Shirt - Merona (Thrifted) // Skirt - Maurices // Shoes - Hot Cakes // Necklace - Claire's
Thanks, Catherine for taking the photos of me!
So yeah, these are pictures from Florida (My sister and I are visiting my Papaw). Know what that means? I'm all caught up on old photos!! At least I'm assuming I am. You know, at this point I'm not going back to check. I've really wanted to improve the quality of the photos on my blog, so I'm really excited to be done with the older photos and start posting new, hopefully better, ones!
Anyways, these are from Tarpon Springs in Florida--a rather fun, beautiful, place. This was the one place I was really looking forward to visiting on this trip since the last time I went was 10 years ago! Tarpon Springs is a beautiful little tourist town with dolphin watching, sponge diving, and the largest Greek population compared to any other city in the US.
We went out on a boat to watch a guy sponge dive--very fun. After that we just walked around the town and visited a bunch of family owned shops. I bought some lilac goat's milk soap which, I must add, smells amazing. Later, we drove to the less touristy area and walked through several antique shops. One in particular had a very large WWII section with uniforms, weapons, letter...etc. Busy day! But very fun :) Hope summer's going well for all of you!
Another quick post just 'cause I'm still super busy. I actually just (finally) bought a good tripod so I'm trying to get all these old pictures up as soon as possible so I can post better ones! I really haven't been motivated to take pictures mostly because of the effort it takes to get someone else to do it for me :p But. Having a tripod will make this a lot easier!
A new memory card...if only it were that easily. Sometimes I feel like my brain's memory is completely full 'cause I can remember random things like song lyrics and quotes from...well, everything. But when it comes to basically anything else (especially new things!) I'm essentially useless. I could sing the you entire theme song for The Muppet Show right now (and a lot of other shows, sadly)...but I could not tell you what day of the week it is or all the other stuff that I can't remember right now! For the record, I'm pretty sure it's Friday. But then again I was convinced it was Friday back on what I think was actually Wednesday. No, it was really funny. One of my instructors said we had an assignment due Friday and I was like today? It can't be due today! the instructor then reminded me that it was only Wednesday... yeah, that took a few minutes to sink in.
Part of my bad memory might be due to excessive daydreaming. Hey, I get lost in my mind palace sometimes. And if you get that reference (Sherlock) you, my friend, are awesome. Then, if Sherlock has a mind palace, I must have a mind bungalow.*
So basically...my mind needs a new memory card. :p It's not like I'm not trying either! I'm working so hard to remember things. Right now I've been using the notepad on my cellphone to write myself little notes throughout the day. Wow, that is really helping! You know how I've said that sometimes I have a good idea for a blog post in the middle of the day, but by the time I'm ready to write that idea is gone? Well, this idea I wrote down in the morning and now I actually remembered to write it! So ironically, I remembered to write a post about my bad memory. Ha.
Btw watch this.
It's hilarious. Gosh, I love Roberto--probably one of my favorite Futurama characters.
*Yes, mom. You get full credit for mind bungalow....
Dress - Pink Owl (via Modcloth) // Shirt - Faded Glory // Belt - Cotton On // Shoes - Maurices
Honestly....I hate the way these pictures turned out. But, I love this dress (it's my first one from Modcloth!) so I wanted to post these anyways. Actually, I do like the last picture...but I'm not even in it :p Gosh I already miss Rachel taking my pictures!
Anyways, don't you just love the awesome things kids say? My siblings all have great imaginations and it's so funny to listen to them. They like to play princes and princesses, little house on the prairie, questing for dragons, and tons of fun stuff! Anyways, we were on a long car ride and I stopped talking with my mom long enough to hear my 8-year-old sister, N, say to another sibling, "Can you go faster than an angry donut?"
Now, I have no idea how the conversation got there. How is this donut propelling itself? And why is it angry? Ah, the things little kids say. I thought it sounded like something that might be in Adventure Time, but they don't even watch that show! Anyways, I thought it was funny!
Oh, and one last thing. Do you remember the FBI costume pictures from the 4th of July post? Well, when my siblings were playing FBI I overheard Laura asking A (one of my Ukrainian siblings who doesn't speak much English yet) if he had an alibi. Since A doesn't know what an alibi is he starts looking through his pockets for one! Do you have any funny stories from your siblings, kids, cousins?
Dress - London Times // Shoes - Maurices
Photos by R. Parker!!
Do you ever have days where you feel awesome? ...and then you go to Starbucks...
The other day I just felt awesome. I got a lot done, baked and ate some Citrus White Chocolate Cookies (recipe in previous post), I loved my outfit that day, and, well, it was just a pretty good day. And then I went to Starbucks.
As soon as I walked in I felt the gaze of every hipster in there. I could almost hear their thoughts...Why aren't you wearing plaid? Where's your scarf in the middle of summer? Where are your non-prescription glasses? Gosh, is this what public high school feels like? Some people think Starbucks makes you cool (I'm looking at you jr high kids who shouldn't be drinking coffee anyways). I say it just amplifies your already existent traits. Starbucks makes cool people oh so much cooler. And, since I'm just like the biggest dork ever...well, let's just say Starbucks doesn't do me any favors.
