Music Speaks: The Musings of a Teenage Girl: May 2011

Just Another Day

Today nothing really interesting went on here. We woke up (later than we had expected the night before) and ate breakfast. Then after that we rushed to get ready so we could meet the lady that is doing the flowers for my sister’s wedding. After running a few errands we returned home to eat lunch and relax a little. Our evening was spent going on a walk and eating a delish meal my sister made.

So today in the midst of my “relaxing” and wave of boredom came over me…I mean how many hours can you spend reading? Okay a lot but still…I needed to take a break. So I took my camera out back and took a couple pictures.

Today my outfit was pretty simple. I tried to find a good middle between comfortable, warm, and cute.

Jet lag? Heck no!

Hey guys!

So after a long 20 hours of traveling moving into a different time zone was surprisingly easy. Last night we arrived to our home away from home at about 7:30. By the time I had emailed family and friends letting them know I survived, eaten dinner, showered, and gotten ready for bed it was almost 10:00, but for some strange reason it felt like it was 1 o’clock in the morning when at home it was not even 4 PM.

I slept in this morning until about 9 or so and after getting ready for the day we headed off to the store. Going to the grocery store in a foreign country is quite the experience I must say. After doing the math in my head and figuring out how much everything cost in dollars and I was flabbergasted. One dollar for a bag of 6 apples? Yes please.

After getting home we had lunch and just hung out for a while. Sitting in the sun in this cool weather has to be one of my favorite things to do here. My relaxing time was interrupted by my sister, mom, and sister’s fiancé’s mom wanting to go on a walk. After returning from that I opened up my computer to find that my family had left me a video message on ooVoo. How sweet :) I recorded and sent a reply and went to the kitchen to scavenge for food.

Soon I will be ooVooing my family and hopefully chatting with my best friend. I am so excited because I miss everyone like crazy! I am so excited to see what this next couple days bring :)

We Have Arrived

After months of preparation, weeks of anticipation, and days of packing we are finally almost to South Africa. I am currently typing out this post while on the plane ride to Johannesburg and will be posting it when I arrive. Traveling this time around was a piece of cake; what took us 48 hours last year is only taking us 20 this year (thanks to on time flights).

We arrived at the airport yesterday morning at 11:30 and made it right on time to our 2 o’clock flight. For some strange reason I had motion sickness the entire two hour flight to D.C. It ran a little behind schedule and making the 5:15 flight to Dakar, Senegal was a close one. Right now we have 5 or 6 hours left of flight time until we reach out final destination! Hooray.

I have pretty much been keeping myself busy with shenanigans like movies, snacks, reading, more movies, etc. I must say I am ready to get out of this plane though I’m starting to feel a hint of claustrophobia coming over me (on top of the nervousness caused by the pilot’s turbulence warning).

So last year when we took this trip I had decided to be as comfortable as possible (t-shirt, over sized ripped up jeans, and converse). But this time around I wanted to find a middle ground between cute and comfy; in my opinion a flowy shirt, comfortable skinny jeans, and cushiony flip flops are the way to go. My advice? Pack a change of shirt (if you are traveling far like Moi) and a jacket because planes…ARE FREEZING, and plane blankets…ARE FLIMSY. Just saying.

P.S I am going to try to post another video soon of a summary of our travels so keep an eye out for it!

Practical

Hello my wonderful followers :)
If you check back to this post will see that I got an adorable little purse from Target. Today I finally got to use it. Hallelujah! Can I just say how wonderfully practical this thing is? I know, you are probably thinking, How in the world am I going to fit everything into that tiny little thing? Well you can't, but you can put a pack of gum, car keys, sunglasses, a snack, the necessities that you just can't go without. Hence the title Practical.

Practicality: Headband, guitar picks, capo, sunglasses, lip gloss, pen, 2 bucks.

These things are super important to me and need at all times. All I was missing was a pack of gum and a protein bar. This bag is just perfect for a trip to the grocery store, church, etc. Gotta love the practical purse.

Testing, Testing

Hey everyone.
Today I spent the day with my amazing family at my dads house to celebrate his birthday. I'm thinking about trying to make a collage of videos to show you my trip in Africa so this was some practice. I'll do better next time, pinky promise.

Hipster Chic

Today Mumsy and I went outside after work for a mini photo shoot. My outfit was uber cute. I was sort of going for the whole hipster look today. After being attacked by ants and sprinklers we got a couple cute pictures.

