GFC Blog Hop

Hello everyone, today I'm co-hosting the GFC Blog Hop with Sara of a Pearls and Curls and Chloe from Rainbows and Honeysuckle and fellow blogger friend and pen pal, Rebecca from Life with rMe . This is a great way to meet some new bloggers so go ahead and join the hop!

The Rules:

1. Link up both your blog and your Bloglovin' below! Be sure to visit some other links as well to make some new friends!

2. Follow your hosts and co-host and leave us a comment letting us know you followed so that we can follow you back!

3. If you're interested in co-hosting, you can fill out this form

For those that are just meeting me here, I'd just like to say "Hello!" I'm Shannon, 21, and about to be a senior in college once I finish my last finals tomorrow. I like to travel and recently spent a semester in Ireland having the time of my life. You can check all my Ireland travels here. I'm engaged to a Navy Pilot in Primary School. Currently I'm living in Maryland and he's in Texas. We've been doing the long distance relationship for a year now. Explore the blog and you'll find more tidbits about me and I cannot wait to meet you all in return! 

Happy blog hopping!

Creative Process

This semester I decided to entertain myself with taking an art class, The Creative Process. In the course of the class I could come up with any idea and create projects while getting critiques from my class. Many chose to do musical pieces, toy making, book making, feminist art, performance art, documentaries, creative writing exploration of the outdoors, stop motion slutty dolls...you name it they tried it. I chose to go with idea of storytelling through portraiture and watercolor. I asked people what made them who they are now, what are they going through right now, and who are you? I looked at four different people and one fictional character and decided to represent their stories in pictures.

This is Katie of Tips From the Mrs. with Bear Grylls. She is figuring out what it's like becoming an adult and growing and mentions that the day she figured out she had to become an adult was the day she bought a washer and dryer.

This is Gerred: "Now, in the military, I have more order to my life than I ever did growing up. It helps me. It calms me. I still enjoy spontaneity, but I respect the discipline involved with life being a pattern of lovely things.” He says that patterns are what helped him shape him into the man he is today.

 

This is Nina. She has a tattoo on her side of an Indigo Bunting. I painted the tattoo and overlaid it on top of her. The bird represents her brother.

This is King Lear. This piece begs the question that Lear asks throughout the play, “Who am I?” The fool’s answer that Lear is only “Lear’s shadow” is represented as the light above him reflects his shadow below him. The shadow here is meant to be the man that Lear once was; the man that had everything. The watercolor represents the division between the kingdom and the division of the mind in madness. The fleck of gold in the center is the man in the epicenter of the universe being reduced to nothingness.

This is my grandpa. We went out to where his garden used to be together and talked. He told me stories about growing up on the farm, leaving for the Army, and now seeing his garden gone.  

April Birchbox

The moment has come and I am finally caught up with my Birchbox posting! Here is April's box which I loved tearing open and discovering the secrets behind each beauty product and extra.

Supergoop! | Daily Correct SPF 35 CC Cream || I already love BB creams and Supergoop so when I saw that the CC cream had more coverage than the BB cream combined with SPF 35 I was dying to try this. I loved it.

Beauty Protector | Protect and Detangle || Part de-tangle, part conditioner, and part heat and sun shield, this beauty protecter goes above and beyond when it comes to protecting the hair. And did I mention it smells like vanilla?

Claudalie | Divine Oil || I've had a dry patch on my leg that needed some desperate TLC. When I applied the Divine Oil to the area it instantly smoothed the skin. And it smells pretty fantastic with notes of Moroccan and Bulgarian rose, grapefruit, and vanilla.

LaFace Laboratories | BEAUX YEUX Beautiful Eyes Concentrate Intensive || This is for the under eye puffiness from studying for finals and writing papers well into the night. Just apply a dap under each eye and an instantly cool tingling is there. But if it tingles a little more than you expected and you wind up with a new red puff under your eyes you may be a little sensitive to the product like me.

Hail Merry | Macaroons || These were oh so delicious. They tasted healthy and the right amount of dark chocolate and coconut.

If you're interested in getting or gifting a Birchbox, you can sign up here for $10 a month.

Sunday Social {Week 47}

Today I'm linking up with Ashley and Neeley for this weeks Sunday Social and this time it's all about things I really never did as a child.

1. Did you sleepwalk as a child?

Nope.

2. Did you ever try to run away or sneak out of your house?

Well I wasn't that dramatic so no.

3. Did you have any imaginary friends?

Sure did. Apparently I was said to have a man named Fred who lived inside my head and he organized all my thoughts. My dad asked me how I divided both English and French. I said English is all organized in file cabinets. "Where's the French?" "He threw it in the closet and under the bed."

