Sweater Season

     As the months from summer pass by, the temperature drops along with them. Your tank tops and shorts start to turn longer and heavier. Before you know it you are bringing out your winter clothes and putting those light and flowy summer clothes away for next year. The typical winter clothes you usually bring out are your numerous amounts of blue, black, grey, whatever color of jeans. You will also see sweatshirts, long sleeve shirts, fuzzy socks, scarves and boots come out. The most common item of clothing you generally see in the more November and December months, are sweaters.

     Your sweater collection can range from nice looking, soft material sweaters, or chunky knit and sometimes the traditional turtle neck sweaters. As a kid, I had two turtle neck sweaters and they were definitely my favorite items of clothing. As I grew up though, turtle neck sweaters started to disappear because it was more for grandmas, I guess, but thankfully turtle neck sweaters are coming back.

     Another sweater that is common/traditional is the famous ugly sweater. Ugly sweaters have always been a thing, thanks to ugly sweater party themes. Around Christmas time, people will throw Christmas parties and sometimes the theme is wear your ugliest sweater. Actually right now as I am typing this,  I have an ugly sweater because at my school it is ugly sweater day. Anyways, ugly sweaters can be just random Christmas items thrown onto a plain sweater, it could also have an ugly knit pattern, or you can make one yourself and pin someone's face on it that you don't like.

     A sweater that is starting to become popular, is the light up sweater. I have always seen people with maybe reflecting colors on their sweater, but people have really stepped up their game. I have seen sweaters with a house on it and then out of no where, the string lights will light up and start to flash. Also, I have seen like little jingle bells connected to the lights. Those people definitely have their sweater game together.

     It is a sad time when the warm weather comes to a close but one once you realize all of the clothes you get to wear now, it makes winter a little easier to bear. You can have so many options when it comes to sweaters to wear. You can wear pretty sweaters or you can wear the warmest, comfiest sweater. My style of sweater is definitely the warm chunky knitted sweaters.

**all images provided by Google

Holiday Decorations

zoella.co.uk

     Now that we are into the final month of the year, and it probably the most exciting month of the year, it is time to show off your decorating skills. This is the month where you show off all of your decorating skills and bring out everything you have. It doesn't have to be like Christmas related decorations, for example, I just heard about this new decor/ room scent tip. It is where you take a couple of oranges and cut them up into slices and then let the juice soak out, then you put them in the oven on low heat for a couple of hours and bam, you have dried orange slices that you can hang or just put around your house. They can last up you years!

     If you are one of those people who like to show off your outdoor decorating skills, then you definitely bring out your lights and blowups. I have seen yards varying from blow up santa's, reindeer, snowman, and candy canes. The most popular ways to use lights to decorate the outside of your house and yard is to string your lights on your roof, you can string them around your trees and sometimes I see people who have RV's and they string them around the front of the RV. When I went down to Florida in November, we passed this house that had put huge cutout snowflakes on top of their roof, and their yard was littered with plastic candy canes, santa's, reindeers, all of that stuff.

     When it comes to decorating the interior of your house, the most common thing that I see are Christmas trees, I know some people who don't celebrate Christmas but for the people that do, Christmas trees are very popular. When decorating your Christmas tree, there are many ways to do it. My family we have a box that has grown over many years of making decor for the tree so our tree is more of a homemade one. I have seen people who go out and buy bulbuls and try to make their tree look more on the more pretty professional side. Or you can take just some tinsel and throw that up with some lights and it still looks amazing.

     When it comes to decorating your house for the holidays, it is all about comfort. You want your house to feel homey and cozy when you decorate, that is one of the reason's why I love Christmas so much because when you are surrounded by the Christmas tree and lights with maybe a fireplace, it is the coziest thing ever. The holidays for me is all about family, sleep, food, and decorations. You can see which people really take decorating serious from the outside of their house, but there are people who just decorate the inside and not the outside. I feel like if you are not really in the holiday or Christmas mood, the easiest way to get in mood is to just decorate the heck out of your house or room.

**Christmas tree image provided by Google

Go Ask Alice: Review

     A couple weeks ago, I was cleaning my bookshelf and I found the book; "Go Ask Alice" written by anonymous. It interested me because the back had three sentences that stood out and they were "Read her diary. Enter her world. You will never forget her." I stopped there and started to read the book. What also encouraged me to read it was, I took it to school and one of the teachers at my school told me that the book was the book that really made an impact on his generation when he was my age.

    Now the book is about a fifteen year old girl who was introduced to drugs because she went to a party and someone laced the drinks with LSD. From then on she literally has been on a rollercoaster journey. When I first started reading the book, I did not like it. I have never come in contact with drugs or people who have done drugs or are currently doing them, so I was a little grossed out by what this person was doing because she was so addicted to drugs.

     As I read the book though, it interested me by how this girl left her very loving family to go live with druggies in run down apartments, and then she would finally realize how stupid she is and go back to her family and then go back with her druggie buddies and then go back to her family. It really showed me that it is hard to quit an addiction you have and that even if you are done with it, a little part of it is always with you, not letting you go of your past.

     This book is entirely written in journal entries by the fifteen year old girl. Throughout the book each entry will have the date and month she wrote it, but when it does come to the parts in the book where she leaves her family, the dates are unknown and they have (?) instead. The reason this book is written by anonymous is because the person who wrote these entries did not want her name to be know, probably because of all of the traumatic stuff she went through. All of the names and places have also been changed as well.

     I believe this book is for anyone, every teenager should read this because it shows you the horrors that drugs can bring you. Even if you think you have overcome your addiction, you have not. The people you have encountered through it will never leave you, the experiences you went through from the drugs will never leave you. The want for that drug will never leave you. I have heard though that this book can actually make people want to try drugs so they can experience the "amazing" things that this girl experienced. "Go Ask Alice" is a book that will open your eyes to some of the stuff that people try to push from their minds, this stuff actually does happen.

