Hello everyone! Today, I’m sharing all my fun updates for all my hobbies this month!

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I have so much to share, and I’m so excited so let’s get started!

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My Lively

Creative Fun

DIYs

So every month I try to go to the DIY nights at my local library. I managed to go to two and do one take home project. As always I forgot to get photos of them but I did want to share what they were anyway! First, I did a mason jar vase. The librarian had already spray painted the jars a nice beige so we used some sandpaper to roughen it up a bit and give it a more distressed look. The sand paper was too fine to do a lot of distressing but it was still fun. Then we put some foam in there to hold the stems of the faux flowers and grasses we used in it. I think it fits in nicely with my new beachy theme I’m establishing in my home office.

Next, we did paper palm leaves! I am not usually a fan of paper based projects, but this one was pretty fun! I think they also kind of match my theme too.

For the take home project I did a diamond painting project! So this was the project last month and I had been so excited, but then I had to take Foxy in for his ear infection appointment so I skipped the project! The librarian saw how sad I was to have to miss it, since I’d been looking forward to it, and she let me take it home to do it! It took forever to finish it, but it was so fun! It was an “easy” level project and it was such a cute image of a little piglet in a vase of flowers. I really enjoyed it! I did get annoyed at how many extra diamonds there were though! I wish there wasn’t so many extras left over. I don’t know what to do with them!

Botanical Art

I took a botanical art class at the library as well! I won’t go on about it too much because I did an entire post about my experience that I liked there! I had a great time though and I am looking forward to drawing some more.

Bujo

I am still having trouble filling up my bujo, which is quite sad! I love using it and creating spreads but I haven’t really had much to put in lately. I’ll have to look up some bujo videos for new inspiration soon.

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.

Also, I started a Bookstagram! Find me under @StarringPamelaReads on Instagram!

This month I read 10 books. (Although some are from the end of May to be honest.) I also reached my reading goal for 2022 already! I am currently at 69 books read this year and my goal had been 65. I do feel a slump coming on, so that is very unfortunate!

• Invisible Child by Andrea Elliott, 4 stars
• Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang, 3.5 stars
• Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe, 4.25 stars
• Olga Dies Dreaming, Xochitl Gonzalez, 4.5 stars
• Intimacies by Katie Kitamura, 3.5 stars
• The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera, 3.75 stars
• People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry, 4 stars
• Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez, 3.75 stars
• Girls with Bright Futures by Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy Katzman, 3.75 stars
• A Lot Like Adios by Alexis Daria, 4.25 stars

Movies

I only watched documentaries this month! The first was a creepy one called Our Father on Netflix. This one focused on an infertility doctor who would swap out the donor/actual father’s specimen for his own. When his offspring began to grow up they would do those DNA tests and slowly realized the horrific truth. For some, it was just a surprise when their heritage didn’t match what their parents had told them their donor was. For others, the actual parents would be horrified to learn that their child wasn’t biologically theirs, although that was what they had gone through the procedure for. And, eventually, realizing they had countless half-siblings and knowing the list would only keep growing was a complete shock! I did already know how unregulated the process is for those medically created pregnancies are, as I do see TikToks of a donor-conceived woman quite often. For her, she only realized how unregulated it was when she was diagnosed with a rare genetic medical condition. Since learning how unregulated the industry is, she has taken to educating as many people as possible on it. This documentary echoed a lot of what she had already shared, and highlighted the need for regulation in that field.

The second was a very unsettling documentary on Netflix called Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey. Like many people, I am very interested and horrified by cults! This cult is called the Fundamentalists Latter Day Saints, abbreviated to FLDS. Their whole thing is that they have a “prophet” who inherited the cult from his dad. Under his dad the cult was already crazy, where they decided that polygamy was required to get into heaven, but only for men of course… Their goal was that each man had to have at least three wives and as many kids as possible, and they could only get wives by “god” telling their prophet that they could. So basically the prophet would approve or arrange the marriages. But with the new leader, he instituted more strict dress codes, started kidnapping kids from their parents to brainwash them, and even started forcing kids to get married to older men. And, of course, everyone was brainwashed to think that everyone not in the cult was wrong and untrustworthy so the women who realized something was wrong were stuck in the cult, as they had no idea where to go or who to turn to. Even when given the opportunity, they would waste it. It was so sad and annoying to see how mistreated the girls were and how oppressed the women allowed themselves to be. Luckily some did escape but it was still really sad. And even though the “prophet” was captured and is now in prison, the cult members still listen and visit him, which is insane! I hope the cult is dissolved someday and those women and children get their freedom back.

