Summer Show Survival

    Hey everyone! So, Vans Warped Tour kicks off this Saturday and I can't wait to go again with my friend Be! We had such an incredible time last year and this year one of our favorite bands, The Used, is going to be playing, so it's going to be incredible. While the summer touring season has already kicked off, we're finally getting to the point where summer is in full swing, so I just wanted to take a few minutes to share some tips and suggestions to keep you rocking out all summer long!

• SUNSCREEN SUNSCREEN SUNSCREEN!!! I cannot emphasize this enough! Even if you have darker skin or tan naturally, sun exposure still puts you at risk for skin cancer -and wrinkles, ew!- especially if you have/had more than 3 serious sunburns before your 18th birthday (I have 5 before my 15th, so I'm especially careful). So if you want to still get some color but you don't want cancer, get yourself some SPF 15 and reapply every 2 hours. Spray sunscreens are great if you don't want to spend 15 minutes putting on the lotion kind.
• Okay, this one is kind of a no-brainer, but make sure to hydrate! It gets hot, especially at tours like Warped where you might be outside from 11am until 9 at night. If you eat a good, balanced breakfast food isn't really so important (unless you're diabetic, hyperglycemic, etc. Know your limits and adjust accordingly.) but water is extremely important. I used a CamelBak last year, which is basically a  small backpack which holds a pouch full of water. Warped has these awesome filtered water refilling stations for your bottles/Camelbaks and most venues will also have water fountains you can use. If you notice that you've stopped sweating at a normal rate, or (not to get too graphic) you haven't used to restroom in a couple of hours, STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND HYDRATE! Free tip: put ice in your water to keep your core body temperature down.
• Dress for comfort! This is Warped Tour, not fashion week. You're going to get sweaty, you're going to get dirty, and if you wear black skinny jeans and a black t-shirt, you're probably going to be miserable. Dark colors absorb heat faster, so light colored breathable clothing is best. Remember, natural fibers (like cotton) breathe best. And if you're glued to wearing one particular t-shirt, but want something lighter, you could try using this tutorial to turn it into a racer-back tank top, as seen in one of my earlier blog posts.
• Comfortable shoes are key to your feet and legs not hating you the next day! I observed last year tons of people wearing TOMS or Chuck Taylors ( I wore my grey TOMS), but wear shoes that you know you can stand up in for a long time with minimal discomfort. Personally, this year I'll be wearing Vegan Feed 12 TOMS Classics. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT wear flip flops/sandals. They will break, your toes will get stepped on, and it will hurt.
• Pack a snack! Warped Tour allows you to bring a homemade snack into the venue in case you do get hungry. They have food available for sale there, but it's crazy expensive. Bring some homemade granola, trail mix, or whatever your favorite snack is. Try to bring something high in protein to give you energy to keep going throughout the whole day. Free tip: Meat isn't the only thing full of protein! Try a snack with peanut butter or other nuts. Homemade fruit leather is also a good snack, though it doesn't provide the energy boost that protein rich snacks do.
• Bring sunglasses, just not your favorite pair! Protecting your eyes from the sun is important, but your shades may get lost or broken. Should that happen, many booths in the venue have sunglasses for sale for pretty cheap ($5-$15).
• Bring cash for merch and food. Not all venues will have an ATM, so I suggest bringing at least $100 cash, and keep it in the FRONT pocket of your jeans.
• Bring a drawstring backpack to hold your sunscreen, snack, water bottle, all of the cool stuff you will buy, and all of the awesome free stuff people will give you!
• Ziplock baggies are perfect for keeping your cell phone/camera/etc dry in your bag in case you should get soaked for one reason or another.
• If you go in the pit, you will get pushed/shoved/hit so if you're a kid or that's something you can't handle, it's best to hang out in the back.
• Most venues (All venues for Warped) do not allow DSLRs or other professional grade photography equipment. You can bring a disposable or a point-and-shoot to record all of your awesome show memories.
• Charge your phone the night before, and have a place for your friends to meet in case you get lost or left.
• Don't wear tons of makeup! I wore eye shadow last year, not even a lot, and I sweated it into my eyes in the middle of a huge pit, and let me tell you, that stuff BURNS. Free tip: DO bring chap stick. Just do it.
• Do/see as much as you can! Warped and other summer shows are an incredible experience, and there is so much so do, so much to see, so many new people to meet. Throw yourself into the experience. Be safe, have fun, and make memories you'll never forget.

