Things I've Been Loving

Another Things I've Been Loving post for you guys!

I've been really busy these past few weeks, so I haven't had much time for discovering new things. I have been, however, rediscovering old things that I had forgotten that I loved. This post is all about those old things I had forgotten about, and I'm not quite sure how I've been going on without them in my life.

1. Evanescence- I used to listen to Evanescence almost every day for my last two years of high school. I fell in love with the song "Lithium" from The Open Door. It was the first song I heard/ watched the music video for that I said "I have to get this" the moment I first heard it. Some of my other favorite songs by Evanescence are "Going Under", "Imaginary", "My Immortal", and "Everybody's Fool" from Fallen. My favorites from The Open Door are "Call Me When You're Sober", "Lacrymosa", and "Good Enough". The only song from Evanescence that I could say is a favorite is "What You Want". I haven't listened to the album enough to feel like I could say any of the others are my favorites. Here is "Lithium" if you want to watch it.

I love the opening lyrics:

Lithium, don't want to lock me up inside.
Lithium, don't want to forget how it feels without...
Lithium, I want to stay in love with my sorrow.
Oh, but God, I want to let it go.

 

This describes perfectly (for me at least) the feeling of how I felt when I was on depression meds. I felt like I was being bottled up and distant from my emotions. Is it better to feel like you are crying all the time, every day, or to feel empty? It's a hard choice. Nothing is more strange than feeling guilty about wanting to feel sad again because you miss it. Welcome to my internal battles.

2. Doctor Who- I finally watched The Day of the Doctor and the ending of Matt Smith's time as Dr. Who. I bawled my eyes out, it was so emotional. Now I just have to catch up on this season before Saturday... yeah... not going to happen. But I'll probably read the episode synopses and move on with life. And this was my favorite line in this season:

3. The Vegan Peach- I've been watching videos by TheVeganPeach on YouTube for a while now and I love that she "tells it like it is". Her videos are really refreshing and real and have no "fakeness" that some of the vegan community on YouTube have become. I highly recommend her blog and her videos! Here is one of her videos about why honey is not vegan:

4. The Dollar Tree- I used to go there all the time in college. I stopped going when I came home because it was easier to go to other stores. However, they have the best Halloween decorations and they are only $1! I also have found some really great unbreakable glassware (I have glasses I have dropped onto wood floors several times, and they are still going strong). I got some really great black and purple fake flowers with glittery plastic spiders in them to stick in some glass bottles I found at Michaels. There we go. Halloween decorations done! Check out their Halloween products here!

That's it for now, Peeps! What are some of the things you have been loving recently?

Things I'm Loving

Things I'm loving seems to be a "thing" now... I might make it into a weekly post.

1. This blog post the Sadness and Power of Knowing
I saw this post a few days ago and it truly is powerful. It can be so hard to put an emotion into words, but this post does just that.

2. Happy by Pharrell
This song is so addictive. I just want to sing it all day, every day for the rest of forever! I have been playing it on repeat in the car because it makes the commute so much more fun.

3. Now! 50 CD
This was an impulse buy on Tuesday last week when I went to Barnes and Noble. My favorite tracks: Happy by Pharrell, Dark Horse by Katie Perry, Pompeii by Bastille, Talk Dirty by Jason Derulo, All of Me by John Legend, Let Her Go by Passenger, and She Keeps my Warm by Mary Lambert.

4. The Iron Man movies
I bought all three at B&N and have watched them all several times since then. I've only recently fallen in love with the Iron Man movies. I was a total Captain America and Thor fan until Avengers. Then I became an Iron Man fan.

5. The Bite Size Vegan videos on YouTube
I found this channel a month or two ago, and I highly recommend you watch all her videos. They are under 5 minutes long, super informational, and fun to watch.

6. "Back in Black" by ACDC
Again, Iron Man made me do it. I have had this song stuck in my head for days. I don't have a lot of AC/DC on my iTunes, just 8 or 9 songs, but this is one of them and it has been on repeat like "Happy". Here it is for your enjoyment.

7. "Sarabande" from Bach solo Cello suite n 5
While I was feeling down, this was on repeat as well. I mentioned this in a post a few days ago, so forgive the repeat.

