it’s almost the roaring twenties again!// feat. end of the decade book tag and more rambles

Published on December 29, 2019December 29, 2019 by 💫Ava💫4 Comments

So I just looked at my calendar and realized that in two days the decade is over. It was literally just January first and all I wanted to do was blink and now its almost twenty flipping twenty!

Welcome back to my itsy-bitsy corner of the web! Once again I am sorry for my inconsistent posting, I kinda have a bittersweet relationship with my blog. Some days I am in love with it and I would write posts all day and other days I just feel burdened by it xD

But enough of my rambling! I have a lot of stuff planned for this post that will hopefully be interesting and fun so let’s get started!

the 2010s. The decade of Vine, and memes and oK bOomEr and more awesome stuff is ending. It actually doesn’t make sense like all of a sudden I’m panicking and wondering how this happened so fast. GUYS I’M A LITTLE SCARED TIME IS GOING BY WAY TOO QUICKLY.

now let’s talk about boOOooOOOoooOOOooks!

^_^ end of the decade book tag ^_^

I found this tag on youtube and thought it would be fun to do! (SINCE THE WHOLE DECADE IS ENDING AND STUFF!) Let’s get started!

1. favorite book/ series of the decade

I have enjoyed so many great series throughout the decade and it’s so hard to choose! I think my top two would be the Lunar Chronicles and The Chronicles of Narnia! I also really enjoyed the Grisha series!

2. book that has impacted your reading the most

I’m not really sure! So many books have impacted me a lot so its really hard to remember which ones truly stood out. I think maybe Darius the Great is Not Okay, or Operation Beautiful.

3. book you recommended the most

Ahhh I don’t know! Once again there are so many books that I have read and loved that I am uncertain which ones to recommend xD! I think maybe Darius the Great is Not Okay!

4. prettiest book of the decade

What’s up with all the hard questions OMG. There are so many pretty covers that I can’t name them all but my top three are Finale, Cress, and Six of Crows!

5. favorite author of the decade

This is soo hard! There are so many amazing authors and it’s incredibly hard to choose my favorite because I adore all of there writing styles and the way they build their worlds and develop their characters. I think my favorite is probably Marissa Meyer. She has inspired me to write so much and I adore her world-building and her characters!

6. a book(s) you want to read before the end of the decade

Welp, I achieved my goal of reading 100 books this year so I think I am pretty much-done reading!

7. a genre you hope to read more of

I want to try to read more non-fiction. As much as I adore fiction, reading too much fiction has given me a lot of unrealistic ideals and has become a huge outlet of procrastination and avoiding things I need to get done and get over. I hope that reading more non-fiction will help me appreciate the world a bit more instead of getting jealous of or falling in love with fictional characters

8. reading plans for the end of the decade

I don’t really have many!

9. reading plans for the new decade

I hope to start book journaling and keeping track of everything I read. I want to kind of write down important parts or quotes from books so I don’t forget them! I want to try to read 150 books in 2020 and try my best not to reread books but actually read new books outside of my comfort zone.

10. habits you’re leaving behind in the 2010s

Comparing myself to others. Negative thinking and negative thoughts about myself. Procrastination and self-loathing.

^_^ some goals for 2020 ^_^

blog more consistently
think more positively
act friendlier
stop having huge crushes and focus on building friendships
stop worrying
exercise more
finish and publish a book
learn guitar
act in a musical or play
start a buisness
start a youtube channel
try getting a job
draw more
make more friends
spend more time with God
read my bible more
stop falling in love with random people
make my dreams come true

The 2010s was a huge decade for me! I have gone through and accomplished so much. I’ve had ups and downs, made friends and made frenemies, made choices good and bad.
I am so excited about 2020 and the years that come after. I can’t wait to see the things in store!

What are some things that you have done this year? What are your goals for 2020? What are you the most excited for?

gift ideas for the bookish, the dreamers and the ones in between!// blogmas!

