Alexander Rybak - Leave Me Alone | #MusicMonday

Alexander Rybak is a Belarusian born, Norwegian singer, composer, violinist, and I think he also plays piano? Hahaha XD This super down to earth guy is essentially European Lindsey Stirling, before Lindsey Stirling started her career. He's adorkable and I love him. XD

Granted, the man's an adult, so there are some "adult" themes in his videos, however, they're all in good taste and quite frankly, there's nothing gross about his vids. It's kind of hilarious because his accent makes it all so "innocent" that sometimes, my dad and I have to do a double take, like, "Wait, did he just say-?"

Answer is always yes. Yes he did. 
Oops ;)

Like backstories? This one is one of the best. Let's write chart-topping songs about our stalkers! Haha XD

Found online, this is the backstory to "Leave Me Alone" by Alexander.

"I needed a new single for Eastern Europe and as I wrote the song, I grew fond of the melody and the story – so I decided to share it with all of you in English. It's a true story of a woman who traveled around the world to babysit by my doorstep, sent me 600 emails, and always seems to find my new (secret!) phone number. I have to give her credit for her hard work in finding me wherever I am. I am a lucky man to even experience this, it's something you normally only see in a movie. I got so inspired, that I had to write a song about it. I wanted the song to be a huge pop-anthem and luckily I got the perfect man for the job; David Eriksen has a heart for pop music and he creates magic in his studio. So – here we are. I hope you like it. I think I wanna dance."

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Now, without further ado, here's the video. The video itself has some of that...European MV "weirdness" (don't hate me if you're European, there's just something I can't put my finger on about a lot of European MVs, but I can tell when it's from Europe lol), but the song is so catchy. Not to mention, given his backstory, it's also hilariously funny.

Small note, there's a certain...flavor? that comes with Alexander's music. Listen to enough of his songs and you'll know what I mean. He's trilingual (not easy to do that, btw) and has also performed songs in two other languages. To say he's talented at what he does is an understatement and as for his dedication to his craft... He put his education on halt because he won Eurovision (think American Idol, but Europe), but WENT BACK and properly completed his Bachelor's degree in Violin Performance.



Hope you enjoy!

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Anyone else have a hilarious way that you dealt with a creeper? I've dealt with my fair share and would love to hear about how you guys have handled situations like that.

As always, if you haven't subscribed, it's in the top right. Go there ;)

Hannah Alexander's Fashion Redesign Artwork | #FeatureFriday

Good morning! It's time for another #FeatureFriday!! Whee~

The lovely Hannah Alexander does all kinds of amazing character redesigns of popular, beloved characters from...well, everywhere, and redesigns (primarily) their fashion choices. Hair, accessories, clothing, shoes, you name it, she probably did something to it. haha XD

Essentially, the fact is that the girl knows her stuff. Her lines flow well, her anatomy is spot-on, she always does something innovative with her fashion design, her ability to shade skin (even make-up) and clothing makes me stare for hours, and the best part? Her art LITERALLY just gets better with each post. Cliche, I know, but it really does.

I feel like it would NOT be out of place for her to have her own magazine run of her fashion redesigns and have it right there on the shelves next to magazines like Vogue, etc. She definitely has a good eye for what designs would provide a new look to an iconic character, while staying true to what we loved about them originally. With the exception of the cleavage issue, I've never seen an outfit drawn by her that I didn't like. Some I didn't care for as much as a whole, but there are always aspects that I felt were great in each one I've seen. I've followed her work for a while, so I've seen quite a bit ;)

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Here are some favorites that I feel encompass MORE of her work so that you can get a real taste of it:

 

She normally releases images like this as teasers of her work, to provide a "sneak peek", if you will. This one is of Swan Princess, Odette, and I LOVED this redesign. It is GORGEOUS. 

She also reversed some of the colors and made an Odile version, which was highly requested by many fans.

