Currently Reading

Use you're big girl voice!

Much better screen capture yes? This time I actually got creative with the editing instead of just having long silences. Lord only knows what I'll learn to do next time!

Like nails on a chalk board

I've been getting really into vlogging lately which of course entails filming myself. And the worst part about it, by far, is having to listen to my own voice. It irritates me to no end to hear myself speak. I really dislike the American accent because I think we put unflattering emphasis on certain sounds. One of those sounds is the "s" sound. Are we a nation of snakes? What is going on here? Why is there an inordinate amount of stress on the the s's of my words? So that has become one of my goals from vlogging. To learn to modulate my voice so it sounds less annoying to my own ears. Haha! I'll laugh if after a while I start to sound like a news caster of my own life. Barrrrgh. Why couldn't I have been born in Australia or Scotland? I like those accents. Those accents are pleasant to listen to.

On an unrelated note whatever happened to trying to teach myself proper grammar? I guess that didn't really work out. I was going to try and edit the paragraph above but that will just put too much stress on my brain after all it's been through today. Snap. This doesn't look good for my application essay.

Vlog about packing to much stuff and the books I've been reading

wow... what a lovely freeze frame

Boo...

I have no idea what to do!!

I've been taking a year off from school and now it's the time to start applying to go back but now I don't know where to go. The state schools in MA aren't as good as the ones in WA but I miss my family so much when I'm so far away. :(

Travels

I was reading some blogs and looking on facebook and getting very jealous of all the traveling people were doing. I like to travel! So why am I not traveling?! And then I realized... I had done ALOT of traveling in the last year! I just never remember to take photos so I don't always have visual reminders of what I've done. Silly me. So for my own peace of mind here is a list of the traveling I've done since last : summer..

1. San Antonio TX: I came back from college to a completely emptied out house with blow up mattresses and no lamps. It's such a strange feeling to have to rough it indoors. I got to eat the good Texas food and experience the Texas friendliness one last time before....

2. Driving from San Antonio TX to Marblehead MA: One Week and over 2,000 miles cross country. Since we were on a schedule we didn't get to make a lot of touristy stops but we did get to experience the landscape of about 10 different states, and there is nothing more beautiful than the summer in the South. We finished the drive in Marblehead where we stayed with friends who lived within walking distance of the beach which was a wonderful end to being trapped in car for hours.

3. Day trips into Boston: We live all of 8 miles from Boston but since roadways in MA are nuts and the area is so densely populated it takes 40 min to get into the city either by car or by the T. Boston is a really gorgeous city that is full of so much history.

4. New York, NY: A week before Christmas my dad surprised us with a quick trip to NYC. We spent a day in the city visiting all the tourist-y places such as Times Square, Tiffany and Co., Bergdorf's, and The Met. Sadly that day a huge blizzard hit so it limited the number of things we could do outdoors. But the day ended with an exceptionally delicious meal at Le Cirque and a picturesque walk through an empty city in the snow.

5. Seattle, WA: Over winter break we flew to Seattle for my grandfather's 80th Birthday. Even though I lived in WA for two years I never really explored Seattle. Turns out it's amazing! By far my favorite city in the US. I can't believe I didn't get to really experience when I was there but 'tis life I suppose. My mom grew up on Capitol Hill so she took us out to Broadway and showed us around the U District and we ate Dick's burgers.

Outfit post numero uno

I've been hesitant about doing an outfit post because honestly I don't think the way I dress is groundbreaking. But I guess when you live in a sea of sweats and Uggs anything remotely different stands out.









Hat: Charter Club
Mesh Dress: Sara Campbell
Velvet Dress: Express Tricot
Belt: Wet Seal
Shoes: Aldo

Wendy and the Lost Boys

Holy SHITE!!!!

A few months ago I watched a behind the scenes video with Emma Watson for an Elle UK photo shoot and I became obsessed with a hat she wears for a picture that never made it into the magazine. Check it out:


Found at 1:02, 1:30, 1:50, blah blah blah basically this hat is in the whole video

Anyway after seeing this I was determined to find out where the hat was available and I feverishly searched the internets with no success.

But Lo and behold! It's the freakin' hat!!!



I was so excited! Closure! Sadly the hat is over $600, but I feel content knowing that it has been found.

Scans from Tatler April 2010 courtesy of studdedhearts

Oh My..

Greetings from Seattle! Been visiting family for the past week. Very exciting, very exhausting. Since we've always lived WAY far away from family, whenever we're in town our time is completely absorbed with seeing people we don't know. Awkward. The plus side is that it's wonderfully warm compared to the weather in Boston! I love it! And for the first time I've really gotten to visit the city. It's strange that I lived in WA for 2 years and never really got to know how great Seattle is! My favorite in the US so far. Pictures and such to be posted when I get home.

