This is just gonna be a really quick post. I'm in the car right now on the way to my Grandparent's farm. Look at the view I have out my window!!
This is my view from one side.
And here are some not so clear pictures of the rainbow on the other side.
I love the beauty in the sky tonight. The sun is setting. Lightning is occasionally flashing and there's a rainbow! I know I don't take enough time to appreciate the beauty of the world around me. I'm definitely going to try more!
I hope everyone is having an incredible weekend. I know I certainly am. I'll do a post later with the nice photos I've been taking. The earlier ones are from my iPhone.
I'm done exams! It feels amazing; I feel like the summer is a blank canvas and I get to choose what paint goes on it. Of course, one of my first official acts of summer was to binge watch Chuck on Netflix. Then I just slept. And then I went shopping today and bought two dresses which I am very happy about.
But one of the main things that really kicked off the summer for me was the release of Ed Sheeran's new album 'X'. I really, really like Ed Sheeran. He's a fantasticimagicorical songwriter, I love his voice and he's amazing on the guitar. His looks aren't really part of my Sheeran love because he looks too much like my brother. And that's just... weird.
I really love his new album so I thought I would post a link to my favourite songs off of it and then give a little spiel about them. Kinda sorta reviewish I guess? I won't do all of them because, let's be real, that would be an INSANELY long post. I think I have six I'm gonna put down here? I think.
So here are my favourites in the order they appear on the track list.
Don't
'Don't' is a power song. I like it enough that it makes this list but not enough that it's in the top like... five I guess. I love the rhythm of this song and the honesty of his lyrics. The PG version of this song is about him meeting this girl who he ends up caring about more than he thought he would and the girl played him and then left him for someone else. The only complaint I have about this song is that he has completely censored some of the lyrics. I didn't really like that because not only does it not make sense (Don't ____ with my love), but I thought it made the lyrics less powerful.
Photograph
'Photograph' is a beautiful love song. This is one of my favourite things about Ed Sheeran. When he writes love songs, they aren't monotonous or fake feeling like so much of today's pop music. The concept of this song is that love can hurt sometimes, but it can also heal. We need to keep holding on to love, even when it hurts. In this song, he and this girl are preserving their love in a photograph, holding it new and fresh. Again, the lyrics are beautiful, the guitar is beautiful, just beautiful all around.
Thinking Out Loud
I'm a sucker for the songs that talk about love being more than a fling or a "summer love" or a temporary thing. This song is in my top three. It's about him being in love with this girl and looking at their future when her "memory fades" and his "hair is all but gone" and saying that he falls in love with her more and more everyday. Both of my parents have commented that this song sounds a little bit like "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay".
Afire Love
This is hands down my favourite song off this album. It's incredibly sad and incredibly beautiful. The premise of this song is Ed as a child looking at his Grandfather who has Alzheimer's and dies. His father is trying to comfort him, telling him that it's not his fault that his Grandfather doesn't know his face. Then Ed remembers that his Grandma would tell him about when his Grandfather remembered her and the love that he showed her. If you don't listen to any other song on this list, listen to this one! It's beautiful.
Take It Back
Take It Back is a basically an acoustic rap of Ed's life. I don't know if something can be acoustically rap... he's rapping about his life while playing guitar. I just find this song very fascinating, I love looking at people's lives. And I love the literary devices in these lyrics (sorry! I know that sounds academic), it's an amazing piece of work from an English lover's perspective. Although I totally don't get the chorus lyrics, they just don't seem to match the rest of the song.
I See Fire
Not only does this song have a Celtic feel (I'm almost positive word to use there), not only is it by Ed Sheeran, but it was written for the Hobbit, which is part of the greatest series ever written. I feel like I've just completely summed up this song. I don't know what else to say.
So there you have it! I hope you've enjoyed this post, and even if you didn't, I loved going back and listening to all my favourites to collect my thoughts on them.
Oh! I've recently come into possession of some old records so expect a DIY coming soon, probably as soon as I figure out what to do with them. I'm gonna hang some on my wall but I'm thinking I'm gonna try and make one into a clock or try to do one of those neat bowl things.
Ta ta for now!
Pictures of the Day
Here! Have a collection of funny pictures.
