Love Cats

Many sorries for the lack of posts, I'm living in a house with no internet for the summer and I can only steal my school's network from the front yard if I'm reaalllyy lucky. It's like the 1990s or something. I'll be back to civilization soon though, I promise.

Anyway, this post is all about cats! Mostly because of this outfit:

Isn't the cat shirt fantastic??

shirt: Goodwill
skirt: Zara
mary-janes: Goodwill

I took these pictures in the awesome two room suite I've been living in while I take this summer fiction workshop. Definitely more to come on that and my thrifty interior design tricks.
The cat theme also continues with some of the incredible photos my boyfriend Xander took on his African Safari earlier in the summer. He's somewhat of a feline fanatic like I am.

Isn't he amazing? And a great sport :). He dressed up as "love cats" with me last Halloween because a) we're cheesy, b) catz rule and c) that awesome song by The Cure.

That may or may not be a wolverine wig on Xander's head and I may or may not have drawn on his nose and whiskers with eye liner...Can you crack my code?

And now I will leave you with that oh so wonderful song I dedicated an entire costume (and blog post) to:

Please Don't Wear Red Tonight

"Please don't wear red tonight."
This is what I said tonight.
For red is the colour that will make me blue,
In spite of you, it's true,
Yes it is, it's true.
Yes it is.

-The Beatles, Yes It Is

I love this dress because it's literally the most comfortable thing that has ever been made AND it's tie-dye. You can't get much better than that. This is one of my go-to outfits when I'm feeling lazy because it's perfectly adorable and effortless at the same time. 

necklace: Old Colorado City: $10
Dress: The Arc Thrift Store: $5
Shoes: T.J. Maxx: $12

 My class has been going...pretty well I guess. It's hard to be creative when your mind is in a million different places, but I'm trying my verrryyy hardest!

Here are some lists we had to come up with:


Things I Love:
1. Puppies: their fur, their noses, the way they get all warm when they fall asleep
2. Thrift stores
3. Silly hats
4. Getting mail (but not junk mail or flyers)
5. Making douche bags cry
6. Having a good cry
7. Taking a really big bite of cake/ bong rip/ poop
8. Gourmet snack food
9. Fried food
10. Piles of pillows
11. Blank notebooks and slates
12. "Can I help you with that?" (But not when it's condescending)
13. Wearing a long skirt on a sunny day so I can lay on the grass without feeling confined or getting itchy.
14. Pantsuits and/or rompers
15. Eating a lemon


Things I Hate:
1. Sexism and sexists (they're different)
2. When someone eats my left-overs
3. When my mom tells me not to eat cookie dough because, "you'll get salmonella!"
4. Dieting (Instead of rioting)
5. Smoke alarms
6. The government cheese conspiracy
7. The imprisonment of nonviolent drug offenders
8. Getting shampoo in my eye
9. When people don't take me seriously because I'm small and/or female.
10. Christmas music in the summer time
11. Being broke
12. Losing things
13. Hot soup gone cold
14. When people assume my boyfriend is in charge of me
15. Being bossed around


Things I Do Sometimes But Not All The Time:
1. Steal nail polish
2. Fart in public
3. Pick my nose
4. Listen to old school hip hop
5. Follow directions
6. Remember to use Pam when baking
7. Ignore people I know when I see them in public
8. Bathe regularly
9. Remember peoples' names/birthdays
10. Pee outside and call it, "using the litter box"
11. Smoke cigarettes (only when I'm drunk, studying or stressed)
12. Feel insecure
13. Start unnecessary, verbal arguments for fun
14. Listen to my mother
15. Lie

Roadside Flowers

Roadside Flowers

by Billy Collins

These are the kind you are supposed
to stop to look at, as I do this morning,
but just long enough
so as not to carry my non-stopping
around with me all day,
a big medicine ball of neglect and disregard.

But now I seem to be carrying
my not-stopping-long-enough ball
as I walk around
the circumference of myself
and up and down the angles of the day.

