Blogmas | Christmas Tree Ornaments

Howdy!

Before I start on this, I am leaving my previous Blogmas post about my Christmas tree because if you haven’t read it yet or this is your first time on here, you can get caught up on why I have adopted a very interesting way to do my tree this year.

For today though, I am discussing my process of both the ornaments and the way I took the pictures, because that in itself was a big production that some people might find enjoyable! Fun fact: I am one of those people! 

  The Ornaments  

I feel the need to mention that the day I finished writing my previous post about my tree, my whole original theme of white lights, purple bulbs, and a star on top, kind of went out the window since my mom could not find anything to match that scheme. However, my dad did say something about going to Dollar General and getting things there. So, one morning I went on the DG website and looked over their very limited holiday decorations and found two that I actually loved, and they were: a pair of angel wings that came in two colors on the site, gold and red. I really fell in love with the red ones. The other one I just couldn’t get over was the crown. If you know me well, you know I need anything royalty and I thought for this reason would be no different!

Later that day, my mom went to the store and came home with an interesting sort of things for me. She got me a box of array silver ornaments. There are the normal shiny ones but my favorites are really the glittery and matte bulbs the most. Unfortunately, they didn’t have their hooks on them already so that was a bummer, but I managed to put two of them on the tree myself before letting mom take over! Now, you’re probably wondering about the two I found online. Did we have any luck in that department? Well, I’m happy to say, she found both of them! There was a setback though, she found the wings only in silver.

This wasn’t what freaked us out though. When I saw them online, they looked pretty smell, almost the same size of the other ones she got me. No… The wings and crown are huge! We couldn’t believe it! Honestly the crown is the perfect size but the wings just look obnoxious! This wasn’t the funny thing though, because both of my parents thought it would look great as the topper, but every time I look at it, I think it looks like a vagina! I literally thought of the episode of Everybody Loves Raymond, when Marie takes an art class and the sculpture she presents to her family, looks just like a vagina. The wings are basically in the same shape but with a bigger opening in the middle, so when my mom placed it at the top of my tree, it just looked very wrong. I mean, I’m all for my Christmas tree being non-traditional, but I have to draw the line somewhere!

I managed to talk my mom into putting the wings lower on the tree, but as much as I had my heart on a star on the top, I kind of thought the crown would look better there instead. It took some convincing on my part because my mom was very adamant about the vagina–I mean, the wings on top–but it does fit on there nicely. As far as decorations on my tree, this is about it. My mom did find me some lights too, but the cord was white and since the tree isn’t as full like others, it looked a bit chaotic but all is not lost, because my mom came up with another idea for them. I don’t even know what prompt this, but she just started wrapping them around my curtain rod on both sides and it actually looks amazing with my sunflower curtain! Thankfully, the lights don’t generate too much heat that I can actually leave them on all day and night. They make my room look really cozy!

  The Process Of The Pictures  

Now that we have that part out of the way, I can talk to you about how I managed to take the photos for this blog post. I will say, it was not easy, but honestly any post that requires a lot of pictures is usually pretty difficult anyways! Between the fact that I am always adjusting myself to get the ‘perfect’ shot and basically trying not to pop out of my wheelchair and land butt (or worse, back) first on the hardwood floor, isn’t the best thing in the world. Thankfully, I can say I did not hurt myself too awful that day – I did sleep like a baby that night so I took that as a good sign!

For the first round of photos, I used my Kodak digital camera I got last Christmas. I thought the pictures turned out really good the last time so I tried it out for this part, but since I was working with higher angles, I was having a lot of difficulty keeping the camera steady enough. I was able to get a few of the ornaments in their places, so that was nice, but for the rest I switched to my tablet.

Now, I will say that I would only use this as a last resort, because they weren’t in the best quality. I think the culprit for this was because it was too dark in my room. I have become dependent on the flash and since I didn’t have enough lighting, they might not look the greatest but I honestly loved how they turned out for some odd reason. Besides this, I used something else to help make everything easier for me. My nana and papaw had this foot stool that they inherited from the aunts, and I use this to prop up my tablet to color and read. However, I hadn’t thought about using it as a tripod until that day. It took me a good hour and a half to arrange it in certain ways to get the shots I wanted, because when it comes to blog photography, I am incredibly picky! We were successful though, or at least I’ll found out if any of you send me comments about them after reading this post.

The last thing I would like to do, is find this large bag of classic Christmas heirlooms my nana gave me a couple of years ago. I think they would look awesome surrounding the tree. It would complete the whole thing I think. If we find them, I’ll update you about it on Instagram and Facebook!