I've recently taken the first step into DIY room decorating and thought I would share with you one of the projects I did in case anyone else out there is as stumped for ideas as I am and wants some easy projects.
I present to you - The Word Collage Canvas!
You'll need:
- A canvas (any size will do)
- Old magazines that you're willing to cut up and/or words printed off from the computer in different fonts
- Mod Podge (easily make this with 1/2 glue and 1/4 cup water shake before using)
- A paintbrush
- Scissors (I actually just had to google how to spell this)
- A color of paint you like
Instructional Part
Take an old or new canvas and paint a perimeter of 1-2 inches in whatever colour paint you want. You can paint it thoroughly or paint it so some of the original colour shows through. I'v done the latter because I wanted kind of a messy look to this.
Get out your stack of magazines (I have quite a few).
I found this really old one and felt kind of bad about cutting it up, but then I flipped through it and it turns out that someone had already taken scissors to it.
Cut out a whole bunch of words; you're going to want between 20 and 40 words. In my opinion, it looks really cool if you have different colours, fonts and sizes. You'll want to leave a wide border around the actual words because all of your words have to fit together on the canvas and this way you'll have more to work with. I've used words here, but I'm assuming that it would work just as well with pictures.
This part's a bit like Tetris. All of your words have to fit together so you can't see the canvas. I recommend starting at the top and working your way down, adding words as you go. Also, it's your choice whether you want to have your words line up on the sides or not. I've chosen to have them kind of staggered because, as previously stated, I wanted a messier look. Oh! And it works better if you paint your canvas with the glue mixture, then stick the words on, instead putting it on each individual word.
After you've added all of your words, apply a coat of your glue mixture on top of all your words. *Important* Make sure that the words are firmly stuck to the canvas! Wait for the glue to dry before applying a top coat or the paper will bunch and wrinkle.
The finished project!
So there you go! Hope you got some ideas or want to try it yourself. If you do try this, comment with a picture or something so I can see it pretty please? :) If I end up doing more mini-ish projects over the summer, would you guys be interested in seeing more of these types of posts?
Video/Song/Thing of the Day
Epic Rap Battles of History - Skrillex vs Mozart
Soooo, I really like these videos. :) I think they're really creative and funny and often have fairly decent rappers. This one is probably my favourite out of the series, although they have some other great ones like Miley Cyrus vs Joan of Arc, Doctor Who vs Doc Brown and Michael Jackson vs Elvis. Enjoy!
So you may have noticed the different background and profile picture.
That's because it's practically summer (11 days, 16 hours and 27 minutes as I write this)!!!! Yay!!!
I thought the old set of photos looked a bit wintery and blue-y and that didn't match the lovely weather outside. The picture of me is actually from two summers ago because it's the only one I had of me in summer without my face showing. I figured I could blur my face out but then I'd look like one of the people from The Idiot's Lantern. And as much as I love Doctor Who, I don't really aspire to have a face without a face. That didn't make sense... a head without a face. That's what I meant.
And I'm redecorating my room too! I've printed off a whole bunch of pictures of my friends, family and I and am going to put them up on my wall. I haven't decided whether I'm going to do a big collage type thing...
or a "Story Of My Life" inspired clothes line, picture hanging... thing.
I painted my room back in the winter a blue-y, green-y colour, which I really like, but because I'm a broke high school student, I didn't have money to decorate.
I also want to get some fairy lights/cool paper lantern style lights on a string. I have no idea where to look though. Any ideas? The closest I'm coming is christmas lights, and those had a huge, green string.
These also look really cool.
I'm trying to find some DIY sites or blogs cause I think DIY stuff is cool and I'd like to not go completely broke. Any recommendations?
It isn't even funny how much I'm looking forward to summer. I can't wait to do all of the things I wanted to do during the school year but didn't have time to. I guess you could say I'm looking forward to my life undergoing a summer makeover too. I think I've taken A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy out of the library about four times and only gotten half way through it before I had to return it. And I bought a whole bunch of books I'd never read before at a book sale and haven't read those either.
Oh and I can't wait to write more songs! I think I've only written like three this past semester, which is really sad. My notebook pages are waiting....
And I've decided that instead of trying to get a tan this summer, I'm going to try and win the award of the whitest person on the beach. Tans never work well with me. I go red, then white, then red, then white. I'm very patriotic.
