ello gypsy!

my new fave swim suit...i may or may not have broken it...but it will be fixed and worn much next summer.


some of my faaaavorite shorts from this summer--plaid, loose, and perfect. also, the necklace is a creation of my own, made from some suede thread, an old peacock feather earring and a heart-shaped charm. i wear this necklace everywhere with everything (almost).


a shift dress i bough a few summers back that is amazingly vintage looking in its shape and print. also, some amazing vintage blue wedge heels (which you've seen in a previous post) that i absolutely adore. (and of course, my ever-present--so it seems anyway--denim vest).


some rather old outfit photos today/tonight. i am finding myself unable to sleep tonight.


going for more of a sailor-meets-army look with this outfit i wore to church one sunday. it was lovely.
a more recent photo from last week. this is my end-of-the-summer-but-how-i-wish-it-would-stick-around outfit. *sigh* i miss summertime already.




*i greet the dawn
to sleep
the deep sleep
of one
who sleep does not know
or acknowledge
it flits upon unknown
words
glancing off the
lashes
of i
who it cannot
lay victim to
and undoes in its
brief alightment
what has been so hard
wrought and never
accomplished*

good night! good morning! hope you slept tighter than i!

inside out

something i wrote:

there's no use listening to me now
i never meant it
not a word
i was who i pretended to be
and forgot who i was
there was nothing wrong
but the bows
the pink polish
and manet's
jardin
and there was nothing right
i don't want you to hear me now
because when i yell
it's for myself
i have no need of
a peanut gallery
i have no need of
the world
we are here
and here we will remain

words

words are amazing beings. i say beings and not things because words seem to have a life of their own oftentimes. they describe themselves infinitely and describe each other in endless combination.

i leave for school on monday (which is tomorrow in 8ish minutes). and i should be excited, nervous, emotional in some degree. but i find myself undecidedly unaffected. instead i am thinking on the power of the written word. words preserve so much! they can express something that, spoken, would be indescribable. when we write, we can be whoever we want to be and say things that otherwise, un-disguised by our words, would go unsaid. to write is to become,and in the becoming, merge ourselves with who we cannot be or who we would never want to be in real life.

words can also be incredibly destructive and, when used wrongly, can put the wrong meaning the right idea. it's kind of scary how powerful words can be; scary and yet brilliant.

well, i am done with my rant for the night. thanks for putting up with me!

the outfit in this post is one i wore weeks ago that i neglected to post. i likes it though. it's prettyful and bright and makes me feel whimsical--and if you hadn't noticed, the way i dress, the clothes i wear, have a lot to do with how they make me feel.

the end. or the beginning. depends on how you look at it, i suppose.

au revoir pour maintenant

well, i must leave again. i am headed to st. louis for a very good friend's wedding and to spend some time with my best friend in the whole world--kelly sue! needless to say, i am very very excited and very much looking forward to the trip. but alas, this again takes me away from this loverly internet world (hehe).

so today, i will be posting pictures of an outfit that incorporates some more of my favorite things.

my tan wedge heels, which make me feel all tall and elegant--a rare feeling for someone who tops out at 5'3".


a jean vest i picked up for THREE DOLLARS which i wear alllllll the time...it's comfy. and the coral tank top is not exactly "special" but i absolutely adore the color. it makes me all happy and smiley and confident.


and then there is the heart pendant--very '80's and lots of sparkly fun! i like to think it goes with anything. maybe that's just wishful thinking, but i like wishful thinking. that's probably why i agree with the peter pan ideal: 'i do believe in fairies.' now, say it with me, "i DO believe in fairies!"

and on that note, i bid you au dieu, until next time.

well, hai ther!

hello all!
it's been quite a long while since i've written, and for that, i am most sorry!

when i left you last, i was on my way off to michigan (which was amazingly loverly!), and i promised to post about my finds from a goodwill thrift shop stop.

i love old china; i suppose i am somewhat of a collector, and i found some beeea-u-ti-ful pieces at goodwill--my favorite being a dinner plate from bavaria.






also, i found the most wonderful pair of turquoise wedge sandals from the '80's. it was a good day.







on another note (and as you may have noticed already), i have had a big thing for wearing flowers in my hair this summer. it makes me feel light-hearted. and light-heartedness is priceless. i so much appreciate anything that helps me forget the doldrums and brings me into a better mindset. flowers in my hair, sun flares in my eyes, watermelon juice on my chin, flip flops on my feet...summer at it's best. one of my favorite summer songs right now is "all summer long" by kid rock. don't know why, but it makes me feel really good when i listen to it, so have a listen if you get a chance! summer is slipping away faster than i can keep up with, and part of me wishes it could go on forever, but as with everything, it must come to an end. change is inevitable. here comes fall.

so long for now!

