My Favorite Places To Shop #ListifyLife

Have you joined up for the Summer #ListifyLife challenge? It's easy, just pick the topic of the week and post your list wherever you like with the hashtag. :) This week's topic is where you love to shop. This one was way too easy for me, lol.

1. Michael's - I know you're shocked. But planners and stickers and pens and washi tape and ALL the coupons! :)

2. Homegoods - I'm not a big clothes shopper, but I love shopping for home stuff. Plus, they have a great office/stationary section where I always find cool stuff for cheap.

3. Target - I have to get necessities here but I also can't resist the dollar aisle. 

4. Barnes and Noble - I don't think I need an explanation here. 

5. Etsy - I have a bit of a planner sticker addiction and Etsy feeds it. But I comfort myself by telling myself that I am supporting home businesses run by awesome women. :)

6. Central Market - This is a gourmet grocery store in Texas. It's kind of like Whole Foods but more focused on gourmet foods than organic/health. It's a beautiful store and the produce section is the BEST.

Those are mine. I'd love to hear some of yours!

Listify Life: The Things You Splurge On

This week's Listify Life is Things You Splurge On. Basically, your indulgences. A lot of times it's the little things that can perk us up during an otherwise dull or difficult week, so I think little indulgences are vital. We all have to treat ourselves sometimes, right? As long as it doesn't put us into crazy debt or danger, what's the harm? 

So here are mine, but I'd love to hear yours, too!

1. Books - I know you're stunned that this is the top of my list. Although, now I guess I don't even have to count them as indulgences because they're "work", right? Lol. I'm doing "market research." It's glorious.

2. Pens - Man, I love a good pen. I have way too many but I like different colors and different types for different things.

3. Planners - You're shocked, right? *cue everyone rolling their eyes* My running count now is 5-6 right now. I'm not using all of them though. Two haven't started yet. And yes, I don't NEED that many, but they're not very expensive in the grand scheme of things and they make me happy.

4. Concerts - Hubs and I love love love rock concerts. This year has actually been a slow year, but usually we try to go to a concert every month or two.

5. Gourmet Grocery Stores - Yeah, they're more expensive and I don't go every week, but I love the feel of the organic/hippy/gourmet stores. Plus, I love to cook and often need speciality ingredients. Central Market is my favorite here in Texas, but it's far from me. So more often it's Whole Foods or Sprouts.

6. Vacations - Obviously we can't do these too much, but I'd much rather spend money on experiences than things (save the few things I'm mentioning here, lol.)

7. Massages - Last year I finally decided to treat myself to a monthly massage. It always felt super decadent to spend money on that, but I sit at a computer all day, have mild scoliosis, and get super tight muscles in my neck and shoulders, which causes pain. So even though this is still an indulgence, I also feel like it keeps me healthier and happier. 

8. Stickers and office supplies - This goes hand in hand with the planner addiction. But the kid in me still gets excited about cute stickers. (First pic is from the Stick with Me shop, the writer and adulting stickers are from Sierra Godfrey designs.)

So those are mine. Now it's your turn! What are your indulgences or things you splurge on? :)

The Little Things That Make Me Happy (Week 3 of #ListifyLife Challenge)

It's Week 3 of the #ListifyLife Challenge. This week is an easy one for me because lots of little things make me happy. I'm easily entertained. Which makes me think of the line from the Nirvana song "All Apologies":

"I wish I was like you. Easily amused."

Maybe that could be seen as an insult, but I think it's a blessing. If you're easily amused, you're easily cheered up. So here's my list:

1. Singing and dancing (badly) while I cook dinner. - I realized the other night after singing/murdering Sia's "Chandelier" and then dancing to Salt-N-Pepa's "Push It" while I cooked dinner that these are the things that will be the background of kidlet's childhood when he looks back. His mom singing badly in the kitchen. And that made me smile. 

2. The silly things kidlet says - This week, I asked him to do something and responded with "Okay, Beyonce." That made me burst out in a laugh. He is always coming up with things that surprise me. Like another time, he was repeating a Wranglers commercial and said the tagline as "Real. Crunchable. Jeans." So now that's what I always hear. :)

3. My husband playfully teasing me - My husband and I have similar senses of humor, which is one of the reasons I fell for him. But he's a guy always looking for a way to make a funny comment, to tease me, or to make me smile. And he rides a joke all the way through the end and then beats it until it's dead. That's his style. Like the time he kept getting a song I didn't want in my head. He eventually stopped singing it. I thought it was done. Then a week later, I'm cooking and hear the song playing, but can't find where it's coming from. He'd hid the player in a cabinet and put the song on repeat. Took me three renditions to find the thing. Yeah. That's my hubs. :)

4. Reading - Obvs.

5. Pens, Planners, Stickers, Doodling (badly) - Y'all know about my planner/office supply addiction. Maybe it's silly. I had someone this weekend look at me like I'd grown another head when I said I use a paper planner (WHY?!! There are apps!). But it makes me happy, keeps me organized, and gives me a creative outlet that isn't tied to writing. 

