a final farewell

So this is it, I guess. Goodbyes are hard. I don't think they will ever be easy. But here's to trying, and here's to goodbyes because sometimes they're needed. I haven't posted since September of last year and I couldn't just leave this little blog here without a proper goodbye, I'm old fashioned I guess. 

It's amazing to look back at my older posts and see how far I've come and how different I am now than I was when I started this blog my freshman year. I admit that at times I just want to forget that this blog ever happened, I just want to file it in the large archive of things I've failed at, a list that gets longer each day. But as much as I try to forget this piece of me, I can't. I've spent so much of my time over the years pouring myself out into this blog. I took outfit photos multiple times a week my freshman and sophomore years but somewhere in the mix of school and life, I lost the passion that I once had for this blog. I didn't want to take outfit photos, I didn't want to write, and even maintaining a twitter and instagram for this blog seemed like too much work for me. Honestly for the past year or so all I have wanted to do is stay at home and watch netflix. It's bad and I know I should stop wasting my life away on the computer, but I honestly have so little motivation and what motivation I had, I was putting toward getting into college and now that I did I have zero motivation to ever do anything. It's horrible and I'm working on it but for now I just need to tie up loose ends as this chapter of my life comes to a close. I'm not even sure if this post makes sense or if it's just me rambling, hopefully a little bit of both?

I'm going to college this fall. A great time to start fresh. I cannot explain how excited I am to go to a place where nobody has any preexisting opinions of me. It sounds like an absolute dream to not be known as someones sister or daughter but as myself. So here's to saying goodbye and starting fresh. 

Goodbye très claire, it's been a good three years. 

am I even the same person? a list of ways I've changed in two months

So summer 2013 was actually the most anticlimactic summer ever, am I right? Another summer came and gone, another summer that I said I would blog a lot and barely even posted once a month. But now school has started and my life is anything but boring, I'd say that stressful is a more fitting word. Oh yes, senior year has arrived and not without tests, quizzes, papers, presentations, and the oh so dreadful common app. Yes, that's right this year (this fall!) I'm applying to college. Which is only mildly terrifying. Okay.. it's actually really terrifying. A year from now I will be at college starting a new and exciting chapter in my life, but before that I have a lot of work to get done. Change is scary, but change is also exciting. And even though I haven't had life changes as big as college yet, a lot of things have happened to me since I last posted. So think of this list as an update of sorts, I guess. Here we go!

1. Well my family moved across town so that's a pretty big change. We moved to the other side of town away from my school and friends so my life has involved very little sleep and a whole lot of driving as of lately. 

2. Speaking of driving.... I got a speeding ticket yesterday... for going 76 in 60.... I really should not be able to drive. And even more fun than the terrifying experience of getting a ticket (crying/hyperventilating/panic attack happened) is the fact that I get to go to court in a few weeks because I'm under 18! Yay... just call me juvenile delinquent (probably the most ironic thing I've ever heard). No worries, I drove 55mph the whole way home. 

3. Even more shocking perhaps than me getting a speeding ticket is the fact that I got asked to homecoming (at my schools "brother school") last week. Um what? 

4. My senior year schedule is 

AP Calculus AB

AP Statistics 

Contemporary World Lit Honors 

French Regions 5

Chinese 2

Photo 3

Publication Design 

do you think I'm crazy yet? because I do...

5. I'm still unemployed (shocker..) but I do get paid to drive a freshman to and from school and I will be  getting paid to stay a week with a different freshman when her parents are on vacation. Hey I gotta find some way to fund my online shopping addiction 

6. I have an interview on Thursday for a college. Scary! I am currently in between two small liberal arts schools to apply early decision to. AH

Okay so I think that's all, I just love to document my life so then when I'm old and bored I'll have something to look back at. Just kidding I don't think I'll ever be bored...

Also I got this cool book where you write down a couple sentences every day for five years! Which means that once I finish it I'll be already graduated from college! I really hope that I can keep it up and write something in it every single day for 5 years because I think that it will be so cool (and probably pretty hilarious) to look back on these years of my life!

outfit | simple

So I'm currently sitting in Panera because the last time I had wifi was two weeks ago and I may or may not have used up all of my 3G for the month. Basically I'm like every other teenager and have developed a dependency on the internet. I literally have found myself going crazy without access to email, twitter, blogger, and especially instagram, I'm obsessed okay? I've never realized just how much time I spend distracting myself. I like to be busy and between two twitters, four instagrams, facebook, a blog and other things like school and photography I think I accomplish that. But so much of this "busy" comes from the internet that I have had so much time lately. I'm bored. Like the kind of bored where you try to go to bed at 11pm and wake up at 11am just so you only have to be awake for 12 hours. I mean I took a glassblowing class, saw imagine dragons in concert (!!! post on that soon!!!), read one of my summer reading books but in-between those things there is not too much to do. Oh, and I moved, that is why all of this is happening and why I haven't had wifi. House number six and I'm not even 18, weird huh?

