Category: Aloha Friday

Aloha Friday | 12/18/20

Another week over but my son is finally on winter break – hooray! Christmas is in a few days, are you done with Christmas shopping? Or do you usually shop last minute?

This was my week!

New Books Acquired:

NetGalley~

Amazon Unlimited~

Amazon Kindle Deals~

I can’t believe this trilogy was on sale for only $2.99! 😱

TV, Movies, Etc…:

  • The Prom on Netflix ~ ugh…am I hormonal? It made me tear up at the end. I can’t believe the character Alyssa who is played by Ariana DeBose is the bullet in Hamilton. I was like…wait, that’s her?! She has an amazing voice in The Prom. And the actress who plays Emma, Jo Ellen Pellman, has such talent too. I look forward to see what they do next! Honestly, the whole cast did great and hello Meryl Streep 👑, Nicole Kidman (give it some zazz!) and Kerry Washington made me cry at the end. 👏🏼👏🏼 I loved the storyline, the dance numbers and music. It made me happy!
  • Tiny Pretty Things on Netflix ~ I never read the books. 🤦🏻‍♀️ As for the show…it definitely wasn’t what I was expecting! It’s a soapy sexy young adult ballet drama, it’s a mess…it’s VERY dramatic. It is dark, has lots of nudity (mostly backsides though), lots of sex scenes (straight and gay), body dysmorphia, drug use, abuse, scandal, sexual harassment, racism, sex trafficking and there is a crime mystery too. Sooo many triggers. And what is the age of these ballerinas? Are they over 18? Because if they aren’t the whole teacher/student affair thing is gross.😫 Honestly without knowing much of the story I first assumed they were college age but I’m not sure. To top it off, the acting is not the best (I struggled through episodes) but I give them credit for using real dancers though because those parts are really beautiful. I love when Oren and Neveah dance together, they are stunning together. I couldn’t binge it straight through because of the acting and all the unnecessary sex scenes, but thank goodness for the skip button. I get it, it’s supposed to be racy but I wanted more of the story instead. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Adulting:

  • son’s projects are DONE! And hooray for winter break!
  • I haven’t poured resin and crafted in a whole week which was seriously NICE. We shall see if I continue with it or go back to hand stamping metal or a new craft! Something that takes up less space to make haha. I’m always ready to learn something new.

How was your week? Stay safe out there.

🎄 ~ Yolanda

Aloha Friday | 12/11/20

I’ve been so busy with holiday orders, also my son’s big project to end 2nd quarter and Christmas shopping. Oh the holidays! I barely got any blogging or reading done. 😟

Let’s see how my week has been like:

New Books Acquired:

NetGalley ~

Overdrive Library ~

Amazon Kindle Unlimited ~

TV, Movies, Etc…

  • The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix – I started this and haven’t finished it. I like it so far though, it’s kind of dark, but fascinating.
  • Selena on Netflix – not going to lie, it took me awhile to get into this one because the actress looks so old playing teenager Selena and the wigs – oh my!…yes I am an 80’s child and I had a perm and teased bangs 😆😅, but some of the wigs just didn’t look good on that actress. Now my favorite person on the show has to be her sister, Suzette, I like her spunk! I think learning about the family dynamics are interesting, their mom is so supportive, bless her heart. AB looks like he’s being pushed to his limit – but will I watch the second season? Yes because that’s when Como La Flor comes out and she blows up big time! 😍 Another thing I did like about the series, all the 80’s music I listened to growing up playing in the show, made me relive my childhood. Good times! Overall…the the show is okay, I don’t love it, I love the music though.
  • One Night Only: The Best of Broadway on CBS – music got me through 2020 and I love musicals. Jersey Boys was supposed to make its way to Hawaii this past summer and I saw it on Broadway, my first trip to NYC in 2009 with one of my best friends. But covid happened so…oh well, I hear they rescheduled the show to 2022!