What was the meaning for your Christmas tree theme? Do you have any funny ornament stories you would like to share with me? For anybody with a disability, does it normally take you a while to get everything just right? What do you use to make things easier?

6 Halloween Movies For Kids!

Howdy!

Since I’m not able to decorate pumpkins this year, I had to come up with another Halloween-y post for you guys and I thought collecting a bunch of movies that you either have seen at different parts of your life or not at all. For this list, I decided to talk about what is kid-friendly, it might be movies you remember watching with your parents or at a sleepover with your cousins or friends growing up. I tried to board out my search of different movies and I really like the lineup I have so far, and I hope you enjoy them as well!

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

The first time I ever watched this movie was in seventh grade, weirdly enough three days before we went on Christmas break. There are not very many movies that can pass being two holiday movie lists, but this is one! Unfortunately, I didn’t want to watch it and was very happy to be sitting in the back of the room. It wasn’t until about three years later that I finally watched it on my own and I actually kind of enjoyed it.

I think this is a good, fun movie for young kids to watch because they will love the characters, but be careful they do show the Bogeyman and other monsters in the closet and under the bed, so there’s that part to watch out for the younger kids!

Halloweentown (1998)

I love Halloweentown! However, like TNBC I did not want to watch this when it aired on the Disney Channel one October night at a friend’s house. I wasn’t the bravest of kids in my age as you can see, but my sister and her friend stayed up and watched it. You’re never going to believe this, but I actually fell asleep before it even started, so at one point of time, I could fall asleep on cue apparently!

So what changed? I think I was always haunted by the fact that I couldn’t watch it back then that once I got into high school I was like, “you have to suck it up” and it’s been one of my favorite Disney Channel franchises, and my favorite one being Halloweentown High. The last one isn’t really the best because they replace Kimberly J. Brown to Sara Paxton. Nonetheless, the films are good and they’re not really dark, some of the costumes are a little “scary” for some young kids, but other than that it’s a Disney so your child should (grow to) like it very much.

Alvin and The Chipmunks: Meet The Wolfman (2000)

When I decided that I wanted to write this post, this was actually the first movie that popped into my head. I remember watching this as a kid with my sister, who would have been in preschool at the time. We rarely watched Alvin and The Chipmunks and honestly I haven’t seen any of the sequals of the newer films, so the fact that this made the cut is interesting for me. I try to watch it whenever it’s on, even if I miss the majority of it!

If you’re looking for a cartoon-ish, Halloween movie for your children to watch, I’d definitely recommend this because this is generally adorable then spooky. If you didn’t love the Chipmunks, especially Theodore, you will after watching this film.

Mom’s Got A Date With A Vampire (2000)

This is another favorite of mine, that unlike the first two movies I talked about, this was easier to get into and maybe it was because Charles Shaughnessy was in it! You have to understand that when this came on, I was busy watching Full House, Mad About You, Family Matters, and The Nanny with my mother almost every other day with a bowl of potato chips for an afternoon snack when we came home from school! I don’t remember watching Sabrina the Teenage Witch so this is how I fell in love with Caroline Rhea for the first time.

You can find this on Disney Channel too! It likes to creep up on me sometimes, because there will be times where it’s easy to find but then they don’t play it at all and that part really sucks! It is a nice Halloween movie for kids, Charles is somewhat spooky but it’s mostly because of his accent and hair!

Twitches (2005)

I literally almost forgot about this one! It does help if you make sure you have the right amount of movies that it says on your banner before saying you’re done for the day! Anyways, Twitches is such a good movie, I’d say it’s a safe movie that discusses witches in general, but what I really enjoyed about it was seeing real twins Tia and Tamara Mowry play separated after birth sisters that are indeed witches. However, the real part I loved about it were Karsh and Ilena, they are absolutely hilarious and really bring the comic relief to this movie.

This movie has some dark tones in it, but I don’t think it’ll be that big of a deal for someone over the age of seven, but that’s only my opinion! I think kids will enjoy the fantasy and magic being shown between the characters, and will hopefully see through the character Thantos’s scary demeanor.

Hotel Transylvania (2012)

Are you surprised to see a recent release on my list? I actually had a hard time finding movies that I had seen that would work for this, and HT was the only one that fit the bill. I actually enjoyed this film, unfortunately I have yet to watch the other two and I do want to see them, because I really like the cast who are voicing these characters: Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, and David Spade just to name a few.

