Yellow Submarine

Yay, new photo locations! My mom has wonderfully volunteered to take the pictures now! That's good, 'cause now I don't have to have the same boring spot and have to take them only when the sun is up. Whenever it was dark and I took pictures by the billiard stick rack, even with the lights on, my pictures would still turn out dark. So now all of my future pictures shall be light and wonderful, even durante la noche.. huzzah!

I do love this jacket.. I abandoned it for a while because I didn't know what to wear with it and did not realize the awesomeness of it, but I am glad that while taking a shower this morning I realized what would look nice with it. Funny how inspiration comes in strange places, eh? Mine always come in the showers. I'll be shaving my legs when suddenly.. aha, an idea has arisen from the steamy mist of my shower! Qué magnífico! Har har. Sorry for the random Spanish blurts, I just do love the lovely language of Spanish. I'm only in my second year of it, but I'm thinking of minoring in it in college.

Liz Clairborne heels, Liz&Co. jacket, F21 striped tank, Issac Mizrahi skinnies

The Lace Chronicles

I'm so sorry for the lack of posts, it's been what, six days since my last post? I wasn't being very productive at the end of last week due to an abundance of tests. Over the weekend, we tiled our basement (which we are building ourselves, especially my padre!). My dad cut the slate tiles that need to be cut and laid down the cement "goop," I laid down all of the slate and made them straight and look in pretty patterns (since it was Indian slate and had different colors and patterns on every one), and my mom cleaned the tiles that got the cement goop on them. It took the whole weekend, and yesterday I was all pooped out! I think I have finally recovered, though. My thighs have stopped hurting-- I didn't know there were so many different muscles in your legs and back, it was such an amazing feeling of pain, haha!

The shirt is my mom's from the late 70's, and it is most gorgeous and frilly and wonderful, even though I discovered halfway through the day that I was wearing it backwards (nobody noticed other than one person). I think it looks nice either way. Plus, the shoes that I ordered finally came in last week, and for being so high, they're surprisingly comfortable!


F21 belt, Merona skirt, vintage lace shirt

Fuzzy Reflections

This is an old picture from our Montana trip over the summer of 2009 that I edited up. I liked the reflection in the window and how the orange and the blue completed one another. Plus, it's all rusty and imperfect, and imperfect things are perfect subjects!

So, I love how my dog just comes into my room, farts, then leaves. It's as if he saved his stinkiest fart all day just for me. That and sneaks in and runs away with one of my overstuffed pillows, or more likely, my lobster plush, wedged into his mustached mouth. I guess that's what we get for ordering him from the internet. He does have lots of cute moments, though, especially when he cocks his head if he hears a strange noise! Gunner is about six months old and he weighs about 45 pounds. My mom says he's supposed to weigh 60 pounds when he's fully grown, but I think he's going to be much bigger than that.

Business Time

Luxe oxfords, WM blazer and tie, Amazon shades, Kohl's tank


So, I'm wearing my business socks today since I found this clip-on tie in my closet, and because I had to rap a poem about the Day of the Dead in Spanish class! I wanted to look super rap-ola-like. Everyone thought my two-minute rap was epic, and I'm glad it went well. I was both anticipating it and a little nervous. I had to take a break in the middle because I rapped too fast and ran out of breath!

Wearing this made me feel so superior; I love how an outfit can define and change your personality a bit for a day. Plus, I got a chance to wear my new shoes! At school there were lots of teachers who were pointing at them and saying, "Look at her shoes!" I assume because that's the time period when they're from, hah. I've been looking for a pair of oxfords like this forever and I'm so happy I finally found them. My dad called them "Gatsby dancing shoes." I agree entirely.

Speaking of shoes, a second ago I finished estimating how much the all of the shoes I have are worth.. let's just say I need to stop buying shoes. I will not state the amount (since my mom watches this blog, everyone say hay), but I will say that I should hold out on buying shoes.. well, at least until I can find these..

