Alive.And.Well.

SO. It's been quite some time since I have frequented this whole blogger.com. Needless to say, I have been a busy, busy little bee. Don't get me wrong, though, I have missed it terribly. As you all learned from my last blog post (like months ago - sorry!) that I packed up my belongings and moved to the weirdest city in Texas - Austin. It's ... different here (not much of an explanation, I am aware). I am in school, which is the other reason I yet have had time to ramble on and on forever like I used to; but, tonight, I felt like reminiscing on this passion of mine rather than reading some story for my English class. HA. I suppose this is helping me right? I mean, I am writing and using my creativity; just not for the correct reason. Whoopsy! Ah, just not in the mood, I suppose. It's one of those nights I need to get back to what I love to do and I had some inspiration to do this. Long story, but too much to even get into now. 
Basically, I AM ALIVE and am very much still around. Still am in touch with my "big-sis," Margaret, whom is doing fabulously and I am so jealous of all of her happiness and pure giddiness she likes to share with me in her wonderfully, perfected rambled messages. Bottom line, which I suppose I am failing to make here, is I miss this blogging world full of crafty-craftersons like me and all you other gals who tell their lives to .... well, everyone. Love it. Because only you guys get it.
So, I've got no new pictures to show you all of myself. Keep your sadness to yourself, as I know you all must be (*note sarcasm*). I will have them in due time, my little remarkable readers... just you all wait and see. I have someone who is actually willing to snap some shots of me, so we shall see how/when that goes. Austin is a very particular, peculiar idiosyncratic city; however, it has its breathtakingly beautiful scenery. Just get in with the "in-crowd" (like we all know I am in that) and there ya go - you are in and know the "cool" places to hit up. I am still in that process of not wanting to change my style of skinnies mixed with JC Litas, bracelets covering my arm and rings on almost every finger, but I am falling under the peer pressure of wearing the dreaded XL tee with nikes. Not that that is bad - just not me. What changes this place has made to me. 
Well, screw it, I am back. Individuality is key, as I have learned from a wise soul. No one should judge you for who you truly are. My advice, as you all should take: BE YOURSELF. Do it and you will be happy. All I have learned that has truly kept me going.
Enjoy the photos above people. They are some stunning shots of girls I envy, not to mention their gorgeous gems I need now. 
All right... it's time for bed. Everyone have a far-fetched (enjoy that word) Wednesday - do something you really want to do. Life is short, so live it up! 
Hope you all enjoyed my cheerfulness up there. As the first pic says, "happy" while my last brings joy to myself by "thinking outside the box." Besitos my blog-worms!

Words, Schmords

White sheer top- A.L.C., Cream Maxi Skirt- Brandy Melville, Litas- JC, Feather Necklace- DIY project, Bangles/Rings- All over the place.

So, I am laying down on my friend's bed not daring to move, due to my lack of interest in getting up and actually be productive. Good news for you readers is that my laziness gives me time (finally!) to write, write, and write some more. I have some pretty cool news to share with everyone. I am today's HottHe of the Week! This now requires everyone to pull up a new tab and head on over to FashionByHe.com to see the little piece He has created on me! I must admit, it was very rad to get the email from Him telling me the post was up...I immediately let out a slight shriek (causing my friend to look over at me as if I were a crazy little mouse or something) and read about, well, myself. Such an honor, so thank you again, He! You have most definitely made my day one that I will forever remember. Yes, it's a big deal to me!

That top in the pictures above? This amazing find at Barney's during their last sale. Do I love it? Yup. Can I find it? Nope. How tragic is it that it is almost always your favorite belonging that gets lost or a friend "borrowed" it? It could just simply be at the cleaners. I guess I should check up on that, let me add that to my list of things to remember for when I go back home to Dallas. Boy, did I just spoil that next sentence! I am currently in Austin...and moving here (well, if my friend and I find a place to live, that is) for school. I am so sad to leave my Margaret & Joey because they are truly the greatest couple I know and have had the pleasure to get to know SO well, but Marg and I have confirmed the plan of becoming pen pals. Old school style, too. Like with colored markers and smell-goody stickers. Should be fun to create these precious letters and quite entertaining, too!

Ah, I suppose it is time for me to splash some water on myself, put my contacts in (can't really see quite that well, so bare with the spelling errors if any...), and get dressed for the, uh, afternoon/evening. Wow. I just rock at life, it is ridiculous. Getting up for school shall be interesting come about three more weeks. Summer, I barely knew you.

Have a fabulous end to your Wednesday everyone!

Are you there, Bloggers? It's me, Casey.

Had to take a picture of this unicorn I saw hanging on the wall of some store since Marg calls me her sparkly little unicorn.

Of course I had to purchase this shark jaw tee. It was meant for me.

Well, well, well. It’s been close to a month since an update and my deepest and most sincere apologies are sent out to you fabulous readers who I am sure have been crying over my non-updating. Wow, that was a long sentence, probably a run-on. Oh well. No English teacher is here to criticize and give me a failing grade on this.
Okay, enough of the procrastinating. I have SO much to fill you all in on! Hopefully the pictures/commentary have helped. So I have been in Miami and pre-beach, I was too busy figuring out how to pack only carry-ons in my suitcase that I just failed to update you all on my boring, boring life. Although, today, you lucky little blog lovers, you are getting all the information on my life that I can possibly fit into this document. Ready? Everyone take a deep breath … and read.
Well, Miami was an absolute hit. HIT, guys; such success was done. We never quite made it to the beautiful shark infested waters (of course I watched Shark Week and learned that the deep blue of Florida is the most dangerous for sparkly swimmers like Marg and myself due to sharks), but we most definitely made it to the streets of everywhere in Miami. We shopped so much that two nights in a row, we closed down the stores. Yes, that’s right. We stayed until closing and would not leave until our precious purchases were lying in bags wrapped around our wrists. We saw beautiful murals (I cannot remember who had the magical hands that drew out the magnificent art we saw, but Margaret knew and almost died while sending Joey picture after picture of our findings). My annoying hypoglycemia even kicked in on the day of our mural blogging, so her lovely mom found me a bakery that completely rocked. It was the best doughnut and real coke (from the bottle) I have ever had in my life. Let’s see. What else? Ah, yes. Well, prior to my amazing trip to the artsy city of Miami, my pale white body was art-less, as well as pierce-less (minus my ears). Not anymore! So it is the last night in Miami and what do the two girls from Dallas decide to do? Get tattoos together. And, no, this was not a random thing we just decided to do while out and about at 12 am. It was something Marg and I had wanted and thought of for a long time. I got “best” on my left wrist and she got “friends” on her right wrist. HA. I am soo kidding. But for real, as you can see below, I got my left wrist inked up with two beautiful arrows crossing over each other. To me, tattoos should mean something and mine signifies moving forward in life and always looking ahead.

Okay. I will now leave you with a bunch of mural photos that I found so beautifully thrilling I could not not share with you all.

Are these not extraordinary? Enjoy :)

The Blue Jeans Are In.

White Shirt- Rag & Bone, Blue vest- Vintage, Blue shorts- Levi's (?), Tan wedges- Jeffrey Campbell.

Oh man, I already feel this post being as short as the hair cut I was going to get pre-Miami (google Agyness Deyn or Mia Farrow). Well, now I suppose I need to discuss my hair and the decision to leave it sitting on my shoulders, while having the fabulous "I can make my hair longer whenever I want to" clip-in extensions, or chop all the white off, including the pink tips. Wow, was that quite the run-on sentence I just made. Could I use any more commas? I believe I will leave my hair at its current length, it's happy that way, as am I, for now...

Ugh...anyway. Sorry, readers, for the misconception I will be a blogaholic, as my last post made it seem I would be, but then my actions failed to comply. I was sick all weekend with a horrid stomach ... bug? I suppose that is what it was, but who knows. I am feeling much better today so hopefully as the week goes on, I will get back into the spirit of things, and share with you all my boring, daily deeds and let you know the latest of my life. So exciting, right? OH. Before I leave you all, I guess I will let you all in on pictures - obviously, they are not from tonight. Back from last week, but had to put them up! I love the first one of Margaret and I that Joey caught of us, sneakily, so I put it up because I couldn't not! Anyway, the vest is such a cool find, right?! Marg got it for me when she was in Alabama from a thrift store and I just love the thing to death. 

All right. I am off to bed, or to the television, actually, to catch up on all shows weird and criminal. Then sleep. Talk to you readers soon!

SparklePants Got Inspired

My girls

All outfits I must creatively copy.

Jewelry I am eternally jealous of for not owning.

The hands of a goddess/creative genius, Pamela Love.

First off, I shall share with you all a perfect, yet kind of long, quote that just hit home tonight for myself. Read it, read it again, learn it, memorize it, then say it aloud to yourself. Okay? Okay, good.

“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, trees, clouds, water, light, and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery-celebrate it. Always remember what Jean Luc Goddard said: “It’s not where you take things from – it’s where you take them to.”” – Jim Jarmusch

Alrighty my lovely little readers, tonight/today’s post is just a complete and total RANT on the subject of … well, we shall see once I land on a subject first. I have been in an ugly mood all day and my frame of mind just went “splat” all over my bedroom floor tonight after driving home from work. Worst part about the whole entire thing? What the hell am I so, so upset over that is forcing me to blog at 3:30 AM?? HA! I’d love to know. Get ready for a most likely annoying, long, plain and simple chitty-chat on boys, work, life, and how despite the ups-and-downs that come with those, the glorious world of fashion (my inspiration pictures captured above just slap a smile across my face) can cure any bad of the three mentioned.