Tattly: Designy Temporary Tattoos Review

    Have you ever wished that temporary tattoos were less, well, stupid? Whether you're putting them on your kids or, like myself, you're 20 years old and still love them, everybody at some point gets sick of crappy stock images stuck on your skin. Well, pushers of crappy temporary tattoos, I see your stock images and raise you my Tattlys.

    Those of you who have been following my blog for any amount of time at all already know that I love Tattlys. They're clever, sweet, witty, occasionally snarky, well designed temporary tattoos for the children and our inner children. There's one for everyone, so when you get done reading this review, go find one that suits you on their website.

    (Also, I apologize for the weird color bars on the pictures, for some reason Blogger's uploader is malfunctioning like crazy, but only on some pictures.)

To begin, packaging:

Tattlys come packaged in a card board envelope that is pretty rigid to protect your Tattlys from getting bent or ruined in the mail

Inside the card board envelope is a paper envelope with blank "To" and "From" lines in case you're awesome enough to be giving Tattlys as a gift. You'll also find your receipt inside the cardboard envelope.

And inside the paper envelope (is anyone but me getting a Russian nesting doll vibe here?), you will find your Tattlys! I got the Rainbows and the Arrows. I just like rainbows, and the arrows were probably a product of my having just re-read The Hunger Games. You will also find....

BONUS TATTLYS! Itty bitty squares of awesome that come as a surprise bonus for buying something that's already super awesome on its own.

I'm pretty sure everyone remembers how to apply a temporary tattoo, but in case you had a sad, joyless childhood, there are application directions on the back of every Tattly you buy! They also have a video on their website for the more visual learners among us.

This is (pretty much) what my Tattly looked like on. I picked one of the medium sized rainbows. The big one is about the width of my wrist, and the little ones are about the width of my thumb. Bear in mind that the appearance of your tattoo is based heavily on where you put it. If, like me, you put it in a more bendy place, it may crack and not last as long.

Free tip! The life of your temporary tattoo can be extended from a couple days to an additional week by putting a thin layer of clear nail polish over the top. I've heard that putting liquid bandage on it also works, but I haven't tried it.

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And this is how it looked once the nail polish dried. It really doesn't effect the appearance of your Tattly much at all, except maybe making it slightly shinier. 

Below is a picture I took of my with the Tattly as well as pictures of a few other Tattlys I've had. Enjoy.

Bonus Post: Faces I've caught myself making.

I do this thing that I'm sure other people do where I zone out completely and when I snap out of it, I realize I've been making some completely absurd face. So, I decided to share them with you cause I'm just that incredible. Enjoy.

Things that make me go :D

Here's a list of awesome stuff that I thoroughly love, curated just for your enjoyment:

• Tattly Tattlys are these cool temporary tattoos. The company was started by a mom who was sick of her kids having to wear mediocre temporary tattoos, and it's grown into something certifiably awesome. My Facebook friends may remember the quotation mark tattoos I had on my chest: those were Tattlys.
• Julia Nunes She's a brilliant, beautiful, talented musician who does bunches of awesome covers and incredible originals mainly on ukulele, though she's been known to also play acoustic guitar, melodica, and a cardboard box. Check out her YouTube channel.
• Melted crayon art is a crafting trend recently and I think it's pretty fantastic. I actually did 2 of them for my 2D design class.
• Pocket Hipster The greatest, most sarcastic, witty, vaguely insulting (Free!) music discover app ever.
• TOMS Shoes are the most comfortable shoes I've ever owned. And even better, they donate a pair of shoes to a child in need for every single pair sold. They're available on their website or probably at your local Tradehome Shoes.
• Single Dad Laughing Dan Pierce is easily one of the funniest, most refreshingly honest bloggers out there. And for those of you who, like myself, don't have kids, don't worry. This is not just a daddy blog....
• Threadbanger For those of you also obsessed with DIY and crafty stuff, boy do I have a YouTube channel for you. Check out the fun, quippy, and cleverly named Threadbanger on YouTube for tons of cool ideas and tutorials.
• Mental Floss Mental Floss magazine is for the intellectually inclined among us. I was that weird kid who really liked going to school, and so a magazine geared specifically toward telling me awesome things I don't know is pretty much a dream come true.
• 1001 Journals is an art project based on community. You can do your own journal, do one with your friends, launch one and give it to a stranger, or pretty much any other way you can think of to share one.
• TheSixtyOne is an online music discovery sight that really can't be explained except to say that it's awesome and you should check it out.
• Uke Hunt is a ukulele blog with everything from reviews to books to tabs and tutorials. If you can get past the only vaguely inappropriate name, it's a really super blog.