Published on December 3, 2019December 3, 2019 by 💫Ava💫14 Comments

Welcome back to my itsy bitsy corner of the web! I am so excited because today will be my first #blogmas post of the month! I have a bunch of posts coming up soon and I will try my best to be consistent!

Today’s blog post is going to be a Christmas gift guide! Unsure what you want for Christmas or what to get your friends and family? This guide should be able to help! Also, a great way to support me and get gifts you want is to send this post to your family and friends! That way my post gets more views and you can get more of the gifts that you actually want! ( notice my sly marketing aha!)

But, enough of my rambling, let’s get started!!

📖Gifts for bibliophiles and book dragons📖

As the days pass by more and more book dragons (they are like bookworms but more vicious!) are being born. Soon the book dragons will take over the world! Are you a book dragon? Or do you have one in your family? This list should help you out!

📖 books! Now, this may seem like an easy gift, yet there are many ways this goes wrong! Bookish people tend to be picky, so if you are buying a book as a gift for someone, consider there favorite genres or authors. Although I am thankful for any gift, I feel a bit annoyed when someone buys me a random book that doesn’t align with my bookish interests and isn’t written very well. So short story long, if your buying a book for someone, buy a book that THEY would want to read!

📖Barnes and Noble gift card! This is a ridiculously easy gift that any book nerd would love! You don’t have to spend hours picking the perfect book because they can pick it themselves! Plus they can buy more than books including merch, movies and even coffee! It’s a great gift!

📖 Book Merch! There’s only one thing that book dragons like more than books. BOOK MERCH!! Merch, (short for merchandise) is a great gift! Merch can range from coffee cups to backpacks to t-shirts to notebooks! So if there’s a certain book series your book dragon is talking about all the time, consider buying merch for them!

✍🏾Gifts for the aspiring authors✍🏾

Ahh, I don’t have a long intro for this so let’s just dive into the gifts!

Image result for aesthetic typewriter — not my photo

✍🏾journals! Every author starts off with an idea, and the best way to get your idea down is to have a journal! When I say journal I don’t mean a basic one from Walmart, I’m talking about a cute journal! You can even make a decorate a random one and collage photos of things someone might like!

✍🏾 Scrivner! Scrivener is a word-processing program and outliner designed for authors. Scrivener provides a management system for documents, notes, and metadata. This allows the user to organize notes, concepts, research and whole documents for easy access and reference. I’ve never used it, but my dad does and says that it works really well! This is a great gift for a writer who wants to get serious!

✍🏾mugs! Writers love mugs. Mugs store the fuel that helps them write and survive the fictional and real-world! To spice things up, get a cool mug that has a pun or a cute design on it and fill it with their favorite teas, coffees, candies, you name it!

💄Gifts for the fashionistas and beauty gurus💄

Image result for glossier aesthetic — not my photo

💄glossier! Glossier is a popular makeup/ skincare brand that is cute and all-natural (I think) I have only tried there face wash and lip gloss! They have a lot of great reviews and a cute design!

💄a gift card to there favorite clothing store! I highly recommend this over buying clothes for someone! You may not get them exactly what they want, so why not give them a gift card so they can pick out something they really want!

(yeah that’s all I don’t know a lot about makeup and fashion XD)

🎨Gifts for artists🎨

🎨 Ohuhu brush tip markers! Ohuhu markers are great markers for any artist! I love them so much. They recently have come out with brush tip markers! They are inexpensive but have outstanding quality!

🎨 Sketchbooks! Sketchbooks are great gifts! As an artist, I use up my sketchbooks very quickly, so its a pretty nice gift to give!! I recommend Canson XL mixed media sketchbooks, you can use any medium in it!

🎨 Drawing Tablet! This is great for someone who likes to do digital art! DRawing tablets can range from large to small and there are so many inexpensive yet good quality ones on amazon! I recommend the brands Huion and Wacom!

