Summer Jams 2015

I've not done any kind of music post, or any kind of post for that matter, in a long time, so I thought I'd give you a quick roundup of some of the albums I've been loving over the past couple of months. I've left off Nick Jonas' album because I've dedicated an entire post to it - I know, I'm full of surprises.

Miguel - Wildheart

Adorn is one of my favourite songs ever, so to say I was excited for this record is an understatement. On the first listen I was quite confused by the album because it's not got quite the same R&B sound of Kaleidoscope Dream. However, when I listened through again, bypassing the initial surprise, to properly listen to the music, I adored it. The music on this album cannot be put into any particular genre - it's that good! My favourite part of the album (so far) is the last half of Coffee, I love when Miguel does his ad libs, he gets across so much emotion in his voice, it brings a tear to my eye every time.

Listen to:

1. Coffee (my favourite song of the year so far)
2. Hollywood Dreams
3. face the sun (feat. Lenny Kravitz)

Fifth Harmony - Reflection

I've loved BO$$ since I first heard it on the X Factor last year, so I don't know why it took me so long to get the album, it's so good! It reminds me of Ariana Grande's first album Yours Truly, but with a bit more grit. I feel like saying I love every track on this album is a bit of a cop out, so I'll try to narrow it down to my Top 5.

Listen to:

1. Reflection
2. Like Mariah (feat. Tyga)
3. BO$$
4. Suga Mama
5. Going Nowhere

Empire Official Soundtrack

So it used to be that I was ahead of the curve when it came to TV, I was always up to date with shows before my friends even knew they existed, and while this has remained true to a degree (I'm looking at you How To Get Away With Murder), I seriously failed with Empire. I only watched Season One in June! What was I doing?! I mean, I do prefer to binge watch my shows, but I would've got so many more Cookie references if I'd been watching from the beginning! Anyway, in case you've been living under the same rock that I was, Empire is about a record label, and throughout the show the cast perform some really great original songs. I'm SO glad they released this album, because these songs are classics.

Listen to:

1. Whatever Makes You Happy - Jennifer Hudson & Juicy J
2. Keep Your Money - Jussie Smollett
3. You're So Beautiful - Jussie Smollett & Yazz

Throwback R&B - Various Artists

As I've mentioned countless times before, I am in LOVE Trevor Nelson's compilation albums. This isn't one of them, but when I went through the iTunes preview, it sounded like it could be, so I downloaded it. It's full of great songs from the '90s and early '00s. I've rediscovered some classics thanks to this album.

Listen to:

1. Foolish - Ashanti (always been a favourite)
2. Mo Money Mo Problems - Notorious B.I.G feat. Puff Daddy & Mase

It's August?!?!

I feel like I begin way too many of these posts with 'I'm sorry I've not posted in so long', so instead of saying that, I'm going to try and explain why. As you guys know/have inferred from my posts, I suffer with mental illness (but it seems like everyone does nowadays right?). I see the world in a different way, and sometimes this means everything is absolutely fantastic, but other times it's horrendous. I graduated from university in July 2014, and I thought getting out of there would end all my problems, but boy was I wrong. 

I was depressed all through university, for one reason or another, but thought that graduating and completing that phase of my life would end all my worries. However, moving on from over fifteen years of structured education to living 'life', was a transition I've still not got to grips with. Going from knowing what I'll be doing for the next year(s), to not knowing where I'll be next week has been more than tough. I had a job from November 2014 to March 2015, and although I started off enjoying it, by the end I wanted to kill myself. I felt like everyone was taking advantage of me, and that I was the only one doing any work. Looking back now, I'm sure I was just seeing what I wanted to see, but when you're in the moment, things can seem ten times worse.

After leaving my job I went to visit my friend in France. It was all going fine until my brain went into overdrive. For a bit of context, I'd not seen these friends since September, and although we lived together through university, and practically spent every single day together for 3 years, we'd slightly drifted apart after leaving (not really a surprise as we all moved back home). Firstly, I think I'd put too much pressure on this trip, it was going to be amazing! We were going to have the best time! Obviously thinking like this means that when things don't go amazingly, they seem all the worse. Anyway, back to the story, we all got drunk one night, and something was said that really offended me. The next day I brought it up when everyone was sober, and not only did the friend agree with what they'd said the night before, they didn't even apologise for how upset it made me. Unfortunately we've not really spoken since then, and that was in March. 

Anyway, then I got back and my dad had a quadruple bypass operation! I had to look after him for a while, but now he's fine. I think he's depressed though which is fantastic. He already has a bleak outlook on life, but now it seems like anything positive he manages to spin into a horrible negative. So, now we're in June and I'm feeling absolutely horrendous. I feel so close to just jumping off a bridge. I don't, instead I go home and start googling jobs abroad. Somehow I find volunteering opportunity in Greece, email them, and have signed up for a six week placement with them starting the following week. Sometimes I'm a little impulsive. 

