Stuff I'm Generally Loving This Weekend: Take iii

Well, you guys. I am writing this only two days after having my wizdum teefs removed. Yes, I have chipmunk cheeks and I've spent the last few days in a pair of fuzzy socks and polka-dotted pajamas and an oversized t-shirt, and believe me: I don't look like someone you should take any fashion advice from, which, ironically enough, is the bulk of this post. For some reason, lying on the couch for several days has renewed my passion for fashion (I'm sorry, so cliche, I had to). The point is -- Welcome to Stuff I'm Generally Loving This Weekend! Take 3!

Wearin' Clothes: 

J. Crew

Okay, if I had to turn in my entire closet and pick one store to completely renew my wardrobe, I'm pretty sure I'd choose J. Crew. I was there earlier this week (or maybe last week?) and I spent $111.11 which obviously makes all the clothes I got completely lucky, but even more awesome, guess what all I got for $111.11? I'll tell you: A pair of heels, a skirt, a blouse, and a sweater. Because sales! Because awesome! Also (and pay attention here because this is relevant to many of you) because J. Crew warehouse or outlet stores or whatever the J. Crew at Traverse Mountain is gives 15% off the entire purchase to college students! Woohoo! 

They're just so fabulous. Look! Look at all these beautiful things I just found on their website to make this post more aesthetically pleasing!

I just feel so classy in J. Crew. They make me feel kind of like I am going to take over the world or at least get a really good internship, you know? Plus I just feel pretty in J. Crew style, like, maybe I won't take over the world, but I'll definitely be the cutest girl waiting for lunch.

Readin' Books: So the last two times I've given you books I've been reading like, sort of recently, or books I just love or whatever, but this time I'm giving you a book I'm actually reading this exact weekend!

Eat the City: A Tale of the Fishers, Foragers, Butchers, Farmers, Poultry Minders, Sugar Refiners, Cane Cutters, Beekeepers, Winemakers, and Brewers who Built New York by Robin Shulman

So turns out I'm actually required to read this before I ship out to New York on account of it being the topic for the freshman dialogue when I get there. The good news: It's really interesting. I mean, granted, I'm obsessed with New York City and everything about it, but this is good stuff! Shulman talks about food as culture, history, economics, art -- everything. I'm not every far into it, so you guys should pick it up and read it with me and then we can gab all about it.

Listenin' to Music: So I don't know how many of you have XM radio, but let me tell you, you should, because of a little thing called XM channel 36 Altnation. This is where I discover most of the music I listen to, honestly, because it's just what I listen to whenever I'm in the car, plus my dad and my sister and I all have sort of similar music tastes, so we all agree that this is the best station in the history of ever.

If you do not, unfortunately, have Altnation at your immediate disposal, here are some of my recent Altnation favorites:

1.) "Harlem" by New Politics

This song is too catchy for its own good, and it's really good, like, walking through school/down the sidewalk music.

2.) "Land of Gathering" by The Ceremonies

I can't get enough of this song. It has such a cool sort of '80's vibe and I want to listen to it forever and ever.

3.) "Miracle Mile" by Cold War Kids

These guys never disappoint. I always get this song stuck in my head (the "come up for air, come up for air, come up" part) but it's not annoying to have stuck in your head because it's a reeeeally good song.

4.) "Next Year" by Two Door Cinema Club

I LOVE THIS SONG. It's sort of sad and also hopeful at the same time and I just really love his voice and I can't stop listening to it. It's also really good acoustic (I'll show you that, too):

 

Something New: This section is looking like it will basically house my latest obsession, and if that's the direction we're heading with this one then what I want to talk about this weekend is right on par.

Polyvore

So I've spent a fair amount of time making collages this week. Look at these!

Hello! Everything in my life is fun! So basically you can make sets and like items and follow other people and see the collages they make and what stuff they love and it's too good to be true, basically. You just have this enormous online closet of clothes and shoes and makeup and accessories and little cutesy things you can add to your collages and it's my favorite thing in the world.

Go to Polyvore.com or download the app. Follow me (@addysue) and also follow Avery (@averyink) and make collages and get inspired to wear cool clothes and makeup and also feel very, very poor, because another awesome thing about Polyvore is that it's an online shopping database, so everything you find on there is available for purchase and you just click on it and get excited and if you're really rich or really spoiled, you can buy the stuff you love! Mostly, though, you'll probably just end up like me and Avery where we spent a lot of time complaining to each other about things like $2,000 leather leggings and $800 necklaces that we have fallen in love with.

Something Inspiring: So ever since I first saw The Devil Wears Prada and started religiously reading VOGUE magazine, I've had this sort of secret, underlying desire to be a fashion journalist. I remember admitting this to someone once and he straight up said to me, "You'd never make it. Everyone wants to be a fashion journalist and there are people more qualified than you," which, looking back, is a completely ridiculous comment on account of the fact that I was 16, and I wasn't trying to be a fashion journalist, like, right that exact second, but I'd get a degree first and whatever, but the point is, that's still something I want. And sometimes I get really passionate about that again for a minute, and I'm in one of those phases, except this time, it doesn't feel as much like a phase. I'm moving to New York City in 25 days and my life is starting to get real, you guys.

