Outside The Standard Deviation

Oh look another post about theatre!
Last week and the week before, I spent some time at Bob Jones to help with their competition play and watch it evolve. Honestly, I wasn't so sure about it at first, but after a few tweaks and costumes were added and the set was completed, I knew it was going to be extremely successful at competition.
District competition was this past Friday and Saturday, and I was so happy that I was able to be there to watch my friends compete with their Individual Events (IE's) (like monologues, duets, pantomimes, etc.) and to see their original play, "The Standard Deviation" yet again.
I was excited to see James perform his IE's, so I went with him to both of them. The first one was his comedic monologue. We got to the room to find that the only other people there were the two judges. I was the only audience member. So that was kind of strange, especially when his monologue ended and I was the lone applauder. But he did great, of course!
Now, I'm not going to tell the whole story about his duet, but basically it didn't happen until much later than it was scheduled to. It was supposed to be before our play, but it didn't happen until afterwards. Again, I was the only audience member.
My friends, Erin and Sarah did two duets together. I got to see their classical duet, but I didn't get to see their awesome pantomime this time...

When awards finally came around, I was going through my list of awards I knew the one act had in the bag already. Before the one act awards, we found out that James' monologue and both of Erin and Sarah's duets made it through to State! The duet that James did got superior scores, but they were disqualified because he was filling in for another actor and their director didn't know they had changed their rules for substitutes. I was also really proud of one of the kids that was in the beginning drama class I student directed last year for making it to State on his first year of competing!
Finally, it was time for one act awards. They got every single award I expected and more. 3 all-star cast members, Best Actress AND Best Actor (what?!!), Best Scenery, Best Costumes (which I called before the costumes were even finished), and they qualified to compete at State competition! They cleaned up that table of awards!
I am beyond proud of the actors, techies, and directors of this show. I can't wait to see how they do at State, but I am so sad that I won't be able to be there to support them this time... I know they'll do marvelously as usual.

The Never Ending Tech Week

As I talked about in my last post, I will be going back over the events from October and telling you guys about them. A lot of cool things happened, I can't just ignore them! I do have a very special thing to blog about from this weekend, but that won't be posted until tomorrow.
Today I'm going to talk about my experience with one of the community theaters here for the show, "The Never Ending Story." I was so happy to get back to doing tech work again. I do wish I could have done more during the show, but I did a lot of painting during tech week. The very first night, Katie and I spent 5 hours painting set and props.

 We did black sponge painting on the top of this set piece and on the stairs.

We covered these masks in glow paint (this was before we started working on them).

After (and height comparison).

And we had painted the wood texture on this set piece during the weeks before tech week.

The girl who was basically the head painter lady did an awesome job with these as well:

Sadly, they used blinding blue lights during the scene that these were in, so the art wasn't as visible. Oh well, it wasn't up to me. 

When we made it to our first dress rehearsal, we didn't have jobs for the show. Katie and I were told that we'd be given jobs as they came along. Meaning, the minute they realize that they need more people on something, during dress rehearsal, with an audience, we would get our jobs. Luckily, we ended up with something fairly simple, which was hooking and unhooking a makeshift turtle shell to and from a wire. That was it. That was our job. I was glad that they had a job for us, but I was also frustrated that they threw it at us at the last minute. We got a chance to practice it a couple times the next day, but it was fairly simple and we figured it all out quickly. 

The worst thing about it was that, for the rest of the show, all we did was sit backstage and play games on our phones and eat snacks. For anyone else, that might have been great. "Cool I only have to do this one thing 8 times and sit around and play games and I can get college credit just for that!" Yeah, it's a great concept. Yes, I got out of writing 3 papers. But for the most part, I was bored. I've gotten so accustomed to competition play tech. Making sure everything runs quickly, smoothly, and that it all happens in under 45 minutes. I hated that I didn't feel any emotional attachment to this show. I feel more attached to the competition play that my high school is currently doing, even though all I did for it was paint a couple shadows and highlights. 

Anyway, I am glad that I got the chance to work on the show and lift up Morla the turtle and absentmindedly memorize all of her lines.

"I don't care about anything."

I also quite loved the awesomeness that was this horse:

And I loved getting to spend more time with this child:

"I want to hold one up like a bazooka!"

