Happy Hub: Bad Blood, Pokemon, Zoya Remy, & More!

Oh goodness, I'm nineteen. May was an awesome month which means this Happy Hub is going to be another lengthy one. A majority of this Happy Hub is going to be essentially the story of my birthday weekend so I hope you don't mind. There was a lot to be happy about this month and I'm excited to share what I've been loving with you.

Check out what I've been loving in previous months! There are Happy Hubs for February, March, and April! Click that read more to get to the Happy Hub!

Tunes

I started off the month strong with the Some Type of Love EP by Charlie Puth. I listened to nothing but this EP for almost two weeks straight. Throughout the month I kept coming back to this EP because I loved the sound. Marvin Gaye has the strongest retro vibes but I Won't Tell A Soul is the one I find myself humming to myself. Recently, however, I've really been into Some Type of Love and Suffer. This one's a winner.

I was so engrossed with Charlie Puth's EP that I didn't even think to try out some new music. When it occurred to me that I had been listening to the same thing for half a month, I decided to look for some new music to spice things up. I'd heard Fight Song on the radio but I hadn't really looked into it. One day, the Fight Song EP popped up in the new releases section of Spotify and I thought it might be worth a shot. It's actually probably worth five shots. The whole EP has such a great message and all four songs are really catchy, too. I think my personal favorite is Congratulations but Beating Me Up is a close second. That's not to say I don't like Fight Song and Lone Ranger, though. I usually listen to albums as a whole so I find myself liking all the tracks almost equally.

Bad Blood music video, 'nuff said. (I really wish I could end it there but here I go...) I loved the action and the remix and all the ladies but I wish there were a real plot/character development. I am fully convinced that this is just the trailer to a feature length film that is secretly in development. There's no way that this is all we're getting. Even if we don't, it was so satisfying seeing all these people together being cooler than I could ever hope to be. I am so here for Mother Chucker and Cut Throat.

Being one of my favorite boybands, I've been keeping tabs on Midnight Red ever since they lost a member. I was over the moon when I heard they were covering Chains by Nick Jonas. I wasn't ready for the "twist" that they had planned though. I am so pleased with their Chains cover, I can never get enough of Midnight Red. You should definitely check them out if you haven't already.

Zoya Remy

Zoya Remy (x)

This should technically fall under the birthday category but my love for nail polish guarantees a separate heading. Zoya Remy is a newer polish in my collection and I have been dying to use it. When it was time to choose my birthday nails, I had narrowed down the choices to Remy and Yuna but Remy, obviously, came out on top. A photograph couldn't capture the gorgeousness of Remy. It can't pick up the subtle gold microshimmer, or any of the shimmer really, but trust me, it's there. This polish is so captivating -- it's definitely gonna stain but it's worth it.

Birthday!

Pre-Birthday

"Happy (early) Birthday Yvette!!!"

Pretty (and yummy) in pink. (x)

I personally believe you should celebrate your birthday for as long as you want so I always have about five days carved out for my birthday "weekend" (it helps that it's always around Memorial Day weekend.) This year, it started when one morning, as I was leaving for class, I found this sign and these balloons on my door. My wonderful future roommates Kayesee and Amreen had done this the night before and later that day, delivered this lovely cupcake to me. They're super sweet and it seriously was the best kick-off to my nineteenth birthday weekend.

On the 22nd, it was the one year anniversary of the Backstreet Boys' In a World Like This tour in Seattle (which I attended with Mikaela) so I posted a video to Instagram of one of my all-time favorite songs (and made a pun out of it). This concert was one of the highlights of my eighteenth birthday weekend so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to revisit it.

One of the things that happened this weekend wasn't birthday-specific, but it might as well have been. On the 23rd, I went to Steph's house and we finally got around to the turkey gravy party that we've been talking about for ages. It was also my first time watching Thor: the Dark World and my first time meeting Mochi! He is the cutest thing in the world and very fond of belly rubs. A good chunk of the day was spent watching Storage Wars, which is such a niche line of business, and I cannot get some of those one-liners out of my head. Yuuup.

