The Exploding Girl

I hope you guys like my new little header! I wasn't really planning on changing stuff up like that and I blame my spontaneity on a long day of driving + a dinner of cookie dough. But I've been feeling a bit restless with the old blog look. I rarely change it and it's stayed pretty much the same since I started it. What can I say, I'm a creature of habit. I keep opening up my blog trying to get use to seeing the new header! Haha. I'll probably do a bit of tweaking here and there, I'm not sure if I'm totally done with it, but for now I'm pretty pleased!

I was in the mood for a movie the other night and so I browsed around on netflix instant looking for something that looked suitable for my mood. I always like scrolling through the indie films because those ones seem to be more interesting to me than most mainstream films, though it is hit and miss sometimes. There are some really bizarre indie films out there. But I stumbled across the film The Exploding Girl and the description sounded good so I thought I'd give it a go. I really enjoyed it. I felt like way the film was shot plus the acting and dialogue made the film feel very real. Like, I felt like I could identify very much with the situations in the film. I have felt the feelings the main character goes through, been where she is at throughout the film. It was a raw, but lovely film about these young people experiencing things that pretty much all young people experience. Very genuine.

It's pretty low key, but that's what I love about a lot of indie films. They don't need the big Hollywood flash and bang to hold your attention. It's all about real human interaction and zooming in on that intimacy, capturing it in a beautiful way. Anyway, I would recommend the film. Not if you're in the mood for something energetic or Hollywood-y, but ... say if you were in the mood to listen to Bon Iver, but wanted to watch a movie instead, I would say watch The Exploding Girl. Also, I thought the main character looked a lot like Rebecca from The Clothes Horse, and she dressed really cute as well!

Archives Giveaway!

This week's giveaway is brought to you by Archives Chicago Vintage! They are offering this vintage 1970's beaded necklace to one of my readers!

To enter this giveaway, just visit the Archives shop, come back here and comment on this post with a link to your favorite item! Make sure to leave a way for me to get ahold of you if you're drawn as the winner.

Entries will be accepted until Friday Dec. 3 at 9 pm PST. Open to international entries. One entry per person.

And the winner of the Asian iCandy giveaway is... Betty! Congrats!

Wish Wish Wish

So, since it's "that time of year,"-- namely, where you hope upon hope that all your wishlists will be noticed by those who buy presents for you, while at the same time coming close to crying at the sorry state of your own bank account due to buying presents-- here is an abridged wishlist which I have lovingly created over the past few hours...

Urban Outfitters Quilt

Urban Outfitters Custom Bike

also, mostly everything from UO...

Yarn Over Movement Scarf

(shown on Hannah and Rebecca)

ModCloth During Intermission Dress, Carrot Cake Cardigan & Live Music Cardigan

and so much more!

Instax Mini Camera

(photo via rockstar diaries)

Canon 5D Mark II, 550d or any Canon that will shoot video

Ever since Starr showed me these videos of Carrie from wishwishwish by her boyfriend Miguel, I have been lusting after a camera that will shoot video. In retrospect, it would've been amazing to get one before this trip because I've found myself really wanting to shoot film on this trip, but I have a vision in my head of what I'd want it to look like and my iPhone camera is extremely insufficient to complete the task. I've never been much into video, though I took a film class in college and really liked it, and once made a music video in high school. I could probably never afford a new camera body, but a girl can wish right?! I could probably go for a new lens or two as well, but hey! We're ghetto down here in Delightfully Tackyville, I'll use what I've got until it falls apart.

Casa do Monte - Portugal // 5D Mark II - 24p

Kilver Court Gardens - Canon 550D / T2i + Hague MMC & Indislider Mini

city of the crosses

I am feeling odd. Half happy and good, and half failure. I think I attribute too much of my personal success or failure to this blog, and it's hard not to considering how much time I spend on it. It's odd because sometimes I wonder what I would do if I didn't blog. It consumes a lot of my time. I love doing it, though, so maybe I that's why I don't notice. Plus, the past year of my life has been pretty much relationship-less, other than my family. I'm amazed at bloggers who can have successful blogs AND maintain great interpersonal relationships. Perhaps it's just because I'm a terrible multitasker in pretty much all walks of life. I've got a one track mind, and I'm trying to get better at handling more than one thing at a time, but I know I'm terrible at it.

