Can you even handle all these stickers? The newest (and funnest!) from Pipsticks+Workman + A giveaway!

Thomas Allen & Son sent me the sticker books in this post in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

This weekend I started another 30-day challenge at The Dailey Method where every time you finish a class toward your personal goal (mine is 24 spin classes in 30 days) you get a star sticker to put on a chart tracking your progress. I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to see that line of star stickers grow! 🤩🤩 Do you use stickers to track your goals? Or maybe you love using them on letters and love notes and in your planner. Me too! 🙋‍♀️ Today I’ve got a giveaway for my fellow sticker lovers. (And yes, there are star stickers too. ⭐️⭐️)

Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad by Austin Kleon

Thomas Allen & Son sent me Keep Going in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I don’t want to tell you how many times I’ve thought of chucking my blog but it’s up there. For all of the usual reasons: My writing sucks; it’s too hard; I’m not funny or interesting or loveable enough; I should post more often; no one reads it; my pictures are crap; and so on. All of which I believe to different degrees depending on the day. Some days I’m even happy with a post or a particular picture, then two days later I think it sucks. But I keep going. And some books really help. Like this month’s new one from Austin Kleon, Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad.

Natural Living Style: Inspirational Ideas for a Beautiful and Sustainable Home by Selina Lake

Thomas Allen & Son sent me Natural Living Style in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

“There are many threats to our planet — global warming, pollution, overpopulation and water scarcity — and it’s easy to feel powerless in the face of all this bad news. As a stylist, I wondered how we can make our homes, work spaces and gardens more in harmony with the environment while keeping them beautiful? Can a stylish, comfortable, efficient home be achieved with minimal impact on the environment?” This is the question Selina Lake set out to answer in her new (and ninth!) book, Natural Living Style: Inspirational Ideas for a Beautiful and Sustainable Home. 

The Big Book of Less: Finding Joy in Living Lighter + Win a copy!

Thomas Allen & Son sent me The Big Book of Less in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

Hey everybody! I hope you’re having a great week. I’ve got a crappy cold and haven’t been able to write here as much as I’d like but I’ve been dying to tell you about this book. It’s the new one (out just last week) from the editors of Flow magazine, The Big Book of Less: Finding Joy in Living Lighter. It’s a book of articles and activities about living with less (less stuff, less information, less control, and more) and learning less-ons along the way. #seewhatididthere

Missed these? New books for cooks, creatives and more to gift + A giveaway!

I received the books in this post for review purposes. All opinions are my own.

I love giving books any time of the year, but Christmas can be especially fun because the crop of new books that come out in the fall is always so, so good. Today I’ve got some ones you might not have seen that would make great gifts for the fashionista, the interior design and decor lover, the entrepreneur (especially those in creative fields) and the cook in your life.

Handmade Living: 40 Step-by-Step Projects for Crafting a Beautiful Home + Win a copy!

Thomas Allen & Son sent me a copy of Handmade Living in exchange for an honest review. Here’s what I think. 

You don’t have to be God’s gift to crafters to make most of the projects in today’s book, nor do you need a lot of time. Which is ideal any time of the year, but especially coming into the holidays when our to-do lists are long and our patience is short. Handmade Living: 40 Step-by-Step Projects for Crafting a Beautiful Home by Willow Crossley has a wide variety of lovely DIYs to gift and keep, many everyday objects made more personal with bits and bobs you might already have around the house. Turn an old book into a secret place for safe-keeping, trim a plain-jane basket with spare ribbon to make a pretty piece, and make a personalized print using old stamps, buttons or Scrabble tiles. AND NOWHERE DID I MENTION A SEWING MACHINE (aka THE BANE OF MY EXISTENCE.) Granted there are a few projects where a stitch or two is in order but no one said you couldn’t do it by hand.

A Sloth’s Guide To Taking It Easy: Be More Sloth With These Fail-Safe Tips For Serious Chilling + Slothilda: Living The Sloth Life + A giveaway!

Thomas Allen & Son sent me Slothilda and A Sloth’s Guide to Taking it Easy in exchange for an honest review. So here’s what I think.

