I SAW BRETT YOUNG IN CONCERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi guys!!!!


(Note: this post was supposed to go up yesterday but due to helping my sister move Sunday and yesterday, I ran out of time yesterday to write and post this. Sorry!)


As you can probably guess from the title, I saw Brett Young in concert! *excited squeal*

There's a festival in my town that is near Fourth of July weekend. The town invites one or two country artists to come and perform.

This year one of them was Brett Young. If you have no idea who Brett Young is, here is his latest single.

I'm literally obsessed with this song and when he started to sing it, I almost cried.


He is so funny, by the way, all the stories he was telling before he would perform the songs were sooooo funny!!! I was cracking up.


-LIA

Music of the Week #17

Oh boy, I have not done one of these in a while........sorry!


Anyway get ready for a doozie this week, I got a new musical that I have not stopped listening to since the album came out last week.


Anastasia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The movie was my childhood. I can quote it and I know the songs by heart and when I heard they were making a musical, I literally danced around my house!!!

As some of you may know, Ramin Karimloo is starring in this. He plays Gleb, a Russian official who is replacing Rasputin as the villain.  Ramin also plays the Phantom in the 25th anniversary edition. 

As soon as he started singing on this Anastasia album, I busted out laughing. All I could think of was, "why is the Phantom in Russia? Is this where he went after Christine left?" Aaaaaaaand now every time he sings, I laugh.( sorrynotsorry)

So I won't be doing just 5 songs this week, because I can't pick just 5. This album is amazing!!

(and yes, I totally looked up how much Broadway tickets are and I am poor and sad :(  )

A Crowd of a Thousands

Stay, I Pray You

In My Dreams

Once Upon A December

My Petersburg

Meant To Be

We'll Go From There

Quartet At The Ballet

Crossing A Bridge

Land of Yesterday

Everything To Win

Ok, so ummm, that was 11 songs. Somebody should probably send help. Nevermind it's too late for that. 

Hope you enjoy!!!

Comments if you listened to this an unhealthy amount of times too!!

Or if your interested in listening to it

LIA

P.S. Derek Klena as Dmitry. I just.......*swoons*

Books To Read This Summer

Do you know what's annoying?

The struggle to find new books that don't have drugs, swearing or *ahem* adult content?

And I'm not reading "adult" literature. Nope. I'm in the children or Young Adult section.

(If you want to hear more about this, I suggest you check out #RebelliousWriting. It's a growing movement in the blogging sphere. The post that started it all can be found HERE)


And I'm here to give you a list of clean books you can read this summer!

1. I'd Tell You That I Love You, But Then I'd Have To Kill You by Ally Carter
            Teenage girls who live at a Boarding School that is actually training them as spies.
     Another thing about this book, if you continue to read the six book series. At one point, the Main       Character meets a group of nuns. And I was sitting there thinking "Oh, this is going to be great."         And you know what? It was, I was very happy with the way they were handled. They                           sounded like...nuns.

2. P.S. I Like You by Kasie West
       I've been trying to branch out and read more contemporary novels. Which is hard since they tend        to be the ones that are a little ......eeegh. But this one was not! It's a cute fluffy (slightly                        predictable) story. It's PERFECT for summer. Bonus Points? Both her parents are there, they               actually seem like realistic parents and she actually had a family.

3. Faro's Daughter by Georgette Heyer

   If you love Jane Austen, then you HAVE to read Georgette Heyer's books. (A word of warning, some of her books have questionable content. These books include: Venitia, Cousin Kate and These Old Shades.) Some of her other good books include: Sylvester or the Wicked Uncle, Arabella, and Black Sheep.


4.  The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer
       *gasp* This series is amazing. I know it sounds a little weird and overly sci-fi, but I promise you         it is not! The first book is Cinder.



5. A classic (like Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Call of the Wild) or something different.      Like a play? I HIGHLY suggest The Twelfth Night by Shakespeare. It's just so deliciously woven        together.



And those are my reading suggestions for this summer!

