Rediscovering a Little KonMarie Magic

Some time ago- last year- I read the huge bestseller, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up.  I did a lot of what Marie Kondo suggests in the book, and got rid of loads (and loads and loads) of stuff that no longer "sparked joy" in my life.  And it did indeed feel a little magical.  I never got quite all the way through the process though.  If I had, perhaps the real magic would have happened.  Regardless, I was really glad I did it to the extent that I did, and I found true value in it.  You can refer back to those previous posts here and here and here.  (Yep, I was pretty into it, and couldn't stop writing or talking about it...)

Marie says that once you tidy up using her KonMari Method, you really don't have to do it again.  And that's pretty much been true for me.  My clothes and other categories I followed through on have never gotten out of control since using her method! That's a huge accomplishment for me.

Now, nearly a year and a half later though, I felt like it was time to go through my closet again. I was ready to experience a little more magic and let go of even more things.  And who knows--- maybe this time around, I'll get through all the categories of items in my life.

While going through my clothes this time, I wasn't quite as thorough as I was the first time around because honestly, I didn't feel it was necessary.  (If you strictly follow the KonMari Method,  you take EVERYTHING out of your closet, drawers, etc by category put them in one central spot, and go through it all piece by piece, purging anything and everything that doesn't "spark joy".  I did this the first time.) This time, I went through my closet and drawers piece by piece, but without putting everything out on my bed first.  Instead of taking half of a day to "KonMarie Method " my clothes, this follow up session only took 30-45 minutes of my afternoon.

But look at all I was able to let go of today!...

clothes that were no longer sparking joy in my life

 I realized that although these clothes were sparking joy for me last year, they just aren't doing it for me anymore.  I know now how great it feels to let go of things I no longer care much about.  If I get rid of my brown skirt that I've worn often, but just don't love anymore, that means that when I run across a new skirt that is fresh and new and I fall in love with it, I can get it. Guilt free!  No reason to hang on to the old skirt just because I used to love it.  I don't love it anymore, but maybe someone else will.  So run free, Little Brown Skirt, and all the other clothes I'll be donating to Goodwill tomorrow.  May you find a new owner that loves you and will take you out to fun places the way I once did.

These clothes are ready to find a new person to love them!

Ahh... Magic! It feels great.

Music Monday- "Go Now" by Adam Levine

Happy Music Monday!  Not only am I recommending this great song, but even more so, the movie it came from...

I  had seen a trailer for the movie "Sing Street" at the Angelika before it came out, and it looked great.  But I haven't heard anything about it, or talked to anyone who's seen it. Thank God I didn't forget about it, and I finally got around to seeing it this weekend.

Now that I've seen it, I want to tell everyone I can to go out and see this movie.  It's a coming-of-age story about love and music that takes place in the UK in the 1980s.  So if you grew up during that era, or even if you didn't, RUN to your nearest indie movie theatre and see this! It was spectacular. My favorite movie of the year for sure.

I'm not going to recap it, but if you want to read reviews for Sing Street, just look it up on Rotten Tomatoes or another site like that. But, I will post a video that I'm choosing for today's Music Monday installment.  "Go Now" by Adam Levine.  He co-wrote this song with the director of Sing Street, John Carney.  I love how Adam's voice is a little grittier than usual in this song.  The video gives a good montage of scenes from the movie, and I think it gives you an good overall feel for what the movie is like.  And as I bonus, it's a great song! Enjoy...

Vacation Reading

Sunset in Cabo - (more about this vacation soon!)

Since I was on vacation in Cabo this past week, I had lots of time for reading. I'll keep it brief, but here's my mini-book reviews on the two books I read while lounging around.

As I mentioned in my last book review post, I read some reviews of this book before reading it that left me feeling a little unexcited.

The Good Neighbor by A.J. Banner

Several of the reviews on Goodreads were pretty negative, and several people complained about the ending in particular.  I couldn't remember why I had chosen to read it by the time I got it from the library- But it probably showed up on my Amazon "recommended" feed or something.  The book was pretty short (194 pages) so I figured, even if it wasn't great, it wouldn't take much time for me to be done with it, and just see what I thought for myself.

Although I agree with what was said in many of the reviews I read (that it was "formulaic", that the characters were all stereotypically beautiful, that the ending seemed a little abrupt, and that there might have been a few too many characters than were necessary), it kept my attention and I wanted to find out how it was going to end.

Oh wait... I should back up and say the story begins with a house fire.  The narrator of the story, Sarah, saves a little neighbor girl from the burning house, but the Mom and Dad die.  Sarah has a concussion and can't remember what happened. So the book is all about Sarah trying to piece it all together to find out- was it an accident?  Or did someone plan this fire?  And was it suppose to be her house, rather than her next door neighbor's?  And was/is her husband having an affair?

Short chapters tend to work well for suspense books. And like I mentioned, it was a short book.  So I got through it pretty quickly, and enjoyed it enough. Although it wasn't awesome, and I can barely remember that much about it- even a week later- it kept me entertained for a few hours.  I'd give it 3 out of 5 stars.

But there are definitely better books in this genre...
Like, the one that I read next.

