YouTube Discoveries

In this last year, I (along with my sister, Hannah) have made some major steps in the world of YouTube.  At least that's what I think about the work we've done.  In the past 10 months, we have made a total of 47 videos, gained 84 subscribers, and have racked up an impressive 12.461 views as of this morning at 9 AM.

It's crazy to think that this all started out as just one video I made to entertain myself when I was living with a roommate who worked constantly.  This, so far, has been a rewarding and really fun and exciting side project for me, and I always find myself wishing that I had more time or better equipment to work and experiment with.

In the coming year, I'm looking forward to discovering more methods and creative ideas to enhance the channel and the content we come up with, and I already have a huge list of ideas to accomplish this coming year.  Here are some videos that have done the best this year, and I really hope to get some feedback from everyone so we can further improve our videos!

The Walking Dead, Mid-Season Finale (Season 5)

Sugar Skull Face Painting

The video that started it all: Emcee Inspired Makeup from Cabaret

Hope you enjoy these as much as I've enjoyed making them!  Happy Holidays!

What I've Learned From Gift Wrapping

Every year I wrap gifts. I wrap gifts more often than I even realize because, with my family, there's a birthday in literally almost every month. But then comes the holidays (for my family, Christmas) and everything explodes with ribbons and tape. 

Now, you would think with how often I wrap gifts that I would have some sort of actual system or plan going into the ordeal that is wrapping gifts for 6 family members as well as friends and my significant other and his family. There isn't. There hasn't been for as long as I can remember. It's really just a total mess, so here are some lessons that I have relearned again this year about gift wrapping:

1. Metallic wrapping paper often reflects light and makes mistakes less obvious.

         See? You can hardly tell this    needed two separate sheets of paper.

2. Make sure all of the supplies you buy to wrap gifts are unwrapped before you start. Nothing is more annoying than trying to pry open a fresh roll of tape while holding your perfectly flat paper against a gift.

3. There are two kinds of people in this world, those who hate curling ribbon, and those who can never have enough. (There's never enough curling ribbon.)

4. Simple can be the best looking, and obviously easiest, way to go about it. "Brown paper packages tied up with string" is definitely back in style and takes the guessing game out of matching colors.

5. Be prepared to lose everything. Put down the scissors, pick up the tape, spend 15 minutes looking for the scissors again. There's teally no winning unless you are insanely organized, which I am not.

6. Don't stress too much about how it looks. If you're awful at wrapping, there are always gift bags (and most stores will wrap what you buy for you). Also, the paper will end up on the floor and in the trash later anyways, so who care of it's not smooth or covered in tape or a weird color? The gift and the thought are what matter most.

If your had any revelations while gift wrapping this year, I'd love to hear the ! Happy holiday everyone, and happy second night of Hannukah!

Belated Thanksgiving

Happy super-belated Thanksgiving! My sister, brother-in-law, and nephew were visiting for the last couple of weeks, not to mention the crazy amount of work to be done getting ready for Christmas and New Year's Eve, so it's been a little insane around here.

Two weeks definitely wasn't enough. He's the cutest. If you want to see my family's Thanksgiving MashUp, you can find it here!

I also started a new photo challenge for this month, since I kind of ditched the 365 challenge from earlier this year.  If you'd like to see the progress so far, you can find the pictures on my Instagram @divinemisse02.

What have you been up to? Do you have any fun holiday plans coming up?

Nice To Meet You(Tube)

Hello, again! Two posts in one week?! Unbelievable!

Now, I'm not sure if I've ever shared a link from my YouTube channel here (I know I've left links for my playlists here before) but I've started to actually make my own videos! You can find them HERE, or search 'Divine MissE' through YouTube itself.

I am taking suggestions for new ideas for videos all the time, so please feel free to leave a comment either here or there and let me know what you'd like to see. There are also links to my Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest in the video descriptions of each video, if you'd like to check any of those out, and I'm looking forward to linking both my videos and blog with each other so they don't feel so separate anymore!

Welcome Back!

So, there's really no excuse for how long I've been gone. It's been a long 7 months but I'm ready to come back now and get this thing going again. However, I suppose I owe anyone who had been reading this before an explanation of sorts, so here it is..

The reason I stopped writing here was pretty complicated. I was living in Oklahoma with my sister and my brother in law, who recently welcomed my awesome little nephew. I was in a relationship for two and a half years that started to completely fall apart. The distance from the situation as well as anyone to discuss the issues with who knew the guy were extremely straining, in addition to the tensions due to lack of sleep from everyone in the house was too much for me to handle and I was then offered an ultimatum: come back to Connecticut and we fix this, or stay there and we'll call it quits.

