em's ipod: taylor swift

So I probably should be studying for my chem test tomorrow, but we're just going to ignore that. In case you guys couldn't tell, both Tini and I are absolutely positively in love with Taylor Swift. Since Red came out on Monday (I’m gonna pretend it didn’t leak)  here are my favorite 13 Taylor songs, both released and unreleased and covers from before her album came out. Some of her new songs are on here, but ugh. I just can't even. She's perfect, and as soon as I figure out which songs I like best of hers off her new album, I'll probably post about that as well. 

So in alphabetical order, here are my 13 favorite songs. You should listen to all of them and then go buy her new album and all her albums ever, okay?

(also I don't have picture for this post since because reasons so you can just pretend there's a pretty photo of Taylor here)

Baby Don’t You Break My Heart Slow (cover)

I don’t even know why I like this song, I just do. I think it’s her guitar, to be honest. 

Back to December (Speak Now World Tour)

I just can’t even. I love love love the way she puts together three songs, cause normally it’s not one of my favorites but idk man. It’s really nice like this. 

Brought Up That Way (unreleased)

This is the original video I watched. She does a nice job. I think what really gets me about this song is that she used my name. Like, I know it’s not about me, but still. Also it’s the first song I cried while listening to. 

Crazier

I love playing this on the piano. It’s just so pretty. She has some really nice unreleased acoustic demos of this too. 

Dark Blue Tenessee (Unreleased)

This song is super underrated. I love it a million gazillion times. And it can be interpreted in a lot different ways/her piano songs are amazing.

Drops of Jupiter (Cover)

Taylor would be the reason I got into Train. I love their music, and I love her cover of this song. I just really like her acoustic stuff so maybe that’s it. Idk. 

Fearless (Speak Now World Tour)

Now, I love this song normally, one because it’s super pretty on the piano, and two, it’s just a really good falling in love song. I think I like this version the best cause it’s acoustic though. Oh yeah and she mashes it up with other songs too.

Fifteen

I wasn’t fifteen when I started high school but idk this song is just super pretty and speaks to me and yeah. 

Long Live

So I’m 90% sure the only reason I like this song is cause it reminds me of my friends. It’s my theme song for them and I wouldn’t have it any other way. 

Red

I love the chorus of this song. I love everything. But the chorus.

Sparks Fly

I love this song and it’s just great and beautiful and that’s not a very good reason but too bad. 

State of Grace

I just can’t even. This is going to be like Fearless for me, I’m almost positive.

Sweet Tea and God’s Graces (unreleased)

I wish she had released this one. It’s so pretty and I love the lyrics, especially the chorus. 

tini wears: eep it's fall

Hey guys. God, it feels good to be posting again. I've been really bad about it -- I can't even say I've been busy because I'm an unemployed non-student who does nothing. I know Em is legitimately busy a lot, so unlike me, she has an excuse. I have been working quite a bit on a birthday present for Em though, which will get it's very own post once she has received it (I can't post it here until she knows what it is because it's a surprise!). It's handmade, so I'll do a little DIY post.

Honestly, I wish I were busy. It'd mean I had more opportunities to wear actual cute fall clothes. Fall fashion is my absolute 100% favorite, no question about it. I love cosy sweaters and not having to wear huge coats over them, or having to wear two pairs of pants to keep my legs warm enough. Not to mention my obsession with muted neutral fall colors. And scarves. And boots. And socks. I can't pretend that I don't love every single thing about fall that's ever existed... food, clothes, Thanksgiving. I'm actually not a huge Halloween fan, but it's okay only because it happens in fall.

On Saturday night I met up with my friend Michelle, who was home from Vermont for the weekend. Perfect! An excuse to get dressed in some cute fall clothes! A little disappointing because it was night, so I definitely needed a coat, so this outfit needed to be displayed SOMEWHERE. Good thing I have a blog.........

I know, it's Tuesday now, but I didn't get a chance to post this on Saturday, so it had to be done now. While I listen to Taylor Swift's brand new album for the first time (which is perfect by the way, you should all go buy it...).

Jeans : LC Lauren Conrad for Kohls Chambray Shirt : Target Scarf : Forever 21 Belt : Abercrombie and Fitch Hat : H&M 

I honestly never knew the difference between a denim shirt and a chambray shirt until I bought this shirt a few months ago. Sadly they don't seem to have it anymore, but I think a chambray shirt is definitely something you need if you own any colored jeans or pants. It's so effortless but put together! Also, the belt, scarf, and hat are all from a long while ago... I think the hat is 3 or 4 years old, the scarf was a Christmas gift from my junior year of high school, and the belt used to be my sister's, so I have no clue when that's from.

I wore this outfit with a pair of brown combat boots from Kohls (these ones!) because to be honest, the pants are a little short on me. If you're at all tall, I wouldn't recommend buying them, but I was too in love with the color to pass them up for being the tiniest bit too short when boots will totally cover it!

Ah, I just can't get over how much I love fall. Sorry I'm such an awkward model! What's your favorite season?

xx, tini

tini bakes: coconut chocolate chip cookies

Night is my favorite time to bake. I don't know why, it just always has been. Probably because my cravings for cookies and cakes spikes at around 7 and by 8, I can't take it anymore. If it's chocolate I'm craving, I try to fix that problem by just eating semisweet chocolate chips with ice cream (no, not ice cream with chocolate chips. In the amount I do it, it's the other way around).

