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

 

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.