Extremely Late December Wrap Up + January Goals!

I’m ALIIIIIIIVE!!!!!!! Wow, sorry for that random-unexpected-almost-month-long hiatus. I just was so busy with holiday and birthday stuff and trying to get my thoughts together and bujo pages done for all of the 2019 wrap up posts I have planned and it took WAY more time than I was expecting. My mental health has not been great lately either, so I’ve just been trying to make myself focus on only one thing at a time if I can, so that’s another reason for the delay. I feel like I’ve been away for FOREVER! 😂 But I’m finally ready to get back into blogging and to show you my (very late) December Wrap Up and my goals for January! 😀

December Reading Stats:

• Read During December: 6
• Finished This Month: 6
• Total Pages Read (Not including audiobooks): 1,032
• Average Rating: 3.5

Books Finished:

Again, but Better: (5 stars) Wow, I really didn’t expect to love this book as much as I did! I really wanted to like it, but I wasn’t sure what to expect or if I would be able to relate? But I did and I saw a little of myself in Shane and I actually loved the romance and the twist in the middle! Though the plot kinda reminded me of a Hallmark movie for some reason? But in a good way! Just like…with a lot more swearing. 🙈😂

Dark Tide: (4 stars) I always underestimate this series cuz I know it’s not perfect and is kinda more younger YA I think, but I’m always pleasantly surprised and very entertained. 😂 It’s definitely one of those series that gets better and better with each book, and the characters have definitely developed a lot since the first one, there’s so much political drama, cool worldbuilding, and hello, mermaids! 😀 🧜‍♀️ Also I just have to shout out that random sassy codfish that Becca bribes to help her in one scene. I love him so much. 😂 He’s literally in like one scene and doesn’t even have a name, but his personality just speaks volumes. 😂😂😂 That’s another thing I really like about this series. Even really minor characters are so memorable!

Girl Who Steals Christmas: (5 stars) CAIT RELEASED A PREQUEL SHORT STORY TO TBWSH!!!!!!!!!! ❤ ❤ ❤ It’s so adorable, but sad, but funny, (as is her specialty 😛 ) and you can read it for free right here on her blog and even add it to Goodreads! I LOVED it so much! It was so nice to see The De Lainey’s celebrate Christmas (in Australia during their summer obviously so there’s mentions of running through sprinklers outside in scorching heat and eating gingerbread and snowman ornaments in the same context which is totally boggling my frozen Alaskan mind!!! 😂) and dealing with the loss of their mom before Sam comes into the picture. It makes my heart so warm and fuzzy and it was the perfect little Christmas story. If you haven’t read it yet you should GO NOW!

The Heir: (4 stars) I…actually loved this?! O.o EVERYONE WAS SAYING IT WAS TERRIBLE! And yeah, I definitely agree Eadlyn can be a brat, but I liked that she seemed to be growing towards the end and I know she’ll have more time in the last book, so I have hope. And honestly I just connected with her so much because I really understood why she was acting the way she was. Like her struggling to let her guard down and the frustration of having to share her personal space with all these guys and have to show romantic interest in them because it’s her duty when she has zero interest? If i was in that situation I’d be pretty freaked out too. I don’t like being mean or conceited, and I wouldn’t respond in some situations the way she did, but she did grow up in a palace okay? I just get it. Also I really love Erik, Henri and Kile and I can’t decide which one I want her to end up with the most. 😂 And that terrible cliffhanger!!!!! How DARE you!!! If I read The Crown soon and the first thing I find out is blank is really blank, (hopefully those who have read it will know what I’m talking about. 😂) I’m throwing the book across the room! D:

The Last of August: (3 stars) This was sadly pretty disappointing. I thought at first it felt slow because I kept reading it late at night and almost every chapter is like more than 20 pages, but I think it might actually be the pacing too. The whole mystery just didn’t seem like it had as high of stakes as the first one? And I just didn’t connect as much to it or the characters, so the big twist at the end just left me feeling really confused and I’m still not sure I totally understand what happened. I’m not really looking forward to the next book, cuz it looks like it’s going to flesh out the unnecessary drama that this ended on and that I still don’t even really get why it happened, and I just…ugh. But the last book looks like it’s going to fix everything, and I do still want to know how it all ends, and I’d hate to give up on a series halfway through when it’s only 4 books, so I think I’ll still continue it just…not right now.

Blogging:

Posts This Month:

• November Wrap Up + December Goals!
• Top Ten Tuesday-Holiday Books!
• The Great Alaskan Race Tag (Bookending Winter Host Prompt)
• How to Have a Bookish Christmas! (Bookending Winter Host Prompt)
• Bookish Snow Sculptures! (Bookending Winter Host Prompt)
• Christmas With the Kranks Tag (Bookending Winter Host Prompt)
• January Book Club Theme Announcement! + Changes
• Top Ten Tuesday-Books I Hope to Find Under the Tree!
• My WIP in Gifs Tag! (WIP Update #6)
• 12 Days of Bookmas Tag!

