Thursday, April 30, 2015

bachelorette party DIYs

This past weekend I took my monthly trip to my old home of Morgantown, WV for my girl's bachelorette party! It was the first time I've been to a bachelorette since college, so I wanted to actually help out this time. I decided to take it upon myself to create some bar fun. 

A couple years back I remember someone asking me to help them with a photo hunt of sorts. They had a list of things they had to complete that sounded so fun! That was a must. 

I created this one. Each color was a different number of points, from 1-4, in order of black, pink, silver and gold. Some were generic and some were personal to the couple.


It's kind of plain, but I printed them out on sparkly paper that I got at Michael's and they looked perfect. The prize was a simple martini glass filled with condoms and airplane bottles. That's what's important for such parties, right?!?

Unfortunately, everyone was drunk enough by the time we got out that I was the only one that really went for it. Got a lot of the items, got on the mic to do a toast and ask for more.... basically called game over from the beginning.

I should learn to be less intense sometimes.... maybe.

On Pinterest, I saw these personalized tats that were perfect. They said you had to order them from Etsy, but I decided to research a DIY version. Turns out, all you need to do is order tattoo paper for like $3 a sheet and, as the bride said, YOU HAVE ENDLESS FUN! 

They printed out kinda blurry because I didn't make the Photoshop file big enough, but they still looked great once they were transferred on!


With the other sheet, I made some fun ones to define us in a way. For the bride, the bridesmaids, and the single people who can do all the real penis activities that night. [If you ever want to print these out yourself, you have to use the backwards one.. which is why I'm sharing it.]


Because I'm classy, I put mine on my neck. 


They came right off the next morning, almost like a sticker. Pretty sweet. I think I'll be ordering more of this paper. All you do is print it out, put the adhesive on, and BAM! PARTY TIME, YO!


It was a prettyyyy solid weekend that made me feel like a cougar around all the younger college kids but also like I can still hang with all of them.

What I've needed to come to terms with is that you keep your damn mouth shut when it's the Bachelorette's weekend. What she wants to do, you do. Whether that be raging, napping, eating all the things, etc etc. I'm so used to planning activities that sometimes it's hard for me not to suggest things.

I'm growing up..... like .02% a day.

love,
elizabethany

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

a week full of big announcements

What a month it's been... and especially this week.

Actually, for a long while I've been taking on a lot more responsibility behind the scenes at the station, adding new stations, and just trying to grow on the radio side of things after focusing for so long on social media/online stuff. It's been weird. I feel like I'm neglecting some parts of who I am that got me to where I am, but I am so excited for the new things I'm taking on.

If you missed it, I got a promotion to Music Director! What in the actual eff does that even mean? Is the typical reaction from everyone after a quick congrats. Weeellllllllll.... I'm in charge of all the music for the station! Scheduling it out, deciding what we play, working with record reps who are battling each other for our airtime... it's an interesting world and more challenging than the stuff that has come naturally in the past.
And yes... you can obviously expect way more Britney and a whole lot less *eh hem.* [They tell me I should stop talking about said person for professional purposes or something..]

I'm also very excited about another new adventure- my first country station! If you know me, you know my favorite music to listen to is country, and now people in FREAKING LAS VEGAS will get to hear my show every night from 6-midnight on 95.5 The Bull!


They're gonna let me be me and have all the fun and maybe I'll even venture out and pop my Vegas cherry soon. [That's kinda terrifying. I'm trying to live to see my 30th birthday.]

Somehow I've been able to convince all these people that even though I'm a hott mess of a person, they can trust me to be good at my job most of the time. I think the secret is to just make sure they know how hard you're trying. Also, don't sleep. Ever. Seriously. Sleep is for the REALLY bad hangover days. No wait. Even on those days you should just have some hair of the dog and get back out there. Hi squirrel.

Obviously the number one thing we can take away from all of this is that you should be listening to my show since it's obviously da bomb. [Here I go, getting cocky... this is what happens when your career hero posts nice things about you online.] There are plenty of options on iHeartRadio.. DC, Baltimore, Salt Lake City, Hampton Roads, Atlanta, and now Vegas...

But seriously.... I can't thank everyone enough for all the love. That's the real reason I wanted to write this up. Liking all of your Facebook comments or responding to your tweets doesn't feel like enough. I can't tell you how much it means to still get support from people everywhere and to feel all the love. Especially when you're doing more than just liking my status.

Life is really good right now. Like.. I need to knock on wood before something terrible happens. It's been so long since I've felt happiness and hope and excitement and everything like this... since I've been surrounded by people that I truly think are my family without thinking that's some cheesy line. Please don't ever wake me up from it.

love,
elizabethany

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

i got a big girl living room

For the first time in literally a decade, I plan on hope to be living in the same place for more than a year. There's always the chance I could move to a new place, but that's not looking likely, so it's time to invest in some things to make my apartment a little more legit.

Step 1: The living room.

I've shown you some of my decorations, and now I've finally gotten my first ever big girl furniture pieces! Thanks to President's Day, I got a sleeper sofa and love seat combo at 50% off. [Let's be real... even if I wanna invest in things, I'm still gonna need a good deal.]

[I should probably straighten things out before taking pictures, huh?]


I also got that new rug. Because of Slutty Cat clawing at them, I felt like I needed to get a shag one. I wanted something with design but the comfort of this one makes it all worth it. My only issue is that I have no idea where the perfect placement is. After Pinteresting ideas, I realized I probably got the wrong size or may have to get creative. 



