Dreamer Dreamin'



Fats Waller is my company tonight y'all. He's singing me sweet lullabies while banging out jazz tunes on his piano and singing to me in his rich, husky, jazzy voice.

So a few weeks ago I was talking with my mom. She was asking me about my friends and what they wanted to do with their lives. This is always a really strange topic to talk about because as it is, I hardly have a tight grasp on what I want to do with my own life, let alone my friends.
I always figured I'd major in hospitality management and start working in my own Inn or Bed and Breakfast somewhere off the east coast, where I'd have a forbidden love affair with a Red Socks fan (Angel's girl ;-) ), and live my life in a small, vintage cottage, working in the place I love most. Then maybe I'd run my own Inn with a tea cup pig and a dog I rescued from an alleyway or something like that.
Anyways, I was talking with my mom and she asked, "What does Amanda want to do?"
Amanda, being one of the closest friends I have in life, doesn't really know what she wants to do. She's currently working part time in a fast food restaurant and part time in a small record store down town. We had got to talking one day about what she wanted to do with her life and she honestly said she couldn't think of anything but working in her own business. However, she couldn't imagine it'd thrive because of the economical rut the country is in.
With this being totally understandable, I told my mom that Amanda wanted to start her own business but she was afraid that it wouldn't do so well.
My mom, surprisingly, was incredibly supportive.
There are a few things there are interesting about my mom. For one, she's either completely and totally supportive in whatever my brother and I want to do in life or just whenever. Or she's absolutely against it. There's no in-between with her. And she always makes a really persuasive point about her opinion on anything. (We think it's because she secretly kissed the Blarney Stone.)
When I first graduated high school, I told her I wanted to major in English and become a Creative Writing teacher in a high school. Then I wanted to write part time and work my way up to becoming an author. This was my huge, amazing dream!!
My mom, being on one side of the road or not, flat out said, "No, you're not." when she heard this idea.
And I fought with her on this for forever.
For FOREVERRRR!!
She told me every reason why it was a terrible idea. I will admit that I never accepted that it was a bad idea, I still love my dream idea, but I've grown to like other things as well and I'm not as glued to the author idea as I was. She hasn't won the round but chances are, I wont end up being a teacher after all. (laughs)
Anyhow, she was absolutely supportive of Amanda's idea to the point that she started to include me in it. Somehow, being what Amanda wanted to do, turned into what Kristen and Amanda should do.
And what was even more surprising, was that I was all for it as well.
Yes, I'd love to own my own bed and breakfast one of these days, but it has also always been a dream of mine to own my own business in historic down town. Since the discussion with my mom, I've done nothing but research how to make this small business begin. I ran the idea by Amanda and she absolutely loved it. We decided that we'd save up some money here and there and further our studies before anything is every made official. But we'd like to consider it our dream as of right now and something we'd like to seriously make a goal sometime in the future. :-)
I guess my big question is how do small business owners begin and what tips can they give to aspiring business owners?

-Kristen :-)

A-Maizing Harvest Dress

Good Day everyone!


It's a wonderful day here in SoCal. The clouds have rolled in and there definitely is a threat of rain.
:-) My favorite. Anyways, I'm still recovering from my little cold. I really am sick and tired of being sick. (Laughs) But anyway; a few days before I came down with my cold, I decided to splurge and purchase a few things from a couple of my favorite online shops. Yesterday my package arrived from the one and only Modcloth! I couldn't wait to get home and try on the what I bought.
Here's my first dress from ModCloth..

Ignore my messy room.

Here's some of the detailing on the chest. Sorry for the boob shot haha!

