farewell, summer

To start, here are a few drawings I've made in the past week or so. Apologies for the awful lighting! My scanner refuses to scan anything too light or in a book, so I'm out of luck for a while.
I actually false-started this post a week ago, so ignore the date up top!

I'm popping in to let you know that I'm still around, but that my laptop (and hence all my photos and inspiration folders) is down for the count and refuses to let me access blogger and Google (but still works for everything else...which is really irritating). So, I hopped on my family's home computer and, though I'm lacking photographs besides these poorly lit shots of a few drawings I've made, I thought I'd share what I've been up to for the past few weeks. First of all, I got to go back to the Gathering of the Vibes music festival for a night, which was a totally different experience than it was last time around. There were way more dead heads, way more people on drugs (amusing and frightening, I have to say), and it was actually a lot more fun to be an observer of everything going on. Also, there was no mud, thank god! Other things I have been up to: hiking, swinging in the hammock, cooking good meals, painting my nails, drawing a ton,reading even more, buying new jeans, falling back in love with pastels (wrong time of year for that but whatever), going to my first ever pro football game (yeah Giants!), watching too many movies, etc. I've been kind of avoiding the whole going back to school thing, and I realized I have less than a week before I move in! That's crazy, and I'm not sure that I'm ready to get back into all that again. I guess I hate feeling trapped at a place, if anyone knows what I mean. So, with me going back soon I'm not sure I can promise a lot of updates for the next month or so until I'm settled, but I do have a lot planned, including an entire blog overhaul, so please stay tuned!

For now, take a glimpse at some of the people that really inspire me this week!

-Sarah McNeil
Her Etsy, her blog, her flickr...I love it all. Adding a print (or two or ten) to me Christmas wish list. I'm so ready to start a Christmas wish list!

-Blushing Ambition

Just started reading her stuff, and it's a bit different from what I usually follow but I like how clean and put together everything is. Also, I love her hair.

-Bree Dentice
Found her shop via Sarah McNeil, and I rally wish I could afford a necklace! Another thing to add to my wish list.

Also, go out and buy/borrow St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, by Karen Russel. I really enjoyed each of the stories, and finished the collection way too fast.

welcome to college; installment 2

This isn't much of an interesting post, since school hasn't officially started and therefore I haven't even bothered to wear anything other than jeans and a t shirt all weekend, but I wanted to show off my new "home."

I pretty much transplanted the majority of my stuff from my room at home here, although my big cat painting thing won't stay on the wall...bummer.

Otherwise, I'm pretty happy with how it looks, although I must admit that it's all a bit pink, but I like it. I still haven't gotten used to the setup, and not being able to see my family every 5 minutes is a bit of a shock, but I guess I'll get over it once the school year starts...which happens to be 9:30 tomorrow morning!

I'm a pre-med and English major, so my schedule looks a bit stuffed, but I'm really quite excited to get into my routine and see if college really is all that they say it is :)
Ok, I don't want to bore you with personal stuff, so here are a couple of quick shots of my room (At least my half, lol, having a roommate is new for me too! I like it though, it would be so lonely if I was in a single!)

So here's my bed and all my junk...

my little dresser and a bunch of stuff

above my desk...

on my desk (my grandma gave me the baby seal, because she wanted me to have something of hers! so adorable, i love her :)

... and another on-the-desk shot

so voila! there's my room in a nutshell; I might reorganize later in the year but for now it's good :)

warm my heart

My favorite season by far is autumn. I have nothing against the other seasons (besides winter, which i detest...) but fall is just so much better than any other time of year! I can't get enough of the way the changing trees look when the sun is going down; the smell of leaves and woodsmoke and spice. Picking pumpkins and apples and mugs of hot cider, halloween and thanksgiving and staying warm with wool blankets on long car rides. Sunrise, and even better, sunsets...nothing can beat it, especially here in new england where we are all about the change of seasons.
One of the best things about the transition from summer to fall has to be the cool autumn air and the richer colors and cosier layers that serve as inspiration when the world outside ceases to be an oven. The summer is nice, but so limiting because all you want to wear is t shirts and flip flops. Spring is alright, but always seems to be rainy or just a milder second winter. Autumn, therefore, is my season; the one I wait for without fail, until the first leaves begin to carpet my lawn and the neighboring farms again boast of a bountiful harvest.
So, with autumn in mind, I found some really cool stuff at salvation army today, including this sweet romper that I can't wait to pair with knit tights and oxford flats when the weather is cool enough.

i also found two pairs of 70s jeans that are totally rad (yes, i just used the word rad, lol) Now I have a small collection of 70s denim, but I'm still on the lookout for the perfect pair for me.

I also bought this autumnal print at the thrift store for my dorm room, and am debating whether or not I should buy a little love seat sofa that has been waiting there as well...it is absolutely one of the most hideous things I have ever seen on account of the fabric, but it is the perfect size and shape for snuggling up on, and is so ugly it's almost charming. I might just go back and get it for my room at home; for $50 it's a steal. I promise I'll go take a photo of it to show you if I get back there before I leave for school!

I was also having a dilemma with my lack of shelving, as I read a lot of books and will undoubtedly need a storage space at school, but my mom had a brilliant idea to use the shelves from the beautiful cabinet my great-grandfather made, and they are perfect! It's cool to be able to bring along a piece of my family history to college; it's so much more meaningful than the walmart milk crates I was going to use.

Now that I have professed my love for the upcoming season, I need to reassess my fall wardrobe...I'm really feeling the separates thing as opposed to pretty little dresses, possibly because simple single layers are boring me as of late. I still need to pack up 90% of my stuff for the big move, and I have no idea what I should bring! I should be fine though, I just need to sit down and do it and I'll be fine :)

schoolgirl crush

i love summer and all, but now that the sticky humid weather is here i can't help but think of beautiful fall afternoons with hot tea, fall leaves, and relaxing on campus (maybe i'm swayed by the way harry potter movies always make school seem so awesome, as i just saw the latest installment. it was good but i liked the previous ones more, less confusing and teen-angsty)

maybe that's what drove me to make both of these buys- a white school uniform blouse (that is identical to my old school uniform, only mine was yellow) and a very fall rust colored vintage skirt. there were two other vintage skirts i left behind, one green in a heavy wool, very old, and a blue, but sadly both were very small, and i was low on cash so no impulse buys :(
as for shoes, i did manage to find two pairs of minnetonka moccasins! i had a pair of these when i was a toddler, and they're a totally cool fall-like find. and, for my most exciting win(at least for me)drum roll please...
a pair of chloe heels off of ebay!

i have my eye on another pair, but we'll see how high the auction goes...these were very cheap as far as chloes go, about as much as a new pair of heels from urban outfitters, and so far the other pair are low as well...i'm becoming addicted to ebay and all the great chloe shoes i seem to find! but if they're in my budget and miraculously my size, they are so mine

i also want to make a promise to start posting more regularly and less erratically, which will a)force me to actually wear something other than jeans and a t shirt every day, b) try a bit harder to put myself together for "photo shoots", and c) not leave any readers wondering if i fell into a black hole! i hate when bloggers don't update frequently, but i'm a big hypocrite! lets say that i pinky swear to post at least 3 times a week? if i get on a schedule of posting i'm sure to stick with it :)