to read/to listen

The Elegance of the Hedgehog is for summer reading, but it's actually quite good. The rest are for fun. I LOVE the cover for Vaclav & Lena, it's the prettiest thing on earth.

The other prettiest thing is the This American Life app, although often a fickle temptress that refuses to buffer entirely. Every single episode of TAL EVER MADE for $2.99. My favorites as of late are Americans in Paris, Fear of Sleep, Detectives, You Gonna Eat That?, Sissies, My Big Break, and I Enjoy Being a Girl, Sort Of. Americans in Paris is top, I'd say. David Sedaris in Paris will always be entertaining- he manages to bring up remarkably profound ideas while simultaneously being hysterical. How?

I don't know, he makes me very happy.

desperately seeking cereal

Hello Giggles' illustrated tweets of the day are hysterical and charming and at some times, SCARILY ACCURATE IN DESCRIBING MYSELF. I am an ardent cereal aficionado, guys. When I was around twelve, my mom discovered my stash of cereal bowls and spoons in my bathroom cabinet, stemmed from me devouring cereal late into the night and being too lazy to walk back to the kitchen to put them away. They still ridicule me for it.

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dear darla, i hate your stinkin' guts

You can file this one under "things that blew my mind this week".

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thinking outrageously

1) The Deathly Hallows Part 2 view count has now reached 4. Now I can fully concentrate on the small, strange things that bother me about it.

• The updated modern, chrome Penseive. What the hell was up with that, where Harry threw it like a frisbee across the room? It was very clearly NOT a large stone basin. It kind of looked like it was from the wizarding Bang & Olufsen.
• Why did they have Bellatrix and Voldemort and Nagini all shred into pieces instead of just like....dying? A big bad THUD from Bella and Voldemort would have been miles more satisfying.
• Can we PLEASE just remove the scene where Harry and Voldemort jump off the tower together and their faces merge all horribly? Literally, it's a full minute of the creepiest thing I've ever seen.

2) I saw Crazy, Stupid, Love the other day. Infatuations with both Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling have been fully brought back. (Also, the movie was excellent.)


3) While dining on a Nutella-and-vanilla-ice-cream crepe the other day, I discovered a man who is the exact manifestation of a character I created and have been writing about. It was amazing. I probably stared at him for too long, simply in awe.

4) I was up until 5:17 am last week waiting for Pottermore. It was certainly worth it. AccioLeviosa115, what WHAT?!

5) Every time I step outside, I feel as if I have entered the fiery pits of hell. August in Texas is most certainly NOT where it's at.

jcrew shirt, vintage vest, jcrew pants, vintage shoes, nastygal ring

(The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out To Get: Sufjan Stevens)

over futile odds and laughed at by the gods

The articles of clothing worth staying with? The ones that give you blisters and bruises, but you continue to wear them. That's how you know how much they mean to you. Welcome to my relationship with these boots. They are literally the most painful flat shoes I have ever worn or owned, but if anyone thinks I will ever stop wearing them, they are laughably wrong. Because they are RED COMBAT BOOTS. And that's the end of my argument. (But damn, giant blister on my calf, would you mind like, letting up a bit so I can wear these boots again?)

My heart goes out to everyone in Norway and to Amy Winehouse's family. She was an incredible talent. It's been a sad few days.

lucky brand shirt, anthropologie belt, selfmade skirt, vintage boots, vintage ring, nasty gal vintage bar ring

(Love is a Losing Game: Amy Winehouse)

two hundred degrees that's why they call me mr. fahrenheit

Trying to soak up every last precious moment I have with Ahab Bowen (Dallasites, they're having 50% off everything going on now). I picked up this beautiful 80's teal silk dress and I am quickly falling madly for it. The length is certainly something to get used to- I like my stuff short. My mother will recount stories of her hemming my dresses higher and higher to the point of near indecency (because God forbid I would parade around preschool with my dress at my mid-thigh). But a longer cut is refreshing and I quite like it. Also, it has shoulder pads. And I love shoulder pads.

vintage dress, anthropologie belt, vintage shoes

P.S. I also picked up a wonderfully weird hot pink sweatshirt type thing with a giant appliqued cowgirl on the front. I'm wearing it right now and enjoying it far too much.

P.P.S. My Narcissa Malfoy costume for the midnight premiere of Deathly Hallows Part 2 was 50 different kinds of badass. I will post it later. But it's awesome. (ikindofwanttodresslikehereverydayWHAT)

(Don't Stop Me Now: Queen)

always

Eleven years ago, when I was five years old, I read Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone for the first time. I think it would be an accurate assessment to say I was enamored. Harry Potter was, if I remember correctly, one of the first "big" books I read- I was a reader, certainly, but this book made me feel like a grownup. Not only did it make me feel like a grownup, but it was the best damn book I had ever read. Like every other kid that read the book at that time, I was completely taken with the series. I remember buying a lot of books that talked extensively about pixies and werewolves and all these other strange mythical creatures that I had read about. Remembering it, it was kind of creepy and Wiccan-feeling, but I enjoyed it. I also had the pleasure of owning this. I shake my fist at the sky that I lost it, because that thing RULED. A few years down the road, I recall writing what I now realize was fan fiction- it involved Harry & Co. riding on some kind of magical gondola on their way to some kind of field trip. It didn't go very far.


Harry was quickly taking over my young life. If you haven't guessed, that picture is me, approximately aged 7, dressed as him for one Halloween (and many more Halloweens after that). That year, my 7th birthday present from one of my good friends then was a coupon entitling me to the VHS of Sorcerer's Stone when it came out. A very memorable present. A few years later, at the age of 9, I went to my first midnight book release for Order of the Phoenix. They were just the best things ever- spying the giant crates of books tucked away when you walked in the store, counting down the minutes until it could be yours. I relished them.


I fell out of Harry Potter around the year I started middle school. I can't fathom why- probably something about stupid peer pressure and stupid not wanting to look like a child or something my stupid young mind thought up. It's a giant regret. I hate thinking of the time when it wasn't in my life, by my own choice, but I do love finding little things from a long time ago that cement the fact that I was a 7 year old fangirl. I wish so much that I hadn't given it up then, but then I reread the series last year and the obsession spiraled back again (which I'm certainly happy for).


So now I'm writing this- I'm not really sure what on God's green Earth I have just written, but I just need to say stuff. The most important thing being:

Harry Potter is not ending.

Your childhood is not ending.

Nothing is ending.

I'm consistently astonished at what this series has accomplished, at how wildly devoted their fans are, but most of all, at this woman who has changed & saved so many lives with what she's written and the world she's created. Things like this don't just fizzle away when the final film is released. Nobody's going to be forgetting about Harry Potter. The series is a completely indelible mark- on literature, on film, on the whole damn world.

The quote we've been favoring for this coming occasion is spoken by Harry regarding Dumbledore. "He will only be gone when none are loyal to him." And I don't think anyone's going to get any less loyal.

i can serenade and gently play on your heartstrings

A pair of orange shoes is all I need now to complete Sophie's Shoe Rainbow. I really have so much fun with these guys (and by "these guys", I mean...my shoes...)- is that weird? I spent a good hour the other day just polishing all of them. This is how I like to spend my time.


I learned yesterday (before purchasing those mouthwateringly beautiful red boots on the top left and the purple heels on the bottom row) that my favorite-ever vintage store is closing. Needless to say, I'M EXTREMELY BUMMED OUT. My other favorite closed a while ago, so now I'm basically homeless in terms of vintage stores. Where am I supposed to go? Where do I find my last pair of orange shoes?

(Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy: Queen)