Monthly Archives

April 2016

Things I'm Loving Right Now

My Favorite Music: Spring 2016

April 26, 2016

Hi everyone!  I’m really excited about today’s post because I get to share some music I’ve been loving for the past couple of months!  I love listening to music and spending time finding new artists and bands so keep reading to find out who I’ve been listening to!

UnknownThe first artist I want to talk about it Halsey.  Halsey is an electropop, American singer/songwriter and has been killing it, recently, at festivals and on tour.  You’ve probably heard of some of her songs, they’re all over the radio!  Her debut album, Badlands, was released in 2015 and is rightfully winning her crazy publicity.  My favorites from the album are Colors, Gasoline, and Hurricane – they’re so, so good.  Her sound is so unique and I love it!  She’s touring from now until August in the US, Canada, and the UK so definitely check to see if she’s coming to a venue near you.

Unknown-1The second artist I want to talk about is the band MisterWives!  I first heard about MisterWives when they performed at Madipalooza, a music festival James Madison University puts on every year.  They were the headliners of the festival and put on such a great show!  They perform with so much energy and heart that you can’t help but love them.  Their first album Reflections came out in 2014 and is still so relevant.  My favorite songs from that album are Hurricane, Queens, and Our Own House.  The personalities of everyone in the band comes out through their music and their album art is amazing as well!  Definitely check out their tour dates to see if you can go see them, they put on a show like no one else can!

The next thing I want to talk about is a Pandora station!  Lately, I’ve had to drive all around and have needed a station that I can just put on and not have to worry about skipping/changing the songs.  That has been the Dan + Shay Pandora station.  I’ve had this station for a while, so I’ve kind of molded it into my personalized, ideal country music playlist, but honestly, it wasn’t that bad from the beginning.  The artist they play are fantastic and it’s always up-to-date, so I definitely recommend checking this one out for long car rides or background music!

That’s all for today but I’m going to see Halsey perform at a festival in just a few weeks, so make sure you check back to see an upcoming post about my experience!  Thanks for reading! 🙂

 

Things I'm Loving Right Now

My 5 Favorite Daily Vloggers on YouTube

April 19, 2016

Hello and welcome back to my blog!  Today I’m going to be talking about one of my absolute favorite media platforms; YouTube!  Lately, I’ve found myself watching videos on YouTube more and more and it’s because of what YouTubers call “daily vlogs”!  Basically, having a “vlog” channel means that you have a channel where you post daily video blogs!  They can range from being five minutes long to being thirty minutes long and showcase everything from going to the doctor to walking your first red carpet.  Whatever the case may be, I’m a bit obsessed and I wanted to share who my favorite people to watch are!

Screen Shot 2016-04-18 at 12.58.01 PMThe first channel I want to talk about is Ellie and Jared’s channel.  They are a young, Utah-based couple who have two adorable little boys, Jackson and Calvin.  I believe they’ve been daily vlogging for a couple years now, but I’ve only been watching for the past ten months or so.  Just in the time I’ve been watching them, I have already fallen in love with the way they are rooted in family and how they adore their little boys.  They show themselves doing day-to-day activities and that might seem boring, but watch just a couple videos and you’ll understand why their subscriber count is growing by the minute.  They are definitely my favorite YouTube family!

Screen Shot 2016-04-18 at 12.58.32 PMThe second channel I want to share is the SacconeJoly’s channel.  This shows another couple, Anna and Jonathan, who have two children, named Emelia and Eduardo, and have a third one on the way!  Just in the time I’ve been watching them, they’ve moved from Ireland to the U.K. and had another kid (Eduardo)!  It’s basically the same set up that Ellie and Jared’s channel is based on but it’s exciting to experience the way a family lives in a different country.  They are constantly traveling to London for meetings and such and it’s fun to keep up with their day-to-day life, even if it’s just driving Emelia to preschool!

Screen Shot 2016-04-18 at 12.58.54 PMThe third channel I’m excited to share is Aspyn and Parker’s channel.  I found out about this channel because Aspyn has a very successful beauty/lifestyle channel where she does clothing hauls and makeup tutorials!  Aspyn and Parker recently got married (watch their wedding video, so cute!) and are now traveling the world and doing so many other fun things!  It’s cool to be able to watch their vlogs and keep up with their lives because they’re the same age as me, so it’s interesting to see what people my age are doing across the country!

Screen Shot 2016-04-18 at 12.59.19 PMMy fourth favorite channel is Alex and Michael.  Alex is another one who also has a successful beauty/lifestyle channel and watching her videos there lead me to this channel! In their videos, you can really see how normal of a life they live in Tennessee.  They are very relatable and you get to see their cute puppy, Colby, every once in a while!  With everything they’ve got going on in their lives, it will be exciting to see what they’ll do next!

