Songs for March

This month, I found most of my songs using YouTube's music app. Turns out, I like pop music, but I'm not super picky about the language. So this months' music inlcudes music in English, French, Spanish, and Korean. Most of it is pop, but there's some other genres mixed in there too. Take a listen and let me know what you think! What do you think I need to listen to next?

1. Est-ce que tu m'aimes? by Maitre Gims
2. Dry Town by Miranda Lambert
3. Je suis chez moi by Black M
4. Treat You Better by Shawn Mendes
5. Rockabye by Clean Bandit
6. Drag Me Down by One Direction
7. Growl by EXO
8. Sur ma route by Black M
9. Catch Me If You Can by Girls' Generation
10. Overdose by EXO-K
11. Focus by Ariana Grande
12. Good to Be Alive by Andy Grammer
13. Electric Shock by SMTOWN
14. Dope by BTS
15. Problem by Ariana Grande
16. Honey, I'm Good by Andy Grammer
17. Castle on the Hill by Ed Sheeran
18. Through Your Eyes by Britt Nicole
19. Cosmo by Soprano
20. Color Gitano by Kendji Girac
21. Take Exams by Acapella Science 2
22. Hey Brother by Avicii
23. Can't Buy Fame by Lost & Found Music Studios
24. Call Me Baby by EXO
25. The Nights by Avicii
26. Danza Kuduro by Don Omar
27. Andalouse by Kendji Girac
28. Entropic Time by Acapella Science
29. Burning in My Soul by Matt Maher
30. Love Me Right by EXO
31. Illusion by Ross Lynch

Funky Friday - Ridiculously Easy Tassel Earrings

So I found these great tassels on clearance at Michael's the other day. This is the first of (hopefully many) projects you will see with them. This one is super super simple.

You Will Need:

Tassels (one per earring)

Jewelry pliers

Earring hooks

Directions

Step 1: Use the jewelry pliers to open the ring on the earring hook.

Step 2: Put the tassel on the hook and close the ring with the pliers.

That's it! Super easy! Plus you can make a bunch in different colors to go with any outfit. :)

Bonus: You can also do this with pretty much any charm you can find. I found these on clearance at Joann's.

Technology Tips - Getting Programs to Automatically Open When You Start Your Computer

Do you open the same programs every single day when you start your work (or fun, or whatever)? So do I. And I got really tired of opening the same stuff every morning. So I wondered if there was a way to get the programs to automatically open every time I turn on my computer. (Which by the way, should be about every morning because it's "healthy" for your computer to be shut down at the end of each day.) Turns out, there is a way to do this! I've been doing this for about three years - it's great.

Here's how to do it:

1. Open file explorer (the little folder button on your taskbar).

2. Enable hidden files to be shown. This may vary by operating system. For Windows 10 you will click a little arrow in the upper right. This will open the menu where you can uncheck Hidden items.

3. Navigate to C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup, where "username" is your username. Step-by-step pictures are below.

Navigate to C: by looking for Local Disk (C:) in the sidebar.

Double-click on Users

Double-click on your username

Double-click on AppData. If you don't see this folder, you did step 2 wrong. :)

For the rest you'll just be clicking on the right folders in order. Roaming, then Microsoft, then Start Menu, then Programs, then Startup.

4. Copy any programs you want to automatically start into this folder. Not sure how to do this? Try clicking and dragging from wherever you would go to start your program. You can click and drag from the Start menu, from your desktop, or from one folder to another. And that's it!

If I wanted iTunes to open automatically when I started my computer, I could just click and drag the shortcut from my desktop into the Startup folder.

Let me know if you have any questions or tips and tricks to making this work!

Reading Wednesday - Bang by Lisa McMann

This book was... wow. Just wow. I read it all in one sitting although I probably should have just gone to bed. :P

This post contains spoilers as to what happened in the first book.


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Jules, the main character, works at a pizza shop with her parents and siblings. Now that she's figured out what was going on with her vision and got rid of it, she's helping her boyfriend, Sawyer, try to figure out his. This book was thrilling and was a great on-the-edge-of-your-seat mystery. Plus, it only took about two hours for me to read, since it's geared towards junior high/high school kids. It gets a little bit intense, but I absolutely thought it was great.

Sippin' Saturday - Frozen Dunkaccino

This is probably my favorite drink from Dunkin' Donuts. It's the perfect blend of hot chocolate and coffee, and then iced. It has the coffee flavor without the coffee aftertaste, which I really like. It's also creamier and smoother than Starbucks' Double Chocolaty Chip or Java Chip frappacinos. It's great as a hot drink as well.

Reading Wednesday - Holiday Hook Up by Robyn Neeley

I really like this series. It's another one where I pick the book up and can't put it down until it's finished. The series as a whole as moved into a more supernatural-type genre but it probably still classified as urban-fantasy. (Although on top of that, it's actually a romance.) The title sounds a little risque, but the name "Holiday Hook Up" actually comes from the fictional town's tradition of pairing up singles over Christmastime to raise money for charity. So it isn't about that kind of hook-up.

