M A Y ♥ book club chat & J U N E ♥ book choice

Well, dear reader friends, the time has come to discuss one of my all-time most very favorite books...

Because of Winn-Dixie.

This book brought me ever so much joy and friendship as an 11-year-old girl sitting all by myself in school, no friends in my class, feeling very much like I just didn't fit in. But one day, I opened this book and was welcomed into the friendship circle of Opal and Winn-Dixie. And this book has stuck with me ever since.

As an adult, some of the same things that I loved as a schoolgirl remain the same. The quaintness and heartwarming feel of the story. The cast of characters, who I'd love to know in real life. The sweet friendship and joy that a pet can bring. The magic of summertime. The way Opal felt out of place until she found "her people". 

All that still remains in my heart and is very much why I love this story.

But, there's more now that I'm a "grown-up". I absolutely love the generational friendships in this story. I love how children are seen as people who very much have something to bring to a friendship...and to the world. I love how the adults truly bring those children into their spaces and never once were they made to feel like a nuisance. I love that friendships can bloom at any old time and in any old place...and sometimes because of a dog. Because of Winn-Dixie.

I love how hopeful this story feels. I love how it reignites so many summertime memories of my own childhood. I appreciate the idea that friendship can happen between any people who have a common interest of getting to know one another and being there for the other. I love how this book always makes me crave egg salad sandwiches...with pickles on the side. I love how magical and utterly delightful this story feels. 

Truly, one of my all-time favorites, of any genre. Every time I read this, I am reminded why. 

And have you seen the movie? It's one of my summertime must watches...in fact, I may have to pull it out soon for an evening of comfort and coziness.

There isn't anything I don't love about this book...

it's such a special story, and I'm thankful and glad it fell into my 11-year-old hands. ♥

As for June's book choice, I've gone for a fun, summery cozy mystery set in Scotland. This is the second in a duology, but I haven't gotten to read the first yet, and it's no big deal. This is a standalone story and I'm having no problems reading it without having read the first.

Let me tell you a bit about it...

Fiona Knox thought she was pulling her life back together when she inherited her godfather’s cottage in Duncreigan, Scotland—complete with a magical walled garden. But the erstwhile Tennessee flower shop owner promptly found herself puddle boot-deep in danger when she found a dead body among the glimmering blossoms. One police investigation later (made a trifle less unpleasant by the presence of handsome Chief Inspector Neil Craig), and Fiona’s life is getting back on a steady, though bewitched, track. Her sister Isla has just moved in with her, and the grand opening of her new spellbound venture, the Climbing Rose Flower Shop in Aberdeenshire, is imminent.

But dark, ensorcelled clouds are gathering to douse Fiona’s newly sunny outlook. First, imperious parish minister Quaid MacCullen makes it undeniably clear that he would be happy to send Fiona back to Tennessee. Then, a horrific lightning storm, rife with terribly omen, threatens to tear apart the elderly cottage and sends Fi and Isla cowering under their beds. The storm passes, but then, Fi is called away from the Climbing Rose’s opening soiree when Kipling, the tiny village’s weak-kneed volunteer police chief, finds a dead body on the beach.

The body proves difficult to identify, but Kipling is certain it’s that of the parish minister. Which makes Fiona, MacCullen’s new nemesis, a suspect. And what’s worse, Isla has seemed bewitched as of late…did she do something unspeakable to protect her sister? The last thing Fiona wanted to do was play detective again. But now, the rosy future she’d envisioned is going to seed, and if she and Craig can’t clear her name, her idyllic life will wilt away in Death and Daisies, national bestselling author Amanda Flower’s second enchanting Magic Garden mystery.

.........................................................................

I'm currently in the middle of this book and let me tell you...I am L O V I N G it! It's such a fun mystery, and the characters and setting are so phenomenal. Plus, it's got a bit of magic, which always is a huge bonus for me. {{smiles}}

I'd love to have you read along with me in June. You can find used copies of this book on AbeBooks right here. And, of course, your local library may have a copy as well. If you're in the mood for a lighter mystery, this is the book for you!