 

That's it for now! Check out some of my other posts! There will be a blog up soon about what I'm eating and more reviews of books music.

Feeling Down

Today was one of those "down" days where I have just had the blues all day long.

I woke up and fell back asleep. I couldn't make myself cook things, so I ate a banana and dates. I stayed in my pajamas until after noon. I didn't want to go anywhere or talk to anybody.

But I had to, so I did.

I found out yesterday that a lady from my church that I have known almost my entire life died last week. I didn't know she was in bad shape and it came as a shock. I think I'm still in shock. It's like the tears are in my eyes but refuse to fall.

I am pissed that I'm feeling down because I had a fantastic weekend with my friend Ashley and the weather hasn't been totally unbearable. Yet... here I sit listening to sad cello music and reading sad Avengers fanfiction. In fact, you should listen to the sad cello music too!

 

Now that you are crying from sad Bach, judge me for being sad.

 

I've been feeling a lot of self-deprecation lately. I just feel really down about myself and what I want to do with my life. I saw a seven year old selfie on my Timehop the other day and it made me hate who I have become. Where has that smiling, happy, healthy girl gone? I'm not sure, but I want to find her again.

 

Until then, I will just continue listening to Yo-yo Ma play cello and hope it makes me a little happier.

 

Talk at you all again tomorrow.

Things I'm Loving

Hey Y'all! I'm back with another of these "Things I'm Loving" posts. I find them fun and you can see what I'm spending my time doing or what I'm reaching for on a daily basis. Check out the one I did last week here!

1. "Heaven and Earth Spirits" by Anael and Bradfield from Within Our Reach

This song is both uplifting and melancholy as the piano weaves in out of wind instruments and an orchestra. I really love the ethereal nature of this song as well as the epic-ness of the large crescendos that sink into a quiet minor sound at the end. Check out this whole CD. It is pretty amazing.

2. "Elysian Fields" by Deuter
I couldn't find a YouTube video of this piece, but I found Deuter's myspace where you can listen to it. This is another relaxing instrumental piece that really captures peaceful soul longing and contentment. I have it on the Allegro 2011 Winter Sampler that I got for free from Amazon. Go check it out! I have greatly enjoyed finding samplers for record labels and discovering new favorite artists because of them. This is how I found so many of my "new favorites".

3. "Rubberband Man" by The Spinners

I've always loved this song, but I've been playing it on repeat for the past few days. This is just a fun 70's song that makes me want to get up and move and boogie! Have fun watching the awesome moves in this video.

4. The Artwork of Stephanie Pui-Mun Law
I have found my new favorite fantasy artist. For the past several years Brian Froud has been my go-to for faery and otherworldly fair folk. I recently found the artwork of Stephanie Pui-mun Law through her tarot cards. I was looking up reviews of cards of YouTube and wanted to check out her work, so I went to her website... I fell immediately in love. First I have to say that watercolor is one of my favorite mediums and one of the few that I know a great deal about, even if I can't paint very well. The way she manipulates the colors is phenomenal and unreal. I could stare at her paintings for hours and still find new and exciting elements in them. For instance, I was showing my aunt some of my favorite pictures and she pointed out the sea shell motif that is in so many of the paintings. I hadn't noticed it in some where they were actually in the trees or rocks! These are my current favorite works of hers: Death- I love the radiance the phoenix has as it is combusting. The detail work in this painting is fabulous and the depth of feeling is nearly tangible. Yexian Of Kingfishers and Bones- This is from a series about the Chinese Cinderella. This painting is Yexian in her finery that is exquisitely detailed. You can really see the Pre-Raphaelite influences in this piece. Timepiece- this picture takes two things I love (trees and grandfather clocks) and sticks them together into a seamless entity. Again, the intricacy of this piece is glorious and I feel like I could look at it for hours. Compared to Froud, Law's art is much brighter and not as heavy. I ended up ordering two of her books and a tarot kit from her website and I sit in anticipation of their arrival. I did order them with some personalization in the form of original sketches, so they might take a while. I can't wait to get my hands on the books and pour over these fantastic works of art.

