May 2023 Favorites
May! The month when school ends! How I love that.
It’s officially summer as my kids are out of school for the next two months, and I could not be happier to have them home all the time. We have so many planned outings, but also so many days to lounge around at home and soak up these full days we get to spend together and following whatever whims we want.
It’s warmer outside (okay, no, it’s hot—there’s no denying that fact) and so we’re getting outside to kick around a soccer ball, go for a walk, play with bubbles and sidewalk chalk, swim, or just sit on the porch and enjoy heat and sunlight now that the cooler months have passed.
This month has been busy busy as I’m relaunching my copywriting biz with a new website, plus adding on new Pinterest Management services. The website should be ready to go at the beginning of June, and I’m so excited! (This is why I’ve hardly written a Writer Update Wednesday post this month—I’ve been focused on this major project instead.)
Top articles, podcast episodes, and more that I enjoyed this month:
A $9 mini course on book blurb writing by Stacy Juba — I’m going to write a blog post about this soon where I tell y’all exactly how much this resource has helped me, but for now I just want to mention that Stacy Juba’s Book Blurbs Made Simple is absolutely worth the money. Go check out Book Blurbs Made Simple.
Off the Vine with Kaitlyn Bristowe and guest Hannah Berner — Hannah’s from Summer House, Kaitlyn is from The Bachelor, and together they’re so funny. (Okay, they’re funny apart as well.) I would for sure listen to more episodes of them together, and this episode nearly has me convinced KB and HB should have their own podcast.
Work Less with Workflows Course by Dani Fairhurst at Organise and Grow — This is a phenomenal resource that I’ve used to completely organize my service business (I’m a Copywriter and soon-to-be Pinterest Manager) and my indie author work. Here’s how I’ve used it:
I’ve created SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) documents where I write down every step of a process so it’s easily accessible in the future and there are zero questions about how to get something done. These SOPs come in handy not only for future me, but they’ll also be super helpful in the event that I hire an assistant.
An author side example: I made a SOP going through the process of formatting an ebook, and another SOP for converting that ebook file to mobi and epub. Prior to writing out the steps, these were frustrating and tedious tasks, but now I can just follow the guidelines I’ve already written and the process takes 1/4 the time it used to.
My favorite books I read in May:
This month in music:
My top artists for May were Käärijä, Flogging Molly, Avenged Sevenfold, Nevermore, and Insomnium.
Can you guess what influenced my chart so much this month? Eurovision, of course! I’ve always wanted to watch it live, and finally this year Eurovision aired in the US! I’ve gotta say, it was thrilling to watch the show start to finish instead of catching up via YouTube clips.
My favorite performances were Finland (of course, I’m 100% obsessed with Cha Cha Cha & have already listened to the track 1,385 times per Last.fm), Estonia, Norway, Germany, and Austria.
Did you watch Eurovision? Which were your favorites?
My favorite songs from the month were:
My favorite Amazon purchases of the month:
My kids are so into this movie that we needed to own the physical copy. In my opinion, owning a physical copy is better than having access to a streaming service specifically to play the same movies over and over again.
Racerback workout tops for summer exercise are a must in the Texas heat. These are comfy, and I prefer solid color workout clothes so I can easily mix and match.
Last year I earned my RYT-200, and since then yoga has become a family activity so we needed more mats. I opted for Gaiam because they’re known for quality, thick yoga mats. This one’s nice because it comes in a ton of colors and prints.
