Category: Personal & Comentary

Kate Spade New York: All In Good Taste Book Review

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While during a recent clean out and organization of my things, I came across some books I wanted to write review posts for. One of those books is All In Good Taste by Kate Spade New York.

The book, which was published in 2015, is by the fashion and lifestyle brand, Kate Spade New York. I’m a fan of Kate Spade New York and really love shopping the brand. At the time I purchased this book, I wanted to own some of the books by Kate Spade New York. I decided to pick All In Good Taste first because it is about the do’s and don’ts of entertaining.

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Shopping at Home Goods and If the Trendy Internet Shopping Craze is Really Worth It

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Earlier this week, I decided to spontaneously stop by my closest Home Goods. I haven’t been to this particular Home Goods since the beginning of this year due to vehicle problems… and my own lack of motivation to actually shop. During this trip, I needed to go to the area for another reason. When I drove past the shopping area Home Goods is located, I remembered I wanted to shop for several things there. So, I decided it was a good idea to stop by!

While waiting for a price check on one of the items I was shopping for, I talked to the cashier about the store and a few other things. That was when she mentioned how popular Hello Kitty was last year. She talked about a long line for people to get into the store before it opened just to be able to purchase Hello Kitty merchandise.

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Discovering New Alternatives for Hard Apple Cider in Recipes

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Ever since I discovered I have food allergies, I have tried my best to adjust any recipe I use to avoid my allergies. Over the years I’ve become more adapted to recognizing recipes with ingredients I can’t use and how to still use the recipe anyway.

Last year, I decided to try make a new bagel recipe. It called for hard apple cider or beer for it. I don’t like to make recipes with beer in it because beer normally plays an important role in the recipe. In fact, the role is so important that I find it is hard to use the recipe with alternative ingredients.

Even though the recipe called for beer or hard apple cider (Both of which I am allergic to) I still decided to give it a try. I thought that if hard apple cider can be used instead of beer, then I could use another apple-based juice as it’s replacement. That’s when I began to learn about why apple juice isn’t a good substitute for beer or hard apple cider.

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I Have a New Tomato from My Tomato Plant!

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I have happy news! I harvested my first tomato from my tomato plant!

Here it is!

My tomato plant was able to grow two tomatoes since I brought it home. This one is the first one to become ripe. I am having some problems with my tomato plant with bugs, but it is still growing, putting out blooms, and otherwise doing fine.

The plant I own was purchased from Walmart. The tomato plant is called “Patio” and is from Bonnie Plants. It will grow about 2 feet tall and is supposed to grow well in containers. The type of tomatoes it produces are not big, but are not like cherry tomatoes. They are more like slicing tomatoes, just smaller.

 

That’s all for now! Thank you for reading!

A New Tomato Plant, Bug Infestation, and Struggles With My Pesticide Allergies

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Two weeks ago, I decided to bring home a tomato plant. It wasn’t a spontaneous purchase as I wanted to grow one for many years. Yet, I didn’t plan on purchasing one this year.

With this tomato plant, I now have four plants: An amaryllis, a cactus, a sweet basil, and the tomato plant. I’m really happy to own all four, but I did notice something really serious that happened to my plants: a bug infestation.

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My Favorite Events for Disneyland’s 70th Anniversary

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Today is the start of Disneyland’s 70th Anniversary! I am really happy to see Disney is doing special things for the platinum anniversary of Disneyland. (Also known as the Disneyland Resort)

Although I have no plans for a vacation to Disneyland this year, I still try to keep up to date with what is going on in the park. This way whenever I do go on vacation to Disneyland, I will know what has changed and what hasn’t. For the 70th Anniversary, there are events planned from May 16, 2025 through 2026. This allows for a longer window of time to visit the park and enjoy the special anniversary events.

After doing some research about the anniversary events, there are a few anniversary events that caught my eye. Since they start today, I wanted to talk about my favorite events in a post. I got the information about the events from Disneyland’s official webpage for the 70th anniversary and from Disney Parks Blog’s Complete Guide to the 70th Anniversary.

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Updating My Social Media Sites and the Guilt About Abandoning Them

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Earlier this year I decided to start updating all my social media sites more frequently. Before this, I mostly used Twitter to post updates that I have published new posts on my blogs. This time, I decided to try to update all of them more frequently.

