Style Evolution.

So it only seems fitting that after I write a post about how I'm lacking inspiration, I would find it at every corner I turn to. Ironic, huh? Not that I'm complaining - the flood of inspiration is just a beautiful thing, and it's making me so happy right now as I post this. Maybe my inflated mood and overwhelming amount of inspiration has to do with the fact that there has been no rain for the past two days - the sun has been shining and it was in the 80's today! Or maybe all of your wonderful comments and assurances that everyone goes through inspiration dry spells helped me realize that I'm not alone. Whatever it is, I'm so grateful for it.

I stumbled across Teen Vogue the other day, and saw that Emma Watson is making an appearance in the magazine.
I love Harry Potter - the books are just amazing, and I enjoy the movies quite a bit too. Though honestly, watching the first film in the series, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, I do not think I could have predicted that years later I would be calling Emma Watson a style icon.

Ms. Watson has grown up and evolved style wise in just an amazing way. She has gone from a childish style (which I know, she's young, and I do not blame her at all) to being friends with Karl Lagerfeld (jealousy on my end) and the new face of Burberry. The evolution from style challenged tween to classy and sophisticated woman just blows my mind.

Her recent Teen Vogue shoot is just beautiful. She looks every bit the stunning young woman she has become, and the clothes just fit her beautifully. I am so inspired by the beautiful, bold colors of both the clothes and the setting of the photos, and by Emma's ease in posing for the pictures.

The three main characters of Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Watson) seem to have gone through quitee the evolution over the years.

Then:


Now:


These are some of the gorgeous photos of Emma from the Teen Vogue shoot:













Why am I so in love with this skirt?! Actually, the whole outfit, thank you very much.



Thoughts?

All images from Teen Vogue (TeenVogue.com)

P.S. I have an idea of something additional I can do for J for the month + he'll be away, but I'm not sure if it's really ridiculous, or cute. He and I will probably only see each other once a week, if that, because he'll be over 3 hours away, which is a lottt of driving, and we both have kind of opposite schedules since I have nights free, and he is working nights = /
So I was thinking that I could buy a journal, and we could write each other letters while we're apart...like I would start it off and give it to him, and then he would write back to me and hand it to me when I came to visit....we could write about anything - how we feel about each other, what we did on a particular day, anything that is on our minds. It wouldn't have to be anything ridiculously time consuming, just something to kind of make us closer while we're away.
Honestly, is that really lame? If your boyfriend or girlfriend presented you with something like that would your thought be "Oh my gosh, this is so lame" or "Wow, how sweet!"


Currently listening to: Michael Jackson - Beat It. (RIP Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, and Ed McMahon. So much sadness in such a short time - my thoughts and prayers are with your families!).

Inspiration from American Waters.

I feel like the constant pattering of rain against my window for pretty much the entire month of June has just wiped out any creative flow or inspiration I may have in my soul. I've been blogging less and less, as the inspiration has really just left my system. I've been having a terrible time coming up with things to blog about (which is mostly just me, but I'm totally scapegoating it all onto the unfortunate weather).

When I'm really dragging, and lacking inspiration, I usually turn to art to kind of 'find my way.' Today, I thumbed through one of my inspiration folders, and came across a whole photography collection, which as many of you know is a huge passion of mine. It is seriously impossible for me to go through the works of my favorite photographers and not be inspired, or feel a tingling joy throughout my system.

Though I primarily enjoy fashion photography, or portraits of individuals, being a lover of nature, I also enjoy certain photographers of nature - ones who take it and do something unique with it - I mean hello, we all know that nature is beautiful, now show me a little something different!

Enter in British photographer Alex Kirkbride. Kirkbride set out across America to take pictures of American waters - oh yeah, but instead of just taking landscapes of rivers and lakes, he took all his photographs underwater. He researched different interesting things (like a sunken dental chair) found in different areas in America, set out with his crew, and photographed everything, compiling the book American Waters, which I proudly own a copy of (thanks mom and dad!).

For example, this photograph is from Utah, where a couple created an "orphanage" for unwanted aquarium fish in a natural hot spring. It is the eye of a nurse shark:


Housatonic State Park, Connecticut:


This is a photograph of the legs of a terrier in a pool in Florida. Seriously, who thinks to take a picture like this?!


