i'm obsessed with alternative movie posters

i've discovered this whole new genre of art lately.. i mentioned it briefly here, but i only just recently began to scratch the depths of the world of alternative movie posters. pretty sure i'm already planning a wall dedicated to these cool things in our future home. here are some of my favorites:

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austin and i both love this one. unfortunately, i don't think it's for sale. womp womp.

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i may buy this one.. i'm a little obsessed. it'd obviously have to go in like, the music room.. nowhere i have family hanging out or anything. but man oh man. it's so good.

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there's a ton of twin peaks art that i've favorited on etsy, but most of those are just references to the show.. not posters made for the show, and i kind of like the idea of just being like "yes, we enjoyed twin peaks" rather than "THE OWLS ARE NOT WHAT THEY SEEM YOU DON'T GET THIS PROBABLY" idk.

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okay, this is the last one by the same artist and also the last moonrise kingdom one.. i'm still a little obsessed with having something moonrise kingdom-inspired in my life. even if i have to re-pierce my ears just to wear lil beetle earrings, it'll happen. ;)

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the royal tenenbaums. secret: my dad accidentally threw away the dvd that came with my criterion collection version of the royal tenenbaums, so i cut the case picture up to frame. it's richie with mordecai, and i love it (actually, this is it.. i just cut it into a square). it's on our frame wall in the living room, but i wouldn't mind referencing this movie somewhere else, too!

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austin already said no way to this one, but i couldn't resist sharing it. what a sweet movie and cute print.

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i can't decide if the wes anderson focus in this list is my fault, or if it's because wes anderson movies are just so easy to make art out of. probably a little bit of both, honestly. there's only one wes anderson movie in the world that i'm not a huge fan of.

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i love the look of this one! and the movie. even though it's the most depressing of all of my favorite movies.

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this one's cheating, because it's a book.. but it was made into a movie, so whatever. i think i might buy this for austin.

there are SO MANY more that i've favorited on etsy, but this could get redundant really quickly. :) especially considering how many more of them are wes anderson-related..

<3

on not being annoyed by everything in the universe

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i'm generally a fairly level-headed and positive person. but it is so. easy. for things to get under my skin, and for me to lose my cool. something as tiny as a rude tshirt or chikfila day can make me want to scream. usually my issues with things are understandable, but sometimes the dumbest things make me lose my head.

when this happens, i'm sometimes a really huge brat in response, and i know it, but i then don't stop being a huge brat because i generally justify brattiness in my head. and a lot of times i don't share this brattiness with anyone else, so that i can continue the evil cycle of being bratty -> justifying being bratty -> start at the beginning.

i'm mostly a really positive person and i mostly really like everything and everyone, or i can at least find good enough things in regards to everything and everyone to appreciate everything and everyone in SOME way. but.

when people are seemingly going out of their way to hurt your feelings, it's hard not to feel a little childish, a little off-center, and a little not positive.

there's really no reason to write this post, because i'm not 100% getting anything out of it, other than speaking through it (and maybe trying to justify my current brattiness.......... uh). honestly, now that my old boss and my old roommate/his girlfriend are out of my life, things haven't been so difficult to let go of and continue on my merry way. but there have been a couple of things recently that have just rubbed me the wrong way, and i've had trouble just getting over it. i tend to over think other people's words, overly apply them to me, and make wrong assumptions, too. ;)

working in retail has made me A LOT more accepting of odd quirks in people and of annoying things in our society, so i know i've grown up in my dealings of things.. but when i get down like this, it's hard to come back from it.

a little rambly.. but here's to hoping i can kick the negative out of my system, haha. <3

(i love this! like literally laughing out loud at how ridiculous & perfect it is)
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pants in the summertime

normally a sundress girl, i've really found myself drawn to printed pants this summer. sundresses with no layers just aren't as much fun to wear! i know, this is super counterintuitive, probably. who knows. up until this year, i've only ever owned 1 or 2 pairs of jeans at a time. and even then, i never ever chose to wear them over a dress or skirt. but now, all of a sudden, dresses and skirts are looking boring and jeans offer way more options. this will probably/definitely change when fall weather hits and i can bring my beloved tights out of storage, but until then.. i'll keep loving my weird jeans collection.

