A Quick Squint

To go along with the previous post, I also made a list of some goals I want to accomplish in 2014.

1.  Getting a more creative-based job.  I have a great job right now, and it has definitely been a big learning experience, but I’m really missing having a little creativeness be part of my job.  Not really sure what kind of job I want to apply to; back to retail (as a merchandising manager), at a coffeeshop (to get experience in case I conquer my dream of opening my own coffee place), another entry-level job at an office (one word – benefits), or something more along the lines of my art major (graphic design at an ad agency or magazine maybe).  Let the application process begin!

2.  Producing and selling my map dresses.  The idea has evolved in order to appeal to a wider audience to include not just maps of Middle Earth and Hyrule, but other fictional maps such as Hogwarts, Atlantis, or possibly constellations.  Again, I’m open to suggestions.

3.  Spending less money on coffee.  I have a few big purchases I am planning on making this year that will require lots of saving.  And my plan to switch careers will probably mean a cut in the paycheck realm, so less money being spent on such frivolous, but delicious, things as coffee, means more money in the bank, and more money to spend on a new computer, or a summertime beach vacation.

4.  Posting more often.  Also getting internet in my apartment.  These go hand in hand, because the reason there have been fewer posts as of late is a combination of having a full time job, and trying to not go to a coffeeshop everyday.  This picture is my F12 desktop.  All of the little post-its hold ideas for blog titles.  Now that's a lot of posts that have yet to be written, and I hope to use most, if not all, the title ideas in this next year.

(photos by e.hunt)

Improvised Experience

End of year, end of year, it's another end of year.  And you know what that means: another end of year blog post!  I'm quite partial to the end of year reflection.  People don't do it enough, so having a specified time to do so is kindof cool.  My facebook is littered with friends' overviews of their year, and I'm really finding out a lot about people I haven't talked to in a long time.  Anyway, here's mine.

1.  The move to Nashville.  I’ve been in Nash-town for almost nine months now, and I’m finally beginning to feel like I live there.  I understand the highway system, I know where all the best coffeeshops are (I drove to five different ones tonight before finding one that was open later than 6pm, as it is New Year's Eve), I’ve made a few friends, and our apartment is cozily furnished.  I’m very happy in the town of Nash and feel like I fit in.

2.  The job.  I think the interview process was really good for me to experience.  If I take away nothing else from this job, I will now not be afraid of The Interview.  Well, at least not as much.  I know that I don’t give the best first impression, but my interviewers were extremely impressed with my resume, which boosted my confidence, and makes all those past (and many upcoming) college payments worth it.  It was great to get that feedback from someone who is in the industry of hiring people.

3.  New friends.  Well, not really new, but seeing friends in a new way.  You definitely get to know somebody on an entirely different level when you live with them, which has been a pretty interesting experience so far.  I thought I knew everything about my roommate, as we have been close friends since freshman year of high school, but people are always changing, and I have been surprised a few times by thoughts and behaviors that inevitably occur while you are just living.  I’ve also gotten to know my older brother, who I really didn’t relate with for many years before.  It’s been a lot of fun.

4.  The tattoo.  My parents know now, so it can come out of the bag.  A friend and I went to get tattoos  a couple weeks ago, and I couldn’t be happier with mine.  You may recall the wrist wave tattoo I have posted multiple times before.  Well, I got something similar, on the inside of my wrist.  Now I can always be reminded of my favorite memories, and fall back into the relaxed happiness that the beach brings me.

5.  Florida.  For Spring Break I joined my college friends on their senior spring break trip to Fort Walton Beach, Florida, which is only about six miles away from my second homeland, Destin.  It was neat experiencing a different, but similar, part of the panhandle, and was kindof refreshing at how non-commercialized it is.  I got to hang out with my best college friends, Shelby and Alyssa, while simultaneously getting to know a lot of other girls on the trip.We went to the beach all day, and went out every night; it was paradise.

(photos by e.hunt, and a random beachgoer)

You Trying to Outdress Me?

