Hello hello, welcome to Episode 89 and Season Four of Life On the Brink!
Summertime is always so full of possibilities. The earth is bringing forth new flowers and fruits every week, the sun makes the days ever longer, and I always find that there’s a nice kind of relaxation that comes with summer. The pressure is off, so let’s enjoy each day to the fullest.
To that end, in today’s episode I’m sharing a few “bucket list” items for this summer, as well as my summer reading list. I’m also bringing back my Summer Reading Challenge and I invite you to join me!
*Please note: the audio gets a little wonky around the 13 minute mark, but only lasts about 2.5 minutes. Sorry about that!
In this episode I'm sharing:
-my top three Summer Bucket List items
-new house updates
-all the books on my summer TBR
-how you can join me for this year's Reading Challenge!
Plus, I'm sharing a Little Joy from my vacation last week, as well as a very summery album that's perfect for the beach or pool.
For the complete show notes, click here!
For full transcript, click here!
Site: lifeonthebrink.live
Social: @anna_on_the_keys
Hello hello, welcome to Episode 89 and Season Four of Life On the Brink!
Summertime is always so full of possibilities. The earth is bringing forth new flowers and fruits every week, the sun makes the days ever longer, and I always find that there’s a nice kind of relaxation that comes with summer. The pressure is off, so let’s enjoy each day to the fullest.
To that end, in today’s episode I’m sharing a few “bucket list” items for this summer, as well as my summer reading list. I’m also bringing back my Summer Reading Challenge and I invite you to join me!
*Please note: the audio gets a little wonky around the 13 minute mark, but only lasts about 2.5 minutes. Sorry about that!
In this episode I'm sharing:
-my top three Summer Bucket List items
-new house updates
-all the books on my summer TBR
-how you can join me for this year's Reading Challenge!
Plus, I'm sharing a Little Joy from my vacation last week, as well as a very summery album that's perfect for the beach or pool.
For the complete show notes, click here!
For full transcript, click here!
Site: lifeonthebrink.live
Social: @anna_on_the_keys
Welcome to Life on the brink, a lovely little place filled with inspiration and creativity that is dedicated to enjoying life one day at a time. I'm Ana. And together, we're exploring the beautiful things in this world that fascinate us, and often discovering something new. Hello, hello, welcome to episode 89 of life on the brink. And welcome to season four. Yes, it's now been three whole years since I started this podcast back in 2020. So we are now beginning season four and very excited about it. I'm glad to be back. It's been a little over a month since I've made an episode. So thank you for your patience and for your kind words in the absence. I know that there's quite an archive of episodes now, which makes me happy knowing that there's stuff to listen to even when I'm gone. But quick recap. In the past month, I have turned 27. That's exciting. If anyone is a fan of the 2005 Pride and Prejudice like me, you'll know that it's an iconic time to say I'm 27 years old. That's how I feel every day. And I celebrated with a little tea party at my new house with some friends. And even though it rained, it was lovely. Then the month of May was pretty chaotic, not gonna lie kind of stressful. On the teaching front, it was the end of the school year for me. And then right during the last week of school, I got sick with something that affected my throat more than anything else. And that was rough. But I got over it got some good antibiotics and finished up the school year. And then the last week of the month, I was at a beach house in the Outer Banks with my family. It was sort of our like a family vacation. But rather than go somewhere new or have a trip or plan or itinerary, we said let's just go in on a beach house and have no plan, which worked out very well. For us. It was definitely a very relaxing way to end, what was a very crazy time, busy time and usher in what I am now considering summer, I know that it's not officially summer until you know a few weeks from now. And even as I record this, it's pretty rainy and gray. But nonetheless, it's a state of mind. And today we're gonna get into that state of mind that vibe. We're welcoming summer with a few different things. I'm sharing my top three items on my summer bucket list. And I am also bringing back the Summer Reading Challenge. If you have been listening since last summer, then it will be familiar to you but I will recap it a little bit. So before we get into this episode, feel free to make yourself a cup of tea, or coffee. I've been officially getting into the cold brew game again, I started last summer and it was great. So I personally am drinking today a nice warm cup of the Paris blend by Harney and Sons. It's back to basics with Ina garden because I go back to this tea time and time again. But it's good. Either way, let's settle into this. We're going to plan some very fun things for the summer. Summertime is always so full of possibilities. The earth is bringing forth new flowers and new fruits every week, the sun makes the days even longer. And I always find that there's a really nice kind of relaxation that comes with summer, whether or not you are in an academic school year or not, because the pressure is off. So let's enjoy each day to the fullest. And to that end, I would like to enter the summer bucket list. I know that that might seem a little counterintuitive say well the pressures off Why am I going to make myself a to do list. But here's the rationale. It basically