PfWo Project: House to Home - The Introduction

I think I'll call this series about the house PfWo Project: House to Home. We'll see how well the title sticks, or if Max likes it too. [Maybe he'll be a guest blogger. Though his blogs are more poetic here's how I feel posts. Less the DIY, Tried it and here's how it turned out, Fashion posts.]

Title derives from our last names. First two initials of our last names, mine being "Pf" and his being "Wo". And then since it's our first house, it'll be how we take it from just a house, to our amazing home. (Eventually the names in the title may change, if I'm lucky!)

So first off, welcome to the PfWo house when we moved in eons ago (Being October 2015). These were the pictures I took on our final walk through before we moved in:

Here's the kitchen and laundry room. Hideous color! Blech.

 

We have plans to remodel this bad boy and make it more efficient. Now after living there 3 months, we have a good idea of what we want to change. (By the way, that handsome devil is Max, the awesome boyfriend I have in my life :))

 

Our living room. Still a weird yellow color. We have since painted the whole house.

 

The unique full bath in the hallway

The tiniest room in the house, it's 8x9. Max and I think we're going to make it workout/prayer room. And we're going to repaint it. But we haven't decided yet which color we're going to.

This is the master. It isn't a horrible color. But we've repainted since we've moved. Look for future posts to see the aftermath.

 

 

This is the unique half bath in the master.

 

Walk in closet in the master. I have since taken over the left side, and Max has the backside.

 

This is the guest room. We've left the color as is so far. And it's also my cat Smidge's room lol.

 

This room will be the office. We're not going to keep the purple color. I've ordered a desk (last week) and I'm assuming Max and I will paint it before the desk gets placed.

 

The house wasn't awful. But does need a little TLC and conversion from the way the previous owners had it, to the way we want it. There are also some big renovation projects to be done: aka big money depleters. But Max and I will work on saving up for those. :)

So until next time...

Let's Get Personal: An Update in the life of Samantha

So I’m quite irregular when it comes to blogging. I’ve tried writing as many posts as I can when I feel inspired, and then set them to post on a schedule, when I was posting daily a couple years ago, I think I might have done a couple things wrong: 1^st off, not picking a theme for my blog and 2^nd just trying to do too much. If I would have spread things out, I might have been able to make it work. 3^rd is that there isn’t a specific space to work. I live in a one bedroom, 610 sq ft house and don’t have a desk anymore, because there simply wasn’t space. My laptop usually lives on the coffee table amongst clutter I can never seem to conquer.

I do have a hard time with habits. After a couple months, whatever I’ve been doing has seemed to just stop. I miss one time and then I feel like I’m incapable of resuming.

But! There’s hope! A new wind is about to blow in, a new season, which may leave room for consistency in blogging!

Drumroll please!

I bought a house! Well, not me by myself, but that wonderful boyfriend of mine and I did. And we mostly got it for our dog, Ruger, so he'll be able to have a nice backyard to run around and patrol. He's also been going to agility training, so I'll be able to invest in those "obstacles" and train him at home.

It’s got 4 bedrooms and is over 1000 sq ft. There will be plenty of space to set up shop. I’ll be able to take consistent outfit of the day photos, because I’ll be able to leave my camera set up. I’ll be able to have a desk, so my laptop will always be ready to be used. I can make that whole space an office, so that when Max and I are in there, we mean business. No fun goofing off time, it means working time. We’ll be blogging, or I’ll be working on photos (I photograph as a hobby). I’m really excited for it. I’ll never have to try to make space, or have cords draped all over the place.

Along with having this new house will mean remodels and revamps and painting and pinterest project-ing the place. It’s not a brand new freshly built house. It’s about 30 years old. But it’s not a crappy starter house that will need a TON of TLC. So look forward to fun house posts to come.

And finally, thank you to any loyal readers I have out there. I know I’ve been inconsistent, but I promise to be better about blogging and voicing my opinions and projects. If you’ve stuck around, and read this through the years, please please please comment below. Readers are why I blog. If I actually don’t have any, and the random one a day page views are random stumbles, then how will I know? If you think I’m doing something wrong or something could be done better, please speak up! Constructive criticism is crucial.

With that, until next time

-S

Book Review: Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives,

Disclaimer: I received this book free from Birchbox for their Birchblogger book club.

I don't remember exactly when I received the book, but I do think I tried to start reading it a few times before I finally put my brain to it and started reading in June. I got pretty into it and was reading fairly consistently, until I wasn't. Life got really busy (new puppy, bought a house, life itself) so the reading dwindled. And finally, yesterday, I finished it. Oh what a sweet relief to finish a book.

As far as the book was concerned, it was only OK to me. I definitely had a struggle to finish it the more I read through it. The text just seemed to get a little repetitive. I think the information was well presented and very thorough.

