Contest! With Prize!!!!

You know what my blog hasn't done yet? Had a contest.

So Imma have one! Here are the deets:

1. Post a comment below with your favouite VEGAN recipe - get an entry
2. Tweet about my awesome #vegtober project and your contribution to it - get an entry (you can do this every day)

Midway through #Vegtober I will randomly draw a winner. What could you win??

How about this copy of  Inside by Alix Ohlin?! 

It was the only book this year nominated for both the Rogers Writers' Trust AND longlisted for the Giller prize, so you know it is gonna be good! 

And just to spice it up I will make you a pretty little card to go with it. All I'm looking for are some yummy vegan treats, so help me out, yo! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Blogger Fail / September Wrap up

Yeees, I have been neglectful. What can I say? Real life got in the way. Real life like work, school, more work, errands, and work (again).

Things are trucking along though. For those of you reading this via Facebook, you are likely aware of my nutty electric shock injury (gas stove ignitor got me and messed up some muscles in my neck. It hurts. I slept for 15 hours last night). That has been a real bummer. I made a trip to Ikea yesterday to puck up some "make my apartment a home" stuff and had to leave in a hurry because I was in so much pain. Even now, almost 48 hours after the initial injury, I am hurtin' - my head is in a permanent tilt to the left, which sucks but makes me seem like a more caring, sympathetic person I think :) Before you tell me to go to the doctor, I am going to. Tomorrow.

Right - to the wrap up:

1. Running has been put on hold. I REALLY want to start again in October but between my doctor telling me to pull back and now not being able to turn my head, I may have to be a little patient on this. 
2. Vegan month starts TOMORROW!!!! I have done a bunch of research, have some recipes in waiting, and I've pretty much indulged all my dairy loves over the past week, so I'm ready to go! Expect to see a lot of pictures of food over the next month. The highlight? Cooking my own completely vegan Thanksgiving dinner next weekend. Gulp!
3. Quit my Job - not yet. Apps and skill development in progress. 
4. No drinking - not a problem. (side note: the Bookstravaganza event I went to earlier this month was open bar - OPEN BAR! That one kind of stung) 
5. Knitting - it is really coming along! Slowly, but surely. Check out my scarf progress (at bottom)
6. Make a quilt - still trying to find a sewing machine. I think Santa may bring one for me...
7. Volunteer - putting this one off until later in the year. 
8. Apartment decoration - doing okay. Got shelves (still need to be painted) and have worked on my work area a lot (photos below). I really want to tackle the kitchen organization next and then once my sewing machine and I meet, there will be a lot of textile work. 
9. Yard Sale - in spring
10. Vancouver - no progress
11. Print 20 photos per month - On my way to print these today! I'll post a photo of the photos later. The thing that I learned this month about this one is that if I want to print photos of things, I need to TAKE photos of things. So events like dinners with friends, markets, outdoor festivals, etc - take pictures of things that I will want to keep. 
12. Dinner Party - scheduled for later in the year
13. Chicago - planned for later
14. Surprise Party - I can't write about that anymore...
15. Cards for B-days/Anniversaries - Yeah. I sucked up this one this month. Going to make a point of getting on top of October. 
16. Mail a letter - sending it today!
17. Get a Dog - Need to think of something new for this one...
18. Go to Dentist - scheduled for later
19. Retirement Fund - totally forgot about this one. Shit.
20. Book/movie/album recommendations from family - they are slowly coming in! I'm excited to get started
21. Journaling - I may amend this one to journaling specific days. Maintaining this blog daily as well as trying to work on my other one is a big time commitment. So I may need to cut back on this one and focus more on the book blog. Don't worry, you will you still get to hear all about this exciting stuff (</sarcasm>) 
22. Rock Climbing - I have that scheduled for a particular month. I can't remember which one or find my yearly schedule...I should get on that. 
23. Birthday date - check!
24. Poetry reading/book event/concert  - went to Bookstravaganza all myself! 
25. ass-kicking glass - scheduled
26. Call my sisters - going really well. It is hard to schedule with them but we are talking a lot more. 
27. Beginners art class - I found a book binding workshop yesterday! So I am going to do that, but I also want to find an actually weekly class that runs for awhile. 
28. Boston - scheduled
29. Credit Card - app sent in. Waiting. 
30. Museum memberships - going to get these in October

So there you go! I think I'm doing pretty well, all things considering. 

Now enjoy some photos...

Desk-area is coming together slowly; I have too many lots of really great books to read this month; My scarf so far

My younger sister will be the recipient of the first of my hand-written letters. I hope she likes it!  

On a lighter note, my favourite pub has LOTS of vegan options including the best veggie bacon ever. Ever.  

Cue Sad Trombone

The interview didn't turn into a job. Sad face.

I am not going to sit here and say I'm not disappointed (I am) but I'm really okay with it. This was a last minute application that I sent in on the closing date last Wednesday, so it has barely been on my radar for a week. Also, the "plan" is to really go for something that starts in the new year. I want to give my employers notice, let them know that I'm looking and give them time to prepare for my departure. Also I need to save up the money. So this is really okay.

Yet as okay as I am with this, it does make me wonder. This is the third interview that I have had for an internship. I have received very positive feedback on my resume and experience. So I can't help but wonder if it is me.

I don't mean that in a self-depraved "I suck soooo much" kinda way. More in that I have never had to interview professionally before. Ever. And I'm probably not very good at it. I don't think that I go in and say the wrong things, more that I go in and miss opportunities to say the best things. I don't really sell myself. I am positive and honest, enthusiastic and open, but I don't really use every chance to state why I am the best candidate.

