NEW HOME SWEET HOME

I've finally started settling down in my new apartment and new town (I'll call it Btown)! I got this nifty little apartment with my mother, her boyfriend, and my little brother Sammy (he's seven). The place is huge. Five or six bedrooms, big kitchen, two bathrooms, and the magnificent porch above (which is gorgeous, I love it, and it looks fantastic in pictures, right?). Other than that, I started my new job. I work in a factory making catheters, but it's actually not bad. I sit at a counter for about eight hours listening to books on tape (currently on The Shipbreaker) and working. It's not bad. I did have a ton of blisters, cuts, and burns on my hands this week, but hopefully I'll just get used to it and it won't be so bad! Having quite a bit of fun in Btown, getting to see my old friends (I attended one of the high schools here for a year and a half, but ended up moving back home before my Senior year) and hanging out. 

This outfit was from last weekend. It was the last of the outfit pictures taken by Aaron. He went back home Monday (which is five hours away), which is sad, but it'll be just fine! We went to see Oblivion (which I really recommend, I loved it!) and I wore this: a polka-dot skirt with a red sweater over a white shirt and my favorite thrifted shoes! 

ATOP THIS HILL, THE WIND DOTH BLOW

So, I kind of used my really, really Easter-y outfit on Saturday, hence, I had to come up with another colorful, Easter-egg like outfit for the next day! (Which, um... was actually Easter.) So, I picked my Rue21 dress (I can talk for hours about how awesome the colors and designs are on this dress, but I will refrain!) with a blushed bow belt, a yellow cardi, and heels! I really loved this outfit, but it wasn't particularly well suited for the terrain on our nature walk. My feet felt like they were going to fall off by the time we got back! Ye-owch! But it was fun anyway!

DAY OF BUNNIES AND CANDY

It's Easter -- the day for egg hunts, candy, and yummy meals (anything except ham, please -- yuck). I'm not going to take up too much of your precious time on this day of festivities, but here's my Easter Day outfit. I chose bright colors to compliment the day -- and, look, I've got an egg... which isn't painted... and I just pulled it out of the fridge. My bad. I haven't painted eggs in years, sadly. Enjoy.

SICKLY VAMPIRE AM I

The weather might have hit 50 today! Maybe. It felt like it! Especially in the sun -- which (gasp!) was out. Finally. I've been getting real sick of this weather real fast -- I'm through, I'm done, I'm finished. And, with the weather being so nice, Aaron and I decided to take a nice little walk down to the community center to take pictures by the woods and their fence (which I think is pretty nifty looking). I played my video game till late last night -- My name is Kay and I'm addicted to Bioshock Infinite -- and didn't get up to pretty late in the day today, so... pretty much all I've done today is take a walk. Oh, life is so hard. Anyway, in lieu of the good weather, I decided to go the route of shorts (which wasn't the most weather-conscious decision, but whatever) and my hand-me-down polo sweater (which, a few years back, I kept calling my "polio shirt"...hm). 

WARNING: Butt-tons of pictures coming up.

I had wa-aaaaa-ay too much fun with the camera.

WARM WEATHER + LAZINESS

Motivation has not been on my side this week. I haven't done any outfit posts, I haven't taken many pictures, and I've just been tired... all... week. Probably cause there's been a lot of snow and cold weather. In March. During the first week of spring. Ugh. Oh well, this is the Midwest, so I should expect it by now. Anyway, most of my week was uneventful -- mostly filled with catching up on politics and putting my mind back into the Philosophical gear (which has been a smooth transition from Spring Break mush). Today was the first day I did much: Aaron and I's friend, Max, came over and we went to breakfast. Then we bought Les Mis (which came out today -- yay!) and The Hobbit. Had a movie evening. Was great. Along with that, the weather wasn't blistering cold -- although it was windy -- so I got to wear out my new shirt paired with my favorite striped skirt. I loved going outside and hanging out for a bit (with the crazy two -- Aaron and Max)!

