You never have any fun, so I won't come around

Summer has arrived in The Mitten! It has been so hot and muggy the past few days, but for once I am going to try to embrace the heat and try to enjoy it. I don't think it will be too hard since I am never outside anymore (cue ghosty limbs). Sunday I stayed in all day doing homework and cleaning and when I finally went outside it started raining and it wasn't all that hot anymore. I am half-way though my first summer course, I get a week off, then my next summer course starts, then I get another week off, then fall semester begins. I am trying to figure out when/where/how to take a vacation during all of this, I really have no idea.

Sorry about the mega-dorky 'I-can't-think-of-anything-better-than-to-pose-standing-on-a-log' photos, but I thought it would be cool to take some near what is left of the tree, while we still have what is left of the tree. Since we live on a busy corner, people keep stopping buy to ask for some of the wood. Royal Oak and Ferndale banned fire-pits and chimineas this summer but Oak Park allows them still so we might go get one and burn some of the left-over wood too. I really want to build a giant fort but Kyle thinks it would be a bad idea for some reason beyond me, forts are cool!

Details

Dress-F21

Scarf-friend

Shoes-Payless

Belt-Thrifted

Earrings-Copper world

Song of the day: "Any Fun" by Coconut records

Man Man!

This past Wednesday night, Kyle, Mark, Mariah, and I went out to Pontiac to see Man Man perform at the Crowfoot! It was a really awesome show, Man Man is an amazing experimental-rock band, they use several different kinds of instruments as well as random objects (bike tires, ladders) to make music. They played a pretty decent set, lots of new and older songs. They didn't play "Rabid Habits", which is one of my favorites, but I still had an awesome time dancing around and sipping cheap beer to the music. It was also cool to drive through downtown Pontiac since I hadn't been there in years. Pontiac, Flint and Detroit are pretty famous for being really dangerous cities, but any city can be dangerous if you are not being careful. I was pleased to see that a coffee shop I really like "Blue note cafe" was still open and packed with people, one of my friends used to play guitar there all the time on weeknights years ago and it was always fun to go see her play. I hadn't been to the Crowfoot since it was changed over from the Emerald Theater, and it was funny to see that the Have a Nice Day Cafe was now an office building for Oakland Community College, but it made me want to check out the city a little more.

Ugh, indoor outfit photos! Hehe, I am partial to outdoor ones, but it has been raining all week and part of this weekend here in the mitten. Kyle really liked the plaid-curtain backdrop in these, which is surprising since he normally protests me wearing plaid with the Doc Martens, but I guess as long as I am not actually wearing it... I wish I could wear outfits like this all the time! I tend to on weekends, Fridays or after work when I am going somewhere, but during the workday I am trying to dress more for my environment. I have realized that it can be really fun to try to put something personal and creative in such a boring, office outfit. Vintage skirts and dresses come in  handy and seem to be approved so I am going to have to keep an eye out. I actually just acquired more hand-me-downs from friends and I am realizing that most of my wardrobe is from the thrift store or from a friend and I have no problem with that.

Mariah made me this awesome and amazing painting, can you see what it is?

It's the Weezer symbol on a piece of wood with a nebula background! I CAN'T EVEN. I swear, I have the most talented and amazing people in my life, and I think this is just an amazing piece of art. Kyle is less than enthused, but that is because I am obsessed with Weezer. I can't wait to hang it up, I love all the personal touches that are being incorporated into our house. We have a ton of hand-me downs, items passed down from Grandparents, and lots of handmade decor. I couldn't be happier!

Details

Dress-Modcloth

Cardigan-Hand me down

Tights-CVS

Belt-Thrifted

Socks-Borrowed from Kyle

Boots- Doc Martens

Anne and Chris's Wedding!

