-and if you're scared and alone, just know that I'm already home.

I have to say that I have officially obtained a copy of Ed Sheeran's new album that came out today June 23rd 2014 and is three years overdue, Multiply, and I'm doing my first full run through. Only on song one and in tears. Here we go...

Part 3:

Waking up today was not as eventful as yesterdays morning. Instead of having twenty minutes to get ready, we had twenty minutes to sleep the night prior. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit. It was more like five minutes. Between getting back to the hotel late, taking showers, packing, talking for ages, twittering, and jumping on the beds, it was around 3 by the time we fell asleep. We had to get up at 6. Yikes. We woke up tired, but at least we woke up with not much to do but slap on some clothes and makeup and haul the rest of our things to the lobby where we enjoyed some french toast sticks for breakfast. Well, I did. I don't know what the others ate. 

After watching the local NYC news and hearing of the morning commute, and feeling one with the New Yorkers, we were off ourselves. I really did have a temporary attitude shift while there. More of a "I'm going to cross this road and you're going to wait for me. I'm not sorry" kind of an attitude. 

Our first stop was The Top of the Rock, which is located on top of the Rockefeller building of course. Let me sum up what my vocabulary consisted of while up basically on the top of the world: amazing, unbelievable, unreal, wow, my god. Need I go on? That experience, just putting the city into perspective was amazing. I just wanted to bring a folding chair up there and chill for an entire day. I don't think I've ever enjoyed a view more. The Top of the Rock is definitely a must if you're planning a trip soon. Next time, I'm going for the sunset. Just amazing. The headers of the first two New York blogs were panoramas that I took up there. 

From The Top of the Rock, we headed down to the docks or the harbor, not sure of the technical name as of now, I'm sorry. It was time for our boat tour of that harbor area and the Statue of Liberty. Let me tell you, I was horribly disappointed in the Statue of Liberty. I built up in my mind that this thing was absolutely massive, but that's probably because it's an island itself so there's not really any surroundings for a size comparison. The thing is tiny! You go from being surrounded by buildings that are hundreds of stories tall to this little chunk of disappointment. I apologise for all of you Statue of Liberty enthusiasts that would defend that monument to the grave, but I'm not impressed. I will say, it's impressive for the era it was built in and granted, it was shipped in from France, but I was just disappointed. Here it is, though. 

Next, we went back up to middle Manhattan for a tour of Radio City Music Hall. I know, pour time planning, but that's how the schedule lined up. The tour was very interesting. We got to see both the general works of the building and some parts of the skeleton such as the hydraulics under the stage. It went quick, but was fun to see. 

Then we headed back down to see the 9/11 memorial which was phenomenal. The feeling is a lot to take in, and I can't exactly describe it. Just like a pressure pushing down on your chest type of thing. All the names of the fallen are engraved around the rim of the infinity-reflecting pools, and you truly cannot see to the bottom of the pools where they recirculate back up to the top. It's just surreal to physically see how many lives were lost. Each day, they go around and place a white rose of the names of those who would have celebrated their birthday that day, and we found one pictured below. They also pointed out one tree that is standing between the Twin Towers which was the only tree standings after the Towers collapsed. It's still blooming wonderfully and it's protected. I don't know if it's seen as a symbol, but I'd like to think of it as a symbol for the survivors that made it out of the buildings when their friends and coworkers, maybe even family members, didn't. They're left to stay at the site very much alive and thriving, but with a constant feeling of grief holding them to the scene of the incident. They've now completed the museum to go with the memorial, but it hadn't yet been finished when we were there. I highly suggest stopping by. 

But, in the good news department, they're done building the new Freedom Tower. It is not yet furnished, but it's done.

After that we drove down to Little Italy and ate some delicious cheese manicotti at an adorable restaurant called Casa Bella (the Bella is right, not sure about Casa, it was C-something), and got some gelato to go! 

That was my very eventful and terribly short trip to New York City. I cannot wait to return and look forward to even better adventures for a longer period of time. I apologise for the long wait for the trip when I should have done it the moment I got back while my thoughts were fresh in my mind. I'll remember that for the next trip, which by the way, is like a week and a half away? Oh my gosh, I need to get packing. Bye guys! 

-Belle xx

-I promise this city won't get in our way-

Well, here's yet another day in New York for all of you. Sorry I cut the last one off. I was typing it late into the night and decided to end it after depicting one day. This post is dedicated to day two! Much more action packed seeing as there wasn't any serious driving that took place. I'll try to be a bit more descriptive as well, like I said, I was exhausted on Friday. Here we go...