Roadside flowers,
when I get back to my room
I will make it all up to you.
I will lie on my stomach and write
in a notebook how lighthearted you were,
pink and white among the weeds,

wild phlox perhaps,
or at least a cousin of that family,
a pretty one who comes to visit
every summer for two weeks without her parents,
she who unpacks her things upstairs
while I am out on the lawn

throwing the ball as high as I can,
catching it almost
every time in my two outstretched hands.

Dress: Vintage Laura Ashley from The Arc Thrift Store - $6
Belt: Goodwill - $2
Shoes: The Arc Thrift Store - $5

So on Monday I started my summer course, "Beginning Fiction Writing." So far it's been amazing, even though I'm not really comfortable with fiction yet. My professor is the brilliant Steve Hayward who actually just came out with a new novel, Don't Be Afraid which you should all check out. He's hilarious and I'm so lucky to be learning from him! So far we've just been doing relatively short exercises, but next week is our "wildfire" week where we have to write 1,000 word stories for every day and have them workshopped by the whole class. I'm super nervous, but I think it will be a great experience for me.  The other day we were working with super short fiction, including six word tragedies and "twovels" or twitter novels (under 140 characters).

My six word tragedy: Stale apricots were his last meal.
My twovel: Ian pulled a fist full of tictacs from his pocket. He dropped the pellets into his mouth and chomped down. She didn’t his deserve halitosis.
And here's my zeugma, which is a rhetorical trope where a single verb modifies multiple objects, one of which is inherently more metaphorical than the others: 
He was stuffed full of hamburgers, french fries and bullshit.

I found this amazing dress at The Arc a couple months ago, but it was floor length when I bought it! Thankfully I have no problem hacking up my clothes, especially when they only cost $6! It just has such an awesome shape and pattern that I just couldn't wait to have it altered before I wore it.

And here's the gorgeous house I'm living in for the summer. It's HUGE and has a ton of random passageways and stair cases that lead nowhere. It's pretty sweet.

Rocky Mountain High

I'm soooooo glad to be back in Colorado! The weather is beautiful and the air isn't practically dripping with moisture like it does in Miami. Today we went to see Dani's new school, which is beautiful and nestled riight in the mountains. We also have to start moving into the house I'm renting for the summer with some other kids from my school - GAH I'm SO excited!

Sunglasses: Target $7.99
Top: Thrifted Mossimo from Goodwill $3
Belt: Thrifted from Goodwill $2
Skirt: borrowed Urban Renewal
Shoes: Thrifted from Goodwill $4

This outfit is super comfy and I think it definitely has a Colorado vibe going on with the plaid and the crochet, but maybe that's just in my head. Shout out to my beautiful, cat-like, crazy haired frog of a friend Zanzabar for giving me this skirt that I always loved stealing from her closet. She's going abroad for a semester so I'll just have to siphon some of her awesomeness out of her clothes until she gets back.

However Much I'm Falling Down It's Never Enough

Does shit ever happen in your life that makes you just completely disillusioned with humanity and this whole mission of life we're all on? Something that makes you doubt if any of it even means anything at all...Sorry for the downer post, I just need to pity myself for a little bit if that's okay. Hopefully The Cure and a pretty red dress will cheer me up.

Dress: Goodwill $5
Belt: Goodwill $2
Shoes: Goodwill $4.50

I'm really in love with this red, floral, button down dress I got at Goodwill the other day. It's so comfy and casual but I could easily dress it up too. I wore this outfit running around town and to dinner with my dad and it was perfect for both occasions. YAY Goodwill, you're always so good to me.

OH YA and let me just obsess over these black sandals for a minute. MMMM..... Okay done :)

Here's The Cure playing the song I have on repeat at the moment, Never Enough.

Out Of The Ash I Rise With My Red Hair and I Eat Men Like Air

For me, creativity is this huge intersection of all my different passions and inspirations. Even though fashion is a total separate entity from things like poetry, music and art, I'm constantly finding all those other mediums sneaking into my outfits.  Now that I'm studying English and poetry on a more serious level, some of my favorite writers are always dominating my brain (and therefore my closet). 

