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!

a bite from the bug that is nostalgia

today, as i sat outside in the backyard with the sunshine blanketing my tired self, reading "my sister's keeper," and painting some antique chairs for my mother, i found myself on the verge of tears.

nostalgia is such a strange phenomenon. how can a memory of something so good or somethings so wonderful cause gut-wrenching tears?


i miss high school (which is odd, i know). i miss my first college, greenville. weirdly, i miss when i was ill there--i have a chronic illness that was first manifested my freshman year at greenville, and yet that is still a time i look back to with fondness. i miss being a child, when i asked impossible questions because i really wondered what the answer would be; unlike now, when i hardly ever ask questions anymore, because i can either figure out the answer or i already know the answer. it's sad in a melancholy sort of way. i find myself wishing for nothing more than to throw off all social restraints and act childish again, peter pan style. can't we all take a lesson or two from peter? what is so great about growing up? i can't really think of anything that i like about the way "grown-ups" are supposed to act. there is something to be said for maturity, most definitely. but when you start tossing around words like "responsibility," "work," "mortgage," "priorities," it makes me want to just run far and fast down an unpaved country road and fall headlong into a sun-drenched field teeming with bumble bees and clover, and just lay there until i'm ready to get up and do something else. spontaneity is something grown-ups lose. and i don't want to lose that. ever.