Tunes:
It should come as a surprise to absolutely nobody that I love Christmas music. This is a general favorite seeing as I've been all around this year and I'm not even going to try listing some of my favorites because that's all this blog post is going to end up being. I think I may have just given myself a future blog post idea in the process of writing this one... (Note to self: fave xmas songs post for next year!!!)
It's no secret that I love Sabrina Carpenter and every year she puts out a new Christmas song. Combining the two creates magic. This year, Sabrina's Christmas song is called Christmas the Whole Year Round and, as you can probably tell by the name, it embodies my stance on the holiday season. I get that if it's constant it's no longer special but pretty house lights and family time (plus the occasional gift here and there) is Yvette-approved any time of year.
There are a lot of things to look forward to come to end of the year and one of them is the medleys of all the hits from the past year. One of my favorites this year is Sam Tsui and Kurt Hugo Schneider's 2015 Pop Medley. I didn't like a lot of the popular songs this year but they managed to spin them into something really catchy and fun. I'm also really happy Andy Grammer was successful enough this year to earn a couple seconds in this medley.
Cimorelli has been one of my favorite groups for years and I came across them while they were only doing covers. Now they're coming out with original music but every so often they'll make a cover that blows me away. A few weeks ago, they posted a cover of Perfect by One Direction and it's hard to stop listening. I've listened to their version more than One Direction's. My first impression when I listened to the original version of Perfect was how similar it sounded to Style by Taylor Swift. Clearly, I was not the only one because, when it slows down in the bridge, there's a lot of empty space that Cimorelli filled with lyrics from Style. How could I not love it?! They look like they had a lot of fun making the video so that's nice to see. I'm also going to be taking some fashion notes because I love all of their outfits.
Last year when One Direction released their fourth studio album, Four, I had held off on listening to it for so long that I figured why not just not listen to it until their fifth studio album (which I still affectionately call Five even though its real name is Made In the A.M. I think that's just too long of a name)? I called it an exercise in self-control. It was a bit of a challenge navigating around the singles played on the radio and generally hearing it in public but I managed. There where definitely times when I was tempted to give it a quick listen just to find out what all the buzz was about but I kept it together and pulled through. I guess it worked out that I was out of town for their concert... Now that I've finally allowed myself to listen to it (and Nick Carter didn't drop any new music this month), I sat down and immersed myself in the album. Choosing favorites on a One Direction album is serious business so I'm not ready to commit quite yet but I can easily say there is no song on this album that tops my all-time favorite 1D song, They Don't Know About Us, off of Take Me Home. I'll keep you updated with my favorites possibly next month.
Maybe I'm getting old but I hadn't heard of Jacob Whitesides until the R5 concert I went to with Mikaela back in August. He opened for R5 and, honestly, we weren't that into his music but he played a then-unreleased song of his that I was really feeling. It was completely unlike any of his other music and I was ready to be buckle down to be a Jacob Whitesides fan if that was his sound. Mikaela, if you wanted to revisit that song, here's your chance. Shame On You sounds so dramatic and feels like it belongs on the soundtrack of a romance/action movie. I guess that's James Bond? I'm picturing a very elaborate and grand music video. And is it bad that I want to be the girl he's singing about...? I'd love to have a lake of fire calling my name. Usually, I'm an album listener and I did give his EP a shot but nothing really comes close to Shame On You. The songs on the EP are more my style than what he performed at the concert but still not good enough for me to include in my Happy Hub.
December is usually the time for those Oscar contenders to make their debuts in theaters and, for the most part, they don't really interest me. I had heard a lot about Sisters when they were in production and, I mean, come on. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are a guaranteed win. Usually party movies aren't really my thing but I think that can mostly be attributed to the fact that teenagers are so not my scene. There's something about adults trying to relive their glory days that sounds hilarious and an all-star cast sealed the deal for me. The beats were predictable but there were a lot of laughs for me. I think it helped that I lowered my expectations after watching the trailers but it's still hilarious seeing how the rager falls apart piece by piece. Overall, Sisters is a fun movie and I don't feel like I wasted my time or money, but you don't need to prioritize it.