If I could have made a change to the text, I think that once I had laid out the 4 tendencies, I would have then broken the rest of the book down by those tendencies and how habit forming works best for them. As an "obliger" (according to the mini test at the back), I don't really care about how Rebels and Questioners and the 4th category (Which I can't remember the name) form habits. If I needed to interact with them to form a habit, then I would indulge in that section.

If you're interested in reading this, click here for the author's page about the book.

I'm not a huge fan of Self Help books. I feel they're not quite as helpful to me as they may be to others. While I did highlight a few things in the book, I'm not sure it's one I'll be going back to read again and again.

I'm thankful for Birchbox to have been able to receive it and read it.

I know this is probably one of my less thought out reviews, but I just don't know what to say about a book I didn't love.

So I'll call this good here.

Until next time.

-S

Movie Review: The Age of Adaline

This past weekend I had the chance to finally watch “The Age of Adaline” with Blake Lively. I had asked my boyfriend Max to watch it with me, and he didn’t seem too interested in it at first, but once I popped the movie in, he confessed he had wanted to see it. So I’m glad I had a willing viewing partner.

 

First off, holy crap. What a movie. For my emotional and life relating response, keep reading. For the review on the movie, scroll down to the *****

I don’t think I’ve felt that deeply, emotion wise, as a response to a movie ever. The movie was really well done to have produced a response like that. First emotion to hit me hard was sadness. One of the characters dies in the beginning part of the movie (before the halfway point). The characteristics of the character’s death hit home because I had something oh so similar happen in my life.

And the second, which was probably the most powerful emotion, was love. This one hit me the hardest, so much so I almost had an anxiety attack with how deep the truth hit me. Like Adaline, I too ran from love, obviously not for the same reason: I’m aging just fine and did not have my DNA affected. Due to fear, or the man not treating me well, I always found a way to get out of the relationship. Even though I wanted to share my life with someone, be married, make a home and all of that, I’d always find something wrong that I “couldn’t get over” and get myself out ASAP, with no second thoughts.  Sometimes second thoughts would creep in later, but I’d shut them down and overrule them. For those of you reading this who’ve known me a while, you’ve known this about me, that I’ve been in a fair number of relationships.

I was never content, until Max. I never felt secure, until Max. I never felt comfort, until Max. I never felt love for anyone like this, until Max. I never realized how much I could love, until Max. I never wanted to share a life, buy a house, or get a dog with anyone, until Max.

I never felt nervous to lose someone, until Max. I never wanted to be selfless, until Max. I’ve never cared so deeply, until Max.

This movie hit me hard in the heart. I looked over at Max at some point during the movie and just felt a rush over my body of deep appreciation for all that Max is. The rush was overwhelming and adrenaline fueling. I’m pretty sure due to the similar circumstances of love with Adaline and mine: something just clicked in my head and released these feelings, and helped me see deeper how much love I have for Max.

I don’t know that everyone will feel this way about their loved one after watching this movie. But if you haven’t seen it yet, go ahead and give it a go. If you’re single, give the movie a go and see what you can get out of it, I’m sure it’ll be something.

 

***********

As far as the actual movie goes, it was a beautiful movie. The acting was great. Cinematography was great and the storyline was awesome.

It wasn’t what the trailer made it out to be. The trailer I thought, made it seem like there was a man who also didn’t age and chased Adaline through the centuries. While instead, Adaline falls for a man hard in the current year. (I think they made it 2014 and then the movie came out earlier this year). That was a bit of an “Oh, ok” moment. I was actually kind of hoping to see how it would have turned out having two ageless people find each other through the centuries.

One thing I was a bit confused on is in the beginning, once Adaline became ageless, the FBI approached her on the street and she ran from them. I kind of wish they would have expanded on that. I don’t think the FBI would give up on an interesting case like that. After that part in the movie, we don’t see any more of them throughout the entire movie. C’mon people…tie up loose ends, or don’t have any ends that could unravel and be loose.

That’s all I have to say on the movie, and how it affected me, and I’m done bragging about how awesome Max is and how I feel about him and what not. Tune in for the next post, probably a book review. I’ll end it here.

Until next time

-S

Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Well, it's that time again.  A New Year is upon us. This may be a little "late" to post, but 5 days in is better than never.

While most people are making resolutions about healthier habits, things to try, bucket lists, (most of which they'll probably end up breaking, or forgetting about as the year goes by)I have just one. Just one resolution for the year.

And with this one, I want help. I need help to remember. So I'm inviting you to keep me accountable to this resolution. Because really, if you have just one thing you're focusing on, the rest comes so easily.

