How can you lose a camera cord? Let me count the ways...

1. Went on a trip, and accidentally left it there.

2. Put it in a different spot saying to yourself, "Ok, remember that I put it here and not the other place that I normally put it. DON'T FORGET." And then you promptly forget.

3. Put it in it's normal place, but some radiation was secretly smuggled into your house and hid in the exact same spot where you normally put the cord - and so it grew legs and walked away without anyone noticing.

4. Your house is haunted by the ghost of a middle aged woman who accidentally electrocuted herself while trying to plug the camera cord into her aging computer.

5. Your other cords played, "Survivor" this week, and your camera cord was voted out of the drawer first.

6. Your mother/best friend/little sister/whatever thought that you were blogging too much - and burned it.

7. There is not explanation. It went into the mysterious abyss of lost things that are never coming back.

Personally, I think it's #3

Weirder things have happened (for proof, see Napoleon Dynamite)

xoxo

ps - I promise I have some good DIYS and posts coming! However, they need pictures. which needs a camera cord... it's just a vicious cycle.

Today is Tuesday. You're Welcome.

I know... I'm a bad blogger. Sigh. It's just, SUMMER! So much to do and so little to do at the same time (how does that happen?)

I've continued my vigorious reading schedule (so excited for book club this month!), my brother is home from rehab (we'll talk about that later), my little sister and I went shopping at Hobby Lobby and Walmart yesterday (and I accidentaley stepped on a piece of glass... awk) - which means I will have DIYs and crafts coming your way any day now! 

Patience is a virtue my friends ;)

(and procrastination is an art form)

But my real purpose in this post is to inform you of some give-a-ways! (I KNOW RIGHT!? BE EXCITED!)

The first of which is hosted by a blog I follow, Vicki Christine 

I really love her blog because she's so witty! And she's pregnant - which is oddly enough a bonus for reading her blog. Because who doesn't love reading about pregnant women?

But this give-a-way is so exciting! It's for a favorite store of mine, Shabby Apple. 

I really love them because their clothes are modest. The company was created by a Mormon, who saw the gap in fashion - a place for cute modest clothes! So she created this company and it only produces modest clothes! A lot of the clothes are themed too - so it's fun to look through the lookbooks. Here are some of my personal favorites:

 

To enter:

Simply go to Vicki Christine, and follow the directions!

Easy right?

xoxo

ps - I'm still looking for someone to give my blog a makeover - anyone have any advice?

pps - do ever get that feeling that a small worm is crawling on the surface of your eye? Maybe I'm the only one....

Jewels for Summer Sun

I've been stalking people on facebook lately (another thing my mom and I talked about the other night) - and A LOT of my friends already have their senior photos! Wait what!? Yeah. What.

There are so many places to go to get them taken that I can't make up my mind, but I'll probably ask a woman in my ward to take them for me - and I'll link to her website once I figure out where it is on this huge interweb of ours. 

But besides just getting my pictures taken, the other problem is, WHAT THE HECK AM I GONNA WEAR? So i've decided that this summer I need to be stalking up on clothes and jewelry for my up and coming senior photos. Because I'm vain like that.

Here are the jewelry DIYs I've been looking at....

(clothes post later?)

Fringe necklace 

Jewel Collar Necklace 

Terrarium Pendant Necklace 

Bow necklace 

Mustache ring 

Fork Bracelet 

Bobby pin earrings 

Watch to belt DIY 

Those are the ones I like right now... but if you find any, feel free to link them below!

xoxo

We talked the whole night through

Do you ever do that? Talk the whole night through?

It's the kind of thing that can't be forced. It just kind of has to happen. But it's so wonderful when it does! There's something about staying up with someone all night and just, talking.

Me and my mom did that last night;

I had come home a little later than usual on a Sunday night, after we said prayers together as a family and my siblings went off to bed, me and my mom just sat on her bed and talked for about 2 hours straight. At first we talked about my brother, then me, then school, then dad, then my other brother, then my friends, then euphimisms (or maybe not? We couldn't decide if they were euphimisms or not...), then people we'd met that day, then boys, then Pride and Prejudice, then Jane Austen, then college, then something else - until finally my mom almost fell asleep and I had to go to bed before I dropped dead. 

It reminded me of one night last summer where we stayed up together until about 2 in the morning watching Pride and Prejudice. We had watched the good version (with Colin Firth) and then the bad version (with Keira Knightley). And this is what we decided - the Colin Firth version is better because of the historical accuracy, length, how close it is to the book, and acting. The Keira Knightley version is better when it comes to filmogrophy, music, art, etc. But when it came to the historical accuracy and the acting? EEWWW. It was gross. SERIOUSLY.

