Essentials for Roadtrips!

So it's the perfect time in the summer to go on a road trip with the family! At the moment, I am about to go on one myself! :) So here is a quick list of some

of the essentials I am taking! 

Food.

THE MOST important items for ANY trip :) I like taking more healthy snacks such as veggies and fruits because it's more likely to not give me a stomach ache in the car. And stomach aches are terrible to cope with, especially when you're on the road! I like taking peppers, oranges, grapes, and some celery too!

Clothes.
This depends on how long your trip will be, and your destination's climate as well! I like taking a few bottoms and a few more tops! Since it is summer right now, I am taking 2 shorts, a pair of leggings, some t-shirts, and 2 long sleeve chiffon blouses for a week / a week and a half  trip! I'm also taking a pair of fuzzy socks cuz, who doesn't like feeling fuzzy?! I also just take one pair of shoes, aka the pair I'm wearing haha!

Makeup.
I only take my absolute essential products! Mascara, eyeliner, lipgloss, and an eyeshadow! That's it! Overpacking on makeup is very unecessary, just take what you would use daily!

Entertainment.
I take my iphone, so I've got music with me for the whole trip, I take a dvd player that hooks onto the car so I can watch a few movies, and that's pretty much it! I like talking with my family so we can bond <3 ^.^

So that's my post! Thanks so much for reading and I hope you have a great rest of your summer!!

xoxo Jelly

Being a Bag Lady

So here's the deal. I am a bag lady. I'm just gonna come right out and say it. I carry all my junk around, everywhere I go. I always see those girls with their small purses or no purse at all and think to myself  'How do they do it??' On the downside my purse is always heavy and full, often giving me a shoulder ache after a couple of hours carrying it around. Plus side? I'm always prepared, even for things that are highly unlikely to happen. For example, it's the middle of the summer and we're having record breaking heat. My friends and I decide to go to the beach, so I pack my swim suit, towel, sunscreen, all the normal beach items. Except, I bring a few other things too. Like a sweater. Just in case it starts to rain, or gets cloudy. Now before you start to laugh or judge me, let me explain.

I absolutely hate being unprepared. I hate when at the last minute I decide not to bring something because my logic kicks in, and then later needing that object and wishing I had brought it. If you're like me, you totally understand. Being a bag lady is hard. But as they say, better safe than sorry.  Most of my friends know this about me. They know that I have band aids, hair ties, and pens. Or water and snacks when we're at the cinema. Sometimes even socks, hoodies, and almost always, books.

One time I was eating at the mall with my friends and one of them needed a hair tie. I handed over my bag, telling her they were in one of the pockets and I left to get some napkins from one of the food booths. When I came back, she had this weird look on her face as she tied her hair up. When she was done she said 'Why do you have fuzzy socks and two books in your bag? No wonder you've been complaining about how heavy your bag is!" I'm not even going to bother explaining that one because it's as silly as it sounds.

Another time when my grade 6 class was going on a three day camping trip, I had the biggest bag out of everyone. Before hand, my mum had helped me pack. We managed to fill a huge hockey bag with clothing, shoes, toiletries, and bedding. Yes, bedding. We we're staying in a cabin with bunk beds and my mom packed a fitted sheet, a duvet cover, and a pillow instead of a sleeping bag. Everyone made fun of me for having the biggest bag, but I was the comfiest and warmest at night while everyone else was freezing their butts off.

I will admit I carry around a lot more than I need, but who cares? At least I have water instead of buying a bottle for $4 dollars like my friends. Or I can put on a sweater when it gets cooler in the evenings. Bottom line is, being prepared isn't a bad thing. In fact, it's a good thing. It means your always thinking ahead of the game, and calculating all the possible aspects of a situation before it happens. People might make fun of you. In fact, they probably will. But only because they wish they would have thought of the things you did. So don't be afraid to over pack, or worry about bringing to much. Being a bag lady is awesome.

Stay lovely,
Dixie xox

One Way Ticket to Cloud Nine Please!

Today in my small city, the weather was gorgeous and sunny! (And extremely HOT!) At the moment, I'm on the couch enjoying some much needed alone time, and I'm looking at a pretty view of the backyard. The sun is shining through the window, and I'm excited about this post! So, today I woke up and wondered what today's blog post should be on... After spending the day out and about with my mom and doing some art, I settled on a subject that is used very much but I thought, why not give my point of view on it! So here we go!

Being Thankful.
In my fifteen years, I've been through a lot of things, and there are some things I wish didn't happen to me. Personally, without happiness it would have been very hard to look at the positive part of certain situations. There are so many things to be thankful for. Family, friends, a home, clothing, food, clean water, good health, and the list goes on and on!  Ultimately, many of those things that we are thankful for, make us happy!

