Only one.

Outfit Details:

Scoop Neck Tee - Nordstrom

Alberto Makali Printed Jeans - Nordstrom Rack

Rose Flats - Marshalls/Ross

Rose Belt - gift from the grandmum

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There were originally far more shots to this post, but I decided to cut back only to this particular one so the rest of the post won't be so photo-spam-esque.

The family and I went to see a movie today, after I had spent the night with some wonderful friends over at Shay's.

We decided on "A Dolphin Tale" - which not only proves that punny titles occasionally work (and that's only very occasionally) but also that the real family movie has not died.

The Theatrical Poster:

And an incredibly apt review from imdb.com:

"From what I've seen, the trailer on TV and previews have everyone expecting a sappy and cloying family drama; all the elements for it are there - war tragedy, absent parents, incredibly cute animals, confused adults, children - but somehow it manages to transcend the trappings of the family drama genre. There is absolutely nothing more to the story than what's on the trailer but nevertheless, the way it gets to the inevitable points in the story are done with great skill and nuance. The performances coaxed out of all the actors are great, even the dolphin Winter and the pelican.

"Dolphin Tale" aims to tell a very simple story and never over-complicates it. The movie aims to offer an atmosphere and glimpses of lives rather than something story driven. Though the movie boasts of big names, they are never above or beyond the story and all are pieces of the story rather than big actors."

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The real breakout star for me (aside from Winter) was Cozi Zuehlsdorff.

Absolutely adorable and perfectly cast in her first principle role. Not to mention the fantastic outfits she was styled in:

How can you not love that little peasant top and striped shorts? 

And she hits the premiere in this little number. Love. 

And with a little searching we discover she has a love for vintage dresses?

If I ever have a child - she will have a lot to live up to.

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Conclusions:

You need to immediately drag yourself to a theatre and enjoy this film. And cry a little bit. It's not going to blow you away with superb script and cinematography and win any kind of big name awards - but sometimes that really doesn't matter.

It's a wonderful, heartwarming film, and we all deserve a little heartwarming sometimes.

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Anywho - I've made some new purchases and the fall has rolled around, so expect some new outfit shots within the coming days.

Until later~

Jenna B.

Keep calm and twirl.

Is that a neighbour I see hoping into my picture? Pssh.

Outfit Details:

Bright Red Shirt - Target

Skinnies - Target

Sandini Leather Boots - Nordstrom Rack

Lace Detailed Trenchcoat - Target

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Target plugs - totally unintentional. 

Anywho, the weather around these parts is cooling off for the season, and I think we've finally entered the fall. I took the opportunity to wear this trench that I bought about a year ago and neglected in my lonely coat closet. Poor thing. 

Speaking of seasonal changes, I love the fall. Allow me to explain why: (cue the list!)

1. There are no bugs. No bees, no flies, no mosquitos. It's fantastic. You might say the winter also lacks these things - which, it does, but the winter isn't quite as fantastic for another reason.Which brings us to...

2. The weather is perfect. Unlike the winter, which is cold and dreary. I'll take a light breeze over a cold gale gust any day.

3. The colours are better. Sure - the flowers are nice in spring, the summer is nice and green but the fall has variety. It has shades of oranges, browns and touches of pinks and purples. 

And probably the most applicable to this blog:

4. The fashion options are innumerable. The summer consists of shorts and tanks, the winter of bulky coats and red noses, and the spring is neither here nor there, and all your outfits are kind of confused. The fall is the perfect blend of choices. 

That's not to say that the fall isn't without flaws, because there are plenty. Cue the next list!

1. The common cold strikes in the fall. The evil, energy-draining monstrosity known to us as the Rhinovirus. Blegh. I can just feel my sinuses hurting and my coughing beginning.

2. School starts in the fall. That's not to say I don't like school - it's just that when it starts it's hard to get into the swing of things, and the nasty cold you inevitably develop will keep you from operating on all cylinders.

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So, from this we can deduce that I'm coming down with a cold. Probably. Maybe it's just the sudden weather change playing games with my allergies. But, I'm pretty sure the sickness is coming. Which is unfortunate, because the schoolwork is piling up. Must. Boost. Immune. System.

Departing from that - in my mad rush to get ahead on my school work, I've completed a few vocabulary activities to get some extra points.

You might notice the rather awkward and glaring vocabulary words, but I rather like I poem I came up with (hmm - arrogance?) so here goes:

Fanatics have a certain predilection

For everything others don’t.