The chat for June's book club will be on Thursday, June 26th. I'll announce July's book then as well.

Until tomorrow, happy reading!

Oh, and I almost forgot, I have updated my YouTube channel as a bookish channel. And I've got a short little trailer up with plans for a summer book recommendation video coming soon...this is something I've wanted to do for a long time, and I'm so excited to begin sharing bookish videos! If you have any suggestions or specific topics related to books and the reading life, please let me know. I'm all ears!

You can find my channel HERE or by simply clicking the "my reading nook" button at the top of this page.

may photo journal ♥ day twenty-three ♥ wellness

wellness ...

a few things I've found lifegiving recently along my wellness journey:

♥ fresh air and neighborhood walks...despite the mosquitoes that pester me nonstop (I do make a spray that helps tremendously, when I remember to put it on!), the sun beating down, and the rising summer temperatures, I am thoroughly enjoying getting some nature time each day, and am being very purposeful about it, too, as I find it very much a "must" for my wellness journey

♥ making and using essential oil roller blends...I absolutely love making new blends and learning and studying about oils as much as I can. I have about 5 different blends that I use daily, and they seriously bring so much to my wellness- physically, mentally, and emotionally.

♥ drinking iced herbal teas...as summertime is fast approaching, it's iced tea season. Down here in the South, iced sweet tea is a mainstay, but I don't dare drink that stuff anymore as it is loaded down with sugar. But summer wouldn't feel like summer for me without mason jars filled with iced tea, so I opt for the healthier herbal tea versions. Just herbal tea bags steeped in water and chilled with ice. Nothing added. Pure perfection.

♥ reading before bed...this is a habit I've been practicing for the better part of the last 16 years, and it's one of my most favorite times of the day. Settling into my bed, cozied up under a couple really soft blankets, a delightful book in hand...and another two or three next to me, depending what kind of bookish mood I'm in. 

♥ developing a skincare routine that works for my skin...at thirty years old, I'm finally figuring out what works best for my skin...it only took me about 15 years or so to figure that out. {{winks}} I've been trying this and that for years, and I'm trying out some new things now, and hoping that they all weave together nicely into a little routine that is practically perfect in every way. One thing I've learned is that skincare is a lot of trial and error, especially when you want to do it the most natural way possible. It's a learning journey all its own!

.........................................................................

Wellness is the complete integration of body, mind, and spirit-

the realization that everything we do, think, feel, and believe

affects our state of well-being.

~ Unknown ~

may photo journal ♥ day twenty-two ♥ bookstack

bookstack ...

“Books give a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything.” (Plato)

This is a post to celebrate reading and books and the stories they tell. Truth be told, for me, everyday is a little celebration of books and stories and the adventures and journeys I go on within the pages of a book. I’m an eclectic mood reader, so I never know which direction my reading life is going to take me. One day I may be solving a mystery and the next, I’m living vicariously through the pages of a book in some quirky small town in the mountains hanging out with a bunch of unique characters. I could be in England one day and pottering about the Southern coast of America the next. Reading is an adventure. It is, for me, a comfort, a companion, a delight, a necessity. I’m a physical book reader only…I need that feel of a book in my hands. I need to turn the pages, see books stacked and lined up on shelves and tables. I need to smell that unmistakable book scent. I need to feel my books in every sense of the word.

How thankful I am for books and for the authors who write the stories I love. They are magic makers, word weavers, and story tellers. I’m so thankful that I decided to delve into the world of fiction when I reluctantly tiptoed in nearly a decade ago. Now, I can’t imagine my life without stories!

The books featured in today's post are simply some of my favorites. These are pretty much all books I've talked about here many times before. But, even after all this time, when I stand in front of my bookshelves, and think about pulling a stack of my beloved favorites, these are still the ones I reach for. And, of course, now that I'm looking at these photos, I'm realizing that I forgot a few books that I really, really love. 

I could talk and write about books for days and days and days. 

But this post was just intended to be a little celebration of stories and the wonder of reading.

