The Holiday Workout Playlist that You Don't Want to Miss

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #RockTheHolidays #CollectiveBias

I'm a strict "no Christmas music before Thanksgiving," but once December hits, it's all Christmas, all the time!  In the car, at home, and even at the gym, if I can listen to holiday music, I listen to holiday music.  

That includes the music I listen to at the gym.  I always take my phone along with me when I work out, and right now, I'm totally rocking my holiday workout playlist, filled with super fun holiday pop and a cappella!  AJ and I just joined a gym near us (well, switched gyms), and it's been really fun to workout together.  Plus, with my upbeat holiday playlist, I'm totally set to hit the treadmill and enjoy the season while I workout!  

I love the holiday season.  Between the decor, the food, the events and the music, it's just such a happy time of year.  I recently got the opportunity to check out T-Mobile's Simple Choice™prepaid plan and the Samsung Galaxy Core Prime and it took my holiday season to the next level.  So often, I want to enjoy Christmas music while I'm on the go or at a place like the gym, but I'm worried about all of the data that streaming music is eating up.  But with the T-Mobile Simple Choice™prepaid plan, streaming music doesn't count agains your data usage, so you're able to stream unlimited quantities of music at high speed without any extra charges 

I also enjoyed streaming my playlist around the house and my office.  It's great for playing while AJ and I make dinner, for decorating the tree, or for checking off the many items on my to-do list to get ready for our Christmas Eve services!  The fact that I can stream my playlist all day every day without it affecting my dad is basically just the icing on the cake...total Music Freedom!

You can catch my upbeat holiday playlist on Spotify here:

Rock the Holidays this season with a T-Mobile Simple Choice™prepaid plan from Walmart!  While shopping for your next holiday occasion, make sure to stop by the wireless section to check out their amazing prices, the latest and greatest wireless devices, and the best plans!  Who knew that you could get all of the of premium brands and plans from the best carriers at Walmart?!  The T-Mobile Simple Choice™prepaid plan can help lower your monthly cost and give you great service with unlimited music streaming on your favorite apps like Spotify and Pandora, all for just $50 a month!

HOW DO YOU #ROCKTHEHOLIDAYS?  WHAT'S ON YOUR HOLIDAY PLAYLIST?

That Time I Handlettered a T-Shirt...

if you follow me on instagram, you can probably guess that i'm a little obsessed with hand lettering.  i have quotes and lyrics all over my room and office that i've hand lettered or that i've ordered from friends and artists that i adore.

here's proof of that:



ya know, just in case you needed it.

this summer, our church started working on our first ever worship cd.  not only do i work on the creative team at gt, but aj was asked to engineer and produce the entire record, so the project ended up being pretty near and dear to my heart.  aj rewrote the hymn holy, holy, holy for the album, and we decided that the title of the album should be our song will rise.

so, when we started talking about t-shirt designs for it, i loved the idea of a hand-lettered t-shirt and started creating mock-ups and concepts for the design.  eventually, i created something we could all (even the guys!) agree on.

and just to make it even more awesome, our printer did it in gold on a black tee...so basically, i'm in love.



i love this lyric.  if you're not familiar with the hymn, the lyrics go something like this:

holy, holy, holy

lord god almighty

early in the morning, our song will rise to thee!

holy, holy, holy

merciful and mighty

god in three persons, blessed trinity!

i recently did the she reads truth study on prayer in the bible, and one of the questions that stuck out to me the most was "do you  wake up praying?"  waking up praying, or praising, is something that can add so much perspective to your day, and get it started off on the right foot.  and the lyric "early in the morning, our song will rise to thee!" is just a reminder that we should start off each day with a song of praise!  and i love that it's also the lyric we put on the shirt, because even if you don't go to our church or know anything about the album, you could wear the shirt as a reminder that worship is important and powerful.

part of the our song will rise project is an outreach...because we really believe in the ability of music to transform lives, we really want to be able to put the album in the hands of everyone who walks through gt's doors for the first time.  and we're hoping to do that through kickstarter.

so, if you'd like your own our song will rise t-shirt, and to support a pretty cool outreach, i'd love to invite you to back our kickstarter!  you can get the t-shirt and a black and gold wristband for just $25...and i'll personally pack them up and ship them to you!

what are some of your favorite worship song lyrics?

