Summer Soundtrack

I still buy CDs. Not often, but I like to have a physical copy of my favorites sometimes!

I've been getting my jams for the beach ready. Only 9 days! I am so ready, but I have so much to do before we go. Here's hoping this next week goes by fast, but not so fast that I run out of time to get everything done. So this is what I have on repeat lately!

Summer Soundtrack

1. Hoodie by Hey Violet
2. Run Wild by Laney Jones
3. Fallss by Bayonne
4. The Lost Boy by Greg Holden
5. Bad Liar by Selena Gomez
6. Most Girls by Hailee Steinfeld
7. Different Kind of Love by Kid Runner
8. Grand Canyon by Ry-Lo
9. Start by Rachel Faith
10. When We Were Young by Lucy Schwartz
11. Favorite Song by Sinkane
12. Now & Then by Sjowgren
13. River Wider by Tall Heights
14. Vagabond by WILD
15. Electric Love by BØRNS
16. Wild + Free by Andrew Simple
17. Barcelona by George Ezra

XOXO, Ness

Summer! What's New + Old Favorites

So I've been wanting to do a "summer favs" since May, but I never actually sat down and thought out my summer favs... So it didn't happen! So I made a list! And I still forgot a few things. Whoops!

And then I ordered a few new things, so then I wanted to wait until they got here in case I wanted to share. So I'm finally getting around it!

NEW! My new sunnies from Poppy Apparel. They are super dark which is really nice on super bright days!
For 10% off, use code nessaj10 to get a pair for yourself!

FAVORITE! Corkcicle & S'well! I love them both! I use Corkcicle more on a day to day basis, and I love S'well for road trips and my beach vacation. It's so nice to take out to the beach to keep my water cold and free of sand!

FAVORITE! Sunglass cases are the BEST for traveling! I put jewelry, nail polish, ear plugs, and all kinds of other stuff in them! They're awesome because they're hard so your stuff doesn't get squashed and they big enough to fit everything in! 

FAVORITE! OPI, all day, every day! Pink: Suzi's Hungary Again; Purple: You're Such a Budapest; Blue: Rich Girls & Po-Boys.

NEW & FAVORITE! I've always loved Bath & Body Works hand soaps. I've had "Fiji White Sands," before and it smells DELIGHTFUL. It's like taking a trip to Fiji while you're washing your hands. And I've never had "Georgia Peach" or "Raspberry Rose" before, but I have high hopes!

NEW! So ever since DKNY stopped making my perfume, I've been searching for a new scent. I'm very into coconuty/vanilla type scents. But I've been trying old perfumes, new perfumes, different sprays from Bath & Body Works, and I can't find anything I LOVE. I wasn't done wearing my old perfume! Please, DKNY, please bring back vanilla Pure! PLEASE!!

FAVORITE! Hawaiian Tropic Silk Hydration After Sun. I love this stuff. I always get burned to some degree when I go to the beach, and this stuff is my fav for after sun! And it smells awesome!

NEW! I started a ew book! Hopeless by Colleen Hoover. I don't know if it's any good yet, but I am keeping up with at least one of my spring resolutions! Hah! 

NEW! I was on a search for some new sandals one day after work. I went into Charming Charlie, not really expecting to find any in there, but I can't be in that shopping center and not go... And they were actually have a buy one, get one sale on flip flops and sandals! So I got a couple pairs, I thought these were super cute!

NEW! Guys. I saw this shirt on Pinterest with a broken link forever ago, and I went on Etsy and found it! I have wanted a Gilmore Girls shirt for a long time, and I finally found the one I was looking for!

NEW! Hoodie by Hey Violet

I've been working on a summer playlist. I may post it in a few days. Or maybe not, but I will try!

XOXO, Ness

Mom. Mom. Mommy. Mom. Mama. Mama. Mother's Day.

The fam

I saw this at work and... I had to!!

Mother's Day from Vanessa Rutters on Vimeo.

'Twas another low-key affair this Mother's Day.

I got one of those wind up butterflies you put in cards for my grandma. I've seen them before, but we got them in at Hallmark, so I had to get one! I kinda warned her before she opened it though. I really didn't feel like giving her a heart attack! But we had a lot of fun with it!

We had Chinese food, took a family photo, and watched Mom and Grandma open presents.

XOXO, Ness

Soundtrack to Spring

Confession: I really have nothing interesting to say this month. Nothing to report. No new pictures I'm dying to show you. No videos I'm working on. Not baking anything new. No little adventures to share. April was.... slow?

It was slow, but it was pretty!

