Stuck…where do I go from here?

Posted on March 10, 2020 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

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“stop holding on, if it’s holding you back, then let it go; your grass will always be the greenest if you let it grow” 🌼🐝🌿

This is one of my favorite pictures that I’ve taken recently. You can find cool picture opportunities anywhere! Example: I took this photo in the garden section of Home Depot, lol. I’m going to do a series of picture posts; I have a ton of pictures to share. I went to upload them all into one post and it ended up being 60+ pictures, so I decided I’ll break it up into multiple posts instead. I’m going to start working on those this week, so that by next week I can start posting them.

Other than these posts, I’ve been feeling a little bit stuck in terms of my blog, my bookstagram, and essentially my life as well. I am trying to get back into bookstagram, but I have no idea what kind of pictures to post and what theme I want to go for. When I first started my bookstagram I had so many ideas and I was having a lot of fun with it. I guess since I haven’t really been doing it consistently over the last couple years, I forgot and lost my creativity with that. With the blog, I’m not sure what kind of content I should post. It’s kind of frustrating!

I think when I start to feel uninspired is usually when I quit things and I don’t want to quit blogging! I actually really love it and love all the friends I’ve made and continue to make every day, but sometimes I feel like I’m boring everyone with the same content over and over again. You know, it’s not even just blogging and bookstagram. I have an online journal that I write about things happening in my life (it’s more of personal journal and I’ve been using it since I was in high school) and I really have nothing to write in my own personal journal either.

I think it has more to do with how I’ve been feeling about myself lately. I have all of these negative feelings (and thoughts) about myself over the last 3-4 months that I’ve never had before. It’s so weird experiencing this because I used to always think so highly of myself. Now I question whether that was even real or if I was pretending/lying to myself all my life. The end months of 2019 messed with my self-confidence and shattered who I thought I was. I only feel like a fraction of who I was before and that scares me! I want to get back to my old self, where I was always positive and always happy. I want to get out of this negative headspace. Some days I think I am finally out of it and then others I feel right back in there. Sigh.

I’ve been obsessed with this song “Hangnail” by Rationale. I feel like I relate to it a lot lately. I just feel down about myself and my life these days. Here’s the song if you’re interested: https://youtu.be/O9sTYRUkSHc

“I wish I had this poetic poise, an articulate finesse.
I’m too clumsy and the words escape me.
I’m hazy and any passing thought can displace me.”

I think this negative headspace; these thoughts and these feelings are pouring into everything in my life, including blogging. I think this is where so much of my “stuck” feeling comes from too. Maybe I can Google search some ideas for both bookstagram and my blog and see what I can come up with! I did bookmark an awesome blog post from Kelly from Another Book in the Wall about “how to blog when you haven’t read anything new“, so I may also go back and reference her post to get some ideas as well. Anything you guys want to see on my blog? It doesn’t have to be book related!

Here are my social media accounts if you’re interested in being friends outside of the amazing blogosphere. I usually post regularly on my personal Instagram account.

Goodreads: heyyitsashley_
Twitter: whoa_itsashley
Pinterest: lalalaitsashley
Instagram: heyyitsashley – personal Instagram account
Bookstagram: foreverbookish_ – book Instagram account (underscore after “bookish”)

I will catch up with all of your posts and reply to comments later today or possibly tomorrow. I’m really hoping to try and get some reading in today. 🙂

In case you missed it;
Andy Reads|| Maybe Someday.
March TBR (Maybe).
Wrap Up|| February.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleyblack

Posted on January 20, 2020 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

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Photo I took over the weekend of some new flowers at Hollis Garden.

I am currently in a bit of a reading slump, which really sucks. I can’t seem to get into my current read (Followers by Megan Angelo). So many people are saying such great things about it, but I’m about 22% into it and honestly more confused than anything else. I’m going to keep giving it a chance and hopefully my mind will change. It could also be this reading slump that is ruining my enjoyment of it. Who knows.

In case you missed it, my five year blogiversary happened on the 17th of this month and I am hosting a giveaway and it’s International! It’s running until January 31st and I will be picking two winners on February 1st. I’ll leave a link to the giveaway at the end of this post, so you can enter if you haven’t already.

I just wanted to post random little update on here since it’s been a few days since I’ve last posted. I need to finish up my 2019 book rating posts, write a review for Finding Mr. Better-Than-You and then catch up with your posts and comments. Hoping to do that all this week! I am just not really feeling very motivated lately. I just wanted to let you know that I am here though and even if I’m not 100% right now.

I guess that’s all I really have to say right now. Fingers crossed I kick this reading slump soon and start feeling better again too. Mentally I just don’t feel like I’m in a good place. I thought I was feeling better, but then it hit me all over again…sigh. I hope you had a great weekend.

In case you missed it;
Five Year Blogiversary Giveaway!
Release Day [January 14].
5 Star Reads of 2019.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleyblack

Posted on August 20, 2019 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

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“eliminate everything that gives you conflicted feelings. embrace the things that resonate with your soul.” ♡

my instragram: heyyitsashley

Hello, Central Florida.

Posted on February 25, 2019 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

lifeupdate

Hey!

Friday was moving day! We packed up the truck on Thursday night and Friday after work we packed up the kitties and the pup and hit the road to our new house. It’s a four hour drive from where we were living. I was so nervous about the cats in the car for four hours, because they hate the car! They cry non-stop in the car. Luckily the hubby took two of them and I only had to take one in my sister’s car. He took the two that are most scared, so I didn’t have to listen to them crying the whole time. It’s always so sad. Leaf (littlest and the one we took) didn’t make a peep! See took it like a champ. Andy said the other two cried 3 of the 4 hours. 😭

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We made it around 10pm and started to unload some of the truck before it started raining. We did the rest the next day (Saturday). On Saturday I unpacked a lot of things and tried to put as much away as I could. The kitchen is pretty much done and so are our clothes. There’s still so much more to do though, sigh. My right arm is killing me today from all the moving and unpacking. Hopefully I can get a lot more done today though. We’ll see what happens!

My younger sister came up with us, because she’ll be staying with me until Andy comes up and until she goes back on the road (she was a truck driver and may go back to that job). She slept a couple nights in the room that will be my office/library until we finished the floor & borders in the guest room (pictures later in the post). I can’t wait until my desk gets here (Wednesday) and eventually be able to buy some bookshelves so I can unpack my books.

The cats took the new house in different ways. October is the shy one that’s scared of everything. Never likes being pet or anything. Always hides. Well…she’s loving it here! She’s out and about and very happy. She even lays with us and wants attention, which was never a thing about her before! She was the one I was most worried about when it came to this move, but she seems so happy. She loves all the windows. She spends a lot of time laying or sitting in front of different windows around the house.

ColbyJack (oldest) was not a happy camper. He spent a lot of time growling and hissing and just being grumpy. He also hid 90% of the time. Little Leaf wasn’t really sure about the house either. She hid majority of the time too. I really thought they would be cool about it, haha. Totally the opposite than I thought! I’m so happy about October though. I really worried about her. They other two kitties seem to be getting used to the house now though, so that’s a plus. I think that now that it’s not as chaotic, they are coming around.

My pup Dax loves the house. He’s been here before this weekend. We brought him up last weekend and he was so happy. He was even rolling around in the backyard. He has his own yard now! We didn’t have one at the last place and he’s never really off a leash outside often. Now he can be. At first he wasn’t sure about it, but by the end of the weekend he was rolling around in the yard.

