Hello, my name's Rosalind I get called Ros and Rozzie more often and I like that. I had been thinking about what to write in the About Me section of this blog for a while and as awesome as the list of questions that I took from a girly website was, I think it was way too cheesy and I wanted to be able to show you partly how my brain works when I want to write something. So here it goes. First and foremost, I love Jesus. Like, a lot. I my not get everything right a whole lot of the time but His love, grace and mercy knows no bounds. I love writing, I love how I can express and articulate my words in a more effective way. I love singing and I enjoy belting songs out by myself. I love fashion and expressing myself through clothing. My style is borderline formal, elements of bohemian, preppy and girly and it almost always something involving a skirt and tights. My favourite season is Autumn, I love the palette of colours it brings with it. I love music, any type of music and I appreciate a great soundtrack to a film more than the film at times. Give a song an infectious drum beat and I'm sold. I love playing in orchestras. I'm falling more in love with travelling, walking, getting to know new people and what moves them, what excites them and I love having deep, meaningful conversations. I thoroughly enjoy being kind to people, I feel like it doesn't take that much to be kind and I like to remember that everyone's going through something. I appreciate a good field, I'm a country girl at heart. God uses the country to move me and show me His glory. I also enjoy being by the sea, it's peaceful and I'm a huge fan of that.I love colours. My bedroom looks like a rainbow erupted inside it. Put anything with a colourful, floral pattern in my hand and I'll be guaranteed to love it. I'm a sucker for watching the stars at night. I once watched a meteor shower from the comfort of my back garden. It was beautiful. I love church, I love community, I love encouraging people. I love laughing, I love humour, I love making people laugh. I love finding things way to funny. You can normally measure it by whether I'm on the floor clutching my stomach or not. I'm pretty dang gullable. I get way too excited when it comes to shopping. I love Youtube, journalling, worshipping. Sunsets are my weakness. I'm prone to sit in coffee shops and drink tea and cake. I prefer a cosy night-in then a wild night out but I do enjoy the occasional party or two. I love going to the theatre. I've just recently discovered the West End and all its glory, I very much want to visit it again. I love studying His word, although I could do it more often. I love food. How have I written this much and only just started writing about food? I have a major sweet tooth. I'm a magazine hoarder. These sentences are probably structured wrong and everything that I have written thus far have been thoughts that I have made off the top of my head.
There's nothing like it. There's excitement, adrenaline, hope, magical moments, connections you make with the audience as one. Then there's hours of rehearsals, frustrating musical phrases you just can't get right and technical excercises you wish you were better at. To say I have loved every part of being in an orchestra would be a lie. The bits when you are asked to play on your own, as a section or desk by desk are enough to stress you out and cause your hairs to turn grey. However, as soon as you walk onto the stage and sit down with wonderful and talented friends you do become as one. One body conveying a musical message that graces the ears of the audience and then all of the rehearsing suddenly becomes completely worth it. I have met the most musical, intelligent and kind people through participating in Orchestras and when you have being in an orchestra in common with someone you can relate to so many of the same things. Here's 25 things you'll be able to relate to with someone else who has played in an orchestra.