This film is really nice, it’s not too scary for kids, it could actually help children understand to never to assume the worst out of people. I actually like this direction of the story of Count Dracula, they made the character slightly approachable whereas how they will probably learn of the real story of him, so right now this is family friendly enough right now!

So now we’re finished with the first list! I had lots of fun telling kind of embarrassing stories of my childhood on my blog again.. Oh, just wait until we get to the adult post, you’ll probably be laughing at me while reading it. I originally had seven on this, but I realized that I had two movies that I haven’t really seen a whole lot, so I figured it would be easier to talk about ones that I have watched and liked throughout the years instead. Before I go, I wanted to list a couple of TV shows for kids that have a sort of a spooky flare: Goosebumps, Are You Afraid Of The Dark? and Aaahh!!! Real Monsters.

What are your thoughts of the movies above? Which one is your favorite?

 

Album Review: “White Light” by Down For Whatever

Every once in a while I get requests to do reviews, but my favorite is obviously for music. It’s always fun and I love to promote especially if they’re a new band. Recently, I got a message on Twitter from the lead singer of Down For Whatever if I’d be interested  in reviewing their new album “White Light” and I thought it was too cool so I said yes and that’s the origins of that story.

Down For Whatever is a modern metal band based in Budapest, Hungary. If anybody knows me well enough, you know I’m a sucker for international artists and bands. The band consists of Dávid Zsoldos on drums, Róbert Császár playing the guitar and finally Kiki Diószegi on vocals. As I found out by looking through their Facebook page, they were formed in early 2015 and they released their first EP in December while the album that I will be talking about came out last month!

I was very intrigued to hear this album, especially seeing the track list and founding out the opening track is basically instrumental beginning, called “Prologue” it is very ominous and fierce. Now that is how you should start out every album, well in the rock and heavy metal category at least! The first real track is the title of the album “White Light” and I really like it. I like the introduction leading into this single, really digging hearing the bass guitar throughout, it has elements of synths but it’s pretty tame. It’s a mix of everything that I like so that’s a good sign. The second is “The Black March” and another great beginning, brings out my inner crazy (in a good way)! I really like the lyrics of this one, I feel like I can relate to it in parts.

Third is “Alienation” and this is a heavy sucker, not to say the first two weren’t by any means. I just think this one has less electronic sounds and it’s definitely a heavy metal song; it’s mean and gritty. However, it did take me a bit to get into it fully, once it was fading out that’s when I realized it’s potential and had to start it over again. After is “Let Me In” and again we go back to the electronic sounds before it basically explodes into this monster. There is definitely a higher pitched voice in the background, don’t really know who’s voice I am hearing but it’s a nice balance. Next is “Age Of Insanity” and with that kind of title, you know it’s going to be brilliant. At least, you’re always hoping it is! This is another one that I focused on the lyrics and that made me like it a little bit more. It definitely empowers the listener, or maybe that was just me!

We first had a “Prologue” and now that we’re in the middle of the album essentially, we have an interlude as well, and I saw “Kyrie” and it brought me back to my choir days in school, because we would see that song in winter months. It was always my favorite! Anyways, it’s only 33 seconds long and I didn’t even notice it at first, I just thought it was the ending of the previous track. KiKi has the space to just release a few lines before the next song starts which is “Better To Be Alone” and again, I’m surprising myself with listening more to the lyrics then the actual music. I’m very backwards today, but hey, I’m not complaining because I’ve been really into the words. I feel I could grow to really enjoy this one too, as sometimes I feel better to be alone too. Next is “Sea Of Tomorrow” this one seems to be a bit slower, but not like a ballad though. It definitely reminds me of a pop-rock kind of track, good for radio and I say that in a good way! I don’t see anything wrong with that!

The last three songs start with “Alpha & Omega” and this is surprising pretty tame too! I figured it would be a bit heavier, but then again majority of the songs I’ve heard, they have enough of those. I’m on the fence about it. It’s an okay track, but if anybody really knows me I can always change my mind after a while! The next doesn’t disappoint though, it has that creepy, mysterious intro that I am always look for, it is called “G.T.F.O.”  which translates to “get the fuck out” and this is the one that has a featured artist on it: Adam Connor. I have no idea what band he is from, I am not familiar with him at all, but I wonder if he’s the other vocalist I hear in the background of “Let Me In” despite the fact, he is not credited for it. Last one is “The Last Chapter” which again is an awesome title for the outro of the album. And of course, it ends on a high or in this case heavy sound. I get like an air-y vibe, almost a chill in the verses. It’s not like a gritty type of song that we’ve heard in the beginning of the album but it’s still pretty great too!

