You!

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What have you all been up to? Tell me about your life or send me links!

Simplicity

"In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity." -Henry Longfellow

"The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity." -Walt Whitman

"Manifest plainness, embrace simplicity, reduce selfishness, have few desires." -Lao Tzu

If you know me, you know I love every thing simplistic and minimalistic.

P.S. I can't wait for Fall! I'm currently listening to Birdy and scrolling through Tina Sosna's Flickr and they are both making me completely lust for Fall. 

Happy 4th of July! Stay safe today.

Happy July!

Wow, is time going fast or slow? I'm going to say fast. Life has been pretty good! June was a little weird - a lot happened that month. But now I finally have a Summer job that is fun and easy and everything is going well. Yay! I hope you all are doing just as well.

Photo taken by me last week of the sunset behind the NYC skyline. So pretty!

Here's to a happy and healthy July!

Currently

Loving: SUMMER! Ahh, it's so great. The fun, the friends, the freedom. How can you not love time off school? Every Summer gets better and better and so far my Summer is going amazingly.

Watching: OITNB and Modern Family. I've pretty much been re watching Modern Family like crazy recently - it's such a great show and I love watching it while I paint. OITNB has never been one of my favorite shows, but season 4 is here and I figured why not? UPDATE: I finished season 4 and it was SO good! If you've seen it, message me and let's talk about it!

Reading: I just finished Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (can you tell? I think I've mentioned it about 30 times in the past few posts haha!) and now I'm starting An Abundance of Katherines by John Green. I think this will be the last John Green book that I need to read before I've read them all! And then I'm going to borrow a book of my friend's to read Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children before the movie comes out!

Anticipating: Yikes... I'm not really sure if I have anything to anticipate right now. Maybe that's a good thing! I have a job, I have day trips planned with friends, school is a few months away, we move in about a month and a half. It seems like everything planned and I should just 'enjoy the now'!

Listening: Hmm... I haven't been listening to too many new songs, but my friend made me a mix CD and that's pretty much been on repeat in the car lately. Have you heard of Jonnyswim? So great!! Check out their song Home. Love!!

Working on: Enjoying my Summer. I want to worry less about work and stuff - I just want to spend money on fun days with all my friends. I work 25 hours a week during the school year! Right now I just want to enjoy my freedom and friends.

As usual, the photo is from my Tumblr and I got this great post idea from Dani over at Sometimes Sweet! Thanks for reading - what are you currently up to? I'd love to read, send me your link!

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

I'm sure most of you have either read or seen Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close... what did you think of it? Have you read and seen it? I guess I shouldn't give too much away, just in case. There were so many differences between the two! I wasn't a fan at how much was changed, but I thought both were so good! If the movie was way more true to the book, it would have been a fantastic film!

I'm a little late in the game here, since the movie came out in 2011! Let me know what you think, though.

5 happy things

1. Reading in a warm bath

I love self care (if you can't tell) and I love taking baths. Recently, I've been trying to put my phone down for a bit and every few nights a week, I'll take a bath, read a book, and wear a nice face mask. It's the most relaxing, simplest thing you can do for yourself.

2. Reading a book and watching the movie right away

Do you sense a theme here? I would never have called myself a reader, but lately I've been reading all the time. My friend, Alexandra, and I have been reading books at the same time and then watching the movies that we've never seen before. The most recent was Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - we both had never seen the movie or read the book, so we read it at the same time, then watched the movie, and discussed our thoughts.

3. Alone time

The other night my parents went out to dinner with friends and my sister was at camp, so it was just my dog and me. It was SO great. My parents rarely leave the house, so it was a nice change of pace. The house was quiet, it was a cozy, rainy night, I got Chipotle and watched Degrassi. It was perfection!

4. Old friends

For some reason, this Summer I've been bumping into and hanging out with so many old friends. It's awesome! Last Summer I didn't hang out with anyone from high school, so I kind of thought it was just over with those friends. Everyone moves on! It's nice getting back together with them all, though.

5. Open windows

The second floor of my house gets really hot, so when we open the windows it's almost cooler. I just love the fresh air, the openness, and everything. I can't really explain it, but the feeling of having the windows open just makes me feel better.

Is this what we've become?

I came across this video recently and it's so shocking! It makes me so, so sad that this is what we're turing into. I understand that things like this are to be remembered, but they should also be completely personal. It's just a video, but i have no doubt that this really happens!

Whenever I'm with friends I try super hard to not be on my phone! What's the point of being together if you're just going to go off onto Instagram and Twitter? I like to take pictures, but I like to wait until later that night to do anything with them, like Instagram or Facebook. It's just common curtesy, you know? I have some friends that sit on their phones constantly and it drives me insane.

Just enjoy the moment and don't live your life through a screen! Be with people you love in real life!!

Summer evenings

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Last night was such a great time! I just love Summer nights in general.

