Sunkissed Summer 2014 TAG

The Questions:
1. What is your go-to product for a sun kissed summer glow? (bronzer, self tanner, etc.)

Self tanner and bronzer

2. What book would you recommend for a summer read?

ANYTHING!

3. What's your signature summer scent this year?

Anything by Ralph Lauren

4. The sun is shining and it's time to get outside! What's your favorite thing to do?

Lay on the patio bed and drink flavor tea and sometimes go dip in the pool.

5. You're on the boardwalk and your stomach is grumbling. What's your go-to summer beach food?

If they have chicken on a stick that's what I am getting. Or watermelon.

6. Sunscreen is always important, but it's a MUST in summer! What's your favorite? (Face, body, or both)

Face: Clinique 'Super City Block' Oil-Free Daily Face Protector Broad Spectrum SPF 40

Body: Blue Lizard Australian Sunscreen Sport, Neutrogena Fresh Cooling Sunscreen Body Mist, and Teeka Tan Dark Tanning Oil, Dry Spray Oil

Sport: Bull Frog Marathon Mist
Hair: Aveda Sun Care Protective Hair Veil

7. After a day in the summer sun and heat, what do you do to cool off?

Pool time, or shower then movie or reading or blogging

8. How do you wear your hair in the summer? (down, ponytail, ombre, dip dye, etc.)

Ponytail or down

9. Must-have nail polish for summer 2014?

Yoga-ta Get this Blue!

10. Sometimes it just feels good to chill out and watch Netflix. What shows/movies do you recommend for summer?

Downton Abbey, Orange is the New Black, and Hart of Dixie

11. Do you wear liquid foundation, BB cream, or tinted moisturizer in the summer?

All of the above!

12. It's super bright outside! Do you reach for sunglasses or a hat?

Sunglasses, let's be honest I am one of those people that will go through a store with her sunglasses on just feel famous. 

13. What is your summer jam this year?

Alex Goot and Luke Conrad! Seriously!

14. Do you have a summer bucket list? If so, share some things on the list.

I do have one of those this time. I should but I don't. 

15. Bikini, tankini, or one piece? Show us your fave bathing suit this year!

One piece this year!

16. Summer means heat... and sweat! What's your favorite sweat proof product this year? (Skincare, makeup, anything!)

Carol's Daughter Sacred Tiare Anti-Breakage & Anti-Frizz Styling Cream

17. Summer wouldn't be complete without a scoop (or two) of ice cream! If you could create your own ice cream flavor, what would it be?

Cherry Dr. Pepper please?!?! That would be excellent!

+Jessica  and +Odette 

Disney Days, Day 2: I Want Much More Than This Provincial Life.

Clutching a book and having people stare at how odd she was, I felt like I had found my soul mate best friend, in Belle.

She loved to read. She read books over and over like I did. People frighten me when they claim they love a book so much yet they never reread it. What scares me even more is when someone doesn't read or claims that manga is reading. It makes me wonder about the future.

I have been there with Belle dealing with Gaston. The ones that feel like you are some sort of trophy that they deserve. It's aggravating especially since people push you towards those people telling you how great you would be together.

And we wished for the same things:

My parents had my life set up for me and I walked away from it. I wanted adventure and excitement! That's exactly what I have now. Just like Belle found Adam. It makes my heart swell looking around. 

I grew up to be Belle. 

No More Miss Nice Girl

I will always love Matilda. I would beg and cry to go rent it from Movie Gallery. I connected with the movie better than the book for once in my life. That movie was me. Okay minus the super powers.

I was the kid that literally walked herself to library (and got in trouble for it.) I would spend hours upon hours reading. I knew the workers by name. Some even felt bad for me and would bring me snacks and would let me eat at the counter because I would stay so long and miss meals.

I started school and I thought I would be able to spend all day in the library. My teacher was amazed I could read already in kindergarten so I skipped to first grade. Then I skipped first grade too because I was so advanced.

I fell in love with chapter books at the age of six. They weren't big. It was the boxcar children though. I read and read and read. Books A Million had all 150 of them and I would go there some too.

My Miss Honey was my fourth grade teacher she really embraced my love for reading. She showed me how to speed read and I loved it so much. I would spend even more hours locked away and gone to some far off land fighting for the Confederate side of the civil war.

That's why this movie spoke to me. I felt like her and lived a lot like her.

5 More Minutes at the Library

"Read to Me"

I loved going to library as a child. My big brothers or sister would take me. We lived in Chicago and then Seattle so we would just walk. Many times they didn't mind reading to me because they had money in their back pockets from our parents and they would go to the arcade. I was fortunate to learn to read before other little kids so them having to read to me didn't last long. 

The Boxcar Children

I loved this series before I could even read. My pawpaw and mawmaw would read this to me. I always wanted to be Violet and learn to play the violin and bake! This series really helped my imagination and help with solving clues and made me want to go on adventures! I always wanted to live in a boxcar or have one in my backyard to play in and keep house! I would have loved that so! Now looking on Pinterest at the recipes and activities that people have made for the books it really makes me want to be a kid again! 

