My music for June!

Summer Playlist Faves! 

I use Spotify to listen to music which means I'm always discovering new music through the suggestions on the app, which I love. So I thought I would share some of my summer favourites with you. I have a few playlists with hundreds and hundreds of songs and artists on them so I have to be very selective!

My playlists are named: 

• Disney (no shame, I love Disney tunes for cleaning up and cheering me up)
• I'm 16 Again (songs I loved when I was younger in general)
• R&B
• Home (I made this playlist when I was travelling and felt very homesick and decided to listen to songs with the title 'home' in them)
• Female Power (gotta have some Beyonce and Iggy in there)
• Gym (motivational pumping iron stuff here, duh)
• Summer Chill
• anndddd TUNES (pretty much all new music goes in here)

I'm going to make this a monthly thing because I generally listen to new music all the time and sometimes I have it pretty seasonal. I like to go to a lot of gigs too, so sometimes I'll use my Bandsintown app (Songkick is really awesome too) to see who's coming to town and I'll have a listen and see if I like them. 




Lately I've been loving: (courtesy of my 'summer chill' playlist) 

• Chet Faker

An Australian Electronica Musician, what's not to love? I've seen him live this year and he was amazing, he has such a perfect recording voice. Really chilled, calm (kind of sultry?) vibes from his music. Plus he has a beard, and beards are awesome. 

Here's a cover of no-diggity to ease you in: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1JsBhRCRH0

Here's one of my favourites: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPy5igZJnVw

• SOJA

An American group. I'm not good with naming genres but I don't know... I'd say they're reggae chilled awesomeness. That's the genre they fit into. I did actually google them just to see what genre they consider themselves but no luck pour moi. I listen to these lovely lads when I'm chilling in the sun or with friends on speakers. I'm also a fan girl for dreads and beards. 

Here's a super popular song: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X572Mp_r46E

Here's my favourite:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30GHWqX4OEo

• SOHN

Sohn  (Real name Christopher Taylor), is an English musician, songwriter, and producer based in Vienna, Austri of the Electronic genre (Thank you wikipedia). I don't generally research musicians, I just listen to their music. I think SOHN's tunes are so so catchy and unique (to my ears). I could just listen to SOHN all the time. So summery, chilled, passionate and great. Definitely give him a listen! He's touring Europe at the moment I think. I'm seeing him in Croatia this summer and Glasgow in September, so if you like him see if he'll be anywhere near you! 

My favourite:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9btsq496hkQ

Super passionate and beautiful: (my my what a high voice he has)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlLJcbK7Xiw 

• Cas Haley

The runner up on America's got talent 2007. Don't let that put you off, the show did good! I personally think it's better not to win that show anyway because the artists disappear for ages before anything happens. He's a reggae rock musician and I love his vibes.

America's got talent link, why not see him years ago?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S59zM4rmNjU

My favourite (I just love his covers):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S39WmWZEFYg

• Michael Franti

An American musician and poet. This man has the sexiest voice, but in a very strange way. He fits the genres of hip-hop, reggae, rock, folk and many more. What a lovely little variety. Yet again, a dreaded man. I honestly don't even know what artists look like when I listen to them. Maybe dreadlocks have some sort of magical musical power. 

His most popular according to the side bit on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01FE9cPXE3M

My favourite. So chilled, I can't help put move to this: (I listen on spotify so this was the best I could find):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMaNSyD-da0

Another goodie (with his band), go on listen and be free:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgBq_feHYQ4

• John Butler Trio

An Australian man called John Butler and his band mates. I've loved this mad for years, so he fits every season to me. Alternative rock, bluegrass, blues rock, Reggae, and many more! He's so talented as a singer, songwriter and guitarist. He cheers me up with his tunes. I've seen them live this year and it was a great night. He used to have dreads and he cut them. None of his musical talent has been lost with the loss as far as I'm aware. Maybe the dreads create everlasting talent. 

