Phew! July is always a crazy month.
This month began with me getting heat exhaustion, which wasn’t fun… but then we had birthday week! For Jeff’s birthday (red shirt below), we went to Foundry for a lovely dinner. For my birthday, we went to Mr Macs and then took a walk around a pond, which is where the photo below was taken. And then for Ross’s birthday (Han Solo shirt below), we had a great birthday bash and cookout on Sunday. It was a great week!
This month I also did a photo shoot in Portsmouth for an adorable family and then spent the rest of that day going through the photos so I could get them handed off to them while I had the time. It’s always such a pleasure to do shoots with them!
I spent a lot of time preparing to be out of the country for a week. It felt SO good to get ahead with all of my tasks for my second job. On the note of work, I was contacted by one of my favorite people in the world and asked to do a few projects for him here and there. I’m very excited! The things that I currently have on my plate is looking a bit intense; full time job, part time job, project based job, book blog complete with a tight honest review schedule, two book clubs, photography work here and there, wedding planning… Phew! I’m VERY busy, but I’m loving it!
My time in Montreal, Canada was fun! Very exhausting, but fun! Here are a few photos, which, of course, starts with a stop at my favorite; Tim Hortons.
We then wrapped up the month doing a ton of wedding prep. I’m so ready for all of the planning to be over!
Without further delay, let’s dive in to my monthly wrap-up!
- 5 Stars- 5
- Dead Ends by Tony Moyle
- The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler
- The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager
- The Universe Is Expanding and So Am I by Carolyn Mackler
- War of the Damned (Relic Hunters, #3) by Martin Ferguson
- 4 Stars- 3
- All Summer Long by Hope Larson
- Deep Dark Fears by Fran Krause
- The City on the Other Side by Mairghread Scott, illustrated by Robin Robinson
- 3 Stars- 0
- 2 Stars- 0
- 1 Star- 0
- DNF- 1
- Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
- Watching:
- Ant-Man and The Wasp (2018 Film)
- SO GOOD. My goodness Paul Rudd is so perfect for this role. I have nothing negative to say about this film at all! And that post-credit scene… 5/5
- Wag the Dog (1997 Film)
- The owner of the company I work for treated all of the employees to a movie afternoon this month and this was the movie pick. It was really funny in parts, but overall a very eerie one thinking about how easily the media can sway us. I really enjoyed watching this one, but I won’t be re-watching it. 3/5
- Downsizing (2017 Film)
- I love Matt Damon, so I’ll give anything he’s in a watch. This one was weird, a little predictable, but interesting! It definitely makes you think. There were also many scenes that had Alex and I cracking up. We both also loved the character Hong Chau, played by Ngoc Lan Tran! I definitely recommend this one, but I highly doubt I would watch it again. 4/5
- Altered Carbon (2018 TV Series)
- I finished the first season of this show. I really lost steam with it… I liked Joel Kinsman who does an AMAZING job as the main character, Takeshi Kovacs, but I also really like Martha Higareda (who plays Kristin Ortega), and I especially love Chris Conner (who plays Poe). Toward the very end, I also really loved Ato Essandoh who plays Vernon Elliot and Hayley Law, who plays Lizzie Elliot. I especially loved seeing Lizzie in action! But the rest was just kind of… boring for me. Too dramatic to the point where it was a little silly to me. I just didn’t care at all about the storyline once it strayed too far from Ortega and Kovacs.
- Playing:
- I’m still horribly addicted to Marvel Strike Force!
- Drinking:
- It’s been a crazy busy month, so I’ve been drinking extra black tea for the caffeine boost.
- Alex and I visited a great place in Nashua with our friends Amber and Robby, called The Flight Center and had awesome flights! I mostly tried ciders and sour beers. Can’t wait to go back!
- Listening to:
- The Home Front: Life in America During World War II, an Audible Original by Dan Gediman, narrated by: Martin Sheen. I started listening to this one on a whim. I didn’t know much about WW2, so this was a very interesting listen. It was put together so wonderfully, but it is certainly heartbreaking at times. I highly recommend it!
- One of my favorite podcasts, Where There’s Smoke, recently re-released their episodes under a new project title: How To Be Better. This is such a wonderful podcast about self development. I highly recommend checking it out! It’s so uplifting and powerful.
- In the bookish community:
- Shout-out to Aj from Read All The Things! who mentioned my blog post in her Sunday Post #153!