Saturday was an amazing day! My close friend Anne and her fiance Chris got married and it was such an awesome wedding. Everything from the hair appointments at 9am to rushing out to the car in the drizzling rain at midnight, it was perfect and perfectly Anne. I thought I'd share some of the very few 'nice' photos that I have since most of them all just goofy, but so fun! As you all can probably guess, Anne is the lovely lady in white, looking like "Bride Barbie" in those blonde locks, and Chris is there next to her. He is such a sweetie, his personality is a lot like Kyle's, quiet but a goof-ball.

I didn't get a good shot of my outfit, but all us bridesmaids wore different black dresses and shoes. I did wear some cute black Steve Madden pumps, but after standing around for two hours during photos and last minute preparations, we all were in flip-flops by the reception.  Kyle had a special request from Anne to wear a Trogdor T-shirt so I made sure to order one for him! 

The center pieces were so awesome, they were Venus fly-traps! I took one home with me at the end of the night and it is now sitting on my kitchen table, I doubt that I will be able to take care of it for long because I have black thumbs, but it is so cool for now. 

This is Vince and Dave, Dave and I walked together and he was the best! Everyone in the wedding party was awesome. Four of us may have started spontaneously giggling though the ceremony...

This dapper looking guy is Alex with his date Taylor. Alex, Anne and I all first met three years ago in French class at Oakland Community College. Back then, Anne and I spent most of our time trying not to kill Alex because of his constant pen-tapping and farting. Now, we are almost all grown up!

Sara Squared! This is the maid of honor Sara. When the other bridesmaid named Sara showed up we were then Sara-cubed. So clever, I know. 

Besides taking ridiculous photos of ourselves, we ate yummy food, drank delicious mixed drinks and danced like crazy. Anne and Chris just made up a playlist after getting some requests and it was awesome. Everything from Journey to Nerf Herder, yes, the theme song from Buffy! We also walked to the Imperial March from Star Wars. The look on my Dad's face when I was telling him the details of the wedding was priceless. He just kept saying "Who are these people?" and I laugh and say, "My friends".

Brokeback Mountain

Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist are a perfect example of having your heart in a difficult place. In the year 1963, jobs were hard to come across and herding sheep for the summer in Wyoming seemed simple enough. Ennis, ever the quiet type, kept to himself at first, but Jack managed to get him to discuss more than his dislike for beans. They shared memories of their childhoods together and the possible future plans they might have once they got paid at the end of the summer, usually over some whiskey at the end of the night over the campfire. Alone in the mountains they became close and after one cold night of spontaneous intimacy, their attachment for each other would become more than dependency, but a slow long path of destruction. 

Ennis never had much growing up and once the summer was over he no longer had a place to live. He did what most young desperate men would do and find any job that would hire you and get married. At first, the marriage is almost too sweet. Two young people ecstatic over the simple, and sometimes sparse,  events of adulthood. Moving into a small town, becoming parents to two little girls, both working until exhaustion but still positive and supportive of each other. But it all changes with the arrival of a post card from Jack Twist. 

Jack has been busy over the years as well, he was lucky enough to capture the attention of a wealthy owner of a farming equipment company and managed to get her pregnant. They formed a mild appreciation for each other and married, though Jack never stopped pinning for Ennis. Finally, he wrote to his old friend and planed a long over-due visit. 

Upon Jack's arrival, Ennis cannot control his excitement for him. They barely can contain themselves and immediately check into a hotel so that they can be alone and relive the nights on Brokeback Mountain. Now that they have seen each other again, they know they have to be careful, but plan out special fishing trips so that they can see each other twice a year. 

But things are not that simple, and Ennis's wife learns that her husbands heart belongs to Jack and it causes a rift between them. Ennis struggles from job to job, from house to house in order to pay child support. Jack is trapped under his father-in-law, working in the shadows of his successful wife all the while plotting the perfect way to get himself and Ennis out of their terrible situations, with no success.

With the ever so quotable words; "I wish I could quit you", the audience wishes that Jack and Ennis could have lived in another time where their situation could have been a little better. That things could have been easier on them and that they could just have each other and be happy. Instead they are left with a blood-stained shirt and the cold, yet comfort of Brokeback Mountain.