There are still a lot of little touches I want to do. What should I put on the coffee tables? I think I still want new curtains. My papasan chair needs to be painted. [I'm not grown enough to get rid of that, let's be real.] I probably need another source of light somewhere, too. 

I've had these colors since college, but most of the stuff is new at this point. I found this Pinspiration and I'm liking the idea of the peacock feathers... somehow. 

Your ideas always welcome! Slow and steady growth wins, right?! I think..

love,
elizabethany

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

an update from the 31 year old virgin

Talking to the 31 year old virgin is one of the funniest things I've done on my show ever, I think. He's just a goldmine of entertainment and I wanna try and help him out!

After we basically set everything up for him last time, we had to get an update. It's not a good update, but with a surprise at the end, it's not exactly bad....


"LAY SOME ROSE PETALS ON THE BED JACKIE! TAKE ME BACK JACKIE!"

Oh my heyzeus it gets me every time. Whenever I play it for people I'm like NO DON'T LAUGH YOU'LL MISS SOMETHING GOOD.

I really wanna set up a mock date for him... but any other suggestions are always welcome, of course. You just holler at your girl... which is me.

love,
elizabethany

Friday, April 3, 2015

photo diary: my trip to canada!

Last time I had a real, monthly new year's resolution, I was half-assing it by March and given up by June. [When I did the one second video a day thing.] I won't let that happen with this year's! I will travel once a month! 

For March, I booked a last minute flight and headed up to New York, then Niagara Falls and Toronto for a whirlwind 40 hour total trip. 

I knew nothing about either of the cities, didn't book a hotel in advance, and was hammered while packing the night before so... to say I was unprepared would be an understatement. I share this info because a lot of times people come up with excuses not to travel or think it takes a lot of effort or time. It doesn't. You go to Hipmunk, book a flight, pack some random ish, and go.

Once we got into the city, we drove around to see what area would be fun to stay in. Lake-front was the best. I wish I had saved my Snap of our view... the lake was frozen and there was a brewery a couple steps away. Hi, Heaven. 

I looked at Pinterest for some Toronto ideas, asked Facebook for suggestions, and made a shortlist of what to do within ten minutes. First stop [after the brewery and poutine, of course]: Chill Ice Lounge. An entire bar made of ice. 


The lights make it hard to really show off how cool it was [plus I'm too busy to get all crazy in Photoshop with it right now, sorry], but look at it! It was pretty small, and empty [it was 8:00.. they were expecting a big PBR sponsored party at 10]. 


That's a Jay Z Santa, yes. They said it was so good they couldn't take it down. Good call. The colors you see is dyed snow. Everything. Ice. All of it.

We went to a handful of other bars that looked fun and the one thing they all had in common: very friendly people. Canadians are great! We always found someone to talk to. I feel like I could move there and find great friends within two days. 

One of the recommendations I got was to find a bacon sandwich place called Rashers. I'm not the biggest bacon fan, but how can you not go to such a place?! Holy sweet baby Jesus it was delicious.

That's my bacon, brie, egg, and carmelized onions sandwich. Clearly I gave zero effs about the diet/workout routine I've been busting my ass to keep up with.
We also stopped by Ripley's Aquarium. Not gonna lie, I didn't think it was something we should spend our time with... but their main aquarium with the sharks and stuff was a glass tunnel. They were swimming, laying, whatever RIGHT OVER TOP OF US. That's an angle of a shark I didn't expect to ever see, and I'd be cool with never seeing it again. 



The number one recommendation from Facebook and online was going to the top of the CN Tower. Being the cheap B that I am, it drove me crazy to pay money to go to the top of a building.. but who knows when I'll come back to this awesome city again. When you're traveling, you gotta just do everything you possibly can. 


And seriously.... look at this view. 



They kept acting like this "glass floor" was the coolest thing... but it was a couple tiles of glass inside, with a terrible view of nothing but a street below. You shoulda seen the look of actual fear on some people's faces when they got close to them, though. 


Considering I was in Toronto for exactly 24 hours, I'd say we got a lot done. Then it was on to Niagara... about 90 minutes away. 

I've said this to everyone, and they've all looked at me like I'm a crazy bish, but I expected them to be bigger. Yes, they're big. They're gorgeous, and I don't know how big I expected them to be, but I definitely expected much larger. I will say that I'm actually glad I went in the winter. It's pretty neat to see all the ice. 






40 hours. That's how much time I had for this trip, including travel. 

Considering I've never been much of a traveler, I never thought someone would say I was inspiring them into taking more trips.... but it feels good when people say things like that. I just can't imagine what kind of excuse [besides lack of money, of course] could keep you from doing new, fun things instead of staying home and Netflix binging/going to the same bar you do every week. 

Next month's trip will be to good ol' Morgantown, so nothing too crazy... but May might be the biggest one yet. It's a bit stressful trying to work around other people's schedules, but again- not gonna let that stop me. 

love,
elizabethany

Thursday, April 2, 2015

from the show: april fools 2015

Some people in radio think doing anything on April Fools Day is lame now, but I'm a sucker for any holiday [duh] so I have to do something.

This time I went different than anything I've done in the past, and just made a couple of fake commercials that I played at the beginning of the breaks. In my head, they're so outrageous that no one would believe them, but they'd be entertained... and if I got lucky, someone might call the number that I linked to my Google number/office.

Turns out, quite a few people believed some of them, especially the nudist neighborhood and Calorie Eliminator. Would you fall for these?


I got emails, texts, all the things wondering how they could get in touch with any of those services. There really are people more gullible than me... or maybe we just live in a world where literally anything can happen.

They're making a live action Winnie the Pooh for godsake.

love,
elizabethany