Five for Friday

Hello and welcome to my Five for Friday! I am linking up with Cup of Tea , Bright on a Budget, Della Devoted, and BYBMG!

1. I finally bought a new Target bird. I wasn't going to buy one, but then I realized I don't have a Halloween one, and this one was pretty cute, so I figured why not?

2. We went to DC last weekend to see my brother and it was pretty much a bust. We were going to go to the natural history museum, but the line was so incredibly long (like out the building and down the street) that we ended up just leaving. So we decided to go to Georgetown, which was pretty much a nightmare. There was just SO many people! It was solid people all up and down the main area of town. We walked around for a while before leaving. I had brought my camera so I could take some pictures but I never got a chance to because everywhere was so crowded.

Needless to say it wasn't a fun day.

View from the parking garage at Union Station.

 Georgetown University.

3. I finally finished painting my bedroom. I had to do it in two phases since I had to move the furniture to one side of the room, paint that half, then move everything back to the painted side so I could paint the other half. It took some time but I really like how it turned out! I painted all of the trim as well which was quite a chore!

The lighting isn't very good in this picture, but you can kind of tell the color okay.

4. Thought I would share a handy tip I found on Pinterest. I was putting up a curtain rod in my room (which is literally a pain since I had to do it with just a screwdriver and there was four anchors I had to put in.) but if you fold a Post it note in half and place it under wherever you are using your screwdriver it will catch all the drywall mess!

5. In case you missed it, I shared a review of a new book by one of my favorite authors!

Hope you have a great weekend!

Royally in Trouble by Jenny B. Jones Book Review

Royally in Trouble by Jenny B. Jones
From back cover:
If an ex-popstar-turned-event planner can't find a Ren-faire killer, she may not survive the final act. 

As a former member of a popular girl-band, Paisley Sutton knows what it means to be in the spotlight. So after she takes on an event- planning gig for the new Sugar Creek Renaissance faire, she's counting on a smooth opening night. But when one of the cast is murdered, Paisley knows her event has gone lethally off-script. 

When her old flame Beau is named the prime suspect, Paisley enlists the help of her trigger-happy, ex-CIA grandmother and aunt. As she tries to keep the faire alive and fights off her matchmaking family, she uncovers secrets that might just get her killed. Can Paisley shine a light on the killer in time, or will the faire be her final curtain call?

I'm excited to talk about this book today because Jenny B. Jones is one of my favorite authors! I've read every one of her books (multiple times!) and really enjoyed them. This one was no different!

I really enjoyed the first book in the series, Engaged in Trouble, so I was excited to read the second book!

This book has it all. Mystery. Humor. Sass. Romance. And even a little bit of suspense!

Every single character (yes, even all the minor ones) in Ms. Jones's books are so well developed and interesting. I never once got confused over who was who. Paige is really fun and likable. I wish I knew a real life Beau! And don't even get me started on grandma Sylvie and Frannie! There were numerous times I was laughing about their antics!

Plot-wise this book had me from the very beginning. This was one of those books I didn't want to finish because I didn't want it to be over, but I also didn't want to put down because I had to know what was going to happen next!  

I had a different suspect in mind, so I was a bit surprised at who the killer ended up being. While I was a little disappointed it wasn't who I thought it was going to be, I was still pleased with the outcome.


Overall I really enjoyed this book and I highly recommend buying the first book, Engaged in Trouble as well as Royally in Trouble. I don't think you'll be disappointed!

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author in exchange for a review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Currently

This is my 400th blog post!

Working on - Getting ready to paint my bedroom. I am doing the trim first then I'll be painting the walls. You can see a little bit of what we've done here.

Needing - To do clean up my room a bit so I can start painting. I am going to have to move my furniture and stuff away from the walls so I can start taping. I am really not looking forward to that!

Watching - Lots of shows! Madam Secretary, Shark Tank, Dateline, and The Voice. My sister and I started Doctor Who again and so far so good! We also have been watching that new show Manifest and so far it's interesting. It just seemed like a show that would either be really interesting or really lame. I also am thinking about trying The Rookie.