There’s still so much to do, but I have plenty of time to do it. Hopefully by the end of the week it’ll be mostly done. 🙂 Here are some other random pictures I’ve taken at the new house from last weekend and now.

We’ve been in the process of changing the floors in one of the bedrooms as I mentioned. We took the carpet out and put a dark brown wood laminate flooring. Next I need to paint the walls in the room. I’m unsure what color I want, but I think it’ll be some kind of shade of white. There’s so many shades of white!! We were going to do our bedroom with this same flooring, but I think we may use something else. I want to find a similar color though. We have other remodeling/updating that we want to do to the house, but that’ll come in time.

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Second bathroom (not the master bathroom). This room is currently probably the nicest/cleanest room in the house right now, haha. We currently have boxes EVERYWHERE. I’ll be taking recycle out for weeks before we finally get all of them out of the house.

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My boss gave us a ton of furniture. The dining table and barstools above are some of the pieces that he gave us. The dining table glass is supposed to have that shattered glass look/effect. Andy thought it was broken, but according to the description and my boss it’s supposed to be like that lol. The dining table also has a leaf and two more chairs that we didn’t put out yet. Four is more than enough for us right now. Colby loves that table. He’s been out more now that we have it up. I love the bar stools. They are all the same shade (more the middle stool color), but the lighting and shadow makes them look different.

I’ll have more pictures of the rest of the house another time once we get everything put away and cleaned up. So far this is what is done. So until then, below are some random pictures I’ve taken of the area and outside of my house.

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I seen the below banner hanging up on a window when we were driving through some of downtown Lakeland. A lot of the buildings have different banners of art like this hanging on their walls. We were driving or I would have taken a picture of them all.

Some random flowers and plants growing in my yard. I’m pretty sure the white ones and the orange ones only grew because the grass needs cut. I hate to see them go, but I love that I have this plant in my yard that grows these really pretty pink flowers.

These are all of the tree in my backyard. I take pictures of it every single time I am here, lmao. All different views at least. I got some close ups, some of the branches, and some through my lens ball.

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I took this picture of my tree when we got here on Friday night for my Instagram stories (heyyitsashley) and I was looking at the picture after I posted it and with the lights/shadows it looked like a face and made me think of Grandmother Willow from Pocahontas, haha. 😛

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The sky this morning from my front door. Forever heart eyes. It was actually 60 degrees outside too, which was so nice.

All week will most likely be spent cleaning and putting things away in the house during breaks at work and after work. I have so much to do. I also forgot that we have a ton of boxes that we put in the closet. I plan to go find the library and get a library card this week too. I’m hoping to finish one more book before the end of the month to include in my wrap up, which will be posted in the next few days as well as my book haul. I’ll also try to catch up with your posts at some point this week as well and reply to comments.

In case you missed it;
Random|| Life Update – New House!
Review|| Just for Clicks.
Friday Finds #75.
Review|| Comics Will Break Your Heart.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleyblack

Posted on January 10, 2019 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

“your journey is vastly different to anyone else’s.” ♡🌼

Random|| Picture Update.

Posted on December 11, 2018 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

pictureupdate

Hey!

I haven’t done one of these updates in quite awhile, so I have a TON of pictures to share with you guys. It’s almost 50 pictures, so be prepared. 😛 I’m just going to jump right into it!

My sister (Stephanie), Andy, and I went to this Renaissance festival called Camelot Days that we have here two weekends in November. It was an okay time. I felt like other years were a lot better than this year was. I didn’t take a ton of pictures while I was there, but these above are the ones that I did take.

My mom making homemade noodles for Thanksgiving! 😀 She made SO MUCH food! Thanksgiving was really great. Lots of food and some family friends came to our Thanksgiving too.

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My younger sister Stephanie and I made Christmas cookies for Thanksgiving too. We started off really good with them, but then we were just over it from spending so long making them that you can tell with the cookies when it started to go downhill for us HAH. They all tasted good though. 😛

A bunch of us sitting on my mom’s sofa waiting for all the food to be done. We were watching the dog show that they have on every Thanksgiving. We were also switching between that and the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade. Right picture is DINNER! That was only one of my plates. There was so much food and I couldn’t fit everything on one plate, haha.

Speaking of Christmas, I got some pretty awesome wrapping paper from Target this year. SHARKS! SKULLS! YETIS! FLAMINGOS! SANTA BEARDS! 😛 I also go Home Alone 2 (my favorite one) for only $9 at Target on Black Friday. I can’t wait to watch that this week.

I’m not having a full size Christmas tree this year, but this is my mini Christmas tree that I have on my dining table. The cats already messed it up though, lol. But it was good for about a couple days.

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Stockings hung! I moved my desk to the living room, so it was right under this wall, so it was kind of hard to reach over my computer to get to the wall (LOL), so they all kind of went crooked and downhill. My sister is moving back here and going to be living with us, so I didn’t want to forget her and got her stocking up too. She’s the top. My stocking is Santa, Andy’s is the reindeer, and then of course the other stockings are for our furbabies (three cats & a dog).

Speaking of cats, here they are! Leaf (left picture), October (top right), ColbyJack (bottom right).

I can’t forget my boy, Dax! We took him to the groomer a couple weeks ago to get his haircut. His hair was getting out of control.

A couple weeks ago my sister Stephanie, my nephew, and I went to the park to go Pokemon hunting. I took my camera with and got a few pictures. Middle two are pictures of my nephew. The bottom left is a picture of my sister.

A couple different sunset pictures from the nights I went to the gym. You guys already know how obsessed I am with taking pictures of the sky. It’s the first thing I do whenever I step outside. See if the sky is picture worthy, it usually always is. 😛

Some random pictures I took at the park over the weekend. It was Andy’s work holiday party (HOLY ANXIETY) and I went with him. It was kind of awkward, because well..I’m socially awkward and I don’t do good with small talk or social gatherings, lol. It was okay though. It wasn’t a horrible time and the food was good. There was also a ton of cookies and I love cookies. First picture is when we first got there. That’s Andy walking in the first picture. Second picture is when we were leaving the party and the sun was starting to set.

Some random pictures. Left one is of little Leaf laying on me. She was totally hugging me and it was the cutest. Right picture is just a random picture I took because I really loved my cacti shirt, lol.

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Another random sky picture that I am obsessed with.

So Andy and I kind of sucked with Christmas this year by deciding to give each other our big presents (the expensive ones) that we got each other, lol. He got me a new zoom lens for my Nikon D3400, which I was so stoked about. Check out the size difference! The zoom lens is on my camera and the lens that is next to it is the original lens that it comes with.

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I’m so used to my original lens being able to auto-focus, but this zoom lens that I got doesn’t auto-focus, so it’s going to take me some time to get used to focusing the shots myself. It’ll be fun though. I haven’t had the chance to use it very much yet, but I did take this picture that I thought came out really nice.

We all decorated the tree outside of the house a few nights ago. Totally looks a mess, haha. 😛 Very Charlie Brown-ish. It’s still cute in it’s own way. First picture is the three. Top right is one of the ornaments on the tree, and the bottom right is just an out of focus picture of the lights (bokeh). I like taking out of focus pictures of Christmas lights.