forces you to have fun and to enjoy life seasonally. So if you have a free weekend or an evening where there's nothing going on and you're not sure how to spend it, then you can take a look at your bucket list and welcome some fun seasonal things or it's also a really nice way to keep you on track with some long term goals. But you know, keeping them very light I bring that part in because a lot of mine are going to be in that category. Um I'm going to make a seasonal list with Josh, we were brainstorming a little bit, he wants to make some jello shooters because we've never done that before. And I think we're gonna have a little party or something in the summer to just celebrate the backyard and the house and whatnot. So we will include fun things like that, and very summery things like going to the pool in our new neighborhood, etc. But if you don't check off every item of your bucket list, that's okay. It's just an eye a way to get ideas going to actually think about what you enjoy about the summer season. And that's going to be different for everyone. And then you can just set aside time or when the opportunity arises, you've got ideas ready to go. And if you'd like to hear a little bit more about goal setting, and the sort of bucket list ideas, feel free to check out Episode 20, I'm going to leave a link in the show notes. And that's that episode is called setting goals for enjoying life and reflections on success. So, with that, I'm just going to share my top three items basically, on my bucket list, and they're all house related Surprise, surprise, in case you are new here, I just moved into my first house with my husband, Josh, we were in an apartment for a few years, but we've just bought a house and we moved in in February. So it's been almost four months. Wow. And we've basically we're entering phase two of renovation. So number one on my bucket list is to finish our new office renovation. Over the past couple of months, I've slowly been painting and wallpapering. And prepping this room. It's the biggest one of the second floor and it's going to be a joint office. For both of us. It's where the computers will live and all the craft supplies. And basically most of our unpacked, good stuff that's still in boxes are gonna go in this room. So currently, the second floor is an absolute. It's a mess, and complete that. But this room is going to house most of that stuff. So the carpets been ripped up. And now we're going to replace the flooring, we've got some laminate, wood laminate, that is going to match the bedroom that's downstairs, and then I'm going to move everything in and organize and I'm excited about it, I can't wait to work in a designated space. Again, I've been doing a lot of work at the dining room table, which is just not great long term. But I have a lot of things to hang on the walls, and it's going to be really cozy and bright. And I've incorporated a bit of yellow into that room. So it's exciting. And I think now that some things have been taken off of our plates for both of us that this summer, we're going to be able to really throw some time into into that room to hopefully wrap it up by you know, maybe next school year, so I have a place to work. bucket list item number two in the renovation spirit is to refresh the walls and cabinets in our kitchen. So I have a longer term kitchen idea. It's not a hardcore renovation because we're not really going to get anything or rip anything out. But I have plans to do a 10 tile ceiling, which is going to be a an interesting project. And it's really going to bring in that French bistro feel that I'm going for in the kitchen. But I can at least do some painting on some of the walls and I am going to go for a sort of a wallpaper backsplash and looks like tile but it's not actual tile just because I've never tiled before. I'm gonna go with this first so I will be updating on the blog with all of these rooms. Don't worry about it. But there's still a lot of decisions to be made about the kitchen but I just want to get some stuff going. I'm not sure whether I'm going to paint the cabinets. But it's a beautiful space but it doesn't feel like us yet. So that is more a project for me as I'm just figuring out what which direction to go in for for the kitchen. And then finally, number three. This one is fun and it's something that I really have been wanting to do and that is to host my first dinner party in the new house. We finally have a dining room that can see more than four people. We have a table that now seat six and I love our dining set. I have to resend the table because it's got a lot of like heat warping, but if you put a tablecloth no one can tell and so on My plan is to host my parents and my in laws. So that makes six of us. And I have a menu all picked out, I think I think I'm gonna go with some Thai food because we all love that. And mostly it's because when I was at a secondhand shop, I found this. How can I describe it, if you've ever been to a Thai restaurant, you may be familiar with like a little caddy of spicy sauces that some of them have. And this is like a sort of rotating trio of jars that are on this really beautiful base, but everything's made of wood. And it's carved wood. And each of the three bowls have their own little wooden spoon. It's very cool, and very unique. And as soon as I saw it, I thought, Oh, that looks like we stopped at the Thai restaurants. So I'm working on a menu that will be at least three courses that will incorporate some of my favorite Thai inspired dishes. And I just really can't wait to have a real dinner party and set the table and like candles and do that sort of thing. I'm on the hunt for candlesticks as