Never Never "Book" Review - 5/5

Hey Everyone!

First, a bit of an introduction before I begin my “book” discussion. I have been watching a lot of youtube videos lately about books. Apparently it’s a thing... called BookTube!  One of my favourite vloggers Kayla (channel is ObbsandLala) started a new channel called BooksandLala and I am obsessed with her videos. Since I am always looking for book recommendations I have basically made a list of all of the books she mentions in her videos, good or bad in her opinion, and will try and read along with her.

One of her more recent videos was titled “Never Never | Book Reaction” and the screenshot of the video just made me want to read that book immediately. I didn’t watch her video because I wanted to go in with an open mind and see how I felt about it. In some of her previous videos she had raved about one of the co-authors, Colleen Hoover, so I grabbed the “book” and started it last night and read for about an hour.

Then I picked it back up when Miss Lily went down for her nap, read for about another hour and just finished it about five minutes ago! Now I am not one of those people who can read at lightning speeds, and I don’t have an eidetic memory.  I got through this “book” so quickly because it was only 140 pages long! Reading it on my ipad I should have noticed that but tend to not pay attention to the page numbers at all.

As you may have noticed, I have been calling this a “book” because it’s not a book!! I think Kayla put it perfectly when she said “WTF did I just read?!” This is merely an introduction to an interesting, emotional, confusing, addictive and intense story. 

A brief synopsis: Charlie (a girl) and Silas (a guy) are both 17 year old high school students who all of a sudden, at 11:00 am on a Wednesday morning completely forget who they are and every detail about their lives. They quickly realize that the other person also doesn't remember anything; but they discover they are apparently a couple, have been best friends since childhood and have been in love for years. We follow the story from both points of view and slowly learn who the characters are, at the same time as they themselves are discovering who they are. Amid family drama, alcoholism, violence, arguments and simply random clues they try to piece together what happened to them and how they can try and fix it. I sat there for 140 pages completely absorbed in these characters and trying to figure it out with them - maybe they’re angels? maybe they’re aliens? was it some kind of drugs they took? are they hypnotized? WHO THE HECK KNOWS!?  I've never read any of Colleen Hoover’s books; maybe they all have a sci-fi element to them?  And then, when you’re thoroughly confused, itching for more clues and at the most intense dramatic moment of the story you see the horrible words – TO BE CONTINUED….

Are. You. Freaking. Kidding. Me!?!?!

I immediately went and watched Kayla’s video and yep, it sufficiently summed up my feelings.  WTF did I just read?! I am not sure what the authors were thinking, whether they wanted to add more to the story or change it somehow? But they had an original release date of January 2015, so they had to put out something. What they released is this horribly mean, tease of a story that I give an emphatic 5 out of 5!  I did not realize that in 140 pages I could become so engrossed in a story, and so in love with characters that don’t even seem like very nice people at all! Plus, you cannot possibly read this book and then NOT get the next book that comes out to continue the story - that’s some great advertising really!

I don’t really know what else to say other than “oh man!”  I need the rest of this story! Part 2 comes out May 17th, 2015, I will give you an update when I read that sucker!

If you can handle a major cliffhanger and can be patient enough to wait for the release of the rest of the story, I highly recommend getting this “book”.  If you can't handle it, wait until the rest comes out in May and then definitely read it in its entirety - amazing!

Let me know if you read the story and we can be in utter shock and awe and “what-the-heck?!!?-ness” together.

Now, what to read next…?

Until next time friends,

~ Shannon

New Years "Changes"

Hello everyone!

      I hope each and every one of you is having a great new year so far. Does anyone have any resolutions they would like to share? Comment below! I am the type to plan resolutions and have them fizzle out after only a couple of weeks. So this year I think I will call them something else, "changes", and see if they stick (worth a shot, right?).

So here is my list:

1 - Take better care of my body
This includes eating healthier, drinking a lot more water, following proper hair and skincare routines, and exercising. The hubby and I will be starting the new Insanity Max 30 workout series this coming Sunday (Jan 11) so I will keep you all up to date with our progress on that. I also want to just try and be more positive about myself - try loving my body a bit more instead of constantly bashing it for its flaws.

