Hey Bookworm friends! I can’t believe the first quarter of the year is done, I legit don’t know where the time went! I feel like I barely got anything done in March and I haven’t been able to feel grounded for a while. Always feeling distracted and restless. It’s a bit hard to feel energized and productive when it feels like the world is imploding on itself. But anyway, we persist and it’s imperative to take the time to feel grateful for the little things. Here’s a look back at March and what media I consumed.
But first! I’m hosting a giveaway on Instagram to raise money for a family in Gaza. Please check out my post for the details but it’s open until the end of April 12th. The campaign needs more attention so I would appreciate any efforts to help spread the word! The link to the GoFundMe Campaign is here. Thank you 💖
March Highlights
- Finally caved a got a new laptop! It feels great to be able to write without any tech issues 🥲!
- In March I got to see some friends for an all you can eat sushi lunch. It was delicious and we had so much fun. Then the next day, we went to a craft fair and I got some handmade soap and jewelry. I always love any chance to shop small and local 🖤!
- Cheeto is all healed up from when he broke his dew claw! The poor boy had to have his broken nail pulled off by the vet and had to wear his cone of shame for a couple of days. Or rather, his neck pillow of coziness. What an excellent purchase, he wore it the whole time without a single complaint 🙌🙌!
What I Watched In February
I made myself laugh by saying I wanted to watch a TV show that’s not science fiction, then deciding to watch Fallout 😂!! I’m like the aunt from my Big Fat Greek Wedding who thinks lamb isn’t meat! Regardless, Fallout got me hooked right away and despite never having played a Fallout game, I really liked it. Probably the best thing I watched this month!
As soon as a new WILTY season comes out, we make short work of it and this one was no different. It’s just such a fun show to watch while we eat! We then finally switched to something non-sci-fi by putting on Interview With The Vampire but called it quits after season 1. I liked what they did with the modern twists but since I already know the general story, I wasn’t gripped and I definitely wasn’t invested enough to keep going. Now we’re at the start of Babylon 5, and I’m enjoying it. And I also found Miracle Workers on Hoopla and jumped right in! I always enjoy Daniel Radcliffe’s acting so I’m keen to see where this show goes.
Lastly, my husband and I subscribe to Cinema Therapy‘s Patreon. We’re currently in one of our phases of watching a ton of videos until we catch up. We always come back to these guys because we love their mix of silly comedy, vulnerability, mental health conversations, and movie analysis. Plus Alan and Jono’s friendship is a delight to watch. They recently posted a music video for High School Musical’s Bet On It and oh my gosh! The way my HSM loving self hasn’t stopped laughing for days! Here’s a YouTube short for your viewing pleasure, and I guess free publicity for their Patreon, but whatever I love them unabashedly.
Finished Watching
- Fallout (S1)
- Interview With A Vampire (S1, DNF)
- Would I Lie To You (S 18)
Currently Watching
- Babylon 5 (S1)
- Miracle Workers (S1)
- Cinema Therapy (YouTube Channel + Patreon)
What I Listened To
- This is History Podcast With Dan Jones, Finished season 6 this morning while making waffles! Somewhat amazed it’s still keeping my attention since I’m not much of a Podcast person. But Jones’ storytelling is spellbinding so that makes sense.
- Depending on my mood, I sometimes like to put on Ambient music to try to match the vibes of what I’m reading. I can only focus on reading if the music has no lyrics that I can sing along to, lol. The last one I put on is Allfather by Neon Odin and it’s a really fun synthwave album with Norse inspiration.
Games I Played in February
- My play-through of Baldur’s Gate 3 with my partner is still going and we finally made it to Baldur’s Gate. I think my most disliked part of the game so far is the circus, I desperately didn’t want to go there but we did anyways and bad things happened. Worst circus ever.
- It’s been a while since we played the board game Wingspan, but this weekend we made time to play it and as always it was a ton of fun!
- I hung out with some friends at a board game cafe this month, one of the best pass times if you ask me! When my friend suggested playing Pergamon, I thought we were about to play a Pokemon game 😂! No, no, my friend said: “PER-GA-MON”. It turns out it’s a game about digging for artifacts, and creating museum exhibits and it was really fun but also really hard! I feel like I’ve played a lot more complicated games but this one surprisingly had a lot of math in it and I struggled!
- I found a free video game on Steam called Hamster Playground and I was lured in by the cuteness and tried it out. It’s basically a game where you maintain a hamster habitat and take care of their needs. But also, you train them to compete in obstacle races to win rewards. It’s really adorable and fun but ultimately not the kind of game you can play for too many hours as it’s a bit too repetitive with nowhere to go. It’s worth it if you want to watch hamsters do silly things for a little while 🐹.
