Music Playlist Favorites: Inspiration on Those Rainy Days ♥

As summer begins to draw near and the lovely rainy days of spring come to a close why not make the most of the last couple weeks of spring with a rainy day playlist to get you inspired. I put together the following playlist with all my favorite songs to listen to during a rainy day on playlist.com so you can easily listen to all my favorite songs all in one place 🙂 None of these songs have profanity or suggestive language so don’t worry when you click play. I hope you like some f the songs I picked and I helped you discover new ones. A few of the songs are not at their best quality so if you run into this problem I suggest you just search the song on google and listen to it on youtube. Stay tuned for a rant about a music player I tried out (Spotify) sometime this week…

If the playlist doesn’t show you may need to install the latest version of flash or just click the nifty “Pop Out Player” button:

Writing Inspiration: Rain ♥

Have you ever woken up to the bright morning sun shining in your eyes coaxing you into waking up, but yet a sense of calm and the world not needing you at the moment washes over you and just makes you wanna stay put? That’s the calm I feel when it begins to rain.  When most people just become more tired and moody and I become more alive and full of creativity. From the first drop hitting the hard pavement to the last drop following all the others away with the wind, I am writing to my hearts content. Something about the way the rain keeps people inside makes me feel more solitary when I walk down the sidewalk hearing nothing but the rain, seeing nothing but the rain, and smelling nothing but the fresh rain. The fact that the rain keeps me in one place just makes me feel more at ease, like I’m not needed at the moment and can just be me for a little.

I don’t know if this makes sense to you, but I know one time or another a writer feels this way when something happens. Whether you find your inspiration on chilly morning walks, or you find it dancing in the rain. I think you should take advantage of this moments, because you’ll never know when they will come again.

-Lydia ♥

Update: New Tumblr ♥

You may or may not have realized that I recently made a tumblr blog (check out the link in the sidebar). My main purpose for the blog is to give ya’ll a daily dose of Photography favorites along with some inspiring quotes to make up for the lack of posts I put on this one haha. Pretty much I will still be writing on this blog every week as often as possible about a wide variety of things but for those of you interested more in photography, fashion, and easy to read tid-bits I will be posting about 5-7 photos and quotes everyday here. The reason I chose tumblr is because it’s simple, easy to post to, and it doesn’t require much thought for me to just post a photo I just found.

I hope ya’ll will keep checking in on this blog as I will continue to post more and more on things like books, movies, fashion, writing, and even some photography.

I’ll be posting more soon and remember to check out my tumblr.

-Lydia ♥

Writing Favorite: Scriptito ♥

Sorry for my lack of writing a post this week, but it’s because I had been spending so much time with my new obsession Scriptito. I’ve been wasting away hours of my life just writing, and writing, and writing, and writing in this program. Of course I’m a writer, so I write half the time anyways but what this program did was inspire me to want to write more.

Scriptito is a website I stumbled upon while wasting away my hours in the Google Chrome Web store. At first glance it looks like your average website to share documents through, but after deciding to give it a try I will never again go back to other writing and publishing sites. In previous posts I have written about sites like Figment.com which trust me that site is also worth your time, but what’s different about Scriptito is the privacy. Unlike sites like Figment you can choose the exact audience you wish to share your writings with. Once you have finished writing in your latest “Project” you have the option of keeping it private, sharing it with select people, or sharing it with the world. Being as paranoid about sharing as I am, these options are awesome when I only want certain people reading my stories.

Another extremely useful feature is the folders in your “Projects”. The folders help you to organize information thats important to your project. The folders pre-set to appear in your project are things like Research, Characters, and Draft. You can also make your own folders to keep whatever you want in them. Personally, I love uploading all of the photos I collect to inspire that story and the graphics I make for the project in the “Research” folder. For someone who likes everything in one place this is the perfect online writing tool. You might be wondering what I mean when I say “Online writing tool”. Well pretty much the main feature of Scriptito is to write your documents in it (or just copy and paste them in).

All in all, this is an amazing website for writers and project managers alike who need a neat and easy to use work space. I highly recommend it to anyone looking to organize their writing projects, and get more inspired to write. I wish I could explain further how awesome I think Scriptito is, but it’s best you find out on your own 🙂

-Lydia ♥

Apologies ♥

I’d like to apologize for my sudden absence on my blog. In the past couple weeks I have been finishing up some college work, catching up on my math, editing my novel, and of course going to school so my life hasn’t really slowed down for me to blog yet. But alas, I apologize and promise you I will get back to writing 4-5 posts a week this week 🙂 I’ve missed writing for yall’ and can’t wait to share with you some favorites I’ve picked up this week…

Thanks for understanding and I’m glad to be back *woot woot*!

