Made By Smree

Are you attempting to de-clutter your home? I moved not long ago, and was amazed at the amount of "stuff" I had amassed. I donated a lot of items then, but over the past few months decided to do another round of de-cluttering. However, this time, I chose to try to sell some of my "stuff". In today's economy every little bit helps! My parents and I held a joint yard sale at their home, and we ended up doing fairly well. I f you want to get rid of clutter within your home, then selling some of your belongings is a great way for you to do this. You can make a lot of money by doing this too! Below are some items you can consider selling, in case you're in need of a starting point. Childhood Toys If you find it difficult to let go of some of your childhood toys then this is understandable. I have my own beloved keepsakes that I'm not sure I'll ever be able to part with! However, choosing to sell them could pay off. It’s always worth going through your chi...

 As y'all should already know, I am somewhat of a creative individual. I dabble in various crafts and hobbies, and thoroughly enjoy doing so. But while having a hobby is a fun way to pass the time, and can even be a source of income if you choose, have you ever thought about the health benefits of devoting time to your interests and passions? There are numerous benefits to having a creative hobby!  The first benefit? Developing new skills! Taking up a new hobby is a fantastic way to develop new skills and hone existing skills. When I first began learning to crochet, I'll admit, I was terrible. But with time and practice, I got better. And then even better. Spending time being creative helped me to develop a new skill and then hone those skills to the point where I now regularly sell my creations to earn a bit of income. I will admit it - I am very much an introvert. However, even for those of us who prefer solitude, there is no denying that having a creative hobby is a fabul...

  And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things (Luke 10:41 KJV). Sometimes I believe the Lord looks down on me from above, shakes His head, and declares (and I’m paraphrasing here): “Honey, you really need to calm down.” I, like a modern version of the encumbered sister Martha, often find myself worrying over a great many things.  There is little doubt that there is a lot to worry over in day to day life. There are larger scale concerns such as inflation or simply the economy in general, countries at war, and potential for health crises, or the “smaller” things of life like a busted water pipe in your home or unexpected car repair. The list could easily go on and on, but instead of thinking about all the things we have to potentially worry over, I want to share with you something that the Lord showed me recently that made me really stop and rethink my thought processes regarding worry.   One day, while driving...

Do you like watching unboxing videos?  I do! I've also decided to try my hand at making a few. I uploaded my latest one to YouTube today, which you can watch below. I did an unboxing of the Sakura Season Bokksu, which is full of absolutely gorgeous (and delicious!) snacks from Japan.  Which snack would you want to try first? <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/W-FYsqZCzUY" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> Feel free to subscribe to my YouTube while you're there. I'm trying to post some fun stuff occasionally, and would love for you to join me! 

  As you’ve seen from some of my previous book review posts, I’ve been given the opportunity to read a few ARC (advance reader copies) of several books over the past couple years.  For some of them, I was asked by the author to read and review.  However, a few months back I received a message on Goodreads extending an invitation for me to join a site called BookSirens , and after doing some research into it, I decided to join.  And if you enjoy reading and reviewing books, you should consider joining too!  On BookSirens, authors can post their books in order to obtain reviews on various sites like Amazon, Goodreads, and others.  Readers can join (for free!) and review the books (again, for free!) that are posted.  There are thousands of books available, from all sorts of genres, and I’ve been impressed with what I’ve read so far!  Some of them have been better than others, naturally, but I’ve been able to read some great works for free! The amou...

The Timepiece and the Girl Who Went Astray by O.R. Simmonds My rating: 0 of 5 stars View all my reviews

  Shortly after my last post, I realized I may have gotten ahead of myself a little bit.  Oops.  My last post, if you recall, was the very first article I had written and submitted as an Honorary Reporter for Korea.net.  But I completely forgot to mention that I had been accepted as an Honorary Reporter, much less explain any of it.   So that’s what I’m doing now! I found out about the Honorary Reporter program earlier in the year through a Facebook group for the K-Friends program I joined last year.  After doing some research into it, I applied for the program back in March, and found out I had been accepted in April.  Also around the same time, I applied to be part of the 2021 K-Influencer Academy, another program offered by Korea.net, and found out I had been accepted into that as well!  But what does all of this mean ? The Honorary Reporters, to quote this article from Korea.net : “consist of foreign nationals both in and out of Korea w...

Maybe you have decided that this year will be the year that you learn Korean (or maybe another language!).  While learning a new language can be incredibly rewarding and beneficial, it can also be a difficult endeavor.  Though I am not a language learning expert, here are three simple tips for Korean learners that have helped me along my journey. 1) Do something language study related every single day.  Whether it’s five minutes or fifty minutes, do something every single day that can help you progress.  For example, I typically try to spend around thirty minutes each day studying Korean.  But let’s be honest, sometimes that just isn’t possible!  To help myself stay on track, I utilize the Duolingo app, and here’s why;  On days I don’t have a lengthy amount of time to study, I can do one or two quick lessons, or even just a simple review.  Even those small increments of time will make an impact, and can help you along your language-learning j...