I thought about being vain and self-deprecating and taking some new self portraits, but I really didn't feel like it. And that's something I have to be in the mood to do because it's usually a lot of work! But I would like to do that at some point in the nearish future. Maybe.

I also thought about doing a step by step/tutorialish kind of thing for the cake I made for Easter, but I got halfway through baking it and realized I forgot that I was going to take pictures/video of it, so that was out!

Here's how it turned out!

Maybe you were wondering if I forgot about April (probably not), but I just have had no ideas of anything good to post this month! I don't want to post something stupid and useless, so I've really been thinking hard about it!

Anyways. I literally looked on Pinterest for an idea of what to blog about. I've never had to do that before! It feels like cheating. And it feels wrong to announce it, but oh well! Hopefully I'll have a little more going on next month because this is just sad. Hah!

So I decided to make a playlist of my current jams. I feel like I have excellent taste in music and it should be shared with the world! Hah! 😂  At first, I wanted to do my all time favorites, but I have quite a few. I started and it seemed like it might take a while, so I'll be working on that in my spare time. Something you can look forward to sometime in the future.

So here are my Current Jams on Spotify!

Click the link to listen. Hopefully you have Spotify to listen. Another confession: I signed up on Spotify specifically to make this playlist. I've never used it before! I just buy all of my music!! But if you don't have Spotify or don't want to sign up - it wasn't difficult, ha! - I put the list of songs and artists below!

1. Take It All Back by Judah & the Lion
2. Issues by Julia Michaels
3. The Night We Met by Lord Huron
4. You and Me by Sara Watkins
5. The Song Song by Daphne Willis
6. Into the Fire by Thirteen Senses
7. Put It Together by Langhorne Slim & The Law
8. Here with Me by Susie Suh & Robert Koch
9. Oh Devil by Electric Guest
10. My Blue Manhattan by Ryan Adams
11. Faded by Alan Walker
12. Run Wild by Laney Jones
13. Reflecting Light by Sam Phillips
14. Starving by Hailee Steinfeld & Zedd feat. Grey
15. Brand New by Ben Rector
16. Inside Out by The Chainsmokers feat. Charlee
17. Coming Down by Dum Dum Girls
18. It's Time by Imagine Dragons
19. Waking Up by Parachute
20. Say You Won't Let Go by James Arthur
21. Million Reasons by Lady Gaga
22. Something Just Like This by The Chainsmokers & Coldplay
23. Give Me Something to Love by Kid Runner
24. Lullaby for a Soldier (Arms of the Angels) by Maggie Siff
25. Get to You by Matt Wertz
26. Boom Clap by Lennon & Maisy
27. Take Me Home, Country Roads by John Denver
28. Black Woods, White Beach by Afterlife Parade
29. One Black Sheep by Mat Kearney
30. Mess Is Mine by Vance Joy

Some songs are new. Some are old. Some are kinda old. Some are kinda new. But this is what I've been playing recently!

XOXO, Ness

Spring Resolutions

I didn't really do any resolutions this year. I made some mental notes, but declaring them on January 1st never seems to work, so I figured why bother this year?

But it's good to have goals, even if they are just tiny ones. 

So I'm making some spring resolutions. Nothing crazy, either. Just a few little things I hope to improve on. New Year's resolutions are so lofty a lot of the time.

1. Read more! I know I've made this resolution before, but I'm really going to try this time! I actually really like reading, but there's always so many other things to do. So I'm going to try to set a goal to read 6 books by the end of the year. That will include the one I'm halfway through and started last September... 9 months to read 6 books, totally doable.
2. Use my camera at least once a week. There isn't always a lot to take pictures or videos of around my house... So I need to either need to get out and find things to shoot, or create things to shoot. That's why all the random pictures below. I found some things and decided to take them outside on a nice sunny day and photograph them because I literally could not remember the last time I used my camera.
3. Make a video of Woodstock. I really liked shooting the video of Clear Lake, my mom's hometown. I wanted to make one of Woodstock, but I just never got around to it! So hopefully I can get it together and get it done! If you have any suggestions where to shoot (other than downtown), please let me know!
4. Spring clean. I already did this one! I needed something that was finished or close to being finished.
5. Drink more water! I already drink a lot of water most days, but I want to try to cut out almost everything else. I'm shooting for the suggested amount per day, 64oz!

I almost put "stop complaining about how hot it is," but that one is destined for failure no matter what. It just gets too hot sometimes!

I wanted to get out and take some pictures of the flowers we have in the front yard. They all bloomed but that week of cold weather we had killed them all before I had the chance! 

Some of these I've read, some I haven't yet!

I'm pretty sure these are weeds, but they were they only "flowers" we had since everything else had died.