Can we just skip to the end of June 23rd now please?
Quote of the Day
(This is quite possibly my favourite quote of all time)
“You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching, Love like you'll never be hurt, Sing like there's nobody listening, And live like it's heaven on earth.” - William W. Purkey
I'm stopping Alphabet soup. It's just too limiting. I have days when I'm like, "Oh! I really want to write about this!" And then I go to write and realize, "Crap, I can't because it doesn't start with the letter I'm on." So good bye alphabet soup. It was nice knowing you but you were just too demanding. I will leave you and your letterness to some other person.
But I'm not really that sad because now I can write about whatever the heck I want! And that's a nice feeling.
And I'm happy right now because I did pretty well at my voice recital today. I sang "I See the Light" from Tangled, which is a great song, but I'm just not in a lovely dovey place right now. So I may have been slightly freaking out about how on earth I was going to be able to pretend to sing to a guy and not want to, I dunno, strangle him.
But I did it! :D *Happy dance*
My singing teacher even came up afterwards and told me that she cried and thought my performance was one of the most emotionally moving ones of the day.
I swear I cried tears of relief on the car ride home. That or it was the nervous sweat that was running down my forehead.
Either way, I'm happy that's over and I did pretty well and now tomorrow, I'm going to start singing one of my own songs with my singing teacher!
Hope you amazing people have a great week and good luck to those finishing up final projects and starting exams! I'll talk to you all soon!
I think that there should be a unique sign off for the internet, because "talk to you soon" doesn't work. You're not actually talking. "Blog to you soon"? "Write you soon"? "Communicate through the written language soon"? I dunno, something. :P
Ladies and Gentlemen, We interrupt your regularly scheduled Alphabet Soup to bring you this special post!
I have been nominated for the Liebster Award! Yay! Thank you to Freya from A Teenager's Guide to the Galaxy for nominating me! :) The Rules (cause everything has to have some sort of rules to work properly)
1. Link the blogger that nominated you 2. Answer the 11 questions they have written for you 3. Give 11 random facts about yourself 4. Nominate other bloggers with under 200 followers who you think deserve the award 5. Post 11 questions for your nominees Freya's Questions 1. If you could be any character from a book, who would you be, and why? No joke, I spent an hour trying to find an answer to this question. I think I have finally concluded that I would be Anne Shirley. There are a few reasons I'd like to be her. She's creative, imaginative, loyal, kind and competitive. She has people who love her and really care about her: Marilla and Matthew, Diana, Ms. Stacy, and Gilbert. Her love story is pretty neat. She lived her life fully and ended up being very happy, even though she had many reasons to be sad. She got to live out some of her dreams. She might not have been part of an epic adventure, but she had an amazing, wonderful life. 2. What is your favourite meal? BBB. Bacon, Bagel Breakfast. My family has started this tradition where once a month, we buy like two pounds of bacon, bunch of bagels and lots of different types of fruit and have a big breakfast. Or a chicken burger from McDonald's with fries. I know that sounds incredibly gross but I actually love them. 3. What would you do if you won the lottery? Part of it I would donate to a charity. Part of it I would use to travel. Part of it I would set aside for savings and my future, whatever that entails. 4. Where is your favourite place? My Grandparent's farm. They're currently selling it though. :( Which means I'll have to find a new favourite place soon. 5. If you could travel to any country, where would you go? Australia or England. 6. What is your favourite thing about summer? Gahh! Such a hard question! Probably the socialness of it all. I see my friends much more in the summer and do so many more things than throughout the year and I love it. 7. Why did you start blogging? I started blogging for a few reasons. The one of the main reasons however was that I wanted to have a place where no one knew me where I could be myself. No one would tell me that I was acting immature when I fan-girled. No one could tell me I wasn't being myself (an academic, driven, practical, always smiling good girl in soooo many people's eyes). I could be whoever I wanted to be and people would accept me as who I actually was. Haha, that sounded quite emosh! Another main reason was that I had heard a lot about the "blogosphere" and I wanted to be part of it! I wanted to "meet" people who had similar interests and thought it would be really cool to join a community, which it is. :) 8. What was your favourite film as a kid? Winnie the Pooh!! I loved Tigger. I have a giant stuffed Tigger on my bed. 9. Do you prefer the city or the countryside? Yet another hard question. I love the city because it's super diverse and I love the times when I get to spend the day there. But then I love the countryside because it's really peaceful. I love being able to hear nothing but the birds and the wind in the trees. I think I'm going to have to go with countryside. I love the city, but I'd never want to live there permanently; I'd always come back to the country. 