Hello all! This is the second segment to the best of 2013- the blogs and YouTubers edition.
As I just started blogging and reading blogs this year, I've discovered many good blogs.
I have fallen in love with Chuck Wendig's blog, "Terrible Minds". His writing makes me happy. I didn't even know it was possible for someone to write so humorously. My favourite post from them all year was Pot Roast Chili Is Our Weapon Against Culinary Mediocrity.
I have also fallen in love with the Man Repeller blog. The writers have such quirky senses of humour and I love it. Along with their sense of humour, they have a fantastic sense of style and good writing skills. My favourite blog post of 2013 from them was Curbing My Own Enthusiasm.
This was also my year for spending way too much time watching YouTube. I have fallen in love with Zoella, PointlessBlog, Jim Chapman, Tanya Burr, Kingsley, Alexis G Zall, Caspar Lee and DailyGrace. Vlogmas made me really happy. Like slap my knee, do some heel kicks, I'm going on vacation for three weeks, eat some really good food happy. Vlogmas also made me fall in love with Zalfie.
Along with my YouTube viewing madness, I came across this magnificent American-Idol like version of internet sensations called "Internet Icon" made by the YOMYOMF Network. I fell in love with all the contestants, but my favourites were The Kloons, Megan Batoon, and yellowpaco or Watermelon Will.They have some really good content and deserve far more subscribers!
I hope you all enjoyed this! I would love to hear about your loves of 2013 in the comments. Cheers!
I have got to be honest with you guys. Blogging is hard. When I started blogging back in July I didn't realize how much of my life this would take. Not that I haven't enjoyed it. I've enjoyed the writing and it's given me an outlet to talk about things I don't usually talk to my friends and family about (ie makeup and clothes). But I feel myself writing more for you guys and less for me. I've enjoyed writing posts like this one and this one. I liked writing about posts that made me feel something, that made me want to write, that gave passion and excitement. That is when my better writing comes out. But lately, I think my writing has become more awkward which is not what I want.
I want to do this for myself to improve my writing. But now that I have over 50 followers on Bloglovin' and over 700 pageviews, I feel like I have to follow these trends that all these other young bloggers like me are doing. Yeah, let's spend $50 and all talk about that darn Naked3 Palette. Okay, let's all all talk about the scented candles and chocolate we all received for Christmas. Not, that I'm not thankful for my recent success and the #2014BloggerChallenge for giving me most of this success, I really do appreciate that I now have readers. As I'm writing this, I am realizing that the key to success is to be different.
I'm also realizing that I would be a crap beauty blogger if I just wrote about beauty products as I live in a tiny town with just a drugstore that has a minimum selection of makeup. About once a month I'm able to go the closest bigger town and go to a department store. I mean how many times have I wrote about Revlon's Super Lustrous Lipstick in #740 Certainly Red in the last two months? Four times!
What's triggered all this thought about where this blog is going is not that 2014 is fast approaching. (I know, surprising!) It's that I've been taking the time over my holidays to follow all the 407 bloggers in the #2014BloggerChallenge on Bloglovin' and there's a lot of beauty blogs by young people. They are good writers for the most part and are really nice people but they all have similar blogs and that gets tiring. It's okay not to follow trends.
I want to write about what excites me and yes, sometimes that is going to be red lipstick or candles or my beauty favourites of the year. Sometimes it's going to be some nice photos I took. Sometimes it's going to be a rant or about pop culture or a goofy writing prompt or something to think about or one of the 2014 Blogger Challenges. This is an outlet for me that I need to embrace. And if you want to embrace it with me or even just put up with it, I will be very thankful for supporting this endeavor. Thank you.
Hello all! I think it's about time I start my favourites of this year. It seems every other blogger has done this already, but I decided to really wait until the year was coming to an end to do this. I've decided to do three segments of my favourites- media, beauty and fashion and internet loves. This is the media segment.
Books:
Delirium by Lauren Oliver. It was the perfect blend of
beauty, love, innocence and tenderness mixed with a distressed world,
pain, lies, deceit, rebels and savages. It teaches you a lot about human
nature and brings up the what ifs and intelligent discussion without
the “only reason I’m reading this is to pass English class,” really
boring plot line. It was actually a whole trilogy and they were all wonderful.