Adulting:

  • helping my son with his projects 😓 and entertaining my daughter at the same time.
  • my daughter got a stomach bug and had diarrhea all weekend (boo!) poor kiddo – she’s still recovering but doing so much better, it’s been exhausting for both of us.
  • finishing and sending my Etsy orders.
  • cooking for the first night of Hanukkah – I was a little ambitious and thought I had enough flour to make challah and Sufganiyot (fried donut) but just donut bites (like donut holes). I did not have enough flour hahaha – so my challah leaves came out smaller than I thought they would and the donuts didn’t form. Oh well! I’ll try again once I get more flour. The kids loved their presents and challah, my hubby got his Matzo ball soup and I’m just happy they were happy! 💙🕎

Happy Hanukkah to you all!

Aloha Friday | 11/20/20

Another week is almost over and next week is Thanksgiving for us here in the USA. I can’t believe November is almost over. So let’s see what happened this week:

New Books Acquired ~

Amazon – Kindle Unlimited:

Apple Books:

NetGalley:

I haven’t done a book blog tour in awhile so I signed up for 5! All the NetGalley titles acquired except for These Hollow Vows are for book blog tours. I tried to get a variety.

TV Shows & Movies ~

Netflix:

  • Julie and the Phantoms ~ okay I needed something to binge as I worked on my Etsy shop items and put this one on. I love it! It’s a wholesome, feel good, funny show about a girl with a ghost band. The music is great and I’m already listening to it on repeat my apple music app. I need season two!

Adulting ~

  • Trying to finish a bunch of resin pieces for my Etsy shop Black Friday sale next week! 😅
  • Also trying to get started on my Christmas shopping. A lot of online shopping this year. Thank goodness for gift cards.
  • We have Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas and my daughter’s 4th birthday coming up, so a lot of things coming up – but super downscaled because of COVID. That’s okay though, we’ve kept our celebrations just to immediate family and it’s been nice that way too.

I hope all of you have a good weekend and please stay safe out there!

🧡 ~ Yolanda

Aloha Friday | 11/13/20

It’s Friday the 13th, of course! I finally had a chance to read this week as I could finally destress from election week! So let’s see what I did:

New Books Acquired:

Amazon (Kindle Unlimited):

Overdrive Online Library:

Netflix:

Dash & Lily (series): if you want to get into the Christmas spirit and love young adult romances, watch Dash & Lily! I binged it in one night because it was so cute. I loved how it’s set in New York City. That’s on my bucket list ~ to see NYC during the holidays. The show starts off in a bookstore – it had me right there!

Holidate (movie): this one was okay! I thought the idea of having a holidate (a date you bring to holiday functions) super cute. The movie was more funny than romantic. I don’t know if the chemistry was there between the two leads (at least for me).

Adulting:

  • Orders are picking up on my Etsy, so I’m trying to get those sent out and make more of popular stuff.
  • I can’t believe my son is almost halfway through the school year! Wow.
  • Covid cases are rising a little more again now that tourists are allowed back in our state. I got my flu shot, did dental appointments, just need to get my hair cut and maybe get a massage before things get bad again. That vaccine can’t come soon enough!

That’s all I got! What have you been up to?

🌈 Good vibes to you all! ~Yolanda

Aloha Friday | 10/23/20

Another week almost over and 10 days until election day – let’s do this! 💪🏾

New Books Acquired:

Hardcovers:

This is what I got for the Amazon Prime Day sales – books. Haha, it was buy 3 for the price of 2 so why not?