That’s all the pictures that I have. Feel free to follow me on Instagram (heyyitsashley) if you want to. Some of these have been posted there already in the last month or two. Others haven’t made it there yet. The next couple of weeks I’ll be pretty busy, so not sure how active I will be on here. Seems to always happen around the holidays though.

In case you missed it;
December TBR.
Wrap Up|| November.
Book Haul|| November.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleychristmas

Photo A Day|| October 11-17.

Posted on October 19, 2018 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

photoaday1

Hey!

I’ve been taking part in monthly photo a day challenges on my Instagram account (heyyitsashley) and I’ve been having a lot of fun with them (when I don’t fall behind on pictures). I figured I would also cross post them to my blog as well. I think for the purpose of blogging, I will post 3-6 per blog post that I do throughout the month. That way I am not spamming my blog with a photo a day post every single day. You can follow me on Instagram (linked above) if you want to see them daily though! Some of these pictures will be taken with my Nikon cameras (CoolPix & D3400). There will also be some taken with my iPhone X.

October 11th-17th

There’s only five pictures, because I actually skipped a couple days this week. I skipped “baby blue” and “chocolate”. I didn’t have any old pictures that fit the category and I didn’t have any inspiration or things to take pictures of that fit them either for new pictures.

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Instagram Caption: i am obsessed with the way the grass is growing through the cracks of the cement.🖤 || photo a day • black.
Camera: iPhone X

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Instagram Caption: “appreciate this moment. stop and look around you. be thankful for all you have and where you are because this time next year, nothing will be the same.” ♡ || photo a day • fave colour.
Camera: Nikon D3400

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Instagram Caption: 🍄🍄🍄 || photo a day • natural.
Camera: Nikon D3400

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Instagram Caption: throwback from when i was in lake placid in july. i was obsessed with how pretty these were. 🌾💕 || photo a day • baby pink.
Camera: Nikon D3400

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Instagram Caption: “don’t leave my light on, you’ll burn out the bulb and then i’ll have to buy another; it’s not like we can’t talk to each other.” 🎵🖤 || photo a day • light.
Camera: iPhone X

In case you missed it;
Random|| Picture Update.
Photo A Day|| October 6-10.
Blog Tour/Thoughts|| The No-Good Nine.

I hope you have a great day and weekend!

ashleyhalloween

Photo A Day|| October 6-10.

Posted on October 12, 2018 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

photoaday1

Hey!

October 6th-10th

Instagram Caption: best buds ♡ || photo a day • purple.
Camera: iPhone

We went to visit Andy’s parents over the weekend and we took our pup Dax with us. His favorite thing was looking out the window. He’s in the back of the picture looking out the window and Digby (his parents’ dog) is in front looking out the window too.

Instagram Caption: b u t t e r f l y 🦋🧡 || photo a day • orange.
Camera: Nikon CoolPix

Instagram Caption: whatever forever ♡ || photo a day • aqua.
Camera: Nikon D3400

I love this bracelet so much. I am happy that I had it made. “whatever forever” is from one of my favorite songs. It’s from a song called Rock Bottom by Modern Baseball, which I am obsessed with. “I’ve got so much to do, but it’s okay cause whatever, forever.” I live my life by this a lot, lol.

Instagram Caption: ⛵️🏢🌊🖤 || photo a day • grey.
Camera: Nikon D3400

Instagram Caption: 👻💀 || photo a day • white.
Camera: Nikon D3400

In case you missed it;
Blog Tour/Thoughts|| The No-Good Nine.
WWW Wednesday #55.
Thoughts|| I Will Find You.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleyhalloween

Photo A Day|| October 1-5.

Posted on October 5, 2018 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

photoaday1

Hey!

I haven’t done this post in awhile, because I took a break from the photo challenges on Instagram for a few months. I decided to attempt the October challenge, because the topics are mostly colors. In case you forgot what my photo a day challenge posts are; I’ve been taking part in monthly photo a day challenges on my Instagram account (heyyitsashley) and I’ve been having a lot of fun with them (when I don’t fall behind on pictures). I figured I would also cross post them to my blog as well. I think for the purpose of blogging, I will post 3-6 per blog post that I do throughout the month. That way I am not spamming my blog with a photo a day post every single day. You can follow me on Instagram (linked above) if you want to see them daily though! Some of these pictures will be taken with my Nikon cameras (CoolPix & D3400). There will also be some taken with my iPhone X.

October 1st-5th

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Instagram Caption: 💛🖤 || photo a day • yellow.
Camera: Nikon D3400

Instagram Caption: 🍍💕 || photo a day • pink.
Camera: iPhone X

Instagram Caption: 💙💙 || photo a day • blue.
Camera: Nikon D3400

Instagram Caption: 🌵🌵💚 || photo a day • green.
Camera: Nikon D3400

Instagram Caption: ❤️❤️ || photo a day • red.
Camera: Nikon D3400

It’s also been awhile since I’ve done a regular picture/life update post, so I will be doing one of those at some point next week (hopefully), so be on the look out for that. I also hope to have a couple reviews coming next week as well. The hubby and I are off to visit his parents for the weekend after work, so that should be fun. Since they live about 2.5-3 hours away, it’ll hopefully give me a little bit of time to catch up on reading. I am currently in the middle of four books….UGHH, I hate doing this. My main focus is on two of them though, The No-Good Nine and Baby Teeth. The other two I will finish after these two.

In case you missed it;
Book Haul|| September.
Unofficial Halloweenie TBR.
Wrap Up || September.

I hope you have a great day and weekend!

ashleyhalloween

Travel || Road Trip to Illinois.

Posted on September 12, 2018 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

travel

Hey!

Over the weekend I went on a weekend road trip to Illinois for my one of cousin’s wedding. It was my mom, my niece, my cousin Scotty, his wife, their daughter, and me. Scotty’s brother was getting married. The drive is about eighteen hours. I live in Florida and Illinois is a ways away! The drive there wasn’t too bad and seemed to go pretty quickly. I think we only had to stop a few times to get gas and some food. A lot of the family on my mom’s side lives in Illinois and it’s been quite awhile since I’ve seen most of them. Years and years!

Top left picture is Atlanta, GA at 3am. That’s when we drove through. Top right is sunrise in Kentucky. Bottom is the start of the sunrise in Tennessee. Tennessee sunrise came first and Kentucky a little while later. We drove through all three places. We started the trip at 5pm Thursday, so we drove through most of the states at night, so I couldn’t get a lot of cool pictures (especially of Tennessee) until on the way home, which I will be posting later in this post because I took so many cool mountain pictures!

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Another sunset picture below from either Tennessee or Kentucky. I don’t remember exactly where I took it, but it was one of those places on the way there. I love this picture.

On Friday when we got to Illinois, we went to another cousin’s house to change clothes and then head out to my aunt’s house to visit with them for a little while. It was nice seeing them, because it’s been years since I’ve seen them.

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This is a grain elevator right next to her house. It stores crops for farmers.

After hanging out there for a little bit, we decided to go to my cousin’s house that is getting married to help decorate for their wedding the next day (Saturday). He lives on a farm, so we got to check out some animals (cows, pigs, chickens, ducks). I didn’t take any pictures of the chickens or ducks, but I did get some pictures of the pigs and cows! First though, here is some of the wedding decorations that they had. My cousin built the arch, which was really neat.