It's been awhile. This week has been a bit crazy for me. At the moment, I am actually just taking a break from ironing some things for my grandma, but since I leave with my family on vacation to Michigan tomorrow morning, I decided to write for a bit.

On Monday I babysat a kid I've been babysitting for close to 8 years now, on and off...his parents divorced earlier this year and he's taking it rather hard--I need no further example to prove to me how easily divorce can destroy people. Anyway, I digress. His mom lives in a new town house complex basically in the middle of nowhere and it was gorgeous at sunset while we were outside--him riding his fourwheeler and me, limping along behind on my sprained ankle. And of course, I took some pictures. So, all of the pictures (lovely or not so lovely) in this post are from that night.

Tomorrow, bright and early, I leave with my family to go to Cassopolis, Michigan. My grandparents have a cottage there, right on Diamond Lake. It is so gorgeous! By far, the best sunsets that I have ever seen have been over that lake. I can't wait to post some pictures from the trip and it hasn't even happened yet--I know, I'm silly. But I think silliness is highly underrated. Silliness is sunny and bright and spontaneous. Silliness is childhood incarnate. And I love being silly! So, for all you fellow silliness-lovers out there, do something undeniably silly today. In fact, do something silly every day. It's important, I think. Lightheartedness, no matter how it embodies itself, helps me get through the boring days, the hard days, the terribly long days. Whether you wear polka dots, a big bow, neon pink shoes, red lipstick, or just skip everywhere all day, silliness is simply delightful!

Today, I found some wonderful things while shopping at Goodwill with my mom and sisters. I will have pictures and the story when I return from my peaceful getaway.

So, til then, so long, au revoir, good morning, good afternoon, and good night!

Geraniums and the Great Spirit

I love Native American folklore, so this pin is one of my favorites. It depicts a marriage being blessed by the Great Spirit--the highest deity in Native American lore.

The yellow glass ring in the pictures is another one of my favorite things, purchased at a quaint little town in south-western Michigan...I also have a dress that was purchased in that town that I will hopefully have pictures of soon.

And, of course, in my hair, I am wearing my favorite blue rose hairpin and some freshly cut geraniums for a summery twist. I do love wearing flowers in my hair; not in a hippy way really, but because it makes me feel breezy and automatically pretty.

This is a rather short post, I know, but I am feeling rather ill today and just wanted to post some pics in a swift way. So, voila! And have a happy weekend (or at least a happy sunset).

wanderlust strikes again

as i sit here in a dilapidated chair from the 70's that is a very mustard-y color of yellow, with approximately 10 minutes to spare before leaving for dinner at the grandparents' house, i can't help but wish i was somewhere else, someone else, in a different time (period or zone).



the last few days have been full of wanderlust for me. i have an unsettled feeling in the pit of my stomach that just won't go away. i read a book and wish that i was in the book--same thing with movies...namely westerns and fantasies (it never really struck me to wish to be in a biography or anything like that). i want to go somewhere where no one knows my name or what i'm supposed to be like. i want to sip coffee at a street cafe in Paris, reading a book of outdated poetry or maybe something by Hemingway. i want to go to Africa and come back with braids in my hair, a tan, and pictures and memories to last a lifetime--ones that will always be drawing me back to that place. i want to be someone else...even if just for a little while...to forget my ties and responsibilities and what's expected of me. i want to just be. just once.