Kindle Unlimited:

Netflix:

  • Love, Guaranteed (movie) – super cute rom com and Rachel Leigh Cook is in it! Seeing her always takes me back to She’s All That.
  • Unsolved Mysteries (tv show) – I skipped the murder stories because I wasn’t in the mood, but stopped to watch the episode Tsunami Spirits. 💔 The 2011 tsunami footage in Japan brought me back to that night – here in Hawaii we were freaking out waiting to see if a tsunami would hit us. Seeing what happened in Japan was frightening and heartbreaking – it broke my heart all over again. 😭

Adulting:

  • Remote schooling continues – and for the most part this quarter has been smoother! We got our COVID numbers under control but…tourists are now allowed back to visit, and we are starting the next phase of opening up the state – so more people and more movement makes me think we will lock down again in oh…3 months? That seems to be the cycle.
  • I took a break from working on resin pieces because my pieces weren’t curing correctly – I think because it’s been super humid here in the islands. 😦 We have rain, yay…but when the rain stops, it’s humid! But I do have a sale going on until Halloween so check out my Etsy shop: FancifulWish if you want to do some Christmas gift shopping.
  • My kids won’t be trick or treating but they are dressing up regardless – my son will be No Face from Spirited Away and my daughter will be a pink Pikmin. 😄

Have a nice weekend everyone!

🧡 ~ Yolanda

Aloha Friday | 10/16/20

Happy Aloha Friday everyone! Another week is coming to a close in October so let’s see what I’ve done this week.

New Books Acquired:

NetGalley ~

I just checked my NetGalley and gasped when I saw Namesake! Ahhh!

  • Namesake (Fable, #2) by. Adrienne Young

I did buy a few books from Amazon Prime Day deals since it was buy 3 for the price of 2. Those should be coming this weekend.

Netflix ~

  • Blackpink: Light Up the Sky ~ such a good feature on the girls in Blackpink and the training they went through to become the biggest Kpop girl group in the world right now. I love their music, it always makes me dance or motivates me to work out (which I hate doing and should do more of).

Gaming~

  • My son is obsessed and I mean OBSESSED with Pikmin. Pikmin 3 Deluxe is coming out in 2 weeks and I’ve already pre-ordered it for him but he downloaded the demo and begged me to co-op with him. I suck at it. HAHA. But the Pikmin are super cute – my 3 year old daughter is also now obsessed with them because of him.
  • Super Smash Bros. – Steve from Minecraft is in the line-up now and I asked my son to show it to me. I ended up playing him for like 10 minutes and we had fun cracking up at how Steve fights. Enderman is my fave though and block Kirby is the CUTEST.

I hope all of you have a nice weekend ~ stay safe!

💕 ~ Yolanda

Aloha Friday | 10/9/20

Happy Aloha Friday everyone! My son’s Fall Break comes to an end today – well technically Sunday and back to the remote schooling grind. I wish we had a chance to do something fun like go on vacay but it’s not meant to be this year like a lot of things. That’s okay…we can hope for next year right?

New Books Acquired:

NetGalley ~

Netflix:

  • Emily in Paris – I binged this show in one night! I could not stop. Just seeing Paris on screen made me miss traveling and everything pre-COVID. Anyway it’s a show with a lot of eye candy and it was a definite escape for me.

Adulting News:

  • Counting down to election day here win the USA. My birthday is the day after election day so I HOPE I get a good birthday present! I told my hubby I may have to be inebriated the night of the election but I haven’t drank alcohol in so long because it makes me sleepy. 🤦🏻‍♀️😅
  • It was Fall break for my son this week so we went to the playground, the pool and tomorrow he and his sister are getting flu shots! 😬 She’s quick about it, scared to get a shot but happy to get a bandaid 🤷🏻‍♀️ but my son screams the whole office down.
  • And since our state is opening up from lockdown again, I’m going to also do dentists appointments this month for them and myself. Also, I need a haircut! Who knows if we will shut down again in a few months, so I better get everything done.

Stay safe out there, wear a mask and social distance!

💙 ~ Yolanda

Aloha Friday | 10/2/20

It’s finally October and it makes me so happy. I love October because of Halloween, school Fall Break is on Monday, and people start decorating their houses – it’s just so festive. Also, I love reading books that are darker, to match the season. 🎃

So let’s see how September went:

New Books Acquired:

Hardcovers:

Kindle Unlimited ebook:

NetGalley Newly Acquired:

Netflix:

  • Enola Holmes ~ it was so good!
  • American Murder: The Family Next Door ~ so awful, and heartbreaking.