"No Katie, don't touch the-- Oh that looks pretty cool."

Moonchild's couch. Yeah, her name was Moonchild. How drunk was this writer...

So, overall, I did enjoy it. Even though I was bored when I wasn't doing anything. It was a very cool looking show and the kids were great actors. They even gave us little presents to thank us. And Katie and I got to have a couple sleep overs. Yay for theatre! 

Oops...

I honestly could not think of any other title to give this post. I've never been good at keeping up with writing things, which is quite worrisome considering that I'm majoring in English, and now I've managed to forget about my blog for a whole month... Oops... There actually were a LOT of interesting events that occurred in the month of October, and I'm going to try to blog about them within the next couple of weeks. I did tech work for a show, participated in the Ribbon Run, went to a masquerade ball, helped paint the set for my high school's competition show, and Halloween happened! At least that's all of the stuff I managed to get pictures during. I will write more in-depth posts about those things soon!
Even though I haven't been blogging, I have still been writing! Well, I've been writing essays for English class... But that counts! We wrote 4 papers in a row. Most of them were easy, but the last one we wrote happened to be the hardest and the ONE paper that I procrastinated on. The instructor seemed to really like the bits of it that she read in class, but her grading is extremely unpredictable. She gave me a B on an essay which I felt deserved a much better grade, and an A on another essay that wasn't any better than the other. I know that a B isn't bad, and I wasn't upset about getting a B. I was upset that this particular paper was given a B without any good explanation. Oh well.

I've been doing some more art recently thanks to Michaela needing help with making a business card. I did some hand lettering for that and then got addicted to it again. I even started a new banner for this blog! I'll finish that when I get the chance and then make a few updates to the look of my blog. I don't plan on moving any important buttons or anything, so don't worry. It'll be set up the same, just with different colors and backgrounds and fonts.

Last night I did some painting! It was a really quick project on a piece of scrap wood.

The picture of it isn't very great, but you get the idea. I'm very pleased with how my birds turned out. 

So yeah, I guess that's a little update! I don't think I'll be doing "Wordy Wednesdays" weekly anymore, because they started to become a struggle. I can't force myself to think "Oh crap, I need a quote. What quote should I use? What should I say about it?" It's much easier to write about a quote when I have inspiration from something in my life that relates to it. I'll most likely be blogging on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and weekends for the rest of this semester.

Sorry for disappearing, but I'm back now! 

October- Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Hello again! I'm sorry I haven't posted in a couple of weeks. I even skipped two Wordy Wednesdays! How horrible of me! I don't really have a whole bunch of school work or anything like that preventing me from blogging, I just kept forgetting about it.
But yesterday was the first day of October, which, as most of you should know, is breast cancer awareness month. This past year, my grandma, who I call Nana, was diagnosed with breast cancer and had the surgery to remove it. I feel like this is a great opportunity to bring up a few pictures I took back in 2011.
When I was still really into photography and Deviant Art, I made my own little photography challenge called "25 Days of Pink" during the month of October. The reason it's only 25 days is because I didn't start it until the 7th of the month. So in honor of this month, I thought I would share a few of those pictures with you!

Day 1:

Day 2. I was so excited when I found this car.

Day 8:

Day 11. Apparently I found this bear while cleaning my room.

Day 12. My friend Maura always wears cute dresses and hair bows. I wasn't very good at photo editing at this time...

Day 15:

Day 21:

Day 22. I wonder if Michaela still has these pajama pants.

Day 24. Let's appreciate that we still used mp3 players 3 years ago.

Day 25. I had a lot of fun painting these pumpkins and slinging paint at the one.

So that was basically how my photography skills were in 2011. I mean, not too bad to be honest, but I'm glad I've learned photoshop now... I really like that I still have these pictures. 

This year I'm participating in the Ribbon Run with my sister and her dance company. Apparently I also have to wear a pink tutu. Our grandma's name is going to be on the back of the shirts we're going to wear.

