as if Emma Watson wasn't cool enough already..

Speaking of which, please tell me you've seen this:



!!!!!!  Tonight I saw Eclipse a day early thanks to a firefighter charity event (my dad's a fire captain).  I enjoyed it, and even wore my I ♥ Edward shirt like I did to the last two movies (advance screening everytime--score!) to complete the situation, but to me, Harry Potter's where it's really at.  I seriously can NOT bloody wait until November!  asfKskfskd!sfsdkfjJKL!JLJ!KL!sdf!

j'adore les hamburgers

Recently my friend Erin pointed out that I seem to love all things that are miniature or abnormally large.  So when I saw mini hamburger buns at Trader Joe's, I had to get them to make burgers!  Despite my past of being a vegetarian, then a pescetarian, then a only-eat-meat-when-it's-served-for-dinner-at-home...ian, lately ALL I want to eat is burgers and hotdogs.  How funny is that?  There is something about a good burger, a Coke, and the summer sunshine that I haven't been able to resist these past couple of months.  So I sauteed some crimini mushrooms and cut up some tomatoes from my sister's friend's garden, and made a mini burger.  Add some pita chips and hummus and life is good.

flagstaff

Yesterday I took a trip up to Flagstaff with some family to see if I could picture myself living there for school (NAU). I hadn't been there since I was little, so it was great fun to explore and escape the 100 degree weather for a day!

We got lunch at Beaver Street Brewery, then headed downtown to look at the shops.  It certainly had all the Kaylieisms that I find necessary--like a record store, an awesome cooking store with good tea and chocolate, a vintage shop (hats!), a quaint bookstore, an old Orpheum theatre, and kitschy Route 66 memorabilia.  I fell in love with the soda shop on the corner of Birch Ave. that played old jazzy tunes and carried bottled soda and old-fashioned candies.  In fact, all the shops played good music.  I am a sucker for this kind of thing.  At another shop I even found the best painting ever of a dog in a suit.  It was pretty hard to walk away from, no joke. 

After driving around the campus, we found Aunt Maude's Antique Mall (see me above in my dream kitchen)and I found a few zippers for cheap.  Antique places are the best for sewing finds!  Across the street was the Salvation Army.  And guess what.  I FOUND BOOTS THAT FIT ME!  It was a miracle.  Now, I've had a thing for cowboys for a while and my love of the West keeps on growing, but now I feel it's a done deal.  I want to wear these things everywhere!  Except...it's 110 degrees and I can't walk in them yet.  OH WELL.  This Fall will be THE best with these boots.  Just sayin'.

Consensus:  Of the three college towns (Tempe/ASU, Tuscon/UofA, Flagstaff/NAU), Flag would most likely fit my personality best and actually allow me to experience the four seasons (here, fall doesn't come until winter, and summer comes in spring), but academically, ASU (Journalism) and UofA (Creative Writing) make more sense.  It's so confusing.  And money makes it worse.  I'll probably end up staying here and going to ASU to save money, so when I study abroad (I will regret it forever if I don't) it won't hit AS hard, but I'm trying to keep my options open. 

Gee whiz, it is SUPPOSED to be summer.  I wish I could erase 'college' and 'future' from my vocabulary, because it's all I seem to think or talk about.  If you have any words of wisdom, feel free to impose them on my poor soul.

i ♥ macarons

Today I got one batch closer to perfecting my macarons (see poorly photographed mint macarons above). Suffice to say, I have about 48324987 to go.  This was my third or fourth time I've attempted making them, and the second time I've used this book, along with a few tricks I've picked up while reading blogs. Making macarons is one of the more tedious things I've attempted in my 17 years.  I don't know if it's because I'm terribly slow or slightly incompetent, but these suckers take me at least three hours to make... I am so happy they turned out semi-okay.  They were good enough for my little sister and her friends at the very least.

mes reves...

In my dreams, I am in France. Or at least I would be if I had control over my humdrum dreams. Instead, I am humoring myself by watching French movies! Other than watching Amelie for the umpteenth time, I have watched Pierott le Fou and Coco Before Chanel.

Pierott le Fou was a very dramatic film, as well as very chic--there was a lot of "despair", "hope", violence, and deceit, as well as fabulous outfits.  I had never seen a movie with Anna Karina, although I had read allusions to her killer style. I need to watch more of her movies, as well as more of Jean-Luc Godard's, who directed.  Apparently they were married!  And one of his films was banned by the French government.  Also, he is considered one of the founders of the French New Wave.  Who knew?  I like trying to get the whole story of things.

Coco Before Chanel was wonderful.  For some reason, I got really choked up at the end.  I feel like I owe so much to a woman who just wanted to feel comfortable in the clothes she wore.  What a revolutionary!  I think of all the beautiful and magnificant pieces of clothing that are being constructed today, and they all have such humble and simple beginnings.  I have a secret:  I've tried to leave this dream in my more naive days, but I once felt that I was destined to become a fashion designer.  I don't know how it even came about, I just remember it being so obvious at the time.  Still a part of me finds an unusual amount of happiness confined in my room with a pair of scissors, a sewing machine, and a seam ripper--my favorite tools.  Now I don't have a single clue what I want to become.  Actually, I have a million clues, but they all lead to different directions!  Life is beautiful and frustrating and slightly terrifying--but always lovable.