i've been having so much fun with my floral pants lately! i had to share these pictures of me wearing them with my favorite shirt. :)

these shoes have existed in my wardrobe since high school. i should definitely replace them.. it's not like they've worn well or anything, but no other black flats ever compare to how cute they are. i'm just so picky about my shoes. :(

i added a new pair of pants that i'm obsessing over to my wardrobe recently, too..

i actually can't even put into words how excited i am to finally own mint jeans! that are comfy! and not high-waisted! and affordable! i'm just so in love. i've worn them 3 out of the 5 days since i got them. it's fun seeing what matches with them (spoiler alert: it seems that i think EVERYTHING matches with them).

i'm also really obsessed with this shirt. austin's brother, bentley, works at a local screen printing company, and hooks our group of friends up with really cool shirts all of the time. this one's extra special because it's austin's band, virginia werewoolf, and it's the only one of it's kind. ;) i could honestly probably say that 90% of my tshirts are c/o bentley, haha. i really, really love all of them. dressing up band tshirts is one of the funnest things to do.

outfit one:
necklace: anthropologie (in store)
shirt: modcloth (available on curator)
cardigan: american eagle (the same one in all of my posts ever)
jeans: insight
shoes: steve madden, circa 2006

outfit two:
necklace: catbird (no longer available)
tshirt: band tshirt, c/o bentley & austin
jeans: bullhead
shoes: converse (i just spent 45 minutes oohing and ahhing over some of the printed converse they have on their website.. geez)

<3

pretty things around the internet

i spent a huge chunk of today going through and kiiiind of organizing button factory inventory. i had forgotten about some of the pretty stuff i found and squirreled away earlier this year. i can't wait for bekuh and i to combine our collections next week and spend some time preparing for future updates to the etsy store!

i also got dangerously close to finishing all of "sex and the city" (i'm not ready for it to end! ..again), so i started watching "bored to death." i just love jason schwartzman and zach galifinakis. :)

so now i'm relaxing, and catching up on the internet.. so here are some pretty (and cool) finds..

i'm kind of dreaming ahead to layering up on cool fall days, and this dramatic scarf (-type-thing) is inspiring a ton of outfits.

this deadstock dress is SO magical, and i wish i had a grown up excuse to buy it, since it's out of my sundress budget. i just love it.

i've fallen in love with so much of the art on fréya eté's etsy.

this pretty necklace was actually in the running for part of my lovely package exchange gift, but since i decided against it, i've fallen more and more in love with it. so. gorgeous.

clearly i have a thing for necklaces. and pretty much everything else in the dinosaurtoes etsy shop. i bought a gift for a friend from this shop awhile ago, but i'd love to own something, too!


danielle's pictures and stories from this incredible store in belgium were so appealing.. i was jealous that she got to visit! it makes me want to grab and empty suitcase and fly out tomorrow for a short shopping trip!

as bekuh and i start the preliminary plans to visit becca for renegade chicago, i've been drawn to anything craft-fair-related. oh, hello friend!'s post got me SO excited. i just hope my friends and family are prepared for all of the handmade christmas gifts they're getting this year. :)

i found this little story through princess lasertron (one of my number one biggest inspirations, in case you were curious): an investment into a business run by a 9 year old.. SO sweet.

<3

i don't have instagram, but that doesn't really stop me

i find myself snapping little pictures on my phone all of the time. some of them are for practical reasons, like needing confirmation on an outfit, but others are because the moment is 2 cute 2 b 4gotten.

1. avery fell asleep on me and i couldn't resist her lil chubby legs
2. i had lunch with my mama at a place in town last week, and our sandwiches came out shaped like little hearts :)
3. mine and austin's drinks at lunch were pretty, summery, and complementary.
4. a favorite christmas gift finally found a home.. i've since given him a couple of necklaces.