Hat: target/Earrings: Target/Vest: Ross/Tshirt: don't remember/Shorts: Hand-me-downs

Clean week update:
So far so good today
Breakfast: Protein/greens shake
Lunch: Sammich (Just turkey and bread)
After noon snacks: Quinua and chicken, protein bar
dinner: ?

Goodbye Photo Shoot

Hey followers!
If you saw Thursday's post you know that I got a couple cute items from TJMaxx. So of course Friday I was ready to wear them. Friday was spent saying goodbye to one of my best friends and my cousins, aunt, and uncle before my month long trip to Africa. My cousin(12 years old) and I had a mini photo shoot and I really like the way some of the pictures turned out.

Glasses:Dollar Tree/Shirt: TJMaxx/Shorts: Hand-me-downs/Shoes:Dillards

Also this weekend my mom picked me up a few things:

Vest: Ross/Purse: Target

Hats and earrings: Target

Can't wait to wear this stuff and post pictures! Anyways, be prepared for lack of posts this week. I will post as much as possible but considering I'm going halfway around the world in 5 days you'll have to cut me some slack.

Clean Week update:
It would be hard for me to list everything I ate over the weekend but the bad things I ate were doughnuts Saturday morning and Chili's enchilada soup Saturday night...otherwise I did pretty good :)

Check

Hey everybody.
So today was pretty all over the place. It started off not so great, to say the least and got better as the day went on. This evening my mom and I hit up the local TJMAXX and Olive Garden. I have recently created a list of articles of clothing I want. Here are some of the things I found:

Crocheted vest/ crop top/ flowy tank/ crop top

Crop tops? Check! Crocheted Vest? Check! :)
(You will be seeing 'modeling' pictures of these soon)

Clean Week: Day 4

Breakfast: Protein/Greens Shake
Snacks: Protein bars
Lunch: Chicken Ranch sandwich
Dinner: Chicken Gnocchi Soup and Salad
Dessert: You don't want to know.

Clean Week Update

Hey everyone!
Today Clean Week: Day Three went alright. Started off the morning with a nice walk, half a banana, and millet toast with an extremely thin layer of cinnamon peanut butter. Lunch and snacks consisted of salad, chicken sausage(healthy/low calorie), an apple, and a protein bar. Dinner was a delish chicken sandwich with ranch. After band practice my fellow band members and I went to Subway. I didn't have enough money to buy a sub with me, buut I cracked and bought a cookie and a bag of chips(I'll will be making up for that in workouts tomorrow). Then when I got home from church my mom was craving popcorn, so again I cracked. No worries though, tomorrow I will make up for it!

Also, you see the new design?! This beautiful blog is all thanks to my new blogger friend Olivia Collins. I absolutely love her blog and I have always envied her beautiful designs and she was kind enough to do mine. What do you think?

Smile

"Today, give a stranger one of your smiles. It may be the only sunshine he sees all day."

Flannel:Kohls(or Target?)/Shirt: No clue/Shorts:Hand-Me-Downs/Shoes:Mom's closet

Today began with a series of things leading to a bed covered in clothes. Once I had finally found something I went outside to have a mini-photo shoot. Sadly halfway through I realized that this outfit I had spent probably an hour putting together(I know I am ridiculous) was kinda...bleh. You know? Well I ended up changing into this:

Flannel:Kohls/Scarf:Goodwill/Jeans:NYC and CO./Shoes: Mom's closet

At the end of the day I'm still not thrilled with this one. But I will probably tear my closet apart again later and find something worth wearing.

On another note, I wasn't sure if I liked the scarf tied or untied better but looking back on the picture I think I like untied. What do you think? Tied scar: Yay or Nay?

Will be posting a clean week update and whatever other nonsense comes to mind later today!

The "Posh Fashionista"

There is nothing better than combining your favorite flannel shirt, 5 year old hand me down shorts, and homemade hair clip. Today's outfit made me feel one step closer to being the posh fashionista that I aspire to be. I'm finally starting to get there. :)

Flannel:Kohls/Shorts:hand-me-downs/Glasses: Dollar Tree/Hair Clip: Made by Monica

"It's not who you are that holds you back, it's who you think you're not."

On another note, YES! my hair is red.. My mom died it Monday night and I love it :) Also clean week Day One:

Breakfast: Greens/Protein Shake
Second Breakfast: Millet Toast with natural cinnamon peanut butter
Lunch: Forgotten :(
Snack: Apple and Banana (not at the same time)
Dinner: Some sort of beef or roast and peas
I was offered ice cream, popcorn, cookies, etc. today and denied/resisted every bit of it. Hooray!