Beautiful Creatures by Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia. I actually read this after I saw the movie (shame on me!) I saw the movie with friends who had read the book and they encouraged me to read the book as it was much better than the movie. I loved the book! It was such a majestic yet simple story. I really felt like the plotline could easily happen to me or one of my friends.
Appasisonata by Eva Hoffman. I am actually in the midst of reading it. It's not a usual read for me but so far, I am greatly enjoying it. If you have ever studied, played or listened to classical piano, I suggest reading it.
TV Shows:
The Middle. A classic, North American family who’s situations
and conflicts are so relatable and normal it’s amazing the show is
actually exciting.
SNL. It's been on forever but I had never really watched it until this fall. I've loved Tina Fey, Miley Cyrus and Jimmy Fallon as hosts. Here are some of my favourite sketches this year:
Duck Dynasty. I know it's been through some turbulence lately but I'm going to avoid that subject for now. None the less, it is refreshing to see a family oriented show that doesn't promote sex and other such activities, but rather morals and good values.
Music:
Roar by Katy Perry.
Royals by Lorde. This song was so refreshing from the typical catchy dance tune about making it rain.
Timber by Pitbull featuring Ke$ha. The fact that they used a fiddle was fantastic.
Thrift Shop and Can't Hold Us by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. Their instrumentation as well as the refreshing lyrics of Thrift Shop made me fall in love with their music.
Mumford and Sons, The Lumineers, Paramore, Ed Sheeran, The Black Keys, The Fray, Lana Del Rey, My Chemical Romance in general.
Arctic Monkeys album "AM"
Primadonna by Mariana and the Diamonds
Hold On We're Going Home by Drake
Sweater Weather by The Neighbourhood
Winter Air by Annasay
Highway Don't Care by Tim McGraw, Keith Urban and Taylor Swift
Night Train by Jason Aldean
The Only Way I Know by Jason Aldean, Eric Church and Luke Bryan
Lost in The Light by The Bahamas
Mama's Broken Heart by Miranda Lambert
Sleepy Little Town by JT Hodges
Merry Go 'Round by Kacey Musgraves
A Real Good Radio by Kira Isabella
This Is What Makes Us Girls by Lana Del Rey
I hope you all enjoyed this! Please comment what music, books, movies and TV shows have brought you smiles and laughter this year. I'd love to hear about your likes of 2013. Cheers!
Yesterday I did all of my Christmas baking. I made my usual favourite: peanut butter balls or buckeyes, but I also tried my hand at candy making for the first time. I tried a caramel recipe that I found in a Martha Stewart magazine and it turned out so well. Besides the incredible fact that it actually turned out okay without using a candy thermometer, I realized how magical the process of making candy is.
I put in some heavy cream, corn syrup, butter and sugar in a pot and boiled it. Somehow during it became the luxurious, warm colour of caramel. It's rich aroma seeped up from the pot as I stirred it. It started as this white liquid and became a brown, fragrant and bubbling pot of candy. How did this happen? Must have been magic.
What time of the year do you start your Christmas shopping? Usually around the end of November.
Do you have any festive recipes for food or drink you limit solely to the Christmas season to share? Peanut Butter Balls or Buckeyes.
Tell me how Christmas goes down in your home. I have a brother who is much younger than myself, so we both get up early and open our stockings and relax until our parents get up. Santa always brings us sugar cereal as a family gift and we have it for breakfast. We open our presents and relax until the afternoon when we have our dinner either at our place or another family member's.
Do you have any Christmas traditions? Just the usual.
Do you have a favourite festive coffee? Not yet. But I am planning on making myself a spiced coffee on Christmas morning with cinnamon and ginger. What's your favourite Christmas song? Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) by Mariah Carey
What do you do on Christmas Eve? We always have a simple supper, but we always light these angel candles while we eat dinner. It's one of the few times a year (besides birthdays) that we light candles in our house. Then we usually go to church and then my grandparents come over. We're always allowed to open one present before bed as well.
What's your Christmas wrapping strategy? Do you have a strategy? My strategy is to make my presents the prettiest under the tree. And I usually succeed. :)
What's your dream gift this year? I don't really have one. I just asked for little things.
Describe you Christmas tree. How tall? Real or artificial? How is it decorated? Real. It's not very big and is decorated with homemade decorations and lights.
