Me to a T...

Shoe Appreciation

I love, love, love shoes.  All kinds. Heels, flats, sling backs, sandals, what have you! Here are some of the one that I wish I had in my collection!!

Faith restored

The world can be pretty shitty sometimes and we can get wrapped up in all that negativity that the media generally feeds us. 

Today as I was scrolling through buzzfeed (my new obsession) I found this gem: 35 pictures that prove the world isn't such a bad place

Essentially, this made me cry because, well, I'm a cryer and gave me some hope :)  The world in fact can be a wonderful place!

Here are a few posts that I have found that had the same effect...

Things I love: Shirts!!

I love t-shirts/tank tops, a lot, especially if they have something hilarious or "relatable" printed on them.  Here are a few of my favorites that I have found trolling the internet:

Sherlock Party

I may be the one of the biggest fans of BBC's Sherlock so naturally I have been greatly anticipating Season 3 that premiered in the US on Sunday.  I thought it would be a great idea to have my friends who I have proudly turned into Sherlockians over to catch the first episode.  The party was a huge success!

 

I transformed my door into the infamous Sherlock and John residence.  To also include from Season 2 Episode 1 the "Crime in Progress, Please Disturb" note.  I just painted wood numbers and letters and tied them to my door.  Easy Peasy...

 

I had a hard time finding anything that was British in nature or anything to do with Sherlock so I found some Union Jack Duct tape (who knew?) and some London related Scrapbook stickers.  I tried to be creative and made this picture with a quote from Moriarty.  I think this is quite cute :)

 

 

The Calendar is always there...I just added the poster I got for Christmas.

 

 

The mantel piece in the dinning room.  With the quote from above, tea cup candles, the Complete Sherlock Holmes stories, and I framed the extra invite postcard which says "Keep Calm and Text Sherlock"...very clever I think!

 

 

I got a little ahead of myself and took a picture of the incomplete tea station.

 

 

#SherlockLives Cups because I have too much time on my hands....

 

 

 Again, I love quotes....

 

 

The most important part!  The Food!!!!  We had quite the spread.  I made scones with jam and cream (and to jazz them up just a little I put English scrap booking stickers on toothpicks to put on top), Cucumber vegan tea sandwiches, a Trifle, and a friend made English Stuffing Balls (which were amazing.  So amazing you should make them yourselves, click here for the recipe!) and Madelines. 

Bastille Concert

 

 Bastille at Royale Boston (pardon the heads)

I have mentioned in a previous post how I absolutely adore this band, Bastille from London and how wonderful their music is.  Last night a friend and I made the 3.5 hour trek to Boston to see them and it was totally worth waiting out in the cold to see them!  

 

Dan Smith and Will  Farquarson

They opened with Bad Blood then my personal favorite, Things We Lost in the Fire.  I could have left right after that and been the happiest girl ever but needless to say, we stayed.  They also played Laura Palmer, Icarus, Flaws, two new songs (which are amazing--shocker), Overjoyed, Rhythm of the Night (another personal fave) and ended with, in my personal opinion the biggest song in the country right now, Pompeii.  

 

 

The happiest girls ever (me and Karrie) 

If you have not listened to them yet, do yourself a favor and listen!  I've made it easy! You are welcome :)

 

Blackfish

I was listening to the radio about a month ago and they were talking about this new documentary about the Killer Whales at Seaworld.  Naturally this interested me because Killer Whales are my favorite animal.  They are so incredibly smart and for years I have been saying that the Discover Chanel needs to have a Killer Whale Week too based on the fact that they are on the very tippy top of the food chain (they attack Great White Sharks and eat only their liver...can we say bad ass?!).

Anyways, I got the film through Netflix and held off from watching it a few days.  Honestly, I was scared of watching it because I didn't know how it was going to make me feel.  I had visions of me just completely losing it and flying down to Orlando to burn Seaworld to the ground.  So I finally got the courage and put it in.  It was phenomenal.

The documentary had former Seaworld trainers discussing what it was like working with the whales and all the accidents/attacks that happened in the years that Seaworld and other Marine parks have been operation.  They also talked about the history of Killer Whales in captivity and that was absolutely appalling.  People would go out in boats and airplanes, find the whales, and then take the calfs by putting nets around the pods (groups of whales).  They showed the video of this happening and the rest of the pod would just watched them take their babies.  One of the men who did this, a big, tattooed, old man said, while crying, that it was the worst thing he has ever done.

The documentary also shared the story of Tilikum, the whale that killed his trainer in 2010.  It went through his history of being captured and being abused by other whales and his first park.  When you watch it you think to yourself no wonder he acts like this, look at his life.  How could you be ok living in a bathtub your whole life?

You must watch this documentary.  It was so well done and it only made me cry twice but it made me want to do something and hopefully when you do watch it you will feel the same.  These animals need to be in the wild and that's the end of that.

