Artistically Me: current faves

Showing posts with label current faves. Show all posts

Friday, November 14, 2014

musician of the week: Don't Call it a Comeback

To be honest, I'm not super into all of their music, but I do have some favorite songs! I think this is a really down to earth group of guys who want to tell their stories to the world. They are definitely more punk and harder rock than I normally listen to. I think they try to cram too many words into the lines and end up sounding out of beat with the music. But they do have good tracks!

My favorite album by them is A Little Bit Softer. It's an acoustic album and I think it's pretty amazing. They have some good lyrics and this way you can really hear it and appreciate their work. My favorite song on this album is probably Most of the Sex in My Life Wasn't as Personal as that Kiss. It's a little on the 'maybe don't play this around granny or your four year old' but it's so real, raw, and so so good. My second favorite would have to be About Staying. Both are amazing songs and have really true lyrics.

Please check this band out! If you're into punk music, this is definitely a band to check out on bandcamp!

Do you have any favorite underground musicians? Let me know in the comments and I'll check them out! Have a fantastic weekend!

Friday, November 7, 2014

musician of the week: Corey Gray

This is a new series that I'm so excited about! Music is my life and I am so obsessed with finding new artists that are just starting to make their way into the industry. So once a week on Friday's I'll be sharing my favorite, indie musician! Please check them out and give them your support! Most have music for free download or for a couple bucks.

I'm going to be totally honest, I'm just as in love with him as I am his voice. He has that kind of buttery, yet raspy sound that just touches you in your heart. He started off doing covers on youtube (which is where I first found him) but then he began to write and release his own music. I so wish he had more than nine songs, but I'll take what I can get!

His music is definitely pop, but it sort of has a blues feel to it. It's very smooth with gorgeous chord progressions and he adds different elements to each song that gives each song a different mood. He has so much talent and he has really grown a lot since his first album was released two years ago.

My all time favorite song by him is Where We're Going. I cry every time I hear it; the words are so moving and the way he sings makes it even more heart wrenching. In this version, he stripped it down to just simple piano. This gives it a raw, real effect. It's a free download on bandcamp so do yourself a favor and go listen and download and cry on repeat.

He released a four song album, Let Loose, in 2012, my favorite song being You Found My Soul. This album isn't my favorite collection of his work but there's certainly charm.He has some room for growth in his writing but it's still worth the $5! Download here!

His newest album is amazing! Y.O.U features four original new songs. My favorite is Step Away. It's one of his slower, more emotional songs. Those seem to be my favorites by him. He really shows growth not only in his vocals but also in his songwriting. He experiments more with the style of music and the instruments. Download here!

Please support Corey Gray and download his albums! He gets most of the proceeds (I forgot how bandcamp's payment works) and I know it would really mean a lot if he could get new listeners. I hope to see you next week when I introduce another of my favorite, lesser-known bands!

Do you have any favorite underground musicians? Let me know in the comments and I'll check them out! Have a fantastic weekend!

Thursday, November 6, 2014

my Rodan+Fields skin care routine

Hello lovelies! I hope your day has been absolutely fantastic! Today, I'm going to walk you through my skin care routine. I'm currently using Rodan+Fields acne care system with a few added products. This has helped clear up my acne and keep it at bay. I'm still dealing with dry skin but I feel like it has been more under control since using these products!

So here's my routine and favorite products!

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

my everyday makeup routine

My everyday makeup is super simple and easy to do because I have a tendency to wake up thirty minutes before I have to leave. I use products that take a few seconds to apply and take minimal effort. This is pretty much what I do every single day (I omit eyeliner and eyeshadow if I'm really rushing like in five minutes I need to leave rushing)

First, I use my Elf flat top stippling brush to blend in my Elf tinted moisturizer in the shade nude beige.

I also fill in my eyebrows lightly with the Elf eyebrow kit in the shade medium. I use an Elf angled brush to do this.

I start with swiping my NYX NYX Above & Beyond Full Coverage Concealer. I rub it in with an Ulta professional concealer brush.

This step is only a sometimes thing. If I have time I will apply eyeshadow but recently I've just moved onto eyeliner at this point. When I wear eyeshadow, I apply my NYX cream eyeshadow pencil in the shade yogurt and iced mocha on my outer v.

I set this with a light pink shadow and a darker matte brown. I also smudge the brown into my lower lash line.

Most days I just wear eyeliner so I use my Elf black liquid liner to draw a slight cat eye.

Finish off the look with a generous coating of Wet and Wild mega glam mascara.

Because my eye circles are so absolutely dreadful, I have to apply more of the pot concealer. I also add it to any spots I might have.