- Drew of The Tattooed Book Geek wrote up an amazing post on why pirating books is wrong!
- Deanna of Deanna Reads Books shared my blog post in her awesome June Wrap Up!
- Katisha of Reel Literature shares a great list of books by authors born in July.
- V.E. Schwab IS RELEASING A COMIC! It’s part of the The Shades of Magic Universe. I cannot wait! Check it out on Goodreads: Shades of Magic: The Steel Prince Vol. 1.
- Looking forward to:
- My hair and makeup trial & picking up my wedding dress from the tailor- Eek! I’m also VERY nervous!
- Waterville weekend! This is our annual friend trip. I cannot wait to hit the road and be up in the mountains for the weekend!
- Amber’s birthday bash! She’s having a Harry Potter themed birthday and I cannot wait to join in on the festivities!
- Finalizing things with our wedding DJ. We have to drive quite far away to do this, but I’m very excited to see him again and to get the last final things nailed down!
- Work outing! Once a year, my new company does a work outing. I cannot wait to see what we’re going to do!
- Monthly bookish related haul:
- I won a copy of There’s Someone Inside Your House from one of my favorite bookish people! I was sent a copy of River Bodies for review. And I just had to buy physical copies of Soul Render and Dead Ends. They are SO stunning in person!!
- Book Club:
- I didn’t make it to either of my book clubs this month 🙁 For one, my library hold never came in, and for the other, I DNFed the book.
- #IFASummerChallenge
- [Book Blogger Hop] Using Names On Blogs
- [Book Blogger Hop] Blogging Achievement
- Interview with Martin Ferguson
- [Meme] My Favorite… Thing To Do First Thing In The Morning
- [Release Spotlight] War of the Damned by Martin Ferguson
- My First Book Of The Month Box
- [Book Blogger Hop] Cluttered Blogs
- [Wrap-Up] June 2018
- [Book Tag] Mid-Year Freak Out 2018
- 2 July Book Releases I Can’t Wait To Read
- [Meme] My Favorite… Musical Movie
- Happy 4th of July!
- [Meme] My Favorite… Summer Time Memory
Thanks for reading!
I'm am dying for V E Schwab's upcoming comic – I've been slobbering over the covers on Twitter!
Right?! It looks SO good!!
I’m not a big fan of July so I’m glad it’s over. That salad looks so delicious. Good luck with the wedding planning wrap up. That must mean the big day is coming up soon???
September 7th! I can't wait! 🙂
Wow you are busy! And happy birthday- sounds like you had a pretty good one. 🙂 I've heard Montreal is a pretty neat city, but I haven't been there myself. Glad you had a nice visit.
I had the same problem with Altered Carbon. I liked some of the actors but it just… IDK, fizzled? Dragged a bit? But yeah… ditto.
The Flight Center sounds great! Hope you have a good week!!!
Thank you! Yeah, Montreal was lovely! I'd love to go back! I hope you're able to travel there someday 🙂
Ugh, Altered Carbon… It started out so strong, so I had high hopes… I'm not sure I would watch a second season now…
I hope you have a lovely week as well!
Looks like you've had a very busy month!
Happy August!
😀
Busy month!! My birthday is in July too and it always seems to make the month FLY by (although, I could really do without more birthdays TBH). I really liked THE LAST TIME I LIED too– glad to see you gave it 5 stars too 🙂
Happy belated birthday!! <3
Wow what a busy month you have had! I still need to read The last time I lied, so it's good to see you rated it so highly!
I hope you love it when you get the chance to pick it up! 🙂
Whoa, that's a lot on your plate! Wedding planning is fun, but it can get overwhelming. Thankfully, it mostly comes in spurts and isn't too all-consuming! I wasn't crazy about Altered Carbon, either – it just felt too gratuitous.
Phew, yeah. I'm so tired! haha But it's all so worth it! And right?! Ugh… It was such a let down.
You are definitely one busy person, but that's great you're loving it! Hope the wedding planning for August all goes well. I'm sure that part is a bit tiresome after awhile, but you're close!!! 🙂
-Lauren
http://www.shootingstarsmag.nt
😀
What a great month (besides the heat exhaustion)! You have an incredible amount of work on your plate! That is intense! Good luck with your wedding planning. I hope your hair & make-up trial goes fabulously!
Thank you! 🙂