Do you decorate just the tree or other areas of your house e.g. windows, banisters? I've decorated my room and we have little decorations around the living room and kitchen.
What do you wear to Christmas parties and what do you wear on Christmas day? Christmas parties aren't a big deal in my town. On Christmas I usually wear comfy but nice clothes. Like pajamas in the morning and a sweater and yoga pants or leggings to dinner.
I found this lovely tag on the lovely blog http://www.nataliecatherine.blogspot.co.uk/ (Psst she is part of the #2014BloggerChallenge). Usually tags are done at the beginning of a season or month or whatever but I decided to be nice and give you some extra, festive reading material over the holidays that wasn't entirely about how to make fantastic appetizers. 1. Do you prefer a real Christmas tree or synthetic? Definitely real. The smell, going somewhere to choose one, always having a different one.
2. You're in a coffee shop, it's December, what do you pick?
Depends on what the coffee shop serves and what I'm in the mood for. 3. Whats your favourite colour scheme for decorating the tree? Since I've only ever decorated one tree- my family's tree- I don't really know. Though I do like the reds, golds, whites, blues and silvers of the season. 4. Giving or receiving? Definitely giving. I love shopping and being generous and wrapping presents. 5. To mince pie or not to? I think I've had mince meat pie before and I liked it, but I'm not sure. Obviously the memory of trying it wasn't that exciting because I barely remember it so I'd probably try it again. 6. What's your traditional Sunday lunch? I don't know if I understand the question correctly. If we're talking Christmas dinner- the typical: Mashed potatoes, gravy, turkey, veggies, buns, etc. 7. Christmas day fashion PJs until I have to leave the house and then maybe a sweater and jeans. 8. What's your favourite Christmas song? Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) by Mariah Carey. 9. What's your favourite Christmas film? I love all the Home Alones, but also Elf, Charlie Brown Christmas, The Grinch, Love Actually, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. But my absolute favourite, and one I have not seen in forever is Hey Arnold's Christmas.
10. Open presents before or after lunch? People open presents after lunch? I guess some families are civilized and don't tear open their presents the moment our parents wake up.
I've been nominated by Abbie (http://afhblogging.blogspot.co.uk/) for a Liebster Award. It is given to bloggers who have less than 200 followers on Bloglovin'. There are a few things I have to do, though and that is why I am writing this post.
First, I have to tell you all eleven random things about myself:
1. I love hot drinks. Tea, coffee and hot chocolate...mmmmmm.
2. I'm 5'1" and a bit.
3. I enjoy painting canvases and drawing portraits.
4. I play guitar, piano and flute.
5. I love country music.
6. My favourite movie ever is Sixteen Candles. Though Easy A, Pretty in Pink, Grease and Blades of Glory are close seconds.
7. I love watching YouTube.
8. I used to be a big fan of Taylor Swift. I have all of her albums (except her Christmas ones). I still enjoy them, though.
9. I am now a huge Paramore fan.
10. I love writing anything. Short stories, long stories, articles, poems, essays, speeches, everything.
11. I love baking.
Secondly, I have to answer eleven questions that Abbie gave me:
1. Favourite season?
I love summer and late spring. Though I really enjoy something about every season. I'm really enjoying the Christmas and winter season right now, though, but come the middle of January, I won't be enjoying it at all.
2. Favourite drink & food?
Drink: a good vanilla latte.
Food: almost anything with pasta or curry in it.
3. Favourite song?
At the moment, I'm enjoying a lot of songs off of the most recent Paramore album.
4. One make-up item you can't live without?
Mascara.
5. Eyeshadow or Mascara?
Thanks to number four, I think it's pretty self-explanatory.
.
6. Where would you love to go on holiday?
France or Italy.
7. If you had $1,000 what would you buy?
Honestly, I would probably save it. But if I had to spend it, probably a pampering weekend vacation to a local, fancy resort of some sort and/or clothes.
If the title didn't forewarn you already, I've been sick. I hate being sick a lot more than I hate most things. The clogged up nose, the coughing, being tired, fevers, missing out on fun things like ice skating and seeing the new Hobbit movie and worst of all, not being able to talk/scream/sing/annoy people, etc. I hate it!