When we were reading Pride and Prejudice in my English class, we had to give presentations on different topics relating to the Regency era in general. My partner and I talked about food, one group talked about fashion. And the only reason this irked me so much was because I'm a Jane Austen snob (ask my mother, she made fun of me last night for a good 10 minutes), and that I probably knew more than anyone in that room about the Regency period (hence the snob part). But they talked about bustles. BUSTLES. Ok, let me tell you, THERE WERE NO BUSTLES IN THE REGENCY ERA. NONE. ZIPPO. NADA. It made me so mad. sigh.

When we were talking about high school and senior year, my mom told me to just do EVERYTHING. literally everything. Be a part of as many clubs as I can, do as many sports as I can, go to every activity that I can, because it's depressing to look back with regret and say - I wish I had done that. I thought that was good advice, very "mom" advice, but good advice. It's just that I'm scared, you know? As a senior it's hard to try out for a sport, because it's almost garunteed you're not gonna get in. They basically already know who will be in different sports teams next year based on who played the last year. But I think I'll try - maybe I'll e-mail the coaches and just see if I can do anything to be on the team. Because I don't want this year to be sitting around doing nothing. The last 3 years I have hardly done anything, because I always told myself I was too busy with school and theatre. And this year I'll have work as well! But I think I can do it. If it's popsicle it's possible!

Moral of the story: I really love talking with my mom.

xoxo

If you're a crafter and you know it, clap your hands

Any amateur DIYer can tell you, you need mod podge to do just about anything. It's an absolute necessity. Which is why this give-a-way by Stars for Streetlights has got me so hyped up!

I am literally drooling over this book, it's starting to become a problem.

The Give-a-way includes the Mod Podge bible, and what appears to be stickers and wire? I dunno what it is exactly, but I'm not complainin! Free stuff!

The book was written by Amy Anderson, the mod podge guru (or so I hear)

Some of the fun crafts to be attempted with mod podge - Not gonna lie, I look at these and think, "there is no way I can do that"

You get sophisticated and personalized products that you made yourself! So go crazy with it!

LINK TO THE GIVE-A-WAY

oh ps - you're supposed to leave a comment in order to enter... but I literally have no idea how because I can't find the freaking button to leave a comment with! So if you figure it out I'd like to know s'il vous plait.

4th day of summer?

It's officially my 4th day of summer.

WAIT WHAT? Yeah, you heard me. CRAZY things are happening in my life right now. It's almost surreal how all of this happened so fast. Sure, freshman and sophomore year weren't necessarily SLOW, but junior year went by so fast I'm still turning around in circles thinking "wait. What just happened?"

But I feel like I've accomplished a lot. Here's what I've been up to:

1. I've been workin on my tan. Holla! I was blessed with a pale complexion that burns easily and makes me feel like a white rabbit. So I've made it my goal to be out in the sun as much as possible during this wonderful summer (wearing plenty of sun tan lotion of course, gotta keep my skin healthy). Part of me is really happy that I'm getting tan! The other part of me is wondering why it's such an important things for girls to be tan? Why can't I be my pasty self? Still fighting this one out in my head, but I'll let you know when I've figured out the answer.

2. I've been reading books. O-ha-ho let me tell you, I've been reading books. Seriously, 4th day of summer and I think I've read 4 books already. I'm book crazy. 

This. book. is. amazing.

Placed in the Reagent era of England, Frederica takes her brothers and sisters up to London to help launch her younger, more beautiful sister, into society (with the somewhat unwilling help of a very wealth "cousin"). This crazy country family gets into so many indecent scrapes and mishaps that I laughed my way through have of the book - and the ending is magnificent! I wish in some ways that the Marquis had been better developed and there had been a bit more at the end - but I definitely recommend it to anyone who loves Jane Austen.

Cotillion wasn't my favorite, I didn't become particularly attached to the characters like I did in Frederica or The Grand Sophy - but still and enchanting book. I've started to say things like;

"devilishly good of you"

"insufferable!"

"he's flown into a mish."

Just a few of my favorite sayings.

Also, this book seemed a bit slow for me. I wanted to just skip chapters and head straight to the end. But I promise that if you pull through it, you'll enjoy it!

This is my favorite. Of all of the Georgette Heyer I've read, I love Sophy the most. She's unpredictable, mischievous, outgoing, tall (i love tall people), and friendly. She is everything I want to be, in a book character. It's a long book, but I think you'll be surprised on how much happens and how quickly you get through it. It's amazing!

3. I started a book club (insert smug smile). I'm actually really excited for this, because I love talking about books and reading books, so thought a book club would be fabulous! Because I started it, I picked the first book, which is:

I've read this book before, but I can't wait to read it and then talk about it in book club! I haven't decided what to serve yet at the meeting (foodwise), so if anyone has any splendid ideas it would be devilishly good of you to speak up.

4. I made the workout shirt I put on my list in my last post, it didn't turn out quite like how I had hoped it would, so I won't be posting pictures. I'll try again (possibly) to see if I can get it right a second time.

