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Stnkrbug
Happy Earth day! Some of you might not know this, but I am very passionate about helping out the environment. Being from the Pacific Northwest, it’s something that kids are educated on very early in their lives, and it’s drilled into them that something needs to be done to help the Earth. This was how I grew up, and I’m very glad that I did. My family has always been really good with separating out trash and recycle, making sure nothing bad goes into our water, and just generally trying to help out the environment. It can seem like a daunting task sometimes, and people often think that it’s a lot harder than it actually is. Anymore, there are so many easy switches you can make now that can help the environment later; here are five!
I know this one is the most obvious, but it’s also something that helps out a lot. It’s super important to try and find ways to cut out the use of fossil fuels because it’s something that hurts the environment very much! There’s so many different options for getting places, so make sure you check out yours before you immediately get into the car.
This applies to many different aspects of your life, anywhere from plastic packaging to leftover food. Try to remember to bring reusable bags to stores instead of using the plastic ones they give you. If you’re really bad at this like me, put some in your car, or right next to your purse so you’ll see it as you leave. If you do end up forgetting them, use the paper bags instead of plastic since you can end up reusing those for a lot! For food waste, start a compost bin so you don’t have to throw out as much food! There are a lot of great guides online, so I definitely recommend checking those out on how to start one, how to use it, and how to regulate it. There’s also a surprisingly amount of things that you can compost, a lot more than you would think! Also, get a reusable water bottle so you aren’t constantly getting plastic water bottles from the store. This not only cuts down on waste, but is also better for you! Bottled water often sits in a warehouse for long periods of time which allows the chemicals from the plastic get in there, which is not good for you at all.
There are so many ways you can cut down on electricity use, like getting higher efficiency light bulbs (they’re sold at virtually any hardware stores nowadays), LED lights, putting a sweatshirt on instead of turning on the heat, or opening a window instead of turning on the AC. All of these tricks end up saving you money as well, so it’s really a win-win! I love to use little fairy lights to light up rooms rather than ceiling lights, because they are a lot more energy efficient anymore, they look prettier, and I just generally don’t like rooms with really bright lights. You can also light a couple of candles for lighting, smelling, and general pretty appearance!
Cutting down on shower-times can be hard at first, especially when you have a lot of hair to wash, but it get’s easier with time! This is a great way to use less water since people tend to use a lot of it while they shower. If you like to leave the water on while you brush your teeth, turn that faucet off! This uses a lot of completely unnecessary water, and adds up over time. If you really want to save more water, you could even install more efficient shower heads and faucets.
Eating locally is something that not a lot of people think about when trying to help out the environment. Not only will you find some yummy food to eat, but you also eat things that didn’t have to use fossil fuels in order to travel to the store. Big name brands ship out their products all across the country, and consequently, end up using a ton of fossil fuels to make it happen. Eating locally also supports small businesses, and can just generally be a lot of fun to find new places. Local food is often organic as well, which most often means that it wasn’t sprayed with any harmful pesticides. It also feels great knowing where your food comes from!
Alright, there are five ways that you can help the environment in honor of Earth Day! This is such an important day, and really helps to bring awareness to the disparities the environment is facing in the world today, and it’s also a great way to celebrate this awesome planet that we live on!
Thank you so much for reading and watching! 🙂
As you all know, this past weekend was my birthday weekend, and I got to spend it at one of my favorite beaches here in the Pacific Northwest with my best friends and family! I had such a great time, and I just wanted to share some photos with you all because I was able to get some really good ones.
When I was younger, The Jungle Book was one of my favorite Disney movies since I love animals so much. I was fascinated by the colorful jungle in the movie, and all of the interesting characters who made the movie fun. When I found out they made a live action version of the animated movie, I was ecstatic. I re-watched the animated one and brushed up on the book in order to be ready for the new one. My friend, Joycie, actually won tickets to go see an early showing of the movie, and she brought me with her! It was so cool to see the movie early, and I thought I would do a review of it (with no spoilers!) since I love the original one so much.
I couldn’t believe how real all of the animals looked – it seriously looked like they used actual animals to film the movie. The scenery was also really incredible and felt like you were right there in the forest with Mowgli. It’s really amazing how real they can make movies look anymore! The movie as a whole was just generally beautiful because due to the gorgeous graphics – they couldn’t have done it any better, in my opinion! I also can’t explain enough how adorable the wolf cubs were.
It is Friday, April 8th, which means it’s my twentieth birthday! I cannot believe I am twenty years old – two decades! The years seem to go by faster and faster with every birthday, and here we are at twenty of them! I really don’t feel old enough to no longer be a teenager, if that makes any sense. For so long I have identified as a teen, and now I am a full-fledged young adult. I know I’m still young – I still can’t even drink – but it’s crazy to think that I have entered my twenties. Even though I’m pretty nervous and scared to be in my twenties, I’m also really excited to see what the future holds. I still have to get through college, but who knows where I’ll be after that! That’s a scary thought to have, and I can’t believe that it’s one so real and applicable to my life right now.