Part 2:

Picture this: You've just slept seven hours in attempt to counteract the hour of sleep you got on a twenty-two hour drive the day prior, and you're not a morning person. The hotel you were staying at was supposed to have a wake up call ready for 6:30 AM, yet it never comes. Your backup alarm stirred your roommate awake, but you're still out cold. Your roommate falls back to sleep, but is again woken up with a knock on the door from another friend on the trip. They walk over, get the door, doesn't check the time, and goes back to bed. The first time you're awoken is fifteen minutes before you need to leave. This is what I experienced walking up in New York for the first time. HELP. 

Lets just say, the room that was previously cleaned up from the metaphorical tornado that destroyed it the night before was now back to the disaster zone it had previously been. We ran down stairs to the complementary breakfast as fast as our legs could carry us and shoved down some food that I hadn't been hungry for. I still had yet to put my makeup on, but figured I could put some on in the car on the way into the city. But, all the rushing was worth it, because we got a beautiful sunrise view of New York. 

Traffic was it's usual self, but it sped up when we reached the Lincoln Tunnel which, fun fact, is one of like four entries into Manhattan and is 1.3 or so miles long. You've got to get across all of that water somehow, may as well go under it. 

We ended up driving around the city for a while, just exploring. There's so many places to see and so little time, it's a little overwhelming trying to take it all in at once. But I couldn't have been more content. The next stop: Times Square. 

When I entered Times Square for the first time, I felt like this wave of wow hit me. Like I've seen the place in so many photographs and on TV and in movies that it almost felt surreal. The people are just so interesting to say the least and the shops are enormous. The buildings are insanely tall and they have multiple floors below them that they just blast out with explosives, like how is that structurally sound? I'm just glad I wasn't the one designing it, otherwise New York would have collapsed in on itself long ago. We first stopped by the FOUR STORY Forever 21. The concept and amount of clothes they had was unbelievable. The actual selection, not so great. I didn't find a single thing to purchase. Pretty disappointing, but life goes on. But here it is, incase you all are curious....

From Times Square, we went down to the Subway, and I'm not talking about the train, no. I'm talking about the city BELOW the city filled with shops and restaurants. We ate dinner at an Italian restaurant where we just had a quick buffet thing, egger to move onto the highly anticipated show that night. The food could have been better, but I guess I shouldn't have been expecting too much from a buffet. It was pretty cold, but the conversations had were great making up for the below par meal. From there, we headed over by Juilliard, where you know everyone walking around the school could possibly become the next Mozart. But we weren't there to rub elbows with the talented, no, we were there for the New York Philharmonic's Pixar Concert. 

The concert was phenomenal. As the orchestra played the songs from all of the Pixar movies, the clips from the corresponding movie would play on the screen, and yes, I did cry during the Up melody. Not afraid to admit it. After that was over, we just drove back to the hotel for the night and hung out before falling asleep anticipating the next exciting day to come. 

To be continued...

-Belle xx

If only New York wasn't so far away-

I'd like to start this post off by making a formal apology. 

I, Belle, would like to apologize for being both an inconsistent blogger and a horrid person. Making you guys wait FIVE WEEKS to hear about my adventures while in New York. I'm sorry, and it probably will happen again. Sincerely, Belle. 

Well now that's out of the way, lets get on with the post! How has everyone been? I feel like it's been forever (cause it has been) and quite a lot has happened! It's officially summer, stress consumed my life the past two weeks but it's over now, and the premiere of The Fault In Our Stars was LAST NIGHT AND IT WAS AMAZING. But that is all for another time, right now, we have travels to talk about. 

I haven't yet been to a city that I feel I enjoyed more then I did New York. Everything is so big and interesting and the city has such a specific charm to it that you either can't stand or are obsessed with. I'm sure you can guess which category I fall into. And they're spot on when they tell you the city never sleeps. Between the hours of traffic and the constant movement and energy that radiates from your very being, I got about ten hours of sleep total the two nights/three days that I was there. But lets start at the beginning, shall we?