well. That's going to happen this summer, I've been putting it off just because there's been a lot of stuff going on. But I really want to make it happen. So those are my top three items. And so they're going to be different for you, of course, but I encourage you to look at the summer season, look at your schedule. And think about the special moments that you remember about summertime. I am going to link a few more episodes of this podcast in which I have lots of summer bucket list ideas. I'll talk about them at the end of this episode as well. But it's just a really fun way to expect magic in your season. Alrighty, moving on, let's talk about books. Yes. So last year, I brought forward my Summer Reading Challenge, which is basically based off of the Barnes and Noble reading challenge for kids, they still do it. And I did it as a kid like every year in which you basically read five books, and you sign off on it, or the someone who works at Barnes and Noble will sign your paper. And then you get to pick a free book from a particular selection. I ate this up as a kid because I was reading so much anyway. And it was a nice little reward for using your brain over the summer. So last year, I made my own, I even have a printable that I've made that you can download at the show notes on the blog post. And I went with five books as my goal last year. And when I read those five books, I took myself to Barnes and Noble. And I was gonna get a book actually ended up getting two books though, because they were in a buy one get one section. So again, it's a very light hearted goal, you can make the the number of books as small or large as you want. And I recommend to to go small. And then you can treat yourself for reading and you get another book, which you can then read. I talked a lot about this on episode 57. Last summer, so feel free to check that one out. I'm going to link that as well. So in case you would like to join me so now I'm going to share the books that are on my personal list to read this summer. Number one happy place by Emily Henry. This is her newest book, it came out only like a month ago. And I'm already I'm probably like 60 70% through it. I started it at the beach. And it was great. So I feel like it's just a it's her books are made for summer, I think and I think that is why it was released when it was. So that's step one on my list. I'm probably going to finish it in the next couple of days. And then I also took out two different library books before I went on this vacation, but I didn't get to them. So they're coming up next. One of them is Daisy Jones and the six by Taylor Jenkins read this isn't new. But the movie adaptation of this book did recently come out. I'm interested I'm going to read the book first. I don't know anything about it, except that it has to do with a band. And I'm going into it kind of blind on purpose. I read the seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Malibu rising last year last summer. I mentioned it at the end of my summer recap that I actually enjoyed Malibu rising more hot take. And that was a great summer book. So I feel like she's really good at writing sort of semi tragic, flawed care. character, fame, she writes about fame very well. And I think it's going to be really good summer vibe. I don't know if it's set in the past or if it's contemporary, not sure. But I have high hopes. So that one's on my list along with a newer release that everyone is very excited about all over the place. And that is tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevon. What I know about this book, again, I'm trying not to spoil anything for myself, but it has to do with two people and they're designing video games, or they are designing a video game, or something like that. And it spanned several decades, I think it's going to be fun, because Josh is also interested in reading it. And I like it when we read the same books, and we can talk about them. And everyone who I have seen or talked to who's read this book, really loved it. So I think it's going to be fun. I'll probably learn something about video games. And, yeah, both of those books, by the way, especially tomorrow, and tomorrow and tomorrow are big boys. They are long. So we'll see how long it takes, I might read some shorter ones simultaneously. Next up on my list is a nonfiction book that I've had for a while and it's the perfect time to read it. And I probably will see maybe I'll make an episode out of it later. But it's called Home Sweet may zone, the French art of making a home by Danielle postale. Vinay, this was given to me by my cousin, hi, Isaiah, if you're listening, I know he listens. And I have held on to it, it got packed away in when we were moving. And I knew that it was going to help when we were renovating this house, because I'm already trying to I'm enamored by a lot of French influences in the home, both French and like English cottage. And so I'm, I'm at the perfect time to read this book, as I'm choosing things for so many different rooms, and I'm open to making changes, more so than I usually am. So it's not very long. And it's just, it's really beautiful to look at. It's currently a coffee table book for me. But I'm, I'm going to make a point to read that one this summer, probably, you know, alongside one of these longer fiction works. Number five on my list is very random. But it is it's the mag Book Two called the trench. I read the first mag last year, so sort of book club with my family in which we read the book. And then we had a book club meeting slash movie watch party. If you've listened to an episode, where I've mentioned it, I usually refer to it as the shark party. I talked about it