I'm moving on.

I've tried several times and several ways to make this particular blog into what I wanted and I think I just burned myself out on it. I could delete and start over... but I wanted a really fresh new start. So... I went back to the wordpress account I opened and never used. Change your bookmarks to:

http://bookishwhimsy.wordpress.com/

Thanksgiving in Instagrams

Thanksgiving was very small - just Josh and myself. I did all the cooking, we made an ornament to celebrate our first holiday season together, and put up the Christmas tree. The Instagram pictures are just some random highlights of the past few days.

Signed, Sealed, Delivered.

What a lot we lost when we stopped writing letters. You can't reread a phone call. - Liz Carpenter

While I was babysitting today and the kiddo was napping I checked my e-mail on my iPhone. As I checked through random store offers and the occasional correspondence with a family member or friend hit me with a startling force how rare hand written correspondence is anymore. Most of the time when I check my tiny little mail slot all I find are bills and catalogs/magazines. Around major holidays or my birthday there's the occasional card, but often times even those greetings are sent via e-mail!

A while back I was on a HUGE letter writing kick... I'm big on thank you cards and the like as well. I felt that I had no clue how to write a proper letter be it just a hello or a thank you, so I picked up this wonderful book:

[amazon]

I'm hoping to start writing cards and letters again... find a few friends - especially those that live far from me - and trade letters. Anyone here interested? I'm a wonderful pen pal ;o)

There are so many wonderful sellers on etsy who specialize in stationary and cards... one of my all time favorites is this lovely Christmas card:

[citylight on etsy]

Or how about making your own cards like this lovely set here:

[The Scrapbook House]

Or just head over to Stampin' Up! and let your imagination run wild with all the possibilities!

I'm quite excited to send some cards out later this week just to say hello to a few people... and hopefully get to making some of my own creations to send out in the near future as well.

21 Day Organizational Challenge.

I've had a lack of motivation in the blogging and home making departments lately... life's been busy, and I suppose I've just become overwhelmed. I need to get a jump on things again, and I've been inspired by the 21 day challenge over at A bowl full of lemons.

Her list was great, but some of it didn't work for me as it didn't apply to my life and/or my apartment, so I created my own list. I may not follow it in order, but that's okay. The ultimate goal is to get the apartment clean and organized within 21 days and to keep it that way :)

So here's my 21 Day Organizational Challenge List:

1 - kitchen/dining table
2 - refrigerator/freezer
3 - lower kitchen cabinet
4 - cabinet under kitchen sink
5 - cabinet over stove
6- linen closet
7- medicine cabinet/medicine storage
8 - make-up/hair products
9 - big dresser drawers
10- small dresser drawers
11 - bedside table
12 - bedroom closet
13 - under the bed
14- gift wrap box
15 - financial binder
16- bankers box
17 -bookcases
18- donation bags
19- coupons
20-car
21- start at least one organizational diy project

Thanks to some fun blog posts I've stumbled across as well as my pinterest addiction, I have a serious excitement to get this challenge started this week sometime. I may do a few before/after photos, but no promises. I often forget to snap pictures of things like this, and also add to it the embarrassment of some of the areas of insanity at the moment, lol.

As for the blog... keep your eyes peeled for a cooking/recipe post sometime this week. I'm also hoping to get a new look for the blog sometime soon, and hopefully that'll help me become even more "into" blogging here.

She's a Tortie lovin', TV watchin', Book Wormin', Kinda Gal.

We have a new addition in the Moose apartment...



Meet L'il Miss Cammie Squeakers!
We adopted her two weeks ago from the Cleveland Animal Protective League. They had a wonderful special going on to help get their cats and kittens adopted because their shelter was far too full of them.
The fella had been on a mission to help me find a new kitty companion, and as we went through the cages that day not one cat or kitten really caught my eye and heart. Of all the cats and kittens I held that day, not one did I feel a connection with. Then we walked past the cages of kittens again and there were two tortie girls in one of the bottom cages. I love torties and opened the cage to see if one (or both) would come to me. This sweet girl came right over to me (her sister had no interest) and it was love at first purr. She bonded to Josh right away as well. Within thirty minutes Josh had purchased her for me and we were on our way home with our new addition - Cammie!
It's nice to have a cat around the apartment again and I am very happy to report that Cammie has adjusted *SO* well! I was concerned that we may have a rough few nights at first - but from night one she's slept in bed with us. No crying or acting out. I was worried about her being left all day while we were at work (I actually came home on my lunch hour that first day - and got my first speeding ticket EVER in the process!!) but she was mellow and laid back - saving all her silliness and energy for when her humans were around ;o)
She's a tiny little thing... still more of a squeaker than a meow-er... (hence the middle name). Not quite three months old yet (birthday is June 6th). We are very lucky to have her!