📸Gifts for Bloggers, Vloggers, and Photographers!📸

📸A domain! A domain is a great gift for a blogger! A domain allows the blogger to have a .com url instead of a wordpress.com or a blogspot.com website

📸 a camera! A camera is a great gift! There are so many different types and not all are super expensive! Right now I use a Canon Elph Powershot!

📸 adobe! Adobe is great for editing photos, editing videos and creating designs! Getting an adobe membership is a great gift for content creators!!

🎭 Gifts for the Theatre Geeks🎭

🎭 tickets to a musical! This is probably the best gift you could ever give to them! Make sure to give them tickets to a musical they would like or have rambled about all day. If its a random musical about birds they might not be pleased!

🎭playbills! playbills are fun to collect and a great gift for a theatre geek! Give them some from there favorite musicals!

🎭merch! From Hamilton T-shirts to custom Hadestown funko pops, there are so many different kinds of merch!

🍿Gifts for Disney fans and Marvel stans🍿

🍿Funko Pops! Funko pops are cute collectible figures based on movies and tv shows! From Elsa to Darth Vader, you can find a funko pop of almost every character!

🍿 T-shirts! There are so many cool T-shirts that any fangirl (or fanboy!) can enjoy!

🍿 Tickets to a meet and greet! sO they can meet tOm hOlLaNd obviously!

I really hope you all enjoyed today’s post! I’m thinking about posting a part two next week! I hope this helps! Make sure to send this to your friends and fam!

Did you see anything on this list that you liked? What do you want for Christmas? What’s your favorite holiday snack?

keep smiling! ava!!🌻

redesigning popular book covers!+ bookish ramblings

Published on November 12, 2019November 12, 2019 by 💫Ava💫3 Comments

Welcome back to my itsy bitsy corner of the web! Today I am going to be redesigning a couple book covers and chatting about a couple of exciting things happening in the book world!!

Cover One:

The first cover that came to mind when I first thought about redesigning covers was Caraval! I recently finished the second book in the trilogy and I am really amazed by the world-building. The original cover is pretty great, but I wanted to put my own spin on it!

Original Cover:

My cover!

Which one’s your favorite? I like them both! Onto the next cover!!

For the next cover, I decided randomly to do Warcross! I didn’t put any work really into this one. I was kind of lazy with it.

Original Cover:

My Cover:

So yeah! I will probably do this again soon! With much better covers. The warcross cover was not as good as the Caraval cover but yeah!

So a lot of movie-related stuff is going on in the book world. Like, a lot. I know I am late on talking about this but I will still talk about it so this post isn’t super short.

First of all SIX OF CROWS AND SHADOW AND BONE ARE GETTING A NETFLIX SERIES!!

So I am really excited about this because I really have enjoyed those two series but I am also really worried about it. Apparently, the two separate book series, set in different eras are somehow going to be combined together? I’m really confused about how they are doing the show. The cast looks mostly amazing. I’M REALLY HAPPY WITH KAZ AND THE DARKLINGS ACTORS like its perfect.

(i love how epic this photoshoot is like wow it’s intense they are all just staring into my soul.)

There is a little controversy or should I say tEA about the casting, but we only focus on pOsItiViTy here in my wholesome little corner of the web 🙂

The next bookish news is that there may be a LUNAR CHRONICLES MOVIE!!

If you are one of my old readers you may know that I used to be very obsessed with the lunar chronicles. I wanted a movie really badly. It does seem a little too late for a movie, but I am still excited. I hope it’s not a fLop. I hope they don’t smash all the books into one huge flop of a movie because that would just be depressing.

As a self-proclaimed book dragon, I always harshly critique movies based off of books. I have read over 1000 books in my lifetime and a great percentage of them have been turned into movies and tv shows. A lot of my childhood favorite books have been turned into annoying children’s TV programs, including; Pinkalicous, Fancy Nancy, Llama Llama, If you give a mouse a cookie and many more.