The Poofy Sleeves = <3

Paired with slouchy boots

So this is Modcloth's A-Maizing Harvest Dress. I adore it!
The Pros are that it's really versatile. I could either wear it now during autumn or even late spring/summer. The cons are ( I admit ) mostly just because I'm a larger girl, I can't just throw on the dress and walk out the door. In order to kind of hide all my unwanted bumps and curves, I have to pair it with a slip.
Other than that though, I really love the dress and I plan on wearing it to my families big Thanksgiving dinner.
I do have to apologize about the amateur photography and my lack of really dressing this dress up. Like I said; I'm still sick and it is a cloudy day. ;-) Next time, I'll have something much nicer to show y'all.


Dress- Modcloth
Belt- Thrifted
Boots- Torrid


-Kristen <3

Sniffles Time

Aw man.

I do have to apologize for the lack of posts. Believe it or not; but I have maybe three or four unfinished posts sitting in my drafts right now. It isn't because I don't want to post anything, because I really, really do! It's just that... it's that time of the year.

The time of the year when I get really sick and refuse to do anything.

I hate being sick just like I would hope everyone would. At least once or twice during the fall-winter season, I catch something from either my family, work, or school. Whatever I catch usually tends to dwell in my system for well over a few weeks. It's absolutely annoying. My room is currently littered with balls of tissues, tubs of Vicks Vapor Rub, and empty tea glasses.
When I first realized I might be coming down with something was last Thursday. I was at work and had a little itch in the back of my throat. It was kind of quiet-for the moment at least-at work so I turned to my coworker, cleared my throat and said, "I think I might be getting a sore throat."
He turned and looked at me and with a roll of his eyes said, "You cookie."

So of course I refused to whine the rest of the day because I was sure he'd continue to make fun of me about it. Just like that though, the sore throat began to persist until it was full on discomfort as I left at the ending of my shift that very same day. It was a shame because the next day was the second day of snowboard season. And guess who was invited to learn snowboarding for their very first time?:
This girl!!

I would post pictures but I'm still waiting for my friend to send them to me. I would not have dared to take my camera with me. I'm glad I didn't. I don't think I've ever fallen so much in my life.
Anyways; since that little itch in my throat, I haven't been feeling too hot. The sore throat I was able to overcome within a few days. But the constant coughing, sneezing, sniffling? No. Not even a little.

When I went into work a few days ago, the same coworker who called me a cookie, laughed and asked if I was sick (due to my raspy, crackly voice). I just glared and answered yes. Then he proceeded to wonder when and how.
"How? How could you sick? You're Kristen." were his exact words.
Not sure how that makes a difference but apparently being me is what makes me less likely to be sick.
So for now, I'm just going to take it easy. I really do hate being sick though. The world doesn't stop for you when you're sickly. You have to keep moving with it which is the worst part considering I still have school, work, and other things to focus on. Any cold remedies or secrets you'd like to share? :-)

--Kristen <3

(p.s. I'm so sick and tired that I haven't proofread this yet. Please excuse my mess.)

Happy (late) Halloween

Hello everyone!
I'm hoping the holiday went well for some people. I heard that on the East side of the country, everyone is experiencing Mother Nature at her finest. Boo to having to post-pone Halloween. :-( I never used to understand what the fuss was over for this holiday, but with age; I've come to realize it can be a lot more fun. Mostly just the dressing up part. And no, I don't mean the really "lack of dressing up" costumes either. I-with the help of my relatives-pulled together a really sweet Native American costume for the evening! :-)
My friend, Brent and I decided to hit West Hollywood this Halloween. (Last year we went to a teeny little bar/club in Orange County and it was really fun, but too small for Brent.) Because we were going as a costume duo, we went as a 'cowboy and indian' theme. Personally, I thought our costumes turned out really adorable. Even once we arrived in West Hollywood, we looked at each other and said, "We look really cute." (laughs) No vanity intended.


