‘Blue Banisters’ by Lana Del Rey | Track by Track Album Review

Is it really better than ‘Norman fucking Rockwell!’?

Yesterday, Blue Banisters came out and I’ve seen a lot of people talk about how this album is probably better than Norman fucking Rockwell!.

As someone who loves NFR to death, there’s no way I’m going to just casually listen to this album if it’s really that good.

So I thought, why not listen to this album alone in bed, crying, rambling to myself & write a little review for the blog? And that, folks, is the reason why you’re here.

Am I emotionally ready for this? Maybe not. NFR wrecked me. But I also can’t wait to dive in to this. I’ll just grab the Kleenex and let’s do this. 🤧

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Text Book

Oh gosh, Lana’s lyricisim is immaculate. Thirty seconds in and I was already making the face you do when you’re about to cry. You know how much you understand the hurt of someone else’s story through a song? I felt that in this track. I know that I’ll love this song the more I listen to it. We’re certainly off to a really great and heart-shattering start!

Blue Banisters

This is not the first time I’ve listened to this song but this is the first time that I’ve really listened to it. I already know that this is going to be one of my favorite songs of Lana. The storytelling – argh – it’s so beautiful. I never associated banisters to anything sad nor have I ever thought that banisters could be such a sad, poetic masterpiece. This song is truly astounding and is affecting me in a way that is both really painful and satisfying.

Arcadia

This has got to be my favorite. This is the kind of the song that when it plays, I stop whatever it is that I’m doing and I just stare out the window and appreciate every single word. The melody – I feel like it touched a soft spot in my heart. The moment I heard the first line, I knew this was gonna be my favorite. I haven’t listened to the rest of the album yet, but there’s no way I cannot call this song my favorite. I’m gonna cry – this song is divine.

Interlude – The Trio

Okay… This is the first time I’ve ever encountered an interlude in an album. I had to look up what it’s for. Apparently, it’s the little song placed between the “real” songs on an album, the short morsels of sound that bridge the gap from one theme or mood to the next (Oracle).

Black Bathing Suit

Contrary to what I thought that I’m gonna be crying during the fifth song, I actually laughed out loud. The first verse is so frigging relatable. We never really have an original thought, huh? It’s like she turned my own thoughts into the first verse of this song. The melody is very familiar, too. It’s so much like the songs she had made before. However, the lyrics though is very now. It has this whole pandemic phrases in it. This is definitely one of those songs that encapsulates what our thoughts were like during the pandemic, especially on the first verse. The rest of the song, impossible not liking because it’s just like Lana’s old songs.

If You Lie Down with Me

Another one of my favorites from this album! It’s just so easy to listen to. I can picture myself listening to this song a lot of time because this is exactly the vibe of the songs I always listen to. This would also be the first songs in this album that I might do a cover of. I LOVE THIS.

Beautiful

This song feels like it came out of NFR. I have to be honest, this album is getting better and better. It’s just amusing how Lana couldn’t make a bad album or even a bad song, isn’t it? I’m already halfway through the album and I’ve never disliked any song that I heard.

Violets for Roses

Okay, I have a new favorite. This song feels like a breath of fresh air. The words I can associate with this song would be freedom, self-worth, and peace. This song is perfect for those people who finally got out of a toxic and emotionally abusive relationship whom now are realizing how so much more of a person they are than what their exes made them believe. Being one of those people, this song fills me with so much excitement and happiness.

Dealer

This song has a totally different vibe from the other tracks. It has wrath and anguish in it. A lot of screaming too. This is not really my usual cup of tea but I also can’t say that I hate it. I may have a mood that I’d want to vibe to this song. Maybe when I’m really mad at someone. You’ll surely want to listen to this when you despise someone so much. Which I hope does not occur to you very often lol.

Thunder

The quick silences on the first chorus has me gripping. I love love the buildup to the second verse. The song came together with added accompaniments and backing vocals as the song ended. I love that it just kept adding elements up to the very end and it ended powerfully in a way I definitely didn’t anticipate in the beginning of the song. Definitely one of my favorites too.

Wildflower Wildfire

I love the honesty and simplicity of this track. It’s a typical Lana song – honest, melodious, and majestic. The beat drop on the last chorus is a really good component of the song. It added ✨spice✨ to it. I love songs that you feel like you can listen to anytime. This song is definitely one of them.