Anyone who can redesign this many Disney princesses and still have their designs be stunning and not falter in quality on ANY OF THEM, is okay in my book. 

I wasn't quite feeling it for Cinderella, but I LOVED the rest of these (cleavage issues aside).

Final Fantasy cast. This just gets better, doesn't it? 

I LOVE what she did with Lightning in particular, but the other ladies also look stunning in their new dresses. <3

 Here's one I feel will excite quite a few people...Pokemon personifications as ladies in beautiful outfits! How fun is this? These are, of course, the 4 starter Pokemon for any beginning Pokemon masters ;)

Prints and other products of these and more are in her shop, so go and look at the pretties! :D Tell her I sent you if you decide to get anything!

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And now...for the creme de la creme...her stuff is so loved by cosplayers everywhere, she gets photos like THIS gem sent to her all the time.


Feast your eyes on THAT. :P

Reposting the cosplayers info, to make sure these talented ladies get the views they deserve for this stunning photo:

Mulan — Jade Song
Ariel — Pudding Cosplay and Photography
Rapunzel — Morgan Danielle
Snow White — Ginny Di
Pocahontas — XIII Cosplay
Belle — AlyCat Cosplay
Merida — Ampersand Creations

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Well, that's it for this #FeatureFriday!
Subscribe if you haven't already and learn about the other great artists I'm following!
 
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You can subscribe to Hannah in the following links below:  
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/hannahalexanderartwork/
Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/people/neverbirddesigns
Twitter: https://twitter.com/cherriuki?lang=en
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hannah_alexander_artwork/?hl=en
deviantART: http://hannah-alexander.deviantart.com/
Tumblr: http://neverbirddesigns.tumblr.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/hannahalexanderartwork/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChouZJ5VI49OnRAMlYKZCXA

Sayaka-nee Birthday Dinner & Little Sister's Prom | #WeeklyWednesday

We celebrated my dear friend-turned-pastor, Sayaka-nee's (nee is the shortened Japanese term I tack on to her name to signify that she's my big sis) birthday this week! It was actually a while ago, but she's been so busy that we didn't want to stress her out with plans so we waited!! We fed her lots of food and then played several rounds of Sushi Go! Party, which is ALWAYS fun ;)

Here are some pictures of the celebration:

 

You come to the Lohs, we will feed you. More so if it's your birthday ;) We served her homemade Singapore chicken rice, Chinese roast pork, rice, and enoki soup for dinner.

 

We love our Sayaka-nee very much <3

 

This was really delicious (and funny). We asked Sayaka-nee if she wanted matcha or if she wanted and espresso, to which she replied, "Um...can I be spoiled and have both?" Which was the CUTEST thing ever and it was kind of a "Uh, YES OBVIOUSLY YOU CAN, IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY" type situation. But it was just really funny. haha XD So we gave her both. 

We also gave her this HEAVENLY combination we found: aged white cheddar cheese (Aldi has it, I think?) with fruit jam on ritz crackers. This stuff is DIVINE. Try it if you've never had it before. It's just....AAAAAH~

Parents bought matcha ice cream and Ash had made cookies (essentially a dark chocolate cookie) and that combo was DELICIOUS. OMG. I want this for MY birthday! 
In case this wasn't obvious, my favorite ice cream flavors are matcha and coffee. <3

 

The family with our beloved Sayaka-nee. If you're reading this, I hope you had a wonderful (despite it being so wet and rainy outside) birthday celebration, Sayaka-nee!~

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"It was a dark and stormy night. Two beautiful princesses decided that by hook or by crook, they'd make it to the ball. But...pics or it didn't happen!! XD"

Wow, I just completely murdered that story, didn't I? hahahaha XD

And now it's time for the OTHER massive thing that happened this week, PROM. Yep. The little sister's all grown up and going to prom. *sniffle* But enough with the dramatics, can I just say that our girl looked GORGEOUS?! (yes, I did say I'd end the drama, but come on) 

Check out this GODDESS. *phweet phwooo!* 

(that's a joke about the whistle, if you didn't catch the reference, don't worry about it)

She went with her best friend, Alex, and good Lord, this dress was just on another level of epic. She paid a hundred something for it, got it from Amazon, and the company CUSTOM-MADE IT to her size! Which given how tall and slim she is, is a very good thing. We were laughing that the dress weighs more than her, so it's amazing that she had the foresight to purchase a hoop-skirt thing to go under the dress to take the weight off. Go Alex! :D

And here they are being cute. Aren't they just....