SCHOOL SCHMOOL

Well, classes were back in session today! Fortunately or unfortunately, I'm not quite sure yet. I couldn't remember how to do a single problem in my Symbolic Logic class and I missed the majority of the Batman discussion in my Ethics class (I am so terribly sad about that -- I love comic books!). I wasn't in the best of moods today for two reasons: 1. I was terrified my car was going to break down mid-way to class (it was in the shop last week), and 2. I hadn't finished much homework over break. Kay, you don't finish much homework over normal weeks. Shoosh. I know! But, hey, I still have high marks, good enough for me. So, to make myself feel better today, I dressed in a striped skirt I haven't had the chance to wear yet, my pretty scarf (which I bunched up too high in these pictures, bleh), and a red cardi. I loved the look, mostly because it was really, really comfy. And I'm wearing the earrings my mom got me, which make me happy primarily because they're cute, but they also match my bird-mania! And... I'm all about bird-mania this lifetime.

GREEN, GREENER, GREENEST

So, apparently, no one knew it was St. Patrick's Day today. (And I only found out a few days ago from another blog, so...) I was the only individual wearing green at Aaron's Dad's birthday party. There was a lot of pinching going on. But, anyway, happy St. Patrick's Day! I wore some fantabulous green today with a pair of saddle-shoes and pink. Not a fancy outfit, and far from my favorite, but -- if anyone actually knew it was St. Patrick's Day -- it would've kept my off the serial pincher's list. 

HAPPY PI DAY!

Today was a lazy Thursday full of cleaning and laundry (mostly cleaning that involved picking up all the clothes I have a tendency to pile up on the dresser... I need to learn to treat my clothes right!) and no pie (wrong kind of pi there, Kay) -- boo hoo. Even so, Aaron and I found the time to go take a walk, since the sun was out and the temperature was about forty-five. Not exactly seventy, but I'll take it as a step in the right direction! Actually, hot weather has always been a nightmare for me, mainly due to my skin disorder, but also because I love ice skating and sledding and watching snow fall as I drink hot cocoa and watch sappy love stories on TV. Summer weather just takes away a lot of the things I love (although sappy love stories can thrive without snow) -- but, alas, I'm sick of winter already. The snowfall I wanted never came, and we've just been left with cold weather and scattered blankets of white. Not exactly a very fruitful winter (although, I gather, most winters aren't "fruitful"). 

Yet, there's one thing about summer and warm weather that I do adore.

TO OZ!

So, today is officially the first day of my college's spring break! This would be absolutely fantastic, if it weren't for the fact that... spring doesn't start for another week or two. Oh well. That just means Aaron and I have to be more creative in finding our little taste of "vacation". For day one of Spring Break (sounds like a bad war movie), we decided to do some shopping! (Or, well... I decided to do some shopping.) We started our day at Goodwill -- yippee! -- where I found a pair of two-toned oxfords and a high-collared poofy shirt (which I've been wanting). Spent $21. Gotta love Goodwill. Then we went to the mall that's about an hour or so away -- which is always a bad idea with us, because we're both directionally challenged, and I don't know if you know any directionally challenged individuals, but... traveling with them is no fun. We made it, though -- alive. And Aaron ended up finding this really cool vest and I got a new dress (pics coming soon -- duh!), necklace, scarf, and perfume. All but one thing I tried on had a bird print. Jeepers, I'm becoming obsessed! To top off the day, we went and saw Oz, The Great and Powerful, because Aaron is a huge Oz nut, which is fine by me -- it was a pretty good movie! I recommend it, just not in 3D. 

That was... not a great idea.

ABOUT A FOOT, GIVE OR TAKE

Yup, we got a little under twelve inches of snow last night (give or take in a few areas). Of course, as per usual, my town decided that a two hour delay would suffice, whilst all the other schools in the area were closed. (Alas, I'm not in high school anymore, so I'll say "so long" to snow days -- our school cancels every -- what? -- ten years? Even under two feet of snow.) Heck, we're all used to it already. Every citizen of the Midwest has a second job: driveway shovel-er and/or snow plower. For the amount of snow we got, I finally was able to wear my winter boots, which I've only worn twice this very dry winter. Due to their floral brown design, they're crazy hard to pair with anything, but I decided the chilly weather would give me an excuse if I was totally not matching. So, I paired the design with my stripey dress and a yellow cardi, along with some bunched tan socks on the boots. I think it looked okay, given the weather!