Boy? Not worth mentioning because: A) it’s confusing and as much as I share with you all, he will remain private. But all I will say – he is a big, humongous mysterious puzzle that I am missing pieces from. And B? I just wish the opposite species just knew what to do to make a girl just (oh no, cliché…) smile. Seems easy enough, but it ain’t. Ha – look at me and my Texan accent that I never use. Most of the time I get mistook for an Eastern with my strange “A,” and “O” sounds. I would love to come from somewhere cool in the northeast; however, sadly, I am just from Dallas. No need to get me wrong, Dallas is a great city. Just sometimes I wish I had family in other places (that I actually like or speak to – wait! ONE! Uncle Eric, I am heading your way…) Wow, did I just blow my sad little boy story under the rocks and bury it. Yay! Doesn’t need to be spoken of anyhow, not important; you loyal readers are more significant to me at this time of my life what with me trying to be a real rad blogger and all. Note I did not say I would be the next “Fashion Toast” or “Sea of Shoes.” I mean they are just too inspirational to me, not to mention famous for their beautiful words and photos, to even put them in my own personal category of blogging. I just want to show the world, or 26 followers (yes, that did include my two lovely parents), that I can style and showing others how to dress and accessorize is a long-time dream of mine that I have decided tonight I will make happen…no matter what (thanks Marg for the pep-talk! Love you sis!).

Alrighty-roo. Where am I heading next? OH. The dreadful four letter word that most people don’t like to talk about except for the lucky ones who enjoy WORK. Well, folks, I am no longer the merchandise manager for Aritzia at Willowbend anymore starting this Saturday at 5:30 when I walk out that door. Change is just hard for me, as it is with a lot of people. Not meaning to sound sexist here, but usually women take transformations harder than men. Not all the time, but a good percentage. Sorry, girls who now are going to un-follow me or think I am not on “our” side. I guess I should explain why I will no longer be working at the Ritz in just two small days (eeeeek!). I am taking time off to just blog, blog, blog, write (my dream is to one day have a book published and then go to Barnes & Noble and move it from the bottom bookshelf in the back and move it to the front section where they have all of the books the New York Times recommends. Perfection.), have fun (hello Miami in 2 weeks with my best friend, do you need a reminder peeps? MARG, duh), dye my hair some more, maybe get it cut SHORT, and oh yeah, did I mention blog? No couch potato for me. I will be working hard to figure out my next step in ahh good ol’ number 3 – life. Life is hard; it really is – for me, at least right now. My next step in the world of Casey Land (as I like to conceitedly refer to my own existence…no need to judge, I already do) is to well, blog (EFF. Now I am kind of embarrassed because I probably won’t get to do it as much as I am planning and you will all have proof I said I am going to write on here well, basically non-stop). Oh well. I will also be figuring out (while doing all the above I have already mentioned) where I want to finish college at while hanging out with my other half, who yes, (side note) did dye my hair for me so woot woot (really, Casey? Woot woot? Just remember guys, it is now 3:45 AM) no more paying at the salon for color!

Okay. I have completely bored all of you to absolute death. Kind of even bored myself a tad bit, but I am okay with that. Just needed to vent and share some feelings with you all! It is amazing how this blog community comes together and there is never, ever negative feedback. Such a charming group we are and I am so, so honored to have been welcomed in to it the way I was. So a huge thank you to my readers who never let me down and are a tremendous help with my self-esteem and just getting to know who I even am better. Love to you all!

I hope you all have a tremendous day! And yes, real quick, SparklePants is my latest nickname from the FashionLitter herself. So there is the title meaning.

Nasty Navigation

Nude dress- Bassike (Barneys), Belt- Marg's closet, White wedges- Theyskens' Theory (Barneys), Tan hat- H&M. Jewelry- FP, Moms, Margs, vintage

The photos above (well obviously, since there are none below) were taken last night via Joey’s magic camera. I swear he is a photographer/crafter trapped in a businessman’s body. We went, um…whoops, sorry, I don’t know where we were. Somewhere in Frisco and somewhere down the street from a Mexican restaurant called Manny’s (?) with two major, MAJOR bitches in it. They would just stare at Marg and my outfits and whisper…like whole junior high whisper, too. You know, where you put your hand up to cover up whatever you are secretly saying to your friend who probably talks bad about you anyway. Ah, whatever. They were not important. Food was delish, and thanks again JoJo (I believe we landed on that nickname, I truly can’t remember) for dinner! HA. Hope that annoyed you – just kidding.

