Recent Finds: Call It Spring

I've been watching this trend of strappy minimalistic sandals for too long. I finally went and bought myself some. I've actually tried them on at a lot of places - naturally including Aldo where I love to buy shoes - but I have tiny ankles and the ankle strap never fit right. Lo and behold JC Penney had these sandals by Call It Spring that fit me just right. I wasn't there to shoe shop, me and my mom were just killing time. But I saw the flat and the demo shoe fit and I mean you know what they say. (By the way I swear I used to wear a 10 but this new shoe is definitely an 8 1/2 what's going on did they think I wouldn't notice?) I also picked up the other cause I'm a sucker for a chunky low heel. So yeah, "You have too many shoes" my dad would say, but he doesn't understand that I need them for reasons and things.



Call It Spring Incinesca Sandals X | Call It Spring Vitereta Flat Sandals X

Florals & Pastels

Shirt: H&M | Jeans: H&M | Tank: H&M | Shoes: JCP

This outfit is amazingly completely by H&M ('cept the shoes but more on them another time). I'm super pleased with what I found there. I'm guessing the Freedom Day sales are still in effect because about half the front of the store had those $5 and $10 signs we all know and love. These lilac jeans were a bit of an impulse buy, and they had a sale on jeans, but what I'm really stoked about are these babies right down here..




H&M &Denim High-Waist Jeans X

Now if you know me you know I live for high-waisted stuff. It just fits me better and of course it also helps that it makes me look all curvy and things. So I have been on the quest for high-waist anything for the past couple years and let me tell you they don't make it easy. If you follow me then you know that I generally thrift for shorts and buy Know Style's pants (for whatever reason they have the comfiest and most affordable high waist pants I've seen). But what they do not have is denim. Simple thing you'd think, but the only place I've seen it is American Apparel and lets be real nobody got time to be shelling out $90 for jeans. So let me tell you when I found these jeans at H&M on sale for $15 the sound I made was probably inappropriate.




Sleeveless Dress X | Floral Button Down | Black Tank | High Waist Jeans X | Lilac Jeans | Earrings

That's not even accounting for all the other stuff I found. Now I'm new to this whole "having the money to buy the things you need" thing so I haven't let myself go into H&M to shop for a few years at least cause they always have these ridiculous sales and I'm weak. But I just started at a new job (another graphic design position guys!!) and as luck(?) would have it I blew out my tire and while it was being fixed I was stuck at the mall with my first pay check. Haha, so naturally.. Ahem. To be fair I did technically need the things I bought.. I swear! Shut up.

HIATUS IS OVER (hopefully)

[[INSERT APOLOGETIC DOODLE]]

I can't even begin to describe this last year for me. It's been an emotional roller coaster and it feels like I only survived by the skin of my teeth. I think I'm back to stay now though. There's really not enough time in the day for me to talk about all the reasons why I've been gone, but I guess I can just mention the major stuff. Here goes!




| The younger generation after the Ceremony |


My grandpa that I was back and forth visiting last summer lost his fight with cancer a few weeks into the fall semester. The funeral was in September so naturally I went back to New York. It was a beautiful ceremony and I really enjoyed getting together with all my family and celebrating my Grandpa's life. I even got to speak, which was daunting to say the least, but I'm the eldest sibling so I was asked, and I agreed, and I survived.

But funerals will be funerals, and after the fact I was pretty down in the dumps; not in the mood for school and none too happy to be back in my lonely apartment after spending so much time surrounded by family. Needless to say I spent time away in NY and time away in my head that I couldn't really afford and paid for it for what felt like the rest of the year. Beyond that my tale is pretty normal. I spent Christmas break recuperating from school and then the new semester started and then I was working to save for a new computer and then the Atlanta Snopocalypse Marks 1 & 2 happened and you'd think I'd use that time to do things but I just watched Netflix which by the way sometime last semester I finally started Supernatural and #omg #icant and I'm all caught up now (cries) that and also FALL IS COMING where I'm taking more studio classes on more days than I have in life and so here we are.