5. i needed confirmation from becca that i didn't look like an insane person in this outfit. i couldn't find my left black flat, and doc martens were my only option. i've since cleaned our closet, and found it.
6. has anyone else seen the newest issue of bust magazine? i love every copy of this magazine, but this month tavi is on the cover. her interview and the pictures are perfect.
7. mixing bathing suit patterns at work. i loved this one.

hopefully one day i'll have instagram, so this nonsensical picture taking won't be in vain. ;) <3

more floral pants

so it looks like i should eat my words. once i picked up a few necessary (ahem, necessary to me.. floral shorts probably aren't necessary to everyone) staples, everything else in my closet took on a whole new light, and i love getting dressed again! :) it helps that the weather has cooled down a bit, too.

i've been in this really awesome mood for the last week or so.. just really super into my life and everything going on around me. a few days ago, i hung out with kendall and avery all day. a couple of nights ago, austin surprised me with '50 first dates' (i have this thing for adam sandler, that austin does not reciprocate.. to say the least, haha). i've almost got everything to send off my package for the lovely package exchange! today, i got some mint jeans (finally.. becca & i went hunting for some in FEBRUARY). i really love my job, the people that i work with, and the work that i do every day. tomorrow i get a full day of dates with my boy.

i'm glad that i go through these periods of understanding how completely lucky i am to live this life. i spent a lot of time on friday watching news coverage regarding the shooting in colorado, and some time saturday reading about the lives that were lost. it SUCKS that things like that can even occur, and i wish there was a single thing i can do about it. surprisingly, two blog posts helped to ease my mind that day (1, 2). all i can say is that those lives will be remembered by me, and i'm sending as many good vibes as possible to aurora right now. it seems pretty trite to pair these sentiments with an outfit post of all things, but an event like this makes me want to appreciate things like outfits even more, day after day.

shirt: out of print (i bought the men's one, because i thought i'd like the fit better.. i've since bought women's shirts from out of print, and i can officially recommend that route)
cardigan: american eagle (this year's)
shorts: kirra (similar)
sandals: black poppy

<3

lucky in friends

unfortunately, i think sometimes i forget how lucky i've been when it comes to having a really great group of people surrounding me at any given time. my friends are a constant in my life, and i'm forever grateful for my luck in that respect.

most of my best friends have moved since we first became close, but i still consider them important pieces of my life (and generally assume i'll see them again someday). :)

even these days, with everyone being SO busy, and usually knowing that we won't see each other for a few weeks at a time, we continue to keep up with one another's lives, and i'm super thankful for texting in that respect. ;)

as i looked through my facebook for these pictures, i noticed how many of my friends i haven't been so good at keeping up with, which is sad. but i know that those types of things happen, and i'm so happy to have had those people in my life for as long as i did.

i've been seeing so many blog posts lately about how hard it is to make friends, and i wish i could collect all of those people and share my friends with them, because i can't even put into words how obsessed with my friends i am.

<3

whoa whoa whoa.. hold the phones

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i think i just lost all semblance of cool. while catching up on blogs, i clicked on a link from making it lovely only because it mentioned gilmore girls (bekuh and i were just talking about gilmore girls at the button factory meeting!). it ended up being this list of books that rory reads throughout the show.

i wasn't super convinced by that list, so i kept searching, and found a couple more.

apparently the wb used to have a section of their website dedicated to rory's reading, and this is a reproduction of that list. these are mostly classics, but there are some i've heard of and never read, and some that i've never heard of, so i'm excited about making my own list from this one!

my favorite list was this one, which lists every book mentioned in every episode (whoa). looooots to go through here!

i have no idea why i'd never thought of something like this before, but i'm so glad other people have! ;) all of the reading lists i've made previously have officially been pushed to the side, because honestly, i just want to be as cool as rory gilmore. <3

just a picture of some flowers

today, i came home to some flowers. they were really pretty, and i know they won't last forever.. so i took some pictures. i didn't even have to edit them.

austin and i haven't gotten to spend much quality time together lately, and, for a couple of days, things were a little bit tense. living with someone is a pretty serious thing.. something i'm not sure i realized when we made the leap. relationships are hard enough as it is, and we probably weren't 100% ready. we've really grown into it, though, and i love my roommate/boyfriend/best friend situation. :) i can't stress enough how proud of our relationship i am, and how perfectly we round each other out. this is even more obvious in the not great times than it is in the good.

even if sometimes we get a little mad and confused and hurt, i always know we're gonna get through it alright, and i'm so glad we get to go through this together, good times and bad.