On a different note I'm so excited to be here during the OLYMPICS!!!!! I have always loved watching them and generally do so religiously. Fortunately our trips tend to coincide with the Olympics so we can watch in our hotel room because we don't have cable at home. The only down side is the coverage on NBC. Fuck you NBC! It's absolute shite! I can't believe how terrible it is. So skewed to AMERICAN dominance and no continuous live coverage. It's especially torturous being so close to Canada, which has much better coverage, and I have no access to it.

Tonight I'm especially excited for the men's figure skating. I was a competitive figure skater for 8 years and I love the sport! It's so weird to see Evgeni Plushenko again since he was in his hay day years ago when I was still skating. I just wish the commentators would strangle themselves. Scott isn't so bad but that other ________ needs to die. Ergh! And on CTV Sale and Peltier are the commentators. Why couldn't they get someone of their caliber?! Bah! Well at least now I can go online later and find videos so I don't have to deal with NBC any longer.

Grammar shmammar

My grammar is abysmal at best. In 5th grade when they started whipping out the Grammar textbooks I decided I didn't really care about grammar and promptly began day dreaming. If you ask me to define an adverb or a preposition I am completely at a loss as to what they are. So new goal, learn grammar. Woo hoo! Being home means I have more materials to create my own curriculum so I introduce to you: The Deluxe Transitive Vampire!



My parents found it in a used book store at Pike Place Market. I love the pictures and the humor of the book so I'm hoping it'll keep my interest long enough to teach me what I should have learnt 10 years ago.

Daily Drabble

-ASOS boots have finally arrived after much anticipation. I am pleased to say that they look much nicer than the pictures, which is a relief. After ordering them I kept going back to the site and worrying that they look cheap.

-Have been toying around with the idea of making my own magazine just for fun. Something silly to occupy my time.

-For some reason I am unimpressed with the blogs coming from Boston. I don't know why, they're perfectly adequate. I guess that's it. I was hoping for something that would be a little different and have it's own Boston feeling. Most impressive blogger I've found so far is http://www.phosphenefashion.com

-Speaking of blogging I'm sort of at a loss as to what I want to do with my own blog. What I really want is balance. Perhaps I should structure the blog more to push myself to find new things.

A minor tragedy...

:(:(:(:( My laptop is broken. The screen is cracked to be specific. It happened when I was feeling bratty and hurled my phone at my bed. Apparently my aim was off I struck my laptop with great force. I've never had Karma be so instantaneous. So it is my fault and hopefully I can get it fixed, but until then I have to use my family laptop which is really old and laggy. My family always seems to pile all their crap on without any organization which is really frustrating. So I'm going to work on it and try my best to clean it up until I can get mine back. I miss my baby.

Current Read: Angela's Ashes

Wanting to feel a bit less like an idiot I grabbed the first book from my need to read pile which just happened to be Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt. It's a good book and was surprisingly straight forward for an autobiography which often times I find to be disjointed and rambling. Another plus is that it's not heart wrenchingly depressing like I feared it would be. Mr. McCourt writes with great humor even though the circumstances he's discussing are quite dire. Haha! Already I'm starting to pick up on some of the word usage. I truly don't mean to but when I'm reading books I tend to absorb the language and start using it for short amounts of time. It often means that people haven't the vaguest idea of what I'm trying to say which can get really, really annoying. Good thing it's temporary or I'd always sound like the worst sort of poser.

If you have read Angela's Ashes you should check out Bread Givers by Anzia Yezierska which is a very similar sort of story. It's about a family of polish immigrants growing up in the slums of New York.

Emetophobia

Lately I've been thinking of going to medical school. I've had many discussions with my father about what happens in medical school, watched a documentary about Harvard medical students, researched what it takes to get into medical school etc, and overall I'm very excited about the whole idea. There's only one little glitch in this whole plan, I'm pretty sure I have emetophobia, which is the fear of vomiting. I guess that's a bit over dramatic, I'll rephrase to I very INTENSELY dislike vomiting. Not that anyone LIKES it but I especially hate it, to the point of abandoning my little sister in fear (as in she was little and me literally running away from her). Not exactly a quality you want in a doctor. I've mentioned this to my dad before but he just brushes it aside and says that you become desensitized to those sorts of things. Hmm. I don't know if he realizes how much I really fear it. For example earlier today I was watching Super Size Me and I had to turn it off after he started throwing up, I wasn't even watching at the time but just the sound and knowing what was happening plunged me into a panic that I'm still trying to calm down from. At that moment I was completely ready to give up on all medical school plans and find a new occupation. Now that I have calmed down I know that I still want to pursue becoming a doctor, but I'm going to have to work really hard on either containing my fear or overcoming it so it doesn't effect me as a doctor.

