Sami’s Holiday Gift Guide: An On Location Tour

This is a sponsored post. However, all opinions are my own.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Blogmas, readers!

So, it seems that all my professors have gotten together and decided that they were going to make the week BEFORE finals week when everything would be due. Of course, that would be successful if not every one of my professors decided to do that, but well, we can’t change some stuff in life, now can we?

In the meantime, I have been holiday shopping for all of the special people in my life. After last year’s successful holiday guide, I decided to bring it back this year! So if you’re looking for a craft, a new phone case, or more, last year’s gift guide has got you covered.

And for all you little elves this year, we’re kicking off with something for your favorite movie buffs or someone who loves an experience rather than an item.

On Location Tours offers just that!

My mom and I went on the New York City TV & movie tour earlier this month and had such an amazing time! For only $43 a ticket, you can travel all around NYC for 2.5 – 3 hours checking out where some of your favorite TV shows and movies have filmed. We even got to see where they were going to be filming an upcoming CBS show, how cool?!

During that time, my mom, myself, and the others on our tour bus were taken all over New York City to see the sights of where some of the best movies have filmed. Throughout the trip, our tour guide will tell us about the films that have taken place at the locations, show us clips, and tell us insider secrets about the different locations.

Check out the pictures from the trip. Do you recognize them from some of your favorite movies and TV shows? Hint, hint you should recognize some of them from Gossip Girl, Friends, Sex and the City, Ghostbusters, and New Year’s Eve!

For big fans of Seinfield, Gossip Girl (a.k.a. my current Netflix obsession), or Sex and the City, On Location Tours offers tours specifically geared to those shows. Other speciality options include Turner Classic Movies, Central Park, and the Holiday Lights & Movie sights.

Not in the NYC area? Boston and Washington D.C. also offer tours geared to their areas.

Tickets can be purchased online or at (212) 913-9780.

Stay tuned for what will be next in my holiday guide! If you end up purchasing tickets, comment below and let me know.

28Oct2013

My Monday Musts: Halloween Edition!

by sparkleandshinesami

Happy Monday, readers!

Hope you all had a great weekend! It was Parent’s Weekend here at Quinnipiac, so instead of having my family come up to school, I went home and was able to enjoy a relaxing weekend. I was able to see my family, have family dinner, and eat a nice home cooked meal. It was so nice to be back in Jersey for a few days, but now I’m back at school and already spending hours doing work in the library.

So this week is Halloween, one of my favorite holidays! Ever since I was little, I would spend hours in front of the television watching ABC Family’s “13 Nights of Halloween” marathons, spend days figuring out the perfect costume, and eating as much candy as I possibly can. Now, even at 19 years old, I still love doing these things this holiday season. I decided to share with you, readers, my top 3 must watch Halloween movies!

1. “Hocus Pocus”

“Hocus Pocus” has been my favorite Halloween movie since I was a kid and always will be my favorite. This movie, filmed in 1993, is about 3 sister witches, Winifred, Mary, and Sarah, who are resurrected from their graves on Halloween night 300 years after being burned at the stake in Salem, Massachusetts. They are resurrected by California teen, Max, who is stuck in the New England town after a recent move. Once the sisters awake from the grave, Max, his sister, Allison, and friend, Dani, must try to stop the witches from sucking the lives out of the little children of Salem. With the help of an immortal cat, Binx, the three try and protect the town’s children.

2. Any Original 80’s Slasher Film

“Halloween,” “Nightmare on Elm Street,” “Friday the 13th,” and the list goes on and on. The 80’s produced the greatest slasher films known to man kind and none of the current remakes could ever top these original hits. Of all these movies, my top ones are “Halloween,” “Nightmare on Elm Street,” and “Friday the 13th.” “Halloween” is about a psycho killer, Michael Myers, who was institutionalized as a child for murdering his sister. He escapes and stalks a teenage girl, while his doctor chases him. “Nightmare on Elm Street” is about Freddy Krueger, a man who was murdered himself. Krueger stalks his victims through his dreams to kill them. “Friday the 13th,” which is probably my favorite of this genre, is about Jason Voorhees, a murderer who is stalking and murdering camp counselors at Camp Crystal Lake, a summer camp which was one the site of a child’s drowning.