New Year's Eve style has a pretty specific format.  The one party of the year where your sequins can shine like a lighthouse and it's perfectly ok.  The more sparkle, the better.  I've never been a big shiny-clothes wearer, but I do make exceptions.  This year, I'm more partial to the toned down look.  The casual, comfy New Year's.  Like these.  Each definitely has it's party-worthy parts: sparkle skirt, that gold tassel, and the high-waisted tutu, but it's not so much that you leave a glitter trail wherever you go.

(photos collected from stylezen, giannottibags, and freepeople)

A Happy Commitment to a Way of Life

Spending last week at home was amazing.  It's rare that we're all together for an extended amount of time now that we're all old and stuff.  The week started off with Christmas tree decorating.  We placed all the handmade-through-the-years-of-elementary-school ornaments in prominent places, and then filled in the rest with our other favorites.

The next day we set up the old slot car racetrack, which took several hours to do.  But man was it worth it.  We started racing for about thirty minutes before one of the controllers broke.  That night Dad and I finally broke the gun in half to figure out what was wrong.  Turned out that a tiny spring that makes the trigger work snapped.  We fixed it all up, put the top half back on a went to test it.  Unfortunately, the copper rod was too corroded.  But, instead of admitting defeat, we jimmied up one of the really old controllers and kept on racing.

I got to see Dad and Andrew play music a few times, once at Schlafly and once at this old-time honkey-tonk called Stovalls Grove.  Taylor and I and some of our friends drove the fourty minutes to get there and proceeded to drink many a beer and dance a couple dances with the locals.

And of course, the food was delicious the entire break.  We went down to Kaldis almost every morning, Dad and I whipped up some very cheesy potatoes au gratin for Christmas dinner, and Mom and I concocted an ice cream oreo dessert dish for the second annual Moms and Daughters Progressive Dinner.  And in true winter tradition, I drank lots and lots of hot cocoa.

The only thing we didn't do was play The Drawing Game, where we all sit around the room and draw whoever is posing in the middle.  After an undetermined amount of time, when we're all finished, everyone takes turns showing their masterpiece.  This of course, is after we've looked through all the old drawings from years past.  I mean, like, from ten years ago.  Oh well, there's always next time.

(photos by e.hunt)

Why Weren't You at Elf Practice

So, I kindof missed the boat on blogging this last half of the month.  To my regular readers, I'm sorry.  Between thinking of, getting, and wrapping Christmas presents, work, and going home to St. Louis for a week (which was absolutely delightful, but, as it is when I go home now, I was so busy!), I didn't have time to post.  Time to make up for a little lost time.

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas, and spent it with people who mean the world to you.

(photo collected from pinterest)

The Great Northern March

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and Santa's calling all the reindeer to the North Pole to get ready for the big night.

Looks like the sheep are going too.

(photos collected from absinthius and pinterest)

Glamizelle in the Kangaroom

It would take a lot of gumption to pull any one of these off.  But if you did, and had an appropriate function to wear it to, you would rock the boring, plain-old same-old off of everyone else.

(photos collected from pinterest)

The Entire Storybook Family

Yesterday evening I went to a local bookstore called Parnassus Books to pick up a gift for the last person on my list.  It was a successful outing and the store itself had a lot of character, which is necessary for a small bookstore to survive.

It's very bright and happy on the inside, which is a nice change from most bookstores, and they're all decorated for Christmas!

This accordion pictorial of one of history's many wars was sitting on top of a piano.  The fold-out was the entire book - what a neat idea.

These hanging stars graced the kids section.

The bags are just as classy as the rest of the place, and now I am finally finished with Christmas shopping!

(photos by e.hunt)

Top Ten Disney Songs

One from all of the Disney classics.  Everybody had a favorite, mine was Beauty and the Beast.  I had all the promotional lifestyle items to go with it too: sleeping bag, cereal bowl, nightgown, and beach towel.  Anyway, here they are, in no particular order.