So I'm going to look into speaking with an employment officer or something; someone who can couch me on my interviewing skills and offer constructive feedback.

Why? (other than the obvious)

I got in touch with my faaaaavourite press. Yes, the same one I got in touch with for review copies of books to review. I asked them about internship opportunities and they said there will be one coming up this January. Hello perfect. They are expecting my resume later this fall.

So I need to nail that interview. I need to be a champion interviewee by December.

Have any of you struggled with this? Tips are welcome!

My Desk

As I have been spending a lot more time at my desk, I decided it should get some attention, aesthetically. I had been using a system of clustered post-its on the wall for awhile, so I decided since that was working, just to stick with it.

I bought some crappy $2 frames from Value Village and prettied them up with craft paint and a varnish. Then instead of putting their glass back in, I cut cork board to size and put that in. Voila! Mini bulletin boards for all areas of life! I even had an extra so I'm going to use it to keep business cards as I collect them.

There were definitely some issues - mostly with getting the cork board to fit properly, but overall I like the end result. And it is useful, which is a double win in my books!

 I'm thinking about putting a hanging plant above the printer to fill in that dead space a little. Thoughts?

First month, coming to a close

Hi friends, 

So my first month of 30x30 is nearing its end. While I haven't been able to fully cross anything off my list, I am feeling really good about how things are going so far! 

Best of all is that I am SO much more aware of how I spend my time. And how quickly it can go by. I can't believe that a month has already flown by! I definitely feel like my days are more full. Even if my plans are to come home and knit, or get up an hour early to run, I feel like I'm doing more with the time that I have. 

Where do I want to step it up? I need to get back into the running routine. I had my doctor tell me to scale back and my lazy-brain heard "stop" and I did. 

Also, the cards and letters. I need to be aware of these ones and plan into my days and weeks time to make and send them. I didn't send out two birthday cards in September but my plan is that as these happened before the start of the project, I will get them next year. Lame? Maybe, but I'm okay with it. Keeping the goals of the project in mind when I make that decision. 

Regarding the photos - I am printing them this weekend. Saying that (writing that?) has made me realize that I need to start taking photos that I will want to print. I take a LOT of photos, but not many that I necessarily want to keep. So I need to start doing more of that. I want the photo thing to evolve into me taking photos or more meaningful things - people I care about and the times that we spend together. Not just 20 random photos from the month. At the rate that I'm going though there are going to be a lot of pictures of babies with diapers on their heads (they think it is a funny hat...I have to agree). 

As for the quit my job one, there is a plan in place for that. I interviewed yesterday for an internship so we will see if that works out. If not, there is still great stuff happening. First, the woman I interviewed with was really  impressed with my resume, so that is so encouraging. I'm also continuing to work to build it. I have successfully started a book club with other publishing students and we are going to meet near the end of October for the first time. Then I am getting involved with a friend's charitable endeavor (which isn't public yet so I can't talk about it...). I've contacted my favourite publishing house and they are sending me advanced readers copies of up coming and new releases so that I can review them for my blog. I'm also going to expand my work with stellaa.org and do more blogging and outreach to authors for them. I'm trying to get involved in any and all ways that I can and not only build my resume, but get real experience that will make me more marketable. 

Next month is Vegtober! I'm excited to get started on the vegan experiment, though I am going to miss cheese so much! But if October flies by the same way that September did, I won't have a problem! As part of my goodbye-to-cheese, I got Danforth Pizza House the other night. It was INSANE and cheese and soooooo good. But so cheesy that I don't think that I could eat it again for a month again regardless, haha. 

Okay! That's it for now xo

Zzzzz

Hours of volunteering yesterday at Toronto WOTS: 10
Lost children I reunited with a parent: 2
Books bought: 4
Hours of sleep last night: not enough

Sorry for no update yesterday. I was working all day at the Word on the Street festival here in Toronto. It was SO MUCH FUN. I was in charge of taking care of all the exhibits in the kids' zone for the afternoon and it was very cool. I got a walkie talkie, which is pretty awesome no matter what Is happening. Plus book nerds everywhere!

After WOTS I got home and took care of some stuff. Namely: my book club. People have been hard to rally together over the past few months so I decided to call it quits and start a new one. And what better place to recruit than my publishing program?! So I emailed the director and she loved it! I sent her information and she posted it on the Facebook page and boom- 6 people right off the bat. We are going to expand this year and go to event together and write book reviews, so it should be a lot of fun :)

Today I have a ridiculous day: work at 6:30am until 4 and then an interview at 5 (all your fingers should be crossed!). Then I need to WRITE! This week is really nuts: work or class every night, early mornings every day, working all weekend. Bluarg.

I'm back to running this week though! Tomorrow I'm back to it and actually looking forward to it.

Okay. I'm done! Updates on the book blog re: WOTS later today. Maybe.

Book-Nerd Post!

I got new books!!! I am finally reaping the rewards of being a September baby, after years of feeling overshadowed by the beginning of a new school year. You see the fall season in publishing is the biggest season of the year, when some of the most exciting titles are released by some really amazing authors. And since people know I love to read, they get me books! Or gift cards! And then I get to buy all the books I have been drooling over (well, not all. A fraction of them really, but it is still very exciting).

So I picked up these on my way home tonight.

If you are interested in knowing more about them, I talk about them a bit on my other blog. Or you can google them. Let's just leave it at "I'm REALLY excited to read these books!" for now, shall we?

I know that I probably owe you a "real" post soon, since mostly I've been posting pointless drivel that spills out of my head at the end of an exhausting day. But you don't leave comments, so you will just have to wait. I do have things in the works though, so be patient!