Moving on.

In the past few years I haven't watched too much TV... I actually got rid of everything but local channels last October because I wasn't watching it nearly enough to justify the cost of it all. Plus, I have a Roku Player so I can stream from Netflix as well as watch Roku channels. Even old favorites that I'd watched during Prime Time, such as Grey's Anatomy, I stopped watching (though I think I will pick up where I left off eventually thanks to Netflix instant streaming). When Glee came on I fell in love and have watched it both seasons so far. I started watching Gossip Girl (thanks to Netflix and my library) and was caught up just in time for the past season to air - which I watched. But that was it.
I started to get excited to hear about a new show with one of my favorite actresses (and singers!) - Zooey Deschanel called The New Girl. Also The Playboy Club sounded appealing... but that was all I had really heard about. But then I got my new issue of Nylon today - the TV issue. Be still my usually television despising heart - there are shows I'm looking forward to giving a shot at watching! For all of these (with the exception of Glee and Gossip Girl) this is their first season - so no playing catch up is needed. Not too many time conflicts thankfully so I won't have to rely on Hulu too much :o)

September 15th - Thursday
The Secret Circle (CW)

September 19th - Monday
The Playboy Club (NBC)

September 20th - Tuesday
GLEE *season 3* (FOX)
New Girl (FOX)

September 21 - Wednesday
Revenge (ABC)

September 25th - Sunday
Pan Am (ABC)

September 26th - Monday
Gossip Girl *season 5* (CW)

September 28th - Wednesday
Suburgatory (ABC)

October 23rd - Sunday
One Upon a Time (ABC)

January 3rd
Apartment 23 (ABC)


I've been trying to catch up on reading to at least hit my minimal goal of 52 books for the year. I've read 28 so far this year, so I'm behind... but I'm still fairly certain that I can pull it together and come out ahead. I've read some great books so far this year - I'd say I've had a better year book wise this year so far than all together last year (with the exception of Water for Elephants last year which has become one of my all time favorites).

Top Book Picks from the 28 I've read so far this year...

* Trans-Sister Radio by Chris Bohjialian
* Room by Emma Donoghue
* Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
* Unbearable Lightness by Portia DeRossi
* Madness by Marya Hornbacher
* The Help by Kathryn Stockett (another that has made my all time favorites list)
* The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman
* Delirium by Lauren Oliver
* The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

Updates

I know a month and a half ago I said that I would be updating here more often... and I intended to. I wanted to make some changes to the style of my blog and figure out exactly what I wanted to do here. I still do, but lately life has gotten in the way. To share the updates that I have of the life variety I've been thinking of weather to do it chronologically or go with the old bad news first, type. I think the latter is the best form for this though because while both are big news items for me, the bad news includes the loss of one of Miss Moose's own.

Miss Chloe Marie
(Adopted) April 2008 - July 27th, 2011

Sadly, kitty girl passed away. It absolutely breaks my heart and I'd give anything to have her back with me and healthy again. Long story short, her kidney's were completely shut down. The vet said that it may have been genetic and there was nothing that could have been done. Tuesday night they took blood and gave her meds and fluids so I could take her home until the final results were in. I got the call Wednesday morning that she was, in fact, in complete renal failure. I set the appointment for 4pm that day. Blessedly, my boss and co-workers are amazing and both Tuesday and Wednesday I was able to leave work by 1pm (instead of my usual 5:15) to tend to Chloe. I knew putting her to sleep was for the best, but I still dreaded it. I wanted her to pass away comfortably at home with me. Apparently that's what she wanted as well. She left this world peacefully at home around 3pm that day, only an hour before her appointment. I miss her like crazy and my apartment has been much quieter with her gone.

Now, the good news...
I have a fella in my life ;o)
(yes, I'm aware I got sunburned...)

