who am i kidding? goodblye, blogspot...

Hey there.

So i feel horrible that i never make posts.

and really, nobody reads them.

so there's really no point in having this anymore.

i'm closing up shop. devoting my time to better things.

requiescat in pace,

Aimee

tuesday's trinkets & treasures: : The Fleet Foxes

Hello again ^_^

So as an added part of the series, I thought I would go with Tuesday. :) It's a pretty chill day for light blogging, as I have so much homework and so many classes to take care of. Tuesday's topics will cover little things that i have fallen in love with, from songs to items of clothing to jewelry to movies to secret places in the park... the list could go on, but I will stop it for now...

My first treasure is of course one of my favorite bands: The Fleet Foxes.

They are coming out with a new album soon, but as you may know, their prior album (self-titled) was a brilliant masterpiece in indie/folk music bliss!!!

The album is an album's album. It's not a bunch of randomly completed songs thrown onto a disc that happened to be released simultaneously: it is a work of art composed from start to finish with the "story" in mind. Perhaps not in the same realm as say, The Wall (a la Pink Floyd), but it still is a comprehensive work, not meant to be taken individually (though the songs are very much still enjoyable in that sense too :)

Sun it rises: from the first moments of this album, the tone is set; it is going to be a folksy, down-to-earth and earthy set of tunes. "Red squirrel in the morning..." The simple banjo & acoustic guitar riffs are reminiscent of family time sitting around a fire while out camping, and the vocals that begin soon enough after are so ethereal that you wonder if you are in heaven -- the down-to-earth quality is silmutaneously held and lost. The electric guitar added in later makes it apparent that the music is modern, without killing the vibe or jarring the simple tune. A great way to start the piece.

White winter hymnal: if you are familiar with this song, you have probably seen the video, which i don't think does this song justice! Starting with the simple tune carried by one voice, soon it turns into the harmonious bliss of three voices. The tambourine segues into the simple tune that is reminiscent of our best winter days, "I was following the pack all swallowed in their coats with scarves of red tied round their throats to keep their little heads from falling in the snow. And I turned round and there you go. And Michael, you would fall and turn the white snow red as strawberries in summertime." It's a simple tune, yet the timpani makes it an adventure waiting to be had - it evokes the images of white snow-covered hills just waiting to be trampled through. The complex harmonies and a cappella voices make it a work truly interesting to the ear without being convoluted, and its simplicity is to be lauded.

Ragged Wood: I really am never going to get away from their harmonies. They ALWAYS blow me away. This song sounds most like a classic folk song to me. The bass riff is simple yet holds a good beat, the percussion is simple and the snare doesn't overpower anything else, and the guitar complements the bass and vocals perfectly. The folksy nature of this song always makes me think of cool fall breezes on the ocean. And deciduous trees. The guitar riff that precedes the bridge the song is so playful, it makes me just want to dance through fall leaves up at my favorite retreat house in Ligonier. When it changes to 6/8 time, it brilliantly waltzes in and out of my consciousness, making it a background thought, which more helps me appreciate the next song...

Tiger mountain peasant song: This song starts in a 6/8 lilt which speaks to the end of Ragged Wood, but seems almost like a happy requiem with the lyrics to "how can the body die?" It's a simple acoustic guitar that accompanies this tune from beginning to end. There are no layers to hide the emotion held in the vocals - they half saunter in a happy tune, half gimp at the sadness in the lyrics.

Quiet Houses: This song, in contrast with the blanched simplicity of the music in the prior song, bears an upbeat melody, and the harmonies presented never cease to fail my whimsical heart. "Lay me down; Don't give in; come to me; lay me down." This song is not about the lyrics but about what the notes can speak to your heart. It speaks as a love song, but not in the typical oozy sense -- it speaks as friends and lovers, like in a park where lines blur between the two, and the grass is a brownish green and the sky a faded blue; like the slightly muted color film from 1-9-7-0, with rounded corners on the bent old photo, and two friends sitting on a blanket at the end of the day, finding they love more than they can say.

