Musical Monday: All of Me by John Legend

Welcome to Monday! I have had this song stuck in my head for the past two days, so I thought I would share it with you. I've been listening to Pandora while I'm at work, and this popped up on my Lifehouse Station - I love it, and I hope you do too!




Jessy <3

P.S. Lindsey Stirling is amazing! If you haven't already, you should check out her YouTube Channel

Friday Favorites: Musical Edition

A while back there was a post going around Facebook, at least within my group of friends, that was a challenge to fill Facebook with music instead of Selfies. I will admit, I'm a selfie addict but I like the idea of breaking the monotony.

I was assigned to post a song by a band/artist whose name started with the letter N. When trying to pick a song I realized something, I don't like any current bands that start with the letter N. LOL I decided to post something old school for #tbt and my song was from New Kids on the Block. lol

Since I didn't share any of my current favorites I thought I'd share them with you. :-)

Here are a few of my favorite bands/songs from the past few months:

I've been on Pandora more than usual and am loving my Lifehouse Radio. These are some of the songs that I've found, and grown to love:

A Drop in the Ocean - Ron Pope

All We Are - Matt Nathanson

Broken - Lifehouse

Collide - Howie Day

Demons - Imagine Dragons
I love, love, LOVE Imagine Dragons! They are awesome!

From Where You Are - Lifehouse

Let Her Go - Passenger

Shooting Stars - Edwin McCain

After going back through them again, I've found that they are kind of melancholy but beautiful at the same time. I hope you enjoy them. I'm always looking for new music. Leave me a comment and let me know some of your favorite artists/songs.

Jessy <3

Ipsy?! What's Ipsy...

Hi everyone!! So lately I have been wanting to try out some new make-up but see there is this problem, I tend to stick to things that I know. I always get the same thing when I go out to eat, I get the same coffee at Starbucks, and I buy the same make-up. The only thing that I'll be adventurous with is nail polish...although come to think of it there are only a few brands that I own. LOL Recently my mom was talking about looking into Birchbox because we both love samples. I am an avid YouTube watcher so I have heard of Birchbox before simply by seeing Birchbox Reveal videos on some of the channels that I follow. Even though I'd seen the videos listed I had never actually watched a "Reveal" video. But since my mom mentioned it I had to check it out.

After watching my first Birchbox Reveal video another suggested video popped up...Birchbox vs. Ipsy...Ipsy?! I had never heard of that one before. I watched probably 10 Birchbox vs. Ipsy videos and I tell ya I was sold on Ipsy. Both Birchbox and Ipsy are "boxes" of make-up/cosmetic samples that you can subscribe to receive every month for only $10. From the videos it seems that Ipsy's samples are of better quality and sometimes quantity. Plus all of Ipsy's boxes actually come in a different bag every month and we all know how much I love purses, I just couldn't say no to a new cute makeup bag every month...lol I signed up and I'll get my first box bag in mid April. I'm soooo excited, I can't wait!! I'll be sure to show off all of my new goodies when I get them. :)

In the meantime, if you'd like to check out Ipsy you can just click HERE

I'll blog again soon
Jessy <3

Crushed and Created

Ok, so as you may have figured out I love a variety of music. Music is a way of expressing myself and who I am. If I am depressed, I listen to depressing music just to know that someone else gets depressed too. If I feel empowered, I listen to something that feeds that empowerment. Lately I have been in the need of some new music, new artists, and something different but I just could put my finger on what my mood has been. Every once in a while Spotify (aka Pandora on steroids) will send me emails with artist suggestions so I picked one of those artists, started a radio station for them, and fell in love.

I'm sure you're curious as to what I fell in love with so here are some of the artists that I've found: Ryan Calhoun, Elise Lieberth, Jason Walker, Sara Haze Jon McLaughlin, and Caitlyn Smith. I was getting very tired of mainstream music so the new voices, EP albums, and covers are a wonderful change of pace.