The problem is I’ve been struggling with a lot of feeling about my social medias. One of the major feelings is guilt about abandoning them. For some, I’ve had them for over ten years and created them to promote my art, which, at that time, is what I was trying to turn into a full time career. Since then I’ve drifted into other topics similar to my blogs. Yet, in the extremely late 2010’s, I stopped posting as much as I used to be.

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6 Things I Learned About Creating and Writing Blog Posts

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When I created this blog in 2017, I had experienced many ups and downs of blogging. I’ve had writer’s block, trouble keeping pace with my weekly blogging schedule, and even had problems with people I knew offline and their opinions about what I should and shouldn’t blog. All the time this was happening I was working, took care of a relative that eventually passed away, and dealt with my own health problems. Still, I wanted blog where I could write posts about anything that fell into a lifestyle category. Thus why this blog exists today.

After all the years of blogging, it wasn’t until recently I realized I have readers not because I talk about whatever is trendy, I talk about whatever I want to talk about. Since realizing this, I remembered my unofficial “rules” for writing a blog. I’ve been dwelling on them quite a bit in the last few weeks, so I decided to write six things I learned about creating and writing blog posts. These are not all my unofficial “rules”, but they are the ones I feel would be the most helpful to anyone struggling to write posts for blogs.

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Christmas 2024 is Looking Happier Than I Expected…

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In a previous post, I talked about how this holiday season isn’t going as expected. Well, it still isn’t. Yet, there is something that happened that makes it better: My relative isn’t getting surgery this week!

I was told my relative will have surgery this week, but it turns out it is just an appointment. I’m pretty happy to know that my relative isn’t having surgery this, but I am pretty upset about the mistake. Especially since I included it in a post! I don’t like to write posts about my life online because it can change so quickly due to my job and other things that can happen on a day to day basis. This is why I don’t like to talk about my personal life in posts. This isn’t easy for me because I run a lifestyle blog, so it makes sense that I will talk about myself and my life. But this isn’t my life. It’s my relative’s life. That’s why I’m very upset about the mistake and writing about it in a post!

I feel both upset because of the fact I wrote this online thinking it is the truth, yet I am happy there won’t be any surgery until next year. Christmas 2024 still isn’t the perfect holiday it could be though. There are still plenty of things that make me upset and sad this year. That’s why I’m taking the fact that there won’t be a surgery before Christmas and giving thanks for the happy blessing that it is.

 

That’s all for now! Thank you for reading!

Christmas 2024 Isn’t Turning Out As Planned…

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To be honest, not every Christmas turns out just as planned. This year, it just feels different. I can’t explain why, but it does. And when I say different, I mean it in a sad and depressing way.

It started when I found out my relative will have surgery. I was expecting it and the fact it is an outpatient surgery bothers me, but that’s because it is surgery. It is needed and is important to prevent major problems in the future. I was fine taking care of them… until I found out the surgery is scheduled the week before Christmas. That, and the fact that this will be the second time this year my relative is having surgery in three months bothers me.

Then the driving around the area where I live is just weird. Arizona isn’t know for it’s safe driving anymore (It hasn’t been since the early to mid 2000’s) but this type of driving? It’s weird. Really weird. I’m too scared to drive anywhere anymore. This means I stay home and not go anywhere fun for the holiday season. No driving to my favorite mall and walk around to look at the decorations and shop. No trips to see a light parade. No visits to my friends’ homes to see how they are doing. (They are like me and decided not to drive as much as they normally do this year)

Add to this problems with my Christmas decorations (Specifically a nativity scene I purchased a few years ago and I love, but is having very weird condition issues) and a virus that has lasted over a week and… well… Christmas 2024 hasn’t been turning out way I thought it would.

This year, I feel depressed about how everything is turning out. It is something I’ve been watching for the past few years and has reawakened some of my old dislikes towards the area where I live. There is still time until Christmas and New Year’s Eve for things to turn around. Yet, as I write this post, I don’t know if it will change. This Christmas season is probably the season when I’ll need to celebrate close to home and approach the reason for the season in a different way.

 

That’s all for now. Thank you for reading.