Hi,
So a quick post about old fashioned music, which, as my friend pointed out, I didn't talk about in my musical opinions post.
Well, old fashioned music, most of what I listen to is current but there are a few songs I really enjoy! This has mainly been inspired and encouraged by my best friend Solene -who jokes she's a golden oldie in the music category, but really she's great! Her song choices include things from Flasdance and Grease as well as ones in the charts.
Why, then, do I actually like some old style music? Well, to be honest, the main reason is that it's great to dance to and mainly fun to listen to. My friends and I dance around like lunatics and never want to stop -my parents can vouch for me on that one! I think most people like at least one older song (for many different reasons). Sadly, many people would never admit to liking some old fashioned songs -to some people it's 'not cool'- but what the hell?!
Anyway, old fashioned music, to me, is generally entertaining. I hope at least one person shares, +1s, comments or likes this post because of their opinions too!
Here are a few songs worth listening to on youtube-
Come On Eileen
Or why don't you just watch a 50s and 60s compilation?
Thanks for reading people!
Abby xx
Hi,
Recently, I've been doing loads of D.I.Y projects, random things like creating a paint bubble print (I will show you how to do this later!), a coloured tea light glass and valentines day paperchains -which my best friend Solene first made to put in her amazing room! I don't quite know what has taken hold of me really, but it is a good way to pass the time. I will do 1 post every month that will have D.I.Y projects in it.
So I'm going to show you how to do a few of your own projects that will -hopefully- entertain you.
1) Bubble Print! :)
You will need:
- A baking tray
- A piece of canvas or good printing paper
- Liquid food colouring
- Washing up liquid
- A straw
- A pin
- Put 1/2 cm of washing up liquid in a baking tray.
- Add 5 drops or more of food colouring, stir well.
- Poke a small hole near the bottom of the straw.
- Using the straw, blow into the mixture to form bubbles.
- Now, decide if you only want one colour or two... (if you want 2 colours, skip to number 8)
- One colour only- Take the paper/canvas and lay it gently on top of the bubbles.
- Press down gently then peel the paper off the mixture and leave to dry.
- Two or more colours- only lay a section of the paper down on the bubbles and press lightly, choose 2-3 sections on the paper and do the same.
- Wash out the baking tray and repeat instructions 1-4 with a different colour.
- Do the same thing as number 8 and repeat as many times as you wish, then leave your art to dry! :)
2) Glow Jars
You will need:
- 2 glow sticks (per jar)
- A jam jar/glass jar + lid
- Silver glitter/'fairy dust'
- Snap the glow stick and put the inside into the jar.
- Pour in some glitter (it's up to you how much!)
- Seal the jar with the lid and shake vigorously for 30 seconds.
- Turn out the lights and enjoy your glowing creation! :D
3) Sharpie Mugs-These are easy as anything
You will need:
- A plain mug
- Some sharpies/permanent markers
- Preheat your oven to 175 C, 350 F or gas mark 4.
- Draw your design in pencil on the mug -make sure it's faint.
- Go over it in sharpie and colour in anything you need to.
- Put the mug in the oven for 30 minutes.
- Take the mug out and let it cool! :P
4)Awesome Easter Eggs!
You will need:
- Some eggs
- Some leaves, flowers and bits of plants
- Muslin
- String
- A pan + water
- Using a little brush of water, stick the plants onto the eggs.
- Boil a pan of water.
- Carefully wrap the eggs tightly in muslin and tie with string.
- Boil in the water for 10 minutes then remove.
- Take off the muslin and peel off the plants.
- You will be left with beautifully patterned eggs! :o
5)Pretty Candles
You will need:
- A plastic bottle (cola or sprite etc)
- Cheap wax crayons, 8-10 per each colour. (you'll need about 3-5 colours)
- Scissors
- Pan
- Braided cotton
- Put one colour of wax crayons in the pan and heat them, make sure they don't have any paper on them.
- Once melted, pour them into the bottle. As you pour put the length of cotton firmly in it and leave to cool.
- As they set, melt the second colour in the pan and pour into the bottle on top of the other color, pulling the cotton up, taught so the wax sets around it.
- Repeat steps 1 & 2 with the different colours but don't reach the bottle neck, (remembering to pull the cotton taught as you pour the wax in and as it sets) and leave the whole thing to cool in the fridge for a while.
- Take the bottle out of the fridge and cut from the bottle neck down to the top of the candle.
- Pull apart the plastic and tear the bottle apart away from the candle.
- Make sure only about a cm of the cotton -which will act as the wick- is coming out of the candle.
- Viola! You have a pretty, layered candle! ;)
I hope you have fun trying out some of these projects!
Abby x
PS- I have said on MyStyle but my friend Sophie has started a really entertaining blog that you will enjoy! Please check it out by clicking here! Thanks!
Hi again,
So, music. Everyone has something to say about it don't they? I mean, you could like pop, rock, indie, jazz, classical, dance... The list is endless, and no matter how much you try, you'll inevitably (at some point) get caught in that tedious argument of the best artists and songs.
Personally, I am a huge fan of the band Lawson. I find them so new, fresh and I could listen to their music all day to be completely honest! I also love Emeli Sande her songs and voice are my version of incredible-or in french, elle est un plein de talent! As I learnt this morning at school. Actually I'm not even going to start on the artists I like, 1. because there are so many artists that shape my life and free time at home 2. because it would create an opinion war somewhere about my opinions, yours and others.