Not every book to film rendition has been bad, there are plenty of amazing movies based on books like Bridge to Terabithia, Because of Winn Dixie, The Chronicles of Narnia series and even some newer remakes like Wonder. Those all were wonderful! But some of them are not good at all, Like the Percy Jackson movie! I haven’t even watched that one but from many friends and other book dragons I have HIGHLY avoided the movie.

In conclusion, I am very excited that a lot of YA books are being turned into movies/tv shows. I am a little worried about the execution, but I’m sure they won’t be that bad!

What are some books you would like to see as movies? What’s your least favorite book cover? If you could redesign any cover, which book would it be?

keep smiling!

ava

October wrap-up// + my birthday, books and NaNoWriMo!!

Published on November 7, 2019 by 💫Ava💫16 Comments

Welcome back to my itsy-bitsy corner of the web! Today’s post is going to be all about how my October went! Let’s get started! Also sorry about this being late!!

October is actually my favorite month! The trees are filled with beautiful colors, the air is fresh and the scents and foods are just amazing!

So October 27 was my birthday! I turned 14 and had a great day! My parents took me out by myself, and we went to this amazing taco restaurant. Then we went to this wacky candy store that had this really cool vintage aesthetic. It was really fun being the only child for the day because since I am the oldest and have three younger siblings, my parents don’t always have the time to focus on me and only me. So it was a great way to spend my birthday without my little siblings causing any trouble. I was still able to spend some time with my siblings once I got home, and my grandma was visiting so it was great!

But the best part was that one of my gifts from my parents was TICKETS TO SEE ANASTASIA!! If you haven’t heard from any of my other posts, I am a huge fan of musical theatre! I am super obsessed and about 89 percent of the things that come out of my mouth are references to musicals. Anastasia was my favorite childhood movie. I have always loved the vivid scenes and beautiful songs. SO I was thrilled to see that it had become a Broadway musical! I am so thankful that my parents bought me tickets to see it! The cast recording sounds amazing, and I am certain that seeing it live on stage will be wonderful.

I think I am seeing it in early February. It feels like a long time, but watching how fast the months have been going by, I don’t think it will be too long of a wait!

(like my new spacer thingy?)

I didn’t read as many books as I would have liked to, but I still think I read some good ones!

I also read various graphic novels and some animes!!

I am really excited about Marissa Meyers’s book that just came out! Its the final book in the renegade’s trilogy and I cannot wait to read it!!

sanders sides

Sanders Sides is a funny youtube series, that follows Thomas and his wacky personality as they solve every-day problems! My favorite character is Anxiety!

song-writing

Recently I have gotten really into writing songs. It’s really calming for me and I feel like I am reaching a whole new creative space. I also feel like it’s my way of communicating with God.

drawing

After a bit of procrastination and saving, I finally bought these brush tip markers. They work really well and they have really helped me get back into art. Maybe I’ll do a sketchbook tour or an art dump sometime soon!

graphic novels/ comics

I usually don’t read too many graphic novels or comics, but recently I have and I love how quick they are to read. I also love beautiful art and different art styles, it really inspires me to draw. There’s a really good series called Nutmeg that features these two girls who go on baking adventures!

And now it’s time for some NaNo excerpts!!

SO I’m really behind because I literally got grounded from NaNo (thanks to my tongue that really needs to control itself more) But, I am still enjoying it a lot! MY favorite character that I am writing is Leo, who is a pirate who loves singing with his birds and is a huge hopeless romantic! He rescues orphaned kids and trains them to become friendly pirates like him. Although Leo likes to refrain from bloodshed, he sometimes has to get a bit rough with other pirates. AT first, I was going to make him really tuff and stuff but I failed so now he’s just a soft boy xD

Leo went off to feed his birds. He loved his birds. They had beautiful wings and sung such sweet melodies.