I know it's terrible that I hadn't seen any Star Wars films until literally last week but I didn't grow up watching Star Wars and, despite my near-complete ignorance, I was totally ready to watch The Force Awakens in theaters without having seen the first six episodes. When Steph suggested we sit down and marathon at least the original trilogy together, it was an offer I just couldn't refuse. Slap on a trip to Trader Joe's to find some movie snacks and I'm sold. I knew what to expect when it came to the actual content of the films but I was not ready for how it impacted me. It wasn't anything overt but I'm gradually realizing how much the original trilogy changed me as a person. It's hard to describe but it's more than just me understanding more of the references everybody has been making. I'll probably need more time to process this but, wow. I'm still missing about half of the canon (and I'll get to that eventually) but we had no time to waste. The Force was awakening and we couldn't miss it.
Exactly a week after watching the original trilogy for the first time, Steph and I made our way to the theater to catch Star Wars: The Force Awakens. There was a little hiccup with our showing so we ended up watching the film in 3D. I have to be very careful about what I say as to avoid any and all spoilers so I'm just going to scream for a moment, if you don't mind. AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Okay, we'll call that my review. I'd love to talk about it if you've already seen it because there are some holes in the world building that I would like discuss and if I start crying out of nowhere, you'll understand what has probably just hopped on to my train of thought. I have a lot of questions that hopefully the prequels can answer because if I have wait until May 2017 to find out what I need to know, oh man. For now, Steph and I will just cry together. (We also might be reminiscing on that entire day because we had a lot of laughs. It was a good one.)
At the beginning of the year, I decided I was only going to have twelve burgers in 2015. Come December, I had only had three burgers. Three burgers for almost the entire year. A couple months ago, when I realized I was not consuming as many burger as I thought I'd be, I made the executive decision to divide the twelve burgers between two years instead (so at this point I have a seven burger budget for 2016). For burger number four, my dad had gotten off work early and I had finished my first final of the quarter earlier that day. As a reward, I suggested we have Five Guys. This was one of my most anticipated burgers of the year. I love Five Guys and I was so happy I was able to fit it in before the end of the year. It's kind of hard to believe, even to me, that it wasn't until December that I got around to Five Guys.
I thought the fourth burger was going to be the last of the year. Who knew that I'd be able to fit another one into December? The fifth and final burger of the year would not have happened without Molly, the friend that brought me my first burger of the year, actually, back in April. We had a great time catching up and vegging out on our blue cheese bacon burgers and the copious amount of tater tots. I ended up spending more time with Molly than I had planned for and it was totally worth it. I had a good time and it was especially stress-free since I had finished all my finals that morning. What a great note the start winter break on.
The highlight of my winter break has always been our annual family Christmas party. It started out as a casual gathering years ago and it's evolved into its own entity. Since it's such a big deal for our household, it counts as our Christmas. That frees up actual Christmas Day for some lowkey times with family and friends. Now that I'm closing in on two decades of life (!!!), I was given more responsibility. I had more of a hand in planning and executing this year's party so the stakes were much higher than previous years. I'm being groomed to take on the family hosting in the future. I was super excited about my outfit this year because it consisted of so many special things. My hair was Fall 2015's bonus #hairoftheweek (which I came up with on my own) and the dress was a dress that Amy and I have been eyeing for a long time. We both bought the dress and mine arrived in the mail the week before the party. It was perfect timing and I got to wear the perfect holiday dress for a super fun (and successful!) Christmas party.
If you know me well enough for me to have discussed my wedding plans with you, you've probably heard me mention something about a chair routine. The dance I was referring to is the one featured in the Backstreet Boys' As Long As You Love Me music video, but it was constantly being interrupted. Thankfully I have Amreen (a true master researcher -- if there's something you can't find online she can track it down before you know it) who sent me this link to one of Backstreet's performances from back in the day. I've been watching this video a lot for the chair routine but also because they're the Backstreet Boys. KTBSPA.
A break from school also means it's time to look back on all the of the #hairoftheweek posts from the past three months. If you missed it, the Fall 2015 Recap will tell you a little more about the hairstyle than what's in their respective blog posts, what you'll need to recreate it, and they would normally provide links to all the tutorials I referenced but, I've said it before and I'm gonna say it again, all eleven hairstyles were my originals so you're just going to have to rely on the blog posts to work them out.
