SOME (50) OF THE ABSOLUTE BEST THINGS IN LIFE

Some of my absolute favorite things in life

1. Hearing your favorite song on the radio
2. Really tight hugs
3. Catching a smile from someone you like
4. Speaking only with eyes with someone
5. Sunsets at the seaside
6. Falling in love
7. Forehead kisses
8. Unexpected compliments
9. Getting recognized for the work you're doing
10. Long and deep conversations in the middle of the night
11. Kittens and puppies
12.Coffee in bed
13. That moment when you feel totally complete in your life
14. A film that you still remember and think about days after watching it.
15. Red lipstick that makes you feel like you could rule the world
16. When lights go down just before a movie starts
17. Getting a great haircut
18. Seeing someone after a really long time
19. Children hugs
20. Book you can't let go of and get lost in it completely
21. Summer wind
21. Road trips
22. Live music concerts somewhere in a forest or a desert
23. A cat purring on your lap
24. Perfect hair day
25. Learning something new really quickly
26. Finding out you are perfectly healthy
27. The airports when you are the one leaving on a trip
28. Achieving something you didn't think you could
29. Crying from happiness
30. Laughter, loud, hysterical laughter
31. Singing loudly in a car with the windows down
32. Knowing that someone misses you
33. The lyrics of the song that seem to be written just for you
34. Summer rainstorms
35. Your new favorite song you listen to 70 times a day
36. Nature in the Springtime
37. Walking barefoot on a wet grass after a Summer rainstorm
38. Hot shower after a festival or a camping trip
39. Lazy weekends when you get to spend your whole day in bed
40. New season of your favorite show
41. Having your weekend all filled with wonderful plans
42. Getting a little bit lost in a new city
43. Taking a perfect picture
44. The feeling of getting in your bed after a long day
45. New friendships which don't feel awkward at all
46. Your favorite food
47. Finding a wonderful dress on sale
48. Seeing your parents happy together
49. Getting a ticket to see your favorite band in the world
50. Getting out of your comfort zone

 

RECENTLY WATCHED / SPRING 2015

The Vilnius Film Festival ended pretty much a month ago, but I feel like only know I placed all my memories into the places. I've mentioned that being a volunteer there was an absolutely amazing, mind blowing and letting me grow as a person experience but even more, I got to watch as many movies as I wanted. The only sad thing is that there is not enough time in the day to do everything you want, so in a week time I watched 13 films. This is pretty good, I'd say and I saw some bloody amazing ones and I think it's really worth sharing them with you!

Birdman

The first movie I saw in the festival but one that definitely left an impression. It's a story about an older man, the Broadway star who is trying to find his way in the show world. I'm sure many of you have already heard about it as it won the Oscar for the best film this year and if you haven't seen it, do it! 

I loved the camera work, how it let us see the behind the scenes and made us a feel like a little part of Broadway. It shows so well how the lines between being a real person and actor intertwine, how the real person fades away and you seem to begin to mistake who you really are. But then again, it's probably difficult to find the line between the real world and the world that you create with the new characters you play.

What we do in the shadows

This is a wonderful comedy. It's a European film, so it's quite different from the Holywood ones but it's amazing. I didn't expect to like a film created like a documentary about the vampires in the modern world. I mean yes, it sounds bizarre and it's a strange film but it's really funny, everyone was laughing out loud. And no, it doesn't look anything like Twilight but there is quite a lot of blood involved because you know, vampires.

Sangaile

It's a Lithuanian film and I'm proud to say this because it's not that often when Lithuanian films are really good and pleasant to watch. It's a coming of age story and the two main characters are discovering the world and exploring the possibilities of the relationship world. It's esthetically really beautiful and the actors are gorgeous as well (the main girl became the best actress in Lithuania this year). I've also got to take care of the director and two members of the team at the festival and they are the nicest people. I don't know when it's going to be possible to see this film and where, as it's still traveling through festivals, but if you ever get the chance, go see it!

Gemma Bovery

I watched in on Sunday early in the morning and it was a perfect film for that time. It's a French film and it's really pleasant to watch. It's tied with the literature a lot and the surroundings are really beautiful as well. It was a perfect film for me to practice my French a little as the main girl is arriving in France from England, so her accent was really easy to follow. It's a lighthearted film with a couple of episodes of drama threw in and a little bit of comedy.