Reading - I'm reading Royally in Trouble by Jenny B Jones and so far I'm enjoying it!

Looking forward to - Cooler temperatures! The weather is finally cooling down here and I'm hoping to start seeing some fall colors. Apparently fall doesn't really start until the end of October, so it's about time!

Trying - To finish up some blog posts. I always have blog posts I'm working on! I am good at getting them started and almost done, but then I seem to put off actually finishing them!

What have you been up to lately?

Five for Friday

Hello and welcome to my Five for Friday! I am linking up with Cup of Tea , Bright on a Budget, Della Devoted, and BYBMG!

1. I was finally able to get a book shelf a couple of weeks ago and it was really nice to be able to put all my books and stuff up on it! I got the Billy bookcase from Ikea.

(Yes, it does annoy me I can't center the bookcase between the doors. The lightswitch is in the way.)

2. This week has been filled with so. Much. Painting! We worked in my sister's bedroom because her room was wallpapered with this ugly 90's striped wallpaper. I mentioned a few weeks ago about when we tried to remove it, but that didn't work so we had to just paint some Kilz on the walls and then paint over that. We also had to paint the doors as well as the trim all around the room. The trim is all a really dark wood, and considering how dark the house is already, it really needed to be brightened up.

I was going to color correct and brighten the first photo more, but I decided to just leave it so you can really see what a difference the painting made! The after picture is just with one coat of Kilz on the wallpaper and before the actual paint color is put on. I'll share more later!

I also painted almost all of the doors on the second level. That is quite a chore! Anyways, here is the bathroom door:

The previous owners were...I don't even know but they had something wrong with them. They painted the ENTIRE bathroom that awful teal color (it's so much worse in person!) I mean, who paints the door the same color as the walls? And not just that but they painted the CEILING that color too!!! The rest of the bathroom will be painted eventually, but just painting the door sure made a difference!

3. My sister and I tried a small group on Wednesday. I'm hoping it will be okay. It's always awkward going to those things at first when you're new to an area and don't know anyone.

So here's to being cautiously optimistic!

(source)

4. And here is the current state of our backyard after hurricane Michael came through. This is after my mom and I spent a good portion of the last Saturday cleaning up every single leaf in the backyard:

We are in Virginia so we just had lots of rain yesterday. This wasn't even from wind but just from how hard it was pouring down rain! I mean, we're from Washington state. We know rain! But I've never seen it pour like it does here. We were under tornado watch most of yesterday afternoon, and then flash flood warning yesterday evening.

(I know so many people have it SO much worse and some leaves all over is just more of a minor annoyance compared to what most people are dealing with.)

5. In case you missed it, on Monday I shared a review of my September Ipsy glam bag!

Hope you have a great weekend!

September Ipsy Glam Bag

MPRINCESS Loose Eyeshadow in Pretty Petal: The color is pretty but I don't really care for loose powder. Fortunately though, this does have a sifter thing on top so you can have some control over how much you use.

LUXIE BEAUTY Harley Quinn Detail Flat Definer 110: I didn't like this brush. It's not my style at all and I really don't have a use for a brush like this.

SMASHBOX COSMETICS Photo Finish Primerizer: Overall I liked this primer. It left my makeup looking good all day long. I just prefer something that is pore minimizing, so that would be my only complaint I guess (which is just as well as it's a bit pricey!). Overall it's a great primer.

HAYADI Weightless Smoothing Cream: This was fine. Nothing too spectacular. I used it on my hair after I showered and it left my hair feeling soft. I haven't tried it on dry hair yet, but I'm interested in seeing if it will do anything for frizz. Overall it's just okay.

TRÈSTIQUE Mini Lip Glaze in English Rose: I really liked this lip glaze. I was a little worried the color was going to be really bold because I thought it was more like a lipstick, but it's actually more like a lip balm. It's just a really pretty color and one I can actually see myself getting some use out of! 

Overall this was just an okay bag. There weren't really any standout products. The lip glaze was probably my favorite item, with the primer being a second. Everything else I didn't really care for. 

Anyways, my October bag looks to be much better!

I'm curious though, do you subscribe to any beauty boxes/bags? What are your thoughts on them?