Life Happens [10]

Life Happens is a weekly feature here at Books and Burlap. It will feature highlights from the previous week, as well bookish topics.

Where do I even begin to discuss this past week? Well, the actually week was rather dull. Monday and Tuesday were teacher work days, so there were no students in the building (which was rather nice, but boring). Wednesday was back to normal. However, I was not at work on Thursday and Friday. Why?

Because I was at YALLFest in Charleston, SC!

My mom and I left for Charleston early Thursday morning (which also happened to be my dad’s birthday, though we celebrated the night before). I’m not a fan of flying, but I was so excited to go to my first YALLFest, that I didn’t really care.

My face screams good looking, dontcha think?

I met so many of my favorite YA authors: James Dashner (The Maze Runner), Gayle Forman (If I Stay), Kiera Cass (The Selection), Rainbow Rowell (Eleanor & Park, Fangirl), Sarah Dessen (too many to name), Ellen Hopkins (again, too many to name), and….Veronica Roth (Divergent)!

James Dashner

Gayle Forman

Kiera Cass

Rainbow Rowell

Sarah Dessen

Ellen Hopkins

Veronica Roth

It was such an amazing trip, I’m really sad that it’s over. But I’m so glad that I was finally able to go, especially since I’ve been wanting to go for over a year. Oh, and I didn’t just meet the authors…they signed my books as well! Guess I have to go back to regular, every day life now, eh?

Creeper status in this pic, but isn’t Veronica Roth just so pretty?!

A Librarian’s Closet (10)

Hello! And welcome to my weekly feature, A Librarian’s Closet. This feature showcases my favorite outfit from the week.

This week’s outfit selection isn’t all that special, but it is flattering on me. I always receive compliments when I wear it, because of how it perfectly fits me. Plus, green looks good on me.

Pardon my pug’s photobomb

The shoes are super cute too. I love telling people where I got them from, because no one ever believes me. Ready to hear where I bought them? …..Cracker Barrel. Yup, the restaurant. Go figure, eh? Cracker Barrel’s gift shops are always full of cute items, including these shoes.

The necklace came from Charming Charlie (one of my favorite stores ever) and the dress came from Lands End. Simple, but cute.

Life Happens [9]

Life Happens is a weekly feature here at Books and Burlap. It will feature highlights from the previous week, as well bookish topics.

This past week, nothing too exciting happened. I did go to my undergraduate college on Tuesday to see a debate. The debate was pretty interesting and rather monumental for my college. Why? Because the two candidates are also professors at the college. Talk about tension! Both professors are running for a seat in their district, so what better place to host the debate?

Dave Brat (left) and Jack Trammell (right). We all found it amusing that the candidates were a bit color confused (Dave Brat is republican, but is wearing a blue tie…Jack Trammell is a democrat, but is wearing a red tie)

The rest of the week was pretty regular and nothing special in particular. I did purchase my movie tickets for an advance showing of Mockingjay pt. 1, which I cannot wait for!

I had to document my purchase

I was absolutely lazy this weekend. On Saturday, all I did was write for NaNoWriMo, play FFXIV, and watch Once Upon a Time (I finally finished all the episodes that are available on Netflix); I started Orange is the New Black as soon as I finished OUAT.

My setup this weekend…a bit close for comfort, but I made it work.

This upcoming week is going to be awesome. Why? Monday and Tuesday are teacher workdays and I leave Thursday morning for YALLFest…so that means I technically only work one day this week! I’m so excited for YALLFest, I can hardly contain myself. Bring on Thursday!

A Librarian’s Closet (9)

Hello! And welcome to my weekly feature, A Librarian’s Closet. This feature showcases my favorite outfit from the week.

Again, for this week’s outfit, I’m going with something different. Since today (Friday) is Halloween, I decided to “dress up”. Okay, not really, but I did wear a character hat all day. Party City had these really cute character hats, including Olaf from Frozen. I decided to get this hat…

Do you know who it is? ….it’s Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon! Toothless is so cute, I couldn’t pass up this hat. Along with the hat, I wore all black to match what he looks like in the movie. The students all knew who it was…the teachers, on the other hand, did not. Oh well! I thought it was cute and a great way to “dress up” for Halloween at work.

NaNoWriMo-OhNo

NaNoWriMo is upon us! You don’t know what NaNoWriMo is? Why, it’s one of the greatest and most stressful times of the year for an aspiring writer!

NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month and it takes place every year during the entire month of November. For the entire month, Wrimos all over the world take part in writing a novel with a minimum of 50,000 words. Seems pretty hefty, right? It is, but it’s a lot of fun. This will be my third year participating and hopefully my third year of “winning” (you win when you reach 50k words). I’m really excited about my story this year, far more than I was for my previous two, so I’m expecting great things to come from this story.

For the month of November, I’ll be posting NaNoWriMo updates, focusing on how I’m doing, my current word count, and possibly some excerpts from my novel. For now, I’ll give you a synopsis of my novel, which is called Returned.

Day after day, Ezra must guide souls on the verge of dying to their fates. Ezra is a harbinger of death, tasked with making sure those destined to die do no deviate. In his afterlife, Ezra is a death god. Despite the fact that Ezra was once alive himself, he no longer feels empathy for those dying. A job is a job, a soul is just another soul.

That is, until Ezra meets Colette.

