A Better Me

I found out about the 8 Weeks to a Better Me project through Cara-Mia, but given my poor track record with blog challenges, I mentally wrestled with it a bit. Blame laziness, flightiness, life getting in the way–whatever it is, I should probably not commit to anything blog-related that lasts more than a few days. That being said, I like the Week One challenge of coming up with three blogging goals. I can do that. I can do that right now, in fact. (No one said I actually have to accomplish them right? …Kidding.)

Sell Out

I am a lazy blogger.

In fact, I am quite sure that I will never consider myself a “blogger” because what I do is something far more haphazard than what bloggers do.

So I tried to change my crappy free WordPress theme to another, hopefully slightly less crappy, free WordPress theme, but after doing this, I realized the column where I post photos is narrower than the size of pictures I’ve been posting. Meaning all my previous photos, at least the horizontal ones, are now partially cut off. I’m trying to decide what, if any steps, I should take to remedy this. Because I’m feeling really, really lazy.* [Or does this shit even matter anymore since people started reading blogs through things like...Google Reader? Or Bloglovin'? I honestly still do not get how that stuff works, but realizing I had 105 subscribers in Google was a WTF moment for me as I estimated about 0.]

I haven’t been too lazy to waste time in other ways lately though. (Wait, does that sentence even make sense?)

I have, for example, started watching Six Feet Under, mostly just to fawn over Michael C. Hall. And last night I had a spur of the moment CVS trip that reminded me of my days in high school and early college when, about every two months or so, I’d splurge on a ton of new drugstore cosmetics. Last night I came away with new makeup and two boxes of L’Oreal Paris Sublime Mousse Hair Color (inadvertently in two different colors). I know. I had done the all-natural henna two months ago and was raving about it. Then my roots started to grow out. And the thought of working with that mud, leaving it on my hair for hours, and–here’s the kicker–smelling like hay for the next three weeks just sort of gave way to the comforting boxes of dye on display at CVS. Hair dye in a mousse, no less. Easier to apply than ever. Voila: a combination of medium and dark brown.**

I still have some henna and will probably use it up eventually, but for this weekend, I felt like a quick and easy change. This might be a bad thing, because I thought my days of impulsive hair change were over. And they probably should be.

As my mass following on Twitter knows (ha) other time-wasters this weekend have included perusing an excellent issue of Real Simple and watching makeup tutorials by Lisa Eldridge. I highly recommend both. Tomorrow I might venture down the street to the Spring Arts Festival, so who knows, maybe my camera will get some action again. I should shoot film like I’ve been wanting to for a while.

I suppose I will stop myself before I start talking about things like school and work and impending joblessness and homelessness…you know, the fun stuff.

*Okay, I confess that I would like to have a nice-looking blog one day.

**I actually thought my hair looked pretty glorious when I woke up this morning, but this picture was taken after my first attempt at The Bollywood Dance Workout with Hemalayaa which not only got me sweaty, but involved the excessive whipping of my hair back and forth. Perhaps attractive in the moment, less so afterword.

Ebb and Flow

If it isn’t obvious, I haven’t been much in the mood for blogging here lately. I’m so incredibly busy with my final semester of graduate school (which includes doing my MA project, balancing two jobs, and serving on a conference committee on top of classes) that I don’t have the time or inspiration. I’d say I’m in a funk. I know this kind of thing has an ebb and flow and I’m sure this won’t be the case for long, but goodness, as of now, I’m trying desperately to climb out of the hole I’m in–just so many humongous tasks to accomplish, so many I’ve fallen behind in, so many more to come in the next few months. My stress has turned into a lot of fear and the fear has turned into avoidance, and now I’m finally trying to conquer some of the stuff I’ve been avoiding.

One thing I have realized is that while I really can’t do anything to make my life less stressful right now beyond conquering my to-do list–there’s just no getting out of all my current obligations–in the future, I will never again spread myself so thin. I have no idea what’s going to happen when I graduate. Will I find a job? If so, will it be a career-oriented one, or something less serious? Will I move back in with my parents? Will I be able to do any traveling? Only time will tell. But whatever the case, I am going to focus more on making myself happy and healthy. (Really I’ve already started, but it’s not fun yet–it’s work. For one thing, I’m finally attempting to overcome my driving phobia and learn how to drive.)

Here are some pictures that cheer me up, all from the fabulous blog An Indian Summer. They’re just all so beautiful. I’ll be keeping these in mind wherever I move next. I love the idea of combining bold colors and patterns with minimal “stuff.”

Thanks!

I love, love, love this video. Sigh, it’s scenes like this–and practically every old movie I watch on TCM–that makes me want to cut my hair, but I know that when I cut my hair I won’t style it most of the time and even when I do I won’t look like they did.

However, the first two purchases (clothing-wise) that I’ve made this year would fit into Gwen Stefani’s Cool world, so that makes me happy.

You know what else inspires me? Blogs. Bloggers. Do you guys talk about blogs to people “in real life”? Cause I do…a lot. Blogs have replaced a lot of other forms of media for me, mainly magazines, I guess. So many of them, you, inspire me, so thank you! (I’ve also come to the conclusion that there are just a few blogs who construct such perfect lifestyles that I usually come away feeling jealous, and although I don’t like that about myself, I’ve slowly stopped reading them.)

Lately I've been ordering more and more products online as I get pickier about my purchases–like, say, wanting stainless steel cookie sheets and I can't find them anywhere in town, dammit. And not only is the internet shopping world, obviously, vast and amazing, but reading online reviews and seeing pictures from online reviewers has been soo helpful. So thanks again, online folks. For all your help. It means a lot.

More Inspiration

So I’ve still been writing a lot in my separate “writing blog,” where I’ve taken to sort of journaling regularly. Journaling, meaning writing about my feelings, whining about stress, talking about my successes and failures at keeping New Year’s resolutions, detailing the mundane facts of the day, like what I ate for breakfast. I just don’t feel like doing a lot of that here, in this space.

(Hey, but you do want to see this biscotti I made though, right?)

I had the link in a recent post but I took it down, though I’m happy to provide it to anyone who wants to read. I’m still deciding how much I want to say there, how much control I want over who reads it, that kind of thing. I mean, it’s boring. That’s really what it comes down to. Personal but boring.

In the meantime, and I hope it’s okay to post these, here are some photos from an Etsy shop I really like, Reduce Reuse Rewear by Coldfish. While I am constantly falling in love with single item like vintage dresses on Etsy, this vintage shop (as I think I’ve mentioned before) stands out to me because of its styling and I always come away a) loving the entire look, and b) feeling motivated to get more creative with my own wardrobe. Somehow it all seems very wearable; fun but without being limited to a certain style or era or being costumey.

I will say that I’m not buying anymore clothes until I focus on building my shoe collection a bit. I have a lot of items, both dressy and casual, that could benefit from a more complementary shoe, so that’s my fashion challenge these days. (Edited to add: Lies. All lies. I just bought an Anthropologie dress but it was both on sale and I had a gift card going toward the cost, so I felt at least somewhat justified.)

Anyway, here’s a selection from the shop: