The Birthday Month

Dress - Forever21 // Cardigan - H & M // Belt - Wet Seal // Shoes - Madden Girl // Socks - Marc's // Shirt - Thrifted

Why does everyone in my family have their birthday in late May or early June? Don't get me wrong, I love birthdays. Especially family birthdays. Especially when those birthdays are really close together and sometimes are even consecutive! Ok, that last part was definitely sarcasm. But come on, there are a lot of people in my family! Well, happy birthday to ... well almost everyone in my family.

hopefully the last summer pictures + guilty pleasures?

Dress - Nine and Co. // Belt - Vintage // Scarf - Thrifted

So I went through my saved posts from earlier this year and I'm pretty sure these are the absolute last pictures I have from the summer...and the last non DSLR photos! Now that I'm almost done with my digital imaging class, I see that these need a lot of editing and color correcting. But yeah, I'm just not gonna bother  :p PS: beehives are super easy to do + awesome for hot weather!

So anyways, guilty pleasures Um, yeah...so I just watched High School Musical. And I wish I could say this is the first and only time I've watched it. But it's not. It's not that I like the movie at all (so technically it's not even a guilty pleasure), I was just really in the mood to watch something cheesy and stupid (please tell me I'm not the only one who does this). Plus, Netflix, unfortunately, has an abundance of new Disney stuff available.

It was great though 'cause I spent the entire time just rolling my eyes at the random singing and then just yelling at the screen the rest of the time. Why yes, I am crazy. No seriously, when I'm the only one watching a movie, I like to yell at characters when they do stupid things. I've thought about filming myself watching movies Mystery Science Theater 3000 style just so ya'll could see how really crazy I am. I also say quite poignant and amusing things when I'm not yelling at people that don't actually exist.

And speaking of stupid things, can I just rant about the movie for a minute...or twelve? Keep in mind, these are only a few of the things that bothered me as I have basically zero memory retention, a short attention span...and because it's this movie and I just didn't care enough to bother remembering anything else. So first, why would Gabriella care about making sure people did not know how ridiculously smart she was? Girl, you're smart! Don't hide that under a bushel basket.... Also, Why would Troy's and Gabriella's groupies care if they were in a musical? It's really not that lame or even a big deal. Their plan for making Troy and Gabriella quit the musical is ridiculous. People can actually handle more than one activity at once...unless *gasp* they're scheduled at the same time. But more on that later.

Why was there a kids' New Years Party? I can't see any way that could possibly go wrong. Why would Gabriella's mom make her go to the party? The entire movie wouldn't have happened if Gabriella had just stayed back and read like she wanted. So Troy and Gabriella both know this random song and can sing? How convenient! They also are very well groomed for highschoolers. (Where's their acne??)

Why didn't more people audition for the musical? Why was Sharpay so worried about competition? Is she really that insecure? When you think about it (please don't...) Troy's good at basketball, Gabriella's smart, and theater is Sharpay's thing (who names their kid Sharpay? isn't that a dog? Oh wait, that's Shar-Pei...). So, I guess I can see her not wanting them to take over her activity. Oh, and Kelsi, speak up for yourself!!

Why didn't Troy and Gabriella just speak to the crazy theater lady and tell her that the callback times didn't work? Because, obviously, sabotaging both the basketball game and the scholastic decathlon was so much easier. But it's ok because everything worked out and no one suspected a thing. No wonder Troy's and Gabriella's posse didn't want them in the theater.

The wrap-up at the end...I just don't even know what to say. Just suddenly everyone gets along? Then they start having overly long + weird conversations just to tie up loose ends. And then everyone starts singing and dancing again. Oh, and for some reason almost everyone had time to change into relatively nice clothes? (Gabriella's dress here is pretty awesome though).

Most annoying thing about the movie? The karaoke lyrics at the New Year's Party were written out in Hobo. Really. As my type teacher says, "never use a typeface where the 'o' looks like a urinal." Truer words were never spoken...

But the real lesson here is :  Have a problem? Sing about it! And then sing some more. Actually, the lesson is :  Have a problem? Don't talk it out like normal people. (singing's ok though) Come up with some round-about crazy scheme that may or may not work and may or may not be legal. Ok. Rant over. I promise to never bring this up again. (But now I want to watch the sequels so I can rant about those too...)

Well, that was way more than I wanted to write. I'm probably going to regret posting this at some point...but ya know. Some things just need to be ranted about.

Tall Ships

Skirt - Agenda // Shirt - KDS Spring (Thrifted) // Belt - Vintage // Shoes - Hot Cakes

And yet another boat related activity! When I heard about the Cleveland Tall Ships Festival I knew I had to go! I've always been fascinated with ships and sailing, and seeing these ships in person and actually getting to tour them....amazing. I've never had so much fun!

We almost went to the Titanic exhibit in the Science Center instead, but I suggested (vehemently suggested, I might add) that since the Titanic exhibit is here until January and the Tall Ships Festival is only this weekend (well, ya know, the weekend I wrote this)...we should see the Tall Ships today. Not that I don't want to see the Titanic exhibit--I'm definitely going to see that. But, I'm so glad that I got the opportunity to go see the Tall Ships!

There were several ships there, but we only toured the STV Unicorn (Yes...Unicorn. Who was in charge of naming that ship, I don't know...) and the Sorlandet. There were also a ton of people walking around in pirate costumes--I wish I could have gone in pirate gear! That would have been fun.

Anyways, the Unicorn is crewed only by women and offers programs for teens and women who want to learn to sail and gain leadership skills. It was a smaller ship, but it was still fun to tour. It was also constructed from the remains of old German U-Boats that were abandoned after the war.

Lastly we toured the Sorlandet. The Sorlandet is the oldest fully functional tall ship in the world! It was also very beautiful. It was a pretty large ship as well--over 200 ft long. I wish we could have stayed on the ship longer though. It's actually a school as well and offers high school and freshman college classes. I really wish I'd known about that before...sounds awesome! And I would have loved to do that :)

Oh, and we also got to tour a custom bus, The Peacemaker, custom made from parts of a '49 and '55 bus. It was beautiful inside, as you can see from the pictures. It sleeps up to 24 people and even has a kitchen on the inside!

Anyways, hope you enjoyed the pictures! Have you ever toured or wanted to tour a ship?

Boating!

Dress (worn as a skirt) - Monteau // Shirt - KDS Spring (Thrifted) // Belt - Vintage // Shoes - Hot Cakes

So last Friday we wanted to do something just for fun. We started out with a bunch of random ideas and ended up driving to Pymatuning Lake to feed the fish and then rent a pontoon boat. Honestly, I thought feeding the fish was going to be boring, but it actually was very entertaining. The fish are so gross looking 'cause they're so big and there are just so many of them! When you throw a piece of bread in the water the fish would all swim for it at the same time and there would just be this huge mass of fish! The birds could even walk on the fishes' backs!

After that we drove a little further into PA and rented a pontoon boat. So fun! I thought it was fun just riding in it, but then I asked for a turn driving. I've only been in a boat a few times ...and obviously I've never driven one before. It was easier than I expected and I really enjoyed it! So I ended up driving most of the time we were out on the lake. If you're looking for something fun and relatively inexpensive, renting a pontoon boat is a great way to spend the afternoon!

Auction Finds

I'm out of town this weekend for my best friend's wedding. So...here's a post with some pictures of the items I got last weekend at the antique stores, auction, flea markets, and other places. In the pictures you'll see some comic books, ads, a Nassau child's iron, a Earhart Wallstreeter suitcase, a Oster Snoflake ice shaver, and some Whitman flashcards. I hope you enjoy these pictures! Have a great weekend!