<3

summer style rut

i really hate the summer, you guys.

overwhelming heat, mosquitoes, high school kids in my store ALL DAY rather than just post-4pm, bees, hearing about everyone else's awesome vacations that i'll never be able to afford, spiders, etc..

and also the part where i only know how to look cute when i can layer times a million, and i cannot layer in the summer.

boring boring boring.

i actually did feel pretty cute, today, though. i work with adorable girls who have been inspiring me style-wise. my sister and i are hopefully going shopping on tuesday (gotta keep taking advantage of these sales, y'all!), so maybe that'll help me, too. and have you guys seen the asos sale?! i have four dresses, a belt, and a clutch in my bag for a grand total of $65.. whoa. here's looking forward to learning how to dress for the next 2 months..

necklace: build it yourself via anthropologie
tank top: american eagle
jeans: levis
shoes: target (out of stock, but look at these!)

<3

currently

wearing: you know those phases you go through where you hate your closet and everything in it? that's me, right now. it's probably partially the weather, partially starting a new job & feeling like a new style should come with it, but mostly just being a fickle girl and reading too many style blogs. today, i went back to my basics.. a loud and comfy thrifted dress (i think it had to have belonged to a 3rd grader in 1993.. so probably me) and a favorite necklace. sometimes i actually refer to it as my lucky necklace and i have no idea why. i just love it.. i got it at a deadhorse show here in roanoke. the girl in the band sells jewelry on the road. she has an online store, too!

reading: i'm still working through "oryx and crake" right now. i'm not as into it as i was "the year of the flood," unfortunately. it's kind of a bummer when you don't like the narrator of a book, haha. luckily, my list of books i want to read is continuing to grow in a serious way, and austin and i are starting to want to read similar things, so i'm pretty excited about the reading coming my way. :)

kinda giddy about: my mama picked out a wedding dress tonight! i couldn't be there, because she's notorious for making plans way too late and i had to work, but she and i kendall came to visit afterwards and i'm just so excited for her.

watching: austin and i have gotten back into weird documentaries. this is probably the best and the worst thing because i tend to get really obsessed with things, and documentaries are basically other people obsessing over things. unnecessarily, usually. in the last few nights, we've watched one about monopoly (pretty cute.. i ended up crying happy tears) and one about a man on death row (pretty horrifying.. i ended up disgusting crying).

prematurely excited about: target's news! i can't get enough of these collaborations, but this one seems like the most perfect one so far: alice + olivia, band of outsiders, marc jacobs, rag & bone, rodarte.. ?! SO EXCITING.

avoiding: the fridge. i need to go grocery shopping and i really think all we have anymore are ice cream sandwiches, which are at a maximum of 1/day in my life. but YUM. eep. grocery shopping asap.

have a good weekend! <3

when embarrassing tv things become relevant

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since i finished gossip girl, i was looking for a silly girly tv show to fulfill those few hours i'm home alone. i decided to rewatch the entirety of sex and the city. i'm in the middle of the second season right now, and it's kind of weird.. because i'm officially their age. i mean, i guess i'm still a little bit younger, but definitely not as young as i was the first few times i watched the show in full. because of this, even though i definitely don't live the lives these girls do, things are starting to resonate with me. sometimes it's the big stuff, like the way they handle relationships and the lessons they preach (giving yourself half the time of the relationship to recover from the relationship is one of my most tried and true relationship rules), but sometimes it's tiny, like this exchange:

miranda: i'm all alone, carrie. the first people on my "call in case of emergency" list are my parents. and i don't like them. and they live in pennsylvania.
carrie: sweetie, you can put me on there.
miranda: i can't! you screen!