-Lydia ♥

Fashion Trend Favorite: Hang Ten (Old Brand, New Style) ♥

I walked into one of my favorite stores (Kohl’s) and what do I see? My absolute favorite brand from the 1960’s has made an oh so fabulous comeback! Hang Ten first came out in the 60’s as a surf brand with comfortable and cute clothing perfect for going to the beach in. The brand began widening their selections with new winter items (one of which I own and will hopefully show you later), and the suddenly they disappeared with no more new items or collections. Well now I am pleased to announce this brand is back with some more modern pieces but still staying true to the comfortable fun in the sun feel.

With items ranging from crop tops to warm sweaters, the choices at Kohl’s are a wide range and all very cute. Even better, hang ten items are currently on sale. Let’s take a look at some of my favorites…

The above romper is a good option for those days when your going from place to place. It takes little thought to just slip on this comfortable outfit and go. I would pair this with a cute pair of gladiator sandles matching one of the colors found in the romper, and if your uncomfortable showing your shoulders and back (since it ties around) I would wear a gray bolero cardigan. This item is $22.80 and can be bought here.

This next Hang Ten outfit once again demonstrates the three things I love: cute, comfortable, and easy. You can just through this on with a pair of your favorite flip-flops and go. I like the fringe because it makes it more unique, and the crossed back is a really interesting touch. You can stand out from the crowd without really putting much thought into it.  This item is also $22.80 and can be bought here.

So go out to your nearest Kohl’s or shop online for these cute buys while they are still on sale!

-Lydia ♥

Freebie Favorite: The Writer Magazine Open House ♥

So today I open my email and recieve quite the pleseant suprise. One of my favorite online resources for writing articles is having an open house this week. The Writer is a magazine for writers (obviously), but they also have an online database of cool stuff like columns, articles, and discussion boards. Alot of their articles are free to read but some are subscriber only. That’s why I got excited when I received this email in my inbox…

So if you like to learn how to improve your writing craft through articles this is the perfect time to read these! Some that look interesting include…

http://www.writermag.com/Articles/2004/04/Creating%20characters%20in%20poems.aspx

http://www.writermag.com/Articles/2012/05/The%20pleasures%20and%20perils%20of%20prologues.aspx

http://www.writermag.com/Articles/2012/04/Regain%20the%20wonder.aspx

http://www.writermag.com/Articles/2010/09/What%20poetry%20can%20do%20for%20your%20fiction%20writing.aspx

http://www.writermag.com/Articles/2007/03/Crossing%20genres-from%20journalist-author%20to%20poet.aspx

I hope you take the chance to get in on this little freebie 🙂

-Lydia ♥

 

Exciting News, Updates, And a Very Evil Tarp ♥

So I know I said I would be reviewing the newly released debut novel by Anna Banks Of Poseidon. But seeing as how I am now in crutches…writing the review was not top priority. PLUS, I have some VERY exciting news! I was selected from thousands of girls to be sent a proof copy of Of Poseidon and review it for a teen girls magazine. So there really is no point in my writing to reviews…I will post ASAP when the magazine puts my review up (it should be around June 5th from what I was told).

Now, your probably wondering why the heck I am in crutches now but wasn’t two days ago (Or I just want to think that you were wondering about it). Anyways, long story short the gym hates me.

You see the gym I was at has a HUGE turf field with racquetball and squash courts all the way down on one end. People on the turf field kept breaking the glass with soccer balls and what not, so they put up a HUGE tarp type thing like they have in their basketball courts to separate the two full courts…

(Shown above is gym basketball court with the evil tarp to prevent balls from reaching the other side)

So my friend and I are playing frisbee on the turf field and he suggests we race some. Of course I knew I was gonna win (and I was right) so I got a little cocky but whatever. We raced for about 10 or 15 minutes and then he was like, “OK last race, except let’s go from this wall to the tarp.” I was like YOUR ON! but if only I knew what would happen next. So, my mom says”go”, and we start running towards the tarp. When I reached the tarp I was really far ahead of my friend…but I also was going really fast. So of course I push my hands out and the tarp swings out really wide. As I would come to learn this evil tarp has an even more evil heavy metal bar which keeps it stable in one place. I’m sure one of Newton’s laws would pretty much explain what happened but I would rather lengthen my story more by telling you through my intelligent perspective…

I pushed the evil tarp. The evil tarp got angry at me. The evil tarp through a metal bar into my ankle. My friend laughed as I fell to the ground. I am still mentally killing him in my mind.

I hope you enjoyed my little story of how an evil tarp almost broke my ankle 😀

-Lydia ♥

Graphics Favorite: PicMonkey ♥

So as y’all may or may not know I love designing graphics and novel covers. Well I always have my favorites and today I am writing about my favorite image editing website, PicMonkey. Now, I will admit that PicMonkey is not my absolute favorite for image editing but ever since Picnik closed down their site I have been using this one. It serves all the purposes graphic artists need and it has some pretty cool features.

