Upcoming Plans 2023!!

Happy New Year everyone!

2023 is here. Honestly 2022 went by way too fast even if its probably the year that I slept the least, got my first hospital operation ( since wisdom teeth extraction is also considered an operation), birthed a little baby boy Triple V and my life milestones are celebrating his developmental milestones. In the midst of that, I managed to cover a couple of film festivals and took a few review opportunities as well.

For a general overview of 2022, you can find it HERE!

As we look forward to 2023, we’re looking at mostly the same but perhaps a little more goal-oriented (or an attempt to be). Maybe it will help with my indecisiveness when there’s just too many choices!

Let’s get right to it!

BOOKS

Goodreads Reading Challenge 2023: 15 books

Setting a rather ambitious goal of 15 books this year but above is all the books I do want to get through this year. I still have a ton of unread books that I physically own but I’m going to start with that. It will also have some children’s books in the mix since I’m reading a lot to the little one. Not that he understands anything as I write this up but hoping to get him used to the sounds and such to hopefully help his development.

Also, I’ve been thinking about reading all the Hercule Poirot books by Agatha Christie so I’m planning on trying to get that kicked off. I’m going to read them in order of release.

MOVIES

Not too many changes to movies this year. Much like previous years you can expect Double Features and single reviews on new releases, mostly those that I am more enthused about. My main source of entertainment remains Netflix and Shudder and sometimes Amazon Prime so I’m working mostly off those avenues. Not too sure whether I will getting on for the bigger festival coverages but I’m going to guess it will be a year or two more before I get back into it (if I’m still doing this by then). Marathons should remain the same with February Romance, October Horror and December Holidays. These suffered quite a bit this year but I’m hoping to shorten the length but get some decent reviews out. Still working on getting some themed months but hopefully this year will be it.

Also, seeing as my co-host for Ultimate Decades Blogathon announced last year his hiatus or possible permanent departure from blogging, this will not be happening.

My main focus has shifted a lot on Movies and Tea Podcast. Its a great time to record and Elwood and I have a lot of fun as we move through more directors and have some pretty good ideas for upcoming seasons.

TV & Tranquil Dreams Podcast

If you were here last year (and amazingly have stayed after my hiatus and slow content), I already talked about this. Only difference is that I actually put a lot of set up work on this in the past 2 months so its almost ready to get going. I just need some small polish to get things ready to relaunch.

For those who weren’t here, TV binge will focus on everything other than Chinese Language Series. I’ve already started doing that in 2022 and even changed a little bit how I approached the TV binges in general. All the Chinese Language Series will be moved to the podcast when it launches. I’m actually working on some series from the past few years that I haven’t had a chance to write about but I really love. Chinese Language Series means anything from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland China. Maybe the random Singapore ones if it catches my eye. The main focus will be on the bigger North American streaming platforms like what is acquired by Netflix but will also look at notable ones from Chinese International streaming apps.

Last year I did also talk about the Sunday Lists being moved to the podcast also. Its still in my plans but I’m going to get it relaunched first before going further with this. I love the segment a ton so I do hope that I get around to working it back into the blog one way or another.

Monthly Segments

Monthly Segments remain the same with Music Obsessions happening the first weekend of the month and Adventures & What’s Up as a month-end wrap-up.

Retiring Photography Segment, Housekeeping and Where It Goes

I mentioned on the Adventures post for December 2022 that I had retired all the photography posts on the blog. With that said, I do still want to get back to photography. I’m mostly using my phone lately but still, it should be fun. I’ve always wanted to do the 365 challenge so I’m going to attempt to do it this year over on Avenue of Daydreams which was constructed for all things creative so photography is moving over there and honestly just continuing since I did weekly photo posts before I took a hiatus.

PERSONAL GOALS

WORK OUT REGULARLY: I’ve given myself a good deal of time to recover from the operation and while taking care and amusing my 6 month old is a lot of exercise, I do want to start doing some actual working out. I’m looking at getting in some yoga, bodyweights and light weights just to see how it goes. It will be a slow progression but I’m rather heavy right now and I’m starting to worry that its not doing any favors for my knees. Plus, we plan to get back to hiking in the summer carrying the little one on our backs so I do want to start training a bit more endurance in preparation for it.

STREAMING: Last year I set this goal and did not do it at all. Its still on my mind to get this launched. I have a lot of games to play on back catalogue and why not try to build something in the process. This will probably happen after I get into a rhythm after the podcast launch.

FINAL NOTE

Last year I talked about slowing down and to be honest, its pretty clear that I’m not picking up blogging any time soon. My baby is taking a lot of my time during the day and in the evenings, between making sure the house isn’t a complete mess and trying to move up my sleeping schedule, its been really hard to focus on writing a lot. I basically write posts for the things that inspire me the most at the moment. Anything that lands in the average doesn’t get prioritized. You can always follow me on Letterboxd to see what I’ve watched and the ratings, if you like. I only use it for my diary to track the movies I’ve watched throughout the year.