i'm not saying that i don't like my parents, or that i'm alone, even though i do still have them as my emergency contacts (although i feel like that'll switch to austin in the coming years), but that i screen my calls like it's my job!

even with a caller id!

even when i was anxiety-ridden over wanting to hear from my new job, i didn't answer unknown numbers. i guess i've succumbed to that "if they need me, they'll text me.. why call me?!?!" ridiculous mindset. carrie didn't even have texts to worry about. yikes. i'm going to do better about answering my phone. <3

i'm obsessed with mark cline

i have to be honest, this is one of the very first people that i wanted to write about when i started this blog. i've had these photos prepared for months. but, i couldn't start. mark cline's artwork is one of my absolute favorite things i've come across while living in southwestern virginia, and i always worry about not doing justice to the things that i love. i could talk about him and his art for hours.

when it comes down to it, mark cline creates roadside attractions. he has also done commissions for theme parks, restaurants, hotels, campgrounds, and even broadway. he also creates april fools' jokes that stay up during the month of april, and usually disappear without a trace.

one of his most famous april fools' jokes was left up, due to the well-received response. you may have heard of it before? it's called foamhenge.

hi austin!

that wizard's face is a friend of mark's death mask. one of the weirdest/coolest tributes i've ever seen.

we took instax pictures at foamhenge (which, in case you couldn't tell, is an exact replica of stonehenge made out of foam) before heading to ryan and bekuh's wedding on our 2 year anniversary. i think we may make it a little tradition. i love this place!

in 2011, the location mark chose for his april fools' joke was really close to my grandma's house, and after driving past it a couple of times, my friend kayla and i decided to take a closer look. by walking up a muddy hill the day before he took it down. good timing! :)

this truck was parked at the bottom of the hill, and people had left little notes of praise in the windows <3

i'm pretty sure we weren't meant to make this trek, but i needed a closer look!

soon after the april fools' joke was taken down, austin and i finally decided to go visit mark's main attractions at natural bridge: the haunted monster museum and dinosaur park. we weren't disappointed. in fact, we were pleasantly surprised to find that mark himself was giving our tour of the museum! i was kind of starstruck and probably said some idiotic things, but he was perfect. i told him how much we loved his jack and the beanstalk april fools' joke, and he told us a story about how he was asked to remove it by some town leaders. his reaction was something along the lines of, "their parents never took them to disneyworld." he was just such a positive person and such a treat to get to meet. we bought tshirts after our tour, and i told a couple that had gone through it with us how much i love his work (i actually said "i looooove mark cline") and then the person selling us our tshirts asked if we'd like them signed. we said yes, and she said "dad, could you sign their tshirts?" oh my gosh, i was so embarrassed. imagine if you heard some goofy girl gushing over your father! haha.

most of the pictures that i took of the monster museum and all of the pictures that i took of the dinosaur park were instax pictures, but there are a ton still on his website, if you're interested. the dinosaur park was a re-imagining of the civil war, if dinosaurs were involved. it was hilarious and interactive and self-guided and we loved it.

unfortunately, in the last month, both the monster museum and the dinosaur park were destroyed by a pretty huge fire. this isn't the first fire of mark's career, as his first studio was burned in a very similar manner. mark handled it in stride (better than i did, to be honest), and made sure to explain that he was going to keep creating, and he was glad that people had the memories of his work.. because happiness is all that he strives for. the interview in the news article that i linked is a pretty perfect representation of this guy.

earlier this year, mark was honored with an exhibit at the local art museum: the taubman. there was some really ridiculous controversy about it, calling what mark does "not art." i got pretty fired up about this for months, and would debate anyone that seemed to agree in any way. folk art IS art. whatever. his pieces looked awesome in their exhibit, and i was so happy to see them in this environment.

i know that this is picture overload, but i couldn't help sharing everything! i can't wait to see what mark thinks up next. <3