Also, their prom was "Fire and Ice" themed, so I made them corsages. Whee~

Burned the midnight oil for these babies and also kinda intentionally set the leaves on Ash's corsage on FIRE because I can and it looked cool lol XD

 Fire lilies for Ash. Ice waterlily for Alex. Full body photo for good measure.

Okay, big sis is done fangirling. That's all for this week!

Subscribe to the top right if you haven't already and I'll see you all Friday!

Byee~

Tosh Rock - What More Can I Say | #MusicMonday

I'll be frank and say that when I first came across Tosh many years ago, I didn't actually like him as much. He was...a over the top and swore quite a bit, so I never liked watching his videos. His points were funny, but I always came away with the feeling that I needed to clean out my ears. 

However, he's one of the few cases that I would say being in showbiz and realizing that a lot of kids look up to him has made him take a step back and reassess the public image he displays. Not many people do that. Some get famous and any sense of modesty or humility just goes out the window and they become someone whose name I cringe at. 
That said, I respect Tosh very much for the way he's cleaned up his image and I thank him for his hard work and dedication to his craft. It is truly enjoyable to see him now.

His rap and dance skills were on point even before he made it big with "Ah Boys To Men" (movie series in Singapore, directed by Jack Neo). His Mandarin Chinese is also steadily improving (a normal thing for a Singaporean because we essentially have to be bilingual), which is encouraging for me as well (because my Chinese skills are pitiful). His acting is also amazing and I LOVE HIM in ABTM so much. I have no favorite scenes from those movies, but anything with Tosh was instantly something I liked.

I would say that my absolute FAVORITE thing about Tosh is the way he blends Chinese and English, SEAMLESSLY (in my opinion), into very modern style songs, preserving some of the traditional aspects of the Chinese song, but doing it in a "Tosh" style. Whenever I'm looking to amp up the rap aspect of a more traditional style song, I always pop over to Tosh's channel to listen to some of his songs. The one we're about to read about is at the top of the list. For those of you who have heard me put English rap into Chinese songs, know that Tosh was what had initially inspired me in that direction.

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Tosh Rock - What More Can I Say is everything that I'd imagine someone who goes from YouTube to BIG-TIME YouTuber goes through. There HAS to be something in them that wonders whether losing their ordinary life was worth what they're getting now. Tosh has stated in an interview on his channel (makes me laugh EVERY TIME) that unless you really have a passion for this type of thing...you'll burn out. Real fast. There are several industries that sift out who's just there for the fame and who's there because they like it within the first couple of years and entertainment is definitely one of them.

My favorite parts of this song were: 
- the music behind the rap (the strings....agh <3)
- the raw truth in what he's sharing through the lyrics
- the line about giving money to his parents (so Chinese, it just hits me on a personal level)
- the rhyme scheme of...the whole thing, really
- the shots with him in the leather jacket in the street (he just looks so cool)



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I'm especially excited to share that Tosh has given me permission to do a flute cover for 
张智扬 - 放映爱 Official MV [My Love Sinema 电影主题曲] 
Look forward to it!! Not gonna share it too much here so that it'll show up in its own #MusicMonday, but this is still too good to leave out ;)
 
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Are there other artists from Singapore that you know of that I should check out?  
Comment below so that I can support more of the artists from my home country!

What more can I say, but SUBSCRIBE IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY! Hahaha XD

Cheers~
Ariel