Hello everyone! Today, I wanted to share my updates on all my fun little activities for September!

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It’s been a pretty, well, lively month! I think I managed to get quite a bit in so I’m excited to share!

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My Lively September

Creative Fun

DIYs

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DIY projects returned to my library this month! The first project was wind chimes. It was from a little kit which was perfect because no one had to share supplies or anything. It came with little ceramic items with paints and a paint brush to decorate them with. And then the little chimes and string too so that it could be assembled. It was pretty fun but I didn’t attempt to string the chimes since I wasn’t super thrilled with how they ended up anyway. I went for a Day of the Dead like theme but didn’t do it too well so that’s why!

The second project was masking tape art! For this one, my mom made us late so by the time we arrived everyone else got all the cute colored paint but I managed to find some cool colors anyway! I think it looks like an autumnal beach inspired project. I decided the dark and cerulean blues represent the water, the light blue is the sky, the brown is the sand, the yellow is the sun, the orange is the autumn leaves, and the darker brown is the shells on the beach. I have also decided it’s a great piece and should be displayed at a museum. If anyone knows of a museum that wants to display “An Autumn Day at the Beach” in their galleries, let me know LOL!

My librarian friend is going to try to continue the projects in October or later on Zoom when it’s too cold to be out if we still can’t meet in person. I’m in Northern Illinois and it’s already been quite chilly on some days. Various other people who attend have said that they either don’t do Zoom (they’re older and not as tech savvy) or wouldn’t do in person if masks are required indoors (again, they’re older so they think if masks are required then it’s an indication that’s it’s not safe enough to partake and they want to be extra cautious). Two people who attend did lose people in this pandemic so they’d rather be safe than sorry. I’d rather still do projects, even over Zoom, but if we had the classes and no one signed up, I’m sure the library higher ups wouldn’t be able to justify it.

Bujo

I can’t wait to share my bujo in next month’s video! I think it’ll be July, August, and September. I don’t think September was my best work in my bujo, but July and August will be fun to share! I already bought a new dotted journal for 2021, since I enjoyed the whole experience so much this year. I am waiting to share what color the new one is until I do a video on it, but it’s not pink! I literally surprised myself because I expected to end up with a different shade of pink, but still have a pink one. But nope! I think you’ll be surprised!

Entertainment

Books

As always, I’m listing all the books I’ve finished since the previous Lively post below with their star ratings. All thoughts on them are saved for future (or even past!) Mini Book Review posts but those will be linked below if so. I won’t include any books that I didn’t finish although I’ll be sure to add them into the review posts.

This month I read 1 book. I had an issue with my library where they erroneously blocked my card and couldn’t fix it for over a week! It was soooooo aggravating because I had multiple books that I’ve waited weeks for on the hold list, and then I just watched them become available during that week and still couldn’t read them! I did manage to check out one book right before that happened but still!

• Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo – 3/5 stars

Movies

I watched so many films! First up, I continued my journey on watching all the Disney Princess movies in order of when they were released. I started this month with Cinderella. I am so confused on many, many things here. Why do people act like Ella only was after the prince? She literally wasn’t! She just wanted a day off from chores and a pretty dress. She had zero intention of falling in love (although of course she hoped because every girl literally would!) and she just wanted to have some fun. Poor gal. I don’t think I watched this movie too often when I was younger but I did remember a surprising amount from it. Also, the king was literally insane with his obsession with grandkids and no one should let him near swords at all. Anyway, it was super enjoyable to watch!

I continued onto Sleeping Beauty. I was most surprised by the fact at how big a role the fairies got. For some reason I thought that they were only in the first third of the film up until Aurora goes back to her parents and then they peace out. But they actually did a lot more and helped the prince with Maleficent and getting him back to Aurora. I found them pretty annoying actually so I wasn’t too pleased about that but it all worked out. They did have the best lines though when they were sewing the hideous dress by hand and one of them said “it looks awful” and the other one replied “that’s because it’s on you, dear” which was SAVAGE. The kings seemed quite silly too as they really didn’t seem to care about what their kids wanted, but that seems to be a theme so far with kings (see Cinderella‘s king description above).

