Tag Archive | Music

Friday Favorites Vol. 5

Mar25

Confession: I’m really afraid I’m going to run out of favorites to share!

 

TV

I finished binging Supernatural on Netflix and I needed something new. I tried watching One Tree Hill, since I never really got into it when it was on TV, but despite the amazing soundtrack, it didn’t hold my attention. So then I started The Vampire Diaires for the third time through, but really thought I should try something new, so I paused that binge and found When Calls The Heart in my queue.

So, apparently this is a Hallmark show, which is a channel I don’t have because my TV has rabbit ears and pretty much stays on PBS for the kids. I binge watched the first 2 seasons in under a week. Seriously, you guys, if you love a sweet romance, check out this show. A privileged woman (Elizabeth) takes a job as a school teacher in the ol’ wild west in the early 1900’s in a coal mining town. There’s romance and drama galore, and because it’s the early 1900’s and Hallmark, it’s all pretty tame and sweet. Oh yeah, and Aunt Becky from Full House (Lori Loughlin) co-stars!

 

 

BLOG

As part of the indie and small press publishing world, I’m so happy I found Indie Authors & Book Blogs (aka IABB).

Check out their Thursday Confessions. Anyone can make an anonymous confession and it will be posted on the Facebook page, allowing readers, authors and bloggers to comment. Sometimes good things are confessed, other times bad. I think it’s a lot of fun and a great distraction from real life.

 

MUSIC

I used to be a total Hanson fanatic. From 1997 until 2008. Say what you will, but those boys could write a catchy song! I don’t enjoy their new music very much, so my last concert was in 2008 at First Ave in St. Paul, MN. Opening for them were The Veronica’s and a band I’d never heard of called Everybody Else. And both opening acts blew me away. Below is one of my favorite songs by Everybody Else, but let me tell you, every song on their self-titled album rocks.

Friday Favorites Vol. 4

Mar4

Today I bring you…. another edition of Friday Favorites!
Get to know me with a few of my favorite things.

COVER DESIGN
I loooove designing book covers. I went to school for photography, but I quickly learned that what I love most about photography is photo manipulation in Photoshop. Life happened and I haven’t really done much with my photography degree, but I’m quite fortunate to have had the opportunity to design literally hundreds of book covers for authors. I love the work that I do and I know my best covers are yet to come.

If you’re an author in need of a book cover (or promo design work) I’m always looking for new clients. You can view more samples of my work on my website – www.carolineandrus.com

CarolineAndrusDesignCovers

Just a handful of some of the covers I’ve designed. The top three designs are for the YA house Fire & Ice YA Books and the bottom are for the romance house Satin Romance.

 

SUMMER
Heat. Swimming pools. Fans. Sunglasses. Driving with the windows down. Grilling. Camp fires. S’mores. Summer vacation. Fourth of July fireworks. Fishing. Fresh veggies from the garden. Not having to spend 15 minutes getting dressed in jackets, mittens, hats, etc.

I could go on.

I love summer. It’s snowing outside my window right now and I’m longing for summer.

 

MUSIC
I like a lot of music and I’m not ashamed of any of it. I love T-Swift, and Wildest Dreams is one of my favorite music videos of hers. Her 1989 album lives in the CD player in my car for those terrible moments when the radio has nothing but commercials or songs I don’t like on any of the five stations I listen to.

Friday Favorites: Vol. 1 – Mediator, Duolingo, Wizard Rock

Jan22

Today I bring you the first in a new series of posts I’m going to start, where I list a few of my favorite things and why. We’re talking books, music, TV, apps, and so on.

 

BOOKS

"The Mediator" series by Meg Cabot.

“The Mediator” series by Meg Cabot.

The Mediator series by Meg Cabot is hands down one of my favorite in the YA genre. When people ask me for a good YA recommendation, this is one of the first ones I list.

It’s about a sixteen year old girl named Suze (short for Susanna) Simon who just happens to see dead people. When her mom remarries, she’s forced to move from NY to sunny California. Unfortunately (or maybe NOT so unfortunately?), her bedroom is haunted. By a super hot Spanish guy named Jesse, dead for roughly 150 years.

This series has a lot of info dumping, but it’s done in such a humorous way, it’s hard to find real fault with it. Suze is just such an awesome and hilarious character. She loves fashion and looking good, but she’s not afraid to kick some ghost butt when they’re asking for it.

The latest book, Proposal, was just released (review coming soon!) and is a short story taking place about five years after the events in the first six books. The next full length book is Reunion and takes place shortly after Proposal.

 

APPS

I recently discovered the app Duolingo. It’s language learning made fun and easy!

I’m learning Italian right now in 5 minutes a day. I already know a handful of vocab words and I’m sure if I spent more time each day I’d learn quicker.

And I must add, I don’t have a mind for languages! I took three semesters of Spanish in school and my grades progressed from B to C to D, until my last teacher told me, “I think it would be best if you didn’t continue in Spanish next year.” I had absolutely no plans to anyway!

Anyway, if you are interested in learning another language but really don’t have a lot of time to do so, I highly recommend this app.

MUSIC

You will soon learn that I am a nerd. Like, the kind of nerd who used to be addicted to World of Warcraft, and enjoys pop culture things like Harry Potter. And especially things like Wizard Rock, music about Harry Potter. This is my Favorite Wizard Rock Bands,  Ministry of Magic, this particular song is one of their sadder ones.