Accomplishments:

• Survived Bookending Winter! 😂
• Participated in #TBTBSanta for the second time which was amazing! Though my package came late so I opened it on my birthday January 3rd, and the one I sent was so late my person didn’t get it until January 8th and I felt so bad! 🙈😫Everything was okay though and she loved everything so it’s all good. 😛
• If you didn’t see already, Clo interviewed me for Novel Newcomers on her blog! In which I share a story on how I…may have…um…published a book before?? O.o

Life:

• DON’T STRESS OUT TOO MUCH! (Yeah, I don’t think I did a good job at this. 😛 )
• Finish making a garland for my room/Bookending Winter post and take pics! (Check!)
• Go to our town’s Christmas parade like we did last year? (Check! Though we stayed inside a warm coffee shop and watched from the windows and couldn’t see much through the crowd of people. )
• Finish Christmas shopping, wrap gifts and mail the ones I need to before the 17th! (Check!)
• Clean living room and put up the big tree in there cuz we STILL haven’t done that yet. 😕 (Check! Though this almost didn’t get done, and we waited until like the 20th!)
• Turn in the angel tree kids’ presents we bought to Salvation Army. (Check! That was a fun thing to do. We should do it again next year.)
• Finish annotating the book I need to for a friends’ Christmas present, cuz I know that’s gonna take me a while. O.o (Check! I sent a copy of Sweet Home Alaska to Allison for her and her little sister, along with some little artsy gifts, and she loved them! ❤ )
• Watch all the Christmas movies that are on my list this year! (I think I got to all except one.)
• Make solid plans for my birthday and invite people? (Check! I went book shopping, ate at Red Robin, and the day after just hung out with my friends at this art cafe and talked and ate ice cream. 😀 )
• Start working on my 2020 bujo pages? I seriously doubt that’s going to happen until literally the last minute though…😂(I think I did START them, but I didn’t finish them until…yesterday? Which is why this post is so late. 😂)
• Plan ahead for what blog posts I want to do in January? Or at least think about it… (Check!)

Writing:

I FINISHED MY FIRST DRAFT!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHH!!!!! You can read more about it in this post! 😀

2019 Highlights:

• I FINALLY got my driver’s license!
• I completed my first draft of Project Ocean Eyes!
• I read more than 50 books! My original goal was 60, but I read 58 (according to Goodreads, but I’m only counting 57 cuz the first one I finished I started Dec 2018) which is a lot more than the 49 I read in 2018 so I’ll take it!
• I think I’ve gotten a lot better with my art skills the more I use my reading bujo, and I’ve really enjoyed it the more I do it! 😀
• I switched my blog from Blogspot to WordPress, and wow what a difference! It definitely took some getting used to, but I really feel more connected to the bookish community, and it’s so much easier to keep track of stats and things like that. 😉
• I created not one, but two original tags! This was definitely a blogging goal I’ve had for a long time so I’m so excited that I finally got to do it!
• I was a host for Bookending Winter!!! 😀

I’m sure there are things I’m forgetting, but in terms of reading in blogging, I think 2019 wasn’t too bad! Let’s hope 2020 is even better! 😀

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Bujo:

This title page was inspired by this mood tracker, though I kinda made it into a self portrait? 😂 I have a blue hat and gray coat like that that you can sort of see in my profile picture, and my glasses are close to that shape, but I made them blue so they wouldn’t blend too much into my hair. And the scarf colors were just for fun cuz I love blue. 🙂 I think it turned out pretty good for my first (sort of) self portrait huh? 😛 Though now I realize that if the scarf is supposed to look like it’s blowing in the wind, I shouldn’t have drawn my hair straight down like that. Oops.

Also I decided this year to add a space for any book hauls and my favorite book I read each month. Starting next month I’ll add a space for carrying over any books I’m still currently reading. I realized I didn’t need a whole page just for TBRs. 😂 And as you can see in my haul section, I’ve gained a lot more books over Christmas/my birthday! 😛

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Since it’s my birthday month, I decided to theme my reading tracker after this cupcake, though it’s definitely not as pretty. 😛 I’m kinda sad I didn’t get to use more colors on the bottom layer of frosting cuz I’ve been slumping so much in reading (and everything really) since December, but hopefully I’ll be able to fill in more of the top layer later! Also part of the candle is already colored in because I accidentally made 32 spaces instead of 31. *facepalm*

Blogging:

Upcoming Posts:

• Top Ten Tuesday-10 Most Recent Additions to My Shelf/Birthday/Christmas Haul
• 2020 Bujo Setup Tour
• 2019 Bookish Academy Awards
• February Book Club Theme Announcement + Poll!
• 2019 Smashing and Dashing Tag
• A post celebrating my blog’s 3rd birthday!
• 2019 End of Year Survey
• 2019 Year-End Stats Survey

Goals:

Try my best to catch up on all the posts I want to do and not stress out too much.

Writing:

I printed out two copies for my friends to read and give me some feedback with so I can make a revision plan, but I probably won’t start working on anything with that until maybe February or March. I should be thinking about plotting another WIP I wanted to start maybe for April Camp Nano, but my brain is just NOT ready to get a head start on that. I need a break first. 😛

Life:

• Reply to Allison’s last letter!
• Send thank you card to my #TBTBSanta!
• TRY to take better care of myself. That means taking my vitamins, getting to sleep earlier, not eating as bad of food, and STOP ENTERTAINING NEGATIVE THOUGHTS!
• Clean/organize my room, take down Christmas stuff, and figure out where the heck I’m going to put all my new books. 🙈😂
• Take down Christmas stuff in living room. Yeah, we still haven’t done that yet. 😛

TBR:

I’ve already started all of these but I’ve been busy and slumping a little trying to wind down from the December rush, so I’m not very far into any of them. I started Peter Pan on my birthday for my annual reread, I FINALLY started Go Set a Watchman cuz I didn’t get to it in December, and The Hazel Wood is for my book club. 🙂

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How was your December? How was your 2019? Is your January going good so far? How many books are you going to try to read this year? I hope you all have a good 2020!!!!!! ❤

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All credit goes to the authors of the images.

What Do You Think?:

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Credits:

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Featured Image:

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Book Covers:

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December Accomplishments:

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January Goals:

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