Thoughts From A Cigarette Butt

I feel that so often I don't share my thoughts because I cannot put them rightly into spoken words. So I suppose I'll be a bit vulnerable and share with you some of the things I have written in my journal lately. Some of them may sound stupid to you, or make no sense, or sound ridiculous, but they're my thoughts, nonetheless, take them or leave them. 

There is so much strange beauty in this world that goes so unnoticed.  Last night as I was driving home, the person driving in front of me threw their cigarette butt out of their window.  To my surprise, the way the glowing orange ashes moved across the pavement was oddly beautiful to me.  I feel like we let the worries of our day cloud our vision to these strange gems our soul so longs to seek out.  I feel as though my body, heart, and soul craves and desires so much more than I allow myself to see.  I need to open my eyes to what God places right in front of me.  At times, it's like He's practically screaming, "Look at me! Look at this! I did this FOR YOU."  (Not to say that God wants me to look at a cigarette butt, but the idea of the small beauties surrounding me.) I begin to wonder how many things I have missed.  I know that these creative moments of inspiration are what drive me to press on in the turmoil of daily life.  This is where I find my small purpose.  To grow on that creative spirit.  To take it and run with it in whatever direction God leads me to.  Not listening to what the world says or expects of me.  That's what discourages and hinders these hidden treasures set before me by the Maker. 

Listing on a Monday

I'm totally stealing this idea from another blogger, but anyone who knows me knows that I love to make a ridiculous amount of lists. So, why not list things on my blog? Here's how it's going to go... every so often I will tell you some things like this...

Reading: I'm started Soul Detox by Craig Groeschel.  Also reading The Resolution for Women for a Bible study I'm doing.  I started Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut as well.  Oh, and there's also my two entrepreneurship textbooks... yay.

Listening: Bombay Bicycle Club.  Deer Tick.  The Lumineers. The Head & The Heart. Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros.  John Mayer.  (Special thanks to Chance Byrd for some of the musical amazingness.)

Hanging: Chilling at Shades of Brown...it's very quiet. Waiting on a friend. 

Crafting: Repurposing an old book into a book of quotes that I love with fun papers and washi tape. 

Drinking: A delicious macadamia nut latte...and then cafe con leche. 

Weather: Hottt.

Embracing Who Everyone Thinks I Am: Carmen Sandiego

Alright. For those of you who have known me since high school I have a red jacket that I wear frequently… It is adorable and I absolutely love it.  I loved it even during the time my mom decided to accidentally bleach it… I bought the same one again a day later. My friends always joked with me asking, “where in the world is Carmen San Diego?” Every time I wore this jacket someone made a comment about it. And thus, I must be her. If only I had a little hound dog and was a really awesome, stealthy detective…

Summertime Is For...

 Strawberries

 Swimming, wet hair, bandeaus

 Friends

Frisbees & outdoor fun

 Home

 Coffee, music, journaling

 Fish fryin'

Neighborhood walks 

 Grillin'

 Chillin' poolside

 Dresses

 Concerts

Many magical adventures happen during summertime and I plan on sharing as many as I can with you!

Taylor

Anthropologie

Guess what! I got a job at Anthropologie this summer.  It's sort of one of those weird dream jobs I've always wanted because I desired to work in my happy place.  I work with some really amazing people and I learn so much each day.  Not to mention I get to people watch a ton and outfit them for some really special occasions in their lives.  I wish I could have my phone with me while I work because I get so inspired by so many things in the store.  So, I'll try to snag a few photos on my breaks. Maybe I'll even tell you what is new in the stores and what I'm loving.  What I'm really loving is my awesome discount! :) ...My bank account does not. Also, today was inventory day. Showed up at work at 5:15...still dark outside. There was a nautical theme in dress as well... we're "sailing through inventory."

I'm Back!

Hello blog world!

It's been quite some time since I have visited you. As it does for most people, life got a little in the way and I ceased blogging for some time.  I have found the need for an abundance of creativity and thought purging in my life in recent months and so I have decided to once again start my blog.  Though, as I returned to my blog I decided that while I had chosen a lovely layout for the time being, I want to give it a little makeover. I want brighter colors and a more simplistic styling to it.  The amazing Erin Wilson of Carosello is going to help me design a new layout in a couple of weeks and I am so excited! She is an incredible blogger, designer, friend and mother who has been such an inspiration to me and I know she will be a fantastic help!

