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