On another note, not only is October breast cancer awareness month, but this week, October 1st through 7th, is Body Focused Repetitive Behavior (BFRB) awareness week! And if you've been keeping up with my blog since the beginning, you know that I have one of those! So I'll be pretty decked out in green and blue this week (or I'll at least wear my bracelet) and for the rest of the month I'll wear pink as much as I can and use my pink polkadot phone case. I encourage you all to become aware of Breast Cancer and BFRBs this week and month, learn as much as you can about them. The internet is a grand place to learn about these things. 

Now I have to go to my second to last Orientation class, so I'm off! I hope to blog more soon, although tech week is next week... Happy October!

The Surprise Going Away Halloween Party

For the past week I have been planning something very special for my best friend. It's been so hard to avoid posting about it! I put together a surprise Halloween themed Going Away party for Michaela with the help of our friends.

When I first asked her if she was available for "dinner" on Saturday, it turned out that she was also planning something that night. She had already invited people to a bonfire at her house, and was just getting ready to invite me. Instead of throwing my plans out the window, I figured we could still make it work. I told her she could still have dinner with my family beforehand, and then we'd both go back to her house together for the bonfire. 

I painted some Halloween lanterns,

Dipped some chocolate strawberries,

And decorated our living room.

I also pulled together a few presents for Michaela.

The "Memories" binder is full of 17 photo collages that I made online in 4 hours on Thursday night. The camera is a bank I found at a craft store. 

Katie came over about two hours before everyone else to help finish setting up and planning the surprise. We got everyone to park their cars reasonable distances from my house so she didn't suspect anything, and once everyone had arrived and my dad came back with the pizza, I left to get Michaela. I was so nervous and excited the whole way there and back. When I came to the closest stop sign to my house in the neighborhood, I told Michaela someone kept texting me, so I stopped and sent Katie a pre-written text to let her know that we were close. 

Once we got to my house, I told Michaela that the keypad for the garage door was broken, so we walked to the front door and knocked. Katie opened the door, hiding behind it, and Michaela stepped in to see the decorations and our friends.

Then Katie snuck up behind her and put the Halloween feather boa on her.

Once everyone gave Michaela hugs, we had our dinner and snacks and gave her presents. I love this picture of everyone gathered around the memory book and Klifton recording it.

After presents, we all played truth or dare, which turned into a dance party when Michaela was dared to dance with somebody (which turned out to be me). I was also dared at one point to sit in someone's lap while holding their leg, so this happened:

Before we left for the bonfire, we got a group picture and a hug picture:

The surprise party was a big success, and she never expected a thing. She was clueless about it until the last moment. The bonfire was also a lot of fun, as always. 

We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows and talked about life and memories. 

I'm so happy that this all went so wonderfully. Everyone was so helpful with the surprise party and I'm glad we were able to give Michaela such a great last Saturday in Alabama to remember. She's going to have a wonderful time in California. I'll hopefully get to see her before she leaves on Monday, which will probably prompt another blog post, possibly entitled "I'm Even More Emotional." 

Wordy Wednesday: I'm Emotional

I was debating on not doing a Wordy Wednesday post today because this week is being kind of mean to me, but I figured I'd do it anyway. The bad part is, it's going to be sappy. So, I apologize for that.

"How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard."

I really didn't think I would get so emotional about this, but I've cried about 6 times in the past 3 days because it's hitting me really hard that Michaela is leaving for college on Monday. The last time I see her before she leaves will be Saturday night at her bonfire, and I probably won't see her again until Christmas time. 

I've known Michaela for 5 years. Ever since that day in science class when we were assigned to be lab partners. I knew of Michaela before then because Katie introduced us the year before, so I was happy to have a partner that I had at least spoken to once. As we sat at our lab table and waited for the teacher, Michaela put a tiny marble on the desk between us. When I say tiny, I mean literally the smallest marble I had ever seen. I was very excited about it. That marble broke the awkwardness barrier between us and our friendship instantly began to bloom. 

Soon after we became friends, we both started to take an interest in photography. After a while, however, my interest slowly dulled. Michaela continued to enjoy taking pictures and has improved so much, especially just in the past summer. She's decided to major in photography and some day set up her own business. In order to accomplish that, she's going to college all the way in California. She won scholarships that will pay for her tuition and already has a job as a local photographer's assistant secured. I'm so proud of her for pursuing her dreams, even though it means she'll be so far away from me. 