Craft WIP
Here’s how my granny square blanket is going. So far, I have about 8 squares of each dominating colour (Burgundy, Clay, Fern, and Chocolate). I either need 9 or 12, depending on what size I’m gonna make but because I’m new at this, I don’t know how much yarn I’m gonna need for what’s left. I’ll probably need to keep some yarn to sew all of the pieces together and make the border. So maybe I’ll make the small size 🤔 Either way I’ll have to make this decision soon and if I have to use a different yarn to sew them together invisibly, I’ll just do that!
Around The Blogosphere
This section celebrates and shares some of the blog posts I loved this month! Posts I share here aren’t necessarily written this month but rather read and enjoyed by me this month. I’m happy to show older posts some love too 🖤
- SFF Title Challenge Possibilities TBR: (Charlotte @ Bewitching Books, Ravenous Reads)
- Andre Norton – 20 years gone (Nic @ Dragon Rambles)
- How to Write Amazing Blog Posts Using Notion + FREE Templates! (Sumedha @ The Wordy Habitat)
- 15 Historical Fiction Books and Series You Must Check Out (Timy @ Queen’s Book Asylum)
- Winter Reading Diary (Sophie @ Me & Ink)
Review:
- ONCE WAS WILLEM by M.R. Carey – Review (Tammy @ Books, Bones & Buffy)
- The Bane Witch by Ava Morgyn – Review (Rebecca @ Powder & Page)
- Paladin’s Grace by T. Kingfisher – Book Review! (Becky @ Becky’s Book Blog)
I encourage you to visit some of these lovely bloggers 😊!
Let’s chat in the comments!
What’s a highlight from your month? Did you listen to any good music or find cool games you want to tell me about?
I honestly don’t know how we’re a quarter of the way through the year already either and March seemed to come and go in an instant for me too.
Good luck with the giveaway/fundraiser 🥰
Yay for your new laptop 😊 the craft fair sounds lovely too. It’s always nice seeing what people are able to make. I’m glad that Cheeto is better now too ❤️ those kind of collars are so much better than the full blown cone ones. They really should advertise them more.
I didn’t realise there was a Fallout TV show. I only know of the games and honestly don’t know much about them. I got one second hand but didn’t get very far on it. I really should try it again sometime 😂 I’m sorry that Interview With The Vampire didn’t work for you. Have you read the books or did you know the story from the movie? I hope your ongoing watches go well too
I really need to try podcasts one day. I have a few recommendations on a screenshot somewhere. I’m very bad at getting around to trying new things out though 🙈
Wait how can you not like a circus? Is it a freaky circus? Also Pergamon definitely sounds more like a Pokemon game than an archaeology one. Sounds like a fun concept though.
Ooh wow it looks like your blanket is going wonderfully. I love all of those granny squares 😍 it’s so cool that you’re doing so well with it. I basically figured chains out then randomly stopped. I must try again this year sometime.
Thanks so much for linking to my post 🥰 I definitely want to check out some of the others sometime. Although I’m in two minds about reading one of the reviews before or after I read the book it’s about 😂
My highlight was seeing Hamilton. It was just incredible and such a delight to witness on stage. I didn’t know any of the music going into it, just how popular it was, but it was so good 😍
I’m so glad that it’s not just me then haha!
Thanks so much, It’s been quite tough to get enough people interested but I’m not giving up lol!
Woohoo, now I hope you can get yours soon :)& yes I love to see what different people make and there were also a lot of vintage stalls too which I also enjoy 🙂 Thanks so much yeah I wonder why the vet doesn’t suggest them too, they’re just as functional but less horrid lol.
Yeah I only heard about the show because a friend mentioned it but I’m glad because I really liked it though it is very violent so there were times I had to close my eyes. Oh good luck if you try the game again, that sounds fun! And for Interview, I did read the book and also saw the movie so I guess from both of those. Though I do appreciate the modern twists the show incorporated.
I totally understand being bad at trying new things, it certainly takes more effort and sometimes we just don’t have enough bandwidth for that.
Yes, it’s a very creepy circus, with a zombie-like clown and such. like I just wanted to get out of there lol. Ahaha I’m glad you think so too, that makes me laugh! It was a fun game but with so many variables to think about.
Thank you, I am excited about the progress and that’s so sweet of you 🥰 Oh cool, I definitely support you if you want to try again 🙂
My pleasure! Yes I totally understand sometimes wanting to go into a book without reading any reviews! That’s fair.
Oh wow that’s so nice you got to see Hamilton I’ve never seen it but I’m glad to hear you loved it! It really is such a popular show!
Beautiful “granny squares”! Is that crochet? And all you can eat sushi is the best…sadly, the one we used to have closed years ago, but at least we still have great sushi options otherwise. And Babylon 5…wow, that brings me back to the late 90s when I used to watch that with my Dad. It’s a great show and I’d love to rewatch it and also introduce it to my husband. Maybe I should see if there are any DVD sets to buy.