shamed

The other day a friend I was chatting with asked me if I had read anything good lately. My mind blanked and so I replied truthfully that at the moment I was re-reading some Norah Roberts and that I had over read Christine Feehan to the point of being unreadable. I cringed even as I sent it. WTF?! Am I trapped in some kind of time warp? These books were ones I was reading in High School when they were still slightly contraband (my mom had given up by then but my dad still disapproved) it seemed ridiculous that I was still reading them. Not that I have anything against these authors, I'll probably continue reading them into old age, but it seemed shameful that my literary taste had not evolved at all in 3 years. I think I really need to go to a library and arbitrarily (trying to remove the use of the word random from my vocabulary, I hate it when my dad is right...)grab books. Not to say that I haven't read ANY good books, the other week I read Middlesex, but apparently it was so unforgettable that I didn't think to mention it to my friend.

Daily Drabble

-Morpheus has been sending me some pretty crazy dreams. I'm pretty sure they're a sign for something. They're freaking me out!

-Accidentally hacked into a friends email when I jokingly entered a REALLY old password that I never ever thought would work. Promptly had a panic attack and frantically exited before my soul was permanently tarnished.

-Found out I have the optimal waist to hip ratio. Neat!

-Favorite quote: "Mother told me to never knock, she said I'd meet more interesting people that way."

-This movie is awesome in that guilty pleasure sort of way, and this song is wonderfully fun to sing along with.

Late night outfit epiphany

I always come up with my best ideas late at night, I have no idea why this happens but unfortunately it means that often times I end up writing papers at 5 in the morning the day before they're due. The "oh duh" moment has to do with layering. I have a beautiful skirt from Mango that I never wear because with every little breeze it flies up like so:



Very annoying. Especially when living on the coast in the PNW where there is never a lack for breezes. My ah hah moment was...... to wear a body con dress under it...Dur! I had read about layering skirts over dresses hundreds of times in pretty much EVERY blog but it never clicked in my head to try it. So I hopped out of bed shedding both cat and down coat to ransack my closet for every short dress I have and of course it works beautifully. Now I can wear my lovely skirt wherever I like and if it flies up (and chances are it will) I won't be flashing my undies to the world, instead they will see the skirt portion of the dress and nothing else. I can't wait to wear it the next time I leave the house!

sales freakout

Whenever I find something on sale online I have a bit of a freak out. I frantically calculate how much money I have vs how much I truly love the item. I hem and haw, asking the opinions of every one of my family members, while maintaining a frantic air. For some reason when I find a sale I feel like if I wait to long the item will disappear. I don't know why I react in such a way but it always happens.

The cause of this little crisis were these babies:



Courtesy of ASOS

I really wanted over the knee boots ever since seeing them on Pandora and The Glamourai.

Daily Drabble

-Been fiddling with layout and colors of blog and of course I choose the most garish pink imaginable. I don't know what attracted me to it, must be freezing Massachusetts air messing with my brain.

-I really need to start proof reading my posts so I don't sound like an idiot but that's a real drag.

-My dad surprised me with a documentary on med school which was thrilling. Seriously. We promptly watched it and I was captivated. I nearly started crying when this one lady's patient died. It makes me extremely impatient to get back to school, and very excited for my future.

-My cat has abandoned me and now I can't sleep with out his soothing snore. I had no idea I even considered his snore soothing until now.

-I am slowly coming to understand why so many people are disdainful of Wikipedia, even though it is so wonderfully easy and fast to use.

moto-trend

I was browsing through the blog Godammit, I'm Mad! and I'd like to share something she wrote about recent trends:

When can we call for a moratorium on leather and spikes? It’s like every sex-shop since the beginning of time has spewed its merchandise all over the fashion industry, leaving moto-this and moto-that everywhere. Enough, for godsake! The backlash is bound to be a return to modesty and preppy cleanliness. I think I’m ready for it.

Cheers to that!

Nothing better on a cold winter day than hot chocolate....... and a camera that works!

