Words of Wisdom Wednesday

Things From Around The Web

I haven't done a TFATW (is that too long for an acronym?) in awhile, so some of these are old news, but still, I'm clearing out my bookmarks. Enjoy!


A beautiful video of Irene in NYC.

These pencil flats are so perfect for back-to-school.

Did you hear Jimmy Fallon will host SNL in December? Did you also hear that he predicted it, to the month, back in 1998? Crazy, right?

Love these social media propaganda posters.

I LOL'd so hard at this Justin Beiber tumblr thread.

The women who voice Belle, Ariel, Mulan and Tiana sang "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes" together. It's so cool to see.

Christin Porter is running a half-marathon to support The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Having my grandma pass away from lymphoma, this is a very personal cause to me, and any small donation to Christin would be appreciated.

and lastly, today is the last day to vote in the Shoptopia contest I'm in. If you could just vote one last time, I promise I will stop bugging you guys about it! :)

Have you voted today?

Just another reminder that there's only ONE DAY LEFT TO VOTE and I'm currently 21 votes behind. If you would be so kind, please vote like you've never voted before! Just click HERE, log on with your Facebook account (or register for Shoptopia if you don't have a Facebook account) and click the "vote for this outfit" under my video! Please vote, share, tweet, post, anything! THANK YOU!

I Need Your Help!

Please please please, vote for me! I only have 2 more days and I'm 35 votes behind! If you can tweet this, post it on facebook, anything... I would more than appreciate it! I tried to keep the posting and promoting of this to a minimum because I didn't want to get repetitive and annoying, but now that it's in the final stretch, I'm getting shameless. And if I can quote one of my favorite characters, Oskar Schell, "...at the end of my search I wanted to be able to say: I don't know how I could have tried harder."

So if you have a minute, you don't even have to register, just log in with your Facebook account and vote!

Words of Wisdom Wednesday

fallspiration

I'm getting so excited for fall I can hardly contain, well, my excitement. If I may quote the Pointer Sisters, "I'm so excited, I just can't hide it, I'm about to lose control, and I think I like it." It's like they're speaking right to me.

I'm ready to not have my makeup melt off my face the second I leave my house, or having anything more than a dress resembling a slip make me disgustingly uncomfortable. This summer I was really into the bohemian, free-spirit vibe as far as clothing style went. I wanted to land somewhere in between Janis Joplin and Bridgette Bardot with my outfits. Of course every outfit ended up being about 3 pieces shy of resembling either one of them, but I still looked towards them for what I felt inspired by. But now I can see fall so shyly approaching in the distance, and I can't wait.

All of the sudden I just knew exactly what I wanted to wear all of fall and winter, and it made me even more eager for the colder weather to get here. I guess I would describe my fall inspiration as Parisian Tomboy? Does that make sense? Let me explain. I just purchased two pairs of shoes recently. Two completely, polar opposite pairs of shoes. One, pink Jeffrey Campbell open-toed lace-up wedges and the other, white hightop Converse. They arrived the same day, and I immediately tried both of them on. Love at first fitting. Then out of nowhere I had this thought in my head that went something like, "I want to wear these hightops every day." Then I started thinking of how wonderful it would be to dress like a guy, in a way where you just wear comfy casual clothes but still be stylish and not like you just threw on whatever was clean.

So I started thinking of all the women who have effortlessly chic, yet casual style. And the first thing I thought of was Paris. The city where stylish women flock to like the salmon of Capistrano. And I'm pretty sure the very city where the word "chic" came from. And if you put all that together, that's how I got Parisian Tomboy as an acceptable style in my head. This includes, but is not limited to: soft loose tees, dark skinny jeans, high tops, boots, loafers, blazers, leather jackets, vests, grandpa cardigans, pullover sweaters, and button-up shirts. In dark and neutral colors, with the occasional bright color (I mean, I'm not totally heartless.)

So those are my clothing plans for fall, which is actually better planned out than my school schedule, let me tell you! Shows you where my priorities lay.


source: Elle UK, Accidental Chic, Lady Centre, a Stylized Hysteria, StyleCaster

Wedding dress love

I am absolutely swooning over the dress on the cover of Brides' September issue. I admittedly stare at it every time I walk past it at work.

July Book Reviews

Every book list I've ever seen that was some sort of "100 books to read before you die" or "The top 100 books of the 20th century" had Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude on it. I knew that I had to read it at some point, and since I loved Love in the Time of Cholera, if figured it was better now than later. The book spans of the history of a fictional city Macondo, but more specifically the history of the Buendía family. It's imaginary realism at it's finest. Impossible things happen in Macondo that doesn't seem so impossible; an insomnia plague, a trail of blood traveling across town and up curbs, gypsies with flying carpets. All of it is apart of their reality. One of the highlights for me is the character whose presence is always preceded by yellow butterflies, as well as the fact that when someone dies, they're never really dead because their ghosts freely and regularly roam the house at night.
The thing about One Hundred Years, for me at least, was that it really did feel like you were reading through one hundred years. You felt like that amount of time had passed when you were finally finished reading it. It reminded me of hour Life of Pi really made you feel like you spent months at sea on a lifeboat, and in a way, dragged on. I hate saying that since I know it's such an amazing piece of literary work, but alas, I'm saying it. Also, numerous characters have the same names. At the beginning it's manageable to tell one from another, but by the end of the book, and six Aureliano's later, it starts to mix you up. Though talking to a friend about it, he said that he had no problem differentiating one from another because of their distinct personalities. So, to each their own. All in all, I think it has beautiful imagery and magical elements and it's worth reading. I will stand by that I enjoyed Love in the Time of Cholera more though.



