Number 5 in my Rereading Books Before I Give The Away Part 1 series is Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden. This book has been around for a while and I forgot how much I liked it the first time I read it. There is also a movie adaptation to this book that is pretty good too. Check out the rest of the books in our series Rereading Books Before I Give The Away Part 1  where I do a small drawing and a brief review of each book. I only have three left to read and two more to review after Memoirs of a Geisha so look for another set of books for me to read soon in Part 2!

This site participates in affiliate links and receives a small fee for affiliate recommendations at no cost to you. As always we only recommend products we have tried ourselves. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

I will be completely honest with you, I put off writing this review for many, many months because I could not think of what I would draw for this one. For some reason this kept me from finishing the review and starting on the next few so I now have eight or so book reviews to write before the end of the year. My goal is to post one a week until the end of December but I will definitely need to read way more books to complete that goal!

I really like Memoirs of a Geisha. I read it many years ago and again earlier this year and it is very well written. The book is about a young girl named Chiyo pulled from rural Japan who is sold to a Geisha House. The book is her telling her story in her own words and how this affected her life both post and pre-World War II. Life as a young girl was hard for Chiyo but she persevered and a lot of insightful writing helps the reader through the story. Chiyo is a beautiful girl and this causes rivalry and conflict amongst her peers. Does she come out on top? Read it to find out!

I really enjoyed reading this book again but I am on the fence about keeping it. My middle daughter will probably be ready to read it in a few years and I feel like this book is a great one for high schoolers to read. It is also easily available from the library so my verdict is…keep for now and reassess once I unpack all of my other books. We are in the middle of moving and I want to see what else I have before I decide on this one since it is such a good book!

VERDICT: Keep for now…

Our next book will be “the namesake” by Jhumpa Lahiri

Resources:

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

We’ll Meet Again by Mary Higgins Clark

When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka

Rereading Books Before I Give The Away Part 1

On Friday 05/05/23 Oscoey Shop will have our Tulip Collection 2023 drop at 10:00 am PT. I was very inspired by my trip to the tulip fields a couple of weeks ago and took so many photos! I knew right away I would try to get another shop update done in time for Mother’s Day so I immediately ordered postcards and stickers. I have also been working on a couple of cross stitch patterns but there was simply not enough time for me to finish those. I may add them to the shop on Monday since they are both Digital Downloads but I am not sure if I will finish them in time.

I am completely in love with how my stickers turned out. They are glossy and the colors of the tulips showed up really well. I have a couple of our favorite daffodils in there as well. These are selling individually at $2.00 for the round ones and $2.50 for the rectangular stickers. I will also have a pack of all eight stickers available for $16.00 which is less than what you would pay for all of the stickers individually.

For my postcards I used a higher quality cardstock than my previous cards. I am selling these in a pack of ten with a bonus min-sticker pack for $10.00 and the photos look amazing on the higher quality paper!

This time I also put together packs of all the items in my Tulip Collection in a limited quantity for $25.00 which is discounted from the price of everything at $28.00 and includes the bonus mini-sticker pack.

The mini-stickers in this collection are some of my favorites. I may order more and use them for decorating packages later on in the year but for this Tulip Collection I did not order as much inventory as for past collections so everything is limited quantity.

Oscoey Shop will be opening up at 10:00 am PT on Friday May 5, 2023.

We also hope to see you at our live crafting together event on 05/15/23 on our YouTube channel which can be found here. I will be starting my large Purple Tulip Fields pattern and chatting. Stitch along with me or bring a craft of your own.

Links:

Oscoey Shop

Tulip Fields In Bloom

In honor of my 6 year Blogiversary coming up at the end of March I thought I would share a little bit about what is going on in the Oscoey world. First, the most exciting thing, is we are opening up a retail store called Oscoey Shop which you can find linked below and here. This has been a long time coming and will feature artwork, nature photography, puzzles, cross stitch designs and more to fit in with the Oscoey lifestyle. At Oscoey we believe in practicing self-care daily, working on financial independence, spending time in nature, growing our own food (even if it’s just a pot of herbs on the windowsill), and eating good food. We have a deep love for family and doing quiet things together. Art is always happening at the Oscoey house!

Oscoey Shop

This site participates in affiliate links and receives a small fee for affiliate recommendations at no cost to you. As always we only recommend products we have tried ourselves. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

I started my goal of practicing self-care every day at the beginning of 2023 after spending the last few years losing myself in the corporate world and with the pressure to succeed at the “right” thing. Quitting my job in 2022 after a family emergency was the best thing I could have done for myself. I am slowly recovering from the burnout of working 50+ hours a week plus taking care of kids full-time during Covid and the intensity of our schedule that happened when the kids returned to school.

2023 Goals

Family has always come first for me and after a year of self-reflection I have discovered that I can’t be my best self if I am pulled in too many directions. Working for a company at a high intensity job left me with nothing to give at the end of the day and many sacrifices were made, including with my health. Over the last year I have focused on eating better, getting my sleep, cutting back on coffee, spending more quality time with my kids and doing something every day to take care of myself and relax. It has really helped!

Although I did go back to school last September and I am super busy with that I have way better control over my schedule and if I need to take a day (or a week) and just rest I can. All of my classes are online and most of them are self-paced so I am able to work on assignments when time allows. Winter quarter was pretty intense for me because my kids don’t have a lot of school the first 6 weeks of the year, everyone always gets sick at some point during that time, and I had some family stuff going on in February so most of my school work was squished into the last four weeks of the quarter. I was able to set up a schedule for my assignments and weekly goals on what needed to be done and this worked for me. Everything was completed on time and I got decent grades in my classes too so I am pretty happy with how the quarter turned out.

Most of my self-care goals this year revolve around finishing some of my stitching WIPs, reading those books I forgot to finish, exercising and working through all of the puzzles I bought at the start of the year for my focus on puzzles. I am still really excited to work on all of these! For January I was able to work on some puzzles with my “If Fish Could Walk” New Year’s start that can be found here. For February I focused on my stitching finishing one of my freebies and made great progress on both my Alphabet Zoo and my Computer Wizard pieces. March was all about finishing up my quarter and getting my shop up and running. I plan on getting back into the swing of things with my puzzles for April. I am still working on “The Craft Cupboard” which can be found here.

2023 Goals: Puzzles

I am really excited for the next year of blogging. Spring is here and I will start posting more gardening posts as I get plants in the ground and my flowers start to bloom. We are also going to be spending more time out in the woods this year and I will be doing regular shop updates throughout the summer so look for those as well.

My YouTube channel  will continue to feature grocery hauls and shop updates on a regular basis. I have paused on my weekly Fridge and Freezer Recaps for now but I will film every time I do a pantry or fridge clean out.

I wanted to thank those of you that have supported my blog over the years. A lot has changed since I first started writing and I have not been very consistent but I still love doing it and will keep it up for as long as I can. For now, check out the shop, my YouTube channel and look out for garden content coming soon!!!

Links:

Oscoey Shop

YouTube

Instagram