the dress: as shirt // shorts: forever 21 // shoes: diy // suspenders: hot topic
First of all, thank you to my little sister for taking these photos for me! She's only ten and is already quite the little photographer. Her awards ceremony at school was today and she went home with four awards and is now officially in the fifth grade. They grow up so fast!
This is my very first time blogging as a high school graduate!! It's also my first time blogging on my new laptop. I received it as a graduation present from my parents and I'm extremely grateful, especially considering I've had my old laptop since seventh grade and it's been shutting off randomly smoking out the sides ... yes, you read that right. I'm pretty sure it was about to explode. Plus this laptop is super light which will be perfect for college. But because of my new laptop, my suuuper old photoshop won't work anymore, so it will be a couple weeks before I get new photoshop. It will be well worth it though because I'm getting CS6!! My dad paid for half of the student edition and I know it's a good investment, as there were many things I couldn't do with my photoshop. But in the meantime, I'll be using good ol' gimp!
Tomorrow I'll post about graduation as I have nothing else to do except relax. Thank God for summer! Sleeping in, soaking up some sun, hanging out with friends, and taking lots of photos ... it's going to be a great summer!
p.s. this morning there was an earthquake and it was so scary! Well, only kind of. It was a 4.6 and only 8 miles from our house. It knocked over a few dishes in the cupboard and off the counters, but nothing bad. Alaska nerd alert! My family loves earthquake information.
I'm wearing this dress for thirty consecutive days to spread awareness and support the Batonga Foundation! It is an awesome organization that supports girls in Africa by giving them a full education. Thank you so so much for getting the word out and for donating. It means the world!
the dress: as shirt // skirt: thrifted // shoes: thrifted // earrings: noble town vintage
day 133
I could see for miles, miles, miles
Today has been spent driving people from one place to another, listening to classical music, eating cereal on the road, and taking many photos on film.
A question was posed yesterday about how often I wash my dress and how I decided to use this one. I replied in the comments, but I thought I would answer again in a post. I'm washing it about once a week, as long as I don't sweat in it, haha. But I also try not to wear it all day. I usually take it off as soon as I get home from school/church/running errands or whatever so that I can wear it more between washes.
As for choosing the dress? It was sort of an impulse decision. My friend gave me the dress and when I decided to do the 30 day challenge that was the first dress I saw hanging in my closet. And so far it's been an awesome choice because even though it's floral, it's acting much like a neutral color so I can wear it with a lot of stuff. It's definitely good for stretching what prints and colors go together and I love that.
The trick in mixing florals (and I'm no expert, but this is what I hold to be true) is that generally it's easy to mix dark florals (like my dress) with light florals (like my skirt). Again, the dark florals serve as a neutral color so it works.
When deciding what to pair it with today, I almost didn't wear the skirt. I thought, "Man, it's cold outside and I'm going to be in and out of the car a lot, I don't want to be freezing." But then I thought, "When in the world has weather gotten in the way of what I wanted to wear?" It reminds me of the cold winter days when I couldn't stand outside for more than five minutes without my fingers going numb, with the snow blowing in my face and my feet getting soaking wet, but I still did it nearly every day to get a good photo. And now I'm being a wimp in this forty degree weather. But still, it's a lot colder now than it was this time last year ... when will Alaska realize that it's summer?
Well I am off for a date, so I'll leave you with my plea to help girls in Africa. But seriously, if everyone who reads this blog donates just five dollars, we will have raised over $300. It's really not that much per person, and you're helping to change the life of a girl.
So donate to the Batonga foundation today to support education for girls in Africa.
Have an awesome day everyone!
day 132
TODAY WAS OUR LAST DAY OF HIGH SCHOOL.
We did the senior run down the hallways, slamming lockers and shooting people with silly string and water guns. It was amazing.
It still hasn't hit me yet that I'm done with high school. I don't think it will even hit me when I walk across that stage and am handed a piece of paper that I worked for twelve years to receive. It will probably hit me when I get on the airplane to go to college, but that's not for a few months.
For now, it's summer! I'm working on getting a list of summer goals together so that I'm not entirely bored for four months. What are your summer plans?
Also be sure to donate to the Batonga Foundation, which gives girls in Africa a full education so they can live better lives. Any amount helps!
the dress: as shirt // button down: thrift store // skirt: forever 21 // shoes: target
Can I just complain about something that I totally should not be complaining about at the moment? It's this little thing called marriage. Okay, maybe not exactly that. More like getting engaged, specifically in high school. The second person I know in my grade (little ol' senior) got engaged today. I have mixed emotions about the subject. First, there's the initial aww how cute and precious feeling because honestly, anything even remotely cute makes me go all super girly. Secondly I feel a bit skeptical, just because of how young people are. Come on, do you really know that's the person you want to spend the rest of your life with? And unless you're planning on having a four year engagement through college, how are you going to support each other? There's still so much growing up to do ... but at the same time, do we really ever stop growing? That's where the emotion of jealousy comes in. Matt and I have been dating over a year. (We want to get married but my mom says I shouldn't write stuff like that on here ... so let the record show that parentheses means I didn't really say it. ;)) My own parents dated less than that before they became engaged. While I do think it might possibly not be the best idea to get married right out of high school, when I hear that one of my peers is now engaged, well it makes me feel a little bummed that I don't get to have that now.
Eh, thus is the life of being a girl, I suppose. I am glad that Matt and I aren't doing anything crazy like that and choosing to wait it out.
Haha well this ended up being a venting post. It probably didn't really sound like I was venting, but trust me, I was. Well, now this is like the awkward silence after someone yelled or something, soooo ...
wow. I can even make my blog awkward. Well then.
My grandparents came into town for my graduation, and as my grandma would say, this is just my senioritis coming though. Perhaps that's true. I took the AP English Test today and even though it really wasn't all that bad I'm milking the "badness" for all it's worth, so I blame my strange train of thought and lack of good sentence structure on that test. But hey, only ONE DAY LEFT OF HIGH SCHOOL!!!!
Anyways, I'm doing this dress challenge to raise money for the Batonga Foundation, which helps girls in Africa receive a full education, so that they too can be excited about graduating and go on to get jobs and live better lives.
You can donate by clicking on the button below! Thank you so much!
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
