A Few of My Favorite Things

So I decided since I'm still testing out the waters with this whole blogging thing that I would make a post about a few of my favorite things at the moment. I figured that writing about them would help me start getting some creative juices flowing and at the same time help you all start getting to know me a bit better.

I'll start off with this great little book that my mom bought the other day.

My mom has always been a health-freak, and for that I'm really grateful because it's rubbed off on me as well! It's been especially useful now that I've started going to college (or, for some, university) and have had to make food decisions on my own. That newfound independence and all those god forsaken free cookies at every event made the "Freshman 15" an inevitable fact of life. But, instead of wallowing in despair I've decided to take it upon myself to make a difference and start anew on my pre-college healthy lifestyle. So, in part because of this and in part because both my mother and sister are vegetarians, this book arrived at our home. I highly recommend it! Its got great snacks, desserts, and smoothies that can all (as the title insinuates) be made with just raw ingredients. Perfect for anybody in a rush or, in my case, anybody that isn't allowed a kitchen in their dorm room! One of my favorite treats that is so easy to make that I can describe it to you right now is created with dates and walnuts. All you have to do is cut open the date, take out the seed (if it has one) and replace it with a couple of walnuts (which are my favorite type of nut- yes, I know how bad that sounds). It's SO sweet and can really calm your sweet tooth craving by substituting a far less healthy chocolate bar.

Something you should know about me before I continue is that I'm a major bookworm. Ever since I was six years old and my mother handed me a copy of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" I've been in love with words and stories. My room at home is nearly bursting with books and I'm running out of places to put them. One of my favorite Christmas presents was actually a copy of the travel book "1,000 Places to See Before You Die" since it coupled two of my passions- reading and travel. However for this post I want to share two of my favorite childhood books that I read in the 5th and 7th grade, respectively. The first is "The Phantom Tollbooth" and the second is "Haroun and the Sea of Stories".

I recently started re-reading "Haroun and the Sea of Stories" and was so impressed by the level of writing, creativity, and magic that were interlaced throughout the pages, aspects I couldn't really appreciate as a 13-year-old. I could see what my younger self had found appealing about the book, with it's crazy characters and adventurous plot, but I was so happy to know that I could enjoy it in a whole new way as a 19-year-old, and hopefully in the years to come. Similarly, I was more readily able to understand the nuances, jokes, and puns in "The Phantom Tollbooth" the second time around. I just really love these books more than most (even though my all-time favorite is Harry Potter- I am such a nerd for that series) and really recommend them to readers of all ages, because they have something for everyone.

Lastly, I just want to show off my brand new guitar that I just got! I am SO crazily addicted to it. My last guitar was a basic Yamaha nylon string but this new one is a Little Martin LX1 (the same type of guitar that Ed Sheeran uses- aka my musical idol). I've been playing guitar for a little over four years now (most of which I spent in high school playing with the classical guitar ensemble) and I'm moving into learning a lot of contemporary songs that are just so much fun to play. My current goal is to learn how to play Angelina by T. Emmanuel, which is played so beautifully by this YouTuber here. 

And that's it for this post! It got a little long anyways, woops. I hope you enjoyed learning a little bit about me and these favorite things of mine. x