Playlist I

I've been putting my iTunes on shuffle lately, trying to listen to some of the music that often gets neglected. :) I hate that I have spent thousands of dollars on music and not all of it gets listened to because I only listen to my recently added. SOOOO, the past few days have been full of old music, new music, and all the music in between. I decided to make a little playlist for you guys so you could turn it on when you're studying, bored, or just in the mood for music. You do need Spotify to listen but it's really easy to download and it's free! I totally recommend it. You can listen to anything! :) But anyway, click here to listen to Playlist I. :) And enjoy the rest of this beautiful Monday! 

The Future Is Frightening

People ask me all the time what I plan to major in in college. And the answer is surprisingly not photography (as of right now). To tell you the truth, I don't know what I want to major in. I would love to minor in photography but in my opinion, I don't trust myself having it as my major. It may work great for other people but in case I decide not to have my own photography business, I would like to have a backup. I often think a business degree would be smart but that just sounds boring, although it may not be. Who knows? I've hated school all my life and I simply want to enjoy my classes for once. I want to love what I do. As Steve Jobs said in his commencement speech, you have to love what you do to succeed at it. It's a good thing I can be undecided right now but sooner or later, the time will come when I have to choose. And that scares me. Feel free to share with me what you plan to do with your life if you're entering college or are in college. I'd love to hear! :)

Setting all worries aside, we can enjoy my most recent roll of film. As usual, these are scans and they are crappy. I think the next time I'm going to order a disk. But anyway, here you go. The seventh and eighth photos from the top are the ones I was referring to in this blog post. :)

I Talk to Famous People

Okay, so I'm just gonna come out and say it. It's been my lifelong goal to either meet someone famous or interact with someone famous somehow, whether that be on the internet or somewhere else. I am constantly being that annoying person who tweets famous people and whatnot.... I guess I always know deep down that it's really unlikely someone will respond to me but it's still fun! Haha.

Well, guess what? My hopes and dreams have finally come true. About four days ago, Allie Gonino, who is in the band the Good Mad and plays Laurel in the Lying Game on ABC Family put up her Scramble With Friends username on Twitter. The username was something really immature so I figured it was fake but decided to play the person anyway, just hoping it really was her. And last night, around six o'clock, the person finally played me back. My heart starting beating really fast, as I wondered if it could really be Allie Gonino. I quickly played the person back, not wanting to waste any time and then went to stalk her tweets to see if she had posted anything about Scramble and the username actually being someone else. I ended up finding out that it really was her and that she just had so many invites from people to the play the game that she was taking a while to play back. AHHHHHHH!!!!!! She played me! I'm still freaking out. She's one of my favorites from the show and she has a beautiful voice. My lifelong dreams have finally been fulfilled. Thank you, Allie Gonino. Hahahaha.

P.S. I won the game against her. HEHEHEHE. Yesterday was a good day.

Favorites From the Week

Favorites from this week:

• Getting a couple new blog followers. I love when that happens. It really makes my whole week. Thank you, new blog followers.

• The boys' basketball game on Wednesday that we WON! :) So proud.

• The New Girl episodes I've finally caught up on. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Favorite show, right there.

• The whole pineapple I finished in a matter of three days....

• Finding a blog designer for the future when I decide this here bloggy needs a redo. Which is probably right now.

• Mom's birthday! My mom's birthday is today and we're headed to North Carolina to celebrate tomorrow! :)

• Successfully developing a roll of film ALL BY MYSELF. Well, besides the counting. Someone was timing for me.

• This blog. UMMMM, I want her to take my picture.

• My early (really early) birthday present of new boots. I love shoes. 

• The fact that it's staying light out longer. YES.

• The German chocolate cake my mom got for her birthday.

• The fact that it's calling for snow on Sunday.

• Nice people who go out of their way to say hi.

• Learning that black coffee is a zero calorie drink. What? Didn't know that.
• Figuring out how to put my button and a grab box on the sidebar of my blog. YAY.

And that sums up my week. Here's the delicioso cake I enjoyed last night. Yes, it is a baby cake if your perception is confused after looking at the picture.

Valentine's Day

I'm not a fan of Valentine's Day and I'm sure anyone can probably guess why. Haha. I'm single, along with most of the world. What a stupid holiday. That's like having Christmas but only letting one person in your family get presents each year. Lame.

But thankfully, Valentine's Day is this week and I am having a party in Yearbook tomorrow to celebrate. I decided to make ice cream cone cupcakes and although a lot of them didn't turn out too well, I can successfully add this little recipe to my completed pile. It was fun to try something new and hopefully the class will approve. :) So if you're single and lonely on Valentine's Day, just make some cupcakes. Can't go wrong there.

All you do is... 