Okay, maybe the ratio is more like 75-80% happy and only 20-25% failure. No need to be overly dramatic, haha. But still. I expect a lot out of myself, and so when I feel like my blog is doing poorly, or sponsorships don't come, I feel as if I personally have failed in some way. Le sigh. Do any other bloggers feel this way? I feel ridiculous, somewhat, because this blog has gone so much further than I ever imagined and I am so incredibly thankful for all the readers and sponsors who support it every day.

dress/thrifted :: top/tucker for target :: shoes/market publique

I think maybe I need a "real job" or some outward pursuit beyond the blog to give me that feeling of accomplishment. This trip has been that for me since I quit my job in Alaska, but at the end of this trip I'm pretty excited to get (or at least try to get) a new job in a new place. I have no clue what that job is going to be! Sometimes I think it makes sense to try my hand at doing wedding photography or senior portraits, since I take pictures everyday for the blog, but then that kind of stresses me out because I objectively have very little knowledge of photography. I've got an old DSLR with a scratched lens and a tripod that is broken and will only take horizontal pictures. I'm no pro. I run a jerry-rigged operation up in here. Also... I know no one who is getting married or who is a senior in high school. Hm. Uh, anyone getting married or graduating high school? Haha.

Well, anyway, here's that dress I cut the sleeves off of. Better? I like it better. This outfit feels very Peggy Olsen to me. I need to have a heart to heart with my closet because for some reason I keep putting on Peggy Olsen outfits and I don't feel like my aesthetic is Peggy Olsen. I'm having a problem calibrating my personal style. What I put on lately doesn't really describe me as well as it should. Hm. Personal style mid-life crisis? Maybe I need another David Lee Roth phase to jolt me out of my rut.

born a hundred thousand miles ago

As I was driving yesterday I started contemplating how I came about being who I am right this moment- why I feel so confident in who I am and why I, according to so many of you guys, am brave and such. I realized that a lot of it started with clothes, as silly as that sounds! I mean there were a lot of other factors, and I've always been pretty unfazed by doing things like this trip, but there are other areas in my life that I was definitely not as confident in and that has certainly changed over the past few years. I figured out that most of my confidence stemmed from ceasing to care about what other people thought about me, which started when I began to explore my personal style.

Back in high school I pretty much wore the same kind of thing everyday: boot cut/flare jeans, a little boys t-shirt, and skater shoes. I always had a desire to wear other things, and I loved dressing up for halloween and stuff like that, but I never wanted any stares or attention in regards to what I wore. Plus, it was high school, so I'm sure there was some sort of desire to fit in for the most part (though my high school class was awesome and there weren't really the popular/unpopular groups like a lot of kids have to deal with). And back in high school I wasn't super comfortable with my body. I didn't hate it, but had the typical desires to be less awkward, or more like the girls who had boyfriends, etc. But anyway, I digress...

So when I went to college, I dressed sort of the same for my freshman year, and then just started becoming friends with these amazing, beautiful, creative people and started really getting into my art department. Plus, I was living "on my own," if you count living in dorms, which I did at the time. I think maybe that gave me that jolt of confidence that I needed to branch out and try new things. Sophomore year I started wearing some different things. I remember thrifting two pairs of old men's pants that were awesome. I wore them a lot- I wish I had a picture of me in them. I don't know if they looked ridiculous or not, but I stopped caring. It didn't matter! Then I dyed a streak of my hair rainbow colors at the end of Sophomore year, and by the beginning of my Junior year I was wearing huge winged eyeliner and beehiving my hair like Amy Winehouse. At some point I also went through a phase where I dressed like David Lee Roth and teased my hair all huge like 80s hair bands. Hahah. It was awesome. That's around when I started my blog and I just began documenting my style and its evolution. I still have all those parts of my style- the rainbow hair, the Amy Winehouse/pinup girl, the 80's hair metal. They come out from time to time.

But all of that was to say that I think a lot of my confidence is rooted in not being afraid to wear whatever I want to and not caring about what other people will think of me. I mean, that's a daily thing and daily things are often the hardest to conquer. And once you stop caring, it just gets easier and easier to do and be who you want to be, rather than what other people want or expect you to be.

cardigan/target :: shirt/thrifted :: jeans/courtesy of Jessica Simpson :: shoes/minnetonka

On an exciting travel front- the Brave just hit an important milestone! The ol' girl hit 100,000 miles yesterday! Woohoo, little Brave! Kind of amazing, actually. I can't remember the milage when I bought her, but it was probably around... 8,000 miles ago. I feel like she needs some champagne or something! Maybe I'll take her to get an oil change, let the lady have some TLC. Haha. She deserves it!