Spring is my favorite season. I love sunshine and flowers and warmer days. Spring is so beautiful and full of new growth and fresh starts.

Because I live in Ohio, even though it’s officially spring already, the weather is still up and down and as I’m writing this it is still pretty cold outside. So to cheer myself up I wanted to write about everything I’m looking forward to this spring!

• Egg the City
  My church puts on an amazing egg hunt every Easter called Egg the City. This year there’s going to be 100,000 eggs. I was on the setup team last year and this year my husband and I are leading the setup along with another couple. I can’t wait to cover the football field with eggs tomorrow and see all of the excited children! It’s going to be a great day followed by our Easter services that night and Sunday morning!

• Disney World
  My sister has been working in Disney World since January as part of their college program, and I finally get to go see her in a week and a half! I love Disney with all my heart, and I’ve been dying to go back since our last trip in December 2016. I’m also really looking forward to this trip because it’ll be just my mom and sister and me. We’ve never had a trip like this with just us girls, and we’re all really looking forward to it.

• Flowers
  I don’t care if I’m allergic to everything that grows, flowers are beautiful. They make me smile. I love this bouquet that my husband got for me last week when it snowed even though it was supposed to be spring.

• Books
  I’m always looking forward to books! Some of the books on my spring TBR are Midnight at the Electric by Jodi Lynn Anderson (again, I can’t get enough of this book), Called to Create by Jordan Raynor, and Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch.

What are you looking forward to this spring?

I’ve told you about some of my favorite things to do when I’m not writing, like watching musicals. Today I wanted to tell you about what’s probably my favorite of all my hobbies—crafting.

I’m a pretty creative person. You need to be in order to write. I love to make up stories and create new characters and places. But I also feel the need to work with my hands and use my creativity in tangible and visual ways. That’s where crafting comes in.

My love of crafting started at a young age. My mom was my Girl Scout troop leader, taught children’s classes at the park district, and taught my church classes. All of these activities involved a lot of crafts. I loved making anything and everything. As an adult, I still love to create art and other projects.

Jewelry-Making

I’ve been making jewelry for over half of my life now. I still love buying beads in all different colors and creating beautiful patterns. Jewelry-making is so relaxing and lets me clear my head when I’m stuck on whatever I’m writing.

Coloring

Another activity I do to relax and clear my head is to color. I only got into coloring in the last year or so, but it’s quickly become one of my favorite activities. And not only is coloring really relaxing, it’s also one of my favorite ways to dig into God’s word. I do this through scripture coloring books which allow me to draw closer to God while I’m relaxing.

Planners

Being a stay-at-home writer, I don’t have too much to schedule in my life, but I have fallen in love with the creative planners that have been trending lately. Every Friday, I spend an hour or so designing the next week’s pages. I fill in everything that needs to get done, and then I decorate the pages with stickers and lots of color. I include inspirational quotes, decorative flowers and washi tape, and a prayer list for each week. I love getting to look at my decorations and the inspirational quotes as I get ready for each day.

Gift-Giving

Lastly, I love to craft when it comes to gift-giving. I have tons of card-making supplies so that I can make everyone a card that’s individual to them. I also love giving homemade gifts like fleece blankets. For my husband, I usually will make him something with pictures, like this picture wall I made him for Valentine’s Day last year.

Crafting allows me to be creative with my hands, clear my head when I need to work out a writing problem, and even draw closer to God. There is nothing better than creating something, whether I’m writing stories or making a homemade gift.

Today is the first day of fall! I love when seasons change. I like the idea of fresh starts and entering into new phases. And each season brings with it something new and exciting. These are some of my favorite things about fall:

Back-to-School
I love school. I love to learn and school was always so much fun for me. Sadly I’m not in school anymore. But my husband is, which means Saturday morning library dates. Wright State University has a beautiful library, and we love to go there on the weekends to enjoy coffee and catch up on work.

Fall Candles
I’m one of the few who actually don’t like pumpkin spice lattes and everything else they’ve added pumpkin spice to. But I love how it smells. I love the flowery scents of my spring and summer candles, but my favorites are all of the spiced and pumpkin scents.

Sweaters and Flannels
I love sweater weather. Sweaters and flannels are just so comfy and cozy. I wish we didn’t have 90 degree weather here in Ohio today so I could wear a sweater.

Apples
Fall means apples, and honeycrisp apples are my absolute favorite. My husband and I are planning on going to an apple festival next weekend, so I’m definitely going to get a big bag of honeycrisp.

My Birthday
My birthday is in the fall, towards the end of October, so of course that makes me love fall even more. My sister also has an October birthday and tomorrow we’re going to see Wicked as an early birthday present from our parents.

Books!
Colder weather means spending more time inside, and I love to curl up with a good book when the weather turns cold. Some books on my fall TBR are A Lily at Dawn (a book by a writer friend of mine), The Selection Series (for I think the fifth time), and In a Handful of Dust (the companion novel to Not a Drop to Drink).