The fella's name is Joshua. Or Josh. Or, as I like to be silly and call him - Ua. Haha. We met at a theme night at a local club back at the very beginning of May. We chatted much that night, but didn't trade info and I didn't really think much of it. A few days later it gets back to me that he's been trying to find out who I am... so we connect via the wonder that is facebook. We talk, a lot. A lot, a lot. For a while I was resistant. I kind of like my little single-gal bubble full of books and my own routines and structure. But, one day it was like a switch flipped. After a few months of hanging out occasionally in groups and talking nearly nightly I realized he was someone quite special who could possibly be something very special to me. Right before July 4th we hung out one on one for a movie night that went into the next morning with us just talking and watching movies. A few more one on one evenings and we decided that we would take it to the "official" stage of things. He's pretty amazing. He even took me to the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2...at the drive in! He's gotten me outside of my little bookworm box a bit, in a good way. He encourages me to expand myself and try new things. Having him by my side has been some new experiences not so scary... like shooting a gun for the first time (ps - I rocked it that day at the range! He was so proud! Haha). We have his birthday shindig at Cedar Point coming up this weekend, and I am **NOT** a coaster girl in the least... but I promised him I'd try and oddly I am looking forward to it quite a bit. I'm happy and apparently it shows. :o)

Other happenings...

My birthday was yesterday (July 31st). I officially entered my last year of my 20's! I'm 29 now and, unlike many people I know, it doesn't freak me out at all. Maybe it's because no one believes that I'm 29... most guess somewhere in the early twenties up through 25. I definitely don't feel like "an old lady" - nor should I!! It was a fantastic weekend, especially given the not so great week I had (including the loss of my dear Chloe, work was insane due to inspection). A few of us went downtown to see the TPN boys play. We left early due to the massive amounts of people downtown that night... by 1am I was ready to go! I don't generally do the late-night downtown Cleveland thing and that's a good reminder of why! But it was still a fantastic night with some of my favorite people.

Josh pays good attention to what I say, obviously because he got me a book for my birthday! It's a Jane Austen book that has seven of her novels in it. It's beautiful!! I also got a cute bookmark that says "Keep Calm and Have a Cupcake"... since Cupcake is a nickname from friends and an ongoing joke.

Jess and Michele both gave me the gift of beautiful memories. Michele made me a DVD of photos from our few years as friends... stuff of things we did together, a few nights out that I couldn't be at but she documented, and other random memories of people and places and things all montaged to the song "I Hope You Dance". Jess made me a BEAUTIFUL scrapbook. She took it home to finish some pages, but so long as she doesn't mind, once I get it back I'll post some highlights. It is absolutely amazing!

My good friend Bob is an author... his first book Prodigal is available on Amazon and he finished the first draft of his second book yesterday, my birthday. After he allowed me to read a few chapters a while back I've been bugging him to let me read more of it. I received an e-mail last night from him that had the draft of his new book attached for me to read. I am so excited to dive into it!! That's the plan for a little later on today ;o)

As for today... I took the day off work today. I wasn't planning to, but I forgot to say I wanted the day after Relay off with pay so I didn't get paid for it. I figured then that I'd use the paid day today. I have to pay bills and clean... and figure out what I'm making for dinner for the fella and I since he's stopping over after work. I'm finding myself rather inspired today... hopefully it sticks around for a while.

Some changes may be afoot for this blog.... but it'll be the same Miss Moose, only better ;o)

And hopefully I'll be back sooner than later. Every time I promise it, I fail so hopefully not using a promise will be, well, promising!

Epic fail for Miss Moose.

Several things/reasons have kept me from blogging lately. In general, I've been busy.. yet I feel like there isn't much of my life that's interesting enough to document on here. Silly, right? I know better... but sometimes creative waves ebb more than flow.

I also have been nannying often to save up money for Vegas and also a trip to Colorado next spring or summer to see my best friend tie the knot. Said best friend is moving to Colorado next weekend, so I've been spending time with her and was planning out her going away shenanigans.

I also participated in Relay for Life on June 11th-12th. It was an amazing time!! My team was the top team in money raising with nearly $7,000 raised :) So proud of Team Donate Life!

My plan is to start writing here again. I just need to figure out exactly what I want to do ;o)