Autoharp

i have been desperately trying to find some autoharp songs because that instument has to be one of the most beautiful instruments EVER!
if you don't know what an autoharp is, there will be one in a video i'll post on this blog a little ways on.
the first time i heard an autoharp was during the movie "A Series of Unfortunate Events"
it used to be my favorite movie, just because it was so different from any other movie i had ever seen when it came out.
if you are familiar with this film, then you may remember the scene where the children's uncle plays an autoharp for them.
when i saw that scene for the first time in the theatre, i loved it!
so many notes and beautiful chords!
here is the scene:

so beautiful right?♥
anyway, when i first saw it, i thought it was awesome, but i didn't really look into it that much.
recently i bought the score for "500 Days of Summer" and it is so awesome!
there is a song in it though that has an autoharp and this song helped me re-discover the autoharp.
here is the song:

when i heard the song i instantly knew it was the same instrument in "Series" but i didn't know what it was called.
i asked my mom and she told me (yay mom!)
since then, i've looked up videos on people playing this instrument and i can't get enough!
so i am seriously considering saving up some money and buying one, because that would be SO AWESOME!
that is my latest obsession, i hope you can enjoy it like i have
love, Katie♥

Like Crazy

please be aware that this post has spoilers, so if you have not seen this movie and want to watch it without having the end ruined for you, wait until you've seen the movie.

This movie was very interesting.
It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either.
It was choppy and seemed to be fast paced, but the lack of music and movement made it slow, which is very appropriate if you ask me.
here's the story in case you've never heard of this movie:

Anna and Jacob are two college students in LA and they get together.

Anna is from the UK and overstays her Visa, so she gets banned from the US.

They start to drift apart, but several times they come back together again.

The couple gets married in hopes to lift the ban, but no luck.

Eventually the ban does get lifted, but by this time Anna and Jacob have

fallen apart again.

Anna tells Jacob the ban is lifted and he tells her to come back to America

to live with him. Unfortunately, when Anna goes to America, they both realize that

they simply don't like each other anymore and Anna goes home.

so the fact that the movie is slow is appropriate to me because, us as the viewers are supposed to be waiting and waiting to see them get back together, just like the characters in the movie.

my theory as to why it ultimately didn't work out between them is because they didn't actually like each other as much as they thought they did. when they first get together, the mood is about infatuation and being in the moment. they didn't have time to get out of that phase before they were seaparated, so that is all they thought their relationship was.

they were also not committed to each other. every time they got back together, they would ask each other if they had been seeing anyone else and even asking if they'd slept with someone else! (?) they clearly didn't care about the relationship enough to refrain from being unfaithful to one another.

the director did a very good job of easing the audience into believing that they didn't like each other anymore. when they were together again, a little bit of that infatuation from the beginning is chiseled off and in the end, the mood is opposite of the beginning, awkward and wrong.

to me, i never felt that they were actually in love. that what you're supposed to believe right at the beginning, but i also wonder if maybe it was meant to seem like they weren't in real love, or if the chemistry between the actors didn't really click. the feeling could have been to forshadow the future events.

when i first saw the trailer for this movie, i bought that they were in love and that the movie would have more on why they were in love and show how they grew to love each other. when i saw the movie i found that their relationship was all about the physical aspect of it, and they didn't really get to know each other as people. it was interesting to see the different atmospheres between the trailer and the actual movie.

my mother was starting to go Like Crazy because they would keep getting back together despite them losing interst in one another. here's what i think explains why they kept getting back together despite them losing interest in each other: at the very end of the movie before Anna left, it showed them hugging and having flashbacks to their good memories, and i think that those memories are all they hold onto in the relationship. i then think back to when they would be contemplating whether they should get back together and i imagine them playing those good memories in their mind and wanting those feelings again. so at the end when they look over all the time they've spent together, they almost decide that they just can't get those feelings back anymore and she leaves.

ultimately, it's just a sad "love" story, but there is a lot to learn from it. you can learn that not moving on can be really dangerous and harmful not only to you, but to those around you. you can learn that being faithful in a relationship is a lot more important than what society tells us. and lastly, you can learn that a successful relationship is more than what the good feelings make it.