Anywho, that's my rant for the day. Hope your week has been swell! Yes I just used the word swell. Deal with it.
I love hot chocolate. I love hot drinks in general. But there's something about hot chocolate at this time of year.
I do not make hot chocolate like the average human being, though. But since I am a nice, above average human being I decided to share my above average recipe. (Overuse on the phrase "above average"? Maybe.) What you'll need:
*This only makes one serving A mug full of milk, preferably a Christmas-y mug.
Hot Chocolate Mix (I use a homemade mixture that is one part Dutch Cocoa for two parts icing sugar. Dutch Cocoa makes the mix not as sweet as most bought mixes. It's available at most whole food and specialty food markets.)
Mini marshmallows, whipped cream, candy canes, festive mugs (mine had teddy bears!), etc.
Here's what you do:
1. Pour milk into mug(s). I hope you can do this without spilling.
2. Stir in 1 1/2-2 teaspoons of hot chocolate mix. Add marshmallows. I repeat, ADD MARSHMALLOWS BEFORE HEATING. They end up softer and puffier and yummy-er.
3. Put mug into microwave. Mine usually takes about 1 minute but today, because I was using a different mug than usual, it took about 1 1/2 minutes. Marshmallows will puff up, don't worry.
4. Take mug out of microwave. Usually I just hang a candy cane off the edge of the mug and I stir it, but today my candy cane was broken, so I crunched it up and sprinkled it over the marshmallows and IT WAS DELICIOUS.
I hope you guys enjoy, this unoriginal and simple idea for hot chocolate. :) Merry Christmas!
We all know that Christmas shopping can be difficult. And now that it's about a week 'til Christmas, people are rushing around, last minute shopping. So here are my tips for shopping.
Have an idea of what to get, but don't be completely set on what to get someone. You might find something that is totally them. Sometimes you know exactly to get, other times you have no idea and that is all okay.
Buying something they've asked for is always a good thing.
Buying something they've never talked about wanting but you know they would like it or get good use out of it is usually a good thing. Unless it's something they would totally hate.
Don't be stingy, just be wise about money.
I hope all your Christmas shopping goes well and that you all have a Merry Christmas!
Holidays often seem to be a time where I reflect on memories that have happened in years past. Like A Christmas Carol or It's a Wonderful Life, just inside my head minus the ghosts and death and stuff. I think about presents past and the traditions and the memories.
Like the first Christmas I remember where I got homemade gifts from various family members. Or the first Christmas with my brother. Or the Christmas where one of my little cousins came and he was the cutest little thing. Or the Christmas I got a sled. Or the Christmas I got a CD player (they were cool once upon a time and no, I'm not old at all). Or the Christmas...never mind you get the point.
I love remembering Christmases before. I also think it's a good time to reflect as Christmas is a time to be kind and be a better person because of it.
On that note, I would like to wish you all a happy holiday season and ask you, What is your favourite Christmas present or memory?
Let me tell you a little story. Yesterday, a peer of mine who is of a different race and doesn`t celebrate any holiday at this time of year, was whining about and questioning why some white people make such a big deal out of Christmas. I was standing there wondering why this person had never gotten the idea of holiday spirit from every Christmas special ever (I went to Elementary school with this person, I know they've seen A Charlie Brown Christmas) and half knowing that I was one of those white people that make a (sort of) big deal about Christmas. Then I started thinking, if your family doesn't traditionally celebrate Christmas or any sort of holiday around this time or isn't of a practicing faith, what would holiday spirit be to you? And then I started thinking about A Charlie Brown Christmas and all of those Christmas specials and holiday spirit and why Christmas is one of my favourite holidays. And then I started questioning the meaning of life. Just kidding.
I realized that one of the reasons Christmas is definitely my favourite holiday is the idea of giving and being generous. I realized that we all need a little Christmas once in awhile, even if we don't celebrate Christmas. I love giving back and I love making people feel good about themselves. I think its important we show and tell the people in our lives how much we appreciate them. We live in a very self absorbed world and Christmas is a time to free ourselves from our own little worlds, be more generous and kind than usual.
In other words, if you're not a celebrator of holidays at this time, it does not mean you can't be filled with the holiday spirit. I know it's cliche, but holiday spirit does not mean you've decorated your house with every type of light imaginable and have four Christmas trees. It means that you have made an effort to show people around you that you care about them.