Last year we went as bunny's. (gags)


Anyhow, we had planned out almost a year in advance the trip to WeHo. We live about an hour and a half away and personally, I despise driving anywhere near LA. I have to do it every now and then and every time it's this total event for me. I am not okay with driving in LA traffic but gradually, I've gotten the hang of it. We always get lost, or freak out in traffic, or...get lost mostly. (Thank God for iPhone because the directions/map app is a lifesaver.) But we've learned just to drive really, really rude. Does that even make sense? It should. Just drive like you're really angry always. Cutting people off gets easier with time. (laughs) I'm kidding. (Sorta.)
Once we paid our fifteen bucks for parking, we were all set. The carnival itself is on Santa Monica Boulevard and by the time we got there, we were maybe an hour late to the original time it was supposed to start. The place wasn't deserted but it definitely was not too busy.
Hard to believe that by the ending of the night it was said on the news that there were over 500,000 (!!!) people there. (shrugs) Go figure.
The costumes people were sporting were unbelievable. Brent reassured me all night long that what we were seeing was actually considered quite conservative. I kept wondering how anyone wasn't freezing. I froze all night long. Brrrr!
Now I think Brent and I had really high expectations for the WeHo carnival. We had an awesome time, don't get me wrong, but I think we just were kind of hoping for more excitement or really, more things to do. Really, I just wanted to dance more. (Boots n' cats? haha) The downside to both of us not quite being twenty-one was that we couldn't get into any of the clubs and bars we wanted to go to on Santa Monican Blvd. But oh well.
Next year, Brent says.
(laughs)
On the upside, the costumes were an attraction in and of themselves. I can understand why people go totally out to make them. People go crazy! It's like they're celebrities. :-)

These guys totally loved Brent.

Picoooo and her undying love! <3

I almost offered up a sweater.
;-)











Hope everyone else had an excellent holiday!! I guess this means we have to start getting ready for Christmas? (laughs) Oh gee.

-Kristen <3

Stepping Out With My Baby

I had an awesome idea this morning.

"I'm going to do something I haven't done since middle school."
That something was tucking in my shirt. See, the only time I tuck in my shirt is at work. So I gave it a shot and surprisingly enough, I liked it far more tucked in than let out.

The tucked in look is kind of a fun, classic twist. I wish I had figured out how much I liked it earlier. (laughs)
I took a look at some celebrities who pulled off the look rather nicely and decided that whatever I planned on leaving the house in for the day, I was going to tuck in the top. I settled with some jeans and a tank top accompanied by a cardigan and sandals.

My friend and I toyed with my camera and here we are!



The last one was just an example of how almost all of the pictures came out. It made us appreciate and admire all the bloggers who can do fashion blogging seriously. I kept laughing, he kept getting his fingers in the way, and overall we could not stop goofing around. Also, I realize I'm not exactly the most fashionable person. I'm in dire need of new clothes. But I wanted to give it a shot so (shrugs); here we are. :-) Any suggestions are welcomed. Next time, I would probably wear a more flared jean.

If interested:
Top: Forever 21
Cardigan: Torrid
Jeans: JC Pennies
Sandals: [gift] Forever 21

Update: Trunk

I'm really bad at things like... DIY's.
I just don't have a lot of time for it. Especially since I was just signed over as full time at the hotel. I'd been working these really long, painful hours without any benefits. So basically, I was full time but I wasn't "officially" full time on the papers. But now I am which is great but I still don't have much time to do things I've been meaning to do.
The trunk; the wonderful, wonderful trunk has been one thing I've wanted to work on for a while. One morning I woke up and just started sanding the rusted nails on the trunk until they shined silver. It took me hours to do this one thing. And in the end, it just did not look that spectacular anyways. I saw how the top looked nice with the nails but the rest of the trunk needed some serious work. And by the time I was done sanding off the nails and bolts, I glanced at the clock and noticed that I had to get ready for work.
I'm totally aware that I could be working on this thing for days. Even months if I really wanted to. But I realized that no matter how much time I took to work on this thing, it was never going to be quite right because I was never going to have the patience. Not with me constantly worrying about work and school as it was. There were too many other things. Too many tiny, itty, bitty things that occupied my mind more than the trunk. And the trunk was just sitting there in the backyard on a work table waiting patiently for me.
Then I thought about what I really wanted to do with the trunk. What did I plan on putting in it? What exactly could I put in it? Shoes? Hats? It's not like I had very many of those 2 things anyways. It seemed like a waste to clean up something that would only sit in my room anyways. But I liked the trunk. And I bought it. And I wanted to keep it. So as I stared at my eye sore of a bookshelf with lots of records and books falling out, I figured out a way to utilize my trunk.
Thus!!!:

TAA-DAA!!

I created the record player trunk...thing!!
Now I think how neat it would be to be put this thing on a stand but it's cool as it is for now. (Why would I start another DIY when I can't even handle the ones I have now? [laughs]) Plus I can just shut the top to keep the records from getting dusty. Which they do get pretty frequently.
Anyways, that was my story of the trunk and its outcome. :)
Have you ever had trouble following through with a DIY??
Till next time.
--Kristen <3

Aaaghh!

Hey Everyone,

So I'm thinking 'Inspirational Sunday' will be pushed back just a few days. ):
I'm so sorry for the lack of upkeep on my posts. It's so funny when life happens and actually keeping up with writing gets pushed behind to the back burner.
Anyhow, bare with me here.

In the mean while though, I've been considering posting some of my writings. I love to write a lot! But I'm so self conscious of my writings. (Working on that too!) I've thought about making just a separate page and just linking it to With Yellow Feathers. If anyone is ever interested where I came up with my lovely name of this blog, I would be more than happy to tell that story. It's a brief one. (Laughs)
In the spirit of Sundays and my love for Bed & Breakfast's here are some beautiful pictures of Inn's I would one day love to visit.

This is the Normandy Inn in New Jersey. This right here is the type of Inn I'd like to visit and perhaps even run one of these days. I love the really eastern, square, fresh, Victorian style to this B&B.

This is Otters Pond Bed and Breakfast in Washington. This place looks so amazing. And it's tucked away against a hill on and Island! Orcas Island to be exact. It's such a homey looking Inn.

The Bright Morning Bed and Breakfast is the absolute perfect mixture of cute and teeny. It's tucked away in a town called West Newton, Pennsylvania. (Did I get that right?) Near a little river. Sooo adorable!

Live in the UK? This is Pethhead Cottage in Northeast England! I sigh when I look at the ivy creeping up the walls. It looks so quaint and sooo... English. If I make my way to the UK one of these days, this is on my list of places to stay.

Amelia Oceanfront Bed and Breakfast is in Florida of all states! It has such a Delaware, Virginian look to it I would have never had thunk. It's probably because it's close to the border of Georgia. :)

Say howdy to Inn on the Riverwalk, located in Texas! I'm very upset that on my road trip during the summer through Texas, we did not stop to stay at this beauty.


If anyone is ever interested in staying in an amazing Inn/Bed & Breakfast, there's always Bed and Breakfast [dot] com. That lovely little website will show you some incredible places to stay.
Till later.
-Kristen <3

Inspired Sunday

Good Day everyone!

I would like to introduce to my blog every Sunday as... (!!!) Inspired Sunday!

Yahh! (cheers)

Every weekend I like to start preparing myself for the upcoming week by hunting down pictures that are inspirations to me. (Yes, this is very much like a lot of Blogs 'Things I Like Thursdays', but just work with me here. :-) )

Since is is one goal of mine to own my own Inn or Bed & Breakfast, I often find myself searching for inspirational pictures that I would give me ideas of my own future B&B. I really hope to have a very vintage, victorian, green, whimsical, soft theme to my Inn. (laughs) Is that too much to ask?

Anyways, here are just a few of my favorite inspirational photos.



I love Clawfoot Tubs. <3



                                     

I adore the really calm, country look to this one.



