I've moved!!

Thank you so much for reading and supporting my blog! I have now moved to a new home on the internet and you can find me at http://ehdreeahnah.com/.

Same me. Same posts. Same name. New home.
Thanks again and I hope to see you there!!
-Adrianna.

BLOGTEMBER DAY 18: VLOGtember?

Friday, September 18th, 2015: Record a VLOG! It can be about anything you'd like!

Hello.

Ah yes. Blogtember. 

I have (as you've most likely noticed) been slipping on the whole, blogging every day thing. I couldn't let this one slip by though, as one of the reasons I joined this challenge was the fact that this prompt was on this particular day!! I won't give too much away, but I hope you enjoy the vlog and a little extra peek into my life! I'll try to double up with the upcoming days in order to get back up to speed but for now, I hope you enjoy day #18!

Thanks for reading... and watching!
-Adrianna.

BLOGTEMBER DAY 12: Currently...

Saturday, September 12th, 2015: What are you up to currently?

Reading... academic journals. I am officially back to school.
Playing... My Vegas Slots and Blackjack. I'm not much of a gambler but free stuff in Las Vegas brings out the high stakes roller in me.
Watching... Girl Meets World. I watched season 1 because of Cory and Topanga but season two is SO wonderful. It's fun seeing the new generation come into their own.
Trying... to blog more! Thanks to Bailey-Jean from BraveLoveBlog and Blogtember for helping with that!
Cooking... up plans for videos, blog posts and creative things to share!
Eating... not as healthily as I should! Oops!
Drinking... water. I had Starbucks three times today. Yeah, I know.
Calling... clients at my work to remind them of their appointments on Monday.
Texting... my best friend and boyfriend.
Pinning... not a lot lately! I was pinning tonnes of short hairstyles before I got the big chop but now haven't really been doing much on there!
Tweeting... snarky things I think of that I can't post on Facebook.
Loving... my nails! I tried the coffin shape that always intimidated me... but I have to say I'm a big fan so far!
Hating... the heat. I need cool weather stat!!
Thinking... about what to do after I finish this post.
Feeling... tired. Long week + migraine + still lots to do = exhausted Adrianna.
Hoping (for)... a great sleep tonight! I've been fighting with this migraine for two days now -_-
Listening (to)... One Love by Marianas Trench. I am SO excited for this album.
Celebrating... my one day weekend tomorrow!
Smelling... the melon scented EOS lip chap I just put on.
Ordering... Kate Spade Keds... in my dreams. Can't quite justify them right now #brokestudentproblems.
Thanking... YOU! Thank you so very much for taking the time to read my blog posts. It means so much to me!
Considering... having a bath... it's been a long day and this girl has a LUSH stash!
Starting... back on the Beachbody 21 Day Fix Challenge. I was doing well at the beginning of August and then it went down the drain when I went to visit my friends for a few days. And then I went camping. And then... any excuse I could think of for two weeks.

Finishing... this blog post! Betcha didn't see that one coming ;) 

Thanks for reading!

-Adrianna.

BLOGTEMBER DAY 11: Staying in on Friday Night

Friday, September 11th, 2015: It's Friday night and you decide to stay in. What do you do?

This isn't really too far-fetched because most Friday nights, I stay in. I work weekends and so there's probably been about eight Fridays in the past three years that I have taken the day off and done something out of the ordinary. That, and there's not many wild and crazy things I'm up for when I have to go to work Saturday morning.

Most Friday evenings I finish work around 7:30 and go home to have dinner and relax. Sometimes this involves hanging out with my boyfriend and doing whatever our "phase" currently is. Right now we've been figuring out his new Atari, my favourite games are Hangman and Flag Capture so far haha.  

If I'm have a solo night it usually involves my artsy project of the moment, maybe playing Sims or baking and if I'm feeling ambitious: cleaning. I'm also a big fan of baths, especially with a LUSH product or two. I usually save this for Saturdays, but hey... nothing wrong with some extra pampering!

What do your Friday Night In's entail?

-Adrianna

BLOGTEMBER DAY 10: Bucket List

Thursday, September 10th, 2015: 10 items off your bucket list. If you haven't made one, now's a good time to start!

I've always had a casual bucket list with dozens and dozens of things that I want to do and try. It's been fluid as I've checked off boxes: sewing my own dress, graduating from high school, kissing in the rain... cheesy and little things as well as the big ones. Here's my main list:

1. Publish a novel.
2. Buy my first home.
3. Get married.
4. Have children.
5. Visit Russia.
6. Learn ASL.
7. Run a Disney half marathon.
8. Go on a big five African safari (and one to see gorillas!)
9. Travel to Greece and Egypt.
10. Go down in a submarine and see the Titanic in real life. (I know this is not really probable but it was the first thing to ever go on my bucket list when I was like twelve so I keep it on there for posterity.) 

On top of those things I have a whole section of my tumblr dedicated to my bucket list. A lot of these posts are just ones I reblogged off of "bucket list" blogs... yeah, those are a thing. Most of them are things I thought would be cool and anything I've done has a little "done :)" in gray text below it. It's cool to look through them now and see ones that I have done since I posted them! Knowing that I've done things that are on other peoples bucket lists makes me feel like even though there are still lots of things I want to accomplish, the first twenty-four years of this ride have been pretty amazing.

What's on your bucket list? Do we have any of the same things?

Thanks for reading!
-Adrianna

BLOGTEMBER DAY 9: Dear Sixteen-Year-Old Me

Wednesday, September 9th, 2015: Write a letter to sixteen-year-old you. Any advice or funny stories?

Dear Sixteen-Year-Old Me,

Normally I'd start a letter with some kind of salutation: how are you, how's it going, how's life... something like that. But I already know the answers to those. Right now you're starting grade 11 and I won't give away too much but things will change. Some will change soon, others will take awhile. Some of those changes are good, others are hard but for the best, a bit just plain out sucks, but most of it is so amazing, I can't wait for you to figure it out and experience it.