Adventures in Nashville, Pt. 1

aj and i, along with his mom headed to nashville last weekend for a few days.  you may or may not know that aj is about to head into his final year at berklee college of music in boston, where he's studying music production and engineering (that means that he wants to be the guy behind the glass in a recording studio, and the one who makes recordings sound good).

it also means that he probably will have to move out of pa to find a job.  he started emailing a bunch of studios in nashville and got a meeting set up with one of them.  since aj moving to nashville will likely mean me moving to nashville, i thought it would be a good opportunity to check out the city and spend some time exploring!



the downtown area has this beautiful park right near the state capitol building.  it's dedicated to tennessee's bicentennial, and was certainly a learning experience!  we learned a ton about tn, from the fact that its rich with bodies of water, to lots of details about it's history, to info about each of the counties.  most of all, though, it was a lovely way to see the capitol building!



ok, have you been to jeni's ice cream????  because if the answer is no, you have no idea what you're missing!  i had heard a ton about it so it was the one thing on my nashville to-do list.  and if we move there, it will be on my daily to-do list!  haha...sooo good.  i had a scoop of the pineapple upside down cake buttermilk frozen yogurt and a scoop of backyard mint, and i wish i had taken more photos!



have you ever been to nashville?  what are your favorite things to do or see (or eat)?

Worship While You Work It

i've always kept a workout playlist on my phone for when i go to the gym.  its full of upbeat music by bands like imagine dragons, caravan palace, onerepublic, lord, and even nicki minaj (because you can't beat that bass!).

when i started getting a little more serious about running last spring and started running longer distances, and consequently, longer amounts of time, i had to add to my playlist so that i didn't just hear the same songs over and over.  i follow jess of naptime diaries on instagram, and she had posted something about worshipping while working out, so  i decided to give it a go.  i had just downloaded rend collective's the art of celebration, and was also hooked on hillsong young & free, so one day, i tossed on a worship playlist before a run.  friends, i loved it.



i'm not always completely focused on my music when i workout, but when i started listening to worship music while i ran, i also tried to become more intentional about worshipping at the same time.  for me, exercise is a major stress reliever.  it's also something that makes me feel extremely confident.  there's just nothing like the rush of endorphins after a good workout that makes me feel like i can conquer the world.

working out to worship music just amplifies that.  it reminds me to focus all of my energy, no matter what i'm doing, on becoming the person that god has made me to be.  it helps me stay focused on the task at hand, which is taking care of my body, not judging myself or comparing myself to anyone else, and working on being the best version of myself that i can be.  it reminds me that god made me to be strong in both spirit and body.  it also reminds me that i should do everything (including running and working out!) to give him glory.



but most importantly, it helps me to spend that time connecting with jesus.  most days when i run, i have an internal dialogue going on.  i'll talk to myself about whatever's on my mind or which route i'm running or how hot it is outside (is that weird?), but when i run to worship music, that internal dialogue turns into one that is between me and god.  whether i spend time in prayer or repeating a verse over and over, or just singing along to the music in my head, its now become time that i often spend focused on jesus.



at first, i just would throw on my general worship playlist.  but i then spent a bunch of time during my workout clicking through the slower stuff...which is pretty impossible if your phone is attached to the side of your arm!  but now i've created a list of upbeat worship music that you can work it to.  and because i like you, here it is for you to check out!

(you can also listen to it online here)

what's on your workout playlist?  do you ever workout to worship music?

Vinyl Soul

Last Saturday, my cousin Zac released his first solo album.  He's studying upright bass at Berklee College of Music in Boston and he's pretty stinkin' talented.  He also has some talented friends, and together, they created a night of music and art that was entertaining and all-in-all a great evening of fellowship.

