Tag: favorite

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Friday Favorites | Jan. 23 – 29, 2020

Karissa

Hello friends!

I’m here to share this week’s favorites! A lot of YouTube videos made me laugh or were especially interesting this week – and Jenna Marbles was a very common theme as well!

1. Come Watch More Of My Favorite Tik Toks With Me – Jenna Marbles: I’m not a Tik Tok person, but Jenna Marbles always knows how to make me laugh!  She shares some of the funniest, weirdest Tik Toks she’s found and has me giggling alongside her! I think my favorite is the one in the thumbnail of the man and the plastic fork.

2. I Took My Guide Dog On A Cruise Ship For A Week! – Molly Burke: The thing I love about Molly is that she’s not shy to share what being blind is like.  I thought showing how having a guide dog on the cruise worked, as well as just being blind in general was fascinating. Additionally, I learned a lot about cruise ships from the captain!

3. Emma’s Theme – Jennifer Morrison: There’s always some sort of song that I love to listen to, and this week is no different! This song is from the TV show Once Upon a Time, and is very powerful.  I always adore a good piano and strong female voice.

4. Podcast #262 – Playing Incohearent – Jenna & Julien Podcast: This podcast episode is about playing a game called Incohearent, where you get a series of words and syllables and have to guess the phrase by saying the syllables out loud together. I was absolutely cackling when I could tell what they were saying but they couldn’t – especially when they were sharing the “kinky” phrases!

5. Playing Episode: Love Life – Jenna Marbles: As you can tell, Jenna is one of my absolute favorite YouTubers and she makes me laugh in every video.  I wanted to share this one because it had me giggling with the absolute ridiculousness of the game and their responses!

What did you love this week?

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Friday Favorites | Jan. 16 – 22, 2020

Karissa

Hello friends!

I’ve decided that instead of having a monthly wrap up of my favorite things, I’d rather share a weekly wrap up that is smaller and more focused on what I’ve really been enjoying for the week!  I tend to forget things as the month goes on, so having to think in terms of weeks will hopefully make me remember those things that I’ve been loving so much!

1. Being ‘the disabled one’ in university – One thing that I really love about Jessica’s channel is that she’s incredibly honest and upfront about her disabilities. Her stories are always so fascinating, but she makes it difficult to feel bad due to her cheery attitude. This is a bit more of a downer than usual, but it’s something I think is important to discuss and understand.

2. Finding ABH Riviera at Marshall’s – I have been in love with the Riviera color story for forever, but could never bite the bullet and pay full price. Well, I didn’t have to! Shopping at Marshall’s last weekend, I found this palette on sale for $24.99!  I was so unbelievably excited that I had to share it here as well – a definite favorite moment of the week!

3. This quote:

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4. Lauren DellaFera’s 2020 Declutter Series – Lauren has been a favorite YouTuber of mine since she started her YouTube channel, and her declutter series are always my favorite of them all!  She’s got videos going up for the entire week – the video linked below is the first of five.

What did you love this week?

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Monthly Favorites | November 2019

Karissa

Hello friends!

November has been quite the roller coaster month for me.  I was incredibly busy and had some personal things come up that really threw a wrench in my life. Still, I found quite a few things that really stood out to me as favorites that I wanted to share with you all!

Music:

Halocene: I accidentally stumbled across Halocene from their video about The Masked Singer stealing a cover of “Bad Guy” that they did, and I’ve been addicted to their music since then!  They do a lot of popular song covers, and have their own songs as well.  They’re a rock band, so if that’s your type of music I highly recommend!

What is Love? by Frances: I’ve heard Frances before and really enjoy her voice, so I wasn’t surprised that I fell in love with this song and had it on repeat for the month.  It’s from the 50 Shades of Grey soundtrack, and has a gorgeous melancholy sound that I just adore in my music.

Videos:

Fast Beauty Is the New Fast Fashion & It Isn’t Sustainable: If you want to have your eyes opened to what the mass amounts of makeup being produced is doing to our planet, watch this!  I definitely felt uncomfortable thinking about the way that fast makeup has taken over and that we as consumers don’t realize what the cost of it really is.

I’m Making a Magical Shrine for this Huge Crystal!: I’m always a sucker for some nerdy crafting, and this video is no exception!  NerdForge makes some epic masterpieces, and I just love watching her vision come to life.  She’s pretty handy; being able to use various power tools, create lighting, and turn Styrofoam into a landscape that looks real.

I Gained Weight. Let’s Talk About It!: If you’ve never seen Pixielocks, her videos are usually very fun, upbeat, and pink.  This time, she shares a lot of personal things about her life including mental health and weight gain.  I thought this was an incredibly body positive video that really made me feel good about myself – if you’re looking to feel better about your own body, I’d recommend checking this out!