Yesterday some friends and I got half price tickets to the Baltimore Aquarium, so we went a little earlier and hung out around the harbor. We got ice cream, walked through the fountain, took tons of pictures - it was so fun! Then we had a blast at the aquarium, and afterwards we got dinner and sat outside because the weather was fantastic. After dinner we just wanted to take a walk around and enjoy Baltimore! It was so nice out and it was perfect with the city lights, the people, the harbor. We left around 9:30, and I couldn't have asked for a better day. It was such a nice change going there with friends rather than with family! Like a breath of fresh air.

“The law of probability combined with the law of large numbers states that to beat the odds, sometimes you have to repeat an event an increasing number of times in order to get you to the outcome you desire. The more you do, the closer you get. Or… basically, sometimes you just have to keep going.” 
― Jojo Moyes, One Plus One

Photo by me, of the beautiful Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

Autumn

I get this way every Summer, and it's so weird. I love Fall so much! And right around this time I start lusting for changing leaves, pumpkins, scarves, and hot apple cider.

I was listening to Lorde earlier today and, without fail, I always seem to be reminded to Fall when I listen to her. Maybe it's because I discovered her during Fall many years ago? I don't know, but it's crazy how a song can make you feel so many things!

Here are some pretty Fall photos from one of my favorite Tumblrs, Autumn Cozy.

Thanks, Lorde.

Happy Monday!

Home...

I've been missing school so much. Well, Boston mostly. I miss so much! Being able to walk anywhere, all the people, the fun things to do, even my job! I can't wait to be back... in 3 months. Right now I'm not really loving my job and getting gas every other day isn't a good time (I never fill it up haha! I realize every other day sounds like a lot). I was talking with friends last night and we were all saying how our homes are where school is. I'm in Boston, my friend Emmy's in South Carolina, and my friend Alexandra's in Philly. We always manage to come back together though!

This is a picture I took on a gorgeous day. I was sitting on the steps of the library on a busy street, shoes off, reading a book and drinking coffee. Bliss! You definitely can't do that here in my hometown.

Oh, Boston.

Bologna, Italy

Taken by Tiberio Frascari.

My Poshmark

So I decided I am going to sell some things! I found a much easier way to do it. I have a Poshmark page now! It's so fun! I've been buying things on there too. Yikes! It might be dangerous for me to have this app because of all the goodies on there. Check out my closet! Here are a few of the things I'm selling...

I love how you can make offers on items if you aren't totally sold on the price. I bought this Rocco inspired bag yesterday (I've been looking forever for this bag!) and it was originally $38, but I offered $30 and she accepted! I'm so excited to receive it.

Spread the word and if you have a Poshmark I'd love to check out your closet as well!

Selling clothes?

Random picture of Boston that has nothing to do with this post... isn't it pretty though?

I'm thinking about selling some of my unwanted clothes online, on Tumblr or something. Maybe I could donate some money to a charity? I just feel like I get rid of clothes a lot and donate them, not really knowing where they're going. I'd rather give money to a homeless shelter, you know?

Have any of you done that before? I kind of want to give it a go. I already have a Tumblr set up and ready to go, I just need to take pictures of the clothes.

Just putting all that out there for feedback! Thanks loves!

Quotes of Note

You guys! Today my neighborhood had a garden party and it was so fun. We went around to some back yards and looked at their pretty gardens. There was food, pedicabs, and art! There were a few pop up shops set up in the square and there was one with the prettiest and simplest paintings. I searched through them all and one stood out to me.

Office fans will understand ;)

She wrapped it up when I bought it in the prettiest wrapping!

We talked a little more and her Etsy shop is called Quotes of Note. I'll definitely be getting more from her! I love all of her pieces! Here are a few more:

Aren't they just great?! Make sure you check out more on Julia's Etsy shop Quotes of Note!

It was so great meeting her and I'm so happy our little neighborhood had her some set up a stand of her beautiful pieces!

This post isn't sponsored and I have no discount codes for you - just wanted to share a great artist with you :)

We Are Your Friends, 2015

From here.

Happy June!

Under the same sun

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"Under the bright sun, many of us are gathered together with different languages, different styles of dress, even different faiths. However, all of us are the same in being humans, and we all uniquely have the thought of 'I' and we're all the same in wanting happiness and in wanting to avoid suffering."

-Dalai Lama-

Photo by Tina Sonsa, on Flickr.

B+G flower tattoo

I'm really loving the look of these tattoos. I love black and grey tattoos anyway - I don't think I'd ever get a color one (then again, I said I'd never get a tattoo with words). These flower ones on the shoulder are calling out to me! I love the middle one. Find more on my Pinterest!

"It's a helluva start, being able to realize what makes you happy." -Lucille Ball

The other day I got the book that I ordered by Dakota Wint, A Nervous Wreck That's Faking Fine. I'm so excited, you guys! He signed it and everything!! Now I just need to sit down and take it all in.

How are you guys doing? Tell me about your life! What's something you're super happy about right now?

P.S. I really appreciate all the views my vegan diet post got! Thanks, search engines, for bringing readers to my blog to read up on my plant-based thoughts ;)

Warm breeze

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Honestly, what's better than the sun shining, the windows open, and the Summer breeze coming through? This picture makes me feel something happy!

By Hailey DeRoo, on Instagram.