Nectar of the Gods

I love the acoustic guitar – I did not expect that! The moment I heard the intro, I already knew that this is gonna be a good one. It’s very calming, soft, and sweet. The feeling that this song makes me feel is my favorite kind of feeling. I hope this track doesn’t get underrated because I definitely think it’s one of the best ones from this album.

Living Legend

I don’t know what it is about Lana’s voice being accompanied by an acoustic guitar that makes me feel things I can’t explain. This is yet another great song for casual listening. God knows how many times I’m going to listen to this song. Probably late at night while contemplating or reminiscing. Or weeping mostly.

Cherry Blossom

I started listening to Lana Del Rey when I was 17 and this was actually one of her first songs that I have heard. I even had it downloaded on my YouTube account before & I had no idea it was unreleased. I loved it before & I still love it just as much today. I’ve always pictured myself singing this to my daughter someday. This is such a precious, timeless lullaby.

Sweet Carolina

What a great way to end an album! It’s almost like Lana’s singing you to sleep. This has such a sweet melody that makes you sleepy because of how comforting it sounds. I’m a really big fan of the second verse – I had a good laugh at how clever Lana was in her rhyming. This is far and away the perfect song to conclude this album.

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Surprisingly, I didn’t cry. It actually made me feel good, especially the song Violets for Roses. NFR is filled with heartbreaking lyrics and really romantic ones that are so good it makes you want to bawl so hard. But in this album, it’s different. I actually felt a lot of different emotions depending on the songs I was listening to. I laughed, *almost* cried, felt at peace, felt the opposite of peace in Dealer, but in general, I loved every song with every beat of my heart. I mean, it’s Lana, how could I not love it? I love everything about her music.

But now, back to the big question: Is Blue Banisters really better than Norman fucking Rockwell!?

Final Verdict

I don’t think that Blue Banisters should be compared to Norman fucking Rockwell altogether. They are both exceptional albums by a phenomenal artist. They have different feel and flavor. NFR is an outstanding album on its own. So is Blue Banisters in its own beautiful way.

At the end of the day, I am so over the moon that Lana has given us a set of new songs we could devour and cry our hearts to. I still personally think that NFR is her best album, although I have a lot of tracks on this album that I like better than some of the tracks on NFR. Maybe I like NFR better because it’s more coherent, unlike on this album that some tracks have different vibe than the others. Although I could listen to this album with a very slim chance of skipping. I’ll definitely listen to this some more and I don’t know how I’ll feel about it in months or years. One things for sure, I’ll love Blue Banisters just like how I love all my favorite albums.

What’s your top 3 favorite songs from Blue Banisters? What do you think of the Album? Let’s chat in the comments!

It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover Book Review + Quotes

I’ve been reading a handful of romance novels for the past months which had me feeling “meh” to “I feel so single it hurts”.

Being in quarantine, I found myself reaching out for books to read again. I would honestly get bored because I’ve been finding ‘okay’ books and I really wanted to find a book I could fall in love again with.

One typical night last March, I was scrolling through TikTok and I found a video about this specific book “It Ends with Us” by Colleen Hoover. There was so much hype in the comment section about how much they loved the book.

I was really intrigued as to why people loved the book so much. I was honestly prepared to be disappointed because nowadays, people hype up something so much and when you read it, it’s not really as good as you thought it would be.

I didn’t want to miss out in case it really proves the hype, so I decided to read it.

Before we dive in to my review, let me give you a little background about the book.

Synopsis:

Sometimes it is the one who loves you who hurts you the most.

Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up—she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true.

Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He’s also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily. And the way he looks in scrubs certainly doesn’t hurt. Lily can’t get him out of her head. But Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. Even as Lily finds herself becoming the exception to his “no dating” rule, she can’t help but wonder what made him that way in the first place.

As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan—her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened.

With this bold and deeply personal novel, Colleen Hoover delivers a heart-wrenching story that breaks exciting new ground for her as a writer. Combining a captivating romance with a cast of all-too-human characters, It Ends with Us is an unforgettable tale of love that comes at the ultimate price.