I'm gonna keep the rest of this letter pretty casual and just give you some pointers. 

• Now, I know you're out of your awkward/ emo/ hate the whole world phase (thankfully) but you've still got to work on the whole smiling thing. SMILE MORE :D
• Don't put all of your eggs in one social clique of a basket. Hang out with more people than just your usual "squad" (trust me, that term gets big... coin it now!).  You know how they leave and hang out with other people and then come back? Do that. Be loyal to yourself first.
• Stop it with the over saturated pictures looking away from the camera. It's not as cool as you think it is and it was painful looking through those pictures today. But keep on feeling good about yourself. You are beautiful :)
• Take Honi for big long walks. Give her more belly rubs. Sneak her some of your steak. Help her up on the bed and give her the biggest hug. I wish I still could. 
• Mom will tell you this in a couple years but here's a precursory lesson: everyone comes into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. Figure out who is who... but it's not who you think.
• EXERCISE MORE. Or well... START EXERCISING!
• Don't worry about not being the "cool kid" or having cool "teenage years". Just be you, whatever that entails.
• DO NOT LET ANYONE MAKE YOU FEEL LIKE YOU SHOULDN'T LIKE THE THINGS YOU ARE PASSIONATE ABOUT! Making stories, creating collages, playing Sims, and even writing Digimon fanfiction. You will meet people who will appreciate you FOR those things, not despite them. Then, you will find outlets to put all those things on display. They are not pointless and you are not silly or lame for doing the things that make you happy, even if its not what anyone else is doing. 

See you in eight,

-Adrianna.

Unboxing A Beautiful Mess Subscriptions: August 2015

A couple months ago I did a post on A Beautiful Mess and their two subscription services that I receive. I finally unboxed and filmed the August version and holy cow, they are gorgeous. 

Let me know what your favourite thing from last's months Messy Box and Happy Mail! Who is excited for the unveiling of the September box tomorrow? I can't wait!!

For more information about ABM and their subscription services, feel free to check out my other post where I did an in depth run down of their prices, contents, and my favourites! That post is available to read HERE :)

Thanks for reading (and watching!)!

-Adrianna.

BLOGTEMBER DAY 8: My Favourite Season

Tuesday, September 8th, 2015: Tell us about your favourite season? Why is it your favourite and what does it say about you?

So I totally had this post ready to go yesterday (September 8th) but due to some technical issues I wasn't able to post it on time! Boo! But better late than never right? 

Today in search of some non-green trees (evergreens are everywhere!) to take a picture of for this blog post, I ended up walking down memory lane. When I say that I mean it literally as the picture at the top of this post is taken on the street that I grew up on.

So based on that, I guess you now know that my favourite season is Fall. In high school I would have told you that it was winter because Christmastime is my favourite part of the year, but living where I do, winter is actually a 'season' that lasts from mid-October to the beginning of April. As much as I love cooler weather and Christmas and snow, it gets a bit depressing to have the bleak and gray that comes with that for six months.

Fall for me is ideal because it's cooler weather and allows for my favourite things: sweaters, leggings, jeans, toques, coats and scarves. It's a great in between season as I'm not really a fan of summer and so it's like the perfect sunset season... The end of summer but before the long winter! 

Thanks so much for reading this post and I hope you are having a great day!

-Adrianna.

BLOGTEMBER DAY 7: Behind My Blog Name

Monday, September 7th, 2015: Tell us about your blog name. Where did it come from?

My blog name is "ehdreeahnah". I picked it because I wanted some kind of uniformity with my blog and other social media, and it is my tumblr URL as well as my Twitter handle. I had debated about making my blog name something totally different and went through a whole bunch of "how to name your blog" posts and pins, but decided to stick with names I had already used. My other social media names are "adriannamaryanne" and "adriannaarose", but thought that "ehdreeahnah" was more creative, and for a blog based in creativity... it was like Cinderella's slipper or something. 

The actual process of coming up with "ehdreeahnah" for tumblr was because my username/ URL was originally "little–star" but you can’t tag people with hyphens in their username so I would get anxious if people were tagging me with stuff and I couldn’t see (yeah, I know). I wanted to do something with one word that would be unique to me. In school I would always get annoyed when people (French teachers always haha) pronounced my name as AD-rianna, so I used to clarify by saying A-drianna like I’M CANADIAN EH-DRIANNA. I liked the idea of something Canadian-ish so I went with ehdrianna but I figured that looked weird so I just made the whole thing a pronunciation guide of how to say my name: eh-dree-ah-nah. Alternatively it could have been aid-rihanna, but I'm glad I took the Canadian route with that one. Now I don't ever think I could change my URL... and having it as my "big girl" blog as well as my tumblr blog just seals the deal!

If you have tumblr, give me a shout on there too! :) 

Thanks so much for reading this post! If you're doing Blog-tember, which day/ prompt are you most excited for?

-Adrianna

BLOGTEMBER DAY 6: Style Share

Sunday, September 6th, 2015: Share your style. What fashion trends do you love, frequent, or avoid?

I am from Vancouver: the land of Lululemon and the home of Aritzia. We were actually named one of the worst dressed cities in North America, which may sound horrible but it's pretty accurate. On an average day attending Univeristy classes you will likely see dozens of girls in the Vancouniform: leggings (often from Lululemon), a sweater (usually the infamous Arizia cocoon cardigan) and Ugg boots. The end result is looking like a really adorable slob. Aaaaand... that's pretty much my style.