2 - Blog more
Here I am, world! I am going to aim for at least one post a week. :)

3 - Spend more quality time with my family
I want to plan fun excursions and maybe even some spontaneous trips for Mike, Lily and I. She is such an intelligent little girl and just absorbs everything around her, it's amazing to see what she learns every day. I want to take her to new places, see new things, explore and create memories. <3

4 - Read more books and watch less TV
I love books, always have, always will. I used to read SO much but I've grown up a bit and with the responsibilities of adulthood (boo!) I just haven't had as much time. Also, since having a child I really (!) don't have time. But I want to change this. I waste so much time watching re-runs of old TV shows when I could be reading! I also want to try and read several of the books that are being turned into movies this year, because its fun to compare the two (even though the books are always better). 

5 - Move up a level with Younique
I joined Younique in September of 2014. The business model is arranged so that you can move up in sales "levels" - all called different colors and mean different things - white, yellow, pink, blue, green, orange, purple and black. I started off as a "white-status" presenter and in November promoted to "yellow". This year I would love to hit pink or higher, that would be very exciting!  (If you haven't heard of Younique, check out my website and/or my facebook page. You can also ask any questions in the comments below.)

6 - Maybe, maybe, start a YouTube channel...
This is something I have thought about for a long time, but am very afraid to do. Firstly because I am not sure anyone would even be interested in watching a video by little old me, and secondly because there is a lot of hatred in the online world and that's scary. I will continue to give this some more thought. If you would actually be interested in seeing videos, or think its a horrible idea, please let me know in the comments.

Well I think that's everything, folks!

Thanks for taking the time to read my little goals for the year. Maybe writing them down and sharing them with all of you will keep me accountable. :)

Until next time my friends,

~ Shannon

Happy New Year!

Good Afternoon and Happy New Year Everyone!

As the New Year rolls around I think everyone tends to reflect on what the past year held for them. In my case, 2014 was a very tough, but also wonderful, year.

I began the year caring for our infant daughter, and now looking back, I can admit that I was also struggling with post-partum depression. At the time I attributed everything I was feeling to sleep deprivation but now I can see that it was actually so much more than that. I plan on doing a full post about this topic so will not say much about that now. Happily once we began sleep training and Lily (and I) slept through the night I began to feel MUCH better!  Over the year I have watched that little baby grow into an awesome toddler who makes me laugh every single day with her crazy shannonigans (hehe, see what I did there?)  She is such a beautiful, intelligent, happy, and loving little girl that I still, to this day, cannot believe we created! How did I get so lucky?!  Here is a photo from a recent shoot we did for my in-laws for Christmas that definitely shows off her personality, just love that little squishy nose!

After a horribly long and cold winter, the springtime allowed Lily and I to finally get outside for some fresh air and much needed exercise. I followed along with the Tone It Up girls “Bikini series”. If you don’t know about the Tone It Up girls, check them out here: www.toneitup.com. They are amazing. It’s a wonderfully supportive community of women all working together to motivate and empower each other to be healthy. I would someday like to join their Nutrition Program as well. Right now they have their “Love Your Body” series running, a post about that to come.

Also fitness-related, the hubby and I decided to try out the workout program “Insanity” (http://www.beachbody.com/product/fitness_programs/insanity.do).  Well, let me tell you, the title is appropriate!!  It’s a two-month program with a one-week recovery in the middle. I unfortunately only made it half-way through and then lost all motivation since I was impatient and not seeing mega results yet.  My awesome hubby, on the other hand, continued through the entire program and lost like 25lbs! I was, and still am, so proud of him!  He assures me that most of the changes took place in the second month and that I shouldn't have given up, he is right.

We had the pleasure of welcoming three new family members this year. A beautiful niece, Miss B, in May, a nephew who is the toughest little man around, Mr. A, in June, and another wonderfully sweet niece, Miss K, in July. Lots of baby snuggles followed by comments like “so when’s your next one?!”… Give me time people! It's been amazing to watch all of our nieces and nephews grow this past year, to see their personalities develop, how they are all similar and different, and to shed tears of pride each time any one of them learns a new skill. We couldn't have asked for a more amazing family!

We attended weddings of some amazing friends, and celebrated engagements and pregnancy announcements with others. I also had so much fun planning and carrying out Lily’s first birthday party. It was Minnie Mouse themed and I loved getting crafty with it. I will also be doing a separate blog post about her party so stay tuned for that.

I tried out, loved, and then started selling the Younique cosmetics products. I have a facebook page dedicated to that (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Shannons-Younique-CosmeticsBeauty/263881567154601) and also a website (www.youniqueproducts.com/shannonm) if anyone is interested. 