Write a Letter as Santa Telling an Elf That He's Fired (Writing Prompt)
Dear Zelly,
I hear that you had a jolly good time at the elfies' annual bash to kick off the holiday season. All you elfies know that I am always weary year after year about this party but I continue to allow you to throw the party as you all always have fun and little trouble is ever caused. I know that this time of year is extremely stressful at the toy shop and that once in awhile we all need a break. But this year's party seemed to be a little different.
I know that you may not be fully responsible for all of these incidents but to the best of my knowledge you caused the biggest ruckus. (I also saw the videos on facebook and youtube. By the way, 200000 hits already, that's rather impressive Zelly.) Besides, I have the job of putting every kid in the world on the naughty and nice list. I have security cameras and spies everywhere in the world so don't think I didn't see what you were doing the other night.
What I'm getting to Zelly, is that you are fired. You will now have to go work for Black Peter, making and delivering coal for all of eternity. I'm firing you because of her outrageous, irresponsible and disrespectful behavior at the annual elfie party. Not only did you get very drunk off of eggnog but you also drove your sleigh home and hit one of my reindeer on the way to your cottage. I hope you are aware that though Dasher has since recovered he had a broken ankle and all of his hoofs were cracked. You were one of my favourite toy makers but now I'm very disappointed in you. I had high hopes for you, Zelly. I was hoping to promote you if you continued to show your passion and articulate craftsmanship for making toys over the holiday season. But, alas, that will not be happening.
I hope Black Peter will treat you half decently.
Sincerely,
Santa Claus
Superior Director and International Gift Distributor
Claus Christmas Toy Shop and Distributors International Ltd.
Hey ya'll,
I hope you enjoyed this wonderful writing prompt. I like writing prompts normally but I absolutely love Christmas ones. This one is actually one I remember one of my grade school teachers doing with my class and I thought it would be nice to re-visit it. I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season that's not to stressful.
Cheers!
I'm so excited! It's Christmas and there's snow and decorations and amazing vlogmas and DIYDecember YouTube videos.
But also I'm really excited for 2014 because I'm part of the 2014 Blogger Challenge.
I will be trying my best to do 2 of these challenge posts a month. The idea of this challenge is to write about stuff I wouldn't normally write about (I'm forewarning you now) within a community of bloggers. I'm really excited about getting my blog involved in something bigger than my own little world. But the best part is that you too can expand your mind (and your blog) to something bigger than your own little world. All you have to do is go to this page and either comment or email Gaby with your email, blog URL and name. You will be emailed in return with all the info and the first topic will be sent out on December 9th, which also happens to be the deadline to sign up for this challenge.
I feel like this next year is going to big year. (Don't we all say that every year?) But, especially for my blog and my writing. This past year I really figured out where I want to be and where I'm going and am starting to find my voice in every story and article and post that I write. I guess you can say that this amateur has really been set aglow (haha puns).
Also, I would like to warn you that all my posts for the next month will be super festive. And I'm not really sorry about it either.
I love Pinterest. Especially this time of year when it's filled with picturesque winter scenes, glowing, festive lights and overly-indulgent recipes and crafts galore and everything else Christmas-y. I've been scouring Pinterest for the best ideas of the season for the last month. And now I think it's ought to be time to start decorating, baking and having the nicest Christmas season. That said, I have only tried one of these things out of the entire list. You can see all of my Christmas pinboard here and follow me on Pinterest here.
By the way, though the lists are numbered they are not in any particular order.
Kiddy Cookies &Crafts:
1. Bottle cap snowman. Cheap, easy, cute.
2. This would be so simple.
3.I made these last year with my brother. They were okay. But it's a really cute idea and kids like making mini Rudolphs.
2.This is just excess pieces of wrapping paper rolled up in a festive Christmas tree arrangement and glued onto a canvas or framed material of some sort. I truly think the neatest ideas, and truthfully my favourite Pinterest ideas are ones that re-use materials that would otherwise be thrown out. Plus, you don't have to spend a ton of money and attempt a craft you can't even do.
3.This has to be the funky-est decoration I've ever seen. The great part is it's so funky that you don't ever have to hide it away in a box the other eleven months of the year. Plus you're re-using Christmas lights.
