Free People: Bike Girls PT. 2

images via Free People

Free People: Bike Girls PT. 1

images via Free People

Six Bands You NEED To Know!

Thousand Foot Krutch - "War of Change" If you haven't heard of Thousand Foot Krutch by now you definitely need to check them out. I tried to score an interview with them a while back, but unfortunately they were leaving to go on tour in Europe.

Halestorm - "I Miss The Misery" I love when women are in the forefront of rock bands, afterall my first concert ever was Evanescence, and Halestorm is no exception. They've been around since 2009 and are still making insanely amazing music.

10 Years - Wasteland 10 Years is one of those groups you can't help but fall in love with. They're an alternative metal group that has been around since 1999 and while this is one of their best known songs, I love all of their music.

IN THIS MOMENT - "Blood" This is another talented group with a female lead singer and while IN THIS MOMENT has definitely had some ups and downs since their start in 2005, they're back now with a completely new sound!  

Young Guns - "Bones" Now it wouldn't be fair to showcase bands only from the U.S. and Young Guns is one of those groups hailing from the U.K. that I hope they're able to crossover to America A.S.A.P! 
Evans Blue - "Beyond The Stars" Canadian group Evans Blue hails from Canada and they've been creating alternative music since 2005. They're another super talented group that I hope makes the jump across the pond soon!

Happy Friday!

image via lashes & bones

Hope everyone is having an amazing Friday! I'm beyond excited for the three day weekend! My roommate and I are going finally going thrifting tomorrow! Hell yea! So I'll be sure to share my finds!

Hot Topic Thursday: Is America the Greatest Country in the World?

I stumbled across this video not too long ago. I really liked the dialogue in this discussion because it's so raw and honest. You can see how his words challenge the way we think, and lead the audience to question why it is that we believe what we believe. As American's I feel that we get coddled all the time, often times by the influential people in our life. Our teachers or parents will tell us how lucky we are to grow up in the ‘home of the free’. Yet, people from all over the world are just as lucky and often grow up in a similar situation to ours, in terms of freedom, if not a better one.

What did you think of the video? Has your opinion of America changed? Do you think America is the greatest country in the world?

Children With Swag

images via tumblr.

I stumbled across Children With Swag the other day and upon seeing the first few pictures I was hooked! I ended up clicking through this tumblr for hours! These little tykes are dressed to the nines and all of them are extremely cute. So basically if you need some entertainment in your life and want to drool over some adorbale kiddos this is literally the perfect time waster :]

Is Destiny's Child Back Together??

If you haven't heard the rumors circling around the internet by now I'll let you know what's up. Apparently, Destiny's Child has teamed up with producer Pharrell to sing their first song together in eight years. The song "Nuclear" [above] has a kind of R&B feel, but I'm not all that in love with the track. Sure it sounds nice, but I thought they would come back with some fire or something! Not this sappy stuff, but hey I'm no musician. Now, many people are super excited to hear what else this group has come up with when they release their rather unexpected album Love Songs on the 29th. But after doing some research of my own on the album, I was disappointed to find that Love Songs is nothing more than a compilation of the trio's 'romantic' songs from 1997 to 2004 plus their new song "Nuclear". 

Not the greatest plan for getting your music back on the map, but it does make for good publicity! After all  the trio is set to perform together for part of Beyonce's half time show. Hopefully they pull this off because the acts they have been putting up there lately have been the reason I change the channel. Sorry (but not really) Madonna, Fergie, Tom Petty and everyone else. Ever since the infamous wardrobe malfunction of '04 (Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake) the show has kind of been a snooze-fest. Although I can't lie, I mostly watch the show for the commercials haha. 

What about you guys though? Do you watch for the game, the commercials  or the halftime show?

Tasty Tortilla Soup in ten minutes or less!

Just a quick recipe on how to make tortilla soup! I love this recipe because it involves virtually no cooking! Just chop up the veggies, add it to the broth, and viola! Instant soup.

Here's what you'll need:

Corn ■ Jalopeno Peppers (2) ■ Red Chili Powder
Blackbeans ■ Rotel (3) ■ Vegetable Broth

Cilantro ■ White Onion ■ Limes (3) 

Serrano Peppers (4) ■ Garlic

1. Put the vegetable broth in a pot and turn the heat to simmer.

2. Chop all vegetables. Put the "hard" ones into the pot of broth first.

I find that they take longer to cook so I usually put the onions and peppers in first to cook.

