It's hard to believe we have reached the end of February. This month has been pretty insane for me and it wasn't my best month for doing anything besides school. It's been....a month.
1. Draw 4 digital pieces (and upload 1)
I actually did a pretty good job with this one. For Valentine's Day, I made Jonathan the Pokemon drawing that I featured in my Valentine's Day post. I did want to include a time-lapse, but if you read the post, you know what happened there. I feel pretty good with working digitally and hope to renew this goal for next month.
2. Read 9 Books
Ha....Haha....HAHAHA. I totally failed at this goal because I spent the majority of time working on college stuff so my free time was extremely limited. I think I only read about 5 books this month, but I thoroughly enjoyed the books I did read.
3. Drink a Bottle of Water a Day
I actually did a pretty good job with this. I had been a bit dehydrated in January, so I switched to solely water this month and I can feel my skin loving this. I definitely need to be more conscious of my water intake because I actually felt really good this month.
4. Post Twice a Week
As you can tell, I was not successful in this. But I do feel the posts that did get uploaded had more of myself and were quality posts. I was able to take a look at my posting and realized that I was kind of losing myself in tags and posts I felt I "should" do. Don't get me wrong, I still love tag posts but I want to spend more time making posts unique to this blog and my own voice.
All in all, even though this wasn't the most successful month in terms of goals, I feel like this month was necessary for personal growth and reflection. It may have been full of stress, but I can only go up from this next month.
How did your goals go this month?
Always, Raineedayze
I saw Black Panther this weekend, and I immediately knew I had to tell the entire internet about it. Let me tell you, the hype was well worth it.
I am a pretty big fan of Marvel comics in general, but I never really read any of the Black Panther comics. I have to say, this movie made me want to immediately pick up the story and immerse myself in the entire history of this character.
This movie had an incredible cast of characters, including such an amazing group of some badass women. The women made so much of the story and were the majority of the warriors in Wakanda, which was so inspiring. Between this and Wonder Woman, my body is ready for the gym.
One of my absolute favorite characters in the movie was Shuri, the hilarious tech goddess sister of T'Challa, played by Letitia Wright. She was so funny and her gadgets were incredible.
Also, can we talk about the casting of this movie?? Chadwick Boseman, Lupita Nyong'o, Michael B. Jordan, Danai Gurira, Forest Whitaker, Andy Serkis, Angela Bassett, Daniel Kaluuya, and Martin Freeman? And the music was done by Kendrick Lamar. So much talent in two hours was just insane.
One of the greatest things to me about this movie was that it was completely self-reliant. There was one reference to Captain America: Civil War, but for people who are just entering the MCU, this movie was fantastic as a standalone. I was really glad that the movie didn't rely on other heroes because, for many, this is their first introduction to Black Panther and MCU.
This movie was so good and it hyped me up so much for Infinity War. I can't wait to read more into the Black Panther comics after this because I can definitely tell this hero will be a new favorite.
Always, Raineedayze
Valentine's Day was this past week (did you check out the playlist?) and even though I had to spend my morning in class, I was determined to go all out in celebrating!
We started the morning by heading to a small taco place to get some breakfast before I headed to class. It was so tasty and really made my day 15x better.
After class, we headed to the grocery store to pick up some stuff for our Valentine's Day dinner. We also had a small food court lunch and brought all our goodies home.
One of the funny things about this year is that Jonathan and I both "messed up" our gift giving, so we went a very non-traditional route. I had planned to make a time lapse of the drawing I was giving to him. I spent a good 3 hours working and finished the piece up when I realized I NEVER PRESSED RECORD, so that was a total bust. Luckily, a very good friend of mine was able to print it out and even put it in a nice sleeve so he still was able to have the printed photo.
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| My gift to Jon |
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Jonathan also had a gift mishap. My birthday was the week before Valentine's Day, and he had bought separate gifts for both occasions. However, he is not a patient person and in his excitement, gave me both gifts on my birthday. This was totally awesome, but he wasn't super happy about being without a VDay gift on the actual day, so he went the extra mile by gifting me some GORGEOUS roses and a huge jar of sea salted caramels. I truly was spoiled.
For our dinner, I made heart-shaped sliders and crab legs with some garlic-butter potatoes and a side of shrimp. It was fantastic and we spent the evening eating food and watching movies. All in all, it was a fantastic day and the fact that we were able to spend it together made it the perfect Valentine's celebration!
Always, Raineedayze
Happy Valentine's Day!!!
Valentine's Day is my absolute favorite holiday! It's a day for love, happiness, and dessert! Every year, I make a playlist that I share on social media and listen to all day.
So, to keep you occupied, whether you have a date with a person or a bottle of wine, here's some of my favorite Valentine's Day tunes.