1. Get a muffin pan, cover it with aluminum foil to hold the cones in place, and then poke a hole in each spot to put the cone in
2. Buy some cake mix and blend it like normal
3. Pour the batter two-thirds full into the cone. This is where I made a mistake. You have to be really careful about how much you put because it most likely will spill over if you fill it too full.
4. Cook for about eighteen minutes at 350 degrees, wait for them to cool, then ice them and decorate! :)

Unknown Artists: The Good Mad + Ed Sheeran

Today's Unknown Artists are the Good Mad and Ed Sheeran. I don't know if those artists are actually not recognized by most people but I had never heard of them until a couple weeks ago so let's go with it. These posts can morph from artists people don't know to artists I love. There we go.

Okay, so if you haven't heard of either of these artists, go to Spotify, iTunes, or Grooveshark right now. I just recently discovered Ed Sheeran thanks to Fernweh and am totally in love. He just put out a new EP. "Give Me Love" is my favorite from that album. Also, the Good Mad only has two singles on iTunes since they are a fairly new band but "Follow Your Heart" is my favorite of the two. So definitely check them out! You won't regret it. :)

Turn Your Head a Different Way

The warm, glowing sun shown its shadows on my wall as I opened my eyes from a long night's sleep. Getting up at 8:20 every morning is a blessing. I roll out of bed after leisurely taking my time to check Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. I slowly walk to the shower and am refreshed from the sweet-smelling soap. Makeup is applied and hair is dried, keeping me warm the rest of the morning. My lovely mother cooks me a wonderful breakfast of scrambled cheese eggs and I drink my green tea while I wait to leave. I'm a creature of habit, much like my dog. I enjoy a change of scenery but it's easier for me to be familiar with each day before it comes. I like that.

On Monday morning this week, I woke up to the tiniest hint of frost and a snow dusting on the trees and ground. Knowing we weren't out of school, I completed my regular routine but afterwards, walked out into the crisp, cool air, so different from the warm sun of the days before. I felt renewed and was thankful for the seasons. As I realized it was time to go and my windshield would need time to defrost, I walked outside to my car with only a few minutes to spare. As I sat in my car and watched my window fade from white to transparent, I looked in front of me and saw something gorgeous. Nothing special, but still gorgeous, especially in my eyes. I saw the bright red berries of a Nandina bush in front of me, the leaves outlined in white frost, begging for a picture to be taken. As I realized that scene would not be there when I got home, I ran up the stairs to grab my film camera. I captured the beauty as best I could and became aware of how much better photography is when you aren't looking for something to photograph. So this week, I challenge you to put blogging or whatever else you take pictures for behind you and enjoy life. Don't look for something to photograph and you might surprise yourself, seeing something more beautiful because you weren't looking for it.

And because I finished my English essay and had some time on my hands, I took a few pictures. :)

Double Exposures

I literally have spent all weekend stressing myself out beyond belief because I have a huge essay due on Monday for my online class. We just got the information for it a couple days ago and the topic is so incredibly confusing. I've looked at the directions for hours by myself and with my mom, just trying to understand what is being asked. It's terrible. Take my advice and do not take college classes online. It's the worst decision I've ever made in my life. Just had to get that out there. Haha. But anyway, because I'll be busy all week with that, I wanted to post one last thing! :)

I've always been really interested in double exposures and before I took Photography last year, I had no idea what they were. When I found out that you can achieve them on a film camera, I wanted to learn!! I haven't yet learned but it's my goal for this year!! :) Thankfully, though, to hold me over until then, I learned how to create double exposures using digital photos and Photoshop!! I saw some really beautiful double exposures on Carlotta's blog on Friday and about had a panic attack. They are SOOO amazing. I ended up staying up until two in the morning the night before last just experimenting with them and it was probably the greatest thing I've done in a while. I loved it. If you don't know how to do double exposures in Photoshop, it's really easy!! You just put one photo on top of another and change the opacity. Definitely look it up! :) So that's what I did last night and here's what I came up with. :) I'm sure I'll be posting more in the future! Hope you enjoy! Let me know which one is your favorite! :)

Outfit VI

Today is Saturday. That means tomorrow is Sunday and the next day I have school. The weekends go by too fast. As much as I don't want the reality of being in college next year to sink in, I'm ready for summer, which is definitely when that will happen. But anyway, yesterday I took some time to take a few pictures for an outfit post because I actually wore something nice to school! Lately, I've been finding myself wearing yoga pants so I can go workout right after school and not worry about changing. But I didn't plan on working out yesterday so that called for a cute outfit. Here ya go, kids.

Shirt - T.J. Maxx

Skirt - T.J. Maxx

Tights - T.J. Maxx

Shoes - Gap

Haha. I don't like T.J. Maxx..... I never buy clothes there....