Overall, this was another great addition to the series. The book follows Bethany Wilson, hometown sweetheart, as she tries to reconcile her feelings for her crush/best friend. (I won't give away the male love interest, because that could possibly be a spoiler to previous books in the series.) Bethany works at her parent's Christmas-themed shop, but weird things keep happening to her as she goes about her day-to-day. Meanwhile, she's partaking in events where she keeps running into her crush - events such as ice-skating or dressing up like an elf.

Crochet Bacon from Tasty Crochet

So I meant to post this in January, before my review of the book, but I just finished them. Oops.

This is a fairly straighforward pattern, and it doesn't take long to whip one of these up. It's worked in rows and uses single crochet and decrease single crochet. The only thing that threw me off with the pattern is that the colors have fancy names like "natural" instead of "brown" and "white". Which means it was hard to keep track of which row I was on.

Sizzle!

A Month of Music - Songs for February

Well, it's almost halfway through the month, but here's a list of 28 songs that I'm jammin' to this month. I encourage you to check them out - maybe you'll find a new favorite!

A couple of these songs have clean and explicit versions - make sure you get the right one. 😊

I collected these songs from the local radio, TV shows, and songs overheard in public, like at the bank or Wal-Mart. Thank goodness for Shazam.

• Scars to Your Beautiful by Alessia Cara
• Fresh Eyes by Andy Grammer
• Shape of You by Ed Sheeran
• Love Don't Die by The Fray
• Dead Come to Life by Jonathan Thulin
• Ms Invisible by Lost & Found Music Studios
• Love With Your Life by Hollyn
• Autour de moi by Frero Delavega
• Side to Side by Ariana Grande
• All Time Low by Jon Bellion
• Easy to Love by The Jezabels
• In the Name of Love by Martin Garrix & Bebe Rexha
• Midnight Memories by One Direction
• Love Broke Through by tobyMac
• Liar Liar by Vasco & Jerry Abbott
• My Story by Big Daddy Weave
• After All (Holy) by David Crowder Band
• Bang Pop by Free Energy
• Still Breathing by Veridia
• End Titles-Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by James Newton Howard
• One Step Away by Casting Crowns
• She's So Gone by Naomi Scott
• Hero by Christopher Wilde
• Save Tonight by Eagle-Eye Cherry
• Come Alive (Dry Bones) by Lauren Daigle
• Gold by Kiiara
• Chain Breaker by Zach Williams

Do you have a favorite from this list? Or do you maybe have a song or two to recommend to me?

Reading Wednesday - Waistcoats and Weaponry

This is book three in the Finishing School series by Gail Carriger. The more I read of this series, the more I love it! It follows a girl, Sophronia, who attends a spy school under the guise of a finishing school. The finishing school is held in a dirigible that floats over steampunk London. Since this book is the third in a series, I don't want to give too much away. But I will say that it involves an airdinghy, a runaway train, multiple werewolves, a sootie or two, and a fabulous costume ball. I highly recommend this book.

Taste Testing German Chocolates

My friend recently took a trip to Europe and collected different chocolates from each country she visited. And, she's generous enough to share! Today, I'm going to review the chocolates she got in Germany.

All three of the chocolates were made by Ritter Sport.

We also combined this with a s'mores night, so here they are on a tray with graham crackers and marshmallows.

First up, Alpenmilch! According to Google, this means one of three things: milk from the Alps (this makes sense), alfalfa (this doesn't make sense), or almond milk (this also makes sense). Regardless, this chocolate was amazing! It's a 30% milk chocolate, which means it's creamy and chocolatey, but not overpowering or overly sweet. It reminded me a lot of chocolate I got in Switzerland a couple of years ago.

We did try this is a s'more, but it wasn't a good fit. The chocolate is unique enough on it's own that it isn't complimentary to the graham and marshmallow.

Next up, Knusperkeks. This was the same chocolate, but with a biscuit/cookie thing in the middle. The biscuit added a nice crunch. My friends were torn on the flavor - some said it was overpowering. Others liked it. I personally thought it made the whole piece taste like honey. Not the fake-y honey flavor, but actual honey.

This is the only one I remembered to take a picture of, I'm sorry. You can see the cracker in the middle. The Alpenmilch one looked the same without the cracker, and the next one (strawberry yogurt) had a layer of strawberry in the middle where the cracker is in this picture.

Lastly, we have Erdbeer Joghurt, which means Strawberry Yogurt. This one was definitely one of my favorites. It tastes very similar to Brookside's chocolate covered pomegranate, but without the chewy texture. It's great! It's like a chocolate covered strawberry, but portable and consistently delicious.

Keep an eye out for more international chocolate reviews! And if anyone wants to send me chocolate, I'm not opposed... 😛

Sippin' Saturday - Martinelli's Sparkling Cider

If you're not a fan of champagne, Martinelli's sparkling cider is a great non-alcoholic bubbly drink to use for special event. It's basically just carbonated apple juice. Yumm. The picture below is from a wedding, but we've used it at New Years Eve parties, bachelorette parties, and more. 

Reading Wednesday - Tasty Crochet by Rose Langlitz

So I've done a couple of projects from this book (hopefully you've seen the blog posts!) and I love it! I plan to work my way through the entire book, making everything. Which isn't a super common desire for a crochet book. The patterns are easy to follow and pretty quick. Plus, they're super adorable! Five out of five stars. :)