APRIL FAVORITES ♥

Hello, my sweet music notes!  Alleluia to our risen King!  I hope you all have been having a very holy and blessed Easter season.  Mine has been nothing short of beautiful.

I’m going to be honest: I’ve been so distracted lately that I nearly forgot about writing this blog post.  Now that Lent is over and I’m out of school for the summer, I’ve been overwhelmed with the amount of things that I can do!  Hahaha.  Sorry this post is a bit later than usual!

Anyway—my favorites for the month of April.  Here we go~!

Let us begin with a film, shall we?  Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Omg you guys.  This movie gave me so many feels.  I can’t even begin to articulate.  I’ll begin by saying that it is a great movie and I really enjoyed it.  So much action!  I was literally on the edge of my seat two or three times.  But I’m just a comic book nerd like that.  If you haven’t seen it yet, definitely GO SEE IT.  LIKE SOON.

I can’t really say much about it without spoilers, but wow, the storyline was quite unexpected.  In a good way, mind you.  I just wasn’t expecting it to be so intense and multi-faceted.

Let’s just say that The Winter Soldier makes me very excited—and curious—about the upcoming Marvel Universe films, particularly Avengers: Age of Ultron.

My music feature for this month goes to three-man Korean band Lunafly, composed of members Sam, Teo, and Yun.  The leader, Sam Carter, is half-Korean, half-British, and has a wonderfully clear voice.  He also plays guitar, as does Yun.  Yun is my bias (favorite member) for this group.  He has a lovely personality, and his voice is so warm and versatile.  He plays keyboards for the group.  Teo is on percussion most of the time.  Most of their stuff is vocal and acoustic, which ya’ll know I really like.

Believe it or not, I didn’t find them from listening to k-pop.  I was actually on YouTube looking for new covers of Pink’s Just Give Me a Reason, which is one of my favorite songs to sing. :-)  All three members of Lunafly speak English (Sam, being British, is fluent; Yun and Teo have pretty good pronunciation for a second language!), and they have many American pop (a-pop? lol) covers on their channel.  Their JGMaR is stunning.  I love it!

I have consumed so much food mostly dessert since Easter!  My food favorites for this month are Japanese candy and snacks, which I have been acquiring in packages from my dear friend, and from my local Asian grocery.  Lots of Almond Crush Pocky!  ♥  But my favorite is a new discovery called Chococones by Japanese snack company Meiji.  So yummy and addicting!  I can easily eat a whole box to myself during a single sitting.

I’m also back to my games!  Been playing Animal Crossing: New Leaf, and I finally made some progress in The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD.  I got it as a Christmas gift and have only played it once.  That’s ridiculous.  XD  But my favorite game for the past month is Super Mario 64.  I bought it on the Wii’s Virtual Console.  This game, like many others on the Nintendo 64 and Gamecube, brings back so many fond memories for me.  Things that were tucked away in my heart and mind—brought back to life through a video game controller. 

Wow, so deep, Ashley.

‘Til next month, peeps.  ^_^

New site features!

I’d like to start off by thanking everyone for 7,000+ pageviews!  I’m glad that somebody somewhere out there is enjoying my randomness and is coming back for more.  ♥  I’m happy to have you all!

In an effort to improve the visitor experience of my blog, I’ve added a few new features.

ü  global visitors can translate the content of my blog into their native languages

ü  pageview count is now visible to public

ü  post tags, with links for quick navigation

ü  new page: “Picture of the Week”

ü  new page: “Quote of the Week”

ü  chatbox

Yes siree, Resonant Song now has its very own chatbox.  I’m especially excited about this new feature and I hope that you all enjoy using it.  You have the option of logging in via Facebook, Twitter, and Blogger, or you may chat as a guest.  Please keep your discussions family-friendly.  I have the power to delete messages!  ;D

Again, thank you all for your support.  I will continue to do my best in providing interesting and entertaining content.  ^_^

…See ya ‘round!

MARCH FAVORITES ♥

Spring has sprung!  I must say that I love winter, but I’m ready for some sunshine in my life.

To celebrate the turn-of-season, let me round up my favorites for this past month of MARCH.

Since we’re in the middle of Lent, I haven’t been listening to any new music, watching any movies, or playing any video games, and I’ve already mentioned what I’ve been reading in my last two posts, so I’ll skip all four of those categories this time around.

My makeup favorite for March is the e.l.f. Geometric 150 Eyeshadow Palette, which I received from mum as a surprise gift.  I am quite impressed with this palette!  I looked it up on the company website and it retails for a mere $15.  For this price, I was amazed at the pigmentation and blendability of these shadows.  I will say that the staying power isn’t the greatest, but just be sure to use an eyeshadow primer and you’ll be good to go.  :)  My favorite colors on this palette so far are the shimmery neutrals and the matte blues.

Now that my hair is finally almost two-feet in length, I’ve been looking into the proper care for my long, thick, very wavy tresses.  I’ve acquired a number of products to help combat dryness, breakage, and fallout, and for the overall health of my hair and scalp.  One product in particular has certainly made a big difference: Ogx (previously Organix) Coconut Milk Anti-Breakage Serum.  I apply two pumps of this product to my hair after towel-drying, and it actually does keep my hair looking softer and shinier!  I’m in love this stuff; I will definitely be repurchasing it.

First place in the food category this month is ginger.  Ginger tea, ginger candy, slices of ginger in stir-fries.  It’s so spicy and yummy!  And good for you, too.  ^_^  Health benefits include, but are not limited to: digestive relief (ginger tea is good to drink if you have a tummy ache), anti-inflammatory, defense against some types of cancer, and it’s a good immune system boost.  I’ve also heard that it helps fight skin irritations.  Yay!

The next item on my list is something that I’ve wanted to purchase since New Year’s, but just never got around to it.  I consider myself to be a pretty organized person, I mean, my desk is nothing short of organized chaos, but I do like to keep a schedule of sorts on my phone, and I have a calendar on the wall near my desk for keeping track of important events.  Call me old-fashioned, nerdy, whatever—but I went ahead and bought an engagement planner from Peter Pauper Press.

Look at this little book.  Look at it.  It’s so beautiful!  The colors are vibrant with gold embossing, the pages are thick with a clean layout and simple design, and the 5” x 7” size is perfect to stick in my purse when I’m going out.  And here’s the best part: I paid about $6 for this high quality planner on Amazon (and since I have Prime, I paid no shipping fees).  Talk about a steal!  I couldn’t be happier about it.

…And that’s all, folks!  Hope you enjoyed reading this post.  ‘Til next month!