He doesn't know why: The strident voices and piano chords open this song, written to what seems a dear old friend or brother. The piano chords are simple throughout the song, the drumbeats adding a sense of drama and regiment. This song is a story, from beginning to end, a letter to a loved one trying to recommend a return to the "original mind." At a major statement, "There's nothing I can do. There's nothing I can say," the music stops all but strict beats from the drums. Not until repeating this statement multiple times do the backup harmony vocals return to have a voice like angels, as if it's truly the end... ... ... but wait! It's not! After a few seconds of silence, a piano starts back up, playing pentatonic chords in a fashion that speaks like the brother's reconciliation, ending on a pleasing and resolved chord.

Heard them stirring: As always, the dear Fleet Foxes begin with a little vocal harmony, then turning to acoustic guitar and electric keys to set the rhythm with a tom drum faithfully hitting every half note beat. No real lyrics ever take place in this song: it is a focus on the musicality of the voices in junction with the instrumentation. A stringed instrument (i believe a mandolin) sounds off at about 1 minute, and adds the flair of an Oriental theme that was not present prior in the album. Finally, it climaxes as a gong is heard, the electric guitar makes its voice heard, and it gently fades out into...

Your protector: this song was the first I heard on this album, and is correspondingly, my favorite. Beginning with a duet of flutes whispering a melancholy melody, this song is practically a picture of the medieval romance. The vocals are added on top, eerie and lamenting, whilst also longingly imploring. The tambourine adds a beat more typical to dance, and the song gently turns to hopeful. The full instrumentation changes the melodic line to cut time, and becomes a full-on jig, proclaiming "as you lay to die beside me, baby on the morning that you came, would you wait for me? the other one would wait for me" It has both a distressed lyric and a hopeful tune that tells me it is of war and truly of death. The song then drastically changes: though still in the cut time that sounds like a jig, it has become dreadfully frightening. They sing in a frightening harmony, "you run with the devil," as if to say that there is no possibly hope of life in a war-torn soldier's heart: he wishes to love and misses his lover, but is torn by the cause of war and fealty to country. The guitar and banjo reek of a western folk song, but it soon changes to a drum and tambourine duet with the vocals blaring that his lover should, "tell your brother to be good; tell your sister not to go; tell your mother not to wait; tell your father i was good." the guitar only making choice statements, until the whole band again returns to proclaim the same chorus as before - the hopeful melody that hopes, indeed, that this poor soldier will get to see his beauty again, "as you lay to die beside me, baby on the morning that you came, would you wait for me? the other one would wait for me..."

Meadowlark: A simple acoustic guitar plays simple arpeggios throughout this song - the vocals a soliloquy over the top of the humble accompaniment. The lyrics, dedicated to a loved one, the "meadowlark" and "hummingbird," evoke images of beautiful songbirds and birds of beauty. He asks this meadowlark to "sing to me," and after, the group adds an accordion to the mix along with a full harmony arrangement to mimic the song of the birds. I envision a farm on a hill, covered in a golden brown thistle, with trees turned all red and golden and brown, birds hopping to and fro...

Blue ridge mountains: some simple guitar chords open the song, with the full harmony capabilities soaring, it would seem, up to the clouds, "lie down with me my dear; under stormy night; tell nobody." This part is as if it is spoken from the perspective of the lover (the"brother" spoken of later ) -- a love found and hidden. As if to jar out a waking dream, a hammered dulcimer springs out a glorious melody, still evoking the folk theme, yet changing the perspective from lover to the brother who is wondering "my brother, where do you intend to go tonight?" the guitar speeds up, opening to a different monologue. The brother is entreating his sibling to spend time with him so that "no one gets worried," and tells him "not to be careless, i'm sure it'll be fine," and finishes by telling him that "i love you, oh brother of mine." The dulcimer evokes autumn better than any other intstrument I know, and this song tells the story of change from fall to winter, as a love story, as it tells the story of a first snow. The deliberate drum beats at the prelude to the climax make the best segue into the vocal harmonies on top of the dulcimer on top of the guitar on top of the piano. The lover tells his brother how, "in the quivering forest where the shivering dog rests, our good grandfather built a wooden nest. And the river got frozen, and the hole got snowed in. And a yellow moon glowed bright 'til the morning light." To end the song rather abruptly, the accompaniment disappears, and the lover reveals his intentions, "even if [she] doesn't mind."