I'm really no less busy, but the new computer makes doing web-related work in my downtime actually enjoyable – like it was meant to be – so I'm able to stay motivated. Just recently-ish I started interning as a graphic designer (mega exciting guys!), and I'm trying to find that balance between work/school/life so I can be productive in my career but still have time to myself. PLUS I've just moved into a house with two of my amazing friends. So overall I have a lot to look forward to and be happy about and it's keeping my spirits up. Unfortunately, it just made it impossible to keep up with my blogging so now I just have to do that, heheh..

Heat Wave

Previously on Instagram.. A trip to New York

1) My grandpa came home from the hospital.

2) My uncle took us to the Yankee Stadium.

3) I found a Savers in Hempstead

4) Visiting my uncle's house

5) Driving beach side

6) Flying home

So, if you're reading this you may be wondering where I've been all summer. Well there's no easy way to answer that. So I'll just tell it like it is.

Get comfortable. 

In early June my grandpa got really sick. He's been fighting bone cancer for as long as I can remember, and doing pretty great considering. But it spread recently and a whole slew of complications ensued which ended up with him being admitted to the hospital. My mom flew up to New York for support, and just to be with her dad in case something happened. And my sister and I later made the trip up there to see him while we could. That particular trip was one of those where just about everything that can go wrong did. The car broke down and died so we ended up staying with a distant relation (but they cooked West Indian style dinner for us with all the meat and all the sides so all was well). Then we were too early for the Megabus in DC - too early! can you believe it? - so we had to buy new tickets. We rode that into New York city and arrived around 1am. That's a five-ish hour drive with all the stops and that bus is not a nice bus. Since it's still a decent drive out to Long Island where my grandparents' house is, we took the subway to my great aunt in Brooklyn and spent the night. We didn't actually get to my grandparents' house until the next morning, and then it was only to drop off our things and head straight to the hospital. Yeah, it was one of Those Trips. The ones you have to capitalize for reasons. But I would make it 12 more times for that look on his face when we walked into the hospital room. It was a much needed little break from life to just be with family and although I'd have preferred to visit under better circumstances, I really did enjoy being in New York again. Plus I flew alone for the first time which was scary and exciting! I had to come back to Atlanta for a week so that I could take care of some things at my flat, and then I flew back up. They were both connection flights so I had to really pay attention and be a big girl about it and whatnot. I also got to use the Passbook App on my iPhone for the first time which was pretty nifty. So not an entirely way to spend the summer.

Now rewind to about 2 weeks before we left for New York. It's the beginning of July I'm sitting in my living room at my flat. The clock reads 11-something pm my roommate has just arrived to tell me something. As it happened she decided she wanted to move out. Pretty much out of the blue. Okay, that's cool. I could have done with a little more warning as our lease in up in about a month but fine. So like any sensible person would in that situation I cried and felt betrayed and went on with life. I mean I was pretty close to this girl, we'd lived together happily for 2 years and were friends besides, but the reality was that I needed to figure out what I was going to do for this next semester; find a new roommate or move. And I had a little less than a month to do so. 

However it doesn't end there, if you've ever leased a flat then you know that you can't just clear out because the lease is up. You have to give notice, and the management office has to inspect the flat so you can get your security deposit back and make sure you're square with payments and all that fantastic bureaucracy. Annoying, but expected. Well, it was for me anyway. Not so for my roommate. So now she's gone off and left me with a lovely bill for the two months we have to pay to cover our 60 days notice to vacate (if you couldn't already tell I ended up having to move out).

