Procrastinating

Again just messing around with the quick selection on Photoshop and whatnot...anyways, here's some stuff I've been dreaming about lately...sigh.

And here I am in my closet at home....really, this is not photoshopped...at all. BAHAHA. Ok, time to do some real productive stuff, like the dishes...

Um

Slowly teaching myself how to use Photoshop again. Today's lesson was using the Marquee tool and the quick selection tool. The results are still up for debate, but hopefully as I get more practice, I'll get better!

For Britney.

On my drive home from work today, as I was blasting my Britney Spears greatest hits album, I started thinking about the journey that her and I have been through. Not saying that I personally know Britney Spears, because I don't. But feeling like I've grown up with her isn't too far fetched. I've been a Britney fan since the age of 10. That may be dating myself a bit, but whatever.


I remember when it was Britney's belly button that was making the front pages, not the latest Disney star's DUI. A more wholesome time, I think, when pop stars sang about missing their boyfriends rather than licking guns and drinking Jamieson.


And I think that despite the fact that for a good portion of her career, Britney was not the image of class and even, good hygiene, I think that she still embodied what a lot of girls felt. She just felt to the extreme.


For the longest time I feel like Britney was kind of in a time warp. She was aging, but was still treated like a kid. All she wanted was to be taken seriously. You can't expect to baby someone for their entire lives, and then when they are 25 years old just throw them out into the real world. Of course she was bound to short circuit and go off the grid.


I remember doing everything like Britney; when she started hawking Sketchers, I had a pair right away. I bought an iZone camera when she started doing those ads too. I had Britney Spears dolls, stickers, books and even a watch that when you pressed the sides of it, it played "Oops...I did it again". I was a girl possessed. I wanted to cut my hair like her, dress like her, dance like her, everything. So when I started to grow up and started to realize that being your own person was cool too, and she started to go down that long twisty road that culminated in a bald head and various paparazzi crotch shots, it made me understandably upset. 


When she started making bad decisions, it made me sad. I wanted to hug her and be friends with her and just watch movies and go shopping or something. I felt her pain and felt so hopeless about it. I didn't know her. I wanted her to be able to see me, and to see what she inspired in me, and be the old Britney again. 


In the past couple years though, she has really turned herself around. Back to the old Britney, but wiser. She looks healthy and happy. And when Britney is happy, I'm happy.


I think the real reason I started this post was because I wanted to share this passage from an article from Seventeen magazine from a looonnnng time ago.  It's from back in 2004 when she had her quickie marriage to childhood friend, Jason Alexander. Seventeen had Britney on the cover and to preface their interview with her, they contacted this psychic who had a knack for reading people. This little passage that I'll copy here was definitely the turning point in my love affair with all things Britney. When I read it, I felt sad for her. Because I knew it was true. I knew I was expecting too much of her, and once I read this article and understood her situation, it didn't make me want to idolize Britney anymore, it made me humanize her. And instead of placing her on a pedestal I decided to instead just stand in her corner and root for her.


Anyways, here is the passage, it was taken from Seventeen magazine...

I’ve never met, never even seen Britney. But she reminds me of another young girl I saw once, in Kathmandu, Nepal. She stared down at me from behind the shutters on a carved wooden balcony for just a moment, until her attendants whisked her away. She was probably about 7 years old but made to look like a woman-adorned in silk and gold, covered in jewels, her dark eyes outlined in black kohl. I was told that she was the Kumari Devi, the living goddess, chosen as a small child to be the symbol of the power and sanctity of virginity. The most unusual thing about the living goddess is that her feet are never allowed to touch the ground. On the day she gets her first period, she’s thrown out of the palace, and a new living goddess is chosen. 

Have we chosen Britney Spears as our living goddess, our pure virginal women-child? If so, then when she does something we don’t like, we’re disappointed. She never asked for this-a role model is chosen by the person who needs one. If you need to follow Britney, be like her-playful, foolish, successful, and discovering. But remember she’s a Hollywood artist, an entertainer depicting autobiographical stories. When we get a glimpse of her behind the shutters of what we think is her private life, we think we’ve caught her. And before long we’ll be looking for a new living goddess. 

When I heard about Britney’s marriage, I smiled. Married, annulled, cleaned up, and sent away-it all happened in 55 hours, just about the length of time you get to be a teenager these days. At 22, Britney already has her whole life behind her and so much more ahead. I think she chose Jason Allen Alexander to be her lawful, wedded husband because she just wanted to go home. He knew her before she was the Britney Spears the whole world now knows-or wanted to see what her life would’ve been like if she’d taken a different path-the one she might’ve taken if she still lived in her hometown in Louisiana. The path that most of her childhood girlfriends are taking. 

What do we know of Britney and Jason? Does it really matter? What Britney did was tell us that she’s not the virgin goddess we wanted her to be: She bleeds. I think she just wanted to touch the ground.

Anyways, not to be a huge downer, I just thought I'd share it. It seems appropriate considering most news websites I looked at today had a "Check out Miley's latest scandal" ticker at the top of the page... 


