My Favorite Things, December 4, 2015

Sunset Rose // My Favorite Things, December 4, 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. If I recommend something though, it is because I really do like it. Thank you for your support.

 

LISTEN

★ I Spy by Mikhael Paskalev. LET ME SAY HOW MUCH I LOVE THIS SONG. This is one of those songs that just gives you a music epiphany. That makes shivers run down your spine & makes your ears feel bliss. I can’t really even put its brilliance & ebullience & magic into words. I love how it starts out sounding kind of lo-fi like it’s playing on a record in a room in your house. I love how it suddenly gets powerful & passionate when all the other instruments come in. I love the part where everyone is singing the part about “lost at sea” & the reverb at this part. Pure, pure magic.

★ Bulletproof by La Roux. This is the song I am playing on repeat & have been ever since I first heard it. I was creeping on YouTube looking for new music & found this song via the recommended video section of a Marina & The Diamonds song. It’s my go-to feel good song right now. I love everything about it. The bouncing, active, futuristic synth feel of it, the fierce lyrics, don’t-bring-me-down message, & the overall feel of it.  Also, the music video is so awesome, & reminds me a little of David Bowie’s work.

★ Blue Moon by Beck. I heard this song on the radio & immediately wanted to know what song it was. It has a driving, dreamy sound to it that made me fall in love with it & all its bittersweet renditions of love.

★ Confident by Demi Lovato. A badass song. Confidence is the key, & if you’re not confident yet, then I am a firm believer in faking it ’till you make it. Great for practicing your confidence walk to, posing in front of the mirror, or dancing to.

Safe & Sound by Capitol Cities. “I know that we’ll be safe & sound.” I love the bouncing & warm & synthy sound of this song. I find it a feel-good, comforting song.

 

EAT

Odwalla Superfood Drink. It has apples, peaches, strawberries, bananas, mango, spirulina, & kale. What more can you ask for? KALE. It tastes good, & tastes more fruit-based than greens-based, but it still has that little bit of hearty earthiness that more greens-based drinks provide. Also, it comes in bulk, which saves money. I like veggie smoothies like this because they make it easy for me to get my daily servings of vegetables in even if I’m busy.

Better Than Bullion Organic Vegetable Base. A recent major-fave of mine. I make a package of plain ramen noodles & when they’re done, I dissolve some of this in hot water & pour it over the noodles. It tastes exactly like regular ramen noodles, if regular ramen noodles’ flavoring was both organic & vegetarian. I love this stuff.

CHEESY PRETZELS. Since I discovered these, they fit into the category of foods that I always want to keep around in my house. They have a great cheese flavor, the right amount of saltiness, & as an added bonus, you get a collection of cheese dust stuck to your fingers to lick off when you’re done eating the pretzels. I love these things.

 

READ

Am I Really Happy Every Single Day? A few great tips on how you can make your life into the awesomeness that it can be.

The Importance of PlayEven though you might be busy/stressed/bored/an adult/etc, play is still important.

 

WATCH

★ 13 Sandwiches From Around the World. These look SO GOOD & made me want to create a whole bunch of new, weird sandwiches, as well as try all the sandwiches in this video.

Baby Owls Blinking. That’s all you need to know. They are so fuzzy.

 

WEAR

★ Flannel Shirts. I own a pink flannel shirt & a red flannel shirt. They look rugged & wintery & woodsy, & I typically roll up the sleeves. Also, flannel shirts are cozy for the winter, as well as very comfortable.

★ Combat Boots. They look badass, & you can wear them with pretty much any outfit to make it look even more awesome. Jeans & a t-shirt? Badass. Rugged pants & flannel? Badass. Frilly pink dress & a hair ribbon? Badass. They go with everything, last a long time if you get good ones, & can be worn at all times of the year. Kind of like good ol’ Converse. Both are essentials, as well as versitle classics.

★ Photo Print Socks. I adore my photo print socks mostly because (a) they look cool, & (b) they look really cool inside my clear glitter jelly shoes. I only own a pair of strawberry-print ones currently, but I would like to own lots of pairs of them, especially ones with pizza, doughnuts, & probably ones with pineapples & animals too.

 

TO DO

Make Perfect Corners On a Bed Sheet. I did this last time I changed my sheets & it looked beautiful. I never used to use a flat sheet but now I do, so with that comes the necessary education of making it look really nice.

Unplug From the Internet with Help From Rookie Mag. I love these articles about doing Real Things in Real Life. The Internet is great, but you shouldn’t live there.

 

THINGS 

★ Nothing is worth it if you aren’t happy. Doesn’t matter what accolades or prestige it has, or whether it’s what you’re “supposed” to do. You gotta live life on your own terms, & as long as you aren’t hurting anybody, go full speed ahead towards the things that really make you happy, & shun & push away anything that doesn’t.

 

NEW AWESOME THINGS

Issue 7 of Ashlee Craft / Assemblage has been released!

I had a great Thanksgiving. I had the day off, so I sat around the house & worked on my upcoming poetry book & the novel I am currently working on. I ate turkey, vegetarian turkey cutlets, & lots of great side dishes, as well as pecan pie. Then, my family watched The Santa Clause, which is a holiday tradition of ours for us to watch it sometime during the holiday season. It was a fun & relaxing day.

My veggie tray meal as a snack on Thanksgiving afternoon.

(above) My veggie tray meal as a snack on Thanksgiving afternoon.

Thanksgiving dinner!

Thanksgiving dinner!

