Category: Life

April Books

Published on by camillepearl23

This month, I got quite a lot of reading done! As the month ended it finally started to get warm and I love reading outside on my porch.

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Born a Crime: Stories from a South African childhood by Trevor Noah

Buzzfeed’s Pageturner book club’s theme this month was “memoirs.” I love reading memoirs of comedians I love like Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. This book is relatively new and it was awesome! Although his life wasn’t easy, they way he writes is still funny at times. Definitely recommend!

A Fine Romance by Susan Branch

I’ve already read this book before, but I love how relaxing it is to read and what a beautiful book it is. It just makes me want to go to the English countryside and sit somewhere with a cup of tea. She does beautiful watercolor paintings in the book, as well as writes the words in her own handwriting.

Blowing my Cover:My life as a CIA spy by Lindsay Moran

My mom recommended this book for me to read and I was not disappointed! My friend and I always wanted to be spies growing up and we would try to secretly pass notes to each other in the halls at school. We definitely glorified what it would actually be like to be a spy.

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey

I am obsessed with my pet snails, as you probably already know so reading a whole book about a snail is pretty much my dream come true. This book made me appreciate my snails even more, if that’s possible. If you love small creatures such as snails, you will find this book adorable!

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivaldi

I mostly picked this book on CD out because I liked the color of it. It’s a nice, peaceful read that makes you appreciate living in a small town like the one in the story. Not to give too much away, it’s also a bit of a love story.

I feel like I read very peaceful books this month. What did you read this month?

Day in the Life | Lazy Sunday

Published on by camillepearl23

I woke up pretttty late this Sunday, but hey, it’s my weekend!

10:00 am (okay it was really more like 11:00) – Breakfast

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For breakfast I made some delicious cinnamon rolls. These are the kind that come in the little tube and you just have to separate, bake, and ice them. I also needed some fresh coffee beans ground up. I usually do this once a week so the beans are mostly fresh, but I don’t have to get out the grinder every day. This particular bag from Starbucks is so good!

12:00 – General Clean Up

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Sundays are my cleaning days (see my blog post on that here) but since I’ve been home all week and keeping up with the chores for once, there wasn’t a whole lot of cleaning to do. I did, however, finally get around to cleaning out the snail home. It looks so much better! Mostly I just tidied up and then took a shower myself.

1:00 – Lunch

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My boyfriend is obsessed with cast iron pans. Like truly obsessed. Everything he makes, he makes in it. For lunch, he made a homemade pizza in it and it turned out delicious! We just bought the dough from the grocery store so it didn’t take much time at all to make.

2:00 – Laze around

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For most of the rest of the day I just laid around reading and watching tv. I also took some adorable photos of my dog (see above).

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My boyfriend and I also re-potted some house plants that have been growing!

And that’s pretty much my exciting day! What did you do this weekend?

March Books

Published on by camillepearl23

Considering what a long month March is, I really didn’t read as many books as I wanted to. Oh well, there’s always April!

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The Shining by Stephen King

“The Shining” is one of my favorite movies of all time so I was excited to FINALLY read the book. It was different from the movie, but not extremely different as I thought it was going to be. Obviously, this is a scary book at times so I wouldn’t recommend reading it at night along. Just some advice.

Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok

For March, the Buzzfeed bookclub theme was to read immigrant fiction. I’ll admit, I was not too excited by the theme this month, but I ended up loving this book! I literally just googled “good immigrant fiction” and this was one of the first books that popped up. I guess other people must like it as well!

Lies That Chelsea Handler Told Me by Chelsea’s friends, family, and other victims

This was a book that I listened to on my ride to work and home. I love Chelsea Handler’s other books and this was no exception! Each chapter was written by one of her friends and they were also the ones to read the story for the audiobook. Very funny!

Surprise Me by Sophie Kinsella

Another audiobook that I listened to in the car. I love Sophie Kinsella and her chick-lit stories. If that seems like your type of book I would recommend checking out all of her books!

