Tuesday 3 November 2015

My October Favourites!

Hi guys!

  So, the month of October just ended, which means that it's time for another "Monthly Favourites" post!

  I have to admit that it was a bit difficult to decide exactly what to include in this post. A friend/reader told me that she enjoyed my "September Favourites" post a lot, but she hoped that the next one would be a lot longer, with a lot more recommended things for her to check out. As you can imagine I tried my best to pick out as many items as I could think of that were in the center of my attention this month. It's much harder than one would expect... but regardless I think I did a pretty good job writing about things that you could possibly find interesting.



  Before I move on to the main topic, I feel the need to inform you that this post will not include any Halloween-themed items, because unfortunately in my country we don't celebrate Halloween.  I know, it's kind of sad, but at least we have a sort of similar event, called "Apokries", which is a carnival that lasts for a few weeks during February.

So, let's move on to: My October Favourites



Favourite Random Item:

                         
                          This Umbrella

A friend of the family gave me this umbrella as a gift a couple of years ago. It's from Accessorize, it has black and red bows on it and it's, honestly, the cutest umbrella I've ever seen! Since it started raining more frequently this month, I have been using it a lot, so it definitely deserved a place in this post.


Favourite Youtube Subscription:
                            
                               Pentatonix
  Pentatonix is an amazing a cappella group that consists of five vocalists: Kirstin Maldonado, Avi Kaplan, Scott Hoying, Kevin Olusola and Mitch Grassi. Each one of them has a beautiful voice and their vocal harmonies are absolutely stunning. On their youtube channel you will find covers of a variety of popular songs as well as a few original songs. Their a cappella covers never fail to disappoint me (I might even go as far as to say that they are sometimes better than the original songs) and their original music is simply wonderful - very pleasant to the ears. Their music videos are also great and they always look like they're having a lot of fun making them.

  My current favourite song out of their originals is "That's Christmas to Me". In my opinion, it's the perfect Christmas song. the harmonies are beautiful, the lyrics are really sweet and I always tear up a bit when I listen to it. Not to mention that the music video is friggin' adorable! 
  You will definitely be seeing this song in my "December Favourites", because I'll be hitting that replay button like a crazy person during the Christmas holidays.

Links:
PTXofficial - Pentatonix Youtube Channel
ptxofficial.com - The Official Pentatonix Website


Favourite Activity:

                     Solving Disney Trivia Quizzes

  So, during October, I watched a ton of Disney films, back to back. I was thinking of including a few in this post, but because it was difficult to choose which ones and I didn't have enough time, I decided it would be better to make a separate post with my favourite Disney movies, some other time.
  For this post, I decided to share a fun activity that I discovered this month which was solving Disney trivia quizzes. I am a huge Disney fan and I have a lot of knowledge about the movies, the stories and the characters, so these quizzes were really fun to take. If you love Disney films as much as I do, I recommend you visit this site, which has a huge list of Disney related trivia quizzes, to test your knowledge.

Favourite Songs:

                      Wildest Dreams by Taylor Swift

                        Stitches by Shawn Mendes

                      Drag me down by One Direction

Flashlight by Jessie J

                     Find you by Zedd ft. Matthew Koma
                            & Miriam Bryant

                         Sugar by Robin Schulz


Favourite Movie:
          Beautiful Creatures:
  The story revolves around a 16-year-old boy, Ethan Wate, who lives in Gatlin, a small town in South Carolina. One day a new girl, Lena Duchannes arrives in town. She is mocked and alienated by most of the students at school, mainly because she is the niece of the feared and reclusive Macon Ravenwood, patriarch of the town, whose family is rumored to have a sinister religious beliefs. However Ethan immediately becomes interested in her and ignores everyone else's opinion about her, because he detects a special connection between them. He tries to approach and get to know Lena and continues to pursue her, despite her efforts to push him away, until she is forced to reveal her secret about her true nature; that she and her family are "casters", beings capable of using magic. Ethan finds out that Lena has supernatural powers that threaten to spiral out of control as her 16th birthday nears, the day when she will be claimed by the forces of either the Light or the Dark.
  After this small event, so many questions emerge: What dark secrets will the two of them discover about their past and present? What is the reason behind the special connection that they both feel? Will Lena be claimed by the Light or will she fall to the Dark? What hidden danger awaits for an opportunity to get it's hands on Lena's power?

Small review:
  A lot of fan reviews go on and on about how the movie was completely different from the novel it was based on and that it's not worth watching. There also seems to be a heated debate on whether it was or wasn't better than Twilight.
  However, for someone who hasn't read the novel yet, I thought that it was really good and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It belongs to the fantasy/romance/a hint of mystery and comedy movie genre so it absolutely suited my tastes. It also has a fascinating story line, revolving around a cliche teen romance with a little bit more depth and the small plot twists are far from predictable.