To be fair, I’m shifting more towards my co-host projects so while I’ve mentioned Movies and Tea Podcast. I am going to also put more effort into Game Warp to try to get more reviews out and gaming done. It will go hand in hand with the streaming plans.

2023 has some ambitious plans but I’m hoping to get through it!
Wishing you all a fantastic 2023!

2022 Upcoming Plans!

Its 2022! After spending an entire year in the pandemic last year, life has definitely changed from watching new releases to just real life in general. Routine and everything has definitely taken a shift. Its the new year and we can only hope that we will hopefully escape the pandemic in some form in the coming year.

With all that said, yesterday we wrapped up with a 2021 overview and today is to share what to expect in 2022. Not a whole lot of change in general but for those new to the blog, it will give a general guideline of what to expect. I will try my best to achieve the majority of it but some things may not actually pan out. Its just how life works in general. If 2021 has taught me anything, its to just let things flow.

Enough of that and let’s move on to the actual plans!

BOOKS

Goodreads Reading Challenge 2022: 15 books

Last year was a massive fail in terms of reading. So I’ve basically opted to half the goal from last year. This goal feels overall attainable. One book or so a month seems pretty doable in general. I recently did a clean-up of my books and the goal is to go through the physical TBR books sitting on my bookshelves.

MOVIES

Movies will be basically the same thing as this year. I truly don’t believe new theatrical releases are in the horizon in terms of actual theatre visits so I’m going to focus on Netflix, Shudder and Digital rentals for most new releases. At the same time, this year’s big change is to take a year off of festival coverage. I will talk briefly about some life changes below as we get into some personal plans.

• Focus on Double Features format
• New releases or screeners get single reviews
• Marathons:
  • February- Valentine Romance
  • October – Horror
  • December – Holidays
• Ultimate Decades Blogathon: annual blogathon that I co-host is back and announcement post will be coming in a few weeks
• Movies and Tea Podcast: podcast that I co-host will simultaneously be shared here as we dive into more director filmography and themed seasons

TV

All TV binges this year will focus on Netflix content for the greater part.

Where will the Chinese-language dramas that I consume go? That’s in the next section below!

TRANQUIL DREAMS PODCAST

After a few months of hiatus, the podcast will be making a return. This time, I’m going back to the original concept of what I had initially wanted to do with the podcast: Chinese-Language Dramas!

The podcast still needs some structural elements to be finalized but I will be covering Chinese-Language Dramas. What does that mean? Mainland Chinese, Taiwan and Hong Kong TV dramas. The main focus will be those accessible on streaming services since they are becoming more and more available on Netflix alone and I feel like it doesn’t get talked about enough since there are a few gems in general.

I am debating to have a Chinese and English version but that’s a whole other discussion which I’m not sure I’m ready to commit to quite yet in terms of time and editing alone. I do also have another idea for moving the once Sunday lists here as a monthly podcast segment but its a little more work so still under consideration.

MONTHLY SEGMENTS

Mostly the same:

• Music Obsessions: first weekend of every month
• Adventures & What’s Up: combined together at month-end

PARTIAL REVIVAL: BAKING THROUGH DISNEY & STUDIO GHIBLI

Look, Baking Through Disney is behind us. There’s no point in dwelling on something that probably won’t happen at this point. I bake desserts pretty much once a year. I’m not saying that it won’t happen again since I have been having the thought lately (due to some upcoming changes) but it won’t be happening in a good part of this year. However, I’m going through a bit of a burnout on horror films which makes the movie portion for horror marathon a big maybe whether I will do it by October or not. Maybe I will be out of it but other factors come into play (also something mentioned later in this post).

With all that said, I’ve been missing animated films and think its a great time to jump back into it so I do want to review Disney films preferably in the order of the ones I have access to or can rent (unless Disney+ has another cheap subscription month), very much like how the original project was structured minus the baking and creativity part. With that, I do also want to go through the Studio Ghibli films seeing as they are mostly available on Netflix right now. Perfect timing and all.

PERSONAL LIFE GOALS (AND A LITTLE UPDATE)

Most of the blog stuff is pretty much updated above so we will do some quick personal life goals. Last year’s workout goal in general worked at its best during the summer. This year is a little bit more different.

Let’s start with the update and real life news/update that may create the biggest change for my life and blog. I’m pregnant and due in a few months so anything in the second half of 2022 will be a big unknown at this point. With that said, the life goals will be very much oriented towards this new change.

