Hey Sweeties,
I just wanted to let y’all know that my YouTube Channel, Lifestyle Cute, is launched!
The channel trailer is live right now but there will be videos going up everyday this week.
Click here to see the video!
If you like what you see like the video ad subscribe to my channel. An make sure to click the notification bell so you’ll be alerted every time I post a video.
Well, that’s all for now. Talk to you later!
DeeDee
Hey Sweeties,
Who’s excited for Avengers: Infinity Wars? Have you already seen it? Are you going to?
I’m so excited that I can’t barely stand it, but I’m waiting to see it with Mr. Boyfriend, my Yin and the family. So, until then I though I would run through my top ten favorite movies from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Don’t judge me, but there are a bunch of MCU movies I still, all this time later, have yet to watch. I don’t know what I’m waiting for but I still haven’t seen: The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ultron or Ant-Man.
What are your favorite Marvel movies? Have you seen all of them? Which, of the ones I missed, do I need to see?
Talk to you later,
DeeDee
Ahh sweeties,
I hope you’re at home surrounded by people you love, drinking something warm and enjoying life. That’s what I’m doing.
Since this is the last post be Blogmas ends I thought I’d share another one of my favorite holiday memories.
So, last time I told you all about how the family started going up North for Christmas and spending the holiday in the snow. When we first started going up to Flagstaff for Christmas we could sled and play in the snow right outside of our hotel, in this lot across the street, like I mentioned. But, it wasn’t long before that got stopped by the City, putting up fences and closing off the lot so we needed a new place to play.
That’s when my Dad got the bright idea that we should ski. There’s a place up there called SnowBowl. They have snow all year round, even if they have to make artificial snow. There’s a ski lodge and you can rent ski ad snowboard equipment, take lessons and go on the ski lifts.
And that’s what we did. My brother, my only brother, learned how to snowboard. He was surprisingly good at it. And all the sisters learned to ski. We spent hours the day after Christmas on the mountain. We had lessons, for a few hours, then we got lift passes as part of the tuition for our ski lessons.
For the record, skiing in hard, it’s painful and you fall down so much it’s obnoxious. But, even with all of that, it was really fun.
We are by no means ski or snowboard experts, even with the lessons and the practice, but it was awesome getting to fly down the mountain, turning your knees to change directions and then falling on your butt to stop.
We weren’t dressed for snow weather. They tell you not to wear cotton, like jeans, to wear gloves lined with water-proofing, same with jackets, to cover your ears and eyes and to wear sunscreen. Did we do any of that? Of course not!
So, of course, we were all blistered and freezing by the time we got in the truck to go home. We were so cold that sitting in front of the heater burned our skin. We couldn’t even take hot baths.
Even with all of that though, we had the best day. One of those Christmas memories that will stick with us forever!
DeeDee
It’s Christmas Eve eve! Is that a thing that people celebrate? I mean I guess people celebrate the whole month leading up to Christmas so whatever, Christmas Eve eve it is.
Anyway I was just thinking about Christmas activities.
I wondered how they differ around the world or even just in the US.
What makes something a holiday activity?
Like at my house, the game Left-Right-Center is a holiday staple. We play it every time the whole family gets together from Thanksgiving until New Year’s Day.
It’s a really fun game where everybody starts with 3 one dollar bills. On your turn you roll three dice, one for each dollar bill and the dice will tell you to pass a dollar to the player on your left or right, put one in the center pile or to keep it in your hand. If you get down to less than 3 dollar bills you get fewer dice, so two dollars is two dice and one dollar is one dice and if you have no dollars you roll no dice. The winner of the game is the last person with money in their hand, they get all the dollars in the end. It’s great though because there is no out until the game is over. Even if you have given away all of your dollars and can’t roll the dice you still have to be engaged in the game because the people on either side of you could have to pass you money and get you back in.
I guess you could also play that game with poker chips or something else, other than money, but it’s just not as serious unless your losing out on a $36 pot.