6. GIFs - Let's just say I was way too happy when I got the capability of putting GIFs straight into text messages. :)

So what are the little things that make you happy?

Week 2 of #ListifyLife: The Books I'd Want to Live In For a While

It's week 2 of the Listify Life challenge (you can still join in!) and this week's topic is choosing the books you'd want to live in for a while. 

There are so many more I could choose, but I decided to go with the first ones that popped up in my head. Many of them go back to childhood wishes for fantastical worlds with flying and magic. :) The other two are grown-up picks.

1. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling - I'm not sure this needs explanation. I have to admit when I went to Universal Studios to Harry Potter world, I got little kid style excitement. Plus, Butter Beer.

2. The Neverending Story by Michael Ende - If you're not familiar with this story, it's about a boy reading a book who gets pulled into the book and literally becomes part of the book. This whole concept was so magical to me as a kid--that thought that I could become part of the story. And really, do I need any other reason than the chance to ride Falcor the Luck Dragon?

3. A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L'Engle - my favorite book as a kid and the book that made me want to be a writer, so it has to get a spot

4. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon - Okay, so the lack of showers, low status of women, and the constant threat of being killed would suck. But then there's Jamie in a kilt...or, you know, out of it. :)

via GIPHY

5. My own Loving on the Edge books - Okay, this is a totally self-indulgent pick. But how cool would it be to walk into that world and meet characters I created and see The Ranch? Okay, so it'd be weird...but also, awesome. :)

So those are mine. Are you playing along? Which books would you pick?

Week 1 of the #ListifyLife Challenge - Spring For Me Is...

Spring is here! Which for Dallas apparently means it's finally going to act like winter. o.0  We've had a strangely warm winter and then the day the calendar flips to Spring, it got really cold. But I'm looking that as a positive--maybe it will kill some of the mosquitos lol.

Now, on to the first week of the #ListifyLife challenge and this week it's all about Spring! Remember you can join up with this challenge at any time. There will be a new topic each week throughout Spring.

So here's my list! (Forgive the not-so-great doodles. God blessed me with the ability to write and left me with nothing in the ability to draw department.)

1. Bluebonnets - This was a new one for me when I moved to Texas. Right at the start of spring, these gorgeous blue-purple wildflowers pop up all over the place along the roads and interstates. They only last for a few weeks, but it brightens everything up and lets you know spring is here. You'll also see people stopping along the side of the road to take pictures of their kids in the bluebonnets. I haven't done this yet because...bees. Fear of bees > Need for blubonnet pics

2. Thunderstorms - This is my least favorite part of Spring. I love rain, but I hate the scary thunderstoms we get here in Texas. Hail is no fun and tornadoes are terrifying. And we've been through Springs here where every week the sirens are going off and you're hiding in the closet. *hates*

3. Crawfish boils - Unfortunately, this is one I don't get to experience anymore since leaving Louisiana, but Spring still makes me think of them. It's crawfish season and it's lent (no meat on Fridays) so in Louisiana that often means crawfish boils on Fridays. Some of my most vivid family memories are of sitting around a newspaper-covered picnic table with the big crawfish pot boiling away over a roaring propane flame and the scent of cayenne in the air. This Good Friday, I will promptly go into the sads that I don't have a crawfish boil to go to, lol.

4. Start of conference season - The kick off for the writers' conferences I go to is the Romantic Times convention, which is typically in April or May. So now is when I start thinking about fun conference trips with friends, getting new clothes, and seeing readers. :)

5. Sunshine - The most obvious one of Spring, but after my Vitamin D deficiency issue this past fall/winter, the sunshine is more welcome than ever. 

All right, that's my list for the week. Are you joining in to the challenge? Click here for the details, but below is the list of topics for the coming weeks. And you can post any time during each week. If you're playing along, feel free to leave a comment with your link. :) And remember Sierra Godfrey made really cute printable cards if you want to use those for your lists.

What does Spring mean for you?