Fast forward to now, and I've just come back from my six weeks in Greece. On the whole, I had a great time. I met loads of fantastic people, spend lots of time on the beach, and completely redesigned their website. However, I still had episodes of depression. It was horrible while I was out there, but it's made me realise that my illness is exactly that, an illness! It's not something I can help. Even when I'm in the sun, hanging out with loads of friends, I still manage to be sad. I've spoken to the doctor, and I'm on the waiting list to see an NHS counsellor. Hopefully that'll help.

So, the long and short of it is, I want to blog. I think. Well, I have some ideas for posts over the following weeks, and I hope I manage to write them. The pictures I've used throughout this post are just random ones taken on my phone since March. I don't have my septum ring in anymore - it fell out and I was too squeamish to put it back in! See you guys soon with about a million pictures of Greece!

iPhone Cases

I recently switched mobile providers and got myself an iPhone 6. It's no surprise then that I've been scouring the internet to find the perfect case. I've currently got that Cath Kidston one (4), but any, and all, of these will be making their way into my collection at some point, especially 2, 3 & 5.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |

My Desert Island DVDs

As I've mentioned on my About Page, I'm OBSESSED with TV, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to discuss what I love and why! Obviously, if I was stranded on a desert island, the ideal situation would be that I'd have a TV, a power source, wifi, and of course, Netflix. But, for the purpose of this post, I'm imagining I've only got two of these: a TV (with built-in DVD player) and a power source. So which four series would I be choose to watch over and over again for the rest of time?

Charmed

Oh I love Charmed. It has everything. There are some really upbeat, light, quirky episodes, some full on fantasy romps, and some really, really dark episodes, and I think Charmed would be perfect on my desert island because of this. I love fantasy, especially when it's integrated into the real world, and Charmed does that so well. It's believable! I love stories that span more than one episode, or season even, and when Charmed moved into doing this a bit more, over just monster-of-the-week stuff at the beginning, it became one of my favourite shows of all time. 

Favourite Character: Cole Turner

Best Season(s): 4, 5 & 6

Charmed in Three Words: Ridiculously Handsome Boyfriends. 

One Tree Hill

I've been watching One Tree Hill for over ten years (!), and I think that's why I like it so much. I know the characters, I grew up with them. I feel what they're feeling. I pretty much cried at every single episode of the final season. OTH deals with so much, everything from High School relationships, dying parents, kidnapping, psycho stalkers, teenage pregnancy, lost loves, gun crime, depression and bullying, to basketball, lots of basketball. Just writing this is making me want to go and re-watch all nine seasons right now (but I can't, that honour has already been given to Charmed)! 

Favourite Non-Lead Character: Psycho Derek (obviously I don't like Psycho Derek, but those episodes are soooo memorable. The episode where he reveals his tattoo, and the episode with the yy, and prom! Ahh, so good).

Best Season(s): 3 & 4 

One Tree Hill in Three Words: Always and Forever.

Weeds

After Charmed and One Tree Hill I need something a bit more saucy for my desert island viewing, so bring on Weeds. Weeds is full of swearing, sex and drugs, and it's perfect. Nancy Botwin is one of, if not the best female character ever written. This show is funny, surprising, and sometimes downright terrifying. Throughout the seasons, the Botwins seem to get themselves into increasingly dangerous situations that seem completely inescapable. I prefer the later seasons of the show, as Elizabeth Perkins' character starts to piss me off from about season 3. 

Favourite Character: Andy Botwin

Best Season(s): 6, 7 & 8 

Weeds in Three Words: Queen Nancy Botwin. 

Parks and Recreation

The best thing about Parks and Rec is that it's so easy to watch. I watch at least an episode most nights before I go to bed. Parks and Rec is just a happy show, and sometimes that's all you want. All of the characters are so well fleshed out and hilarious, that I could literally watch them do anything. I only have two qualms (yes I said qualms), one, April could do sooo much better than Andy, and two, being mean to Jerry does get old. SPOILER ALERT!! There's a Jerry-centric episode in the final season, and I cried.

Favourite Character: Jean-Ralphio Saperstein

Best Season(s): 3, 4 & 5

Parks and Rec in Three Words: Friends, Waffles, Work. 

Ok, so this may have been the hardest thing I've ever done. Television is the love of my life, and even thinking about only ever watching four series' ever again is giving me an anxiety attack. However, I think I have chosen well, and I could watch these four shows over and over until I die. These are some of the other shows that I was debating putting on the list:

Dexter, Orange Is The New Black, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, The Mindy Project, Supernatural, The Vampire Diaries, Scandal, Heroes, The West Wing, Homeland and Community.