Mike's House

When my big brother read this to me I had an instant connection with Robert! I loved the public library! And I didn't call it the library either! I called book heaven. Mine may have not been as confusing but I understood why he wanted so badly to get to the library!

The Little Old Man Who Could Not Read

I begged for this book! I loved it then and I have it now! You ever want to show a child (or a parent) the importance of reading and liking to read this is it! His wife usually does all the grocery shopping and lives him a list... He can't read! So he buys similar looking boxes to the food boxes he remembers. Probably is a box of soap flakes and a box of wax paper looks a lot like a box of oatmeal and a box of spaghetti! Trust me it's a good book. Sure there are some people who read into the book too much but there will always be those adults who weren't hugged and loved as a child.

The Egyptian Game 

I love books about imagination! I think it was because I had such a big imagination back then! My parents even made me a Barney bag full of crafting supplies! So I have always loved making up adventures! This book is basically kids imagining living in Egypt and making costumes and letting their imagination run wild. 

Ghosts Don't Eat Potato Chips or The Bailey School Kids

Totally loved this series because well let's face it these supernatural creatures didn't do these things! I loved this series though. It always made me happy to read them!

Honorable Mentions

Haunted Kids

Nancy Drew

Baby's First Christmas

Beauty and The Books

here

Strangely I have had a few questions about why have I never blogged before well I have in a way but that's for another post. In reality of things, I have been reading. When I say I love to read I mean it. I will find books that I cannot get enough of in my life.

My reading obsession is completely thanks to my mom. She was reading to me when she was three months pregnant. It was her way of calming herself and my older sister Elle Lena is barely a year and half older than me. When I was born mom swears that she said that music did nothing for me but she could put a audio book on and I would stop screaming. 

One of the first things I can remember was when no one would read to me and I got mad and stomp off. I remember sitting in the stairwell of our apartment and making up stories based on the pictures. I made my on little world built inside those pages. I was much like Matilda I finally managed to talk to my older brother into taking me to library and I would give him three dollars of my allowance to take me to the library. He only agreed because there was an arcade across from the library. 

I was four years old when I learned to read because I was sitting on a cushioned bench in the library when a lady approached me and asked was I really reading. I told her yes because in my little mind I was reading. She sat me down later (I would later find out in my life that she was the children's librarian) and started teaching me to really read and I was excited that many of my stories matched what I said. 

Now let's take a minute to appreciate the movie where I decided I was going to become a princess like most all other little girls. It was a movie that is still the love of my life today. This movie is one I can say all of it word for word...

Seriously I was obsessed with this scene. I was also obsessed when she went to the book store and swung around on the ladder. Books, seriously, are my life. Belle instantly became my favorite because she would read and read. 

I did start living a little more as I got older. I was a cheerleader except as soon as practice was over I would sit bundled up on the bleachers reading until someone came to pick me up. I was the girl that dumped her boyfriend when he didn't want to go to the release of another Harry Potter book. My parents got tired of books being everywhere. When I say everywhere I mean everywhere. My shelves were packed and I had started stacking them up in piles along my walls. 

Then came the rough part of my life and I started falling into depression. I lost a lot of my friends and I started drinking and smoking. I would read and for the first time in my life I would cry because of the happy ending. I should have realized it wasn't the books. Books had been my lifeline for so long. 

When I moved away from my parents and went to college things started getting better and I fell back in love with books. I felt comfort in the Seattle Public Library, which is pictured above (and that's my mom's picture of it.) and is pictured below with my pictures. I felt like I was on top of the world and didn't mind spending senseless hours curled up in a chair reading. 

Of course, when Kindle came out and I had a bookstore in my hands that became very dangerous for me. I went crazy. I was still depressed with things within in my family. I realized after hitting a rock bottom for me that I had to get away. My life was excellent minus my family situation, I had even graduated with my Masters early, so I decided to move to mom's home state, Alabama. 

Arriving in Huntsville, was culture shock for me. The library is big come one it's not 11 stories like I was used to back home in Huntsville. I was alone and I threw myself into drinking and reading. Not to mention I was smoking and was rarely leaving home. I was living off the money that my parents sent me. I finally got a job in my dream career as a teacher. My boss was the first one to reach out to me. She got me to quit drinking so much. She showed me that I could rent books from the Huntsville library.

Things have changed around here since I first settled down here. I have a house. I am not depressed at all. I still have the same job. I have excellent friends and my family has forgive and forgotten. Best of all, I have my own beast. He doesn't mind that I spend countless hours reading. The wonderful man even lets me read to him. I had to grow up some to realize my true potential in this world. But one fact remains, books have been by my side the entire taking me out of the reality of the depressing world into ones filled with magic and happy endings.