Christmas Treats

     One of my favorite parts of Christmas is the baked goods. Every year my mom and I bake different Christmas treats ranging from sugar cookies, peanut butter balls, peanut clusters, shortbread, etc. Also when it is Christmas time, you have the perfect excuse to make everything peppermint. You can have things ranging from peppermint coffee to peppermint toothpaste.

    
     If you have really nice relatives, there are these big round tins that you can send to anyone that is full of Christmas treats. For example, I got one from my grandpa a couple years ago and inside was a bag of popcorn with peppermint flavor chocolate drizzled on top, candy cane cookies, chocolate covered pretzels, etc. Those tins usually last me the whole of Christmas.

     Not only are Christmas treats very delicious but it is also a fun time baking them. You can dedicate a whole day to baking and it makes your whole house smell amazing. Also when you are baking you can eat the scrapes and batter (that is my favorite part). I also feel like when it comes to the month of December, you can eat a ton of candy and pastries whenever without being looked weirdly at because, hey it's Christmas and you can take advantage of the peppermint flavored treats.


   My personal favorite Christmas treats are always the chocolate ones, like peanut butter balls covered in chocolate, sugar cookies top with chocolate and candy canes, pretzels covered in white chocolate and dark chocolate. Christmas time is definitely the time to show off your baking skills, especially when it comes to making gingerbread houses.

**images provided by Google

All the Bright Places: Review

  One of my favorite types of videos to watch on Youtube is a favorites video, so as I was watching

Zoe Suggs, June favorites, and she mentioned the book; "All the Bright Places", by Jennifer Niven. I was very intrigued in what this book was, so I looked online and the books description sounded very interesting to me. The book is described as a high school teenager falling into a deep depression but he meets this girl and she brings back his will to live, and it is the same for the main girl character, Violet, because she went through a very traumatizing experience leaving her with little to no reason to live until she met Theodore Finch.

     Now I did feel like I had heard this story plot many times before, but the way Jennifer, wrote this book, she made it seem very real. The book starts out with the two meeting in an odd place and situation. You have the popular girl Violet Markey, wanting to reach the highest she could go, which was the schools' bell tower and then you have the weird kid, Theodore Finch, whose usual place is the bell tower. This was before school started so people were lingering outside and from their perspective, it looked like Theodore was trying to kill himself but Violet came in and rescued him from it, while it was actually the opposite way around. This is a key point that comes up throughout the book because every one after that point started to to think that Violet was the hero and Theodore was some depressed kid, when actually Violet, is the depressed girl and Theodore, is the hero. 

Author: Jennifer Niven

     In the book you will read and find out why Violet, has these thoughts of depression and how she gets through it with the help of Theodore, and what Violet also overcomes from her traumatic experience. At some parts in the book I was a little iffy on whether that actually would happen in really life, but for the most part Jennifer, kept the book pretty close to what reality is really like and she truly did a good job at showing the readers all of the characters personalities and how they grew throughout the story. 

   
      I would definitely recommend this book to people who want to read a more drama/ overcoming fears fiction book. I feel like this book is for anyone because yes it may be a bit depressing, but it is nice to read a book that shows what life is really about and coming out of your shell. Personally when I read this book, I could not put it down because every chapter had a new twist or turn.  

     

Winter Time

     Winter time is different all over the world. Here in the midwest in America where I live, we get hit hard with snow and very cold temperatures and when I say cold temperatures I mean -20 in fahrenheit and it is generally in the months of November through February. In other places like Florida they may get down to 50 or maybe even 40 degrees, and they are bundled up. One of my sister's lives in Florida and when it gets to around 60 she is in sweaters, jeans and boots! In other countries like Australia, their winter time is from around June to August and from what I have seen/heard, they can get some snow as well, I think it depends where you live in Australia.

Australia's winter tempertures 

     Something that I have learned about winter time in America, is that it really depends on where you live in America to experience winter. On the west coast area, they tend to not have winter like the midwest, their winter is usually in the 50's to 70's range and they might get a few cold fronts. I have a family member who lives in Arizona and they visited the Midwest one time and it was snowing, and they were so excited because they generally don't get snow. 

Winter in the Midwest

     Once you reach the midwest from Minnesota to Texas, we get snow like no other, but I think the more north you are the more snow you get. Now on the east coast it is a bit more complicated, from Maine to around North Carolina, they get hit pretty hard with snow as well but from South Carolina to Florida they may see a flake here or there. Also it is kind of funny when states that generally don't get snow, actually get snow and it may be an inch or two and they cancel school right away, but here in the midwest if we get like five inches we still have school. It is because in the states that don't get snow they don't have the equipment like snow plows and all but it is still funny to watch those states freak out. 

     Even though you live the same country, people experience different winters. My friend went on a retreat recently in Indiana and there were around 24,000 people there and it was snowing and my friend told me that you could definitely tell which parts of the country people were from based on their reaction to the snow. Also in different parts of the world countries experience winter in different months and in different ways based on which side of the equator you are on. I think it's always funny seeing people's reactions to the winter time and how happy or sad they can be towards winter. For me I love the cold because than you get to lay under tons of layers of blankets. 

**information provided by http://www.australia.com/en/facts/australias-seasons.html
** pictures provided by Google

Evolution of Gifts

     Let's all be honest and say that gifts are one of the best parts of Christmas, and I mean giving gifts and receiving gifts. I have noticed though that as people grow older, their gift wishes change. What I mean is that when you are young like around 10 and under, you ask for legos, barbies, iron man, stuff like that but as you get older into the teen age you start to want gift cards. It is not a bad thing to just want gift cards, but the exciting thing about giving someone a present is seeing their reaction to the item you purchased or made specially for them because you know the person really well.