Now onto all the animals! There were some baby pigs too, which they were all hiding so we couldn’t see them all. My cousin did get into the pig pen and get one out though. It was a little difficult since the mom pig was chasing him around, lol. There were so many cows on the farm. All different sizes and colors. There were some pigs that were sharing space with some of the cows too.

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This is probably my favorite picture that I took of the cows. I just really like the way that it looks. There were also tons and tons of corn and other crops on the farm as well, so I took pictures of those too.

After helping out there and taking a ton of pictures, my cousin/bestie Tammy, my mom, niece, and I went to get something to eat before heading to my brother’s house where we were staying. Tammy and I went to Walmart, so I could get some new shoes since my other ones got so muddy with all the rain/mud on the farm. I ended up not even bothering with wearing my new shoes, because I knew they would end up getting muddy too. But I had them for the ride home at least. Saturday, my mom, niece, and I got up early and dressed for the day then went to get breakfast.

Left picture is Tammy and I messing around with all the masks at Walmart. Right picture is what I wore to the wedding. I was originally not going to wear my black tights, but it was raining and cold so I ended up going into the Denny’s bathroom and putting them on. I’m glad I decided to at least carry them in my purse with me, lol! The wedding turned out nice even though it rained. I got super muddy (my shoes and some of my tights) when we went to the barn early to help setup and fix things up since the barn got a little bit of rain in it, so we had to come up with a new idea. But it turned out nice. I didn’t get a ton of pictures besides a few that I took of the ceremony for my cousin and his new wife. Below is just a picture of my niece, me, and Tammy. We decided to take a picture of our muddy shoes, lol.

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On Saturday night after the wedding, I went out to eat with Tammy and her boyfriend. That was a good time. I never met her boyfriend before and he seemed pretty cool and nice. After dinner I went back to my brother’s house and went straight to sleep. Had to get up early Sunday to get ready to leave. So we went to pickup my cousin Scotty and his family and then went to say bye to everyone. After that we headed for home!

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Now for all the awesome pictures I took of the mountains in Tennessee. You have to actually drive up mountains to get to where we needed to go. On the way to Illinois we went through the mountains at night, so we couldn’t really see anything. On the way home though, it was daytime, so we got to see everything. We even decided to go to Lookout Mountain and drive to the top of that. Lookout Mountain is kind of a touristy type place, because it has Ruby Falls and Rock City, but we didn’t do those tours. We just drove to the top ourselves and looked around. It’s really cool though, because it’s like it’s own little community up there. They have parks, stores, even a Starbucks (LOL), etc. I guess it’s helpful for the people that live on the mountain, so they don’t have to drive up and down it every single day. Some of the street names were neat too, like Cinderella and Red Riding Hood. Even their pharmacy was called Fairyland Pharmacy.

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The next set of pictures are of some flowers that I seen around Lookout Mountain when we were walking around the mountain.

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The ride home felt like forever, but I think that was just because we were all anxious to get home after being in a car for so long. All in all, the trip ended up being pretty fun and I got to take so many awesome pictures. See some cool things that I haven’t seen in years and visit with family that I haven’t seen in years. 😀

I brought with me a ton of reading material (two physical books and my Kindle filled with 100+ books downloaded), but I couldn’t focus on reading while in the car on the way there or back. It’s usually easy for me to read in the car, but for some reason not this time. I was hoping to at least read two books, but I ended up only reading 40% of one book the entire trip. Hopefully I can catch up on some reading this week. I’ll also catch up with your posts tomorrow or Friday and reply to comments.

In case you missed it;
Wrap Up|| August.
Book Haul|| August.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleyblack

Travel|| Lake Placid, FL.

Posted on August 3, 2018 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

travel

Hey!

Over the weekend my mom and I went to Lake Placid to help my cousin move into her new house. We went on a Friday and stayed until Sunday morning. I was able to leave early from work Friday, which was nice. My mom picked me up from work and we hit the road.

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Scary rain clouds! It rained almost the entire time on the way there. It was off and on. It was kind of amusing, because we would be driving it crazy rain and then a few minutes later it was gone. It did that the entire 1.5 hours to Moore Haven (where her old house is and where we were meeting up with her and her husband). That’s Florida for you! It’s always like that. It can be pouring rain on one side of the street and the other it can be sunny af. While waiting for my cousin to get there, I swung on the swings across the street from their house. It helped to past the time and I love swings.

When they got there we loaded up my mom’s car and their car. We only did one trip since it’s 30-40 minutes from their new house and because it was about to rain again. The next day (Saturday) was going to be the big moving day where we filled up the cars and the U-Haul. Once we got back to her house she gave us a tour of her house and we just ate and helped unpack the boxes we brought. When it stopped raining I went outside to take some pictures. There was a rainbow over the top of her house, which was awesome.

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Below: I’m not entire sure what these plants are, but they were really pretty so I got a couple different pictures of them.

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And you know me, I had to take a picture of the pretty sunset. I wish the weather wasn’t so crappy, because I would have went down to the lake to take pictures of the sunset there and same with the sunrise. I wish I would have went down to the lake for that, but I did get a few good pictures of the sunrise from their balcony on Saturday morning.

We spent the entire morning packing up the U-Haul in Moore Haven and then we spent the rest of the day unpacking the U-Haul and getting the boxes and furniture inside the house. We also took breaks to set up her son’s playroom. We were all tired, so we didn’t even attempt to unpack any of their boxes. Instead we ordered massive amounts of Chinese food, which was even better than unpacking boxes. Haha. My mom and I got up early to go back home. Before we left we stopped off at the lake to take pictures. Then we also stopped at the grocery store and walked across the street to another area of the huge lake to take more pictures. Here are all the lake pictures that I took and more of those plants that I loved, lol.

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Funny story about this mushroom. So we were walking around the grass and I spotted it and I got so excited about taking a picture of it. You can see in the first picture that there was grass in front of it. I went to move the grass to get a picture of it without the grass in front and I accidentally touched it and I start freaking out.

Me: oh my god!
Mom: what?
Me: i accidentally touched it. am i going to die?
Mom: *laughing* no, you’re not going to die.
Me: some mushrooms are poisonous.

And then the entire two hour car ride back home I kept saying “I can’t believe I touched the mushroom.” and kept asking my mom if she was sure I wasn’t going to die, LOL. Clearly I didn’t die. HEYYYY! 😛

Oh, and here is a picture of their new dog Stella. I’ve met her before, but never longer than an hour. She LOVED me though. She was always laying next to me or wanting me to pet her. I swear, all animals love me. So strange, but I am not complaining. Haha.

And that pretty much concludes my post about Lake Placid. We didn’t get to do a whole lot while actually there since we were just there to help my cousin move. Now that she lives there though, I will definitely need to go take a weekend and stay with her and actually roam around Lake Placid and do things. From what I did get to see, it seems like a really nice and pretty town. Feel free to follow me on Instagram (heyyitsashley)! A lot of these haven’t been posted on my Instagram yet, so you’re seeing them first! 🙂

In case you missed it;
Book Tag|| Meme Book Tag.
Top Ten Tuesday|| Popular Books that Lived Up to the Hype.
Wrap Up|| July.

I hope you have a great day and weekend!

ashleyblack

Random|| Picture Update.

Posted on July 26, 2018 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

pictureupdate

Hey!