The next time I talk to you will be in 2016! Isn't that crazy?! I'm kinda sad to be leaving 2015 behind but I guess it has nothing left to offer us. 2016 is going to have a hard time topping 2015 but I'm sure we can make it happen. I've certainly had a busy (and amazing) year and I'm sure you have to. Thank you for taking the time to read xo, Yvette. I hope you've enjoyed my content these past eleven months and there's definitely more to come next year! Have a happy New Year!
Talk to you next year!
xo, Yvette
It's no secret that I love Sabrina Carpenter and every year she puts out a new Christmas song. Combining the two creates magic. This year, Sabrina's Christmas song is called Christmas the Whole Year Round and, as you can probably tell by the name, it embodies my stance on the holiday season. I get that if it's constant it's no longer special but pretty house lights and family time (plus the occasional gift here and there) is Yvette-approved any time of year.
There are a lot of things to look forward to come to end of the year and one of them is the medleys of all the hits from the past year. One of my favorites this year is Sam Tsui and Kurt Hugo Schneider's 2015 Pop Medley. I didn't like a lot of the popular songs this year but they managed to spin them into something really catchy and fun. I'm also really happy Andy Grammer was successful enough this year to earn a couple seconds in this medley.
Cimorelli has been one of my favorite groups for years and I came across them while they were only doing covers. Now they're coming out with original music but every so often they'll make a cover that blows me away. A few weeks ago, they posted a cover of Perfect by One Direction and it's hard to stop listening. I've listened to their version more than One Direction's. My first impression when I listened to the original version of Perfect was how similar it sounded to Style by Taylor Swift. Clearly, I was not the only one because, when it slows down in the bridge, there's a lot of empty space that Cimorelli filled with lyrics from Style. How could I not love it?! They look like they had a lot of fun making the video so that's nice to see. I'm also going to be taking some fashion notes because I love all of their outfits.
Last year when One Direction released their fourth studio album, Four, I had held off on listening to it for so long that I figured why not just not listen to it until their fifth studio album (which I still affectionately call Five even though its real name is Made In the A.M. I think that's just too long of a name)? I called it an exercise in self-control. It was a bit of a challenge navigating around the singles played on the radio and generally hearing it in public but I managed. There where definitely times when I was tempted to give it a quick listen just to find out what all the buzz was about but I kept it together and pulled through. I guess it worked out that I was out of town for their concert... Now that I've finally allowed myself to listen to it (and Nick Carter didn't drop any new music this month), I sat down and immersed myself in the album. Choosing favorites on a One Direction album is serious business so I'm not ready to commit quite yet but I can easily say there is no song on this album that tops my all-time favorite 1D song, They Don't Know About Us, off of Take Me Home. I'll keep you updated with my favorites possibly next month.Maybe I'm getting old but I hadn't heard of Jacob Whitesides until the R5 concert I went to with Mikaela back in August. He opened for R5 and, honestly, we weren't that into his music but he played a then-unreleased song of his that I was really feeling. It was completely unlike any of his other music and I was ready to be buckle down to be a Jacob Whitesides fan if that was his sound. Mikaela, if you wanted to revisit that song, here's your chance. Shame On You sounds so dramatic and feels like it belongs on the soundtrack of a romance/action movie. I guess that's James Bond? I'm picturing a very elaborate and grand music video. And is it bad that I want to be the girl he's singing about...? I'd love to have a lake of fire calling my name. Usually, I'm an album listener and I did give his EP a shot but nothing really comes close to Shame On You. The songs on the EP are more my style than what he performed at the concert but still not good enough for me to include in my Happy Hub.