     When I was younger my thought process was the more gifts the better. I wanted different styles of tamagotchi's, board games, bratz dolls (yes I did love those at one point), cd's, etc. My parents always loved watching my sisters and I open our presents because they got to see the joy in our eyes as we opened up the gifts that they had thought about and bought us because they knew it would make us happy.

     As I and probably many other people started to grow older our wants are starting to turn into give me money or give me gift cards. Yes gift cards and money do make people happy when they open it because you know you don't have to spend your own money to get stuff, but it's not something that you can play with or use right away. Also it is not something that a relative or friend didn't really have to think about or put much care into it, it is sort of like a "hey I didn't know what to get you so here is a gift card!". There is the other side of it to when it gets to the point that you can't tell someone exactly what you want, you just say here get me a gift card so I can find the right thing.

     At Christmas time when you are spending your time with loved ones, there is a lot of food eating and gift giving. Your gifts could be large, small, simple, complex, whatever but as you get older in life you start to expect less from people. No more lego sets or barbie dolls, as you get older it gets harder for family to choose gifts for you because you now have your own likes or dislikes especially when it comes to clothes.

Advent Calenders

     December is probably one of the most exciting months of the year because of one day in that month. Because the most exciting thing in December is only one day, people do as much as they can to get excited for that one day. You see people listening to Christmas music in October, you see people decorating their houses and yard in lights and blow up's in November but something that you can only do in the month of December is advent calendars.

     Advent calendars are a different type of a regular calendar. This calendar is suppose to make you excited for every single day of December and it will make it easier to be patient for that one exciting day. Every day you will go to your advent calendar and on the day it is, so today is the 3rd, you would open up the box around the 3 and inside is a little treat or present.

Sephora advent calendar

     The different types of advent calendars can be beauty ones, so you could get a calendar from your favorite beauty shop, for example, if you love Sephora you can go in and buy it so everyday when you open up the little box you will find maybe a lip balm, or sample perfumes, etc. Another type of calendar could be candles, Yankee candle have a calendar and inside each day is a little tea candle with a different scent. The most common calendar that I see are chocolate ones, so you could get an advent calendar from Hershey's, Lindt, etc. Now you can see why people get so excited for the month of December and love every single day of it.
   
     You always see different ways that people get themselves excited for Christmas and how some people can't wait for December to come so they start their celebrations early. Those things may be Christmas music, decorations, watching Christmas movies and shows. The one thing that you can't do early is opening your advent calendars and that is the one thing you can look forward to the most for the month of December. You can also make your own advent calendars, for example, Zoe Sugg on Youtube bought 24 presents for her friend and on each day there was a clue of to where the present is,  just fun ideas like that.

Book Review: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

     Awhile ago I read this book called 'Eleanor and Park', and it was also written by Rainbow Rowell. "Eleanor and Park" is definitely in my list of favorite books, so I decided to check out the other books Rainbow Rowell has written and I came across 'Fangirl'. The description was not very intriguing but after reading many good reviews on the book, I decided to read it and let me tell you, I was not let down.

     When you first see the title 'Fangirl', you automatically paint a picture in your head of a crying girl surrounded by hundreds of posters of her favorite pop star, well that is far from what this book is about. First of all the main character Cath, is a relaxed fangirl and instead of freaking out over a pop star, she has this deep love for the characters in the 'Simon Snow' book and movie series. Cath shows her love for them by writing fan fiction stories using the same characters but she changes the plot and the character relationships. The thing that makes this book interesting is that Cath and her twin sister Wren, are starting their freshman year of college. They are meeting new people and gaining new experiences and Cath, has to try to balance her very popular fan fiction writing and college work while also worrying about her work loving crazy dad.

     *****Do not read this paragraph if you have not read the book; SPOILER ALERT*****
     The characters personalities were developed well throughout the story in good and bad ways. For example, Cath, met Nick in her fiction-writing class and they become writing buddies outside of class writing stories together. It turns out Nick was just using Cath for her writing skills and is really a jerk. Then there is Wren who turns into the party girl when she goes to college and saying rude things to Cath, but by the end of the book Wren turns things around after a huge wake up call and she goes back to her actual self that is not a party girl drinking the night away. I think Rainbow Rowell did a really good job in giving all of her characters a turing point in some way, you follow a story for not only Cath, but also the many other characters in the book.

Inside front cover

     Something else that Rainbow Rowell does that is unique in her books is that in her books you can find special designs on the inside front and back cover of the books. So instead of a plain white inside cover she chose good fan art for the book and then puts that on the inside covers. These designs can in some way help the reader understand the characters and book more. Personally for me when I was reading 'Fangirl', I kept looking at the designs when she was describing Levi and Wren, the designs gave me a better picture of what Levi and Wren looked like. Also in 'Eleanor and Park' there were drawings of Eleanor and Park and they helped give me a picture Eleanor's crazy red hair.

Rainbow Rowell

     Overall 'Fangirl' is a well written book of girl in college dealing with typical college things and also doing her own thing, which is writing a very popular story. Before 'Fangirl' was published there was a lot of anticipation for it, and personally for me, this book met my standards. An interesting
thing about Cath's fan fiction is that in the book Rainbow Rowell puts in snippets of the fan fiction 'Carry On' that Cath is writing and Rainbow Rowell liked writing those snippets so much that she made 'Carry On' into an actual book that came out this past October. Overall this book is very good and please don't judge it based on the description that is written on the book, you will be surprised.
   