4.
I love the idea of festive centerpieces on the dining table over the holiday season. I've see various ones all over Pinterest but the most common ones (and simplest to make) seem to be mason jars with ribbons at the top and filled with candles or tea lights, water, red berries, green leaves and tree trimmings or filled or covered with Epsom salt to provide the look of a frosty, snow covered world.
5.
6.
I've always found homemade soup or hot chocolate in jar gifts kind of lame for some reason. But I thought these little light bulbs filled with either candies or herbs to be mixed with sour cream for dip were really cute.
Things I Don't Have the Patience/Tools/Money/Talent/Time To Try (Food-Wise): 1.
I love making cupcakes and I always make chocolate mint ones at Christmas time for gifts. But who in the world has the time to make fondant or really wants snowflakes that badly to buy it from the store, roll it out and cut intricate snowflakes? OCD, Pinterest-crazed housewives, I guess.
Or to pipe these magical designs?
2.
I know that you're probably thinking how crazy I am to be putting this in this category. I mean, they're just brownies you could buy from the store, strawberries and icing. Yes, I realize that, thank you very much. But I don't want to make brownies nor do I want to waste money on crappy, imported strawberries. I'll just make these in the summer. Whatever.
I hope you are able to try some of these ideas or some other great ideas that I might not have come across on Pinterest. If you have any ideas from Pinterest that didn't make this list leave a comment. I love to hear from ya'll.
*Disclaimer: All ideas and photos do not belong to me. They are owned by their respectful owners. I just found these ideas via Pinterest.
Another month gone. I can't believe it. Not to mention it's almost the end of the year. But none the less, I liked things this month and a few greatly disliked things and I thought you should hear about them. Things that I Loved/Liked/Appreciated: SNL in general. I mentioned my new found love and appreciation for this show last month. And that love and appreciation is just continuing.
Rob Ford's shenanigans. Wait, what? Though it is so overexposed and I'm sick of hearing about it, laughing at other peoples' idiocy provides great entertainment.
Funny? Not really? Fine. (via Huffingtonpost.ca)
And the fact that a member of the SNL cast played him in a hilarious sketch made my week.
(via arts.nationalpost.com)
Revlon Super Lustrious Lipstick in #740 Certainly Red. I really like this colour because it's nice and red and certainly red. Haha. Punny. But it also has some pinkundertones so it doesn't wash out my very fair face. As well, it easily smudges which can be good and bad as I can blend it into my lips more so I can still wear it to school but it also means that it smudges all over my face quite nicely and gets easily rubbed off when eating and such.
My vacation that I took at the beginning of this month. It was just so lovely and I did a ton of shopping which you can see here.
Moisturization. 'Cause baby it's cold outside. And that means my skin is disgustingly dry, specifically in my face area. Ugh. So to counter this predicament I use Clean & Clear Morning Burst Moisturizer with SPF 15 on face and Body Shop Ginger Sparkle Hand Cream on the rest of me. Paramore's new album "Paramore". I know it came out in April, but I just got my hands on the album. "Still Into You" and "Fast in My Car" instantly became classics for me when the album first came out but as I have been listening to it on repeat for the last two weeks I can say that though I enjoy all of the songs on it, I particularly enjoy "Ain't It Fun", "Grow Up", "Last Hope", "Proof", "[One of Those] Crazy Girls", and "Be Alone". It has a bit of something for everyone who's single and under thirty.
Pinterest Christmas Everything. I've gone Christmas pinning nuts and have been this way for like two weeks or more. Early? Normally I would say yes, but this year, though I'm not quite ready for Christmas carols and specials yet. But I am preparing myself and starting planning my baking, crafts, gifts and my heart for the season. You can follow me on Pinterest here and you can follow my Christmas pinning madness here.
Speaking of Pinterest and Christmas, I'm really excited for my next blog post. It's going to be the best of the best ideas for Christmas that I've found Pinterest. It will be published around December first, hopefully. Make sure to check it out then.
Dislikes: Lady Gaga's SNL performance. Lady Gaga was a fabulous host, showed off her incredible voice and her unexpectedly good acting skills (as in I didn't know she could act until then) but her performance made me cringe. It was like a bad version of a Madonna performance. I don't know which was worse: her dance moves or the song she sang. I actually preferred her famously outrageous performances to this one. Though I did not mind the fact that it was a calm performance with a normal jumpsuit and long, flowing hair the song just made me want to cringe. If you feel the need to watch this, you can here.