They say you should write what you know. Well let me tell you, I know a thing or two about being a sloth. That’s not to say I sit in a tree all day eating leaves REALLY, REALLY SLOWLY, but finishing a box of chocolates on the couch can take me an afternoon and that’s pretty much the same thing. Maybe being a sloth isn’t so bad. Maybe it’s even good! Especially coming into the holiday season when so many of us would be happier doing less. Today I’ve got two books that celebrate that sloth life — one with 20 tips on how to embrace your inner sluggard and CHILLAX and another about a relatable little sloth who really wants to succeed and grow but also really likes sleep and junk food and her phone, laptop and TV. 

Five things

Happy Sunday, everybody! I hope you’ve had a great week. I felt a bit listless with the kids back in school (WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?) and found myself cleaning out drawers and wiping down baseboards (again, HIGHLY UNUSUAL BEHAVIOUR) but it’ll pass. Here are a few things I’ve been loving lately. 

“I don’t want to get organized” said no one ever + A giveaway!

Thomas Allen & Son sent me my favourites from the Pipsticks X Workman Publishing collab in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are mine and from the heart. 

“SUMMER IS ALMOST OVER WHICH MEANS SOON U GET TO HIDE INSIDE NOT TALKING TO ANYONE WITHOUT FEELING WEIRD ABOUT IT.” — Orlando Soria

I love September for all of the usual reasons, but even more so this year because I’m starting it with a super fun planner that’s going to help me get a grip on all of the things I’ve let slide and crush my goals. The vast majority of which will not require leaving the house. #killingit #pajamasarelife I know, now you’re over there all TELL ME MORE and as luck would have it, I’m over here (in my pj’s) all OKAY I WILL. 

Five things

Hey everybody! How’s July treating you? I’m writing from the train home to Ottawa after a few days visiting family in Barrie and Toronto. I hadn’t seen my brother-in-law and his hubby in ages and my own brother and nephew in even longer so a trip down was well overdue. I’d planned to write a few book reviews while I was away but felt soooooo lazy (maybe from the constant eating? you know how one meal blends into another when you’re on vacation) so that didn’t happen. 

Five things

I received some of the products mentioned in this post free of charge and name the sponsors below. All opinions are my own and from the heart. 

For a couple of years in my teens I worked at the only Tim Hortons in town. The steady stream of customers kept us counter girls hopping, but the instant we caught a break and stopped to chat our manager would waltz through the swingy saloon doors dividing the back from the front and say, “If you’ve got time to lean, you’ve got time to clean.” (Which naturally we resented.) I remembered that this weekend when I had some time to lean, but instead of avoiding the mess like I usually do, I leaned into it and cleaned my little heart out. Then rewarded myself with a good chunk of my book — I’m finishing Calypso — a few episodes of Queer Eye, and a couple of awesome spin classes at The Dailey Method. (This coming Saturday marks the end of the latest 30-day challenge where you try to do as many classes as you can in 30 days. I wanted to do 26 but will probably only get to 17.) And then we had that incredible rainbow last night! Good things are coming. 

50 Ways To Draw Your Beautiful, Ordinary Life: Practical Lessons In Pencil And Paper + Win a copy!

Thomas Allen & Son sent me a copy of 50 Ways to Draw Your Beautiful, Ordinary Life: Practical Lessons in Pencil and Paper in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and from the heart. 

“I sometimes think there is nothing so delightful as drawing.” — Vincent Van Gogh

When I was in high school I did a three-month student exchange in Quebec and took an art class heavy on illustration. One of our assignments was to draw our reflection in an everyday object, and I remember sitting at my host family’s kitchen table one day after school, totally engrossed in my homework as I tried to sketch my face mirrored in a chrome kettle. Until the smell of smoke broke my concentration. I looked up from my sketchpad and saw the croissant I’d forgotten in the toaster oven engulfed in flames and black smoke curling up the cupboard. (Merde!) A glass of water put the fire out (and shattered the door of the toaster oven), but I’ve never forgiven myself. I was so in the flow that I nearly burned the house down! Which is why I think maybe today’s book should come with a warning. Because it’s easy to lose track of time (and everything else) when you sit down with 50 Ways to Draw Your Beautiful, Ordinary Life: Practical Lessons in Pencil and Paper.