Monthly Archives: May 2011

[150] memorial day.

Posted in May by

150 days. Doesn’t that seem like a lot of days? It really is.

For the past few days, I’ve spent the half hour or so before bed looking at apartments in Brooklyn and Queens. I’m leaning toward Queens, just because it looks like it might be easier to get into the city from there, but I guess for now I’m just shooting in the dark. Add that to the list of things to add people who are more knowledgeable about NYC than I am, I suppose.

It’s kind of incredible that this is all coming together. There was a little while there where I thought maybe it wasn’t going to, but really, I’ve set my mind to it and there’s really nothing else to say than I’M MOVING TO NEW YORK. In fewer than six months. What?

I’ve done a lot of crafting this weekend, and I’m proud to announce that tomorrow is the grand opening of my Etsy store. I’ll definitely post about it tomorrow, don’t worry. One of my favorite pieces is a bird’s nest necklace (there are a few, actually), and I think they’re adorable. When I showed it to my dad, however, he asked if it was a neutron.

So. You can decide for yourself if you like it. Because tomorrow they will be online!

One of my goals with my Etsy is to make that my spending money. I know beginnings are rough and it might take a while to kick off, but if I keep filling it with things that I love, surely it will work out. I just really need to be saving as much money as possible, and while I’m not planning on striking it rich through small handmade crafts, I am hoping that it’ll help me keep more of my paycheck in the bank.

I’m going to stop talking about Etsy now, since I don’t actually have anything to show for it at this exact moment. I would show you the picture I took earlier, but it’s an iPhone picture and therefore the quality is embarrassingly poor. And I don’t want that to represent me.

So, because it’s late, and I have a coffee date in the morning, I’m going to end this sad disjointed post. I hope you’ve had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

Speaking of Memorial Day, I really do hope everyone took a moment to think about everyone who’s served our country and really, who’s served us in any capacity. I’m a pacifist to heart and I really don’t agree with war, it doesn’t change the fact that there are people who have done so much to make it so that I can have that stance. And they’ll continue to protect us – and, you know, that’s something they believe in wholeheartedly, so I am thankful for their hearts and for them. I hope you are, too.

[148] back from the internet detox.

Posted in May, Uncategorized by

Do you ever have those times where you just need to have an Internet detox? That’s how I’ve felt for the past week or so. I really wasn’t expecting this WordPress dashboard redesign when I came back, though. Surprise!

I’ve had a few days off in a row and been home alone, which has been kind of like a mini-vacation. I refuse to use the word staycation. I haven’t done a whole lot outside the house, but I have done a lot of organizing and thinking. And one thing I’ve realized is that I’ve spent a lot of the last decade being angry – angry with my parents, angry with a lot of people in my life, and mostly, angry with myself. All for various reasons – but over the last six months, I’ve let go of a lot of that. I’ve had some conversations and some confrontations, and I really feel like my life is getting sorted.

I don’t want to leave here with any grudges in my heart. That’s no way to exit.

When I read the end of Jonathan Tropper’s THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU tonight, he had a really solid paragraph that really summed up my feelings about all of this. It’s from one brother to another, and the specifics aren’t relevant, but bear with me.

Yeah, well, the point is I’ve been pissed at you for a very long time and that didn’t do either of us any good. I wasted a lot of time being angry, time I can’t get back. And now I see you, so angry about what happened to your marriage, and I just want to tell you, at some point it doesn’t matter who was right and who was wrong. At some point, being angry is just another bad habit, like smoking, and you keep poisoning yourself without thinking about it.

Anger is born purely out of unhappiness, and that’s all there is to it. Happy people aren’t angry. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m somewhat lacking a social life right now, or if it’s because I’m growing up, or what, but right now, I’m happy. I’m not angry. Things are pretty good right now, and the outlook is good for the future, too.

I know it’s easy to say, “Just throw your unhappiness away, turn your problems to God, just let it go.” It’s easy to say it. It’s hard to do it. I know that’s not an earth-shattering revelation to anyone. But if you consciously make yourself think of more good things than bad things every day, then I think you’ll find a change. For every bad thing that you grumble about, find a match in a good thing for that day. Sometimes the bad things get us down, but not always, they don’t have to.

