What I Currently Love (July 2015)

I did one of these posts earlier this month after being inspired by Erica Crouch's post on her blog. Since we're near the end of July and creeping ever closer to August (seriously, how is it almost August?), I thought I'd do another and tell you guys what I've been loving over the last few weeks.


ONE SHOW

How did I not get into Grimm sooner? It's pretty much everything I love in a show; there's the fairy tale/supernatural element meets the real world aspect, all wrapped up in a detective cop format. I pitched it to my friend Kel from #RoyalWriters as Once Upon A Time meets Buffy The Vampire Slayer. I've worked my way through the first two seasons on Netflix and am about to start the third. It's one of the major contributing factors of my NaNo problems in the last week or so (check out my confessional post here) but I regret nothing. It's just too wonderful. And Monroe? Only the coolest character ever, man. I love his bromance with Nick - it really makes the show.





TWO ALBUMS

This is kind of a cheat because it's two albums...by the same band. It wasn't until Erin Bowman told the Vengeance Road posse about the book soundtrack, that I started listening to The Civil Wars again. I love this band, they're one of my faves, but it took hearing Barton Hollow blasting out of my computer as I wrote the soundtrack post to reawaken my urge to listen to them. 

I've been walking a lot lately, playing both Barton Hollow and their self titled album. I can't really describe their sound. Part country, part western, part indie, part soulful crooning...I really don't know. All I know is I love them.



THREE PLACES

1. Lough Callow is a local fishing lake (Lough being Gaelic for 'lake') about a twenty to thirty minute walk from my parents house. It's not massive, but it is fairly peaceful there. It's nice to go out onto a jetty and just watch the water.

2. Boston, Massachusetts isn't a place I've been but I've been obsessed with it as long as I can remember. RED SOX ALL THE WAY. Ever since Dana, Steph and I looked into possibly setting our winter romance stories there, I've been doing a lot of research on it and it's making me fall in love. I definitely have to go one day!

3. And I kind of already mentioned this, but Grimm is set in Portland, Oregon and the more I watch the show, the more I love it. It's got this really gloomy, woodsy aesthetic that works so well for a show like Grimm. It reminds me a little of what I think Stephanie Meyer was going for with Forks in Twilight. But way better.

FOUR BOOKS

It's crazy that as a book nerd and this being a book blog I haven't mentioned books yet in my WICL posts. Admittedly, this is only the second but I need to rectify that immediately!


One of the August Square In Wonderland book club picks this month was Vampire Academy. Dana has been on at me to start this (especially since it's set in a boarding school and I LOVE that sort of this), and I devoured the first book in a day. It's a fun series - looking forward to the rest. And can I just say...DIMITRI FEELS.


I was approved to read An Inheritance Of Ashes by Leah Bobet and I couldn't resist starting it even though it's not coming up for a while in my review queue. The concept was so intriguing! And HELLO PWETTY COVER.


I got my hands on Vengeance Road (finally!!!) and I love the vibes of this book. Again, the cover is gorgeous. I have to totally appreciate the artwork because I haven't seen anything like this before. Goes hand in hand with my revival of my The Civil Wars love *twanging guitars and crooning*


Rereading Red Queen on the side because of all the Glass Sword hype and I forgot how much I liked about this book and also how much I'd forgotten. I so so hope it gets made into a movie because this combination of Game of Thrones meets Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters is excellent. I'd give my hands to play Mare...or my sister's ahahahaha (sorry, too soon)


FIVE FOODS

1. I've been hearing about sriracha for months on the Food Network (thank you, Snapchat Discover) and I will probably put it on anything right now. All of the noms.

2. As you're probably aware from the posts I write, I love to cook and bake. But we have some pretty specific dietary requirements in our family; my sister is a coeliac and I'm allergic to dairy. I end up having to make three lots of cupcakes when I'm baking, which is fine, but time consuming and uses a lot of ingredients (have I ever mentioned that there are ten of us living together when I'm home?). If I can find a recipe that not only caters for all of us but is delicious - which is the tricky part with food that doesn't include yummy things like butter and flour - I'm gonna pounce on it. The best one I have right now is the Lily Pebbles Brookie recipe. Chewy like brownie, crispy like cookies, tasty and no one is getting sick from eating flour or dairy? It's a winner in our house.

3. SALSA. I was making fajitas one night and we didn't have any salsa, which as you know, is very important to the fajita combination. So I looked up a couple recipes, decided what parts to take away from them and whizzed up my own. Without blowing my own trumpet, it's pretty good and goes so so well with some salty tortilla chips. I can't wait to make it from my friends when I get back. PLUS, it was made with some onion and garlic grown by the super nice doctor across the road, so it was uber fresh!

4. I cited these as one of my writing foods in the writing life post I did recently, but seriously, sour fizzy laces just rock my world. The local cinema has a Candy King pick-and-mix bar and you can bet I'm just stacking it with sour fizzy wheels and tubes.

5. OKAY THIS IS A BORING ONE. My mum has always been health conscious and looked out for natural ways to cure things or treat illnesses (within reason, of course). One food I often use in cooking is apple cider vinegar but I've recently started drinking a glass of water every morning with a tablespoon of ACV in it. The health benefits are endless, so I won't list them all here, but it's definitely helping.

What are you guys currently obsessed with? Should I be obsessed with it too? Tell me why below!



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