5. Mushrooms
I don't mean to eat... I mean to look at and take pictures of. It has been very wet here recently and the mushrooms are coming up everywhere. I really love finding different mushrooms and looking at the differences between the varieties. My favorites are the bright orange tiny mushrooms that grow in the middle of the gravel roads. They are as large as my pinky finger and so bright and neon that they almost look fake. I find it interesting how saturated colors are in the natural world and the constant work we spend to try to emulate them in our man-made products. Some mushrooms look like coral. Some grow on dead trees and some grow in rings that look like fairy circles or houses.

6. Captain America: The First Avenger
I adore this movie. (I watched it again last night!) Of all the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this is still my favorite movie. I love the costumes and script writing for the WWII sections of the movie and I love Peggy Carter. Steve Rogers is a really upstanding guy who doesn't like bullies and won't give up. I want to be more like Cap. I want to stand up for what I believe in, no matter how scared I am. I think he is a character we can learn from.

That's all for now!

Things I'm Loving Right Now

Hi All!

It is another glorious rainy day here in the mountains. I haven't posted in a few days because I've been pretty busy doing lots of online research and haven't finished any posts, even though I am working on several. I did want to do a post today though, so here is a list of the things I'm loving at this moment.

1. Octopus Clips
I have pretty long hair, so getting it off my neck and back can make me feel much cooler in the summer. It is long enough to twist it into a bun and it will stay by itself, but if I want to go hiking or cook or wash my face, I need clips or pins to keep it from falling out. My absolute favorite clips are the octopus clips by Scunci. I need two to hold up all my hair, but they really work. I don't have to worry about my hair falling down at all when I use these. I've probably bought about 15 of these over the years. I ended up breaking a few because I'm a klutz and dropped them down the stairs or on concrete. I've also broken a few because my hair got too big for it to hold, hence the two I use now.

2. Watermelon Mint Lemonade
This Bolthouse Farms lemonade is the best and most refreshing drink I've ever had. We've been going through four or five of these every week between three of us. It is refreshing and not exceedingly sweet. I still water mine down because I like watery lemonade. They say that it is a limited edition product on the package, but I hope they make it a permanent item. Go check it out while you can! It is usually in the produce section.

3. MaNithyaSudevi Youtube channel

 

I started watching her videos a few days ago and I can't get enough of them. I love the vibes she exudes and I love her empowering and uplifting talks. She speaks about enlightenment and veganism a lot and has an interesting perspective on life. I highly recommend her videos.

4. Tarot Cards
I have been doing a lot of introspection and thinking while I have been sick and inside because of the rain. One of the ways I do this is meditation on my daily tarot card (I'm using my Galaxy Tarot app on my phone at the moment since I left my cards at home). I have a post that I'm working on about Tarot cards that will be going up in the future, but know that I am new to them and I find them very powerful and interesting.

5. Sports bras
I've been doing a lot of hiking and sports bras make it much easier to have a more comfortable hike. I am not usually a sports bra fan, but I have been gravitating toward them recently for normal every day wear instead of my normal underwire bra. Most of mine I got from Wal-Mart or Target. There's not much to say about this except that I am liking them more... moving on!

6. Emilynoel83 makeup collection video

 

I love watching makeup collection videos so I can get new ideas about storing my makeup and seeing brands that I might never have seen before. It is also very cool to see what other people like and decide to spend their money on. Makeup collections can be very expensive, so it is really interesting to see what people choose to add to their collections and what they don't. I've been following Emilynoel83 for several years now and I love her videos. This collection video she just put up is beautiful in both the quality of her storage containers and the aesthetics of the decorations she decided to put up around her collection.

7. DIY nails using eyeshadows
I'm not sure when I first heard about doing this, but it was a while ago and I know I did it a few times last summer when I didn't have any nail polishes with me and I wanted to change up my color. I have done it three times so far this summer once with a Clinique coral blush that made a perfect deep coral pink on my nails (I did both my fingers and toes with this one), once with a Clinique eyeshadow duo in Blackberry Frost, and once with a Lancôme eyeshadow in Suntouched with a hint of the blush Cedar Rose. Each time I've done two coats of the color and a top coat to give it a shiny finish. My fingernails last me about a week before I need to repaint them and my toenails are still going strong at three weeks without any chips in the color! In the past I've tried this with Physicians Formula, Maybelline, and Elf shadows and they have all worked well. Shimmer shades do tend to work better than matte shades.