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(Have you tried reading a book with a background music? This is actually the first time I ever tried that. I played a reading playlist on Spotify that made me connect to the book on a deeper level. You should try it too!)

Now, back the book.

It’s rare for me to fall in love with the first chapter of the book. In this one, I did. It’s the kind of book that you’re excited to know how the story’s going to unfold. I really loved the way Colleen Hoover wrote this book – the sequence of events and the backstory.

One of the main reasons why I loved this book is that it’s realistic. I love stories that you could see happening in real life. It’s something people could actually relate to and learn from.

I mentioned the realistic side because I know a lot of romance fiction with stories that are just too good to be true. Those that come off super cheesy and unrealistically. To be honest, I find it hard to finish reading a book with that kind of story. They have this multiple plot twists that are really unnecessary and could’ve been better off with.

Contrariwise, this book is so well-written, considering the high rating it has on Goodreads (4.8 stars).

If there’s one book I hope people should read at least once in their life, this would be it. I personally learned a lot from this. This book could help a lot more people who reaches the message of this story.

Halfway through finishing the book, I found myself crying while washing the dishes. It was a moment I will never forget, not because of some random chapter from a book, but because I know what I was crying about actually happens in real life too.

This book broke my heart to an extent I didn’t prepare my heart for. I read this book in less than 24 hours because it’s really hard to put it down.

So if you’re looking for a book to add on your TBR list, I really do recommend this one.

I mean it, read it and share it to everyone you know. I feel like a lot of people, especially women, should get the message of this book and keep it inside their hearts.

We, women, are special and should be treated and loved right. No buts.

To wrap this up, I’m going to share some of the lines that resonated with me in this book. I always do this to any book that I read – I jot down the lines that I find beautiful so I can read it anytime and remember why I loved the book so much.

“The last thing I want you to do is lose sight of your limit. Please don’t allow that to happen.”

“I know that you believe he loves you, and I’m sure he does. Bu he’s not loving you the right way. He doesn’t love you the way you deserve to be loved. If he truly loves you, he wouldn’t allow you to take him back. He would make the decision to leave you himself so that he knows for a fact he can never hurt you again. That’s the kind of love a woman deserves.”

“My eyes fill with tears, and not for myself this time. I cry for Ryle. Because even though he’s responsible for the situation he’s in, I know how sad he is about it. And when you love someone, seeing them sad also makes you sad.”

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I give this book a 5-star rating. No doubt.

If you’re going to read this book, please prepare your heart because it’s gonna be broken into tiny little pieces. Prepare your eyes because you’ll cry them out for sure. Lastly, make sure you still have enough tissue to wipe those tears out. Or you could use your blanket like I did.

What are your thoughts about It Ends with Us? Have you read it already? What book should I read next?

I’d love to chat with you in the comments! ❤

Background Photo in Feature Image Credits:
Anika | Chapters of May - Books and Lifestyle Blog via Pinterest

How Prioritizing Mental Health Led Me to Making Better Life Decisions

                Back to the days without COVID, I was that typical college girl who walks around hustling inside the campus while holding papers on one hand and a cup of coffee on the other. Most people don’t really like studying but I actually do. I love to study hard. I love getting no sleep because I was busy perfecting a school project. I love skipping meals because I have org meetings during my vacant time. I didn’t understand why some people hated the school hustle, but I never wanted to know why. Because I had so little time to be finding answers for that.

                If I could describe what my life was like before, it would be “fast-paced”. Lots of things are happening every second and I had to accomplish at least a couple of things every hour. The older I got, the more inclined I became in that lifestyle. Maybe it was the people-pleaser in me? Or did I just simply enjoy what I was doing?

                COVID, oh, COVID. If there was really a silver lining in you, I strongly believe that it’s the realizations in life you imparted on people. In just a span of a year, I completely changed. Turns out that ‘changing for the better’ is unquestionably easier said than done. Transitioning is SO messy. Far, far messier from what I expected.

