Silk Screened Christmas Lights

Guess what super cool Claudia did today? She happened to silk screen. For those of ya'll who don't know what it is you put a design on this fabric type stuff and put it in a frame then paint all the parts you don't want inked with screen filler then you squeedgee it onto the canvas/shirt. Because that was so informative RIGHT?!?! I am now addicted to silk-screening and the top thing on my Christmas list is silk-screening stuff. I better get it... Oddly I'm not really in the Christmas mood, I guess I just have to completely deck out my room in fantastically tacky Christmas lights. Like is

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Except more than this. And executed with more class (as much class as can be mustered from tacky lights). Lights are what I love about Christmas. The songs though.... I shudder just thinking about them.

PS. Happy [late] (C)Hannukah

to my dear followers:

I want to get to know all my followers =] Don’t be shy.

• Name:
• Age:
• Where You’re From:
• Sexuality:
• Single/Taken:
• Favourite Colour:
• Favourite Type Of Music:
• Favourite Band:
• Why You Follow me:
• One Thing You Want To Tell Me:
• One Thing You Want To Do Before You Die:
• Something Random:

I stole it from tumblr :D.

This Outfit is Perfection

Sophie came over after school today. What does that mean? Ukulele, Elements v2.0, chocolate chips and uh... that ^. She found a bunch of crap on my floor and put it on, honestly I think it looks awesome. I want to do a photoshoot with just a bunch of stuff worn on top of each other to make a massive blob of awesomeness. I am not even going to try to name everything that she has on. That's my Ohama ukulele though. It rocks. If I do say so myself. Please enjoy listening to the mediocrity that I call myself playing ukulele. I do hope your ears don't bleed.

Ignore the awkward voice, as I said I am sick and should probably stay home. But, I shall not! Peace and Love
-Claudia

HAYGURLHAY

Hey guys/girls/gals/fellows, so yes, I have been more of a fail than usual at blogging. I made this video because someone on formspring told me to make one if I was too lazy to type... The volume didn't work when I tried to watch it on my computer so maybe it won't for you either, but you can still look at my pretty little face! If the volume DOESN'T work, here is pretty much what it says:
Sorry I haven't blogged
I'm going to show you some of the stuff I got black friday shopping
-Nail Polish: Sparkly and Yellow
-Shoes: Birthday present (because my birthday was last monday!)
-Dress: Only $10! It has a hole in the back (on purpose)
-Skirt/Skort Thing: $5, I enjoy it
-Socks: With that cool pattern that all the awesome sweaters that I want have.
Then I said bye pretty much :).
And even though I haven't been posting I have still been dressing (whoa...). I really like a lot of my outfits and I want to show them to you but I never get the chance to take a picture, I'm gonna try to do better with that one. Love you all!
Peace, Love, and Junk
-C

The Cave- Mumford and Sons


Fashion- Lady Gaga (been in my head for ever!!!)

Name to Name

Ida- The Filippa

I feel like I'm on a name to name basis with the people who write the blogs I read. I don't know why but when I read someone's blog I feel like we have some super blogger telepathy connection or something. *Ex Dee* (I feel awkward putting smileys on blog posts, so that mean: XD). I think its funny, and weird when i really think about it. Like, I don't know Tavi, but I feel like i do. I don't know Ida, but I feel like i do. So, I don't really know how to elaborate on that but whatever, what about you guys? Any of you guys feel like that?
Tavi-Style Rookie. Also this is the best picture ever.

We can be Original too

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A few days ago I was on IFB and read an article Original Content in blogs that was written by Vahni of Grit and Glamour. She took a survey on her blog to see which kinds of post her readers liked better, how easy the layout was to use, if her readers liked the really, super original stuff better or the sort of "regurgitated" content better, etc..

When I first started blogging I had no idea what I was doing. I didn't have a plan on what I wanted to blog about or who I was going to be as a blogger so I just posted random crap that was really terrible and made no sense and I apologized for posting more than once in a day. It was a disaster (yes, all these posts are still up (actually there aren't THAT many, but they are REALLY bad), after you read this you will probably go stalk my horrific posts of the past). Then I started really snooping around the blogging world. I was discovering all the "famous" blogs that everyone knew about already and a few that were not so famous. I wanted followers (just like any new or old blogger would), so I said, "Oh, a lot of famous blogs have just outfit posts and "what's in my bag?" posts and catwalk reviews and just picture inspiration posts." So I started doing that (kind of, not religiously but if you go back and see my posts it's pretty "conformist) and I got a few followers so I kept doing it. But then when I came across the article written by Vahni I was like, Screw this!, I'm gonna do what I want, and I don't have to post everyday, and if I'm myself people will like it. Examples: this post.... Crosses in Fashion post.