**images provided by Google

Hunger Games Series

     On November 20th, 2015, the last movie of the very popular series, Hunger Games; Mockingjay Part 2 comes out. The first movie of the 4 part series came out on March 23rd, 2012 and from then on everyone was hooked. If you have read the books then you have definitely been hooked before any of the movies came out. For many people this will be a sad day because, it is just like the Harry Potter series (that was a big longer) once the final movie is put out into the world, there is nothing left to look forward to, all you can do know is re-read the books and re-watch the films until you know every single word and can recite it in your sleep. That was a bit overboard.



Phillip Seymour Hoffman

     Over the past three years different directors have come through, different actors, and even one of the characters passed away off set. In Mockingjay part 1, the character Plutarch Heavensbee, known in real life as Phillip Seymour Hoffman died on February 2nd, 2014. His death was ruled as mixing drug intoxication. When it came to the point where people started questioning what would happen with Mockingjay Part 2, his parts had been mostly filmed by then and the parts that were not filmed yet, the play writers re-wrote. Another thing that had caused some trouble was the first director. The director for the first movie wanted to take five years to create the second movie, so the producers of the movie decided they did not want to put that much money and time in, so they found some one new. Thankfully the new director lived up to the first movie and all was swell from then on.  

     The three movies that have been released, in my opinion, have lived up to expectations, yes there were some scenes missing from the movie that were in the book, but the rest of the movie made up for it. Something that I have noticed is that the popularity of the movies has gone down since the first movie was released, but I think the acting and producing is still as good and interesting as the first movie.

     Just like the very popular Harry Potter series, this series has to end as well, and I think by making the last movie into a two part is kind of genius. Instead of cutting out important scenes from the final book, they are splitting it so there is enough time to get all of the amazing details onto the screen without sitting in the movie theater for four hours. This also happened with the Harry Potter series, and I think by making the final movie into two, it makes people want to come back and see the rest, instead of just sitting through one entire movie and maybe nodding off during it. For anyone who is very dedicated to the Hunger Games series, don't be upset it's ending, there will be more book/movie series that will come out and you will move on. 

**information provided by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Seymour_Hoffman
** all pictures were provided by Google

The Joys and Terrors of Christmas Shopping

     Christmas shopping has two sides, stressful and joy. The stress comes from when you have you do the actual shopping and then watching your bank account drain. The joy comes from when you get to watch the people open your presents and hopefully like what you got them. Christmas shopping can also be stressful and happy at the same time because when you find the perfect present, everything seems to just fall into place.

     When going shopping for Christmas presents you are usually buying gifts for friends and family. That is kind of a lot of pressure because you don't want to be know as the friend or family member that gives out pointless or meaningless gifts. That is where the stress comes in but hopefully in the end you find the perfect present for each person and all of that stress is worth it.

     Another thing that I have noticed as I've grown up is, adults don't really enjoy Christmas as much as I thought they did. As a kid growing up you always think everyone is the happiest when Christmas rolls around. Think again. Christmas seems to be a burden for some people for different reasons, they may not have the money to get the gifts that their family wants or they don't like spending the time and trying to get gifts for people. It is kind of sad to think that people would think getting a gift for your loved one is a burden, the whole point of getting someone of gift is to see the joy in their face when they open the item you have purchased or made for them, it's a different story if you don't have the money, but what is better than seeing the joy that you have caused.

     The joy that I think many people love the most about Christmas is gift opening. I am not talking about you opening a gift from someone else, I am talking about the person you bought a gift for opening their present. I touched on this in the paragraph above but, I think there is nothing better then getting someone a gift that brings them joy. What is even better is when you see the person bragging about the gift or seeing the person actually enjoy it in their everyday life.

     Christmas shopping is different for everyone, you could be the luckiest person ever and get all of the deals and know everything you are going to buy for every single person. Or you could the person that want's to get the best for your loved ones and just don't have the bank account for it, and also just run out of luck on thinking of ideas for the perfect present. The only thing that matters at the end of the day though is when you finally get to watch the person open your present and truly like it. You will go through stressful times but it will all pay off in the end.

**all images are provided by Google 

Thanksgiving

     Thanksgiving falls on the same day every year, it is on November 25th and it is the holiday where you look back on everything you are thankful for and then eat lots of good food. Traditionally the main dish is turkey, and turkey is also what comes to mind when someone says Thanksgiving. Not everyone celebrates Thanksgiving or as hard core like America, I feel like America tends to go more out on Thanksgiving, because I know some countries are already geared up for Christmas to be here. Something else that may be exciting is watching the Thanksgiving Day parade on T.V or actually going to New York and watching it live there, that's always something fun to do.

     The main food that is typically set out for Thanksgiving are, turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, rolls, there is more that I probably left out but those are the main foods you see on people's tables. The different foods my family like to put out are deviled eggs, yam's or sweet potatoes, roasted chicken, green bean casserole, etc. I have also heard that for the people who are vegetarian, they might eat tofu instead or just skip out on the meat parts, thankfully there is more food other then meat placed out.

My niece Alayna and I in
Florida

     Something else that I tend to look forward to are the desserts. The typical dessert you would see is pumpkin pie. Some desserts that are
popular in my family are a pumpkin praline cake, pumpkin bars, key lime pie, apple pie, chocolate pie, my aunt is amazing at baking so she makes those desserts every year. If you want to eat a lot of pie, my tip is to clean up from the dinner part, play some games with family and then eat dessert, it takes patience but it is all worth it once you get to shove all the pie you want in your mouth.

     Thanksgiving is not all about the food, it is also about giving thanks to all of the people that have helped you during life and be thankful for the opportunities you have been able to do over the year. Also being surrounded by family is definitely my favorite part of Thanksgiving because half of my family lives in Florida so this is really the only time I see them. Another thing is that Black Friday is also the same week of Thanksgiving, so be saving up your money to spend loads and drink lots of coffee to stay awake!