Screen Shot 2016-04-18 at 12.59.39 PMThe last channel I have to share with you today is Zoella’s vlog channel.  Zoella is a very, very well known YouTuber, but most people don’t know she has a vlog channel in addition to her main channel!  She doesn’t vlog everyday, but when she does, it’s sure worth it!  She really lets you in to her life and her home and she tells you (secretly) about a lot of the projects she’s working on and it makes you feel like you’re a part of the process!  She’s also been very open about her struggle with anxiety, which has helped a lot of people, and she makes you feel like she’s talking to a friend when, really, she’s talking to a camera.  I definitely recommend checking out her channel!

Those are my 5 favorite YouTubers of the moment, I hope you enjoyed!  Please let me know in the comments if we have any of the same favorites or if you have any favorites of your own!

College How To

How To: Plan a Formal Event in College

April 12, 2016

Welcome back!  Today’s post is going to be all about planning a formal event when you’re in college, whether it be for a sorority or fraternity or campus club!  Over the course of this semester, I have been a part of planning my sorority’s spring Formal, and I’m going to share the steps we went through to make it the best it could be!

The first thing my committee and I needed to decide was the location.  In the past, my sorority has had our Formal at churches (we’re a Christian sorority), at banquet halls, many different places!  Since our budget this year was very small, we wanted to keep it on campus since booking a banquet room in a James Madison building (for a student) is free.  After deciding this, we could go forward with planning the theme!

We discussed a lot of different themes but eventually decided on a carnival theme!  Usually Formal is more, ya know, formal, but we wanted to make it more interactive this time around.  We didn’t have a lot of money given to our committee to throw the event, so we got most of our decorations from Hobby Lobby, Michaels, and Dollar General!  Fortunately for us, most of the places we went had actual sections set aside for carnival parties!!

We decided the main things we wanted to have were games and a space designated for pictures.  For games, we bought supplies for a can toss, corn hole, and a balloon pop – all typical things you would see at a carnival!  None of these were difficult to put together and they ended up being so, so fun.  For the balloon pop, we filled each balloon with confetti so, when it was popped, confetti burst out!  As far as the photo space, we bought two big rolls of red and blue carnival tickets and hung strips of 40 tickets to make a backdrop.  After that, we hung a multi-colored banner on top to add some more color!  We included props, such as clown noses and a boa, on the side so everyone could get some silly pictures too!

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Our photo backdrop with some of our props we made!

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Of course, we had more things like balloons and a popcorn stand and jolly rancher center pieces (for the tables) but those were the main decorations that made up our party!  Even though it was stressful envisioning everything, we had a blast putting this together.  I hope this post helped with your future party planning and I’ll talk to you next week!

 

College

What I Eat In a Day: College Edition

April 5, 2016

Hi everyone!  This week’s post is going to be a little bit different.  Lately, I’ve been really into reading blogs and watching videos about what different people eat in their day.  Everyone is in a different situation, whether you work a 9-5 job or are constantly traveling!  Being in college, I thought it would be interesting to document everything I eat and see what areas I need to improve in and what areas I’m doing well in!  Keep reading to see how I’m doing!

My classes begin pretty early in the day; I have an 8am two times a week and a 9am three times a week, so I always need to make sure I have breakfast before heading out the door!  Lately, I’ve been loving the Dannon Light & Fit Protein Smoothies (they’re more like yogurt smoothies than protein shakes).  I’ve been buying the strawberry and strawberry banana flavors and they are both so delicious!  It’s nice to be able to quickly grab something on my way out the door that will keep me full for a couple hours before I have the chance to eat something else.  Another breakfast option for when I have more time is avocado toast.  Recently, people have been going crazy about avocado toast and they’re completely justified in doing so – it’s amazing!  All you have to do is toast a piece of bread and slice up an avocado and layer it on top!  I like to add pepper on the top of mine for some more flavor but you can choose whatever spices you like!

I usually eat lunch pretty early, around 11 or so, and, if I’m being honest, I always go for a sandwich or wrap.  At my university, we have a make-your-own sandwich place and it’s great!  My favorite combination is tuna on a whole wheat wrap with lettuce and tomatoes!  It’s fairly healthy because of the protein and great for keeping me full until my classes for the day are over.

As far as snacks, I always, always, always keep Wheat Thins and granola bars stocked in my kitchen.  Both of these snack options aren’t awful for you and are good for giving the energy boost you’re looking for!  My favorite bars are Nature Valley Oat & Honey bars and Quaker Chewy Granola bars.  Both are also easy to stash in your bag in case you get hungry on the go!  Another tip for the Wheat Thins… If you feel like you need a little something extra, try dipping them in Nutella – so yummy!

My dinner schedule always changes.  Some days I eat at 5 and some days I eat at 8, it all depends on what I have going on that day.  I really love switching it up all the time for dinner because, at least at James Madison, there are a ton of different food options to choose from!  My go-to dinners are pasta and salads.  I usually get marinara sauce on my pasta instead of alfredo sauce, so that saves me a ton of calories!  As far as salads go, I usually prefer a chicken caesar salad, or a mandarin orange salad.  Both are really yummy and are healthier than a lot of other options!

That about wraps it up for my “What I Eat In A Day” post!  Thank you so much for reading and let me know in the comments foods that you love to eat!  Make sure to come back next Tuesday for another post!! 🙂