The real purpose of this blog post is to share a song that I came across in my new music discovery; it's called Crushed and Created by Caitlyn Smith. Lately I have been feeling very crushed. I've been depressed, work is stressful and full of drama, I'm coming up on my 30th birthday in January and in some aspects I'm not where I thought I would be, and it's hard for me. This song talks about the fact that we are crushed and created the same way. Life is a cycle of things that die, so that something else can live.

The bridge talks about being stronger in the end. I don't think, ok I know, when it comes to my current situations I'm not strong BUT this song provides me hope. It serves as a reminder that I may feel crushed, discouraged, and out of place now, but it won't always be that way. At the end of these tests and trials, I know that I will come out freer, wiser, and stronger; everything will work out in the end, it always does.





Jessy <3

P.S. If you don't know about Spotify, you're missing out. Spotify gives you the chance to not only listen to random songs like Pandora, but you can also create your own playlists. You can Star songs to go back to later and it's perfect for music addicts like me. Check it out HERE!

Exercise - What is that?!

I have always been overweight and I've hated it. I tried this diet, I did water aerobics for a while, and then tried that diet and then another exercise routine and then yet another diet; nothing ever seemed to work. Fairly recently, two people in one day, asked me if I'd been losing weight, I thought "I don't know." I went home and weighed myself and I was down by 15 pounds. I really thought that the scale was lying to me, but then I started to notice that my clothes were getting looser; I know that can't lie.

Right around March of this year I stopped drinking soda (which I'm finding out is a big step in weight loss), my hubby started cooking more at home as opposed to us eating out, and I haven't been eating as much as I used to. So maybe I can pin down the main points to my weight loss. However it feels weird because I didn't really stop eating what I normally eat and I haven't counted calories at all. I guess it is the little changes in eating habits that really help.

I am happy to say that since March I have lost a little over 30 pounds! It feels great. However even though I have lost the weight, I still feel fat. Now maybe every girl always feels "fat." But I still have this thought in the back of my mind, "Jessica, maybe if you were working out, you would feel and look better than you do." Every time I think about exercising, that's always as far as it gets. I am so uncoordinated it's not even funny. My hubby laughs at me because I can't even clap and sing at the same time. Wow, that's probably not an admission that I should let the whole world know about...O well it's out there. Anyway, because of being uncoordinated I won't go to an exercise class. I just won't. I came across this picture the other day and it made me go "Wow..." Every step on this picture is sooooo true.

Because of my coordination "issues", I've told myself for a long time "I can't do it." Even in my own house, with the door shut, following a YouTube video, I told myself "Nope, can't do it. I can't keep up. I'm not coordinated enough to even try to do that."

Lately, since I have been losing weight (which I also thought I could never do) I've been thinking, "I want to exercise." In May, I went to my neurologist and she recommended trying yoga because I have been struggling with anxiety. Here again, I thought "I can't do it." But because my doctor recommended it, I went from "I can't do it" to "Yes, I did it!" I still have anxiety issues but now I know that there is something that I can do to help myself.

So having accomplished being able to do yoga for relaxation, I thought "I'll try to do yoga for exercise." Very quickly, I stumbled down to the "I can't do it" step. So when it comes to exercise lately, I have been stepping between "I want to do it" and "How do I do it?" I wish they were real steps because then I would at least be getting exercise. LOL

Last night I finally told myself, "Jessica, you're going to go and find out HOW to exercise. Find something that you CAN do." I looked on YouTube for videos, because I find those work best for me. I can workout without leaving my living room and avoid exposing my lack of coordination to an entire classroom of people. I found an 8 min video called, When you think you CAN'T workout." (Yes that is a link to the video) My interest was peaked so I watched it. Afterward I thought, "I'll try to do it." I didn't have all of the things that she used in the video, but I found stuff around the house that could work and I tried it. Turns out I can't do it as easily as the woman in the video, but Obviously I didn't die either.

