Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Goodbye July; Hello August



For the next twenty three days, I'm going to be an emotional wreck. In twenty three days, I'll say "see you soon" to my boyfriend, hug my siblings for the last time, and hop on an airplane with my parents to go to college. On the one hand, I'm ready to go now and I am unbelievably excited to go. But on the other hand, it's going to be the hardest thing in the world parting ways with my family and Matt. Gosh, I'm crying right now just thinking about it ...

So onto a happier note, here are some of my favorite posts from the month. You can click on the photo to view the post.










Hope you had a wonderful July, and may August be even better!

save your echo for me



day 213

I spent most of the day watching the Olympics and planning future blog posts for the month of August. It's going to be a busy, exciting month.


Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Blogger Spotlight: Elanor of Missing Lovebirds!




Today I have an awesome awesome post for you guys. Elanor is the beautiful blogger behind Missing Lovebirds and one of my blogging friends! She's super sweet and kindly agreed to let me interview her for July's blogger spotlight (I did my very first spotlight way back in March and am now going to make it a regular thing on the blog.)



1. First things, first, can you tell everyone just a bit about yourself?

Of course! My name is Elanor and I am 18 years old - currently living in the San Francisco bay area. But not for long! At the end of the summer I will be moving to Seattle, Washington for college. If it isn't already obvious, I'm a huge believer in personal expression and style which is part of the reason I have my blog! I have many loves, some of which include thrifting and vintage treasure hunting, listening to and playing music, cuddling my darling kitty Zoey, and of course adventuring with my friends.



2. Congrats on finishing high school (hooray it's over!), what do you plan on majoring in at college?

Ahh and I am so glad highschool is over! As for your question, I do not know what I am going to major in yet. I am one of those "undecideds". I am hoping that through the process of taking classes and learning about different things, I will figure out what I want to do. At this point, I'm all about opening my mind and just learning. I shall be a sponge and absorb everything!



3. How did you decide to start a blog?

It all began when I was a freshman in high school and I began dabbling in fashion. I was previously into the "scene" style (unfortunately...) but after I discovered sites like Lookbook.nu and found blogs like Selective Potential and Delightfully Tacky - my interests in having a new style of my own blossomed! Over the next few months I kept up with their blogs and discovered more, and soon I questioned myself - why can't I do this? So I made Missing Lovebirds!



4. What is the meaning behind your blog name?

In all actuality, Missing Lovebirds does not really mean anything. When I was thinking of a name, somehow along the process I imagined a poster with lost lovebirds on it saying "missing lovebirds! call this number if you find them..." etc. I have no idea! Truly, I just liked how the words sounded together!



5. Are there any current fashion trends you don't like and why?

I am not one to follow fashion trends extremely religiously. I only really know of the big trends and sometimes not even till they are out of style anyway! So I can't really give you any trends I don't like...! Sorry! ;)

6. Likewise, are there any that you were excited to incorporate into your wardrobe?

One again, I'm not too aware of many trends! However, I do enjoy the pastel trend that has been going on for a while now. :) Pale shades of pink, purple, and blue are lovely! Especially mint as well.



7. Here's a fun one: if you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go? What would you do?

If I could go anywhere in the world, I think I would first go to Paris or Spain. I have never been out of the country, unfortunately, so truly anywhere would be amazing to explore. But if I were to go to Paris or Spain, I would love to just see everything and photograph everything. Perhaps if these were my wildest dreams, I would like to sing and play music by night in small restaurants or outside...and by day, perhaps I would have some sort of design job or maybe I could just blog for a living. ;)



8. What would you say is the best thing about blogging? The worst thing?

I have no hesitation in saying that the best thing about blogging is the people you meet through it. The community has been amazing and I've met so many beautiful people through it. The worst thing about it, I admit, is having it be another thing that I need to be "perfect at" (I'm a perfectionist...) but that ruins the true reason for blogging if it's all about page views and comments. It's easy to compare your blog to other blogs and get down on yourself so that is one struggle I've faced throughout the years and one reason that blogging becomes something that isn't good.



9. How would you say your style has changed over the years?

Well, as I mentioned, early on my style was an attempt to be "scene" so it has DEFINITELY changed since then. But since I've been blogging, I guess I'd say that it has become a bit more refined. My outfits seem more put together now, and I definitely try to channel the vintage vibe in some way or another in my outfits.

10. What's one piece of advice you would give to bloggers first starting out?

One advice I would give to bloggers first starting out is simply, be passionate about what you're blogging about and try your very hardest to make your blog something that you yourself would like to read. This advice for me means that I try to concentrate on making my photos and my blog design the very best I can because for me, that is what first draws in and keeps me reading a blog. In addition, I try to focus on my personal style as well as just my plain old life because simply, style is my passion and my life is my life! And people have an innate interest in your life, believe it or not. People strive to make connections and really know people. Blogging can be a great outlet for that.



Thank you Elanor for letting me interview you, and be sure to check out her blog, Missing Lovebirds!

Also don't forget to enter the We Love Colors giveaway. Today is the last day to enter!

and you were a house on fire



day 212

It's been another boring day, but a good one. I looked back on some of my old old posts and now I am going to try to make an effort to write about more details of my day. I want to look back years from now and be able to recall everything that happened, even if it was boring.

So my morning schedule for lazy days, such as today, is as follows. I wake up around noon, text my boyfriend, check instagram (which today hasn't been working on my phone, which is super frustrating), then lay in bed and surf the interwebs. Check facebook, flickr, emails, read blogs, go on tumblr. Then I convince myself to get out of bed around two o'clock in the afternoon, when my stomach starts to crave food. Today it really wanted tater tots, so I put some in the oven and snacked on some bad tasting pizza snacks (the off brand of the off brand so they had a weird flavor) while watching reruns of The Last Airbender. Then ... TATER TOTS! I also knitted on my scarf that I've been working on and off on for the past few months. After saying that I'll just watch one more episode and then go take outfit photos a million times (and I never did take outfit photos), my dad came home from work. I got dressed. We ate supper. Then I left to go babysit my kids. I had been catsitting their cat while they were away on vacation, but now they're back and I missed them so much! Their mom said that throughout the whole day they kept asking when I would come and if it was time for me to be there yet or not. Gosh I love those little crazy kids. Then after playing around with them, I drove home, ate some cereal, watched the Olympics and screamed at the tv during any remotely dangerous part, and then took today's 365 photo. Then I came back inside, stormed into my brothers' room to annoy them, and then I did more random things on the internet and also edited this photo.

... okay, maybe I won't go into that much detail every day, but maybe if I stick to giving details it will encourage me to actually do something productive. Maybe? We'll see.

Also, my friend and fellow blogger Hannah has been doing a photography challenge, and it's been written on one of my sticky notes to actually do it, so this photo is a combination of both of her challenges so far: night and action shots. It only gets really dark during the wee hours of the night (and by then I'm afraid to go outside because of bears), but this photo was taken around 10:30pm so I guess it counts as a night shot. And the water is moving, so ... action! I'm excited for the next challenge she gives us, and you should check out her photos from the challenge as well (her night shots are actual night shots. They're way cool).

Wow, sorry to make this such a text heavy post, guess I just got excited or something. (Maybe I'm in a weird mood.) Anyways, hope you have an awesome day!