Oliver james: an easy guitar riff and a simple "ooh" open this song, sung almost completely a cappella for the first 43 seconds. A song of a woman finding a child in a cradle on the shore of a river, it speaks the story more through the simple folk tune than accompaniment. His name is "Oliver James," who was "washed in the rain," but "no longer." A story of the beginning of a family, a mother's love for her child, even if adopted. She remembers "when [she] rehearsed the actions of an innocent and anxious mother full of anxious love." The simple guitar speaks to the simplicity of family life, and speaks to the mother's gracious love for her new son, regardless of origins. But when she realizes it was "love for the one you know more," means that it is only for a memory, the phrase becomes "Oliver James, washed in the rain, [is] no longer," and ends in the solitary voices, singing a requiem that should have been a gloria.

~~

So these are honestly just my humble opinions, but if anything, i hope this provokes you to listen to the album (please BUY the album, its FANTASTIC and the Fleet Foxes are BRILLIANT). They are some of my favorite songs for walking around in the autumn months, and always tear at my heartstrings while simultaneously bringing a smile to my face. The use of a variety of instruments, a true knowledge of music and what musicality really means makes the Fleet Foxes a joy to listen to to and a true pleasure for the ears.

sewer's saturday: making a dressform

Welcome to my new scheduled postings :) hopefully the trite titles and silly pseudonyms will provoke more posting on my part... but we'll see.

This, as you can see, is the first post in the series on "sewer's saturday," posts dedicated to interesting things related to sewing, crafty-crafts, and the like. This means that I will discuss the merits of making my own clothes, thrifting, tailoring, knitting, crocheting, jewelrymaking, etc... I may host a few guests on this part who are more experienced in the different angles of crafty-crafts, as well. :)

So this first Saturday, I wanted to talk a little bit about making my own dressform. Over the summer, I managed to make 3 complete dressforms (which are all, unfortunately, stuck in California because, well, I don't have the money to ship them out here to Pittsburgh.

In the past I have made my dressforms out of:

1 SUPER large t-shirt (preferably used!) (long enough to reach your hips)

2 rolls of duct tape (i love the colored variety :)

bags and bags of old magazines/fabric scraps/newspapers, etc.

...you will also need scissors and one lovely friend to help you.

In the future, I want to instead use paper tape instead of duct tape. Duct tape can be very sticky over time, and that's not good for the fabric. Paper tape (which is used basically like super clean papier-maché) is much cleaner and though not colorful, is much better for the clothes you will make and looks more professional.

So, here are the steps to making an awesome dressform for yourself, out of YOUR OWN body.

1) Put on the shirt over your regular undergarments (and of course a pair of shorts/pants, whathaveyou -- i'm talking just the top here). Don't wear other clothing under the t-shirt, because it will bulk up the form and can create problems when trying to cut off the form.

2) this is where your lovely friend is going to pitch in. (I did 85% of the tape wrapping on my form by myself, which may have been a really intense mistake, but mine turned out okay. In any case, I really don't recommend trying it yourself.) Begin to wrap you up in tape. If you want to do the first layer in duct tape (it's good for under-layers to ensure tightest fit) that's cool. Start at the waist first of all - make one complete wrap of the waist, then the spot right under the bust, then the hips (I hope your shirt is long enough to reach your hips!!)

3) after those 3 major spots, wrap the bust/shoulders. This part is not a horizontal wrap at all. You will pull the tape, in smallish strips first, in a very contoured fashion over the bust, first down from the shoulders to the fullest part of the bust, then from the under-line of the bust to the fullest part. In the back, you will also pull strips in a vertical fashion from the top of the shoulder to the tape spot that delineates (what would be, on the front,) the under-line of the bust. It should look kind of like overalls, basically.

4) Follow the form of the body to tape the remainder of the shoulders and the upper torso. Make sure the tape fits the contours of the body and doesn't fall like a shirt might, blanketing certain parts. You want it to fit like a glove!

5) after the bust/shoulders is done, you may wrap up the rest of the lower torso. Horizontally wrap it! Oh, and make sure you can breathe!!!!

6) after the first layer, basically do the same thing (steps 2-5) once (or if you prefer, twice) again. Use paper tape for the top (2) layer(s).