An Attempt

favorites things: yellow 70's thrifted jacket
blue and purple tank top from PacSun



favorite things: best shoes EVER purchased from Walmart



favorite things: yellow striped shirt (with awesome buttons on the back), stolen from my little
sister
mint green cord jacket


i've never done a real "outfit post" before...and i don't think this one will be legitimate...because it will basically just be some random pictures of me in clothes that i like. so, as the title implies, this is an attempt, not a finished product.

oh. and did i mention i am so tired my eyes are falling out of my head (figuratively not literally of course)? so, please be forgiving.

pretty lil pictures, jon dunham, spanky and the gang

today has been a day. that is the only real way to describe it. it has not been anything spectacular, but it has left me feeling contented and unhurried. my boyfriend re-introduced me to an amazing comedian, i had my i-tunes set to shuffle and a song by spanky and the gang came on and made me smile, i had a fresh salad for dinner (cilantro and chives included!), and am now about to watch the movie confessions of a shopaholic with my wonderful family. ah. a lovely day. (plus, the cubs are actually playing it close with the phillies tonight instead of getting themselves run over again).

as for the beginning of that title up at the top of this blog...i just rather like pictures....and the phrase "pretty little pictures" cannot be said without a smile (:

so, as i finish up this short and sweet post, and begin drinking my peppermint tea, eating homemade popcorn, and watching a movie (which may or may not be a good film but should still be entertaining) with my wonderful family, i leave you with this:

"Your sorrow shall be turned into joy."--John 16:20

"The brave don't live forever, but the cautious don't live at all."--The Princess Diaries

"Now we should live when the pulse of life is strong. Life is a tenuous thing...fragile, fleeting. Don't wait for tomorrow. Be here now!"

some of my favorite quotes, those are! hope you enjoy them as well!

and of course, to finish up, some pretty lil pictures!

Ginger Peach

I feel like today didn't really happen. Do you ever get that feeling? Nothing much was accomplished because a) I woke up very late, b) it was rainy and cold, and c) I am still crutching around due to a sprained ankle. So, I'm sitting downstairs, watching a CSI: Miami rerun and drinking ginger peach tea, feeling exhausted for (I think) absolutely no reason. I did nothing today that deserves exhaustion as a side effect. But yet, my eyes are watery and I keep blinking--the kind of blinking you do when you're too tired to keep your eyes open for very long.

In the tradition of this very eclectic post, I suppose I should mention how weird it feels to be writing to unknown people who may or may not read this blog. Perhaps it's simply sleepy-talk, but I like to think of it as me writing anonymously for myself, just other people might happen to stumble across an entry and read it as well. I'm sure that made lots of sense. Haha! Oh my. I do need some sort of sleep tonight...church in the morning...and sadly, the thing I look forward to the most is what I'm going to wear. How terrible is that? Don't get me wrong, I love church--the fellowship, Sunday school, even the sermons--but when you're an insomniac and every day feels sort of like a dream, paying attention becomes a bit of a problem. Too bad, so sad, eh?

I have no outfit pictures yet, so the pictures I post tonight will be rather random; just a necklace I made out of old buttons and some pictures to show off some favorite wooden-beaded and shell bracelets, and a pair of shoes that I love.


On that note, I leave you, and go off to finish my ginger peach tea, my episode of CSI: Miami, and perhaps do a little surfing for music on Limewire (suggestions welcome). 'Night all!

as promised

sooner than i thought, here are the pictures i promised!

unseasonable

i have made it a goal to write a blog at least once a week from now on. i'm not sure if there's any rhyme or reason to that determination, but it is what it is. to ask "why" is just silly.

today is an oddly cool day for july in the chicagoland area. and i am not a fan. i would rather be stifled with heat than be shivering with cooler temperatures. ah well! c'est la vie! but silly me, i am still in a light weight sundress (which i love), shivering a bit on my couch, since the windows are cracked open. and would i even think to close them? of course not. because, with the windows open i can smell the wonderful rain that has come and gone all day. it has been one of those rarely sunny, mostly cloudy days that i am not inclined to like very much, but it does give me a chance to curl up under my great-grandmother's crocheted blanket and read, surf the net, write a bit, talk to friends etc etc...so, i suppose it's not too bad (though i would still prefer sunshine and warmth).

the pictures i've included in this post are from a shoot i did on the 13th with my two beautiful sisters. i picked outfits for them from their own closets and shot them in our yard and around our house. i loved how some of the pictures turned out! i posted the entire shoot on photobucket and will be linking it here eventually...hopefully soon. the style in the pictures isn't nessecarily my sisters' own style, but more of my style through their clothes. i hope to put up more of my own outfit pictures soon. we shall see.

until next time, have a happy rainy day!