Perspective.
Many times, terrible things happen to us, and we really don't know why and how. But, how you see it is extremely important. Sometimes, you have to step back, and look at the situation from a different perspective/point of view. Looking at it from several different angles, no matter how hard it is for you to think differently, will give you a feel of different routes that the situation could lead to.

Positive & Negative
At first, the hardship you're facing will seem nothing but negative. But after a while, you'll realize that many other people are going through some things that are more harsh than what you're facing. Every hardship is hard for everyone, but there are many things to be thankful for. Focusing on the positive and not so much on the negative is extremely important to keep up the amount of happiness in your life. This is very, very hard, and I totally understand that. But believe that it won't last forever, have faith, and be strong.

It'll Be Over Before You Know It.
This school year, I had many tests and exams. They stressed me out so much! (On a side note, when we're stressed we usually eat lots of sweets like chocolate and icecream right? Well the funny thing is stressed spelled backwards is desserts!! Haha!) Anyways, what I said to myself before every test/exam was, 'It'll be over before you know it.' That really made me feel better because I looked forward to everything I could do after I was done!

So, for me, looking forward to every positive and fun thing I could do after every negative thing really made it feel like the time was going faster. So through every hardship you are facing, being thankful, changing your perspective, focusing on the positive and not just the negative, will help you believe that what seems never-ending, will be over before you know it.

Stay Strong!

xoxo Jelly

The Secrets Behind the Music

You can start to hear the faint whispers of music off in the distance. The warm air and the sparkling stars accompany you as you make your way towards the sounds. As you get closer, you can hear it more clearly. Right now it's still a bit muffled by cement walls, but as soon as you step foot into the arena it hits you like a tidal wave. The floor vibrates and and the speakers shake. You get even closer and you can feel in now. Feel it coarse through your body, every beat making your heart pound along. You sing the words but you can't hear your voice, only the voices of a thousand others.

That's my favorite feeling. The feeling of music so loud you can not only hear it, but you can feel it. At a nighttime concert, or in the car making the sides thump barely being able to hear your wailing voice. To me music isn't just about what you hear on the radio, or the one song you can never get out of your head no matter how hard you try. It's about feeling the music and really understanding the lyrics. 

Sure, what they play on the radio is great for about the first week or so, but then they play the song to death. Those are never the songs that stick with me. It's the songs that aren't always played on the radio, the ones that will never loose meaning no matter how many times you hit replay on your iPod. The songs that bring back those awful, wonderful, happy, angry feelings you got when you first heard the song and it explained your situation. Those ones tend to capture emotions and thoughts and smells and memories only in a couple minutes. What else can do that? What else can make you feel something so real it makes you want to cry?

I remember one time I listened to a song only when I was talking to this certain person, and after we stopped talking I could never bring myself to listen to that song again because of the memories and feelings it brought with it. But when you actually think about it, it's fantastic. Something that can bring up so many memories about something, it's like it happened only a few days ago. Eventually I did listen to the song, and I never toke it off my iPod. Even though I hated it, I was memorized by the power one song could hold.

When I listen to a new album I always find that one or two songs that I absolutely love right from the start, and more often than not it's the slow ballad-type songs. They just tend to have more meaning to me because you can feel the emotion from the singer. Sometime I try to get my little sister to listen to the slow songs I love, but she never understands them. She always says 'They're too slow!' and I just roll my eyes because I know that one day she'll understand. Or not. Who knows, right?

Lets change the mood a bit here and dive into the music I listen to, shall we?
My music taste is a bit all over the place, honestly. I like indie music, alt-pop music, pop-punk etc. I really dislike country music, so if you're a country music fan, I'm sorry. What I listen to depends on my mood and the weather. If it's rainy I tend to listen to more mellow, sad songs. When it's sunny, I'm listening to the top 40 pop songs or bubbly upbeat tunes. By the time night rolls around and I'm in bed I listen to A LOT of Coldplay and Ed Sheeran. I'm talking the same songs on replay until I fall asleep, and I never get sick of that loop. When people ask me what my favorite song is, I can never narrow it down to one. So I made a list of my top ten.

• Give me love by Ed Sheeran
• Fix you by Coldplay
• Buy the stars by Marina and the Diamonds
• Chocolate by The 1975 (Their accents are so lovely) 
• If my heart was a house by Owl City
• Iris by The Goo Goo Dolls
• Innocent by Taylor Swift
• Men and angels by The Rocket Summer
• The Scientist by Coldplay
• Autumn leaves by Ed Sheeran

There are so many more and after I publish this I'm going to want to add more and more, but these are the ones that came to me first.
Here's my final thought on this, music is a way of expressing yourself. You don't need to be an amazing singer or play an instrument to appreciate it. All you need is to have the few songs that you can totally relate to and understand the secrets behind the music.