7) This step you will need scissors (and to stand veeerrrry still!). Your friend will cut you out of the form from the bottom up, in the exact middle of the back. Make sure not to cut any undergarments!!!

8) After the scissors, you will need the paper tape again -- tape up the seam where your friend cut you out so that both sides match up perfectly!

9) begin filling the form with scraps, starting with the armholes. Once the shoulder looks "filled", tape up the armholes with the paper tape. Do the same for the neck hole.

10) fill up the rest of the form with scraps, making sure that it is completely filled. The scraps *may* compress, so be careful not to loosely fill in the form. Make sure it is packed thoroughly!

11) when you get to the bottom, tape up most of the bottom opening except for a space in the middle to fit whatever pole you decide to use! (I just stick my forms on stools for now, I don't have a good pole yet...)

12) voila! a perfect dressform of your own body to use for making your OWN beautiful clothes! And the majority of it is reused/repurposed materials!!

If you have any questions, send them to oathkeeper24 (at) gmail (dot) com

i don't know how many times i will have to ask forgiveness from you...

To my dearest followers,

I profusely apologize for my negligence. This is, of course, the 3rd time in the last year that I have apologized for this dreadful occurrence, but I also thought I would let you know that this blog is now in it's second year! I didn't get to celebrate my dear blog's actual birthday, but here, lets celebrate belatedly, shall we?

I will be having another giveaway shortly to celebrate my one year anniversary with "her sweet disposition" and my horribly inconsistent blog postings, but hopefully that will be coming soon!

In other news, I thought I might update you on the major occurrences in my life in the last 2 months since I have been horribly neglectful of my dear readers. This tends towards the narcissistic, but maybe you might want to hear what I have done? (Then again, as I recall discussing with a few friends, sometimes having a blog can seem narcissistic in the first place. And perhaps it is, but what I give is of myself...)

So, in the last 2 months, I have:

...lost my camera, thus resulting in my not being able to take outfit photos with anything but my webcam (lame!)

...celebrated 3 and 4 months with Kyle...

caitlin and adam

danny and jenn

adam and kim

...been unable to witness 4 sets of my friends get married... :(

John-John, Zachary, Matthew

...finished up my work with the 3 boys that I nanny for back in California... (again, :(

...finished up my work with Pure Fashion, a program run by Regnum Christi (the women's auxiliary of the Legionaries of Christ), and with that...

...finished a complete formal gown for one of my dear friends, Eva...

...worked hard on Second Stitch stuff, including...

...creating many new outfits and items for the show we registered for, in...

...preparing for our Eco-Chic show in Pittsburgh Fashion Week...

...packed myself up major for the last time that I can think of, and....

...moved out to Pittsburgh after a fulfilling and productive summer...

...I am glad to be back in the Burgh...

...got published in Pittsburgh Fashion Magazine, and...

...made friends with the model who was photographed for our line...

...moved into the Citadel of the Immaculata, a Catholic young women's house in Greenfield...

...hosted a kickin' housewarming tea and picnic at the house...

...learned the bus system (for the time being, until new changes are implemented on 9/5...

...bought tickets for a Goo Goo Dolls show in October...

...been back to the Oratory...

...been back to Mass at my favorite place, the Pittsburgh Oratory...

...designed and sewed a lovely little blue clock dress in 2.5 hours the night before classes...

...started my senior year of college (!)...

...gotten our internet finally working...

...and missed blogging terribly while I over-occupied myself in the last two months.

Again, I am terribly sorry for leaving y'all hanging and not really participating in this whole online revelry lately. Life has been very busy and I have not had the time, energy, or resources to make posts. Hopefully I can put together a schedule and make my posts on a much more regular basis.

Thanks for putting up with me... you'll see the interesting things I have planned for the upcoming weeks... :)

CSN GIVEAWAY WINNER!!!

Hi there everyone!

I'm sorry I haven't really been around lately -- eventually I will get around to posting about everything crazy that's been going on around here...

but FIRST! It is 4:24 on Saturday, June 26, and I have randomly selected a winner using RANDOM.ORG for the CSN $20 Giveaway!!!!

