Today was lovely besides the fact that it wasn't.

I'll spare you all the depressing monologue about how my soul was sucked out of me today and stuffed into a little jar, but I will inform you that that jar now resides in my chorus teacher's closet. 

I auditioned for broadway night today TWICE and both times my teacher told me I was "singing it wrong", "wasn't hitting any of the correct notes", and that she could "clearly hear that it was wrong." 

Oh, look! A corner! I think I'll go sit in that and cry now!

I'm a poet and I know it.

My creative writing class just recently started a poetry unit which I'm super excited about because I've always loved writing poems. We had one assignment where we had to cut words out of magazines like we were making ransom letters, only less....threatening. 

So I thought that if I should post anything, it should be this because it's a bit more interesting to look at than my other poems which would all be typed out. 

So without further ado- 

As you can see, we were allowed to write filler words to make everything make sense. 

This was so fun that one day I want to do an entire blog post like this...but I don't think I could bring myself to cutting up my magazines.

My Music of the Moment

Some of these songs are new, some of them ancient, but either way they all seem to fit in a cold November day. Enjoy! 

If you think I should do playlists more often, comment or press the "love" button. I'd be happy to share more, I love putting these things together! 

Twinkling lights, beautiful nights!

I'm so happy about how gorgeous my room looks at the moment that I'm pretty sure these lights aren't going to come down until at least February...or next Christmas....either way. 

I didn't get any good photos of my whole room, but if I did you would see that these lights completely circle my room. When I started putting them up, I didn't except that, but after all, they are meant to decorate the outside of a house...not a teenagers bedroom...

I meant to get these posted yesterday, but I was so overloaded on homework that the only breaks I took yesterday involved going to the bathroom and stuffing my face. Other than those breaks, I spent the entire day trying to get myself into a homework induced coma. It almost worked. 

I managed to finish the rest of my homework today in time to write this post, and actually sit down to eat dinner. I'm so stuck in multitask mode that I literally had to convince myself that it was okay to just watch TV when I ate dinner instead of starting this post at the same time. #overachieverproblems

But I managed to get the signiture situation all figured out! Ta Da! Next up- a blogger bio and possibly a GIF of me (you know, one of those little video things that just repeats and repeats and repeats until you realize you've been sitting there watching it for 6 hours. Oh, that's only me? Nevermind.) Then once that's done, I can finally just switch off of improvement mode and focus on posting! 

Hope everyone had a great weekend! 

Decorating for Winter!

Like the new background? I decided the solid black that I had was too dark and dreary, so I drew this and with just a bit of photoshop magic, made this new background!

I love the personal look my blog has now with both the little city drawing I did and the background. There's going to be more, too, when I eventually make my signiture at the end of the posts actually in my own handwriting. I've got it all written out and ready to be scanned, but I'm saving that for my next post :)

Always,

Abby Noel 

Happy Thanksgiving!

For everyone in America, I hope you have a great Thanksgiving! Everyone else, feel free to use today as an excuse to eat and be thankful :) 

I'm thankful for...

My family

My friends who are still a part of my life even though they're now six hours away

All the new opportunities I've had in just the past few months

The fact that about two years ago I decided to make a blog

My dog (who will happily recieve that turkey treat in a few hours) 

The smell of deliciousness wafting from the kitchen

And all the other blessing in my life :) 

Always,

Abby Noel 

Get a Life

Hey guys, I'd like to tell you about a friend of mine. I just met him this school year and I can already tell that he's a super cool guy.

You see, the problem is, he wasn't at school for a few days in row.

I found out that he's now being homeschooled because he was being bullied for having Turretes. 

That's right. THREE MONTHS in highschool and he already had to leave. 

It was that bad. 

If you're making fun of someone, guess what- you aren't cool. In fact, that kinda makes you a terrible person. 

Oh and news flash, if you want to mock someone in front of your friends just so you can get a laugh, be careful who's around you. Because you might end up making a certain blogger very angry. 

Always,

Abby Noel 

Holiday Gift Guide for your friends....and yourself :)

This is the third Christmas my blog has seen, so I'm not sure why I haven't done this sooner, but I decided this year to make a holiday gift guide! Well not exactly a guide, more so an inspiration. Basically, this is a list of some things that I would love to get as a gift and what some of my friends have said they would like to have. So if you or any of your friends are anything like me and my friends, you're in luck. If not, give this stuff a try, you might surprise yourself.

This is catered to girls (for obvious reasons) but I promise to throw in some things that could go either way. Hope this helps!