After my workout, I was inspired and wanted to blog about it, but couldn't find this stupid picture. I knew it was on my iPod but my iPod was in desperate need of a break. So I went looking for the picture on Facebook, couldn't find it. Then I ended up on Pinterest thinking, "Surely someone has it posted there as inspiration." No one did, but I did find an awesome website through Pinterest that I am Definitely going to use!!! There are some specific areas that I want to work on but didn't know how on earth I could target those areas; this website tells exactly how.

The website has an "Exercise Finder" (Yes, another link). The exercise finder has an avatar that you can click on what ever part of your body that you want to work on and it will take you to a place that has listed exercises for that specific area. Pure Awesome!! Just what I needed! I clicked through a few of these and kept thinking, "I can do that, and that and I'll try that one."

I am inspired. I feel like I turned a corner or have at least taken another step up to "I'll try to do it" and "I can do it." I'm sure I'll be on those two steps for a while but at least I've moved up from "I can't do it."

Now that I have rambled on, I hope to inspire a few of you who maybe think that you CAN'T do it. You. Can. Do. It. Trust me, if I can do it, anyone can do it. :)


Hopefully Your Exercise Inspiration,
Jessy <3

California or BUST!!!

I guess I should've said that before my trip, Oh Well...lol Be prepared for a LONG post, just warnin' ya. I had a blast in California and just spent the last two hours going through making collages of pictures, otherwise I would have to post a blog entry for each day that I was there. I let my inner tourist out to play and ended up with almost 200 pictures. lol YAY for digital cameras, I can't even imagine how many rolls of film that would be. LOL Anyway, without further ado here are snippets from my trip.

My first collage is a little bit from all of the places that we went. I stayed at the Peacock hotel, which is literally right behind Disney so I could hear the fireworks every night. We ate at the "Pig N Whistle", ate at Fish Camp, went to the OC Fair, Downtown Disney, Newport Beach/Balboa CA., ate at Newport Landing and went dolphin/whale watching.

The two pics near the bottom right of this college are some treasures that I got while on my trip. For those of you who don't know, I collect pencils so I came home with 3 pencils, a pen and a new key chain. So I guess I am a collector of key chains now too. LOL

The other little picture is one of all of my trip treasures. My mom got both of us a jar to keep small trinkets in as little mementos from our trip. I may have to keep doing this for all my trips. It was kind of fun to find little things and those trinkets will make the memories last forever. :) I like to think of them as vacation joy boxes, in bottle form. ;)

 

I think from here, we will go by day. This is day number 1. I got to LA in the middle of the afternoon so we went to Hollywood Blvd to eat and wait for the traffic to die down before making our way to Anaheim. I always love going to Hollywood. The things you see and the business of it all just makes me feel somewhat invigorated. Only in Hollywood can you find people dressed as Darth Vader with their little tag along R2D2 and another person dressed as Elmo. Oh and ONLY in Hollywood can you find parking meters that take credit cards. I'm sure there are other places but this was a first for me. LOL In Hollywood, we ate at the Pig N Whistle (mmmmm Halibut fish and chips) and walked up and down the Blvd - My inner tourist taking pictures all along the way.

She took LOTS of pictures!!!! One of the ladies stood right in the middle of my shot, How Rude!!

Day number 2 was a very simple day. It was nice to be able to just relax for a day and spend time with my mom and Jay. My mom and I dropped Moonius off at the beach and we went to Ulta!! /sigh....every girls paradise!! I got $22 worth of stuff for $7! Yes, I am an awesome bargain shopper! I learned from the best, that would be my mom. ;) After Ulta we went back to the beach and discovered that Jay was waiting for us because it was too cold to lay on the beach. I think I left the sun in AZ because it was somewhat cloudy the whole time I was there. Since the beach was too cold we went to Fish Camp for lunch instead (I got grilled Salmon and salad mmmm) and then just went back to the hotel for the rest of the day. My mom taught me how to knit and we did pedicures. After I got home I made this tiny square of knitting to put in my little treasure jar. :)

Since we were so close to Disney, I did Disney themed pedicures on our toes. I offered to paint Moon's toes, but he wasn't too keen on that idea. For the Disney design, we painted our nails red, and then I did a white tip on our big toes, made a little tiny Mickey silhouette on the white tip and then put white dots on the rest of the nail. They turned out really cute!

