I (not so) recently received an Influenster Glam VoxBox in the mail. I’m going to give honest reviews of everything below — but just a reminder I #gotitfree in exchange for honest reviews. All opinions within are my own. Continue reading
Author Archives: thenavyandblack
Women running from houses
I’ve been theoretically obsessed with Gothic Romance novels for awhile now. The old, pulpy ones with the cool covers that usually feature women running from houses. Or castles. Or manors. Seriously check them out at this defunct blog.
I wanted to actually read one for awhile, and I stumbled on a few for 25 cents each at Goodwill, so obviously I needed to snag them. I read one of them The Laughing Ghost by Dorothy Eden and got instantly smitten. So I started perusing eBay and I found a lot of 22 books and I managed to win them for $30. Pretty great, right?
I’ll be reading these in between everything else that I’m reading and I’m going to try to start a little Women Running from Houses series of reviews here.
Podcasts in the Wild
At this point I feel like everyone listens to podcasts, right? Okay, most of my friends IRL (the ones I don’t work with haven’t really gotten into them. And tend to roll their eyes when I swear that a certain podcast is right up their alley. But anyway…
My own obsession started with Welcome to Night Vale. I’ve since stopped listening – I fell behind during their holiday break in 2014, I think and just never started it back up. And then of course there was Serial. The podcast most of my office listened to. We’d listen at our desks Thursday mornings and then discuss during lunch. It was fantastic for bonding, really. Continue reading
2016 Goals
This is incredibly belated. So far, 2016 has been filled with heaps and heaps of paperwork, post-holiday retail, waiting (+stress) and starting a new (old) job. I’m now a contractor at the same place I used to be, but in a different role. New things, ya’know?
Anyway, here are my goals for 2016:
- Read 50 books: Ideally at least 25 books that aren’t trades or graphic novels.
- Save more money: I’ve got a specific amount in mind, but the main point is that my savings account took a bit of a hit while on my contract’s “cooling off” period.
- Go to Longwood Gardens enough to “justify” my membership. I’m eagerly awaiting warmer weather.
- Regularly cull + cultivate: Like, everything. I’ve been doing pretty good with clothes pieces in to pieces out. Just now I have to do that with everything else.
- Meditate weekly: It’s not much, but it’s a start.
- Visit at least one new place: Near or far. Visiting Asheville and Iceland in 2015 re-awakened my travel bug for sure.
New This Week 12.15
I skipped borrowing a heap of books last week. And I’ll be honest, I’m pretty sure I only skimmed one of the two books I picked up for myself. What can I say? I needed to finish Call the Midwife.
Vegan Chili
I didn’t create this recipe, my friend Genna did after some gentle prodding that went something like this:
“Genna, I really like Amy’s spicy chili but I feel like I can make a super big batch of it myself for cheaper. SOS send help!!!!” “I have a recipe, I’ll get it for you later.”
And then later I got a Facebook message saying that she couldn’t find her recipe so she recreated it to make sure she had gotten it right. It’s so good.
This is England Handpainted Bag
This is England is easily one of my favorite shows (and films!) It (probably) came to an end earlier this Autumn and, full disclosure, I’ve not yet found it in my to finish off the series.
Anyway, I saw a faux leather reversible bag for $10 when I was out and decided that I had to paint something on it. I thought about what I wanted on it, bought some paint and finally decided on:
“Honestly, mate, you look sterling.”
Woody says it to Shaun immediately after Lol shaves Shaun’s head for uh, skinhead reasons. Cute, right?
New This Week 11.25
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it here before, but I work in a comic shop. On Tuesdays, we get the new comics for the week with the perk of getting to read (some of) them before they go out for sale on Wednesday.
So far* I’ve made my way through:
- Archie #4 – #lipstickincident revealed, finally! Annie Wu took over Fiona Staples for the art. And I am here.for.it.
- Jughead #2 – Still not sure how I feel about it as a book. But Jughead is my #1 comics crush.
- All-New Wolverine #2 – Laura Kinney meets Orphan Black? Maybe?
- Carnage #2 – Here for it until then end and then uhh.
- Ringside #1 – “For example, I’ve never watched a Texas high school football game but I loved Friday Night Lights.” Okay, definitely not FNL. That quote is from the writer, but it’s true. All I know about wrestling I know from Boy Meets World.
- Hellboy & The B.P.R.D. 1953 – I picked this up just cause Itty Bitty Hellboy came out and looked adorable and I never read any Hellboy before. Why haven’t I read any Hellboy before???
- Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #1 – Lunella’s got some Inhuman genes in her and she winds up pairing up with Devil Dinosaur. Which is totally a thing (I can’t with the Marvel footnoting “reference this” when it’s not incredibly tongue in cheek.) That said, this is pretty cute.
- Silk #1 – Has Cindy Moon turned bad? Honestly I only know the touchstones of her story. Definitely going to snag Silk vol. 0.
Now, to power my way though the last 8 of the books. Definitely not going to be able to finish up reading Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking tonight.
*I will possibly updating with initial thoughts as the evening progresses.
Whole Grain Seeded Bread
Earlier this week I made a load of Minimalist Baker’s Whole Grain Seeded Bread.
It’s super easy. Relatively fast. 9 ingredients (one is water) in one bowl. And it’s so good. Like, really, really good and everyone agrees. I’ve used it for toast and sandwiches. Just make it.