If you’re interested, I just finished reading THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU and reviewed it on Goodreads. I liked it and would recommend it, but I wouldn’t say it’s one of my favorites. It’s definitely my style, but I had problems with it feeling contrived and with the characterization.

[139] the beginning and end of the college era.

Posted in May by

This is one of the only pictures I’ve seen of me with my cousins Calli and Brinley that I’ve really thought, “Wow, we really look related.” We don’t have a lot of the same features, but there’s just something here that makes me realize how alike we really look. Or maybe that Calli and I could just about be cut from the same cloth – it’s probably a good thing we grew up hours from each other, or we’d have caused a lot more headaches than we have already.

Today I was fortunate to be able to witness Calli’s high school graduation. My mom and I drove a few hours up to Kansas City this afternoon, and she graduated this evening. It was so great to see her walk across the stage and be the person cheering from the crowd. I did my best to embarrass her publicly, so you know we all had a good time.

And the more the evening went on, the more I started thinking about how she’s entering a phase of life that I have – literally – just left. Because college is such a special time in life. I don’t know if I’d repeat my undergrad experience for anything, but it is definitely a time of life unlike any other. It just feels weird to be exiting this phase of life while she’s just entering it – I really want her to have the best time in college. I know she will.

She’s going to OSU in the fall, which is exciting because it’s such a fun campus – but it also means that I guess I’ll have to really be a Pokes fan now. Don’t worry, I’m not forsaking my Sooner allegiance, but other than Bedlam, I suppose I’ll have to keep my cowboy boots out in support.

I didn’t have very many pieces of advice to give her tonight, mostly because I didn’t think about it until I got here, but this is what I told her:

  • Buy your books online, not in the bookstore.
  • Wear shoes in the shower, no matter how silly you feel. Foot fungus isn’t cute.
  • Just go to class. Half of passing college is going to class.
I’m going to think of more over the summer and have a list of sorts for her, but I’m going to ask you. What do you wish someone would have told you before you started college? What would you have done differently your freshman year?

[137] anniversaries.

Posted in May by

Today marks my one-year anniversary of working for Francesca’s Collections. It doesn’t really feel like I’ve worked there for a year, does it? I guess I’ve only really been conscious of what was going on in my life for the last five months or so, and maybe that’s why, but a year is something, isn’t it?

To tell you the truth, this isn’t exactly where I saw myself being right out of college. But as we all know, plans never really turn out to be what we think they will be, do they? I don’t know a single person I went to college with who’s doing exactly what they pictured themselves doing at the start of summer 2011.

Because when it all comes down to it, the plans we make aren’t necessarily what’s best for us. We may think it’s what we want, but it’s really not.

If you know me, you know that making plans is my style. I like to have a set plan for what I’m going to do, where I’m going to be, who I’m going to be with. I like knowing what people are thinking and what they’re going to do next. I’m always asking, “Well, what’s the plan?” If I don’t have a plan, I’m probably not going to go. Seeing Bridesmaids with only 30 minutes notice was probably the most spontaneous thing I’ve done in months. I get a rush of adrenaline when I change my mind at the last minute. It’s hard for me to live on the edge.

But sometimes, what you need is to have a little uncertainty, a little risk. No risk leads to complacency, which is the worst habit we can fall into.

And having let my life take the course it has, building myself back up from last year, working in every way I can to find my way back to the person I used to be, the person I want to be – that hasn’t been easy. It’s taken a lot of planning, but it’s also taken a lot of falling back on God, trusting him when I don’t know what else to do. That’s hard for me. I like to be in control of the situation.

It’s not always the best thing to be in control of everything. There’s no room for change or growth if you always know what you’re doing and you’re always running the show. I’ve learned so much over the last year, and I can say that I’m definitely a better person for it.

Sometimes it’s important to remember that we can’t force things to happen because that’s according to “the plan.”