**drumroll, please**

out of the possible numbers 1-14, the number selected was 3--

so Rosemary of Rosemary Writes, you are our winner! Congrats! Enjoy your prize and please post about your selection and let me know what you get. :)

PAX!

p.s. it is my two monthiversary with Kyle. yayyyyy. :P and if you were wondering "why june 26"... that's why.

missing home...

This is from my other blog, but I felt it especially applicable today -- so I thought I'd reuse it. Missing Pittsburgh and my home out there...

~~*~*~~

so i am dreadfully bored. sitting at home, in my lovely pasty-white room with lovely birch-toned wood furniture. It’s cute — really lovely furniture that speaks to the lover of indie in me. But i’m used to it, have had it for years and years and it has become just the typical. so i am bored with it. at least for right now, while I have papers to do and i am attempting incessantly to put them off.

I have three papers to do — all of which I hope to be finished by next Friday evening.

I have been back at my home in California for 4 days now. Amazing how quickly that time just flew by already.

But is this home?

I call Pittsburgh “home” now, and though I do sometimes call this place “home”, more often than not I just call it “California”. I don’t love this place. It’s nice, don’t get me wrong, and I love my family here. But I don’t love here. My heart is not here — my heart is with my family. And just as much now, my heart is in Arizona with Kyle (or wherever the heck he is right now) as it is here, at 2107 Bates Circle. I don’t love California. I love Yosemite. I love the beach. I love the Mendocino Coast. But more than all of those, I love Pittsburgh. Why? Because there are countless people there whom I love. And I’m not just talking sentimental touchy-feely love. Yes, I can get sentimental about certain people but thats not all of it. I am only here at home because of my family. I could have gotten a nanny position in Pittsburgh, but I chose to come home to see my lovely family.

(My brother is going off to college in August. Scary. Man. He’s really a lot of the reason why I came home…)

But my heart is not all here. My heart is in pieces all over the nation right now — my love is scattered across miles and rivers and maybe even oceans.

So where is home?

What is home?

From Garden State:

Andrew Largeman: You know that point in your life when you realize the house you grew up in isn’t really your home anymore? All of a sudden even though you have some place where you put your shit, that idea of home is gone.
Sam: I still feel at home in my house.
Andrew Largeman: You’ll see one day when you move out it just sort of happens one day and it’s gone. You feel like you can never get it back. It’s like you feel homesick for a place that doesn’t even exist. Maybe it’s like this rite of passage, you know. You won’t ever have this feeling again until you create a new idea of home for yourself, you know, for your kids, for the family you start, it’s like a cycle or something. I don’t know, but I miss the idea of it, you know. Maybe that’s all family really is. A group of people that miss the same imaginary place.

And I guess that’s what I’m trying to find for myself right now. I love my family here, but I don’t miss the same imaginary place that they do anymore. I miss a different place, with different surroundings and different faces.

And maybe i’ve found that place in someone else…
I can’t say for sure yet. But I do indeed think that it’s worth finding out.

*sigh* to my home out there, I miss you.

~~*~*~~

skirt: vintage, blouse: vintage, shoes: FF, belt: thrifted vintage, tie/scarf: thrifted, bracelet: F21, awesome yellow armband: from BloodSource cuz I gave blood today!

raw raw blah blah blah

So in case any of you haven't seen Lady Gaga's new video for "Alejandro" -- DON'T.

As a woman dedicated to modesty and purity, especially in relation to dignity, I am appalled and distraught to see Ms. Gaga's latest attempt at a music video. Lacking in much "thought provoking content" (I did find the "Bad Romance" video to be interesting and thought provoking, if a near occasion of sin as well), it seemed a visual display dedicated to erotica and practically pornography for the sake of... itself.

As some of you may know, I'm a Catholic. And though the latex nun suit was kinda cool (i can appreciate interesting fashion), I didn't find much of a commentary on it besides straight up blasphemy juxtaposed against the cross-on-the-crotch outfit that she pulls later. This time it wasn't just a near occasion of sin, it was outright depravity that I saw. I was offended, upset, and cried for my faith and for her. It was such a sad display, and I can't really be convinced that it was worth anything besides shock value. There was only one outfit i particularly liked, i don't find the song very interesting, and she straight up pulled the oldest hat in the book -- she was prejudiced and took painstaking measures to offend the only group on earth for whom it is still socially "acceptable" to berate: the Catholic Church.