Yes, granny squares are crochet 🙂 Awe that’s too bad that your AYCE sushi place closed down, what a bummer :(. I don’t go often myself because I don’t eat enough to rationalize the AYCE price haha. Glad there are still good other options for you though 😀
ahah aw wow that’s cute! I never watched it in the 90’s I’m watching now for the first time and some of the visual effects make me giggle but I love the 90’s vibe. I’m only on season 1 and I don’t think it’s too dated in terms of themes it still holds up rather well, at least so far. Hopefully you can enjoy a re-watch and oh that’s a good idea :D!
The crochet blanket looks great. If you’re concerned about how much yarn you need, how about getting a new colour to crochet the blocks together? It gives a different look as it adds a kind of grid border throughout the blanket, and while it may take longer than sewing them together, but it is more enjoyable 🙂.
Thanks for the share. If it brings more people to reading Andre Norton, I’m even happier. I’m looking forward to checking out the historical fiction post you linked too. I wonder if there is anything on the list that I have on my shelves.
Thank you! I might consider that, I do have another brown yarn so maybe that’s the way to go, I’ll have to see how nice it looks first 🙂 I can see how that would give it a different look and honestly both styles sound nice to me now I just want to make two blankets! lol
My pleasure, and hopefully, I shared it because I had never heard of her before and this way maybe others will appreciate her contributions! Hmmm I hope you find some interesting Hist Fic on there 🙂
Thanks so much for linking to my review! BTW Cheeto is super cute… I’m obsessed with his ears!
My pleasure! And thank you so much haha his pointy ears bring me a lot of joy too 🥰
Cheeto is adorable, I’m glad he’s ok😁 I love the crochet project, someday I’m going to take up crocheting!
And thank you for linking my review, I hope you have an awesome April😁
Happy April to you too 😀 My pleasure!
Thank you and I’m glad he’s ok too and that he got over it quick. Also thanks, I have been teaching myself and I find it equally challenging and relaxing! 😀
Poor Cheeto! I’m glad he’s on the mend.
Thanks so much, that’s so sweet! He’s all good now 💖
Your granny squares look great! The finished blanket (no matter how big you decide to make it) will be lovely.
Happy April! (No, I don’t know where the first quarter of the month went, either.)
Aww thank you, you always make gorgeous things so coming from you that means a lot 🥰! Haha it truly flew by and happy April to you too 😀
I didn’t know you were a fellow crocheter! I’ve never been brave enough to crochet a whole blanket, so I really respect your dedication. Also really love the color scheme you’ve chosen. Best of luck finishing your project!
Oh, I didn’t know you were either, that’s awesome! What type of stuff do you like to crochet? And this is my first blanket and it’s sure taking a long time but I’m enjoying the process. Thank you :D!
I am really into amigurumi right now, so all kinds of animals. I just did a pair of foxes for someone. I am currently obsessively crocheting mushrooms because I think they’d be a great prop for photos for Instagram (whenever I finally decide to return to the platform).
It is hard to focus knowing what is happening with the world, as you said it is about finding the balance between appreciating the little things in your life but not hiding from the world’s current truth. Good luck with the fundraiser!
I’m glad Cheeto is doing better.
I have seen Miracle Workers around and wanted to check it out for a while. I hope you enjoy!
Thank you so much for sharing my post. Wishing you all the best for April! 🥰
Yes you’ve put it very well, that’s exactly it! 🙂
Aw, he says thanks 🐶!
I had heard of it so when I found it on Hoopla I thought why not! Thanks 🙂
My pleasure and have a delightful April! 💖
I mean, do we *have* to say the year is already 25% loaded? lol … It has been a weird whirlwind of a start to the year for sure, and March was blustering around with its own twisted swagger, but hey – we’re making it! 😀
What a full month! 😀 And your granny squares look so good!! I’ve kinda fallen in love with them myself, working on my book cover blanket, and have decided when I finish Mr’s striped afghan (hopefully very soon), I’m going to try … drumroll please … a HEXAGON granny! Because I’m nothing if not over ambitious 😉 lol
I’ll have to give the Dan Jones podcast a try – I’m very new to podcasts, but this one sounds intriguing. And I liked his medieval castles tv series (although, as someone who formerly worked in a university history dept, the leather jacket got me 🤣)
Here’s to a fabulous April! <3
haha I feel like the year being 25% loaded sounds a lot nicer than 25% over so I like your wording! 🙂 It really has been a weird whirlwind, I agree!
It was a full month and thank you so much! They are addicting to make that’s for sure. Ohh first, a striped afghan sounds delightful but Ouuuu a hexagon granny sounds very exciting and I’ve been seeing hexagon patterns for cardigans which super interest me! I hope all of your projects go well and I love that you’re trying new things!
Okay if you liked his medieval castles show you might really like the podcast, I’ve been meaning to watch the castle show myself! Ahaha I love an anachronistic leather jacket in a castle, that’s kind of a cool vibe but lol that’s so funny 😂
Yess cheers to a wonderful April, thank you! 🖤