Ocean, which is just him and a guitar for a long time and it's magical: (There's a 12 minute version of him live outside somwhere that is amazing, find it!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VAkOhXIsI0

One of my favourites:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiBxYDyyb14

• Ben Harper

I discovered Ben Harper because when I was much younger I was pretty obsessed with Heath Ledger and they were apparently friends. Nowadays, I listen to him because his music is beautiful and chilled. Folk rock, blues rock, alternative rock, gospel, reggae galore! Listen to this beautiful musician and enjoy.

His most suggestion popular on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAnlXD9Gaag&list=AL94UKMTqg-9CajzbQhyzRydZEB0nBBow_

My favourite (it used to make me cry and I don't know why):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJUOcrQ9_RM

• Jack Johnson

An American singer song writer and surfer fitting into the genres of folk rock, indie pop and surf. This cheery little chap has been around for years. Well, most of these musicians have but Mr. Johnson has been commercially famous for a while. He was my best friend's first ever album that she bought so that's my memory that I always associate with him. He is just so so summer and happy and chilled. His music makes you just sit and appreciate life and want to be a better person. So sit back, relax and enjoy.

One of his makers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqUdI4AIDF0&list=AL94UKMTqg-9DECNG_F7IWiMU6L6jgB3LB

My favourite (I wish I could obey this song all the time, just listen to that rain in the background, mmmm):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Graa_Vm5eA

That's it from me! This turned out to be a lot longer than I had planned but I just love talking about music. It also took a while to write because I had may have listened to all the songs I posted and chilled mid-way.

I'll see you for a similar post next month!

If you enjoyed this and want to see similar things in the future then please let me know in the comments!

Much love, have a beautiful day.

-Tessatata xoxo

Loch Awe (Some) Camping Adventures

Aloha,

I've actually managed to tick quite a few things off of my summer bucket list already! 

From Monday the 16th June until Thursday the 19th I went camping at the lovely Loch Awe (pretty near Inveraray). 

Myself, my brother, his girlfriend Sally, Daniel, Zach, Emma, Craig an array of Domino's employees and the dogs all set off from our local Tesco's after a substantial food and drink hall at around 2pm. We had three cars and, luckily, I was in Sally's car which was loaded with Disney tunes and far better banter than the smelly boy's cars. We sang Disney songs for almost an entire 3 hours and it was great.

Upon arrival (after spending 2 hours lost trying to find our camp site) we quickly pitched up tents, had some burgers, blew up the inflatable kayak and we all went to swim in the loch! 

Sally's pretty picture of Loch Awe in the morning

Swimming in the Loch was such a fun experience and I just said how 'magical' everything was pretty much the entire time. Everyone took turns taking the Kayak out and playing with the dogs whilst we were swimming away in the Loch. 

Sally and I cheekily bought water guns in our huge Tesco haul and took them as weapons for the water (a much better idea in theory as splashing the water is definitely more effective...oops). 

The water was b-e-a-utiful, if not a bit chilly, and we swam around and chatted there for a long time before drying off and making a camp fire to sit at.

The Fire

So, we had quite a lot of fully grown, independant individuals on our camping trip and not one of us was capable of making a fire that lasts the night. The camp fire was the absolute bane of my existence on the trip, we spent SO many hours gathering twigs, branches, kindling etc for the fire and countless more making sure it stays on! But I am so glad that I did because the fire was such a communal area for everyone to sit around and chat and drink (I don't actually drink but they all do). On our last night we played a fun game of 'Dares' which resulted in Daniel being duck taped to a tree for a good hour or so and tormented by everyone who found it incredibly amusing. Bless him. 