• Eat healthier: For obvious reasons, this is already underway. I am in the process of boosting calcium since lactose intolerance doesn’t exactly help in that department. Along with that, also boosting fruit consumption since I was very bad at that last year.
• Streaming Once A Week: After that one stream last year in March, I’ve been thinking of streaming regularly for a while but never really had the right timing. So, I thought I’d take baby steps and set in one stream every weekend. I will probably do an official announcement once I finally take the step to start it up.
• Set Up the Nursery & New Office: The news above basically means I’m working on clearing out my current office to transform into the nursery. I mean, this is a gradual to-do list. There’s a general plan right now so this kind of links to the above goal since I do want to transition to the new office area in the house before streaming. Less hassle that way.

FINAL GENERAL NOTE FOR THE BLOG

I’ve been slowing down on writing this past year. A lot contributed to it. With the new changes in life, I don’t foresee writing frequency increasing and I don’t want to stress over it. The goal is to get a post up every 2 to 3 days. Plus, after a decade of blogging, I do want to jump into some new projects hence the solo podcast with this new structure and also streaming. Maybe when those things happen, I will also want to write more. It will take time for a new routine to build in so some of the newer things will be lesser frequency. Either way, I am going to maintain the quality instead of quantity.

2022 will hopefully be a great year despite the craziness in reality!
Happy New Year and Wishing Everyone All the Best!

Do you all have some new projects? Feel free to share it in the comments!

2021 Upcoming Plans

It’s 2021!! Happy New Year everyone! Hope everyone has found their own way to celebrate. The beginning of the new year means that its time to get back to some plans for this coming year and some changes in projects, etc. I needed an extra day to figure some little things out since I hadn’t quite decided on everything yet. This time around, I’ll share some projects for the blog and some more personal little goals to get back some good lifestyle habits. Let’s take this section by section!

BOOKS

• 2021 Goodreads Challenge: 30 books

I’ve had a hard time reading the past few years and most of the time when I set the 30 books reading, I don’t get there but I really do want to read more, despite having some different types of projects this year and may result in less time. Either way, its a challenge that I’m up for. Plus, between blog tours (which I might participate a little less in this year depending on what I’m interested in), TBR of my own both in physical books and Kindle books.

MOVIES

Movies is more of a free flow sort of deal. I do want to dive into a focus on Chinese cinema whether from Mainland China or Hong Kong or Taiwan. However, I do know that that angle is for my own interest so I do have quite a bit to get through whether on Shudder or Netflix which is my main source of movie matching other than the random cheap rental that I pick up or the movie selections for Movies and Tea which is getting into Season 7 production soon with a director that definitely will bring on some interesting discussion for their retrospective. Seeing as we’re really ahead, I’m going to keep it a secret for now. However, last year I didn’t even reach 300 movies logged on Letterboxd so if I manage to get 300 or more movies watched this year, I would be quite pleased.

As for structure, I am keeping to the double feature format unless its a newly released Netflix film or even Shudder exclusive. I will try to get on top of that much more this coming year since I don’t foresee theatre releases or visits to happen anytime soon in Montreal.

Other than the normal themed months below:

• February 1st – 14th : Valentine’s Romance
• October: Halloween Horror
• December 1st-25th: Holiday Films

I was unsuccessful at doing the themed months of other genres/subgenres during random months last year but that is a goal that I would like to do. As for what themes? I have a few in mind.

TV

As I watch much more TV (which is probably why movies had a drop last year), I’ve been giving this segment a lot of thought. I will still be doing TV binges however with a much more relaxed structure. I already started it at the end of the year. While I love the structure that I had for Chinese dramas for analysis of plot, pacing, characters and the overall view, it also became this long arduous post that took a long time to put together. Less division and more just free writing for future TV binges, much like the non Chinese drama TV binges that I do as some series really don’t have that much to write about.

However, what has been on my mind for TV is something will be a bigger change/addition to this post and that’s the next section…

TRANQUIL DREAMS PODCAST

Its a solo podcast! I don’t know how I’ll do talking to myself about anything but it has been something that I’ve been thinking about structure, title and content since the beginning of the pandemic last year (probably even longer). My thoughts years ago when this idea first started was a Youtube Channel but I just don’t have time to edit video and audio since it takes a ton of time so here we are. Podcasts do not limit the length because its audio and I’ll have it on a format that people can download. Its going to be another learning curve since right now, my fantastic co-host takes care of all the audio for the other 2 podcasts.

I know the name isn’t exactly inspirational but its connected to the blog originally wanted it to be about only Chinese dramas as an English review and introduction so that people can find the ones that are readily available on Youtube or Netflix (only those with English subtitles, of course). However, the reason for Tranquil Drams Podcast is that it opens up for a few little ideas I’ve had to move here also hopefully.

• What’s Up segment will be moved completely over on a weekly basis. If it gets a little too heavy to produce, I might change it to biweekly frequency.
• TV Binges will be moved here. Some less chat worthy will be in written formats (or maybe I’ll do both). Regardless, some series like big productions or Netflix gives me a lot to talk about and its hard to get it all down.
• A segment that I wanted to revive since last year is Sunday Lists so maybe in podcast format will give me boost considering I have probably 2 or 3 already partially drafted.
• A new segment as a new goal for the podcast which was how the Youtube idea started is an Adaptations versus Source Material comparison. This is kind of a maybe as I’m not sure how things will look in the coming year mostly on the real life side of things.