1) Practice is optional and you can sometimes get away with not practicing at all, it just depends on your technique and how well you can sight-read. 2) You either have extreme hatred or love for the conductor. 3) You've both experienced hard pieces of music to play as an orchestra. 4) Your inability to count makes you rethink why you ever picked up an instrument in the first place. 5) The pain you both feel when you accidentally play in a rest. 6) Being part of a section that is either way too quiet or that just can't play at all. 7) Being part of the reason why you're in one of those sections. 8) Appreciation for classical music and other musicians technique. 9) Hidden rivalry that you've had with at least 2 or more other people in your section. 10) Utmost respect for the leader/front desk of the violins. 11) Forgetting key signatures. 12) Forgetting key changes. 13) Forgetting simple rhythms. 14) Forgetting a pencil. 15) Forgetting the music. 16) Forgetting the music on the day of the concert. 17) Forgetting and never knowing the concert dates until a few days before it happens. 18) Not bringing enough money for snacks during intervals and those awkward in-between breaks between rehearsal and show-time. 19) Forgetting your instrument. 20) Not being bothered to carry it everywhere. 21) Being very concious of your bow going in the opposite direction of everyone else and not being able to change it fast enough. 22) Getting distracted by the ceiling of a venue and missing your cue. 23) The laughter music (and other people's mistakes) often brings to the orchestra. 24) Getting told you all did it perfectly by someone, ANYONE makes it completely worthwhile. 25) The happiness you feel when you all stand up with eachother at the end of the show and take a bow. And another bow. Sit down. Possibly stand up again. Bow. Awkwardly clap with your instrument in your hands. Sit down. Suffer in awkward 30 second silence and then begin to pack up.
There must be more but that's all my little brain can muster up right now. Comment below if you're in an orchestra, I would love to know whether you agree with me!
Welcome to Day 2 of BLOGMAS, today I wanted to share a wonderful and talented Christmas album that I have been listening to non-stop since mid November and it's by a few masters in acapella music-making called Pentatonix. They have been around for quite a while and their youtube has gained quite a following since they have formed and I believe they were on an acapella tv show once. Anyway, they have come out with what I believe is their second Christmas album called That's Christmas to Me and it features an array of beloved Christmas carols and songs that we have all grown up with over the years featuring nothing but their beautiful voices.
If you didn't already know, Pentatonix is made up of 5 people Scott Hoying, Mitch Grassi, Kirsten Maldonado, Kevin Olusola and Avi Kaplan. At first Scott, Mitch and Kirsten began a trio at Martin High School in Arlington, Texas. They entered a competition that a local radio station was holding and performed "Telephone" on it. Despite not winning the competition their performance was able to receive recognition from their peers and from then on they decided to start arranging songs. Fast forward to the competition Sing Off which is where they recruited Kevin and Avi to the group and thus the wickedly talented group Pentatonix was born!
You can purchase the album for just £4.99 on iTunes or 0.99p if you want to buy your favourites but in all seriousness every single song on this album has so much craft and work put into it. £4.99 is definitely not enough.
1. Hark the Herald Angels Sing
This traditional Christmas Carol remake stays true to the classic, it simply features their voices singing in harmony with one another in a very mellow, legato pace. The thickness of the song is made by the layers of their voices on top of eachother and without any beat boxing involved it captures the simplicity of just singing, and singing fantasticly may I add.
2. White Winter Hymnal
I must look up the lyrics to this song as I have a feeling that they are way more melancholy then it lets on. This song features a lot of tapping, clapping and snapping of different parts of the body, all of them with their hands. Their voices again, layer onto one another to create a beautiful crescendo of voices. The tapping, clappinng and snapping make this song a possible descendant of the Cup Song. Check out the Youtube video below to see how it's done:
3. Sleigh Ride (one of my favourites)
This song is one of my favourites of all time everything about it just screams Christmas, bells are being rung and everything about this song just oozes happiness and candy canes. Kristie takes the lead in this song and executes it beautifully.
4. Winter Wonderland / Don't Worry Be Happy (another one of my favourites)
This song is another one of my favourites simply because Pentatonix did what they do so wonderfully, a mash-up. Who knew Winter Wonderland and Bob Marley's Don't Worry Be Happy would ever go together? Well this is what they gave birth to and that song baby is a wonderfully array of reggae beats and beautiful tones. Tori Kelly kills it in this song, I love the thickness and purity that her voice holds!
Check out their video here featuring Tori Kelly:
5. That's Christmas To Me
This song again portrays the simplicity of a song using the power of their voices, with this they are able to convey an emotion that doesn't come about by just shout-singing, the beauty is measured in the softness and calmness of the song which creates such a relaxing atmosphere.