3. “Tower of Terror”

This Disney Channel made-for-TV movie has gotten so forgotten about in recent years, that I couldn’t help but to share it with you all! “Tower of Terror” was the horror movie for me when I was little. I can still remember to this day my excitement when I went to Disney World, rode Tower of Terror, and then purchased the DVD in the gift shop at the end. With the movie barely ever playing on television (I can’t tell you the last time I even see it on TV), getting the DVD was such a good decision! The movie follows reporter, Buzzy, and his niece, Anna, as they uncover the 60 year old mystery of the Hollywood Tower Hotel. As the rumor goes, 5 people went into the elevator on Halloween’s eve in the 1930’s and the elevator collapsed. Now, the 5 roam the hotel as ghosts. According to an old woman, Abigail, who claims to have been at the hotel that night, if Buzzy and Anna can find belongings of each of the ghosts, they can free them from the hotel.

As much as this has put me in the mood to watch these movies, I have tons of homework to do, as usual, so it’s back to work in the library I go… but, readers I have some exciting news to share with you all very soon! Stay tuned and enjoy the rest of your week! Most importantly, Happy early Halloween!

14Oct2013

My Monday Musts

by sparkleandshinesami

Happy Monday, readers!

And happy midterms week to most….

I hope you all had a great weekend – I know I sure did! It was my first weekend back at school since my knee injury and I could finally go out with my best friend. It was so good to be back with them, doing what we like to do on the weekends, and spending my Saturday night at Quinnipiac students’ infamous Saturday night club, Toads.

Now, it’s back to reality of the craziness of school. It’s midterm week here at QU – and that means spending hours in the library, studying my note cards til I can barely see straight anymore. It’s day like these that I wish I liked coffee!

With two exams tomorrow, and one on Wednesday, I have only this weekend to look forward to. This weekend my absolute best friend, Julia, and I are going to New York City to visit our other best friend, Vanessa, at school! I am so excited for the three of us to be reunited and spend a Friday night in the best place on Earth together, NYC!

But, in the meantime, I’ll take a study break to share with you all this week’s Monday Musts:

1. Passionately Pink for a Cure Hair Strands

Last Monday, some of my best friends and I got pink clip-in extensions to show our support for breast cancer awareness. According to the American Cancer society, about 1 in 8 women will develop invasive breast cancer during their lifetime. About 40,000 women will die from breast cancer. These are mothers, sisters, daughters, and friends. Grieving offer the loss of a loved one is one of the hardest struggles someone could possibly go through. Our $5 hair strands contributed to making a difference, and making an awareness, to changing these statistics. I am proud to be a female and proud to help fight back against cancer.

2. Wednesday Night TV

In my previous Monday Musts, I discussed my LOVE for “Duck Dynasty.” “Duck Dynasty” airs their new episodes on Wednesday nights at 10 p.m. With some of my closest guy friends, I gather around their television to watch the show. As Connor, Ben, Pat, and I finished up the episode, we decided to then watch the next show, “Bad Ink.” I never saw it before – and I quickly became obsessed. “Bad Ink” follows two Las Vegas tattoo artists who fix people’s bad tattoos – whether they were just bad choices or the original tattoo artist just did not do a good job. The show left me so amazed. So when we all planned on watching only one thirty minute episode, it turned into a 2 hour marathon. I don’t get to watch a lot of television in college, so I look forward to Wednesday night with the boys watching “Duck Dynasty” and “Bad Ink.”

3. ABC Family’s 13 Nights of Halloween

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays – always has been and always will. One of my favorite parts of any holiday are the themed movies. ABC Family’s annual 13 Nights of Halloween kicks off this Saturday and I am SO excited! ABC Family always plays the greatest cliche Halloween movies that we were all raised on, such as “Hocus Pocus” and “Beetlejuice” (two of my favorite movies). Though with the craziness of my schedule, I won’t be getting to watch as much of the Halloween movie marathons as I would like, I’m just happy to know that it is on. Plus, to me, this kicks off the start of all the holidays and all the great traditions that come along with it!

Now it’s back to studying for me…Enjoy the rest of your week, readers!

10Sep2013

My Monday Musts

by sparkleandshinesami

Happy Monday, everybody!

Sorry that this is my first post in a week, readers! I posted last week’s Monday Musts with positive hopes of a speedy recovery. Though it has been going speedy, it was not as speedy as I thought. However, now that I am back to college (with a very inconveniencing brace and crutches), I am excited to get back on Sparkle and Shine. I have some exciting posts planned readers, so get excited. I sure am!

But without wasting a single second of this Monday, seeing as it is after 10 p.m., here is this week’s Monday Musts!

1. Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus

With the premiere of Miley’s new music video, Wrecking Ball, premiering today, I just had to make this song this week’s number one Monday Musts. Though the music video is rather different for my taste, the song is absolutely addicting. Just ask my roommates – I have been playing this song nonstop for the past few days. Though I have no singing ability whatsoever, I still just have to belt this tune out whenever I listen to it. No matter how much gossip swirls around Miley and her antics, there is no way of denying how incredible her voice is. Wrecking Ball really shows off her musical talent and proves that I will always be a Miley fan.