I set my concealer under my eyes and my T-Zone with Rimmel's Stay Matte Powder with an Elf Kabuki brush.

And for an extra boost of life (let's be honest right now, I like to look like I got more than three hours of sleep!), I like to swipe a coat of NYC 16-hour smooch proof lip stain in the shade primrose pink.

And there you have it! It may seem like a lot of products, but I've been doing this look since junior year and I've gotten pretty fast at it. Like I said in the tutorial, I don't always apply eyeshadow but most days I wear my eyeliner just to give my eyes a bit more life and drama.

Enjoy this picture of me and let me know what your everyday makeup routine looks like!

Monday, November 3, 2014

app of the week: pacer

I am so in love with this app! I've been using it for about four months now and it has never caused me any hair pulling. If you want to track your steps, this app does it in a simple way! Just keep it open in the background and you're good to go. You can also set goals to help you lose weight or get more active! I have mine syncing directly with myfitnesspal so I can track how many calories I burn by walking each day. It's free in the app store!

Monday, October 20, 2014

app of the week: worth-it

I'm launching a new series that I promise I will stick with. Every Monday, I'll be reviewing my favorite app of late!

This week's app is...

This app is honestly the most amazing thing ever! I never would have thought of making an app that does this but someone did and it's fabulous. I've done the painstaking task of checking up on the items I'm in love with and hoping they'll drop a couple bucks (or a hundred...). This app does it for you! Search through different shops and choose the items you like in your size and color. You can then put in what you're willing to pay or select from one of their choices (10%, 30%, etc). It will actually scour the whole internet until it finds a price low enough to match what you'll pay!

I love this app for keeping an eye on backpacking supplies (cough cough, hiking boots) and Free People goodies. This app is free in the app store!

Sunday, October 19, 2014

top 6 products for red, tired eyes

Raise your hand if you have allergies that make your eyes swell up and turn red! When I was thirteen my allergist told me I am allergic to nature. Not just a couple trees, but nature itself. So I live with red eyes a lot and let's be honest, I cry my fair share which doesn't help anything. On top of all of that, I'm a senior in high school and it's very normal for me to be up until two or three in the morning studying and doing homework. This lends itself to very tired, red, dull eyes.

Because of my lovely allergies and lack of sleep, I have a lot of issues trying to brighten my eyes and make them look, well, less icky. So here are my top 6 products that I use to help combat redness, sleepiness, and swollen eyes!

A couple things to keep in mind before you apply products. First, try wrapping an ice cube in a paper towel and gently holding it against your eyes for a minute or two. This will help decrease swelling and redness. And always, always, always, be drinking water. I aim for about a gallon a day (my doctor told me this is overkill but I feel so much better the more water I drink. If you do drink this much, please make sure you're getting enough salt and other minerals.) Water retention can cause puffy eyes and dark circles so make sure to keep sipping!

Now onto my top 6 products for combatting red, tired eyes!

01: Rodan+Fields Redefine Multi-Funtion Eye Cream
This stuff is amazing! I'm pretty sure it's meant to help with wrinkles and signs of aging but because my skin is so dry, slathering it on helps keep my eyes from getting red. It's great for helping with puffy eyes and overall redness. Because it's a thicker product, I recommend putting it on before eating breakfast or doing your hair and then come back to finish your makeup.

02: Physician's Formula Powder Finish Concealer Stick in Green
I know yellow is normally recommended for covering bluish under-eye circles, but I found that the green works even better! Not only can you apply this to your lids to help with the redness, but for discoloring under your eyes and even pimples. This is a pretty heavy concealer so start light. I use this product under my normal concealer and tinted moisturizer so keep it pretty light-we only want it to help cancel out the colors not necessarily conceal.

03: NYX Above & Beyond Full Coverage Concealer
If you are looking for a thick, super amazing concealer for a couple bucks, go pick up a pot of this stuff. Target just started carrying a few NYX products and I had to try this one out. Because of my scary purple circles under my eyes, I've tried almost every drugstore concealer out there that claims to be heavy duty but none of it measures up to this little pot of magic. Start with a little amount on your eyelids for discoloration and apply in a triangle under your eyes. Blend from the center outwards and eye-circles begone!

04: NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in shade Yogurt
I am madly in love with these jumbo pencils! I just bought the shades yogurt and iced mocha and oh my goodness are they worth the $5! I especially love yogurt because it's a super shimmery, rosy color that brightens up your eyes instantly! Apply it all over your lid and the inner corners. Personally, I like to set it with a similar color eyeshadow to prevent creasing. If you really want to brighten and open up your eyes, try smudging it into the waterline.