In a hindsight kind of way, I stupidly and selfishly quit my job, left my family behind, and went home to try to make things work. I now know how stupid that was, because only two weeks after returning home, the relationship was ended. Done. 

We tried to make the end something we could look back on happily for both of us, but after all is said and done, I realize how ridiculous the whole situation was. Regardless, for a while after that, I was mourning the loss of the best friend I had relied on for years and a boyfriend who will more than likely never speak to me again. But to each his own, I suppose.

So, after a more than long enough hiatus, I was working a lot of evenings at a bakery and not really functioning properly. I've met someone new through that job, unexpectedly, and we've been together for 4 months. We've spent an unreal amount of time together, which would explain the lack of posting for the last couple of months, but things are changing now for the better. 

So, after a long-winded explanation, I'm ready to start "new". I've been uploading videos to YouTube for a while now, which has taken up a bit of time but I've been having a lot of fun with it and hoping to expand a bit more as I learn things. You can check out my videos (many of them involving my sister, Hannah) by searching DivineMissE on YouTube. 

I hope everyone's been doing well the last half-year I've been gone. Let's do this, and welcome back.

Today, I Believe...

• That sometimes all you need is time, space, and coffee to power through the days ahead.
• Relationships are amazing and worth a lot of your attention, but never lose your head in them.  They may be the person you end up spending your life with, but your true friends will be there even longer.
• Endings are sad and scary, but there's always hope to fall back on.  It's never too late for a new beginning.
• Finding new music that you instantly love is one of the greatest pick-me-ups in rough times.
• It really is okay to eat an entire half of a cake while you're mentally unstable.  Just make sure, when you come back around, you do an extra lap or so around the track.

Happy Monday, everyone.  I hope you've all been well! (Or are getting well after the onset of seasonal allergies have kicked in).

April Playlist + Goals

I can't believe 2014 is basically already a fourth of the way over already.  This is ridiculous!  This months goals are pretty simple, I think, and there are only three.

1. Get things started -  I have an awesome birthday gift idea for someone special (which is going to take a bit of time to get together), and I also need to start jogging again. ASAP.

2. Get organized, and stay that way - after moving, things are even more of a mess than how they started... Spring cleaning!

3. Maintain my haircut + take care of my skin - Oklahoma (and e.l.f. brand makeup removing wipes) have not been good to my face and it's just starting to get back to its normal self.  Also, last time I got my haircut was in mid February (over a month ago) and I just cut it.  If you have short hair, you know this is a huge problem.  No one likes a mullet. 

Playlist!

Click here top listen to this months playlist.

Keeping it Weird

1. Rusty Belle - "Hellion"

2. Ruckus Roboticus - "Never Play With Scratches"

3. FC Kahuna - "Hayling"

4. Gotan Project - "Santa Maria (Del Buen Ayre)"

5. Of Montreal - "Tim, I Wish You Were Born A Girl"

6. I Monster - "The Great Soul Destroyer"

7. Phantogram - "When I'm Small"

8. Moby - "Porcelain"

9. The Mountain Goats - "Up The Wolves"

April Photo A Day Challenge

Happy April Fools Day!

I know I'm a bit late with this one, but I promise this month is going to be more on track than March.  March was full of a lot of business and moving and not-so-ideal situations and I apologize for my lack of keeping up.  Here are the photo challenge ideas for this month!

As always, let me know if you plan on following along on Instagram and leave your username so I can follow you!

Instalife 10 & 11 and Mini Update

Long time, no see, huh?  Sorry I've neglected to post for the last couple of weeks but things haven't been going fabulously in recent days.  A lot has happened and I am officially relocating again.  I know, this is the third time in a year.  Someday I'll get my act together and stop moving around so much (and hopefully then I can do some home DIY projects on here).  However, please forgive me if I'm a little more sporadic with my posts for the next few weeks as I'm trying to repack and relocate again and re-settle in.

Anyways, here are the pictures I took for the last two weeks!

Day 61: Stranger - Skipped...

Day 62: Music

Day 63: Black and White

Day 64: Numbers

Day 65: Outfit

Day 66: Wheels

Day 67: I love...

Day 68: Where I Stood

Day 69: Nails

Day 70: Mood - Skipped...

Day 71: Broken

Day 72: Transportation - Skipped...

Day 73: Animal

Day 74: Woods

Day 75: Lazy

This one got skipped because I had the 24 hour flu... Don't judge me.

