Sunday Funday: August 17/14

Image Credit: 84thand3rd via PhotoPin CC

Hi there! Oh my goodness, it's been a crazy, crazy week. With all the blog mayhem, I'm so glad to be back. I've really missed you guys and I'm not going to lie, I was distancing myself from all things blogging-related because I was slightly depressed about the suspense I was in concerning my own blog. Thankfully, all of that's been resolved now (thank God) and we're back up and running!

And that makes me really, very happy.

Now that that's out of the way, how about I enlighten you on what I've been up to this past week? Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.

On Monday, I finally got my lazy butt to the gym after skipping out way too often this summer. It's funny because I thought that with all the time on my hands, I'd be going to the gym more than every, but that really wasn't the case. I guess I was just suffering from a lot of sleep deprivation over the school year, but since I was always going somewhere and always, always had something to do that meant that I had to get out of the house or would suffer consequences if I didn't do it, I guess I didn't really feel it.

So for the past two-three weeks, I've gone to the gym about twice per week, which is absolutely awful, really. I only have two more weeks to change this, so I'm crossing my fingers once again that it works out. I think another problem with working out this summer is that there's always something to celebrate or someone to hang out with, always interrupting my workout schedule. I mean, I really shouldn't be using excuses (and neither should you!) so I'll hush and just improve because that's all I can do. No use crying over spilled milk.

Anyway, so on Monday, I had a really awesome workout session and then kind of stopped for the rest of the week because I was just insanely busy. Okay, insanely tired on Tuesday and Thursday, but busy on all the other days.

Official Promotional Photo

Taylor Swift finally made her big announcement that she'll be doing a livestream tomorrow at 5 on Yahoo. When she showed the third clue which was a Yahoo page, I immediately Googled to see if they did livestreams or not, and since I got an affirmative answer, it wasn't a shock to me at all, but it still got me really, really excited. Two years ago, she announced Red on my birthday, the 13th, so I knew that something was bound to come sometime soon.

Speaking of my birthday, I celebrated that on Wednesday with my best friend and brother, as well as my family for dinner. The three of us just went all over town shopping, eating, and basically just hanging out. It was the best time and most definitely the best birthday I'd ever had. There were plenty of things that could've dampened by mood that day, but I didn't let it. 

I think the most important thing in life is just acknowledging that yes, there are things that can put you in a really bad mood, but not letting them affect you. For me personally, I don't think that completely ignoring all the bad things is a good idea because things can always be improved to a certain degree and if you ignore all bad things, you eventually stop seeing the beauty in the good. 

I just got really deep there, didn't I?

But yeah, it was just a really fun day. I woke up and followed The Oatmeal Artist's Elvis Oatcake Stack recipe and made the most amazing batch of them. I've only made them perfectly once before where the milk to oats ratio was just perfect. Did I also mention that Lauren from that very blog tweeted me back wishing me a happy birthday? That brought a smile to my face.

Since we live on opposite ends of town, we first went to the mall closest to my house and we got our new school backpacks, which I will unveil in a back to school supplies post, but just a hint - they're from Zumiez.

Then, we went for lunch at this really awesome healthy vegetarian restaurant where I just had the best lunch. I really try to make an effort to eat clean, so this was just perfect.

It might not look very appetising in the photo, but that's just because I'm not particularly talented in the scooping-food-and-placing-it-beautifully-on-my-plate-at-buffets department. If you're curious as to what I had, in clockwise order from the pile of green at the top left, I had a kale salad, a quiche, some creamy pasta, and an avocado salad. Basically heaven on a plate.

After that, we bused over to her side of town and we headed to this cute little bakery with this sign in front of it...

I thought it was just perfect.

We had a freaking expensive but absolutely delicious slice of carrot cake to end the day and I couldn't have asked for better company on my birthday, really. Just the best.

Afterwards, my brother and I bused home and the poor guy was feel asleep on the way home. Once we arrived, I just crashed on my bed and browsed online for a while until my parents came home to go out for dinner. We went to my favourite Thai restaurant in town and it was just heavenly. So, so good.

I couldn't get very good pictures due to the restaurant's extremely dim lighting, but I managed to snap one of the pad thai and the green curry with Thai pancakes.

Birthday aside (the post will be up on Monday, by the way), there were a few other things that happened this week, one being the release of TRXYE, Troye Sivan's new EP.

And holy crap it's amazing.

I've really only heard not-so-positive reviews from one person - you know who you are ;) - but I'm so in love with the EP. It's not really what I listen to as I tend to go for indie pop/rock like Bastille and Arctic Monkeys and other more acoustic artists like Gabrielle Aplin as opposed to this funky electronic masterpiece that is Troye's new album.

If you didn't read last week's Sunday Funday where I talked about him, he's basically a YouTuber who started out in 2007 making singing videos, but then moved to vlogging with the occasional singing video in 2012 when he only had 27K subscribers. Now, he's kind of blown with over 2.5 million. 

On Friday, he released his EP and I listened to all five songs and just fangirled really, really hard. I'm just so proud of him because it's his first like legitimate piece of music and it's already reached #1 in 55 countries, which is just insane.

Can I just say that this is first? Unbelievable.

On the music front of the EP, it was incredibly hard to pick a favourite because all the songs are just so amazing and are all really dark which is surprising considering how cheerful he seems in his videos, but I managed. "Touch" is probably my favourite because it's a bit happier about that electrifying feeling of being close to a crush, but "Fun" and "Gasoline" are both really amazing as well. "Fun" is a hell of a lot darker than the title suggest and "Gasoline" is just kind of heartbreaking, just like his cover of "Heartbreak Girl" by 5SOS.

TOUCH

FUN

GASOLINE

So basically, go check out his new EP, you won't regret it. 

Another thing that happened this past week was me checking of a couple more things off of my summer to-do list. I'm exactly halfway through the list now and I'm planning on crossing a hell of a lot more this upcoming week with my crazy redecoration, sewing, and celebratory plans. As usual, I will be keeping you guys up to date on that as well.

Are you excited about Taylor's big announcement on Monday? How do you often celebrate your birthday? What do you think of Troye Sivan? Please, if you're a fan, leave me a comment below so we can fangirl together. I'm being a 100% serious. (Do you get the reference?)

Thank you so much for reading!

- J

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