Tavi of Style Rookie
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So before this epiphany I used to spend a lot (A LOT) of time wondering why certain blogs were famous. Most prominently, Tavi's Style Rookie. I would think things like, "Why is this girl getting more followers and more attention than me? How come she got famous in like four months and I've been going for longer and only have 15 followers that are mostly my friends?"

Please don't get me in trouble for saying I used to think those things! I'm just being honest. Now (and for a pretty long time before this), I actually totally love how much Tavi layers and I wish I had the eye for it she does.

Now I know. Well I knew before but now I know more concretely. TAVI POSTS ORIGINAL STUFF. No other blogs talk about Daria and Neopets (I'm in love with both.. Just saying). Or Pop Magazine instead of Vogue. Or knows about random fantastic editorials and zines. I could go on. T reason Tavi's famous is because she does stuff no one else EVER does, and she does it pretty damn well. And it's stuff she posts about is interesting, I found out about Daria from her blog, I find out about cool current events from her blog, I found out about Sassy and First Kiss. She's posting stuff that people have never heard of, therefore teaching us about a bunch of new stuff that people SHOULD know about. She's a FANTASTIC writer as well so even if her posts are long, they are always interesting and fun to read.

PS. I also think she writes and rewrites and reads and rereads and edits her posts over and over again to make them perfect (which is awesome! But I'm too lazy and ADD about stuff to do it...).

I think (think...) the point of this post was to show new bloggers and my readers what my philosophy on blogging is now... Maybe... I'm not really sure, I just wanted to share my thoughts with you (which is what blogging is also about). This was a super text heavy post so... PICTURE!

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The world's largest freshwater fish...? I typed in "picture" on Google images and this is what came up first.

Crosses in fashion

Crosses by beetlbug featuring leopard print tops

Crosses: They are so fantastic, the shirts and the necklaces and the rings. I love all of them but I would never wear them. I don't know if this is like a touchy subject but I feel like I'd be disgracing the Christian community or something if I wear a cross, no matter how much I like them. I'm not religious at all and it makes me feel really awkward thinking about wearing a cross, whether its a tiny ring or a humongous pendant. But I don't feel uncomfortable about it because I'm scared of religion or don't want to associate with religion but because what if people become offended if I wear it? I just don't feel right doing it.

This brings me to other people who wear crosses. I pretty much live on LOOKBOOK.nu and a lot of the time I see people with cross t-shirts and jewelry and I wonder whether they wear it for they're religion, because it looks cool and they're Christian, or they just like how it looks regardless of the religious implications. Then again it would be awkward to email them or something and just ask "what is your religion, I creepily saw that you were wearing a cross double finger ring on this day on the post called "..." on LOOKBOOK last week." Yea, not gonna happen.

Also, I was reading a post the other day about how gap teeth are going in style and how its weird to think that things you can't change are going in and out of style. To me, this seems like a religious symbol is going in style. This reminds me of how the word "retarded" is used to substitute stupid, even though this isn't politically correct, it happens. Is it PC to wear a cross as a fashion statement?

What do you think about this? I want to here your "cross" stories and opinions because this has been kind of bugging me. I don't think I'm gonna ever change my mind about wearing crosses even if they're gorgeous, I just want to hear how other people deal with this (or if they think about it at all)?

PS: I was just thinking about Buggsie from Bedtime Stories. Say hello!

pretty houses instead of the city

Went to a bunch of open houses today. And then we came to this house. It's BEAUTIFUL. And amazing. And fantastic. I didn't take any pictures of the inside but I should have. It's and old carriage house and it has a gorgeous kitchen and amazing indoor balcony things. That pool is a swimming pool not just a fountain and that giant window looks into the master bathroom. I want to live in this place! I don't think we're going to buy it though. I had an outfit post today but all the pictures were super blurry so I decided It wouldn't. BUT! I wore my tapered sweatpants, saddle shoe keds, floral t shirt sweater, and a cardigain. SO COMFY! Anyway, Phillies game is on now so PEACE!

we're kind of like models

Yesterday I went over to Jenna's house and we got really bored so we went outside and had a failure of a photoshoot! It was dark out and I didn't know how to make my camera work in the dark, but never fear! My first photo class was today so maybe I'll learn to shoot at the awkward time where it's not nighttime and not day time, that's the time I get home.

