Month: April 2016

MASH

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When we were younger, it really did seem like all we cared about was what our futures held for us. We were always told “when you get old, it’s going to be like FILL IN THE BLANK.” We talked about what we were going to be when we grew up with such passion and we really did think we could be a dolphin trainer and a doctor and still have time to vacation in Europe for the summer. We had so many games and little crafts that in the moment of using them, you actually believed you could be a millionaire, have 100 kids and live in a shack. The possibilities were endless.

MASH was always my go-to when I needed to take a good look into my future. I don’t know if you know the rules but here a quick break down:

How to Play MASH:

Step 1: Take a piece of paper and write MASH (Mansion, Apartment, Shack, House) at the top of it.

Step 2: Write your categories- Husband/Wife, Kids, Money, Transportation, Job, Pets, Wedding Dress/Tux, Wedding Location, City you live in

Step 3: Fill them out. 3 for each. You usually play with a friend so you get to pick two and they pick the last. (Hopefully your friends are nicer than mine. I cant even tell you how many times I had to marry the creepy kid in class and drive a garage truck and had 1 million kids. Still haven’t fully recovered from those betrayals.)

Step 4: Have your friend make tallies and you tell them when to stop. Ex: they make ||||||, you say stop and then 6 is your number.

Step 5: Then you just count down your lists, starting with M in Mash. Using the example from the step 4, you would just cross off every 6th choice.

Step 6: Once you only have one choice left in each section, that is your pick from your future life!!

Bonus step: Wear sunglasses. You’ll need them when you looking at your super bright future!! Boom!

 

So my friends and I decided to give this a go the other day and I gotta tell you, it was super fun! Totally holds up! It is a wonderful way to pass the time and also it’s always fun to dream! I played with two of my friends and we changed the rules at bit where we each got to pick a choice for each section. So I really played on the edge of my seat because having two of my friends pick can be very scary. They weren’t too hard on me though!

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Though it’s a little messy, so is life right? Anyway, here is my final future:

House: Mansion (win)

Husband: Joshua Jackson (big win!)

Kids: 30 (ouch)

Money: $150,000 per year (Solid)

Transportation: Pinto ( I almost got dolphins!, damnit)

Job: Vintage Clothing CEO Billionaire (dream job)

Pet: Crocodile (ehhh)

Wedding dress :White two piece dress (cool)

Wedding Local: farm (For it)

City I live in: Antarctica (Brrrrrr)

 

Honestly, this is a pretty solid way to live. Some things don’t make total sense but I like it. The 30 kids thing might be the reason I die or maybe death by crocodile or just a good old fashion freeze to death from Antarctica, but that’s part of the excitement I suppose!

So does it still hold up? HECK YES IT DOES!!! This is a hilarious game to play with your friends! And you still have the chance to marry your celebrity love just like me and Joshua Jackson! For your next girl’s night, game night with friends or just when you are bored waiting in line, this game brings joy to every situation. Even if you end up having 30 kids… So break out that paper and gel pens and may all your dreams come true!

 

 

Disposable Cameras

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One of the most nostalgic things of the 90’s and early 00’s was capturing your memories with a yellow or green throw away camera that held 24 pictures each. If you were a girl on her way to a dance, you made it your most important accessory. You kept in your bra until the lens became so fuzzy from the sweat of dancing the night away, that all your end pictures looked like they were taken by a fog machine. Or maybe you just used it for a night in with your friends dressing up in weird clothes, having a hilarious fashion show that made you laugh until it hurt. I mean I can only speak from my our experiences but no matter what you did, it was an amazing way to keep the memories alive forever.

Before the era of instant gratification, these cameras helped you really lived in the moment more than ever. Every event that you brought your disposable camera to, you knew those memories would have more meaning and last forever. Say you went to Prom. Most of the time, those nights you were on a life high and loving every minute of the music and fun and laughs. When the night was getting close to the end, you prayed that they would play “just one more song”. You usually had a sleepover with all your friends and talked about your favorite moments or all the drama and just slept with a smile on your face that night. The next morning, you rushed to Walgreens or CVS and did the one hour photo. God’s greatest gift to any fun loving teenager. You would go back and get them as fast as you could. You would look through the pictures for hours with your friends. You would bring them to school that week and the memories would last until the next major event. It was a small form of time travel in a weird way. I was always the “photographer” of my group of friends so my bedroom walls were covered in pictures from top to bottom. I loved these cameras! I honestly wonder how much money I spent on all of them… Actually, I don’t want to know.