I don't know if this all is considered too personal to share.. But I figure I've left this blog sad and alone for basically the entire summer and I owe my readers - yes all five of you - an explanation as to why. Plus I've found that talking/writing about it helps me deal with everything a little better. So yeah, in a nutshell my grandpa got worryingly ill and I had to go to NY, I spent basically forever job, roommate and flat hunting in that order, (and continue to stress myself out over all of the above) and trying to enjoy the summer a bit in between. I did manage to sneak some fun in believe it or not. And I ended up having a lot of help packing and such from some fantastic friends of mine, which was pretty enjoyable considering I loath, despise, and all around hate moving and everything it stands for. I'm really reluctant to leave my old flat, but I've been backed into a corner.. On the plus side my new roommates are as upset by the situation as two people you've pretty much just met can be, so I have high hopes of not having a repeat of this with them. But who knows 'cause I never would have pegged my old roommate as someone who would pull this nonsense either. I mean, it's not like skipping out exempts her from owing the money, so I don't really get it. I guess you never really know a person. Especially when there's money involved.

Man, when I turned 20 back in March I'd hoped to have some more interesting things go down, but this is NOT what I meant. If this year wasn't a sudden drop into adulthood then I don't know what is.

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I do, in fact have some good news though guys. Jacque of Shop Lioness featured me on her blog as Lioness of the Week this week. She sent me some questions that I over thought the answers to and put them together with some photos in a little spiel about me on her blog. If you're interested in reading my ramblings on someone else's page, click the LINK and go check it out!

Leibster Award

So back in March I was nominated for the Leibster award by the wonderful Jamara Brown of MindMash as well as Adeshola Agboola of NoPriceTagsFashion, two beautiful ladies with mad style who think I have some style myself. My life has been on a rollercoaster recently because of grades and school and the never ending job hunt so I'm just now getting to these. I know, I'm terrible. But this whole summer vacation thing will allow me to post much more regularly to apologize. So let's get into it!

Here are the rules:

1. Share 11 things about about yourself.

2. Answer the 11 questions that your tagger has given you.

3. Choose 11 bloggers to tag. They must have less than 200 Google friend connect followers. (No Tag backs).

4. Think of 11 questions to ask the bloggers you have nominated. (leave a comment on their blogs telling them they were nominated)

5. Don't forget to thank the person/people that nominated you!

About Me

1. Rose is one of my middle names

2. I am a HUGE fangirl. I grew up on anime and manga and still love em

3. My favourite show ever of all time and life is Sherlock

4. I want to move to the UK (I live in Georgia currently and it's eh)

5. I hate horror movies but have a thing for horror video games

6. I'm studying to be a graphic designer in university

7. I am INCREDIBLY lazy when I'm uninterested in whatever

8. I have a healthy addiction to the fandom side of tumblr

9. My afro solidified my self confidence

10. I have a younger sister who I love to pieces and bits

11. Cat's, Strawberry Cheesecake ice cream, fanfiction, dubstep, Lord of the Rings + The Hobbit, Minecraft, Benedict Cumberbatch and Roosterteeth are my guilty (or not so guilty) pleasures

Adeshola Agboola's Questions

1. What's your life Motto?

"Do what you love and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind"

2. Favorite Lyrics?

At the moment.. "Mona Lisa, I'd love to see you frown" from The Ballad of Mona Lisa by Panic! at the Disco & "I'm stuck in the Tardis, trapped in upper space" (for whovian reasons) from Up on a Ladder by Radiohead. And "steal away, you and me, to a cave, made of sheets" from Cards & Quarters by The Local Natives. Oh! And "Sit back relax, sit back relapse again" from Camisado by Panic! at the Disco. A Fever You Can't Sweat Out is just classic. I'm sure there are plenty more that I can't think of.

3. How did you fall in love with fashion?

I don't know. It kind of runs in the family. But I suppose it was around middle school that I decided I didn't like what was going around in pop culture (which may or may not have had anything to do with my being extremely different from everyone), so I started to look for something I did like, and here I am. Continuous evolution is my motto for fashion.

4. What's your Favorite piece of clothing?

Well you see, I'm an odd case because although I love looking good, my style exists mainly for comfort. So with it being summer I've taken to throwing on these frumpy, shapeless house dresses. I have this one blue one in particular that I wear to death (if you know me then you know which one) I love them and don't think they look all that terrible, but my family teases me endlessly for it. But yeah, dresses and skirts are probably my favourite thing right now. It's too damn hot in Georgia for real clothes.

