Oh Shit! It's That Ugly Dress Your Mom Bought

We all have one. The ugly/old/unflattering dress/top/sweater that your mom/aunt/grandma gave you... And now she wants you to wear it to assorted family functions and gatherings, as she doesn't want you to be "following behind me like a ragamuffin" (as per my mother.)

Gap dress.

The dress is unflattering, to say the least. But I will be the first to admit that my ugly dress is definitely not the worst around. So when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Or in this case, a cute outfit.

 Gap dress, American Apparel belt, Zara jacket, Forever 21 ring, Guess earrings, B2 silver flats (not pictured).

I think I did pretty well. My cousin did tell me I looked like a Barbie but for once, I'm gonna take that as compliment (partly because I'm able to reassure myself that she must be delusional - because I am very far from plastic.)

The Truth Is Just A Rule That You Can Bend

Dex Cardigan, Esprit Tank, Bongo Jeans, Payless Ballet Flats, random ring and necklace.

An ode to keeping it simple on rainy summer days. These Payless flats are probably the comfiest shoes I own and before my mother bought them for me I refused to buy shoes from there (the last pair I bought last summer jacked up my feet irreversibly, seriously.) But you can never go wrong with a pair of plain black flats, right?

"Dance like no one's watching, because they're probably not."

No pictures of clothing or food today, just thoughts.

I don't know how to explain it, but I've been feeling very… anti-consumerist lately. (If that's even a word, phase, saying, whatever.) I'll go to the mall and be completely dissatisfied with everything. I normally keep incredibly long wishlists of all these things I want (it's a little embarrassing, actually) but right now I feel that even if I won the lottery, I would just keep it sitting there in the bank. Maybe do nice things for my family, like send them all on vacation and such, but I wouldn't buy items, things for myself.  I don't know how this really relates to anything, but I guess as someone who occasionally blogs about fashion I'm expected to consume, consume, consume and right now that's exactly the opposite of what I want. Anyone understand where I'm coming from with this?

Also, my friends and I have started a bit of a manifesto, if you could call it that. It's different for each of us, but the basic concept is change. This year we all turn 20 (I still have a little over 4 months to go) and we've grown a lot. We may not be grownups, but we really aren't kids anymore. And while some of this growth is organic, some is conscious, like this manifesto.  There's the normal stuff - eat healthy, lose weight. The little things - smile more, put down the blackberry once in a while. And then there's the big stuff. Learn to stop hating yourself and your body. Believe in your abilities, be thoughtful and kind. Things that take some of us a lifetime to learn.

This video is titled "How To Be Alone", and it's one of my favourite inspirational videos. It's a bit of a reminder of the many ways in which I have to grow - one of which is learning to savour the beauty of solitude.

R+tM Bakes Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

One of the things I love about being home for the summer is that pretty much any desert I want to make, the ingredients for it are pretty much guaranteed to be lying around my kitchen. I mean, there's rarely any food, but who needs a REAL meal?! Not me.

So I tried out Chocolate Chip Cookies, the one desert that for some reason I always screw up. But because I'm me, I had to make them double chocolate. Delish.

They were gone in less than 24 hours, I kid you not. I got to eat two of them. My house is full of crazy cookie monsters (a.k.a my sister and father. Pretty sure my mother doesn't eat anything with real sugar.)


P.S. Done my summer course, relishing my freedom. I plan to make the very most of these last summer days...

Bumpin' Beats

Take a listen. They're good, I promise.