I am being a super lazy blogger this week and I have many guilts about that. My brain is already on vacation – taking a blog vacation AND a real vacation starting next week.

I keep thinking every single day is Friday. Every. Single. Day. Especially today. And it is not. And that is so unfair. I wake up, think, “yay! FRIDAY!” and then it’s…. Tuesday? Wednesday? and now Thursday? OH THIS WEEK WILL NOT END.

There are so many posts that should be up and aren’t. More book reviews, I’m drowning in birchboxes, I have a gender post about raising a boy that needs to be written, and on and on and on. And instead I’m going to happy hours with my best friend, or watching too many episodes of The Mindy Project, or going to bed early.

I think my vacation is coming a week late, my brain is craving it now!

So starting next week there will be a new post every day about the sea! Stories about experiences around/inspired by/having to do with large bodies of water. Some of them having to do with grandmothers, some of them having to do with sex. So far all that I’ve seen have been beautiful!

And I’ll be checking in, commenting in comments, etc etc. You can always find me on instagram!

But in the mean time – how are your weeks going? What are your plans for the rest of the summer?

Thank you so much for taking the time to fill out my little survey. It really helps me know where I stand with certain things and clarifies some thoughts on where I’m headed. Here are some breakdowns for the curious: Most people have been reading for close to 5 years. Woo hoo! Thank you for staying! Although I do have a good chunk that have come along since I’ve had Gabe. Hello you lovely almost newbies! The majority of people pop in several times a week, though 40% come every single day. Amazing. Way way WAY more people enjoy product reviews/book reviews than I thought. My only barometer on that is number of comments, and those...

Hi Everyone! It has been well over a year since my last reader survey. I am trying hard to continue challenging myself, grow readership, try new things, improve on the classic, etc etc etc. It would be very helpful if you could fill out this 8 question survey sometime today or this weekend. Happy Friday! Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world’s leading questionnaire...

Most of the time I am good about my writing schedule. I get the posts out about products, I get the book reviews post out (Though I’m totally behind schedule on that and was supposed to have one up today), I get myself to knock out weekending posts on sunday night, etc. I do it because if I let myself off the hook then nothing would ever get done. It’s the same with working out, it’s the same with cooking at home and making my lunch for work instead of buying it. Do it, do it, it’s important. Push through and just do it. *Nike Swoosh Inserted Here* But then sometimes, every once in a while, I remember that this is my...

After many, many, many people asked for an insta-wall tutorial, I finally got my act together … and had Kamel write something up. Ahh teamwork! You’ll want to bookmark this page for future framing projects! And thank you Kamel for writing up this awesome tutorial. <3 Before starting out, I would highly recommend picking out frames, or your preferred display method. This will save you lots of angst later on. So head on over to your favorite frame shop (we like Aaron Brothers, especially during their legendary penny sales) and buy up as many frames as you would like for your display. Selecting the frames or how to show your...

Yesterday I drew the name for the winner of the 3rd Better In Real Life Book List via Random.org. And Maris is the winner! Hooray! It also just so happens to be her birthday this month, so that is incredibly timely. Hint: There may be some future book-related give away so stay tuned and pay close attention to the book reviews. You never know when a giveaway could pop up. They are wily! Some other housekeeping items: I had a lot of questions about the Vegas.com post I ran last week or the week before. No, it was not sponsored in the sense that I was paid to write it, yes I was asked to promote a side project they had running for the month of...