5. Favorite Country?

It's between Japan and the United Kingdom. Japan for the culture and history, and the UK for the pop culture and fashion. I hear Doctor Who and Sherlock are staples over there, and I am 3000% done with American pop culture.

6. Bravest moment?

What an interesting question. I suppose my first real play. I was one of the Dynamites in Hairspray and I had a bit of a solo. I've never sang before for ANYONE EVER. So the audition and subsequent performance were probably the scariest things I've ever done. Not to mention my friends that signed me up for the thing saw fit to inform me of my audition THE DAY OF so I had scant hours to prepare. I've never been so terrified in my life.

7. First Love (In any way)

Inuyasha. Followed by Kenshin, Zack Fair, Sherlock & John and the Tenth Doctor (Well you did say in any way). But really. I still love them, which is more than I can say for most guys. I tend to crush harder on characters than actual people. Although there is this one guy..

8. Favorite artist (Musically or otherwise)

Well picking a favourite music artist is absolutely impossible so I'm going to pick a painter. Probably Salvador Dali. He constantly inspires me to push the boundaries of reality with my own work.

9. What's your best feature?

My hair, on popular opinion. But while I hella love my hair (and I really do) I've always really liked my eyes. Probably the one feature I can say I've always loved.

10. Hugs or Kisses?

Depends on the person. Hugs in general. But I haven't been kissed in years. I'd really like to try that out with some delicious, dark haired man in a neat suit, yea?

11. What fabric would your dream clothing be made of?

Something stretchy. Like whatever they use to make jeans nowadays. Or that really soft, worn cotton that old t-shirts have.

Jamara Brown's Questions

1. Describe yourself in three words.

Odd. Misunderstood. Well-spoken.

2. Who's your favorite musician?

Um. That's a loaded question for a music addict. For the purposes of this questionnaire I'm going to say Simian Mobile Disco, Justice, Savant, Local Natives, Deadmau5, Ratatat, Muse, Arcade Fire, Beirut, and Beach House as those are who I am crushing on right now.

3. If you had a superpower what would it be, and why?

Flight. I've always wanted to be able to fly. Like a mermaid in the air. I dream about it a lot.

4. What's your biggest pet peeve?

Wasting my time.

5. Who's your biggest role model?

I'm going to be really super cliche here and say my parents because my parents are absolutely amazing and I can't think of anyone better.

6. What do you fear most?

Life. People. I have an awkward personality, and dealing with that whole "contributing member of society" whatnot is really tiring.

7. What's the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to you?

When I was much younger I used to wear this fake pony tail to school sometimes. One time it fell off during recess while we were running around the track. I remember screaming, picking it up and hiding under one of the play sets clearly, but I don't remember the scarring aftermath that I know had to follow because I know people saw. I must have blocked it out. Now that I think about it.. my general distaste for fake hair is probably the result.

8. What are your hobbies?

Reading, blogging, drawing, sleeping. Rewatching Sherlock and pining for the new series. I'm pretty much your average college kid. Sans the parties. I hate parties.

9. Who's the most important person in your life?

Probably my sister. There are no words for how much she means to me.

10. Three things you want to do before you die?

Sky dive. Travel. Marriage and romance and lazy sundays on the couch.

11. If you could, would you change anything about your life? If yes, what would you change?

Not particularly. I try not to get bogged down by regrets. I guess I wish I would have gone natural earlier. And I'd like to be graduated from college and working as a graphic designer or something artsy like NOW. That'd be nice.

My Nominations.

