LIFE LOVES THE LIVER OF IT

One of those days where your hair is cooperating (for once!) and your brain is actually working and your puppy is being especially fluffy.

I believe they call those "good days."
But I like to call them very very very good days indeed.

Life loves the liver of it.

THE SUMMER (OF ALL SUMMERS) LIST

SUN'S OUT, SUMMER'S ON.
(its kind of mandatory to start off these posts with blackmail material.....so there!)

As it is the way with Summers, list's are essential! Lists of highly first world things I would probably do anyway as my life is basically flitting from one pointless task to the next. But! My new school this year is gonna be a real jerk, so this is kind of my last summer of pure nonsense.

And we all know how much I love nonsense.

I couldn't decided if I wanted to take this the practical or impracticable route. But after much internal debate, I've decided I can't do either perfectly. So basically, I want to learn to change a tire and have rainbows shoot out my eyes. Sounds doable right?

-THE SUMMER (OF ALL SUMMERS) LIST-

READ: If I stay

SING: Oceans

PLAY: All Of Me

STRUM: new techniques.

SAY YES: to as many social events as possible

SNAP: photos and videos of everything

BAKE: something with lemons! i don't know why!

CREATE: Palm Beach Chic all the way

SHARE: All my Italy pictures.

PLAN: Girls weekend!!!!

What's on ya'lls summer list? Frolicking in retro bathing suits? Eating donuts poolside? Meeting new friends (and by friends, we mean boys)?) Or probably if you're like me, all of the above.

(just kidding, boys are lame! Netflix is so much better!)

"And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning all over again with the summer."

{and yay, lucky you! 2012's list(ish) HERE, and 2013's is HERE! Huzzah!}

B + W on the low down

I am getting to the age where its kind of crucial to know the hip phrases. You know, 21st century slang and all that jazz. But  no, not this unsocialized, awkward homeschooler! not i! Whilst lounging among a multitude of blankets and a cheesy movie buzzing the the background, I make the great mistake of mixing up "keeping things on the down low" and decided to jazz it up and keep things on the "low down"

because you know, humor is my thing.

and by humor i mean unintentionally embarrassing myself!

One: Angie bae being Angie bae

Two: Flowers from Italy because Italy has the best flowers

Three: Vbs and for once I didn't die!

Four: Anna Lee, my first online friend to turn into a real one! huzzah!

And then, Arlington.

"The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission."


Not to jump on the whole "Cemetery are cool!" bandwagon (no emo here!) but like wow, Arlington surpasses cool by a lot! Partly because I was with fabulous friends (shout out to the bb's uptop!) but also because when you see the massive amount of graves, and visualize the people buried there, the sacrifice people have made for our nation (for you! for me!) becomes so undeniably amazing. Freedom is a very costly thing.

"We will always remember,

We will always be proud,

We will always be prepared, 

so that We may always be free."

ON BEING A MAKER

Some number of years ago (like, maybe one) I was reading a blog (how rare!) and it wasn't anything special. Then the words flew of the screen and hit me soundly and it was like I was finally able to vocalize something that I always knew existed, but couldn't find the words for.

In other words, I'm dramatic.

It was something along the lines of....

I AM NOT A MUSICIAN, BUT I MAKE MUSIC.

I AM NOT A PHOTOGRAPHER, BUT I TAKE PHOTOS

I AM NOT AN ARTIST, BUT I DRAW AND PAINT.

I AM NOT A WRITER, BUT I WRITE ALL THE SAME.

And to me, that is so perfect and so so true. I am a maker through and through. I make messes. I make people laugh. I make jokes (some epic, some equally not.) I make cakes and cookies and paper flowers and strum lame versions of over the rainbow.

I am a maker.

That alone changed my perspective on art and photography and napkin origami, everything! Because I realized that a perfectly honed skill isn't my goal. It's creating and getting messy and all that wonderful jazz.

So then, my art! You wonder where that puts me. Let me inform you, I'm somewhere in between happily dysfunctional / two year old let loose with crayons. Does that make any sense?

Here's to creating our best work, Whether you be an artist, a maker or a dedicated selfie taker.

"I found that I could say things with color 

and shapes that I couldn't say any other way - 

things I had no words for."

Me and my Rachie

To Rachie, who doesn't even know my blog exists (and probably never will!) (thus, I can be as sappy as I want!) To Rachie, my complete opposite. To Rachie, my instructor in all things hugging and snuggling (hashtag, huggling!). To Rachie, for making me laugh always and putting up with thousands of photos (a sign of true friend, I say!)

To Rachie: I LOVE YOU.

Amen!

THE IRRESISTIBLE SALTWATER SUMMER OF MY SOUL

It's not even summer, and I'm already having the most glorious summer of my life!

How's that for great logic?!?

A few months ago I finally donned my first pair of Saltwater Sandals! Needless to say, I could go on and on with pinterest love quotes about these babies. And so I wore them in Italy. I wore them at NC. I wore them in DC. And now, finally home, I'm wearing them in the good old Sunshine State.

People keep noticing (and if they don't, I'm sure to point them out!) my incredible saltwater tan lines. Which on the one hand, I worked on, but on the other hand, they came so fast! And the deeper the lines get, the more drastic the contrast, the more I realize what fun I'm having. Since we're all into metaphors these days (thanks tfios!) let's just say that last year, or any other year, I wouldn't have any saltwater tan lines. (Partly because uh, I didn't own Saltwaters! But mostly because, for the first time in forever, I'm really living!) And let me just say, it feels fabulous to be alive.

So here's to the irresistible saltwater summer of my soul! Fingers crossed that the tan lines intensify due to an increase in sweet, sweet summertime pleasures.

PS: I wasn't kidding....