But sometimes, sometimes, if we fight like nothing else for what we want, it turns out to be the best thing for us. And that’s why I’m not letting go of my serious plans.

[135] summer reading list and a wonderful dream.

Posted in May by

I really want to make an alliterative theme for each day. But I think that might be setting my sights a little too high – I don’t think I could keep up with something that strict. I’d forget. But I do plan to at least keep Music Monday and Style Saturday.

I did have the most fantastic dream last night, though. I spent all day trying to remember what it was, and finally I remembered in the shower tonight.

I dreamed that I moved to New York, obviously, and  I was subletting someone’s apartment for a few months while she went home (or to Europe or something, that part is kind of fuzzy). Well, it was the most amazing apartment in the world, and I was paying practically nothing to live in it. She’d left almost all of her things in it, too, so I had all kinds of clothes and shoes and craft supplies to play with for months. It was a three-room apartment, but they were all in a row – smaller bedroom, enormous house-sized room in the middle for all of the closets and storage and everything, and the bathroom on the other end. Looking back, my dream architect may be a bit flawed, but whatever. I spent all of the dream time in the middle room, anyway.

Maybe it’s because I wrote my Style Saturday post right before I fell asleep, or I don’t know what, but the clothing was fabulous. I woke up and was genuinely disappointed – but then, aren’t we usually? A girl can only hope, I guess.

So here we are, to my summer reading list:

  • Finish Portia de Rossi’s UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS
  • THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU – Jonathan Tropper
  • ABSENCE OF MIND – Marilynne Robinson
  • SCREWTAPE LETTERS –  CS Lewis
  • GOING ROGUE – Sarah Palin
  • JUST LIKE SOMEONE WITHOUT MENTAL ILLNESS ONLY MORE SO: A MEMOIR – Mark Vonnegut
  • EAT PRAY LOVE – Elizabeth Gilbert
  • STARDUST – Neil Gaiman (and just more Gaiman in general)
  • ORDINARY PEOPLE – Judith Guest
  • HANDING ONE ANOTHER ALONG – Robert Coles
  • CHILDREN PLAYING BEFORE A STATUE OF HERCULES – Ed. David Sedaris
  • JONATHAN STRANGE & MR. NORRELL – Susanna Clarke
Reread:
  • WATER FOR ELEPHANTS – Sara Gruen
  • HP & THE DEATHLY HALLOWS – JK Rowling
  • THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE – Audrey Niffenegger
  • THE SECRET HISTORY – Donna Tartt
The only one of these I really feel that I need to explain a little is Palin’s book. My parents have it, and I would just really like to read it. Not because I like her or have any faith in her as a leader, but because people who write books at least have something to say. Not that I’m under any impression that she actually put pen to paper (ghostwriters, what’s up), but at the very least, it might give me a small window into what she wants to be.
My rereads are some of my favorite books of all time. I just can’t get enough of these four. I highly recommend them to everyone.

I think I’m going to reboot my Goodreads account to keep track of everything. Feel free to add me there – I’d love to keep up with you as far as reading goes.

In other news, I’ve been inspired to write a lot more lately. So I’m going to go do some of that, and then go to bed.

What are you reading this summer? What have you read that you’d recommend I add to my list? I’d love to get into some good crime/mystery novels, considering that’s where my entertainment interests seem to lie lately, so I’d be very grateful for tips there, since I have no familiarity whatsoever with the genre.

[134] style saturday: the midi skirt.

Posted in May by

This week’s Style Saturday centers around the midi skirt, a longer, just-more-than-knee-length skirt that’s creeping back toward the top of the trends list.

Even a few of my favorite street style bloggers have taken on the challenge, which has me all the more excited to get my hands on the trend and see what I can do with it. Some of them, however, have been rocking this style for much longer than its recent rise to trend, which I can only commend and say, “I wish it had occurred to me earlier, too.” I predict this revival is about to blow up the fashion blogging world – just wait and see.

If you notice, several of these midis have pleats. Yes, that’s right. Pleats are coming back in, and I couldn’t be more excited. When it comes time to iron my pleats, I may be whistling a different tune, but for now, I love it.