                I know I’m not alone who spent most nights during the first few months of the quarantine crying my eyes out to sleep because of a really chaotic transitioning phase. From feeling like a bird flying freely, quarantine tore both of my wings and I had nowhere to go from then on. I felt suffocated. I didn’t even want to be around my family. I wanted to leave so badly but I was afraid of catching the virus plus I had nowhere to run to. I had a really bad relationship with my family members that time because I took all of my frustrations out on them. I found myself drowning with all the org tasks and academic papers because it’s the only sense of direction I saw that time. Every tasks accomplished used to always make me feel like I’m moving forward; like I’m a step closer to my destination. But this time, it was different. No matter how many tasks I accomplish, I still feel like I was stuck.

                But everyone’s expecting you to be that student who does everything and never complains – that kept repeating inside my head. It was torture. Whenever I felt like I didn’t want to do something, I had no choice but to do it anyway. Months have passed that I didn’t allow myself to rest because of people’s expectations of me and all I had was a major burnout. I felt really empty that I couldn’t do even a small task anymore.

                I deleted my social media apps. I stopped responding to messages and calls – even to my friends. I just wanted to disappear into a void where no one can see me. I was so ashamed that time because I felt so powerless. I knew my identity was this studious person and a compassionate friend who’s always, ALWAYS there one call or text away. But I just couldn’t be that anymore.

                It was approximately a month of ignoring everyone and my social anxiety just got worse. I realized that maybe it was because I wasn’t dealing with the problem – I was running away from it.

                Eventually, I decided to reply back to some of the messages. It was so hard getting back online and seeing all the unread messages sitting on my inbox. But I had to face it. Days then went on and I felt slightly better. But I never really told anyone why I disappeared.

                The real reason was that, for the first time, I felt tired. For my whole life, I’ve been running around doing this and that for other people’s validation and that was the first time I admitted to myself that I didn’t want to do it anymore. I don’t want to be a people-pleaser anymore. It’s exhausting. That was when I decided to put my mental health first, above anything.

                I expected all the negative responses I got from my family, friends, and my teachers. I’ve accepted it. At some point, we really got to let people down to be able to say yes to ourselves. That was the very first time I told them about what I want for me and not what they want for me.

                6 months later, I caught up with my friend who didn’t enroll for the semester when she found out I wasn’t enrolling too. I looked back to everything that has happened to me for the past one and a half year and I must say, this is the happiest that I’ve become. I’ve been eating right, working out, getting a decent amount of sleep, and I actually had the time to grieve when I needed to. It was something I couldn’t do before because I was too busy doing tasks I wasn’t even getting any sleep. I had no time to cry even when the time I found out my boyfriend was cheating on me. It was like an honest hell on earth.

                Prioritizing my mental health kept me sane. I’m certain that if I didn’t have the courage to let people down, I’d be twice as worse than I was before. I’d be meaner to my family members. I’d be miserable. All that because I’m not letting myself become a human who needs proper day-to-day routine.

                Now, I’m asking you. Do you feel miserable right now? Why is that? Reflect on how have you been treating yourself lately. Are you allowing yourself to rest? If you’re disregarding these rudimentary life routines, that’s a disrespect to yourself. That must be the reason why you hate yourself so much. That must also be the reason why you pose that hate to people around you.

                I am reminding you to please, please look after yourself. Love yourself enough that you will not allow yourself to feel hatred towards yourself. Little steps do matter, and I want you to try taking that step to loving yourself more right now.

                Please, do this for you.

Featured photo source: ADORED VINTAGE June 2018 Lookbook by Briana Morrison via Pinterest.com

Afternoon Appreciation

What’s your favorite time of the day?

Mine’s during the afternoon. As much as I want to become a morning person, I can’t still find myself waking up earlier than my normal waking hours. I don’t like how waking up at 8 am feels like just an hour or two to pull my morning routine altogether. I like slow mornings. However, I tend to be in such a rush to spend my morning moments from 8 am because I usually prepare lunch already at around 10 am. From that time onwards, I just get so busy.

That’s how I grow into loving slow afternoons. Is it just me or does anybody feel that everything just moves slower in the afternoon? I feel like it’s also a quiet time great for self-reflection while sipping a cup of coffee or listening to a music you like.

I usually spend my afternoons snuggling with my cats, taking cool baths, and listening to an inspiring podcast. I don’t always achieve slow mornings and I feel like the afternoon is a chance to fix a bad day. Being in such a rush in the morning, a lot of things could really go wrong. But having a chance in the afternoon to pull yourself together always works for me.

