It’s that time of year! Which for me is like every month because my room gets real messy real FAST. Sorry mom.
Today I’ve got a new video where I’m sharing some DIY Room Decor ideas that’ll help get your room clean and organized without spending too much money. And by too much money I mean more than $10 because ain’t nobody got money for that, right? *Stay silent you trust fund kids*
Anyways hope you all enjoy the video below!
The holidays have always been my favourite time of year. Like why wouldn’t it be when Elf is playing on tv like every single day?! But seriously, everything from the music, decorations and even the snow (who’s totally standing me up this year, like where you at?) makes me feel so happy. But what I love most about December is that people come together in the spirit of giving.
Which is why I’m so excited to work with My Giving Moment, a campaign led by the Rideau Hall Foundation and the Governer General of Canada, that encourages millennials like you and I to get involved and give back!
I think we can all easily predict the type of pictures we’ll be seeing on our Twitter, Instagram and even newsfeeds this season: shots of Christmas trees from every angle possible, nicely wrapped presents, maybe a few ugly christmas sweater selfies and of course lots and lots of food. But this year I encourage you to instead #SnapSomeGood and post a picture of you doing a good deed! Whether it’s making cupcakes for a charity bake sale or a big pile of clothes ready for donation. Why? It’s simple: when we see good, we do good and when we do good, we feel good! Mygivingmoment.ca has a ton of ideas of some great volunteering activities you can try your hand at this year, and for some more things to do especially when you get bored this winter break (because let’s face it it’s bound to happen after you finish binge watching that show on Netflix), be sure to check out my latest youtube video below!
It’s been six months and a bit since I left the continent of Europe to come back to my own homeland of North America. And so here I finally am, in true procrastination style, to write about my travels. Travels that I quit my job to experience, might I add. For those of you who don’t know, my three other gal pals and I went on a “backpacking” trip to Europe, exploring 8 countries within the span of 25 days. Backpacking is in quotations because well, we totally cheated and brought along a giant check-in luggage. Which we shipped back home while in Spain, and came home with two more check-in luggages. Girls, right?
Backpacking Europe are two words that, when put together, are most often found on bucket lists and dreamt about in the minds of youth. For the lucky ones, it can be seen as a right of passage, usually experienced after a high school or university graduation or during a gap year. We weren’t privileged trust fund kids, but instead your average post grads with student debt living under our parents’ roofs. As soon as we booked our first flight from YYZ (Toronto) to KEF (Iceland), I used the research skills I learned for thousands of dollars in university and read every single Thought Catalog, Elite Daily, Huffington Post, and every other millennial targeted article out there in order to gain some unrealistic expectations of how this trip will pan out. I wanted to know exactly what crazy adventures I would hopefully find myself in. But things don’t always happen like expected.
Things that didn’t happen:
-“Finding” myself or learning more about who I am
I honestly came back the same person, just with a hundred pictures of churches on my phone and some envious selfies to post on instagram.
-Falling in love
I suppose it’s kind of hard to bump into Mr. Perfect when you’re in a country for just two days.
-Meeting new people and learning about new cultures
To be fair, we obviously did meet people. But were they life changing encounters? Nah.
Things that did happen:
-Getting lost in Iceland. Because what’s a road trip without ending up in the middle of nowhere surrounded by mountains and sheep?
-Crashing a stag party and hanging out with a bunch of Brits from Liverpool who broke my dreams and told me my faux English accent was too posh.
-They say you never forget to ride a bike, and I tested that theory in the crazy, ridiculous, scary streets of Amsterdam. They don’t kid about the bike culture and while there are many lanes, try riding it through crazy traffic or crowds bigger than one you’d find at a One Direction concert. Ride a bike or die trying right?
-Eating Laduree macaroons while having a picnic in front of the Eiffel tower. This. is. what. European. dreams. are. made. of.
-Eating a lot of random “exotic” food. I made a pact to avoid worldwide fast food joints, and pretty much stuck to that the whole trip. Though I’ll admit, I did eat McDonald’s once in Berlin.