8. "Sung to Sleep" by Michael Manring

This is one of my favorite relaxing/ rainy day songs. I've been listening to the CD "A Winter's Solstice Ⅱ"(1988) by Windham Hill Records for several years. (I think I stole the CD from my mom's room and listened to it for an entire summer on repeat before I gave it back.) It is probably on of the most uplifting and relaxing piano pieces I have on my iTunes. I highly recommend the entire CD if you like New Age and Classical music.

I hope you enjoy this post! Let me know if you want to see others like it in the future.

Walk to Mordor 35

Or, 400 miles and still a long way to go

Week #___35___ Day ___23-25____ WTR Goals: Mileage___20___ Weight __265____

Starting Weight	Current Weight	Goal Weight	Projected Goal Date	Day
270	268.3	175	2017	23-25

Date	Activity	Duration Miles	Beginning Mileage	Ending Mileage	Location*
5/25	walk	1.35	384.06	385.41
5/26	walk	3.88	385.41	389.29	Day 24 Rain stops. Strider scouts. Start late. Turn SE, scrambling over rocky ground. Find a valley, but it ends in a high ridge. Climb ridge and camp in a saddle at top. COLD. Build a fire under a gnarled pine. Day 25 Slope beyond ridge is much easier. Bright, fair day. Strider briefly sees the Loudwater/Bruinen in the distance. Reach a trail.
5/27	walk	1.04	389.29	390.33
5/28	walk	3.26	390.33	393.59	Find Troll-hole. Continue on level path through woods. Stone Trolls. Rest. Sam recites “Old Troll.” Continue in afternoon. Woods.
5/29	walk	3.59	393.59	397.18
5/30	walk	2.83	397.18	400.01	Return to the Road.
5/31	walk	1.45	400.01	401.46
Totals	This week:	17.4	Total miles:	401.46

So, last week was fun. As you can probably tell from my earlier posts, we had a lot of rain, so it was hard to do anything outside. It has finally stopped being so wet out now so I might do some more outside this week. I have walked over 400 miles! (do a little dance) I hope to hike a lot this summer in North Carolina, so that number will just keep going up. I have gotten to the trolls. I love the trolls! there is nothing better in a story than tricking people using natural phenomena. The sun has the power! Anywho...

I watched a lot of movies this week including Skyfall, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Iron Man, and Mr. and Mrs. Smith. As you can tell, all of these are action movies. I love action movies! I find the fast paced action and thriller/ suspense aspects are riveting and make the stories better.

I love everything Bond. Except for Quantum of Solace and The Living Daylights, I've seen all the movies (most of them several times). I watched them with my dad when I was little, so I have some great memories of watching Sean Connery and Roger Moore running all over the world seducing blondes and making up escape plans on the run. I still watch them with my dad when he has time, like this past weekend, and we had fun watching Daniel Craig shoot people and blow up buildings. Skyfall finally sold me on Craig. I loved how he played Bond and the connection that he shows with Judi Dench's M. Silva was probably one of the creepiest and nasty Bond villains. When he takes out his teeth (ugh, so nasty) and keeps calling M his mother, I get the "creepy chills" that won't go away. Because he was a former MI6 agent, his attacks are so much more personal than some of the other villains who just want to take over the world. For Silva it is personal. It is an obsession. It is planned and twisted and pointed. When Bond finally kills him I wanted to cheer!

 

One of the awesome parts of Bond movies happens to be the song for each movie. "Skyfall" is wonderfully somber and melancholy, while "Goldfinger" is forceful and sultry. The latter is my favorite song, but "You only live twice" and "Die another day" are on up there in great theme songs.