I love the color of this Inn. And the lighthouse. So amazing.



Anyways, most of these photos I found online on like 'Country Home and Gardens'. The magazine is magical.

What are some of your most inspirational things? :)

-<3 Kristen





Secret Love

Most people say they can read me like an open book.
That mostly makes me sad because I'd like to believe that I'm somewhat complex. (Laughs)
Anyways, I have this really awesome secret love. I've had this secret love since I was a little girl; wearing jean shorts and over-sized anime print shirts.
When I was thirteen, I was introduced into the world of comic books. Oh gosh, I loved comic books. I loved all sortsss of comic books. As long as it was a graphic novel of some sort, I was throwing my nickles and quarters down to purchase a ten dollar book I would read in one day.
Anyhow, this love bloomed through the years. (I was interested in writing beforehand but) I started writing my own comic books, drawing my own characters, watching anime/cartoons day in and day out. It was an obsession. High school can be so cruel though because when I had a disgustingly large, monstrous crush on my best friend's boyfriend; I decided that comics, anime, and manga were no longer cool.
Basically, I grew out of it.
But not really.
I've always had a bit of a soft spot for anime and manga. I like to believe it's like a nostalgia thing. Like, Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z. 90's kids grew up on that stuff.
 My love might be a gimme though since I've attended the anime expo since 2005...? I think? Yeah that sounds about right.
AND every year, I love watching people cosplay. Which is my secret love.

Cosplay.

Siiiggh... Something about the time and effort people put into making these amazing costumes is so neat. I stalk cosplayers online all the time. It's starting to become unhealthy. So! My goal for this years anime expo coming up in July of 2012, (Gotta start planning early! Hellooo!) is to actually cosplay with both the amateur and big kids this year.
My good friend Brent and I are coming up with some really good ideas. I will admit though, they're just good. We want something great! But not so complex because we suck at sewing. (Also on my list of things to do this year.)
So far we've got these ideas going for us:

Lina Inverse and Gourry from Slayers!
I love these two. They're so cute and funny.
The only problem with this cosplay is that Brent, my dearest gayest, guy friend will not wear a blond wig. Or any wig for that matter. And we could not pull off this cosplay if he didn't wear a wig. He's a Pacific Islander, European, Japanese mix. He has dark hair.



So we move on.

Nurse Joy (Or Misty) and Ash Ketchum from Pokemon!
Simple and effective. Probably the best choice for our first cosplay. I just don't know if I (me personally) will pull off these characters as well. (Laughs) We'll see.




Lastly!

The two main characters from Grenadier!
We both really like the characters. My boobs aren't near big enough to fill the female role. But Brent likes that he wont have to wear a wig. The only problem is that we haven't watched more than like...2 episodes. I don't know. I always feel like part of cosplaying is knowing the characters at least somewhat.







Anyhow, this is just my little bit of sharing of my secret and my secret plans. Is is not considered a secret now? (Laughs)
What do you think? 1, 2, or 3? Or is there another anime/manga you could recommend? And what about actually watching the anime? Should you before you cosplay or is a naw, go get 'em tiger! Who cares?

Thanks y'all!
-Kristen

Vintage Chaiiir-Reupholster

So I am in the process of sanding down and reupholstering this lovely chair I found at a yard sale.

And I just finished taking off a lot of the peeling paint. (Most of it at least.)
I think I may just paint a white shade on top of the legs because I kind of like that 'shabby chic-old peeling paint' look. But as for the actual coverings on the seating goes, I'm not sure what to do. I really actually do like the green. It gives it that wonderful vintage feel. However, it needs to be replaced. (Lots of holes and the stuffing is coming out, you know.)
Sooo if anyone has any ideas with a link to a pattern that I can purchase, I would appreciate it! (Or just ideas/pictures in general, it'll give me a good idea of what I need to look for.)

I plan on taking it to someone in town who will apply the covering professionally of course, but I'm just not sure what to put on top. Any help would be great!

