What do I do to get out of a funk?

Hello blog readers,

So what do I do to get myself out of a funk?
Well there are a couple of things I do...

1. I take a bath 

 Take a long luxurious bath- personally I'm a shower a person but every now and then a shower is needed to relieve the extra stresses of the day. I make them hot and I pop in a LUSH bathbomb to get me calm and relaxed. I love Pheonix rising for this - a lovely cinnamon apple bath bomb sure to make the water slightly sparkly and purple.

http://www.lush.ca/Phoenix-Rising/03575,en_CA,pd.html

I also love using Cinders - a Holiday bath bomb- that's a little spicy and great for sore muscles. Not to mention the popping candy in it gives you that cozy fireplace feeling

http://www.lush.ca/Cinders/02911,en_CA,pd.html?start=1&q=cinders

  
      2. I crack open a great book
I don't really have comfort foods - but I definitely have comfort books. They're the ones I've read so many times that the spine has cracked- no matter how hard I tried not too. I love Garth Nix's Sabriel series.
It's a series that that combines Old England and a Medieval Magical England, the story itself is about a girl who's father is a Necromancer- but not an evil one like the rest in the books... but one who lays the dead to rest.

I also love anything by Laurell K Hamilton - she is one of my two favourtie authors. I really enjoy Nightseerer, her debut novel, the Anita Blake series - Incubus Dreams is a top one and of course her the other series - Merry Gentry. I don't know what about them makes me feel better but they do. In all of these stories the lead character is a strong female that doesn't like compromising her morals. Anita is a zombie raiser and vampire hunter trying to find her way through love and life. Merry a mortal fairy princess trying to stay alive in a world that's against her from the start, while protecting those she loves. And in Nightseerer Keleios is an elf marked by a demon who eventually tries to find her again.

     3. Watch a great movie
Disney, romantic-comedies, horror doesn't matter - just watch you favourite movie and sit back a chill for an hour or two.
Personally I pop in Howl's Moving Castle (best movie ever!!!)
It's a  Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli movie and it's cute, magical and very well done. I loved the book - and I loved the movie.
Or when it comes out ... something like Pitch Perfect.
Anything that makes you want to laugh or smile.

     4. Dress in bright colours and get out of the house, call up your friends and ask them to go somewhere fun. Bowling, laser tag, a bonfire.
Because honestly sometimes you're just in a funk because you have a little bit of cabin fever.
And bright clothes, awesome friends and some fn relaxation can do wonders for you and your brain.

Till next time
-Arielle

Sometimes quotes make us think...

Recently I've gotten back into the Fast and the Furious Movies again.
And while I thought the 2nd one was boring, the 3rd one Tokyo Drift I really enjoyed - I know big surprise. Especially when practically everyone else I know is the opposite of that. 

And one quote in particular has stuck with me since I first saw the movie and came back to me when I was watching the movie again: 

"Who we surround ourselves with tell us who we are."

This quote really struck a cord because it's true.
Positive people make us feel more positive. A great friend listens, advices and tells you when what you say and do is utter bullshit. They don't take advantage of you, but instead a relationship is give and take. Or at least that's how I see it.
You help them out and they help you.

If you're surrounding yourself with people who do bad things, who harm you or other, who treat you like you're nothing then you end up doing the same thing.
It's harmful to yourself and effectively acts like poison.

And sometimes a great friend ends up being something you don't expect, they become a loved one, a brother or sister, and sometimes ...
They end up being like a poison that you just don't need in your life.
Remember too much drama around a person can be a bad thing.
I can't count the number of times this has happened.
And yes it hurts inside- it hurts to see that friend loose sight of who they were - hurts to not be able to help them because they won't help themselves.
But sometimes the only way for you to feel better about yourself is think about the quote up there and let them go.
They'll either get through it themselves or not but either way sometimes you need to be the selfish one and surround yourself with the people who tell you who you are.

A good person.

And not a poisonous one who is depressed and sad because of the drama surrounding a person who used to be a great friend.

 Till next time
-Ari

I LURVE FALL!

*waves* Hello again.
Mid-terms are over, Halloween is around the corner and Fall is slowly leaving us for snow. Or at least it is, where I live in Canada.
What do I do to pass the time, no that I don't have to pump my brain full of information for exams?
Besides writing this blog- which someone hopefully reads one day... I'm catching up on dramas, television series and reading - a lot.
So I figured I'd end my favourite season with a modified I love Fall tag, the nitty gritty on my fav products and other seasonal things for fall.