How about you? How do you spend your afternoons?

Let’s Talk About: My 6-month-long Hiatus

I have to be honest, it feels so different to be back & feel like I’m starting all over again.

It’s been half a year – HALF A YEAR – since I disappeared from the blogosphere. I never even said goodbye or announced that I was going on a really long hiatus because I didn’t really anticipate it.

Blogging has been a big part of my life that I just couldn’t imagine a life without it. The real culprit was my busy schedule as a college student, which I totally did not see coming. As much as I wanted to write for the blog, it was either I had no time or I felt so tired to even get myself to write.

Then the pandemic came. I had no reason to say that I had no time or too tired to come up with a blog post but there I was being very anxious to be back. I had that feeling of guilt that I did not say a word before I left and I was unsure if I would still have something to get back to. I literally came to the point where I thought that maybe I should just call it quits.

For a whole two months of being in quarantine, I didn’t visit my blog and I decided to not think about it. I even deleted the WordPress app on my phone. Until one day I just couldn’t take it. I stayed in bed for hours scrolling through my old posts and reading the old comments. I was so jealous of that version of me having people to talk to from around the world. Someone who actually does something productive and shares positivity to the world. I was hurting that I even cried. It was heartbreaking for me.

I tried my best to fight my anxiousness of “not having something to get back to” so I wrote a blog post last month about how I’m trying to overcome anxiety during quarantine through music. Pressing the publish button felt so freeing for me. It’s like I finally broke the wall where I was hiding from and I was so ready to respond to comments, to talk to people again, and be the version of myself I envied just a few days ago.

But it didn’t turn out that way.

I had 4 people who liked my post. One of them was my boyfriend. Which means I brushed my anxiety away only for 3 people. My anxiety just got worse.

That was the time when I finally talked myself down to just quit blogging because maybe it really just wasn’t for me. So I did.

Four days ago, my boyfriend and I got into a huge fight. The typical Ryry move was to go to my blog, pour my heart out into writing or poetry, and publish it on my blog while I’m still crying. Yep, I’m on that dramatic level when I’m hurt. Surprisingly, I wrote a poem. I haven’t written a poem for months even though I forced myself to. That night I just did – for like, fifteen minutes.

I was really shocked that I got myself into writing again for the blog without even thinking about my anxiety. I just straight up wrote and posted it without thinking twice. And it felt REALLY good. I still got 4 likes but it felt different now. I am happy with it. (at least all of them were bloggers and not my boyfriend hahaha)

I realized that I was just lacking inspiration that’s why I couldn’t write before. My mind was busy thinking about other things that I just couldn’t make time for my blog. And I wasn’t mad at my boyfriend anymore because that fight got me into writing again and surprisingly inspired me to write more.

I’m more myself when I write.

Right now, I’m starting to really engage on my blog’s social media accounts which I have been failing on doing before. I’m doing a really good job right now that my recent tweet just blew up and I have met so many amazing bloggers! I can’t be any happier now that I triumphantly pushed my anxiety away.

If you’ve been following me since the previous years of my blog, no, I did not choose to stop blogging or be on that long hiatus. It was a matter of questioning myself and piecing myself back together again. It wasn’t easy. But it was definitely something that I learned so much from.

Being away and having all those thoughts in my head seem to make more sense now. Taking a rest is something any of us shouldn’t feel guilty of doing. I felt guilty about it that’s why I suffered and had breakdowns. But for you, if ever you’re not feeling like writing, NEVER feel bad about thinking to take a break. You deserve it from all the hard work you make.

Trust me, I got through it and I do not regret the rest I have taken 🙂

i almost quit blogging + reasons why // hello ppl im back lol

good news: i wasn’t abducted by aliens or something. i was just not blogging for i-don’t-know-how-long-anymore because of some reasons i definitely think are not that excusable but yeah. shit happens.

first things first, i was out of words. literally no matter how much i force myself to write, i can’t think of anything to write about and it really sucks. that led me to days and days of procrastination aka laziness of coming up with a blog post or even taking pictures for the blog. i guess this blogger’s block loves me so much, it won’t go way no matter how much i want it to.

this matter then led me to late nights thinking how i’m losing myself. it was so horrible. i used to cry because i badly wanted to be a writer, let alone have my very own blog where i can publish my writings, but i can’t go further anymore.