**first image is provided by Google

Adele is Rising Again

     November seems to be the month for all of the artists to release new music this year. One Direction, Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Little Mix, and Adele are all releasing new music in the month of November so it might be a little tough to try and get the number. The one person who seems to not be having trouble achieving number one is Adele.

Adele

    
     Adele has not released anything for four years and now out of no where Adele released a snippet of her new song 'Hello' during the commercial break on the X Factor. Everyone became excited immediately after hearing the 30 seconds of pure magic, it spread all over social media sending everyone into a frenzy that sometime soon Adele would release a new song after four years of nothing.

     A week after Adele released the 30 second snippet, she came out with the full song the following Friday. The song Adele released was the perfect song because it showed everyone what to expect on the upcoming album. To make things more clear, Adele wrote a message saying to everyone that this album is her way of making up, on her past album is what was all about breaking up, so she wanted to show her fans that she is going to make up in this album.



Adele's album cover

     October 23rd, was the day Adele released the full song and since then the song has not left the number one spot on the charts. Also the same day, you could pre-order the album. The album stayed number one till just up till last week, that is pretty long time because all of those sales are just in pre-orders. Adele is already breaking records with just pre-orders, wait until the album is actually released, I have a feeling she is going to smash the charts this year.

    
     Yes there are a lot of albums and new music that is being released this month, but after seeing how well Adele is doing in sales, it doesn't look like she will have much competition. Adele will release her upcoming album '25', on November 20th. The album will have 11 songs, that doesn't seem like a lot since she took four years to write it, but Adele tends to have very long songs consisting of between 4-5 minutes on average. I think we can all expect great things to come her very soon.

**all images are provided by Google

Candles

     The first thought that comes to mind when someone says candle is calm. After close to three year's
of high school, my anxiety has grown worse for many reasons, so I have to always have something around me or be able to think of something that will calm me instantly. Usually I'll just think of candles. I'll think of their scent and being wrapped in a warm fuzzy blanket while reading a book. You may be thinking that, that does not sound calming but trust me, it is the most relaxing and easiest way to just chill and calm all of the nerves you have.

     I tend to have about four or five candles in my room and their scents all depend on the season. For example, I actually have a candle burning right now and it is the scent 'leaves'. Most of the candles I have right now are fall and christmas related so basically pumpkin pie, leaves, kitchen spice, and a pinecone scented candle. My favorite places to get candles are at Yankee Candle and Bath and Body Works. Yankee Candle tends to have a more subtle smell and Bath and Body works has more of a stronger smell, I like both but if you don't like such a strong smell, I would avoid Bath and Body works, but Yankee Candle is a pretty pricey place.

    The time I usually burn a candle is when I am doing homework or when I have had a stressful day and want to relax. Lighting candles when doing homework is a really good idea because for me, homework can be stressful at times and so just by knowing and smelling that there is a candle in the room makes me more relaxed and actually think through what I am doing. May sound like it doesn't  work but you should try, you'll be surprised.

     The one thing that makes me smile the most is when I walk into a room and it smells like a candle was burning or currently is.  Usually after you have been burning a candle for awhile, the scent tends to linger and not in a bad way, a good way. Candles  for some reason, instantly brighten my day and after having a crappy day, that is definitely the easiest way to cheer up.

     Something else that candles do is they take away a migraine. Yes you do have to take some medication but if you lay in a dark room with little candles littered around you all burning, it gives off  the sense that nothing wrong can happen to you and whatever is causing your migraine will go away since your mind is shut off and relaxed.

     I know I have been repeating myself by using the words calm and relaxed but I really want to get my point across that candles are not just decoration or to give a room a nice scent. Candles are there to calm any situation that is on your mind, or just to make you smile and that one thing in life is right. Also it is getting close to winter time and the weather outside starts to very gray and depressing so if you look on the bright side, lighting a candle makes everything around you glow and it gives a sense of warmth and comfort even though the outside is depressing.

Books by John Green

John Green

     A couple of year's ago there was a book that was going not just around my school but across the world, this book became so popular it was made into a movie. The book is; The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. After the storm calmed down around The Fault in Our Stars, people wanted to read more of John Greens writings because his first book was so well written. It turns out that John Green has written five other, very popular, books. Those books would be; Paper Towns, Looking For Alaska, Let it Snow, An Abundance of Katherines, and Will Grayson Will Grayson (that is the title not a typo). John Green has also had two of his books made into a movie, those would be; The Fault in Our Stars and Paper Towns. 

Looking For Alaska

     My favorite out of the six books would have to be, Looking For Alaska, because the story is all about a boy who doesn't fit in his hometown and wants to try living in a new place that will give him new and more exciting experiences. Miles, the main character, decided to go to the same boarding school that his father went to, to try and get a fresh new start on life. Miles definitely does get a new life, he get's a new nickname, long lasting friendships, and memories to look back on. This book gave you the life you wished you had, it let you live out and grieve over the journey Miles had during his first year at his new school. This book is for the people who like to live through some else's journey and it also makes you think about what things you should change in your life.

     Personally for me I like to read books before watching the movie that is based on the book. By doing this you get to compare the similarities and differences, and you also get to see the added things that are in the movie that were not in the book. With 'The Fault in Our Stars' I feel like the movie did a really nice job on keeping things the same as they were in the book. On the other hand I felt like 'Paper Towns' did not do as good of job because there were certain things that were left out of the movie, and I feel like with good editing and producing, the missing parts could have made it in smoothly. When you read a book you create a picture in your mind, so when you watch the movie on it and there are key things that you loved from the book that are missing, it kind of dampens your thoughts on the movie. Don't get me wrong, I still love the book and movie, 'Paper Towns', but I do warn people who don't want to get a bad feeling on books they love, don't watch the movie if the reviews for it are not good.