with my sister a few episodes back. And it was such a fun time. But it was not a well written book at all. It was definitely my lowest rated book of 2022. That being said, the mag is one of my favorite shark movies. In fact, I think we talk about that on this summer movie night episode. Because as far as shark movies go, you know, it's gonna be a little cheesy, you know, when somebody's gonna get chomped, but it's summer fun. And so, the trench is coming out later this year. And that's the motivation behind this because shark party was so fun last year. So we're gonna do another book clubs slash watch party, not sure how we're going to organize it because it's going to be a theater release. That's exciting. But I am going to end up reading this book. It was a time reading the first one. But it's also nice to read something alongside other people. I think a book club is really fun. So that's going to be on my summer list. Fingers crossed. So that's five books that is probably going to be the five that I make on my reading challenge, but I'm gonna have like an optional one. In case I have more time. And it is the longest book ever of all time. Almost in that would be a quart of silver flames by Sarah J masse. I started reading the Avatar series A Court of Thorns and Roses last year, it was like my spring series. And I feel like I'm in that weird like third party where I didn't hate it but I also didn't love it. I was really tracking and then sometimes certain things will just really take me out of the world. I'm like they said what are they're wearing? What? So I don't know it's not gripped me in the same way. However, I have been thinking about it more lately, and a lot of people say that a quart of silver flames is like the best one or their favorite one. So I'm interested to get back into a little bit of a fantasy world, I think. And it is a very, very long book. But I think it's one that can be, you know, maybe in the background sort of ongoing. I've been reading The Goldfinch since like February. But it's back at the library now, because they were gonna track me down if I didn't return it. So I just keep checking it out periodically, and I keep reading, I have found that I really enjoy a book where I feel like I'm in a different place. There's something really, really special that happens when I feel like a book is immersive enough. And I like being there. Were just thinking about the book feels like happy in my in my heart, maybe that's like serotonin or something. And picking it up, it feels like I'm going somewhere else. I, I really liked that feeling. And so we'll see if a quarter of silver flames will do that. But I know that the Goldfinch consistently does that, because that's just how Donald tartes writing is, when I read The Secret History all through a fall and winter. It was like, just cozy even though the content of that book is somewhat dreadful. I really like when it's atmospheric in that way. So those are my books, that those are six books, and they're going to be my focus for the summer, unless, of course, something shows up. Sometimes you just you're in a bookstore, you're in the library, and you see something and you're like, Ooh, what's that, and it just fits perfectly at that time. I will say, as an update, if you tuned in to Episode 86, back in March, where I listed all of the spring books that I was looking forward to, I did read them all, which is awesome or listened to. And they were lovely. Some were more enjoyable than others, but they were all enjoyable, actually, I really loved them. And I finished the last one on that list while I was at the beach house. So I just went straight into summer straight into Emily Henry. And I feel like summer is a great time for either light reads or like really long action packed reads kind of do ends of the spectrum. Whereas during the spring, I like everything to be more like aesthetically aligned. I want it to be about gardens or about food and magic and all that. But summer can be a bit of a wild card. So if you would like to join join me on this reading challenge journey. Like I said, there's a printable that I've made that you can access for free on the blog post, which is going to be at life on the brink dot live. This is episode 89. But you can also find it on episode 57. Yes, that was last year's episode when I introduced it. So now with that we have a few projects and a lot of books. And I'm hoping that this summer is both productive and relaxing, with no pressure. I'm just really trying, especially in 2023 to take away a lot of expectations. And just enjoy, let things happen. And just take it day by day. And I encourage you to join me especially in summer, let your curiosity guide you. So whether you're enjoying a glass of iced tea, walking a new trail, you're heading to the beach or the pool, enjoying long evenings with friends or just generally losing track of time. This is a magical time of year. And rather than put expectations on it, let's just enjoy it as much as possible. And as promised, I'm going to share a couple of previous episodes that sort of pertain to all this episode 29 is called summertime magic in ways to capture it that is kind of along the same lines as a summer bucket list. Episode 30 was summer movie night with my sisters, Sara and Nina. In case you need ideas and podcast episode 59 was summer morning routines. Those are just a few that I've picked out that I think would be nice accompaniments to this episode. But you can always go to the website life on the brink dot live and just type in the search bar. The blog search bar just type summer and there's a lot of episodes because we love seasonal content here at Life on the