Every time I'm there I just wonder why I'm in this building full of people wearing v-necks and TOMS. In fact I don't even own TOMS. It's not that I don't like canvas shoes--they're very comfortable, actually. I do have several pairs of what I call SAMS (the walmart brand of TOMS). I know, I'm a horrible person. And on that 'horrible person' note, I don't even really like Starbucks Coffee. As if I needed anything else to convince you of how completely uncool I am. It's just too expensive for only sort-of good coffee. I love coffee, but the only place that I will pay that much for coffee is Coffee Corners in Burton, OH. Best. Coffee. Ever. So maybe I'm not really that uncool and instead I'm just too cool for Starbucks.
Of course I would be craving Starbucks lemon bread right now....
Dress and Belt - Nine & Co. // Jacket - No tag // Shoes - Maurices
I really do hate coming up with post titles. Sometimes I have a great idea for one...and then most days I'm just like Ummm...sure. This sounds semi-intelligent and vaguely creative. I'm thinking of starting a series of purposefully lame post titles. Starting with yesterday's. I mean, seriously..."What's in a Name?" Come on. I guess it made sense considering the content of my post...but still. So lame.
On a completely different note...apparently hairspray doesn't work on my hair? No, seriously. My hair is naturally curly (see this post), but usually I re-curl it using a flat iron (sorry, if that makes no sense. But I really do use a flat iron to curl my hair--it works great!). Anyways, when I do this, my hair is in tight ringlets until I run my fingers through it and it falls out into the loose waves y'all usually see on my blog. So ...I thought I should just hairspray the ringlets and, if they stayed that way, it would look cool. Boy, was I wrong. Granted it stayed in the ringlets for a few minutes longer than usual, but it eventually just fell out and ended up looking like it normally does--as you can see in the pictures. Except this time it's not soft and I can't run my fingers through it. No... This time it's all nasty and full of hair spray. I didn't even use cheap hairspray! I used John Frieda Firm Hold hairspray. John Frieda. Firm Hold. Yeah, when I see both of those things on a hair spray container I'm thinking John Frieda? Yeah, that's a good brand. Firm Hold? Just what my unruly hair needs! It could just be that I suck at hairstyling in general...
Anyways, as a last thought...does this bother you? My sister hates photo editing of any kind. And I'm just like. Well, I have no idea what I'm doing and I see other people doing it on their blogs. So, I give to you the edited version of the last photo. Thoughts?
Skirt - Gap (Thrifted) // Shirt - Old Navy (Thrifted) // Cardigan - Mossimo (Thrifted) // Shoes - Faded Glory
Don't you just love my super creative title? Speaking of titles and names....I've been thinking of changing my blog name for awhile. I spent so long deciding on a name and when I thought of Finding Inspiration it just said me. It seemed perfect. I love inspiration and I love finding it in unexpected places. But....it's the name of so many other websites and blogs already it's just not unique. I didn't find that out until after I had been blogging for about a month though.
I have an idea for a name and I LOVE it. Heck, I even have a new header designed already. But my OCD self is screaming Noooooo! Then the website address won't match the blog name!!! (btw, it should be CDO...that way all the letters will be in order. And yes, I know you can change the address in blogger...but I wouldn't want to do that). But, I've seen bloggers where there names don't match their addresses either. So I'm torn. Just out of curiosity...would it bother you if I changed the name? It's not like a whim or anything... I started doodling designs and names in my idea book that I keep in my purse like...well long time ago. I mean, I haven't even been blogging that long. And no, I don't plan to be one of those people that changes names like 3 times a month. I just think that if I'm going to change my name, it should be sooner rather than later. It wouldn't be completely different from my name now...just enough to be unique. And actually, now that I think of it, it would be similar enough to my name now that it wouldn't bother me to have the same web address. Ideas or opinions? Please let me know I'd love to hear from you!
Thanks for reading my ramblings. Have a wonderful weekend!
Dress - Converse One Star // Shirt - Walmart // Shoes - Maurices
Had a wonderful day today. Some very old friends came over for dinner. Now, I don't mean old...as in age, haha. I mean that I've known them since I was 6 years old and I haven't seen them a lot since I was 12. They have 10 kids (which is only two more than my family!). So, when I was 6 I met their daughter who was the same age. We were best friends until she moved back to China with her family when we were 12. We kept in contact via email, letters, phone calls, and eventually Facebook. But, we were never as close as we were when she lived in America. I haven't had a close friend like that since, but some of my favorite childhood memories are of spending time with this friend.
Anyways, back to our two-family dinner. Only the youngest kids came tonight, so I didn't get to see my friend (she actually just got married and lives in Columbus now--that was the wedding I was in a couple weeks ago!). But, it was still wonderful to see this family that has always meant so much to me.