According to the book, an anonymous person created this statue at the bottom of Lake Sunset in Indiana in 2001. The legend has it that the statue of the angel channels the spirits of two children who drowned there in the early 1900's. Kinda creepy!


A breaking wave in Maui:


This is another picture that kind of creeps me out a little.
Again, according to the book, "this chair [in Indiana] was once used to fix the teeth of prisoners in the local county jail. When the prison dentistry was moved, the chair fell into the possession of the sheriff, who used it for fishing. Vandals pushed it into the water, and divers later made the formal arrangement."


This is one of my absolute favorite photographs in the collection. It is of a cranberry bog in Massachusetts, and apparently the bog was so thick with cranberries that Kirkbride says the dive down felt like a night dive. I think it's so beautiful, the way that the sun pokes through the gaps in between the massive number of cranberries.


Cottonwood tree in New Mexico (which looks a lottt like a watercolor, right?):


Yet another haunting photograph, taken in Glacier National Park in Montana:


Dolphins in Hawaii:


Thoughts?

I also want to thank you all for your great suggestions on things that J and I can do together - I took him on a surprise picnic (on one of the only nice days we had last week,) spent under $20, and we just had an amazing day. I'll have to post up pictures soon.
I am getting a little bummed that he's leaving for his job in like, a week, so I'm trying to think of cute things to do for him while he's gone (besides the fantastic ideas that I got from some of you!).

Anyway, I hope you're all having a wonderful Father's Day, and enjoying the first non rainy day in a while.

Currently listening to: Rachael Yamagata - 1963

Photos from AlexKirkbride.com, Google image search

Lazy, Lazy Day.

So, I finallyyy have a free day - the first one since I've been home from school, and while I do miss hanging out with J, I must admit that having the morning free to lounge around, get some yoga and a run in, and now just hang out and lounge by the pool feels prettyyy good. Also, yay, the forecast for today was absolutely terrible, but it's absolutely gorgeous out right now, which is fantastic.

Last night J and I headed to where we had our first date (my favorite restaurant), P.F. Chang's. Seriously, if you haven't been there and you love Asian food, I highly recommend it. Since neither of us have had much money lately to really do anything big, it was really nice to just kind of get out and go out for a nice dinner. It was actually my second dinner of the night, as I had my grandfather's birthday dinner out with my family beforehand (where I only ate a salad to save room for yummy lettuce wraps and seafood!).

And, it gave me a chance to wear the fabulous new pair of Current/Elliot jeans that I won from the fabulous Bella of Vintage Lollipops. If you all haven't checked out her blog, I swear you will fall in love with her fantastic sense of style and her charming words. She definitely has one of my favorite blogs around :) And, if you don't own a pair of Current/Elliot jeans, I would definitelyyy advise you getting a pair! I also own the boyfriend jean in addition to my new skinny jeans, courtesy of Chickdowntown.com and they are wonderful.

Pat and I before our grandpa's bday dinner:

Jeans: Current/Elliot. Top: Anthropologie. Sweater: Fossil. Jewelry: Tiffany & Co. Shoes: Target.

J and I at PF Chang's:



Anyway, J and I have been spending every second with each other lately - Monday and Tuesday we kind of lazed around, watching movies and sitting in my backyard (before the rain caused us to come inside). Wednesday night I cooked him dinner for the first time (which was actually a huge success, and he lovedd it).

I also got to meet one side of his family at a wedding for his cousin on Saturday. We had been looking forward to the wedding since a week after we first started dating, and he invited me to come. Of course, finding the perfect dress was unbelievably difficult, and finding a suit for J proved to be quite the production as well, since we are both tres, tres picky and know what we're looking for and won't settle. We ran around the mall for days straight, picking through the casual summer dresses on display, and the ties that just weren't skinny enough, or were too patterned for J's liking.

During one extra long mall trip (seriously, 4+ hours, where we walked into every single store in search of perfection in the form of a dress and skinny black tie), we were pretty worn out and discouraged, when we happened to walk by H&M. I'm an H&M fan, but was skeptical that I would find anything - when I came across this gorgeous, gorgeous yellow dress. There was only one size 2 left, which I took as a sign and immediately snatched it off the rack to try it on. Let me tell you, that it fit me absolutely perfectlyyy. So I immediately snatched it up (because for $34.50, really!? How could I not?) and voila, no more panicking that I would make a fool out of myself and look ridiculous in front of J's family.