I'll be sure to blog about dinner and the bonfire and how she likes her gifts. I'm going to miss being her model and going on adventures at the creek. I hope she has a wonderful time in California and enjoys her classes and her school. 

Photoshop Experiments

Recently I've become somewhat obsessed with Photoshop. I downloaded a bunch of new brushes and had some fun with them. These are what I've made so far:

The flower was a stock photo, so the quality isn't all that great. I was playing with my paint splatter brushes, which I've had for a while. The last two were mostly for experimenting with my new brushes. The hand and the leaves were outlines, and I colored them in. The green in the hand picture is all brushes. They're not super great because I'm just starting, but practice makes perfect, and I'm sure I'll be doing a lot of practice.

It turns out that Photoshop is really calming to me and it helps me when I'm feeling anxious and stressed. I made the leaves when I was having some anxiety, and it took a couple hours but it really helped a lot and turned out better than I had expected it to. I've been hoping to find a good outlet for my anxiety, and I'm pretty sure this is it. I'm so happy that I've finally figured it out. I don't know why drawing and hand lettering never helped and this does. I assume it's because this requires a little more thought and focus which helps me to think about something other than my worries. 

When I realized how much fun I have in Photoshop, both with editing pictures and making graphic art like the pictures above, I texted Michaela and told her that I'll happily be her personal photo editor since she's majoring in photography. I'm still going to major in English and edit for newspapers and magazines and such, but I'll need something fun to do as well. English is really boring me at the moment. 

On another note, I started doing some tech work yesterday morning! I'm so excited to be back in a scene shop working on a set. Katie and I finished painting a wall and a ceiling. The first thing we heard when we walked in was the sound of a saw, and I think we both got excited because it had been a while since we had heard that. It had also been a long time since we got sawdust in our eyes, but that's kind of inevitable in a scene shop. After we finished the set piece, we went to Panera for lunch because we realized how hungry we were. After we ate, we went to Oktoberfest! We were there for the rest of the day, riding rides and playing stupid games and eating funnel cakes. We waited in the hour-long line for the ferris wheel, and we were pretty disappointed that we were the last ones to get on and the first ones to get off. Other than that, the whole day was awesome and fun and exhausting. I don't know if I'll go back today or not, but I'm hoping I do so I can take Tessa and introduce her to it.

So that was my little update. I'll be back on Wednesday with the weekly quote!

Wordy Wednesday: Silly Power

This week's quote is something I've lived by for the past couple years. 

There's power in looking silly and not caring that you do.

Ever since I got into theatre, my perspective has changed a lot. As I'm sure I've said in a previous post, I used to be a lot less confident than I am now. In theatre, you can't be super self conscious. It's impossible to succeed in theatre if you're constantly worried about what other people think of you. There might come a time where you have to put on a giant wig and act like you're still the fairest maiden in the land. There might come a time when you have to dress up like an animal and move the awkward way that the animal does. Theatre is unpredictable, and so is life. You can't be afraid to look silly. 

The picture above is from a photoshoot I did with Michaela a couple months ago. They were playing music and she got so many pictures of me dancing around the field and having fun (I think it's important to note here that I am not a good dancer). I knew she was taking pictures the whole time, but having fun was more important to me than how I looked on camera at that moment. Some of them actually came out looking pretty good.

If you're having fun and you don't care what you look like, chances are you'll look confident. People who don't care that they might look silly have so much confidence. People who dress up as clowns for a living must be pretty darn confident. If you worry too much about what you look like, just remember that the people around you are probably only worrying about how they look. Humans are just like that, especially in a society that tries to tell everyone that they need to look a certain way to be considered beautiful. You know what's really beautiful? Confidence. 

How to Start a Blog

I feel like it's silly of me to be making this post since I've only been blogging for a few months, but I've been asked this question by a few people: How do you start a blog?
Well, I could respond to this question in a sassy manner and say "Find a blogging website, set up an account, and start blogging," but it does feel like it's a bit more than that when you get there.