Check out their music video for this song here, it features an array of home videos from their childhood that are so cute:
6. Mary, Did you Know?
This song is so powerful, God is so present within this song that reveals the true meaning of Christmas which I think is such a beautiful message to convey amidst their huge fan base. Their voices are used in such a magnificent soulful and meaningful way and the words ring so true. I encourage you to look up the lyrics and really meditate on those words that are being sung. Thank the Lord that the King came so humbly down to earth to save us all.
7. Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (one more of my favourites)
A marvellously arranged piece of acapella beauty this piece is, remaking Tchaikovsky's wonderful piece they incorporated beat boxing into classical music and used their incredible range to portray each musical instrument used in an orchestra. When the beat drops you'll have your mouth left open thinking how the heck do you even acheive this using no electronic beats?
8. It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Avi takes this song on the Christmas album and does an incredible job, I still can't get over how deep his voice can go, it's a voice well worth listening too.
9. Santa Claus is Coming to Town (my final favourite)
This is another favourite song of mine on the album, they used Kevin's awesome beat boxing skills as what I believe to be the focal point of the song. As always their harmonies are en pointe but Kevin and Avi are the stars here using their thick and deep tone and range as the main building block on which this song is built on.
10. Silent Night
This song is strong and reliant mostly on the harmonies of each voice, it is a slow and true representation of the Christmas carol in terms of pace where their strong use of vibrato creates that of a professionally trained choir. Every part is thought of carefully and you can tell because every harmony is different and successfully weaves in and around each other and their connection to eachother I feel, is heard in this piece.
11. Let It Go
Although I am one of Frozen's biggest fans, this is actually the least song I have listened to on this album, it may just be the fact that my ears are tired of hearing this song but other than that from the very few times I've listened to it I can safely confirm that Pentatonix are genuine musical geniuses.
I hope you enjoyed this post guy, stay up to date with each Blogmas post if you want more, comment down below if you enjoyed this post or if you have any suggestions of other albums I should comment on!
Today's blog post will be all about my trip to Germany, Czech Republic and Slovakia. I have quite a lot of things to say about this amazing trip so I was thinking of doing it in three parts. Part 1 - Germany, Part 2 -Czech Republic and Part 3 - Slovakia. This is to make it easier for myself and you guys that want to know about one particular country or can't handle reading through pages and pages of writing. Yeah girl, I feel you.
Let's start with the reason why I went to those places in the first place, around 3 or 4 years ago I auditioned for the East Sussex String Chamber Orchestra and the East Sussex Youth Orchestra and I managed to get into both but up until this year in Easter was I able to afford partaking in ESYO. I decided it was the right time to join seeing as they were arranging a tour. I figured it would be an incredible first experience with them and I planned to be in the orchestra for a while.
There was over a year of preparation into this tour along with so many people fundraising and organising our venues and the itinerary. There were 2 courses that I did in Easter and Summer that lasted a week, 9:30 till 5 creating incredible music with everyone and rehearsing like mad getting everything ready in time for the two concerts we did and the tour we were about to embark on. Some of the repertoire included Joseph Suk's Scherzo Fantastique, The Three Cornered Hat by De Falla, and the Mahler along with another handful of pieces. I remember playing the Mahler in the first week of Easter, I sightread it and got incredibly lost - if you had told me we were going to take it on tour and actually play it incredible I would've been like WHATT, you joke big time.
On July 30th at approximately 6pm everyone arrived at Lewes ready to pack the coaches, there were around 92 of us that went - not including teachers (I think) there were 2 coaches, Coach A an Coach B (which we named the party coach) and an instrument van. I sat next to my good friend Pasha throughout the whole of tour and she was a delight! A couple of incidents happened on the coach during the trip though for one Coach A actually missed the ferry on the way there and had to wait an hour for the next one, we decided to wait for them but actually took a detour that made Coach A overtake us.
Then, to top it all off we had to get our tire changed which took around an hour and a half but it was okay because we managed to explore a gorgeous town that we found in Germany which is in the picture below. The girl in the picture is my good friend Heledd (pronounced Heleth) and she is one of the nicest, sweetest, purest, hilarious and most innocent girls you will ever meet doesn't she look so cute in this photo!
