Sorry Guys!

OMG guys I am sooo sorry I haven't been on. I went on vacation for two weeks up in the middle of the forest in Maine. So there was no internet, however I am done and ready to blog again! I recently have been watching Bethany Mota's Youtube Videos! She is amazing! Here is my list of things I have been obsessing over:

~Fashion~

Combat Boots
Leather jackets
Ripped skinny jeans
Crochet crop tops
Neon cropped sweaters
Bomber Jacket
~Hair and Makeup~

Fishtail (yes, Bethany taught me :D)
Mulberry Colored lips (experimenting for fall)
Natural three tone eyeshadow
Pastel nailpolish
Chinese staircase braid
Bohemian hair
Bold red lips (still luvin them!)
BB cream (traveling essential!)
White Eyeliner

PS. I might do a thrift shopping haul video on Youtube! (more details coming!)

xoxox-Gretchen

"Beyond the Sky" Chapter 4

Chapter 4

           When I walked through the front door I was stunned. Stunned at the expensive furniture that filled the room with a feeling of wealth. Stunned at how much they probably cost. Stunned at the immaculately polished marble floors. "Mom!" I said in shock, my mouth gaping open. "Your room is up the stairs on the left. Next to Lindsay's" she informed me, handing me my backpack. "Go and set up." she suddenly snapped. "I'm going to make some Iced Tea for us." she said coolly walking away from me towards the kitchen and refreshments bar. I rolled my eyes and made my way up the stairs. My eyes focused on the framed pictures that hung on the wall. There was a girl who I assumed was Lindsay. It was a professionally taken picture of her jumping up and spiking a volleyball.  Then another picture of a boy that was taken behind him. He was mimicking the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio De Janeiro, he had black hair and was wearing a beat up leather jacket. I recognized him from somewhere. I kept walking up the stairs, running my hands along the black cherry railing.
               When I reached the top of the stairs, a friendly golden retriever puppy greeted me with a wagging tail and a bark. "Hi" I said, bending down to scratch behind it's ears. "What's your name?" I asked, flipping over the sterling silver name tag "JADIA"."Okay Jadia, I have to go settle into my room but I'll probably see you later." I said, giving her one final pat. I stood up and went into the guest room, and threw my backpack down on the luxury white comforter. I set up my face wash, acne treatment, and makeup bag on the granite vanity top in the bathroom, looking at the Jacuzzi/shower/hot tub thing that sat in the corner with luxury Swedish imported  soaps and body washes. I rolled my eyes at the whole set up, it was so overrated and ridiculously expensive (or so it seems) it looked like the bottles had been sitting there for a while and had been refilled with dollar tree body wash numerous times. Something smelled fishy and it wasn't the dog food.

**This was all I could write for today!**

"Beyond the Sky" Chapter 3

Chapter 4

    I had been waiting for an hour when my mom showed up. She still had the same beat up red Volkswagen Beetle, barely enough for three. Yet, she greeted me with a happy smile as if waiting for an hour in an inner city bus stop was nothing. "How are you Caitlin?" she asked as I threw my backpack in the back seat. "I'm fine, except you left me waiting for an hour." I mumbled buckling into the passenger seat. "Oh, I had to drop off Lindsay." she stated bringing her hand to her forehead in the darn-I-forgot way. "Who's Lindsay? Why are you dropping her off?" I asked. This was the moment, where in the movies, the estranged parent tells the biggest secret.
      I had mentally prepared for anything, since I hadn't seen her in 3 months. "Well... Caitlin. Do you remember Casper?" she asked, not breaking her concentration from the road. "Yeah....." I trailed off, I knew what was coming. "Well, we are getting married." she exclaimed a big toothy grin stretched across her face. "Mom, we haven't seen him in like five years." I said dumbfounded. "Well his office moved back to San Francisco and I was offered a job there. We met and went on a date, and now we are getting hitched!" she said, over the top excitedly. "Okay...... but what does Lindsay have to do with this?" I asked. "That's his daughter. She's 16, your age. She is as sweet as a bell pepper, and a smart cookie! She loves to do cheer and volleyball." my mom replied brushing her grown out bangs to the side. "Sounds like a little miss goody two shoes," I snapped looking down at my shoes. "Well maybe, but she's so sweet! Casper had tickets to an art show so they went. So its just you and me girly!" she said, turning down onto Windham Meadows Court.
    "Where are we?!" I asked, looking around at the extremely well groomed neighborhood. There were huge brick houses with cathedral front porches, with Mercedes and Cadillac's in the driveway. Immaculately trimmed and mowed lawns with perfectly landscaped gardens and flower beds lined the road for curb appeal. "This is where I live now, with Casper" she said happily as she rolled smoothly over the fresh black pavement. I pushed myself down into the seat so my eye level met the top of the dashboard. Something seriously didn't seem right here, maybe waiting at the bus stop wasn't so bad after all.

