problem, too often. The only reason I ran into it was because I didn’t like my color choice and went over it with another color. I have yet to try using watercolor, but since the paper isn’t  a certain type of texture, I wouldn’t recommend using that medium.  But ultimately it’s up to you. I don’t want to ruin the book by showing you each page, so at the bottom is a teaser flip through of it’s pages.

I also wanted to share what’s written on the back of the book, if this plus the gorgeous illustrations doesn’t make you fall in love with this book then I don’t know what will.

The Time Garden will sweep you away into a whimsical cuckoo clock-inspired world, created in intricate pen and ink by Korean artist Daria Song. Journey through the doors of the clock into its inky innerworkings to discover a magical land of clock gears, rooftops, starry skies, and giant flying owls-all ready for you to customize with whatever colors you can dream up. 

Cuckoo…cuckoo…cuckoo…

When the clock strikes midnight, you’ll wonder, was it all a dream?

I’ve enjoyed coloring in this book, and it’s been a nice way to clear my head and just spend a little time daydreaming. I think we often forget to take some time for ourselves. I chose this book for my first review because I wanted something crafty and fun. Keep your eyes open for the next one, let me know in the comments if you enjoy this or other coloring books. But it’s quite alright if you don’t.

Thanks for reading and commenting

Here are my 10 shuffled songs, I’m pretty happy with each song that happened to play, even though every song on my ipod is something I love, I still had the urge to hit next, thinking that the song that followed  it might be one I really enjoy singing along to.

1. Billie Jean-Michael Jackson
2. The Way I am-Ingrid Michaelson
3. When We were Young-Sucre
4. Tennis- Seafarer
5. Crave You-Flight Facilities
6. D0-Wah-Doo- Kate Nash
7. Lingering Still-She & Him
8. Animal- Neon Trees
9. September – Pomplamoose
10. Soap- Melanie Martinez

Click on the songs and it will take you to their music video or just a song video to hear it. Tried to embed a playlist, it didn’t work out .  So click away. :3

Looking forward to hearing your songs!

Thanks for reading and commenting.

I missed yesterday’s prompt, I was just too tired and ran out of time, but I’m ready for today’s topic.  Today’s Topic is….What are you passionate about?

Where to begin? I have no idea how to answer this question,  so let’s just dive in.

• School/Career-I’m extremely passionate about succeeding in school, I may not be a straight A student, but I still put everything I am into it. I do my best, and if that’s not good enough then I try again. I am almost done and can see the light, I just can’t skip any steps but I know I will make it.  And I may not know what my career will be after I finally make it through school, but I’m not just gonna twiddle my thumbs, I won’t stop until I find it. And again….I will find it.
• Hobbies- My hobbies are extremely important to me. They represent a huge part of me and I just love that I was able to discover them in this lifetime. I never thought knitting would be something that I focused on, but it is and I’m so glad it became so much more than just something I once did/attempted. I didn’t stop when it got hard, I just kept trying and I hope to keep that attitude in other things I may tackle.

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I am completely in love with the fall, Texas fall isn’t a great representation of what a fall should be though. But, there are days when the weather is absolutely perfect and that’s how my ideal day begins.

Now I have two versions of this day. The first one involves me never leaving the house. I get up early, open the windows and let in a cool breeze. It’s light sweater weather, so the breeze is just right. And the way the light streams in is just comfortable. As if to say, “Relax, you can do whatever you want.”

No tests, no homework due or work to get up for. No worries.

I’d do some stretches, I haven’t gone to hot yoga since my 30 days ended, but I still like to do some stretching when I have the time. After stretching, I’d do some knitting. I’ve just started double knitting and I’m hoping to finish my Star Wars scarf before it’s summer again. After knitting, I’d do some blogging. I try to condition myself into working at my desk, and for the most part I do. But every once in awhile I wonder over to the couch and make myself comfortable for blogging. I’d then probably do some more crafting, because I just can’t get enough of the stuff.  I’d make something to eat, or there would magically be something yummy to eat already. My sister would make a blueberry cobbler or some type of dessert. She’s becoming a master pastry chef. 🙂 But that’s the gist of version 1.

The second version involves me actually leaving the house. I’d want the boyfriend to join me on this outing, again the weather is just lovely, perfect for a day at the park or the zoo. We’d have a picnic, enjoy the breeze from a blanket while I knitted or read a book with him keeping me company. This day sounds pretty cliche, but I’ve actually had days like this before with him. But it has been awhile since we’ve gone to the park. Too hot or the rain ruins those type of plans. After lounging in the park, we’d go to a used bookstore. Those are the best, I love how long he takes. He can browse the architecture section  for hours before making a selection. Too cute. We’d go for lunch and then share some cake.

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I’ve decided to take part in the Brave Love Blog’s September blog challenge. BLOG-TEMBER! I’m excited because I’ve always started blog challenges before, but have fallen short on them in the past. I’m hoping this teaches me to plan ahead,  I’m gonna try to write more than one post ahead of time and schedule them. I’ve only ever schedule posts once in awhile, so that’s also a challenge I hope to beat.

Here we go…

September 1st: Introduction

Hello, welcome to my blog. I’m Kimmy and I’m excited to get a glimpse into your lives and let you see a bit into mine, so pull up a chair and get comfortable. I sometimes drone on a bit too much, but that’s just part of who I am. In 11 days I will be 26, and yes that day represents a number of different things but for me, it was the day of my existence…well, as a fully formed person and not as a sea monkey. Odd thing to say….more awkward moments to ahead. Here are a few things about me…..

 -I love crafting:  That includes a bunch of things, knitting/crochet, scrap-booking, sewing, card making (ect)

-I’m the middle child, I have two sisters. My older sis is a Graphic Designer and the younger one, who is also my roommate, is a Pastry Chef. We collaborate over here and we just launched our Etsy account. We sell handmade things so feel free to stop by our store and blog. 🙂

– I’m hoping to graduate in the Spring.

-I love visiting bookstores and miss the fact that I haven’t been reading as much as I used to. Please leave some book suggestions. I want to update my To read list and hopefully tackle it.

-I really want to adopt a kitty, but my apartment makes it impossible with the amount of fees that goes into owning a pet at my complex. Thankfully Instagram exists and I can live vicariously through other cat owners.

To summarize, I’m a cat loving, sister having, school going, and all around crafter. Pleased to meet you all. I want this challenge to highlight a positive outlook and  I know I’ll gain inspiration from my fellow bloggers,  I hope I can offer you the same. Have you completed blog challenges before? I’d like to know.

Thanks for reading and commenting.