★ More Christmas posts will be coming soon! This means coloring pages like the Thanksgiving ones I made, & hopefully soon some lists of cool things to buy for people you know.

 

My Favorite Things : October 27, 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 receive compensation if you buy something. Thank you for your support.

LISTEN

★ Walk On – U2I love this song for so many reasons, but probably my favorite line in the song? “What you got, they can’t steal it. No they can’t even feel it.” They can’t take anything away from you. They cannot confine you. You can leave them behind. You are not trapped.

★ Sweet Thing – Van MorrisonA beautiful epiphany in a song. The multi-layered instrumentation is phenomenal & magical & perfect. Soaring flutes. The tender melody & lyrics. Ebullient guitar. One of my all time favorite songs.

★ You Still Believe In Me – The Beach BoysThe comforting knowledge that even after everything that has happened or will happen, that there is a constant person who has your back & will believe in you, no matter what.

★ Crowded House. I started listening to more Crowded House recently. The song that made me start loving their music was Archer’s Arrows (which is a phenomenal & fantastic song). Then I heard Don’t Dream It’s Over (see below), & fell in love with that too. I haven’t heard that many songs of theirs yet, but I’ve liked what I’ve heard so far. Their songs are very aesthetically pleasing, & very atmospheric. They’re the kind of songs I would like to work into a variety of playlists.

In A Sentimental Mood – John Coltrane & Duke EllingtonI like this song because it’s evocative in a somewhat melancholy way, & John Coltrane expresses this mood perfectly.

 

EAT

★ Vanilla Talenti Gelato. Seriously. Try this with rainbow sprinkles. It’s seriously THE BEST. Rainbow sprinkles make good things even better. Gelato somehow always manages to taste elegant & make you feel elegant while you’re eating it. I also love Talenti, because they keep their ingredients simple & to the point, & produce an awesome product. Fun fact : my father usually refers to my Gelato as “ice cream”, a term which I don’t think encompasses the awesomeness & quality of Gelato.

★ Ducktrap Smoked Salmon & Ducktrap Smoked Trout. I am a huge fan of smoked fish. A huge fan. Their smoked salmon with dill is AMAZING, & I am so in love right now with their smoked trout, which I just recently tried. The smoked trout tastes like a combination between fresh smoked herring fillets and smoked salmon. One thing I love about both the smoked trout & the smoked salmon is that the fillets of them are nice, thick, & wholesome, which is even better than the thin fillets more commonly found. Also, I want to put dill on everything now. I recently made homemade guacamole with dill in it, & it was great.

★ This awesome meal I made a while ago

 

READ

★ Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie PerkinsThis was a nice, heartwarming YA romance story. It made me feel all warm & fuzzy inside, & it’s just a sweet book in general.

★ 10 Really Easy Ways to Love Yourself More TodayAs always, Gala Darling has a lovely, illuminating, magical list. I especially like Point #8, about liking what you like & not liking things just because they’re popular.

This article about Street Dreams Magazine from The New York TimesI really, really like the idea of bringing the Internet into a more tangible, DIY form. Like a zine, of photographs.

 

WATCH

★ Jamming Baby Owls. BABY OWLS DANCING. Owls are the best thing ever.

★ John Owen-Jones Singing “Who Am I?” From Les Miserables. I love this song with a passion, & John Owen-Jones is the very best at singing it. He fills it with an emotion & evocative vulnerability that I haven’t heard in other renditions of the song. It is the most real, honest version, & because of this, a favorite.

 

WEAR

★ Colorful socks inside my awesome sparkly jelly shoes. Right now, I am especially loving my photo print strawberry socks, but since I bought the jelly shoes, I have bought a lot of cute, colorful novelty socks, just for wearing inside my jelly shoes.

My canvas medic bagI wear this bag in a lot of the fashion photos I take, & it’s my go-to bag for everyday usage. Ever since my Indiana Jones phase as a teen, I wanted a bag like this. I finally found one which appropriately matches the one in the films. I love it because it is sturdy, holds a lot of stuff, is comfortable & easy to wear, & just looks cool. Looking cool is the primary reason. It adds a ruggedness & uniqueness to any outfit I add it to.

★ Knee Socks with Jelly Shoes or Combat Boots. I will be posting photos of this combination soon, but it looks tough but feminine at the same time, & also allows me to include the edginess of combat boots while still showing off all my cool, patterned knee socks.

 

TO DO

★ Laying on the floor with my dog & playing fetch with him when I get home from work. He looks forward to this, & would seriously play for hours on end if I didn’t get tired of throwing his toys for him.

★ Learning how to drive. I didn’t learn when I was younger because I had no need to, but I’m learning now, & it’s going great!

★ Earning my GED & passing all the subjects the first time around. I got honors on Reasoning Through Language Arts and in Social Studies, & was one point away from honors in Science. This was something I’d wanted to do for a long time, & I’m so proud of myself for accomplishing this goal.

 

THINGS 

★ “When nothing is sure, everything is possible.” ― Margaret Drabble. Embrace the confusion. Now that you have nothing to lose & maybe nothing to prove, you can do anything. Now that you’re confused & uncertain & scared of the changes going on around you, you can turn this into anything. You have a blank canvas from which you can paint & create & shape into whatever feels best for you.

 

NEW AWESOME THINGS

★ My new album, Confusion is Over. 

New Book – Document Your Life : A Journal.

★ New Book – Panorama Novelty

★ New Book – Ashlee Craft / Assemblage Issue 5