Ideologies that seem to us,

Much stranger than fiction.

There’s a certain apprehension

I feel in my stomach these days

When I pass through my neighborhood

And notice these breakaway factions.

I’d love to call them heathen

And consider them the world’s trash.

But I can’t help myself to wonder

If it would be right to begrudge them so.

To call their ideas gibberish

To call them abominations

To call upon my most vindictive self

And put them in some subservient position.

The temptation is formidable and almost too great

But conjures up the images

Of things I so hope to avoid.

Of some kind of junta

Hell-bent on keeping their kind

In their place.

Of people with a defeated sense of deference

But try hopelessly to ingratiate themselves

To no avail.

Of an inert society

Exuding the smell of stagnation

Whose only titillation

Comes from the special suffering

Of these chosen few.

I wonder sometimes

At all the exaltation

For the ideas we hold so dear

And wonder sometimes even more

If we are not prodigiously dissembled.

Are you innocent

When another corroborates your story

But you both lie through your teeth?

I wake up some mornings

And my mind greets me with trepidation

Of this war within me.

I wonder if I should

Condemn those who differ.

But more often I wonder,

Should I too be questioning what’s right?

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Take from it what you will - or just skip over it; whatever strikes your fancy.

On a side note, I use the word "I" way too much. My blog is starting to sound like a personal shrine or something. Ick. That needs fixing. And all this talk about school. Pssh. School.

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Until tomorrow (or maybe a few days - things are getting hectic up in here!)~

Jenna B.

Registration ends in 3,2,1...

Outfit Details:

Ralph Lauren Blouse - Belk

Lace Cami - Target

Trouve Leather Shorts - Nordstrom Rack

Maroon Tights - American Apparel

Born of Concept Flower Flats - Marshalls

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Ah college. How I love you. 

I revel in the thought of SAT's, ACT's and applications. I live for the day when I might send in my FAFSA forms and wait to hear back about financial aid. The stress is absolutely thrilling.

Oh. Wait. 

So instead of worrying about it just now - I'm going to take this opportunity to enjoy some silence and write a post about fun stuff.

Like writing. I'm a big fan. 

Though far from my best work - if it interests anyone, after the page break I have a short story I picked up and edited for a writing group I attend. 

I will warn you now that the ending is quite unsatisfying. But, that's why I love it.

If that holds no interest for you, I will leave you with the following sentiment:
Leather shorts = Love.
No exaggeration. At all.

Chipping away, little by little.

Is that a cat I see? How did she manage to scamper in and get in a photo?....

The Outfit:

Leifsdottir Sweater - Nordstrom Rack

Black Skinnies - Target

Tracy Reese Caroline Bootie - Bloomingdales (available in all black at Endless)

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How does the weather become so bipolar? I suppose it has something to do with cold and warm fronts, is something rather elementary and is something I should know from my basic Earth Science course - but, I don't really know - I just dress accordingly.

It's rather dreary and rainy here in my little Burg. I think our high today was 75 - which is quite a difference from the usual high of 90-something.

I took this opportunity to wear this sweater. It was rather nice, because my school is kept at about the same temperature as an icebox, and because it was wet and rainy outside, I didn't look ridiculous.

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I have conquered my mountain of homework for the night - reducing it to nothing a smaller mountain.

 And now I have enough time to sit down and type out this post. :)

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So what are we going to talk about today? 

I'm thinking we should talk about school - because I happen to be a rather studious student and I spend a great deal of time either at school/at school when I'm at home/thinking about school/doing schoolwork/and generally doing all things school-related at almost all times.

1 - school is a job. People like to tell the youth (ie. me) this all the time, and it's true. I think I devote an average of 40 hours a week doing school-related things. And if I devoted any less I would probably not be quite as successful in my work.

2- school is tiring. Just like a job is tiring, because school is a job - students like myself are constantly tired and/or dragging through the day. This has very little to do with the number of hours we sleep - because I go to bed at 9 and wake up feeling about the same as I would going to bed at 12; the institution is a drain. Sleep has no power here.

3- school is tiring. You might think you've heard this before. Maybe you have. Maybe I typed it twice because I'm so tired, or maybe so I could make this joke and feel clever. You'll never know.

4 - school is supposed to be rewarding. Whether or not you buy into this is up to you - I like to think it is, because if I don't I tend to spend a lot of time wondering why I spend so much time there and why it seems to creep home with me.