Advanced Style

This is a movie directed by Lithuanian girl living in New York. It's a documentary based on a blog about older stylish women on the streets. I love the idea of it, this blog, and a film shows that elderly people can be stylish, beautiful and interesting and it makes these years a lot less scary. We definitely do not get to see people looking like this at that age here in Lithuania, but I love the fact that out there people don't stop living once they reach the certain age. These women are so full of live even though they are in their 70's or 80's. It's definitely inspiring and moving. 

Which movies have you been loving lately?

5 FREE FAVORITE APPS

Let's talk about apps. I love apps, who doesn't love them, really? Apart from amazing ones like Instagram (my all time favorite one), Twitter and Notes that I use every day, there are some amazing ones out there, I hope you find something useful!

DUOLINGO. This is quite obligatory for a languages student like me, isn't it? But really, it's an amazing and totally free app and I've been loving it since I've discovered it! You can choose among several popular languages, pick the level suited for you and learn a new language. I'm using it to help myself learn French and Spanish and I'm also planning to start learning a new language from the very beginning. Try it, it's really cool!

HEADSPACE. This is an another amazing app. It's definitely the best one I found so far for medidation and relaxation and I've searched a lot, believe me. This is a very cute app as well, with little short videos dedicated to each day. With a free version you get 10 days with little sesions of medidation and the guy that is the voice of Headspace has the most soothing voice ever. So if you ever feel stressed, download this app, plug in you earphones and start listening, I'm pretty sure you will feel better afterwards.

LUMOSITY. This is a very new app for me and this is an app dedicated for challenging your brain every day for a little bit. There are little challenges that test your problem solving, attention, speed and other skills with these little and cute games. I really enjoy it! Real scientists worked with creating it, so it's pretty cool.

TODOIST. Oh how I love this app! I've started using the website long before I downloaded an app but I've been searching the web for a while for a good to-do list page and I just didn't come accross this wonderful one for a while. But when I found it, I knew this is the one. You probably already know that I absolutely love to-do lists and this app is pretty perfect for me. You can create your own projects for everything - I have for books to read, shows to watch, blogposts to do and so on and there is also a list for every single day and let me tell you, it is very satisfying clicking these things from your list and getting that big tick sign.

VSCOCAM. This is one of the apps why I needed to get a new phone! It's brilliant, I love everything this app does. It's a photography app, I think you've already got that and it changed my Instagram game a lot. It has amazing effects and it makes every picture about a hundred times prettier in my opinion. I haven't tried many photo editing apps but I honestly don't even feel the need to because this one is all I could ask for!

Now tell me, which is you all time favorite app? Or if it's hard to pick, two apps!

FEBRUARY FAVORITES

Thinking about my February favorites makes me very excited because it means Winter is over and Spring has finally arrived. Hooray for that!
 Luckily, this Winter was not particularly harsh but thinking about my favorite season of them all finally being back, makes me smile a lot. It will probably take quite some time for weather to really warm up, but the possibility of it is good for now.
February seemed to be quite a long and short month at the same time if that's even possible. It was pretty tough for me mentally and also physically as well because I had a ton of studying to do which is pretty weird for the beginning of a new semester. It also felt like I was losing the faith in myself a little bit this month, so the month of love turned out to be a little bit of a different story for me. I also managed to catch a cold just in time before Winter was over, so had to spend some days all tucked up in the bed, so now I am even more ready for the warm weather to come back!

BEAUTY

I've received this beautiful little Soap and Glory The Righteous Body Butter as a part of a giveaway prize. It's the first product of this brand I've ever tried, because we don't get to buy Soap and Glory in Lithuania, so the closest I've come to this brand was standing by their isle in Boots when I was in the UK. I love this stuff! It has such a strange scent, but I do really like it. I'm the worst with body butters, I completely forget to use them, but this one is so nice, that I just have to remember to put it on my body and make it smell super nice.

MUSIC FAVORITES

This month I was particularly in the British guys! Ed Sheeran has been one of my favorite artists ever, but after seeing him live this month and watching about a hundred of interviews (I'm such a fan girl..), he became one of my favorite famous persons as well. His album was playing all the time on my laptop, on my phone and in my head.
A new British guy I've started to love this month is Sam Smith. I knew the most popular songs and I loved them but never got around to listening the whole record and it was the biggest mistake, because this record is insane! No wonder Sam Smith got 4 Grammy awards this year, he deserves every single one of them!
I was also loving the 50 Shades of Grey soundtrack a lot. The movie was not very good, as you've probably already heard, but the soundtrack is the one thing that is very good about it. At least someone did the job right while creating this movie. This whole soundtrack is so sexy, seductive and just powerful, I love it a lot!