  First of all - Happy Earth Day!  Secondly, as a brief aside, let me say that this post was not sponsored in any way.  I just personally like the products included here and wanted to share them.  That is all!  As I said, today is Earth Day, which is basically a day set aside to bring attention to the environmental movement, or “to diversify, educate, and activate the environmental movement worldwide”, according to EarthDay.org . I do not in any manner profess to be the leading authority on the environmental movement, but I have made the conscious decision to try to be less wasteful, and to make some small changes in order to do what I can for the planet we call home.  Do I still use single-use plastics, and generate more trash that I probably should?  The answer is yes.  But - doing something is better than doing nothing, and my point here is that even small changes can help. The first change I made was to use less disposable plastic bottles....

  Recently, as part of the re-launch of the K-Friends program sponsored by the Korea Tourism Organization, individuals were asked to “Find your favorite Korea”, which meant to find something related to Korea in your city, or nearby.  Since I live in the Southern US, this seemed a daunting task, but ended up being a fun experience overall!  A nearby restaurant serves what they call ‘Asian fusion’ cuisine, which includes a dish called kimchi fries. Kimchi is a traditional Korean food and is considered a staple part of a Korean diet.  According to VisitKorea.or , it’s served with every meal in Korea. It typically consists of spiced and fermented Napa cabbage or radish, but can be made with other vegetables too. The kimchi fries dish consisted of stir-fried kimchi, bulgogi beef, cheese, mild Korean sauce, sour cream, scallions and sesame seeds, served over crispy french fries.   Prior to this, I had never tried kimchi or bulgogi beef, but they are truly delici...

Memories of Prophecies by Davis Ashura My rating: 5 of 5 stars I was given the opportunity to read an ARC of this book, for which I am eternally grateful. Before we delve into my thoughts - Dear Mr. Ashura, you had better be working on the next book because I'm going to need it immediately, please and thank you. Now, for the book itself. What I adored about 'A Testament of Steel' was that it started off with a bang and kept going. This book was no different. The story picks up right where the first book left off, following our hero, Cinder, in his second year at the Third Directorate, and honestly, the story just never slows down. But in a really, really good way. Trust me. There is so much action in this book! AND all of the action is incredibly well written, to the point that I found myself audibly, literally gasping in response to what was happening on more than one occasion. (I MIGHT have screeched a few times as well while reading bu...

I’m going to let y’all in on a secret. I love coffee . Okay, so it’s probably not THAT big of a secret, but I have seemingly developed what is probably an unhealthy obsession with coffee.  And I’m not particularly picky when it comes to type, either.  I love iced coffee, regular freshly brewed hot coffee, cold brews, lattes, flavored coffee... Told you it was an obsession. And this has been a great week for coffee lovers, what with National Coffee Day on September 29th, and International Coffee Day, which is today! While I did celebrate both days by enjoying my favorites, today I wanted to share a new coffee confection I recently experimented with.  Awhile back, I saw a video posted by some YouTubers in Japan about coffee jelly.  Apparently it is (or was, since this was some time back) a big thing overseas, and when I first saw the video and recipe, I was intrigued.  I thought I might try making it ‘one day’.   Fast forward a bit to more recently, and ...

Since January of 2018, I have lost a little over 70lbs.  I probably would have lost a lot more by now, if I did not have a serious addiction to sweets, tacos and french fries.  And I’d probably lose more if I actually exercised more regularly, too, but that’s not the point of this post.  Actually that will probably come up in a later post, but I digress.  Back to the main topic.  Obviously, due to my weight loss, people have noticed a difference in my appearance, and have asked a lot of questions regarding my self-improvement journey.  One question has come up repeatedly, and it’s one I felt warranted a more in-depth discourse here.  “What’s your secret??” Let me address right away that there is no ‘big secret’ to weight loss.  There is no magic pill, no ultimate diet plan, or a dummy proof guide.  My ‘secret’ (if you can call it that, even) is fairly simple.  You have to want it, and you have to find what works for you .  Then, you...

How's quarantine and/or social distancing going, friends?  I've been spending more time at home, which has been good for my bank account (except for that whole online shopping thing).  I've spent them majority of my time reading, crocheting, catching up on my extensive Netflix list, and spending inordinate amounts of time on my Animal Crossing island.  That game is seriously addicting. One other thing I've done during my time at home is to make what my family has dubbed 'abomination cookies'.  These are essentially two/three ingredient cookies, with one of the ingredients being bananas, which my younger brother hates , hence the moniker 'abomination cookies', since he often refers to bananas as abominations.   However, these cookies are delicious  and I've made probably six batches of them so far.  We had a couple bananas that were overripe, and so I typed "what to do with overripe bananas" into Google, and this recipe  came up.   I...