2 week!!♥

so it has been two weeks since i combed my hair and it has been super awesome so far!
this second week i have been separating my hair A LOT because it's starting to tangle all together and i do not want that :P
so here are a couple pictures!

i took a whole bunch of pictures
so i won't post them all
but here are a couple :)

i was looking at this photo
and my hair looks a lot different
than it did a week ago!

i have about 4 or 5 sections
really startin to knot up.
the photo below shows one of them

alrighty!

so 2 weeks!

i will post again next week!

love, Katie♥

Beautiful Voices- Male Musical Artists

a couple posts ago, i had two posts stating "beautiful faces"
so i decided that i wanted to do it with musical artists as well, but more focused on their voice.
i may at times talk about their faces too :)
here are my top 5 beautiful voices

number 5: Kevin Jonas

who he is: oldest member of the Jonas Brothers

first heard: "It's About Time"

yes, i was a huge fan of the Jonas Brothers, and i still am! :)

Kevin only sang back-up vocals through the Jonas Brothers' career together,

but he had one song that he sang lead for that was on their tv show.

it was called Scandinavia Listen

i had never heard his voice solo before and it was awesome!

number 4: Brandon Flowers

who he is: lead singer of the Killers

first heard: "Somebody Told Me"

i have been a fan of Brandon's voice since i first heard it.

aside from being in the Killers, he's got a solo album which has the song "Crossfire" which is one of my favorite songs ever! the music video is really cool too! watch

number 3: Jason Castro

who he is: 3rd runner up on the 7th season of American Idol

first heard: American Idol

my previous post has a little bit about Jason Castro in it.

he has a very soft voice, but it's confident and smooth.

he is also the reason i started playing the ukulele♥

number 2: Danny Donoghuh

who he is: lead singer of the Script♥

first heard: "The Man Who Can't Be Moved"

i remember the first time i heard that song, i was on my way to go skiing

and when i got home i listened to that song over and over again!

i couldn't get enough, i still can't get enough!

he really gets into his music, which makes his voice absolutely beautiful

here is an example of how he gets into the mood and music watch

number 1: Greg Laswell

nuff said :)



Dreadlocks

i am fond of dradlocks. i think they are absolutely beautiful.
so natural and different.
i first noticed how much i liked dreadlocks when i watched Jason Castro on American Idol.

i like his voice a lot and i thought it was that his was the way it was. as the season of American Idol progressed and Jason got farther and farther into the competition, they would show little interview clips before the contestant's performance. Jason would sometimes talk about his hair, and i found myself hoping every week that he would talk about his hair. i didn't do any research on them until i went to the state fair in 2010. there were so many people with dreadlocks at the fair, i was so happy that i could see dreadlocks in person rather than tv.
after the fair, i started doing research on dread and i started considering having dreads myself.
after a lot of research and preparation, i finally got dreadlocks on December 15, 2010. (back combed my hair tightly in sections) unfortunately, they kept falling out, not completely, but there was so much lookse hair, it didn't even look like dreads anymore. i kept back combing, but the same results kept happening.
so exactly a month later (not long at all i know, but i was losing confidence fast), January 15, 2011 i combed my hair out.
i was heartbroken.
in May of 2011 i decided to try the dreads again, but this time i was going to try the natural method. (keeping the hair clean, but not combing or touching it)
i only made it 3 weeks.
i wanted immediate results, so i got frustrated and gave up.
i was angry at myself for not being patient (i was having some self-esteem issues at the time, which i think greatly contributed to my failure)
amazingly, in 2011, i learned to love myself a lot, something i had been trying to accomplish for a long time.
sooo that whole story was to lead up to my saying, i'm trying again!
third time's a charm right? ;)
i'm going with the natural method.
i haven't combed my hair for a week now and it's so messy!
i am now on a journey of practicing patience and i am so much more determined this time!