Part 1:

Traveling with a large group of awesome people is both great and terrible. Transportation is not easy, or cheep. If it were up to me, I would have chosen the first flight out to New York possible and it would have been a quick and painless flight. But no, we drove. Twenty. Two. Hours. Of. Driving. I'm sure there are quite a lot of you out there that are fans of road trips. I am not one of you. By the time we were about an hour out from our hotel, we were tired, irritable, and just about ready to kill one another. Due to some troubles and slow downs on the way (and a poorly timed send-off), we would have at the most twenty minutes to get showered (if time allowed), changed, and down into the heart of Manhattan. More specifically, Broadway to see the beloved classic Wicked. 

We checked into the hotel, sprinted to our rooms, and got ready as quickly as one physically can. I don't know about you, but putting tights on when your sweaty and irritable is nearly impossible. By the time we were ready to head out the door, our room had looked like a pack of wolves had ambushed it. We made it down to Broadway with no time to eat dinner, so we just headed into the Gershwin Theater and found our seats on the balcony. Wicked was phenomenal, but I had seen it twice before that so it was nothing new. Personally, I would have liked to have seen Rent. There's always next time. 

Coming out of the theater, we were greeted with the only thing you don't want to see when your all dressed up. Rain. Not just like the casual sprinkle, no, a downpour and/or typhoon. And we still had wanted to eat some dinner and take in the views of Time Square. Long story short, my shoes were filled with water, my button up was soaked due to the fact that the rain had managed to get through my wind coat even with an umbrella, and I didn't get any night shots of Time Square. But man was it beautiful. Our next game plan was food and to get out of the downpour. So naturally, we jumped into the first pizza place was saw which was Sbarro's. My appetite had been lost by then and the slice of pizza I ordered was larger than my face, so I only got about half down before tossing the rest. It was time to head back to the hotel being it was around 11:30 and we were about ready to pass out due to exhaustion from the drive earlier. It was quite an interesting experience for the first day in New York.

To be continued...

-Belle xx

Inconsistant Rambling

Good afternoon, people. Do you consider 4 pm the afternoon? Well either way, I've just called it that. I've never been one for good mornings, so this is as good as it's going to get. Remember last week when I said I would post on Tuesdays? Yeah, well here it is, Saturday and all and not a post in sight this last Tuesday. Things happen, lives get occupied and here I am not posting on a Tuesday. Just a bit of casual spontaneity I like to throw in. 

OH! Update on the girl I spoke of last week as well with EDS. She responded to my message telling me how much that meant to her which made me immensely happy. I just really wanted her to know that I care. She's been posting lately though that she not only feels really sick, but she looks really sick as well. The disease is "reaching her eyes" making them cloudy, and she's been back in for some treatment. Another quick jerk on her roller coaster that I wasn't expecting, yet in all reality should see coming. I know she's sick and things are slightly plateauing at a low point right now, but she seems so positive in her words that you tend to forget that she's in pain, making it come as a shock. Hopefully things will be looking up soon.

So last week I promised that I would discuss one of my favorite pass times: YouTube. But I'm just not feeling passionate about it today and to write about it would be a travesty because my heart would not be found amongst the words. I know you're thinking, "Why would she be so passionate about a social media site?" I'll have to explain it another time, but I'll give you an into. YouTube is a site where, through the right people and topics that you genuinely care about, people can connect, share ideas, and accomplish amazing things. It's amazing to see what people are capable of. 

In other news, New York is DAYS away and that's basically all that's been on my mind. I've even taken the time to mark the places out where I'm visiting on this ginormous map of mine. Not that I'll be using it, I just really enjoy getting in the mind set of my next adventure. 

The city that never sleeps. A place for my other third (a third being myself, and another third being the Belle that lives in London mentally) being I would sleep for twelve hours every night if possible. I'm going with awesome people, so I doubt sleep will even be a possibility (maybe just a little). I've decided to do just one big grand master post the following Tuesday of my trip to maximize my time spent doing fun things and not just trying to put my words together on a laptop in a hotel room. I hope that's okay. To make up for it, there will be many epic photos to post. 

(Side note: I'm listening to Arctic Monkey's album on Spotify at moment, and it's pretty good chill music. It'll take me a couple more listens before I'm completely obsessed. End of side note)

Last Sunday was Eater and a beautiful day. It was spent by church in the morning followed by playing basketball in a dress (the only time you'll find me wearing a dress), an amazing Easter lunch, a scavenger hunt planned by yours truly, and extremely fast rides on a four wheeler in the woods. These were some of the photos taken that day. 

