Happy Hub: Teen Beach 2, Oh What A Night!, Pen Pals, & More!

I spent most of the month unplugged so I definitely missed out on a lot of pop culture and other awesome things that I would need the internet to discover. This Happy Hub is going to be on the shorter side but pretty much all my Travelogs (coming soon!) are extended Happy Hubs of my vacation so you'll be getting your fair share of good times and then some. I did manage to fit in some happiness in before I flew across the world, though, so you won't be reading a blank post today.

If you recall, we're going to be on a slightly altered posting schedule through September. All posts will be pushed to Sundays at 12:30pm PST with some exceptions when I have extra posts, such as this one (I'm playing catch up). As usual, catch up on my previous Happy Hubs here, and click the "read more" to read more!

Tunes

Before I left for Europe, I watched Teen Beach 2 with Mikaela and while I enjoyed the movie plenty, what really stuck with me were the songs. My personal favorite is Best Summer Ever, which includes throwbacks to the first Teen Beach Movie in the lyrics. I actually went and memorized this song so I could sing it to myself while I was cruising and didn't have access to wifi. (That's totally normal...) A couple others that I really like are Silver Screen and That's How We Do (contains spoilers) so they were playing on repeat while I was packing for my trip as well. Each of these songs make me feel bubbly and they still have a hint of that retro sound the songs from Teen Beach Movie had.

While we were on the cruise, most of the entertainment involved a lot of oldies, which is always a safe bet when appealing to all ages, but one show that really stuck out to us was Oh What A Night!, a tribute to Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons. Not only was their show a whole lot of fun (synchronized dance moves are always the way to go) (if they ever do a show in our area we are definitely going to see them again and we're going to bring our friends), it also introduced me and Gordon to Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons. We have been obsessed with pretty much every song (there's also might be some choreography going on) but my top favorite is probably Opus 17 (Don't You Worry 'Bout Me) and Gordon's is Walk Like A Man. That being said, we know pretty much all the songs. Almost every second spent in our hotel room in Venice had this album as its soundtrack. I can already tell listening to these songs will bring back such fond memories.

Burgers

Mikaela's house = Burger #2 + Teen Beach 2 (x)

For those who missed my April Happy Hub, you probably didn't know that one of my New Years resolutions is to have a maximum of one burger a month, totaling twelve burgers for the year. This second burger was extra special because it was my dinner for my first time at Mikaela's house. That night was also the night we watched Teen Beach 2. It was a memorable night. (I spent a lot of energy avoiding a kitten with viciously sharp claws.)

Mushroom Swiss from Applebee's (x)

Not a week later, the whole family went out to Applebee's for burgers. Their Monday night promotion was actually the reason why I decided to limit my burger consumption this year. It was delicious, as usual, and not much can beat onion rings dipped in ranch.

Miscellaneous 

Ashlee's surprise letter (x)

Before I left, I received a letter from Ashlee! I was so happy to hear from her and I absolutely adore the paper she wrote on. The cacti were also very adorable. I love that we're pen pals even if we can be bad about communicating regularly. Snail mail is a lot more personal anyway so I think it works out. It's always exciting getting things in the mail and even more so when it's unexpected. I haven't replied yet (since we're both traveling) so I think I'll do that once I wrap up this blog post. ;)

Blogosphere

Being at sea for three weeks, I didn't exactly have time to catch up on other peoples' blogs. I do, however, have to thank Allison for helping me maintain the xo, Yvette Tumblr while I was away. She helped me get my blog posts published on Tumblr on time so I didn't have to worry about having to find wifi.

I also have to give my thanks to Steph. If you read my previous blog post, you would know that I handed it over to Steph for a Visiting Voices. She wrote about some of the purple jewelry (that she made herself!) in her collection. Steph has been featured on this blog a lot and you might recognize her name from Sparkle and Sprinkle. Thank you, Steph, for helping me out and I'm so glad your beautiful jewelry got to see the light on my blog. You should check her out over on Sparkle and Sprinkle and on Etsy where she just opened up her shop, Yellow Raspberry Jewelry! She's got a lot of gorgeous pieces in stock and now through September 16th, you can get 10% off any purchase by using the code BLOG10. I'd take advantage of this if I were you.


Getting back in the blogging game is tough but I've missed it. It makes me so productive and even when I procrastinate (like for this post) it gives me such a rush when I finish on time. How many other people get a rush from sitting in front of a computer? Not many. As you can see, I left my trip out of this Happy Hub for the most part because it's a given and I will go into more detail in the Travelogs that will start going up the following Sunday (August 23rd). I know I must've missed a lot while I was gone so I'm going to need your help to fill me in. Did I miss any news? Music? Memes? I want to know all about it.


Talk to you soon!

xo, Yvette