  The cast of the main characters that was used in the movie are all fantastic, talented actors. Jeremy Irons is perfect as the formidable Macon Ravenwood, Emma Thomson gives -as always- a stunning performance as Mrs. Lincoln (*winks to those who have already seen the movie*), Viola Davis is great and impressive as Amma and Emily Rossum is absolutely amazing and so bad-ass as Ridley Duchannes. Furthermore the actors playing the main characters, Alden Ehrenreich (Ethan) and Alice Englert (Lena) not only were amazing in their roles but also had great chemistry. The actors of the secondary characters aren't as strong and realistic in their acting but I think that it was decent enough. I especially liked the performance of Zoe Dutch as Emily, which is so different from other roles she has played.

  Furthermore, the special effects were very good, and the cinematography and direction of the movie were brilliant. The dialogue was pretty smart, with a few standard cliches here and there and the soundtracks used were very interesting musically. Lastly I loved the way that the movie began and found the ending pretty good as well.

  I really hope that there will be a sequel to this movie!

  The movie has been based based on the first book of the series "Caster Chronicles", "Beautiful Creatures" by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, which I unfortunately haven't read yet (Though I'm literally dying to read it!). However, I'm planning to buy the whole series (whenever possible) or find it online and give it a read, so you might be seeing it in an upcoming "Monthly Favourites" post.


Favourite Game:
         Age of Empires 3:
  "Age of Empires 3" is a real-time strategy game for your PC, released in 2005. I used to play this game a lot when I was younger (at least 4-5 years ago), but somehow, I started playing it again this month and I became completely obsessed with it for a bit over a week.

  You can play the game in both "Single Player" and "Multiplayer" mode and the gameplay offers a variety of cool features. 
  This is basically how the game in the option "Skirmish" in "Single Player" mode progresses:
1. Choose 1 out of the 8 European civilization to play as within the game.
2. Explore various different maps and areas.
3. Establish a colony, with buildings and settlers.
4. Collect materials (food, wood & coin) by exploiting natural resources or receiving shipments from your Home City.
5. Advance through different technological ages, which represent historical time periods.
6. Train an army (infantry, cavalry, artillery, navy) and make alliances with native tribes.
7. Attack the enemy colony, destroy it and achieve victory (in simpler words, you win)!

  I should also mention that apart from "Skirmish", where you can play the game loosely, however you want, in "Single Player" mode you can also choose "Campaign" to play a series of premade scenarios. These are basically "episodes" where you play as a specific game character with specific game objectives to complete in order for the "story" to progress.

  Overall, it is a very interesting and fun game with multiple difficulty levels and many gaming possibilities, so it can appeal to people of any age. Moreover, the graphics are quite good with a lot of details, the music is really cool an the sound effects make the game more realistic.

  "Age of Empires 3" also has two game expansions: Age of Empires 3: The Asian Dynasties & Age of Empires 3: The War Chiefs.

  If you are interested in the game, make sure to check out the official site, here, where you can download the "Age of Empires 3" demo and try it out for yourself. You can also find additional information by visiting this site.


So, that concludes my October Favourites.


Before I end this post, I'd like to (once again) wish "Happy Birthday" to my beautiful friend Maria, who turned 19 on the 24th of October. She's a very kind and understanding person and a good friend. She always supports me & my blog and provides positive feedback and helpful opinions and I'd like to thank her for all of her help.

If you liked this post, please share it.
Also, don't forget to leave a comment down below with some of your own favourite things from this month.

Thanks for reading!

Love,
Stephanie

5 comments:

  1. love wildest dreams, drag me down and find you as well :)

    danielle | avec danielle

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much for commenting Danielle!
      If you have any song suggestions that I could check out and perhaps include in a future "monthly favourites" post, please let me know. :)

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  2. I love Stitches! I feel like I've had this song stuck in my head for weeks now haha :) I

    Paula
    Thirteen Thoughts

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    Replies
    1. Thank you so much for commenting Paula! :)
      I know, right? For some reason it's really catchy and even though I've been listening to it for quite some time, I haven't gotten bored of it yet. hahaha! :D
      By the way, I love your blog!
      xx

      Delete
  3. Thank you so much! :)
    I would gladly follow your blog honey, but I can't read the language your posts are written in. I have to say, though, your pictures are all so gorgeous! Have you ever considered writing something in English?
    xx

    ReplyDelete