Films:
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| Sisters (x) |
I know it's terrible that I hadn't seen any Star Wars films until literally last week but I didn't grow up watching Star Wars and, despite my near-complete ignorance, I was totally ready to watch The Force Awakens in theaters without having seen the first six episodes. When Steph suggested we sit down and marathon at least the original trilogy together, it was an offer I just couldn't refuse. Slap on a trip to Trader Joe's to find some movie snacks and I'm sold. I knew what to expect when it came to the actual content of the films but I was not ready for how it impacted me. It wasn't anything overt but I'm gradually realizing how much the original trilogy changed me as a person. It's hard to describe but it's more than just me understanding more of the references everybody has been making. I'll probably need more time to process this but, wow. I'm still missing about half of the canon (and I'll get to that eventually) but we had no time to waste. The Force was awakening and we couldn't miss it.
 |
| Star Wars: the Force Awakens (x) |
Exactly a week after watching the original trilogy for the first time, Steph and I made our way to the theater to catch Star Wars: The Force Awakens. There was a little hiccup with our showing so we ended up watching the film in 3D. I have to be very careful about what I say as to avoid any and all spoilers so I'm just going to scream for a moment, if you don't mind. AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Okay, we'll call that my review. I'd love to talk about it if you've already seen it because there are some holes in the world building that I would like discuss and if I start crying out of nowhere, you'll understand what has probably just hopped on to my train of thought. I have a lot of questions that hopefully the prequels can answer because if I have wait until May 2017 to find out what I need to know, oh man. For now, Steph and I will just cry together. (We also might be reminiscing on that entire day because we had a lot of laughs. It was a good one.)
Miscellaneous:
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| Five Guys. Oh yesss. (x) |
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| A burger and a Molly. (x) |
I thought the fourth burger was going to be the last of the year. Who knew that I'd be able to fit another one into December? The fifth and final burger of the year would not have happened without Molly, the friend that brought me my first burger of the year, actually, back in April. We had a great time catching up and vegging out on our blue cheese bacon burgers and the copious amount of tater tots. I ended up spending more time with Molly than I had planned for and it was totally worth it. I had a good time and it was especially stress-free since I had finished all my finals that morning. What a great note the start winter break on.
 |
| The #yamy dress. |
If you know me well enough for me to have discussed my wedding plans with you, you've probably heard me mention something about a chair routine. The dance I was referring to is the one featured in the Backstreet Boys' As Long As You Love Me music video, but it was constantly being interrupted. Thankfully I have Amreen (a true master researcher -- if there's something you can't find online she can track it down before you know it) who sent me this link to one of Backstreet's performances from back in the day. I've been watching this video a lot for the chair routine but also because they're the Backstreet Boys. KTBSPA.
Blogosphere:
I want to thank my wonderful roommates for helping me write the Visiting Voices this month. They all brought their favorite Christmas movies to the table and gave us a sample of what they were watching this holiday season as well as what made it their favorites. I'm so grateful they were all so willing to help me out on this post so thank you Amreen, Kayesee, and Diamond (it's the thought that counts)!A break from school also means it's time to look back on all the of the #hairoftheweek posts from the past three months. If you missed it, the Fall 2015 Recap will tell you a little more about the hairstyle than what's in their respective blog posts, what you'll need to recreate it, and they would normally provide links to all the tutorials I referenced but, I've said it before and I'm gonna say it again, all eleven hairstyles were my originals so you're just going to have to rely on the blog posts to work them out.
The next time I talk to you will be in 2016! Isn't that crazy?! I'm kinda sad to be leaving 2015 behind but I guess it has nothing left to offer us. 2016 is going to have a hard time topping 2015 but I'm sure we can make it happen. I've certainly had a busy (and amazing) year and I'm sure you have to. Thank you for taking the time to read xo, Yvette. I hope you've enjoyed my content these past eleven months and there's definitely more to come next year! Have a happy New Year!
Talk to you next year!
1) Actually seeing Four in your blog post is getting me a lil emotional. You've come so far.
ReplyDelete2) I relate to that (!!!) so much
3) LOOK AT MY PUMPKIN IN OUR DRESS <3
1) It's been a long journey and we finally made it.
Delete2) You have like three weeks left, Amy.
3) We'll wear it to our wedding.
"you'll understand what has probably just hopped on to my train of thought."
ReplyDeleteWhy! I'm gonna have to drown out this thought with Christmas music.
It honestly makes me want to reevaluate my life. Maybe I should just pack up and move to the mountains. Get away from it all.
Delete