i came to the point where i finally decided that i’m done. i’m done with all of this. i’m done blogging. i’m never good enough so i’m stopping. so i removed the whole blog thing in my head thinking that it would make me feel better not stressing over a new blog post, but it just worsen my anxiety.

i had to calm myself down for weeks and stop the voice in my head for saying negative things about me and i came up with a solution of “starting over again”. the whole concept was planned, i decided to create a new blog. Tbh, it’s already created, the pages were already written, two blog posts were already sitting in my drafts waiting to be published. this morning, my very indecisive self made a decision of not pursuing my new blog and growing this blog instead. heck yeah, i won’t be starting with 0 follower again so why not.

so now i’m back, ignoring the 4 blog posts i wrote about introducing my new blog because i’m sticking to this one. i feel much better now, i guess my break was a great help although it was a roller coaster ride. (lol self promo)

i will not be as active as before since i’ll become busier as a * cough* college student * cough*. but i’ll make sure to write and catch up with everything i’ve missed on.

and hey, if you want me to binge-read your blog just tell me. i’m in desperate need of blogging inspiration right now. 👇 and to all my fave blogs that i haven’t been visiting for months now, wait for me because i’ll be right there eating popcorn reading all your stories, thinking of how much i miss the feeling of being there again.

thanks for always sticking around. y’all are super duper great.

x, mary

Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson (Book Review) // me closely spoiling everything + new addition to my favorites

I am certainly not the type who likes witchcraft stories and most certainly NOT a fan of the idea of bringing your old best friend back to life but nah: I FELL IN LOVE WITH THIS BOOK.

Hello, beautiful people! Welcome back to the blog and to another book review 📚

I actually mentioned last year that I will post this exact review but totally forgot until I saw this on my drafts last week and I’m still confused as to how did that happen.

Anyway, sit back and relax as we disappear from reality and jump into the world of wiccan and magic! * poof *

ABOUT THE BOOK

BOOK TITLE: Undead Girl Gang

AUTHOR: Lily Anderson

GENRE: Young adult fiction, Paranormal fiction

DATE PUBLISHED: May 8, 2018

Synopsis:
Mila Flores and her best friend Riley have always been inseparable. There’s not much excitement in their small town of Cross Creek, so Mila and Riley make their own fun, devoting most of their time to Riley’s favorite activity: amateur witchcraft.
So when Riley and two Fairmont Academy mean girls die under suspicious circumstances, Mila refuses to believe everyone’s explanation that her BFF was involved in a suicide pact. Instead, armed with a tube of lip gloss and an ancient grimoire, Mila does the unthinkable to uncover the truth: she brings the girls back to life.
Unfortunately, Riley, June, and Dayton have no recollection of their murders, but they do have unfinished business to attend to. Now, with only seven days until the spell wears off and the girls return to their graves, Mila must wrangle the distracted group of undead teens and work fast to discover their murderer…before the killer strikes again.

I personally love this book a whole lot. The following are the reasons why I enjoyed reading this so much:

• There is literally NO boring page at all. Every chapter – even a single page – would make you hold on to it a bit more and not put it down til the end.
• I love every single one of the characters. Every person’s background is so distinct and I love their personalities!
• What’s not to like about Girl Gangs???? FIGHT ME.
• The humor in this book is so satisfying it matches the whole outline of the story.
• There are literally live magic activities if that’s what you call it but aaah it’s so cool – Mote it be. 😂 (I don’t even know what that means)
• Lily Anderson will make you understand the real meaning of friendships like you know how obsessive I get when it comes to friendship stories. Give me a tissue.
• A love story or not? Honestly, I don’t want to spoil but ASDFGHJKL why didn’t it end like I wanted to?? But like, the ending is surely better than my ending IF … I don’t want to spoil the ending 😂
• This gave me the vibe of Mean Girls! Mila aka Cady, Riley aka Gretchen, Dayton aka Regina, and June aka Karen. Don’t argue! XD
• I LOVE THE TWIST. Seriously if you ever get me to talk more, I’ll just spoil. I don’t want to do that.
• I love how Mila would do anything (even bring her dead best friend to life again like wow) just to give justice to the wrongly killed. And it’s so clever how Lily Anderson thought of accidentally bringing 2 more girls back to life. Not just ‘girls’ tho – your dead best friend’s dead enemies.
• This book is completely unpredictable. I hate it when I’m only at the middle of reading a book and I know the ending already. This book is definitely not like that.