TV & MOVIE FAVORITES

I went to see The Theory of Everything this month and I went to see it by myself and had no one to discuss it with afterwards and it was very sad, because I didn't have the chance to yell how good it was! I had to hold it in, but you know IT'S VERY GOOD! I'm very happy Eddie Redmayne got an Oscar for his performance. It's a such a beautiful story about the strength of a man, it's so inspiring to watch how he and everyone around him overcome this struggle they have and acting is pretty impressive as well. 

As for TV, I've been loving Pretty Little Liars, so nothing's new in the world. Except I found out that A is going to be revealed by the end of this season, so now I have to re-watch all of the 5 seasons until the end of March to be sure about my theory who A is. I know who original A was, so from the 3rd season I'm going to have to be very attentive. 

One new favorite this month is How to get away with murder. I didn't expect to like a show like this in a million years, but it's so good! It has crime, drama, love and very strong characters, so it's very addicting. Give it a go, if you haven't already!

RANDOM FAVORITES

I've been loving my beautiful, soft and pink dressing gown with big hearts on it. I could live on this thing and let's pretend I don't actually do live in it.
I've also tried to read Pretty Little Liars books and I have to say that show is much much better. I felt like I was a little bit too grown up for the books, so I'm going to stick with the show for now, I think. It was interesting to get to know this story how it was originally created, though.
This notebook I brought from Manchester is an amazing thing and I love it to pieces. I've been searching for a beautiful yearly calendar for ages and when I finally saw it in the store, I was jumping like a little child.

FAVORITE MOMENTS

One of the favorite moments this month was definitely seeing Ed Sheeran live and I'm not going to talk about it anymore, because all I did this month was to talk about him on the blog and in the real world. One thing that also stands out was waking up at my friend's house after Valentine's day and just spending a very long morning in bed drinking coffee and reading books. It was such a simple thing to do, but it was so lovely that it stands out a lot to me. 

Favorites on the blog

► Rome City Guide 

► How to survive a break up 

► Sharing blog love 

What was Your favorite moment from this month of love? Share it in the comments, I'm very curious! 

SHARING BLOG LOVE

I should probably mention that I read A LOT of blogs, my Bloglovin' is always showing at least 1000 new posts and it takes ages for me to read all of them, but I just like too many different things - lifestyle, beauty, fashion and everything in between. I've realized recently that I have never even done a post where I was sharing my favorite bloggers, so here we go! I won't mention the most popular ones that everybody and their Mom knows about, these are a little bit smaller, but amazing blogs by the very lovely ladies which I enjoy reading a lot.

Zoe London

I completely fell in love with Zoe's blog lately, even though I'm pretty sure I was following it for a long time already, but lately it became one of my favorites. She updates it daily, never fails to surprise with great content ideas, great pictures, great writing and I just adore her hair, of course! I also think she has a great personality and she is a DJ, how cool is that?? If you don't follow this great blog, hurry and definitely do it!

Briar Rose

Megan has incredible style and I just always look at her pictures completely mesmerized, she is like a living Disney princess. I wouldn't probably have the courage to wear everything she does, but these beautiful dresses that look like their from ancient times or tulle skirts are just amazing. Oh and her hair, once again, I love someone's hair!

Awash With Wonder

The main reason, why I love Shannon's blog, is her writing. She just knows how to make words flow perfectly and make one beautiful piece of text. The subjects she writes about are also super interesting and whenever I find a new post in my Bloglovin', I am very excited to read it!

Loud As Love 

 

I have been following Lauren's blog for the longest time, I'm pretty sure I was following it even before she changed its name. I love everything about it - the stories, the pictures, and the most adorable cats, of course! When I saw her gorgeous cats on her blog, I was completely convinced my family needs to have a British Shorthair. I've also recently won a giveaway on her blog and now can say that she is the nicest person as well!

Alphabeth

This is a blog by languages student just like I am and I really enjoy reading this blog that Beth has. It's mostly lifestyle, but he also has book reviews, great pictures from beautiful places and one bonus, she is also a very nice person!

Tiny Paint Pot

 

This is a very lovely blog about everything - lifestyle, beauty, gorgeous illustrations she creates, travel and just life in general. Aaand, she has a hedgehog Herbert as an animal, this is so cool! This is just a very lovely blog, I like it a lot! 

Tuula

 

I'm pretty sure you already know this swoon-worthy blog that Jessica writes. I follow it mostly for the travel pictures, but Jessica also has a great style, but the travels were what made me fall in love with it in the first place. When you'll see the pictures on this blog, you'll definitely know what I'm talking about. 