First, obviously, you're going to need to get set up with Blogger, Wordpress, or another blogging site that you know of. Those are just the two I'm familiar with. Blogger is linked to your Google account and Gmail, and that's what this blog is hosted on. Wordpress, I believe, is a software that you download from their website or onto your Apple devices as an app. Blogger also has an app in iTunes (which is what I use to write 99% of my posts).
*TUMBLR IS NOT A BLOGGING SITE* It's more of a REblogging site. If you want to make an actual, legitimate blog, use Blogger or Wordpress, not Tumblr.

Second,  make your blog visually appealing. Make sure the design of your blog reflects your personal style and fits with your theme. Also, make sure it's easy to navigate and read. That's what people are going to be doing on your blog; READING. So don't go crazy and choose a fancy cursive font (yes, they do offer those). It's always nice to have a picture of yourself on the sidebar so people can put a face to the words. I always like to see the blogger's face. This goes along the lines of "easy to navigate," but your sidebar should give your readers options to subscribe to your blog.
*Sidenote: I've had that "Subscribe by email" option on my sidebar the whole time I've been using this blog, and just today I figured out that I needed to turn it on to make it work. Hopefully this post will show up in some inboxes! I also made comments open to everyone, so even if you don't have a Google account, you should be able to comment now! Yay!

Finally, you can start blogging! This is really the hardest part. A lot of people will want to find a specific theme to stick to. Obviously, my blog doesn't have a theme. I kind of jump all over the place. So it's perfectly fine if you don't have a theme in mind, but I have read that themed blogs get more traffic. If you follow me on Pinterest, my "Blogging" board has lots of tips, more than I can give you in this one little post. A couple specific tips from me:

• Blog as frequently as you can. I started writing a blog post every day, but now I do it every other day or so because of school.
• Try to come up with a theme day. You can have "Food Friday" or "Throwback Thursday," whatever you want. And it doesn't have to be an alliteration, I just really like alliteration. Theme days give you at least a little bit of a prompt on weeks when you might have writers block or a bunch of other work on your plate. If you get nothing else from me during the week, you will always get a Wordy Wednesday post!
• Share your posts to as many social media sites as possible. Facebook is especially great for getting lots of views on your posts. People on Facebook are really nosey. Not to mention a lot of your Facebook friends are probably relatives who love to know what you're up to.
• Don't be scared! Be confident in your writing and don't worry about whether people will like it or not. Blogging is a form of self-expression. Yes, it does get seen by the entire internet, but so do your tweets and Facebook statuses and YouTube videos and Instagram posts. The difference with a blog is that it's a lot more words and a lot less pictures and/or videos. 

Most importantly, have fun! For those of you who have been thinking about writing a blog, I hope this inspired you even more to get started and gave you some helpful tips. Happy blogging!

EDIT: My mom and I were messing with the comment options and we found out that to comment without signing in with an account, you can click the "Comment as:" box and choose "Name/URL," then type in your name and click "continue." Then the comment will post with your name without needing an account of any type. 

Wordy Wednesday: Unfair

I struggled with finding a quote this week. When I found this, I thought, it's kind of like a more intelligent version of the lemons thing. You know, "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade"? I feel like this quote is saying that the people who make lemonade out of their life-lemons are those who really succeed. 

Everyone goes through rough patches in their life that make them confused, angry, and generally upset. Life isn't fair, or reasonable, or in any way easy. We all face situations where we wonder how the heck we ended up there, and search for a way out. We sometimes want to give up something we love just to make things easier on ourselves, but the truth is, you're just going to run into another sticky situation in the long run. Running from your problems will only give you more problems. 

One way to look at it is to remember that it will pass. You will push your way through the dark tunnel and arrive where there's sunshine and warmth and happiness! But then you'll see another tunnel that you're going to HAVE to go through, but on the other side of that tunnel is even more sunshine. Making it through those tunnels is important, but how will you get through them? Will you tiptoe timidly, carefully, slowly, worried that you'll make a wrong step? Or will you fearlessly skip, dance, maybe even play hopscotch to get to the other end? Dark tunnels are scary and confusing, but hopscotch is fun. It's those that hopscotch through an unfair situation that enjoy life the most. 

Another thing to remember is that not everything that looks like a tunnel really is a tunnel. It might actually turn out to be a beautiful cave lit by fireflies to guide you along as you pass pretty rock formations and stalagmites and stalactites (I really like rocks and caves). And once you get through the cave you think, "That wasn't so bad, can I go through another one of those?" 

