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.