Shirt: Antique Mart in Colorado Springs - $6
Skirt: American Way Thrift in Claremont, California - $4.50
Belt: Goodwill - $2
Heels: Forever 21 - $25

This outfit was inspired by the incredible, brilliant, tragic,  Sylvia Plath,
one of my biggest influences.

Sure she was beautiful and stylish, but she was soo so so much more than that. Some of her critics call her self indulgent for her deeply personal work, but they're just fucking haters! She was a serious scholar, and at one point even a professor of poetry. Her writing is not only technically skillful, but also so passionate and detailed that it takes on a relatable and even universal nature. 

This is one of my favorite poems of all time, it's about her struggle with depression and suicide:

Lady Lazarus
by Sylvia Plath
I have done it again. One year in every ten I manage it-- A sort of walking miracle, my skin Bright as a Nazi lampshade, My right foot A paperweight, My face a featureless, fine Jew linen. Peel off the napkin O my enemy. Do I terrify?-- The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth? The sour breath Will vanish in a day. Soon, soon the flesh The grave cave ate will be At home on me And I a smiling woman. I am only thirty. And like the cat I have nine times to die. This is Number Three. What a trash To annihilate each decade. What a million filaments. The peanut-crunching crowd Shoves in to see Them unwrap me hand and foot-- The big strip tease. Gentlemen, ladies These are my hands My knees. I may be skin and bone, Nevertheless, I am the same, identical woman. The first time it happened I was ten. It was an accident. The second time I meant To last it out and not come back at all. I rocked shut As a seashell. They had to call and call And pick the worms off me like sticky pearls. Dying Is an art, like everything else. I do it exceptionally well. I do it so it feels like hell. I do it so it feels real. I guess you could say I've a call. It's easy enough to do it in a cell. It's easy enough to do it and stay put. It's the theatrical Comeback in broad day To the same place, the same face, the same brute Amused shout: 'A miracle!' That knocks me out. There is a charge For the eyeing of my scars, there is a charge For the hearing of my heart-- It really goes. And there is a charge, a very large charge For a word or a touch Or a bit of blood Or a piece of my hair or my clothes. So, so, Herr Doktor. So, Herr Enemy. I am your opus, I am your valuable, The pure gold baby That melts to a shriek. I turn and burn. Do not think I underestimate your great concern. Ash, ash-- You poke and stir. Flesh, bone, there is nothing there-- A cake of soap, A wedding ring, A gold filling. Herr God, Herr Lucifer Beware Beware. Out of the ash I rise with my red hair And I eat men like air.

Rebel Girl You Are The Queen Of My World

Some people think of feminism and fashion as mutually exclusive, but I like to think that one is just an awesome extension of the other. To me, feminism is all about not letting all of society's rules and expectations dictate my actions. It's about seeing past the bullshit and finding ways to be and express yourself in a world that would rather you just shut up and wear some Abercrombie. The riot grrrl movement of the 90s spawned some of the most badass women that serve as awesome inspiration, but none more than the one and only Kathleen Hanna. As the lead singer of Bikini Kill, she screamed and belted lyrics like, 

"We're not gonna prove nothing nothing
Sittin around watching each other starve
What we need is action/strategy
I want I want I want
I want it now.
I believe in the radical possibilities of pleasure, babe.
I do. I do. I do. "

loud enough that they were impossible not to hear. She smashed stereotypes with her unapologetically girly style paired with her badass ability to rock out and I will forever be in debt to her fucking awesomeness. This outfit goes out to all the rebel grrrls out there :).

I figured my adorable pup Spazzy was the only accessory I needed for this look.

Dress: Goodwill $5

Combat Boots: Charlotte Russe $25

Puppy: Heaven PRICELESS

Oh and for the record, Kathleen Hanna was also bffs with Kurt Cobain and drunkenly wrote "Kurt smells like teen spirit" on his bedroom wall which inspired the song...Yeah she's the shit.