Favourite Fall lip product?
My favourtie fall lip product has got to be Honey Trap. It's a wonderful LUSH product that you can find year round and it's absolutely wonderful for the drier fall/winter seasons.

http://www.lush.ca/Honey-Trap/02389,en_CA,pd.html

Favourite Fall Activity?
My favourite fall activity has got to be seeing the leaves change colours from green to red/orange and yellow; and then of course raking them up for my little brother to play in.

Favourite Starbucks Fall Drink?
As for my Starbucks Drink order during fall. I love anything with Cinnamon in it during fall, so I usually go for the Cinnamon Dolce Latte. Yumm!!!


Favourite Fall Smell? 
I'm not generally a big candle burner so I changed this one. I love the smell of cinnamon and apple together - pumpkin raisin muffins.

Favourite Fall Scarf or accessory?
I adore scarves and I have a ba-jillion  of them but my favourite scarf is a giant beige infinity scarf I got for Christmas last year - it's from Roots.
Oh and I love knitted mittens too, ones in funky colours are usually the best.

This scarf is similar to the one I own- although this is a different brand - I couldn't find the one from Roots, and I'm fairly certain that the Roots one was less expensive... but here's where I found it

 http://www.blacklabelboutique.com/paula-bianco-infinity-scarf-in-cream-beige-black-and-charcoal-6139


Haunted house, haunted hay ride, or haunted corn maze?

I can honestly say that I love all three. In the countryside surrounding my city - we have all three and all three places I went to were pretty sick- for different reasons of course.
But to which I like the most. I'd probably have to say corn maze.
At our haunted corn maze they sell these adorable pumpkins in literally any shape and size and I love them! Not to mention the maze is pretty sweet too :D

Favourite Halloween movie? 
My fav Halloween movies are the Halloweentown movies. I've watched them since they came out when I was a kid and now they're just a movie staple every Halloween. And I am a bit partial to Hocus Pocus. Bette Midler is fantastic.


Favourite treats to eat on Halloween?
My absolute favourite candy to eat on Halloween are Dinosours and anything flavoured Watermelon.
My favourite treats are Pumpkin muffins with raisins, Caramel apples and of course cinnamon buns.

Favourite Fall nail colours? 
I love oranges at anytime of the year, but here they are again :D
Browns and I love Black nailpolish with I thin coat of sparkly red polish on top - gorgeous

What are you dressing up as for Halloween?! 

 For Halloween I'm thinking of being a zombie hipster or maybe a geisha... we'll see what I can drum up

What is your Favourite thing about Fall? 
My absolute fav thing about Fall is getting together with my friends and family; relaxing, playing and generally having a good time.

Till next time
-Ari

I have an ADDICTION!!

So it's official I am obsessed.
With what you say? Besides the obvious. Music, Makeup and Magic?
 Lately I've been watching/ catching up on Korean Dramas... and sometimes it hard. Right? Finding the things we want with English subtitles is well a bitch.
That is until I came across dramafever.com. It's a legal site that buys the copyrights of a show to air it, much like a television station does. They subtitle it and voila. Magic
And the best part it's free... yay... granted there are Ads.. but that's how they make it free.

So naturally I was a-browsing and I got addicted to a show... or two.
And when I say new it means I have officially eaten through any and all episodes available and I am still waiting to watch more. Because the season isn't over yet.

*sigh* Am I surprised... Nope. I new it was coming. In fact, it hit me twice.

And how could it not.
I knew the first one I started I was going to be addicted from the start.
To the Beautiful You is based off of my favourite manga of all time Hana Kimi or in English For You in Full Bloom. (There's even a very good Japanese Drama with the same name)
The drama and the manga are about a girl who pretends to be a guy to get into an all boys school. Just so that she can meet her athletic hero- a high jumper and convince him to start up in the sport again.

The drama stars Sulli from f(x) and Minho from SHINee as the leads and so far... their fantastic.

Minho left, Sulli right 

I can not even begin to describe my epic need to squee practically every minute of the episode.  And I can honestly say that the episodes are the best part of my Wednesdays and Thursdays. I wait up just to watch the new episodes. Only eight are out as of now but two new ones come every week

To the Beautiful You plays Wednesdays and Thursdays on SBS, and are approx. an hour long. There will be sixteen episodes in total.
I give it four and a half stars out of five- for now.

