Fear is a Dirty Word

006. Accidental Hiatus

2011-06-19T21:06:00.001-07:00

So I meant to preface my vacation with a quick post around the tenth letting whoever is watching this little thing that I'd be going out of town for about a week, but after a packing fiasco and a some rough tension with my mother, I slipped behind the eight ball and left for a week with no internet access and no new blog post in sight.

While there are tons of vacation pictures coming soon, they haven't all been sorted yet, so I'm not going to post them this second. After all, I got home less than four hours ago, I need just a moment to catch my breath.

In the meantime, enjoy some delicious British candy to indulge your mind and eyes. With four hours to kill, I picked up a Bullett Magazine and was instantly hooked. At first I was a little hesitant about shelling out the nine dollars for it, but I ended up reading it from cover to cover, and was pleased to find both insightful political and cultural commentary as well as juicy gossip from the British cast of SKINS, my current obsession. The website seems to lack some of the depth of the magazine, so maybe I'll scan in an article to share. But if you're just craving something sweet, check out this Betsy Johnson Interview (also from Bullett):

The Betsey & Lulu Interview from BULLETT MAGAZINE on Vimeo.

005. Dandelions

2011-06-05T07:38:00.000-07:00

I love dandelions, it's sad that they take such shit for being weeds. It might be the hippie hidden deep with me that thinks they look like little yellow sunshines, but I just adore them!

I was taking a walk with a friend through a park the other day and made a dandelion crown as we were going. One of the local grade schools had been on the local grade schools had been on an end of the year field trip there, and quite a few of the little girls came up to me to tell me they liked the crown, so I ended up donating it to one of them before coming back inside. She was so excited about the silly little thing, it was very cute.

The dress I'm wearing in the pictures I picked up at an estate sale for $1. It's vintage from the late 60s, and I took the liberty of shortening. The flower print always makes me so happy, and it's got cute little buttons down the back!

Has anyone ever read Dandelion Wine by Bradbury? It's such a great summer read, it's beautifully written and told in these short vignettes that completely romanticize the summertime. I love it so dearly, I've been thinking about re-reading it. I'm working on my summer reading list. Right now it's all jumbled in my head, but I have to write it down sometime or another... any good book suggestions?

004. An Early Summer Adventure

2011-05-31T22:27:00.000-07:00

Today my boyfriend and I spent the day running benign errands like picking up my sister from school and buying silly little items like a black zipper from the sewing store for the dress I'm working on (preview coming soon!). We took a nice walk, and went to the library, but overall it was just one of those lovely days where everything moved slowly and warmly by without anything being really accomplished.

Shirt: Decemberists Hazards of Love concert
Purse: (my number one go-to item) stolen from my mother's closet
Skirt: splurge at jcrew
Shoes: thrifted Steve Madden
Headband: forever 21

I'm not sure if I'd mentioned this, but it was my plan for a while to cut my hair right after prom. I took about 9" off of it. I'm still getting used to it, and definitely feel like Margot Tenenbaum on sometimes, but it's much more manageable now. Here's a pic from right after it was cut:

For anyone in Chicago who isn't as lazy as my boyfriend and I, I found this awesome list of things to do over the summer at Refinery 29. I might just have to try yoga at Millennium Park, that sounds amazing!

003. The Graduate

2011-05-30T20:51:00.000-07:00

The night after prom, my friends and I got together to watch a movie, and after much debate (It's hard to agree on a movie when 10+ people are choosing) the Graduate was plucked off the Netflix instant queue. It's a movie that's been on my 'to see' list forever, and I'm glad I finally got around to it.

I had the pleasure of watching it with my movie buff friend, who has an incredible eye for directing & cinematography. She let me in on all the little movie secrets, like how only Benjamin's (Dustin Hoffman) eyes are visible for nearly the first half of the movie.

All in all, Mrs. Robinson is certainly one fashionable seductress! All the ladies in the film had some notable looks. Unfortunately, I have no way of screencapping them, so here's just a few random pics I plucked off the internet for inspiration:

002. My Friends are Hipsters

2011-05-24T09:38:00.001-07:00

After prom, plans had been made to go camping, but a nasty hail storm deterred my friends and me from making the two hour drive up to Kohler-Andrae State park in Wisconsin. Instead, we ended up making a day trip to Evanston, home of NorthWestern University. While only a twenty minute drive from our quaint little neighborhood, it's considered the 'cool' place to go hangout when you get bored. After hitting up a second-hand record store, and UO of course, we headed over to the beach only to be rained out after a mere three minutes of sun & sand.

I'm the one in the floral romper with the vitamin water in the second picture. I made the romper last June, and actually had to hand sew the zipper, since my zipper foot was acting funny. Here's a better picture of it from last summer, when I wasn't as pale as a sheet:

001. A New Beginning, Starting with the End

2011-05-23T09:51:00.000-07:00

So it turns out starting a blog in the middle of the college application process is less than a good idea. In other words, I failed: something that my persistant self is reluctant to admit. Now that (thank goodness) I've left my high school self behind, I'm ready to give this another shot.

The past few weeks have been this hectic roller coaster of tearful goodbyes and jubilant celebrations that have left my head spinning. My cousin's wedding was on the 14th of may, the 17th was my last day of school, the 19th was 'boat party' (a graduation celebration on lake Michigan), and the 21st was prom.

I've been looking forward to prom since I was about six years old. I purchased my dress off Etsy in January from Lipstick Whiskey, and was literally having dreams about wearing it for weeks up until the big day. Now I've unwillingly retired it to a hanger on the back of my closet door to await dry cleaning and boxing. The night itself was a fairytale. Without further ado, here are the pictures of me and my handsome boyfriend of one and a half years, Loren.