I totally aspire to be the kind of girl that can have constant OOTD blog posts with adorable pictures and outfits where I can break down where I got everything and inspire others with my comfy but cute aesthetic, but generally my outfits are broken down into top/ bottoms/ shoes and that's it. Not really blog post worthy, but I hope to get there!! :)

To answer the categories on today's prompt I'll break it down to the given categories:

love: Everything I pin onto my clothes/ accessories board on Pinterest. Ugh. Goals. And other similar reaction phrases. While I do have some of the pieces I pin, I really struggle with putting together outfits. Basically I love cute, slouchy layered looks and mostly neutral colours with pops of blue, green or red and the occasional striped/ floral print. I'd say my aspirational style is "comfy cute".

frequent: As I said before, I am a frequent user of the ol' jeans and hoodie look. I am not a fan of summer whatsoever and 90% of my wardrobe is aimed at Fall/ Winter/ early Spring, so in the Summer I often look like I'm wearing my pajamas everywhere. I love jeans and leggings and have a couple pairs of yoga pants, although I don't really wear them much. As for tops I have a pretty impressive collection of white tank tops from Garage. I wore a uniform in high school and they were the best tops to wear under the polo shirt and I have just grown my collection and wear them under hoodies/ jackets/ cardigans/ pretty much everything. My "tops" section of my closet is split between tank tops for layering/ cute tank tops that can be layered or worn alone, t-shirts that aren't actually meant for women, athletic tops, "nice" t-shirts... and then jackets and sweaters (by far the majority of my closet). When it comes to shoes, I pretty much live in my Roxy flip flops, Toms, or Steve Madden Troopa boots. I'm not going to lie, I usually forget to put on jewellery/ accessories of any kind but I'm a fan of toques, scarves, unique necklaces, classy bracelets (I'm a sucker for Pandora), and of course, earrings. In high school I was notorious for my earring collection: I had 320 pairs!

avoid: I just don't have that red lip classic thing that you like and I'm not really one for a tight little skirt. I am tall and chesty so it limits quite a bit of my clothing choices. High necklines and crop tops are a no-no, and short dresses/ skirts just can't happen. I'm not a fan of animal print or anything that's super tight fitting. Mostly, I'm a great personal shopper for other people and I just stick to my casual usuals for myself.

What's your style? What trends do you like or dislike?

Thanks for reading today's post and I hope to see you back here again! :D

-Adrianna

 

BLOGTEMBER DAY 5: Song Shuffle

I have to say this is my favourite prompt so far. But did I finish before 9:30 at night? No, no I did not. Anyway! I am a sucker for any kind of forum for sharing my music, whether it be like this or a tumblr ask game or anything else, really. 

When I discovered Pandora, the premise was so exciting to me but I could never get it, as it is unavailable in Canada. Then, after discovering Spotify I used the American version for a couple months until they made a Canadian version! Since I lost my iPod in May (boo!) I have been mostly using Spotify to listen to music lately. For this prompt it was the first time I've opened iTunes in months! I have had the same music library on my computer since 2002 when my friend showed me Kazaa (they were dark times) and I burned six songs onto a blank CD and I went home and played them on loop with Windows Music Player. Since then I have (obviously) added to the 'ol music library and iTunes has of course, made that a whole lot easier.  

Saturday, September 5th, 2015: Put your iTunes/ music player on shuffle and share the first 10 songs that play.

one ∙ As Bad as it Gets by Bodhi Jones
two ∙ Do You Remember by Jack Johnson
three ∙ Forget Me Not by Celine Dion
four ∙  Don't Leave Home by Dido
five ∙  When by Shania Twain
six ∙  I Could Fall in Love by Selena
seven ∙  I Just Want You To Know by Relient K
eight ∙  This by Ed Sheeran
nine ∙  All You Wanted by Michelle Branch
ten ∙  Are We All We Are by P!NK

Of course, I am out of control and need to give five bonus songs. It would physically pain me to just leave it at ten.

eleven ∙ Masterpiece Theatre, Pt. 1 by Marianas Trench
twelve ∙ The Impressions That I Get by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones from Digimon: The Movie Soundtrack
thirteen ∙ Dear John by Taylor Swift
fourteen∙ Oo-De-Lally from Disney's Robin Hood
fifteen ∙ Glass To The Arson by Anberlin

So, that is a glimpse into my iTunes library.  All the important bases are covered: my favourite band (Anberlin), my favourite singer (Taylor Swift), a good Canadian quota (Marianas Trench, Bodhi Jones, Shania Twain, and Celine Dion) and Disney and Digimon are in there too! I actually put all these songs on a Spotify playlist (except for tool ol' T-Swift, of course) if you would like to give them a listen. Thanks so much if you do, and for reading this post!!

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN :)

-Adrianna.

BLOGTEMBER DAY 4: My Passions

Friday, September 4th, 2015: What are you passionate about? 

For today's prompt I'm going to list five things I am passionate about. Let me know if you are passionate about any of these same things too, or even what your greatest passion is!

#1: Manners.  When I was in elementary school I often got in trouble for telling dirty jokes. One involved a man named Manners and whenever I see the word typed out, that always reminds me. A random and irrelevant aside but I felt the need to share it. Growing up, my brothers and I were in so many "polite" habits, we even got teased by a family friend because we were always so predictable in saying, "Thank you for the wonderful dinner, may I please be excused?" after every meal we ate there. So yes, that might be a touch aggressive on the politeness scale but I cannot tell you how many times I have corrected, out of habit, children for not saying please or thank you (often much to the disgust of their parents) and I can feel my whole body posture change when anyone talks to me rudely. I feel like kindness and The Golden Rule tie into this. Also, a bit of a stretch but not being arrogant or ignorant is SO important to me. Anyone who acts like they are better than anyone else automatically gets the red negative symbol floating above my head (Sims reference, anyone?).

#2: Words. Could I be any more vague? (I definitely read that in my inner-mind Chandler voice). I needed something that encompassed that so totally and completely, so "words" is the only way to do that. I have wanted to be a writer since I was in grade three and for a long time that was what defined me. Stories, poems, fan-fiction, blogs, lists- you name it, I went through a phase at some point. I later decided I wanted to be a novelist, but still love doing all of those things... my grad yearbook write-up was even a poem! The other half of this passion would be quotes. I wrote a whole blog entry about my love for sayings, which you can check out HERE.