What did you read in March?

Evening Routine Vlog

Published on by camillepearl23

I love watching other people’s vlogs. There’s just something about seeing what other people do in their day-to-day lives that intrigues me. With that being said, I’m trying to get into vlogging more (or at least doing more “My Day” type blog posts). This post and video was a way to get my toes wet. I filmed it while no one else was around and I only did it for a short amount of time. Still, I did it! Hopefully there will be more to come!

In the video, I am making dinner which I mention is a blog post already. You can find my sausage and veggies recipe here.

If you’d like to see what I get up to in the evenings after work, check out my video here!

What does your evening routine look like?

March Kindergarten Crate

Published on by camillepearl23

Back again today with March’s kindergarten crate! Instead of a video on my YouTube channel, I thought I would just do a blog post – since my channel is lifestyle and beauty focused. Not kid focused. Anyway, here it is!

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I’ll start with the obvious…I love that there is something Pete the Cat themed!! My kids are just starting to get into word families too so it’s perfect timing! The activity for the month is also related to word families and CVC words. It’s based off the book “Splat the Cat.” There were also some Dr. Seuss stickies, number word dice, pointers, googlie eyes for reading, and some sea salt caramel popcorn!

I already have plans for the number word dice, stickies, and pointers so I’m excited to bring this box into school!

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If you want to check out Kindergarten Crate for yourself, you can find it here!

February Books

Published on by camillepearl23

Not a bad quantity of books for such a short month! I also listened to two audiobooks. I know that it’s controversial – Did I actually read them? Well I’ve decided to count them!

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The Boy is Back by Meg Cabot

I’ve loved Meg Cabot ever since reading “Princess Diaries” back in the day. This was a pretty typical chick lit book except that it was written in a mixture of emails, texts, or diary entries. I found that confusing and tiring at first, but I started to get used to it. I’ll keep reading her books as long as she keeps writing them!

The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness

I read one of Ness’ books for a YA literature class a few years ago that I loved, so when I saw this in the YA section of the library I decided to pick it up. This book was ironically funny. In the beginning of each chapter there would be a paragraph explaining the demons that were taking over the town. It was very dramatic. Then, the rest of the chapter was about regular teenagers living in the town not really associated with anything the demons were doing. I liked it!

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engel

This was the book I chose for the Buzzfeed Pageturners book of the month. The theme was books that were turned into movies. Since this is coming out soon and I’ve heard so many good things about, I ordered it from the library. I accidentally ordered the trilogy, but only read the first book which is actually called “A Wrinkle in Time.” I loved this book! Perfect parts sci-fi and dystopian.

Amanda Wakes Up by Alisyn Camerota

This book was shockingly accurate to the 2016 election even though it used fictional characters. The author says she couldn’t have predicted that well if she tried! I liked this book because it was about fictional politics, but from the perspective of a journalist on a morning show.

I also listened to Unqualified by Anna Faris and All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven.

 

 

February Favorites

Published on by camillepearl23

I’ve done these types of videos before on my channel, and while I still might do them with just beauty products from time to time on my YouTube channel, I also like to include other things that I’ve been loving during the month that aren’t beauty products.

So, here are the things that I’ve been loving in February. They’re random and unrelated, but they really are things that I’ve enjoyed this past month.

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Turtleneck Shirt: This was a recent purchase that I got at Goodwill and I am obsessed! The brand is Pure Jill from J Jill, but I couldn’t find this exact shirt on the website. They do, however, have lots of shirts and sweaters that are similar to this one. I love the color and how comfy it is! It is 3/4 length sleeve so it’s not great when it’s freezing out, but it’s great for warmer or indoor days.

