Best of 2015

Hey, lovelies! So I'm hoping to make this blog bigger and better in the new year. I feel like I always say that, but at least for now, I'm really motivated and excited. In addition, I'm hoping to really start up my personal blog, Infinite Golden Floors. At this point, I may still end up combining these two blogs, but I'd probably have to change my blog URL again, and I'd rather not. (Regardless, I'll be changing my Twitter handle.)

But let's talk about this past year! It's definitely been a rollercoaster of ups and downs, but overall, I would say I've had a good year, at least looking back now. I'll admit that I think more in school years/semesters than calendar years, so some of the beginning of the year is fuzzy, but I'm loving where I am now in college.

And here is my Best of 2015 list! Everything is listed in no particular order. (I've reviewed many of these, some won't be reviewed at all, and others will be reviewed in early 2016, by the way.)

Top 10 Reads of 2015

Honorable Mentions: I Crawl Through It by A.S. King, Not If I See You First by Eric Lindstrom, Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Top 2 Graphic Novels of 2015

I decided to just pick two despite having a read a few because most of the graphic novels I read were all within the same rating range and don't particularly stick out.

Top 10 Albums of 2015

(Though most of these were released in 2015, not all were. In addition, I didn't include albums for musicals.)

Honorable Mentions: Stand By You and Fight Song by Rachel Platten, Rabbits on the Run by Vanessa Carlton

Top 3 Movies of 2015

(I'm very bad at keeping track of movies I watch, so I've only looked at those released this past year. I didn't watch very many movies (probably around 5 in theaters), so.)

Honorable Mention: Avengers: Age of Ultron

Top 6 Shows of 2015

American Ballet Theater November 1st Performance (After You, Piano Concerto #1, The Brahms-Haydn Variations)

The Royal Ballet Junes 27th Performance

Happy New Year!

And that's a wrap! I hope you've all had a good year, and I hope the next year will bring even better things. Have a happy new year, lovelies! <3

What were your 2015 favorites? Do you make resolutions; what are some of yours?

Music Monday (#10): Little Toy Guns by Carrie Underwood

Every other Monday, I'll share a song/artist/album that I'm either currently listening to or currently obsessed with, though they often go hand-in-hand. Some may have special themes or surprises. This means that I might share a playlist, fan!mix, Top Ten list, etc.

This week, I'm kicking it back to an artist I've loved for a really long time: Carrie Underwood. I love her music, and I love her as a person. She's so inspiring, and I'm excited for her new music, whenever we'll be getting that.

In her new greatest hits album, Carrie Underwood Greatest Hits: Decade #1, she has two new singles, Something in the Water and Little Toy Guns. I absolutely love both of them but for different reasons. I also love both of the music videos, but lately, the one I've been obsessing over more is Little Toy Guns (perhaps because Something in the Water came out first, so I was obsessing over that before).

It's such a Carrie Underwood song. It's catchy, but there's also so much meaning behind it, which I think the music video really got at. The music video is visually stunning, but it's also incredibly able to convey the full story Carrie is telling in the song. It's so beautiful and refreshing to see Carrie continue to address big issues through her music, something that artists tend to stay away from. It really shows how parents fighting and arguing all the time really affects children and how we often forget about others when we're arguing because we're only thinking about protecting ourselves. But what about the kids who deal with the yelling on a daily basis? How do they feel? How does it affect them? Little Toy Guns scratches the surface of the answers to these questions.