i received the most amazing compliment

“Your personality is everything that is good in life.”

This 4th of July…

i went here:

 

blew up these:

{the really big kind that are only legal in Wyoming.  they were like, professional size fireworks. amazing}

saw my first one of these:

{it was fantastic.  if i don’t marry a cowboy, I’ll at least have to have a hot fling with one at some point.}

 

and shot my first one of these:

 

now if that isn’t a truely american 4th of July, i don’t know what is.

Dear the six people who read my blog,

I need your help.  As aforementioned, I am searching for a pair of summer sandals for my study abroad.  I need something comfortable that I can wear all day long when I’m on my feet all day long, and that can match skirts and sundresses as well as capris and t-shirts.  Here are the contenders:

None of these are ridiculously cute, but that’s okay.  I’m not looking for ridiculously cute.  I’m looking for match-everything-in-my-wardrobe.  And I like these colors because I have really pale skin, and darker shoes call a lot of attention to themselves when up against my white white skin.  These will just blend away.  I’m hoping.  And I think the color on the third pair is a bit off–I think the color is more similar to the top pair.  

Anyway: thoughts?  I need your help!  I need validation!  I don’t know what to do!  I’m worried that these are hideously ugly granny shoes!!!!  Help me out!

father’s day

Dear Dad,

Remember when we went on this trip?

That was way fun.  

 

 

I love this picture because you are laughing so hard.

I miss you.  You were my favorite person on the planet.  

 

I’ve been doing some things I would never have done if you were still alive.  I think that’s a good and bad thing.

 

I miss you.   Life with out you is like living without an escape clause, like walking the tight rope with no net underneath.  Without you I feel like I have no one to fall back on.  Which isn’t true.  I have people–friends–a support system.  But I don’t have any one person like you: who’ll always be there.  No matter what.

 

I miss you.  I love you.  You were really great at being my dad.

 

I remember one time when I was home from BYU on Christmas vacation, and you gave me a bowl of slightly overripe grapes to eat.  You said they needed to be eaten.  And I remember the intense conflict I felt.  I don’t like overripe fruit.  But I loved you and you asked me to do it, so I wanted to do it.  I felt such a conflict.  I was never like that in high school; I didn’t care what you wanted me to do.  But later, when I was wiser, I did.

 

I remember that you were always so hard to shop for at Christmas and on your birthday.  I would always get you things you never ended up using.  Then one year–for your birthday when I was around 16–I framed an old picture of the two of us and gave it to you.  I remember that you kept it by your bedside for years.  In our house, nothing ever stayed the same.  Everything was chaos.  If I had given mom that picture, she would have been disappointed and it would have gotten lost within the week.  But you could do love.  And order.  Kindness.  Unselfishness.  That’s you in a word: unselfishness.  

 

You weren’t perfect.  You didn’t understand about humor, and sometimes you were too hard on us.  But you were unselfish, Christlike, and repentant.  You apologized to us when you lost your temper.  You owned your mistakes.  I’ll never forget that.  I love you for that.   And I know you love me.

 

Thanks for being my dad.

me

somebody yesterday referred to my personality as “passionate, opinionated, intelligent, [and] spit-fire.”

 

i am so flattered.

 

 

i used to be like that.  and then i lost it.

 

 

and now its back

 

 

photo via deviantart

i feel…

 

 

 

 

 

images via ffffound

 

i CANNOT believe i just did that

the search for the perfect pair of summer sandals…

It occured to me the other day that I do not own any sandals that are not flip flops.  This made me very sad.  I am going to be doing a lot of walking on my study abroad and I want some good-for-my-feet, can-wear-with-everything, well-made sandals.  

And I don’t like gladiators.  Some of you may not know what gladiators are.  Try to go shoe shopping: 90% of your options are gladiators.  Most of them are some variation on this:

They’re cool and all, just not my style. 

Anyway, because this is the dominant trend, I’ve been having a really hard time finding anything else.  But after searching high and low, I at least have an idea of what I want.  Something along the lines of this:

 

 

or this:

 

Unfortunately the reviews for both of these items emphasize that they are cheaply made and painful to wear.  So the search continues.