Kayture 

This is the blog I always go to when I need to see how people lead a beautiful and inspiring life. I started following Kristina's blog a very long time ago, when she was still in high school in Switzerland and since we are the same age, it was very interesting to me. And it still is, because her life seems to be very exciting, she is so sophisticated and it's pretty much the only fashion blog I actually read at the moment. The photography is also incredible, check it out!

MONTHLY FAVORITES - JANUARY

So we are already saying goodbye to the first month of 2015. I think I am finally starting to write 2015 instead of 2014, so this is a good sign. January has been a long month, as always, but it wasn't a particularly blah and blue one. It was a month filled with long nights of studying in the library, with early hours of coming back home after studying and just living a very wild life, you know. It has been a month when the blood in my veins was replaced by the crazy amounts of coffee, when sleep became a secondary thing because studying took over its place and I found myself writing long texts on my computer about everything and anything while I was pretending to be studying at 3 AM in the library. Thankfully, it all payed off and I finished the semester off on a very high note. After that, I got to go on a little trip to Manchester which has definitely been a big highlight of this month.
So here are the things that kept me going on the first month of the year :

I've been loving the Rimmel Moisture Renew lipstick that I found under the Christmas tree. It has such a nice shade of red {it is called In love with ginger, how cool is that name??}, I'd say it's a little bit more orange toned. I didn't have many chances to put this beauty on because library is sadly not really suited place for red lipsticks, but I got to use it often while in Manchester. I love how putting a red lipstick instantly makes you feel better and I still can't believe that I spent 20 years on this Earth before I got one.
My go to nails for this month were white with sparkly glitters on it. I wore this combination on New Year's even and couple of times after it, the sparkles look so much brighter when applied on the white polish and white color underneath them just looks very beautiful to me. The nail polish is Maybelline Color Show {Light it up}.

I seriously have a goal this year to watch more movies. I don't know what has happened to me in 2014, but I distanced myself from movies so much, I actually don't like it at all. I used to go to cinema a lot, I love the moment when you sit down in your comfortable chair, when lights get darker, you stop talking to your friend and turn to screen to watch a movie you've been waiting for so much. Now I hardly remember the last time I was in cinema. I watched one movie Two Night Stand this January and it is definitely not the best movie out there, but it's perfect for a cozy night in when you don't want anything serious on your mind. 

I am still loving Taylor Swift {I've been loving Clean, Wildest Dreams and This Love} and it's still as strange to me as it was a month ago, but I was also listening to some artists very different from her. The band Rhodes is not a very popular one but these guys are amazing. I've been listening to them a lot and they have a very calm and soothing music and lyrics and I enjoy their music a lot. My favorite songs are Breathe, Home and Your Soul. 

Hozier! I only found him in the last days of January, so, I'm cheating a little bit, but this guy is amazing! His song Take me to church has been a non stop list for a few days already.

Oh and also Years & Years! If you haven't listened to this amazing band, just drop everything you are doing know and do it!

If you want to check out my whole playlist, you can find my Spotify one over here and all of these songs are on there as well.

 Gilmore Girls are definitely winning this month! I even have a separate post about this show. But yes, I watched and am still watching it a lot, Stars Hollow has a very interesting life going on, I shall say.

Also, Pretty Little Liars, of course. Some people say that this show is getting worse with each episode, but I don't see that, I am probably enjoying it a little bit too much as I've started reading the theories that fans create in my spare time and I hear how a little crazy that sounds. But it's seriously addicting, all these theories who A, all these guesses that fans make and these evidences they find. Seriously, how people have this much of attention to details, it's super impressive. Who do you think A is if you watch the show? I'm very curious!

LOOK AT THIS T-SHIRT. It has Hogwarts on it! I never expected to find something this amazing while cruising the isles of Primark, but I'm incredibly happy I did. I love how it feels, I love that it's grey and that it has all of the symbols of the house on it. I love love love this thing. 

Also, I've been really loving my Mango bag. It's very big, black and has some studs on it, so it's just perfect to me.  This H&M necklace has been my go to one for the whole month, I could wear it everyday, I just really really like it! And I've received quite a few compliments about it, which is always nice. 

That should definitely be my little trip to Manchester. We've only spent 2 full days there but it was so fun to get out for a bit, forget everything at home, all the studies, exams and just hop on the plane and leave to a country far away from here where spring is starting to show more and more. It's been so fun to talk with my British accent (apparently I somehow have one even though I'm definitely not British), spend some time with my girls and enjoy beautiful architecture over there. I loved it, really!

--------------------

What has been your favorite song of this month? 