10. How would your perfect weekend go? I don't know if everyone counts Friday evening as a weekend, but I'm counting it here. :) Friday night, I'd do something with maybe eightish friends? Movie, Laser Quest, just hang out, something like that. Saturday, I'd sleep in late. I'd spend the afternoon reading, songwriting/playing guitar/singing and hanging out with family. Saturday evening, we'd have family friends over and play boardgames (preferably Settlers of Catan) and eat as much junk food as humanly possible. Sleep in Sunday morning, have a friend over in the afternoon, then spend the evening Netflix binging or Tumblring, basically being a bum. 11. What is your favourite personality trait? In others it's probably loyalty. In myself, creativity. 11 Random Facts About Me - I have a gecko named Sandi. - I hate tomatoes. - My favourite season is fall. - I have never read Harry Potter or seen the movies. - When I was younger, my cousins and I made up a secret language called 'Martin Launge (our attempt at spelling Martian Language) with over 200 words. We still talk to each other in it sometimes. - My favourite t-shirt is a brown box cut t-shirt that says Boston on it. - I am 5' 2", the shortest out of all my friends. - I've kept a journal since I was seven. - I love the rain with a passion. - Connor Franta and Superwoman are currently my two favourite youtubers. - I don't think I'd be able to live without music. Nominees Lyn from LynLovesWolves Andrea from Sempiternal Reader Rhiannon from A Little Red Notebook My Questions - If money wasn't an object, what would you do? - What is your favourite book and why? - If you could spend the day with anyone (has to be a real person) throughout all of history, what would you do and what would you talk about? - Sweet or savoury? - What five songs would be on the soundtrack to your life? - (I'm stealing Freya's here ^^) Why did you start blogging? - If you could be invisible for one day, what would you do? - What is your favourite thing to do with friends? - Most embarrassing childhood moment? - If you could live in any fictional universe, what would it be and why? - Fashion or comfort?
I could do the whole, "I'm sorry I haven't blogged recently" but I don't really think anyone really wants to read that. You live a life, you know things get busy at times.
So! How is everyone doing? How is everyone's start of June? Mine has been hectic to be totally honest. I have all of my end of semester projects due in the next week and then exams two weeks after that and then a voice recital on Sunday and then work etcetera, etcetera.
I dunno, it seems like every June is like this: so close to summer and freedom and sleep and fun, yet so far. These next three weeks are some of the longest in the whole year.
Why does one of the months with the nicest weather have to be the craziest and slowest? That sounds like a bit of an oxymoron.... :P It is though! I have so much stuff going on, yet every day feels like a week. It's messed up.
But, but, but. T'is not all bad. The weather is lovely. I was at Wonderland yesterday. For those of you who have no idea what Wonderland is, it's a big, big amusement (amusement? is that what the right word is there? I feel like it is...) park and it's amazing. I went with a group of about ten friends and it was a lot of fun. It rained for part of the day which shut down some rides, but it also cleared out most of the park which meant there were almost no line ups! I didn't get burnt, which is a miracle for me. I swear, I am part snowman. And I ended up buying a season's pass so I can go back again and not have to pay a bazillion every time I go!
Although, in our group, we have two... evolving couples? And they're in that stage where neither of them really know that they like each other but they're so lovey dovey all the time that you wonder just how stupid they really are. They frustrate me to bits. I mean, I get you like each other. I get you think that you've found your soul mate at fifteen, but please! Must we do the whole Buttercup and Wesley, Jack and Rose, Noah and Allie thing?
Anyways. I hope you've enjoyed my random ramble about the month of June. I hope you're all having a wonderful week and sleeping well and eating your greens and having fun etcetera etcetera.
Ta ta for now!
Song of the Day
I love this song and I love this video and it's just so amazing. I love the sound, I love the storyline, I love Daughtry. It's just a lot of love going on here. Go ahead and give it a watch! :)
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