     John Green has created books that are not only well written but also well produced into movies, his success started from one book and just multiplied from there on. I would highly recommend reading his books even if you are not a fan of fiction, his books appeal to anyone and everyone because John Green actually makes you feel like you are experiencing the characters journey with them. His books are definitely books that you can never put down once you have started.

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Eleanor and Park

     One day I was browsing through Barnes and Noble and I came across the book Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell. What caught my eye was the cover of the book, it had one girl with long curly red hair and one boy, they both have headphones on that are connected making the & symbol for the title. I thought that the cover looked interesting and made perfectly for the description of the book, and I am a person who does judge a book by it's cover. The book is perfect for people who like drama and romance type books because it has a good amount of drama involved and a romance that no could have expected.

     In the book it switches between two people's point of views, which are Eleanor's and Park's. Usually I don't like when a book keeps switching to different people but it actually worked for this book. Eleanor lived a very different life than Park's life, Eleanor shares a bedroom with her three siblings and there is only a small bunk bed for them to sleep on, also Eleanor lives with her step dad that she despises and her mother. While Park has one sibling and they both have their own room and their parents make good enough money to get them by peacefully, unlike Eleanor's family.

     You are probably wondering how they met, well they did live in the same neighborhood so they shared the same bus. Their neighborhood bus was very judgmental meaning everyone had a certain seat and since Eleanor's family does not have a lot of money, so she has to wear more men's clothing that are oversized, anyways Park was the only person to let Eleanor sit with, and from then on their relationship blossomed and it was a very rocky road.

     I don't want to give away to much information, just enough to get whoever is reading this to maybe give the book a try. The book defiantly takes you on a rollercoaster because it feels like you are going a journey with Eleanor and Park as their relationship grows. I do have to say though that the ending was a big let down for me, if you read the book, you'll know why. Rainbow Rowell really out did herself with this book and she did say that she considered doing a sequel but after the success of Eleanor and Park, she decided not to because she didn't want to let anyone down if the book didn't reach the standards of the first one. Even though I haven't read the other two books she wrote, I do recommend to read them because I have heard a lot of positive reviews from them.

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Lush

    Now if you never heard of Lush, that is because it is a U.K based store and they create all of their products in the U.K. I first heard of Lush through Youtube because I generally tend to watch more British vloggers through Youtube and the person that I heard about Lush from is Zoe Sugg, aka Zoella. Lush is a beauty, bath products, hair products, just in general a cosmetic store. They have items ranging from hair products, soaps, face masks, lip balms, perfume, makeup, shower, body scrubs, and their most popular item are bath bombs, I'll get more in detail later.

     Now what makes Lush a unique store is that every product is completely natural. Everything is hand made and to prove they are hand made, on the bottles and containers there is a little sticker with the face and name of the person who made the product.  Now since everything is organic and all natural and also if you live anywhere else in the world beside the U.K, the prices tend to be a bit more pricey, but if you really think about it, what you are buying is really good quality and handled with care. Another thing about the products is that they make things you have never heard of before. For example, body conditioners, shampoo bars that you have to rub between your hands and then transfer to your hair, solid body tints, shower jellies, etc.

Various bath bombs

     Something that I mentioned earlier are the bath bombs. Bath bombs are these balls that are packed with oils, possibly flower petals, and little fizzy items to spice up your bath. When you drop a bath bomb into your bath tub you get an immediate reaction, usually the bath bomb will start to stream out theses amazing colors and if you picked out one that has items inside like flower petals, cinnamon sticks, glitter, seaweed, they will float out and give your bath an extra special feeling. They make your baths colorful, they make you smell amazing, and they also at the same time make your skin really soft and clean. If you want to see a bath bomb in action, go to Youtube and just type in bath bombs, they are truly amazing and they make you re-think taking baths.

     Another amazing thing about Lush is when you actually visit the store. I have gone to Lush multiple times and every time one of the employees will come up to you ask if you would like to try out some of their products. I usually say yes, and what they do is they take you over to a sink and ask you what your favorite scent is or what you want to get. They will then pull out some type of scrub,
moisturizer, lotion, anything that you can rub onto your hands. You get to try out new products that you had never considered before and it makes your hands soft and smell really good. I actually ended buying a body scrub and body conditioner because I really loved how it felt on my skin. You should definitely someday try to find a Lush and go inside because the place smells amazing and the atmosphere is amazing.

     If you are looking for new products to try on your hair, face, body, anything really, I highly recommend Lush. Lush makes your hair feel nice and if you have split ends or your hair is just really brittle, the store makes shampoos and conditioners for all hair types. For example, right now I'm using the shampoo Rehab because my hair was starting to get out of control and my mom has natural really curly hair so she is currently using curly whirly as a hair gel to tame her curls. Lush is defiantly one of the cosmetic stores that I think everyone should try at least once because I know nobody would every regret buying a Lush product.

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Social Media: Twitter

     When I was younger the website everyone was on was Facebook. Facebook was what is twitter now, and I think the reason everyone has left Facebook is because it's turned into a more of a family page. Now you only go on Facebook to check in on family and see how everyone is doing, that's what I do personally. The main social media that people now currently are using is Twitter. Twitter is a place where you can tweet whatever you want with a limited number of characters, so you won't see any long boring paragraphs, you'll just see short little posts. Twitter is also the website that every celebrity uses, even the President has his own twitter account. If you want to know what your favorite celebrity is up to or thinking, you can check their twitter and they will most likely have posted something about what they are doing currently.

