Sunday Spotlights 22: Refresh — A Sustainable Website, New Goals, & Exciting Things I Get To Do!

I’m Back From My Accidental Hiatus

I accidentally went on hiatus this summer. Thank you for your patience with my return to blogging. I had to unexpectedly pause because of an exciting opportunity. Aka the first “refresh” I’m talking about in this post. At the end of Spring, I received a grant from The Nature Museum to transition my website and blog to be sustainable. I wrote all about that process and what it means, in this post.

My Website Is Now Sustainable

As a result of greening my website (making it sustainable/ more eco-friendly), I wasn’t able to add new blog posts until it was finished or else this would have messed up the content transfer process and some other design and content updates on various pages.

Now, as you read this post 0.00 grams of C02 are produced! And, this website is powered by renewable energy as opposed to what it was before — non-renewable energy (fossil fuels)—which isn’t great for the environment.

Read: My Journey To An Eco-Friendly Website

What’s Coming Up On The Blog?

You might have already spotted it on the homepage, but I’ll be writing about my experience becoming a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shaper community and the Chicago hub’s Communications Co-Chair! I’m also elated because the Sustainable Fashion Week Chicago hub’s website that I built (also powered by renewable energy) is live. And so is the news that I’m the Chairwoman! As I continue blogging, the stories of how those opportunities originated, will be shared!

New Goals

I finished nearly all of my Spring goals and have started on these Summer goals. I also created this new categories page, which groups together all of the posts I have on challenges and goals.

Book Club & Reading More

My book club is back and we decided to up our books per month. Now, we read and discuss two at each meeting! This has been really exciting. I love having two books per month that I’m reading with my friend and that we can chat about. It feels so special and it’s one of my favorite parts of the month. We’re currently reading My Magnolia Summer and Hook, Line, and Sinker.

Author/ Book Events

Grace and I went to a local author/ book event a few weeks ago and it was fantastic. I shared more in this TikTok. I’m going to one more author event this month. Eeek, I can’t wait to share more next Sunday evening with you.

Preparing For This Week:

This week I’m focusing on creating space to live a soft life. A slow, soft, and gentle life is what I’m building for myself. This summer has been so busy and loud. While it’s been enjoyable, I haven’t created as much space for softness as I want to. And so, this week, I’ll be focusing on that!

Read more about the “Soft Life” and how it originated from Nigerian influencers, here!

How I Will Live A Soft Life This Week:

• Go on at least one slow morning walk before breakfast
• Wake up at 6 am at least one day this week, so I can go through an extra long morning routine without checking the clock
• RSVP no to the new invite I received and spend the night reading at home, instead

Last Week’s Favorites:

Now, for your dose of entertainment. Continue reading for recommendations!

What I’m Watching:

This week I watched two new Hallmark Channel movies. I loved them both.

Falling In Love In Niagara:

“After her fiancé leaves her before their wedding, Madeline goes to Niagara Falls to honeymoon without him. There, she reconnects with her adventurous side, learns to let go, and finds new love.” Stream on Prime Video.

Love In The Maldives

“A travel writer goes to the Maldives and hears about a legendary shipwreck. With the help of her underwater resort’s guest experience expert, she might discover love instead of a buried treasure.” Steam on Prime Video.

What I’m Reading:

I finished reading The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston and I absolutely loved it. I wish I could re-read it for the first time all over again. It was funny, well-developed, and exactly what I needed. It felt so real but wasn’t too heavy. The magical element was cute and added such a great touch to this book! I highly recommend reading this.

I’m currently reading My Magnolia Summer By Victoria Benton Frank. So far so good!

The Dead Romantics By Ashley Poston

“Florence Day is the ghostwriter for one of the most prolific romance authors in the industry, and she has a problem–after a terrible breakup, she no longer believes in love. It’s as good as dead. When her new editor, a too-handsome mountain of a man, won’t give her an extension on her book deadline, Florence prepares to kiss her career goodbye.

But then she gets a phone call she never wanted to receive, and she must return home for the first time in a decade to help her family bury her beloved father. 

For ten years, she’s run from the town that never understood her, and even though she misses the sound of a warm Southern night and her eccentric, loving family and their funeral parlor, she can’t bring herself to stay. Even with her father gone, it feels like nothing in this town has changed. And she hates it. Until she finds a ghost standing at the funeral parlor’s front door, just as broad and infuriatingly handsome as ever, and he’s just as confused about why he’s there as she is. Romance is most certainly dead… but so is her new editor, and his unfinished business will have her second-guessing everything she’s ever known about love stories.”

My Magnolia Summer By Victoria Benton Frank

“In New York City winter never seems to loosen its hold and for South Carolina transplant Maggie (born Magnolia after the fairest summer flower ), the balmy beach weather of April back home on Sullivan’s Island feels like a distant memory. Until a phone call from her sister, Violet, changes everything.

Gran, the treasured matriarch, has fallen into a coma after a car accident caused by Maggie’s troubled mother, Lily. But once Maggie returns, she finds that her hometown of Sullivan’s Island holds even more secrets. The Magic Lantern, the restaurant owned and run by generations of women in her family, is now rudderless, and her sister seems headed for a savage breakup.

Once she is between the marsh grasses and dunes of South Carolina, she feels herself changing like the Atlantic tides, rediscovering the roots she left behind, and a new and different version of herself–one who can see how a minor crash into the back of a very handsome farmer’s truck may become fortunate. Or perhaps it’s even… fate? When the three generations of South Carolina women join forces–the family pillar Gran, troubled Lily, impulsive Violet, and redoubtable Maggie–anything is possible. With stunning descriptions of the magic of the Lowcountry, this novel will transport you to a world of treasured family traditions and unexpected twists of fate.”

What I’m Listening To:

I’m still streaming The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology. My Classical Taylor Swift playlist has been on repeat, too.

You Might Like:

• How To Get & Read Books For Free (Legally)
• I Challenged Myself To Live Sustainably For One Month – Here’s How It Went

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