Daniel was tented

Anthony pretending his best friend is a pinata

During the Days

The majority of our time was spent chilling out on the decking where we were camping. We were really lucky with our location. There were lots of trees to shade our tents (that let us sleep much easier without constant light coming in!), we were right next to the Loch and we had a beautiful decking to sit on and enjoy the sunshine and the lovely views. We crafted a make shift speaker for our iphones using a used pringle can and just sat listening to chilled summer playlists, talking, sunbathing, playing cards and amusing the dogs Penny and Misha. The dogs were so well behaved and adorable on the trip, I was so proud of them. Penny is a bit older and usually just slept or sat looking cute whereas Misha was constant hyper-action hyper-drive, insisting that everyone threw tennis balls and twigs for her. Needless to say, the animals kept us very amused on the trip. 

Such water babies, you can see the boys Kayaking in the background

Misha, her ball and the great outdoors 

Penny getting in on the card action

For food we mainly ate dry foods, pasta and beans. Such typical camping food essentials. On night 2 we boiled pasta on our camping stove, cooked beans in a pan on a disposable bbq and cooked Quorn sausages on the disposable bbq too! We didn't want to bring meat because none of us were too certain about food poisoning rules and we knew that Quorn would be totally safe, which it was. We put all of the ingredients together and created a pretty tasty meal!

On night 3 our stove ran out of gas (nightmare) and we just used disposable bbq's to cook corn on the cob, bread, beans and hot dogs. It sounds super odd but yet again it was pretty tasty. We cooked all our meals whilst sitting on the decking because we were so happy and chilled out there that we wanted to stay there for as long as possible. (There were also no midges there unlike nearer the trees where they ate us alive :( )

Emma, Me and Anthony sitting out on the decking 

Chef Tessa to the rescue, that straw hat was passed around so much.

Daniel and Zach chilling in the sun

Anthony posing

Another fun thing we did was make a tire swing! We (by we I mean the boys and Sally) found an old tire by the loch and used some rope that someone had brought to make an awesome swing that amused us endlessly for the 3rd day!

The making of the tire swing

Alien Sally enjoying the swing

Our tragic but much loved fire

On the last day, we all woke up and took our tents down. We cleaned up the camp site, washed our dishes, took the bins away and drove home! The trip home was a lot easier without getting lost so it was a lot shorter. 

I'm happy with the cute little trip we went on, I'll definitely be joining them again next year. I was able to tick off:

Go camping, swim in a natural body of water, watch the sunset, watch the sun rise, make a camp fire and probably a few more off of my 25 things to do this summer list. It was that easy! 

Hopefully you enjoyed reading this and found it a little bit interesting. If you'd like more stuff like this then let me know in the comments and otherwise enjoy your life until next time :) 

-Tessatata   xoxo

My Summer Bucket List

Hi! I'm starting a little blog to document my life and just for me to write general nonsense whenever I feel like it. I'm starting it off with a fun to-do list of some little and some big ideas for me to complete in the next few months. 

So, I was inspired by other bloggers to create a bucket list for summer 2014. It's going to be a list of 25 things that I want to have done come...September this year. I think this is a great idea to get me a little more motivated and active this year instead of just spending all my time chilling out I can actually do really fun or productive things too. So, here's my list:

1. Go Camping
2. Swim in a natural body of water
3. Take lots of photos
4. Star Gaze
5. Watch the sunset
6. Watch the sunrise 
7. Go to the Zoo
8. Build a camp fire
9. Get a part-time job
10. Get healthier (I say this on every occasion possible but i'm determined!)
11. Go abroad
12. Learn 2+ songs on my Ukelele
13. Watch my entire Hitchcock and Kubrick collections
14. Create healthy recipes for myself to follow
15. Visit Loch Lomond
16. Refrain from buying a hamster
17. Buy a Mac lipstick
18. Go to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 
19. Vlog at least once
20. Wake up early and be productive
21. Carve something for someone
22. Read one book every week or fortnight 
23. Go to Alton Towers for a day trip
24. Hug people and smile more at strangers
25. Complete this list! 

There's my list! I'll try to blog about the things as I cross them off the list and take photos of them to share with the internet. I'm really excited to get this started and have an awesome summer, I hope you are too!