Ps. These tights are so mesmerizing! You can't see it in the picture but there are sparkles and it looks like staring up into the galaxy and at the starts but there are more stars in a more condensed area. They're amazing. And shiny. It's fantastic.

First Assignment for Class:
Take Three Pictures of 15 Subjects
1 extreme close up
1 close up
1 mid range

Party right?

competitions

Oranges and Apples: part of one of Franca's posts.

"I see a lot of competition in fashion blogging. Obviously not everywhere, but it's hard to avoid. It’s all about who’s got the most followers, comments, the best sponsors, the most coverage in the traditional media, what have you. People want to be on top ten lists. It just seems like such a limiting way of measuring success, ordering people into ranks by some statistic. The numbers don't really mean anything very much, do they? I have about 250 followers at the moment. Does that make me 25% better than someone with 200 followers, or 20% worse than someone with 300? Clearly not! And a lot of bitchiness comes from that competition. A lot of comments about other bloggers along the lines of ‘why are they so popular, they’re nothing special, it’s not fair’. Again, this kind of thing is more prevalent in some parts of the fashion/lifestyle blogging world than others, and I do try and stay away from the places where you get concentrations, but it's near impossible to avoid completely. Neither am I resistant to this negative feeling and jealousy, not at all. I’ve never said it out loud, but I definitely feel it when I read a blog with 5,000 followers and 200 comments on every single post, when all they do is sponsored content and re-post vogue editorials. I hate feeling that way, and usually my reaction is to take that blog out of my reader and never think about it again. This is the reason I follow hardly any of the ‘big’ blogs, because this has happened quite a few times and I hate being disappointed (because being ‘famous’ inevitable raises such expectations) and feeling negative about people. It’s the reason I refused to even look at Style Bubble for ages. Which was a silly thing to do really, because now I’ve added it to me reader and I love it! And what makes it even sillier is that I feel that way despite having no ambitions whatsoever to become ‘big’. I am setting myself up as being in a competition that I don’t even want to be in. I’d be lying if I said I don’t want my little blog to grow, but organically and on it’s own terms, in a way that makes me happy and crucially, in a way that doesn't become a full-time occupation. I don’t want to be in competition with anyone, I want to be in dialogue with readers and other bloggers. I enjoy the interaction. It makes me feel all fuzzy that some people actually enjoy reading about my silly rants and obsessions, and a few people come out to comment and say hi. But I am honestly, genuinely not interested in gaining sponsors, or media coverage, or being offered paid work on the back of this blog. And it is only if you're interested in those kinds of things (and I think there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, but it's not for me) the statistics matter at all."

So I guess what this post is a message (mainly to myself) to just chill out a bit, and enjoy the good things about blogging without worrying about numbers or what others are doing. I (we?) need that kind of reminder every now and then.
Thoughts? * To clarify – I’m not picking on the little girl in particular. I am merely using he as an illustration of these ideas that are floating around the blogosphere and society in general."

I love this. Because it's true AND because I have said stuff about why certain blogs are so famous and mine isn't. Now I just say whatever, if I get famous, I get famous and I'll be happy about it but my whole life isn't devoted to being the best blog around.

a few of my favorite things

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Sushi Cat: Click on the link, I dare you! While doing my usual stalking of StumbleUpon (read: procrastinating on StumbleUpon), I came across this game. You drop a round cute cat. Into little Chinese (yes, I know, sushi is not Chinese). But the catch! You have to collect sushi by dropping the cat onto the sushi that is in between the dropping area and the take out boxes. CAN YOU THINK OF ANYTHING BETTER THAN THAT?!?!?! NO! You can't. Neither can I.

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Nylon Magazine: I would like to start of by saying DO YOU SEE WHAT SHE IS WEARING? It's so random, but it is perfect and amazing and pretty and I. Want. It. This happens to be my first Nylon, I carry it EVERYWHERE (everywhere... not kidding). It's just so darn good! I like it so much that I even read all the little notes on the ads that I usually just skip through.


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Cameras: My friend and I had this epic conversation about cameras and what we wanted to do if he went into the fashion industry today. It made me really want to research cameras and buy every single kind I can find. This is an Holga (hopefully, you can read, because it's on the picture, just wanted to clarify to those who have issues reading pictures but not reading text), I don't know what it does, but they sell them at Urban Outfitters. I will find out what it does. Eventually.