OTHER RANDOM SEGMENTS

Most segments have no change other than the ones mentioned above:

• [changes] What’s Up: moved to podcast format (see above if you skipped it)
• My Monthly Adventures: I will keep this in written format however with the pandemic still going on, its more of a place to put together what’s been released on my other projects and such.
• [changes] Battle of Ingredients: in hiatus. We didn’t address it last year at all but with the pandemic, we have no choice but to put this project on hiatus for obvious reasons.
• Music Obsessions: Still on monthly basis. Not a lot of views but I do love putting together this post.
• Ultimate Decades Blogathon: Production meeting has already happened and confirmed to happen. Announcement post coming up once we iron out some little details.

PERSONAL GOALS

It sure feels like I’ve stopped sharing my personal goals over the last few years. Maybe that’s why I’ve grown lazy with some of it. Here we are again and it will be a complete balancing act. I made the decision that regardless of anything that when I set time aside from something, I will do it. Work is a huge factor to why a lot of things get postponed but I need remember that its not my entire life. With that said, main goal for next year is mostly exercise related:

• Workout: 2-3 times a week and gradually increase to 3-4 times a week
  • Indoors during the winter (bodyweights, weights, yoga, cardio)
  • Outdoors running (hopefully by April)
  • Hiking more often

• Eat healthier and more balanced meals: This year, we’ve lowered drinking alcohol in general to once or twice a month and its been a pretty good feeling. Its more to eat more fruits since I always forget to keep the fruits and vegetables daily intake as well as hydration on par.

• Start Streaming: I’ve been thinking about streaming games for a good while. The hesitation is pretty much the same as for solo podcasts where I have to talk to myself. Its mostly for fun and not exactly to promote anything. I started teaming up on voice chat with one of my friends on a weekly basis during his stream to experience horror games together on Monday. You can check out his channel HERE as he streams about 5 – 7 times a week playing three to four different games. I’m having a lot of fun with it and its been something that I’ve been wanting to do more and more. I’m slowly fixing up the info and such on the channel to get it ready gradually. Hopefully a little later in January, it will be up and running. I’m not quite as ambitious as my friend so I’m going for once or twice a week playing mostly indie games which are more focused on narrative but no limits as I just want to get through all the games I’ve bought and haven’t played on Steam.

• Buy a new sofa, office chair (and maybe bicycle): being first time homeowners, we were lucky to get a lot of second hand relatively decent quality furniture from family to help us get through the first few years of paying the mortgage but as much as I do like the sofa, it needs to be changed before it damages our backs. The same applies for a new office chair. Working from home more has worn it out more than it already has from my cat and its not great to have a squeaky office chair especially for podcast recording. As for a bicycle, considering everyone in Montreal swept the stores of them last year because of the pandemic, I’m hoping that I finally find one this year that isn’t going to break the bank.

Upcoming plans post are rather bland to read overall and I did try to keep this not so lengthy, but hey, look at this length. If there’s something you find is missing, well, its probably either cut or indefinitely in hiatus or its something that I’ve moved to Instagram content (which I need to do better also). If you have any suggestions for movie themed months or what topics for the podcast, etc, let me know in the comments as well.

This is it for the 2021 plans!
As usual, the goal is not procrastinate as much and stick to the tentative schedule!
Happy 2021 everyone and all the best in this coming year (hopefully things will get back to some form of normalcy gradually pandemic-wise)! As always, stay safe!

What’s Up 2018?

Hello everyone!

I’ve sat around most of today just resting up and getting back energy from the NYE festivities at our place and doing little cleaning up and such. Its been really fun. Of course, I did promise a 2018 look ahead. Call it resolutions or plans or whatever you’d like. There’s not going to be a ton of change this year however, I’m trying to set some solid goals and keep them going. Let’s call it just updates for all the sections of this blog.

Twitter update

I’ve wanted to change my crappy Twitter handle for years instead of the horrible tranquildr3ams. Emphasis on the 3 instead of the e. It reflects how old I am and what generation I grew up in, I think. With that said, it also looks super bad now especially I’m trying to at least seem slightly legit and get press passes and such. So here we are…after seeing that TranquilDreams and Tranquil_Dreams was taken, I ended up just doing TranquilDreams_

New Twitter Handle: @TranquilDreams_

Everything should be updated so there shouldn’t be a ton of confusion.

Blog Plans

Lets start with the blog plans for 2018. We’re looking at Movies, Books, TV Binge, Baking for the main categories and then the Weekly Adventures category will be its own little thing.

MOVIES

As of starting this year, I’m missing reviews for Wonder Woman, Kong: Skull Island, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and 47 Meters Down. Those will be going up shortly over the next week as I rid the backlog of reviews that need to be posted.

