beatnik living: March 2012

3/30/12

'twas a snowy day

Let's just get straight to the point. MY LIFE IS AWESOME. I live in a place in California where it never snows, and if it does it's basically just frozen rain (wow no duh) that melts the minute it touches anything solid. So basically, it never snows where I live... until now.

I go to a really cool high school where the educators really enjoy seeing teenagers SMILE (wow, who would have thought anything of the sort possible in an educational institution??? WUSSUP WITH THIS?!?!?) But how can a teenager truly smile without experiencing at least one snow day a year? Well, my wonderful school was able to solve this problem: soap.

One day a year, my high school has a snow day. This means that us high schoolers get to come to school decked out in snow clothes (i.e. scarves, jeans, thin sweaters covered in moose. i.e. wannabe snow clothes) and party it up with a snow machine that spurts out soap all over our schools courtyard, drink powered hot chocolate with rehydrated marshmallows, and eat lovely snow cones that transform your tongue, lips, and teeth into a rainbow masterpiece. And this year, my high school decided to make it an extra special snow day and rent a fake ice skating rink!

Since I am a freshman, this was my first experience with a snow day, but apparently this was the first time in FIVE YEARS that they'd rented a mini ice skating rink made of wax. It was a pretty special experience, because you got to skate on this fake rink with REAL SKATES to really maximize the awesomeness of the oh-so-magical snow day. I really indulged myself (like I ever don't when it comes to free food) with three hot chocolates (two that included delicious rehydrated marshmallows) and a fruit punch flavored snow cone that tasted like a cross between AWESOME and TOXINS, leaving me with a great memento of red teeth to cherish for approximately 4 hours.

And then I hit the wax, skates and all, and partied it up for about 5 minutes with some friends. But it was sadly uneventful. My school decided to be cool and turn off the snow/soap machine and the music when I was finally in the mood to glide gracefully along some wax. I'm a pretty avid ice (wax) skater when it comes to being able to skate really fast and fall down/run into people accidentally, but the mini rink did not allow for much room to do either of these things. I also was clearly just on a sugar crash from my powered hot cocoa/rehydrated marshmallows/teeth tinting snow cone eating parade, so my enthusiasm for life was in need of a battery change. So after my 5 minutes of wax skating, I bowed -hands pressed together in front of chest style- and then returned my skates and went to go sit down and mourn for my inability to enjoy such an amazing event.

Anyway, I was a dumb butt and didn't take photos of my outfit (sweater+skirt+tights+Clarks+scarf) but I like this outfit and I wore it 2 or 3 days ago so I'm just going to post it for y'all.

PS: Before you die make sure you experience a snow day.

So the second to last photo decided to be really annoying and look tiny, so feel free to shun it (just kidding, it deserves some love.) PPS: I really love my robot unicorn shirt because it just makes people smile and sends good vibes to the world even though it says CHASE YOUR DREAMS, YOU WILL FAIL in very legible letters. My guy friend saw it and was like EVA YOUR SHIRT IS AWESOME. And I was all like "THANKS."

thrifted flannel, thrifted shoes, Nordstrom skirt, HUE tights, necklace from Claire's, Robot Unicorn shirt from Hot Topic, collar shirt from a friend, DIY blue vest, DIY crown that I love.

3/28/12

thread thread thread

As I was visiting my good old friend style.com yesterday (i don't associate myself with people), I stumbled upon something magical. It is honestly beyond extraordinary/stupendous/phenomenal and I can't think of an adjective to describe how cool this actually is, so just think up the best adjective you possibly can that means something close to extraordinary/stupendous/phenomenal and just keep saying it over and over again while looking at these photos. I've always loved needlepoint because it's just so COOL. It's so full of grandma/Marie Antoinette/countryside vibes to me. IT'S JUST SO PRETTY OH MY GOD. I came across a little slideshow via my good old friend style.com (remember, i don't associate with people), and it was loaded with needlepoint designs from a variety of designers. I feel like I'm becoming a SUPER PRO because I am starting to recognize designers solely based on the designs I see. It makes me feel quite speshulllll if you know what I be sayin'. Anyway, enjoy the photos. I'm wearing a really cool outfit today and hopefully I have a chance to snap some photos with my great buddy camera so I can, you know... post it... on here.. um..

I wanted to make the photos x-large, but when I did they were super pixelated and disgusting, so I just made them their non-pixelated original size which is annoying because now the photos on my blog aren't preportional waaah.

photos from style.com, designers from top to bottom. Barbara Bui, Balmain, Derek Lam, Dolce and Gabbana, Dolce and Gabbana, Sarah Burton, Proenza Schouler, Rag & Bone, Suno, Valentino, Vivienne Westwood, Antonio Marras