1. Demi Wells of Astronaumica.com

2. Oroma R. of La-Grunge

3. Nadja of Nadja's Closet

4. Inês Prates of Urban Catwalk

5. Jacque of Lioness

6. Garen of Black Alternative Hair and Beauty

7. Ally Maddix of The Perks of Being Ally

8. Alaina of The Future Reflection

I know that's not 11 but most of the blogs I follow have at least 500 followers so I couldn't pick them. I was ignoring the rules for few of you as it is.

Anyway, here are the questions I'd like you lovelies to answer.

1. Do you enjoy meeting new people

2. What was your favorite TV show as a child?

3. If you were to get a tattoo, what would it be?

4. What's your favorite time of year?

5. In what ways do you relax?

6. What's your approach to making your bed?

7. What is your dream job?

8. Do you go first or let others go first?

9. Read a book or go to a party?

10. Coffee or Tea?

11. If you could spend 15 minutes with any living person, who would it be and why?

There. I picked some tricksey ones. I figure they'll get some interesting responses. Thanks again to Adeshola and Jamara for my nomination and to the ones I nominated, hope you have as much fun with this as I did!

Nautical Waldo

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|| Pants: Know Style || Shirt: Walmart || Necklace: F21 || Sunnies: Old Navy || Belt: Goodwill ||

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I bought this shirt a while ago on a whim at Walmart and everyone says it makes me look like waldo. Can't say I disagree. All I'd need is the hat and then, well.. Yeah. Anyway, I think it's pretty obvious to those who know me, and likely even to those who follow this blog - all 3 or 4 of you - that I really, really REALLY love those green pants I got from Know Style. Well, I just had my 20th birthday last week and so of course I went back with a little bit of my birthday money and got two more pairs of those marvelous babies. I picked up a royal blue pair (they can kind of pass as a darker, bluer denim wash which is what I was wanting) and a distressed acid wash. Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of ripped jeans, I like a bit of wear and tear but not holes. So I did a mini DIY project on them. My errands run included groceries that day so while I was at Walmart I picked up some denim iron-on patches that I then sewed on the insides of the holes. The denim of the patches matches the denim of the jeans in darker spots so it worked out pretty well. I'm not done though, they had a rust coloured pair there that I have my eye on but alas, they didn't have my size. Oh the woes of being a stick bug.

Green Haired Patterns

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|| Pants: Know Style || Button Down: Gift || Necklace: F21 || Bandanna: Wal-Mart ||

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This is the first time in a while that I've truly, legitimately liked how I look. At the risk of sounding like I'm making excuses.. I believe the lack of posting can be blamed mostly on the twists. Now that the fro is back in full force (and with some snazzy new color to boot) I've gone back to my contented, vain, eclectic grandma of a self. I've also been enjoying these cool colors. Last winter I would wear reds and yellows and golds so this year it's purples and blues and greens. Unintentional if you could believe that. I really like to change for someone who doesn't like change. Anyway, I popped into class today with this patterned chiffon button down - a Christmas give from my knowsmetoowell mother - and these pants that I love (which conveniently match the green in my hair which makes me love them even more if you can believe that). Threw on a leather jacket, some boots and violet lipstick and I was successfully rocking a cool colored ensemble. We've still got a bit more wintry weather left here before it turns to 90 degrees for 6 months, and I intend to milk it for all it's worth.

As for the hair. Yes, it's green and black and fuzzy and I lurrrve it. This is officially the first time I've ever dyed my hair an unnatural color at all. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't at least partially because I live on my own now. I always run my hair color ideas by my family and I know they would have said no. They (and a few other who said I shouldn't) all love it now, but I'm not sure I would've had the guts to do it if I had heard too many negatives. I used a Color Brilliance bleach powder packet with a 30 volume developer, followed by Manic Panic's Atomic Turquoise. The rest of my hair was dyed black with a blue black dye by L'oreal - that I've used before and liked - with the same developer. I always treat myself to a good dye and style after I take out twists. My birthday is coming up in about two weeks, which will also conveniently be the one year mark from when I chopped all my hair off. I'll do a comparison post around then. All this to say I'm MADLY IN LOVE with my afro and really glad to have it back.