Bad metaphor, since I can’t whistle. Eh. Bad news for the pleats, I guess.

One of my favorite things about the midi skirt revival is that it lends itself almost entirely to pastels and neutrals. You won’t find many crazy colors in this season of midi – just a lot of pretty pattern and florals. It’s a nice feminine balance to the bright color blocking and pattern mixing going on right now.

The midi skirt practically screams VINTAGE at you – it’s just begging for some nude pumps, a lacy top, and some long, flowy hair. Add a cream blazer if it’s chilly out. Maybe even a new pair of cat eye sunglasses?

What are your thoughts on the midi?

It’s been a struggle for me to come to terms with it, for sure – probably everyone I work with can tell you that. But there’s just something about it that’s pulled me in. I even have one now. I’ll have to take a picture to show you sometime this week.

But really, it’s a timeless length, and it’s going to go in and out of fashion for years, even decades, to come. In a time when vintage is romanticized over pop modernity, the midi length is queen.

And lastly, if you don’t know about Everybody Everywear, you are seriously missing out. Readers vote on the theme for the month, and style bloggers all over submit pictures of themselves conforming to the theme. Recent themes have been Breton stripes, maxi dresses, and this month it’s florals. I’ve yet to participate, but I always pore over the outfits – this is one of the ways I find my new favorite street style blogs.

[133] maid of dishonor.

Posted in May by

I haven’t even looked at this blog in a few days. I’m just going to be completely real with you here. It’s been a long few days, but I made a promise, and I need to get back to it. I wonder how many times I’ve written that, about wanting to stick to the commitment here. More than a few, I know.

But now that I’m done with school, I really have to get serious about saving money. I woke up this morning and promptly transferred most of my payday deposit into my savings account. It was kind of painful – you know how I love to shop – but I really have to put my foot down now.

Doesn’t that sound so adult of me? Save that money!

Anyway, I have a bit of crowdsourcing to do. I’m looking for  way to keep track of my budget that isn’t, you know, balancing a checkbook. Because I hate that. Because it’s boring.

I’ve used Mint.com a bit before, but I really wish it had an app or something that I could download to my desktop. I just really like having an app.

I’ve looked at the apps available on the Mac App Store, and I just can’t decide. I have some iTunes money to throw around here, so it’s not a matter of cost – I just can’t decide which would be best. Any ideas?

Or, really, if you have ANY budget tips or tools or books or programs or anything – I would love to hear it.

Finally, I went to see Bridesmaids tonight with some friends because my sweet friend Katie is in town. We decided at 8:00 to meet at the mall for an 8:30 showing, so we pretty much all ran into the theater at the last minute – hence, no picture. I’m sure I’ll see them again this weekend while she’s here, so I’ll post more about that later.

But I loved the movie. It was sweet, genuine, and bitingly and hilariously witty the whole time. If you don’t know, I’m a huge Kristen Wiig fan, and she ran this show like it was her job (okay, I guess maybe it was literally her job). But she was fantastic, and I’ll definitely be seeing it again soon.

I think what I loved most about it was how I saw myself in it. Isn’t that what draws most people to their favorite movies? But really – everything about Annie’s life was really just falling apart, and when she really has hit rock bottom, she gets it literally knocked into her and starts taking the steps to recover. I’m not saying that hijinks and hot men are the cure for depression, because they most certainly are not (but man, if they were), but it just struck a chord with where I am in my life right now – putting one foot in front of the other to get to my dreams.

So all in all, I definitely recommend it. And if you want to go see it again, anytime, I am definitely up for it.

[128] sorry is the fool who ever underestimates my mother.

Posted in May by

Happy Mother’s Day to one of the greatest women I know. She knows so much about everything – life, love, common sense, cooking, the value of hard work, and so much more. She’s always been there for me, even when I didn’t want her there, and I’ll never be able to express how grateful I am for her.

And to quote one of our favorite books, Kathryn Stockett’s THE HELP, “Sorry is the fool who ever underestimates my mother.”

So thanks, Mom, for always being there for me and being what I need, even when I don’t know it. Love you.