Movie reviews do the absolute worst on the blog as a first impact post however some reviews do have views in the long term. I keep them here because I truly do enjoy watching films and sharing my thoughts on them. Plus, Fantasia Festival reviews do well and I love covering indie films a whole lot. Creative new ideas from these great artists and creators are something I truly appreciate. With that said, I have refrained from reviewing Hong Kong films which most of my cinema roots stem from in the last few years because no one actually reads them. They just are for my own enjoyment. Seeing as this category has so many other talented writers reviewing the American cinema, I’m probably going to dial it down a notch and do more foreign cinema with a heavier focus on catching up with Hong Kong cinema. I miss it so much and maybe it’ll help introduce something new to those of you who are interesting in international cinema. If not, at least I’ll enjoy it thoroughly myself.

With that said, I’ll still review everything I watch and if you’d like, join me on Letterboxd to see how I rate movies since I don’t share ratings here. My username is TranquilDreams.

BOOKS

I fell short of the Goodreads challenge in 2017 on a technicality. However, I can’t remember if I did change my original goal. I might have done it halfway through the year. Regardless, this year’s Goodreads Reading Challenge is at 25 books. I decided to set it a tad lower because I want to jump back into The Classics Adventures. With that said, I’m picking up right where I left off at the end of 2015.

This year, I’m going to work on:

• Northanger Abbey (to finish the Jane Austen novels)
• Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
• Jules Verne novels
• Anne of Green Gables (hopefully) and/or Emily of New Moon
• Finish reading IT (the break was way too long)

Of course, I’ve grown a profound love for graphic novels and comics along with trying to get some more ebooks off my Kindle. It’ll be a nice mix of stuff but it should be fun. Currently, I have Josie and the Pussycats and a novella to share the review for which will be coming up next before I start the new endeavors.

TV BINGE

TV Binge finally got its own section. I change the structure on how I review these ones with every single series and hopefully this year I’ll settle on a way that I’m happy with. We have more than enough sitting in backlog to get written up: Gilmore Girls Seasons 5 to 7 + A Year in Life, Ultimate Beastmaster Season 2, Stranger Things Season 2 are the priority to wrap up. Aside from that, this year, I’ll try to actually dive more in foreign as well to cover Taiwanese series as well as Hong Kong TV series that I’ve bought for years and never actually got around to watching until this past week off from work.

Of course, for your viewing pleasure, I also have some TV series I want to catch up with:

• Hemlock Grove Season 3 (Final)
• The 100 (catch-up)
• Grey’s Anatomy (catch-up)
• The Vampire Diaries (up to finale)

Some series that I’ve never actually watched and always get told to watch:

• Hannibal
• Supernatural
• Black Mirror

A Series of Unfortuante Events will get its Season 2 on March 30th so I’m pretty excited about that. 3% also has Season 2 coming up this year as well. Lots of stuff to look forward to.

BAKING

Suffice to say that cooking and baking has truly taken a backseat and it was replaced by Goodfood recap which I have a lot of fun sharing with you all. If you ever see a recipe that you like, don’t hesitate to ask me for it. I’d love to share the link with you. If you are a fellow Canadian and have access to the service and want to try it out, I have free meal vouchers that I can send you so you can give it a go. Just drop me a comment or an email with your email and I’ll get that sent over to you.

I’ve been thinking a lot of cooking more and getting back into the baking groove. People say third times the charm, right? So lets do this again. I’m set on getting this project done even if it takes 10 years. We’re doing the Baking Through Disney goal again. If you are new here, you can check out the page HERE. The progress has been nothing short of sad and pathetic. Don’t you worry! I figured out the Fantasia and the Dumbo baking now and I’m  not going to change my mind. I’ll free up time and get the motivation and we’re going to get it done. I’m going to start watching more of the movies so that at least we have the movie reviews going up to see how Disney progressed while I ponder away on making delicious desserts.

MISCELLANEOUS

• Music Obsessions: no change, remains on the first weekend of the month
• Sunday Lists: every other Sunday will have a faves or best to worst list
• Game Warp Podcast: Updates for only featured reviews. I urge you to subscribe to the channel for other reviews or like our Facebook page
• Unboxing: Meowbox is the only one still active on a quarterly basis.

Big Change in Setup: My Weekly Adventures has the biggest change. I’ve pondered for a while about this. I used to post gaming related stuff on the Tranquil Dreams Youtube channel. With my increased love of video editing, I’m planning to revive the channel. I’m still trying to get that movie-related project going however I’m not really happy with the angle I chose so I’ve been thinking about it more. Unboxing only still Meowbox so thats going to be very minimal. With that said, I might start doing some vlogs for the Weekly Adventures. Who knows, the blogs always been about adventure so we’ll see where thats going to go.

