Four

This post may be cheating, but as a part of my 26 before 27 one of my goals included blogging at least four times a month (after falling off the blogging train at the beginning of the year), so when I saw that today was the last day of June and I only had three posts, I decided to throw this cheater of a post in.

So what does one ramble about when she needs a post an hour before the month changes?  Life, I suppose.  This is going to be one of those "currently posts" that I occasionally see floating around the interweb.

Reading:  This weekend at the lake, I was lucky to have enough time to finish two and a half books, young adult books, but still.  Honestly, if I were to be 100% honest, I'm mostly reading my Spanish book (I'm in an online class this summer) and books for my Praxis and PLT tests.  For fun, I'm in the middle of about a million books, but the ones I plan to finish next (hopefully this weekend) are: Four; A Divergent Story, Shiver, Bossypants, and Bad Feminist.

Thinking About:  Stress.  Lately, most about everything in my life has been causing me a bit of anxiety.  Spanish is becoming a bit overwhelming.  I recently found out that we'll be having a store visit at work, so that means I've got to be firing on all cylinders.  My real life is lacking, as well as the cleanliness of my apartment, because work and school is where most of my energy and effort goes so it feels like there is not much left.  That makes me sound very sad, but honestly, everything is great other than my lack of energy for personal life...especially eating as Mike and I are about halfway through our last week of Whole30.

Listening:  I never know what to put for this.  I want to say Grey's Anatomy, but if you look down, I have to write what I'm watching, which probably means that I'm supposed to talk about music.  The only music that I've really been listening to since October has been Life 97.9, our local Christian radio station.

Watching:  Orange is the New Black, Season 3. Check.  Once that was done, I went back and finished Drop Dead Diva, a show that Mike and I were surprised to get sucked into despite poor acting and no lost legal cases.  So currently, I'm onto Grey's Anatomy, Season 11.  It was very lucky for me that once I finished the other two listed shows, that the eleventh season of Grey's came onto Netflix, especially because I stopped watching the show on cable about five or six seasons ago.

Loving: My dog, Crookston.  My apartment and the great guy I share it with...again, that'd be Crookston, ha ha.  Mike, too.  Also, loving the fact that I passed the English component of my Praxis, and that Whole30 is coming to an end, and that I have an amazing family, and my health, and all of that other amazing stuff that I take for granted all of the time.

So here's my cheater post.  Feel free to comment with your "currently" choices!  I'd love to hear them :)

Junking Love


As I've shared numerous times on this blog, I love junking.  Recently I've purchased many items and have managed to sell a good chunk of those pieces.  The thing that stinks is that unless I'm doing a flea market, I'm usually only selling one piece at a time which takes a lot of time and work.  So I've been doing a lot of thinking about what the best way is to sell my vintage pieces without a shop.
I wrote a few weeks ago about wanting a camper to redo, and I thought that might be the answer to my problems.  While I keep hoping that I'll find the perfect little camper, it's time for Plan B.

In a small town about an hour away, there are two sisters who run a sale with vintage, antiques, and other cute things.  While I'm not fortunate enough to have a farmstead where I can host sales, I do think I can pull inspiration from their passion.


So right now, I'm brainstorming places where I could do pop-up shops. places to set up and display my vintage and craft goods.  Currently I'm only in the dreaming stage, but I always find that dreaming is the best first step of any plan.

Instagram Stories V.2

Here we are with (mostly) May's instagram pictures.  These are my top 5 and they may be a little repetitive or redundant, but that's life sometimes.


May marked the month where I decided to officially brand myself as "The Tattooed Moon."  This may seem a little late, as this blog has operated for over a year under that name and I've had the Facebook and (very neglected) Twitter for about that long, but my Instagram was still personal.  I made the jump and decided to be "The Tattooed Moon" on all of my social media.  I'm happy to say that I've had a much stronger Facebook presence, selling my vintage goods.


I wrote about my first flea market sale here.  This photo was snapped by my little sister and makes me look like I'm very hard at work.  It's a farce.  This is what a girl looks like when she realizes some of her items don't have price tags and the sale starts in less than an hour...you focus!


I don't remember exactly how I convinced Mike to try on this outfit, but that doesn't really matter, because I have this awesome reminder.  I think the best part of this was that it almost backfired.  Mike thought the shirt fit very well and that the pants were pretty cool, as far as red pants go.  I maybe tried to convince him to get the pants as I myself had red pants and the couple that matches together, stays together.  They sadly stayed on the clearance rack, probably where they belonged.