Sometimes you need more. I can't eat 99% of store-bought baked goods because of allergies, so I do a lot of baking. I have an arsenal of cookie recipes, and I'm always open to a new one (seriously, if you have a recommendation, let me know. If I can eat all of the ingredients, I'll try it out!). 

Last night, I was determined to try something new. But I was tired, hungry, and just wanted something I knew would taste good. I swear, I don't think I'll ever bake a different chocolate chip cookie again. This is the chocolate chip cookie I've been looking for my whole life... buttery and chewy and perfect. Even if you don't like coconut, just omit it; these cookies are incredible.

I can't lie to you, these pictures aren't fresh out of the oven. I baked these last night and took these pictures today after lunch. But they are just as good later as they are fresh out of the oven. I'd be interested to see if they go back to their gooey, melty state if you popped one in the microwave. 

I halved the original recipe and made some minor changes... I wouldn't recommend making more than this many. I find that they tend to get a little stale at the end of the batch. Unless you're making cookies for a lot of people or you go through cookies really fast in your house, it's not worth it. The cookies are pretty quick to make, so you can easily whip up another batch when the first one is gone. 

coconut chocolate chip cookies

Adapted from Taste of Home

Yields: about 20 cookies

1/2 cup of butter

1/2 cup of granulated sugar

1/2 cup of brown sugar, packed

1 egg

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups of flour

1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 1/3 cups of unsweetened large flake coconut

3/4 cup of semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°F. 

In a large bowl (I do it in the bowl of my stand mixer), cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg, beat until fully mixed in. Beat in vanilla. Add dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt), beating on low until fully integrated. Add coconut and chocolate chips, stir in. 

Make heaping tablespoon balls of dough (I use a cookie disher), and place on an ungreased cookie sheet, leaving about 2-3 inches between each cookie. They will spread quite a bit. 

Bake in oven for 12-18 minutes (I find they usually take about 15-16 minutes in my oven), or until lightly browned around the edges. The coconut will brown before the cookies, so go off of the cookies, not the coconut pieces. Allow to cool on pans until firm enough to move to wire cooling racks. 

Store in an airtight container to maintain freshness. 

Enjoy!

xx, tini

em reviews: 13 reasons why

Before I start, I just have to say that 13 Reasons Why is my favorite book in the whole entire world. That is all.

"Hello, boys and girls. Hannah Baker here. Live and in stereo. No return engagements. No encore. And this time, absolutely no requests. I hope you're ready, because I'm about to tell you the story of my life. More specifically, why my life ended. And if you're listening to these tapes, you're one of the reasons why."

this week: 13 Reasons Why, by Jay Asher

in a nutshell: Clay receives his classmate's suicide note in the form of seven tapes, and reacts accordingly.

extended summary: Clay's crush Hannah kills herself before the start of the book. She ends up recording the tapes as her suicide note, and sends them around to the thirteen people who caused her death, Clay presumably being one of them. The book follows Clay as he listens to the tapes, interacts with those mentioned on the tapes, and tries to figure out why he has gotten the tapes, because he hasn't done anything wrong. I'm not sure what else I can tell ya'll without spoiling the book.

the book and i: I found this book in seventh (?) grade at Barnes and Noble. And my dad bought it for me because it was so interesting to me and I needed something to read. Since then, I've read it over and over, and I'm 87% positive I've got most of it memorized. I'm not really sure why I like it so much, I just know that I do.

thirteen reasons why i love this book:

1. The plot speaks to me. I'm not really sure why/how. I just think it's really interesting. What would you do if you got a suicide note in the form of tapes? 
2. I related to Hannah. I think that's pretty self explanatory. 
3. I wanted to be Hannah. Even though she ends up dead, and pretty messed up, she still was a person that a lot of people loved. She was almost ideal, but at the same time she still had all her flaws.
4. Everyone can relate to one of the characters. At least one. I guarantee it. There's such a wide spectrum of characters that it's pretty hard not to relate to one person. 
5. I like the way it's written. Clay's narration is interwoven with Hannah's narration on the tapes. 
6. I personally think it raises awareness about suicide and suicide prevention. My copy of the book comes with Suicide Hotline numbers in the back. And I think it exposes people to this idea who wouldn't normally think about it. 
7. It's about high school students that face other problems besides suicide. Which you know, is the truth. 
8. It's an honest book. It doesn't sugar coat high school all that much, which is nice. 
9. It's got unrequited love, hatred, depression, happiness, and hope all rolled up in one. 
10. I really, really love the way he ends the book. It's a really powerful message if you read into it and apply it to your life. 
11. I'm almost 90% sure there's symbolism and stuff, I'm just too lazy to go get up and get the book right now. But I like symbolism. So. 
12. I really wished I lived in that town.
13. I think that as humans, there's something fascinating about death to us. Like why someone kills themselves. We just can't comprehend that unless we've lived it ourselves. So I guess the book is just kind of an insight into what that's like. And like reading about people who are depressed. 

end notes: Um, so ya'll should go read this. Right now. And if my seal of approval wasn't enough, they're making a movie, so you can read it and say you read it before it was popular. Cause you know, everyone wants to be a hipster. In all seriousness though, I hope you pick up a copy.

"Because it may seem like a small role now, but it matters. In the end, everything matters."

-em xx