How to Reject the Diet Mentality & Does Losing Weight Improve Health?: Apparently I was on a roll for body positive videos this month!  Abbey Sharp is a dietitian who talks a lot about the benefits of intuitive eating and how diet culture affects people.  She’s doing a series on intuitive eating, and this is the first episode – it definitely made me think about what I’m surrounded with in terms of diets & food, but also listening to my body.

What did you love in November?

Monthly Favorites | November 2019 - A Midwest Belle

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Holiday 2019 Sephora Favorites Kits [Makeup/Skincare] | IS IT WORTH IT?

Karissa

Hello friends!

I absolutely love holiday gift kits.  They’re how I get a lot of my new makeup to try, and really they’re just so much fun!  Also, when you have as much makeup as I do, minis tend to feel a lot more reasonable than the full size.

Today, I wanted to check out the Sephora Favorites kits that get released every year & compare their retail vs. “value” price and see if the numbers are close!  Please know that this is not a review of the actual products; simply a test to see if the value provided actually matches what’s in the kit.

*Please note that the values provided below are estimates and some errors may be present.

Holiday 2019 Sephora Favorites Kits | IS IT WORTH IT? - A Midwest Belle

Continue reading “Holiday 2019 Sephora Favorites Kits [Makeup/Skincare] | IS IT WORTH IT?” →

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Monthly Favorites | October 2019

Karissa

Hello friends!

This month, my focus shifted from listening to Podcasts to jamming out to some of my most loved music at work.  I could not stop playing music, so that’s where a lot of my favorites are this month!  I’ve had some really crazy things happen, so as usual my excuse is that I didn’t have a ton of time to focus to the things I really enjoy!

Music:

The Hunchback of Notre Dame Musical Soundtrack: It’s not a monthly favorites without finding some new musical that I love listening to, and this month is no exception!  I’ve fallen in love with the Hunchback soundtrack – in particular, the following songs: “Olim”, “The Bells of Notre Dame”, “Hellfire”, and the Finale!

Change Your Mind by Miike Snow: This song is definitely not my usual style, but the upbeat, jazzy sound has me grooving every time I hear it!  It’s from the 50 Shades Freed soundtrack, and there’s really not much else to say other than I love it.

Continue reading “Monthly Favorites | October 2019” →

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Monthly Favorites | September 2019

Karissa

Hello friends!

September was a very tech-heavy, busy month for me!  I have a ton of new favorites to share with you all – plus, my biggest accomplishment to date of starting my own Podcast!  I also heard some great music & watched some exciting videos; hopefully you all enjoy like I did!

Podcasts:

What's New Around the Barn

What’s New Around the Barn?: Obviously one of my favorites for September is the brand new Podcast that I launched!  It’s a horsey podcast and the first episode is all about me and my horse experiences.  I’m beyond proud of this Podcast so I’m going to talk about it for basically the rest of my life!

“Horse Stories with Our Listeners Part 2, Sept. 25, 2019 by Horseloverz” Horses in the Morning: Not only did I launch my first podcast episode, I was also on one of my absolute favorite podcasts as a guest – Horses in the Morning! I got to share my experiences and play a little game with Jamie and Glenn and couldn’t have had a better time!

Continue reading “Monthly Favorites | September 2019” →

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Monthly Favorites | August 2019

Karissa

Hello friends!

So I was bamboozled this month – for some reason, I had so much less in terms of productivity than July, and yet July was shockingly busy.  This makes absolutely no sense to me, but unfortunately it does mean that my August favorites are pretty weak.

I only had three things that really stood out to me this month – however, they’re awesome so you should definitely check them out!  September will be more exciting, I swear!

Continue reading “Monthly Favorites | August 2019” →

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Books I’ve Read Recently #3

Karissa

Hello friends!

I’ve finally made it out of the busiest time of my life and so I’m now back to getting stuff done!  Today I’m sharing another iteration of the books I’ve read recently; these were read between June and July.

A ton of these books were on my 2018 GoodReads winners list, so I’m stoked to have them crossed off.  I’ve also found a few new favorites of my own this time around; read on to find out what!

Books I've Read Recently 3

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Monthly Favorites | July 2019

Karissa

Hello friends!

I’m back to share some of the non-beauty things that I loved during July!  All of my favorites were tech-related; I had a love affair with some podcasts and found amazing videos that are totally worth watching.

Life Update:

This month has been the most wild in terms of changes in my life, so it’s the big reason why I don’t have a good variety of favorites!

I got a new vehicle, I switched departments at my job, I started riding horses more frequently, and I moved – wow, what a list!  I did share a small update about my move in a previous blog post, and that’s why I ended up skipping some blog posts for the last week of July.

Podcasts:

Continue reading “Monthly Favorites | July 2019” →

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Monthly Favorites | June 2019

Karissa

Hello friends!

June is gone, which means I’m back to share the non-beauty things that really stood out to me as awesome and worth a look for you all as well!  There’s a wide assortment of topics this month, so hopefully there’s at least one thing that catches your eye!

Continue reading “Monthly Favorites | June 2019” →