Born this way

One of the projects I was referring to a few posts ago was kind of a huge old photo haul. I stole a few photo albums from my parents house and I have been slowly taking pics of old photos and storing them on my laptop, I would use the scanner but I really don't like it that much. It's been a riot posting them all on facebook and tagging my relatives, some of them are not too happy haha (bad perms and whatnot) but the baby pictures are awesome. I thought that I might share a few pics of me when I was a little "plum" as my Grandfather would refer to me as.

This is me, making a face that I am pretty famous for, at my Great-Grandparents house in Harrisville Michigan.

My aunt Terri and I at the beach in Harrisville, this beach was right outside of my Grandparents house.

Me, with my Mom, our Scottie Macky and the "Little red Chevrolet".  I want to say that this was taken in front of one of the trailers we lived in Lapeer Michigan, the city I was born in. 

I am going to assume this was taken in Harrisville too. Look how stylish I was in my awesome plaid coat!

As I go through the albums, I always seem to find pictures of me on top of car hoods. :P 

Me, at three with my little brother Mark. Hard to believe that this little guy is 23 already!

Me as a super-chubby baby with my brother Mark again. 

This has to be the most flattering picture of me as a child. Really, who puts a three year old in curlers!

Mark and I again. It's a really cute one of us all spiffy. And as you can see, here is the start of the bangs!

I was really into bows too. I kinda think that I resemble ET in this pic. 

And another piece of clothing that is plaid. I wish that I had a dress just like this in my size right now. 

This last one is my favorite. I am pretty sure that I just assumed my new baby brother was just another doll for me to play with. 

So that is it for now. I think I might post some more soon as I go through them, I really want to get a hold of the really old ones but I am not sure what my parents have. A lot of my mom's family's old pics were burnt in house fires so there is little to copy but I am on a mission to get what I can!

And I'm so sad like a good book I can't put this day back

Spring! You were here all week, spreading your beautiful sunshine and warm breeze and then you left this weekend. At least it still looks like Spring in Oak Park, there are a ton of these little trees all over the city and everything is blooming and lovely. Not going to lie, I am currently sitting in my holey yoga pants and cut-up Tori Amos concert T-shirt, getting ready to cook something hot and yummy and I don't feel so bad about it being cold out because I have lovely homework to do. I am mean! 




I spent the better part of yesterday cleaning my house and it looks so nice now. I hung up a few more things that I found and dug out some candles so now the place smells like pumpkin spice (hey, it's what I had). My attic-closet is coming along as well, I just got a bucket of paint from my co-worker that I am going to use on it and Kyle and I are on the hunt for some white dressers. I am going to practice with wallpaper in the closet as well, everyone thinks I am crazy! I don't know, I mentioned wallpaper to Kyle and he thought it was pretty cool as long as I don't cover all the walls with paper. I already have the paint I want picked out for the kitchen, and I am dying to paint but we need to work on the yard more. We finally got a mower and it needs to be cleaned out pretty bad, it is clogged up with dust but it is really cool, it's bright green! We got it from my best friend Jamie's mom and it is in good shape. I also have baby pine trees growing on the side of my yard that my co-worker gave me! I will make sure to take pics of all the plants once we get them in the ground. 




Say Hello to my new bag! I almost never buy new purses but I really wanted an across the body one and the thrift stores were just out of them. I got this one at Sears when I had my retainer fitting last week (love that my dentist is in the mall, hehe) and this one was on sale. The butterfly makes me think that this would be a purse that Lorelei Gilmore would have so that makes me love it even more. Oh and say goodbye to the red flats while you are at it, Kyle made me buy new flats at Payless about an hour after we took these photos because these are falling apart. He even threw them away after we got home later that night :P 

Details

Dress-Mod Cloth

Scarf-belt-Thrifted

Bow clip-Ferndale DIY fest

Tights & shoes-Payless

Bag-Sears

Song "Sorta fairytale" by Tori Amos