Or there’s watching movies with family for the holidays. At our house we don’t watch the tradition White Christmas or Home Alone, we watch the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogies. My mama is a huge LOTR fan, like obnoxiously huge, like quotes obscure dialogue from memory in the grocer store huge. And she just loves getting husband and all her children held captive in a house and making us all watch the movies together, back to back to back. It’s all fun and games for the first 2 hours, until the first person escapes for a bathroom break, then Mama has to fight to keep us all together.
Does your family have any games or movies or anything that are just for the holidays?
DeeDee
I started sharing my long-term planning spread in the last bullet journal post, last Friday.
Today I have some more long-term planning spreads, as well as some necessary spreads for life maintenance.
What are some of your favorite spreads to plan out your year in your bullet journal.. You can check out y bullet journaling Pinterest board for some inspiration if you want.
DeeDee
As most people do at this tie of year I have been thinking about what kind of person I want to be in the future and what kinds of things I want to do, especially now that I have a little boy and so much of what he will become depends on what he sees from me ad his dad.
EXERCISE five time a week
I feel like that is self-explanatory, I gained a whole person worth of weight and I’m ready to get it off me. Plus it had been one of my goals last year to get back into running and that obviously had to stop, so I’m ready to get back to it.
CALL home everyday
I’m very close with my family, my siblings and parents, but you wouldn’t know it from how I communicate with them. But I have to make the effort because I am so far away and they do worry about me and the baby.
EXPLORE my world
I live in one of the most vibrant and culturally diverse states in the US and I know how to get to and from daycare, law school and my aunt’s house. I want to get out in the world right around me and partake in what it has to offer, at least a little bit more.
BUILD my brand
Once I graduate law school I will be employable as a real adult. I want to have a brand around myself, not like a Kardashian but more in the sense of a standard of expectation that people associate with my name and my work.
EXPAND my businesses
I have two personal businesses that I run, Creative Blerd Paperie, my stationary shop, and Princess Dee-Licious, my Lolita brand and custom sewing shop. This past year especially I shelved them both to focus on life but I put more active effort into them in 2018.
CREATE more projects
I love making things and having handmade things but that means I have to make handmade things. I hoard supplies without actually making the projects and I will rectify that in the new year.
EMPOWER my son to learn and develop
I want my fat boy to epitomize #blackboyjoy so I want to give him every oppurtunity to be happy. As an infant that means, taking him places, like parks, libraries, gardens and shows so he can expand his mind and be socially and culturally sensitive.
STICK to my schedules
I’m the worst at procrastinating, over-booking, under-caring, but in 2018 I will be on time and on schedule both out of respect for people’s time and to set a good example for my little Squish-man.
What about you, what do you resolve in new year?
DeeDee
You might not know this but I am obsessed with the idea of baking, especially now that I have a kid, I want to be one of those Pillsbury moms whose house and clothes and car always smell like fresh baked cookies and the joy of childhood innocence, you know what I mean.
Unfortunately, my apartment’s kitchen is the size of a jail cell bathroom and my kitchen tools are old enough to babysit my son so I don’t really do much actual baking in real life. Just theoretical baking, mostly on Instagram or Pinterest. It’s a trap!
But that being said, I do have some holiday baking that I think is just the sweetest, cutest thing ever and I wanted to share the recipes with you here so you can indulge your sweet tooth.
Now, for the holidays require 3 essential baked goods, with a fourth that is optional, but always appreciated. Those are cookies, pie, bread and the optional cake. My favorites, and the recipes I will be sharing with you are for snickerdoodle cookies, chocolate mousse and pecan pie, fluffy breakfast biscuits and German chocolate cake.
These are called “The Best Snickerdoodles” if that tells you anything and snickerdoodles are the superior cookie, taste, texture and name!
Apparently, somewhere in the world chocolate mousse pie is referred to as French silk pie, I was unaware. That being said, whatever you call it, it’s probably the best Christmas eve dessert ever invented.
I think pecan pie was created to make people happy, sleepy and full all at the same time. It’s filling, with the nuts, it’s so sweet with all the brown sugar and such and when you do it right, with ice cream after a really good, big holiday meal, it puts you right to sleep until it’s time to eat again.