He ended up finding a suit and tie the DAY OF the wedding, which looked wonderful on him, so it was very worth the wait :) I was afraid it would be awkward for me, since sometimes that doessss seem to happen when you meet someone's family, but J completely made me feel included in all conversations at all times, which was amazing.

I hadn't eaten ALL DAY because I knew the food would just fabulous and didn't want to overeat beforehand, which J, his brother and his brother's girlfriend also apparently thought of, because none of them ate either. When the ceremony was over and we got to the cocktail hour, all four of us absolutely indulged on everything - crabcakes, champagne, coconut shrimp, an entire spread of cheeses and breads, chicken - seriously, I can't even remember everything else that I ate. This was not the wisest decision, because as soon as we were allowed into the ballroom and the bridal party and bride and groom made their entrances, we were served an appetizer of fried ravioli. I ate one, J ate one and a half, his brother had half and his brother's girlfriend had one. We were all absolutely stuffed. Bad decision, especially because the food was just so delicious.

We danced the night away - there was a fantastic DJ who played such a wide variety of styles and generations of songs. I am no dancer (and thankfully, neither is J), but we had the time of our lives making complete idiots out of ourselves on the dance floor.

It really was a perfect night, especially when J presented me with a bouquet of calla lillies (my favorite), which are sitting in my view as I type this.



Well, at least he looks good in this one:



Dress: H&M. Jewelry: Mikimoto pearl necklace and earrings.

Anyway, that's my little update :) I hope all is well with you all! As for me, I'm off to lounge my by pool with a glass of red wine in hand and catch up on some reading.

P.S. Does anyone have an ideas of free or veryyy cheap things that J and I can do?

P.S.S. J leaves for his summer job in July - any cute ideas of anything I can make/do for him while he's away? I want to be pretty creative with it, and I do have some time :) Let me know!


Currently playing: Lil Wayne ft. Kevin Rudolf - In Ya Face

xo, love you all.

P.S. Thank you to the wonderful Fhen and Michele3 for the "lovely blog award!" I would like to pass it on to ALL of my readers - you're all seriously so, so lovely. J'adore.

Style Icon: Kerry Washington.

Sorry againnn for the lack of updating. Ugh, where does the time go? It's already June, and I still have yet to work, and my funds are running considerably low. Being a 21st century kind of gal, I refuse to let J pay for all our dates, and while this does make me feel considerably independent, it is also burning a hole in my bank account (I had to have my mother transfer funds the other day because I dropped under $100 in my bank account - I have NEVER done that before!). Don't get me wrong - it is very nice when J pays for an expensive dinner, but I don't know, I just feel bad having him do it allll the time.

Anywayyy, I try to spend some time before bed going through my stacks of magazines, that I haven't found the time to enjoy out in the sun lately because of the terrible weather the past few days that just seems endless. My magazine collection up in my room was absolutely piling up - to the extent that not even the three designated baskets I have in my room for magazines were overflowing onto the floor - something my mother was not too pleased about. I don't know why I was even hoarding them, but anyway, as I flipped through them before sticking them in the recycling bin in the kitchen, I came across quite a few pictures of Kerry Washington, and was seriously blown away by how gorgeous she is, and how impeccably dressed she always seems to be.

Honestly, I couldn't even recognize her from her character in Save the Last Dance. I think she is such a beautiful, intelligent, and tres, tres fashionable woman (and when I discovered she was a fellow Obama supporter, hello, love her even more now!). She was in Ray, where she portrayed the wife of Ray Charles, and did a beautiful job in it (and was nominated for a SAG award for her portrayal).

Her style appears to be pretty classic, but with fun twists. I honestly can't imagine her being on any worst dressed lists, everrrr.













I know this is a little different, but I still actually like it on her a lot. Could I pull it off though? Never.



















What do you think?

I'll catch up on all your blogs hopefully by Sunday - I'm going to a wedding with J tomorrow (I promise lots of pictures - I got the most adorable dress!). Enjoy your weekends, I adore and miss you all :)


All images found on a Google image search.


Currently listening to/watching: Gossip Girl - I DVRed the finale, and finallyyyy caught up on all the episodes. Seriously, I already can't WAIT for next season, and lovedddd the finale. I know I'm very far behind, but what did all your other Gossip Girl fans think?