#3: Uniqueness and authenticity. It's the lamest advice we have all received at some point in our lives: be yourself. But really, it's so very important. Now, I'm not going to stand here and say (or rather, sit here and type) that I am the most unique shining star in the sky and I don't follow any trend and everything I do is 100% me and not inspired by anyone or anything else other than my own one-of-a-kind noggin. Because that is not, never has been, or never will be the case. Obviously I take inspiration from different things I see and people I encounter; I pretty much close my eyes and see a Pinterest feed on the back of my eyelids. I am not going to get too into this as I wrote a blog post awhile back that goes deeper into my "feels" (you can read that HERE). Basically, there is only one you. P!NK pretty much covered my thoughts on the cliché when she said "...I don't think imitation is the highest form of flattery... I think it's annoying". Yes, take inspiration from people... acknowledge great ideas but DO NOT CLAIM THEM AS YOUR OWN. It is beyond frustrating when I scroll through Instagram and finding people reposting my pictures and saying they made them, or even just blatantly copying my ideas into their own art journals. It's not flattering, and more than that it's heartbreaking that people don't come up with their own ideas to express themselves and their passions, just redo something they saw in a YouTube video or on Tumblr. Be yourself. Come up with your own ideas and portray those, without fear of rejection or no Instagram likes. At the end of the day, there is only one you and no one can express your passions to the world better than you. I will stop shaking my cane and get down off my soapbox now.

#4: Memory keeping. Ever since I can remember, I've been obsessed with taking pictures and making videos. Yes, this started with my mom's old film camera and taking the pictures to Costco to get developed and bringing my dad's huge video camera to school to film my friends and I at recess. This has evolved as the technology has: digital camera, vlogging, Instagram and so forth. The picture in the title picture of this post (I'm starting a new thing, woohoo!) is one from a party I through for one of my friends birthdays in high school. We all went to the park by my house which also is the field of the elementary school I attended from grades 4-7. A lot of memories of mine took place within the space captured in the picture and that idea... that a picture or a video captures something, even though everything about it changes you have that fragment of it forever. So now, there's a new playground behind that goal post. I no longer talk to the girl I co-hosted the party with and its been eleven years since I was a student in those walls. But that doesn't change this picture. Thanks to forums like blogging, YouTube, and Instagram it is possible to capture your life and share it in a way that our parents were only able to do so through home videos on VHS tapes and photos in old three ring albums. So yes, I love scrapbooking and Project Life gives me thrills that really make no logical sense for me to get from paper crafting but the amount of ways I can save these moments and share them is something I am forever grateful for.

#5: My loved ones. This kind of ties to the last post, as a key part of memory keeping is the memory making, and most of the best memories are made with others. Instead of labelling this friends or family or both, I felt this title was more apropos as at this point in my life, there is a lot of crossover. Sure, I don't get along with some of my family (girl, do I have stories for you...) I am lucky enough to say I am very close with my parents and my youngest brother and consider them all dear friends. My two best friends through most of my childhood may not live nearby but they have been my "sisters by choice" for sixteen years. My boyfriend is a given on our family camping trips and my other best friend, Erica is my parents' "other daughter". I may not, as Erica and I joked about today, have enough friends to fill one of those collage photo frames that has "FRIENDS" in black block print in the middle, but I am truly blessed to have these people in my lives.

Thanks very one for checking out this post and I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

-Adrianna.

BLOGTEMBER DAY 3: Mood Board

Hi everyone! It's day three of Blog-tember and we're still going strong! Given, all my posts have been late at night and I am in one of the last time zones so you might be seeing this on day four but regardless, thanks so much to everyone who has stopped by!

Thursday, September 3rd, 2015: Create a collage or inspiration/ mood board that describes your blog. 

One of my favourite aesthetics lately has been simple: white, gray, and black with maybe some gold accents. You can see this from the desktop version of this blog, my tumblr, and even my bedroom. So, when I started compiling pictures and inspiration for my mood board I tried really hard to go with that... but it was what I find visually appealing and not so much an accurate representation of my blog or the things you'll see here. I am a creative person and while I love simple, clean looking canvases... that is just incomplete until I've attacked it with paint, crayons, scrapbook paper, quotes, or anything that helps it look... me-esque.

So this is my mood board. All the images are from my Instagram and of course the ol' Wreck This Journal is featured pretty heavily but you can also see:

-Me (hello!).

-Evidence of me doing Colour Runs (I've done four and definitely recommend giving it a try!).

-A green tea frappucino aka my greatest weakness. All I do is walk into my Starbucks and they don't even ask for my order anymore.

-The storefront of a yet to be opened Kate Spade store. I can't get enough, even though my wallet disagrees. My Kate Spade wallet.

My biggest addiction: scrapbook paper.

-Additions to one of my weird collections: this one is paint chips.

-One of my favourite prints from A Beautiful Mess with a quote that I consider to be my mantra!

This was my first try making a mood board and I'm excited to try it again! :) Thanks for reading this post and I hope you have a great day! The picture below will lead you to the main page for Blog-tember so you can check out the rest of the prompts and see everyone else's posts each day!

-Adrianna

BLOGTEMBER DAY 2: My Perfect Day

Hi everyone! First off, I want to thank those who read and commented on my last post! I'm still on mobile and haven't quite figured out how to do more than post on the app but I can't wait to reply and check out more of everyone else's posts!

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2015: Describe your ideal day. Where would you go and what would you do?

Today's prompt is to describe the perfect day and let's be real, the perfect day would be finding out I was secretly entered in a real estate lottery and won my dream home, as well as a gigantic cash prize to be spent at Lululemon, Arizia, Chapters and all the stores my wallet generally aches once I walk in the door. Then, obviously, be teleported to Disneyworld. Teleported, of course because it's an imaginary ideal day and teleporting is totally a thing and air travel is not a thing in anything that includes 'ideal'.