• cage heels (which I've found for $30! and may buy if I stop by that store anytime soon)
• black flats (my old patent ones started smelling funny and ripped)
• pointed red flats (again, the ones I have now are scuffed and torn)
• a shoe that is entirely white
• black wedge ankle boots
• red lace up boots with a fringe patch (specifics are so hard to find!)
• brown tall boots (it's sad that I don't have basic things like this)
  

Seriously though, I need to stop! I should be buying things like pants and shirts.. but stuff like that is so hard to find for me, so I usually end up looking at shoes. I'm just so awkward shaped and strange, and I know that shoes are something that is guaranteed to fit me! That and I tend to not realize how much I've grown out of my clothes.. I still have stuff that's from middle school and my freshman year of high school in there. It's too small for me, but I don't want to part with it because I feel I'll never be able to find anything else that will fit me well again. Even though it doesn't fit anymore. It makes no sense, I know. Ah, well.

The Gatsby Era

WIP, ink, 2010

Here's one of my current artsies! It's a work in progress and I'm going to leave it alone for now until I decide what I want to do with the background. Someone suggested that I put a dead person in the background, which sounds morbid, but I could see that working, haha. The drawing was most definately inspired my Halloween costume from last year which I put together after our class had to read the Great Gatsby.. one of my favorite books ever! I love everything that is anything from the 1920s. The clothing styles, the hair, the daring need to break away from society..

This Little Light of Mine

I wrote "NO" on my hand so if anyone would ask a question and my answer would be so, I could hold my hand up and be dramatic. And because you should say no to drugs. Then I ended up finding tgus little flame light and played around with it in the darkness of my bathroom while sitting in my sink and came up with this picture. It isn't really much since I just wanted to post something today.

I've mainly been looking for some under $50.00 knockoffs of those Givenchy corset shoes, and I found some at F21! So happy! I'm also currently admiring these beauts in the nude color-- so pretty, but so expensive. I don't know what's come over me, because I've never felt the urge to marry something inanimate so strongly before. Shoe crushes yes, but these I want to kiss and say "I do" here and now. Where's my rabbi? I'd wear them all the time since they're summery alone and could be wintry with tights. Maybe sometime soon I'll lose a tooth and get a very generous gift from the tooth fairy, yes, that shall do.

Pokelace

Fioni heels, vintage lace shirt, F21 belt, Merona skirt

I found the lace shirt in one of our Halloween costume boxes in the attic. I've found lots of things there, actually! The colors I'm wearing make me feel like an upside-down pokeball, so exciting.

Today for a psychology project, a friend and I went to the mall to hand out flowers to random people to record their reactions! The old people seemed to like it the best, especially the girls, and guys seemed to not like it the most. One lady even ran up to us and asked for a flower! She liked my flowers better than my friends, 'cause mine were red like FIYA, hence my fireflowers. It was wonderful. There was also this couple that parked their old beetle bug next to my bug, and my friend and I were coming back to it after buying flowers and the guy was like, "Wait, don't leave! You're the reason I parked there!" and we laughed and I told him that their car was amazing.

Soul Cake

Old sketchbook pictures done in 2009 that I needed to upload. My camera did the first one no justice. It actually looks more like the actual thing when it's shrunk down since it looks so blurry, so try walking away from your computer and then looking at it. It was a sketchbook assignment where we had to draw a form underneath something, so I stuck a wet paper towel to my mom's face and took a picture. From her frown and shocked face I could tell that she was so willing to help me in my artsy venture! The second picture was just for fun one boring day in art class when we had a lecture, hoo hoo.

Severe Snowflake Warning

Today was very dramatic, for I survived a terrible snowstorm. I was outside with my dog, throwing him a tennis ball back and forth, just as I would any other day. When he came back, I realized that a foreign white substance was inhabiting his head. It was flaky and looked utterly painful. What could it be? Dandruff? Cotton? I was unsure. I warily reached out to touch them, and to my astonishment, noticed that the same white things were on my sleeves as well, attached like little leeches! I looked up and saw the white things falling from the sky, and gasped wholly. They were consuming me whole, swallowing my body, choking it in a chilling and terrifying death wish! I could not speak, my mind was going faint. I was in such shock that I nearly died of hypothermia, but thankfully my mother saw me and braved the white things, which I later learned are referred to as "snowflakes" in most places, and she dragged me a long and dreadful three feet into the safe haven that was the garage. I would not be here today if it wasn't for the valiant soul that is my mother. I am Ali, and this is my survival story of the January 2010 Alabama snow flurries.