I'll always be a Britney fan. No matter what she does in life, I've got her back.


xo

flipflop

I'm home alone today, so I decided to try a little Value Village adventure, to my disappointment, when I got to VV I was just not in the mood for thrifting. So after wandering around for a while, I decided that maybe taking on a craft project would be better suited for me today. But then after walking around Michael's for about 20 minutes, I decided that I didn't feel like doing that either. 


So I grabbed some Starbucks, went home and curled up with a British Vogue.

What better way to waste an afternoon!! Does anyone else think Gisele deserves a nice vacation after all these ads she's in?! Cray!

I can't forget to mention my little fur-buddy who hung out with me this afternoon too...isn't he perfect! Prowwwww


It also occurred to me that today would be fabulous to do some cleaning, so I cranked up some music and started cleaning my room!

Woops. I really don't feel like cleaning. So I just tidied up and vacuumed the cat hair. 


I'm having such a restless day today. I don't want to shop, do crafts, read, clean, sleep...anything. I am the most indecisive person in the world. I just want to be productive, but something is stopping me. I don't know what it is, and I don't know how to fix it. 

Ah well, tomorrow will be better. Tomorrow is the BIG MONEY SHOT, at Ritual night club. Again, any of you Ottawa folks should totally come out to it. It's going to be a great show. And getting the support for local bands would be great too.


xo

Spring Cleaning

This bout of springy weather inspired me to begin breaking out my spring goods. I've been focusing a lot on the things I need (want) for spring, that I've forgotten that I've got a few great pieces already!

Part of my problem was the fact was that I was storing all of my spring and summer dresses in Charles' guitar closet. So step one was to take 'em out!!

Oh great, there's a Baxter on my garment bags.

It's no secret that in the summer I LOVE wearing dresses. In fact between May and September and I just flat out don't wanna wear pants. I got this amazing eyelet dress at BCBG last year, its such a great day dress. And this super fun colourful number is from Urban Outfitters. It's backless, which I love.

I also got this amazing bright COPE dress last year. It's very asymmetrical at the bottom and is kind of longer than most of the dresses I have. The patterned dress was actually my prom dress LOL. I was a hippie for my prom in this really cool Marciano dress that I still wear today! How many people can say that about THEIR prom dresses?!

This green BCBG runway dress is probably my favourtie dress that I own. It's literally perfect in every way. And I love this little ruffled sun dress from Jacob. It has feathers on it. I don't know about you, but I am starting to get EXCITED about these dresses!!!!

I've also got a few standard Aritzia dresses which are super practical for work, but can be dressed up for night time too! I wore the darker one to a fancy dinner at Mont Tremblant last year, one of the rare occasions when the meal costs more than your outfit. Yikes....

Oh Hey Dakota! 

In keeping with the Spring Cleaning trend, I decided today to buy some new nail polishes. I've never tried essie before, (I'm a devout OPI girl) but so far I'm impressed! I used the lilacs on my toes (opting for a lighter colour after my "Jade is the new Black" fiasco) and I like it!

A girl also needs to have an assortment of footwear at her disposal this time of year. From one day to the other you never know if it's going to be sunny and warm, sunny and cold or cold and cold and rainy. So I've got some cute heels, some black flats, (my basics for work) some wellies for those rain days, or if you find yourself at a music festival all of a sudden, and some nice weather boots. A 

veritable cornucopia!

Oh thanks for getting off my garment bags Baxter.

I also LURVE scarves. All kinds. Designer scarves, vintage scarves, homemade scarves. OH YEAH.

Spring is also the time to bust out some light and breezy blazers. Put the black away! I've got a couple great cream blazers from the Gap and Aritzia respectively, an incredible white BCBG blazer and this amazing green blazer that was an absolute bargain. ($25???!?!? YES)

I've also broken out some spring time reading. Part of being a grown-up is not being embarrassed by the things you enjoy. I'm not going to lie to you, I really enjoy the Sookie Stackhouse mystery books. I'll be the first to tell you that I think they're not very well written. But I can't get enough!!! I also have to get around to reading the second book in the Hunger Games series...I'm a bandwagon jumper, I know.

So there's what I did this evening. Aren't I productive when my boyfriend is at band practice?! SPEAKING of bands. This coming Monday (April 23) is the Big Money Shot. It's kind of a battle of the bands by Live 88.5 and Charles' band, Right By Midnight is going to be competing! If anyone is in the area they should totally come! It's going to be at Ritual Nightclub and I think it starts at 8PM. Support Local Music babies! 

Have a good night, and maybe see you Monday!

Wind

Today was ridiculously windy. And nice. But cool. And sunny. And windy.  This morning I made the decision that I didn't want to wear pants, or tights. But on a windy day, one runs the risk of exposing ones girl bits. A good way to prevent this is by wearing a POWER SKIRT. (yes, you have to say POWER SKIRT in the POWER THIRST voice)


That's what they call the BCBG bandage skirts, and that's what I wore today. In a power skirt you literally run ZERO risk of exposing anything you don't want to. Tight Baby!

