Alabama + Graffiti

- a lifestyle blog -

Days 51-55

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i’ve been practicing so much with aperture lately, which unfortunately leads to boring pictures. but i was looking through some dps.com people who have been doing and/or did this last year, and the main point of this thing is to get familiar with your camera and to practice. and i love the look of the subject being completely in focus, while everything behind is blown out and blurry. so i’ve been practicing pretty hard with this, with normal everyday objects. and although it leads to boring posts, i did find out that my hubby does read the ole blog…
how do you know, laura, that your hubs reads your blog?
well, from the last post? guess who got the heart-shaped earrings for valentine’s day. what a sweetie!

Parisienne Girl

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so i was searching for some jewelry, and came across this cute little shop full of non-big jewelry. i have never been a fan of the gigantic statement jewelry on me (granted, it looks amazing on most everyone else), so when i can find some quaint and dainty jewelry, i am in heaven. it’s an etsy shop…Parisienne girl. these are a few of the pieces i’m craving… and will probably have to have before month end…

(all photos from parisiennegirls etsy shop)

i’m thinking definitely the heart ones on super rush for v-day!!

Practice Makes Perfect

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i’ve had someone ask what is the point of writing this blog since no one reads it? well, pretty much i do this for me. it’s a nice outlet for my everyday. i know that i’ll never be famous off of it, but it lets me go back to a time where i wanted to write for a living. i’ll be quite honest with everyone. it’s been a long time since i’ve felt comfortable, with my job, where i live, my lack of good friends. i’ve been pretty down in the dumps lately. i can’t shake it, so being able to dance and to take pictures (even though i keep forgetting to change the ISO setting, hence all the awful noise in these shots), gets my mind off everything for awhile.

Book Review: I Was Told There’d Be Cake

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from contemporarylit.about.com“The back cover of I Was Told There’d Be Cake says that “Sloane Crosley can do no right.” This is not quite true. Although these essays detail the many misadventures of Sloane, clearly she’s done something right indeed in this witty and entertaining book.Sloane Crosley is a young New Yorker. She’s heard every Ferris Bueller’s Day Off joke (for a grand total of 3,567 times) about her name. She attended a Christian-based summer camp for eight years, despite being “one hundred percent Jewish,” and once ended up with the part of Mary in the Christmas-in-July nativity play. She had an impressively complicated time moving to a new apartment in New York City. And she has a knack for making just about any experience into a funny story.I Was Told There’d Be Cake features fifteen essays ranging from childhood to present, some with coming-of-age themes, others about making transitions and embracing change, many about the ways in which we discover our own identities. The stories vary in length and can be read in any order; you can easily take a piece or two of Cake at a time or devour the whole thing in one sitting.
I Was Told There’d Be Cake fits cozily between self-reflective tales of quarter-life crisis, such as those in Generation What?, and highly sardonic works such as Laurie Notaro’s. If you’re a young urban professional, if you have been young at some point, perhaps recently, or if you simply enjoy snarky humor with a little reflection (and much truth), I Was Told There’d Be Cake is an excellent choice for your summer reading list.

laura james’ review: i freakin loved this book. i don’t know if it was because i could pretty much relate to whatever it was she was talking about (oregon trail, being a bridesmaid, baking for a group of friends), or just because i was pretty much laughing the whole time. i’m usually not one for non-fiction, but this was a great and fast read. she has a great sense of humor and pulls you in from the very first essay. i would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a non-serious read, or pretty much anyone who is old enough to remember the original oregon trail.