Hush Little Baby by Suzanne Redfearn

Although Hush Little Baby was much longer than the other book, (352 pages) it was a quick read too.  Partly because it was hard to put down.  Again... short chapters!  And in this book SO much was happening in each one!

The narrator in this book, Jillian, is married and has two kids.  On the outside, her life looks awesome...but, of course, that's not the case.  She's in the thick of an abusive marriage.  She stays married out of fear, but eventually decides to leave... also because of fear.  Fear that her husband is going to kill her! But, in leaving, she also fears that he will get custody of the kids~ because he's a cop and everyone thinks he's a great dad and all around great guy. All the while, he's her making look like the crazy person.

One part of the book that seemed stupid to me was when Jillian got a DUI- while driving her kids around.  The husband had a cop pull her over, because he knew she had been drinking and wanted her to get busted.  Later, the charges were dropped once they realized her husband was an a-hole.  But really?  A DUI is kind of a big deal.  Especially with two little kids in the car.  So that kind of bugged me.  But it wasn't a big part of the story...

By the way, I read the reviews of Hush Little Baby after I finished it.  (Probably a better way to do it!) Other readers seemed to really like this one.  Probably giving it more credit actually than I would. I think it got an over all rating of 4 1/2 stars on Goodreads site.  I'd probably give it about 3 1/2 stars. It was good, but I wouldn't say it was great. And the writing wasn't so good that it moved me to tears as a few people said.  But see for yourself!

Stay tuned for my recap of our trip to Cabo...

An Unexpected Spree

It barely ever fails.  When Fermin needs to buy something, and I tag along, I'm the one that ends up finding stuff, and he doesn't.  Or, if I'm the one needing to buy something, and he tags along, he's the one that ends up finding all sorts of stuff to buy and I end up with nothing. 

We LOVE Whole Earth Provisions!

So last night, when Fermin needed to swing by Whole Earth Provisions to look for shoes, he jokingly said, "Ok, we're here for you, Kerri."- thinking he could trick the universe, and he would actually be the one to find something great to buy, since he was, after all, the one looking.

But the universe cannot be fooled, apparently.  I wasn't really even looking for anything.  In fact, I considered just sitting in the car and killing time because I was feeling so lazy, I didn't even want to have to walk into the store.

I went in though, and I saw sale signs in all my favorite places in the store.  And then found out there was an additional 25% off a lot of the things I was looking at.

Reluctantly, I tried on a few pair of shoes.  And a few t-shirts.  Although I am not in need of any shoes, when I find a pair both cute and comfortable and marked way, way down in price, who am I to walk away from that?!  And honestly, although I don't need any t-shirts either, I have been noticing lately, how few short sleeved t-shirts I have.  I love the "Life is Good" brand, and they just so happened to be on sale.

Fermin did find a pair of shoes that he might buy, but he wasn't sure.  He wanted to look around a little more before buying them.  I, however, ended up with 3 pairs of shoes (Omg, I know!)...

three pair of shoes, to walk 2 best friends!

an up-close photo of my favs!

and 4 new shirts...

Life Is Good, and Kuhl!

my fav t-shirt, up-close!

It feels a little extravagant, buying all of these things during this unexpected splurge.  BUT, if my calculations are correct, I actually saved more money than I spent.

Don't worry, Fermin- next time we'll go shopping for you!  Really!  ;)

Hidden Bodies

I just finished reading Hidden Bodies by Caroline Kepnes last night.

Hidden Bodies by Carline Kepnes

Like most fiction I read, I checked this one out from the library.  I knew I had read Caroline Kepnes' last book, YOU when it first came out.  I know I really liked it, but I didn't remember the plot or anything else about it when I first chose this book.  But once I started reading Hidden Bodies, it was very familiar.  I slowly began to realize that not only was it similar in style to the previous book (...which makes sense, right?  Both books were written by the same author after all!) but I figured out, the narrator was the same person.  It was a continuation of the YOU, which I had to really reach to remember at this point.

YOU was just so cleverly done and different than the other books I have read in that genre.  The narrator, Joe, is a sociopathic murderer... but somehow funny, and even occasionally sympathetic and someone you can kind of identify with.

There was a point about mid-way through Hidden Bodies when I grew a little tired of it and started skimming.  I was having this feeling of, "This is so similar to the previous book, and I already read that one!" BUT fortunately, I got sucked back in soon enough and it was a fast page turner up until the very end.  And guess what?  There's going to be a third book of Joe. I heard the author interviewed on a podcast and she confirmed that to be true.

Honestly, just one book of Joe would have been enough for me.  And although Hidden Bodies is a continuation of Joe's story, you could read either book without reading the other and it would still feel like a complete and satisfying thriller.  If you just can't get enough of Joe's story, you can read the next one.  And eventually the next.  But don't wait as long as I did in between or you'll forget the previous book anyway... ;)

I'm even more interested to read what comes after this three part book series for Caroline Kepnes. 

For now, it's on to the next book- by an author I have never read before.

The Good Neighbor by A.J. Banner

(Dammit!  I just made the mistake of reading some reviews of it on Goodreads that weren't that good.  Well, it's less than 200 pages, so I'll find out for myself soon enough!)