So don't step into your tunnels with fear, start out skipping, dancing, or playing hopscotch, and whether it turns out to be a dark tunnel or a firefly-lit cave, you'll emerge triumphantly. 

Basically, approach the unfairness in life with hope and positivity and turn your life-lemons into a sweet lemonade. 

Grammatical Pet Peeves

To be completely honest, these are not exactly "Pet Peeves," but things that people SHOULD know but don't. The simplest little mistakes that absolutely drive me crazy and make me want to go on rants.

You're/Your
This one should be a given.
You're = You Are.
Your = "Your hair is pretty." Belonging to "you."
Maybe it's just me, but these words even sound different in my head. If someone writes "Your cool," I'm forced to respond with, "My cool what?" What do I own that is cool? My dog? My hat collection?

They're/There/Their
This one should also be a given, but people still get confused.
They're = They Are.
There = "What's that over there?" Referring to a direction.
Their = "The kittens ate their dinner." Belonging to "them."
I don't see these get confused as often as "you're" and "your," but I thought I'd still point it out.

A Lot
Okay, this is actually the reason I'm writing this post to begin with. This morning I saw a post that was both hilarious and upsetting at the same time.

"You make me hate myself alot. -Six word story.

This is technically a seven word story, but they wanted so badly for it to be a six word story that they committed a horrible English crime and turned "a lot" into one word. I actually typed "alot" into google to see if it's just spelled that way in other places, and the first thing that popped up was this hilarious blog post by Hyperbole and a Half. I actually have her book and she is absolutely hilarious, so I highly recommend following her.

Those are just a few of my many Pet Peeves, but I don't think I'd be able to fit all of them into one blog post. Now I am off to catch up on Hyperbole and a Half and possibly write my English paper. I hope everyone is having a great Labor Day weekend!

Wordy Wednesday: What They Don't Understand

Yes, here I am again, talking about school. Specifically, math. I've always hated math. I dreaded going to math class and doing math homework. Even the word "math" made me uncomfortable. Okay, the word still makes me uncomfortable. But as of yesterday, I don't think I hate it so much anymore. And this week's quote explains why.

"People fear what they don't understand and hate what they can't conquer." 

I was always scared to attempt math because I didn't understand it. I hated it because I always got the wrong answer and I struggled to get it right. I couldn't conquer it. But this time around, I understand it. The professor thoroughly explains everything and I know exactly how she gets from point A to point B. She goes through the example problems in detail and doesn't skip over simple steps because people like me don't always understand why that 3 has suddenly turned into a 1. But now I do understand it! And the moment it clicked in class, my jaw literally dropped and I flopped back into my chair and stared off into space and thought, holy crap, I get it! And it's not just because it's algebra and I've done it before. It's because I've done it before and I'm JUST NOW understanding it after only one lesson. 

I've found this quote to be extremely true, not only regarding my struggles with math, but with plenty of other fears and dislikes I've had. I hate card games because I don't understand them, therefore I can not conquer them. 

Of course, there are a lot of logical fears that stem from bad experiences with certain things. Someone who saw their baby sister fall down a flight of stairs might be scared of stairs for a while (true story). Someone who was bitten by a dog might be scared of dogs. You get the point. So obviously there are cases where people are afraid of things because they understand them TOO well or have been put in a scary situation with them. 

However, historically and politically this quote makes a lot of sense. These concepts also show up a lot in literature and film. 

My main point here is that you should reevaluate the things you hate and fear. Maybe you'll see things from a different light. 

SIDE NOTE: I just want to thank everyone that reads and enjoys my blog. I sincerely appreciate it and it makes me so happy to be told that someone loves reading my random ramblings. Three people in the past week have complimented my blog to me, and it really insipres me to keep it going. When you read my blog posts, I would really appreciate it if you would somehow let me know that you've seen it. Simply clicking the little "like" or "favorite" button wherever you see it posted, or comment on the blog post if you can, just so I can thank you at some point for keeping me inspired to keep writing for you guys. It's not about how many likes, shares, favorites, retweets, repins, etc. that these posts get, it's just about knowing who to thank the most. 