If you'd like to see more, you can do that here.  If you'd like to hear some of Zac's music, check out his Facebook page, and finally, check out AJ's music on his website or Facebook page...he's working on his own album which he hope will be out next summer!

Rainy Days, the Beach, & a Concert

Last week, my family headed down to Ocean City, NJ for a little beach getaway.  My aunt and uncle had rented a beautiful condo two blocks off the sand and had invited us down.  AJ and I drove down on Wednesday evening and my parents joined us on Thursday morning.  I planned (and packed) for three days of sun, sand, ocean, and a tan.  What we got was rain, wind, and more rain.  Big bummer.

But, we had an awesome time anyway.  We played a lot of mini golf (seriously...my dad is a complete champ.  He wins the hole-in-one prize hole like every time), had an Apples to Apples and Mafia game night, and then spent our one sunny day driving through the Jersey coast and Atlantic city and then home to PA.

driving through Philly // on the way to the beach!

on the way home // cousins/couples hanging out on the boardwalk

my parents, AJ & I // with the Shriver's taffy man

my dad and his prize hole free game // visiting Lucy the Elephant in Margate

Then, on Monday night, AJ and I headed back to Philly for a Relient K concert (can you say throwback?!).  These guys were my favorite band when I was in middle school and high school.  I still like them (their newest album dropped two weeks ago and is pretty good), but this concert was more reminiscent of all of the times I stood in line for hours as a teenager with my friends, waiting to see them at grungy Philly venues, and less about their new stuff.  They're so much fun live, Matt Thiessen is just full of witty banter and they're pretty goofy.  We also fell in love with one of their opening bands, The Rocketboys.  So much so that we walked away from the show with a vinyl, CD, and t-shirt!  (for a grand total of $40.  I love when band merch is incredibly cheap)  Anyway, I highly recommend you check them out. They're very chill rock, and their newest album, Build Anyway, is magic.

In other news, I'm a terrible photographer.  I never take my camera anywhere with me anymore and I feel awful about it.  I took it to the beach and it never left my backpack.  I sort of blame my iPhone.  I mean, it fits in my pocket.  I can't say that about my DSLR.  But I really do need to make a better effort to take real, good photos more often.  

MY VINYL COLLECTION

I've been MIA for a week.  Somehow, this past week got away from me.  There's been work and a full cleaning of my room (Seriously.  It's the best it's looked since I moved home two years ago.  This is big.).  I went to Boston for the weekend and now we're headed into finals week.

The plan is to get ahead and have things scheduled for this week, but that has yet to happen.  Traveling does that to you, you know?

For today, I'd like to give you all a little peek at my vinyl collection.

AJ got me a record player and a few vinyls for my birthday back in September, and my little collection has slowly started to grow.

There's just something about a vinyl...like somehow, I've gotten more of the music than I would have if I just bought a CD or MP3.  I love the crackle and static and the homey feeling that listening to music in this format creates.  Needless to say, I highly recommend it.  And here are a few of my favorites!

So that's what I've collected so far.  I also have an Amazon wishlist started, of course.  And it's growing.  

But some of my favorites have been the ones that I've found in thrift stores.  Those Frank Sinatra & Dean Martin albums?  $.47 at Goodwill.  

Yes, please.

a saturday in baltimore

on saturday, we headed to maryland to see mute math & civil twilight in concert.
mutemath is aj's favorite band, so to win the "best girlfriend ever" award, i surprised him with an hour-long guitar lesson with their bassist for his birthday.

we spent the day in baltimore, hanging around the inner harbor and fell's point, where we had dinner at bop...brick oven pizza (soooo good) and gelato from pitango. then, we headed to the concert, which was great...the mutemath guys are incredibly entertaining and even though i only knew about half of the songs they played, it was just fun to go and enjoy my boyfriend's favorite band with him!