I returned to work after a year of maternity leave and am enjoying being back in that atmosphere; despite how much I miss my little lady every day. We found a wonderful daycare for her and she has so much fun there, so that makes it much easier. I have about an hour's commute every day, which I used to loathe, but now don't mind. I downloaded the app Audible (www.audible.com) on my ipad and purchase one audiobook a month, then listen to that in my car on my drive home. I really look forward to that time of the day each day, since I don't have much time to read actual books anymore. Right now I am listening to the book "Outlander" by Diana Gabaldon, and am loving it so far!

All in all, 2014 was a year filled with tears (a lot!), laughs (even more!), baby snuggles, learning new skills, failing at others, and dusting myself off to try again. Here’s to another great year! Cheers everyone!

Project Simplify and Organize - Main Bathroom

Hi Everyone,

As promised in my last post, I have completed, and am sharing, my first home organization project - our family bathroom! We have been in our home for almost three years now and have had several different roommates. That, coupled with the fact that I am somewhat of a beauty- product addict, equals A LOT of stuff in the bathroom that never gets used. So let's get started.

Here is the view looking in our bathroom door:

I will start with the two large cupboards on the left, which have five shelves.

The first/top shelf used to hold a random assortment of stuff, including extra shaving accessories, toothbrushes and toothpaste, body products, the list goes on. I decided to make the top shelf our "hair" shelf. It holds all of my styling tools like my straightener, curling iron, and blow dryer. I hardly ever actually "do" my hair anymore so it was OK to have this stuff out of the way. The little black bag in the front is a hair clipper/buzzer set, and I've also put all of the hair products Mike and I actually use on this shelf.

The second shelf used to hold all of our most-used items, including toothbrushes, toothpaste, Q-tips and Mike's toiletry bag. The first thing I noticed about this messy area was the huge gaping hole of wasted space. So, I decided to put our bath towels on this shelf. (Who-da thunk it? Bath towels in the bathroom!)  This frees up some valuable space in our hall closet.

The third shelf used to hold all of Lily's products, and mouthwash apparently.  I have changed this shelf to be our now most-used items. Biggest pet peeve - we only have one outlet in the bathroom, and its on the wall with the light switch, so you have to have the cord across the cabinets to plug anything in. Oh well, what can you do, right?

The fourth shelf was another random assortment of bath and body products, with some hair products mixed in as well. That shelf is now our "first aid"area and also holds some back-up bath/body products.

The bottom shelf was where we used to have the first aid kit and all of our dog grooming accessories and products. Now, my little one isn't crawling yet but I know that soon enough she will be trying to get into EVERYTHING, so I didn't want to have any sharp objects on the bottom shelf where little fingers can reach them.  Since we don't use them very often, I moved all of the pet stuff to our downstairs bathroom, moved the first aid stuff up one shelf, and filled the bottom shelf with Lily's bath toys, hooded towels and face cloths. She can play with that stuff all she likes. I moved her shampoo, baby toothpaste, soaps, etc, to a drawer in the vanity and will put a child lock on it.

We have a little cabinet that goes around/over our toilet that was, again, full of bath and body products that were never being used. I cleaned out the products that had expired and that I can get rid of, and organized the rest. The bottom shelf now holds our extra hand towels and face cloths as well. On the open area right above the toilet I have put some products that I want to try and use on a more regular basis. If I see it right there, I will be more inclined to use it (Hello, Mary Kay Satin Hands!)

The best addition to my bathroom? A few Lush bath bombs that my awesome Hubby surprised me with one day. He knows how much I love them and how they are such a special treat to have in a bath at the end of a tough day. They also make my bathroom smell sooo yummy! If you want to check them out, go to www.lush.ca 

And that's all folks! I shall leave you with this photo of my waving to you in the mirror :)

Stay tuned for a few projects for our bedroom makeover! SO excited!

~ Shannon

Project Simplify and Organize - Master Bedroom Part 1

Welcome back everyone!

Way back in the spring I decided to continue my mega organization project in my bedroom. I thought it would be easiest to go through my own clothes and makeup first, and that I could do this and entertain the little one at the same time (imagine dancing around and throwing clothes while making funny noises and singing Disney songs).