I moved onto The Little Mermaid next. The best part of it was Ariel’s commitment to learning about humans although her education was severely lacking as her teacher wasn’t really reliable there. Overall though, she was so annoying! Very selfish and impulsive for sure. I think the fact that the king had so many kids he literally couldn’t keep track of them anymore but he didn’t even bother with quality childcare! Surely as a king he could afford 1) individual rooms for each princess and 2) quality babysitters. Instead he put Sebastian in charge because Sebastian pointed out Ariel needed more supervision despite the clear lack of qualifications. The fact that Ariel was 16 in the film and she still needed a babysitter was also concerning. Honestly she needed better support and attention overall, so I think it wasn’t really her fault that her curiosity turned into a dangerous obsession.

I took a break from the Princesses and switched to Netflix to watch The Social Dilemma. One of my friends recommended it to me when it was starting to gain interest online so I watched it. There wasn’t anything new in the film, which warned that social media companies are selling information on the users of their platforms, but it was presented in a very good way. I think that people who maybe weren’t as concerned or as aware of this did learn a lot and for everyone else who did already know, it served as a good reminder for them. Also I would like to point out that I literally bought an entire Switch because watching my sister and TikTokers have so much fun playing Animal Crossing convinced me to buy one so clearly the manipulation works.

Back to Disney+ for Beauty and the Beast! This has been and always will be my favorite Princess movie so I thought it was perfect and a beautiful masterpiece. My mom asked me who I was talking to after I watched it and I had to tell her that no, I just know the film so well I could almost recite all of it. I think my favorite parts to recite back to the film are anything with Gaston and Belle judging all her neighbors. I will also point out that the servants in the castle literally put zero effort into keeping up the castle until Belle showed up so clearly she’s a natural born leader. My favorite line though is when Gaston tells LeFou he’s been “thinking” to which LeFou replies that’s a “dangerous past time”.

The last Disney film I saw was Aladdin for this month. Do I like it? Yes. Do I like the live action more? Absolutely. I’m sorry, this version might be the original but it just pales in comparison. To be fair, all live action films tend to add so much more background and plot points for the side characters, so it’s a little unfair to compare them. However, since it’s so fresh in my mind, I really felt like this version was lacking on the details and growth for the characters. I mean, I think the first half is still good but the last half was kinda meh and Jasmine didn’t get shine as much as she did in the live action. But overall it’s still good and I appreciate it.

Final film for the month was on Netflix, the documentary Waiting for “Superman”. I remember I had heard of this years back, from a teacher but I don’t remember watching it or the context of why it was mentioned. Still, I was curious so I watched it. It was so sad, because of all the shortcomings of the American education system. Students aren’t getting quality education anywhere, even in the best schools. And then watching parents struggle and agonize about trying to get their kids in even slightly better schools, and ultimately watching most of them fail, was heartbreaking. Those poor kids don’t deserve that! As someone who has always loved school, it’s so sad to think that some kids don’t get to experience that to the fullest all because their parents don’t live in the “right” area for a good school or don’t make enough for the tuition or something.

TV Shows

I’ve watched quite a few more episodes of Madam Secretary. I think I’m nearing the end of season 3 now, I’m at episode 19 or something around there I believe. I do like that Elizabeth is still making great strides in her career and that her husband, Henry, is more involved in what she does too. Her kids are older now and we see them getting more and more involved or interested in her work. They also finally secured a second term for Dalton, so she gets to keep her job a bit longer so yay!

The only other series show I saw was Netlfix’s new Challenger series. There wasn’t anything new revealed but the whole thing was summed up quite nicely. The series basically explores all that went wrong leading up to the Challenger disaster when the spaceship exploded after one of the components failed. Even though what happened was a consequence of a known failure, NASA ignored recommendations and warnings about it. Unfortunately it resulted in the loss of the astronauts on the Challenger mission, and there’s documentation that NASA continues to ignore known issues to this day. It’s really sad and upsetting, but the series was done very well and presented well too.

