Tune Tuesday | England ’17

Hi 🙂

Now we’re in one of my favorite places! Have you ever felt homesick for a place you’ve never been? Well, I have and my heart belongs in England, mainly London! The music in this post is all over the place really, we have a lot of pop but in different ranges! All three artists have been featured on the Billboard Charts!

The first is Dido and I am REALLY hoping that I have not talked about her yet. My gut is telling me that I have either wanted to mention her or the possibly is this will be a repeat of an older post, who knows! I love Dido though! We tend to believe that this trend of chilled, dark, pop/alternative/indie music is new but it’s not and Dido should be the mother of it! After hearing her song “Thank You” and “White Flag” years ago, I have had this love of a somber vibe in music! She’s the reason why I’m obsessed with Banks! They have such similar sounds, it’s so good!

Second will probably shock you and/or make you remember the year 2004, whether or not that was a happy year for you is another thing altogether! Mis-Teeq is an all girl group consisting of Sabrina Washington, Alesha Dixon, and Su-Elise Nash. Does the song “Scandalous” ring any bells? It does for me, between my mom and I, we were obsessed with it. We tend to do that with girl groups for some odd reason! One movie that I love is Catwoman, I’m like the 1% of the population who loved it I guess! If I could find the soundtrack or score, I’d be a happy camper because they basically helped with it.

Last one is Dua Lipa, she’s our new artist! Of course, I did not think she was British until I looked her up and was amazed but was also very happy too because then I could include her with this year’s lineup since she’s been featuring practically everywhere! You might’ve saw her all over YouTube last year towards the summer, she was the featured artist on there! She’s recently released a new track with Miguel called “Lost In Your Light” but you might be more familiar on Martin Garrix newest single “Scared Of Being Lonely”. I’m still obsessed with this sucker!

So what do you think? I’m looking for more British music, so if you would like for me to talk about someone just let me know! 

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Favorite Childhood Books

Hello!

Back in December, on the post about how to wrap Christmas presents, my nana and I ordered little JD some books. We found some very cheap set of books, she ordered a pack that could be categorized in the “baby” section whereas mine were based for toddlers I think!

I’ve talked about my issues of being a very difficult reader growing up, but I do remember some books of my childhood–granted I may have seen the movies a lot more–and I wanted to share some of my favorites! I grew up in the 90’s and was in grade school in early 2000’s so the amount of books that I read as a kid are sort of different compared to what the little ones read now. I don’t necessarily know why I suddenly wanted to discuss this, I just thought it was be fun and somewhat nostalgic too! While you read the list below, maybe you’ll remember some you used to read as a youngster and share what you liked in the comments!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

I have to point out that almost every children’s book on this list is a classic! I think this was always a cute and sweet book. Very easy to keep up with, if your child had trouble keeping up. I do remember becoming interested in butterflies after reading this book, caterpillars were another though! My sister and I only liked one worm in our whole lives and it was fuzzy and ombre before it was ever in style, sadly I don’t know what the exact name of the worm nor do I know if it actually changes into a butterfly – mom could never explain that question!

If You Give A Mouse A Cookie by Laure Joffe Numeroff

This was actually one of the books I think my cousin Kristi got for JD, all I remember was a mouse, but that’s about it! My memory of this one is a little fuzzy, but I liked the illustrations included in the book. They were nice bolder colors that weren’t too obnoxious. It seemed like a fun book!

The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Phister

If you were a child of the 80’s and/or 90’s then you are familiar with The Rainbow Fish books! Since I always hated reading, what I mostly remember are the video tapes we use to rent for the weekend from the library! These were a favorite with me, but I do remember Blondie liking the books a little more though!

The Cat In The Hat by Dr. Seuss

You know I had to put a Dr. Seuss book on here! We had quite a few Dr. Seuss books in our collection! When you’re in preschool at the school Blondie and I went to, we have a “Green Eggs and Ham” day and our teachers would literally make it for us! I don’t really have any memories of it but I do remember seeing the other generations fall in love with the idea of bringing this to life. I don’t think many preschool would actually eat it, since at that age, anything green is considered disgusting!