Oh.My.God. Today deserves that statement. I have finally discovered the apparent secret of Dallas thrift shopping on this very Sunday. Margaret had wanted me to meet her there (St. Vincent’s) a few days ago, but due to unfortunate circumstances, wait, I actually don’t even remember if they were unfortunate or not, but any who, I made it today. And let me tell you it took me a LONG ass time getting to my destination. IPhone navigation – you SUCK. A LOT. It had me making u-turns, drive around the lake (pretty, and some good looking guys out running with their dogs…back to driving)…it just had me flailing all over umm…West Dallas? Sorry, I am directionally challenged, can be a problem sometimes. So I finally play the woman card and stop and ask for directions at the local area Dollar General. They were very friendly and I even stocked up on shoelaces (never know when I need to change the Litas) and got some Barbie earrings (yes, I really did). Well, nav system was way off and I simply just needed to proceed through two more lights and there it was to my left. Okay, now here is something new readers. I am going to write out what my brain process was doing at this moment:

No cars in the lot – perfection – I have this place all to myself. How lucky am I? And damn Marg for looking for houses today when you should be here with me getting lucky on $1.99 tops that most definitely were not sold for that price.

Okay, I get out of my car and go to the main door, or at least it seems to be the main door. Alrighty, back to my head of weirdness:

Umm. It won’t open. What the French. I did not just get lost, go to a dollar store, and drive for many extra miles for this damn place to be closed. Maybe if I bang on the door someone will hear me and open it up? Wow, I bet the people driving on Northwest Hwy are really getting a kick out of me banging my bangled up wrist on some iron door that has no door knob. Shit. Time to embarrass myself and call Marg to see what on earth I have done wrong and why this is taking me so ridiculously long to make it inside of this highly recommended store (even Google does, so it must be true).

Ah, I think I gave Margaret a good laugh today. She informed me there was a back parking lot that I had to park in behind where I was standing and there was a huge entrance where they keep the outdoor furniture and plenty of people will be out there. Indeed, everything she said was 100% true. I am an idiot and am just glad no one heard the knocking I did in the front and came to let me in. Talk about embarrassing. Well, I made it in and let’s just say I spent only $45 for 4 full bags of clothes. Talk about a deal! Now it is time to go hang everything…well, after I cut most of them to make them fresh and “original.” HA. I am so not original.

Goodnight to you all! 

Pastels & Skateboards?

As for the title, what more could you ask for? Pastels are summer. Deal with it, folks.

This day was such a good one. Marg and I were on our way to her lovely abode to begin some serious crafting (soon, or maybe not so soon, to be shown on her blog) when we saw Ethan’s truck (her little bro, the one with the fro). We chased him down so hard we were like legit stalkers. ADD side note: I just realized she and I are like stalkers in our own selves because it seems every other blog has to do with each other. Wow. We have lives, I swear. Kinda? Any who, we got Ethan to come meet us at the Pellicone/Shaw residence where I caught him in action on his skateboard (so if you are wondering why I have pictures of a rando guy on his board riding around Legacy you now know why). I got some good shots, no blurriness…HA Joey! Just kidding. I am no photog, I am barely a creature being captured in the lens of the talented person behind the camera, 99% of the time being the J. I just enjoy the styling part of all of it. Putting together outfits is like…crack for me. Although, I have never tried crack, I am going to go ahead and put it in the same category…especially when on my focus pills, as I call my Vyvanse. Tonight, I picked out 10 outfits for ONE DAY…this Saturday. Joey – you better be in a good mood because you will be taking us on location to catch some pretty fabz photos of your wifey and lil sis!! 

God, could I get any more off subject or what??? So me and the “Midge,” the adorable nickname Joey, and only Joey, has the right to call her that, decided to color my hair. Multi colors. See below.

Now Marg has the camera so she got some good shots of me in my new, completely, amazingly, RAD outfit. I got the antique lace top from, guess where? An antique store - as they were closing. You'd think when two girls who look pretty stylish (no mean to be conceited there again, I assume you all know what I mean, though) and after apologizing over and over how they are about to close, they still kick us out at closing. How rude. We would have spent money, too. At least Margaret was ready to open up that "wallet" of hers. The quotes around wallet are a complete other story that I will not bore you all with now, sorry ... or you're welcome. Just realized many of you may hate my rants and rambles, so if so, I apologize you are missing out on some pure enjoyment over here. 

Below are the photos Marg got of me that turned out fantastic. I know they're all a bit similar, but I am being selfish and finally, self-satisfying myself with some of my favorite pictures taken.

Lace top- Antique, Undershirt- Marg's mom's closet, Necklace- Marg-made, Belt- Marg's, Blue shorts- Target, Shoes- JC Litas + hot pink shoelaces cut out of an old scarf found at the Shaw residence.