A PHOTO SNAPPING GOOD TIME!

So a bunch of crazy-awesome stuff happened today: I got the rest of all my camera stuff (and was finally able to use it -- at la-aaaaaaaa-ast!), I was able to see my little brother since he was here on his Spring Break, I was informed that my car is fixed (hot bananas!), and the weather was near-superb at fifty degrees. It was a pretty awesome day -- I did have a few semi-heart attacks, though. First off, I'm not particularly smooth at figuring things out, so I spent nearly two hours trying to figure out why my new camera -- a Nikon d70s -- wouldn't take pictures. Cause: I didn't screw the lens all the way on. Wow. Good going, Kay. You're the second-smartest crayon in the preschooler's crayola can. Yes, that was my brain. Criticizing me. Again. So, after that debacle, my grandmother (pictured above) and I went and picked up my two little brothers (shown below) for some breakfast/lunch and some fun camera time (well, that became my plan and I was yelled at numerous times to stop taking pictures of our food and just eat...).            

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.

LOOKIN' COOL IN TWO-TONED SHOES

I've been obsessed with two-toned oxfords and tap-style shoes for a very long time. Recently, I've been on the hunt for a good pair of two-tones (black and white), but all the pairs I find online are extremely pricey (that's a given, though). To alleviate the burden on my wallet, I've started hunting the shoe aisle of my local Goodwill. I shared yesterday that I found quite a few items -- including a pair of shoes -- and the pair I found were the two-toned shoes I've been searching for! While they're a tad small with socks, wearing them barefoot works great! (They're a size 3 in men's/youth, so a size 5 in women's -- I'm a size 6.) But, like many Goodwill buys, these shoes needed some serious work. Here's what I did:

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!

NAUTICAL CRAZY FOR SPRING

Your breath turns to steam in the frigid air, the snow falls in heavy blankets across the scenery, and you can hardly feel your fingers beneath three pairs of gloves. With a scene set-up like that, it's hard to imagine that spring is only two weeks away and summer only a few months down the line. When the news is telling you to stay in doors due to frigid temperatures and the radio is reporting a foot overnight -- well, I'm trying not to lose hope in spring skirts and coat-less days. Which brings me to nautical styles, which seem to be cropping up for popularity this year. I've seen these styles primarily on Modcloth, but I'm sure it won't end there. Above is a beautiful ship wheel necklace from Etsy, which I think would look adorable with a couple of other nautical-style accessories. Below are six of my favorites that I've pulled from Modcloth.

HOME AGAIN, HOME AGAIN

Hello again, blogworld -- I have not seen you since February! Over this past weekend I went on a trip to Indianapolis, Indiana, for the IUPUI "Last Chance" tournament. It was the first year they were offering our circuit form, so it was interesting. I hadn't debated in a while, though, so for the first two rounds I was wa-aaaa-ay too nervous and didn't do particularly well. But the last two rounds, I scored first and second on speaker rankings! (The majority of people reading this will have no idea at all what I'm talking about -- if you want to know, look up college parliamentary debate. Explaining it would take too long and you'd bawl with boredom, even though I can talk for hours about it!) So, we were in Indianapolis and the picture above is the view from my hotel window (which I could hardly look out, because I'm terrified of heights)! We were on the eighth floor of this hotel and the view was of the capitol building. Crazy awesome, right? Not only was the view great, so were the rooms -- so great, in fact, I pampered myself with a hot bath. Too bad we were only there for a night. So, I got myself a new suit for competitions, but I didn't have any time to take pictures of it! Darn. Instead, I took a bunch of blurry pictures (my camera isn't good without its tripod), so enjoy them instead: