Amy Laurens's Blog, page 86

7 Guys + 1 Girl + 1 Jeep + 2 Minutes = Most Epic Jam Session Ever

I first stumbled across this glorious jam session a couple of years ago, and then came across it again recently and thought I’d share, since it’s probably been long enough that a lot of may not have seen it? Anyway, it’s SUPER cool: a 2-min music beat recorded entirely from the sounds made by the Jeep. The YouTube subtitle notes that it took them 2 weeks of rehearsals and a 7-hr shoot to get this right, but the results are totally worth it

New Year’s Resolutions: Love This Radical Approach To Weight Loss!

I read this fantastic article the other day by Jane Caro about weight loss and dieting. It’s not a topic I usually do a lot of reading on, but the link was part of a conversation on Twitter that was passingly intriguing, and I rather like Caro’s commentary on life (not that I realised she was the author until I read the byline at the end of the article!). I really do need to get myself back to a healthy weight this year, or at the very least a healthy level of musculature, because at the mome...

#MadeItMonday: A Birthday Picnic :)

Welcome to #MadeItMonday, where I post something I’ve made in the previous week, and where you can join in and post something you made too! The rules are easy: post a pic somewhere of something you’ve made in the last week (ish; let’s say in the last month as the hard-and-fast) and tag it. Sit back and enjoy scrolling through all the beautiful things we’ve collectively created, and celebrate the fact that humans can be awesome!

Super Cute Short Film (For Kids): Sanjay’s Super Team

My son recently acquired the DVD for The Good Dinosaur, and after the compulsory viewing, we were all just kind of piled on the lounge, letting the credits run. Little did we know that good old Pixar had a nice surprise for us (although if we’d bothered to look under ‘bonus features’ I’m sure we could have found it, ha): their latest, super-cute and utterly delightful short film, notionally for kids (but we all know the adults are going to love it just as much ;)). Sanjay’s Super Team is cute...

3 of the Most Highly Awesome Animals With Pointy Bits On Their Faces

Yup, today I wanted to share with you three random animals that I’ve seen repeatedly around the place lately, for various reasons, elaborated on below. Their common point is that they all have pointy bits on their faces! Oh, also that I think they’re incredibly shiny

#MadeItMonday! Peony Cakes (Includes Vegan Chocolate Banana Cake Recipe)

Last year I attempted to start up #MadeItMonday, where I post something I’ve made in the previous week, and where you can join in and post something you made too! However. Blogging and my life being what they are, it, uh, fell by the wayside. But! I am now attempting to redux it, starting today. The rules are easy: post a pic somewhere of something you’ve made in the last week (ish; let’s say in the last month as the hard-and-fast) and tag it. Sit back and enjoy scrolling through all the beau...

Best Ad of 2016

So this is totally random, but I was browsing back through my YouTube lists thinking about school (I have a bunch of things saved on there in lists for various classes I teach) and I found this TV commercial, which is up there with my favourite for 2016. I found it to be super body-positive and inspiring, so I thought I’d share :3

What commercials have you seen in 2016 that you actually enjoyed? Please share in the comments!!

The Circularity of Time, AKA Thinking You Suck Is Kind Of Integral To Being Creative (Sorry)

So I was going through my inbox the other day, theoretically Doing Important Culling And Filing (but actually we know I was totally just procrastinating–procrastifiling?), and I stumbled on an amusing trend. Liana and I email each other a fair bit (though heaven knows her emails are generally more sensible than mine, she being the kind of soul who actually premeditates these things, me being the kind of soul who fires off seven single sentence emails in an hour) and in cleaning out my inbox (...

Stuff I Did In 2016, And What I Plan To Do In 2017

2016. Man. What can I say? It’s been a flaming hellfire of a year for a lot of us, and it seems pretty determined to go out with a smashing bang (I say as I write this on Dec 30). But. There have been a lot of good things this year too. If you need a reminder, hit up this list of 99 ways the world improved in 2016; it’s super inspiring and a great, positive balance to all the negative garbage of this year.

On a personal note, this has been a somewhat tumultuous year for me, involving among ma...

My Best Books of 2016

At some point I want to do a quick wrap-up of 2016 (good points, anyway, I think we’ve all had enough of the bad points) and sketch out some things you can expect in 2017, but today I was looking at my list of books I’ve read this year and I realised that some of them I really truly have not crowed about enough. I read some really excellent books this year. You clearly need to read them too!