Since I’ve been alive for two decades on our lovely planet earth, I thought I would share twenty things I have learned thus far!
I have been on Etsy so much lately looking at room decor, and everything else really. You can find some really adorable things on Etsy, and it’s super fun to just browse around! While I was looking the other day, I came across a really cool crescent moon dreamcatcher. I have always loved dreamcatchers, and have had a lot through the years. When I saw this one, I knew I wanted to make one like it! I absolutely love DIY-ing, so I really wanted to make one rather than buy it, especially since I knew I could simply make one myself.
Here is all that you will need for this DIY (side note: I got everything from Michaels just to keep this easy! This post is in no way sponsored by them, however!)
How pretty are these feathers?! I saw them and knew I had to use them for this DIY.
I also got these feathers since they are nice and fluffy and large. I also like the natural color that they add to the dreamcatcher since a lot of the pieces are white!
Here is the metal rod cut to the crescent shape!
I have been obsessed with Michaels stone and crystal collection they’ve had in the jewelry section! Everything is seriously so gorgeous, it was so hard to choose which crystal pendants to get. I have this really nerdy rock collection, so the inner rock geek in me was crying when I saw all of the stones.
I got this really pretty shimmery embroidery floss for the web part of the dreamcatcher, and I think it ended up looking so cool! I love how it’s basically a dark copper color, and it really added a cool dimension to the web, especially since they can be kind of bland sometimes.
Here’s a nifty action shot of my dad cutting the metal. He was very proud of himself for making it on the blog, ya’ll (he didn’t realize he wasn’t actually in the shot…poor guy).
These are the little clippers my dad used to cut the metal!
Let’s get started with the actual process:
To get the beginning of the twine to actually stay on the metal, I used a hot glue gun (I completely forgot to take a picture of it, sorry!) to glue the end of the twine down. After it was dry and the twine was secure, I went ahead and started to wrap the twine tightly around the metal.
I first quickly wrapped the twine, and then went back and pushed it all together more.
Once I hit the end of the metal, I did the exact same gluing process as the beginning!
For the strings that hang down, I decided to do slip knots. I first pulled off how much I wanted from the spool, and then doubled it back up it’s length so both sides where the same size. After you have one long string folded in half basically, grab just below the part where it is folded in half.
Fold the loop back behind the base (the metal rod covered in twine).
Put your fingers through the loop, and pull both lengths completely through the loop.
This is how it should look after you pull the whole thing through the loop.
Tighten up the knot, and situate it how you want!
Okay, now time for the web! This is the time I definitely suggest watching the video to see exactly how this is done. I completely forgot to picture this on the first “layer” of the web, but it’s exactly the same process. To start it off, wrap the string around the base about five times, or however many you think it takes to anchor it tightly, and tie it off. So take the tale of the string and fold it to the right of the base, or in this case the second “layer” of the string.
Pull the tale over the second layer. You will see a kind of loop form, especially if you are on the second layer.
Pull the whole tale back through the loop.
Now it’s time for the fun part – decoration! My parents had this copper wire hanging around that I decided to put around some of the string (you can also find this at stores like Home Depot if your parents don’t just happen to have some haha), and I absolutely love how it turned out. To keep the feathers on, I hot glued them to the strings, and tied the string around them to make it appear as though I had tied them on rather than glued them on.
Here’s how everything turned out! I love how the gold feathers look with the more natural ones.
The crystals really add a lot as well!
I cannot believe that I am turning 20 next week. My teenage years will officially be over, and I will be entering the second decade of my life. That is a crazy thought! It seems like it was just Christmas; this year is seriously flying by. It always felt like it took a crazy long time to get to my birthday when I was younger, but now that I’m older time is starting to move a lot faster.
Since my birthday is in exactly one week, I thought it would be fun to share my birthday wish list with you all! I do not expect to get all of these things at all, it’s just fun to see all of the new items out right now and dream of getting a couple of goodies!
Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM Ultra Wide Angle Zoom Lens
Can I just take a little time to gush about how pretty the weather has been here in Seattle? It’s going to be in the 70s tomorrow. The 70s, people. I am thrilled and have been wearing all of my summer dresses with disregard to the still-chilly-but-sunny weather. However, I did take off my sweater today and only wore a dress! Summer is coming.