3. Then start adding the other stuff. I typically get canned vegetables when I can so in this case drain the corn and the beans before you add it to the pot, but keep the juice from the canned Rotel for more flavor!4. Add the chopped up cilantro and garlic. Stir all the vegetables and raise the heat to boiling point.5. Let the pot cook for 7 minutes or so, or until the onions are cooked to desired level of crunchiness.6. Add four or five sprinkles of red chili powder, and squeeze in the lime juice.7. Stir. Let cook for one minute and then your food is ready!8. Feel free to garnish with cilantro or cheese.

►Done!◄ 

Untamed Youth.

 images via Paul Ward

Sorry for not posting for so long! Things have been really crazy for me lately but I'm back now! 

I stumbled across this website Dairy of Ward. It features the life of super talented photographer Paul Ward who's based in South Africa. I really liked these photos because they reminded me of how rowdy my friends and I got last night. We all got together to celebrate my sisters 21st birthday! The night kicked off at midnight and then things started to get really crazy. The thing was we were only in the bar for an hour or so? But somehow we ended up getting on karaoke and singing Vicente Fernadez, becoming best friends with the bartender, dancing all over the place, basically going crazy and having a kickass time. It was wicked fun and by some miracle no one woke up with a hangover this morning. Pretty amazing right? Hahaha. Hope everyone's having a good day!

Just Sayin'

image via tumblr.

Seven Songs to Kick Off Your Saturday!

MGMT - "Electric Feel"

This song is really more like a feel good anthem. Every time I hear it I just have to get up and do something. If you're cleaning up this Saturday this song will be sure to motivate you to get things done. 

Krewella - "Alive"

You can't help but love the melody of this song. The catchy lyrics and upbeat tempo is perfect for a late night dance party or if you just want to grab some friends and dance around your living room.

Grimes - "Genesis"

This video is downright awesome and offers quite a lot of style inspiration. Grimes has been on the scene for quite some time and with catchy melody's like this she's not going anywhere anytime soon. 

Austin Brown - "Menage A Trois"

Newcomer Austin Brown's catchy melody is sure to make want to you move your feet this morning. Oh, and if you need some new dance moves Austin provides plenty of those in this music video.

Lana Del Rey - "Blue Jeans"

Definitely one of the top songs last year. And while you may not think that this song is "catchy" per se you have to admit that there is something about this video that will make you want to watch it again. 

Linkin Park - "Lost In The Echo"

Guess what? They're back and better than ever. This video was really well done, and while I'm not entirely sure what's going on the heartfelt lyrics from this song definitely make you want to hear more.

Eve 6 - "Curtain"

This video was so cool that I couldn't help but share it. Not only is the beat catchy, but Matt did all of this in one take while walking backwards! I had to watch it again after I saw it the first time!

5 Minute DIY: Making Flowers Out of Paper Towel Rolls

Just a quick post on how to make these flowers. They're all over the wall in our apartment and a friend of mine asked me to do a quick tutorial over how to make them. It'll take you five minutes.

You'll need: paper towel rolls, scissors, a stapler & some push pins.

Cut the roll into sections. I made mine kind of skinny, but you can make yours bigger if you like. 

When you've finished cutting the roll it will look something like this.

Lay out the rolls so you can kind of see the flower pattern.
I think it looks best when you use five or six pieces.

Grab your two pieces and hold them.

Staple the two pieces together. 
Try and get the staple close to the end of the roll.

Repeat the process until it looks something like this.

Then staple the last two pieces together.

Your flower is now ready to hang!

Need Awesome Album Artwork? Check out Coverlandia

Lana Del Rey - Born to Die

Will.i.am & Britney Spears - Scream & Shout

Lady GaGa - Born This Way

We've all run across the problem of iTunes being unable to get the album artwork for a particular song, or the official artwork just looks terrible. Coverlandia is a place where over 900 artists from all over the world get together and design album covers for songs. I've been going to this site for quite some time and all of the covers are done extremely well. The coolest part is that there are tons of covers to choose from and it's all free! Be sure to check them out!