4. Did you ever go toilet papering?

No.

5. Did you ever sneak tv shows you weren't allowed to watch?

I wasn't really allowed to watch many things. I never really sneaked shows or movies until high school. If my mom thought it was "adult" in language, violence, or any remote sex scenes she would cover my eyes or say "I don't think you should be watching this." So of course I did. And I definitely snuck into movies and told my mom I saw a different movie than what I saw

Saturday Instagram Recap {Week 16}

Here's my Saturday Instagram Recap linkup with Sara of Pearls and Curls of my 21st Birthday!

21 | I turned 21 on April 22 and had fun.

Patterns | I've been painting a lot of patterns this week for my final art project. It's done. I'll post the whole portfolio when the semester lets out.

MVA | I sat in the MVA for only a short while and I ran into an old neighbor from back in the day. There was a woman with an excellent MVA themed shirt.

Crab Deck | Mom took me to lunch at the Crab Deck on my birthday. I wound up getting a Spiked Arnie Palmer and a Pina Colada. And I had fun from there on out.

La Plaza Tapatia | Stacie and Maggie took me out after the Crab Deck and the Blue Bird Tavern to La Plaza Tapatia for margaritas. It was a lot of fun with them and I declared my self the ambassador to La Plaza.

Ducks | I found them.

License | I got my horizontal.

Cara Box | For the second time the post office screwed up. They somehow smashed the side and left a note saying they care. Luckily nothing was broken this time. But seriously USPS, get yourself together.

Lilly Scarf | Sam and I went to dinner on Tuesday at the Blue Heron Cafe and munched on delicous starters. She also surprised me with this Lilly scarf that I must say I am absolutely in love with! She's pretty much the best.

I just want to say I've thoroughly enjoyed myself this week and it's not even over.

April Cara Box

Now this is my third time participating in Wifessionals Cara Box Swap and I was thrilled to be paired with these two bloggers, Khristenas of Just One Grain and Cassie of A Southern Pair. I learned some neat things about both ladies. Khristenas had a bubble wrap wedding and Cassie has run in some great fun runs with her husband, like the Disney Princess Half Marathon (she was Rapunzel and he was Flynn) and the Color Run. This month's theme was to "go green" so I gave Khristenas a box full of items to get her moving and grooving in her new garden and Cassie sent me an amazing box full of some super cute things all wrapped in colorful yarn.

Inside the box:

 Birthday cup

Straws

Birthday Button

An Irish blessing

Journal

Water bottle

Green nail polish

Button hair-ties

Mascara

EOS lip balm

Green frog

Purse post-its

Margarita hand sanitizer

Vera Bradley key chain

Cassie made it really with all the crafy things she made like the frog, the painted anchor water bottle (it was so me,) the birthday cup, and the button hair ties. She definitely took the theme and went green in more ways than one. I got a ton of green colored items (which is great because green is my favorite color) and then environmentally friendly items like the completely recycled journal, the eco covergirl mascara, and the eco EOS lip balm. And of course, what's a Cara box going to me without something Irish. She left me a lovely Irish blessing, "May you have walls for the wind/ and a roof for the rain/ and drinks beside the fire/ laughter to cheer you. and those you love near you/ and all that your heart may desire!"

Oh and can I just say the card she gave was hilarious "Let there be laughter. love. peace. hope. friendship. and alcohol, lots of alcohol. happy birthday."

What a great exchange. So thank you to Cassie for the box and for the time we got to know each other (Khristenas as well.)

22 before 22

I've been seeing variations of bucket lists like 30 before 30 and the like that promote happiness and goals throughout the year. Now that I've reached a new age I'd like a bucket list of my own running until I turn 22. That way by next year when I become a "twenty something" I can say I've completed a fair number of goals in the past year.

1. Lose 15 pounds

2. Run 5Ks

3. Read 22 books

4. Exercise daily

5. Learn a third foreign language (I know French and Gaelic)

6. Get into painting

7. Gather family recipes to make a recipe book

8. Make at least one thing from Pinterest each month

9. Visit as many states as I can (hopefully some new ones)

10. Make an Ireland photo album

11. Take a cooking class

12. Do one creative thing every month

13. Stargaze all night

14. Get a proper domain name

15. Cook a delicious meal for my family

16. Figure out my career goals

17. Meet blogger friends in real life

18. Discover new hairstyles that work for me

19. Volunteer

20. Go for a road trip

21. Try out hot yoga or brickram
22. Learn to sew

Fingers crossed I complete all of these by my next birthday. If you had your own bucket list what would you do?