Hopefully this next week or so will work out better, and the move will go without too many hitches.  Wish me luck!

New Throwbacks (March Playlist)

In the past year or two, a lot of bands that I listened to in middle school and early high school have released new albums.  I've put together some personal favorites from those new albums for you to check out. Let me know what you think about the new albums or songs! They're all pretty different.  What did you listen to when you were in middleschool?

Listen to the playlist here!

1. M.I.A. - Sexodus

2. Daft Punk - Doin' it Right

3. Panic! at the Disco - This is Gospel

4. Fall Out Boy - Young Volcanoes

5. Placebo - Too Many Friends

6. The National - I Should Live in Salt

7. Cold War Kids - Loner Phase

8. Bo Burnham - Nerds (Explicit lyrics. Seriously, you've been warned.)

9. AFI - 17 Crimes

10. City and Colour - Of Space and Time

11. Relient K - If I Could Take You Home

March Goals and Instalife #9

Happy March, everyone!  We're edging closer and closer to spring, and I don't know about you, but I couldn't be more ready for warmer weather.

This month I only have three goals that I would like to stick with, but each of them are pretty big goals for me.
1. Save more money. I don't know how I always manage to do this, but I seem to always be completely broke and I'm determined to make that stop happening.
2.  Stay on track.  I have a lot of goals for this year, so this month I'm going to start making sure I focus on what's important right now.
3. Do things - ON TIME. This one is pretty self-explanatory, especially because in February I was a little all over the place with my schedule.  I promise, I'm trying to fix it.

Instalife #9

Day 54: Walking through town

Day 55: Just woke up

Day 56: Baby picture

Day 57: Glitter. I'm obsessed with this tape.

Day 58: Your choice: my mom finally met Tyler =)

I skipped day 58, which was a picture of a drink...

Day 60: chores... Work chores. Blegh.

And today it's freezing rain so I'm working on catching up and getting things done!

Who else is ready for spring with all of this nasty weather we've had?

March Photo a Day Challenge!

I can't believe February is almost over..  This year is already almost a quarter of the way through, and it still feels like Christmas was last week.

Now's the time for March Photo a Day Challenge!  Let me know if you plan to follow this month's challenge and leave me your instagram name so I can see the pictures you take.

My instagram is: DivineMissE02

Instalife #8

Long time no see, huh?  Here is the (on time!) instalife post for this week!  I promise, I'll get better at keeping up now that things have started to settle down a bit.

Day 47: Polka Dots - Obsessed.  Polka dots and stripes are my favorites.

Day 48: Lace - Bought myself this dress for my birthday, please excuse my arm.

Day 49: Car - Liking the Prius more than I thought I would...May need to save up and get one for myself!

Day 50: Hat - the only hat I've ever really been able to pull off.

Day 51: Street Sign

Day 52: Decor - Pinterest has me obsessed with fun decorating and DIY projects for a home.  Someday!

Day 53: Prized Possession - I love my journals. I've kept one since first grade!

Hooray for finally (almost) catching up! Hope everyone's enjoying their weekend!

Instalife #6 & #7

Obviously, I've been neglecting to post here for about two weeks, and if you saw my previous post, you'll know I've been pretty busy in that time.  Here are my 365 day challenge photos (plus some extras) for the last two weeks!

Day 33: Shadow - I always get raccoon eyes when I wash my face...

Day 34: Mail - I regret contacting anyone from a college.

Day 35: Cozy - Slept in!

Day 36: Stairs 

Day 37: Memories - I've always done this with the last piece... I don't know why.

Day 38: Routine - My morning routine was all messed up because I packed everything to come with me on the plane to Connecticut.

Day 39: Travel

Day 40: Shopping - All the snacks!

Day 41: Birthday - Kaeley is the best. Black forest cake, from scratch.

Day 42: Makeup - Playing with some color.

Day 43: Lips - I need to make one of these and frame it.

Day 44: Baking - I skipped this! AH! =(

Day 45: Lights - O'Hare Airport

Day 46: Candy - Tracy and I are adults and got 4 spins worth of candy from the machine at work.  Worth it.

AAAAAND EXTRAS!

Casino with some of the best people I know.

Giant margarita thing.  Delicious, and dangerous.

Walking Dead penny slots!  I actually won on this one =)

Travel day, out of the snow and back to OKC.

My nephew, Tyler, was born this week!!!

Snuggle time with the munchkin <3

Look for another Instalife update in just two days!!  Almost caught up!