I have put a lot of thought also, as to what I want this blog to be and represent now.  I look around on blog world and find that so many people are so creative, so organized with their posting, but as a college student I just don't see that being feasible for me at this time.  While I am an incredibly organized individual on a regular basis, my thoughts and the styles I like are constantly changing as I am trying to figure out who I am, where I want to go with my life, and what inspires me day to day.  So, while I would love to have a weekly set of posts that were all categorized in a neat and tidy way, I think I am going to simply write about what I feel like writing about, whenever I feel like writing about it.  I hope you will bear with me in that aspect.  I hope that one day when I have a business of my own, I can take inspiration from my muses and turn this blog into an organized way of promoting my shop and telling about the happenings in my life.  But for now, I will share with you who I am and who I am becoming; what inspires me, music, projects I'm working on (don't expect tutorials... I forget to take pictures along the way because I get zoned in craft mode), art, fashion, nature, adventures, words, travels, hopes, dreams, quotes, things from Pinterest, blogs and the likes, and my thoughts and feelings on daily life.  I am not the best writer, but I suppose I am better at writing than speaking to you face to face. So, here's to a new adventure in my blog world... or a trip inside my head! Hope you enjoy!

Taylor

Fall Festival

Oh my goodness.  I deeply apologize for my lack of keeping up with posting.  Life gets a bit crazy sometimes.  Shall I catch you up on what's been going on in my life? First of all, it's my absolute favorite time of the year, fall!! Autumn always brings a new spirit with it that I cannot describe to you.  I have a moment that I wake up each new fall and just know that it is going to be a wonderful season.  I've noticed that I always gather up quite a bit of new music around this time, friendships seemingly flourish out of the joy that surrounds fall, and I am always extremely thoughtful and write considerably more than I do during the other months of the year.  I also drink a rather substantial amount of coffee and hot chocolate, which I'm sure my bank account is not a fan of.  I feel it's more the atmosphere and ambience than simply the coffee.. Another story for another day. 

So with Autumn comes my incessant craftiness.  This year my friends Megan and Elizabeth decided it was necessary to have a "Fall Festival".  A Fall Festival in our eyes consisted of sappy romantic, cozy movies, lots of sweet treats, delicious comfort soup, and of course fun DIYs.  With this night of fall also came a spontaneous adventure to find the location of the chanting that was echoing through the neighborhoods of Stillwater.  Come to find out, it was only a game of Humans vs. Zombies going on around campus.  It added a bit of excitement to our Fall Festival. We started out with acquiring all the necessary materials from Wal-Mart and Hobby Lobby.  

I have always wanted to try the project where you staple paint-filled balloons to a canvas to create a lovely explosion of color by throwing darts at it...which in our case was forks, and when that didn't work, knives.  I'm sure the neighbors weren't frightened at all. Tip: Before you decide you don't need to look up how to accurately fill up balloons with paint, think again, you will get paint in your mouth...

After we did had our adventure with balloons, we ate soup and puppy chow, and Megan began to make the Pumpkin Gems.  Pumpkin Gems are a sort of cupcake/muffin yumminess with yellow cake mix and pumpkin mix.  She even made icing from scratch to put on top of them and the adorable festive cupcake wrappers. The next item on the agenda was pumpkins of course! Our obsession with Pinterest led us to find a really neat way of waxing a pumpkin for a unique decoration.  After taking the wrapping off of a crayon, you hold a lighter up to the crayon and let the wax drip over the top of the pumpkin.  You can get all fancy and even let the wax drip by holding the lighter a certain way for a different effect.  Here's how ours turned out! 

The last project of the night was making a fall wreath with a foam ring, colored yarn, and tulle! I thought these turned out very nicely.  Though, I'll be honest, Megan and I were a bit challenged at wrapping yarn at first without getting it tangled... 

Overall we had a lovely Fall Festival, and I think we are planning on some sort of Christmas/holiday Festival as well!  Hopefully, I can begin to blog more, but forgive me if I fail once again.