By the way, Audrey Tautou is officially one of my favorite actresses. She is like a modern-day Audrey Hepburn!

wanderlust

Lately all I really want to do is pack some dresses and hats into my picnic basket suitcase and hit the road in my nonexistent old red car (yep, it's gotta be red, folks).

I want to go back to Oregon and explore its forests and mountains.  I want to go back to Alabama and eat copious amounts of hushpuppies and cheese grits.  I want to go back to Iowa and stay in the attic of my great grandma's old house and catch one of the two movies playing at the local theatre.  I want to go back to North Carolina to admire all the furniture and antiques.  I want to go back to Illinois and really get to know the Windy City.  And I basically need to go to New York and Boston to visit the family I have there, because I've never had the chance!

And those are just the places where I have family that I have visitied (or not, in the case of NY and Boston).  There are so many other places I want to go that I have no connections whatsoever to. But that doesn't matter; I'm ready to form my own connections and discover so much more about my country on my own...

and eat its awesome food,

and scour its varied plains and antique shops,

and meet its diverse people,

and hear its music.

There is so much out there to see, taste, smell, touch, and hear.  I can't wait to try to experience it all.

And I will.

But first, I need to graduate (crazy to fathom, that this milestone is so close that it's near the top of my life's to-do list).

And I will.

But first, I need to get some sleep (first on the to-do list).

new years resolutions: five months later

So, almost half of the year has gone by. How incredibly exciting and terrifying is that? Life has this cunning way of sneaking by time right under my nose. It's been wonderful, regardless. Life just gets better and better. I can only hope I am too!

So, for starters, I have been sewing up my own clothes in lieu of shopping, starting with this dress.  Here are some examples:

This dress was (believe it or not) my fifth grade Halloween costume at one time.  I altered it as a halter dress so it still fits me.  For the record, that year I was Nancy Drew.  Little did I know then that seven years later I would strive to be Nancy every day...

This is the dress I made over spring break with the fabric my dear friend Rachel gave to me for my birthday!  And yes, the hat is necessary (as hats usually are). 

I made this top with some old 70's material I found in a tub in a closet at my grandma's.  (My great-grandma went through a phase where she would just bring over boxes of old stuff--score, right?)

 My latest sewing project took place a few nights ago--I finally put my Portland fabric to use! 

Although I haven't used a pattern since sixth grade for my Harry Potter cloak (oh yes), the other week I was given this magic at my mom's relay for life team's garage sale:

Two HUGE tubes of vintage patterns.  So my Portland skirt is the product of (loosely) following the pattern on the very far right.  I don't take direction well when it comes to sewing, but I now have two tubs of endless inspiration!  Life is sweet.

But I have a confession.  You know that garage sale I mentioned?  Just so happens that the parents of one of the team members (coincidentally my awesome 6th grade math teacher), were getting rid of everything in their house (where the sale was at) before moving in an old folks home.  Just so happens this woman's mother kept ALL of her and her children's clothes from EVER. 

And just so happens I ended up going home with a few bag fulls of vintage clothes for under $20.  But can you blame me?  At the time I thought I was in a dream.  A miraculous, wonderful, lovely dream. It was pure joy, being surrounded by so much old stuff on a beautiful Saturday morning. 

So I broke my first resolution slightly.  Although I have to say--hey, the money went to charity.  And isn't that my second resolution?  To be more charitable?  So there you go.

More acts of charity have been...acted.  I can't bring myself to list charitable instances though.  Seems silly.

Perhaps most importantly, my third resolution was to live more in the present.  This is sometimes a struggle for someone like me, who finds so much pleasure in the past and easily dwells on sweet memories.  The only thing that cures this is being around people, creating new memories.  John Steinbeck says it best:  "Having a companion fixes you in time and that is the present, but when the quality of aloneless settles down, past, present, and future all flow together.  A memory, a present event, and a forecast all equally present."  Although I do value my alone time, sewing and reading, I count on the company of others to root me in the present. 

So there you go.  That's that.

P.S.  I think I can officially declare myself out of the blogging blues.  Longest blogpost of my life.

Mr. Schuster....

I'm going to miss seeing you every Tuesday night at 8.  I think I might have to buy some Glee songs on iTunes to hold me over until next season...  As my mom would say, we're Gleeks around here.

Good news:

I got to see my pals tonight (Glee finale + mint brownies = a good time)

I aquired a hand-me-down laptop from my uncle (Hooray!)

I'm working again for the summer (I nanny two hilarious girls)

Bad news:

I've kind of been in a blogging funk lately.  Also, I've been really busy (SAT, anyone?  Online class?  Work?  ACT?), so when I do have free time, I'm basically trying to take advantage of it to catch up on my reading, sewing (I finally sewed a skirt with the fabric I got in Portland!), or baking. Or I am calling Rachel up so we can watch Arrested Development...  Okay.  So I guess it's not all that bad.  At all.  But hopefully this new laptop will help me get back into the blogging routine, because I do miss it!

Next post:

I will prove that I have been following my new year resolutions (or not)

North Carolina est tres verte

The day after school got out, my family and I went to North Carolina for a wedding.  This was the second time I've been to North Carolina and the second wedding I've been to in North Carolina!  It is a beautiful place to visit (furthermore have a wedding), because it is green all over.  This is always lovely, especially as a Arizonian.  The wedding turned out beautifully.  I would love to go back one day to visit all the fabulous antique shops!