I haven’t updated since last Friday, ahhh. I’ve been meaning to, but have just been really busy and pretty stressed about things. My sister was in the hospital for a week and that ended up being such a disaster (hospital’s fault). She’s finally home though and recovering, so that’s good. We’ve also been busy packing, but another post on this another time.

These are some random hospital views from my sister’s hospital room and from another room in the hospital. Hospital food is gross, by the way. We had to eat dinner there once. I will say though, they had some pretty amazing french fries. The other food I got wasn’t the greatest.

Pictures of my niece (Grace) and my nephew (Jackson). I spent a lot of time keeping an eye on them while their mom was in the hospital. One night I cooked them dinner; grilled cheese, simple, right? WRONG. It’s not surprise that I don’t know how to cook, but apparently I can’t even cook a grilled cheese. By time I got to making the third and forth one, they were burning. I even burnt the pan so bad and burned the shape of the bread into the pan LMAO. The burn still won’t come out of the pan. Haha. They still tasted good though. That’s all the matters? 😛

We have a bird feeder (left) hanging over an empty pot that has some dirt in it. Well thanks to all the little birdies that eat from the feeder, we now have this random sunflower growing. It actually already bloomed, but I haven’t had the chance to take a picture yet. Pretty neat! It also looks like we might have some wheat growing in the pot too, lol!

Random things with the hubby. We went to Target to get some containers for my books and they put in a new Harry Potter section at the store. We were walking through the store and also seen a random Sorting Hat photo prop. I made him take a picture, lol. He’s taken the test on Pottermore a couple years ago and got sorted into Hufflepuff. We also got shaved ice from that new place that opened up near us. I talked about it in my last picture update. It’s so good!

Random pictures of Leaf and Dax. I don’t have any new pictures of October and Colby right now. Actually quite a surprise, because I am forever taking pictures of my furbabies, haha.

Shark Week started last Sunday, so it was fitting I wear my shark shirt. I LOVE sharks and I LOVE Shark Week. I’ve been so busy this week though and haven’t had the chance to watch all the new Shark Week shows. I am hoping I get some time soon, because I have A LOT of them. They usually do like 2-3 new shows a night and it’s for six nights I believe. So that’s a lot of shows I need to catch up on. I’ve recorded them all to my DVR though, so that’s good. And a random selfie.

La luna y la estrella ♡ I got this really neat picture on my iPhone of the moon and a star right next to it! I thought it was really cool. I tried with my camera, but it just wasn’t working out for me, so I decided to just get this shot with my phone.

A new BBQ restaurant opened up down the street from our house. Like it’s literally at the end of our street. So my mom and I finally decided to check it out. Since it’s right down the street, we decided to walk there. On the way home I seen this bush with these little yellow flowers and thought it was really pretty. Yesterday after work I seen this spiked caterpillar on a plant as I was leaving.

A random sunset picture. I was also trying to mess around with the manual mode on my D3400 again. I still have yet to master it. I just haven’t had the time to really do much with it. Hopefully that changes soon. Anyway, I got these really pretty pictures of the sky and silhouetted trees.

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Another sunset picture, because you guys know I live for taking pictures of the sky/sunsets/sunrises. This was on our way from having dinner with the hubby’s parents when they flew back in from vacation. It was raining, but it made this picture pretty amazing. I focused on the raindrops instead of the sky and I love how it turned out. I used my phone for this one.

I created a page on my blog arcs/review books. It’s going to be home to all of the books that I have been sent by publishers and authors. I mentioned how I wanted to create a blog post for it, but I decided to do it as a page instead. That way I can update it throughout the year and then when a new year rolls around, I can clear it and start again with a new year of review books. It’s linked above, so feel free to check it out! Hopefully it’ll also keep me on top of my reviews and books. I have been really busy this year though, so I fell a bit behind. I am still hoping to read them all this year if I can. If not, I will still get to them ASAP!

Tomorrow I am going to Lake Placid to help my cousin move. Her and her husband just bought a house and they finally closed on it earlier this week. My mom and I are going after I get off work and staying until at least Saturday night, possibly even until Sunday. I am excited to go, because a new place to take pictures, lol. Anyway, that’s all for this post! I will hopefully catch up with your posts later today or tomorrow. 🙂

In case you missed it;
Friday Finds #74.
Book Tag||My Blog’s Name in Books.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleyblack

Random|| Picture Update.

Posted on July 9, 2018 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

Hey!

It’s been almost three months since I’ve done one of these posts and I don’t even know where to begin with it. I don’t remember what I have and haven’t posted already. So there may be a few repeats. I love posting these type of posts and my pictures, but when I go so long without doing one then I have no clue where to begin again, ahhh. 😛 Warning this is probably going to be REALLY picture heavy, because there’s probably 60+ pictures.

Feel free to follow me on Instagram (heyyitsashley)! A lot of these haven’t been posted on my Instagram yet, so you’re seeing them first! Eventually they’ll make their way on there. I take so many pictures and don’t want to post a million at one time, so I hoard pictures to post later, lol. Anyway, onto my pictures!

Let’s start with FOOD, because food is amazing. 😛

I stumbled upon this restaurant called “I Heart Mac & Cheese” and holy crap I was in heaven. I needed to go their, ASAP! Last week the hubby’s parents came down to visit and they took us there and it was great. I got the pulled pork mac & cheese. SO MUCH CHEEEEESE!

Recently the hubby and I tried a new pizza place (it’s amazing and we’ve already gone twice in like a week and a half) and we also tried a new burger place that was really great too. The burger place is called BurgerFi and the pizza place was called D’Salvos.

This new shaved ice place opened up down the street so we tried it out for my aunt’s birthday. It was really good. They sell alcoholic drinks in kind of shaved ice form and they were good. No picture of the drink, but I do got a picture of the shaved ice we got too. Also, their interior decor is amazing. One wall is painted like the ocean/sky. The ceiling has lights that are printed with clouds on them. The floor is like the ocean. And the table is sea glass. I accidentally deleted my picture of the floor. They also have a chalkboard wall so you can write/draw on it.

The shaved ice is blueberry. It’s sitting on the shaved ice table. The ocean/sky scene in the background is one of their walls. Below is my mom writing on their chalkboard wall and the top right corner is their sky/cloud lighting. SO COOL! 🙂

Alright, moving right along. Onto, furbabies!

A year ago yesterday my little Leaf turned one (well technically she turned one in June, but I got her in July so that’s her new birthday). I tried so hard for days to get pictures of her in the birthday hat, but she just wasn’t having it. So I got pictures of her eating the birthday hat instead? They are all still pretty cute pictures though. I am so stoked we decided to keep her. We love her so much.

We’ve been dogsitting the hubby’s parents’ dog and Leaf and Digby love each other so much. It’s cute. They’ve been playing so much together to. 😀 Here is another picture of Digby, because I have a problem with taking pictures of animals. 😛

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My four! Dax, Leaf, October, ColbyJack.

And some pictures of them loving each other.

Some other misc. pictures. First two are the cats are when I was trying to relax in the bath, but they all wanted to watch me. WEIRDOS. Third picture of me walking the pup. And the last picture is Leaf photobombing my picture of October.

Now onto nature type pictures. First up, the sky.

Next, flowers and plants.

First picture is a shadow of some leaves on the side of our house. I really love how it turned out.