The first stop on our little tour of pic monkey is the place where you actually do the image editing. There are of course three sample images they give you to optionally edit, but I always use my own. When you go in to edit your picture it can be a little confusing as to where certain options are but once you get the hang of it you’ll like the program. The first screen you will come to once you choose the picture you want to edit will be one with your picture on the right and effects buttons on the left.

The above is what I will refer to as the “task bar” since I am too lazy to see if it has an actual name 😉 My two favorite and most used features on the site are the ones I circled above. The “Touch Up” feature is circled in red and the “Text” feature is obviously the one circled in blue. These are my two favorite features because, 1. They are easy to use, and 2. They are just plain awesome.

I like using the touch up feature when I want to do things with photos of myself. Say I wake up early in the morning and have a sudden urge to take a picture of my messy face (not likely). Well I would use the touch up feature to cover any acne, blotchiness, whiten my teeth, and take the bags out from under my eyes. You may be a little worried that all those tasks will be difficult for you but it’s so easy a monkey could do it (Maybe that’s why they call it PicMonkey?). A side comment on the acne coverup is that I don’t think their blemish fixer works THAT well so instead I use the wrinkle remover tool. It may sound weird but once you get the hang of it, it works like a charm.

The text feature is the one I use most when designing covers for my own pieces of writing or for people who request them via my figment page. Though the selection of fonts is very limited compared to Picnik, I still think they have a good variety for a majority of projects you might be handling with this program.

So…that was my little review on a very cool image editing website. I hope you all check out my little nerd heaven and I hope to see you soon!

-Lydia ♥

Writing Website Favorite: Figment ♥

I have mentioned the site figment.com a little bit on my blog, but trust me when I say that I will never be able to do that site justice with my mentionings and reviews. Oh well…

Figment.com is a website geared towards young adult writers (Ages 13+) who want a community of other writers for support, critique, and more. I have been a member on figment since May 2011 (http://figment.com/users/33988-Lydia-D-Sharpe-Kony-2012-) and think it is the greatest site ever for writers to connect. Figment has so many things you can do on the website that the possibilities are endless. They have an online newsletter I read daily that has interviews with authors, actors, actresses, publishers, and other celebrities who all have on thing in common: Writing/Reading. The daily newsletter also gives you flash fiction contests, random links you may like, and really just cool stuff for writers. It is definitely my go to place when I have writer’s block.

Another really cool feature on the site are their Contests page. Now these contests aren’t your ordinary “here’s a cup of soup as your prize” contests, they have interesting and fun topics to write about and prizes ranging from scholarships to being on TV. One thing I will say I don’t like on the contests is that some are judged by actual judges and some are something they call “heart contests”. I don’t tend to enter heart contests because unless you have a really great following and you get a zillion people to heart your entry before the deadline (which in some ways is against site rules) you don’t have a chance. Even with a great following there are always 10 or 11 people who always win because the heart contests are easily rigged.

Now on to another feature on the site, Groups. Groups is a new feature that was introduced by Figment late last year. The whole idea of the groups is so that figmenters can have a chance to come together and talk on topics they have in common. You’ll find about 1,000,000 different groups to join (you can join as many as you like) but only about a tenth of them are popular and have activity going on within the group. A lot of the groups I have joined are more like a “badge” sort of join because when you join a group it shows on your user page it just sorta lets everyone know you support that topic.

Your user page is pretty much like any other user page you would get with things like MySpace or Facebook. You can have a user photo, about me, and even have people message you on your page. On your user page it also displays your badges which tell the world of all your figment accomplishments. The page also displays all of your novels, poems, short stories, etc. You can put a password on your writings so only certain people can read your stuff, but if not anyone can read your work. When someone reads your work they can “react” to it, comment on it, review it, or just give you a heart (this is sort of a way of seeing how popular that story was).

Now the rest of the site is pretty self-explanatory but I do think I should inform you on something that happened very recently. A couple of months ago the well-known publishing company “Harper Teen” sold the rights to their own writing community called “Inkpop” to Figment which made the community even larger. If you go on the forum boards you may or may not see that this brought a lot of drama since the Figment people were like “Yay!” and the Inkpop people were like “You suck!” for no reason. So if your confused as to why people have a badge that reads “Inkpop User” or they put “Inky Foreva!” in their username it is probably because they came from that site and have some weird Inkpop pride thing going on 😛 Anyways, since Inkpop joined Figment there have been some pretty cool changes happening. One thing Figment is still working to provide is a security system. A lot of Inkpop users complained about Figment because on Inkpop they used a system that blocked any way of copying and pasting stories. So it makes it a little harder to steal your work, either way I still put passwords on my archives account.

So there you have it folks! The amazingly awesome world of Figment is just one click away. Why not look around? If you have any questions go on and drop me a comment 🙂

Wanna visit my Figgy account? http://figment.com/users/33988-Lydia-D-Sharpe-Kony-2012–

-Lydia ♥