What’s to hate about this book? I don’t know about you but reading about broken wrists, a head flopping, rotting semi-zombies, skull showing, etc. sounds absolutely gross but that’s really needed in this kind of book so i have don’t have a problem with that.

We all have different views and opinions about a book and maybe you’ll not like this book as much as I did, but I really had fun reading this.

Final Rate

Okay, I remember mentioning in my last review that I wanted a book that’ll make me rate solid five stars to it and I think I just did 🙂

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

That’s all for today – see you on my next post!

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Have you read Undead Girl Gang yet? Would you wanna read it? Do you also like Girl Gangs? Have you seen Mean Girls? You know what to do – let’s chat! ❤

Simple & Easy *but cute* DIY Valentines Day Card

Hello, lovelies! How are you all doing? The weather’s been fabulous this February. it’s getting warmer and warmer and i can’t wait for summer!

But let’s not talk about the weather right now because tomorrow, we will celebrate Valentine’s Day! TBH, I’ve never really been excited about vday before – but now that I’ve developed this really beautiful relationship with myself, I can’t wait to spoil myself with lots of sweets and self care ❤

Today I’m sharing with you my Simple & Easy DIY Valentine’s Day Card to give you design ideas for tomorrow’s occassion. Let’s get started!

THINGS YOU’LL NEED

• Colored Paper/ Construction Paper
• Printed Paper with designs
• Strings
• Glue
• Scissors
• Pens

This DIY will only take 10-15 minutes to make!

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PROCEDURE

Cut out the colored paper in your desired size and fold it in half (mine was 7×3.5 inches so it makes a square when you fold it). Cut out a small heart shape from your printed paper and glue it on the front of your card.

Before proceeding to the next step, make sure you have written your message to your loved one inside your card.

Cut the strings with your desired length (mine was 25.5 inches) and tie it around your card, just like tying a ribbon around a present.

In case you don’t know how to do it:

Start by placing the center of the string vertically on the front part of the card and tie it at the back part. Turn the card around and it should like the second photo.

Lastly, tie it on the front again with a knot like shown in the photo above. And voila!

I told you it was going to be easy peasy 😉 I like making crafts that are super easy to make but at the same time, really cute. I hope you liked this DIY – tell me if you did!

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY TO YOU!

Ryry Diaries: January 2019 // Happy 300+ followers!

Hello, lovelies!

I was really excited to write my first monthly wrap up post this year because January was incredible although it felt like over two months already. Or is it only me?

Since it’s a new year, I thought of changing my wrap ups format and making it a little less complicated because i’m not really a fan myself of super lengthy posts 🙂 Anyway, I haven’t been blogging since mid-January because I was really busy at school! But here I am and what matters is now, right? 😉

LOVES

rainbows

This was a little but at the same time, really amazing because it was a once in a lifetime experience: we literally passed through a rainbow. 🌈 We were in the car, and Aleck suddenly screamed wow because she saw the rainbow really close when we were on that particular bridge. We were too busy looking at it when Father (yep, we’re with the priest) told us that the rainbow was just ahead of us. So we looked straight to the road, and the (omg) foot of the rainbow was RIGHT THERE in front of us!!! Sorry to disappoint you, but there wasn’t a pot of gold 😂

instagram

I finally became active on instagram! I’ve been posting regularly and I never thought I’d like it so much! I met a lot of bloggers whom I can relate to and whom I can get A LOT of inspirations from. It was a great way of getting exposure to my blog too! I also started taking more photos because of it and I appreciated the art of photography more. Do you also have an ig account? Drop your usernames below so I can check out your profiles!

feminism

Ah, one of my advocacies in life. I’m so glad and honoured that I was invited to be featured on the website called Faces of Feminism!! It was a website created by Olivia Bokesch and Callan Burton-Shore where they publish views of the many feminists they gather regarding intersectional feminism to not only inspire women, but also empower them to fight for their equal rights. I can’t wait to submit my writing and finally become part of the Faces of Feminism! I’ll give you guys an update for that soon 🙂

student life

Except that I survived exams, the event my org has been preparing for since last year was a success! I am really happy for how it turned out. All of our efforts and hard work paid off and I’m sure everyone had a good time during the event. Seeing the smiles on their faces was the best thing!