This one I instructed my cousin to take of me because it was a cool empty street. The usual.

And this was exploring the woods. 

The rest of the week to follow was pretty uneventful, so I hope yours was a lot more interesting! Until next time, peace out, enjoy life, live the adventure. Boom.

-Belle xx

Tomorrow's Cannot Last for an Eternity

So I've come to the conclusion that I primarily post a blurb of my mind on Tuesdays (excusing last Tuesday because it completely slipped my mind and frankly nothing exciting has been taking place). Tuesdays shall be the day to blog, I guess. But as I've been mentioning, my trip to New York is coming up VERY soon and I couldn't be more excited to get away for a bit. I'm contemplating posting a summary of my day both for my memories sake and so I don't end up with one huge post at the end, but I'm still undecided. If anyone is reading this and has a suggestion, feel free to comment below. 

This may sound strange, but I can't decide if I want to discuss Youtubers or Cancer. I know, two very different topics. I was planning on talking about Youtube and such today, but The Fault In Our Stars community has just started this site called Hearts4Hazel where you can go and share experiences you've had with the deadly disease or just how the book itself has impacted you. I think it's a lovely way to bring a group of people together and to hop on that roller coaster that doesn't always just go up...

I read a post on the site that was written by a girl very close to my age with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome which in short makes your joints extremely loose, easily damaged blood vessels, and it causes immense pain in general. I couldn't help but think how easily anyone could contract a disease such as that at any moment of their life. I wrote her a short message about how no one should have to experience such a horrid event and how she was an inspiration, but does any of that really matter? I'm sure she's heard it all before, that things will get better, how she's so brave. But when you're the one that's been lying on deaths door at one point in your life or another, I'm sure you don't feel so brave. 

She's very thoughtful for her age. I don't understand why horrible things have to happen to lovely people, but I'm sure we'll never know. But now after scrolling through her own personal blog, I feel as though I know her. That I've now stepped onto her roller coaster as well, but I don't know if I can handle the whole ride.  Just thinking about the future when her posts may come to a halt for she may  be unable to go on, that makes me quite sick, and I don't have any connection to her whatsoever. I couldn't imagine what it must feel like to be in her place. I wouldn't wish cancer on my worst enemy. 

Although, I do feel blessed in a way though to stumble upon her blog. Even if the future does scare me, she's handling it quite well herself. She's able to search for hope in places where it seems to be nonexistent and I find that to be such a beautiful outlook on life. I just want to help in some way, shape, or form, but I don't know how that's accomplishable. I'd rather go small scale to get more personal, but I could understand why people are more willing to help out the big picture which would be donating money for research. There's no attachment involved, no personal connection, no heart break, no loses in the long run. I want that personal connection. I want to directly communicate with someone and help them get through difficulties they stumble upon, but maybe I'm just being selfish about this. You can't be a superhero without a little heartbreak every now and again, and not everyone can save the world. 

This was a downer post, but I'm feeling like a downer at the moment after reading about someone that I can't help myself. Like I said, it's her roller coaster and I've just joined for the rest of the ride. Maybe we'll get around to those Youtubers of mine next week. I promise, okay? Okay. 

I want to leave you guys with a song called 'I Can Lift a Car' by the band Walk the Moon. They've touched my heart and hopefully they will touch yours as well. This song reminds you that if you've been having a hard time recently, it will get better. That you can accomplish anything you put your mind to. Including lifting up that metaphorical car of yours. 

-Belle xx

Creativity Lies In Those Who Search For It

I've decided to quit blogging and move to England where I shall buy a double decker bus and travel around in my living home and experiencing life for what it truly is. 

April Fools. But wouldn't that be epic in itself? Actually a Youtuber that I've been following for a while now named Louis Cole or his channel name 'Fun for Louis' has done that and is basically a nomad that lives the life that many dream about living. So cheers to you, Louis. 

Back to my week. So, I've been posting art that I've been working on or have completed on these last few posts, so I thought why not make it a thing to do?

I was inspired by this pin that I got a few years back in Disney World, which is the Grape Soda pin from Pixar's movie Up and so I did a little doodle with the new colored pencils that I got. By the way, those colored pencils are SO AMAZING and they draw so smoothly and 10/10 Belles' would recommend them. Hopefully I'll be extending my pencil collection soon. 

Here's the Up sketch:

Which brings me to my next point: The State Art Show. 

