life lately - holidays and movies

Happy holidays! I was super busy over Christmas, so I didn't have much time to blog. I hope everyone had a great holiday. I had a wonderful day! Lots of family, gift giving and receiving, and food.

We went to our first Christmas Day movie the evening of the 25th. We saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens! I'm going to be honest, I was just going to wait until the end of it's theatre showing to see it. I assumed it was going to be packed, but we lucked out with an 9:20pm showing and the theatre had plenty of room.

And no spoilers here! It was a great movie. If you're even remotely a Star Wars fan, go see it.

I'm not one of those people who takes numerous dramatic pictures of what they got for Christmas, but look at this sweatshirt my dad got me!!!!

I love it! You can pick one up at Animal Hearted. (Sign up for their email list and get free shipping!)

The holiday isn't quite over yet for me, as on the 31st I'm heading out to Tennessee with my brother to have our Christmas with Mumma. So excited!

Any exciting end-of-season plans?

a day downtown

(boots, jeans)

I guess technically I spend every day downtown as I work there, but today was my day off so I got to peruse some of the shops. I don't normally get to do that since the shop's hours normally coincide with almost every else's, so it was a nice little treat!

Initially, I was heading down to drop off some clothing at the Re Run Shoppe, and afterwards I decided to get a little Christmas shopping in. So I visited Ladyburg (which just recently moved across the street!) and Irish Eyes, along with a couple antique shops, and my favorite, Riverby Books.

There's three floors of used books. My favorite.

I picked up a couple books there that caught my eye; The Princessa: Machiavelli for Women by Harriet Rubin, and The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett.

This photo also includes My Dog Skip by Willie Morris that I picked up at Manarc (along with a lovely teapot for my grandmother for Christmas). I haven't seen the movie, either. Yeah, I'm way behind. And definitely go check out Manarc if you're a local - proceeds go to local veterans!

I stopped by Whittingham to look at their window (again) because it's so well done. The mice are so cute. They're worshiping the cheese!

And how great is this unicorn mount?!?! It's just subtle enough for a gallery wall, I think.

I ended the day by picking up some Earth Balance mac and cheese at Kickshaw's since I can't seem to find it anywhere (and didn't know they carried it!), and then I headed back home before my math final (which I passed!). I'm glad I had some time to get out downtown, but now I'm ready for bed. How do you spend your day off?

vegan tacos & leftover taco bowls

A few nights ago I made cabinet tacos. Super easy. Grab stuff from your cabinet, prepare it  and then my favorite part: MAKE TACOS AND STUFF YOUR FACE! I pick up most of my taco supplies when I have Cartwheel deals and coupons. It's a quick and cheap dinner that's almost always on hand if you pick up things when you pass them.

Gardein Beefless Ground cooked in a pan with chili & garlic powder (25% off deal on Cartwheel!)
refried beans (25% off deal on Cartwheel!)
multi-grain tortillas
Tofutti sour cream (leftover from making party dip!)
cherry tomatoes
Badia chipotle sauce
chickpeas

The best part? Leftovers! I'm a huge fan of leftovers. Sometimes I prefer them. Well, with tacos, the leftovers are so easy to take to work the next day: taco bowls!

Omit the tortilla, throw your leftover ingredients in a bowl, top it with sauce, and TA DA! Lunch.

books - what i'm reading and what i have planned to read

My reading has come all but to a standstill. I've been crazy busy at the store, so I'm usually exhausted and just want to social media surf when I get home. Half the time I don't even bother pulling my laptop out!

However, I've gotten a little bit of reading done. I don't think I'll meet my Reading Challenge on Goodreads (that I changed from 50 to 30 books a few months ago. Sigh.), but reading a smidge is better than not reading.

I just finished The Secret of Platform 13 by Eva Ibbotson and it was fantastic. My friend, Jessica, gave me a copy. I'm a huge fan of easy YA reads; they're pleasant and you don't have to wrack your brain to understand a twist. Eva Ibbotson can spin some great fantasy stories. Island of the Aunts is another of her works that I love.

Never Never by Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher is an ebook I caught on special for free a few weeks ago - I'm about halfway through. It's written well, but doesn't quite hold my interest enough to be un-put-downable. It's not that it's slow, I just really want to know what's going on. Okay...it's a little slow.

I started The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells one night ages ago when I couldn't sleep, I started it and I have yet to go back to it. Not for lack of interest, I just have to be in the mood for certain books. Is anyone else like that?

Normally I don't like to take on more than a couple books at once, but I'm super excited to start a couple more - a thrifted copy of The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling), Witch & Wizard by James Patterson - I read a sample on my Nook and finally managed to thrift a copy, and Kiss of the Spider Woman by Manuel Puig, that I picked up used at Riverby downtown.

In other book news, did you know that enhanced editions of Harry Potter are now on iBooks?! How awesome! Here's the press info on it from October.

I'm always open for book recs, so feel free to send some over! (And add me as a friend on Goodreads!)