     Twitter has also become the place where some award show's use to make a category with. For example you can vote for an artist using a certain hashtag, it could be #vote5sos, and whoever in the category gets the most tweets using that hashtag wins the award. That is where you see the fan accounts going crazy getting people to retweet or tweet the hashtag a crazy amount of times. Actually sometimes when I scroll through the tweets of people voting, I notice that their twitter account is dedicated to just voting! That is dedication right there.

     Another thing that Twitter has incorporated to their website/app is that there is a trending list. The
trending list can range from what is trending in your state to what is trending in the world. The trend list is basically where you can look to see what is being tweeted about the most. For example, if there is a major natural disaster, you will see the place where it happened most likely because people will be tweeting the name and what it was because people are also tweeting about what it was. Or sometimes you'll see PrayforTexas, something like that. Just by looking at what is trending you can see what is going on in the world or in your state and see what everyone is currently talking about at that time.

     Twitter is the new platform that everyone, not only teens but also adults who are strong figures in the world, to say whatever they want or show their passion for the people they look up to. It is kind of interesting to think about what Twitter will be like in maybe five or ten years from now. Will it be like Facebook and diminish off or will it still be a strong platform for people to use. What will be the next exciting new social media platform to rise, we kind of saw Vine rise but then that did not stay up for very long. For right now Twitter is the social media Queen where you can post your thoughts or help people win awards, who knows.

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Costumes

     Every year on the same day you could look outside your window and probably see mass amounts of children and teenagers running around in different costumes. The costumes can be anything you want, if you want to be a leaf, you can make a leaf, if you want to be an emoji, you be an emoji. You just have to use your imagination when coming up with a costume so you don't look like everyone else. Also homemade costumes are the best costumes because no one can have the same exact detailed costume as you if you make it yourself.

     I think the most popular costume this year will be from the movie Frozen. Frozen came out around two years ago and it is still one of the most popular children's movie out there. I have already seen many kids that are planning on going as the characters from Frozen. The next costume that has been popular over the years is dressing as a cat. Usually people don't actually wear fur coats and everything, pretty much people put on cat ears, whiskers, and a black body suit and call it good. In my opinion being a cat is already done and everyone wears the same thing, people need to try to be more original if they want to dress as a cat.

   Another costume that has been popular over the years is dressing as a ghost. This costume used to not be very original because everyone just threw a white sheet over them and called it good. Now people have started to put blood on the sheet or drawn different scary faces on the face. Again being a ghost is not very original, but it is all about your creativity with it and you can easily make a unique ghost costume.

     Halloween is when you can you leave your identity and personality behind to transform into something else or anyone else. You can choose whatever you're going to be and make it as unique as you like. This time of the year is the perfect time to show your creativity and not be judged for it because everyone likes a good costume. Now don't forget to hand out candy to all of the little children and to have as much fun as possible when it comes to picking out your costume.

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Halloween Movies

Hocus Pocus

     Besides Christmas, I think Halloween movies are highly anticipated every year, especially when your childhood Halloween movies are only shown once a year. The Halloween movie list's can range from gory/horror to Charlie Brown Halloween special. I think the most anticipated movies are the one's from the 1980's to early 2000's, when people knew how to actually make good movies. For example; Hocus Pocus, Halloweentown, the Halloween series, Beetlejuice, etc. Actually the early 2000's, Disney Channel movies are my favorites, but not the current Disney Channel, they are poorly scripted.

     The Disney Channel movies that I think any 90's kids loved are the Halloweentown series, which is basically three teenagers who have magical powers, and they go to a school to develop their magic and it continues into three more movies. The next is Hocus Pocus, this movie was my childhood, it is the perfect amount of scariness to give you that Halloween feeling but not too scary at the same time for children of younger ages. Another one is Twitches, this movie is for the people who like watching people develop powers and master it to beat the bad person. That may sound cheesy but the movie is produced perfectly, making it feel like this could actually happen in real life. 

     On to the more classic movies, movies my parents liked when they were younger. A popular one is the Halloween series, this series is more on the
horror side. The first movie was made in 1978, and the eighth and final movie was made in 2002, there are two more but they are just remakes. The next classic is Beetlejuice, this movie is more on the comedy side of horror, so if you want a classic, funny yet scary Halloween movie to watch, this is the one for you. One that might be a little less classic, but is known pretty well, is the Addams Family, this movie is a comedy for the people who want a good Halloween movie but don't want to be frightened. 

Paranormal Activity

     Now for the current Halloween movies out there that, yes may be poorly produced, but are still popular. One that pop's into my head right away is the Paranormal Activity series, the first two or three have me really freaked, but as they go on, the movies seem to become less exciting and thrilling to thinking why am I watching this. The next movie that came out in the last year or two is Ouija. Ouija is a popular game to play late at night with your friends and try to talk to the dead, and it became so popular that there was a movie made on what can happen if you don't play the game right. Another recent movie is Annabelle, personally I did not see it but I heard that you will never look at a doll the same way. Annabelle is one of those movies that gets you freaked out over inanimate objects being possessed. The recent movies I have to say are not the best, but please leave your opinion of what you think of Halloween movies today. 

     Halloween movies are perfect for anyone because you can choose if you want horror or you can choose if you want comedy Halloween. A trend I see in the world and for me, is that the more dated Halloween films are the more popular ones, because they give you nostalgia of your childhood and bring back memories. Halloween movies, I believe, are probably one of the most anticipated movie times of the year, because you get to watch the classic's and the newly produced one's to give yourself that little bit of horror satisfaction to last you till next year. 

