Thursday Night Fun

Thursday night my friend Christina and I, and our little sisters went to the mall. Here are some pictures from all the fun:
Christina driving.
We went to Forever 21. This was a pretty necklace I saw. I tried on a maxi dress, and got a couple pictures of how I dressed up my outfit:Christina tried on a raccoon hat. We just had to get a picture!
Christina's new ring.
From top to bottom and left to right: Caroline, Maddie, and Caroline.
I think I would have traded my dog for this puppy at the pet store. <3

Enchanted to Meet You

I thought I would share some of the photos of me that my friend, Christina took yesterday when we went on our photo shoot.

Sometimes I like to pretend I am an old fashioned princess - adored by many - just to escape the reality of my lonely, dull life. I'm like every other girl - I want to be loved. I want to feel important to someone. I've thought of myself as slow to trust for a while (I don't ever assume anything. If you want me to know I'm special to you, you'll have to tell me, because otherwise, no matter what you do, I am going to believe I am nothing to you). And once my trust is broken it takes a while for me to work up the courage to open up again. Yet lately I've been surprised at the people to whom I will open up. People I never would have expected it to be easy to talk to.

{Photo Credit}

Despite what I may seem, I am actually very insecure - especially so this year. I am constantly worrying about what others think of me, and I always think the worst of compliments. Someone will ask me if I model, or say that I should, and in my head I hear "you have nothing more to offer than how you look." So I guess it's no wonder that I naturally gravitate towards people who I feel listen to, and care for me. People who I feel I can be myself around - my whole self, and not just an empty shell of my real self. And some of those people are the last people I - or anyone else, I think - would have expected it to be, and yet, in what seems a very short time to me, they have already become like family to me. I wonder if they'll ever know that. I said nearly as much (as close it as shy little me will get) the other day, but I still can't help wondering. I guess that even though I don't admire Taylor Swift nearly as much as I did before Speak Now came out, there is still one trait of her's I'm jealous of - her ability to tell people just how much the mean to her. That's something that's very hard for me to do.

The Princess in Her Flower Bed

I got this dress from the thrift store several months ago. When I got it it had long, puffy sleeves, and a midi-length skirt. I finally got around to hemming it and shortening the sleeves a few days ago. I have to admit I was a little worried it would be hard to style, but I love it! It reminds me of my Red Dress Shoppe dress, only longer. I felt just like Alice from Alice in Wonderland in it, so I gathered up some Alice-like props and headed off to a local park with my friend, Christina, to get some pictures.

{dress/thrifted ~ belt/thrifted ~ shoes/H&M ~ jars/thrifted ~ necklace/homemade}

I'm pretty happy with how they all turned out! Christina got some really pretty artsy ones, which I'll post later today. Until then, my dears!

Was it Love at First Sight?

I have a really sweet love story to share in this post: several months ago I was perusing the ModCloth Newest Arrivals page (as I do often) and I saw this cardigan. My heart went "THUMP THUMP THUMP!" as I admired the simple cable knit, and cute, mismatched gold buttons. "I have to have that sweater!" my mind reasoned, but, alas, my budget held a firm "no." There was no way I could afford a $70 sweater, it (truthfully) argued. It seemed a thwarted love doomed to failure until one day, a few weeks later, when I got an email announcing the ModCloth Cabin Fever sale. I dashed over to check it out - with no thought that anything I had been coveting would be in it - and there it was! My love! "My" cardigan! I snapped that baby up just as soon as my pay check was cashed, and got it in the mail several days later. Hooray for sales, the saver of lost loves!

These pictures were taken at two different locations, since I took some pictures in my neighborhood in the early afternoon in case it was raining by the time I got to go on a proper photo shoot. I liked some of the first pictures so much I used them anyway!
Edit: I took so many pictures that I liked that I couldn't put them all in this post, so I put them all into their own set on Flickr so you could see them if you wanted to. <3

{cardigan/ModCloth ~ blouse/thrifted ~ shorts/thrifted ~ necklace/homemade ~ shoes/Rue21 ~ sunglasses/Xhilaration ~ canvas bag/Etsy}

Did anyone notice the different style of my pictures this time? After looking at lots of other blogs for ideas on how to style my posts, I finally decided to put the outfit details under the last picture instead of at a list at the bottom (since it looks better with my signature, which I love), to only use landscape shots (thanks for the inspiration, Elizabeth!) and to add a slightly vintage look to the pictures (like Elanor does). What do you all think?

Friday Favorites - And in The Mirror She Saw a Fool

{Credit}

So this is the first instalment of a new series here on the blog - Friday Favorites. Every Friday I'll share something I've found and really enjoyed/liked/fallen in love with during the week.

This week I'm sharing a mini-photo shoot by my good friend, Christina. As you can she's amazing with a camera, and this is just some proof of it. I'm so in love with the vivid, saturated colors of these photos. <3

My Favorite from Sunlit Serenity

Just when I thought my style was going very, very bohemian, what should come along than Ruche's new look book to romance me up again. *winks*

And I know I'm a little behind the ball on this one, but I just thought I'd share some of my favorite images from the look book. (I love the skirt outfit in the next two pages!)

Music Monday - Owl City's Galaxies

Ok, I know this is a very late Music Monday post, but in my defense, I spent most of Monday fighting with Blogspot to make my template work, and I was really busy today. But here it is at last!

Galaxies. This song has seriously become one of my favorites.

Dear God, I was terribly lost,
When the galaxies crossed,
And the sun went dark.
Dear God, You're the only north star, I would follow this far.
Oh telescope, keep an eye on my only hope,
Lest I blink and be swept off the narrow road.
Hercules, you've got nothing to say to me,
'Cause you're not the blinding light that I need.

For He is the saving grace of the galaxies!

For those of you who don't know, Adam Young (the writer/main singer for Owl City) is a Christian - and, judging by some of his songs, a pretty strong one at that. One of the things I really like about him, is that he doesn't confine himself to only one kind of songs. He has romantic ones, nonsensical ones, and every once in a while, one that appears to be about God. I find that so refreshing!