As Mariah Carey says… IT’S TIIIIIIIIME! I love Christmas pop songs and covers. I’ve been building on this playlist for a few years and sometimes add a whole album at a time, so I would recommend listening to it on shuffle. It’s still November, but I’ve already been vibing to it while sipping on tea, munching on Trader Joe’s biscuits, and crocheting a new scarf. It’s just started getting a little chilly in LA, so I’m trying to finish the scarf ASAP to get the most wear out of it this season.
My Halloween playlist
I’ve had a Christmas playlist for the longest time, but for some reason I’ve never put together a Halloween playlist. I suppose that’s because I usually opt for Halloween movies (namely Henry Selick/Tim Burton movies and Harry Potter) over Halloween music, whereas for Christmas, I usually opt for Christmas music over Christmas movies (also Harry Potter haha). I’ve only just noticed this about myself. Is anyone else the same?
Anyways, I miss Halloween on the east coast. Halloween is pretty big in LA — people like to get dressed up and the amusement parks have their Halloween themes — but it just isn’t the same when sun is shining on palm trees and it’s too warm to get bundled in coats and scarves. I really feel like a weirdo wearing a scarf in LA unless it’s actually cold out… so I haven’t yet!
And that brings me back to my Halloween playlist. I need all the Halloween vibes I can get! I’ve only got 24 songs on my playlist so far, but I plan to add to it for years to come.
Incomplete crochet projects of 2023
Time is an illusion! Annual goals are arbitrary! Incomplete projects are not failures! There is time yet!
Crochet has been a lesson in living for the journey, not the destination. A testament to this is how compelled I am to share my incomplete crochet projects, not realising until now that I have yet to share my completed projects (this intro is the last part I’m writing in this whole post, trippy). Maybe that post will come haha. Back to the point. I don’t need a million hats or bags or coasters or book sleeves, but I love making them! I’m happy to make the same things over and over, to make different things, to gift away things I’ve made. Frogging work isn’t so unbearable (mostly). Because as long as I’m crocheting, it doesn’t matter so much to me that it’s taking me ages or I’ve had to restart. This is the joy of a hobby, where the reward is in the doing, not some prize at the end.
That said, the amount of Baby Baggus I have lying around with my half-finished projects is getting out of hand, so I’ve gathered my crochet works in progress as a way to take inventory, expound my mental (and technical) blocks, illuminate actionable steps forward, and get your feedback too! There are some projects I’ve simply not gotten around to finishing and some I’m genuinely stuck on.
All the books I read in the second half of 2023
I hit a reading slump mid-year and my reading never really picked back up. In the second half of 2023, I read 19 books or 5261 pages, bringing my 2023 total to 53 books or 16611 pages. I didn’t think I’d hit 52 book this year and had even gone back to readjust my Goodreads reading challenge in the last days of December, lowering it to 50, but I hit 52 books just in time and randomly came across a picture book that got rave reviews from Redditors, taking me to 53. The number doesn’t matter so much to me, but I still wanted to remember reading that book! (I promptly reverted my Goodreads reading challenge goal back to 52.)
I’m a slow reader and turn to books to avoid responsibilities, so I spend more time than I should reading and have been telling myself to read less, or at least not get so caught up in reading the incredible number of books that it feels like so many other bookstagrammers do. Quality, not quantity! That said, I only have one new all-time favourite from the second half of the year and two honourable mentions. Anyways, I’m planning to share my 2023 reading wrap up in a separate post (including top reads), so look out for that!
2023 mid-year book freak out tag
It’s been a very lacklustre reading year so far! January started off strong, as I usually like to get ahead of the Goodreads reading challenge over winter break. February and March were steady. April was finals month, so I only managed to binge the Twisted series. I kicked off summer break in May with a super casual readathon and kept the momentum going, but it all fell apart in June haha. In the latter half of June, I was hyperfixated on James Cameron, maritime disasters, and Bakery Story, so I barely picked up a book. I’m still ahead of my Goodreads reading challenge though, thanks to the buffer I set up for myself in January. Across these past six months, I’ve read 34 books or 11350 pages, of which 81% were by women authors and 55% by authors of colour. 5 were rereads, and I have 2 new all-time favourites, so all is not lost!
Some bookish highlights include hosting my first ever bookstagram giveaway where I gave away one of my crochet love letter book sleeves, receiving an ARC and signed final copy of Yellowface by RF Kuang from the publisher, and receiving a Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow publisher tote bag and signed hardcover, which Cheryne won in a giveaway then sent to me?? Speechless.
The bookish lowlight was the end of Book Depository, rip. I’ve loved watching everyone’s final Book Depository hauls… but at what cost??? For those in the US looking for UK editions, Blackwell’s is an affordable option, but unfortunately I don’t have any recs for those in the UK looking for US editions. Please share if you know any!
The Super Mario Bros Movie & Super Nintendo World
Super Nintendo World is absolutely swarming right now, what with it being just over a month since opening, The Super Mario Bros Movie just coming out, spring break, and the first week of good weather LA has had in months! These marketers know what they’re doing!
The Super Mario Bros Movie
We watched The Super Mario Bros Movie the night before visiting Super Nintendo World as a pre-game. While I can’t personally speak to the movie’s nostalgia factor since I don’t play video games, I know that there are a ton of references that fans will enjoy. The movie is pretty much all references and no plot, but hey, sometimes you just need something that’s not that serious! My favourite sequence was towards the beginning of the movie when Mario and Luigi were running to their first client. It was a great adaptation of the game mechanics without being too literal, and it was a great scene for characterisation as well.
Super Nintendo World
The next day, we headed out to Universal Studios Hollywood bright and early, and made a beeline to Super Nintendo World. We only had two things on our itinerary: Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge and Toadstool Cafe. The only other things to do at Super Nintendo World are the four mini games, which you need to buy a power-up band to play (they’re kind of like the wands at Harry Potter World), but you can just buy one for your party and pass it around if you don’t want to shill out the bucks.
Despite arriving only 30 minutes after the park opened, we snagged some of the last spots for Super Nintendo World’s virtual line. Luckily I found a link for Toadstool Cafe reservations the previous night, so we were able to book that on our drive over once the link went live for the day. Otherwise, we would have had to wait until we got into Super Nintendo World to scan the Toadstool Cafe reservation QR code, and they definitely would have been fully booked by the time we got in.