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!

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!

Welcome Back/Books I Love

Hello, again!  Sorry I haven't updated in over two weeks now, it's been absolutely crazy for me and I feel like this is the first time I've really been able to sit down and keep my eyes open long enough to write for a bit.  I will get more into detail in the next post about what I've been up to, because I obviously haven't been keeping up to date with my Instalife posts either.

However, as some of you may know, I had a little vacation time to go home and visit my boyfriend and some friends as well as the family I have still in CT and the day I came back to Oklahoma, my nephew was born!  Needless to say, vacation and baby, plus going back to work just in time for spring cleaning has been hectic and exhausting to say the least, but at least I've been staying busy and making plans to get back into the swing of things.

I had had this idea of wanting to post some of my favorite books with you guys for a while now.  As I mentioned in this post, I have a goal to read more in 2014 (you can find my reading list for the year here).  Since I don't think I read many, if any books at all last year, I'm already off to a good start.

All photos in this post courtesy of Goodreads.com

I've finished Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris, which was a really great book.  It's written in true David Sedaris form, which I've found to be a mixture of wit, hilarity and also, at times, truly heartbreaking.  I honestly have not found a book by him that I haven't enjoyed (I've also read When You are Engulfed in Flames and parts of both Me Talk Pretty One day and Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim) and I fully plan to read the whole collection.  He often tells stories of his family, which will either remind you of your own (especially if you come from a larger one) or make you roll on the floor laughing at the sheer insanity of their actions.  I really can't recommend his books enough, especially if you're looking for a good laugh.

Some of my other favorite books include:

• A Million Little Pieces by James Frey - Although the story wasn't as true-to-life as the author originally tried to claim, the story itself is just wonderfully written.  A very interesting and somewhat graphic book.

• Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky - I've read this at least 7 or 8 times now.  I also have a tattoo of one of my favorite quotes and the movie is almost just as great as the book itself.

• Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut - This still comes up in my mind every so often, simply because of how much it made me think and pay attention to detail.  It's a little more on the challenging side, especially if you have very little attention span, but the history and occasional graphic scenes keep your attention from wandering too far. 

• Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck - A true classic, and something I think everyone should read in their life.  This was one of the few books I actually read when I was in school, and I'm really glad I did, although it did make me pretty sad.

• The Newsflesh Trilogy (Feed, Deadline, & Blackout) - If you like zombie books and have a faint interest in politics and the media, this is definitely something I would recommend.  The first boo, Feed, was a little slow starting off, but once you get to about the halfway point, the story gets very interesting.  I won't lie, I had to kind of force myself through the first book, but the second two were nearly impossible to put down.  The action and suspense had me hooked and I finished the second two books within a week.

So what are your favorite books?  I'm currently reading This Book is Full of Spiders by David Wong, but honestly, I'm kind of struggling to focus.  The book is interesting, but I think it's just my attention span kicking my butt.