I'd love to hear 5 of your top favorite novels, so please share with me in the comments!

Have a wonderful weekend, lovely readers!

may photo journal ♥ day twenty ♥ haven

haven ...

my room. my quarters. my chamber. my lair. my space. my burrow. my hobbit hole. my haunt. my cave. my hideaway. my sanctuary. my hidey-hole. my nest.

my haven.

haven...a place of safety, comfort, and peace.

how thankful i am for my cozy little haven. how much it sparks J O Y every time I walk through the door. how much fun it is to make it into a space that feels, looks, and embodies little ol' me. 

i love my little space. it's where i go to read, ponder, write, create, relax, rest, and have a moment. it's taken me quite some time to find what felt like me when it came to my space. all through my teens and early twenties, i wasn't sure exactly what i wanted my space to be and feel like. as my twenties began to roll on and reach their end, it finally became clear...i wanted it to feel warm and cozy and like some place i never want to leave. i wanted it to have colors and textures that made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. i wanted it to reflect me in many different ways. and just like how i can't narrow down my interests or hobbies or passions to one or two, i don't need to narrow down my style to one aesthetic or color scheme or look...social media can make you begin to think that sometimes. i learned that i could embrace all the things i love and bring them into my space in various ways. and, finally, in my late twenties, something just clicked. i know just who i am and what i like and how i want my space to be.

i want it to be a haven that feels like i just stepped into a hobbit hole or a little hole in a tree where the mouse-folk of brambly hedge dwell or a bit like the weasley's burrow that feels all cozy and magical and warm inside. i want it to feel like a scrapbook, a collection of all the things that make me happy and that i love. i want it to be a place where i can just be me and where everything i love and delight in is held and shown in all sorts of ways, whether it be my patchwork curtains, my reading chair and the lumpy pillows on it, my desk and all the knickknacks on my shelves, or the hundreds of books that i have read and want to read. it's all me. and it suits me just right. it's a goldilocks sort of room. and i love it.

may photo journal ♥ day nineteen ♥ at the moment

at the moment ...

~ reading ~

I've been in a bit of a reading slump since mid-March and honestly have only read one or two books since then, which totally isn't like me. This is due to reading the same genre for about five books in a row and burning myself out, dealing with some stressful things that have gone on this spring, and having a bit of a hard time finding a book that clicks with me. At the start of May, I decided to try and get back to it...because I was really missing my reading time at that point. So, at the moment, I've got three books going. One is the first in a family saga trilogy set a decade after WWII, another is a cozy mystery with magical elements, and the third is a Southern fiction novel about friendship, starting over, and opening yourself up to goodness again. I'm really enjoying all three...thankfully. Here's hoping that keeps up!

~ watching ~

My sister discovered two new-to-her shows earlier this year and has since shared them with my mom and me...and now, we all love them. Definitely new favorites in our house. They are Monk and Psych. Both comedy-mystery-crime dramas, which is honestly everything I could want in a show. We're about halfway through each series and very much enjoying them.

~ listening ~

Spotify playlists continue to bring me much joy, both in creating them and finding just the right songs that I want for the feeling I'm going for, and then, of course, listening to them afterwards. Right now, I'm listening to a playlist I made that I named "my inner world". This is a playlist of all the gorgeous film scores that I've come to love over the last handful of years. And these arrangements and such are exactly what my inner world sounds like in my mind and in the depths of my soul. This playlist beings me endless joy and delight and I listen to it every chance I get. You can check it out here if you like. I like to put it on shuffle because I didn't want to take the time to arrange the film scores so that the songs from one movie or series weren't all together. I should have, but that is a ton of work. And the shuffle button works just as well. I highly recommend listening to this playlist whilst cooking dinner, baking bread or cookies, cleaning or organizing or tidying your home, working on a creative project, playing board games or cards, journaling, reading (if you can listen to music while reading), folding laundry, pretty much anything. These musical arrangements really take the most ordinary of moments and tasks and make them feel like some sort of magic just got sprinkled down over you...and that may be a bit over-dramatic, but that's truly how it feels for me. Oh, and don't forget to light a candle!