Adulting News:

  • I finally got a car again. Thank goodness!

💕 ~ Yolanda

Aloha Friday | 9/25/20

Hi friends! How was your week?

I was so upset to learn Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away last Friday. 💔 May she rest in power and peace. She did so much for women’s rights in America. Our political environment is…crazy…with the election only 39 days away…39! It’s making me anxious. You know my birthday is the day after the election? I told my husband I may need to get a bottle of wine for election night (to calm my nerves). Hello, I haven’t drank alcohol in a long while…it makes me so tired and with two young kids, my poison choice is caffeine. 🤷🏻‍♀️

So what happened this week ~

New Books Acquired:

  • Legendborn by. Tracy Deonn – I finally have it IN MY HANDS!
  • To Carve a Fae Heart by. Tessonja Odette (Kindle Unlimited)
  • I’m Not Dying With You Tonight by. Kimberly Jo & Gilly Segal (Overdrive Online Library)
  • The Midnight Lie by. Marie Rutkoski (Overdrive Online Library)
  • The Merciful Crow by. Margaret Owen (Overdrive Online Library)

NetGalley Books I’m Reading:

  • Every Single Lie – Rachel Vincent
  • Shadow City – Francesca Flores
  • Warmaidens – Kelly Coon

Books on my Shelf That I’m Trying To Finish:

  • Rogue Princess by. B.B. Myers
  • Strange Grace by. Tessa Gratton

Books I Want:

  • The Inheritance Games by. Jennifer Lynn Barnes
  • Greythorne (The Bloodleaf Trilogy, #2) by. Crystal Smith
  • Skyhunter by. Marie Lu

Adulting News:

  • Hoping to get a car this weekend! 🤞🏽
  • Counting the days when my son can go back to his physical school location haha – we are both kind of tired of each other at this point. His first quarter is ending soon and he has fall break in two weeks. Crazy!!
  • Time has flown by…we will be in October and I’m so sad that Halloween finally falls on a weekend this year and Halloween isn’t going to be happening, exactly. I’ll decorate for sure, but passing out candy – sorry no. Guess I’ll save money that way haha! ☹️
  • I know we are only approaching Halloween but I have to start thinking of Christmas items for my Etsy shop! So I’ll be getting started on making ornaments soon. 💚❤️

Aloha Friday | 9/18/20

Another week done and we are almost into October. Craziness!

New Books Acquired:

  • Legendborn by. Tracy Deonn – I pre-ordered but my book didn’t come this week. 🙁 It’s shipping next week! Oh well, at least I already read the arc.
  • Blood & Honey by. Shelby Mahurin

NetGalley Books I’m Reading:

  • The Ravens – Kass Morgan & Danielle Page
  • Shadow City – Francesca Flores

Books on my Shelf That I’m Trying To Finish:

  • Rogue Princess by. B.B. Myers
  • Strange Grace by. Tessa Gratton

Adulting News:

  • Finally going to shop for another car 😕. I honestly hate car shopping, it just takes too long and I’m not into cars at all haha, plus it’s a pandemic so showrooms here are “closed”. That makes things somewhat challenging but hopefully I can get a car by next week? Or please by the end of September. I can’t believe I’ve been carless for more than a month, just happy the claim went through.
  • My son’s online schooling is…going. We supposedly have two more weeks of it but I think it may extend into the 2nd quarter. We shall see, our positive COVID cases have dropped but they are going to open up our state to tourism in three weeks. We’ll see how that goes.
  • I’m trying to work on Halloween items to add to my Etsy shop. Any resin pieces that need help or I just can’t sell, I’m going to turn into Christmas ornaments.

What’s new in your life? Or what new book did you get? Leave me a comment bellow!

💕 ~Yolanda