The point is, this movie changed my life (and look! Gifs! Meryl gifs!!):

The point is, this movie changed my life. And if it hasn't changed yours yet, go watch it again, because it should. This is a movie about pursuing dreams and making unexpected friends and taking your destiny in your own hands and it talks about fashion in a new, honest way, and that's exciting for me, and it should be exciting for you, too.

Let me leave you with that: Pursue your dreams, make unexpected friends, take your destiny in your own hands.

                                       

So, I hope you've all had a very happy week(end). Again, thank you again for your kind reception to this blogging tradition. I love hearing what you have to say. I'm sending hugs to all of you via the internet right now. What are you wearing and reading and listening to and just generally loving this weekend?

You're all so lovely and sweet and pretty and you make so me happy.

"Just as a snake sheds its skin, we must shed our past over and over again." -Buddha

All my love,

Addy

Stuff I'm Generally Loving This Weekend: Take ii

I know this is late, and for that I apologize, but hello, I'm here, and here is the second installment of Stuff I'm Generally Loving This Weekend!

Wearin' Clothes: I know I tweeted earlier this week about what I was going to blog this weekend, and I said I was going to talk about Hudson Jeans, but I changed my mind. As it turns out, it's the dead of summer and most people aren't wearing jeans, you know? Including myself. So I changed my mind, because I wanted to talk about something I'm actually wearing, and that is this:

"World Peace Through Inner Peace" Tank

So this tank has been down at 3B for a few weeks now, and I have been eyeing it since the first day it got in. It's beautiful, obviously. So I finally got it, and I love it times infinity. The thing that's great about it is that I can wear it to yoga (with my Wunder Unders!) and then I come home and wash it real quick while I shower and whatever, and then I throw it on with shorts and a denim vest. It's the best.

It's made by a brand called Be Love, which is one of those great companies who work for community-based change and charity and produce everything sweatshop-free and stuff. I'm totally all for supporting companies with a bigger purpose than clothing. It's a reminder that fashion can be so much more than just clothing, but a political statement or a personal moral statement or it can benefit change and share art and be a form of expression, and that's why I love getting dressed every morning, you know? And that's why I love this tank!

And look how cute everything else they do is, too (I want these pieces a lot (my birthday is soon and you guys can buy them for me if you want)):

Anyway. Clothes are great, and that's what I'm wearing this week, and I'm feeling great about it.

Readin' Books: You guys, this is about to get emotional.

This week, I've been re-reading the Harry Potter series.

I sort of feel like talking about these books is like talking about the first time I fell in love. It's almost as if I have more feelings than words. I could talk about their literary brilliance or the general loveliness of Rowling's rhetoric. I could talk about the insane way they all come together and how perfectly they're planned.

But this isn't an AP Lang essay.

What I want to talk to you guys about is the way the Harry Potter series made me love literature. These characters were the first ones I felt a deep, personal, human connection to. I grew up with these guys. I cried over their deaths and celebrated their birthdays and loved them. Deeply. And I still do. I love them.

I'm moving to New York on August 22 to study writing, and I am studying writing because I love reading, and I love reading because these books made me. They shaped me. They sculpted me. And in some way, they loved me back. And Luna Lovegood shows up? It was like I freaking walked into the Harry Potter books, you guys. I AM LUNA LOVEGOOD, PEOPLE. And these books have full-on spiritual value for me. The sad thing is that I feel a little out-of-commission on my Harry Potter trivia because it's been a while since I've just inhaled these babies. I think that last time I read the complete series I was in the eighth grade. So, of course, it's time once again.

If you haven't yet read the Harry Potter series, I'm not sure what you're doing with your life right now. Go get those books already, you crazy. And if you have read the Harry Potter series (as I'm sure (or at least I hope) most of you have), then it's time for you to re-read it. Because this isn't some hyped up fandom. It's a life-changing literary experience.

Listenin' to Music: Okay, so I know I also tweeted earlier this week that I was going to tell you guys about the new Avicii + Aloe Blacc song that I have on repeat. It's good, and I'll stick the video below (ignore, like, the first 45 seconds of the DJ talking) -- 

But what I really want to talk about this weekend, is this:

Vampire Weekend covers Blurred Lines

I know, I know. I talked about Vampire Weekend last weekend, too. But they're JUST SO GOOD, YOU GUYS. Okay, so you all know that Blurred Lines song, right? I know you do, don't deny it, and I know you love it, too. But I came across a VAMPIRE WEEKEND COVER OF BLURRED LINES, PEOPLE. I AM DYING IT IS SO GOOD.