But realistically, an ideal day for me would start with me sleeping in (of course). I am pretty easy to please in general but there would be absolutely no work, class, studying or housework done on this day. I would have Ready Brek for breakfast (my favourite cereal that isn't available in North America) and start the day off strong with a LUSH bubble bath and newly added episodes of whatever Netflix show I'm watching (I can't wait for the new season of The 100 this January!). I would then have some time to do whatever creative project that I would be obsessed with then, like maybe working on my quote boards or completing a page in my Wreck This Journal. For lunch I would go to my favourite local resteraunt with my boyfriend and get my usual: a burger that has bacon and avocado and THE BEST buns ever! We would go on a Timmies run and end the day with a Disney movie marathon and my moms Yorkshire pudding and steak with asparagus dinner (my favourite!). Maybe a Starbucks run and a mall visit with my best friend thrown in there too!

As amazing as that sounds, I was pretty happy with today. It wasn't as jam packed with favourites as that but I did get to watch the second half of The Hunchback of Notre Dame with my boyfriend and we went on a hike during a rainstorm which was amazing. 

On the way home from camping, I got a cool shot of a rainbow so naturally I'm going to end this post on a cheesy note. I may not have been teleported to Florida or eaten like a queen today but I spent it with someone I love doing things I love, which sounds pretty ideal to me.

Thanks so much for reading my post! I look forward to hearing from you and hope you're having a fantastic day :)

-Adrianna.

BLOGTEMBER DAY 1: Hello, My Name Is _______

Hi everyone! Over the past few months I've really been struggling for inspiration to blog about. Do I just make commentary posts for every YouTube video I post? Do I stalk Pinterest boards for 101 Blogging Idea pins? Or how about live blogging the Pretty Little Liars finale?

Enter the Blog-tember 2015 Challenge.

I was scrolling through Instagram when I found the hashtag #blogtemberchallenge and followed it to bailyjrobert and her braveloveblog. I always love a good social media challenge. My tumblr was 98% 30 Day Challenges for the first six months and I started Instagram to do the 30 Day Instagram Challenge, which eventually led to #100happydays. Now, two of the things I have under control in my life is my tumblr and Instagram accounts. My blogspot blog... Not so much. But I really want to. 

So for the month of September I will try my best to do every one of the blogging prompts provided by the Blog-tember Challenge. I am so excited to interact with everyone else doing the challenge and anyone who reads my posts! If you'd like to check out the challenge and the prompts for each day, they're available here: http://www.braveloveblog.com/2015/08/the-2015-blog-tember-challenge.html?m=1.

Today is the first day of the challenge, September 1st 2015. I am currently camping with no computer until tomorrow evening so today's post will be light on pictures and links but throughout the challenge I hope to improve upon my blogging game in general, so please let me know if there's anything you think I can do to make my blog more appealing either aesthetically or otherwise!

Tuesday, September 1st, 2015: Introduce yourself however you like! Pics, collage, vlog, your choice! 

One thing that gives me a lot of anxiety is ice-breaker games, no matter where they are or how necessary they may be. I usually end up saying something random like how I hate potatoes or that I love to bake but don't really like cookies. So I am not great at introductions, but I'll give this a shot!

-My name is Adrianna Mary-Anne. I actually never use my last name on social media because, like Tigger, I am the only one (internet safety, boys and girls). This week is my last week of summer vacation before I go back to University where I am working towards a bachelors degree in English Literature. 

-I live in Vancouver, Canada and have for my whole life. I think I live in one of the most beautiful places on earth and am very proud to be from this country. My mom moved here from Ireland as a nanny and met my dad, so I am half Irish (which makes hating potatoes more ironic haha).

-My dream is to be a published novelist. Right now the closest I have to that is an incomplete 104,000 word Digimon fanfiction, my 2012 NaNoWriMo project and a "novel" I wrote when I was thirteen that I printed out and handed around my grade eight class for everyone to read. Baby steps, right?

-I am currently in my favourite place in the world with my parents, youngest brother and boyfriend of almost seven years. My brother is currently teaching my boyfriend and dad how to play Magic The Gathering and my mom is playing the Frozen version of Bejewelled on her iPad. We have had weeks of insanely hot weather but on Saturday there was a huge storm that left us without power for a day and now it's been raining ever since. 

-Two weeks ago I cut off eighteen inches of hair to donate to Pantene Beautiful Lengths. I am still getting used to having short hair again, and right now that means having it in a teeny, tiny ponytail.

-I am really passionate about social media and sharing the different facets of my life with people around the world  as I get to learn about them and theirs. I'm excited about this challenge and the opportunities it may bring!

- A year ago I made a video sharing 50 facts about myself, including the frog I kissed, my obnoxious Sims 2 family (the addiction is so real), and my favourite Disney princess! If you'd like to watch it, it's available here: http://youtu.be/hPiK5QrKTMU .

Thanks so much for reading this first post and I look forward to the rest of this challenge! 

-Adrianna.

A Beautiful Mess Subscriptions: Messy Box and Happy Mail (May 2015)

If you are a blogger or someone who reads blogs, especially in the DIY/ arts and crafts/ decor community, you have probably heard of A Beautiful Mess. 

I discovered ABM, run by two sisters: Elsie and Emma, when I joined Bloglovin and their blog was one that was recommended to me after I put in my interests. As lovely as their blog is, and they as bloggers, what really drew me in was their Instagram. Girl, talk about a strong Instagram game! Everything is bright and colourful and every time I scroll past a picture on my feed, you just know it's an ABM picture. I actually bought one of their books off Amazon on photography. I'm slowly making my way through it but as you'd expect, it' beautiful and bright and colourful and I just feel so happy while reading it and hopefully learning more to improve my own photography and Instagram game.