Personal Life

This is getting super lengthy! This year’s personal goal:

• Be more organized
• Less procrastination
• Eat Healthier & Get back into a workout regime

That’s what’s up for 2018!
Some vague goals but I’m keeping things attainable!
What do you think? What are your goals/resolutions (if its your thing)?

We’re 5!

Can you believe 5 years went by already?

So much has changed in my life from when I first started blogging till today.  There are days I think, “Maybe its time I go do something else”, but then, I just love blogging and all of you lovely awesome friends that I’ve met here.  Its a journey all on its own.  If anything, I’ve learned a lot from this experience and it has been an amazing and awesome one!

The New Year’s was just two weeks ago so I’ve pretty much done all the announcements that I need. You can go check it out HERE! Pretty much everything is staying the same.  Except last year was highly unproductive in meeting any of my goals from long-term projects like Baking Through Disney and The Classics Adventure, even my Reading Challenge was one short and lets not even talk about the PopSugar Reading Challenge that I totally forgot about.  I’m not perfect and that’s okay.  A lot of things happened last year and while not much happened, a lot also did happen.  I’m trying to be more involved and this year, I’m trying to comment more.  I’m still working super hard on catching up with all of your posts. Its a work in progress but one that I try to take my time to do as much as I can.

However, this post was supposed to be a vlog (like I say every year).  Five years is a milestone.  One that I’m extremely proud of.  The versatility and diversity of the content has really grown from that first year when I was writing in my little corner and struggling to write up one post a week to now where I try to get on average on post a day and finally learned how to plan in advance and be more organized.  All very great accomplishments that are useful not only for here but for my life in general.

Tranquil Dreams has always been about staying positive and experiencing new things, trying something different and all that lovely stuff.  Its about living life and even though, I go through surges of talking about movie, I’m working hard this year to balance out the things I enjoy and talk about that.  The last two years have been a little crazy with adapting to being a new homeowner (and the renovations) and then wedding planning and getting back energy after the big day.  Its all done and things have settled down so I’m ready to take on this year heading into Year 6 with much more energy and many more fun things that I plan on doing.

I was trying to get something special regarding upcoming changes for this post but after some debate, I’m giving it a little more thought so I’ll do another reveal soon.  I want to really take my time in making sure that its going to be exactly how I like it.  For now, its a secret 😉

I never really know how to approach these blogiversary posts. What I really do want to say in short (since this is already kind of long) is that…

THANK YOU! Thank you so much for being here, stopping by and doing everything you do.  I appreciate it so so much! Meeting new bloggers, making friends, joining in to blogathons, being a part of The Random Chat Show and That Moment In, etc: its all a great experience and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.  If anything, I’m working hard to make here better every single day! 🙂

Thank you again and stay awesome! 🙂

My Weekly Adventures: New Year’s Special (2015 Recap & 2016 Goals!)

My goodness, 2015 went by in a flash! So many things happened and most of it was pretty awesome!

Let’s start with some 2015 recaps and the last half month of stuff.  Then we’ll wrap up with 2016 goals, okay? Sounds like a plan!

End of Year Things: Christmas Party, Boxing Day Finds, Snowstorm & New Year’s Eve

Christmas Eve party with the family was crazy fun.  We hosted for the first year and I went into a frenzy about the house not being clean enough and now having the turkey defrost in time but we found backup for everything and it ended up working out and

Boxing Day finds at Walmart & Best Buy (waiting for a few more movies/games coming in from Amazon)

Boxing Day Finds at Adidas and Nike

Walmart Online order for Kitchenaid Ultra Power Standing Mixer

Dynamite Sweater and Pants (Online order arrived rather efficiently so I tried it out and took an awkward selfie)

Snowstorm

New Year’s Eve and Jenga with Friends

2015 RECAP

2015 was kind of a half-half deal.  For the blog, my main goals and projects didn’t exactly work out as I planned but my overall views have averaged higher than the previous year which makes me quite happy.  Jumping into the 4th year of blogging, I’ve finally found how I want Tranquil Dreams to be positioned and what content I want to write about.  As much as versatility seems overbearing and crazy, I really do enjoy every bit of it.

• Baking Through Disney Project: Only one movie was done completely (kind of a fail but I did add a side project of watching adaptations when available)
• The Classics Project: It went pretty good.  Currently, I’m reading the second last novel of Jane Austen.  These are more time-consuming than I initially imagined but I’m continuing right along.
• New segment: Netflix A-Z was added on.  We got one round completed with much success.  I felt great that a lot of you not only commented about the movie and even joined in to guess what the next movie would me, sometimes opening my eyes to movies that sounded completely out of the world weird.
• Joining That Moment In: Its one thing to own a blog but its another to be part of someone else’s.  That Moment In is a great blogging family for me.  I love being part of The Random Chat Show with my awesome co-hosts Melissa and David and chatting up all sorts of randomness, even when we debate and argue over our different views. As for writing, I’m loving getting back into playing video games and writing about them. I may  not be a skilled gamer but I always have tons of fun.

