What I Did Last Week

Happy Monday! Last week, I decided to take some time off to recharge. I was trying to decide if I should post something about it, but I decided to just go ahead and take the time off. Let me tell you, it was time so well spent.

I feel like I’ve been taking more mental breaks lately, but I’m not surprised. This year and the pandemic has drained so many of us with all the restrictions, the weary future, and made me rethink a lot of what I do here. So taking some time to decompress, center myself, and refocus has been immensely helpful. Something about being present in the moment and enjoying everything that’s happening around you rather than being cooped up in your phone really breaks you away from stress especially doomscrolling.

But you’re probably curious as to what I did while I was away. I will say, I didn’t just sit in front of my TV all day (even though that was a large component of my time off). I kept busy and I wanted to share a little bit of what I saw with you.

Finished the pieces of the cardigan I’ve been knitting. It’s almost done! I just need to block the pieces and then sew them together. I hope that the sweater turns out cozy because the yarn wasn’t that fun to work with. Also, I messed up and restarted often with this piece, so I’m excited for this labor of love to be done with.

Read a bunch of romance/women’s fiction novels. Well, this year has put me back on romance and womens fiction novels. It’s funny because I can see myself at the same time last year talking about how I won’t be reading these books anymore. And here we are, one week into November and I’m three books in.

Specifically, I read Beach Read by Emily Henry, Vanessa Yu’s Magical Paris Tea Shop by Roselle Lim, and The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary. I think my favorite was The Flatshare because that’s just an experience I’ve never had before (sharing a one-bedroom apartment with a stranger that you share opposite schedules with so you never see each other and leave cute post-it notes all over the place with your conversation). I was expecting it to be an enemies-to-lovers with some more passive aggressive notes sent to each other, but this book really surprised me and filled me with joy.

The other books I read were exceptional as well. I felt Vanessa Yu was an embodiment of me and Beach Read had some interesting conversations about books and their genres. All three were quite entertaining and kept me happy while I was away.

Worked on my Animal Crossing island. This one is silly, but I was watching a documentary on a gardener who owns one of the most beautiful gardens in the entire world. It has inspirations from all over the place and grand French landscapes that reminded me of my time in Versailles. I wanted to recreate that landscaping a little with my Animal Crossing island (since where will I find the money and land to actually create a lush garden?). The results look good, but I’m still working to improve it and finally get my five-star rating.

Took a walk on the beach. Bucky and I were chatting about how we don’t spend enough time outside. We haven’t gone on many hikes and we haven’t gone to the beach at all since the pandemic broke out. So we made a date to meet at 4pm and head out to the beach for a little 1:1 time with the sunset.

I absolutely loved this time especially since we went to the dog beach. Watching little friends running around and having a great time while the sun nestled behind the horizon is levels of comfort that I wish I could have everyday. The sun’s rays are also exceptional at this time of year as the weather finally cools down.

Started doodling in my journal. This was sort of a leap, but I started to doodle in my journal. It came about because I wanted to buy one of those little printers for your phone. I thought to myself “well, I could always try and draw it” and now my journal has silly little doodles of food I’ve eaten and moments I want to remember. Of course, the photo of the thing looks better than my drawing, but my journal is for myself so I can do whatever I want.

Bought a book. I’ve been trying really hard with only buying books that I’ve read, but a book I’ve had my eye on for a while went on sale and so I picked it up. It’s Blood Heir by Amelie Wen Zao. I heard a lot of things about this book (both the good and the controversial), but I can’t resist a dark fantasy novel and this sounds really intriguing with some good representation.

Caught up on my Korean Dramas. I’ve been obsessed with Tale of the Nine-Tailed, which is a fantasy drama about the nine-tailed fox. It features some of my favorite Korean drama actors and has some excellent fantasy and romance elements to it. I feel like the show did a good job of mixing Korean folklore within the K-drama outline. The show is also only 11 episodes long and at this point I’m just waiting for that final episode to premiere. If only American TV could be as good as this show.

Organized and purged my massive TBR. I’ll write about this one later since it’s a pretty big project and I have a lot of takeaways, but I went through my entire existing TBR and removed a lot of books from it. The whole idea of this purge is to focus my physical books to the ones I will most definitely read. I want my collection of books to match what I’ve actually read and having over 200 books that I haven’t read The rest will be donated or given to friends and I’ll borrow those books from the library. I have a feeling I’ll eventually re-purchase books in the future, but only if I loved it so much that I need to have it in my collection.

I hope you had a wonderful week and weekend. Can’t wait to see what this week has in store!