New Book // Document Your Life : A Journal

Document Your Life : A Journal by Ashlee Craft

The Rules? There are no rules. None here. The concept? Write down five things every day that happened to you or that you thought or decided or felt. You don’t have to write five things if you don’t want to. Write one thing. Write outside the lines & write twenty things. Tape pieces of paper inside & write a whole novel about a day. Scribble on the pages & color outside the lines. Keep track of the awesome adventure that is your life, as it unfolds, with all of its confusing beauty & evocative nuances & small lovable moments. Look back on your past & research what you did today a year ago & write about that. Start where you are in the year or start over. Backtrack, go forward. Start where you are. Your story is important & your unique & awesome adventure is unfolding exactly as it should.

Publish Date // September 8, 2015
Paperback 180 Pages
Genre //
Non-Fiction – Journals

Paperback

Playlist // 10 Most Underrated Queen Songs

Top 10 Most Underrated Queen Songs by Ashlee Craft // Playlists

Listen to playlist on YouTube

I discovered Queen’s music when I was 17. I saw the song Bohemian Rhapsody on a list of best classic rock songs & I’d remembered hearing it years prior, so I decided to give it a listen (I listened to the live version at Wembley, then the album version). I fell in love with Queen right then & there. Then I listened to Somebody To Love, & watched the music video, & heard all their soaring harmonies, & I was hooked. I began listening to as much Queen music as possible. I’ve probably heard all their albums in their entireties at least a few times each, & listened to some individual songs about a million times. I’m not quite as obsessed with Queen as I used to be, but they are definitely still one of my very favorite bands.

One thing I noticed was that there are lots of Queen songs that are very much a part of popular culture, songs that people hear on the radio or in supermarkets or in movies & commercials when they’re growing up but maybe never know who the artist is. Songs like Bohemian Rhapsody, Somebody To Love, We Will Rock You, & Another Bites the Dust. Songs that everybody knows.

But hidden among their awesome popular songs are an incredible number of awesome lesser-known gems. These songs are seriously fantastic & just as good, if not better, in some cases, than their popular songs, & are filled with brilliant & moving harmonies, Brian May’s soaring & evocative guitar solos, epic instrumentation, Freddie Mercury’s unique & expressive voice, & let’s not forget about the perfect textbook examples of fantastic rhythm instrumentation by John Deacon & Roger Taylor.

Note : it’s admittedly really hard to narrow it down to only 10 songs, so at some point I will inevitably end up making ANOTHER list of more awesome-but-more-obscure Queen songs.

Here are the songs :

1. Spread Your Wings (News of the World, 1977)

2. March of the Black Queen (Queen II, 1974)

3. You & I (A Day at the Races, 1976)

4. Doing Alright (Queen, 1973)

5. Liar (Queen, 1973)

6. Brighton Rock (Sheer Heart Attack, 1974)

7. Long Away (A Day at the Races, 1976)

8. The Hero (Flash Gordon Soundtrack, 1980)

9. Breakthru (The Miracle, 1989)

10. Cool Cat (Hot Space, 1982)

My Favorite Things : September 3, 2015

Awesome things from September 2015.

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links to products that I recommend. When you click on an affiliate link to a product on an external website, I will recieve compensation if you buy something. Thank you for your support.

Owl Necklace by Ashlee Craft

LISTEN

You And I – Queen. I’ve always loved this song & recently rediscovered it. The feel of this song is really great, & it’s one of the most underrated Queen songs. I remember walking around my house a few years back, listening to this song loudly through earbuds.

End Of The Line – Traveling Wilburys. It’s alright. It’s all alright. Whatever you want to do, it’s alright.

Just What I Needed – The Cars. Perfect song feel + great harmonies + evocative lyrics + reminds me of good times. For when you find what you’ve been looking for all along, for when you finally know you’re in the right place.

EAT

Lays Dill Pickle potato chips. They are probably my favorite flavor of chip right now. My dad thinks they taste weird but I personally find them good & interesting. Now thinking about it, next time I buy some, I’d love to dip them in ranch.

Emerald Dill Pickle cashews. Are you seeing a theme of my current obsession with pickle flavored snacks? Good, because there is. That, along with my love of putting mayonnaise & hot sauce on a variety of foods, & anything chili lime flavored. Back to the dill pickle cashews, they have enough pickle flavor but not to the point that you can’t taste the cashews, or that it’s overpowering. I definitely want to try more flavors of Emerald nuts.

Granny Smith apples. A lot of kinds of apples taste similar to me, & while I enjoy them, Granny Smiths have a super-great flavor & don’t cost too much per pound. When I buy apples, I always buy apples individually as opposed to in a bag, because I find the apples to be fresher & less bruised, & generally taste better. Apples are great because they’re so easy to wash off & throw in a sandwich bag for a nice addition to lunch at work.

READ

★ Popular Mechanics MagazineI just subscribed to this because I wanted a good magazine about cars & technology & fixing stuff, etc, & when I saw it on Amazon for a $5 one year subscription, I was thrilled. I got the first issue the other day & haven’t really got a chance to read much of it, but from what I’ve read so far, IT IS EXACTLY WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR. I am only a few pages into it & I’ve already learned so much. It seems to have information on so many interesting topics.

To be honest, I’ve probably read less books this year than any other year of my life. This  is a fact that I’m ashamed of, & really am going to change in the near future. I used to always have my library card maxed out with books on pretty much every topic, & would read several books (depending on length) per week, or at the very least, there was always something I was reading. Unfortunately, as my schedule got busier, I spent less & less time reading. But the thing is, I really really love reading, & love learning / hearing interesting ideas + stories even more. So, my goal? Get back into reading (at least) one book a week, EVERY SINGLE WEEK. I want to get back into that habit, because it feels good to read a lot.

WATCH

This video of BABY SLOTHS IN A BUCKET. I REALLY REALLY WANT A BUCKET OF BABY SLOTHS TO HUG NOW.

WEAR

Clear heeled sparkly jelly shoes. I bought these on Amazon. They are very comfortable, I can actually run in them pretty well (!), & they were a great price. I love them & they’re versatile & make any outfit a little more sparkly. The size I bought was what I expected it to be, maybe a tiny bit on the loose side, but still fit well. The first day I wore them I did a lot of shopping & the shoes didn’t rub my feet at all. Also, they’re sparkly.

Dip-dyed red hair. I love how this looks on me, & I love the boldness of red hair. You can read about how I did it here.

Pearl earrings, because they’re probably the most versatile design of earring. They can look elegant & bold or simple & understated, depending on what you wear along with them. Because I have double piercings in each ear lobe, I like wearing two different sizes of pearl earrings at the same time, or wearing pearl earrings in one piercing & something more colorful & bold in the second.

TO DO

★ Making a goal list at the beginning of each week & highlighting each thing when I accomplish it. I will write an article detailing my process soon, but making a weekly goal list & putting whatever I don’t accomplish one week onto next week’s list until I accomplish it has been helpful for me!

THINGS 

★ “You are not stuck where you are unless you decide to be.” – Wayne Dyer. Comfort. No matter how deep the trench you fell into or dug yourself into or thought was where you wanted to be might seem, it is up to you how free you are. Only up to you, all up to you. You are not stuck anywhere.