Family Day

A bit of background before we jump into this next highlight -- last weekend, I was cleaning out my emails when I saw that PopUpTee had sent me a reminder to check out their latest designs (since they change their collections every three days) and, if you know me, you know I love Squirtle. My brother and I grew up playing third gen Pokemon so we hold Kanto and Hoenn Pokemon closest to our hearts. When I saw that PopUpTee had a Squirtle AND Pikachu design, I had to spring for it. Over dinner that night, I brought it up and my parents jokingly (or so I thought) said they should get the Bulbasaur and Charmander shirts to complete the set. The next morning, my parents came into my room asking me about what size they should order. I was a little shocked that they were down with it but I wasn't going to fight it. Who knew my parents were so hip? 

I hope this makes it on to a Christmas card. (x)

Fast forward to my birthday, the t-shirts had arrived and when my mom saw I was wearing my purple shirt (one of my birthday traditions), she suggested we all wear our new Pokemon shirts to go out for lunch. Best idea. Everybody had a lot of fun with it and our mini photoshoot was a blast.

Ice cream cake, hold the cake. (x)

Later that day, we had family friends over for a build-it-yourself noodle bar for dinner and it was so delicious that we almost forgot I had a cake. Whoops. We all ended up eating my cake past midnight but it was well worth the wait. I haven't met a single person who doesn't like cookies n creme ice cream. I don't think such a person exists. I had a great family day but it flew by all too quickly. It's a good thing there's still one more day left of my birthday weekend!

Mikaela's Day

Avengers: Age of Ultron (x)

The last day of my birthday weekend was reserved for Mikaela and Mikaela only. As per tradition, we saw a matinee showing of Avengers: Age of Ultron. I am still feeling the hard feels from this movie. Something non-spoilery I can say is that the action scenes were very well choreographed. Everything looked like it was straight out of a comic book and I became very attached to the new characters. Also, the ending. Excited doesn't even begin to cover it. I actually have tiny bruises where my nails were digging into my palms from clenching my fists so hard. It wasn't flawless, but it was a real good time. 

Mikaela is better than the best. (x)

Before we even got to the movies, Mikaela gave me my birthday gift and I literally screamed in the car. If you can see in the lower right hand corner, those are Backstreet Boys nail decals. You heard me. They're the boys' heads from the 90s and I am so in love with them. (She gave the nail decals to me with that gorgeous peacock card I absolutely adore it.) 

Upon leaving the theater, we made our way to Chipotle (and managed to avoid running into some people we knew) before stopping by at Bath & Body Works. I say "stopping by" but we probably spent a good two hours in there. We had each chosen one item but when we went up to the register to pay, the cashier talked us into the buy three, get three free deal that was going on. After a lot of spritzing and spraying, we decided on our collective six products and when we went to check out, Mikaela paid for my selection as an extended birthday gift and I am still in disbelief. Best best friend ever. (We also got Jamba Juice right before we left and you really cannot go wrong.)

Miscellaneous 

Gertrude was hiding her babies. (x)

A few weeks ago, I got a little succulent friend and I asked you on Instagram (via the Criss Cross Fishtail post) and I've finally come to a decision! I've recently discovered the babies that were hiding underneath the leaves(?) of my plant so I decided to go with a girl's name. Gertrude was one of the suggestions that I kept coming back to and I'm thinking if I ever get more succulents, I'll continue the grandmother name trend.

Not to get sappy, but my friends are one of the top three reasons why I'm so happy most of the time. I am so grateful for everybody in my life. I'm a firm believer that friends are the family you choose and the people I've chosen have come through for me time and time again. This becomes especially apparent when my birthday rolls around, which is why I'm mentioning it specifically in this post. I love and am thankful to have them year round but they all go out of their way to make my birthday weekend special. I am hugging you all and kissing your faces.


I've had plenty to be happy about this month. What about you? Share the things that made you happy this month in the comments below! I'd love to hear your music recommendations and favorite tv shows and any obsessions you have! As always follow me on Instagram, follow xo, Yvette, and look out for the second to last #hairoftheweek post for Spring 2015 on Sunday! Also, pay attention to Instagram to find out when voting for the Spring 2015 #hairoftheweek fan favorite begins!


Talk to you soon!

xo, Yvette