1 week

well wish me luck! :)

love, Katie♥

What's On My Wall

i have a total of 89 magazines in my possession. (a lot i know)
there are lost of different kinds
quite a variety: Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire, W, Vanity Fair, Nylon, Teen Vogue, Instyle, Lucky, and Entertainment Weekly.
why have i kept them all?
because every few months, i take a couple of days to go through ALL of them
and i ALWAYS find something new that i wouldn't have found if i had gotten rid of them earlier.
i also leave some untouched so i can look back at them and wonder why i wanted to wear the clothes in them. (a lot of the clothes are really weird looking though :P)
back in November was the last time that i went through my magazines and i hung up all of the pictures i liked on my bedroom wall.
so in this post, and various future posts, i will share some pictures i like.
here is the picture:

(sitting) Marc Jacobs, Kate Moss and Justin Timberlake

there is one part about this picture that i really like.

the picture as a whole is really cool, but this part that i'm about to say is what made me want to put it on my wall.

and it's not Justin :P

it's Kate Moss' pose, from the walking legs, to the arched back into her arm flowing down into Justin's hand. it looks flawless, like a ballerina :) graceful and light.

the way Justin is holding Kate's hand is also really cool, so gentle.

now i like Marc Jacobs, but i honestly think his presence in this picture is just awkward.

this way his arms are around Kate's knees is more robotic than effortless.

he looks like a third wheel to me :P

the expression on his face however makes him look somewhat like he belonged in the photo. you can't really see it here, but if you click on the picture then you can see it better.

i don't think he ruined the picture though, so that's good. (if you think differently, please let me know!) :)

so that is one of the many pictures on my wall!

hope you liked it

Love, Katie♥

Beautiful Faces- Actresses

this very similar to my last post but i'm going to talk about actresses instead of actors.
i found it difficult to pick the top 5 most beautiful acresses, because i find a lot of acresses just gorgeous.
so i picked 5 that i really like :)
here we go!

number 5: Charlotte Gainsbourg

first seen- Melancholia

although i was not a very fond of Melancholia, i found Charlotte very beautiful in that movie.

she played a woman who reacted how a lot of us would react if a planet 10 times the size of earth was going to collide with us: scared. she portrayed that character very well.

the way she carries herself is intersting too. just go look at some of her red carpet photos.

she's also in music, weird music at that, but strangly, it's catchy.

one of my favorite music videos is hers.

click here if you would like to see it.

number 4: Carey Mulligan

first seen- Pride and Prejudice

there is something very unique about Carey, she always comes off as a very gentle, soft, and humble person, which is refreshing. she has come a long way since Pride and Prejudice, and i think she deserves the attention she has aquired, she is very talented.

a couple years ago i saw a picture of her in Vogue with the cutest pixie cut,

so i went and chopped off 13 inches of my hair (probably won't do that again, short haircuts are not for me :P)

she, however, pulls off the short cut wonderfully

number 3: Rachel McAdams

first seen- Red Eye

goodness, she is pretty, and she has the ability to play all sorts of different parts.

talented.

she has this charm about her that draws you in, she makes you believe what she is:

you hate her in Mean Girls, you love her in The Notebook, and you fear for her in Red Eye.

she keeps you guessing

number 2: Jessica Chastain

first seen- The Help

i'm sad to say that The Help is the only movie i've ever seen her in, but she did wonderfully in that movie.

 her character was so honest and beautiful, and the things she went through, i think that a lot of women can relate to that.

not to mention she is gorgeous!

number 1: Michelle Williams

first seen- Shutter Island

when i first say Michelle in Shutter Island i thought, i have to find out who that is!

and i did :)

even though she's completely mad in that movie, i thought she was stunning when you first see her in that floral sun dress.

she played the very beautiful Marilyn Monroe in My Week With Marilyn. she is the reason i started doing research on Marilyn and becoming a huge fan!

so Michelle, thank you for being awesome :)

there you have it!

i would love to know what your top five are, so leave a comment!

love, Katie♥