Always, Raineedayze
It's a shiny new day on this side of 23.
My birthday was on Tuesday and even though I had an excruciatingly long lab in the morning, I was pretty excited though because Jonathan managed to get the day off.
We headed to lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings, where we tore through a ton of Carribean Jerk wings and fried pickles. After lunch, we drove around town for a bit and then headed to watch Winchester. The Drafthouse gives members free movie tickets for their birthday and since we went during the work day, it was nice and empty.
Winchester was pretty bad.....well really bad. But after a bottle of wine and a FANTASTIC boozy milkshake, I was feeling pretty good.
We ended our night at the pub where we got to watch some pub trivia and got a nice buzz.
Jonathan picked up an ice cream cake and we headed home to order some pizza. However, as soon as the pizza guy knocked, I was ready to crash out.
I ended up with leftover pizza and cake (no worries, they made a great after school snack the next day) and a bunch of fantastic memories!
I'm pretty excited to see what I can accomplish this year and hope to make 23 a great year!
Always, Raineedayze
Happy February!!!
Now, I may be a little bit biased because my birthday is in February, but I absolutely adore the month of February. Valentine's Day is my absolute favorite holiday, and I love how this month is when we actually start getting into the swing of things. January is always the trial month, but February is really where you can see how your year is going.
That being said, I spent so much time working on this list of monthly goals, and I can definitely say they build up from last month's goals.
Last, month I focused on goals in terms of 4. I used this because it gave me a chance to complete one item on the list per week. Since most of those goals went by pretty successfully, I wanted to add a little more to my plate. February is a shorter month but I think I can handle it.
1. Draw 4 digital pieces (and upload one!)
It's no secret that I have been working hard on my art. Now that I am nearing the end of my academic career, I wanted to focus on what I actually enjoy doing and I have a huge passion for art. I want to build up my work ethic with it and hold myself accountable for completing pieces I am proud of, so hopefully you guys can see a piece this month!
2. Read 9 Books
My goal for the year is to read 100 books. In January, I read 9 books and I want to keep the streak up and stay ahead. I am nearing the end of my tenth book and one of my books came off hold at the library so I am pretty stoked to finish them by the end of the week.
3. Drink a bottle of water a day
I have a huuuuuge issue with not drinking enough water. I really need to take care of myself because kidney issues are no joke and I have already had a few health problems stemming from my poor water intake. A bottle of water is still lower than the recommended amount, but I need to start somewhere!
4. Post twice a week
I managed to successfully keep the blog running last month, but I could feel the urge to slack off in the back of my head. I'm not sure why I have been in a super meh mood, but I want to make sure this blog is productive because I love connecting with people through it!
These are my main goals for the month and I'll be checking in with you guys later in the month to see if I was successful!
What are your monthly goals? Let's chat!
Always, Raineedayze
It's the first day of February and I am posting this January Goal Wrap-Up late because....
I did a dumb thing.
A few days ago, I posted a Goals Check In where I discussed my monthly goals and how successful I was at them in January. (You can check that post out here!)
I have no idea where my brain was because I talked about my yearly goals in that post instead of my monthly goals. So if you were confused, I totally get it.
WHOOPS.
I edited the post but man, I felt pretty silly. So here is my check in for my January Mini Goals!
1. Read My 4 TBR Books
On my TBR for January I had The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, Warcross by Marie Lu, Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo, and The Cruel Prince by Holly Black. Unfortunately, The Cruel Prince was all cleared out at my local library, so I wasn't able to get it this month. However, I read the other three books and loved them all! I was also able to read a few other awesome books (you can check the full list on my Captain's Log for January).
2. Draw 4 Things
Holy moly, did I rock this goal. I drew daily this month, and nearly cleared out a sketchbook! I moved my sketchpad to right in front of my computer, so I spent many a day sketching out random doodles while watching Supernatural or random Youtube videos. I was super proud of how much I actually got done!
3. Make 4 Blog posts.
Woohoo!! I was pretty happy that I uploaded 3 times that amount this month! I want to keep this blog running because not only is it a great escape for me to get all my thoughts out, I get to connect with so many people in the blogging community. Plus, I can look back at these posts as a digital scrapbook and see all the great memories of the year!
4. Walk 4 Miles
I have to be honest. I didn't keep track of this goal at all. While the start of school meant more walking around the campus, I don't think I moved around much more outside of that. Although I did head to the park trails a few times with Jonathan. So I guess this was a half-success?
Overall, I think I rocked my January Goals and I am super excited to build upon these for my February goals. I also loved keeping track of them in the spread I made in my planner, so I plan to continue that since it helped me keep track!
How was your January? Let's chat!
Always, Raineedayze