Day number 3 was Friday the 13th. Eeep! It was the most awesome Friday the 13th Ever! The Orange County Fair opened that day and had free admission for the first hour, so we stood in line and waited. The picture in the top left is a picture of the line once we could see the gate; it was much longer than that, believe me. The fair was a blast!! I had never really been to big fair like that, so the only fried fair food that I'd ever eaten was funnel cake. I made up for it that day. I had a corn dog, fried cheese, a funnel cake (just a little one), a fried Snickers (omg...to die for), cotton candy (of which I still have some) and a gelato. Holy Hannah! I won't need ANY fried food for a while.

While at the fair, we saw some fun dancers and shopped till we literally dropped! The pretty flowers are hair clips that my mom and I got. It wasn't until we went to put them on that we realized that we had picked the exact same ones. If I believed in reincarnation, I think we may have been twins in another lifetime. LOL After the fair my mom and I took a nap back at the hotel, like I said we literally dropped. After the nap we taught Moonius how to play Hand and Foot and then we all went to Downtown Disney. I had to go to the Gigantic Disney store and I love the lego store too. We ate at Napolini (margarita pizza), caught some of Disney's Fireworks through the trees and called it a day! I think at some point that night I caught my mom and Jay dancing to the wonderful music that was being played in Downtown Disney. ;)

Day number 4. This was my last full day in CA and it was a BLAST!!! We went to Newport Beach, which is in Balboa California. Balboa is my new favorite place in all of everywhere. I loved the beach. I loved the town itself. It was a touristy town with all of the little fun shops right in the middle of residential area. 

We did two things while in Balboa. First we spent some good time at the beach. By the end of the day, I was incognito as a lobster. Luckily, I think I have put on enough lotion so that it is now a tan and won’t peel. :) While at the beach I took lots of pictures (of course) and enjoyed getting my feet wet. When I went down to the shore I hadn’t planned on coming back half drenched but it happened - I should've just known. Luickly the camera survived! ;) 

Since I had my little jar that I had to fill up with mementos from my trip I gathered up a bunch of seashells. The whole time chanting, “I’m picking up seashells, along the sea shore.” LOL There were a couple of pictures that I wanted to get while I was on the beach and those were some pics of my feet with the sea foam coming up to them. (I know, I’m weird) After a LOT of trial and error I did manage to get a couple shots that I really liked. In addition to the pictures of the sea, I also took a little bit of video of the waves. I love the sound of the ocean.

The second excursion that we took in Balboa was lunch and dolphin/whale watching!! We ate lunch at Newport Landing and someone who reserved a table was a "no-show" so we even got a pretty view! :) We saw lots of birds before we left on our boat to go see dolphins. I learned that Jay really likes birds, so I took pictures just for him. :) Our ship was the "Nautilus" and off we went.

I had never been out on the water before. I learned two things very quickly, one I'm not prone to sea-sickness, YAY!!! And two, it is very, very, VERY cold out on the water. I had dressed for the beach: shorts, tank top, flip flops...that is NOT how you dress to go out to sea. LOL Luckily I had brought a shirt with me, in case I got too much sun but that was definitely not enough. Note to self: Next time you go out to sea, bring a jacket, and maybe a blanket. LOL 

Along the way before we got to open sea the tour guide was telling us about the beautiful houses along the shore. I took several pictures of them but I now I don't remember who they belonged to, with the exception of the house in the bottom left corner of this collage. That house, with the green awnings, was Shirley Temple's childhood home. :) 

While out at sea, we saw many, many, many dolphins - but they are camera shy so it's hard to get good pictures of them. What they aren't shy of is video cameras! :) I only took a few snippets of video because video sucks my camera's batteries dry but I did edit them together and it is uploaded to YouTube. :)  We didn't see any whales. :( I tried to summon my inner Dory and speak "whale" but they didn't understand my dialect. LMAO!!!