At the end of February I saw someone post a picture of an art print, and saw in the tags that it was by ABM. After following the link trail I ended up on the page of ABM's blog where they host their subscription box sales. They were advertising pre-orders for March Happy Mail as well as their new subscription service: Messy Box. Disappointed that I wouldn't get the print I saw, that had originally caught my eye from what ended up being from the February Happy Mail, I decided I would sign up for future ones, as well as the new Messy Box. After joining, I was surprised by an email saying the February Happy Mail was on its way! 

I have always toyed with the idea of joining Ipsy or Birchbox as well as looking into other subscription services. I love the concept of it coming to your door every month with surprises... it's like a year round Christmas stocking. However, I could never justify one of the beauty subscription services as someone who rarely wears makeup and has very (angry) particular skin issues. It was a good idea in theory, but just not justifiable. I had also been stumbling upon other subscription boxes with more variety than simply beauty products such as Brimbles Box and My Little Box, but as they are European services they either wouldn't ship to Canada or shipping fees would just make the whole ordeal not worth it. 

Enter A Beautiful Mess' Happy Mail and Messy Box.

Happy Mail is an envelope full of greeting cards. All of the contents are designed by ABM and made specifically for Happy Mail. From what I received, each box contains some traditional cards with artwork and either blank or cute messages inside as well as envelopes in complementary colours, a couple post cards (some with and some without envelopes) an art print (usually my favourite part!) and some bonus items like stickers, cut outs or fun notepads. Many of the products included will have foil detailing, which changes from month to month to provide a theme (gold, silver holographic, and rose gold so far) but not all products will be the same "monthly" foil colour, which provides a nice variety. Happy Mail costs $15.00 USD a month if you sign on for a year, $18.00 USD if you sign on for six months and $24.00 USD if you go month to month.  For more information about Happy Mail, and to subscribe, you can go HERE.

Messy Box is ABM's scrapbooking subscription box. They do have their own album set called "Messy Book" which I didn't discover until after I had purchased enough Project Life items to stock an aisle at my local Michaels. You don't need a particular album or scrapbooking system for Messy Box, but they do size the products to fit with their own album and pocket pages, which makes sense from a business standpoint. As someone who would use them for Project Life as well as just random art/ paper projects, I have not found this as any sort of drawback. Each kit generally contains a few pages of scrapbook paper, some journalling cards in three sizes (which have been consistent for the three boxes I have received), as well as other scrapbooking odds and ends that have changed from month to month. Some of these include: decorative stickers, lettering stickers, stamps, small cut out shapes, transparencies, and paper tags. I love that they stay consistent with some things like the paper and journalling cards, but switch the other things up. The boxes seem to have monthly themes, like patterns that repeat on the paper and journalling cards or consistent colouring themes. Messy Box costs $19.99 USD per box for a twelve month subscription, $21.99 USD for a six month subscription and $24.99 USD to purchase the boxes individually. For further information on Messy Box, and to subscribe, you can check out THIS link.

For general information on the subscription services provided by A Beautiful Mess, THIS PAGE has a great introduction.

Just a side note, but as I am from Canada I am an "international" customer (even though it is quicker for me to drive to the US/ Canada boarder than it is for me to get to my school, but that's beside the point) and as such, have to pay a little extra for shipping as well as the conversion rate. Since I order both of the subscription boxes, they do come together so I receive them at the same time so I don't have to pay twice for shipping. I signed on for the year long subscription for both and the total I pay per month works out to be about $50 CAD. So yes, it's a bit more than someone in Washington who lives forty minutes away from me and pays $36 of their currency, but until the Canadian dollar sorts itself out or some awesome Canadian subscription box services start popping up, I'm okay to swallow the extra cost for cute, unique art supplies.

I am in no way affiliated with A Beautiful Mess (although they did regram from my Instagram once and I died a little bit from intense excitement) and am not receiving any compensation for writing this post or for the unboxing video below. They do not have any affiliate program for the subscription services at this time (although this would be one of my major suggestions, it would be a huge draw!) so I am just writing this to get the word out about something I have been super excited about for the first few months of 2015!    

Here's my unboxing video for my May 2015 Happy Mail and Messy Box!

Thanks so much for reading/ watching! I can't wait to see, and hopefully share with you the June boxes! Let me know if you've tried these out and what you thought. Have you tried other subscriptions? I'd love to hear from you!

Have a great day, wherever you are!

Adrianna

Happy Mothers Day

Five years ago I made this video as a Mothers Day present for my mom. I have always been hesitant to share something so personal on the internet, despite my love for making videos. In the summer of 2009 I spent countless hours uploading (over 300 hours of) our home videos from our 90s camcorder to my computer and then started to make videos from them. 

Thank you to Taylor Swift for writing and singing this song that rang so true to my childhood. I am sending all my love to you and your family, especially her mom, wishing her all the health and happiness possible especially on her day tomorrow :)

The following video is uploaded purely for your enjoyment and is not monetized - absolutely no copyright infringement is intended… please don’t throw me in jail.

And lastly, Happy Mothers Day to my mom, you (if you are a mom!), yours, or whoever else you consider a maternal figure :)

Thanks for watching!

Adrianna.

Make a Paper Chain/ Christopher the Christmas Tree

I don't know where to start this one so I'll play it safe:

Hello! How's it going? That's good. Me, I'm doing well. 

In October I took a couple days over to fly out (in a horrible sketchy plane) and be a bridesmaid in my best friend's wedding. I have four 'best friends' but this particular one has been around for many years, she and her twin sister have been my 'besties' since we were ten, and friends since we were seven. You can see a precious before and after type picture on my Instagram by clicking HERE.

Anyway, as wedding favours she had little baby pine trees and a very cute pinterest-y display. I snuck this picture while picking up empty pop cans and beer cups. Sober bridesmaiding at its best.

