August 2025 Breakdown: The Last Wrap-Up as BWT

It feels pretty strange writing and calling this a last wrap up considering two months will pass by very quickly. It’s not like I’m going to disappear entirely, especially if we’re in mutual Discord servers, but I might as well be disappearing since I haven’t been on social media in a hot minute.

I think I’m okay with that. There are some days where I think maybe I should create a Bluesky account to at least share my posts on, but I think I’m just too tired to keep track of another social media site. Insert spiel about the people who are meant to find my blog will find my blog or something like that….

August brought hot weather and gross humidity, but it started cooling off a little towards the end. I’m frankly ready for fall and to not be a constant tasty snack for bugs.

August in Blogging

August was going to be my month of letting things free before I ran off on break for the rebrand, but I didn’t have too much energy outside of the one long review/essay and a stationery related post.

(I did have a set of mini reviews but decided to scrap them and just post them on Goodreads only.)

• [1 Aug] Immortal Consequences by I.V. Marie ★★★★★
• [5 Aug] July 2025 Breakdown: More Rebranding Updates!
• [18 Aug] The Cat Who Saved Books by Sōsuke Natsukawa ★★★★½
• [26 Aug] My 2025 Stationery Faves (So Far)
• [31 Aug] August 2025 Breakdown: The Last Wrap-Up as BWT

Book Hauls and Reading

No hauls for August, but plenty of reading to be done!

• The Deep Dark by Molly Knox Ostertag
• Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi (The Comic/Manhua) Vol. 1-5 by Luo Di Cheng Qiu (artist) – I haven’t been in the mood to read much novels lately, but I’ve been having my eye on this one for awhile (and want to watch the drama). I figured the manhua would be a good option but I stopped after volume 5 since I feel like it’s more aimed toward those who’ve read the novels.
• If We Were Perfect by Ana Huang
• The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen
• The Witch Boy series by Molly Knox Ostertag
• Shattered Warrior by Sharon Shinn
• The Daughters of Ys by M.T. Anderson
• Wash Day Diaries by Jamila Rowser and Robyn Smith
• Just Some Stupid Love Story by Katelyn Doyle – This was funny and I loved the back and forth between Seth and Molly. But as much as I can absolutely relate to Molly being cynical about love and would probably do/have done some of her actions if I were in her shoes, I also think she clearly needs therapy to unpack her issues.
• Family Style by Thien Pham
• Ghost Roast by Shawneé Gibbs and Shawnelle Gibbs
• One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune
• The Three-Body Problem Comic Vol. 1 by Cixin Liu, adapted by Jin Cai
• The Life Changing Manga of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
• Happily Never After by Lynn Painter (audiobook)

Media Consumed/Discovered

I’ve been trying to get through some movies I’ve checked out from work; August had quite a few Marvel movies since I’ve been interested in watching them again.

• Challengers
• Snow White (live action)
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and 3 – Frankly I have no clue what’s going on in the overarching plot in the MCU but I guess I’m just here for the ride.
  • I don’t think it helps that I’m essentially going out of order because my brain didn’t click that Volume 3 is set after Infinity War and Endgame, which I’ve not watched.
• Thunderbolts* – see above

Music

• Goodbyes and Sad Eyes by Moon Byul
• Fish Love by Jolin
• A Few Things by Canaan Cox
• White Cat by Yves
• Eye of the Untold Her by Lindsay Stirling and Chrissy Costanza
• Shallow by Magnolia Park

If you’re curious about what I’m currently enjoying while I’m away from blogging, here’s my Current Addictions playlist on Spotify! I try to keep this updated when I can, since I tire of songs after a certain amount of time.

The Breakdown

What catastrophes have the universe handed us throughout the month? Let’s find out. 🧐

Rebranding Updates!

The day is officially here! Rebranding feels way more real now that we’re here. There aren’t many updates since I did most of the work in July, and I won’t be posting any additional progress once the hiatus and official announcement (wow, that sounds very formal) goes up in a few days.