3/27/12

awkward aura

It is currently very rainy in my home citay. I have nothing against the rain, and I actually quite enjoy it and all the great watery-ness that comes with it and the opportunities to break out my rain boots and dance while jumping in puddles and enjoying a nice au-natural shower. The only thing I don't like about rain, is that fact that rain=cold, and cold=not warm, and typically the only solution to not warm is pants, and I feel like it's impossible to dress eccentrically and look like a half clown half 4-year old half grandma (please take a moment to admire my math skills) when you can't layer on the bottoms. Like today, I was totally thrown off by the fact that God was pissing all over my city, and I was completely unprepared to wear pants. I definitely go through style fluctuations, hence why I'm a style nomad/wanderer, but I'm currently in my I HATE PANTS stage, because pants are so boring. So in my state of confusion this morning, my brain just decided to take a huge brain fart and shit all over my state of capability, and I just... wow, words are escaping me because my sense of verbal description is just that inept. So anyway, I basically wore some vomit to school, mixed with a little shit, mixed with a little bit of wow I'm ashamed that when rain/God pisses on me my level of creativity just moves in with Patrick. I usually like what I wear to school due to the fact that it is USUALLY exciting/obnoxious/fairy-like/weird, and it helps me defy societies standards and give em' a big ol' FUCK YOU right in the face. I hate how society is always sending messages to people to be this and be that, and they seem to have forgotten that being yourself is actually the best option. This is one of the reasons I feel so uncomfortable when my outfit is in that betwixt area of "exciting" and "I was too tired to care this morning so I'm in my pajamas and if you give me crap about it I will kick your ass," because I feel like I'm half being myself, half being some random person. It's as though I've created a division within my soul! What usually happens to me on the forced pants days, is that the pants area is just like "drool" and the top area is just like "BAM." I know some people say a balance is good, but when I'm "balanced" I feel unbalanced. My version of balanced is either totally "DROOL" or totally "BAM." You can't be half drool and half bam, otherwise your aura just gets all wigged out and half your brain is pumping knowledge while the other half just needs a battery change.

This is a great song by Soulsavers that expresses my hatred for an unbalanced/awkward aura in a scary yet pretty yet haunting manner, just like Bernard Herrmann's music tends to do. I also tried finding a song that somehow references rain as God's piss, but I guess I'm a lone believer in that theory, because I couldn't find any.

3/25/12

it's not easy being green

Ew... I wore this outfit earlier this year. I'm one of those people whose styles changes everyday, and looking back on this outfit I honestly want to vomit. It is in no way me and I'm getting really angry looking at it. I think it's time for me to go on a style pilgrimage... my Mecca can be finally discovering my style/a group of styles that suit me/styles that I like and identify with. I feel like I shouldn't be attempting to define my style, but I hate looking back at what I wore and feeling like I was misrepresenting who I am. I'm not saying this outfit is trashy/tacky/ugly/boring/amazing, I'm just saying it isn't me. I'm definitely in that stage of my teen grrrl life where I just have no idea who I am. It really bothers me, because it's hard to be confident and feel secure when you aren't sure who you are. But I guess the journey is part of the fun. My current style phase is super boho, but I have a feeling by Friday it will be something completely different. Style wandering is definitely my hobby. But right now I really have to go because I have to finish eating my eggs, write a history essay and do a science lab report (barf.)

3/24/12

Sh*t Fashion Girls Say

Stumbled across this amazing video. I laughed really hard and smiled like a baby drinking juice. If you wanna be a cool kid or are 2school4cool, this is the video for you. Happy trails young lads and lasses!

3/9/12

tvs? um, yes.

Not really much to say here. I watched The Virgin Suicides for the first time a couple of months ago, and took a ton of screen shots in the process. I liked the eery-ness of the entire movie, and the little glimmer of hope that always seemed visible throughout all the sadness. I felt like there was a whimsical, dreamlike essence too. Holy shit this is so annoying, I keep trying to write the next sentence that should be where this sentence is but my tired ass brain is being a bitch and I can't think straight. Wow, that sentence sounded so mean and hostile.

My style has changed yet again. For a couple weeks I was really into the whole "LOOKING AS WEIRD AND AWKWARD AS POSSIBLE!" style, but now I'm really loving the whole "skirts and pastels and looking like a gentle, harmless fairy even though I'm a rather aggressive person. Lace is good too, and Docs would go well with this phase. I'm really loving maroon docs and dark purple ones. Maroon would be so cute though" style. I think when I finally discover my actual style, my wardrobe will be like some shopping mall threw up, and I'll have this "hot topic mixed with Forever21 mixed with Cotton On mixed with J. Crew mixed with American Apparel mixed with Urban Outfitters" bipolar mess. Though I don't think I'll mind the day when my closet becomes this bipolar explosion. It will be rather interesting to have my defined style and being able to incorporate all these other styles into it. I recently watched the episode of Jane by Design (such a great show if you love fashion and hot guys and mohawks and cute clothes and adventures) and they did this "Punk Marie Antoinette" collection that made me so happy. It was basically everything I loved. It was like a fairy mixed with Kathleen Hanna or something and it just rocked my world. TOTES INSPIRING.

Mkay well since I said I wouldn't write much I'll stop now. Enjoy the photos! I feel pretty "blogger mainstream" uploading all these TVS photos, because practically every blogger has some ridiculous obsession with TVS. (PS: sorry for the like, bajillion photos of TVS. I liked them all too much to delete any/) I'll make more exciting posts later this week! Outfit posts coming soon!