I know what you're thinking. Not Becoming My Mother, how mean! The title is deceiving though, since it's actually not becoming your mother in a good way. Actually it's not about your mother at all, it's about Ruth Reichl's mother, but you get what I'm saying. It's a true story about a woman finding these letters her mother had saved and reading them after she passed away and discovering more about her than she ever knew while she was alive. It was about her mother not wanting her daughter to be like her, or follow in her footsteps, because she didn't want her to live the life she did. Her mother had a failed marriage, and un-supportive parents. She compromised numerous things in her life and never forgave herself for doing so. She always regretted not having a career and not pursuing her dreams and it wasn't until she was much older that she finally started to live. It was a very quick and enjoyable read, and I'd highly suggest every woman read it.


Has anyone read either of these? What is your opinion about them? Or did you read anything really good during July? I'd love to hear about that too!

Words of Wisdom Wednesday

Project Style Contest

Remember when I said I was picked as a semi-finalist for a styling contest? Well it's finally time to vote! This is the outfit I bought with the $150 gift card. I was trying to stay away from the bohemian vibe, but needless to say, I couldn't. haha. I guess it's just what I'm drawn to. But if you'd like to vote for me you can do that HERE. You can vote once a day, every day. I'll just warn you now that I'll probably be extremely annoying posting it on my facebook/twitter/blog/tumblr for the next couple weeks, so bear with me! But if you could vote I would very much appreciate it. :)

Things From Around The Web

I've watched this Black Keys interview at least 50 times this week. It makes me laugh every. single. time.

3 videos of what traveling around the world looks like in one minute. Pretty amazing, and the guy's not too hard on the eyes.

Free positive thoughts.

How to make a Starbucks frappuccino for $0.32.

I guess the internet wasn't that hoppin' this week. You guys find anything good?

Words of Wisdom Wednesday

Back in the Saddle again

Shirt: Kohl's Skirt: Thrifted Sandals: Forever 21 Necklace: World Market





My mom and me, and her glasses that make me wish I didn't have 20/20 vision.

First and foremost, I want to thank everyone who commented on my post last week with such nice and understanding words. I've since deleted the post because I didn't think it needed to be up permanently since I hope the feelings I was having weren't permanent either. It is true that stepping away from your blog for awhile makes you realize and understand what it was that made you start it in the first place. It's just that sometimes you get to these plateaus in blogging where you feel uninspired and uncreative and you start to question your motives for spending so much time on something. So thank you all for being understanding and supportive! It really did help to get feedback from you all. I honestly have the best readers and I can't thank you guys enough for how supportive you've always been for me.

But I'm starting to feel inspired again. Shortly after I wrote that entry I got a phone call from my local mall telling me that I was a semi-finalist in a styling contest I had entered a few weeks ago. I was so not expecting to get chosen, and was so excited that I did. Now that I'm a semi-finalist, the mall gave me a $150 gift card that I can use to put together an outfit around something from my own closet. I was so eager to get started but so overwhelmed with having to narrow it down to one look and style and started going through stacks of magazines in my room and visiting every blog and street style website in my bookmarks to gather ideas and inspiration. I once again started to feel that excitement of picking out outfits and styling up a look and quickly remembered why I started this blog in the first place. This opportunity was just the reassurance and kick-in-the-pants I needed. I love how things have a way of working out and falling into place. And even if I don't make it to the final round of the contest, at least I know it's helping me get out of my blogging slump and for that I am extremely grateful!

Words of Wisdom Wednesday

HANAair Blow dryer review

A couple weeks ago Misikko sent me a HANA blow dryer to try out and review. I was really excited because I know how important styling tools are to your hair routine and one of the best investments you can make regarding your hair is a good blow dryer. I've been using a CHI blow dryer for the last few years, which I really like a lot, but I was eager to try something new, especially since HANAair is considered one of the best blow dryers on Misikko.

I should probably tell you that I don't wash my hair everyday, so I don't blow dry my hair everyday and even when I do wash it (about 2 to 3 times a week) sometimes I just let it air dry-- so it took me a little longer to try it out and form an opinion about it.



The first time I used it, I noticed it had two separate switches on the handle, one blue and the other red, which I assumed was to control the cold and warm temperature settings, which is easy enough. This is where it got a little tricky-- only the blue switch actually turns the blow dryer on, once the cold switch is on, you can turn on the red switch and control the heat temperature. But then it got even trickier! I turned the heat switch on, but still only cold air was blowing out. So I tried pushing the top button, that is normally a "cool shot" button on other dryers, and to my surprise hot air started blowing out! And it isn't a regular button that you have to keep your finger pressed down on it, it just clicks in and out, so you can keep it clicked in to get automatic heat. It didn't take too long to figure it out, it was just a bit different than other blow dryers I've had, but once I got the hang of what switches did what, it was pretty easy.

It isn't as quiet as my CHI is, but it doesn't really bother me. It still makes my hair feel soft, and that's really what's important. I like that it has ionic heat and tourmaline technology-- I find that dryers with those qualities tend to give my hair the best results. I also like that it doesn't just have a one temperature setting with a cool shot button-- but the option of controlling the heat with low, medium and high settings-- which is especially nice in the summer when it's already as hot as it is.

Misikko also sent me some HANA Shine Shield that I put on my hair before I blow dry it-- and it's amazing. It made my hair really soft and shiny, which is what I need for how much I curl/tease/wrap/pin/whatever to my hair. This is the first time I've used any HANA products, but I'm really impressed with what I've tried so far and will most likely try other things from their product line in the future.

You guys can find all these things on Misikko.com along with other products like professional flat irons and curling irons. Have you tried any of these products? What did you think about them?