So, what was supposed to be a 22 hour coach journey actually ended up being around 24 hour coach journey! Our itinerary stated that once we got into the hotel and checked in and unpacked a bit then we could take a tram in Leipzig and explore but no we weren't able to catch the tram into Leipzig to explore because our coach was majorly delayed so when we arrived at the Hotel Ramada in Leipzig we had just about enough time to unload our suitcases and instruments, check in, wash and change just in time for a quick drink and then go to dinner. The hotel was beautiful, it really was - it was lovely and spacious and beautifully decorated, ESYO also had the whole floor to ourselves so it was easy to find everyone. Our hotel room was also very lovely and had a gorgeous view overlooking the hotel, I took a few pictures to show you guys.
The photo above is indeed a hotel room selfie that me Ocean and Will took, the dress is what I wore to dinner. Let me tell you something about dinner, it was incredible, I might do a little food diary to go along with everything because you know I took countless photos of my food on tour, I have no shame.
The above photo is Pasha, Ellie and I before our tour of Leipzig, we had a big day ahead of us with rehearsal, concert and dinner. After breakfast - which was a buffet (an amazing buffet) we took the coach into Leipzig and was dropped off at the main train station that had 26 platforms, unbelievable I know, it also doubled as a huge supermarket which was amazing! We were then split into groups and taken on a tour, we were able to see countless churches, my favourite being St Thomas's Church where Johann Sebastian Bach was buried, (pictures will be below) it was just such an amazing experience to be laced in with streets that contained so much history to it. Beautiful, tall, extravagantly built buildings that withstood time itself and remained wonderful as ever - it was so breathtaking at times. One note about Germany is it's sanitary status -which is en pointe. Literally, so clean! I loved it, also the weather was so incredible to us all week, apart from one thunderstorm that happened on our way to dinner this same day but other than that it was incredibly and sometimes uncomfortably hot which was contradictary to the rain that we had previously been forecasted to have a week before so we were very grateful for that (but not grateful for the luggage room that would have been freed from thick woolly jumpers and trousers). Anyway, here are some of the photos of our tour of Leipzig that I took:
The tour was amazing, Leipzig was beautiful I seriously recommend visiting Leipzig if you are ever in Germany, the music that fills every street is marvellous, the sights are breathtaking, the smell of the restaurants are bakeries literally made my mouth drool and there were so many shopping opportunities I didn't even know where to start. After our tour we managed to grab lunch at a cute little bakery where everything was in containers that you had to lift the lid up of and choose what you wanted and place it on a tray, everything was also very cheap which helped a lot.
We had to make it back to the coach at a certain time and surprisingly we were the first ones there which made a change seeing as we had to wait for a few people earlier that morning. After, we had took around an hour to get to the concert hall to rehearse for the concert in the evening, the venue was very quaint and beautiful and the same time.
After rehearsal we had dinner at a place 15 minutes away, the starter was soup, the mains were chicken and vegetables and the dessert was pannacotta (which I had actually already eaten the evening before at dinner but enjoyed all the same). After dinner we went straight to the concert hall, apparently getting lost on the way and had to awkwardly walk through the concert hall where the audience were sat to get changed into our concert dress and to grab our instruments. The concert went amazing and the audiences response was marvellous, they were so very friendly and welcoming it made the experience all the more enjoyable.
Initially I wasn't able to create a video because movie maker was being weird but I have finally made one, added cheesy music to it and uploaded it to Youtube so here it is:
It was such a blessing to be able to share the stage surrounded by incredible musicians, I spent most of the trip just being deeply moved and inspired by these wonderfully gifted individuals. It was the music that brought us there at that moment and music that formed our friendships. So there it is, our first few days on tour for your eyes only.
