google +

On this rainy (what?? it's not snowing? I think this is a miracle...) morning, I finally gave in and joined Google +. I figured this made sense, since the Google Reader is apparently shutting down in July or thereabouts. So I've been enjoying myself and exploring the various communities. It's cool, finding so many people who are interested in some of the same things that I am.

I apologize for the lack of posts on all my blogs. I'm sort of trying to consolidate them into one blog, which could get interesting. And this week our internet has been cutting out a lot during the day. Makes it really hard to keep up with my social media!! But I got a lot of other things done, despite having a horrid cold.

Easter was wonderful, as always. Nate actually had the entire weekend off, which never happens. We both were at all four of the Easter services at our church, since I'm in choir and he played his trombone. We were exhausted by the end of it, but what a glorious celebration of the resurrection of our Savior!

This week I joined a "boot camp" at the gym, which was probably the worst week for me to join, since I got a cold and then my body was uber weak...yeah, not a good recipe for intense workouts. Ah well, it's actually kinda fun. I like challenging myself! I've always kept my mind in shape, but not really my body, so now's the time to do that. Besides, warmer weather is coming, and hiking days are just around the corner! I hope....

Umm, what else...nothing really has been happening in my life. I applied for a job at Target, so we'll see how that turns out! Since I prefer shopping there to shopping at Wal-Mart (honestly, who doesn't?), it'd be nice to have a discount.

So I guess I didn't win the camera in the giveaway that I entered. Sadly. I usually have good luck with giveaways, but not this time. :( But that's okay. Sort of.

blogging is hard

Sharing my life with people has never been the easiest thing. Oh, I can talk just as well as anyone, and carry on a conversation. If someone asks me what I've been doing lately, that's easy enough. But when I blog, the deeper nature of my mind tends to come out. I find meaning in everything. And sometimes I blog about something that I don't feel like anyone I know personally could possibly understand. My previous post on vegetarianism is one such topic. Not nearly as deep or thought-provoking as a few of the posts I wrote on relationships last year, but still.

Blogging is hard, both the reading other blogs and the writing of your own, because it forces you to discover things about yourself that you never knew. I'm serious about this. When I begin a blog post, I have a general idea of where I want to go with it, but I rarely know exactly where I'll end up. Sometimes what I write is almost a complete surprise.

And then there's the simple fact that if you share the link to your own blog on Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media site, people you know personally are going to read it. This is where I may be different than most people. For whatever reason, I would rather have people I don't know reading my random thoughts and adventures. It's kind of a place to hide, I suppose.

Sharing these posts with my friends and family on Facebook is hard for me to do. I don't need affirmation for what I'm doing and/or saying, but the possibility of someone I know hating what I write just eats away at me. At least it used to; my blogging confidence is much stronger now. Not sure why.

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Why am I writing about this on a dreary Monday morning? I just want to make clear that this is my blog and whether I write about my love for my husband, the DIY stuff around the house, compassion for animals or the adventures I hope to have someday, these are all thoughts from the deepest portion of my heart.

my favorite blogs

Yet another sleepy Monday. I suppose I should be thankful that I don't have to get up to go to work every Monday, but at the same time, the household tasks that get shoved aside all weekend stare me in the face while I drink my coffee or tea. (It was tea this morning. Twinings English Breakfast, to be exact.) Plus, it's negative degrees outside with the wind chill, so that makes it kind of cold in the house. Brr. Maybe I'll end up making myself some coffee even though I already had tea.

Anyway, today I want to share with you a few of my favorite blogs. These are blogs I enjoy reading because they are fun, but also that inspire me in many ways.

• A Beautiful Mess: This blog is run by two sisters (I think) and they share multiple posts throughout the day. They share everything from recipes to restyling projects to personal stories. I have not read a post I didn't like. So many excellent ideas and they are, quite frankly, my favorite blog right now.
• Her Library Adventures: This blog is run by a woman named Sophie. She and her husband live in Australia and they are crafting such a beautiful life for themselves. Sophie shares adventures that she and her husband have, various thrift store finds, lots of crafty things, and some deep personal posts. I began reading her blog about two years ago but didn't read it regularly until just a few months ago. It quickly became one of my favorite blogs.
• Strawberry Koi: This blog is similar to the other two, though Aya shares stories about her two adorable children, as well. She also has an obsession with good coffee that goes far beyond my own, and she has some fantastic coffee posts! I've been reading her blog regularly for about a year now.
• The Forest Feast: This is a food blog that I found through Tumblr. Not only are her recipes healthy and delicious-sounding, her photography is fabulous. I really want to make chili-infused oil now, because that was one of her most recent posts.
• vintage muse modern views: Alexandria shares a post about Jane Austen and her novels almost every day, along with various other vintage inspired posts. She shares crafts, recipes, cocktails, and good personal posts about the lack of femininity in today's world. I especially like her cocktail posts, though I never have the ingredients on hand to make them.
• CutterLight: This blog is run by an older couple (Not old, just older than the majority of the blogs I have read. They have at least one grown daughter.) who spend their summers exploring Alaska and their winters living and teaching in an Alaskan village called Point Hope, which is very far north. They post beautiful photographs, awesome recipes, and I just love their life. (Alaska is one of my top places to explore someday.) Because of their lifestyle, they also live in a minimalistic manner, which is inspiring in itself.