The rest are just some random pictures.

Some really neat buildings I’ve seen. The first picture each shop is a different color. Second picture is a parking garage that is painted to be a sunset (or sunrise). The entire parking garage isn’t picture. It’s HUGE.

A couple different pictures of the moon.

Playing with sparklers with my nephew and sister. My nephew didn’t a bunch of scribbles with his sparklers while I took a picture. My sister tried to write things out. Got this really cool one of an “A” she did. Last picture is just me holding the sparkler.

The hubby’s eye, lol. For some reason I really LOVE this picture though. And the second picture is of me and my new glasses! 😛 I really love these glasses.

And DONE! So many pictures. There’s even more pictures that I probably didn’t post, but trying to figure them out will be so hard. I’ll just leave you with these and hopefully I don’t let myself go months without doing another one of these posts. I will hopefully catch up with all of your posts at some point this week. I hope you had a great weekend!

In case you missed it;
Travel|| Black Point Marina.
Wrap Up|| June.
Book Haul|| June.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleyblack

Travel|| Black Point Marina.

Posted on July 3, 2018 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

Hey!

A few ago my mom took my sister and I to visit our dad. I love going to visit him, because I don’t see him that often. I am also able to take a ton of pictures when I go to visit him, because he has a huge garden with so many plants and flowers. I’ve posted about it before over here. If you haven’t noticed, taking nature pictures is kind of my thing; especially plants and flowers. So I took a bunch of pictures at his house and then we went to walk around the flea market for a little while. After the flea market we went to walk around Black Point Marina.

PICTURES FROM MY DAD’S GARDEN.

My dad had a few of these giant rocks that have little crystals covering them. Kind of like a geode or maybe it’s a geode, lol. That’s what I thought about when I seen it. It looks so cool and they shine in the light, because of all the tiny crystals. My dad broke me off a piece to take home with me (below). It’s so pretty, especially when you look at it in the light/sunlight.

Spider, caterpillar, and snail (above). There are massive amounts of spiders in my dad’s garden. You’re always having to duck down or collide with a spider/spider web. I hate it! I don’t like spiders. I don’t really like any insects, to be honest. I like taking pictures of them though, so I have to face my fear of spiders (and other creepy crawly bugs) every time I want a picture. 😛

PICTURES FROM BLACK POINT MARINA

Mom & Dad.

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Bright green iguana! It looked really neat. There were TONS of them all over this park. I mentioned in my last post with my pictures from TY Park that iguanas are everywhere in Florida. I think the younger ones are bright green. Because I see a lot of even bigger ones and they aren’t as green as this one.

We got my dad in on the lensball photography fun! 😀 I think this shot came out really neat. He wanted to hold the lensball while I took the picture. Inside the ball is a restaurant that was on the water at Black Point.

After the park we went to go get pizza and I also got these mac & cheese balls that were amazing! I didn’t take any pictures of the food, but I wish I would have. Went back to his house where I took more pictures and that was the end of the day. It was overall a great time and hopefully we can go back to visit him again really soon. Below is a picture of my dad trying to figure out what was up with his phone, lol. It kept randomly playing some man talking, haha.

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In case you missed it;
Wrap Up|| June.
Book Haul|| June.
Travel|| Topeekeegee Yugnee (T.Y.) Park.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleyblack

Travel|| Topeekeegee Yugnee (T.Y.) Park.

Posted on June 25, 2018 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

Hey!

I am finally posting the pictures that I took when my sister and I went to a park down the street from my house. We had nothing else to do, so we decided to take my cameras around to see what we can take pictures of. Warning, it’s a post of a lot of trees. This park is FULL of trees, lol. I love these trees though, because they have leaves and vines growing on the branches and they look really neat.

My younger sister (Stephanie) came down to visit for the weekend a few weeks ago and we took my cameras out. I let her use my Nikon COOLPIX while I had my Nikon D3400. As you scroll, you’ll see a ton of trees like mentioned above. LOL.

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My sister took the bottom right corner picture of me. I didn’t know she was taking pictures of me, lol. I like it though.

We saw quite a few iguanas at the park, which is always neat. They are everywhere here in Florida. I have more iguana pictures, but I must have moved them off my phone already. I was also able to get a shot of this dragonfly too.

This park also has a water park in it, so these are two things from where the water park is. I love the different signs, especially the ones that say “the moon” and “going crazy”. They also have this really big chair outside of the water park too; it says “Castaway Island”, which is what the water park is called. I’ve only ever been to the water park once since living here and it’s pretty neat.

We took my lensballs with us to the park and took some pictures with those too. I got a few good shots. The above picture is a behind the scenes picture I took of my sister taking a picture of the lensballs with her phone. I edited it to only show color on her phone screen.

I already shared this one, but I am posting it again since it goes with this post. It’s a picture of me that my sister took. Me in the lensball taking a picture of her, lol. And below are a bunch of different lensballs pictures that I took.

The last four pictures are just some random pictures I took while at the park. No real explanation for them, but I thought they were cool.

The next day we went to visit my dad and went to another park. I’ll have those pictures coming soon. 🙂 I’ll also have a post of the pictures I’ve taken over the last 2.5 months that I haven’t been posting. Feel free to follow me on Instagram (heyyitsashley)! A lot of these haven’t been posted on my Instagram yet though, so you’re seeing them first! Eventually they’ll make their way on there. I take so many pictures and don’t want to post a million at one time, so I hoard pictures to post later, lol.

In case you missed it;
Friday Finds #73.
Random|| Life Update.
Book Tag|| Mid-Year Freak Out.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleyblack

Photo A Day|| 15-24.

Posted on May 25, 2018 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

photoaday1

Hey!

I’ve been taking part in monthly photo a day challenges on my Instagram account (heyyitsashley) and I’ve been having a lot of fun with them (when I don’t fall behind on pictures). I figured I would also cross post them to my blog as well. I think for the purpose of blogging, I will post 3-6 per blog post that I do throughout the month. That way I am not spamming my blog with a million photo a day posts back to back. You can follow me on Instagram (linked above) if you want to see them daily though! Some of these pictures will be taken with my Nikon. There will also be some taken with my iPhone.

Days 15-24 of May.

I did end up skipping of the days, but not sure which one since I don’t number the days on my IG account. I’ll have one more post maybe first of June with the last of the pictures of the month if I do them.

Instagram Caption: free donuts at work today 🍩🙌🏼 || photo a day • kind.
Camera: iPhone X.

I can never pass up free donuts, especially chocolate frosted and sprinkle donuts! 😀 Donuts are always a good thing.

Instagram Caption: photo a day • doors & windows…. well, just a window for my picture.
Camera: iPhone X.

I had no idea what to post for this, because I haven’t been anywhere. I remembered I had this gem in my “favorites” folder on my phone that I hadn’t posted yet, so I chose to use this minus the door. 😛 I took this in Lakeland.

Instagram Caption: another california throwback; forever heart eyes. ♡ || photo a day • breathtaking.
Camera: I took this with a Sony digital camera I had (but I don’t remember what exactly since it was two years ago and I don’t think I still even have it).

I want to go back to California, ahhh. I know I said that last post too when I used one of my Cali pictures for that week. It’s so pretty. This is another picture from Monterey Bay, CA.

Instagram Caption: i am about 20% into circe and i’m totally here for it; i love all things mythology. || photo a day • a good read.
Camera: iPhone X.