She's passed the "good ol' days" of "Bad Romance" that made a social commentary while being dirty and trampy... she's sunk to a new level of raw while singing something that comes across as "blah blah blah" more than anything else.

anyway...

thinking about Ms. Gaga today, i was reminded that I know (part of) the dance to "Bad Romance," so I decided to try out my hand at gifs with my outfit pics for today. :)

hope you think its as hilarious as i do!

today was an easy day, working in the house, making some stuff and cleaning up my disaster of a room (I had been hoarding stuff for years that I really would much rather not have, so I got rid of it!), and just chilling with the family. I have Fridays off, so its nice to have that time to just relax and have some sort of a summer!

gold tie blouse: thrifted, black leggings: Target, gold flats: Hot Kiss, AWESOME sunglasses: xhilaration/Target, bangle: thrifted/vintage, heart necklace: Target

~(§]

to top it all off

~

"A hat is a flag, a shield, a bit of armor, and the badge of femininity. A hat is the difference between wearing clothes and wearing a costume; it's the difference between being dressed and being dressed up; it's the difference between looking adequate and looking your best. A hat is to be stylish in, to glow under, to flirt beneath, to make all others seem jealous over, and to make all men feel masculine about. A piece of magic is a hat." (Martha Sliter)

Today i wore my new thrifted white hat dress -- and of course I had to wear my white hat to go with it!

Upon finding the above quote I was greatly pleased! My hats always make me feel more classy, more feminine, and something about them just adds a bit of mystery and intrigue to my wonderfully monotonous life.

white hat dress: thrifted, white sun hat: Target, yellow shoes: Hot Kiss via FF, purse: Disney!

my most favorite bag that i own: it's a 21st birthday gift from my brother!

I love this "take" on the classic Disney "Alice" - i love paisley!!!

i'm late for a very important date ---- with my bed!

i'll be off now! au revoir!

whimsy is such a lovely thing

"curiouser and curiouser"...

a famous line of Alice's has become a recent favorite of mine -- my life seems to be changing at such a great pace, yet, "the more things change, the more they stay the same." All too true, and still, it all is so beautiful. Or perhaps that has more to do with my outlook.

I go to bed at night and continue to think that I am so incredibly blessed by the great things that happen to me each day. The job I have as a nanny in itself is such an amazing gift!

but the more things change, they don't resemble what I am used to. And yet, it's for the better, I just don't realize it always in the moment.

This whole situation called to mind my lovely Alice... and Lewis Carroll's brilliant stories and Arthur Rackham's brilliant illustrations. The following are Rackham's illustrations to Alice in Wonderland... feast your eyes on the brilliance of his work.

It's all so ethereal and absolutely stunning! The attention to detail is very art nouveau, which makes me incredibly happy, and still it's all so whimsical (and whimsy is such a lovely thing...)

The Secret Powers of Time

Sorry I've been neglectful this week~

been very busy cleaning my room out of all of the stuff I don't need, going shopping for Second Stitch, and generally being cool and exhausted all the time.

Speaking of time... sometimes I really wish I had more of it. I'm very goal-oriented and tend to only work for the things that I find worthwhile. (I'm working to change this, and to begin to do all things with passion and purpose -- duty is still duty and needs to be done). Yet at other times, I'm just content to relax and just let it be, regardless of the hour or how many pass.

I find this very interesting -- and mostly true.

What do you think?

CSN GIVEAWAY REMINDER!

Hi faithful readers!

Just wanted to remind you that I have a WONDERFUL AMAZING

FREE $20 CSN GIVEAWAY!

CSN has over 200 brands that you could spend your winnings on, and they have some

absolutely fabulous stuff! So actually enter this awesome giveaway and become a part of the

history of my blog!

Please enter by following the link above, and tell ALL your friends!

It's as simple as becoming my follower and commenting on the original post...

(by the way, thanks to Rosemary's suggestion, I added a followers bar in the side so that it would be easier to follow me!)

There are also two other ways to enter, so please enter as many times as possible and get the word out that there is a slick giveaway going on here at hersweetdisposition.

my favorite poem of all time

hi there. :) hope you're doing well and life is treating you kindly!!

