February Favorite #13: Lore Olympus

For those of you who missed it, my launch was yesterday. http://www.webtoons.com/en/romance/lore-olympus/list?title_no=1320

2,609 Likes, 38 Comments - Used Bandaid Illustration (@usedbandaid) on Instagram: "For those of you who missed it, my launch was yesterday. http://www.webtoons.com/en/romance/lore-..."

I recently came upon a WebToon titled Lore Olympus. Some of my friends have been raving about it for awhile, thanks to a snow day, I gave in and quickly caught up in one day. I should have known that I would love the series. I’ve always been a fan of Greek mythology and Persephone’s story is one of my favorites. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Lore Olympus is, specifically, the story of how Persephone and Hades came to be married. It shows how all of the various gods, goddesses, nymphs, and other beings, both mythological and mortal, interact with each other. Even though Persephone and Hades are the main characters, you will also see Artemis, Apollo, Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, and many others. Rachel Smythe tells the story in a slightly different manner from what we are used to. Many of the gods aren’t related in order to avoid all of the incest goings-on. Also, Hades doesn’t outright kidnap Persephone. It’s a more romantic plot. Think of it as a sort of soap opera, which is appropriate for Greek mythology.

Currently, there are 49 episodes in the series. New episodes are uploaded every Sunday. It won’t take you very long to catch up to the current episode and the story is extremely intriguing. I can almost guarantee that you will love the story just as much as I do. It’s a MUST read.

February Favorite #12: Dancewear

As I have said before, my daughter dances. That means I buy a lot of dance clothes. So I thought I would share my favorite websites for buying dance-related clothing. Note: Not all of the clothes are leotards. Some are just cute shirts.

Dancewear Solutions has a big variety of pieces that are appropriate for both classes and the stage. I tend to buy the pieces for my recital costumes from the clearance section.

Discount Dance Supply also has a large variety of dance clothes but the pieces they offer tend to be on the funkier side of things. I’ve bought a few leotards and tutus here.

Sugar and Bruno. A lot of the tank tops my daughter wears in dance class are Sugar and Bruno shirts. They are super comfy and have a lot of cute sayings on the front.

This one is a little bit of a cheat since it isn’t exactly a store. Every quarter, my daughter gets the Kathryn Morgan subscription box from DancersHaul. Every box comes with tights and a piece of clothing. Sometimes it’s a leotard, sometimes it’s shorts and a top.

Finally, here are the dance shoes my daughter wears. Her pointe shoes are Gaynor Minden, her tap shoes are Bloch, and her lyrical and soft ballet shoes are Capezio. (For hip hop, she wears a couple of different pairs of shoes. Leave me a comment if you want me to go into those.)

I think that sums up most of the items my daughter wears to dance class. Do you have any favorite brands? Give them a shout out in the comments!

February Favorite #11: Dog Twitter

Last Monday, I gave you my favorite dog Instagram accounts. Since Mondays usually suck, I’m going to give you my favorite dog Twitter accounts today! After all, dogs make everything better!

Bunsen Berner, BMD - Bunsen is a Bernese Mountain dog. He’s also a scientist! OK, his dad is a scientist. I believe he’s a high school chemistry teacher. Bunsen frequently hands out science facts and debunks the science fiction on his Twitter. And he’s freaking adorable when he does it. The world needs more dogs like Bunsen.

Theo-sophy - Theo is a philosophy doggo. Every day, he gives a super positive pup tip of the day. He is also freaking adorable. (OK, spoiler alert, all of the dogs are freaking adorable. That is why they are on my list.) Theo is always good for a Monday morning pick-me-up.

The Golden Ratio - Yes, these golden retrievers were on my Instagram list. However, GR Mom Jen also has a Twitter account for them. (Each of the girls has their own Twitter account but I don’t think they are updated very often.) They also have a Snapchat and YouTube channel (where they upload the snaps).

Oh My Corgi! - While the other accounts have a specific dog (or dog family) behind them, this one is all adorable corgis. It posts both pictures and videos of corgis being cute.

Lincoln the Dachshund - I started following Lincoln fairly recently. From what I can tell so far, he doesn’t necessarily post every day but when he does post, watch out for the cuteness! It just might kill you!

These are my very favorite dog Twitterers. But I always have room in my feed for more! Leave a comment with your favorite dog Twitter accounts.

February Favorite #10: Spooky YouTube Channels

Even though I have been trying to get away from murder-related entertainment, I still sometimes enjoy watching some spooky YouTube channels. What I actually enjoy are the channels that discuss horror/scary things around the internet. I like hearing their theories about what the stories mean. Here are a few of my favorites, in no particular order:

NightMind
ReignBot
Noir Ascii
Nexpo (formerly Nightmare Expo)

I hope that you enjoy their theories as much as I do. If you have any other channels that are similar, feel free to hit me up with a link either in the comments or on Twitter.

February Favorite #9: Longwood Gardens

When the weather is nice, I enjoy taking my camera out for some pictures. One of my favorite locations is Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA. While I prefer to go there in when the weather is warmer, they do have year-round displays, including an amazing Christmas display that everyone should see. However, if you do want to go in the colder months, they do have some beautiful indoor displays. Right now, their main display is the Orchid Extravaganza.

In addition to the gorgeous gardens, Longwood also offers classes, talks, and musical performances. The classes range from ‘how to start a vegetable garden’ to landscape design to identifying plants. Spotlight talks are guided tours where you can learn more about Longwood and their plants. But if you love music, Longwood really is the place to go. They have a variety of performances every year. Jazz, Irish, Pop - it’s difficult to list the range of the performers. Longwood has a calendar of events on their website. I recommend taking a look at it to see if anything interests you.

If you ever get a chance to visit the Philadelphia area, I highly recommend taking some time to check out Longwood Gardens. You need to see their fountain shows, at the very least. Don’t believe me? Check out their Instagram to get a glimpse into what they offer.

February Favorite #8: Disney Doorables

I’ll admit that I am a bit of a kid. I love blind boxes and I love cute things. Disney Doorables checks both of those boxes. You can buy them separately in playsets or you can buy the big blind box. I prefer the blind box, of course. But what are Disney Doorables, you ask? Well!

The Doorables are tiny little Disney figures. They feature everyone from Mickey Mouse to Winnie the Pooh to Rapunzel to Marshmallow. (You know, the giant snowmonster from Frozen.) Most of the figures feature sparkly eyes or glitter dresses. However, in each series, one of the character groups are all fuzzy. In the first series, all of the Winnie The Pooh characters were fuzzy. It is pretty awesome.

Whenever my daughter and I go to Target, we pick up at least one box of Doorables. The big box has anywhere from 5 to 7 figures inside. (You can get them at Walmart and Five Below as well but I’ve never seen them there.) While we have a lot of figures, we haven’t quite completed the first series yet. The second series released recently so I’m hoping we’ll still be able to get more boxes of the first series. I want to complete the set!

For the record, our favorite figure so far is Boo from Monsters Inc. So cute!

February Favorite #7: Purl

I know I’m a little behind on my February Favorites but I’m going to try to catch up. The video I’m going to share with you is a Pixar SparkShort titled Purl. While it is very adorable, it does highlight an important part of American society - the difficulty women have fitting into a male-dominated workforce. The short was both directed and produced by women. (Kristen Lester and Gillian Libbert-Duncan, respectively.) While it sucks that work inequality is a thing, I’m glad that Pixar put this out there to, hopefully, start discussions about it.

February Favorite #6: The Masked Singer

In case you have been living under a rock, there is a new show on Fox called The Masked Singer. It is the Americanized version of the Korean show, King of Mask Singer. And it is AMAZING. (Both of them are amazing but not everyone is insane enough to watch a show in a language they don’t speak.)

Here’s the basics: Celebrities of varying degrees dress up in elaborate costumes to hide their identities. Then they sing. It is up to us and the judges to figure out who is behind the mask.

The show started out with 12 celebrities. As of right now, five have been unmasked. (Another will be unmasked tonight.) I’m not going to give any spoilers. If you want to know who the unmasked celebrities are, you can look it up.