On a personal life level, my weekly adventures expanded with:

• Getting married in October
• Visiting different festivals in Montreal: Fantasia Film Festival, MTL a Table, Sherbrooke met la table
• Vacation and first time cruise experience on the Norwegian going to Alaska and sightseeing in Seattle
• Falling in love with Zumba (I probably didn’t elaborate on this one too much) & getting running into my summer workouts

If you do want an overview of this year, you can check out the WordPress annual report HERE!

An general look of the how many of each categories I’ve posted about for the last few years:

• 103  novels and short stories reviews
• 510 movies (and maybe short films) reviews
• 129 recipes

Personally, the goals I set out for this year kind of did flop but a lot of things did happen.  I’m a lot closer to where I need to be in the final Practical Piano exam except the curriculum changed and now the technical bits have caused a little problem, making the theory part also a little change to my original plans.

2016 GOALS

This year, we’re taking things kind of the same but a little different. Since last year was really about finding my footing and getting a sort of routine going, I think we’re ready for some stable and organized posts going up for once in almost 5 years. I do have a few personal goals I need to get out of the way so I’m still working out how to maybe get something like that here, if not, it’ll all be about getting things done in advance to make time for it.

Let’s get down to 2016 business!

• Netflix A-Z: As usual, its appearance will be on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  The only interruptions is on themed months and other events going on. It all depends if there are fitting movies that match up with it.  I don’t think there will be an interruption for February’s Valentine’s Day since romantic comedies are abundant. If you do have any suggestions, do tell me what Netflix movies, you’d like me to review.  Keep in mind, I am in Canada so I have far fewer choices than the US selection.
• TV Binge: A much more sporadic series but I do love TV in between a lot of busy  movie seasons.  I have one coming up and this next year, I’m not going to be too ambitious but I’d like to see Hemlock Grove Season 3, From Dusk Till Dawn Season 2, Criminal Minds Season 8 & 9, Once Upon a Time Season 4, Jessica Jones, Daredevil just for starters.  That looks doable. Of course, I also follow The 100 and the new season is sometime in January if I’m not mistaken.
• Baking Through Disney: The goal is one movie and baking a month.  I can’t guarantee it but I’m hoping we’ll get through 12 movies in the Disney Classics list this year. To boost the confidence level, I already have the next one, Pinocchio watched and I have a pretty cool baking idea set. Just a few details I’m deciding on to actually get down to business after the holiday season.
• Marathons: All the themed marathons are staying except I’ll try to have more scattered and not just movies.  I’ll try.  For Valentine’s Day, I have acquired the latest two movies for Nicholas Sparks to continue on that journey, among other choices which I’m deciding on. Halloween should be either Hellraiser or Final Destination themed series.  But then, I have a vague memory of promising someone here that I’d do Scream so that is going to happen except I need to find the 4th film. If thats the case, I’ll go with the Final Destination series just to have a reasonable amount of time. I’ll decide when it gets closer. As for Christmas/holidays, its getting harder and harder to find Christmas movies so I’m thinking up a twist for it 😉
• Books & The Classics Project: This year, I’m not going to do a Reading Challenge.  For one, I’m planning to contribute more to That Moment In so I want to get back into gaming a little especially since we did get a PS4 and there are some decent games coming out this year that I’m excited to play. However, the focus from now on will be on books that will be adapted into films and indie books.  But, don’t be fooled, I am not giving up The Classics Project.  I’m currently finishing up Persuasion and have one more to go before I finish that up.  You can see the updated list of classics I plan to read for next year.
• My Weekly Adventures, Music Obsessions and Pinterest Therapy: These are my more personal segments.  I keep them around because they are fun to put together and really less thought heavy. It shines a little on who I am.  Music Obsessions and Pinterest Therapy are a monthly segment for the most part and My Weekly Adventures has dropped to being a biweekly event.  I did add on a seasonal Montreal events segment and I might just continue to do that.  Winter hasn’t gone up yet but I might see if I can work it in the schedule.

There you have it! That’s 2016 for you.  My brain thinks about the blog all the time and how to improve it and make it more me.

What has me curious is what segments do you drop by here to read? Is there anything you’d like me to incorporate in these topics? Feel free to share your opinions.  I do a lot here but its rather scattered and recommendations are always appreciated.

Overall, 2016 looks like its going to be a great year!

*VIRTUAL HUGS* FOR EVERYONE!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, MY LOVELIES~!!! 🙂 

The Past Week/end & a little more!

**If you aren’t interested in reading my week’s adventures, please scroll to the bottom and I need a little help with something! Thanks!**

That title makes it sound loaded, right? Thats because my brain is slightly at that capacity.  I’ll try my best to keep it more pictures and less words 😉

Before I forgot everything, I just wanted to get it all out for the past week, weekend fun and some goals for the next week.