I have known this poem for a long, long time. And I have loved it since the first time I read it as a naive yet romantic young third grader... all those years ago.

And it is still my favorite poem. Please -- enjoy.

This is dedicated to all of my friends who have helped me along the way~

~most specifically, my brother, who has just graduated and will be entering a new and different phase of life.

Never lose sight of what is most important, baby brother.

~~

I love you, Not only for what you are, But for what I am When I am with you.

I love you, Not only for what You have made of yourself, But for what You are making of me. I love you For the part of me That you bring out; I love you For putting your hand Into my heaped-up heart And passing over All the foolish, weak things That you can’t help Dimly seeing there, And for drawing out Into the light All the beautiful belongings That no one else had looked Quite far enough to find.

I love you because you Are helping me to make Of the lumber of my life Not a tavern But a temple; Out of the works Of my every day Not a reproach But a song.

I love you Because you have done More than any creed Could have done To make me good And more than any fate Could have done To make me happy. You have done it Without a touch, Without a word, Without a sign. You have done it By being yourself. Perhaps that is what Being a friend means, After all.

~Roy Croft

~~

and now for some outfit pics from the day of my brother's graduation, last Saturday. My makeup was running that day, believe me.

dress: vintage, belt: vintage, shoes: BC Footwear via FF, heart necklace: Target, bracelet: Fossil necklace worn as bracelet.

when this is guiding you home

So I suspect that you've heard the new music on here?

In case you were curious, the first song is "Such Great Heights," (originally performed by The Postal Service, acoustically performed by Iron & Wine) covered by my amazing beau, Kyle.

The second song is "You Really Got a Hold on Me," (originally performed by The Miracles, covered by She & Him) covered by myself, randomly one night. I'm thinking that he and I need to get together and put together some actual cover recordings for my blog. 'twould be nice, wouldn't it?

The reason I asked him to record "Such Great Heights" for me is because I knew that long-distance, I would miss him dreadfully and would want something to listen to that could just remind me of him. This does more than that, because I've heard him play it in person, I get to hear his voice -- and if I close my eyes, I can almost imagine him in the room playing for me. It's a sweet token and I loved the song before. Now it's definitely become one of my favorites!

~~

Today I'm going to show my outfit from my brother's graduation party! I picked out the cutest ensemble, and remixed a dress that I wore to my brother's FIRST graduation party. I love the goldenrod color, and I really don't have enough of it. So I made my dress a skirt (for all intents and purposes, anyway). :D

i finally got some new shoes!

dress: gizzy via Modcloth, blouse: Tulle, hat: vintage via Eons, tights: Target, shoes: Hot Kiss via FF, belt: vintage

i'm on vacation right now...

Hi there everyone!

As you may or may not know, I am on vacation right now, in Yosemite! YAY Yosemite!

(one of the most beautiful places on the planet, let me tell you...)

I left Monday morning, but I have scheduled some blog posts for this week so you will still get to hear little tidbits from me...

The 5 things I'm most looking forward to in Yosemite are...

1. Relaxing...

We are staying at the Tenaya Lodge just a bit outside Yosemite. A great place with great accomodations. Two pools, tons of things to do like horseback riding and archery -- but the thing I am looking forward to most is just sitting out and relaxing -- getting some "me" time.

2. Seeing the sights...

This is quite literally the most beautiful place on the planet. My goodness. I can't wait!

3. Hiking/Climbing up some waterfalls...

You can't quite tell, but in this picture, there is a rock staircase on teh right side of the waterfall. I get to climb up it! So wonderful! And isn't it breathtaking!?

4. Prayer time...

I really feel like this trip will give me a good opportunity to see God in the beauty of the world. And this also has to do with number 5...

5. Being a 5th wheel on my parent's 25th wedding anniversary trip...

Yes... my brother is bringing his girlfriend. And don't get me wrong -- I LOVE his girlfriend. I think she's wonderful. But my parents don't get their own bedroom on their WEDDING ANNIVERSARY. Does something about this seem wrong to you, too?

Anyway -- i get to be a fifth wheel. Awkward me. Joy.

I'll have to write up some posts when I get back about the trip with pics and stuff. :D

Talk to you later!

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