Dixie xoxo

Listening Beyond the Sound

There are few things in the world that relate to you, your life, and your situation. One of the best feelings ever is when someone seems to understand how you feel and pretty much ends a sentence you already started. Music does that for me.

There are times when there's no one to talk to when I need them the most, and once in a while, dreaded memories come back to haunt me. That's when I plug in my earphones, and turn up the volume. As the pounding sound of the beat block all sound from around me, I close my eyes and get a glimpse of a different world. A world that is imperfect, or perfect, a world that delicately describes surroundings that make up a story. And sometimes, that story, sounds just like mine.

The beauty of music is very easily disguised by just the sound of it. If it's catchy, then there's a high chance that when you hear it, the lyrics will race past you. It is when you're alone, sad, broken, or when you just feel like digging deeper, that the song you sang along to on the radio, earns meaning.

At every twist and turn in my life, there is always that one song that makes me stop and listen. What song is that for you? Mine is, Jordin Sparks' One Step at a Time. I always heard it in the mall and quietly hummed the melody to myself. At the time, it was just any other song that was played again and again in public places. Then, I listened closely when I heard the song at home. 'It's gonna happen when it's supposed to happen and we find the reasons why'. Sometimes, I feel lost and hopeless, and, 'I don't know why bad things happen to us sometimes but I have to believe something good is going to come out of this.' That's a quote from Carrie Underwood's character, Sarah Hill, in the movie Soul Surfer. So, my mindset is that we don't know how a certain situation can work out well for us because it seems terrible at that time, but after a while of patience, we find the reason how and why it will work out for the best.

Now for some of my other favourite songs, I've been liking:

Clarity - Zedd
Who You Are - Jessie J
Mirrors - Justin Timberlake
Stay - Rihanna
Fix You - Coldplay
You Found Me - The Fray
Iris - Goo Goo Dolls
Never Change - J Han feat. Sam Ock
Ho Hey - The Lumineers
Little Talks - Of Monsters and Men

For what styles of music I like, I love pop and some r&b! I love listening to ballads as well! I'm also a big fan of K-pop! (I'm South Korean ^.^) My favourite band at the moment is EXO and their song 'Baby Don't Cry' is constantly replaying on my phone! I'll end this here because I'll start fangirling about my favourite members and so on, and that will probably take up a good ten paragraphs.

So, in the end, music helps me find another perspective on a situation that seems hopeless to me. Also, there are always times when I want to escape from my surroundings, or when I want to dig deeper and find a new perspective. So that's when I turn to music and listen.


Thanks for reading!

xoxo Jelly 


Also, Dixie and I wanted to let you know about our blogging schedule, so here it is!

Monday - Jelly
Tuesday - Dixie
Wednesday - Jelly
Thursday - Dixie
Friday - Jelly
Saturday - Dixie 
Sunday - BREAK

If there are any questions you have for us, you can send them our way at dixieandjelly@gmail.com :)

Introducing...Dixie and Jelly

Hey Everyone!

Welcome to our blog :D We're so excited you've decided to spend some time with us, and we hope you stay for a while! Our blog will tackle various topics like what's trending, the life of a teenager, and being yourself. The posts that go on our blog will be written by yours truly, Dixie & Jelly!
We'll kick off the blog by each doing a little bio about ourselves down below. This is our first blog, so please bare with us as we are both new to all of this.

Hi peeps, Dixie here.
I'm so excited about starting this new blog with my best friend. I've been rolling around this idea for a while now, and it took my bestie to actually make it happen. I'll be starting grade 10 in the fall, something I'm both looking forward too and dreading at the same time. I'm the kind of person who doesn't have lots of friends, but more a few really close ones. I have an awesome relationship with my parents, we like to hangout a lot together :P
I'm not the sporty type, I'm more artistic. I love to draw, paint, read and write. Swimming is the only sport I can really do. I have a cute little puppy named Ringo after the Beatles band member, Ringo Starr. My little sister makes my life interesting, and my friends make my life one big crazy roller-coaster ride.

'You are the change that you wish to see in the world' - Gandhi


Hey dudes & dudettes! Its Jelly time! :D
I'm so pumped to be blogging with my best friend! We're both really excited to see where our blog will lead us! I will also be going into grade 10... I try not to think about it... Haha! Here are a few things about myself: I'm always hungry, I like to watch movies, music is my favourite, and I love art. I hate being bored, so I always try to keep myself busy!
I am also not a sporty type :/ But I love watching sports like soccer and baseball! I'm really looking forward to the Fifa World Cup that's coming up next summer! I have a tiny maltese named Koon and he has a face of an angel, but the personality of a vicious rottweiler... In other words, he needs anger management classes. I love my friends, family, and God <3

'I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.' - Hellen Keller