Years 2002-2006. Prime disposable camera time period. Double chins and “I think I blinked” moments were very much alive

Recently, I got some of my pictures developed from throw away cameras, I bought/ was gifted as sort of a fun nostalgic thing. WHOA BABY! Those things aren’t cheap nowadays. You have to have them sent out and you don’t usually get them back for 2 weeks. I got five cameras developed and it cost me $78. That’s insane right? To pay that much money for something that you don’t even know how good or bad the pictures turned out! But I did it. It’s lost some of the magic from all the hoops you had to jump through to get the pictures. It’s not something I could do every week like I use to. I gotta say, the pictures were still fun to look through but only half of them, I would want to share the world. But all the pictures do have a built in filter so I’m half way there to my perfect Instagram post! Also, some of the cameras come with themes now such as “party” or “cats” which means that pictures with have fun designs or boarders or random shapes throughout them. I obviously got the cat themed one. And it was pretty worth it. Some of these cameras are like 4 years old, so it was fun to figure out what night the pictures were from. Like my own little mystery. The biggest problem I would say, is your selfie game is a little rough. About 87% of the time, someone will have a double chin. And you have no idea because you can’t see it and you also don’t think to maybe take a second for safety because you don’t want to waste film. So if you want to feel super great about yourself, disposable cameras might not be for you. If you do get the party started and you bring your throw away along for the adventure, people will get very excited and pose all night with you. Also it’s a great ice breaker. It’s a reminder that you should capture all moments and not just the ones that you can on your phone. It’s all a surprise! Plus they last a lot longer than a night and usually have 4 or 5 event on them which is more organic. Even more than before since it’s no longer second nature.

So does it still hold up? I would say yes and no. It’s lost some of it’s magic and it’s a lot more work than it use to be but it’s still a surprise and there are always some in the batch that will make you smile. So I recommend doing this like once or twice a year because some memories should last forever and when they are printed that seems more likely. Plus it gives you a break from technology like the good ‘ol days. And the pictures are usually super candid which makes far more interesting. So get out there and snap away! Don’t forget to say cheese!

Years 2013-2016. Prime time for longing for past. Hashtag no filter needed.

Building a Fort

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Man oh man! I honestly feel like I was a queen at building forts when I was younger. I made them my home for the whole day! I brought everything that was important to me inside like my books, favorite clothes, coloring books, beanie babies, pogs… Like my whole room. Forts were the way to live. Having to crawl to get inside. Making rooms inside by putting a pillow in-between. Using chairs for doors. It made me think I could totally survive in the wildness forever. So I decided to challenge myself with building a fort, and not just any fort, my first by myself! I know, making big moves as a 27 year old. This is the first time I haven’t had to share a fort with anyone. It’s all mine! I decided to invite my cat to come in too because she’s a cat and she honestly makes the rules so that was that.

About my Fort:

I have always wanted to build a teepee fort out of sheets with twinkle lights, decorations, movie screenings, snacks and the coziest pillows and blankets. So today I did. I am currently writing this post from my amazing fort now! I WISH I could leave it up forever because I have never felt more at home. My materials have improved since my last fort. I don’t have to bring all the chairs in the house to one room. I have push pins! Yup that’s right! Something to note when building a fort as an adult is the height is more important than ever! You need space or else your head is going to knock the ceiling and your life will come crashing down on top of you. I took my sheets, push pined them into the ceilings to make a large circle. Teepee set! Then I used a bunch of twinkle lights and hung them from the top of the sheets, creating a fun but kind of a terrible representation of a spider web. Then I took a canvas banner I had and hung it up top to give this place some style! I brought all 12 pillows I have on my bed, inside. Set up my computer, popped myself some popcorn, made a glass of kool-aid and crawled inside about 4 hours ago. I have no plans to leave here anytime soon either.

Oh my god, no joke. JUST now my cat just pulled one of the pushpins out trying climb the fort and part of it just caved in. But you know what? I think it made it even better! I feel like I just crawled deeper into my cave and am as snug as can be. I’m realizing now that forts are like art and there truly is no way to mess them up! This is the best!

My time in the fort:

After my cat and I found our spots inside, we sat back, ate our popcorn and pressed play. We ended up watching the classic film The Rugrats Movie. I wanted to make this experience as youthful as possible and boy, did it hit home. That movie is pretty great still. I also read some of my book, played with my cat and took a little nap! And now I am currently writing this blog. Endless fun y’all. It’s been such a great Sunday!

Comparisons:

My forts are never and will never be visually pleasing to the eye from the outside. I need to accept that. They look like a mess no matter what. The inside how ever is magical and will always be magical. This place is mine and it honestly makes me feel like I’m taking a much needed break from life. I haven’t been this happy in a long time. It’s like the perfect stay vacation because it’s still your house but it is like a new room you’ve never explored. Your nerves are still pretty high anytime you touch the walls of the fort though. Like it all could come crashing down at any moment and now that I’m older, I don’t know how much time I would be willing to put in to rebuilding. But that just adds to the excitement. This fort took me about 45 mins to make but I wanted it to be perfect for me. I think I might have tried a little harder than when I was a kid. Better for it!