Biscuits are central to every holiday dinner table. They’re an edible spoon for anything liquid on your plate. They’re delicious to eat on their own. And you can make little sandwiched with your meal while you’re sitting at the table. A win on all levels.
And cake, now German chocolate cake is my Dad’s favorite cake of all time, bar none. I’ve never even seen him eat another kind of cake. Like those yellow or white birthday cakes, he won’t eat them, but there is something about German chocolate with the coconut icing that gets him. And I always associate that, my father ad his German chocolate cake with the holidays.
So, those are my holiday baking favorites. What are yours?
DeeDee
So, you probably don’t know this, because it has never come up on this blog, but I used to be very kawaii, like very regularly, I would dress up in cute J-fashion and just live my life, but lately I have been slacking on my adorableness. Part of it is being in law school and spending so much time, and clothes money, on formal, lawyer related things, part of it was being pregnant and it being harder to wear cute clothes while shaped like a beach ball and part of it is from never leaving my house because outside is big and scary and I don’t like it.
Anyway, all that being said, I want to get back to being kawaii a little more often, not just when there’s a comi-con, but in my every day life.
And from that my 2018 Kawaii Project was born.
Now you may be asking “DeeDee, what is you 2018 Kawaii Project?”
To which I would replay “Well sweetie, my 2018 Kawaii Project is a contract with myself to make a kawaii outfit and spend a day doing something while dressed in a kawaii manner every month of 2018.”
But, that got me thinking, if I’m going to make all these kawaii items as part of my 2018 Kawaii Project why don’t I incorporate that into my kawaii sewing business Princess Dee-Licious.
Princess Dee-Licious is an indie Lolita and kawaii brand. I handmade everything in the shop and offer commissions and special orders.
In January I’ going to be making some necessary kawaii underpinnings, like a petticoat and bloomers, and maybe some kawaii housewear and pajamas. I’ll let you know.
What have you resolved to do in the new year? Any 2018 Big Projects for you?
Wish me luck with mine!
DeeDee
Hey sweeties,
I’m back to share another of my Christmas memories. I’ve already shared a memory from Christmas’s past a few weeks ago.
So, I mentioned in my last Christmas memories post that 15 or 20 years ago my family used to spend Christmas in Las Vegas but we stopped after my brother and sister, the Twins, were born. Well, once we stopped going to Las Vegas we started going up to Northern Arizona for Christmas to see the snow.
Yes, Northern Arizona does have snow. The city we stay in is called Munds Park, it’s not far from Flagstaff.
The very first year we went was amazing!
We, us kids, had never seen real snow before. We had seen snow on the ground but never seen snow fall. And, we had never played in snow at all.
That year, I remember, we bought a sled at the gas station across the street from our hotel and sled down a hill on the side of the road.
It wasn’t fancy, the sled fell apart and we were not dressed for the weather so we spent the rest of the night freezing but it was one of those awesome days that you remember as perfect, even if it wasn’t. I mean, we’ve had better snow since then days, but that one was the first, and the best.
So, what is your favorite Christmas memory?
DeeDee
Hey sweeties,
As 2018 rapidly approaches I hope you have your new planners together. You don’t want the new year to sneak up on you so if you don’t have your planners together, you better get on it.
Here is my planner line up for 2018. Hopefully it gives you some inspiration.
The vertical Recollections planner is going to be my main planner. I’ll be pre-planning in this planner and this will be my decorative planner that you will see in Plan with Me videos on my YouTube channel.
The horizontal Recollections planner will be my memory-keeping planner. I will be using this planner as a daily journal to record the major events of the day and all of Master’s milestones. You won’t see much of this planner but I will be decorating it daily.
This is my on-the-go planner for everyday. This planner is for daily, as-I-go planning. I have inserts for school, weekly and monthly planning, meals and the baby.
You have seen how my bullet journal is progressing in my two bullet journal posts, one for the supplies and one for the 2018 long-term collections. I’ll be using my bullet journal daily, plan-as-I-go style and it will live in my purse for everyday use.
So those are my 2018 planners. What do you think?
Happy planning!
DeeDee
