Monday Muse (1)

Hey fam! Happy Monday! Or something - are Mondays ever really happy? Let's change that! By now you must have noticed that my reading has slowed down a looooooot. I'm going to be honest: I love reading, always will, but nothing current in the publishing world seems to be really grabbing my attention. Maybe current trends don't suit my tastes; I keep wanting to reread old favorites or read unread backlist novels that I've had for forever. Maybe it's a part of getting older - I started this blog in 2012 when I was 17 - but it's just not the same.

In any case, I've been branching out my hobbies and interests. In January I joined a gym, and I really love the power of running, lifting, stretching, and sweating - I feel so much stronger than I have in my entire life.

I also picked up knitting again, in January, but I've fallen off the wagon with that one. I bought a pound of red yarn recently, and I want to participate in the Little Hats, Big Hearts program in the coming February.

I'm teaching myself Icelandic! I checked out a Beginner's Icelandic book by Helga Hilmisdóttir and Jacek Kozlowski from my local public library, and I'm going to use the Icelandic Online course that the University of Iceland has available. Wish me luck!

I've finally started to get into coloring, which is something I've been meaning to do. You'd think I was a coloring addict, given the sheer number of adult coloring books that I own. But NOPE. I've barely colored in any of the books. That is going to change.

So for my first Monday Muse post, I'm going to share a little of my recent coloring! For every Monday Muse post that I do, I will share an update on a hobby of mine, whether it be coloring, or Icelandic, or knitting, or whatever. My goal this year is to try more new things, even if it means I'll be shifting away from reading like an addict.*

*Note: I still love reading. I always will.

So, the coloring!

I got this gorgeous Joanna Basford planner from my #TBTBSanta (thank you!).

I love this planner, not only because it is so pretty and detailed, but also because of the amount of space I have to write details for each day of the week. Here is one week in November:

Isn't that tree amazing? I love it. It's almost too hard to write up and color the book, because the illustrations are so beautiful.

I use three planners; one as a gym log, one for work, and this Joanna Basford one, for personal use. I admit I use this one least of the three, mostly because I pretty much go to work, go to the gym, come home and sleep. I'm trying to be better about it through! 

Here is a peek at this week's coloring:

I'll be taking this on the metro with me this week. Let's see how far I get! These designs are so complicated.

That's my muse for the week! This weekend I reread Dream a Little Dream by Kerstin Gier (love love love), and I'll be rereading book two, Dream On. In addition to the Icelandic book, I checked out Just Dreaming (book three) from the library, so I'm hoping to read that by Thursday. It's been a while since I had a proper review on a Friday. But those are my goals for the week!