05: Eyelash Curler
This thing is super old so I have no idea what brand it is, but any drugstore curler will work! I rarely use this, to be honest, but I will if my eyes are really puffy. A curler will help open up your eyes by pushing your eyelashes upwards. Just crimp it at the bottom and gently press it a couple times on the way up to give it a perfect curl. (PS. Try heating it up slightly with a blow dryer for a stronger hold but make sure it's not too hot!)

06: Wet and Wild Turn Up the Volume Mascara
This stuff is so fabulous! The brush is perfect for curling your lashes and giving you a falsies effect. Make sure you don't apply too much or else you'll end up with heavy, clumpy lashes. A small amount goes a long way to really open up your eyes.

And there you have it! My favorite products to help hide tired red eyes. I'll be honest, I use these products almost daily and they are tried and true. Let me know what your favorite products are to help combat tired eyes!

Friday, September 19, 2014

my new favorite fresh food restaurant-ModMarket

I have now found my favorite restaurant of all time. ModMarket is this adorable little fresh food café that my mom took me to this afternoon. They have some great gluten-free and vegan options (yay vegetables!!) I also just learned that there's one very close to my school, guess who's going to become a regular? This vegan!
There's not a huge variety of vegan options, but there is a pretty decent amount and they are phenomenal! I had the Crimini Kale pizza and I ate the entire pizza by myself. Spicy kale, roasted crimini mushrooms, red onions, fresh tomatoes, and whole wheat pizza was served fresh and hot from their stone oven. There was hardly enough time for me to take pictures before my stomach couldn't handle the delicious smell and I devoured it. My last meal will be this pizza. Promise.

Not only is the café super adorable and bright, but their receipts are so cool! Printed on each receipt are nutrition facts and a little fun fact about a vegetable or other item on your order. My mom ordered a salad with sweet potato so they gave us a snippet telling how they contain tons and tons of vitamin A.

ModMarket has ten locations in Colorado, one in Texas, and they're planning four more locations (two in Texas, two in DIA)! Go check out their website and if you're in the area, stop in for a bite to eat. It's so amazing and I promise it's totally worth it!

PS: They have a food blog!! They have tons of different posts about running a restaurant, living healthy, and all things food! Go check them out here!

Saturday, August 9, 2014

top 10 favorite books

This was possibly the most difficult post to write ever, simply because narrowing all the books I've read down to 10 of my favorite is a close to impossible feat. I've done it, and hopefully, you'll find a new book to devour! This list is in no particular order, promise.

1) Oy Joy!
I've read this book close to a hundred times, if not more. I've probably owned it for close to five or six years. It's a great little story about a girl who's trying to figure herself out while everyone around her is changing and telling her she needs a boyfriend. Her great-uncle moves in with her family, turning her life upside down. But it's perfect! He teaches her so many things and in the end, she finds what she's looking for and her great-uncle Max falls hopelessly in love.

2) Looking for Alaska
John Green is an amazing writer and my favorite book by him is Looking for Alaska. It's so raw and real. A young boy deals with a new friend's suicide and spends the rest of the book trying to figure life out. He's obsessed with last words, giving a morbid touch to her death. Read it and weep.

3) The Secret Life of Bees
This book will touch your heart and possibly rip it out. You follow an abused young girl travel with her maid (this was back when black people weren't allowed to vote) and find a place where they belong. She goes from having no mother in sight to four. We fall in love with characters and watch as their lives are torn apart. Read about prejudice, abuse, love, suicide, and bees.

4) Wuthering Heights
Settle in for a lengthy but beautiful trip. This book is so full of drama, it's entrancing and captivating. We witness characters meeting again, love, affairs, and so much drama! This is a classic that you must read.

5) Johnny Tremain
I remember my mom reading this to me in fifth grade and I fell hopelessly in love with Johnny. He works as a blacksmith until a terrible accident when his hand is mamed. This story takes place during the revolutionary war and my goodness is it amazing! We are allowed to watch as Johnny grows and changes by the hands of the world. He meets people who give him opportunities he wouldn't have dreamed of. This book has a hearty dose of politics, life, and again, drama. It's not a very hard read, but the depth is amazing.

6) 11/22/63
Stephen King writes a book that describes time travel. It's not scary, if you're concerned about reading his works. This is a very long read, as most of his are, but it is so worth it. Our main character is a teacher who is left with a time-traveling closet and he goes back in time, living life before JFK's assassination. It is up to him to stop his neighbor, Lee Harvey Oswald, from committing the terrible act history knows him for.