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So there you have it; a list of my favorite blogs. I will probably post a second list of my favorite health and wellness blogs, because those definitely belong in a list of their own. And I'm sure occasionally I will stumble across more blogs that I absolutely love.

For now, I think I'm going to go curl up and read a book.

incandescent wanderlust, you ask?

Yes, of course! The blog has been rechristened as an incandescent wanderlust. Being an indecisive person, this could change yet again before I am fully satisfied, but let's just say for the sake of everyone who reads this that it's the new name. Why? First of all, I was born with a serious case of wanderlust. For most of my life I've been randomly planning trips to see the world. (When I was 13 I decided that I wanted to see the Arctic and travel as far north as was possible. I'm not kidding.) None of them have come to fruition, yet, though I have seen much of the United States and have been across the pond to dear old England (which needs visiting again...). And I was going to christen this a bright wanderlust, but decided that incandescent was a much prettier word. Unless you, my dear followers, think bright was more appropriate.

As you can see, the name is new, and the colors on the blog are new. The layout is basically the same because I realised I really like this one. I'm still working on a few tweaks, like side button links to my favorite blogs, links to my Pinterest page, etc. Also, eventually there will be a different picture of me, not just the one in my profile. And hopefully I will have a pretty banner in place of the boring title, though I do like the font.

This is quickly becoming a labour of love, so I would love some feedback and perhaps some advice on how to pretty things up and truly make this blog mine. I have grand dreams for this blog, though I have grand dreams for everything so I guess that's not saying much.

ch-ch-changes (for the blog)

Seeing as it's a new year, I have a few things in mind for my blog. I would really like this to become a regular thing. Granted, I'll probably never be as awesome as many of the other blogs that I follow, but with a little tweaking it might look pretty.

• a new name (not 100% positive about what it will be)
• a new layout
• more links
• more pictures (which will only happen once I have a camera, though occasionally there might be bad quality iPod photos like the one above)

There are a few other things playing around at the back of my mind. It is, after all, the time of year to think "new and inspired" and I wish to carry that all the year through.

here's to making 2013 fabulous!

Happy New Year to my dear followers! I apologize for not posting regularly on here. There have been a lot of ups and downs over the past year, but I am determined to make 2013 better than 2012. We humans, being imperfect sinful messes, always say this every time a new year rolls around. Occasionally it works, and more often it doesn't. We make resolutions to lose weight, read more books, make new friends, stop smoking, eat better food, travel more, etc.... The list could go on forever. And while resolutions can be good, I think it'd be helpful to realize that we will never be perfect no matter how hard we try.

So. I do have resolutions, though I am calling them goals because that just sounds more attainable. Besides, my goals are meant to be habit-forming and thus a change for the better, though a few of them are just fun. So here is my list.

• read my Bible more often
• treat my body better and get it in shape
• drink a green smoothie at least once a week
• eat breakfast
• snowmobile with Nate as often as possible while the trails are open
• play the piano more, and teach myself Claire de Lune
• take up knitting again
• learn how to crochet
• perfect the art of making a latte (I consider it an art anyway...)
• sew a fantastic Halloween costume (gonna be the Miller High Life Girl!)
• take more walks/hikes
• work my way up to running
• plan at least one weekend up north camping trip for this summer
• write something every single day
• purchase clothing only from thrift shops (this is a goal I will expand upon in a later post)
• shop local: both shops and farmer's markets
• write monthly letters to friends and family
• plant a vegetable garden
• harvest dandelions for wine again
• purchase a DSLR camera (I even have my eye on one... ^_^)
• read 50 books, at least 10 of those must be non-fiction
• begin making Christmas gifts at a decent time this year
• BLOG BLOG BLOG 
• don't forget that it's okay to dress up and put on a little lipstick just to do mundane shopping
• always remember that each day is a gift from God and try to enjoy it

There you have it. It's probably not a complete list of goals, but I also tend to overshoot when I plan things out for myself. I think I'm addicted to life, specifically experiences in life. I want to do everything, go everywhere, see all the beautiful sights this world has to offer. Realistically, I know that'll never happen, but I can begin a little closer to home and enjoy what the Lord has blessed me with, which is a fair bit of goodness.
And I mean it when I say 2013 is going to be fabulous!

nothing special

Hi all.

I think I am going to take a break from blogging (at least on this blog). Maybe it'll be for good, I don't know. I feel like this blog doesn't really have a solid purpose and all I do lately is rant about things I can't change. What's the point? Maybe I'll still write book reviews on my other blog, but hardly anyone reads those anyway so maybe not.

My writing sucks, so I won't subject anyone to it anymore. :-P

Thank you for your time and see you around the interwebs.

Shameless promotion!!

As you may have noticed, I reconfigured things on this blog o' mine. There are links and more links...yes, I like links. However, there are two links I would appreciate my dear followers to take close notice of. Under the heading My Other Blogs are two links. They are, as should be deduced from the heading, my other blogs!


Enthralled by the Written Word is my blog for the books I am reading and my thoughts on those. This one is quite new, as of I think last Friday. Updates will probably be few and far between simply because I'm a busy college student. The moral of this tale is that I should have started this blog in the summer when I was reading three books a week. Oh well.

Jaded Poetry is my blog for, you guessed it, my poetry! I have some poetry on my LiveJournal from awhile ago, and I should probably link to that on here, but my LJ became sadly neglected, so I moved everything to Blogger. This blog, also, will have rare updates. I will do my best.