5 - school is not forever (thank goodness) - but learning is. No matter how much we may dread the deadlines, work, and general atmosphere - the school part of life is fleeting and promptly forgotten when we face the terrors of adult life - with new worries like "how will I feed myself?" and "how will I pay this enormous mortgage bill and/or shoe bill?" The learning part of life is never over, however. Learning is something we do until the day we die.

So - I guess the conclusion to my semi-rant is that you can get through school and join the ranks of society - just don't let it ruin learning for you. Because, it's a shame when people don't want to learn - and an even greater shame that it's so commonplace in our society today. Learning is fun, even if school isn't always. 

PLUS - those of us in the public or really *chill* (for lack of all better words) private schools can enjoy putting together cute outfits everyday. 

Nothing makes school more fun than a new pair of shoes, seriously.

*this also applies to pants, tops...

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And that's all I have for you today. Enjoy school tomorrow if you have it, and if not - enjoy trying to figure out how to pay your shoe debt  mortgage.

Until tomorrow, or maybe the next day if school gives me too much to do~

Jenna B.

Just Slow Enough to Make You Uncomfortable

Well well well. If it isn't Shay! Looking all natural and wonderful and such.

Outfit Details:

Black Scoop Neck Tee - Nordstrom

Vince Two-Tone Skinnies - Neiman Marcus: Last Call

ASN Silver Converse-style Shoes - Nordstrom Rack

Betsey Johnson Mirror Belt - Nordstrom Rack

Harajuku Lovers 80's Geometric Print Shoulder Bag - Marshalls

Gifted Silver Rings

Sally Hansen: Hard as Nails - Lacy Lilac nail polish

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First things first, I'm going to share my latest English assignment, two paragraphs using the rhetorical strategy of "example":

                People possess a predisposition to addiction of two kinds: addiction chemically, and addiction emotionally. I personally already possess a form of both addictions. A serious chemical addiction to caffeine, especially when a part of a delicious beverage like coffee and a serious emotional addiction to the baristas of Starbucks, who know what kind of dangerously addictive beverage to serve me.

                When people enter Starbucks, they never really leave. The smell of roasted coffee beans enters their untainted nostrils and promptly soils them with their addictive perfection. The people of Starbucks come from all walks of life; the mailman, the businessman, the 16 year old girl.  Our brains clearly tainted with caffeine, we return to Starbucks day after day – waiting for our tall, grande or venti drug in a zombielike fashion. We clog the “drive-thru” lane until the line of cars waiting backs into the highway and cause all sorts of delays. The leading cause of traffic backup in North America begins with close proximity to a Starbucks. Sometimes the customers try to stop – to take control of their minds and lives and go forth without coffee and without the company of fellow Starbucks-ians, but to no avail. The drug calls these blasphemers back - with headaches, and low energy levels. These brave souls drag themselves back to their local coffee shop and promptly order 2 to 3 shots of espresso and never look back. They return later in the week, full of pep and life, and waste their money away on their drug of choice, much like myself. In fact, as I write English assignments, I generally hold tight to my Caramel Frappucinno and sip slowly at the frothy coffee mixture, as I contemplate my next paragraph or two.

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I think it's rather clever. I hope my English teacher feels the same. 

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Anywho - onto the outfit!

I wore this to a concert I attended with my good friends Shay of What the Mirror Saw and Haley our resident Vlogger.

I was shocked (in a good way) by two things:

1. There's actually some really talented people out and about in my po-dunk community. The bands and one solo performer we saw were all really infectious and whatnot. 

2. These shoes are actually quite comfortable if you need to stand on your feet for three hours. I thought I'd end up with a footache and need Tylenol for awhile but - no. I'm good. And I love my sparkly shoes.

And while we're on the topic of shoes, allow us to take a brief excursion into my current shoe wishlist:

All pictures stolen from Solestruck.

I love everything about these shoes - and I suspect a great deal of allowence money will find itself wasted soon enough. 

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Now then:

Post title today comes from the song "Maps" by the Front Bottoms, who were one of the bands I saw with my friends:

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The rest of their album should be available to purchase on iTunes tomorrow, so give them a listen if they strike you as your style.

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I wish there were more to talk about - but, alas, I must attend to some of the homework I've neglected over this weekend.
Labor day, and I'm laboring over some work. Blegh.

Until tomorrow~

Jenna B.