I hope you all had a lovely November as did I. Cheers!
I have some issues with November. There, I said it. It is the most awkward month of the year.
You have your Halloween celebrations on the last day of October, recover from the sugar highs and whatever other influences you may or may not have been under the night before as you greet the first of November. Usually the first week or two of November aren't too bad. And then it all goes downhill. It starts getting frostier and crisper every morning. But the weather isn't the worst part. It's the awkwardness of having no holiday to look forward to (unless you're American). All you have to look forward to are the distant aspirations of the Christmas season.
Every other month has something to look forward to. January you might have the end of a semester and the beginning of a new one as well as Valentine's to look forward to. February there's Valentine's and the closeness of spring break and somewhat warmer weather on the horizon. March you have Easter, spring break and the start of the spring season. April may bring showers but there's also flowers, greenery coming back to life and such spring like things. May has more flowers, better weather and more signs of spring. June is the beginning of summer, the end of school for some and longer days. July and August are summer. September is the beginning of a new school year depending on where you live. You have a refreshed brain, hopes and prospects for the next year and a new found energy. October is the beginning of sweater weather. It's filled with Halloween, pumpkins, leaves and the last of the warm weather and longer days. But November is just cold but not snowing yet (at least where I live) and dark and cloudy and ugh.
Plus there's the early Christmas frenzy. Which is great, I've definitely started preparing for the holiday season, but there is a point when I don't want to be hearing every Christmas carol ever written on November the first. The holiday that's supposed to be joy ridden and heart warming is a holiday we're all sick of by December first. I get the corporation, let's make this holiday full of fake, buy-able joy part of Christmas. It obviously has been marketed very well and that's okay, but I'm sick of companies advertising it before Halloween.
November just sucks! If you have a reason that November has a reason not to be hated leave it in the comments. I'd love to hear from ya'll.
Yes, I'm going to pretend that I am a YouTuber and do a haul post.
Recently I went on vacation and took the opportunity to do some shopping and stock up on some winter essentials. In other words, I bought a lot of sweaters and cozy things. Some of the following items are not from my vacation but I recently bought them while I was in the city last.
While I was in the city last, I went thrifting and to a department store. At the thrift shop I picked up what I like to call my "Sitting in my room on Saturday night" sweater and a beautiful black cardigan that is not pictured. In other words, it's not the most flattering choice of clothing so I only wear it around the house. At the department store I bought a festive red lipstick.
Oatmeal coloured sweater- thrifted
Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in #740 Certainly Red
Next are my vacation finds:
First, I once again went thrifting where I found the softest sweaters imaginable. One of them being this white V-neck.
Then I bought a tight-fit, plum coloured top that is a cross between a sweater and a long sleeved top. I feel like this will be very nice for layering as well as for wearing on its own with a scarf that I also bought that is not pictured.
I also bought a very soft, woolen, short sleeved sweater. I have a red scarf and a grey long sleeve shirt that I think would be a great match with it.
Towards the end of my vacation I went to Forever 21 and H&M- two of my favourite stores.
At Forever 21 I found a pair of black skinny jeans that are so stretchy and I'm absolutely in love with them.
I also bought the most adorable headband to keep my ears warm on those windy days while I was there. It kind of makes me feel like Daisy from The Great Gatsby.
Then I made my way to H&M where I found this very versatile, sleeveless button down. Though it is very summer-y the colours are also very Christmas-y. I like wearing it with the white V-neck sweater over top to make it festive. I can also wear with with a blue or black cardigan and jeans. Also, in the summer I can go very Daisy-Duke with jean or blue cutoffs. I'm confident that it was a good $13 spent.
Also at H&M, I made a bit of a mistake with my purchases. I was holding a pair of black leggings in my hand when I noticed I could get a pair of leggings in a package for the same price. So, naturally I bought the pair of leggings. But once I was home and unpacking I realized the package actually said tights. Oh well, c'est la vie.
I'm very proud of my purchases (minus the tights) and I'm glad I got to share them with you. Cheers!