Overall, my trip was awesome!! I made memories that will last a lifetime and had a blast too! ;)

To my Mom and Moonius, thank you so much for flying me out to spend some time with you!! The whole trip was a blast! I can't wait for the next trip. Hopefully one day I'll make it to Abilene. I really want to see your home in KS too!

Your California Girl, 

Jessy <3

101 Challenge - June 2012

Here's what I did in June 2012

~ Blogged about my 101 progress, obviously! ;) 
~ Attended the first meeting for the book club I'm in.
         Here is my review of The Book Thief
~ Wrote a letter to a friend
~ Finished Reading the following books:
         Fifty Shades of Grey
         A Christmas Carol
~ Read the following Dr. Seuss books:
        The Tooth Book
        Are You My Mother?!
~ Took a trip to WY to see Julie!! Thanks for getting me the ticket girl
      and for spoiling me while I was with you. ;) Here is the trip post :)
~ Still writing in my journal; I documented my whole trip. :)
~ Bought crossword puzzle book, while in WY
        Now to complete all of the puzzles. :)
~ Counted my pencils; I'm at 247 - that's 10 more since I started!!
~ Got 2 new Nail Polishes
~ Pedicure of the Month

~ I started a Rainy day fund last month but didn't really have something cute to put it in, well I found something this month. So I am officially "Feeding the Kitty" all of my change. LOL (Plus I am saving my pennies too, just in a separate tin cuz somehow you always end up with more pennies than anything else.)

~ Song of the Month: Living Addiction by Alex Goot

Matter of Fact, all of Alex's stuff is great! 

Here's a playlist with all of his songs

Your 101 in 1001 blogger,
            Jessy <3

Some of My Favorites - YouTube Style

So I have decided that I love YouTube. I think anyone that actually posts videos of themselves on YouTube is completely awesome. I am the opposite of awesome. LOL Ok not really, but I do have this fear of an audience - even if it's just an online audience. So for now I will stick to blogging and posting an occasional karaoke song where I make the video in power point and add just my singing track...LOL Currently my channel only has two videos but I plan on adding more soon.


That being said, I wanted to share a few of my favorite channels with you. Now, some of the channels that I like may not be for everyone. Some of the people that post videos use cuss words and some are just strange but they are all quirky just like me. :)


So without further a-do here are some channels that I like. Note: they are in no particular order - well except maybe Toby Turner - cuz he is awesome lol.


Toby Turner: He just plain Rocks! He's funny and comes up with some great videos like "Cute, Win, Fail" and I simply love his vlog too! He is full of energy, talks a thousand miles a minute and is usually pretty clean language wise. :) He has got so many channels, I can think of 3 right off the top of my head and those are the three that I follow which are: Tobuscus, Cute Win Fail (CWF), and his Vlog. I know he's also got a gaming channel called Toby Games and maybe another one too but I'm not sure.

Tobuscus - This is his main channel and it's got most of his work that's just all jumbled up, from Literals to CWF and Music videos.


Cute Win Fail - If you fall in love with his Cute, Win, Fail videos but don't want to see the Literals and other songs/videos that he does on his main channel, this channel is for you!!