I love you, VW. I love you.

Something New: 

Teen Wolf on MTV

Alright, I know. Everything about it sounds silly -- a show on MTV about teenage werewolves. Granted, these guys aren't (especially during season 1) going to win any Academy Awards for Best Actors and the tech teams are certainly not winning any awards for incredible CGI, but literally, this show could fill every nominee slot for the Academy Award for Being Super, Super, Super Hot, which is an award I just made up that I would like to be a thing. 

Anyway. So about a week ago, I tweeted a picture to Avery with the caption, "Told you," after telling her I had fallen in love with a boy on tumblr.

This, in turn, spurred one of the many classic emails I get from Avery, which opened with this: 

"Addy.

It is with the strongest emphasis and deepest urgency that I tell you that the Tumblr boy you fell in love with last night is from.....

TEEN WOLF.

Yes, *the* Teen Wolf. It's finally time you jumped aboard my one-woman fangirl train of adolescent lycanthropy and beautiful, beautiful boys."

The email ended up convincing me that I needed to watch Teen Wolf, and I am about to convince you of the same.

Okay, so first of all, there's this guy and he's called Tyler Posey and he plays a boy called Scott:

He's like the main werewolf boy who spurs the whole show and whatever. Avery calls him "cute but no one actually cares." He's definitely cute, and people definitely care about him, but not because he's cute. They care about him because he's a WEREWOLF and he drives the show. However, in the world of cuteness he has just too much competition for anyone to care about him for his cuteness, because --

There's this guy, who is called Dylan O'Bryan and he plays a boy called Stiles who everyone cares about because he's perfect and adorable and you can't help but be completely in love with him.

He's just a human, but nobody cares that he's not actually a freaking awesome creature of the night because he basically runs the comedic relief of the entire show and also he's just so incredibly cute that it's basically impossible not to love him more than any other human real or fiction.

And then there's this guy. His name is Colton Haynes and he plays a boy called Jackson and he is, as Avery has so appropriately dubbed him, "the first human being that God created actually perfect."

I'm sorry, did you catch that?

JAWLINE JAWLINE JAWLINE!

He's pretty much a God among men, and I mean, he's hot even in one episode where a werewolf claw comes out of his actual mouth and he starts freaking out (like anyone would) and you basically have trouble focusing on the fact of, you know, the werewolf claw that's actually inside his body for some reason because he is just so incredibly beautiful.

Also there's this guy who complicates everything and also solves a lot of problems who is sometimes hot but nobody cares too much (meaning me and Avery don't care too much):

But finally, and most importantly, there is the original reason I was sold on this show (prepare yourself because you're about to get completely bombarded with pictures and also perfection):

This boy is literally actually perfection. He's called Daniel Sharman and he plays a traumatized teen werewolf with a troubled childhood and he is literal, actual, incomparable perfection, and the fact of the matter is that I am helplessly, hopelessly, undyingly, and irrevocably in love with him. Avery calls him "childs' play" compared to the rest of the cast, but she is OBVIOUSLY WRONG on account of the fact that he is OBVIOUSLY PERFECT. I love him. I love Teen Wolf.

The only reason you shouldn't watch Teen Wolf is if you want to be a normal, sane, boring human who doesn't fall head over heels in love with fictional characters in the worst type of unrequited love -- the kind where the person who you love DOESN'T EVEN ACTUALLY EXIST. Like, I love Daniel Sharman, but I am IN LOVE with the gum-smacking, leather-clad, troubled teen werewolf who is Isaac Lahey. And this is how I live now.

I will finish this section of Stuff I'm Generally Loving This Weekend with just giving you the sign-off Avery gave me:

"Is that enough convincing? HIGH SCHOOL. WEREWOLVES. BOYS. DRAMA. GIRLS WHO KILL PEOPLE WITH CROSS BOWS. KISSING. FIGHTING.

I cannot stress this enough. TEEN WOLF, Addy, is not to be scoffed at any longer! This is important! For America! For Narnia!

Okay. I'm done. Consider yourself warned. Make the right choice."

Something Inspiring: So last Monday at yoga, as we finished, my teacher said, "Practice and all is coming." I've thought about that a lot lately. In reference to yoga, I see it every day. I can do things today that I couldn't do yesterday. I roll out my mat and new things happen with each practice. It's exciting. It's real.

But it's so much bigger than just yoga. Anything you want to do or be good at or whatever, practice. Practice and all is coming. You can do anything. That's a promise.

And I'll leave you with that. That -- and this pretty picture, because I move to the place where this pretty picture is a month from tomorrow.

Thank you for your incredibly warm response to this new blog tradition, and I hope to receive a similar one for this one. Tell me again what you're wearing and reading and listening to and just generally loving this weekend. I have been inspired and reassured by each of you. Thank you. I love you, you beautiful people. 

"Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved." -Winston Churchill

Yours,

Yours truly