In conclusion:
Was Europe the life changing once in a lifetime experience I read about and hoped it would be?
No.
Do I regret quitting my job and going on the trip?
Hell no.
But do I wanna try at it again?
Definitely. Yes please. 100%.
While I didn’t come back a changed person with a whole new perspective on life, I did come back with a bunch of really awesome photos. (See instagram).
But I must remind you that life isn’t perfect like the photos above. You have to put in effort and try, sometimes real hard, before finally achieving your goal. As you can tell by the vlog above, we had an amazing time, and the main message I want to share to anyone reading is that if you have the passion for travelling do it. Go for it. Make it happen. Because as cool as these places may seem in the vlog, they’re even cooler in person. Your trip may not end up as the stuff Hollywood teen movies are made of, but you’ll definitely come back home with one thing, whether it’s a changed outlook on life or one too many souvenir shot glasses.
When in Europe, one must always be totally and completely serious…
Until the next trip! (Which, oh right, happens to be in two weeks. Miami, here I come!)
xo Naomi
OMG NAOMI WHERE DID YOU GO?!
…asked no one ever.
But like, if you stumble across this blog and see that the last post was back in March, you probably think one of those horrible things that make up the plot of horror/thriller/Liam Neeson movies happened to me, or you added my list to a long list of wannabe bloggers who gave up because they never received a free Triangl bikini.
So I’m here to let you (hey, mom!) know that I am alive and well and also that I do not give up (at least 22% of the time).
SO NAOMI WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING?!
…still asked by no one ever, but I’m gonna answer it for my 46 year old self to look back and read about.
Well I quit my job to backpack Europe for three weeks (you’ll hear more about that later). But basically I cheated on blogging and fell in love with it’s step-sibling vlogging. That’s right, I’ve joined the Youtube side. They had cookies! (the good kind).
But in all seriousness, the reason this blog has been abandoned like a haunted house is because I’ve been putting all the free time I have left after successfully binge watching all three season of The Mindy Project, into creating Youtube videos!
The content still focuses on all things lifestyle, but I find it to be waaaay more engaging than a simple blog post. I enjoy it, viewers (seem to) enjoy it, so I’m not jumping off this Youtube train yet. Plus in the short time I’ve been on it and with the very few videos I’ve uploaded, I’ve seen a response so incredible response I couldn’t have imagined (wow, the cheese is real for that one line).
I’m 21 videos in (and like a good 3 or 4 are pure garbage) and yesterday I reached a milestone of ten freakin’ thousand subscibers. I know in the world of Youtube my 10, 000 is like a small town in America where everyone knows everyone’s name, ancestry and business, compared to the huge metropolitan sized army big Youtuber’s have with their hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of subscribers. But for a noob like me, I think it’s a pretty big deal so let me celebrate with an ice cream cone.
One of my videos reached 87, 000 views and counting (who knew people would want to watch me talk about my bathing suits?) and people have been like really, really nice in the comments. No haters yet, phew.
But the best thing about this whole Youtube journey? Being contacted by the one and only Much, a Canadian media powerhouse I’ve only been obsessed with since I was a preteen. I have no clue how they came across my tiny channel (back then I only had around 4k subscribers) but the rest is history and I’m now proud to say I’m an official Much Creator (which is basically the next best thing to a VJ). So what can you expect? More content from me, featured on much.com (*screams internally*), and apparently some other cool opportunities in the future. So far, they’ve made me into a GIF. Looking kinda derpy, but that’s besides the point. I’M A GIF GUYS.
So yeah, that’s about it for this update. I’ve been keeping this whole Youtube thing on the down low, with only a very, very, few close friends knowing about. Hence, why I chose the Youtube channel name Naomi Elle (Elle as in L as in L for Leanage). I’m still shy about putting myself out there on the internet and having people I know in real life see my stuff, so for now, this is a little secret only you and I know about. And of course any creepers who google my name.
xo Naomi