I think this album is very good, despite not exactly knowing how to really describe “modern metal” on here so I apologize for that. They remind me of Bring Me The Horizon in the different elements they’ve used in their last two albums. For once, I actually broke my own set of rules and looked to the lyrics which never really happens in any genre of music I listen to nowadays! I do think it saved them in certain songs, because there’s no ballads on this record and so after a while, I kind of got bored with hearing the same heavy sound over and over again. I never thought I’d say that either; although I say that I can’t say I hated any of the songs though.

Have you heard of Down For Whatever yet? If you have, what were your favorite songs?

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My Life Through The Year 2012

“Heartbroken and beaten.
Knocked down and mistreated.
I will rise undefeated.
I will not let you bring me down.
Now the pain is deleted and I will never repeat it.
I will rise undefeated.
I will not let you bring me down.” – Christina Aguilera

I started out this year as a girl who wanted to overcome her depression and got a new-found of music and group of people to help her see the positive side of life. That life doesn’t have to be sad and you don’t have to hate yourself. Life is beautiful. It can be complicated and crazy, but both of those things can be good too. Before, I thought my life wasn’t going to get any better. I didn’t understand why God was giving me more tomorrows, instead of just letting me go. I was getting told by everybody I was around that I was an inspiration and I didn’t know how to take that as a good thing. I still have problems with taking that as a good thing, but I’m learning, slowly but surely. I’ve noticed that as much as I thought my family had given all hope for me, they never have. They’ve understood my feelings, but they just didn’t understand how to help. It’s all a learning process.

As the year went on and on, my friends list from my hometown kept declining without my consent. I didn’t want any of my friendships to end, but ever since I graduated from high school. I understood I wouldn’t be able to keep all of the same friends I had from school. It just wasn’t going to happen. For some, I was actually fine with that. As for the rest, it kept getting harder and harder to keep up. They kept taking pictures of different people who I knew and found time to be around them, but as they said the words, “we’ll hang out soon” that slowly became just a thought in my mind again. It never happened. Good things happened for the ones I went to school with, some had gotten engaged, married, were pregnant, and one even surprised me, when they decided they was going to go into the army. I never saw them as the type to want to go on to do that. At the beginning of the year, my cousin had finally made the move up north permanent. Everybody was doing things and going places. I wasn’t. I was still stuck in the same ole place I started from and I couldn’t wrap my head around it either.

I don’t know why, but love has to be on my mind all the time. I’ve heard people say on movies and TV shows to their fellow actors or actresses, that they need to get out and meet somebody. Just one little problem. I don’t believe in fairy tales, so I’m definitely not going to believe an actress in a movie who memorized a script that told her to tell the other actress, she needed to get out there in the world and play the field for a bit. I knew I wasn’t going to go out on a date anytime soon because of my slow declining of friends around town. On a good note though, I decided early enough in the year to not do online dating. To me, it’s just not safe, but yet I talk to random people on Twitter. Yeah, that part comes into my mind too. My friends from Twitter are a different breed though. I know I’m not going to fall in love with anyone. I think they’re all beautiful in their own way, but I know it’s not worth the pain to tell them I think I have feelings for them. Have I had a thing for some of them? Yes, and I have kept my mouth shut and I intend to continue to do so.

Around February, I decided to break my vows I had made to myself almost two years before. I decided that it was time to get back into drawing again. It was Super Bowl Sunday that I actually sat on the floor and just doodled in my sketchbook, and I thought I was making a bad decision, because doing projects at home is very different from doing them at school. At school, we were only allowed a week for each project. Since I didn’t have anybody telling me how many days I had left (my teacher never did that, but you get my point) and all I needed was my dad nearby to stir me in the right direction. As he says everytime I bring him my drawings that he doesn’t know what I need fixed and just likes everything I do. That never helps when he tells me that, but somehow it works every single time. After I finished my first portrait after almost two years, it was interesting since the first day I started working on it, I bawled like a baby because I put too much pressure on myself to do a good job on it. Now, the only reason why I pressure myself is because my dad calls me a quitter everytime I don’t complete one of my drawings. Everything I do, I do as a hobby, but people don’t understand it. That’s why I’ve never given journalism a shot.