Music

I’ve been enjoying Taylor Swift’s Folklore album still! It’s just so chill and soothing! I did a review on the album earlier and I still really love the album. I adore “Cardigan” and “Exile” and even “Betty” is growing on me although it’s mostly because I like the melody I think. Oh, I loved watching Taylor’s performance of “Betty” at the CMA’s though!

Podcasts

I did start listening to a new podcast, Baby Steps Podcast. It’s hosted by Try Guy’s member Ned and his wife Ariel, who are about to have their second baby. I don’t have kids and really don’t intend to but it’s fascinating because both of them admit they didn’t know much about kids before having their first. Since neither one really grew up around small children, they admit that there’s a lot that people who did grow up with younger siblings or maybe nieces and nephews just automatically seem to know. They also talk about the less glamorous parts of parenting which sounds really interesting. It’s really entertaining honestly!

Video Games

Starting with Hogwarts Mystery, I really don’t think I’ve done much. I’ve done a few side quests somewhat recently to have Ava be Head Girl for her 7th year and then befriend Rath but I really haven’t played in maybe over two weeks? I’m just not interested in it anymore despite having played for so long!

I started playing Animal Crossing Pocket Camp, which is the mobile game of this series, because you can get exclusive items if you play the mobile game in the Switch game. After getting access to those items I didn’t play anymore but it was fun for the five or so minutes I did play!

Most of my month has been dedicated to Animal Crossing New Horizons though! I’ve moved all my villagers, established a fake farm area just in time for actual farming to become a thing in the game (just my luck), changed a ton of little areas in my island, and been having a great time overall! My sister and I regularly let each other visit our islands and give each other presents or let each other catalog stuff which is fun too. Basically if you pick up an item, it is added to your catalog so you can order another at any time. So you can drop stuff for someone else to pick up and then you can give it back but still get it later. My sister has played for far longer than me, so she has a ton more than me. Thus I get a lot more from her but I get super excited when I can give her stuff. Recently I sent her a phone box because she hates her yellow one but I have a blue so I gave it to her. I also gave her a towel because she didn’t have one and a few DIYs she didn’t have. It does make it more fun when you can play with someone else! Oh, I also started visiting dream islands because I finally decided to save some to visit. Some people are beyond creative and I love getting inspiration from them!

Baking

I have been baking again this month quite a bit! I made a couple items that I’m excited to share. If you want one spoiler, I made the M&M cookies again! The rest you’ll have to wait and see!

Active Life

walk

Even though my puppy niece has gone home, I do make it an effort to walk every day still. Walkies are more fun with a dog, I’m not going to lie, but it’s still great to get out and walk around every day. Especially since I know cold winter days are heading my way soon!

ballet

I’m back in virtual ballet this month! This time around was a bit more expensive because it’s 8 sessions, which is fine with me! There were only three other students besides myself in the class, and usually there’s a minimum of 6 students I believe to run the class. We asked the instructor about it and she said she had been told by former students that they specifically didn’t sign up because it’s virtual. I’m sure it’s because some people are older and might not have the tech knowledge, some people have kids and might not be able to get time to themselves if they’re at home, and other reasons. However, since we are at home and it doesn’t cost the fitness center anything in terms of space or whatever, then they likely allowed it for that reason. The adult ballet class always fills up when it’s in person and is very popular, so I’m sure they also didn’t want to cancel it and risk losing people who would sign up normally from checking next season for it.

Oh, since all of us in the class were in the summer class, our instructor works us hard! We’re always sweating like crazy at the end of class and so sore after working so hard! I really love that and we’re doing a ton of work on our balance and stamina. I’m convinced I’m going to be a professional ballerina after this because we’re working so hard LOL. It’s well worth the money in my opinion!

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So that’s what I’ve been up to this month!

Thanks for reading!

Pamela

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