brink. So with that, welcome to season four. I'm very excited for it. Thank you for joining me and I'll be right back with this week's little joy this week's little joy wasn't experience. It was while I was on vacation, and it was actually on the last day. It was kind of it ended up being sort of like an impromptu day. eat with me and Josh because we, we were in Duck North Carolina, which is in the Outer Banks. And it's a smaller, small town, beach town, kind of tucked away from the more touristy side of the Outer Banks. And our house was like a 30 ish minute walk to the town. But like a five minute drive. So actually on the last day of our trip, we took a walk, and it was quite chilly. The weather was kind of Blustery and chilly while we were there most of the time. But those okay, we ended up going to this bookstore slash coffee shop. Yes, it was a real thing. I know. That's like dream scenario, bookstore slash coffee shop. And I've been wanting to go there throughout the trip. And so it was the perfect opportunity. We walked into town and we got iced lattes, and we split a cookie. And we're just sitting at one of these tiny little tables tucked into the corner. And then I looked at all of the books. And it's funny because as we were sitting there just talking, I noticed a painting behind me that was of a coffee cup and like a coffee bean. But it was kind of kind of cubist, or I wouldn't I'm not quite sure how to describe the style, but very colorful. And I just took a liking to it. I was like, Oh, I like that painting. And then as I was looking through the books later, I saw they had prints of it. And they even had that design on like tote bags and whatnot. But it was by a local artist, and it says ducks cottage, which is the name of the cafe, on the side of it. And so I got one of those, hopefully it'll hang in our kitchen. At least seasonally because it's a nice reminder, I like having art that is either a memento or souvenir or something so that it can be part of the home, but reminded us of our travels. So maybe this has two little joys one was the experience. And the second is this painting. It's also reinvigorated me to get working on the kitchen, which is good. And then we walked back it was a total like round trip like three and a half miles of walking, which was great because we've done a lot of sitting around in this beach house. And it felt really good. And just walking with Josh and talking turned out to be one of my favorite moments of the trip. So that's my little joy. It was really lovely. And before I go I just want to suggest an album of music to you. This is one that I listened to a little bit while I was on vacation that is really a personification of summertime. That is look for the good by Jason Mraz. This album is a bit different from his previous stuff. He's been making music a long time. But the lyrics are light and uplifting. And it has a very like reggae or ska feel to it, while still very much, Jason Mraz, who by the way, we went to the same elementary school, I'll just throw that out there. I love to bring that up. Whenever I talk about Jason Mraz, we had the same music teacher in second grade. But that's beside the point. It's a good album, look for the good. And I think it would be great for pool or beach day or driving during the summertime. So feel free to give that a listen, I'm going to link that in the show notes as well. And don't forget that on the first Friday of every month, I send out a free monthly newsletter, in which you can stay up to date with all of the podcast episodes, as well as extra blog posts and recipes. And as we're putting the house together, there's going to be sort of before and after renovation specific blog posts. So if you would like to make sure you're up to date with all of that, or you just want some more inspiration, you can sign up for the newsletter at the bottom of any page on the on the website, you just go down to the bottom and on the left, there's a box where you can just sign up with your email. Also, if you have not yet had the chance to I invite you to leave a rating or a star review on Apple podcasts. It means the world to me. And I love to share reviews at the end of podcast episodes as well. And I would like to invite you as we're entering season four now, if you have a thought or a question or an episode idea, I want to hear about it. You can either fill out the contact form that is on the website or send me an email at life on the brink.podcast@gmail.com. I also love to hear where you're listening from when you listen in your routine, and all that sorts of things. So if you have an idea or a question for an episode, please let me know. I love to hear your thoughts and feedback. And yeah, I'm excited for This season, I am going to be traveling a little bit in June. And so you can expect a new episode next week, which is June 8, and then again on June 22. And then finally on June 29. So there's lots of good episodes coming, lots of extra blog posts coming. I'm excited to be back. I'm excited for this summer. And until next week, you have a lovely start to the season. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Life on the brink. If you're enjoying these episodes, please feel free to leave a star rating or even better leave a review on Apple podcasts to help spread the word. For podcast show notes and extra inspirational posts throughout the week. Head to the blog at life on the brink dot live. And if you'd like a little extra dose of inspiration in your life, sign up for the monthly newsletter, which lights up your inbox the first Friday of each month. Thank you so much for listening. And until next time, friends, you have a lovely week. Bye