Such terror, I know! Our school was closed today as a result of these demonic snowflake things. Snow flurries occurred around 12:00pm, nothing big; they lasted about fifteen minutes at most. The "snow" that we received didn't even stick, at that. It turned into water right when it hit the ground. I drove to Publix to buy chocolate chips to make cookies, and the flakes melted on my windshield. The windshield wipers would go off about every five minutes maybe. At Publix, people were running around in marshmallow ski jackets. My brother went to deposit a check and the banks were closed due to "severe weather conditions." By then, it was sprinkling very lightly, just barely, and a little colder by then. . Is that severe? We've gone to school during tornado and hurricane warnings, but why we didn't go today is beyond my knowing!

Ah, well. Just another thing I love about living in the South. "Dear goodness, a whole intact snowflake! Hurry, close the schools before we all slip in a half-frozen puddle and die!" I actually wish I could have gone to school today, sigh. Now tomorrow teachers are going to be pushing it extra hard, and to think, we just got back from the break! I wouldn't have minded if we actually had enough snow to build a snowman, like last year's, but this was just silly.


About the picture: I roamed around to see if I could take a picture of any of the barely frost covered things, but nothing perked my interest, so my dog's ragged leash had its picture taken instead. I rather like how the leash part is more defined than the clasp-- it makes for an unexpected focal point.

Something Old, Something New

Today's picture: old shoes! I love the lighting from the pale basement light and the imperfections of the shoes. There's a charm that comes along with decrepit, worn-out, and dirt-covered shoes, or anything other old things for that matter!

Today was fun. For history, we arranged ourselves in the letters of the alphabet on the floor. We also made as many words as we could out of alphabet cereal, and I made the most! I made the most random words, like flax and boa, but it all worked out. Then, in chemistry, we blew up things. My friend had a stick with a balloon on the end that was filled with a special gas, and I stood opposite of her with a lit candle on the end of my stick. The flame touched the balloon and it exploded! A rush of heat came toward our faces, a loud cracking pop soared across the entire classroom, and a glowing flash of orange appeared like a star burst in front of us. It was like a trip to kindergarten all over again!... except for the fact that you usually don't blow things up in kindergarten. Usually.

A Clever Disguise

gifted booties & high-waisted shorts,

handmade mustache necklace

Hmmm, Mr. Camera was deciding to take very fuzzy and blotchy pictures today. I suppose he's not so used to the cold! Anyway, today was the first day back to school for the second semester, and it was done via menswear! I made the mustache necklace out of clay and painted it since I found it silly to buy one from the internet plus shipping and all that. It made the day great, though; people were running up to me and grabbing it and putting it under their noses, pretending to be secret agents. I don't blame them-- I did it a many time, too!

Road Work Ahead

I've renamed my blog from "The Nordic Lobster" to "The Drawing Mannequin," because that makes a lot more sense seeing what's in here! I made a new layout, too, and added some more color and made a new header. It took me forever to take the right picture of my mannequin! I haven't been posting many outfits lately since I want to wait until school starts up again (on Tuesday) to wear all of my new clothes.

Here are some artsies that are works in progress. The first was a quickie, and the second was our timed art exam on, in latent terms, screwing with perspective. There's more, but most of them are at school. As much as this sounds like a paid spokesperson on an advertisement, I have missed school~ it seems to keep me busy and on schedule!

Oh! And I almost forget! My New Year's resolutions are to..

• bring my camera with me everywhere I go
• do one of the following every day: either take a picture, post an outfit, or draw a picture
• determine what my art concentrations will focus on/work on style
• write my novel a little bit each day, even if it's just a sentence