The goals for this room:

- Sort, purge and organize: my clothes, Mike's clothes, my makeup and nail polish collection (I admit, I have a problem)

- Replace two old and mismatched dressers with one nice one

- Find bedside tables that will actually fit with our bed, and perhaps matching lamps or wall sconces 

- Find a bed frame and create under-bed storage

- Finish hanging pictures on the walls 

Let's see some before pictures shall we:

This is the view when you look into our bedroom door. Our room is small and the king-sized bed pretty much takes up the whole space. I have more room on my side of the bed because I had the bassinet squished in there when Lily was smaller. We can't even walk on Mike's side (have to crawl over the bed) and that's where the closet is, so it would be nice if we could access it. Also we have our bed right on the floor, and I would like to raise it up in an actual bed frame so that we could utilize the space underneath. In the right-hand corner of the picture you are seeing my vanity, which was also a huge mess of cosmetics, as well as a sort-of catch all for any random things that find their way into our pockets every day.

This is the view when I sit up in my bed - the two dressers that I want to replace with one. I use the term "dressers" lightly as the big black one is actually a TV entertainment unit. Mike's clothes currently live in that unit and the white dresser is empty except for the top drawer which is FULL of his socks, and the bottom drawer which has our bathing suits. Wedged between the two is one of Mike's gun sleeves, because all girls like having camouflage gun-sleeves in their bedrooms..... The next picture is a close-up of the little shelf in the TV unit where some of his hats, cologne, and other toiletries are currently housed. I want to find some nice way of organizing all of this for him as well.

As mentioned my makeup vanity is a sort of catch-all. This is my little cosmetics container (from Ikea) that holds my most-used makeup products. I also have ceramic jars holding my larger makeup brushes and cotton pads.

Underneath my vanity is actually semi-organized right now. The black case on the far left holds the rest of my makeup collection. The basket holds makeup bags that I use for travel, nail polish remover, dry shampoo and a couple body lotions. The first purple tote holds all of my nail polishes and utensils (clippers, files, etc.). The last tote holds most of my hair products like elastics, clips, etc. as well as some spare makeup items like foundation sponges and cotton pads. Then we have a plain old garbage can and my beautiful Nike Free Runs. They are stored here simply because I had to take them off in a rush last time I worked out. (Had to shower fast because the screaming, starving infant doesn't like when Mommy is smelly and sweaty - oh the joys!) They will eventually find a home near the front door with the rest of my shoes.

I actually forgot to take a before photo of the closet, which is OK because honestly I was a little embarrassed at how awful it was.

I got my butt in gear and started working on this project, but partway through I discovered something I hadn't noticed before... that our "spare" bedroom was actually bigger than our "master" bedroom. Can you guess what I decided?  Well, I am going to be a HUGE meanie and make you wait until the next post to see the finished room! Muah-ha-ha-ha-ha (said in low-pitch semi-evil voice).

Until next time...

~ Shannon

Where Have I Been?!

Hello friends!

Yes, I am alive, and I do sincerely apologize for my absence these last several months. 

I was all set to publish posts about my bedroom makeover and some other projects I had been working on, when my computer basically died. I was devastated to discover that we had lost everything that was on our old hard drive - all of my photos and videos of our precious baby, not to mention countless memories over the last several years. Not gonna lie, I cried! 

As a result of that, I wasn't able to create before and after photos of my makeovers and projects, and to be totally honest, I lost my motivation completely. Then of course life starts to get in the way as well. We've had birthdays, weddings, baby showers, BBQs, weekends with grandparents and of course the inevitable teething issues! But I am back, determined to continue on with this little project of mine, and I hope you will all forgive my absence.

We've been enjoying our summer so far, trying to get out in the sunshine and soak up the warmth and that glorious vitamin D! We had a little photo shoot outside in June and here are a few of my faves:

We have taken Lily swimming in both heated and non-heated pools, and in the lake - and she LOVES all of them. She's way tougher, at 8 months, than her mom, at a few years older ;)  She just splashes and plays with her water toys, we only take her out when her lips start to turn blue, but still no complaints from her.

I have a lot of new posts coming in the next few weeks so please stick with me. I hope you're having a fantastic summer so far!

~ Shannon

Oh Technology!

Hi Everyone,

It's just "one of those days" it seems. My daughter Lily is being oddly fussy, perhaps teething? Who ever knows really?  Spilled my first coffee of the day, the dog was running around and woke Lily up from her nap (too early), and now I am battling with technology like there is no tomorrow!

