Bailey Anne Bravely

Please tell me about music that you love! The categories in the venn diagram above are as follows: Dancy Fun Kick-Butt Self Love Adventure Quiet Confidence Slow Power Oof High Key Just My Absolute Favorites That Impacted Me The Most I refuse to number these as a sorted best-worst list, because these are all amazing. I decided that my year-in-review works best as a venn diagram of emotions. Here’s a playlist to follow along: https://pandora.app.link/HPGVR7yWk3 Dancy Fun Only Human by the Jonas Brothers I like to dance. High energy stuff is my jam. This song is about... dancing at home. It BOPS and so do I when I listen to it. I also just love that the Jonas Brothers are back. I saw them in concert with my at-the-time-thirteen-year-old cousin, and they rock. Back then I thought it was a guilty pleasure. HECK THAT. No guilt for music we like. I love the song “Cool” too, and I made a music video to it, but I picked Only Human for this list because it’s...

As you can see, this blog post is coming a while after that post. I wanted to be properly ready for this experience. My coworker kept visiting me these past couple weeks to ask if I’d listened to the album yet. And then two of my YouTube heroes mentioned Kanye in the interim: Dan Howell: https://youtu.be/ljZuro77hbI?t=11m John Green: https://www.facebook.com/JohnGreenfans/posts/10152947043469751 I was particularly disappointed by John Green, but then, he also likes Catcher in the Rye and I couldn’t stand that book. To each their own. I don’t know if it will still be the top comment but go click on John’s post and read the essay someone named Kate wrote. I read it, and my grudging reaction is that sure, Kanye West may have some valid political points to make. And as John Green would say, it’s always important to imagine people complexly. But my experience here is going to be of the music, per Dan Howell’s request. Most recently when my coworker came over to ask whe...

What if disaster were to strike tomorrow? Would you be prepared? The Vermont Department of Health would be, and if you live in Vermont you should feel in good hands. In early June 2014, they conducted an Emergency Preparedness exercise that was two years in the making.  I was voluntold to participate, even though I do not normally work in that division. It was a tiring, stressful, fun, and highly educational experience. The biggest part of my education was essentially learning a foreign language. It probably doesn’t surprise you that the government—or any business—uses a wide assortment of acronyms, initialisms, and abbreviations. It felt like alphabet soup! But I acclimated, and soon I was spouting off sentences that included such soup as HOC, SEOC, CAT2, DLAN, CWD, GI, Epi, EPA, DMAT, SNS, and more; not to mention all the initialisms for all the hospitals’ names. When we talked about improvements for next time, I definitely suggested a translation document! When you hear or ...

Dressing up fancy is one of my favorite things. My fingernails from my last post were for this event last Saturday  (click that link for more photos), the Grand Opening for Groenfell Meadery . Shannon (on the left) did my hair in a braided crown and I felt just awesome. Our trio received some nice compliments at the event. It was a fun time. Shannon is friends with the owners of Groenfell Meadery, Kelly and Ricky. They are super nice and I am very impressed with their meadery operation; it's a cool place. The mead is made right there where the gala was held--I got to see it earlier when it was much more empty, and it's since filled in with more equipment, more furnishings for the tasting area, and more finished product waiting to be shipped. Oh, and more plants.  But wait, some of you readers who know me are asking. Aren't you a non-drinker? It's true. I have never imbibed alcohol and don't plan on it in future. (Meh, reasons for that can be another bl...

Good evening, readers--I'm off to a grand opening gala black tie event, and wanted to share my nails with you before I go! How did I get the dots on my nails so small, you ask? Magic! And that magic is Sharpies. Paint nails with base coat of white (to make the next color show up brighter) Paint with two coats of shiny pale gold Wait for it to dry; really dry, or the next step won't work. Like, wait a couple hours at least. Draw design in black Sharpie, also wait to dry. Spray nails with hairspray. You read that right! This prevents the clear topcoat from smudging the Sharpie designs. Wait to dry. You may need to repeat this step a few times if the topcoat does smudge in the next step. Your hairspray may be stronger than mine; I hairsprayed and let dry three or four times. Top with clear nail polish or topcoat. Again, if it smudges, stop, and go back to the hairspray step before proceeding. Start the topcoat with a little pinky nail so you can tell if it's going ...

I love Easter eggs! Today I painted my nails to be like these fun decorations. Here's what I did: Paint entire nails pastel green Paint top 2/3 of each nail pastel blue (in this picture the middle looks green, but I promise it's blue!) Paint top 1/3 of each nail pastel purple Using a toothpick, paint hot pink zig-zags along the color divides. This winter has been so icy and blah; I am very excited for spring. Time for bright, fun colors! Looking forward to seeing some family this afternoon. I hope you all have a wonderful Easter. <3