Still currently reading Circe and I am now about 35% into it and it’s so good! I am really hoping to have this finished before the end of the month, so I can include it in my wrap up post. Since it’s going to rain all weekend (again), I’ll use that time to read read read!

Instagram Caption: 🌻💛 || photo a day • creative.
Camera: iPhone X.

I seen some more random street art in Downtown Hollywood. Kind of a funny story, but there is this parking garage that is completely painted with purples and pinks. My mom had to go to the bank next door to that parking garage and I looked into the parking garage and seen that the inside had different pictures painted inside. I seen a sunflower and needed a picture of it. I love sunflowers. So while my mom was at the ATM, I got out of the car, ran over to the parking garage, hopped over a little “wall” type thing, and snapped this picture. 😀

Instagram Caption: 🐱🍂🖤 || photo a day • pet.
Camera: Nikon D3400.

I couldn’t decide which picture of Leaf I loved more, so I ended up posting both for this day. I really love how they came out and she’s of course the cutest.

Instagram Caption: throwback to that one day when it didn’t rain and now it’s been raining for two weeks straight. 😒 || photo a day • a really great day.
Camera: Nikon D3400.

I had to use this picture for this day, because honestly…the days here haven’t been the greatest (see below). I also haven’t really been doing much lately. So I used a picture I hadn’t used yet when the weather was actually nice. It hasn’t been nice since. 😦

Random: It’s been raining and cloudy for over two weeks now and I am seriously so over it. I have been dying to take my new camera out (STILL) and this weather is continuing to make it so difficult! SO MUCH RAIN…SEE….flooded park near my house.

I may have a review for Emergency Contact coming up and then next week I’ll have my May wrap and my book haul. I may also be doing a June TBR, because I think I am pretty set on what I would like to read next month. We’ll see!

In case you missed it;
Photo A Day|| May 7-14.
Thoughts|| Before I Let Go.

I hope you have a great day and weekend!

ashleyblack

Photo A Day|| May 7-14.

Posted on May 18, 2018 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

photoaday1

Hey!

I’ve been taking part in monthly photo a day challenges on my Instagram account (heyyitsashley) and I’ve been having a lot of fun with them (when I don’t fall behind on pictures). I figured I would also cross post them to my blog as well. I think for the purpose of blogging, I will post 3-6 per blog post that I do throughout the month. That way I am not spamming my blog with a million photo a day posts back to back. You can follow me on Instagram (linked above) if you want to see them daily though! Some of these pictures will be taken with my Nikon. There will also be some taken with my iPhone.

Days 7-14 of May.

I did end up skipping of the days, but not sure which one since I don’t number the days on my IG account.

Instagram Caption: 🐞🌿❤️ || photo a day • small.
Camera: Nikon CoolPix.

I took these when I was visiting my dad a couple months ago. Ladybugs are so cute. My dad had a bunch in his garden.

Instagram Caption: ravenclaw; values intelligence, knowledge, and wit. 📖💙 i’ve had my ravenclaw pop socket for like a month now and i finally started to use it. i’m stoked and obsessed. || photo a day • i enjoy.
Camera: iPhone.

I’ve been seeing the Ravenclaw pop socket so many times at Target and I’ve been wanting to get it, but I didn’t want to pay $14.99 for it. It finally went on sale and I got it for $9.99. I had it for a month and never got around to using it, even though I wanted it so badly. 😛 I finally put it on though. So that’s the one I am currently using at the moment.

Instagram Caption: my dude. ♡ || photo a day • looking down.
Camera: iPhone.

Taking my pup Dax for a walk. I can’t believe he turned eight years old this year. He’s becoming an old man. 😦 He still acts like a puppy the majority of the time though.

Instagram Caption: hey, seal! 👋🏼⛵️🌊 || two years ago; monterey bay, california. || photo a day • throwback.
Camera: I took this with a Sony digital camera I had (but I don’t remember what exactly since it was two years ago and I don’t think I still even have it).

CALIFORNIA! I need to go back to Cali, ASAP! I had such a fun time and there were so many things I wanted to do in San Fran (and Monterey Bay) that I didn’t get to do. I definitely need to plan another trip back there. We were walking around Monterey Bay and I spotted this seal just chillin on a rock. There were tons of seals around, which was neat.

Instagram Caption: 🌴🌿⚪️ || photo a day • shape.
Camera: iPhone.

One of my favorite lens ball pictures. This was taken with my 80mm lens ball. I used another lens ball picture below for a different day too.

Instagram Caption: HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY! 💐 we went fishing yesterday for a little bit until it rained. played around with my 60mm lensball and took this picture with my iphone. i didn’t notice my older sister, our mom, and aunt in the lensball until after; but i like it and it’s perfect for mother’s day. 🌊🐟🎣 || photo a day • family.
Camera: iPhone.

This is my 60mm lens ball. It’s easier to carry around my smaller one. As my caption said, we went fishing. The weather was crappy though so we didn’t stay out long. I was hoping to try out my new camera with my lens ball, but since it rained I didn’t even take it out. I didn’t want to risk it getting wet or damaged. I really like how this one came out even with my iPhone.

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Instagram Caption: ♡♡♡ || picture from saturday. || photo a day • late.
Camera: Nikon D3400.

You may have seen this orchid picture in my “new camera” post, but I ended up using it for my picture for this photo a day as well. I LOVE the quality of this picture. I’ve been trying to get pictures of my mom’s orchid’s for awhile now with my iPhone and my Nikon CoolPix, but the pictures always came out really bad no matter how many times I’ve tried. I finally got a great shot with my new Nikon D3400!

I still haven’t really been able to take my camera out, because the weather has still be really crappy here. It’s been raining/storming every single day since last Friday and I don’t now if it will ever let up. UGH. According to my weather app it’s supposed to continue to rain every day all the way until next Saturday, WTF!

Random: I’ve been listening to a lot of true crime podcasts (main one being Generation Why) and I am now obsessed with them. I love true crime stuff. I watch the Investigation Discovery channel religiously. I don’t read enough true crime books though, so that may need to change. I am living for these podcasts though.

In case you missed it;
Thoughts|| Before I Let Go.
WWW Wednesday #50.
Thoughts|| Airports, Exes, and Other Things I’m Over.

I hope you have a great day and weekend!

ashleyblack

New Camera.

Posted on May 14, 2018 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

pictureupdate

Hi!

I did a thing and bought a new camera. I probably could have held out for a while longer, but I couldn’t resist any longer. SORRY, CREDIT CARD… I got the Nikon D3400. It’s my first DSLR camera and I am kind of nervous about it, because I have no idea how to use the thing (well the manual mode)! The other one I have is just a Nikon CoolPix and it’s just a basic point-and-shoot camera, so there really isn’t a whole lot to that one.

I was pinning a ton of beginner guides and tips for DSLR cameras days before getting it. I watched YouTube videos all weekend and I’m still like “WHAT?!”. This is going to be a challenge, that’s for sure! I’m up for it though and I am determined to master manual mode. A lot of places on the internet and reviews of the camera itself say that the Nikon D3400 is perfect for beginners, so that’s good.