So, to begin, I feel as though I was misinformed by Manders (art instructor) about how this all was going to go down. 

He chose to enter my watercolor piece, which was the pier with the lighthouse at the end that I put on the post a couple back. That, as I said, was my first water color. Now should I have put in my first watercolor painting into a state art show? Probably not...

I would have much rather put my railroad track painting in, but we never really sat down to discuss this.  Second is, they not only graded your work, but they also put in a score for the artist statement I was told I had to do. I was not told that it had any relevance to the grading process. If I would have known, I would have at least attempted to make it a little deep and personal. Not just general information. 

Long story short, I pretty much received a participation award. Some people that received 'Superior' awards, in my opinion, didn't deserve them. And you could easily see some favoritism being played between the people that were called up and exchanged a couple words with the judges. 

But, it was a good learning experience and next year I'll at least know what I'm up against. No hard feelings. Everyones a critic after all. While I was at this high school though (which is actually a legit art school with regular classes and everything, but there are more art classes, everyone's art driven, and there's epic work everywhere) ((my dream)), I saw this charcoal drawing that was HUGE and I'm so in love with it. That's the awesome power of charcoal, though. 

I need to challenge myself to go big or go home because damn, people are wicked talented in this world. 

Otherwise, this weekend and the beginning of this week has been pretty chill and consisted of trips to beloved Italian restaurants, biking to Starbucks, attempting to tan in glorious 50 degree weather, staying up with awesometastic people to a time that normal folks would be getting up to live their lives, movie nights, card board cutouts of Niall Horan, and Youtube marathons. So pretty much perfection. 

In other news, my photography game has been on point these last two days (man, that sounded slightly conceited. I'm really sorry). So yes, I also take pictures, and these have been two shots I took over the last two days. 

The top one is my eye and the bottom one is my friends sister who graciously said yes to modeling for a photograph because she's amazingly flexible. 

I hope all of your week's have been equally as relaxing and happy April. Make it a great one. 

-Belle xx

The Wonderful World of Belle

Once again, hello people of the Internet. 

I have news! When don't I have news. Okay, it's follow-up news which turns out to be good news! 

Last time we spoke, I was sure I missed my gallery debut for multiple reasons. It turns out, the date was wrong and it was not Friday the 14th, it was Tuesday the 18th. So I was able to attend that and see all the other pieces involved. The bummer is my TFIOS (The Fault in Our Stars) tryptic was in a glass case right above a giant ceramic pumpkin. So while walking by a couple times, the only thing I heard was:

"I wonder how much that pumpkin weighs."

The pumpkin was a pretty brilliant orange for the fact that it was glazed, but besides the point, I was slightly hurt. But hey, everyones a critic. Coldplay: "When you try your best but you don't succeed..."

I should have made a giant pumpkin. 

NEXT UP: This Saturday that watercolor piece of mine is in a State Show and that's with actual judges and awards and things such as that. More to come. 

NEXT NEXT UP: Continuing to be obsessed with TFIOS and taking that obsession to the next level: Birthday Cards. 

My friend, Abby, is just as obsessed with the awesomeness that is John Green as well. And being her birthday was this last week, I took the liberty to act upon that and created this. 

The Augustus silhouette is on the right side of the card, but that has a personal little thing that I wrote that I don't need to share with all of you folks (or none of you folks, it depends on who reads these). 

And the TFIOS movie comes out on June 6th (as I've previously mentioned and I could not be more thrilled. Watch the trailer here... (Seriously though, feel free to cry. We've all been there bud).

I mean how could you not love it, ANSEL ELGORT IS AUGUSTUS. He's perfection.

Just look at that fine piece of man (the one on the right with the epic shoes).

Speaking of John Green, another novel of his which I have yet to read "Paper Towns" is being turned into a movie as well! My blog buddy and awesometastic bestie, Gabby, is probably passed out somewhere as I type she was so excited. 

And to finish out this blogpost, I have to share the highlights of today. So if that wasn't enough exciting information for you, there's more. 

I got my set of 42 Prismacolor colored pencils in the mail and I couldn't be happier to get into these bad boys. 

Last but not least, I obtained a pint of thee Ben and Jerry's new 'core-ice cream', "Hazed and Confused". It's half chocolate, half vanilla, with basically Nutella right down the middle. Where have you been all my life.

Thanks for taking the time to read this horrendously long post, I love you. Talk to you soon!

-Belle xx