Colette has a heart condition that requires her to be on multiple medications and doesn’t allow her to be overly active, despite her desire to be outdoors. Unfortunately, because Colette has become Ezra’s newest task, her time is running out.

The more Ezra learns about Colette, the more he wants to change her fate. But what price will he pay for doing so?

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Movies To Watch To Get In The Halloween Spirit

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week, they will post a new Top Ten list that one of their bloggers at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Anyone can join!

I love Halloween, even though I never really dress up for it. I’ve never been to a Halloween party (except when I was a child), but that doesn’t stop me from loving the day. It’s just so much fun! Of course, I’m not a true fan of being scared out of my wits, so I just like the kid-friendly side of Halloween (usually). So when it comes to Halloween for me, these are just some movies I watch to get into the spirit of the day…

Hocus Pocus (duh!)

The Nightmare Before Christmas (another, duh!)

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Halloweentown

Young Frankenstein

Dracula (the Gary Oldman version)

Carrie

Clue

Sleepy Hollow

Any of the Pretty Little Liars Halloween specials

Who else picked this as their TTT topic and what did y’all have on your lists? Since I’m not into really scary stuff (except Carrie…but that wasn’t too scary), I’m not as knowledgeable in that area of Halloween.

Life Happens [8]

Life Happens is a weekly feature here at Books and Burlap. It will feature highlights from the previous week, as well bookish topics.

What happened this week… Hmm… Well, at my school, benchmark testing started and I was in charge of creating the schedule. That went decently, I guess…only had a few people complain about where I put them, but I went off of class size and how many computers were in what computer lab. Oh well. At least the rest of the time has gone swimmingly. I did take my first “mental health” day of the year on Wednesday; my mom took off that day too, so we left the county and went shopping (even more fun!)

Friday was the start of my college’s homecoming, so of course I went. The gala was Friday night and the homecoming tailgate/game/etc. was Saturday. Sadly, we lost the football game, but the rest of the time was super fun. I’m so glad I got to see so many of my friends, especially my sorority sisters and my freshman year roommate.

My Randolph-Macon nails!

My freshman year roommate, Megan, and me.

My good friends/sorority sisters, Denise and Amber.

On Sunday, I traveled to Charlottesville to visit Michie Tavern (best fried chicken ever!), Monticello (Thomas Jefferson’s home), and Carter Mountain Orchard (yummy apples). Fall in Virginia is absolutely gorgeous, so I took a bunch of pictures of fall leaves.

Peach cobbler and tea from Michie Tavern

Once I finally got home from the chaotic weekend, I spent what was left of the weekend with my little prickly princess, Violet. She’s finally coming around and enjoys being held (at least by me…she really doesn’t like my parents yet). She’s such a cutie patootie!

How can you not love a hedgehog? Little miss grumpy pants.

A Librarian’s Closet (8)

Hello! And welcome to my weekly feature, A Librarian’s Closet. This feature showcases my favorite outfit from the week.

Yet another chaotic week has gone by, thankfully. For this week’s outfit, I’m going to feature something different. I thought most of my outfits from the work week were a bit drab, so I’ve decided to feature the following outfit…

This outfit was not worn at work, but rather to a college gala. This weekend is my college’s homecoming, so as an alum, I’m obviously going. I figured I’d feature this outfit because, hey, librarians can clean up pretty well.

Top Ten Tuesday: Top New-ish Series I Want to Start

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week, they will post a new Top Ten list that one of their bloggers at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Anyone can join!

So this week’s topic revolves around those series that we’ve been meaning to read…but just haven’t gotten around to. Specifically, those that have been published within the past several years (about 2 years). There are plenty of series I have been meaning to read, so this is a great time for me to get my thoughts straight on doing so.

Linked by Imogen Howson

Uninvited by Sophie Jordan

Alienated by Melissa Landers

Reboot by Amy Tintera

Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis

Pivot Point by Kasie West

Splintered by A.G. Howard

The Madman’s Daughter by Megan Shepherd

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

I own at least one book in every one of these series, I just haven’t gotten around to reading them yet… Hopefully I will one of these days!

Life Happens [7]

Life Happens is a weekly feature here at Books and Burlap. It will feature highlights from the previous week, as well bookish topics.

As mentioned in my previous post, this past week at school was homecoming spirit week. It was a lot of fun to participate in the spirit days, but I’m looking forward to getting back into professional mode and out of silly mode. I won’t elaborate on spirit week, since I talked about it in my A Librarian’s Closet post for this week, but it was definitely a lot of fun.

Saturday, I went to Kings Dominion for their annual Halloween Haunt. Usually I go with a rather small group, but this year there were 8 of us. It was so much fun to be with a larger group, especially since I hadn’t seen a few of them in several months (including my best friend). I didn’t get as scared as I usually do, but that was probably because I knew what to expect since I’ve been every year for the past 4 years. Of course, that’s not saying I didn’t get scared at all…there was one instance when someone chased me out of one of the haunted mazes with a chainsaw. That was pretty terrifying.

My best friend and me waiting in line for one of the haunted mazes.

Sunday I spent all day playing video games and watching Netflix with Violet snuggled in my lap. That’s how we bond: she sleeps in my lap, while I do something lazy.

Violet snuggling in one of her many cuddle sacks.

I’m in the process of reading Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas. I’m also planning my road trip to Charleston, SC for YALLFest in November…I can’t wait to meet so many amazing young adult authors and have them sign my books. I have a feeling I won’t be sleeping much that weekend!