Music

Long time no post.... To reawaken this blog I though I would post something I am very passionate about: MUSIC!!

Okay, let's start with a warning: I have a very diverse music taste...

I'm going to start with happy emotion: 

The music I chose whenever I am happy can literally be anything from point A to point B, but to understand the basis of music I listen to you would need to understand my more aggressive and sad moods.

When I am sad, I often listen to music that hits home to the feelings and so artists such as Lana Del Ray, Twenty One Pilots, and other pop-ish music work for me. This is because pop often is written to appeal to to people's emotions, it could be about sadness, lust, etc.

When I am angry I listened to one of two very different genres. Either rap or mental/rock tend to do the job of making me feel better. When I listen to rap I listen to people/ groups such as Die Antwoord, Tudor Jones, The Constructus Corporation, Atmosphere, and then from time to time I enjoy Eminem. When I am feeling metal I enjoy listening to Tool, System Of A Down, Marilyn Manson, Slipknot, Korn, and so many others.

When I am stressed I listen to dubstep, I am probably stressed, and need the overpowering bass to distract me from what ever is on my mind. I listen to groups such as: Major Lazar, Diplo, Bingo Players, Pegboard Nerds, Nightcore, Yellow Claw, Carnage, and basically anything that comes onto my Pandora station (Here It Comes Radio).

This was a a random post, but it is something I am truly passionate about!

Have a great weekend,
xoxo
Olivia

The Garden

Hey so since no one reads this anymore I thought I might have a little fun and share something I've been working on in class. 

 I really like it and even if no one gets it or likes it, I don't care... This is my outlet where I have been deciding what to share for the past little bit...

Anyway, here it is:

What if each family is simply a garden?

With explicit rows defining who is who and what is what. With each seedling planted firmly in its place only to grow and expand into the vase unknown.

What if each seed was a soul?

with the unique patterns and behaviorism hiding underneath a smooth and slick outside. With only time to be the key to discovering such complexity that is yet unknown

Personally, I reside with the garden roses. Small and sweet they open up, letting you see to the very core of them. without any fear, they cause you to be drawn it by their innocence and positive aura. but with one simple touch you may be pricked, so a warning must be issued to all: you may regard, but with great distance. so there the rose sits in their refined ways alone, and undisturbed.

My mother on the other hand is a strong study stalk of bee balm with her vibrant coloring and her natural bass. letting one and all know that she is one with the rest of the earth, but allowing herself to be diverse in the head, her petals allowing subtle differences seep into her brightly colored persona.

My father resembles that of a night  blooming cereus. He is humbled and natural sitting amongst the other plants, not drawing attention to himself, but if caught at the right time he could be something vastly brilliant. He opens up letting people see into him and recognize the inner complexity that is not seen when the sun is high in the sky. Although rare, it is beyond anticipated to see what makes him truly unique.

Although it is not finished, I like the direction of whatever I have been getting at.

With that I am finished with this brief little bit.  

Goodnight,

Olivia

xoxo

Valentines day

Valentines day: the day of love... or something like that.

Year after year, I spend my day at my mother's flower shop. My job title is synonymous to what ever needs to be done that day. It could be running buckets brimming with flowers up and down the stairs, to helping people with their orders, and everything in between.

As easy a job(s) as they/ it sounds it can be very demanding. from 9 in the morning to 6 or so at night you're hauling 15ish pound buckets filled with water everywhere. Considering it was in the single digits throughout the weekend, it would make it very uncomfortable to have water spilled on you and have to continue to run back and forth in the freezing weather.

Another fun aspect of the business is that I am the third generation to be involved in the store. My grandmother started B/A Florist in 1979 in Okemos, and in '85 moved the flower shop into the old house on the corner of Hagadorn and Grand River. The B/A stands for my grandmothers name: Barbra Ann (aka the founder.)

Sorry for the short post, but I hope you had a great weekend,
Olivia
oxox

Late-Night Thoughts

Good whatever-time-of-day-you're-reading-this! How are you today?

I come come to write fully equip with a stress lined rant, so time to get comfy :)

Okay first of we have the endless night packed with studying, and trying oh so very hard to not frustrate the people around and in our lives, and your sleep deprived body tries to communicate on some level of human interaction you could potentially deem as "nice", also known as finals.

