i'm so bored

summer is boring

summer rain cat dance

the playlist I made today - home alone with my kitten, during a warm summer rain.

1. Sunset Soon Forgotten - Iron & Wine
2. Each Coming Night - Iron & Wine
3. Moon River - The Innocence Mission
4. Russia - Ramona Falls
5. Thrift Shop - Scott Bradlee & Postmodern Jukebox
6. The Honeymoon - Langhorne Slim
7. You Don’t Know Me Yet - Sexy Kids
8. Animal - Karen O and the Kids (Where the Wild Thing Are soundtrack)
9. Our Nature - José González
10. Get Enough - Ivy
11. Box of Rain - Grateful Dead
12. Antics - Grand General
13. Backstreet Girl - Golden Smog
14. O Sacred Dandruff - Gobble Gobble
15. Art of Dying - George Harrison
16. One Morning - Gillian Welch
17. Strange - Galaxie 500
18. Oh Daddy - Fleetwood Mac
19. Blue - First Aid Kit
20. Sin Gulá, No - Juana Molina
21. Since I Left You - The Avalanches 

E.

because photos

so bored panda is a wonderful little website.
anyway, here is some Stunningly Surreal Photos taken with an old Film Camera.
photography by Oleg Oprisco

swoon.

E.

my 15 tips for the teenage lady

I'm only 19 as of this week, so I really have no place giving "tips" on growing up, but maybe a closer perspective would be better. anyway... I'm bored over winter break and here goes nothing.

1. heels are not necessary but make your legs look damn good. so why not wear them whenever you can?
2. but practice wearing heels first! seriously, walk around your house, do dishes, get ready everyday in heels. if you do it enough walking in heels will become easier than flats. -- I know it happened to me. recently I've fallen out of practice and I almost fell down last time I put heels on.
3. poise through the pain -- so the balls of your feet and your ankles will murder you later, but if your legs are going to rock that Beyonce song, it's worth it.  I draw the line at blood. Nothing, even shoes, is worth your blood girl. 
4. lip stick -- if you wear it everyday then the one day you don't people won't recognize you. but if you feel like a Black Cherry day, then do it bitch. People may stare or ask why the black lips, but you have fucking black lips. Anything you say will be bad ass and hot. always wear the lip stick if you feel it.    * go crazy. two-toned lips are hella awesome
5. that said, lip stick will stay on better if you put foundation/concealer on your lips first. this does not work with lip stains and fancy shit like that though. only classic sticks.
6. eyeliner -- it's a decision. once you do it you can't go back. but have an everyday look and a fancy look. My rule of thumb: bottom lid liner is not good for everyday and don't even try it until you know what you're doing.    *my current favorite is Stiletto by Maybelline 
7. it's okay to be sad. it's also okay to be alone sometimes.
8. but it's also okay to not be able to cry -- you still have a soul, it just doesn't do that shit. 
9. make a girl power and/or a dance party playlist. they're great for staying awake on road trips and also perfect while doing chores or mindless homework. Lana better be on there.
10. have deep conversations but never judge or get into arguments about politics and shit. not kosher.
11. know that you might be wrong about somethings.
12. but remember that most people are idiots and if your personal thought, morals, or philosophies don't match societies, you should stick with them. people are stupid. but don't tell them that.
13. don't be superstitious. and make sure you watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
14. black is always slimming and always the right choice.
15. aspire to be Audrey Hepburn. never settle for less than your James Dean. and listen to Lana.



and always be classy

thanks girls,

emily 

I wish I was the moon

Topic: I wish this was my face.

but it's not. but I did buy thick sparkle eye shadow to try and imitate it. They're big sparkles too. and I hope to try something new with the lipstick - different shades on top and bottom. not new, I know, but I've never done it and I just like lipstick, okay?

Also, Emma Watson usually annoys me. I don't know why. I think it's because her awkward annoying teen phase was very public and it reminds me of my awkward annoying teen phase. Also, I hated her in Harry Potter. 

but I loved her in Marilyn and Perks. and I love this damn photograph. it is right up there (in the stacks of my mind) with those Twiggy and Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe and Edie Sedgwick photographs that I can't not look at. I just want to be that face. that photographer. that photograph. that hand. that lighting.

it just really tickles me.

I was cooler when I was 3 than I am now.

growing up sucks.

and I don't want to do it anymore. (excuse the sad angst about to occur in this post)

my uncle and aunt came in town... no special reason, just a routine visit. but my parents started talking about that period when we lived in an apartment in downtown St. Louis. I was alive, maybe 2 years old, but still in the infant state of oblivion. when I search through the deepest memories I can find, all I can remember is the black kitchen floor. It probably wasn't even black.

But this was during that time that people say you existed but before the existence of your present human memory. I remember the kitchen floor of this apartment, unlike the condo we lived in before. for about 5 months we lived downtown, in a loft-style apartment before there was such thing as a loft-style. we were just too broke for walls. this building was attached to the building my father worked in (making toys). naturally, sister and I rode our squeaky tricycles around the office, pressed our noses on the window at dad from across the alley, sold lemonade to helpless toy makers, and played with prototypes... so I'm told.

anyway, my mom and dad were going on about this apartment: about how she managed to cook without a stove oven or toaster, about how we ate out a lot, about how he made us sell our own girl scout cookies in the office, about how they managed to keep two small children quiet in a building of hungover neighbors, about how we walked to the baseball stadium whenever, walked to the city library for story time multiple times a week, and walked to the store while the guys from work snuck over to grease the tricycle wheels.

