Wow! I feel like it's been forever since I've blogged and I miss you guys! Seriously!

So here's what's been going on with me:

TEA!!!! So remember when I told you I had David's Tea for the first time and absolutely loved it? Well now it's all I can think about! Like I'm craving it. Do you think they put something addicting in their tea??? I don't even care because it's seriously the best tea ever and I mean, it's tea! It's not like it's bad for you. I had to go back and buy some to take home with me but since it's loose leaf tea, I had to buy a tea ball too. But now that I have this tea ball, I feel like I need to put it to good use and buy more tea! (And a new travel mug now that I think of it). Gah! It's a vicious cycle of deliciousness!

I realize you all probably think I'm crazy now, raving about tea of all things. I have four words for you: Red Velvet Cake Tea. I'm not kidding you. This is like my new favourite thing on the planet. With a splash of skim milk and a squirt of agave nectar (which reminds me, I need to go buy more agave too!) this beverage is heavenly! Here's a picture of me drinking some now, in a bowl-sized mug!

What are your favourite tea flavours? Mine are Chai, Earl Grey, and Red Velvet Cake, obviously! But there are so many more David's Tea flavours I want to try such as Mint Chocolate, Cinnamon Heart, Salted Caramel, and Cookie Dough! (Can you tell I have a sweet tooth?) There's even one called Movie Night which actually has bits of popcorn in it (not sure how this would turn out though...)

Question for you guys: Are you a tea or a coffee drinker?

I had this one friend in high school who swore she could tell if people were tea or coffee people just by looking at them. I stumped her though because I like a bit of both. Technically, I prefer lattes to actual coffee but I love the smell of coffee and will occasionally enjoy the beverage with a few shakes of cinnamon (there absolutely has to be cinnamon, though). Overall, I guess I am more of a tea person though (if my above ramblings are any indication!)

Tales of the "Talent-less"

Behind me is my beautiful wall of photos which has expanded since this picture was taken into even more gorgeousness! :)

Hey look! It's me! Well... mostly it's a picture of my camera. But now you know what hair looks like! Yay! 

My camera is basically my child. My parents gave it to me for Christmas two years ago because I had gotten really into photography. It's really just for fun, but I really enjoy photo-shoots and editing. My photos are mostly amateurish and no where near as good as some of my friends who are extremely talented. Recently, I haven't been taking very many photos because I've been so busy with school work.

There was a time before that where I was really into drawing. But I dropped art class for a spare in grade twelve. I knew I wasn't good enough to get into University for art so I figured, why bother?

I was on my school's cheerleading team for four years. But again, I didn't keep it up after I graduated. I wasn't good enough to get on a University team anyways.

Before cheerleading, I had taken dance classes since I was four years old. I liked it, but I never did competitive. I just thought I wasn't good enough for it.

What I'm trying to say is that I've basically given up everything I've ever started.

There are times in my life where I've just felt so ... talent-less. I see everyone else with some defining 'thing' in their life and I have nothing. There's my friend who is an amazing artist, one who plays soccer on scholarship, one who can sing, a gymnast, a photographer, a dancer, a drummer. These are all the first things that pop into my head when I think of my friends. What do people say when they think of me? Fast book-reader? I don't think that counts.

It's my own fault really. I never had a 'thing' because I quit so easily. So here is my promise to you: I will be a writer. When I discovered I wanted to be an author, I was in grade eight. I turned to books because I was having a difficult time with bullies and things, and when they helped me, I decided I wanted to help other people in the same way. I sort of pushed the idea away, though, thinking about how unrealistic that was. (At the time, I also had a friend who was extremely into writing. This may also have had something to do with it). It was only recently that I fully embraced that fact that this was the only job for me and the only thing I would be happy spending the rest of my life doing. It was even more recently that I actually let people (ok, so maybe it was only my family) look at my writing. 

This is something I love, and no longer will I let myself give up just because I think I'm not good enough!

It would mean the world to me If you checked out the first short story I ever posted online, which can be found here. Thank you guys! 

Oooh, look! It's me again! Now you know what the back of my head looks like! :)

Today was awesome!

Why was today awesome, you ask? Shall I count the ways?

1) I bought a book! A real life, honest-to-gosh book that I can hold and read over and over and over again. And smell. (I'm not the only one who loves the smell of books, right?) I don't have to return it to the library, and it doesn't expire in 21 days. I don't even feel bad about spending money because it was on a gift card (and I still have 5 bucks left)! Guess what book it is? Perfect Scoundrels by Ally Carter!!! If you haven't read the Heist Society series, I highly recommend it! I mean, who doesn't want to read about teenage criminals who can pull of the biggest heists this century has ever seen? No one, that's who.

2) My brother is visiting me for the whole weekend! I'm super excited to have him here and I think he's pretty excited to see what university-life is like. Minus the actual work part, though. Actually, he gets to come to two of my classes with me tomorrow morning! 

3) Since my brother has never had Menchies before, I decided we absolutely HAD to go. Three words for you: Cake Batter Fro-Yo... and chocolate chips, score bits, cookie dough chunks, carmel sauce, and chocolate sauce! Okay, so maybe that's more that three words but I just had to express my love for the best frozen yogurt bar on the planet. My brother loved it too and even agreed to try and convince our mother to stop rolling her eyes every time I rave about it!

4) After stuffing ourselves with fro-yo, my brother and I decided to grab tea. And what better to wash down cake batter yogurt with than red velvet cake tea? From David's Tea, of course! Neither myself nor my brother, had ever been to a David's tea before and we were both extremely happy with the experience. We're already planning our next trip!

5) My brother is taking me out to dinner tonight! No caff food for me!

6) It's warm, like 7 degrees outside! Ok, so I know that's not that warm. But's it's only March. In Canada. I've already put away my winter coat!