My Society6 Shop!

Wahoo! I just uploaded some of my favourite photos to my Society6 shop. I'm going to show you some of my favourite products, and it would mean so much to me if you bought, shared or liked any of them. Let's go ... 

Prints & Framed Prints

1 | 2 | 3 | 4

The prints, along with the mugs, are the cheapest thing you can get from the store from $15. Society6 also offer framing, and I've chosen some of my favourite print/frame combinations above.

Clocks

1 | 2 | 3 

These are my absolute favourite product. Just look at them! They're so pretty and I want them all! You get the option to change the frame and hand colour.

Pillows 

1 | 2

I would love to have a couple of these succulent pillows on my sofa or bed, they just look gorgeous.

Phone Cases

1 | 2

I know what all my friends are getting for their birthdays! The cases come in both iPhone and Samsung sizes, and look great on both. I've always wanted to see that left image as a phone case, and it does not disappoint. 

Mugs

1 | 2 | 3

As I said, the mugs are the cheapest thing you can buy from the store, at £15, and I'm definitely going to be forcing all my friends to buy them ;)

Thanks for reading this, I hope you like the products as much as I do! I'm working on some other designs at the moment, so if this is a success, I might add some more products in the future. I won't make that much money from this site, as Society6 takes a decent portion of the profits to make, package and send the products, which is fair enough, but, if I do continue to sell stuff online, I will definitely be looking into other ways to do it. 

If you have a Society6 account, I'd appreciate any follows and likes, and, of course, sales!

What I'm Listening To | April

Nick Jonas - Jealous (Gospel Version) - I could very nearly just finish this post here, that's how much I've been listening to this song. I downloaded it just over two weeks ago and, because I have hardly listened to anything else, it it already my top played song in iTunes, overtaking Ain't It Fun. If you haven't listened to this version yet, DO IT NOW! It merges together two of my favourite things, gospel choirs and men singing in falsetto. It's so good, soooo good. I have no doubts that I will still be listening to this song for a long time to come. 

Gavin DeGraw - Like most people, I discovered Gavin DeGraw thanks to the best show in the history of television: One Tree Hill. You may think I'm joking, but OTH is literally my favourite show. I love it so much, but more on that another time. When I was at university I invested in Spotify, and one day I decided to listen to Gavin DeGraw's entire back catalogue, at which point, I fell in love. Since moving back home, I unsubscribed from Spotify and invested that money in Netflix (the best decision I ever made. The amount of television I watch for £5.99 a month is literally the best deal on the planet), so I lost all my Gavin DeGraw. Anyway, (this might be the longest, most boring story I've ever written) the other day I decided to download all of his music into my iTunes, and I remembered how much I love him. I think I'll do a whole post about him, because this is already way too rambly. 

Kendrick Lamar - Complexion (A Zulu Love) - This song is beautiful. It reminds me of early OutKast, especially Liberation (which is a fantastic song if you haven't heard it). I think the world needs this song right now. The song features Rapsody on the last verse and she's incredible. I haven't yet, but I'm planning to listen to every song she's ever made.

The Eagles - I was in my granddad's car the other day and Hotel California came on, immediately I started singing American Wedding along to it. As much as I love that song, I really love the guitar part, and, of course, that's the bit that's from Hotel California. So, long story short, I downloaded the two disc Eagles Greatest Hits album. I love the more rocky songs like Victim of Love and the slower, more easy-listening tracks like Lyin' Eyes. I'm on a 'listening to music I don't know the words to' kick at the moment. So I put this album on in the background a lot. 

Nick Jonas - Nick Jonas - Seeing how much I loved the gospel version of Jealous I thought I'd really like Nick Jonas' album, and, surprise surprise, I do! It's a weird amalgam of literally every single genre of music. I'm listening to Teacher right now which is pretty funky, then there's Chains which I don't even know how to describe. The only string that ties the whole album together is Nick Jonas' (it seems weird to just call him Nick) beautiful falsetto. Insert heart eyes emoji here. Basically I think you need to listen to the album, because me describing it as indescribable is probably not helping sell it. 

Guilty Pleasure of the Month

Usher - I Don't Mind - So the concept of this song, and the rapping are ... questionable. It's about Usher not minding that his girlfriend is a stripper, as long as she comes home to him at the end of the night. In a way I guess it's nice? I'm all about choice, and if a woman wants to strip, who am I to say she shouldn't. I think stripping, and everything that goes along with that, is a symptom of our patriarchal society, and where my ideal would be that it didn't exist at all, the fact that it does means that I can't judge a woman for choosing to go down that path (even though I don't believe it is exactly a choice). Anyway, feminism out of the way, this song is really nice to listen to. It's no secret that I've been a big Usher fan since the beginning, and, as this song proves, I can listen to him sing about anything.