Resilience

For my birthday this year, (January 4th btw, in case anyone wants to start thinking about gifts!) my Dad gave me these flowers to put on my desk at work. And looking at them right now is making do some serious philosophical-izing.

How different are we from flowers. Okay, that's a dumb thing to say, but really...I've had this plant for over 4 months and it shows no sign of giving up and dying. If I don't water it for a few days it begins to wilt, but once I pour some H2o in it, it goes right back to being its perky self. Much like the way humans tend to wilt and fade when they are missing things in their life too.What I'm trying to do is set up a metaphor for feeling listless and limp without having a creative outlet. 


People these days are so busy and live such noisy lives that sometimes it's hard to just relax and absorb the world around you. I know that I can feel heavy and dormant when things don't go my way, and feel like I'm not getting what I need. I feel like I'm just drying up waiting for someone to water me. My petals droop sometimes.


It's important to trim the dead shoots, and give the plant the best possible growing space. If an idea is dead. Move on. You can't spend your whole life trying to make something work that is clearly not going to work. You can't force something to grow out of the ground. It has to be natural. And sometimes as much as you feel like something is a part of you, if it's dragging you down and stunting your growth. You have to cut it. 


But we are resilient. And once that water, or inspiration, or whatever it is that we're looking for, comes around. We go back to how we are supposed to be. Standing tall. Smiling. Happy. 


When I started writing this post, the plant was drooping and not looking so hot, so I gave it some water and already the flowers look revitalized. Things can happen that quickly. 

It's dolce vita on a gorgeous April evening

Did I mention that I LOVE these Dolce Vita sandals? Even though I'm over 6 feet tall in them....LOVE.

what's old is new

Lately we've been watching a lot of Mad Men. I don't have cable, (I'd rather not pay $100 a month for re-runs of Criminal Minds, thankyou!) so sometimes when we find seasons of DVDs for cheap, we jump on it. Lately we've been getting Mad Men. And I'm in love. The high waisted pants, the classic lines, the cat eye sunglasses! Even though (As of season 4) January Jones' character is a miserable bitch. Her style is really instilling some style envy in me. 

Mint is huge this year, just like Gaga predicted in her "Marry the Night" video. But I also think this year is going to be a huge throwback to the 50s and 60s. The waistlines on our pants are becoming higher and strappy, angry looking gladiator sandals are being replaced with feminine wedges and platforms with delicate buckles and new materials. (Like my new Dolce Vita sandals, mixing cork with velvet?! Cool.) 

It's also refreshing to see different hemlines on skirts. I was beginning to get bored with the options we had: A-line, pencil or mini. I love the mullet skirt and the sheer skirts that are are showing up these days. It's so different and refreshing. Plus imagine how easy it would be to hit up Value Village, and chop and sew those great old tent-like skirts they always have there?! (Oh no, I've revealed my plan!) They say that in bad economic times, the hemlines get longer. If that's the case, I welcome a recession! (Not Really)

I am also so in love with mixing patterns and colours that would normally not go so well together. Pastels and bright vibrant blues and reds. And even mixing the eyelet trend with a fantastic spiked snake skin bag seems totally wearable now. 

It seems like in 2012, anything goes. Isn't it exciting?

bohemian business woman

It's one thing to get excited about something, feeling like your heart is going to flutter right out of your mouth. You can't keep still because you want to get going on your plans. Your mind knows there's more to be done, but your body is just raring to go.

Have you ever had that feeling completely dashed, and replaced by cold, hard, heavy disappointment? It feels like cement. All of your shiny hopes and bubble dreams slowly drift into the distance and all you're left with is this sadness that seems to just overwhelm your entire body. It's a horrible feeling.

After surrendering to the fact that nothing is in your control, it seems to be replaced by a manic scramble. How can I make this work? What can I do? Who can help me? The sense of urgency is so overwhelming that you can't think of anything else.

But then all of a sudden, you're presented with an angle that you didn't notice before. And you don't know wether to trust the rising feeling inside that is telling you that everything is going to work out after all. You've been fooled before. Will you allow yourself to be fooled again?

I am going to figure out a way to make it to college in the fall. I am surrounded by people who love me, (and whom I love back!) who want nothing but the what is best for me. And together. We'll figure it out. I have such high hopes for the future. But I also want to keep getting inspired with the present. Spring is here. Changes. Growth. Happiness.

A shout-out to the Shrew!

My good friend Kim, (we go waaaay waaaay back) name dropped me on her super-cool blog The Clever Shrew!
Ever since I've known her, (and most certainly before I knew her too) Kim has always had a really fresh and thought-provoking view on life. She was one of the first friends I made in high school and growing up was a huge inspiration to me to learn to just be who you want to be. Her blog is great and she just re-launched it with a new project she's going to be working on, which I think is going to be a great read. 
If you're interested in art, music, writing, history and people and thinking outside the box check out Kim over at The Clever Shrew. Plus she has cats!!