They suck. There is no way around that fact. You could have a 4.00 GPA or a 2.00 GPA, and all the while they would still be stressful. It is the unnatural act of cutting your sleep down by a handful on hours up to a few weeks in advance, so you can have more time to study everything you have learned since school has started.

Of course there are the educational benefits, but that's beside the point when you feel the need to pull an all-nighter to try and shove every little tid-bit of information you think you can hold in your brain.

Okay... enough on that now on to: DRAMA! *DUN DUN DUNNNN*

By no means is this section based off of anything in my life, but seriously why does drama always seem to come up just when you feel like you have a little too much of everything on your plate?

Is that some twisted Murphy's Law I neglected to recognize?

Seriously though, I think that people should just consider having a pause button for any and or all friendships. I don't mean that in the way it sounds, but as in if there was a button where you could just put all problems aside for like a few days, just so something could be done without any other distraction, and you could return to the problem again later.

Another serious benefit to the pause button would be it would give people time to think and actually decide what they think is important to be said, versus just say stuff just out of the heat of the moment.

And I can say with full certainty that I think this idea could of saved some of my older friendships that sorta fizzled out over pent up feelings and aggressive reactions.

\My next topic is: PLEASE TRY TO SAY THINGS TO PEOPLE THAT YOU KNOW WILL RAISE THEM UP NOT DOWN!!!

This one comes out of kind of a sensitive place, because I have been told that I used to or still do (I don't really know) have people come to my blog to read what I have to say only to laugh at it and go off and tease it. That hurts. I realize I'm putting myself on display by trying out my feelings, but seriously if you're going to go off and tease me, PLEASE be classy enough to make sure it doesn't get back to me.

I seriously do not care if people want to go around and bash what I have to say, but please be kind to my face, that's all I ask.

That was sorta off kilter from what I wanted to say, but the point is still valid.

What I wanted to say was, if you have people in your life, regardless if you like them or not, I belive you should still be kind and have positive things to say.

I know it is supper hard to make something nice up to say sometimes, but it seriously helps to compliment someone, or share a (happier) thought, or something. On a selfish level it will make you feel better if you're kinder to others and share positive things.


I feel like this is a good stopping point for tonight. Just fyi I do not even come close to being perfect when it comes to any of these things, but they're some of my personal goals, and I would like to become a more positive and  less stressed person.



Anyways, I hope for better days to come,
xoxo
Olivia




* Just roll with it and pretend to hear the dramatic noise in your head.

Late Night Poetry pt 4

Mild disclosure: I am experiencing a mild sugar high at this given time and I'm like 100% sure it is beyond evident...

Hello people of the internet!

How are you all? is life good? I hope so becauseeeeeeee it is time for some

LATE

NIGHT

POETRYYYYYYYYY!!!

With that intellectual intro out of the way here is some of my late night poetry:

La Lumière

Est-ce tu as froid?

Est-ce tu as sommeil?

Est-ce tu as peur d’avoir tort?

Tu as besoin de chaleur

Tu as envie d’avoir raison

Je suis désolé tu ne dois pas la lumière.

And here's a little translation for you all:

The Light
Are you cold ?

Did you sleep?

Are you afraid of being wrong ?

You need heat

You want to be right

I'm sorry you do not have light.

If you have been reading my posts for the last little while you will be aware that some of the stuff I write about deals with some pretty heavy stuff. For those of you who relate to the saddened babble I thought I would share with you a really great app that is offered on Apple devices, I don't know if other servers have it, but it is called Pacifica. Although I wish this was sponsored, it is not, so don't think I am being paid even a little bit for this promo, but this app is great! It allows you to record all the crazy feelings that fly through your mind throughout the day and the emotions that ride around on those thoughts.

Anyways... that's all for now,

Olivia

xoxo

Some Recipes

If you have ever read my personal bio (on the side somewhere,) you would know that I very much enjoy cooking.

Ever since I was little I have enjoyed being able to create something out of nothing, to me, even now its still just such an amazement to know something that I made will be consumed by others (and hopefully enjoyed.)

Without further adieu, here are some of my favorite recipes I have made:

Classic Cranberry Sauce (source: Food Network Magazine)   

 1 pound cranberries  (about 4 cups)
2 medium oranges
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon ground coriander
kosher salt

 1. Put all but 1 cup of the cranberries in a saucepan. Remove wide strips of zest from 1 orange with a peeler; ass to the saucepan with the juice of both oranges (about 1/2 cup). add the sugar, coriander, and a pinch of salt and 1/2 cup water. bring to simmer over medium heat; cook, siring occasionally, until the berries burst and the sauce thickens (15-20 minutes).