I'd say today was a success(:

Stanley Jewkes

Hey everyone,
So many of you know I volunteer in an assisted living home. My mom is the hair dresser there and I am her assistant. Well today we had to go to a man named Stanley Jewkes's room to cut his hair. While we were there we learned some very interesting things about him.. After discussing the fact that he is almost 99 here is how he and my mom's conversation went:

"I am turning 99 in October."
"My birthday is in October too!"
"Are you creative? All people born in October are creative."
"Yeah I guess so."
"Well you see that picture right there? *points to his wall* I made that"

The picture he was pointing at was of the Malaysia Olympic Stadium. Today I met the man that designed not only that but also the Singapore Olympic Stadium.

Later he went on to tell us a story about how he fought in The Battle of Singapore. He told us about how the boat he was on, the S.S. Kuala was bombed repeatedly until it had completely sunk. A group of people, including himself were able to jump of the boat and swim or use life boats to Indonesia all while avoiding the continuous bombs being dropped by the Japs. When they arrived on the slick rocks of the uninhabited Indonesian island the Japanese continued to drop bombs and shoot at them. The survivors hid under huge trees while the remaining nurses tried to help the dieing and wounded.

Later in his life he went on to fight in the Indian army and writing a book(which I am planning on reading) called Humankind? This man has been through so much in his lifetime. Meeting someone that did so many amazing things in his lifetime was quite inspiring. It makes me want to go out and make a difference in the world.

Clean Week Update:
Because I started it on the weekend of my vacation it didn't really work. So I'm starting over. I know it sounds silly. But today was pretty good. Millet toast for breakfast, a couple of health bars as snacks, and chicken with ranch for lunch :) But for the rest of the week I am going to be SUPER strict.

Clean Week: Rip-Off Post

I've never been one to have loads of motivation, especially when it comes to being healthy and exercising. But as my sisters wedding (see her blog here) quickly approaches everyone has been trying to get fit. I have never cared much, but because my dress is a tad-bit too small I have no choice but to lose some weight.

My sister and I have been doing some last minute bonding time over morning walks and various workouts she has found online. Well tonight while looking at one of my favorite blogs I saw her post about how for the next week she will be eating super healthy and exercising. So I will be joining her and doing the same. Sadly, well not so sadly...I am going to the beach this weekend. So eating that healthy will not be easy. But I will figure something out. I'll be posting updates on how I'm doing so make sure to check up on me! :)

Toodles ;)

"Handmades"

Hey everyone! So lately I've been making headbands and earrings. If you check back to yesterday's post I posted a tiny bit about the first headband and earrings I had ever made. Since then I have made two more pairs of earrings (almost identical to the first) for other people and another headband.

Earrings and headband

Messing around with my cousins, wearing first headband and earrings.

Latest headband

So what do you guys think? If you like them or want one I am thinking about opening up an Etsy shop so I can sell them! :)

Weekend Through Photos :)

Friday night with my bestie :)

Saturday after my sisters graduation at lunch

Kids table at lunch

My bestie, cousin, and I in the restaurant bathroom.

I love these two :)

Went to Michael's and hit the jackpot.

Made a pair of dream catcher earrings, and flower headband.

"Some pursue happiness, others create it."
"Happiness is not the absence of problems, but the ability to deal with them."

Beauty

"Everything has it's beauty, but not everyone see's it" -Confucius

Sui Generis: To Be Unique

"To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting."

Hey everyone. So recently the topic of being yourself has really been on my mind lately. I live in America, the land of people being completely boring and just like everyone else. Be you, be unique..especially when it comes to things like style, music, and personality. Now, I don't care how you dress but I'm going to show off my style. If you think I'm weird for wearing a dress to the grocery store that's your problem. My sister and I were discussing what it would be like to live in Europe, where so many people flaunt their styles and its almost expected to dress nice. Tonight for youth I went really casual but it still fit my style..

Phone pictures

I've been following some blogs that are just extremely inspiring. I have learned a lot about fashion, personal style, and self expression from them.

Flattery

HorseFeathers

If you check out yesterday's post you'll see that I've acquired an extremely unique taste in music. Its very folk/coffee shopp-ish.

Being yourself and not being afraid to just show off who you are is such an important part of life..

Some Of The Coolest

So I've recently began this obsession with Folk Pop music. I find that they are so unique and have such a different kind of "cool" about them than most other bands. Here are some of the coolest bands ever:

Grace Potter and The Nocturnals