billie eilish

She basically announced her debut album called “When we all fall asleep, where do we go?” and it’s sooo amazing 😍 i just love her and her music so much. The album is coming out on March 29th! I also really like the song she just recently released called “bury a friend” though i really wanted to hear more of her powerful vocals. but it was really dope. luv u billie aaah

ukulele

YAY because I learned lots of new songs to play on the ukulele in just a week! I even wrote a new song and it’s about God and how he’s just always there for us to help us and enlighten our minds. The song really helped me in times when I can’t sleep and all these noises in my head kept me awake at night.

300+ followers!

I announced my love for you all on instagram last month when I finally reached my goal on hitting 300 WordPress followers! Thank you all so much and I love every single one of you. You all mean so much to me ❤

HATES

the temperature

I hate how it’s so cold. You all know how much I love summer and the sun and the heat and this is just the total opposite of those. Luckily, we don’t have snow to make the temprerature drop like crazy because I seriously couldn’t take it anymore especially on early mornings 😭

college entrance exams

It’s funny how my previous post about going to college was so optimistic and excited because I’m really frustrated right now about it -_- I finally chose the school I want to go to, and the exam schedules are really annoying. It’s every second & fourth Fridays but they always have events and the exams were always postponed! I went there really early, took the bus alone for a 2-hour trip and then there were no exams. I hate it.

no books at all

It’s sad how I wasn’t able to read any book last month because I was so busy and I just didn’t have the time. It was even on my resolutions to read more books but I already failed 🙁 Anyway, it’s not really a priority right now (because i still have so much to do), so i just try to get it off my head.

And that ends my li’l monthly diary entry! I hope you like my new format, since this is all I can write in here – I didn’t really have anything else going on due to my hectic schedule.

You know me, this will change over time based on how each month will treat me. January was just a story time month about life because I didn’t have much time blogging or even doing something for the blog right after back to school. Let’s see what Feb brings!

I wonder what I’ll be doing on the 14th 🤔

How about you? Do you have any plans on Valentines Day? Does it snow where you live? Do you miss summer? Do you like billie? (say yes or i’ll-) Are you in college now? What’s it like? Tell me!

PS. Thank you Claire Cramphorn for sending me the original copies of your books! 📚 I have no words for how sweet you are ☺❤

college, fears, and life as we know it.

Some people hate the idea of going to College – or even college itself – but I am definitely NOT one of those people.

2 more months and I’m gonna be 18. Crazy. I don’t even believe it. I’m stuck in this place my whole life and in just a few months, I’ll be leaving. Like, seriously, I’m leaving?!?!

I’m not surprised in a bad way, I’m actually really happily surprised that I’m actually gonna live differently. Like, I finally get to have a new daily routine. A very different one.

I’ve always been afraid of traveling alone. Taking the bus alone. Living alone. Being alone in a crowd. But all of that – in a few months – I’m gonna have to deal with and I’m not even scared. And how am I not scared? I don’t know either.

It’s like I’ve always wanted in my whole life to restart. To go to some place new for a long time, meet new people, have a different lifestyle, deal with the real world and deal with it alone.

I’ve always been scared. But I’ve always been brave enough to face what I’m scared of, too.

This is the real world. This is not like stepping into my old school and being carefree because my house (and actually my mom) is just one block away. College is way harder. How you spent your college will have a correlation to the career you want to pursue. And I think life starts after college. So I can’t mess this up. I can’t mess this all up.

That’s why I’m SO excited to go out there and finally face my fears. I’ve waited so long for something challenging to arrive so I can be that strong and independent woman I’ve always wanted to become. Because I can’t be that person if I’m always confined in a place I’m never ever been afraid of. I’m striving for something that will flourish me, that will help me with my growth as a person.

I can’t believe I’m turning 18. I can’t believe I’m going to college. I can’t believe I’m leaving.

But there’s just one thing I’m certain of: I’ve never been this excited before.