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IFB (International Fashion Bloggers): Yes, I do spend the time I don't spend watching Daria (below) and StumbleUpon on IFB. I love it! It's really cool because a bunch of bloggers are member and they write articles for it and stuff. My blog was just 'approved by an administrator' so now I'm a member! Yippee! I don't know what that means!!! But it's cool anyway!!! Yay!

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Tapered Sweatpants: I'm craving a pair, so much! They're comfy because they're sweatpants, and they're cool because they're cool (I'm good at adjectives...) and they're pretty, and they look nice, and they're soft, and they're like harem pants but better, and I could go on. But I won't. WHERE!?!? Can I get a pair of these for cheap?!? (Oh, never mind, I found them at UO for $38... Hmm, I still want to know of other places).


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Daria: I found Daria over the weekend, I've only watched three episodes, but I am HOOKED! It's so good, and she is so cool! I think Tavi says it best in her bio on her blog:

"I wish I was Daria but I get too excited about things like candy to be deadpan all the time." -Tavi

I agree. Fully. Watch it! Please! Do it! NOW (the first one is called "Esteemers")!!! It's all about this girl, Daria, who goes so against the flow of highschool, she makes fun of her self and doesn't care about popularity, she thinks everyone is a jerk and her best friend (at least from the three episodes I watched) is Jane, who happens to be an amazing artist.
PS. It doesn't air anymore :( Sadness! You has to watch it online (see links below). Which I do.


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Blink 182: (All the Small Things) They're one of the two radio stations I listen to on Pandora. A few of my friends live by them. They are amazing. Anyone want to get me a CD?

LINKS THAT ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO THIS POST:
stumbleupon
ifb
daria
nylon
urban outfitters
sushi cat
blink 182

CRAVINGS FOR OREOS

blouse: urban outfitters, jeans: wet seal, shoes: some brand called r2

Didn't do anything today. I only went out to get tennis shoes and magazines so I didn't really bother to dress up, besides the shoes- I want to break them in more. Haven't started my homework yet because I'm watching Daria, found out about it today and I really like it (not obsessed yet seeing as I'm only on the first episode). Also I've been reading articles on IFB, I registered for it too but the people have to approve my blog before I can be a member (if I get approved). Ciao peoples, back to Daria!

PS I have a craving for oreos.

PSS Hype me on LOOKBOOK.nu :D

PEACE DAY

I drew this.

It's international Peace Day today. Tell your family. Tell your friends. Tell people in your class, at your work. Tell random people on the street, just tell SOMEONE. Today is a day of international ceasefire, listen! Wars aren't being fought today. Today is a day where people get help, people who otherwise couldn't. Happy Peace Day. Spread the word.

WE SPEAK NO AMERICANO

Whoa. I was on StumbleUpon and found this. It's kind of amazing! MESMERIZING!

TUMBLR

GOT A TUMBLR
http://beetle-bug.tumblr.com/

TYGER

Hi! So far the last two days have been so much fun. Yesterday after school I went to the thrift shop and got two new shirts and a skirt, I may or may not show them to you later because I feel lazy right now. Then after that I went out for Chinese with the family (delicious) then I walked around the neighbourhood with a bunch of people from my school. Then today my mom took me to a consignment shop and I found out they have vintage stuff now!!! Mi madre got me a pair of shorts, a jacket and a dress. All vintage. All AMAZING! I was literally freaking out in the store. Like I said I'm feeling lazy so I'll show you them laterish. The first picture is my gorgeous au pair, Antonia, today she went to Urban Oufitters and someone took a picture of her because they liked her style. I'm guessing it's for someones street style blog but I really want to know who'se!!!!

TEA

Yum, I see why everyone is so obsessed. I never liked Arizona Green Tea then I had some today and I think I'm hooked. Outfit post coming soon.

IMISSYOU

This is how I feel right now. Tired, and upset. School starts tomorrow. High school. Today was orientation and it was kind of insane, I got so many textbooks that i think i will need to find a chiropracter after the first week. But it actually does seem like a lot of fun. This is my lounge outfit, black harrem pants and a black tank top, lazy :). I miss you summer!

PHILLIES

Going to the game! Phillies won yesterday, just hoping they do today. Do I even own any red to wear?

BOWLING

Some pictures from bowling on Thursday. High school starts in three days, :(. Gonna try to enjoy my last few days of freedom!

dress: urban outfitters, t-shirt: thrifted