Theses are just some of the ideas I was looking at..?

haha!

--Many thanks,

Kristen <3

Feather Headband: Elise on Blowfish

Good morning everyone!
I'm listening to Fats Waller. He makes me want to ballroom dance with my dad.
Anyhow, so who is going to celebrate Halloween this year? My friend Brent and I are going to drive into Hollywood and join the festivities! Yahoo! We're going to go as a Native American-Cowboy duo. Brent being the cowboy, me the Native American. I've been mostly thrifting everything for my costume but it was the headpiece I was really worried about since I didn't know what I was going to do.
Just a feather sticking up in the back of a headband sounded kind of boring.
Then I stumbled across this (via Facebook): (Clicky) Elise's DIY Feather Headpiece on Blowfish Shoes!
Hot damn! I thought. I mean, that is the most perfect feather headpiece ever. And I love Blowfish shoes. Win-Win? Anyhow, so I started working on it. I'm terrible at DIY stuff. 
(Update on the trunk btw: there is none. ]: ) 
But this is actually turning out kind of nice. :) So hopefully I'll be done with it soon. I just have to do the other side and braid the headband together. And I will also post more pictures as the costume comes along.
Thank you Elise!
Also, Blowfish Shoes rock my socks. I do suggest to shop around there for cute shoes. :)



What it looks like laying out.

 





How it will look put on.



--Kristen<3

Litte Chief Honeybee Giveaway

If you do not know of Kaelah Bee's fashion blog  "Little Chief Honeybee." yet then I for sure recommend you check her out.

Right.

Now.

But please finish reading this first!! Hee hee.

Every month Kaelah has a giveaway and she always gives away amazing stuff! This month her giveaway includes three (count them; three!!) Lomography cameras. They are pretty spiffy and will take amazing photos, of this I am sure. It really easy to enter and there are lots of opportunities for extra entries. So you can doubly your chances of winning. (Hoo-ray!)

And if you aren't interested in the giveaway *clicky*, then check out Kaelah and "Little Chief Honeybee" anyways. I can guarantee you, she is fashion blogging guru. :)

Breakfast in a Meadow

I'm currently in the process of trying to find some sort of organization to my chaos here. Haha! One of these days I'll figure out how to do all of this HTML stuff to make my blog beautiful. But for now, it's... coming along. Nice n' slowly.
Anyways!
My best friend is constantly in the mood for wedding stuff and she sent this to me a few months ago. I've always thought the pictures were just beautiful and if I were getting married, engagement photos in a meadow would be an absolute must!
But I'm single (Eyy' nuffin wrong wit dat) and maybe it'll be a consideration in the future. Enough about me, here's to you.

Please be sure to look here *clicky* for many more photos of this shoot and for more amazing vintage photos from Simply Bloom Photography. They're so beautiful!
:)

First DIY: Trunk

I always buy old vintage furniture that needs serious love and promise that I'll completely repair it.
Always.
I wish my bedroom wasn't full of old rusty, paint-peeling, broken stuff that I hope to one day fix up.
Anyways, I found this lovely little trunk at a yard sale just a few days ago. For about 5 bucks, it looked like a really amazing investment. It seemed to be in good shape and I figured with a little TLC, it would be good as new.
Sooooo I'm hoping that this will be the first DIY project that I follow through with.
But this is my blank canvas.

                                                                  Sitting up right.

                                                                   Laying down.

I absolutely adore all the stickers on this trunk! They're too cool. I wish I could still find neat stickers like that. I'm surfing the web to find any DIY tutorials. If anyone finds anything, please tell me!! :)

More pictures of things that need work on it:

The only hinge that needs help.

Hanger for a handle? Uh no. Handle help too.

Crybaby Songs

Whenever I hear this song from Louis Armstrong, I want to bawl like a baby. It's so beautiful and romantic that it brings tears to my eyes.