Stay tuned for the next two blog posts about Czech Republic and Slovakia,
I am so very sorry for being absent these last couple of months, there really is no excuse for it but I will say that now I have finally bought myself my first laptop with my own money (what??) It was my first huge purchase that I bought since getting my job, so it's kind of a big deal. I had ideally wanted to buy it before summer started but your girl got too caught up in shopping (my bad). So now it is finally bought I can tell you what model I got and everything!
To start off with the lovely Kate Spade floral creation above is my current laptop background minus the "apologies" logo, it looks pretty so I hope you forgive me now for being away so long.
I got an HP Pavillion 15-n278sa "15.6" with an 8GB memory and 1TB and even better, I was able to get it for £349.99 which was incredible, thank goodness for sales. If you guys wanted to buy this laptop it's the exact same price here at Currys. I also got Microsoft Office and McAfee security as well as a 500gb Cloud card which I have yet to install.
So far, it has been an incredible laptop, so fast - which I am so not used to! Another thing I'm not used to is Windows 8.1 - like, what? Confusion city. But I'm sure that in time I will be able to get the hang of it easily enough!
Aside from that I have just been working a lot trying to save money for University in September, I'll be attending Portsmouth University doing a degree in Journalism and English Literature which I'm so excited for. It's like a whole new chapter of life that I'm incredibly blessed to be a part of. I'm so excited for what God has in store for me so I will be posting a lot about buying Uni things like stationary and pots and pans!
In other news I just recently did my last Grade exam on the Violin, Grade 8 - it's only taken me a few years to get to that level but I am hoping and praying that I pass it! I will be finding that out in 2 weeks :)
Keeping on the same topic of music I'm going on tour end of July to August for 8 days with my orchestra which will be incredible - we will be going to Czech Republic, Slovakia and Germany so I'll be sure to take a lot of photos while on tour.
For now, that will be all - I will be posting more regularly now that I have a laptop.
I have been absent for so long I'm going to post three times in a row this evening. It is an apology from me for the lack of posts this past month.
For as long as I remember I've loved looking at pictures of Coachella, me and my best friend actually had a huge plan to go, we sorted everything out from where we were going to staying and our transport - everything. So therefore, I wanted to make a post that paid tribute to the glorious attire that adorns celebrities this time of the year!
Hope you enjoy :)
All of these photos were either taken from Google or Pinterest, credit to those that took the photos!
As you can tell from this first photo, boho and nomadic style was a key theme and remains a key theme in previous Coachella years, shoes range from boots to sandals, floral and tribal patterns and awesome hair accessories are a must.
Shorts and skirts are ideal in the heated Californian sunshine, cowboy boots are great to kick the dirt up in and add a nomadic style to your style - awaken your inner bohemian hippie inside and use scarves to tie around your waist and even your hair!
Beyonce, just Beyonce - isn't that enough? Can I have her everything? I loved her Coachella style this year, so simple yet I admire her style so much.
A key item of her Coachella look is her hat, be sure to come to Coachella hats at the ready, not only will it shade your eyes from the sunlight but it will also make you look super chic.
Spring, as you've probably already guessed is all about florals - the bright colours of their dresses are gorgeous so go as bright as possible at Coachella if you want to, here, anything goes!
Kendall and Kylie Jenner's fashion, for me personally was very hit and miss for me, their style came across as a bit too tried at times, like they were trying to create new trends (huge nose ring? no thankyou) and at times it was a bit much. For example here, I love Kendall's look, it's very bohemian, I adore the pants and the monochrome theme is very stylish.
Yay, Selena Gomez made an appearance this year, she really knocked it out of the park like she always does fashion-wise, if you guys haven't already noticed Vanessa Hudgens and Selena Gomez are my fashion queens. Here Selena wears a floral crotchet top and underneath wears a black bralet and white denim cut-off shorts she also matches it with combat boots which is a must at Coachella.
I think Coachella is an excuse to wear every single accessory ever created by man, the Pretty Little Liars cast become ruler of the sunglasses.
