flowers!

Here are a few recent photos I took! The hydrangeas are from my aunt and uncle's house, and the zinnias are from our garden. Enjoy!

Europe.

Well, I finally did it. I started my Europe fund! I decided that if I'm going to travel the world someday, I'll need to save for it! Which reminds me of a similar story...

About four years ago, my sister and I had a dream of taking the train and going to the American Girl Place in Chicago. After a few months of saving, we got discouraged and decided it was a hopeless effort, so we divided our savings--a few dollar bills, and a jar full of coins, and each took half. However, there was a single dollar left, making our total odd, so with discouraged faces, we gave the dollar to our mother so that the split-up money would be fairly distributed. We laid the bill on the table and said something like, "This is for you. we had an idea, but it's not going to work." But my mom would not let us go without finding out what it was that wasn't going to work. So, we told her the whole thing and right then and there, with her encouragement, we decided to make it work. And penny by penny, saving spare change, consigning clothes, and having garage sales, the money added up, and in November, we boarded a train with our two friends and their mom. Our weekend was filled with exciting taxi rides, a stay at a nice hotel, a Nancy Drew movie night, shopping with our dolls in the enormous sections of doll clothing and accessories, dinner at Ed Debevic's and so many more fun memories!

All that to say, dreams like these can come true, so as for Europe, I'm going to keep dreaming. :)

Five things that make me happy

Here's another edition of 'Five things that make me happy'! Enjoy!

glow sticks
fireworks
green grass and converse
French Sodas

little cupcakes!

Creative Ideas: video diaries!

Just this week I hung out with my best friend, and after a few wonderful adventures, we thought of an ingenious idea: (how we never thought of it before, I do not know) Documenting our many experiences and funny stories through a video diary! we just started shooting with my camera (the new Canon Rebels have video!! :D) for about two minutes or so. If you balance it out with friendship journaling in a real journal, it makes for great memories to last a lifetime! Just thought I'd share it with you all!

London. Paris. New York. Audrey.

After our family trip a few weeks ago, I received this gift from my mother, you know, a random "hold out your hands and close your eyes, and you will get a lovely surprise" kind of gift. Actually it was kind of a "thanks- for- being- a-flexible-kid- on- the-trip" kind of gift, but that is on the DL around here. :)

Anyway, it's just the perfect kind of gift for me! I love all those places, and I will probably have visited all of them by the time I'm 30. And Audrey... well, Audrey is just my all-time favourite actress. What can I say? She was a very inspiring lady with a big heart, and her influence has inspired me a lot to be who I am. All that to say, surprises are lovely. :)

A Few of My Favorite Things (bargain vintage edition)

These are just a few of my many favorite vintage items. I try to only buy them when they're a very good deal, but once in a while, there's just that one thing that I have to get, whether it's a good deal or not. :)

Aqua cup and saucer: 10c each, garage sale (how much cheaper does it get?! I bought them three days ago and have already used them a dozen times!)

camera: junk sale, $3

flashlight: junk sale, $1 (my favorite flashlight EVER!!)

owl: junk sale, 75c (an adorable addition to my collection!)

typewriter: goodwill, $5 (awesome! I can still remember the obfuscated look on the cashier's face when she asked 'what do you want a typewriter for??' I told her that 'I just liked them.')

Different.

Just this week, a Latin teacher of mine dropped by with some awesome fabric, buttons, and sparkly embellishments. I was speechless at the amount of pearls and sequins I kept pulling from the sack- it felt like a never-ending supply! Anyhow, yesterday I was sorting the buttons and took this picture. I printed it off and had typed in the bottom right corner 'different'. That's how I feel sometimes, but I love it because I'm okay with myself. I don't need to be like everybody else because different is a good thing! In fact, different is what changes the world. So I'm just going to keep being my different self and try to change the world a little bit each day. So if you're like me, I encourage you to keep being different despite what people think. The way I see it, it's usually only the truly different people who inspire me to change or to keep being who I am. Be who you're called to be and you never know how many people you will inspire.

Here is a list I made a few months ago about being different when I was struggling with it. (I'm not really that discouraged anymore, don't worry!)

Different...

Is hard to be.

takes courage.

isn't bad.

has rewards.

is confident.

doesn't care what they think.

changes the world.