Now this may seem like a complete 180 degree topic change but I promise it's related: My favourite Christmas movie growing up was Christopher the Christmas tree. I know that it's not on many lists, but it just always got me. You can watch the whole thing on YouTube HERE. The premise is very ugly duckling-esque but without spoiling the ending... Christopher was a baby Christmas tree who was never taken into anyone a home to be their family tree because he was so small and "ugly". So I took my little baby pine tree and names it Christopher. He sat in a mug for three months until I finally made him a home.

You would be surprised how hard it was to find a basic clay pot that wasn't enormous or teeny. I found this guy and his base at Michaels for under $5 (with a coupon of course). 

Now I have a pretty realistic view when I have ideas of how things are gonna turn out. I picture something in my head and know it's going to be 30% not as nice. So when I decided I was going to turn this clay pot aka Christopher's future home into a kate spade esque room decor masterpiece, I knew there was going to be a learning curve of sorts. After like six coats of white paint, some gold I borrowed from my moms ancient paint stash and a monogram stencil curtesy of markandgraham.com and my Silhouette Cameo, I was done and you can see the result at the top of this post...

30% people. I know it's not perfect but for my first attempt of stencilling I'm pretty pleased. Not perfect, but hey, it's... authentic.

Now to complete the look I figured Christopher needed some decorating... And conveniently a WTJ page came to mind. To see how Christopher's lovely garland came to be you can check out my latest Wreck This Journal series video.

Not perfect, but cute tight? 

Thanks for reading (and watching)!

Adrianna.

Wreck This Journal: The Good, The Bad, & The Wrecked.

Whether it be the flip-through of my completed journal on YouTube (which now has half of a million views, THANK YOU!!!), the one I wrecked in one day, the individual pages on my Instagram or something in between... chances are you stumbled upon me and my little home on the internet because of Keri Smith's bestselling book: Wreck This Journal.

I have come to the not-so-recent conclusion that much of my social media following is due to my Wreck This Journal (with the exception of tumblr where 85% of my followers are there because of either the Digimon fandom or because at one point it was cool to have a banner for your blog and I was one of the weirdos who made them for fun). I am more than okay with this because it's something I adore (Wreck This Journal.. although Digimon too haha) and I'm very proud of the pages (and the completed journal) that I have done!

I have posted on here about individual pages I've done that I wanted to add a bit of a story behind either the idea or the process behind the finished page that goes up on Instagram, YouTube, or Tumblr   with just a couple hashtags and a sentence long description... but for this post I just wanted to do a bit of an all-encompassing post kind of answering the who/what/where/when/why... or something like that.

The first (and probably best) link I'm going to throw at you is the link to my WTJ page on my Tumblr blog. I use it as kind of a command centre for my Wreck This Journaling as I have been less than consistent when it comes to the way I post my pages. For my first journal I started out scanning the finished pages and posting them as I finished, the quality gets continuously better as you go from 2012 to 2014. The links to my current journal aren't finished yet, but it has the playlist of all my WTJ videos as well as a FAQ.

http://ehdreeahnah.tumblr.com/journal 

If you're new to the whole world of WTJ, this is the first WTJ video I made:

It gives a bit of an intro as well as a look at my completed WTJ before it was, well... complete.

The other video I would like to include is my completed Wreck This Journal. Now if watching a flip-through video isn't your style you can also scroll through the pages on my Tumblr with the links on the journal page OR just click here because I like short cuts too

• pages sorted by page number/ order given in the book
• pages in the order I completed them (a couple of pages from my current wtj are at the end)
• pages in order from most to least recent (a couple of pages from my current journal are here also)

And for those of you who would like to sit back, relax, grab a cup of (insert your beverage of choice here) and press play on a video here it is:

Now a lot of people have felt it necessary to point out the shakiness of my voice/ how I sound like I am going to cry and as a tiny disclaimer: I talk about it HERE if you would like to know more, but I assure you I am not overly emotional in any way in the video haha. 

So that pretty much covers my first WTJ (if you don't count the DIY one I did in 2009 haha). Shortly after that I started a new one, which is what you see in my WTJ series on YouTube. Since my tumblr is run mostly on queued/ reblogged posts I don't post pages on there much anymore (I'll have to fix that soon!) but whenever I finish a page now, it goes on my Instagram! I do try to make videos for the majority of the pages I do but sometimes it just doesn't happen... so if you would like to stay in the loop with my completed pages, the best way to do so is to check them out on there!

Instagram is also where I've been posting better quality pictures of pages from my original WTJ (#tbt anyone?) as well as other Keri Smith book pages, such as Mess, This is Not a Book and Pocket Scavenger. I also have the Wreck This Journal Everywhere and a few of the lesser known books that don't come in the box sets. I'll try and get them all sorted and linked on the "control centre" page, but for now, Instagram is their home. 

Something I noticed people commented on quite a bit was how I failed to "wreck" my journal and it was moreso a scrapbook/ art book/ quote book. To be quite honest that was always my intention and it was the reason I purchased a WTJ. I love making things and being creative and making collages/ homages to things and words that move me and have affected my life and WTJ provided a medium for me to do that in a compact way that didn't impinge on my dwindling wall space. I try to address it over and over but people keep telling me how I am "wrong" in my wrecking. I did use a spare WTJ to try completely wrecking with reckless abandon and you can watch that HERE but at the end of the day it's my journal. Whatever Ms. Smith's intentions were or weren't, four pages into the journal it states:

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Carry this with you everywhere you go.

2. Follow the instructions on every page.

3. Order is not important.

4. Instructions are open to interpretation.

5. Experiment (work against your better judgement).

My journal is my interpretation of each prompt. I follow each prompt and I experiment. Yes, it ends up being a little artsy-fartsy but that is cathartic for me. That is how I relax and unwind and I rip pages and I mess up and I deal with it in often very creative ways. I create and I destroy and then usually cover up said destruction creatively.