Well, That's what I've got for you today, folks. Hope you enjoyed and found something new to love. Later!

Hair dye tips and tricks

    So, basically I just watched a YouTube video of some idiotic 14 year old dip-dying her hair and it really annoyed me. So, instead of being a moron and leaving tons of spiteful comments, I'm going to bestow my hair coloring knowledge upon all of you. I use semi-permanent rainbow colors mostly. Manic Panic is my go-to, but I also occaisionally use Splat. Enjoy.

• GLOVES. I cannot stress this enough. Your hands will be stained some insane color if you/the person doing your hair doesn't wear gloves.
• If, for some obnoxious reason you decided to ignore my last suggestion, shampoo is the best thing to use when attempting to wash dye off of your hands/face/feet/wherever else you managed to get it.
• I have one towel that I use only for dying my hair. That way the rest of my towels aren't gross. I recommend going to Target and just buying one cheap towel to designate as your "dye-towel."
• If you're dying your whole head of hair, the best way I've found to get really vibrant color consists of 3 steps: 1) Put your dye on once you don't have anywhere else to be for the night, wrap your head in saran wrap. Yes, saran wrap. Then cover everything in a shower cap. 2) Just in case, put a crappy pillowcase on your pillow and/or cover your pillow with your dye-towel. Sleep with the dye in. 3) Rinse the following morning with cool or luke warm water until the water runs mostly clear. 
• The plastic wrap part is essential because it keeps the dye wet the whole time, which allows it to penetrate your hair more effectively. 
• If you don't have and don't want to buy a tint-brush, a cheap toothbrush from the dollar store will work in most cases. 
• If you're bleaching/lightening your hair, I cannot stress enough the importance of conditioning your hair every time you wash it, and going easy on straightening/blow drying your hair to avoid serious damage.
• Buy more product than you think you'll need. It's better to return an unused package than to have to go to the store with half a head of purple hair to buy another.

    Well, that's all I've got for you. If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments. Also, check out Manic Panic on their website. They have tons of colors of vegan-friendly, vibrant hair color. Enjoy!

And the World Spins 'Round....

    Today some people died, some people were also born. Some people were told they had cancer, some people were told that their surgery went well and they will live many more years. Some people got married today, and someone's daughter went on her first date. Today I watched movies and made grilled cheese sandwiches and bought a melon with my friend. I gave myself another henna tattoo and took a nap. I opened my window to let in the sunshine, and I sewed a pocket on a shirt. I didn't do anything extraordinary today; but yet, in some way my life, my being alive, made a difference to someone. 

    It's genuinely incredible to think about all of the amazing things that go on around us. I remember the summer before I started college, I was working in a pizza place and it was 9 or 10 at night when this man came in, on top of the world. He came up to the counter and told me that his wife had just had a baby, a little girl. He showed me photos and told me how happy he was. Then he got his pizza and he went back to his wife and his brand new daughter, but for a few minutes, I got to be a part of one of the most important days of that man's life, the day he became a dad.

    That memory will always stick with me. Even though plenty of people I know will have babies and get married and live and die. I think it's the fact that I didn't know that man or his wife, but he so gleefully allowed me to be a part of his story, and the very beginning of his daughter's life. Ever since that night, I've thought a little more about the things that go on around me, and to tell you the truth, it's a pretty remarkable world we have.

Graduation 2012

    Another year has come and gone, and that means another class of Seniors leaves the Blackburn community for the life they're meant to lead. Many of these people have meant a lot to me and have helped me with homework, moving, or just by being amazing friends. I am proud to have been able to share in their lives for two awesome years. I have sung with them in choir, studied beside them in class, had fun with them at college events, and dined with them at dinner. The class of 2012 is full of some very special people and I feel very blessed to call them my friends.

    So, Class of 2012, I leave you with the words of Genesis 31:49, "May the Lord watch between me and thee while we are absent, one from another."

Congratulations and best of luck in every future endeavor.