smartphone boycott.

as some of you may or may not know, i am boycotting a smartphone of my own. i'm trying to stay strong with my env3. for the most part i think they're unnecessary at this stage in my life. i'm not running a business where i need to be connected all the time. from my point of view people just use them as a crutch or time waster to check facebook or play words with friends while they are already out with other people. check this out for some smart phone owner lolz.

the one thing that continually draws me to the iphone is the photo apps. i get a little bit jealous checking out blogs or facebook photos with those cool filters. they are my weakness and will be the reason i cave, i know it.

fear not because one of the blogs i follow recently posted this! that's right kids, instagram filters as photoshop actions. snapfish had a special for 200 prints for $2. these two events caused me to play around with my photos so i can have some prints for decorating my new apartment:

this is using the nashville filter. i think it's my favorite. emza & hot dogs are also my favorite.

this is the brannon filter. it does better with indoor photos than the nashville one.

this one is the walden filter. it's my least favorite. i think it's because i'm so pale and it accents that. it's growing on me though.

this is the earlybird filter. it'd be cool if this was sunrise and not sunset.... get it earlybird... i'm hilarious!

there you have it, my way of staying strong on my smartphone boycott.

my first infographic.

I entered this contest for a chance to meet, you guessed it, Katy Perry! The contest was basically to submit art showing your love for Katy Perry for a chance to meet her. Since I'm kind of an infographic nerd I decided that was how I was going to show my love! Check it out below:

OMG I am so excited because I was chosen as one of eight finalists in the contest! I had been OCD refreshing the Nylon Magazine site all morning when I saw the finalists and mine was one of them I abandoned my front desk duties in a giddy sprint to call the boyfriend/parents/random strangers. Check out the site here for all the other awesome finalists. If you like me a whole lot you could leave a comment saying mine is wonderful ;-)

Currently I'm geeking out on my lunch break at Greenberry's and enjoying a mango bubble tea. I think it's what Katy would do in my situation. Incase you were unaware of my love for Katy Perry you can check out my previous blog posts on her here and here!

Gonna be rocking out to Last Friday Night (TGIF) for the rest of the day! I find out Tuesday if I win :-)

i love katy perry.

Let me just give you a little recap of my recent trip to Candyfornia. If you are unaware of my love for Katy Perry, please check out my previous post here.

Now that we're all on the same page I will continue. I have been waiting since basically last summer to see Katy Perry live and the day finally came. Andrew and I road tripped it to the 'burgh to make all my dreams come true.

Before we left:

We arrived downtown thanks to Greta and found a lovely parking spot in a garage with the most narrow, curvy, ramp of all time. Yay Pittsburgh! We drove past tons of girls in neon colors, cheetah prints, and blue wigs everywhere. I hadn't really pictured what the crowd was going to be like. I'm so used to college town Harrisonburg being surrounded by twenty & thirty somethings. I was not prepared for 13 year old girls with colored clip in hair extensions. Anyway, we made it to our seats. More excitement!

I don't know if you can tell or not, but yes we are second to the last row from the very back. No, really, it's fine.

Katy Perry opened with Teenage Dream and my heart was as giddy as ever! Seeing Katy Perry live can be crossed off my 24 things to do while i'm 24 list!

View from our seats:

Her set really was a magical candyland! At the end of the show the arena was filled with pink confetti and glitter.

That blue wig right there... that's her! omg!

Check out this video for a little preview of the craziness behind the scenes of Katy's California Dreams tour:

My love for Katy Perry has continued to grow. Probably to an unhealthy level. It's totally fine. I have it under control.

Tootles!

summer resolutions.

So, I didn't really make any new years resolutions. It just wasn't a good time for them, but now that it is officially the first day of summer I think I am ready for some resolutions.

#1 I am giving up drinking soda. I started this at the beginning of June and I have been staying strong. There was some grape soda temptation recently, but I managed to remain true to my goal. Grape and Orange soda are definitely going to be my weakness. I have been feeling surprisingly good about this one. I'm starting out with this as a summer goal, but am actually just thinking about giving it up forever.

#2 I am going to quit picking my nails. This has been a habit since pre-school. So a 20ish year habit shouldn't be difficult to break right? I'm trying to combat this one with super cute nails all the time. I love and have a slight obsession with nail polish already so this is a great motivator. Check out my new teal shade:

You can't tell, but my drink is blue too. I am just so color coordinated!