Vanessa Hudgens looked wonderful at this years Coachella her accessories and her style was on point, colourful tribal and bohemian patterns complimented her gorgeous sandy blonde hair that eventually turned pink on the ends!
The above picture was one of my favourites of hers, her layering of necklaces really compliments this outfit but it was the outfit herself that really created this look she is the definition of bohemian chic and I love it.
I found this picture on Pinterest it was actually the first time seeing it, I've loved Julianne Hough's work on-screen and I really admire her as an actress she is absolutely gorgeous, I love her lacy top that she's wearing and combined with the shorts it almost creates a one-piece overall look. She also chose wisely with her shoes, chunky sandals which reflects off the jelly shoes trend that has struck the fashion world.
I hope you enjoyed this post guys!
Tell me your favourite celeb fashion and style that you enjoyed this year, Coachella is still ongoing so hopefully more fashion will be popping up for those of you (including myself) longing to be at Coachella to feast your eyes on.
Hey guys, I have been absent for so long I tried to think of an interesting post to come back from and seeing as the music festival Coachella in California is happening this weekend I thought I'd share how much I adore Vanessa Hudgens fashion at this festival and have admired her and the whole event from the comfort of my home. Although I would much rather be there than here I figured I would just create a post displaying the attire Hudgens has put together over the years.
For those of you that haven't heard of Coachella it's an annual two weekend, three week-day music and arts festival held in Indio, California. Genres of music that you can hear there are hip-hop, indie, rock and electronic. There are also plenty of opportunities to release your inner creative child that has been hiding away all year (ever since secondary school).
The Coachella Valley stages have been graced with the presence of major artists Muse, Foo Fighters, Jay-Z, Amy Winehouse and Daft Punk to name but a few. This year is has been said that 150 acts will be performing at the festival on each of the two weekends. OutKast reunite - although I haven't really been paying much attention clearly because I didn't even know they broke up. Lorde will be making a Coachella debut on stage as well as Calvin Harris, Foster the People, Ellie Goulding, Pharrell Williams and Lana Del Ray.
2011
2013
I have gathered together a few favourites of Vanessa Hudgens outfits from previous shows and it's safe to say she really swings it out of the park when it comes to fashion at Coachella and in general life. Her style ranges from bohemian to girly and romantic as well as incorporating tribal patterns in her looks.
2013
One of the most important finishing touches she adds to her outfits are accessories, I don't think a year will ever go by when she doesn't beautifully accessories her clothing. They entail necklaces, bracelets, flower crowns and rings as well as the additional hat and sunglasses.
2012
Another aspect of her Coachella style is her hair which always looks lush especially in the very first photo in this post. Most pictures have her wearing her hair down with any form of curl which looks absolutely gorgeous on her, other times she has her hair tied back with two strands in front. Either way it really does contribute beautifully to the overall look.
2013
Here's a board of Coachella inspiration that you can take a look at (all prices are listed below):
1. Tribal Print Top - £5.99 - New Look
2. Orange Pacha Abstract Print Top - £20.00 - River Island
3. Delicate Pendant - £16 - Accessorize
4. Cream Ruffle Top - £16 - River Island
5. Kamille Cat Blue-rimmed Sunglasses - £14.00
6. Coral Stone Vintage Ring - £4.50 - Claire's
7. Embroidered Ethnic Mini Cross-over Bag - £14 - Accessorize
8. Santa Cruz Aztec Collar Necklace - £17.00 - Accessorize
9. Brooke Acid Wash Hotpants - £33.00 - Topshop
10. Cornelli Crop Top - £24.00 - Topshop
11. Romantic Flower Crown - £16 - Accessorize
12. Malibu Head dress - £26.00 - Accessorize
13. Gold Tone Embellished Head Crown - £8.00 - River Island
Click here to be directed to this board on Polyvore where you can click on each item and it will take you directly to the link where you can purchase them!
I hope you guys enjoyed this post, I will be doing a post on all Coachella fashion very soon!
God bless,
All my love,
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