Fourth of July Style

Happy Independence Day! May I just say that reading that I got 412 page views made my day! To give you a little break from my story I'm writing "Beyond the Sky" I decided to give you all advice, makeup tips, outfits and hair ideas for Fourth of July Barbeques! I'm going to my Aunt's house for a barbeque, and we are going up to the mountain to watch fireworks.
    ~Makeup Ideas~

• Line the top of your lids with white eyeliner. Finish with blue mascara and bold red lips!
• Do your regular eyeliner and buy red, white, and blue eyeliner to make little stars at the corners of your eyes! Finish off with red lipstick
• Go all natural with your makeup, make your eyebrows bold and beautiful (Think Cara Delevenge) finish off with red lipstick *I'm would recommend doing this for a family barbeque*

   ~Outfit Ideas~

• Blue sleeveless shirt (button down) tuck into a lace skater skirt (pull all the way up to your belly button, so its a high waisted skirt) complete with cowboy boots!
•  Red T-shirt (DIY into a cute muscle tee!) finish off with high waisted shorts and white Vans!
• DIY a white t-shirt into a muscle tee with deep sleeves, put on a red or blue bandeau, finish off with high waisted shorts and cowboy boots!

  ~Hair Ideas~

• Make a cute fishtail braid and finish off with red ribbon!
• Do a Saddle Back ponytail (put it half up tie, then pull it into a low pony) and finish with red, white and blue ribbon
• Make a red white and blue cheer ribbon bow!
• Do a Bubble Ponytail with red white and blue hair ties

~Accessories~

• Heart shaped American flag printed sunglasses *I have these super cute for summer!*
• American flag earrings
• Plastic red, white and blue necklaces
• Mini Flag *to wave around*

Happy Fourth of July!

xoxoxox-
Gretchen

"Beyond the Sky" Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Caitlin stepped cautiously off of the bus. She narrowed her eyes and searched for her mom at the bus stop, but there was no sign of her. With a heavy sigh, Caitlin shuffled through the crowd and sat on the nearest bench, she took off her hot pink Jansport backpack and put it between her legs. She had listened to playlist at least 20 times, but decided to take out her Beats headphones and listen again, that's when a person took a seat next to her on the bench. "Parents forget about you?" the person next to her asked. She looked up and noticed that it was the guy who had set next to her on the bus, the one with the paints and canvas. "They always do," she admitted, looking at him. "Yeah," he said understandingly creating a pause of awkward silence.
"Are you entering in an art show?" Caitlin asked, directing her eyes to the canvas and paint set that laid on his lap. "No, I like to carry this around if I see inspiration." he stated, looking down at the paint set. "Where do you get your inspiration from?" Caitlin asked, intrigued. "From a stain on a sidewalk, a tarnished penny, or a piece of shredded tire lying on the side of a road, they all tell a story. Like, the tarnished penny could have been put in a cup for a broke musician, or, what places did that tire go?" he answered. Caitlin nodded her head, not saying anything. Caitlin turned back to her phone, sensing that the conversation was over. After three Touché Amore songs, she turned back to him but he had left.


The guys name is Nathaniel (according to his paint set) his name will be used later in the book.

"Beyond the Sky" Chapter 1

Chapter One

The hot, sweaty public bus was getting over crowded, so Caitlin pressed her forehead against the frigid glass window to keep cool. She hated taking the bus to her Mom's house, but ever since her parents got divorced it was the only choice. She pressed her body up against the side of the seat, allowing the man next to her who was quite large to relax. She flipped over her wrist to view the time on her watch, straining her eyes, she read 8:35. Only one more our to go, and she could get out of this germ generator. She took her phone out of her pocket and scrolled through the playlist and clicked on her favorite song by Vampire Weekend. She put her head phones on and laid her head back against the seat, trying to force out the number of people with greasy, flea & lice infected hair had rubbed on the headrest. She inhaled deeply and closed her eyes, letting the music speak for her.