Cloverfield Movies: My bf and I started the month by watching 10 Cloverfield Lane (2)  because it was free to watch on Amazon. We liked it, but were very confused by the whole thing. Then, we realized that the Cloverfield Paradox (3) was available to watch on Netflix. Then, he remembered that he owned the original Cloverfield (1) movie. So we watched them 2, 3, 1. Although I’m still not sure how these movies are related, I still really enjoyed watching them this month. They’re definitely sci-fi, dystopian films.

Maybelline FitMe Loose Finishing Powder: I’ve heard quite a few people talk about this product and I was in the market for a loose powder after I ran out of my RCMA No Color Powder. So I went to Walmart and picked this guy up. I’m loving it so far! I use it everyday with a sponge to set my concealer under my eyes. Sometimes, I also use it to set the rest of my face with a brush. Highly recommend!

Pur Bronze and Brighten Cheek Palette: This was something I got in my February BoxyCharm box and I’ve used it every day since. It has a bronze shade, a blush shade, and a highlight shade. I understand these shades may not be for everyone, but in my opinion, they are buildable enough that they could work for quite a few skin tones if you want just a little product or to build it up. My favorite is the blush!

ColourPop Ultra Matte Lip in Mama: I’ve been experimenting with wearing more “bold” lip colors on an everyday basis. I just got sick of wearing a nude or neutral day after day. This shade is not too red and not too orange, it’s somewhere perfectly in the middle. The only thing I would recommend is to wear a chapstick or lip balm underneath, since this formula can be a little drying.

ColourPop No Filter Concealer:  This is my second favorite concealer of all time, right after Tarte Shape Tape! The difference is, this one from ColourPop is much cheaper! It oxidizes a little once you put it on, so I would recommend picking a shade lighter than you normally would if you are looking to use this to brighten. It’s full coverage and doesn’t crease easily!

Wegmans Just Tea in English Breakfast Black: This is the tea I reach for when I need a little caffeine, but I don’t want to drink a coffee. I can re-use the bag for a couple cups of tea without it being watery!

What things have you been loving this month!?

Weekend Cleaning Routine

Published on by camillepearl23

Every weekend, my boyfriend and I try to clean our apartment. Both of us work all week, obviously, so the apartment can get a little messy.

We split up the jobs to be fair and we do our own cleaning whenever we want. I will admit, though, I do mine in the morning, and then I like to relax the rest of the day. He likes to do the opposite and it annoys me sometimes. I’m working on that though!

My Cleaning Jobs:

  • Clean the bathroom (sink, counter, toilet, and shower occasionally)
  • Dusting
  • Laundry

My bf’s Cleaning Jobs:

  • Floors (sweep, mop, and vacuum)
  • Clean up the kitchen

This week I also did a deep clean and organization of the pantry. It really needed it and took me quite a while! I’m saving that for it’s own post next week!

Here are some before and after photos of the mess that is our apartment!

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How do you guys divvy up the cleaning chores?

January Books

Published on by camillepearl23

Last month’s books came out late in the month, so I’m making up for that by posting my January books early!

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I only read two full books this month, so I’m pretty disappointed in myself. I started a new book, but I couldn’t get into it and gave it up to start a new book. I didn’t include that one because I haven’t finished it yet.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

The theme of Buzzfeed’s book club for January was “books that you can read in one sitting.” Although I didn’t actually read this book in one sitting, it was relatively short. I’ve read Neil Gaiman before and his books tend to be on the strange side. This book was no exception. I wasn’t really sure where the book was going. Is it real or in the kid’s imagination? Who knows! That being said, I did enjoy this book! It definitely makes me want to read more of his books!

Turtles all the Way Down by John Green

I’ve read most of Green’s books and I know people love them, but they just seem almost too cheesy for me. There I said it. This book was ehh at best. I really liked the way mental illness was portrayed, as I think not many books can do that accurately and appropriately. However, I just thought the book was boring.

Overall, not a great start to my year of reading, but I’m enjoying the book I’m currently reading and I hope I’ll be reading lots more in February! What did you read this month?