“Good Morning Sunshine’s!” He sang the birds tweeted in response which brought a bright smile to his face.

He let out a soft sigh and walked over to his cabin. He opened the door and walked in, flopping onto his bed. He usually helped the kids clean, but he felt pretty exhausted, considering he had been sailing the ship all night. Although he was surrounded by his kids and his lovely birds, he often felt lonely. He knew it was probably because of all the romance novels he read, but he thought it would be quite lovely to have a wife- or someone to love him. It felt as if no one loved him. He sighed softly as he glanced out his small circle window. Sometimes he couldn’t believe he was a pirate. He acted more like a princess. Singing to birds? Dancing while cleaning? No wonder his father never liked him. He was too happy…? He sighed as he gazed out the window, watching the fluffy white clouds float through the air.

I LOVE HIM AAAAAAAH!!

I also enjoy the other characters I’m writing, but Leo’s my favorite so far!

Did you have a good October? I sure did! What was your favorite thing you read or did last month? Are you excited for November? What are you writing about for NaNo? How is it going so far?

keep smiling,

ava!!

its that time of the year again// feat. NaNoWriMo, my OCS and writing memes

Published on October 25, 2019October 25, 2019 by 💫Ava💫7 Comments

so I looked at my calendar and just realized November 1st is six days away.

*screeches*

Welcome back to my itsy-bitsy corner of the web! So today I have another post about Nanowrimo. (Yes, I am aware that my last post was also about Nano, Sorry I am trying to get back to posting more unique content 🙂 please don’t hate me)

I am really excited for NaNo because I actually came up with a somewhat kind of plot. Usually, I just come up with a title and a book cover and have no idea what the book is going to be about. And then on November 1st I open up a blank Word document and start to panic.

This year I am trying to not only avoid my pAnIc, But I really want to publish a book soon. and I feel like I’m wasting my good characters and somewhat story ideas. So I am trying to take NaNo a little more seriously so I can actually write something I’m proud of, instead of typing a bunch of gibberish just so I can reach my goal.

But, enough of my rambling! Let’s continue the post!

So I guess the big elephant in the room is my nOvEl. What exactly am I writing?

Well, lucky for you I have another rambled sentence that explains my process in coming up with my novel and storyline.

So at first, I was actually going to write a contemporary YA novel about a girl who was homeschooled and some of her ‘struggles’ Because I felt like there were NO YA novels where the main character is just homeschooled. I feel like they are either new to homeschooling or they’re a homeschooler that goes to public school for the first time. And its a bit annoying because sometimes I just want to read a book about a normal homeschooled girl that isn’t a genius and just wants to understand who she is. Because every teenager kind of wants to understand where they belong.

And, I tried to like to come up with a plot but honestly, I wasn’t truly feeling it. If you know what I mean, It’s like something I wanted to write but It wasn’t really something that I loved like. I didn’t feel like I loved the plot or the characters, I just felt as if I was trying to force myself to write something.

But, then one night I had this story idea about a princess and a pirate and a gardener’s son. And I woke up in the middle of the night and I was like YES I AM WRITING THIS FOR NANOWRIMO. I felt really happy, and I developed a bunch of possible storylines and I was just sooooooooo excited.

And, what I have kind of learned these past few years from doing NaNo is that you have to LOVE your story. NaNo is already incredibly challenging so when you write a novel you really don’t like it will be really hard to write that book. And since I’m forcing myself to write a lot of words in 30 days I don’t want to write something I am not truly passionate or interested in.

But enough of that here’s a little more about my nOVELLLLLL *jazz hands*

Introducing:

Swords and Other Secrets

Princess Flora and her brother Fitz have been fascinated by pirates ever since they were young. They spent years, reading books about them and reenacting their battles. But when Fitz disappears, Flora’s world shatters and she is forced to take the place of her brother and become queen on her eighteenth birthday. But, Flora doesn’t want to become Queen, she wants to become a writer. So on the night before her birthday, Flora ventures off on a journey with newfound friends, and some old to find her brother, and to find herself.