I did two things I’d never thought I’d do. 1.) I got into heavy metal. 2.) I read 50 Shades of Grey and got through it. First, I got into metal in late 2011. I started listening bands like, In This Moment, Shinedown, Papa Roach, Lacuna Coil and my ultimate favorite at the moment, Five Finger Death Punch. If you have been reading my stuff since the beginning of the year, you’ve read about how my love for this band. Over the summer, I found out that there were two festivals that we’re coming into town an hour away from where I live. I begged and begged my parents to go to each and neither one budged. I literally got made fun of my metal music preferences. However, just two months after 5FDP came into town, my dad caved in and asked me to make him a burn CD of my favorite songs by them. I felt like a proud daughter, but it would surely come back to bite me in the butt a little. My dad started learning the songs and using it to make me laugh and I mean, everytime he would try to sing or scream like Ivan, I would laugh my ass off.

During this time, I had heard about this book called 50 Shades of Grey. I had seen it on Amazon before all the talk about it. I read the summary and thought it was interesting, to say the least, but something about it, just made me feel uncomfortable. Just reading the summary of it made me feel weird. That should have been my warning. I think I spent at least two months trying to get through it, after I had finish my last rockstar biography for the year, or as I thought. Anyways, as I read it, the more I hated it. When I did my review, I had actually waited another month to do it. I didn’t like the book as I thought I would. Everybody said it was the best book of the summer, but I didn’t like it. You know when I didn’t like the first book of a series, when I didn’t even bother reading the other books. I had better luck with the next series than I did with this series. The series I’m into now, is called Sinners On Tour and they’re by Olivia Cunning. So of course, since the title of the series doesn’t tell you what it’s about. It’s a rock ‘n roll plus erotica book. I’m almost finished with the second book and I can’t wait to start the third book in the series. I read Olivia’s blog too, so I love reading her spoilers of the next books. I am addicted to the series!

There were two things that were different from the years before were I, well my family went to the mall more than twice in one year. Which usually NEVER happens. I think I went to Wal-Mart three times and I’ve went to the mall like six times. Not bad, since it’s a longer trip and more ways to shop for clothes. Even though I’m not an expensive type of person, I do like getting out and window shopping. Nothing wrong with that. If I had enough money than I went online to look ahead like a day before our trip and took pictures of which tops I liked online and had the guts to ask the employees to help me find certain things. As much as it use to drive me crazy, I’m starting to get a little better with it now. My band shirts kept growing and what I thought was just going to be a phase, my skulls obsession kept growing too. I can’t get enough of it. Now I’m trying to cut down on my dark clothes and buy lighter clothes for my second change of my life. After my last breakdown of my boring life, the week before Thanksgiving, my mom talked to my aunt into having do volunteer work at the same place my mom works. I started the week after Thanksgiving, and I love doing it. It gets me out of the house and gets me around people again. Which is also good for me since I was starting to hate people the more life went on for me.

This year has been a year of ups and downs. I’ve had my fair share of downs this year and as much as I’d like not to relive those days, I’m glad they happened. I’ve grown up and became stronger in every way. The downs from 2011 became the ups as the year went on. It was probably the best thing that could’ve happened to not only myself, but for my family as well. We had more family visits and spent both Thanksgiving and Christmas together. It was more than I thought I ever wanted. Family is important element to have when you feel like you’re alone on this big planet full of crazy people. God has gotten me through another year and I’m glad he’s never given up on me, even though I’ve turned into a little metalhead. I don’t know what 2013 has in store for me or anybody else, but I hope it continues on the same path its on right now because I wouldn’t change it for the world. I’ve lost some friends, but I’ve gained a few new ones back. I learned I need to start accepting myself as a person more. For my 21st birthday I realized I didn’t need to have an alcohol infested party with strippers (if you’ve been reading my posts since the end of 2011 you’ll get this) all I needed was some family time in an old restaurant we use to go when I was little, go to a bookstore and shopping afterwards. That’s what I learned through this chaotic journey. Hopefully I’m not done either. I hope you welcome 2013 will open arms, in my case with an open mind. Understand that is life is beautiful too. (:

Do You Remember 2000 Being The Year We Were Suppose To End?

I just remembered something. It was something that my mom had told me a while back and we were talking about 2012 not today. By that time nobody was saying anything about today’s date. In 2000 internet wasn’t as big as it is now. If we didn’t have the internet now nobody would be freaking out. Some people in different areas woun’t be going insane right now.

2000 was the year we were suppose to end. But we didn’t. We are STILL here! I wonder whoever said in the year 2000 we were suppose to end? I wonder what he was thinking in 2001. 2002. As well as 2003. To the people who has make this day the most scariest and craziest you are mean! You are making people who think it is gonna end, end their lives. If we don’t die tonight and a bunch of people have killed themselves, I sure hope the people who started this will be happy. I maybe a bitch right now, but only God can judge me and I bet he would NOT want people ending their lives because of a hoax.