Gobbledigook

I've had an interesting past couple of days.
My aunt is visiting us all the way from Los Angeles, so we had a big family get-together on Wednesday at my other aunt and uncle's house.  We had all kinds of fun listening to music, playing with the dogs (there were three) and eating Korean food.
And then the power went out.
It had been snowing pretty hard since we had arrived, there was about ten inches by the end of the evening.  We didn't have electricity for about 14 hours, and the roads were too snowy and slushy for us to get back home.  Thankfully we were prepared for the snowpocalypse and had brought sleeping bags in the car, so we just spent the night.  By morning the snowplows had cleared the streets, so we could finally go home.  The funny thing is that while my aunt and uncle's entire neighborhood had no power for hours, my neighborhood (about 15 minutes away) only had a short power-outage for about ten minutes.
On the bright side, I had tons of fun running around with my little cousins.  Hide-and-seek is a LOT more fun when the whole house is dark.
This morning it snowed another inch or two, so I went out to play in all the lovely white fluff with my dog, Rico.  Our backyard is just bee-oo-tiful right now because of all the snow on the trees, I want to take some pictures with my really nice camera once it stops snowing.

I am wearing one of my Dad's old ski sweaters.  I have a thing for chunky, oversized sweaters, but this one is by far my favorite.  It's deliciously huge and warm, and I love it.  Also, the color reminds me of oatmeal.

I LOVE snow.  I love watching it fall and how it makes everything so quiet and muffled.  I love the sound it makes under your boots.  I love the way it looks through windows.  I love how the world is monochromatic during the day and turns blue by dusk.
The only thing that I don't like about snow is that it turns to slush in your shoes and sometimes burns when your dad rubs a handful it in your face.  I also don't like it when it's yellow.  Among other things, it kinda ruins the monochromatic-ness, y'know what I'm sayin'?

Anyways, on to the relevant part of this post.
Today my mom came downstairs wearing the most lovely colors.  I convinced her to let me take a picture, but she doesn't want me to include her face ("nurr I'm old and hideous," she says.)

The colors in this picture are a little bit off.  In real life the cardigan is a bit more olive-y, and the shirt underneath is a little more mustard-y.  At any rate, I loved the combo so much that I ran upstairs and put together my own mom-inspired outfit.  I just realized that I'm out of daylight and probably can't get any decent pictures, so I'll have to try again tomorrow.

Until then, see you later.

Personal soundtrack

If my life were a movie, this is what would be playing in the soundtrack right now:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vv2EyQnqG4&feature=related

This is a kind of involuntary game I play sometimes.  I love music and am almost constantly listening to it whether I am doing homework or out on a walk.  I tend to listen to different things according to my mood, so the song usually reflects how I'm feeling or what I'm doing at that particular moment.  Every once in a while I'll turn on a certain song that hits just right and think "This is my track right now."

Today my track happens to be Fitz and the Dizzyspells, by Andrew Bird.  One of the things I love about Andrew Bird is his individuality.  He has such a distinct style and sound that no matter what, you're pretty much never going to mistake his music for someone else's, or vice versa.
Fitz and the Dizzyspells has to be one of my very favorite songs of his.  I love the sheer musical complexity of it, there are so many instrumental elements that it feels new every time you listen to it.  Turn it on and you'll instantly be transported to a happy, colorful place full of life.
In short:  I love it 'cause it's just so freaking happy.

Listen and enjoy. :)

Cheap thrills

A few days ago I was surfing the web and happened to stumble upon this gold fish hair clip:

Isn't it adorable?  I especially love it with her blue hair, I wonder if the whole fish-in-the-ocean look was just coincidence.  Anyways, I thought it was thoroughly awesome and, since I couldn't find out where it was from, I decided to make one myself.

I found these super cheap plastic fish on Amazon, it was a package of 200-something of the little guys for $2.50.

I glued an orange one onto a snap clip that I had lying around the house, and that was pretty much it.

Lookie!

It was pretty cheap and very simple, but it makes me oh so happy!  I've been wearing it everywhere.   

The only problem is that I don't know what to do with the rest of the fish.  I made some more clips in different colors (orange is my favorite though), but I can only use so many. 

I'll probably (hopefully) think of something to do with the rest eventually, but if anyone has ideas let me know. :)

<3

  

I like me some pretty shoes.

I've been a little obsessed with oxford pumps lately and went on a bit of a google rampage looking for a pair.  But really, can you blame me?  Take a look:

'Kay so these aren't really oxfords, but they came up in the search engine, and I love the silhouette.

Aren't they purdy?  I saw a girl from one of my classes wearing a pair (from J.Crew) and decided that I had to have some.  I also went a little crazy when I found these ones with ribbon laces by Poetic License.

I ran into a dilemma while I was searching: price.  I don't get an allowance and basically have no income source except for the occasional house-sitting job for my neighbors next door, but watering plants and feeding kitties over the weekend doesn't generally pay that well.  Plus I'm just kind of cheap. :P

Anyways, I digress.  Being broke (*AHEM* cheap), I couldn't afford any of the above lovelies, and the cheaper pairs that I found looked...well, cheap.

I was about ready to give up my oxford hunt at this point but decided to try my luck and make a quick dash through the mall.  And LO AND BEHOLD!!  I was strongly tempted to run around in circles screaming when I found this pair at JCPenney for a VERY reasonable $25.  

There are already a few scuffs on the toes because I've been wearing them so much...

Very "ladylike".

Originally they came with plain brown cord laces, but I pulled them out and re-laced them with the purple ribbon.  Is it purple?  Maybe burgundy.  I don't know.  Either way, I love them.  

I've actually had a few people ask me if they are from Poetic License or ModCloth, and it was hugely satisfying to say "NNNNOPE!!"

I might end up altering them a little more in the future, but for now I'm just going to put them on and dance around the house like a mexican jumping bean.   

See you later. :)

P.S.  Just in case anyone was wondering, I decided not to run around in circles screaming in the middle of JCPenney's shoe department.  I waited until I got home to do that.

Hi there.

Hello!
So this is my first post.
If you asked me why I decided to start a blog, I would probably say say: "um..."
And then I would say "because."
Actually, I guess it all started when I was putting together an inspiration board full of things that I like: magazine clippings, photos, pictures of clothes, even some fabric swatches.  A lot of the ideas on the board go into things that I make or the clothes that I wear, so it kind of turned into a fashion/style inspiration board.  Eventually I ran out of space for all of my pretties, and that's when I thought about blogging.  I read a lot of wonderful, funny, creative blogs already and have wanted to start my own for a while, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity.
Puddle_Wonderful will mostly be a fashion, DIY and art blog, but with some music and maybe even a few tutorials thrown in here and there.  In other words, it will just be a blog about all of my favorite things.
I hope you're totally hooked on this and excited for more, because I know I am.
Happy new year. :)