Basically, my coolness has been quickly digressing since I was about 3.

It scares me when I think of our parents as normal people. People with a past probably more colorful than mine. It scares me because I don't want someone looking at me like that someday. I don't want someone who cannot understand that my life was an entire entity before her existence. that she is but a small pet that sits in my life, as the point that holds me down. I don't want to grow up.

but I like this photograph.

I can like girly too. If it's elf-girly.

 MIGNONNE

I've been adding quite a few etsy shops to my favorites lately. I'm thinking maybe I'll make it a monthly ritual to feature a favorite shop on the blog. We'll have to see how that goes.

But for now, I would like to share the shop Mignonne handmade. Jennifer Wood, owner and designer, creates lovely head pieces with perfectly sweet embellishments. Not only are the designs soft and peaceful, but so is the photography. Really, I just want to be a woodland fairy elf.

    

see the rest of her romantic creations here: mignonnehandmade.etsy.com

and she was featured by etsy! (those bastards always beat me to it) read the interview here.

lovely work Jennifer!

emily

in the city

while sister Maggie was in town, our parents went on a 'family outing' kick. no problems though, everything was an interest to everyone and it was actually mostly enjoyable. these trips included the st. louis art museum, very good restaurants (including the shaved duck and iron barley), and the newly renovated st. louis city library.

when we were but wee children, we lived in an apartment downtown for awhile, right across from my dad's work (which was a toy company). we spent the majority of our time riding tricycles around dad's office or in the library for story time. It's been fixed up for awhile now, but it was the first time I had been there since I was a kid. I was glad they kept it old school library and didn't get too modern.

(not actually the library, but across the street)

 we then went to the sculpture park in city garden. I enjoyed most of the sculptures, including this very large pink suit.

well, that's all. merry christmas, happy new year, and all that shit. at least I get to sleep in still.

the list

I am a private high school girl. at my school, we make lists. personally, I spend more energy making to do lists than actually doing what's on them (or I add things to the list I know will get finished - like come home, eat, go to sleep).
BUT this is not a to do list! it's more of a wish list of things I see myself doing. nope. it's just the promised bucket list. (hey- I didn't have one and I don't know what you people would like me to write about) so here she is (including things I've already accomplished):

own a cat
live in another country for some period of time
visit: Ireland, Germany, Russia, Norway, Paris, England, etc
actually punch someone
take a trans-American road trip in a van
take a nap
bleach my hair blonde for awhile
speak another language fluently (maybe German, Gaelic, French, or Russian. or all of them)
grow a beard. since this is physically improbable, I'll settle for a male with satisfactory facial hairs

Oh yes, I didn't tell you that I bleached my hair...

fare the well

gratitude is falling from the sky

so this Thanksgiving I made a bourbon pumpkin cheesecake (recipe from our favorite food website, smitten kitchen). sister Maggie made it last year for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but a certain sister decided not to come home for Thanksgiving this year... aherm. so I had to make it.

again, it was a hit and grandma approved. I forgot about it until late Wednesday, so I had to wake up at 2 to move the cake to the fridge. but all is well and there was just enough left over for lunch today. it may be making another appearance very soon.

today is Black Friday, which I hate. I need to go to Target, but cannot due to the insane crowds of people who have cleared the entire store. ba.

and yet, I will shamelessly participate in the sale ruckus. I thought (rather late in the game) it may be a good idea to offer a 20% off sale at The Second Fiddle. you're welcome darlings. simply enter TAKE20 at checkout (clever coupon code, no?).

I have also discovered that I really need to check my email more often. there are countless occasions of me arriving when the plans were canceled, wearing the wrong thing, or missing out on a wonderful opportunity. the moral to today's post: check your email, children.

and now I bid you adieu. with photos of my kitten.

the sun changes mass at a rate of one million elephants per second

hippie science.
(oh frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! the protein chain came streaming out!)

biology has never been so delightful.

it's long but worth it. one must watch it in its entirety.

courtesy of ms. anitta thomas.

and my concentration for AP studio art is (basically) things my science teacher says (or things I doodle in science class)
for example: a Hindu buffalo demon/ 4th dimensional bison

and a galaxy/star/embryo (who knows?)

end.

morning offering

“ You must write every single day of your life. You must read dreadful dumb books and glorious books, and let them wrestle in beautiful fights inside your head, vulgar one moment, brilliant the next. You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads. I wish you a wrestling match with your creative muse that will last a lifetime. I wish craziness and foolishness and madness upon you. May you live with hysteria, and out of it make fine stories – science fiction or otherwise. Which finally means, may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world."

— Ray Bradbury 

artsy fartsy

so my art history teacher showed me this little nun who is also an art critic. she's absolutely adorable and actually rather interesting. her video about the photograph piss christ is fascinating.
just super cute.



and apparently I look like someone on america's next top model? someone in walgreens told me to watch it on friday. well I didn't. but someone else also told me that. I'm not sure if this is particularly a great thing.
but my art history teacher told me I reminded her of a Modigliani painting. I first thought of his blank eyes, but she reminded me of the quirky emotions the emote.

best compliment.

fox

It's official in my mind: Fleet Foxes has the best poster designs.

end