TV Shows

As per usual, I’m watching Gilmore Girls and Madam Secretary! I finished Madam Secretary this month actually so I might restart it or try something else for a bit. I’m on season six of Gilmore Girls. And for a comedy show I replaced Schitt’s Creek with Community, which I think I mentioned last month. I am currently on season two and loving the show! It’s always a ton of fun!

I did watch a bit of The 100, and I’m on season two now. I’m not really enjoying it much anymore. I think it lost a lot of the plot halfway through season one and I just feel like it moved way too fast through the cool part!

Podcasts/YouTube

• The Morning Toast
• Ladies & Tangents
• Planet Money
• Diversifying
• The Financial Diet

Video Games

I have continued to play Animal Crossing: New Horizons! I always say I am going to take a break from it but then I find ways of making it fun again. This past month was pretty good overall! First, my two temporary villagers both gave me their photos fairly soon after moving onto the island, and they moved out so easily as well! One asked to move out and the other moved out because of a campsite villager so that just worked out perfectly. Second, I have been working to build up my catalog and making amazing progress with it! I have been ordering stuff through the Happy Home Paradise DLC, customizing stuff on Harv’s Island, and crafting items that I had the recipe for but never made. Right now my main concern is now finding more gold nuggets as I do not have enough for all the gold items! Third, I finally finished my museum! I was one statue away from fully completing it for so long! I finally found the missing statue when I visited Redd on Harv’s Island last week. Blathers was thrilled and so was I! I can finally stop wasting bells when on Harv’s Island buying fake art or art I just don’t want! Fourth, I have been redecorating my second character’s home! She has the restaurant with a rooftop bar and I wanted it to have more of a beach feel so I moved it over to be closer to the beach! I also finally got the glow in the dark stickers so I have been customizing them to be windows and used a fun wallpaper to make it look like a rooftop bar. She also has a beach ice cream/smoothie shop too.

The other game I played was Life is Strange: True Colors Wavelengths DLC. I have always enjoyed the character of Steph and how funny and nerdy she is so I finally got the DLC to play. The DLC’s only setting is the record store and each chapter is a different season following the first year of Steph’s life in Haven Springs. As the seasons change, Steph’s influence on the store and the radio station grow, and Steph finds herself struggling to come to terms with her past based on what happened to Arcadia Bay in the first game. I really enjoyed the game, although I’ll admit it felt limiting to be confined to the record store after exploring the entire town as Alex so recently. Even so, there was plenty to do and to keep Steph busy. Steph needed to not only do her job-related tasks for both the radio station but also the store, she also needed to text friends back and even had some fun online dating. Beyond that, Steph had some healing to do after the events in Arcadia Bay. No matter what ending occurred, it was still a really tragic and traumatizing outcome for the survivors and this game really explored that with Steph. Overall, Steph is a really fun character to play and I’m glad she got her own DLC game.

Active Life

walks

So Foxy still isn’t walking as much as he was before he got injured late last month. He’s doing a lot better though so we’ve been walking more and more lately! He does get lazy during walks but we’ve discovered that if I had the leash to my mom and pretend that I’m going ahead without them, he does not find that to be acceptable and will insist that he must walk with his mom, at least for a little longer.

ballet

Ballet started up again this month! The first summer session has started and we have a full class! We have a ton of new people and we are loving it! Almost everyone has taken ballet before so that’s cool as we’re able to move a little faster. But we are having a ton of fun already!

Jazz

This summer I also started jazz! This one is so different from ballet that I am honestly completely lost at times! I am loving trying new things though and even if I look like a hot mess, it’s still fun!

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So that’s what I’ve been up to this month! Next month should have a few more fun updates as well, I’m so excited!

Thanks for reading!

Pamela

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