The Swan Princess

______The Swan Princess was one of my favorite cartoon princess movies when I was growing up.  There was something about her name, Odette, the way that her lovely dress fell about her, and the fact that she turned into a majestic swan in a moonlit lake that stuck with me.  This dress, for whatever reason, reminds me of that magical childhood movie!  I really like the way these pictures turned out, so I apologize that there are so many of them.  My mom chose a lovely location and these are as many photos as I was able to narrow them down to.  Plus, here's a picture of my brother and I! He's totally shirtless because he was totally pressure-washing the driveway.  Always being a hard worker, that brother of mine.



______Last night, we went out to this outstanding Italian restaurant for my birthday dinner.  We started with a basket full of these warm, chewy, olive oil-y buns, went on to have some tender meatballs smothered in marinara as an appetizer, and finally had our main courses.  I ended up choosing lasagna since it was the only thing I could pronounce, and it was a fine choice--the melty ricotta cheese, soft pasta, and meaty marinara blended together so nicely. I appreciated this carb-heavy meal, I did.

______Later when the Italian food had digested juuuuust enough so there was room for dessert, I grabbed a square of homemade chocolate chip cookie cake, microwaved it slightly, and topped it with vanilla ice cream and dark chocolate fudge syrup.  Hey now, don't judge me--everybody needs a little bit of diabetes now and then.  Needless to say, I was stuffed and felt like quite a blob last night.  This morning's daily bike ride was more invigorating than usual, and I even beat my 10 and 15-mile personal record which was pretty sweet.  I'm actually quite happy to be returning to healthful eating for the rest of the week.



______I never realized how difficult it is to take pictures of food. I had to be so patient, which was quite the difficult task when the ice cream and fudge was dripping down the cookie in such a seductive manner.  Torture, you guys!  The food mocks you.  It's all, "Look at me, look at how warm and delicious I look! Haha, you're such a loser and you can't have any of me until you take a decent picture."

______Food is stupid.  But I showed it who's boss by eating it.  Take that, you rude cookie sundae thing.



Dress: gifted, via Modcloth
Heels: TJ Maxx
Necklace: Charming Charlie's
Cicada earrings: Etsy
Hair: done by my momma!