I literally just typed that out just now. I’m still working on a synopsis but I’m honestly really excited about my story!

So, unfortunately, I havent made a cover yet because I’ve been having. hard time finding the picture that I want for the cover. But! I made some aesthetics for the main characters!

So this is the mood board/ aesthetic that I made for Flora. She’s the main character and the story is mostly about her. She is a princess who dreams to become a pirate and write stories about her adventures.

Jules is the royal gardener’s son who is Flora’s childhood friend. Jules dropped his dreams of becoming a botanist, so he could be able to train and become a knight to protect Flora.

Leo the son of a pirate king, was abandoned and left shipwrecked as a young child. Now, he has fixed his ship and travels to different islands and collects birds and rescues children that were abandoned once like him.

Iris is Flora’s pet cat and best friend. Soon Flora discovers that her cat can talk and knows a little more about her kingdom than she ever thought.

So, those are the main characters that I have at the moment. I have some more characters that I am developing but they probably will just be background characters.

so random interruption but I am really excited because Sunday is my birthday so yay this is my last post as a 13-year-old!!!

Also, I’m excited because next Friday I will be posting a Q&A but OC addition!!

So if you are interested in asking any of my main characters of this story a question, comment it down below!! It will be featured, and answered in next Friday’s post!!

so ask away!!

The last thing I have for today’s post is writing memes!

I love memes because they are relatable and funny! So I especially love writing memes because writing can often be challenging and hearing jokes about writing takes away the stress. Sooo let’s get started!!

*claps sadly because I relate too much to these memes*

*overthinks about how I should end this post*

Thanks for taking the time to read this (overly long) post! I am so excited about NaNo and I can’t wait for it to start. (I probably will regret saying that once it starts)

lets chat!

are you doing NaNo this year? Ask one of my main characters a question!! Share something about one of your main characters! Let your Main Character ask one of my Mains a question!!

So I just looked at my calendar and realized that in two days the decade is over. It was literally just January first and all I wanted to do was blink and now its almost twenty flipping twenty!

^_^ end of the decade book tag ^_^

1. favorite book/ series of the decade

2. book that has impacted your reading the most

3. book you recommended the most

4. prettiest book of the decade

5. favorite author of the decade

6. a book(s) you want to read before the end of the decade

7. a genre you hope to read more of

8. reading plans for the end of the decade

9. reading plans for the new decade

10. habits you’re leaving behind in the 2010s

^_^ some goals for 2020 ^_^

The 2010s was a huge decade for me! I have gone through and accomplished so much. I’ve had ups and downs, made friends and made frenemies, made choices good and bad. I am so excited about 2020 and the years that come after. I can’t wait to see the things in store!

What are some things that you have done this year? What are your goals for 2020? What are you the most excited for?

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📖Gifts for bibliophiles and book dragons📖

✍🏾Gifts for the aspiring authors✍🏾

💄Gifts for the fashionistas and beauty gurus💄

🎨Gifts for artists🎨

📸Gifts for Bloggers, Vloggers, and Photographers!📸

🎭 Gifts for the Theatre Geeks🎭

🍿Gifts for Disney fans and Marvel stans🍿

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Cover One:

keep smiling!

ava

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Like this:

sanders sides

song-writing

drawing

graphic novels/ comics

keep smiling,

ava!!

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share with your friends<3

Like this:

Swords and Other Secrets

Also, I’m excited because next Friday I will be posting a Q&A but OC addition!!

The last thing I have for today’s post is writing memes!

lets chat!

keep smiling,

ava!!

Rate this:

share with your friends<3

Like this:

The 2010s was a huge decade for me! I have gone through and accomplished so much. I’ve had ups and downs, made friends and made frenemies, made choices good and bad.
I am so excited about 2020 and the years that come after. I can’t wait to see the things in store!