2. Lamar Odom’s Upcoming Book

The Kardashian hubby has some new tricks up his sleeve – and that includes a tell all book. This week’s In Touch has reported that Odom has signed a $5 million dollar deal that will expose a bunch of Kardashian secrets. According to In Touch, Odom will be exposing “the identity of Khloe’s real father, what Kim has done for money and Kris [Jenner’s] flirtations with her daughter’s men.” As an avid Kardashian watcher, and yes I am willing to admit that, I am dying to read this book. And for any other other Kardashian fan, I am sure I just made YOUR day/night by sharing this info with you!

3. Now You See Me

I spent my week at home icing my knee and watching movies. My favorite was Now You See Me about a group of magicians. Instead of my normal female rom-coms or occasional scary movie, I went for something a little bit different. The movie was about a group of magicians who stole money from banks. The movie seemed like it was all flowing well, as you tried to make your guesses about what was going on and figure out the movie’s secrets, before you know it – huge plot twists came. I don’t want to ruin anything for anyone who is thinking about watching this, because it is absolutely a movie everyone should watch. Just take my word on it readers, it is worth it – no matter what type of movie you like!

There’s only a few more hours left in this Monday, but either way, I hope it was great for you all! As I continue with all of my homework and makeup work, I wish all of you a great rest of your week. Like I said, keep your eyes out for a bunch of more posts coming up this month.

Keep sparkling, readers!

20Aug2013

My Monday Musts!

by sparkleandshinesami

This Monday is such an important Monday for me – it’s my last Monday at home before moving back into college tomorrow for my sophomore year! I am just so excited to get back to school – not just to see all my incredible friends and my Alpha Delta Pi sisters, but for the extracurricular activities I am involved in and for my classes.

Call me a nerd, but I love to learn. I’m very interested in my classes this semester, such as broadcast writing and nutrition, which means my yearning to learn is twice as intense. Plus, my dedication to my classes is so strong that I am proud to say that I have made Dean’s List for both semesters of my freshman year. I also love doing extracurriculars, besides just being apart of Greek Life, and piling them sky high on my plate – such as being a staff writer for the school newspaper, the Managing Editor for the school yearbook, and a writer for Quinnipiac’s chapter of HerCampus. This semester, I have other activities I want to be involved and other goals I have set for myself to make for this to be an exciting year ahead!

So on my last night home in Jersey before heading off to school, I present to you, readers, this week’s Monday Musts!

1. My First Blogging Freebie!

Today is my two month-iversary of creating “Sparkle and Shine.” Yay! Though for only being two months old, I have been granted a lot of wonderful opportunities, such as writing this post and this post for Greek Cover Photo and writing this post for Campus Book Rentals (who is currently having a fall sale, might I add). This past week, I have been in contact with sorority super star and author, Cheryll Duffie. I was completely starstruck when Cheryll got in contact with me and asked me to write about her book, Everything I Need to Know in Life I Learned from Being in a Sorority. Yesterday, I received a package from Cheryll – my first blogging freebie! Ahhh! I’m so excited to be working with Cheryll. Readers, be on the lookout for some very exciting things to come from this!

2. Whodunnit?

One of my favorite summer shows was ABC’s Whodunnit?, a crime solving reality TV series. It took real life people and set them in a real life Clue game – where one contestant was the murderer, one was the ultimate winner, and the rest were killed off episode by episode. Each episode kept me on the edge of my seat – playing along with the contestants. My mom was also addicted to the show, so it became similar to us playing a real life Clue game trying to see who the murder really was. The season finale was last night, however, full episodes are online to watch!

3. Silver Linings Playbook

I’ve heard so many positives about the award winning movie Silver Linings Playbook, but have never gotten around to watching it. A few nights ago, I was flipping through the On Demand Movies top movies section and found this movie. I never knew what the movie was about, watched the preview, and instantly knew that Silver Linings Playbook was the movie I was going to watch that night. I fell in love with the movie as each second passed. Pat, played by Bradley Cooper, was recently released from a mental hospital for bipolar disorder and is striving to get his wife back. While aiming to get her back, Pat meets Tiffany, played by Jennifer Lawrence, a recently-widowed woman who is struggling to deal with her own demons. The movie made me laugh, made me cry, made me smile, and overall shows viewers that no matter you are struggling with – there is something out there that will make you happy. If I could, I would watch this movie again and again everyday.