On to the post for today; I wanted to talk about why I’m glad I didn’t buckle down a choose a major my freshman year of college. I am a sophomore now, and applied to my major, International Studies, this last quarter, and ended up getting in. I actually came into UW thinking about majoring in International Studies, but changed my mind several different times throughout the year. I’m glad I did this for many different reasons. One, I was able to take many different classes from all of the different majors at my university. Two, in taking many different classes, I didn’t limit myself to only one focus all throughout college. Three, I had the freedom to think about all of the things I could possible do, and in doing so, had the courage to believe in myself, and believe that I could do anything I set my mind to.
As I’ve stated before, I really like to have plans for my life. I had a plan for high school when I was in junior high, and knew all of the classes I wanted to take from talking to my older brother and neighbor. I wrote all of them out on the paper, and while I didn’t take all of these classes, I always had at least a general outline for every term. When I came to college, I fully intended on majoring in International Studies, and only taking classes pertaining to that specific major. Sure, I knew I wanted to take fun classes as well, like dance, but I wanted to be as productive as I could in regards to getting all of the requirements done.
Once I got to school, I realized that maybe International Studies wasn’t the right major for me. The initial requirements for the school of IS were boring classes with content that I had mostly learned my senior year of high school. I wasn’t enjoying myself, and didn’t feel like I could truly engage in all of the classes. After my first quarter, I started to play around with the idea of maybe becoming a vet. I took chemistry, and remembered how much I did not enjoy it in high school, and also that I would never be able to perform surgery on an animal due to my queasiness, or put one down because I would be heartbroken. I absolutely love animals, and still entertain the idea of becoming a zoologist, but being a vet isn’t the right career for me.
After that, I decided maybe communications would be perfect for me. I love to write, and am obviously very involved in the media through my blog and YouTube channel, so I decided to take a communications class. While I didn’t overtly hate the class, it just wasn’t my cup of tea, and I knew I wouldn’t be happy only having a career in communications. The subject matter is very interesting, but it is also pretty straight forward, and contained ideas that most people know about anyway with common sense. I don’t mean to discredit the major in any way; it’s a very important field of study, especially in today’s world, but it just isn’t something that makes me feel inspired, or want to work towards.
Over the summer between freshman and sophomore year, my interest went back to International Studies, and I looked up all of the different career choices you could have after college. One of my dreams is to travel, so the idea of traveling as your job made me very excited. I also looked more into the International Studies school at my university, and I saw that peace, diplomacy, and security are a part of one of the focuses you can choose within the major, which is right up my alley. I want to make a difference in the world, and I really felt like this major and track could help give me the tools to do so. I finished up the requirements for the major in fall quarter of this year, and applied during winter quarter. I got into the school, and now I am starting in on all of the credits required for graduation. After I was done with the prerequisites to the major, the classes have gotten much more interesting, and I find myself really enjoying the subject matter.
Throughout all of these decisions, there was one more thing nagging me in the back of my mind. As you all probably know, I have always wanted to write a book. English has always been my favorite subject in school, and is the subject in which I excel at. It excites me, and keeps me desiring to improve myself more and more. After a lot of thought, I decided I wanted to double major with International Studies and English – specifically the creative writing part of the major since there are technically two different kinds of English majors at my university. I was always afraid to major in English due to the stigma of “never getting a job from an English degree” surrounding it, but it’s what I’m passionate about, and will make me happy.
Double majoring is hard due to all of the credit requirements, and I’m making it even more difficult on myself with a minor in Spanish. Since I am so passionate about all three subject materials, I know that I can do it because I’m willing to put in the work. I’m going to have a lot of late nights ahead of me, but I know it will all be worth it.
As for choosing my major(s) this year, rather than freshman year, I’m so glad that I took the time to find out what I truly want to study and have a career in. I didn’t want to get to senior year and realize that I hated my major; I wanted to be absolutely sure that I was in the right place. Being incredibly indecisive, I think it was important for me to try out all of the different classes I could, within reason. It takes me a long time to come to a decision about anything, so choosing my major my freshman year could’ve been a disaster for me. Through taking a ton of different classes, I also got to really experience all of the different schools that are at my university.
I know I will probably question myself later down the road, as every college student and young adult does, but for now I’m happy with my decisions. I’m excited for my future and to see where my studies will take me. Who knows where I will end up! That’s a scary thought to have, especially for someone who is so anxious about everything; however, I am slowly coming to terms with the fact that I cannot control life, no matter how hard I try.
Happy Friday! I can’t believe it’s already time for the weekend again, this week (and spring break!) has flown by insanely fast. I’m sad that my break is coming to an end, but I’m also really excited for my classes next quarter! I’ve enjoyed my time with my puppies and kitties – I can never get enough – and I will definitely miss them when I go back to school. It’s been nice just being able to relax and not worry about school and work!