Frog and Toad Are Friends by Arnold Lobel

Now this was a very beloved book in our household! I used to get confused about the fact that a “frog” and a “toad” were different when they looked the same. I’m not saying how many years it took me to realize the difference! I think it is a very sweet book though!

What kind of books did your parents read to you as a child? 

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Tune Tuesday | Denmark ’17

Hi 🙂

It’s time for week three and we’re going to be talking about Denmark! It is always a country that I love to talk about on Tune Tuesday, but finding music from the actual country can be fairly difficult! Which is the main reason why I only have two to share today! These artists are very good and deserve free promotion!

The first person I am going to discuss is a native DJ by the name of Martin Jenson! I’m not going to lie but after I discovered him and his single “Solo Dance” on Spotify, I began to hear the track on Sirius XM BPM quite regularly! I don’t hear a whole lot about him anywhere, but I’m hoping to hear some more soon!

Lastly is Christopher, he was a late addition, I was on Facebook on a “liking” spree trying to find new music for these posts and ended up regretting not putting Finland back on my rooster but finding this guy too! First of all, he is REALLY cute! Blond hair and blue eyes! *shudders* He kind of sounds like Justin Bieber but I think I prefer his voice instead! Last month he released a new song called “Naked” and it’s really good! He also has two released albums on Spotify!

Have you heard of Martin Jenson or Christopher before? Always looking for suggestions for music in Denmark, if you know anybody, let me know!

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April Playlist

Howdy!

The end of April marks the start of May, most importantly another year of Tune Tuesday worldwide! I released the lineup on Tuesday, so there you can keep track of the country each week! Hope you really enjoy the posts I publish as they are very fun and can be interesting especially if you’re unfamiliar with your favorite artist and band’s native homeland, because not everybody is what they seem or in this case, sound if they mostly speak English!

By the 8th of April, I had a total of 58 songs in this monthly playlist! Whenever I start these playlists sometimes I have a bunch of songs that I hear on the radio on repeat basically, so if they’re not annoying by the middle of the month I usually try to add them onto the list, like Papa Roach’s “Help” and The Chainsmokers’ “Paris” the one song that I’m about sick of is “Starving” by Hailee Steinfeld featuring Grey and Zedd! What really gets me is the fact that I love the track but since I hear it ALL the time, it’s no longer a favorite anymore! That’s the one downfall about listening to a Top 40 radio station!

I think that’s the big theme in this playlist and I have to say, I try not to build on a theme for these lists, but sometimes they just happen! I put quite a bit of music into this that I used to listen to and unfortunately, don’t hear all that much anymore! If I could figure out how to download music back onto my iPod again, I’m pretty sure I’d cure that right up, but I’m broke a lot faster than I have been lately!

The song of the month was actually a last minute addition! I’ve been hearing Idina Menzel’s song “Queen Of Swords” a lot lately, before this I think I had only heard of it twice. I do remember she performed it on Dancing With The Stars when she was a guest judge! I keep forgetting how good the beat is, so that’s my main reason for listing here.

What have you been listening to lately? Any oldies, but goodies you want to share?

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Favorite Non-Disney Films!

Howdy!

I talked a lot about movies in January and it was mostly because the first two months of the new year are usually very unpredictable for me. Our weather can go back and forth between a typical cold day to freezing rain, thunder, and eventually a couple of inches of snow. I don’t usually have a lot of bright ideas like I did at the end of the year, because I’m not leaving the house a lot. So in other words, my nana and I are not getting together and coming up with our crafts and other stuff.

So if you are a little tired of all the movie posts, well this isn’t the post for you. Honestly, if February is anything like last month then I might be doing a lot of movie posts. This is your warning now!

I have been thinking about this idea for almost 2 years now and no, I’m not kidding! Technically you can blame Danielle of Underland To Wonderland. She is, in my opinion, the #1 best Disney blogger I follow on the blogosphere. She told me that she’s never liked the non-Disney films, but she has a fairly large collection of everything that isn’t Disney. For the past two years, I thought she had a post like this one and I thought if I posted it after her then it would have looked like I copied her or vice versa. So I’ve been sort of comfortable in waiting for the right time to unleashed my favorite non-Disney films ever!