"Oh, Divine chocolate!
They grind thee kneeling,
Beat thee with hands praying.
And drink thee with eyes to heaven."
-Marco Antonio Orellana
via The True History of Chocolate by Sophie D. Coe and Michael D. Coe

My sister S had a food project for school today and she was set on having hot chocolate and chili pepper a la the movie Chocolat. Of course she didn't let my mom know this till last night, so this morning my mom was rushing to the store to get everything. For those of you who have never had hot chocolate from scratch I will tell you that it is rich, very rich, SMACK YOU IN THE FACE SO FULL OF RICHNESS kind of rich. We inevitably always have to much because no one can handle more than a single cup at a time. I had planned on having some lovely pictures but of course I am camera incompetent and could not get the stupid thing to focus. Argh. Why does my sister have to be so athletic and never here when I need her to take pictures?! Meh. Anyway I'll just post some screen caps of the movie instead.



Magical stuff chocolate, it makes old bitter women happy...



And of course it's this guys favorite



On a different note, how awesome are the costumes in this movie! I'm really liking clothing from the late 50s and early 60s at the moment. I just think it's so flattering; the knee length skirts, the belted waists, cardigans, etc. Not exactly the most exciting clothing I suppose, but the key is really in how you put it together.









screencaps via Screencap Heaven

Perdita's Ark

I love the works of Perdita Corleone because they are filled with such whimsy but also contain enough menace to keep them from being from being saccharine sweet. More images can be found on her blog http://perditacorleone.canalblog.com/

Booo >:(

Been browsing through interior design websites and it's pure torture! Everything is so pretty and I really want to spiffy up our house buuuuut the landlord won't let us paint soooooo my parents stopped caring. Silly stingy landlords. Haha I miss texas. Never thought I would reach that point but I do.

The Lightning Thief

Re-reading The Lightning Thief for the thousandth time. I love the playful twist on Greek mythology. Rick Riordan takes many well known myths and puts his own playful twist on them. You might recognize the story but then he switches it up to keep things interesting. I'm so glad I have little sisters who are also big readers so I can always dig into their YA collections.

When I heard they were making of movie of the book I was hesitant, and when I read of who they cast I was outraged! Yet again a movie company completely disregards the physical and character descriptions given by the authors and create their own (biggest travesty that comes to mind is movie Ella Enchanted). I understand that there are many physical similarities between the Percy Jackson series and Harry Potter series but that's the way the author wrote it. It's especially important important in this series where the half-bloods inherit physical traits from their godly parents, and you can often distinguish their parenthood by how they look. Gah. I guess I will just have to wait and see when the movie comes out.

I do have to admit the guy they got to play Percy Jackson is pretty adorable, I feel kinda creepy for saying that, a bit like a cougar even though I'm not THAT much older than him.


Check out the trailer here

Up to nothing..

I haven't been able to think of anything to post, but hopefully that'll change tomorrow. I'm asking my sister to help me take some photos. Yup yup. So at the moment all I'm doing is lazing about. So far me and my sisters have watched (continuously I might add)the following movies and shows:

-King of the Hill
-High School Musical 3
-She's the Man
-Happy Feet
-Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas

Haha I guess we were feeling like little kids. We love bad movies in our family, mostly to make fun of but also because often time they are the most quotable. For those who haven't seen Sinbad you should go and rent it. I guess it was a huge failure when it came out in 2003 but we love it! Has a great voice cast (Brad Pitt, Catherine Zeta Jones, Michelle Pfeiffer, Joeseph Fiennes) and the coolest villain.

"Oh and if he's hugging your leg that means he likes you."

hMMMM i SHOULD PROBABLY DO something TODAY...

Since my sisters returned to school yesterday I felt it was finally time to drag my ass out of bed and start doing those lovely resolution type things... Didn't happen. Absolutely could not sleep the night before so I was up all night cruisin the internet (...pics of Disney's Rapunzel look AWESOME!!!), which lead me to sleep in till 3 when my sister got home. Soooo... the up side is I didn't get bored and miss my sisters!! >_< Bah! Eventually I did get up and I've got these niiiiiiiice clean sheets to enjoy for my efforts.

The only upside I can think of to being a lazy bum and always being online is that I'm constantly being bombarded by inspirational images that have finally got my creative juices flowing! EEEEE! I'm so excited! I have so many idea's and I'm hoping to drag my mama to JoAnn's tomorrow to get materials. Yes yes yes! Among my DIY ideas are: beaded wine glass markers, ribbon bracelets, flower and bead garlands, and window hangings inspired by The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning (Bahahah! I'm such a dork!)

A conversation with my mother

Mama: You know when I was your age I had moved out of the house AND was paying my own rent...

Me: Yes but you hated your home and couldn't wait to get away. I like my home, I don't want to leave!