Merry Wanderer of the Night [Search results for decorating

  • Sunday Salon: My Last Week at 19

    Sunday Salon: My Last Week at 19
    The Sunday Salon.com

    This is my last week as a teenager! I'm going to be 20 on Sunday. In case you are interested I am going to The Lion King for my birthday at the Des Moines Civic Center. I have never been to The Lion King before so I am very excited. I'm also going to celebrate my birthday by participating in Maw Books Blog's Bloggiesta, which runs from January 8-10. A Bloggiesta is basically just a chance to improve your blog. I worked a lot on my layout this past week, but I'm going to be using the bloggiesta time to make some post templates and work on a few other things for my blog. I'm going to try and work on my blog for a total of 24 hours over the weekend. My challenge to myself is to work on my blog for ten hours straight from Saturday to Sunday. You obviously won't see a lot of the work that I do on my blog, but I'll make a post at the end of the weekend to share what I've done.

    This week I posted the books I got for Christmas and my plans for this blog in the coming year. I also posted reviews of The Clumsiest People in Europe, The Time Traveler's Wife, and A Great and Terrible Beauty. I also joined one more challenge: The Essay Reading Challenge.

    I'm working on where I'm going to live next year and I will probably be signing a lease for my first apartment soon. Yesterday was a busy day for me because it was a day of making plans. I'm planning a couple of trips, applying for a couple of internships, and I'm looking into the first apartment situation. I'm most likely going to be living by myself, which won't be very different from how things are now. All of this apartment talk has got me thinking about decorating though! Decorating is probably my second passion after books. I spent this entire past summer thinking about how I was going to decorate my dorm room for this year, and anyone who has seen my dorm room will tell you that it is pretty sweet. I thought I would share a few things I found about decorating with books, a challenge for any avid reader. I found a link on Better Homes and Gardens about Decorating With Books. Some of the ideas aren't that practical, but they are pretty. I might use some of these ideas next year. I'm also lusting after At Home with Books: How Booklovers Live with and Care for Their Libraries. It's a little expensive but I think it's something I would use for many, many years. Perhaps a birthday present to myself?

    Happy reading!

    I am in Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.

  • Sunday Salon: August Wrap-Up

    Sunday Salon: August Wrap-Up
    The Sunday Salon.com

    August was a bit of a whirlwind month for me. I was so busy with packing and unpacking and decorating and throwing a potluck and buying books for school that I just didn't have a whole lot of time for reading. I welcomed Labor Day weekend because I had to go home and dog sit for my parents. This has given me a little alone time for reading. In August I read

    1. The Miracles of Prato by Laurie Albanese and Laura Morowitz (C)
    2. Finny by Justin Kramon (A)
    3. Fun Home by Alison Bechdel (A)
    4. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (B)
    5. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger (A)
    6. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (A)
    7. Sleeping Naked is Green by Vanessa Farquharson (D)
    8. A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson (B)

    So 8 books, which isn't horrible, and based on my rating it was a pretty successful reading month. Only two books fell below the B line. Some of the books I read were ones I've been meaning to get to for a long time: In Cold Blood, Fun Home, The Catcher in the Rye, and A Walk in the Woods. So with that it was a success. Finny was a delightful surprise and Mockingjay was of course long awaited. You want to know what is really amazing though? I finished most of these books after school started! None of my classes have full length books we're reading, so while I do have a lot of reading assignments I'm not spending a lot of time reading books for class. So far this is working well for me because it's giving me more time to read on my own. We'll see how it goes for the rest of the semester.

    How was your August?

  • Happy 101 Award

    Happy 101 Award

    I recently received the Happy 101 Award thanks to Helen Loves Books. The rules are: List 10 things that make you happy and then give this award to 10 book blogs that brighten your day.

    So 10 things that make me happy are:
    1. Reading

    2. Working out

    3. Sandwiches

    4. Decorating

    5. Piano Rock

    6. Boots

    7. My amazing boyfriend

    8. Naps

    9. Diners

    10. Owls

    And now I am going to pass this award on to:
    1. Sasha and the Silverfish
    2. Chasing Empty Pavements
    3. Regular Rumination
    4. In Spring It Is the Dawn
    5. Miss Remmers' Review
    6. Laura's Reviews
    7. 1330OV (Vasilly)
    8. Midnight Book Girl
    9. Bloggers Heart Books
    10. The Life (and Lies) of an Inanimate Flying Object

    Once again thanks all of you for your support of my blog! I couldn't do it without you guys.