The last week, it was a scramble with the top priority of getting my new plants and seedlings into bigger pots to make sure they survived my leaving for the weekend for the Ottawa trip. At the same time, I did some weeding before, I think I talked about it and found some garden pests in the form of white grubs. We managed to get some Grub Control and hopefully it’ll go away but generally speaking, plans have taken a course of change and I will be fully engage in container gardening. With that said, I separated Starry Traveler from her newlywed husband for two consecutive evenings and went shopping then planted what we could.

1) PLANTING/GARDENING

Wednesday night resulted in this:

The first few were the most urgent and those included the ginger mint companioned with tomato plant (big red pot on far left), Ground Cherry plant (upper small red pot), Lemon Thyme (middle stainless steel pot), Crimson Star (lower blue pot) and the big brown one was prepared for the next day’s planting.

After the second day of planting

After the second day of planting, we now have the brown pot occupied with the assorted lettuce, we also potted the zucchini with some chamomile (small beige pot on the right), second tomato plant and lemon verbena in stainless steel pots, Starry Traveler’s raspberry plant in the fancy brown pot on the far left. The only plants left to be potted are the strawberry, Stevia, squash and broccoli along with a bunch of herb sprouts.  I will tend to those this week.

2) NAUGHTY CAT MISADVENTURES

On top of the crazy week, I came home on Tuesday to find that my cat had threw up on my bed cover and I observed a rubber band.  She threw up the whole piece from what I deciphered and had to go into monitor for her and gave her food in intervals at small portions to make sure she was digesting good.

As she slept in my lap at night, I kept leaning over to listen to make sure she was breathing okay with no funny breathing difficulty sounds. Stressful, I tell you!

3) RAINBOW AFTER THE RAIN

Nature’s reminder that even when everything doesn’t quite work out, there’s always the little joys in life that show up and just make the day a little bit better.  Thats what this rainbow was for me 🙂

4) OTTAWA WEEKEND

My friend and I left on Friday after work and we were entered into a looming dark cloud that caused this to happen.

Mega heavy rain and wind

The car was literally shaking from the rain and wind. It was pretty intense. Imagine the joy when we saw this:

Saturday morning, we were up and moving at 9am to get the race kit for my friend and the line up at 8:45 was ridiculous.

Lineup for the race kit

Luckily, the management of it all was very good so everything flowed wonderfully and it took us very little time to get everything and they even had a sports expo at the end.

Confederation Park

Breakfast at Eggspectations

Evening on Rideau Canal and Parliament Building

Waiting for marathon to start

Firefighter’s Memorial

Moving to the starting line

Daytime view of Rideau Canal

The last 5k for the runners both full and half marathon.

Nice weather, new experience and I met an awesome fellow blogger (you can read about it HERE).  The only part (not sure if its good or bad) is that my friend had an eureka moment and decided that for my (not so great) birthday gift he was going to sponsor me to join the 10K next year.  However, before we go to next year, my friend managed to run most of the 21.1 km and walked the last 5 but still came in 5 mins less than the max time he had aimed to be his max.  The energy at the marathon whether it was the runners or the spectators made for a very awesome environment.

5) MOVIE/MUSIC OBSESSIONS

Whats a mega post without telling you about my obsessions.  I’ve been totally watching repeatedly Dirty Dancing. You can see my review HERE.

And I’ve been listening to Montreal-based electro funk duo Chromeo’s song: Jealous (I Ain’t With It) on repeat.

6) Upcoming and Goals!

If you made it this far, congrats! You finally got to the somewhat more awesome part.

This weekend, I will have a special announcement.  Before that happens, I’m working on a few projects that will be announced then once I make up my mind with little details.

This week, I do have a few goals:

• Finish reading The Casual Vacancy (which has been occupying my life a tad too long and I’m a bit fed up…those 150 pages look like 1000 pages right now)
• Start preparing to edit my Nanowrimo novel
• Use my whipped cream and make something absolutely delicious
• Start being more organized with both blog posts
• Restarting my training schedule after stopping for about 3 weeks…

On top of that, my summer is looking quite full with a few events looking in the form like this:

• Tree Adventures
• Cirque du Soleil show
• Tarantino Music Concert
• Fantasia Film Fest

Unfortunately this year, I will most probably be skipping the TIFF.  The chances are pretty high that I will make that choice because of financial and timing problems/prior commitments.

7) A Little Help Please!

So just one more thing before I let you go!

I have a bunch of movies expiring on Netflix on June 1st. There is no way that I’m going to be able to see them all so maybe you can help me choose? 🙂

• A Single Man (2009)
• Beyond Borders (2003)
• Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010)
• New York I Love You (2009)
• The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011)

And thats the end of this seemingly long post!

Have you been to Ottawa? Have you ever ran a marathon? What are your summer plans? Which movies in that list would you suggest for me to watch? Any suggestions for what dessert to make with my heavy cream?