SO DOES IT STILL HOLD UP?

Heck yes it does! Do this! Make yourself a fort next weekend! Give yourself a day! Make it your own and enjoy your break! This is your own little paradise and anyone can do it. I think I’m going to make this a monthly thing for myself. I think we all should. It’s like a therapy tool that you never knew you needed.  Get some twinkle lights though. It only makes it better! Now get to building!

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TGIF

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It’s Friday night and the mood is right! Gonna have some fun, show you how it’s done… TGIF! Listen I know its not Friday… It’s not even close to Friday but I was just …

Source: TGIF

TGIF

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It’s Friday night and the mood is right! Gonna have some fun, show you how it’s done… TGIF!

Listen I know its not Friday… It’s not even close to Friday but I was just too excited about this to wait. And you know what, the best part about living in 2016 and being an adult is that I can make the TGIF lineup happen any day. Life is awesome people… these shows on the other hand, well I’ll just get into it.
There were so many lineup to choose from that I couldn’t decide, so I made mine own! I picked the shows that I knew i loved but haven’t seen in forever. This was a hard thing to do, since one of my favorite shows of all time was on TGIF, which is Boy Meets World. I decided to keep that out of the lineup because I’m trying to be bias here and live my best life. I decided to do just the pilots of each show just to make it fair. So the lineup is… DRUMROLLLLLLLL… Two of a Kind, Step by Step, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Dinosaurs. Pretty Solid right? At least thats what I thought. Not everything was as I remembered it but it didn’t stop all the feelings from hitting me hard!

 

Two of a Kind, 1998-1999

Well this was the first of the Olsen twins shows that came post, Full house and all their adventures and just in time for their stellar movie career. I don’t care who you are or what you think, the Twins had it going on (still do, their are fucking billionaires) and while watching this show, I still found longing to be just like them. I mean they are the dream right? Coolest hair, best clothes, good at everything. Its annoying but in the best way. Anyway this show is about the twins Mary-Kate who is great at sports, being cool and being a tomboy and Ashley who is great at school, loves boys and makeup. Their dad, who is a widower which stays true most of the Olsen twin projects, is a professor at a college and he needs to find a nanny for the girls while he’s not around. We meet one of his students, Carrie who is a cool, 26 year old that loves all the same things that girls love and she’s just full of life and such a great role model, blah blah blah. So obviously, they hire her and they become this weird, perfect family and everyone is happy and its great. So the show over all was super cheesy but exactly what you would expect from a 90’s family sitcom. This show only last for 1 season which is honestly for the best but if you want to go back in time so you can remember when your dreams of being the coolest bitch around started, then go watch this show. The Olsens for president! Yea thats right, they would share the title because thats what they do.

Step by Step, 1991-1998

Step by step, day by day (DAY BY DAY)… If you guys could only hear the power in my voice while I sang that, you would understand the love I have for this show. This is the show that made you actually wish your parents would get divorced so you could have this amazing blended family where all the kids secretly love each other and will do anything for you. Even if it’s totally ridiculous. So in the pilot, Frank (Patrick Duffy) and Carol (Suzanne Somers) have know each other for 3 weeks. She cuts his hair. She takes a trip to the Bahamas and he follows her there (creepy AF) and they get married there. Then they come back to the beautiful state of Wisconsin and decide they love each other so much (after 3 weeks) that they are going to “make it work”. Frank and his 3 kids move into Carol’s house with her 3 kids. Again, its been 3 weeks. And they just are living this crazy life all together. This storyline is insane right? Like totally insane! When I was younger, I totally believed that this is how things work. Like you could fall in love after 3 weeks and then have a family and it would all work out and there would be a laugh track anytime I made an amazing joke. The 90’s might have been filled with too much hope. That almost hurt to say. But you know what, I still loved it. It only made me want to watch the next episode. I didn’t but I really did want to! Plus, Cousin Cody wasn’t in the pilot and you know he was the star of that show, dude. Anyway, this show is a classic and I say we should all watch it… But like every 10 years. So it kind of holds up? You guys might have to figure this one out for yourself because I don’t want to be responsible for your let down. But if it still holds up for you, I have no problem taking the credit for getting you there! Anyway, maybe you will make it better, the second time arounddddddd. Call back to the song!