-KAT

Monthly Devotions for July and a Look Back At June

Lia and I decided to try something new. We post alternating weeks, with her posts coming up on Mondays and mine coming up on Wednesdays. (And an occasional Friday music post)

As you can see I already broke that new arrangement. Whoops.

But not really since this is a dual post,

I guess?

---JUNE---

Pageviews last month: 1, 151

Pageviews total: 4, 200

And it's kind of weird since there was a giant spike on the 15th and 16th. We didn't even post on that day. 

Followers: Nine

*restraining random LOTR reference*

June Posts:

Paint Your Toes (Kat) 

YA Themes That Really Annoy Me!!!!!!!  (Lia)

Bookish Book Lover's Tag (Lia)

(As you can see, we didn't do such a great job posting this month. Let's see how we do next month.)

Top 5 Biggest International Viewers This Month

(The viewers themselves aren't big. I mean the country that has the most page views after the US and....You know what I mean.)

Russia

Germany 

France

Ireland

Ukraine

Top 5 Biggest International Viewers OF ALL TIME

Russia

Ireland 

Germany 

Australia

France

Are Russian's actually reading our blog? Why? Do they do it to learn English? Do they translate the page? Are they actually KGB??? (Ignore the Cold Fan Fanatic Weirdo over here) 

Ok. Now I'll leave you and let Lia take over. 

KAT

---JULY---

Hello everyone! Lia here. 

The devotional theme of July is the Precious Blood. We will be posting the Precious Blood novena sometime during this month. 

We will definitely be posting more this month than we did last month. (Sorry)

I can tell you we have some very fun posts planned for July. 

Tell us if your doing Camp NaNoWriMo this month also!!!

LIA

Paint Your Toes

Summer is here.

Which means sandal season is here.

Which means people have to see my feet,

And my disgusting toes. 

Luckily there is a way to fix this! 

With a pedicure! 

And since I'm sure some of you are as broke as I am, that means we have to do it ourselves. 

STEP ONE: Blank Canvas

In Step One we prepare our nails by 

a. Removing old nail polish

b. Filing them

c. Trimming them

d. And if you want to be extra special: Buff them

STEP TWO: It's Jacuzzi time! 

Soak your feet for 4-5 minutes

(If you are doing your hands, they only need 2-3) 

STEP THREE: Cuticles! 

You know those pieces of skin at the bottom of your nails? (And no, I do not mean your fingers.) 

Those are your cuticles and the key to having professional looking manicure or pedicure is to shove those cuticles (which are now really really soft) back against the other fleshy part (This time I actually do mean your finger) 

Some people push the cuticles back with their fingers and others use a special tool just for the job. If you are using you fingernails and are not doing a manicure, then you need to make sure they are really clean so that you don't shove dirt and germs under your cuticles. 

STEP FOUR: Moisture is a good thing

A pedicure (or manicure) isn't just about your nails. It's about the whole foot (or hand.) So grab some hand lotion and rub it on! 

Before we get to the fun part though, you need to take some nail polish remover and clean off your nails. Becuase you just rubbed lotion all over your hands and there is bound to be some on your nails and if you have oily lotion, your nail polish won't stick.

STEP FIVE: Nope. Not the fun part yet. 

Base coat! This is literally just clear nail polish. You can find it in your grocery store under clear nail polish, base coat or top coat! 

Using a base coat makes things last longer. So if you just want your nails to fade and chip off by the end of the week (so that you can paint them again!) I give you permission to skip this stage

STEP SIX: THE FUN PART

Take out your favorite nail polish and paint it on. The professional (oooh. Professional) way is to paint down the middle first and then do both sides. 

STEP SEVEN: Literally just Step Five....again.

And now you put a top coat on! (Make sure your nails dry between Steps 5-7)

STEP EIGHT: You know you do it

Now sit patiently and wait for it to dry. 

waiting

waiting

Oh, well. It's pretty dry now. I won't ruin it if I move three inches. 

Congrats! 

You now have smeared nails! 