• I finished remaking all the images. I’m pretty sure I missed a post somewhere since the number in the folder I created for this doesn’t match the number of published posts, but I’ll figure it out when I start updating everything on the staging site.
  • I was definitely tempted a few times to just throw out the entire blog and start completely over because that’s the easiest thing to do, but 1) there are quite a few posts I’m proud of writing and 2) call me sentimental, but my past posts are bits and pieces of me over the years and getting rid of the entire blog feels like I’m getting rid of some good diaries. Or maybe I just love torturing myself.
• I submitted a commission for the new header and logo! I actually did this end of July, but forgot to mention it during the wrap-up. They’re currently in progress, and I’m excited to see the final pieces! It kind of hit me once again when I got the update about the progress and saw the first sketch that this is definitely happening.

That’s all for the rebranding updates now! I have an old draft about choosing the current blog name, but I might repurpose it in the future.

No Buy August

August was the first month I did no buy, but it was difficult at the beginning. I actually broke no buy a few times, though most was within good reason.

• The first time I broke it was in Daiso when I saw the monthly planners. They’re similar to the Midori Yuru Logs I found on Jetpens, but I figured if the format didn’t work for me, at least $2 wouldn’t hurt as much as $14.
  • The size of the notebook is the same as my current, which is perfect at the moment. But it uses a thinner paper, which is where my worry lies.
• The second time was when Paper Echoes had their moving sale and I was looking to give Tomoe River paper a try, plus a smaller and more portable size (B6) for my Commonplace Book (currently an A5, which I love as a size but apparently not for Commonplacing. Maybe it’s the other stuff I have to carry).
• The third time was when I saw the most glorious washi tape from Once More with Love (This is Fine) which I absolutely had to get and could not pass up. This one was definitely not as strategic as the others, but I was noticing that I used other similar stickers a lot and thought it would be a good (more humorous) substitute.
  • I use the “Ugh” sticker sheet a lot from TCMC, but sometimes the ones I use these stickers for don’t fit as well as “This is Fine.”

There were additional days that I broke my no-buy in August, but I was more mindful when breaking them, which I’m taking as a win. I also made fewer orders in August than in July, and I spent nothing on games aside from an existing subscription to a mobile game (though for gaming, I spend little so it wasn’t difficult).

All in all, while I did fail a few times, I also had a few wins. I’m planning on carrying this in September — hopefully I’ll be more successful.

Other Things in Life

August was the month I organized and hosted my first library program! I’m doing a few others before the end of the year.

I also got a larger five-year diary; the current A6 size I have isn’t working for me for what I want to use it for and use some of my washi tape for decorating.

There was a lot of internal debate about which size I should go for: on the one hand, A5 is a size that I’m very familiar with and what I use for most of my notebooks but I’d have to make my own layouts since the A5 Five Year I was looking at was out of stock. On the other hand, I’ve grown to really enjoy the B6 size because it’s portable and lighter than an A5.

Both options were viable, but I settled with a B6 in the end since I wanted to carry it around with me sometimes to therapy.

I’m going to use my current one to figure out what I want to keep track of once I do get it, though, so the paper isn’t fully going to waste. I planned on starting the new one in 2026 originally, but I’m thinking I’ll go with my 28th birthday instead — I’ll probably forget about the diary completely if I wait until January. And there’s something more significant and special about starting a Five-Year Diary on one’s birthday rather than on January 1.

I’ve finally decided to get rid of the stack of books that I was on the fence about getting rid of. They’ve been sitting in my room next to my library books for the past month or so, and I’ve honestly not thought about them. With the weather cooling down a little, I’m hoping to go through the remaining books that are hidden away in a different tote box so I can get rid of some of those and finally do away with the stack that’s been sitting in my room for the past few months.

Last Notes

I know it’s the last day of August, so things can still happen in the next few hours, but I’ve got the official hiatus/rebrand announcement going up on the day I normally would’ve posted this wrap-up.

I’d also ask about your month, but I’m closing the comments to all posts in a couple of weeks, so I’m skipping it this time around, but I hope your August treated you well and the next few months will treat you well!

(Don’t forget to drink water, too.)