MY FAVORITES OF 2014

2014 is going to be over very very soon (how on earth did it happen so quickly?) so it's time to do something. And yes, you guessed it right, it's yearly favorites time (the name of the post kind of gives it away, doesn't it?). I have to say, I struggled a little bit with narrowing it down with my favorite things of the whole year, I mean it's 12 months, it's tough to remember all of the things I've liked throughout the months. But I did it, I thought hard about it and I hope you will like it!

This year I finally got some dark lipsticks and my first ever red lipstick (yeees, I've lived 21 years before I got my first red lipstick) and pretty much all of the lip products were by Rimmel. I love Rimmel Apocalips Lip Lacquers (I have ones in the Big Bang and Nova), they stay on the lips for a very long time, they are easy to apply and the are not drying my lips.
For the nail polishes, my favorites are Barry M and KIKO ones. I've discovered KIKO when I was in Italy earlier this year and I fell in love with this range, they have so many colors to choose from, it's a shame I can't get this brand in Lithuania. If I remember this right, I found Barry M nail polishes in 2013 but this year I got some new colors. I love this brand, these nail polishes are amazing, they have so many colors on the range and once again, this brand is sadly not available in Lithuania.

My favorite foundation was definitely one by Rimmel called Match Perfection. I was (and still am) using it through the entire year and it never disappointed me.
My favorite concealer of this year is by Maybelline from the Fit Me collection (I have one in the color 15). Mine is almost over now and it looks pretty gross but it still does the job right and I really like it!
The moisturizer I've only recently discovered is one by L'Oréal called Skin Perfection. I love that my skin is very smooth when I'm using it and it smells great as well!
My probably all time favorite mascara is Maybelline One By One. I don't really see people using it that much, The Rocket or Colossal are much more popular, but I personally haven't found a better one for me. I love how it makes my eyelashes look, it separates and lengthens them better than others.

2014 will not come into the history as the year when I watched a lot of movies (what a good award for a year). I don't know why and I don't know how but movies haven't been a big part of this year. And it's a shame because I do love a good movie very very much, but I feel like this year it was more about TV shows rather than movies. Although, I still have watched several movies and the ones that stood out the most are these 7.

The Way Way Back is a very nice and beautiful movie with a great cast, great dialogs and it was one of those movies where you feel very nice watching it.

Stuck in love is an amazing movie and it doesn't really matter that it's really not from 2014. I loved the idea of family of writers, I loved the dialogs because they are among writers and they are bound to be interesting, I loved the cast as well. 

Saving Mr. Banks was such a beautiful movie! I have definitely shed quite a few tears while watching it, there were parts when I just couldn't keep myself. The history is amazing, the cast did the job super well too, it's definitely one of the best this year!

The Fault In Our Stars is the one I'm pretty sure almost everyone has seen and it stood out to me so much, I even have a separate post about it. It is not the best movie ever, I think, but this whole story touched me so much and I spent the half of it sobbing in my seat at the cinema. In my opinion, the book was better but the movie is done great too!

Her was also one of the best movies I've seen this year. The story is absolutely different from everything I've ever seen and this whole idea of being disconnected while always connected really stood out to me, I loved it. I've written more about it here.
The Dallas Buyers Club is not an easy movie to watch, it's very raw and very sad sometimes but it's absolutely amazing. I was never a fan of Matthew McConaughey, but he done an amazing job in this movie, I've definitely changed my mind about him!
The Wolf of Wall Street was the joy to watch mainly because Leo was in it but also because it was filmed so beautifully, I was mesmerized the whole time. Also, it's pretty funny and I'm still not over the fact that Leo didn't get that Oscar.

My favorites of this year are definitely Kings Of Leon and Bastille. I saw both of these bands live (which is still is blowing my mind) and I was listening to them non-stop. These shows were definitely one of the highlights of the year because there are a few things that can beat seeing your favorite band live.
I was also loving Beyoncé and her new album and at the beginning of the year this was the one record I was playing all the time, my parents weren't so happy about hearing it so often.
I'm also LOVING the new album by Ed Sheeran, in my opinion it's much better than his last one and I'm ending the year with the 1989 by Taylor Swift and I had a little ramble about her in my last favorites. 

My favorite shows I just couldn't stop watching this year was Pretty Little Liars, How I Met Your Mother (I wasn't really happy about the fact that it ended early this year), Modern Family.
I've also started watching Orange Is The New Black which is so good! And also Gilmore Girls which is an oldie but goodie, I liked it after watching the first 10 minutes of the first episode.