Sabrina the Teenage Witch, 1996-2003

Melissa Joan Hart at her best people! I mean, I still like to daydream about what my life would be if I had magic powers, just without so many rules. Like Sabrina had a lot of rules y’all. Anyway, just a refresher. Sabrina is 16 years old and moves in with her two aunts Hilda and Zelda and their talking cat Salem. Sabrina is about to realize she is a witch! And  pretty much she’s just discovering her true self while doing magic and figuring out her family’s secret. It’s truly a magical story. So again, I know how great this show is and what it becomes, but the pilot is HARD to watch. The laugh track is off, the jokes are weird, and it almost seems like they are figuring out what this show is going to be as they are filming it. Like no one really seems to know whats going on at all. One of the jokes and I quote “Knock Knock” “Who’s there” “Brad” ‘Brad who?” ‘Brad Pitt, is there any other that matters?” Like what is that?! It’s not good. Plus that cat is so fake, its ridiculous. I hate it. Also Harvey? Really? In what world is that guy the hunk? Sabrina could do better. I know that is probably not a popular thing to say, but if you guys go back and watch it, you’ll agree! But I don’t want to be hard on Sabrina. This show ends up being so great and runs for 7 seasons. I mean the cat doesn’t get anymore real but this show really helped pave the way for female leads and Melissa became even more of a household name than ever. So I say this show holds up but only after you commit to more episodes. Also if the show doesn’t do it for you, the outfits alone will entertain you from start to finish. And thats all we can really ask for amiright??

Dinosaurs 1991-1994

Whoa! This was a major throwback. This show is weird, guys. Like I love it but its weird. It is the story of a family of Dinosaurs (all different types mind you), a hardworking dad who’s job is to push trees down, a mom who is a homemaker, two teenagers, a boy who is the coolest but isn’t great at school and a girl who loves clothes. Then there is the baby (gotta love me, sorry I had to). Its the perfect set up for an early 90’s sitcom but they are freaking dinosaurs. The pilot is that dad telling the baby the story of his life before the baby came along. He didn’t want the baby because he wants to buy himself a 90 in TV. He actually hopes the egg (that the baby is in) is empty. SHIT GOT DARK! Then he went for a walk and says he wants to live in the wild again and meets a creature that he wants to eat. Turns out the creature also has a family and helps me realize that family is all that matters. Its heartwarming really. It gets pretty political too about power and the earth. Same things were dealing with today. Honestly as an adult, I’m much more interested in how they move in these dino suits and make the mouths move at the same time. Its fascinating! So anyway, there is a whole comedy aspect to this show that makes me want to continue watching it. It holds up in weird ways but then obviously doesn’t in other. I think the best part of this show is that it gets away with so many more jokes that are aimed at adults and I honestly think thats best, it is so visually pleasing to children. Its kind of the greatest formula for a show. Kudos Jim Henson Studio! You made another hit!

 

Alright so my final thoughts are that I hope when I have kids, they have some sort of block programming like this set up. It was truly one of my favorite things we did as a family growing up! So I would recommend doing this yourself! It holds up because the feelings never stop and it’s way way better because you get to make fun of all the shows now. Plus you get all the jokes! TGIF IS THE BEST! It holds up! If you don’t want to watch 2 hours of TV and old programming, I seriously suggest just looking up the old theme songs. Those will brighten your day for sure! Make everyday Friday! Until Next time!

TGIF

Coloring Party

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I know, I know. Coloring is totally coming back. Now with all of these adult coloring books and studies being done about how its a great release for stress but I still had to try it for myself. First off, if you haven’t colored in a long time, go do it. Like do it right now! Its amazing how good you will feel. Seriously, it’s awesome and dare I say better as an adult? Yea its better.

I had the pleasure of attending a coloring party last night. That’s pretty much exactly what you would think it is. A group of friends and myself got together, ate food, had some fun drinks, talked about life, all while coloring. It was pretty amazing. I felt awesome the whole time. We had printed out coloring pages that themed our favorite things from pop culture and just got to it. I created a great piece of Harry Styles’ face using colored pencils and glitter glue. I’m seriously considering faming it. Some other pieces were of elephants, Game of Thrones, a teacup pig and fun characters from some of the best animated movies. We really created some master pieces if i do say so myself.

How does it compare? I have always been into the art thing so coloring was pretty in for me back in the day. But like i said, I think its better as an adult! First off, if you want to add other mediums you don’t need to ask your parents to get the glue for you or if you can use glitter. You just do whatever you freaking want! You want goggly eyes? Put the biggest ones you can find on there! Plus, the older you are, the better you are at staying in the lines amiright? Another thing that is great about being adult and coloring? You want to do it forever! As a kid, you might color a page and move on after 5 mins but you are in the zone and never felt more like yourself as an adult. It does help with your stress levels too. It’s really like an escape more than anything. A mini vacation for your brain and that is priceless people!

So does it still hold up? Heck yea it does! Go buy yourself some coloring books, some crayons and create until your heart is content! You won’t regret it.

Experimenting with Nostalgia

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Hi everyone! Welcome to Does This Still Hold Up. This is a blog about experimenting with nostalgia and living the dream of being a kid again. Pretty much I will be trying all the things we loved, miss and did as kids and see if it really is as great as we remember it. I have a feeling most of it will be. From entertainment, to food, to activities and everything in between, we will do it all.  So come on Peter Pan and lets have an adventure! This is going to be a wild ride.