When she woke up, she turned to see if the man who was sitting next to her was still there. But he had left and had been replaced by a boy. He looked about Caitlin's age maybe a little older. He was stretched out, his arms were hoisted up by the arm rests and his almond shaped eyes were closed, and his shaggy black hair shielded his pierced ears. A small painted canvas laid across his lap with a small box labeled "Nathaniel's Oil Paints" And like Caitlin, he was in a mode of pure tranquility from his music.

*This is just Chapter One! I know its not good, but I decided to give you all a piece of my passion XD

What do to in the Car on a Roadtrip

Oh my..... you've been in the car for three hours. You've listened to every song on your playlist at least 10 times, you've read your magazines cover to cover at least three times. What do you do now? Well... here are some cool ideas:

Take out your computer and sign up for We Heart It. You can discover the funniest and coolest photography, and upload your own! Just enter your email address and start adding pictures to your collections and canvases. Its a great waste of time!

Make a Pic Flow slideshow! Download the app, Pic Flow (free for App Store and Google Play) and take pictures of cool things you see out your window! (A cool sign, cool market, cool car) and make a slide show dedicated to a state or your whole road trip. You can upload them to social media!

Have a Glow stick Party! Set up a blanket in a corner so when you go under, it's completely dark. Download the app Glow Stick or Glow In the Dark and have a mini DJ party. "Bang Bang" ft. Nicki Minaj, Ariana Grande, and Jessie J, hits iTunes July 23. Be prepared for upbeat and heavy bass to jam out to!

Google image search "Celebrities without Teeth or Eyebrows" it will have you laughing for hours!

Go onto ifunny!

*Those are my tips and things I do to keep from being bored*

xoxoxox-
Gretchen

Summer Essentials!

OMG I am so sorry, I completely forgot about this whole blog! I'm going to be posting a lot of stuff, because I don't have to share the computer with my mom anymore. I've had a crazzzzzy summer, how about you guys? You should post comments, I would absolutely love to hear from you! 338 pageviews, thanks so much! Well now to what I really wanted to post. Summer Essentials! I'm taking a super long road trip up to Maine this year (14 hours) so I've made a list of stuff I need to have in the car:
Comfort:
Pillows
Blankets
Stuffed animals (I love my pillowpet!)

Audio:
Phone, charger
Camera,charger
Laptop,charger*
*You can get a set of outlets that will plug into the cigarette lighter. So you can charge it without buying a separate car charger
Portable wifi, charger
(I have portable wifi, we just set it up on the dashboard and everyone in the car is covered with internet for the ride!)
Headphones (I have super cute white and pink ones!)
Earbuds
Portable DVD player
(If your computer doesn't have a CD Rom)
Tons of movies!
(I hit the $5 dollar bins at Walmart, and save to watch them on our trip. I've found: Easy A, Mean Girls, Bride Wars, Ted, The Hangover (series), Legally Blonde, etc)

Tips for dealing with Cranky Passengers:

I have a little brother, and he can get super cranky. I read that music helps so I downloaded a bunch of upbeat Kids Songs. Just click on his personal playlist, slip on his headphones (he has kid friendly ones) and let him rock away!
Elderly People, if they are cranky. Suggest a nap and give up a pillow and a blanket so their comfy.

Tips for having a Smooth Ride:
My car had third row seating, so I set that up and line the entire row with pillow and blankets. I get extention cords and plug in all my devices. I have a ton of snacks, candy and soda. Two more lists to go... Food and Magazines and Such!

Food:
Pringles (get three or four cans)
Bags of Doritos
Bags of Potato Chips
Bags of Cheetos
Bags of Smartfood Popcorn
~Candy~
M&M's
Twizzlers
Skittles
Kit Kats
Snickers
3 Musketeers
Milky Way
Gummy Bears
Gummy Worms
~Soda~
Pepsi
Coke
Sprite
Fanta
Mountain Dew
Crush
Root Beer
Brisk

Magazines and Such:
Tip:I buy like three magazines and wait to read them until I get in the car
Magazines (Seventeen, Vogue, Elle, Cosmopolitan, Beat (those frilly popstar oriented ones -.-)
Books (Pretty Little Liars, Hunger Games, Think Twice, Twilight, The Clique (you'll laugh out loud with these) since I'm dorky, I get SAT Prep ones at the Library.
Sketch Pad, Colored Pencils, Markers
Notebook, to document your Road Trip
Earplugs (when you have to recharge and take a nap but your family is screaming and going crazy)

I have to get up at 3 am to leave to go to Maine in a week! Those are my helpful tips on how to survive a RoadTrip. If you have ideas, comments, questions or something to add, just comment!

xoxoxox-
Gretchen