1.  The Muses, from Hercules.  This is one of the great opening numbers from any Disney movie, and is a recurring theme throughout the story.  I like how they kept that Greek story-telling element, and in Motown style nonetheless.

2.  Prince Ali, from Aladdin.  This one has the added bonus of Robin Williams’ genie and his creativity that knows no bounds.  Literally, he’s a genie, so anything he thinks of can happen.  In this scene, he becomes no less than nine different characters to narrate the song introducing Prince Ali to Agrabah.  Fabulous Harry, I love the feathers.

3.  Colors of the Wind, from Pocahontas.  Ahhh the going green song.  Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?  It makes bears want to play with you, deer run through the forest with you, otters swim next to you, and trees talk to you.  Fun fact, The Lion Kind was animated at the same time as this but even though that ended up being a bigger box-office hit, Pocahontas was looked at as the more prestigious project, with the animators wanting to work on it instead.

4.  Be a Man, from Mulan.  Have you ever had anybody tell you that you couldn’t do something, and then just because they said that, you have this explosive need to prove them wrong and then some?  Yea, Mulan had that too.

5.  Robin Hood and Little John, from Robin Hood.  This movie is really underrated when it comes to Disney movies.  This little folk song and the happy whistling opener set the lovely old-timey tone of the entire movie.  And Baloo's distant cousin (with his same voice) is Little John.

6.  Everybody Wants to Be a Cat, from Aristocats.  A swinging party anthem taking place in a French flat sung by alleycats, what could be better?  The best part is when they’re rocking so hard they fall through the floors, one by one, until they get to the bottom and just keep on parading down the cobblestone street, smashed guitars and all.  Baloo also graces the screen in this feature, in the form of rambling street cat, O'Malley.

7.  Under the Sea and Kiss the Girl, from The Little Mermaid.  This movie has such a great selection of songs and I couldn't pick between these two.  Under the Sea is a jazzy ode to the sea; this is my kind of song.  Sebastian, the lovable crustacean, sings this ditty to convince Ariel that life in the water is indeed much better than up on the shore.  Kiss the Girl is more visually creative, with Sebastian writing a hit and directing the animals that happen to be hanging out on the fly in order to set the mood.  Clearly, Sebastian is a musical genius.  Ursula's Poor Unfortunate Souls is a grand spectacle as well.

8.  Be Like You, from The Jungle Book.  King Louie is the King of the Swingers, The Jungle VIP, but he doesn’t have everything.  This is his way of asking for a little help from his friends.  Fun fact: the studio wanted the Beatles to voice the friendly vultures, but they refused.  We do, however, get the pleasure of seeing a monkey scat sing-off, which apparently was improvised, and it is glorious.

9.  Be Our Guest, from Beauty and the Beast.  Lumiere is a fantastic host, and it is on full display in this song.  He leads the kitchen dishes and utensils in a rousing number for Belle’s dinnertime entertainment, including a parade of French cuisine, champagne fountains, a chorusline of forks, and synchronized swimming spoons.  They are in France, after all.

10.  Cruella DeVil, from 101 Dalamtions.  Roger's description of the black and white wearing villian becomes his first big hit, and its easy to see why.  She’s like a spider waiting for the kill.  If she doesn’t scare you no evil thing will.  To see her is to take a sudden chill.  The world was such a wholesome place until Cruella, Cruella DeVil.  

(photos collected from swordsandals, fanpop, bplusmoviesblog, googleimages, villagedudes, oneirosa, telegraph, eddieonfilm, and listal)

Nature Versus Nurture, Lodge, Nature Always Wins

For all those who got that crazy winter weather this last weekend.

Bonus:  Name that movie!  The title or the picture.

(photo collected from domwithpen)

Everything Great is Just as Difficult to Realize as it is Rare to Find

These pictures were found on two different websites, on two different days, and are two very different terrains, but they go hand in hand.

(photos collected from google.co.uk, and blog.africageographic)