The official poster for To the Beautiful You

 If you want to it out then I've set up a link.
Drama Fever



The second Drama is called Faith and at first I was a little leary.
The premise of the story is that a warrior from I believe the 14th C.(1300's) Korea goes through a portal - which he believes is heaven's door (the realm of the gods) to find a doctor to save the Queen, whom was hurt in an assassination attempt. Instead this portal takes him to the future where he finds a Plastic Surgeon instead, he kidnaps her and brings her back to his time to work her "magic".
The drama is like a mix of Doctor Who, X-Men and a historical drama. The components shouldn't work... but they so do. 
I'm in eight episodes and so far it's action packed - great fighting, filled with intrigue and conspiracy, humour, and just a little bit of romance. Not to mention I've cried several times already while watching it and I've been glued to the screen the whole time. All marks of an excellent drama.

The drama stars Lee Min-Ho and Kim Hee-Soon as the leads in this drama. And the performances for these actors are flawless... How else would I end up crying?

K.Hee-Soon top, L. Min-Ho bottom. 

This drama pulls you in and there's no way of stopping yourself from getting emotionally attached to characters, you end up yelling at the screen when one does something wrong (in your opinion), loving some and hating others fiercely.

Faith plays on SBS (not sure which days yet... but I'll find out :D) and the episodes are approx. one hour long. There are scheduled twenty-four episodes. I give this drama five stars - for now. 

The official poster for Faith

If you want to check out this action- pack adventure you can catch it here:
Dramafever

 

Movie Magic

Yes Movie Magic,
Usually the first thing that comes to mind is the Makeup you see, the special effects.
But I being the person I am came to another understanding while watching John Carter.

Movie Magic is another facet of a character's personality. Take the makeup seen on John Carter - the markings seen lends to tribe markings. A mixture of the Woad  of the Celts and the salt etchings of Africa.
The combination of the two leads you to think of something primitive and yet... the culture itself is somehow more advanced. 

Make-up the Magic of Hollywood?
It things like Theatre productions and musicals makeup helps project a characters feelings and sometimes it even helps it come across better.

Naturally this led me to what else makeup can convey.
You can even see in your everyday life.
The extra flick of winged liner going up can make you appear more flirty, or going down more tired.
Darker, angular eyebrows can make you appear more angry.
Purple and brown eyeshadow under the eye - more tired
And a tint on your cheeks - warmer.

Makeup = Magic
And movies - just wouldn't be the same without it.

K-pop and music from countries not our own.

Now to the goods right
Music
I love music, listen to the right music and you can literally do anything.
Need to calm down, study hard, or get rilled up? There is music out there that can do that for you.

Whether you love listening to the melodies or even the lyrics (Music and Lyrics any one? Hugh Grant is an awesome actor). Music much like the Olympics crosses boundaries between countries. Whether you speak a certain language or not, the emotions that are put forth in a voice or even a video .. transcend across borders.

Or maybe your that person who says *troll voice* "I don't like music unless I can understand what they're saying."
To that I say *hmpf* you don't know what you're missing. Gold... solid gold.
Of course these are usually the people who are also listening to Screamo music that is so loud and garbled that I can't understand a single word.
I'm an equal opportunity listener - I'll literally listen to anything once- music wise, but as a general rule is if I can't understand it and it's in my own language then why bother... these songs are usually offensive when you can understand them or just plain screaming in your ear. And I have no desire to destroy an ear drum. But as always  there are rule breakers... Anyways

Lyrics while important can be changed, much like movies remakes are made everywhere... you don't need to understand Korean to listen to K-pop.
Why talk about a genre of music that I can't actually understand.
It's what fills up half my MP3 player these days. 
Swears and things like overly sexified comments or videos are almost non-existent. And there are these things called subtitles :D 
That's not to say that they don't exist but even then its a bit more tasteful than well a lot of the American stuff coming out  right now.
 Less auto-tune and more actual performances. Artists with a personality - or ones that are in the spotlight more often.
K-pop artists are the models, the actors in drams, the game show guests and the reality stars.
But more about that in another post.

The point that I'm trying to make is that you learn through music from other countries, it inspires -
Lady Gaga- often uses phrases from other languages in her songs, Nelly Furtado sings in two languages, Artists like Queen Latifah and Jay-Z take influences from their African cultures and use them in their videos.
Techno and house beats originally from Europe and the Caribbean now dominate the music world, Japanese Visual Kei (more in another post, this is a form of Japanese Performance music) makeup is seen on the faces of the American Classic Rock group KISS.
Whether you understand a song or not isn't the problem, it's whether or not you feel something and can take that feeling and transform it into something more.

Till next time
-Arielle