 

Good thing I secretly love bucking the trends…

DIY: Shoes & Thrift Store Purchases

Lately I’ve been on this kick where I’m making over tons of stuff in my wardrobe.  I’ll post pictures of other projects soon, but for starters I’m going to post something I just did today.  Today I was shopping at Savers, a lovely little thrift store I’d never really been to before.  One of the things I wanted was a pair of high quality black ballet flats.  I came across a pair of gold and black flats, and I tried them on.  They were AMAZINGLY comfortable.  They felt so good on my feet and I knew that they were well-made and expensive, even though I had never heard of the designer before.  

I showed them to my roommate and she said they were “loud and gaudy”.  She was right.  They were pretty ugly.  Or maybe they were just too high fashioney for us simple folk.  In any case I knew they were not what I wanted–I wanted something simpler that I could wear with anything.  Then the wheels started turning in my head.  I figured I could use a few coats of black shoe polish to cover the shoe and make it more neutral and I would still get to enjoy the well-made shoe.  

Before

 It doesn’t look too gaudy here, but the color is a more gold than beige in person.  And I really wanted something more neutral.  As you can see, I taped off the top, because I wanted to leave the pattern on the tops/toes of the shoes.  Then I used shoe polish to cover most of the shoe.

After

 

Just for the record, these are very unflattering pictures of my ankles/calves.  But I really liked the finish product of the shoes.  The pattern kinda shows through, which I like, although it is more subtle in person.  I feel like I could wear them with lots of things without them taking over the outfit, and did I mention how amazing they feel on my feet?  They are the softest, most buttery leather I have ever walked in.  And BTW, they are designed by Sam Eldeman, whose shoes normally retail at around $80-120.  I hadn’t heard of him before I bought these shoes, but they are so comfortable that I hope they won’t be the last pair I buy of his shoes.  I’m currently coveting these from his Spring Collection:

They’re $119 at Zappos…yeah that’s not happening anytime soon.

How much did I pay for my lovely shoes?  $5.99 + 2.99 for shoe polish = the best 8.99 pair of shoes I’ve ever bought.  Plus I love the fact that no one will have the exact same pair of shoes as me.  

I also purchased this lovely jacket:

 

This picture is from somebody selling the same jacket on ebay, and needless to say it doesn’t begin to do it justice.  It’s a million times cuter in real life.  Did I mention that it retails at $42?  I paid $8 and it still has its tags on.  It’s a totally gorgeous jacket that I plan to wear as-is with a fabulous ensemble.  I may post pictures…

I also purchased these lovely clip-on earrings for $2.  It’s not the best picture but my roommate just went to sleep and I don’t want to wake her to use her camera again.

 

It is such a pain to find inexpensive, cute, clip-on earrings that don’t break the first time I wear them.  But I can’t wear pierced earrings because my skin is too sensitive.  Anybody know of any good places to get clips?  

And as if this post wasn’t narcissist enough already here is a picture of a head-thing that I bought a long time ago but only finally figured out how to wear properly today.

Kinda blurry, but I think you can begin to get the point of how cute it is.  I’m totally in love with it, and really glad I bought it, even if it was 4.99.  That just seems like a lot to me for a headband-thingy. Good thing I am totally digging it.

Media Journal

The Saint Fun, enjoyable, brainless.  Val Kilmer is so talented.

Matchpoint Loved it.  Ridiculously good.  Totally underrated.

Nothing But the Truth I really liked it up until the surprise ending, which felt lame and gimmicky.  But Kate Beckinsale does great work.

Casino Royale Loved it.  

I Confess!  Love Montgomery Clift.  Such an underrated actor/eye-candy.  Solid Hitchcock film–except when it leans on our prejudices.

Carnival Season 2 Loved it!  So good.  Wish they had finished this series.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Didn’t do it for me at all.  I guess you have to be a guy to like this movie.

Lost Season 4  Yes, I got back on the Lost bandwagon.  I watched Season 1 and 2 a long time ago and loved them.  I got fed-up half-way through Season 3 and quit.  I started fresh with Season 4 and loved it.  I think it really improved when they figured out exactly how many seasons they were going to have.