Vlog - Toby has always got so much going on, and even when he doesn't just listening to him ramble on about absolutely nothing is rather comical too. LOL


Charlie McDonnell: I found Charlie's channel "Charlie is so Cool-like" and fell in love with it! He doesn't post as often as some other YouTuber's but he's got some good videos. After I found his channel I very quickly found out that he's from the UK and is in a band called Chameleon Circuit; his band makes Doctor Who music and it's awesome!! It feeds my geeky side. ;) 

Charlie is so Cool-like - His channel is mainly Vlog style but he does some fun videos too. I like his "Fun Science" and his "Challenge Charlie" videos. There is also one called How to Speak English and another called How to Speak American. I think these two videos are hilarious! (Note: These two videos have a tiny bit of language in them but overall his channel is very family friendly.)  :)

Calling Nail Art Lovers!: If you want to know where I get most of my ideas, they are usually found on YouTube. LOL There are a few different channels that I follow and I love them all! 

 Cute Polish - This channel is honestly where I get the majority of my ideas. Her designs are really, really simplistic and EASY! Most of them are ones that you can do even if you're a beginner. 

Pixie Polish - She has got some great designs too; hers are a little more complex than Cute Polish but they are still super cute!  

Robin Moses - Her channel is unique because she is painting other people's nails. Honestly, I don't think I could ever do her designs to such lengths on my own nails, but it is still really fun to watch and get ideas. :) 

Joe Penna (aka Mystery Guitar Man): I love his videos. He does stop-motion/looping music videos. Most of the videos that he does are either done in front of a green-screen, or done with various items around the house. Sometimes it's actually items like a microwave and pots and pans; he also has a "mini-Joe" band that appears every once in a while. ;) 

Here are a few of his videos that I really like. If you like them be sure to check out his channel at Mystery Guitar Man.

Car Jacker Fail: This one he used a car to to create a looping song - pure Awesome! 


Tiny Joe's!!!: I <3 Tiny Joe's. :)  

Looping Around: In this video he used things that were found around an apartment to create a song. I love this one too! :)
 


W A R N I N G: The following channels are not meant for little ears. Sometimes I wonder if they are even meant for big ears, but I still find some of their stuff to be really funny!! LOL 


Here are a few other channels that I follow but they are NOT family friendly. They do use expletives (some more than others) and some of them are a little strange. If none of that bugs you, then feel free to check them out. If you don't like cussing, or off color humor, then skip these and let me know what you do like in the comment section below.

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Jenna Marbles (Jenna Mourey) - She is very random, from Vlog style, to "How-To" videos. One of my favorite videos is called "How Diets Work". Note: Jenna swears a LOT - just warnin' ya. 

Philip DeFranco - The Philip DeFranco Show is Philip talking "about the stuff that matters to me [him] today." He talks about the latest news stories, gives some of his opinions, and asks his viewers for theirs. I tell ya, I would much rather watch his show than the actual news channels. First, his show is funny and second, the other news channels are just depressing. 

Nick Foti - Soundly Awake is by far the most interesting channel that I have found. Nick can do all sorts of accents and has used them to create different characters for his channel. Most of the characters are women and the majority of them are played by him. So...yeah... Nuff said. He also has a beauty channel. I've never met a guy that actually buys Birchboxes, let alone one that does a video blog about them. LOL YAY, for not being afraid to break the "norm."

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So I hope I have broadened your YouTube horizons and that you found some channels that amuse you and make you laugh. I would love to know what channels you watch on YouTube. Comment below and let me know which ones you watch! :)

Your YouTube Lover, 
         Jessy <3

 

You have posted a new video!

Ok, so the theme this week is You Tube!! There is another post coming soon about what channels that I like. But first, I wanted to just quickly let everyone know that I have a new video on my YouTube channel. :) I did a cover of Adele's song, Hiding My Heart, which was my song of the month for May 2012.

I think I may try to do a cover for all of my 101 in 1001 songs of the month. We shall see...I guess it just depends on which song I pick for the month. There are just some styles that I can't pull off. LOL You never want to hear this white girl rap that's for sure. ;)

My YouTube channel is very lonely so I am really going to try and add more videos. Hopefully you will be seeing more video posts very soon! :)

O also, if you guys have any ideas for songs that I could do, let me know!! :)

Your Musical Artist,
         Jessy <3