~ making ~

Over the weekend, my "making" was a whole bunch of meal and snack prep in the kitchen. I'm studying and learning from the Nourishing Traditions book, which is very informative and somewhat daunting, if I'm honest. This weekend, I made black beans using the method in the book of soaking overnight for an extended period of time and then cooking the next day. We also soaked a bunch of raw peanuts, and they are currently in the dehydrator for a very, very, very long time...maybe up to 24 hours according to the recipe. Some are going to be for snacking and the rest are for homemade peanut butter. And that, I'm super-duper excited about! I also made an incredibly delicious soup for dinner on Sunday. I doubled the recipe so we'd have lots of leftovers for lunches throughout the week. It's a cauliflower-based broth with chicken and veggies. It is seriously divine!

~ words ~

I am rooted, but I flow.

(Virginia Woolf)

I stumbled upon that quote last week and it's been on my mind ever since. I'm a firm believer in being rooted and living a rooted life. In today's world of nomadic lifestyles and very much nonrooted living, in every sense of the word---morally, physically, mentally, emotionally, you name it--- my belief of being rooted gets reiterated just about every single day. Sometime I want to share my thoughts on this rooted life thing, but I know it will definitely be against the cultural norm and modern value system, so I am a bit hesitant to share. But I also know that several of you have so kindly reached out when I've shared my thoughts on rooted, gentle living in the past and shared how much you believe that yourself, so I know there are indeed kindred spirits out there. Let me know if that's something you'd like to read about. I will tell you it definitely goes against the hustle culture, more-is-better belief, constant travel (especially international) lifestyle, nomadic/don't have an address/live in a bus or RV trend, ultra-materialistic/consumerist and inauthentic tendencies of today and such.

Do share your "at the moments" with me in the comments below!

Until tomorrow...

may your Monday be filled with beauty at every turn!

may photo journal ♥ day eighteen ♥ delight

delight ...

You can imagine my utter delight when I discovered our pink rose bush in bloom a few days ago. These roses are SO huge...almost as big as my hand. I haven't really seen too many roses this huge before. And truth be told, we had no idea these were so large when we planted them a few years back. It was quite a surprise when it bloomed for the first time...so full and gorgeous.

Delightful, indeed.

may photo journal ♥ day seventeen ♥ sparks J O Y

sparks J O Y ...

hot chocolate in the evening...I usually don't make it so decadent, but I was feeling in the mood for a bit of freshly whipped cream and a spoonful of mini chocolate chips on top. It was divine!

This may be a bit weird, but one of life's little pleasures I'm unashamedly obsessed with is seeing lights on inside homes from the windows, especially little lamps lit in windows. There are few things in the world I find as cozy and as homey as this. In the photos in this post, I was walking up our driveway from doing some yardwork and noticed how charming and welcoming our kitchen window looked with the light dimmed and our twinkle lights on the shelf. One of my favorite things to notice in the evenings, whether I'm on a walk or in the car, is the gentle glow of light coming from windows of people's homes...it's such a comforting sight.

I recently completely redecorated my bedroom. I didn't buy anything new or add anything different. I simply took everything down from my walls and shelves and just redecorated with the same things. It's made my room feel refreshed and I love it. My mom and sister helped me out quite a lot with hanging my shelves, which is definitely NOT a one-person job, and with arranging the frames on my walls. Even though it was such a simple project, using what I already had, it was such a fun thing to do and made me feel creative and inspired all over again.

Another thing that's sparked joy in my life is continuing my self-studies of herbalism, aromatherapy, and holistic wellness. This has been an ongoing interest of mine for years now, but it's only been in the last couple of years that I've really begun studying it through some online courses and videos as well as reading different material...and it brings me endless joy. I recently made a batch of our very favorite medicinal salve, which is always a fun afternoon project for me. Do let me know if you'd be interested in me sharing about herbalism, aromatherapy, holistic wellness, and things like that. It's one of my biggest passions!

What's been sparking J O Y in your life lately?