Now, if you've known me for a fair amount of time (not long, because it doesn't take that to know this about me) you'll know that I'm a little bit boy crazy. I like me the male species. If I'm not actually talking about some guy I'm interested in, 99.9% chance is that I'm thinking about him, and when the next time I'm going to see him, or do this activity, or go here or there with him. Bottom line of this craziness is I've let men run my life. (Hi, I'm Samantha. Let's get personal). I've had different goals for a while with men, first I just wanted to have boyfriends, but not commit to long periods of time, then I just wanted to date a whole bunch of people to see what's out there (Ok, well "date" in a not complete kosher sense of the word). But as I hit the ripe old age of 25...I realized 1-I'm tired of the boys in the world and need to hold off for the men. 2-dating is hard. 3-I want to settle down and have 1 guy for a long period of time, aka marriage, aka till I die. I know this one will take time and all that good jazziemadoodah everyone keeps talking about.

But this year, I'm dropping all of that. It's not about me and my future husband. It's not about me trying to weed through all the fish in the sea. It's not about me and this guy or that guy. It's not about me initiating anything with a guy.

It's about Me.

It's about Love.

While I've never completed loathed myself as a person, I've never completed loved myself as a person either.

So rather than focusing on everyone else and me last, I'm putting me first. But not in a narcissistic egotistical way. I'm going to do things for me. I'm going to really take the time to figure out who I am this year, what I really want to do in life, and what makes me, Me. If I can completely love me, working out will be a breeze. If I completely love me, staying organized and keeping a clean house will be like the Disney movies (well maybe minus the animal help because I'm sure my cat isn't interested in that).

My goal this year is Love. By loving me, loving others (friends, family and even the grumpy customers I help at work) will be second nature and I won't even have to think about it.

I don't have all the kinks planned out. I don't have the 'how to's planned out. But I have my goal. The details and methods will come :) I don't expect it to be easy, but it'll be something to look back on at the end of the year, and see progress, for sure.

Until next time,

Samantha

Book Review: Four - Veronica Roth

After falling in love with the book Divergent, drooling over the attractive selection of Dauntless males in the movie adaptation I proceeded to buy the rest of the books in the trilogy and set them on my bookshelf to promptly read. Which didn't happen. Then I heard from some YouTube beauty guru who also enjoys literature (I forget now who) mentioned Veronica Roth wrote a book from Four's perspective of Divergent. On my next Target trip I made sure that book made it out the door in my grocery sack.

I had wanted to read it before the sequels to Divergent, but then remembered it had been a while since I had both read the book or seen the movie and decided  I needed a refresher of the plot line before reading Four's take on it all. 

Come to find out it's a collection of stories, the majority centering on his transition from Tobias in the abusive Abnegation home of his father to his miraculous (As in there hasn't been a Stiff who made the switch to Dauntless in quite some time, if at all) first place finish as Four in the Dauntless initiate class when he turned 16. In the ending of the book (not including the extras) is a chapter where he interacts with Tris and we see his perspective of some events where she is involved. 

Four is as intelligent and deep as I thought while reading Divergent and Insurgent. His actions are calculated and have substantial backing to them. He's an intelligent character and it's great to see the beginnings of it. 

The chapters were broke up well and though consecutive were not back to back events. They provided a good snippet into Four's experiences in Dauntless and the explanation for why he does the things he does in Divergent. 

I wish other authors would do this for other protagonists in their story. Though I do understand that not all characters have as strong a connection with their authors as others. 

Until next time

-Samantha

Book Review: Insurgent - Veronica Roth

What a whirlwind this book was to read!

This was one of the most intense sequels I've ever read. The action and conflict in this book left me out of breath trying to keep up with it all. But in the best possible way.

Like the first book, this one too was full of vivid picture painting, so you knew exactly what the scenery was like at all times. I felt I was right there with Tris in the simulation rooms, climbing the steep stairs, and stepping over broken glass in the lobbies of faction headquarters.  The growing tension between the factions continues, and eventually sparks a reaction and the war against the Erudite-Dauntless takeover continues.

After the first book ends, and Tris realizes the loss of one of her friends (not naming names in case it'd be a spoiler) and deals with the repercussion, one of which is the fear and inability to handle a gun, adding a very interesting plot twist to a war between the factions: how can you win as one of the figureheads if you cannot defend yourself? Other interesting points are brought up: the "girlfriend" of the deceased male is upset to learn Tris is the one who killed him in his simulation stupor, and she isn't sure how to act around Tris, enemies seem to become allies when the loss or gain of information is on the line and the question stands: trust or not to trust. 

Veronica Roth is a talented writer and I look forward to reading more by her.  I thoroughly enjoy the way she weaves words to portray the ideas. :)

Until next time

-Samantha