While the premise sounds a little dumb, it really is amazing. I have some ideas who some of the celebrities are but I’ve only been right once so far. You end up having to rely more on the clues that are given than the actual voice. I think that makes it more enjoyable to watch. It would suck if the identities were easy to guess!

If you haven’t watched the show yet, you need to get on board. A new episode airs tonight!

February Favorite #5: Ulta Beauty

Ulta is one of my favorite stores. Not because I’m super into makeup but because I can buy almost everything beauty related that I want. I can get bar soap for the shower, products for my hair (I use DevaCurl), and face masks all in one place. Then I can use their points program to buy my favorite makeup, Urban Decay. And there are four different stores within driving distance of my home and work, which is helpful when I am looking for something specific.

I mentioned their points program. Do you know about it? Basically, you earn points every time you buy something at an Ulta store. Those points get turned into dollars that you can use to purchase more products. There are ways to earn extra points. If you sign up for the Ulta credit card, you get bonus points when you use it. (I use mine to book hotels/AirBnBs when we travel.) You also get double points during your birthday month. I’ve bought a lot of high end makeup with points. It’s my favorite part of Ulta.

Now, I know that some people prefer Sephora over Ulta. However, there isn’t a Sephora particularly close to my house. There is one near my work but it isn’t convenient to go to the mall it is in. And I don’t think their rewards program is as good as Ulta’s. But that is just my opinion. Where do you buy your favorite beauty products?

February Favorite #4: Dog Instagram!

I heard something about it warming up this weekend? Probs means more baths. You see, when you're a low rider like me, when it warms up with snow on the ground, your tummy gets messy and gross. Lucky for me, I have that yummy peanut butter dispenser when I get baths. 😎

6,419 Likes, 8 Comments - Charles A. VanGogh the tripawd (@charlesavocado) on Instagram: "I heard something about it warming up this weekend? Probs means more baths. You see, when you're a..."

I don’t think it’s any secret that I love dogs. Of course, that means I follow a LOT of dogs on social media. Today’s February Favorite will be the dogs I follow on Instagram. These are the dogs that always bring a smile to my face, no matter how awful my day has been. I hope they will bring you some happiness as well.

The dog above is Charles A. VanGogh. He is a 7-year old corgi with quite a few health problems. But that doesn’t stop him from being awesome. He’s probably most well known as the winner of season two of the Try Guy’s Barkchsler series. My daughter and I were ecstatic that he won. And now you can love him too.

🔊Corgi Politics

32.2k Likes, 604 Comments - Maple and Morty (@mapleandmortycorgi) on Instagram: "🔊Corgi Politics"

This is Maple and Morty. They are corgis and who doesn’t freaking love corgis? They tend to post more videos than pictures, which makes me very happy. Corgis have GIANT personalities that need sound to really get the point across. I love them a lot.

#occupykitchen

7,608 Likes, 35 Comments - The Golden Ratio (@thegoldenratio4) on Instagram: "#occupykitchen"

It’s The Golden Ratio! Yes, there are FIVE golden retrievers in this house. We have Venkman (Team Chaos), Jasmine (the nihilist), Queso (who has the best face-o), Hopper T Dog (in love with GR Dad and a rock), and Maggie (the schmiegy one). The Golden Ratio mom is very active on all of the social media platforms so you will see the gang pop up again later this month. If you are looking for some dog accounts to follow, you can’t go wrong with them.

To hit on the pool boy, #shewaits

4,952 Likes, 32 Comments - Blanche Shlesinger (@blanchewaits) on Instagram: "To hit on the pool boy, #shewaits"

The last one I want to share with you is Blanche Shlesinger. Her owner is Iliza Schlesinger, a super funny comedian. (We saw her - and Blanche! - when she came to Philly.) Iliza has a separate Instagram account for herself where Blanche will appear occasionally, but Blanche’s Instagram is the place to be. I mean, she is literally waiting for you…to feed her chickies but she’s still waiting. Get on that.

OK. Because they are all good dogs, I’m going to throw some more links at you:
Peppers The Corgi
Atlas
Teddy