"Lost Cause Revival"

Today I am going to promote a super cool person who runs a super cool business. My incredibly creative, fashionable, unique, and talented friend, Kaylie Miller, recently started her own Etsy shop called Lost Cause Revival. She even got her official business license over the summer, which was super exciting and I'm extremely proud of her. 

Lost Cause Revival is dedicated to making beautiful jewelry out of the unexpected; earrings out of gift cards, necklaces out of washers, rings out of buttons, etc. Kaylie takes things that most people would label as "garbage," or as she puts it, "lost causes," and turns them into wearable pieces of art. 

As it says on her business card above, she also has a blog for the shop where you can read more about it. Not listed on the card are her shop's Instagram:

And Twitter:

I highly suggest subscribing to her on these social media sites and visiting her Etsy shop. Share it with your friends, your family, your neighbors, your whole neighborhood, your coworkers, your teachers, your mayor, and whoever else you want to share it with! And buy something pretty from her while you're at it. 

Kaylie also has her personal Instagram linked in the description on the Lost Cause Revival Instagram, and if you want to see her awesome fashion sense and adorable Disney Bound outfits, check that out too. 

This has been a Promotional Tuesday! 

UPDATE: Forgot to mention she has a Facebook page as well, so go find that if you Facebook!

My First Week of College

I've done it! I have successfully completed my first week of college! Now I'm sure you're wondering how it went. Let's start with the very first day. 

The morning of my first day of college, I went to the high school and gave one of my former teachers a present. Then I went straight to the college campus. When I got into the parking lot I figured I would try to find the closest spot possible. In the process of driving through the isles, a big truck decides to back out just as I'm driving behind him. Let me just say that I already hated trucks. I've always hated trucks and nothing can convince me not to, especially after that occurrence. I did NOT get hit, thank God, because if I had I probably would not be going to college this year out of pure hatred for the parking lots. I circled the building, discovered that the smallest parking lot is the student lot, got mad about that, and finally returned to the student lot and parked in the closest spot I could find. At this point, that was the first spot I saw. At the very end of the building. I knew there were probably a few empty spots closer up, but I just wanted to park because my toes were still shaking from the near-truck experience.

Once I had calmed down, I went into the building. When I got to he student center I was so happy to see that one of my friends was already there. I sat with her and then a couple of my friends showed up. I waited there until I figured it was time to go to my English class. 

When I got to the classroom I looked in the window and it was dark, but then I realized that the teacher was already teaching. I was thirty minutes late to my first class because it started thirty minutes earlier than I thought it did. Luckily the teacher was really nice about it and didn't mind. 

After English, I had 15 minutes until History, so I went straight to the room. I had a snack since the class would go through my normal lunch time and waited. And waited. And waited. The class sat there for quite a while until a lady came in and basically told us to sign a sheet of paper for roll and leave. Our history teacher wasn't there for the first day if class.

So that was my very interesting first day. 

The rest of the week went a whole lot more smoothly. My math teacher seems great and we started the first unit on our second day of class. I absolutely despise my Orientation class because it is a complete waste of 50 minutes of my life. When we finally met our history teacher she turned out to be really funny. The reason she missed the first day was because she had had surgery and was on a lot of pain meds that were making her feel crazy. "The bed was VIBRATING!!!" My English teacher is nice even though she messed up a couple of things during the first lecture which makes me worry a lot... And then Theatre appreciation on Wednesdays... Yeah that's going to be fun. I've already sealed the "teacher's pet" spot. Really though, I was quite intrigued by Craft's philosophical lecture about a pipe, a toilet, and Halle Berry. So I am looking forward to that even though there are people I desperately want to avoid in there. 

Which reminds me, there are way too many kids from my high school there. I heard someone describe going to the community college as "High School Part Two." It's great that I have a few friends from high school there, but then there are the people that I still want to avoid, if not more than I used to. 

On the bright side, I have made a few new friends! One in math, two or three in history, and two guys who sat with me during my lunch break. I even remember all of the names that I asked for (one of them left before I could ask)! 