7) Any of the Harry Potter books
I highly doubt I need to explain these to anyone, but read them. Read them again. I grew up with these books and I strongly think that they influenced my creativity to this day.

8) The Giver
This book is actually making it to the silver screen! Do yourself a favor and read it before you go watch the movie. We follow a young boy, Jonas, who has decided that the perfect, boring world he lives in is not quite right. He sets out to find the Giver and learn the truth about the world he lives in and the emotions he has never felt.

9) Inkheart
I actually own the UK version and the US version of this book because when I was younger, everyone wanted to buy it for me. That's how much I loved that book (the movie was terrible, the ending made me want to punch a wall, etc). We follow Meggie (oh the irony) and her father as they travel through a world her father read out. She learns that she too can read from books and make things come to life, but there is a price. A price that her mother paid when Meggie was a little girl.

10) Night
Elie Wiesel writes this non-fiction book about his family's lives while imprisoned in a concentration camp. The terrible things he sees and the hardships he and his father face really open readers' eyes to the reality of life for Jews during Hitler's reign. It is very graphic, I wouldn't recommended it to younger readers. But if you can handle it, this book is a must read.

What are your top 10 favorite books?

Saturday, April 5, 2014

life's soundtrack

Music is my entire world.
If you cut my arm, you could hear music bleed from every pumping vein in my body.
When I sleep
When I cry
When I shower
When I read
When I study
When I hurt

I am always listening to the marvelous, wonderful, ever-changing thing called music.

I've never had a favorite song.
But I've always had a life soundtrack.
A soundtrack that grew as I grew.
A soundtrack that changed as I changed.
A soundtrack that hurt
That bled
That cried
As I did.
I could never compile a list of every single song that I've listened to in my life. But I have always had a soundtrack of my life. A list of songs that was continuously added too. Every minute, hour, day, month, of my life.
Here is mine.

Soundtrack of My Life from thatcrazyviolinist on 8tracks Radio.

Now show me yours.

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

netflixing

I become obsessed with tv shows. Like to the point of I lock myself in my room for days on end watching every episode on netflix while crying in my pajamas and holding a bowl of popcorn.

You think I'm kidding? Try again.

I was really glad that Netflix only has the first 24 episodes of New Girl (Season 1!!) because I really would've been stuck in my room again. This time, it was only a day.

Why do I become so obsessed with shows? Who knows. I don't even care, but at least I'm not in my room smoking pot or something (side note: I don't want to offend those of you who do sit in your room and smoke pot, but that's just not my thing. Like I'm a total hippy girl at heart, which is a completely different person than a hippIE but more on that some other time, or never.)

So yeah, I'm totally digging New Girl. I feel like it's because I totally get Jess. Seriously though, I'm that ditzy girl who's really innocent and loves polka dots. She can't say the P word (you know what I'm talkin' about. Oh, you don't?), I can't say the P word....so yes. I'm trying to pull myself out of the world of high waisted shorts and Shmidt.

I'm the kind of girl who loves getting lost in a fantasy world (so did that on purpose). This probably explains why I've always wanted to go into acting, but most likely won't. There's just some pull about a world with romance, different people, and crazy situations. You get a whole new experience without actually having to be in that moment. Like I now know what it's like to share a bathroom with three guys. And I never had to even live with one of them!

I'm pretty sure my mom thinks I'm super antisocial thanks to the gift she gave me of supplying me with a netflix playing television. It's seriously the best thing ever. So yes, I'm currently stuck in the wonderful world of New Girl, but it'll be over as soon as I find the next show I'm dying over.

Oh and Netflixing is a word. And if it wasn't before, it is now. It describes what I do: Sit in my room alone, crying and eating popcorn, while watching entire seasons of tv shows without a break. Netflixing. It's the new planking.

And while I choose to sit here and tell you all about how antisocial I am, I'm really supposed to be putting on makeup so I can actually go see other people. My priorities need some serious re-evaluating.

Happy netflixing!

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Friday, April 27, 2012

goodbye lullaby

All I need is change

I'm sick of looking at the same things, eating the same food, reading the same books, watching the same tv shows and movies, wearing the same clothes, putting on the same makeup, doing my hair the same way, and routines.

I am so tired of routines and having everything be the same.

All I want is change. If I can change, so many things would get better.

I've done the same things, looked at the same things, and been the same thing since I was a kid. My routines hold memories that I hate. Memories I want to forget.

I'm changing. I'm changing everything. I will not continue on with my normal life anymore. It's so annoying and boring. I want to be interesting.

So here goes my changes for this year.

1. Dye my hair red