Gifts for a Music Fanatic

1. Kitty Headphones! I love listening to music, and I love cats...so this is pretty much the best thing ever. They make enjoying music fuzzy and cute! $40

 

2. Personalized CD's! You should know your friends' taste in music better than anyone, so an easy and original gift like this would be perfect. It's all free, just as long as you have music on your computer and some blank CDs (which can be bought almost anywhere).
To add some extra fun to your gift, decorate a CD cover for it!

3. A Musical Mug! With this your friends can drink coffee and rock out to the imaginary tunes coming from a ceramic stereo. The best of both worlds! $14.99

Gifts for an Animal Lover

1. An Adoption for a Good Cause! The World Wildlife Fund does so many good things for animals, especially those who are endangered. One great opportunity they provide for people to help an animal they care about is a symbolic donation. You can choose pretty much any animal from a Panda to a Tenrec (never heard of them? They're adorable! ) Depending on how much money you want to spend, you can give different animal related goodies, but every donation comes with a adoption certificate. All you have to do is find out which animal your friend likes the best! (Which might be hard to choose!)

2. Quirky Animal Magnets! Have your friends ever told you how much they would love to have a Rhinoceros butt on their fridge? Well you're in luck! I found the cutest shop on Esty that sells magnets of every creature you could think of. They even let you request a custom set! $13.50- $270
(Don't let the $270 scare you, most of the really pricey things are wedding sets, not exactly Christmas presents)

Gifts for the Vintage Obsessed

1. Beautifully Bound Books! Okay, fine, they aren't exactly vintage, but they have the same effect. Barnes & Noble sells tons of books that have all the quality of what you would find in an antique store, but without the dust and old-people smell.
My favorites are The Chronicles of Narnia and The Arabian Nights, but they're all gorgeous. The link I included leads to Alice in Wonderland, but you can find the other books if you scroll down and look under "Customers who bought this also bought." $18

 

2. Clothes they can't find anywhere else! Modcloth is one of my favorite websites because all of their clothes come from independent designers, all with unique ideas. Most of what they sell has a great vintage, indie, and retro look, so it'd be great for your most wardrobe-unique friend.
If you can't pick something out, they also offer gift certificates, so the lucky recipiant can choose for themselves.

...And some other things that don't quite fit into a category...

1. A Personal Poster! Everyone loves getting hand written notes, so why not take it to a new level? Just grab a peice of printer paper, any marker you choose, and write a note to your friend. You can write all your inside jokes, or the story of when you first met, or even the lyrics to you and your friend's favorite song! Those of you who are artistically talented could even paint a portrait! That would be a great gift by itself, but you could also get a frame for it so they can hang it right up on their wall.
If you're feeling especially ambitious, get a poster board and design the whole thing. Get creative with this, there are soo many possibilities!

2. A Goodie Bag! Almost every big store has a one dollar section with all kinds of small, useful things. Take advantage of that! Just get any old gift bag and fill it with candy bars, notepads, lip glosses, and anything you think your friend would like. You can't go wrong with this since you're hand picking each and every thing that goes in the bag.

I hope this gives you some ideas! Happy Holidays!

 

Always,

Abby Noel

 

Just like the ones I used to know...

If anything could make me fall in love with a town, it would be beautiful Christmas decorations. So far, my little town isn't doing such a bad job.

And if anything could make people think I was a freak, it would be me wandering the town at 11 o'clock at night taking pictures of everything.
I also did not do such a bad job.

Always,

Abby Noel 

P.S. Follow me on Pinterest!

This is becoming a pattern...

I seem to have developed the startling ability to completely forget that I have a blog...oops. 

Well I decided to check back in with you all. 

I've been here for only a few months, but I feel like I've been here forever. The weird thing is, at the same time I feel like I still live in my old town, like I still go to my old school and like I can just go see my old friends any time I please. It's a weird feeling. 

The winter is always my favorite time of year, probably due to the fact that it contains both my birthday and my savior's birthday. This winter is going to be especially fun for me for a few reasons: 1) Broadway Night at my school, which I'm performing in, 2) Winter Formal, if the student council decides to start planning it, and 3) Workshops and eventually auditions for the school musical. 

I realized I haven't had many clothes pictures recently, so here's one of the dress I bought from Modcloth for the Marine Corps Ball. (Even though this picture shows less of the dress and more of how well-behaved my hair decided to be that night.) 

Always,

Abby Noel 

P.S. I just read through this and it sounds pretty scatterbrained, but I'm afraid if I let myself edit it I'll end up not posting it at all. Maybe if I get back into blogging I'll get better at this again :)