#3 Perfect iced coffee. I have been working on this for a couple weeks now too and have it down pretty well! I make my coffee at night while I brush my teeth then place it in the fridge over night. In the am right before I leave for work I use around 5 ice cubes, and by around 5 I mean exactly 5, add the coffee, 2 packs of sugar, about 3-4ish seconds of creamer, that's the official scientific measurement, some hershey's caramel syrup & stir! Add a neon straw to my JMU recycle travel mug and I am out the door. I'm going to experiment with some other flavors too.

#4 I am never going to get tragically lost again. Dupont Circle at rush hour taught me a lesson and this girl has been lost for the last time. Meet Greta, my new tour guide:

Greta is the perfect addition for summer time adventures!

There they are, my summer time resolutions. Happy first day of summer!

behind the scenes peak.

If you haven't checked it out yet, here is Big Meadow Sessions's second video featuring Andrew!

My dear SMAD pals, Tyler Conta and Colin Greene, and I started this little live music video project and I am very excited to see how it evolves. We're still in the beginning stages and any feedback you have would be lovely! If you missed our first video of Lights in the Fog you can find it here!

Here are some behind the scenes shots from our sunny day filming adventure:

The fellas reviewing the footage.

Leaving expensive things laying around a playground.

Play time post recording.

Dizzy.

Make sure you follow Big Meadow Sessions on twitter here for updates and so you don't miss our next video! I hope this brings a little sunshine to your Monday!

the little bro is a college graduate!

It seems like just yesterday that little Marc Lonett was moving into Ikenberry Hall as a freshman at JMU. The past 4 years having my little brother in Harrisonburg have been wonderful. I have so many great memories including too many late night Taco Bell trips to count, winning intramural championships, and being an obnoxious older sister driving through campus and yelling out my window at him when he was a freshman.

Everybody wants to be a Lonett and here is some photographic evidence.

warped tour.

those are high school musical dog tags for an army themed party.

road trip to psu.

thanksgiving food coma.

dhall crew.

jmu playoff football.

hannah montana & oliver oken <3

lumberjack slam jam. ps did you know we were born in canada?

let's go pens.

walt disney world!

heading south on 81.

1787.

looking classy.

super sweet 16. plus six or seven.

standard.

wilson steps.

does this count as annoying?

homecoming.

merry christmas from the lonett sibs.

Now he's a big bad college graduate!

The thing I love most about the time I've shared with my little brother in Harrisonburg over the years is getting to see him transform into this amazing person. He is doing such great things and is always an inspiration to me. I'm glad I have at least one more year of living in the same town. Around this time next year look out for a "Marc Lonett Become a Townie" petition. I have the best little brother ever. I love you.

i'm currently obsessed with...

here are a few things i am currently a bit obsessed with.

1) guacamole and/or avocados. anytime i am at a restaurant and they have an item on the menu that involves one of these things it's pretty much a 100% guarantee that i will order it. i made some guac tonight and it is such a wonderful way to enjoy a monday evening. want some? (i'm only offering because you aren't here and actually can't have it.)

2) Pinterest. it's a site that you can use as a virtual cork board/inspiration board/place to find the cutest things ever. i enjoy finding craft projects (that i don't have time to do), interior design stuff (for an apt that i'm not living in yet), and tropical escapes (that i don't have $$ to go on). so basically it's a good place to day dream and find inspiration for stuff you may actually be able to do one day. i also found this matching couple tattoo, gag a little but refer to #1

3)

this wine found here. i know pretty much nothing about wine and make purchases based only on physical appearance of the bottle. i first found this wine at Downtown Wines & Gourmet. i felt a little classy. later i saw that they were selling it at sheetz. i felt two things, sad because i wasn't as classy as i had originally thought, and excited that it was easier to obtain. i don't know who i was fooling, it has a screw off top how classy did i really think i was?

4) this:

ok so maybe i'm a little biased, but i love, love, love this song. i don't mind being serenaded by andrew with it every now and then.

OH! also andrew just released his debut ep, a little less rough last week. you can listen and download for free here! his little sis and i designed the cover art:

5) i am obsessed with spring and it cannot get here and stay here fast enough. i painted my nails "mellow yellow" today in the spring spirit. see photo from #1.

what are your current obsessions?