I also finally watched the first Iron Man movie this week. I know, I know, I watched that backwards, but I missed it in the theaters and they never showed it on TV, just the second movie that I've seen at least a dozen times now. I really liked it and I'm glad I finally saw it. I still haven't seen the second Thor and I'm very close to just buying it. I was really mad that I missed that one in theaters, but at least I saw Captain America 2. I think Marvel has done a really great job making these movies recently and I hope the bar is kept high throughout the 2nd and 3rd phases of their movie making plans.

Because I've been watching more movies and TV, I haven't read as much recently. I'm still chugging my way through several different large books (The Complete Sherlock Holmes and Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe) and other smaller books that are just taking me a long time to finish. When I do finish some more books I'll review them here (Tolkien's Beowulf and the fifth Green Rider book are getting big reviews, I promise!) so you can look forward to that.

I'm working on my May Makeup Empties post (trying to keep it from being forever long) and a few other posts on my interests. Stay tuned for more fun posts this week!

Week 34 Update

Walk to Mordor Week 34 Update!

Hi all! I'm back to my weekly updates for my WtM. I didn't walk as much as I wanted to this past week, but I did go to the gym on Monday and Friday, and ballet on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. I wore my pointe shoes for the barre at ballet and went up for about half of those exercises. I'm not strong enough to do more than that at the moment, but I hope to become stronger in the next few weeks. We are doing full length classes now that it is summer and the recital is over. I love the longer classes because we get to do more of the leaps, jumps, and turns that I love and we get to learn longer and more complicated combinations.

I went to the Fresh Market yesterday with my mom and I found some cool new foods. The first was a lemongrass basil Thai sauce that I poured over my kale, mushroom, and garlic pasta last night for dinner.


Kale with Mushrooms and Garlic with Lemongrass Basil Sauce over Angel Hair

Kale with the sauce

The other cool things were lowfat and low sodium rice ramen. I got several different kinds to try and I think I have a new fast cook food for when I need to eat and head out the door. The first was made with black and brown rice so the noodles were black. It came with a miso sauce with little carrot pieces that tasted so good!

Black rice Ramen in White Miso

The second was green and had bamboo in it! It also was seasoned with white miso and, instead of carrots, contained seaweed. I added some regular angel hair to it when I ate lunch because the little packet was not enough to get me through church. I also had some bread (I was feeling like carbs today, can you tell?) and pomegranate juice.

Green Ramen with Angel Hair

It is relatively cool outside today compared to the days we had in the 90's last week, so I took some pictures of flowers in our yard while I didn't have to sweat too badly.

Hydrangeas in the sun.

Week #__34____ Day ___21-____ WTR Goals: Mileage__20____ Weight _265_____

Starting Weight	Current Weight	Goal Weight	Projected Goal Date	Day
270	268.1	175	2017	21-

Date	Activity	Duration Miles	Beginning Mileage	Ending Mileage	Location*
5/18	Walk	.64	369.48	370.12
5/19	Walk	2.96	370.12	373.08
5/20	Walk	2.44	373.08	375.52	Day 22 Weather turns wet during the day
5/21	Walk	2.25	375.52	377.77
5/22	Walk	1.52	377.77	379.29
5/23	Walk	3.09	379.29	382.38	Day 23 Hills higher and steeper. They are forced north out of their way. Still raining. Camp on a stony shelf by a shallow cave.
5/24	walk	1.68	382.38	384.06
Totals	This week:	14.58	Total miles:	384.06

I'm sure many of you have seen this article about the upcoming Hobbit movie which talks about the changes Jackson will be making to the storyline. I'm not sure what to think yet, because I don't want to color my first viewing too badly. If I get my hopes up too much, I will be disappointed. If I don't think too much about it, it will exceed expectations. I kinda feel like running around yelling "I am fire! I am death!" in response to the changes he's making, but I think people would think I had finally cracked.

I'm getting closer and closer to Rivendell in my journey and very close to 400 miles. When I get to 500, I think I should sing "I would walk 500 miles, and I would walk 500 more..." What do you think?

Talking about journeys and dragons, I got the new Beowulf by J.R.R. Tolkien! I won't actually get to read it for a few weeks, since it is going to be a birthday present, but it is now in my mom's closet waiting for me! I'm super excited to read a new (well, from the 1930's, but newly published) translation of my favorite story.

That's all for now folks! I'll talk at you again later!