I don't know if it's just our pine trees or what, but this year there have been a crazy amount of pinecones. The ground was covered with them!

I will see the real thing someday!

I ❤️ OPI.

XOXO, Ness

Bringing Back the Bucket List

Whatever happened to bucket lists? They used to super popular. They made a movie about it and everything! 

I remember having to make one for a class in 7th grade. And even more specifically, I remember looking through books in class for different things we wanted to do and I saw a cool picture that was taken in Mobile, AL, so I put it on my list. Hah!

Some of these are a lot more doable than others, but I guess that's kind of the point. You've gotta have some that are easy or it would be really disappointing. Looking at all those expensive or difficult tasks can be daunting...

I wasn't going to put down things that I've already done, but I decided to go ahead and include them! There's something really satisfying about seeing a check mark next to one of my items!

So here it is! But honestly, the majority of my Bucket List involves travel. So I picked my top 15 spots for now! Originally, I wanted to choose my top 5 spots... Yeah right. So then I tried to get it down to 10, I REALLY tried, but I just couldn't! 15 it is.

Vanessa's Bucket List

• Visit:
• France, Paris, Nice, & Monaco (I know this is its own country but it's basically IN France!)
• New York City
• Italy, Rome & Vatican City (I also know this is its own country, but same deal!)
• Sydney, Australia
• London, England
• Athens, Greece
• Bora Bora
• Copenhagen, Denmark
• Hawaii
• Oslo, Norway
• Tokyo, Japan
• Black Forest, Germany
• Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Dublin, Ireland
• Bangkok, Thailand
• Be in Paris for French Independence day, July 14th
• Stay in the Ice Hotel
• Write a book. Get it published (maybe?)
• Work with Hailey & Brad Devine
• Visit the pink sand beach in the Bahamas
• Shoot a hot air balloon event
• Live by the beach
• Take a road trip with no planned destination
• Go to an NHL game. Obviously not in Atlanta since our team got sold to Canada
• Ask a stranger to take their picture
• Ride a zip line
• ✔️ Be a bridesmaid
  
• Walk a city with my camera
• ✔️ Take a women's studies class
• Dye my hair
• Get a tattoo
• Swim in the Pacific Ocean
• Learn French
• Go snorkeling
• ✔️ See an air show
  
• Swim with a school of fish
• Watch a game at the new Georgia Dome (I still can't make myself say Mercedes-Benz Stadium yet. I'm still salty that's who got the naming rights)
• ✔️ Go on a spontaneous road trip

  

  This was the as spontaneous a road trip as you can get! We were sitting in my room, and we said, "I wanna go to the beach!" And we left the next night, slept in the car, spent the day on the beach, and drove home. And it was so much fun!

• ✔️ Go on a cruise

  

  This was from my favorite stop on the cruise in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Honestly, this was probably the most beautiful view I've ever seen.

• Attend the Olympics - somewhere! (hopefully summer and winter)
• Do one of those giant slip-n-slides. I feel like our backyard would be so perfect for one of those! Or so dangerous. One or the other.
• Learn to surf (at least attempt)
• See the Vatican
• Ride a motorcycle
• Go snowboarding (and probably fall a lot)
• Take an art class - I'm thinking pottery
• ✔️ Graduate from college

  

  I didn't actually go to graduation, but I did graduate.

• Be an extra in a movie
• Make a commercial
• ✔️ Attend a game at Bryant-Denny Stadium
• Go to a drive-in movie
• Learn how to do my eyebrows
• ✔️ See a movie by myself
• Eat dinner in a restaurant by myself
• See a psychic
• Visit Glass Beach, Fort Bragg - California
• Convince someone I am British (no lie, I have a pretty good British accent - if I'm not speaking to a British person!)
• Do a polar dip
• Learn InDesign and Illustrator
• Go skeet shooting
• ✔️ See my favorite band live

  

  I have seen them I think four times? I've lost count. But we even got a picture with them when they opened for Mat Kearney at the Tabernacle!

• Fly somewhere by myself
• Buy a house
• Get paid to travel somewhere
• Go on a trip with Mom
• See the Northern Lights
• Have my own website (not this blog)
• Drink a beer in an Irish pub, in Ireland (just thought I would clarify!)
• ✔️ Get a picture of lightning
  
• Meet someone famous
• Go to a concert with Connor - we are waiting for the Killers to come to Atlanta one day, but we may have to widen our net. They don't have a whole lot of concerts anymore!
• Land my dream job
• Have someone pay for video work
• Go on a trip somewhere for my birthday

Looks like I've got some work to do... And I probably missed some things so I will have to add on. Hah!

XOXO, Ness