Frostbite and mid-terms

First and foremost: this is the least appropriate dress to wear when there is snow on the ground and a -5 windchill. Yet, it worked well with tights, scarf, and a cardigan (there's also a belt buried in there somewhere, but it was too cold to take off my coat today)! I dressed up to do errands today which mostly consisted of going grocery shopping and finishing up an application for a summer job in the town I'm moving to this summer. Hate it, but have to do it, right? So, while I was waiting for some people to get back to me on being references, I decided to go out into my grandmother's backyard (she has a computer scanner) and do some pictures. It was cold, but really pretty. There had just been a light snowfall and it was clinging to the grass and trees, and the neighbor's three little girls were outside playing. You could hear them laughing from across the cornfield. While I was out there, I could see dark clouds coming toward our area -- the air beneath it was fuzzy and, as it got closer, I realized it was snowfall. It was really cool! 

OL' POLKA DOTS AND A HAIR CUT

Snow is finally melting and the sun has come out for the first time in, like, five days (or maybe I just never noticed the sun because I was curled up in bed with Kleenex and my laptop - aka, ill). I'm finally feeling better, which means pictures...and it would've meant some pictures of my sewing outcomes, but I promise you this: you do not want to see the outcome of my travels in sewing land. It ended badly. If I was a secret agent on a mission, the outcome would've been that everyone died... yeah, that badly. I botched the striped dress, considering getting another one since it was cheap, but not sure if I want to try botching it again. Too scared to fix the other two at the moment, so I'll wait and see how I feel in a few days (if I feel talented in a few days, I should say). Anyway, with the sun out today, we wanted to take some pictures and go outside for a bit -- bad idea. It was bitterly cold.

UP, UP, AND A KAY!

Even though I hate taking pictures inside (my camera isn’t fancy-shmancy just yet), the weather kind of demanded it today. It was spewing snow all day, which I usually love, but the ground was too warm for it to stick. So, we just got nasty yard puddles and blistering cold air (hooray for living on a lake!). So -- due to cold weather and no classes -- I spent the day cleaning. I say “cleaning”, but -- in reality -- it was me just discovering a bunch of stuff that I didn’t realize I either A) had, or B) still had. Like a bunch of comic books. The majority were in their protective plastic wraps, so I had to scrounge around for a few that weren’t wrapped to take some superhero-inspired pictures. I found an issue of Guardians of the Galaxy (one that I hadn’t read, so I ended up going through a bunch of the comics for fun). Anyway, I chose a mixture of blues and reds (a la Superman) and got the show on the road!

THE CRACKLE OF THE PIER, THE SMELL OF THE ICE

The metal slabs of the pier crackled and snapped beneath our feet as we stepped out upon the water. An icy gust whistled across the expanse, making our eyes water and our fingers miss the shutter key. Ghostly memories of mirror-still water and tired fishermen -- their boats bobbing lazily in the reeds -- drift through our minds like afterimages. Our little pier sits alone -- now too frozen to dismantle by people that were too busy to care.

That was our backdrop for pictures this evening. 

VALENTINE'S DAY BROWNIE POINTS!

Yes, that is my blue Volkswagen Jetta. I call her The Blue Meanie. Reference, anyone? 

Happy Valentine’s Day! While there’s a lot of festive holidays that I quite enjoy -- Christmas being one of them -- Valentine’s Day is probably the one that feels most nostalgic, and the one I kind of miss. It makes me miss elementary school, especially third grade. Back then, our teacher would hand out brightly colored printer paper -- the kind that are connected and folded into long sheets -- and we would cut out heart shapes, trying to get it so if we unraveled the paper, it would be one long festive spool of hearts (or blobby circles, which is what mine always looked like -- I had shaky hands). I also was one of the kids that went all out on Valentine’s Day with handmade TMNT valentines (couldn’t find those anywhere!) and home-made cupcakes or cookies. Why can’t we grown-ups hand out Valentine’s Day cards like that anymore? Why can’t my college classes put out little baggies so we can collect valentine cards? I saw some Transformers valentines that would've been awesome to hand out! Too bad. Maybe I'll do it next year just for fun.