Anyway, continuing with music. Why can I not understand some people's love of heavy metal? To me, it seems like a load of rhythm-less, tuneless crashing and screaming. I like music that has emotion, tune, a beat and a great melody/harmony-so, no, this is not my cup of hot chocolate as I say. Cependant, to many people, heavy metal probably sounds amazing, full of structure, emotion and everything else that makes a good song, c'est la vie...
It may just be me, but does anyone have a friend that has introduced them to a completely new style of music? I have two. The first, my dear friend Emily, who is very unique, funny and has a character and look that stands out from the crowd. Her music consists of people sch as Canterbury, Imagine Dragons, Kyla La Grange and Dive Bella Dive. The first three I was skeptical about but now I am a HUGE fan-Dive Bella Dive not so much, it crosses my, what I call, musically opinionated line. It's strange how one person's musical opinions (that were, what they thought, very restricted and opinionated) can be opened up so massively by a few recommendations from one of your mates, who you thought you knew so well, whilst secretly they live a life of indie rock music. Secondly, my friend Jacob (who I sat next to for a year in french class). He is a stunning guitarist, and quite frankly, musical genius. Artists he likes include Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin and Elbow. I was sitting there a bit like huh?... But after listening to some of the songs I actually found I really enjoyed the music! So thank you to my friends who have given me a tour of music that isn't just pop in the charts.
I hope you enjoyed reading this, thanks if you're still here!
If you have any musical opinions to share, please say in a comment, thank you.
Abby
Hi,
Over the past week I've been thinking. Stars are just stars right? Huge flaming balls of fire, yes? But imagine if, when someone dies, they become a star. This might sound weird and crazy but if you think really hard, you might understand where I'm going with this. In a human brain, there are billions of emotions, so powerful and strong that they can make us do anything. Kill, destroy, help, create... So when someone dies all that love, hate, fear, and joy has to go somewhere, it can't just vanish. It could live on in people's memories, their hearts but wouldn't it be great if all that emotion in their soul became a star. Their soul became that huge, ever changing ball of flames, that's where the power went... OK this sounds really strange now...
I'm sorry if you think this is odd, it's what just pops up in my mind. I've been thinking about things like that a lot since my Granma died. Souls, spirits and all that.
Second, other people. I don't mean thinking about others and not just myself, I mean that weird feeling you get when you think about this:
Right now, as you read this, other people are doing completely different things to you, living completely different lives. Some kid in America could be in a bowling alley, that lady you saw outside the supermarket will be going about her daily life. That's all perfectly normal but it's odd that every single person in the world is doing something. Plus, think about all the famous people you know of. Pick one, e.g. Jessie J. At this moment she'll be doing something entirely different to you, living her life, as you live yours. If you sit still for a moment, and REALLY think hard about things like this, it can blow your mind.
So that's that. My recent musings covered and shared. I hope that someday you, reader, will think of something that you find interesting or exciting, maybe you'll tell me and I'll write about it?
Thanks for reading!
Abby
Hi,
So school. I'm in secondary school at the moment (year 8) and-after talking to my music teacher- just thought, isn't school the weirdest thing? OK, hear me out now. School is (effectively) a place where you are put in a class; not based on your capability or cleverness, but on the year you were born... Then, instead of moving classes based on how you are learning e.g a 10 year old working with 12 year olds because he/she is capable of it, you are put into sets that are with others of your age group depending on how clever you are compared to others in your year. Someone in that set, could be much cleverer than others but it doesn't matter because compared to everyone else, the less clever person is still clever. You see?!
Thinking of it like that, reader, makes it all seem pointless and odd doesn't it? I think it does anyway.
Now, the subject of... homework. Something I and others around me dread on a daily basis. The problem with homework for me is: it takes your free time and you can't do anything about it. I used to do 11 or 12 clubs a week, I loved always doing my favourite things; then I got to year 7. I quit many of my clubs because I just couldn't fit in the homework. The sad thing is, it takes up so much of my free time AND it's compulsory! There is no way you can get out of it- even if you go on holiday, when you return you're handed a stack of missed homeworks. Also, at the age of 11/12, suddenly, there are tsunamis of homework + pressure, hormones and it all = stress. The teachers put so much pressure on you to do it well, hand it in on time etc. I don't think they realise that all your other teachers give you work too, so it's hard to make it all work! Another thing, often, a teacher will set a research homework e.g an author; the homework is to research and make a poster on the author. Then they say, it should take you 1/2 an hour, because you have another 1/2 hour homework later this week. Fine... But really, if you DO spend 1/2 and hour on it, you will only be able to hand in a few scraps of info and some scribbled colour- in which case you'll probably be made to do it again. To get the standard they want, it takes more and more of your precious time. Right, so I've had a good old rant about this but a few days ago I was thinking and started wondering. A school can boast that students learn everything in one of their 'interesting, stimulating lessons with highly qualified teachers', but, if so, who needs homework? If a school is SO excellent then surely the students have already learnt what they need to know. If they need it consolidating or teachers need to check they ACTUALLY understand-which is what people say homework is for- then why not do it as a lesson in the curriculum? I mean, one lesson could be a test on everything they've learnt or even a private quiz asking if they need help. That way, kids would be encouraged to ask for help and if they needed it, they would say because it would be during school time not their own (this could also eliminate children making their parents do the work for them) but would the teachers want to spend their time doing that? Underneath it all, what I'm really trying to ask is, is homework a way for the teachers to shove off some of their work that they have to teach, onto the pupils they're teaching?
If you think about it, it works. Homework is just a way to get teachers out of having to teach other things; then again, most of the teachers I know genuinely want me to learn independently. So, to a teacher, homework could be a way to give more advanced children the opportunity to learn about a vast range of stuff and learn to do it independently.
It's up to you, is there a point to school and homework, or is there not?