Homework so far hasn't been too overboard, but today I did feel a bit weighted down with history reading. It feels a bit strange having homework for almost every class, because in high school I would probably only have homework for math and occasionally for English. I don't recall ever having history or science homework except for projects. But now I have to read chapters for history and English and do math homework (which isn't much so far) and journal entries for Orientation and Theatre. It's different, but there's plenty of time to get it all done and it's not like I have to read huge chapters in one night, because I have at least two nights to finish them. 

That's basically how my week has been. I've enjoyed my lunch breaks on Tuesdays and Thursdays and my long breaks on Wednesdays that give me time to write my Wordy Wednesday posts. I feel like I'm going to spend a lot of time in the library on Wednesdays because it is gloriously silent and comfortable. Sadly I can't enjoy the reading room because of the arctic temperature, but that's okay. I know I've posted SO MUCH about college the past couple weeks, but now that it's part of my life I'll move on with it and start blogging about other things again. 

Wordy Wednesday: Think You Can

Hello again! I'm writing this from the very quiet, but extremely cold, reading room in my campus library. I seriously need a pair of gloves.

This week's Wordy Wednesday quote is a quote I've known basically all my life. My mom had it hung up on the refrigerator to motivate us. I feel like it might have had something to do with my hatred of math... 

"Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right." -Henry Ford.

This is the essence of a positive mindset. People who believe in themselves are more likely to succeed, while people who doubt themselves are less likely. I tend to get very negative when I don't do well on new things, but my mindset has changed a lot so far this school year. I know it's only the third day of school, but I'm already feeling like the Little Engine That Could. "I think I can! I think I can!" 

I've talked to a few people who seem more apprehensive about their first semester of college, saying they don't know how they'll remember all their assignments or get them all done. Well, getting a planner will help with remembering, and time management is a beautiful thing (that I still need to work on as well). There are simple remedies to all your worries that you will find if you just think a little more positively. If you think that you can, then you will. However, worrying and thinking that you can't will do nothing good for you. 

Worrying is like sitting in a rocking chair. You're moving, but you're not going anywhere. Your thoughts are running at 100 miles per hour, but you're sitting still, doing nothing productive and not getting nearly as much excercize as that over active brain of yours is. So get out of that rocking chair and step on a treadmill and take a Positive Walk. Instead of sitting there worrying about your first big test in a class, STUDY. Instead of worrying about writing that paper because you hate writing, suck it up and start brainstorming. Your best shot will be better than nothing, and nothing is exactly what's going to happen if you're sitting there thinking you can't. 

Think you can. Even if you know math isn't your best subject, say to yourself "I think I can" and give it your best shot. Even if your best shot doesn't meet your standards, don't give up. Keep trying and staying positive thinking you can. Don't be afraid to ask for help, even if doing so makes you uncomfortable and being tutored makes you cry for some unknown reason (yes, that's me). Go into the tutoring session with a craving for new knowledge, not just for a better grade. 

Okay, I hope this post has been a lot more motivational and inspiring than the last (very unsuccessful) Wordy Wednesday! Tomorrow I'll post about my first week of college. Be prepared for a strange, unconventional first-day story.

My "Dorm" Room

This morning I cleaned up and organized my dorm room!

Honestly I can not even explain how happy I am to be staying in my room. I hate the thought of living in the same room as another person (especially another female) and now I don't have to! I get the same room I've been living in for many many years. Plus, I have it all to myself! How could it get any better? 

It is a little strange seeing everyone posting about moving in while I'm in the same place, but it's not a bad weird. It's not like I feel like I'm missing out on anything. Actually, I'm missing out on exactly what I WANT to miss out on. Being surrounded by people constantly. 

This morning I cleaned up my room and packed my backpack for tomorrow. Sadly I have a huge history book and two English books for tomorrow, so it's quite heavy, but I took out my big 5-subject notebook and hopefully carrying that in my arms will lessen the weight on my shoulders and back. I've always hated backpacks and I've avoided having to carry around textbooks my whole middle school and high school carreer. All you have to do is say to the teacher "I have scoliosis so can I have one book to keep at home and one book to keep in the class room?" and usually they'll be all for it. But in college, they don't have class sets of books. But I'll figure it out. It might even turn out that we won't even need one of the English books.

My next college-related post won't be until Thursday so I can recap how the week went and how my classes are. I might not post anything until Wordy Wednesday.