But here's how I did it:

Click on the picture to get the link to the original website.

I warn you! It's not as easy as it looks!

5. I got a job! FINALLY! Seriously, after searching and searching and searching I finally got a job :) Feelin a little proud of myself right now.

I'm working at the local Jamba Juice - I would post a picture but something about copyright infringement won't let me. Sigh.

It's actually a lot of fun, I make the smoothies and whatever else the customer orders. You wouldn't think making smoothies is hard, but it's kinda hard. It's a little stressful to make sure you do it quickly and get everything right, and don't spill, and be nice to the customer, and yady yady yada. 

Actually, funny story, my first day they had me sit in the back reading the manual guide thing. I was basically reading the recipes on how to make smoothies. Uh, why? I wasn't even MAKING smoothies. I was READING THE RECIPES to make smoothies. yeah that did nothing at all. But I've been working there for about a week now and I'm actually really enjoying the job! Plus I smell like fruit when I come home.

How's your 4th day of summer going?

xoxo

Hello to lazy summer days

Or maybe it should be GOOD-BYE to lazy summer days.

I've made a list of things I plan to do this summer - goals, projects, books, DIYs, etc.

Because I find that being lazy over the summer isn't as fun as actually doing something! Don't you agree?

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I think this DIY would be difficult, so maybe it should be saved for later in the summer. But it's absolutely beautiful and I WANT ONE. Because people would be like, "Hey. Is they a fork on your arm?" 

Yes. Yes it is.

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This light box would be SO useful - because waiting around for the perfect time of day to take pictures is so annoying, and usually doesn't work out too well anyways.

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My room is a mess. A complete and utter disaster. Usually, it's not so bad - at least the floor is usually picked up and vacuumed, but because I haven't fully moved in yet there is NO organization for my things. It's really frustrating and I'm getting upset just thinking about it, but basically I'm living out of boxes. UGH.

I've decided to be more experimental and wear red lipstick. Just for fun.

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This art project is SUPER popular, but I want to make it interesting and unique. I liked this one because they had a specific design and idea in mind, it's inspiring! I can't wait to try mine! (you'll see it when I do it, never fear)

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The new goal of my summer is to have more flowers. We have a beautiful lilac bush around the house, it's time to bring the beauty indoors.

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I LOVE embellished collars, they add a pop to an outfit without the hassle of long dangly jewelry. So it's time to go thrifting! For beautiful shirts to embellish!

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This DIY is so simple and moustachy that I can't wait to get started! Plus, it's a moustache. Who doesn't want a moustache ring?

I've always been fascinated by the art of embroidery. I seriously think it's amazing and creative, so i've made it my summer goal to emroider something, maybe a shirt of a pillow - or maybe shoes! You never know...

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Uhm yes. I have two very boring grey sweaters that would love to be touched up with these cutesy elbow patches. There are some "holes" in this tutorial, no pun inteanded, so I'll probably just make up my own way. 

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This is a bracelet made of broken jewelry. Because who doesn't have broken jewelry lying around? Seriously, it's bordering on hoarderism. (Hoarderism? Is that a word?)

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My mom yells at me every 5 minutes because I never have a coaster with me, and it messes up her wooden furniture. Which is completely understandable, so I think i'll remedy this little problem of mine and make some cute coasters :)

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I have SO many broaches from my mother, and I can't think of a cuter way to use them than this DIY broach necklace!

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The mullet skirt. The new must-have of any fashionable closet anywhere. So why not make my own? 

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I think we can all agree that most of us sleep in sweatpants and t-shirts. No one ever looks cute going to bed, it's just a fact. Recently I felt like looking cute going to bed didn't have to be hard, so when I found this tutorial I made up my mind. I was gonna look cute going to bed. So sue me.

(can also me remodeled into cute swimsuit coverups with the right fabric!)

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I love this shirt to death. It's seriously simple and totally summer chic. BRING IT BABY.

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Re-fashion a T-shirt into a cute ruffle top and pair it with a maxi skirt. The perfect summer outfit. 

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First off, let me just tell you that these are scarves. Uh yeah. SCARVES. Turn these SCARVES into SHIRTS. oh how I love you scarves-that-can-be-turned-into-shirts.

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On a more serious note, I actually have plans to do some hard-core workout this summer. Ok maybe not THAT hard-core, but enough to put up a sweat, so this DIY is perfect! Now I don't have to spend tons of money on workout clothes! Hurray! 

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I love this longer skirt, don't you?

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On a scale of one to creepy this picture is like, Halloween. But I love the idea of these glowing jars, which would be perfect for a summer party or table center piece. 

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I really love this cut-out because of all of the different shapes you can make, or layers, or fabrics etc. It's just a very versatile DIY.

There's probably more that I'll find for things I want to do, and I'll add them to the list - but this is enough for now. Don't you think? 

xoxo

ps - what are your summer goals and planned projects?