 2. Stir in the remaining 1 cup of cranberries; cook until softened, 3-4 minutes. remove from heat and let cook to room temperature, remove orange zest, transfer to serving dish and refrigerate for at lest 3 hours.

Side-note: when I made this I refrigerated this over night, and I would highly recommend that, because it gives the sauce enough time in the cold to congeal, making it more gelatinous.

Basic Dinner-Roll Dough (source: Food Network Magazine)
1/2 cup whole milk
3 tablespoons sugar
1 1/4 ounce packet of active dry yeast
4 1/4 to 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons unsalted butter , at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 large lightly beaten eggs

1. Warm the milk and 1/2 cup water in a small sauce pan or in the microwave until very warm (110 F.) transfer into the bowl of a standard mixer fitted with the dough hook; mix in the sugar,yeast, and 1 cup of flour until combined but still lumpy. Let stand until the mixture is very bubble, about 30 minutes.

2.add the butter, salt and 2 cups of flower; mix on medium speed until smooth and elastic, 2-3 minutes. mix in the eggs until combined, scraping the bottom and side of the bowl as needed. add 1 1/4 cups flour, mix until the dough is smooth and starts to gather into a loose ball, about 4 minutes. The dough should be slightly sticky; if too wet add the remaining 1/4 cup flour.

3. lightly oil a large bowl; scrape the dough into the bowl and turn to coast with the oil. cover with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm place until doubled in size, about 2 hours.

Side-note: this is the base dough I used for the next recipe.

Sea Salt Dinner Rolls (source: Food Network Magazine)
Basic Dinner-Roll Dough
Cooking Spray
All-purpose flour, for dusting
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Flaky sea salt, for sprinkling

1. Make the Basic Dinner-Roll Dough. Let rise as directed. Lightly coat 2 baking sheets with cooking spray. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Lightly flour the top of the dough and pat it into a rectangle. Cut the dough into 24 equal pieces with a bench scraper or a chefs knife

2. gently roll each piece of dough into a ball; arrange on the prepared baking sheets. loosely cover with plastic wrap and let stand until puffy, about 45 minutes.

3.position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven; preheat to 370 F. . Bush the rolls with some of the melted butter and cut an "X" into the center of each roll with kitchen shears or a small knife. sprinkle tops with sea salt. Bake switching and rotating the baking sheets half way though, until the rolls are golden brown, about 25 minutes. let cool 5 minutes, then brush with the remaining melted butter. transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Yeah so those are 2/3 of my best recipes I have come across, I hope you give them a try and enjoy them as much as I do!

Happy cooking,
Olivia
xoxo






 

Late Night Poetry pt3

Hey so even though it isn't "late-night" as I'm posting this, I did happen to write this at night. 

Regardless this was some stored away poetry I wrote a little bit ago but was afraid to put out into the world. If you have been reading my blog for longer than a month then you will understand my hesitating on an emotional piece like the one below.

If you are new to this weird emotionally charged blog then I'll fill you in on what has been the past...

So basically the gist of it is, some people who read my blog, were um... less than pleased at what I had to say... but I did keep the post up, and I did send out an apology to hopefully soothe things over.

My point in the story was if you know me, please don't send your self into a tizzy over the words I have created, because like most humans, I feel emotion and this is my way of expressing some of my emotional turmoil.

Along those lines, please don't start playing the guessing game as to who this is about because A) I will not tell you. B) Please respect my request to keep this anonymous.

And with that intro out of the way... here is what I wrote:

Stop.

Stop making me feel unworthy of your presence;

You are not holy.

Stop the endless whining;

Life is not perfect.

Stop your discontent for the world;

Open your eyes and see there is more than the dark side.

For each time I thought this, I wonder if I am a hypocrite for thinking so;

My response is yes, I am.

I need not think of myself as any better than the next;

We are all the same on the inside.

I need to think before I speak;

Only letting encouraging words out.

I need to see life for the beauty it beholds;

Letting the optimist out from time to time.

Suppose we’re not so different you and I;

That is just what I needed to hear to change myself.

I hope you have a wonderful day, 

Olivia

xoxo