For more information on the film, you can visit these sites:

Official Blackfish website

SeaWorld of Hurt

Missing Germany terribly

Tomorrow is the six month anniversary of the epic trip to Germany.  I find myself now, especially in this freezing cold, really missing the beautiful scenery, warmth and memories Allison and I made there.

like the six hour walking tour where my sandals rubbed my skin off and still have a gross scar on my foot...worth it.

I also miss:

-losing our rental Mercades in the rain, in the pitch black, at 1am then getting lost in the hills of Sigmarigen.

-Singing every word to every single Rammstein song with thousands and thousands and thousands of Germans.

-eating delicious pastries, food and drink amazing beer

-Hiking up a mountain to see quite possibly the famous castle in the world then taking a nap on it.

 

This definitely happened

-Getting essentially kicked off a train because it can't get to the main train station in Berlin, not knowing how to get back to the hostel and a random man taking time to tell us exactly what we had to do.

-All the amazing people we met from ALL over the world

-The ice cream owner in Fuessen who asked if I wanted a Kiss which in fact was a type of ice cream

-the lovely conversation I had with the customs officer in Brussels.

-Getting searched in Brussles...my glittery backpack was VERY suspecious

-Sharing my ear buds with Allison and listening to Phil Collins, Lana Del Rey and Swedish House Mafia.

-Nutella Ice Cream

-Wine and the sunset in Wuerzburg

-The crazy windstorm/nonexistent tornado also in Wuerzburg which was terrifying

-Beer that tastes like smoked ham (only in Germany, right?

-watching the sunrise from the airplane over the ocean.

-my awesome travel partner who I still get to see, Miss Allison :)

A little new years resolution help

Like the other millions of people out there, I have decided to get my body to where it should be.  I started last year but I hurt my back and got lazy after my trip to Germany.  I know what I need to do and am ready to start back up again.

Today was a good day to start as a huge snow storm is reeking havoc on the north east making my ability to go anywhere slim to none with my snow incompetent car. So, I did some running/high incline walking.  The first 15 mins on the treadmill, I find, suck.  However, I can combat the thoughts of quitting with a pretty solid playlist of positive dance music.

Ariel's 'don't give up and get you ass in gear' Playlist:

-Reload (vocal mix), Sebastian Ingrosso and Tommy Trash
-Don't You Worry Child, Swedish House Mafia
-Summertime Sadness (Cedric Gervais mix), Lana Del Rey
-Miami to Ibiza, Swedish House Mafia
-Sweet Nothing, Calvin Harris feat. Florence Welch
-Feels so Good, Armin Van Buuren feat. Nadia Ali
-Things Can Only Get Better, Cedric Gervais and Howard Jones
-Closer, Tegan and Sara
-Break My Fall, Tiesto feat. BT

My other tool to keep me on track is the MyFitnessPal app.  Its free and it's awesome.  Basically you sign up, enter your current weight and weight loss goals and it will assess you then tell you how many calories to eat a day.  You log in your food and your activities daily and it will keep track of everything. Essentially it's a convenient fitness and food diary at your very fingertips. 

Pinterest is also great for healthy recipes, workout ideas and general motivation.  You can find me (Ariel Wilber) and follow my fitness and health board (and my other fabulous boards) to see what I'm trying out.

Here is to a very happy and healthy 2014!!!

Shall we continue?

After a several month hiatus, I have decided that with the new year I should start this blog back up again.

I'm not sure why I stop but I do apologize for those who do read this.

Lots have happened since I have stopped posting.

I started listening to this great band, Bastille from London.  I'm hoping to catch one of their two US concert dates at the end of this month in Boston.

I applied to Grad School and got accepted in November.  I'll be in the Library and Information sciences online program through the University of Buffalo.  I'm incredibly excited for that!

I have a new celebrity crush and so does the rest of the world! Benedict Cumberbatch!! He is a British actor and just the greatest! He stars in Sherlock, a show obviously about Sherlock Holmes on the BBC and it's quite amazing if you haven't seen it yet.  The long awaited season 3 starts in the UK tonight and in the US, the 19th in which my mom and I are hosting a Sherlock themed premiere party!  There will definitely be a post on that and you will see a lot about him in general in the future.  What I seem to enjoy the most is the fact that Buzzfeed loves him, perhaps, more than me. 

In October, my Grandfather passed away in North Carolina and I went down to spend some much needed family time with almost my whole Dads side of the family. I even got to meet my cousin's newest baby! In which I fell in love and now want one.  My Grandfather was an incredible man and one of my favorite humans ever and we were all so lucky to have him!

The travel bug has struck again and having my fill of Germany, I have decided to take my mom to Great Britain in October.  She has always wanted to go and I thought that since she has been so good to me that I'd pay for her ticket!  Since we are mainly English in heritage, she wants to go to where our family originated so I'm excited to do some family research and find out more about us!

After writing this, I've come to realize that I have missed the whole blogging thing! So hopefully you all will be reading more in the future from me!

Hope you all had a great holiday season!! Here's to 2014!!!