Now that I can finally say, "It feels like winter" I'm excited to show you guys my own personal winter aesthetic board. If you keep up with my Pinterest or just watch the side bar on this blog you'd probably know that I recently created a new board on Pinterest which I have been updating recently to include what I believe to be my winter aesthetic this year. If you happen to keep up with Alabama weather, you'd also know that despite this being my "aesthetic", half of these things wouldn't even be seen where I live. (Although it did happen to snow on January the 7th.)

The main components of this board are long fuzzy socks, gingerbread, snow, and some calligraphy. Unsurprisingly all of it is cool toned in nature, but that's just what pleases my eye. Hope that you will enjoy this as much as I enjoyed making it.

row one (l to r) : logs via vsco, breakfast via pinterest, gingerbread via pinterest row two (l to r) : rainy leaves via tumblr, calligraphy via pinterest, pencils via pinterest row three (l to r) : sleep via pinterest, necklace via pinterest, cup of coffee via unsplash.com

None of these pictures are mine and all can be found on either pinterest or pexels. If you have a pinterest board (or a blog post sort of like mine) I'd love to check it out just link it down below.

I've decided to start a new blog series on my blog, to show you guys what I'm listening too. I will create picture collages and also insert my monthly spotify playlists so that you guys can listen if you're interested. I usually like to set my spotify playlist up in 3 month intervals so that I can look back and see what I was listening too during those months. (That's why my playlist is called "jauary - march") I also like to include my song favorites across the board instead of limiting it to one genre.
I defintely expect my playlist to expand as we get deeper into the year, and as soccer season truly starts back up since I usually listen to music when exercise.

Quick Disclaimer: Before we get into my thoughts I'd like to say that I've made the personal decision not to curse (and for the most part have not cursed at all). With that being said, you will probably realize that some of the songs on the playlist below are explicit (meaning they have curse words). I do not condone the language used in these songs, and usually choose to hear the clean version (but this version is not available, to my knowledge on spotify). Sorry for the inconvenience. Thanks for reading. :) 

This past month I've been really into an alternate/r&b vibe with (a few) rap songs that I previously would've never listened to. At the same time though I feel like this playlist shows the flexibility of my song interests because you'll see a little bit of everything sprinkled throughout.

The Highlights

Panic! at the Disco

via GIPHY
This month I've also found a new favorite band (who actually isn't new at all), Panic! at the Disco. I had already listened to a few of their songs in past years, but this month I became a "true fan". To put it in perspective they are coming to a city near me and now I plan on going!

Kehlani

via GIPHY
I also became a major Kehlani fan. I love how smooth her voice is especially when she sings song like Distraction and Gangsta. The first time I heard her was when I listened to the Suicide Squad soundtrack and heard the song "Gangsta" which is amazing. The lyrics of her songs are so catchy and (sometimes) very relatable.

Ed Sheeran

via GIPHY
The last notable artist that I have featured in this playlist is Ed Sheeran. Not only did he decide to come out of his social media hiatus, but he also released 2 brand new songs. Even though I've been an Ed Sheeran fan since "Fire Alarm" came out, his song "Shape of You" has quickly become one of my favorite songs. Don't hate me, but I personally don't like "Castle on the Hill", the lyrics remind me just a tiny bit of "7 Years" and just aren't as catchy as the story he tells in "Shape of You".

With that I leave you with a parting gif of Brenden Urie oh and my playlist! If you have any additional songs you think I should add to my current playlist feel free to add them down below in the comments. :)



via GIPHY

If you read my last post, you probably realized that I totally changed my blog template. I am so happy with this change and hope that you too will like my new logo and blog template! I hinted in an earlier post that I would change it for New Years and I finally took the leap and created myself a new blog template. I also wanted to go ahead and lay out my new plan for this blog.

 If you checked out the top header, you'd see that I added a new page--"My thoughts". This will now include all of my opinion pieces and links to all of my odyssey articles. I wanted to separate lifestyle posts from true "op-ed" pieces and thought that adding this tab would be the best way to do so.

I also plan on being much more "aggressive" and intentional with my blogging techniques. I really want to double the number of subscribers and views on this blog and hope that being more intentional on social media and on this blog will help me reach my goal.

If you have any blog post ideas I would love to hear them! I plan on responding to all comments and can't wait to have a conversation with my viewers!

1. Peace between Democrats and Republicans

2. Continued Success in High School

3. Wisdom on the Type of Career I would like to Pursue

4. An Increased YouTube Audience

Even though I did not reach my end-of-the-year goal of 500 subscribers (or subbies) at the end of the year like I wanted, I really want to continue to see an increase in my audience. I saw an increase of more than 200 subscribers in this year alone and want to excel still more and grow my audience to my past goal (and hopefully beyond)

5. More Sleep!

6. A Part-Time Job

Maybe I have this overly romantic idea of "teen jobs", but every since I found out that I was allowed to work at 14, I've wanted to have a job. Since I am turning 16 and will be able to drive myself around this coming August, I have decided that I would like to get a job and take a little pressure off my parents.

7. A New Lecrae Album

I'm probably not alone in this sentiment, but after listening to J.Cole's latest album I'm so ready to hear some new music from Lecrae. Good music nowadays is hard to come by, but Lecrae always comes through with music that feeds both my heart and soul.

XX,