Hope you are all having awesome days too! 

-Dare

Some Doodles

As per request, here are some more of my sketches. I hope you like them! (I just took the pictures from my "Doodle Book" so they are on lined paper.)

I went through this phase where I was just obsessed with drawing feathers. This is the product of that. I tend to draw flow-y things such as feathers, hair, or dresses.

This one was mainly just fun. Those swirly things are so easy to do (even though they look complicated). I once spent an entire physics class just filling up a page with those.

Obviously my inspiration here was Ariel from Disney's the Little Mermaid! Mermaids are fun to draw because of the hair. 

This is Rapunzel, inspired by the movie Tangled. I think you'll see that disney is a big inspiration for me :)

This one is Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, I was feeling a little homesick and listening to Marianas Trench No Place Like Home when this popped into my head.

Hair inspired by Brave. Didn't exactly turn out the way I wanted, though.

Wall-E :) This movie was so cute! I actually submitted this for house clothing design competition. I came second; apparently it was too complicated to have printed on t-shirts :P

This one is actually only half finished, just because I got kind of frustrated with it. The air pixie is my favourite, just because she turned out much nicer. Also, notice how in each one, their hair covers half their face? Yeah, that's because I was having a bad nose and mouth day.

To my lovely followers (and anyone who happens to stumble across my blog and stays to read it),

I wanted to give a HUGE "Thank You" to everyone who follows/reads my blog!!! It really means the world to me that I even have any followers when I'm this new to the blogging world. To say I was surprised to see my follower count had doubled and then tripled in only two days would be an understatement! I have great hopes for this blog and I hope you stick around. Again, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!! Love you guys! :)

- Dare

P.S. I love receiving comments and hearing from you guys so feel free to ask me anything, share a story, or just say "Hi"!

What I am Currently...

Currently Reading: For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund

Unfortunately, I'm not even done the first chapter yet because I've been so busy with school work! :( I've heard it's really good though and if your interested just based off this gorgeous cover, you can check out the summary here!

Currently Listening To: These amazing covers by Tyler Ward on youtube! Seriously, these are amazing and I think I'm in love. I wish I could sing so badly. Well... technically I can sing, just not well. :P

Currently Craving: HOMEMADE GRANOLA!!! It's seriously delicious! If you guys missed my post about making it, you can find it and the recipe here!

Currently Watching: The Bachelor. Oh my God, this show is seriously addicting! I in no way whatsoever approve of the idea of the Bachelor or the Bachelorette, but I must say it is very entertaining. Is anyone else biting their nails waiting to find out who Sean proposes to?

Currently Playing: Triple Town (Apple and Android Products). Speaking of addicting...

Currently Dreading: Two page biology paper on garter snakes. Seriously, garter snakes?

Currently Wishing For: BOOKS! BOOKS! BOOKS! Today my friend took me with her to Indigo to buy her boyfriend a birthday present... big mistake. So many books have come out and I haven't even realized! But I guess it doesn't matter any ways because I don't have money to "waste" (as my mother puts it. And I guess considering I have to pay rent next year, I should save every penny I can). I literally gasped when I saw, not only the Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead, but also Perfect Scoundrels by Ally Carter, Sever by Lauren DeStefano, aaaannnnnd (wait for it!) Requiem by Lauren Oliver!!! I have been waiting for these books FOREVER! How on earth did their release dates slip by without me even noticing? I have calendars and spreadsheets to keep me organized for things like this! (And I'm not even joking; organizing every single book I'd read/want to read was how I spent my summer last year).

Anyways... comment with any of your own "Currently"s or, if you love some of the same things I do, let me know too! I love hearing from you :)

Have a great day!
- Dare

Wait...What???

So here's my dilemma. I'm in my first year at university, in biochemistry, and heading towards a Bachelor of Science with Honours. And I hate it. There was a lot of tears and frustration before I finally came to accept the fact that I can switch. My plan right now is to take a duo major of Mathematics and Classics. And I am supper excited to take classics! As an aspiring author (remind me why I ever thought biochemistry was the way to go?) I think am I going to find this subject very interesting. Lots of my favourite books incorporate Greek and Roman mythology and ancient history so I'm hoping I will love the class too!

Anyway this is my problem. The science kids at my school have a very big "we're better than the arts kids" mentality. It's like this huge deal if someone is in arts because apparently that makes them less smart. Personally, I find this disgusting. I haven't really told any of my friends in science that I'm switching yet. Mainly because I had a dream that I told them and they all stopped talking to me. And also because when I told one girl that I was switching to math (well it was half of the truth, I chickened out, okay!) she said rather plainly "Well, at least it's not arts."

Um... excuse me? This is why I was so against the idea of switching programs for the longest time. I was scared people would view me differently. I still am! Why does taking arts classes make me any less smart than when I was taking science classes? It's not like I'm failing out of my science classes, I just hate them. And trust me it is not easy to do well at something you hate.

I do not believe that how smart a person is should be determined by what classes they take. There are all different types of smarts and just because someone doesn't like what you like, or isn't as good at something as you, does not give you the right to judge them. I find it so frustrating how judgemental people can be. Have any of you had to deal with issues like this?

TTFN <3
-Dare

P.S. On the subject of mythology and ...books (when am I ever not talking about books!) I thought I'd recommend my top 5 favourite books that are based off of Greek and/or Roman mythology for those of you who share this interest with me.

1) Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini

2) Abandon by Meg Cabot

3) The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter

4) Nobody's Princes by Esther M. Friesner

5) Darkness Becomes Her by Kelly Keaton

These are not my top five books overall, just to be clear, but they are all awesome books that I highly recommend! If you know of any other's, feel free to let me know! I'm always looking for good books to read!