-Kat

YA Theme That Really Annoys Me!!!!!!!!!!

Hi guys

Long time, no see. (or read, in this case) I will put up a post soon on what I was doing this past week as to explain why I hadn't posted anything.



Anyway on to the post.


This one specific theme in YA books that annoys me so much!!!!!!!!


Character A and Character B are in a relationship. Character A is having a problem in their life or if its a summer romance and its the end of summer. Character A's thought process is, "I better break up with Character B so I don't break their heart!"



*REPEATEDLY SLAMS HEAD INTO WALL*


AUTHORS, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF PEANUTS, STOP. DOING. THIS.

(I happen to really like peanuts)


This theme is just so stupid. And then later Character A will be all, "Oh I made a mistake, can you please take me back?"

UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH

This is the one theme in contemporary novels I have noticed. Not all of them have it, just some of them. But still!


Thank you for getting to the end of my rant. I will hopefully have another the promised post up on Monday.


Love,
-Lia

Bookish Book Lovers Tag

Oh look it's Lia, who hasn't posted in three weeks!!!!!

I'm sorry guys, life just got a little crazy. This is the first of two tags I have been nominated for. Look for the second one on my second blog!!! (soon)

Catherine at the Rebelling Muse tagged me for this tag!! Thanks Catherine for adding another tag to my growing pile! (just kidding I love tags)  Her post is HERE

Rules:

Have to use the tag banner

Answer the questions

Use lots of book covers!!

Tag your bookish friends

1. What book(s) are you currently reading?

The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson.

So far it's really good!!

2. What was the last book you finished?

As Old As Time: A Twisted Tale by Liz Braswell

I picked this up at Half-Price Books because, hello, Beauty and the Beast. It was amazing!!! The author has other books in the series and I will definitely be picking them up.

3. Favorite book you've read this year?

So many!!!! Just one? :(

Heartless by Marissa Meyer. It may have broken my heart but it was so well written.

4. What genre have you read most this year?

Contemporary. I started to dip my feet into those and some of the ones I found are really great.

One I would recommend is Open Road Summer by Emery Lord

5. What genre have you read the least this year?

Historical fiction/romance. None of the books I found interested me that much. Though Catherine has some good suggestions.



6. What genre do you want to read more of ?

Fantasy. I love fantasy books!!



7. How many have you read this year and what is your goal?

I honestly have no idea how many books I've read so far but I am pretty sure it is above 50. My goal is to read as many books as I can.



8. What's the last book you bought?

I bought the first three books of the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer and As Old As Time by Liz Braswell.

9. What books are you saving to buy next?

Oh man! So. Many. Books.  I want to buy the next three books in the Lunar Chronicles. Just so many.

10. How many books did you check out on your last library trip?

I actually haven't checked any books out of the library since I was 9. (unless Kat checking them out and letting me borrow them counts)

11. What's a book you can't wait to read?

The Ship of the Dead by Rick Riordan. So excited!!!!!!!

                                                           So pretty!!!!!!!!


12. What is a series I would recommend to everyone?

The Gallagher Girls by Ally Carter. Teenage girl spies at a spy school. Seriously, go read it!

13. Who's an author you're hoping will write more?

All of the authors I like are currently writing more so no one really.


(oh wait, The Borrowed House by Hilda van Stockum. I always wanted a sequel to that. Can someone get on that please)




14. A few books your heart adores?

Ahem. PRETTY MUCH EVERY BOOK I HAVE EVER READ!!!! sorry sorry capslock off now.



The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery. The way she writes it is so beautiful. It made me want to pack up and move to P.E.I as soon as possible.

15. What series conclusion made you sad?

Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan. I was sad because it was over but then I started the next series so the sadness didn't last long.

16. What books are on your wishlist?

I actually have a board on Pinterest specifically dedicated to this. One of them is All Fall Down by Ally Carter

Phew finally done.


I tag:


Cait at Paper Fury


and everyone who wishes to do this tag!!!!



Love,
-Lia