Well I've been sitting in Panera for almost 2 hours, and I can't tell if the weird looks I'm getting from the staff are because I've been here so long after I've finished eating or if it's just my imagination. But thank you Panera for having free wifi, free wifi is great. 

Now that I've said my fill about Panera and my lack of wifi, can we talk about my shoes? I got these wedges for $50 on sale when they were originally $90. For the longest time I couldn't decide if I wanted to buy them because I never know how often I'll actually wear heels. Well I obviously bought them and they are obviously gorgeous and sometimes I do enjoy being over 6 feet tall (I'm 5'9" without heels). Who cares if I have to put bandaids on some of my toes before I wear them, fashion before comfort....right? 

Well I've been sitting here for over two hours now and I just looked up how many calories were in my salad that I ate. There were 530 calories, oh Panera I am now scared of you and your sneakily high calorie counts. So I'm going to try and pry my sister away from her computer and go home so I can go run or something. Its even sunny outside which is a pleasant surprise compared this mornings rainy grey skies. Sorry this post is so ramble-y, lack of wifi does strange strange things to me.

Hope your day is fabulous! 

food | pick me up

Okay, so today has not been good by any stretch, starting with me waking up naturally at 7am (who am I? don't worry I stayed in bed for a good two hours after..) and then a horrible workout and general lack of motivation. It turned out that I was going to be home alone with nothing to do for the entire afternoon, and after a fun little trip to whole foods yesterday, I decided that since I had a bunch of food at my house I would find something to make. And behold healthy homemade chocolate:

Yeah, this stuff is pretty good. It doesn't help that it photographs extremely well. And it's only 4 ingredients (+sea salt). But really, can someone tell me how I've gone this far without knowing I could make my own chocolate (easily)? Bad day turned good? I guess you could say so! 

Okay, so I'm sure you're all dying for the recipe, or maybe not but hey it's chocolate and I have met very few people who dislike chocolate...

4 tbsp coconut oil

4 tbsp cocoa powder 

1 tsp honey 

coconut milk to preference (I just added it because the mix was so thick)

whatever toppings you want, I used sea salt (optional)

recipe from here

And then just scoop it on to a cookie sheet (or plate really) with parchment paper and pop it into the freezer for about 30 minutes! Cut it up in to pieces using a sharp knife and then put back into the freezer and then eat it whenever you want chocolate because this chocolate is healthy, or at least that's what I'm telling myself... But hey, you know exactly what's in it and that's one step up from a chocolate bar in the store! 

I don't know when I decided to become a food blog, but this post seems to have cured my bad day and photography block so hey, maybe it isn't so bad to switch it up every once in a while.

quick little post

not sure when google friend connect shuts down, but before then you best follow me on bloglovin!! i'll buy you all pretty dresses from zara (or not but it's the thought that counts, right?)

outfit | red hot

shirt - H&M // shorts + sunglasses - urban outfitters // shoes - converse // purse - marc jacobs 

Guys, check out these shorts, I seriously think I'm in love. Also with the shoes, shirt, and sunglasses but hey it's good to love all of your clothes right? So the other day while my car was getting an oil change I went shopping with my mom and sister. I was in urban outfitters because I just always like to look around there because they have really cute clothes, I went up to the sale which has things that are more in my price range and started searching through the racks of clothes. Originally I wasn't drawn to these shorts because I already have so many other colored shorts and I really need just plain jean shorts. But then I saw these in this color and also a nice light blue/mint color, and well I picked out what I thought was my size (please tell me I am not the only one who has trouble with pant sizes that aren't 2,4,6,8 etc.) and tried them on. Well this story is getting dragged on a bit too much, but in short they're really comfy and just the right amount high waisted and were only $20 instead of $50. So naturally I bought two pairs. Yeah, you could say shopping is a problem of mine. 

Speaking of, Zara is having a sale currently and someone really needs to block that website off my computer because I could do some serious damage... (but seriously look at these shoes!!)

On a totally unrelated side note, I saw my first R rated movie today since turning 17! I saw the bling ring, I actually thought that it was really good, funny, and well put together. I would recommend it especially if you have seen pretty wild. Emma Watson was so hilariously stupid in it, I love her, she's such a great actress! 

thoughts | junior year

I'd say this photo accurately sums up my junior year (+ more books).

I can't believe junior year is over! And I certainly can't believe I only have one more year of school until college! Well, all of the things said about junior year being busy, stressful, and sleepless were in fact, quite true. But I survived. Junior year was definitely the hardest but it was also the most rewarding. I genuinely liked all of my classes and also tried my hardest which I think was reflected in my grades and scores. Nothing like the fast approaching and competitive college admission process to motivate you! 

To anyone going in to their junior year this fall: good luck, you can do it! 

Junior year in numbers:

6 classes (+ 3 arts/electives)

0.91 change in my GPA (up, not down)

1 SAT

3 ACT's 

2 SAT subject tests

1 college essay draft written

Now that junior year is over, the blog hiatus is also over! I promise I will not keep disappearing for long amounts of time like I did way too many times this year. Here's to summer and more posting! I'm almost at 100 followers which is also super exciting!