I like that with the Nikon D3400 I can buy different types of lenses for it. You can’t change lenses with the point-and-shoot one. I definitely need a macro lens and a zoom lens. I live for taking pictures of flowers, so I want a good macro lens. I also live for taking pictures of the moon, so I want a good zoom lens. The standard lens it comes with doesn’t zoom very good. Lenses are not cheap (one of the ones I want is $130!), so it’ll probably be quite awhile before I can get any others. I’m fine with that though, because I should probably just master the DSLR manual mode with the standard lens first before introducing different lenses, haha.

Here are a couple pictures I took with the camera. The flowers were just in the macro mode setting (which is like my CoolPix) and the ones of my kitten Leaf I tried to play around with the partial manual mode a little bit.

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I got this an e-book from my library this weekend about how to use a DSLR camera and read it. It was pretty good and beneficial. Lots of good information. I’m still a little lost as far as everything goes though, lol! It’s just SO MUCH TO REMEMBER AND KNOW! I am so stoked to have this camera though and I can’t wait to really play around with it and start learning. The weather was pretty crappy all weekend (cloudy and rainy) and it’s supposed to be all week too, ugh. Hopefully I’ll get some good opportunities to try it out ASAP! Luckily I have a ton of school work I’ve been neglecting, so that’ll keep me busy all week until I can really dive into playing with my new camera once the weather gets nicer again. Ugh, rain. Ugh, Florida.

I need to post my photo a day pictures soon. I haven’t posted since days 1-6 and it’s already been eight more days of pictures. I need to catch up with that post!

In case you missed it;
Top Ten Tuesday|| Favorite Color Book Covers.
Photo A Day|| May 1-6.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleyblack

Photo A Day|| May 1-6.

Posted on May 7, 2018 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

photoaday1

Hey!

I’ve been taking part in monthly photo a day challenges on my Instagram account (heyyitsashley) and I’ve been having a lot of fun with them (when I don’t fall behind on pictures). I figured I would also cross post them to my blog as well. I think for the purpose of blogging, I will post 3-6 per blog post that I do throughout the month. That way I am not spamming my blog with a million photo a day posts back to back. You can follow me on Instagram (linked above) if you want to see them daily though! Some of these pictures will be taken with my Nikon. There will also be some taken with my iPhone.

Days 1-6 of May.

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Instagram Caption: i can’t believe she’s going to be one next month. where did the time go? 🍂🐱💕 || photo a day • something good.
Camera: iPhone.

My little Leaf is not so little anymore. She’s already going to be one years old and that’s CRAZY! I feel like we just got her. She’s still the sweetest kitty ever.

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Instagram Caption: salvador dali & frida kahlo • downtown hollywood, fl • there’s actually another artist (jean-michel basquiat) painted on the other side of frida, but i was in the car driving past so i couldn’t get the other side. i definitely have to walk past it next time, so i can get the full mural. || photo a day • colour.
Camera: iPhone.

Another mural painted on one of the buildings in Downtown Hollywood. There are still plenty more I need to get around to seeing. I also really want a full shot of this one next time.

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Instagram Caption: 📖💙 • photo a day || on my plate.
Camera: iPhone.

White Cheddar Cheez-It are my favorite! I was currently reading Airport, Exes, and Other Things I’m Over at the time of this picture. It was pretty fun and plan to have my review posted next week for the release day week.

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Instagram Caption: hello weekend ✌🏼 i don’t plan to leave my bed the rest of the day/night. me & season four of wentworth tonight. || photo a day • what i see.
Camera: iPhone.

I ended up not watching the entire season four of Wentworth this day. It was so freaking intense that I had to stop for awhile. OMG, this show. I love it so much, but damn all the feels and all the crazy. If you ask the hubby, he’ll tell you that you can hear me all night yelling at the tv and yelling that I can’t take the show anymore and that I can’t handle it. LOL.

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Instagram Caption: “i no longer force things. what flows, flows. what crashes, crashes. i only have space and energy for the things that are meant for me.” 🌊 || photo a day • earth.
Camera: iPhone.

Hollywood Beach, FL. 😀 The waves were pretty decent sized that day. The ocean is always so pretty and I can take a million pictures of it and never get bored with it. I love the quote that I decided to caption my picture with. I think it fits for the ocean picture and fits me.

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Instagram Caption: 🌼💛🌊 || photo a day • something yellow.
Camera: Nikon.

These flowers are so pretty and I love that they were in front of the ocean too, because it made for a really awesome picture. This is probably one of my favorites that I’ve taken.

In case you missed it;
Wrap Up|| April.
Top Ten Tuesday|| Books I’d Slay a Lion to Get Early.
Book Haul|| April.

I hope you have a great day!

ashleyblack

Random|| Picture Update.

Posted on April 13, 2018 by ashley @ socially awkward bookworm

pictureupdate

Hey!

I haven’t done a picture update post (besides photo a day or travel ones) in a month, so I have quite a lot of pictures to share. My total picture count was a little over 60 pictures. I decided to break it up and put my Disney on Ice pictures in their own post that will probably go up next week. If you follow me on Instagram (heyyitsashley) you may have seen some of these; others haven’t made it there yet, so you’ll get to see them first! Anyway, onto the pictures!

The hubby and I went to walk around Downtown Hollywood (Florida), because they always have new wall art popping up on buildings and I wanted to check them out and get some pictures. Here are some of the ones that we seen. I still have so many more to see though.

These mermaid ones were pretty awesome! It was one giant wall, so it was harder to get the entire seen in a picture. Instead I broke it up into three pictures of the mermaids.

These were some smaller ones or close ups. The parrot one is a smaller one that was on the side of a hotel. The anchor and fishes were a closeup from the mermaids above.

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I really loved this robot one so much.

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FLAMINGOS! This one was my all-time favorite one that I seen so far. This is also a big wall. The other side has more flamingos on it, but these two looked the coolest.

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This one was across from the mermaids. It was also on a giant wall, so this isn’t even half of it! The other side looks identical though. Really love this one and the colors.

It was National Beer Day on Saturday, so we went to this bar in Downtown Hollywood called Old Hollywood Beerhouse. They sell 200 different beers, so we decided to check out a few of those. I loved all the ones I got (pictured above). The sour wheat ale was probably my favorite. We plan to go back again to try some more. It was a cool vibe there. They played old Hollywood movies on old TVs and played old music on a record player.

Random selfies, because why not?

PIZZA! We love pizza at my house. Right was from when the hubby and I went to go see Love, Simon at the movies. I love that our theater has recliner chairs now.

I am living for dresses lately. I finally got around to wearing my cat one (right) and my sunflower one. I am in love with my sunflower one. My yellow TOMS went perfect with it too.

Weekend Vibes.

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My nephew Jackson.

I seriously hate these things (all spiders and bugs, really) and this time of year they pop up EVERYWHERE. We probably have 10+ in our backyard. Even little baby ones.

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These three above are just some random pictures. The last one of the sunset is really cool though. I took it from the side passenger mirror in the car. It came out really cool.

Little Leaf! She got spayed last Friday. Colby and October HATED her when she came back from getting spayed. They didn’t want to be around her and if she went near them, they would hiss at her. She went to hide in blankets and plastic bags to get away from them. 😦 I guess it’s a thing that happens sometimes with cats when you take one to the vet and bring them home. After about a day, Colby was friendly again with her. October took the entire weekend before they became best friends again.

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See! Friends again! 😀

Leaf (left), ColbyJack (top right), October (bottom right).