I’m directing my focus on just Don Bluth films. I figured he had a lot more that he had created, so I figured that if I find any more animated, non-Disney flicks than there will be a second post.

1.) Anastasia – 1997

I love Anastasia! It was a beloved film in my household with my sister and I.

I have always wondered what really created my love of history and mythology. I believe one of the first stories, or conspiracy theories I’ve ever heard were the rumors of both the real Anastasia and her little brother future czar Alexei Romanov were thought to be alive after their entire family were brutally murdered in 1918. The reason why I bring it up because at this time I was interested in Ancient Egypt and Greek mythology after watching Disney’s version of Hercules. Despite not knowing how I became a total history nut, I really love this film!

I think it also has a great soundtrack! I am still kicking myself that I had bought the album (even though I only wanted two songs!) like a couple of months before our home computer crapped out on us, and I had burned myself on it so I had almost all of the songs unchecked on iTunes and when I switched my iPod, I lost all of those songs and I haven’t been able to find them on Spotify either!

2.) Thumbelina – 1994

If you were to ask Blondie which of the non-Disney films we were obsessed with as kids, there’s a big chance she won’t remember; that’s where I come in because I’m pretty sure this was her favorite. I’m still surprised this wasn’t a favorite of mine though, but I think the “magic” of it and the face that finding somebody like me as a kid was an impossible feat. I had trouble believing in it.

I loved the songs and still do. I remember as a child getting very frustrated singing the songs from both Thumbelina and Anastasia and having the most difficult time hitting a high note and letting it go. Back then, my back was really bad and I wasn’t able to take in a deep breath and sing as well as I feel like I can nowadays. I’m proud to say that I can hit those infamous notes!

3.) The Land Before Time – 1988

If you were born in the late 80’s or sometime in the 90’s, you might have heard of this film than any other because it was one of Don Bluth’s best films!

I do know for a fact that this was what got me interested in dinosaurs. There’s no question about it, because I tried to watch Jurassic Park with my parents once and was haunted by those suckers for most of my childhood. However, the fossils and bones seemed to intrigue me for some odd reason. And Littlefoot and his band of dinos were the perfect combination for me! Kiddie films about history of any kind, usually worked well! For a little fun fact, I wanted to be Littlefoot. I tried to stretch my neck out and everything. I’m starting to realize why my mom never takes me seriously, she had to put up with that for a number of years!

4.) All Dogs Go To Heaven – 1989

I’ll be honest I like the second movie a lot better compared to the first. I’ve always been interested in sequels more than the original, but here’s a way to think about it. If we didn’t have the original, we wouldn’t have the sequels.

Anyways, my favorite characters from the first were Itchy (of course!) and Annabelle. Even though, she seems more like an angel in this one than the second movie. Maybe it’s because she’s basically the “alpha” in Heaven. I also think this film is good if you have children and they ask you questions where animals go after they’ve passed on. Trust me, going this route is a lot better than a freaking pastor telling your sister that your pets don’t go to heaven after your family dog has died. Thanks a lot asshole! And if you have ever told any child that, you’re even worse!

5.) An American Tail – 1986

I’ll be honestly, I barely remember this movie. I remember the layout of it; I actually “rented” it for a couple of days back in October to see if any scenes or dialogue would jump out at me like if I would remember anything, but it didn’t work, but watching it as an adult was pretty interesting, considering I wasn’t supposed to be awake in the first place so in ways I felt like I was a kid again!

I think it’s an adorable little movie. I’ve always liked movies with mice in it and I don’t know why! I kind of wonder if Blondie was into it as a kid because she’s a lover of mice (despite becoming a cat lady lately!) at one point we had two rats and over 7 hamsters–not at one time though! Dad would have had a cow if that ever happened! However, she did have a pair of twins once and we got their sexes wrong, apparently the female died and “Thomas” became “Thomasina”. They all seemed to like me too! We would always sneaked one or both out of their cages whenever dad would leave the house! We still do that, but exchanged the rodents with our cats instead!

What is your favorite Don Bluth’s film? Which character were obsessed with growing up?

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