Since I started this blog, and hopefully will someday have a YouTube channel to go along with it, I wanted the entire "Random Shannonigans" world to be separate from my own personal information on the internet. Well that is way easier said than done my friends! 

My iPhone is also so full that I cannot take any more pictures or download the new update, so I wanted to back everything up to iCloud, but it's also apparently full. So then I try and backup my iPhone to my laptop and it will apparently take 15 hours! I mean, REALLY!?!?   Add to this the fact that my laptop will not run on battery power alone anymore, and it freezes when you try and do too many things at once... man oh man!

I'm sure I will figure it all out but geez, why must everything be so tricky?! If you are computer savvy and would like to help a girl out, please let me know!

I think the best idea for this Mama would be to abandon the computer for awhile, get Lily up since she refuses to nap anyway, and go for a walk in the sunshine. Yes, you heard me, the sunshine! It is 6 degrees and the view out my window looks like this:

Stay tuned for my completed "Project Simply and Organize - Bathroom" post coming this week. :)  I promise it will be a much happier post.

~Shannon

Spring Cleaning

Hey Everyone!

Happy first day of Spring!  

Wait a minute... spring, spring... nope, I have no clue what that word means! As I type this post THIS is the view out my front door:

Yes, that is a massive snowbank... and it is still snowing! Oh how we love Canadian winters, am I right? (Did you catch that bit of sarcasm?) 

Despite the weather, my brain has gone into full out spring cleaning mode. We don't own our home unfortunately, but have been here for almost three years and are encouraged by the landlords to think of it as our own and change things as we see fit. For example, when they found out that we were expecting a baby they told us to buy whatever kind of paint, new electrical outlets, light switches, etc. that we wanted for the nursery and they would reimburse us. Then they still made a point to come over and bring us a gift after she was born! Seriously, amazing landlords!

Since I have the OK to change some things, I have been scouring the internet looking for inspiration and ideas on how to fix the unruly and honestly ugly-looking areas of our home. I am thinking shelving, totes, drawer dividers... I really wish we had a Container Store here in Ottawa. Although I do know that we have a "Solutions" which I think is similar. If you have gone there and had any luck please leave me  a comment letting me know.

I took a notepad and pen and did a full walk-through of my house and made a list of the projects I would like to tackle and hopefully complete while I am off on maternity leave (I go back to work in October). After sitting down with a coffee and reviewing my list, its basically my whole house! I am calling it "Project: Simplify and Organize"  - basically get rid of the crap you don't use or need, and make everything else easy to see and access.

I plan to go room by room, and have decided to take you guys on this organizing journey with me, if you're interested. I have started a few things here and there, and so far have one full garbage bag of clothes and two boxes of knick-knacks and dishes to be donated, not a bad start!

Keep checking back for new posts on my various little projects and I would definitely appreciate suggestions as we go along. I will also be posting non-organizational stuff as well, not everyone is thrilled by cleaning (myself least of all). 

~ Shannon

My Very First Blog Post!

Hey Everyone,

Welcome to my little corner of the internet!

If you don't know me, or would like to know more, please check out the "About Me" section. 

I had been toying with the idea of starting a blog for quite some time. I was nervous, of course, you just never know how people are going to react, what they will say, do, etc.,  because this can be an awfully cruel world. After discussing the idea with my husband, mom, and some friends I decided "Why not? What have I got to lose?"

Next question, how do I create a blog? I received some great advice from my friend Kristen at Three Monkeys' Mommy, checked out some of my favorite blogs and how they were run, and also turned to Google (who wouldn't?).  I read tons of information about the process of actually creating a blog, and it seemed simple enough. Choose a theme, choose a name, create your blog, personalize it to your liking and start writing. Sounds simple, right?

My issue? All of those instructions told me to decide on a theme for my blog, to decide on what specifically I want to write about, but I want to write about a LOT of different things! I have varied interests and want to share bits of everything with all of you.

So I decided to do exactly that, and create a random blog about all the aspects of my life, hence my blog name.  You can expect posts on topics including children and family, friends and activities, parties, beauty products, cosmetics, health/fitness, food, photography, books, music, TV shows, movies, crafts, home projects and organization, and really anything else that pops into my brain. I really hope you like it, and leave me lots of comments and lots of love.

Check back for more posts soon,

~ Shannon