I haven't been crafting as much lately as I would like, but I did make this cool Sioux head.  I've sold a few, but they take HOURS to make and are very tedious.  They do not bring me joy the way my other crafts do, but if they make me a little bit of money, I'm not willing to complain...too much.


This last photo is from the beginning of June.  Mike and I took a mini-vacation to Illinois for an Avett Brothers concert.  When I learned that the American Pickers' shop was a 5-minute detour, I begged Mike to let us stop.  I was pretty jacked to be there and as you can see by Mike's face, he was much more nonchalant.  The trip was definitely one for the books and it's always fun to look back on photos and remember all of the fun times that were had.

This month was a lot easier to narrow down than April.  It could be because I didn't take nearly as many photos, but these five are still the ones most telling.  It's kind of crazy how I wrote such short captions on Instagram and once I chose my five to blog about, it was so easy to write longer paragraphs.

26 before 27 (May Review)

1. Read 50+ books, 4 that are religious/spiritual in manner
I'm currently at book 11, though I have a few other books half done or more.

2. Visit someplace new
Done! (6/4/15)  Mike and I visited Illinois and also spent a hot second in Iowa, visiting the American Pickers' shop.

3.  Make a quilt
Still no progress, but this summer should allow more time for fun hobbies and free time.

4.  Work out 26 times
Mike and I are starting a diet this month, so, theoretically, working out will follow.

5.  Take more photos
So far, so good.  I've been bringing my camera more and more places and trying to remember to take at least a few photos with it.  Re-seeing these goals makes me think that I'll try to bring it out sometime this weekend.

6.  Settle into the apartment (and maybe do a photo tour when it's complete)
This is slowly becoming a reality as all major furniture pieces seem to be purchased and now it's just a matter of moving out some of the crappy old and replacing with the cool, vintage old.

7.  Blog at least 4 times monthly
April was a success with just 4.  May...a repeat.  4 posts a month seems to be my sweet spot.

8.  Write two new short stories
Soonish.  

9.  Get my passport
Maybe I can get my passport and venture up to Canada...that's one of the perks of being so far up north, I could literally day trip to a foreign country.  Sure, it'd only be Canada, but a stamp in a passport is a stamp.

10.  Create and follow a budget
June.  June I will get back in the swing of organizing my life.

11.  Send more mail than last year
Last year, this was such an easy goal and  I had so much fun doing it.  I'm honestly surprised that I haven't done anything with it.  Maybe the end of the year will see a crazy revival of mail.

12.  Learn to crochet
Again...summer is the magic land of opportunity.

13.  Go to a winery
Mike and I talked about this the other day.  I know that I can rope Mike into it if need be, but I really think it'd be a fun girl's day activity.  On a side note, I need girlfriends who live a lot closer.

14.  Date-night with Mike monthly, at-home dates count, too!
So far, so good.

15.  Take a yoga class
I may need a friend to bring with me.  Lots of people seem to be into yoga, so I'm sure it won't be too hard to find a friend.

16.  Have my parents over for dinner
Once the apartment is "complete"....

17.  Create a blog feature
I'm currently testing two out.  Photography Attempt and Instagram Stories,  We'll see if either stick or if a dark horse appears.  Also, if you read this blog closely, you'll realize that I took this first line from last month's 26 before 27.  Good enough then, good enough for now.

18.  Finish my volunteering requirement for school
Last month I had all of this ambition.  This month...maybe ambition?

19.  Get a new bed
Done! (4/15)

20.  Go to a play at Red River's "new" theater
Hoping for a SPA performance this summer.

21.  Have a "no spend" week in April
Should I just cross this off because I suck, pretended to move it to May, and then still forgot it?

22.  Have a "no spend" month in September
Something for future Sara to worry about.

23.  Study for and take my Praxis tests
A few friends and I are talking about getting together for a group study date.  I have the tests scheduled, so studying needs to happen.

24.  Pay off one big credit card
I actually feel like this could happen by September.  Fingers crossed and pennies pinched.

25.  Create my "space"
I have the furniture.  Now I need to remove the excess crap that has no home and maybe figure out how to connect my small tv to a DVD player so that I have something to listen to while crafting.

26.  And one to grow.
Still a little unsure on this one.