That being said, if you own or intend to purchase a Wreck This Journal it then becomes YOURS. You can do the journal as destructively or creatively as you want! Don't let anyone influence you on what you want to do, it's YOUR book and I hope you have so much fun with it! :D

Before ending this post I just want to thank EVERYONE who helped me with my WTJ: whether it be my brother who walked my journal with me in the snow and filmed the majority of my wreck-this-journal-in-one-day video, my boyfriend who helped me make my first WTJ series video in Cuba as well as being insanely supportive of me, Erica for being the friend who did something destructive to that page (I didn't look), and to you for reading this post, liking my pictures on Instagram and watching my videos on YouTube (and not minding this ridiculous run-on sentence). You have made this online experience so fun and exciting and rewarding and I am so, insanely grateful. Also shoutout to Keri Smith for making these books. I couldn't have done it without her, literally.

Thanks again!

Adrianna.

January 2015 Room Tour & New Room?!

I've always been in love with bedrooms. There's no way to say it that isn't ridiculously weird. Whenever I would go to friends houses in elementary and high school, I was always interested to see what their rooms were like. I think you can tell a lot more about someone by the space they spend most of their time in than, for instance, how they present themselves at school.
I was always fascinated by teenagers bedrooms in tv shows... All the posters and decor that just didn't translate into the room I had. I wasn't allowed to hang posters except for the kitten one I got from the book fair in grade three. My mom is a chronic redecorater. When we were growing up, a room got redone at least once a year. Usually with a theme.

My two brothers and I shuffled rooms around a few times.

I started with the biggest room. I think it was just a plain white room with mother goose wallpaper. When my brother was born we each got room makeovers, his being Winnie the Pooh themed and mine Minnie Mouse. I still have that bedspread in my bunk in our trailer. Here are a couple screen captures from a home video circa 1995.







When my second brother was born I was evicted so they could share the bigger room which was, as well as the majority of our childhood, dinosaur themed. I was about eight at this point and very fittingly had an obnoxiously girly flower room.

At the tail end of my time in that room my brothers and I filmed a house tour. Yes, a house tour in 2002 (maybe 2003?) before YouTube even existed. (What an obnoxious hipster I am). I filmed it with my dad's video camera, I had my own cassette tape for all the plays we made and filmed, while my middle brother (who is now 21) hosted the tour. Our quirk was that in every room my youngest brother would be "a statue" in some kind of pose that worked with the room, it was the best way to involve the baby of the family... who is now eighteen! You can view my room's segment of the tour in the following video:

In grade seven I was moved downstairs into what was once my moms craft room so the boys could have their own spaces. My youngest brother kept the dinosaur room and theme while the other one who was (unhealthily) obsessed with bows and arrows and fashioning them out of whatever possible got a Native American themed room. Now I don't know if this is politically correct but a teepee canopy and wall art that I got off of a Magic School Bus art program was pretty cool. This was the start of my moody I don't care about anything phase so I kept the decor my mom already had going in her craft room and stuck with the animal print.  But, as this was the peak of my sarcastic, moody, writing everything all the time phase: I actually wrote a room tour. Yup. That actually happened. It's from 2005 (or at least thats what Google days is when Incomplete from the Backstreet Boys came out). So, I'm just going to warn everyone: I was quite obnoxious.

            How many times can one song play in a day? That new Backstreet Boy song is driving me crazy; frankly…. The song itself is a bit Incomplete. Finally it ended, jeez took long enough. Now another weird song is on about some guy who heard some gossip about his ex who some lady sent out to her boyfriend of sixteen years. Seriously the singers of our time are seriously low on ideas.
 There’s nothing like sitting down to my computer at 10:17 at night writing some pointless thing that will just be sitting in some folder within a folder within a folder in my computer for the next two years until I decided to delete it. I’ve been listening to the same radio station for the past seven years and sometimes I wonder why. My room is a tannish color and an animal print border going all the way around with a black bookshelf, bedspread, beanbag chair, and calculator; it’s animal print… the room… not the calculator.

(continued)

1. I'm very sorry that you had to read that. 2. I'm very impressed if you read all that and do not blame you if you couldn't. 3. Again, so very sorry.

This was in between my two picture taking phases: post film and pre digital so I don't have many pictures unless you count weird webcam selfies. I apologize for the poor quality but these are screen captures from one of our plays: a Titanic remake. Also, the girl in the picture isn't a family member so her face has been blurred for privacy :)
What the heck was that at the end? WELL to go completely full circle I am officially moving into my mom's craft room. Now instead of getting down-graded to a craft room closet in the basement I am lucky enough to get one of the biggest rooms in our house. With my brother moved out my mom wanted to shuffle things around and down-size her craft room as she doesn't use a lot of the stuff and therefore the space.





You can kind of see some carry over between the rooms now!
Then, when I was in grade nine we moved to a new house. I was turning sixteen and had been given the okay to do whatever I wanted with my space, something that was not allowed in the old house unless it was attached with sticky tack. I could post about 1000 pictures of the different variations of my lime green bedroom but in 2011 I filmed a room tour. I did this video for a tumblr video challenge and the post can be found HERE :)

In early 2013 I decided I needed a change and wanted to purge my life (and therefore my room) of people that weren't in it anymore so I took down most of my pictures. I started envisioning completely changing my room, and took a shot in the dark and asked my youngest brother to switch rooms with him. I ended up giving him money to seal the deal haha but in April 2013 I was completely settled in my new room. Being in that room started to bring new things, including my new YouTube channel and doing a lot of social media. The following video is my new room tour that I filmed today!

So stay turned for ANOTHER room tour! ;) I am really excited about the opportunity to have a completely new space for a completely new year! My biggest goal is to get organized and accomplish as many of my goals (no matter how small) and I'm looking forward to have such an amazing area to do everything! Thanks so much for reading this super long post and I hope you've enjoyed the ride of my bedrooms through the years!
Adrianna.