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**all information was provided by Wikipedia 

     

Halloween

     Halloween is approaching fast, by fast I mean less than a week! Halloween is the day many sci fi, horror, thrill seeking lovers have been waiting for. Actually the whole month of October is when everyone truly celebrates Halloween. There are many way's people express their love for Halloween, it could be through decoration, movies, make-up, haunted houses, pumpkin carving, trick or treating, anything that is scary, dark or involves candy, you name it. Halloween is also the time people associate with fall, because the leaves turn orange and the temperature drops, reminding you of Halloween.

     One Halloween tradition that I know everyone has done once, at least in America, is pumpkin carving. Pumpkin carving is probably the second best thing (next to candy) when it comes to Halloween because you can carve anything you want. For me, I always carve whatever I am loving that year, for example I carved 5SOS because it is my favorite band currently. The most common carving is typically a scary face, meaning two triangles for eyes, and a jagged mouth. When I was younger and could not carve very well, that was the face I resorted to. After you de-seed your pumpkin and carved whatever you wanted, you then place a small round candle inside your pumpkin, that way it can be seen in the dark. Putting the candle in really brings alive your pumpkin, and brings the whole thing together.

     For the thrill seeking people, haunted houses are your sanctuaries. I have never been to a haunted house before so all of the things I say have come from my friends experiences. When going through a haunted house you typically encounter clowns, axe doctors, blood, darkness, and usually a maze. Now if you get nightmares easily like I do, then haunted houses are not for you. When going through one, you usually endure a fast pace heart beat from the suspense and jump scares. Also you endure either hours of screaming or laughing, my friends were the ones that laughed the whole time, but
from watching videos of other people going through a haunted house, it is usually screaming and then laughing. Haunted houses seem to be more popular as you get older.

     Halloween is the best time of the year for fall lovers, horror/thrill lovers, classic halloween movie lovers, etc. There are many things to look forward to, especially if you love to dress as other things or characters/people. It is also the time for children to stock up on as much free candy as possible. In my next two posts, I'll go more in depth on the classic halloween movies everyone loves, and the many different costumes a person can wear.

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YouTube

     YouTube first started in 2005, it started off pretty slow, most people just uploaded random videos for fun. As the years have progressed, YouTube has started to become more popular. YouTube has become so popular that they pay people to upload videos on daily basis. You could earn millions of dollars through YouTube by just uploading a video of you doing something interesting and that's it. To earn the money you have to have the views though, the more views, the more money.

Zoe Sugg

     For most people YouTube has started out as a hobby, videos you just did for fun. Now people are uploading daily vlogs, impressive trick shots, beauty videos, cooking, etc. The people who started as a hobby and turned YouTube into a job, are the people who have gained massive amounts of views over the years. For example, Zoe Sugg is a British YouTuber, she started in 2009, just doing videos for fun. Now currently in 2015, Zoe has gained over 9 million YouTube followers and counting. Zoe Sugg has released two books, both have become a national bestseller's and she has launched multiple beauty product lines, and guest started on popular T.V. programs. Zoe is a prime example of what YouTube can do for a person in a short amount of time.

     Not only has YouTube become popular in the internet world, it has become popular in the television, music world and book selling. The common phrase that people have been saying lately from the success of YouTube into the non- internet world is "Team Internet". Team Internet has come from the YouTube stars that have been winning awards, creating national bestselling books, making movies, getting cooking shows. Team Internet has become so powerful over the last three years, and it is becoming so popular that it has just announced YouTube Red, if you want more information on YouTube Red, click here.
    
     YouTube has opened so many doors for so many people in not only just sharing their ideas into the world, but also YouTube has provided a place for people who don't know what they want to do in life. YouTube is a great way to express yourself through videos and share it with other people. Through this website people have travelled all over the world for conventions, or meet and greets. There is a convention called VidCon, where YouTuber's from all over the world get together in one place and they get to meet viewers through small meet and greets and the YouTuber's get to do a talk session to the viewer's. Overall YouTube is a place to express yourself to people through your videos and if you have a lot of viewers you just might get paid for it.

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Back To The Future

     On this day 30 years ago, a man named Marty travelled into the future to October 21st, 2015 in a movie called, Back To the Future. Once Marty Mcfly made it to this day the movie predicted there would be new technology inventions, many things that were predicted are not here today. For example, Jaws 19, flying cars, barcode license plates, ejection seats, a woman president in 2015, just to name a few. In some way's futuristic movies should not be made and in other way's they should be made.

     The problem with making futuristic movies is that nothing is set in stone for the future, the earth could explode at any time. I know these movies are made to be funny and to give people hope for future things, but it can also make us look stupid. For example, flying cars was predicted in the movie to have been created by now and used in everyday life, that obviously has not happened and that makes humans look bad that by now technology has not been advanced enough to make flying cars.
On the other hand futuristic movies should be made because they are funny and it is fun to see what movies predict the future could be like.

   

Flying car

Weird things that are happening on this day today in honor of it being the day Marty travelled to, first off a police unit was called to a traffic scene where a 17 year old person crashed into a telephone pole. When he showed his license, it showed that his license was 30 years outdated. It was obviously a prank but how weird would that have been if it was true. Another thing that has happened today is a movie theatre lost power, and a person came in and asked for a Pepsi and when Jaws 19 would playing. Again not true but still that would pretty cool and strange if it did really happen.

     This day has been highly anticipated throughout the years to see what things that were predicted would come true. One thing that was predicted was that the Cubs would win the World Series in 2015, that hasn't come true yet, but the chances are looking pretty slim right now for the Cubs. Futuristic movies have their good and bad qualities, and will mostly be remembered for what they did not predict correctly. People have done some weird things today, but it is all out of high anticipation for this day to come, and yes in some way's today was disappointing for the people that were looking forward to certain inventions being made.

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