We Can't Stop

Recently I've grown obsessed with the case of "The Bling Ring" as it is currently known as (past names have included: The Hollywood Hills Burglars, and The Burglar Bunch). The Bling Ring was a group of kids in their late teens robbing celebrities houses in from October 2008 to August 2009, the most famous member is Alexis Neiers. At the time of her arrest she was filming a reality tv show on E! called "Pretty Wild" the show stared her and her sisters Tess Taylor and Gabby Neiers. 

Since then, Alexis had served 29 days in prison, then a year in a drug rehab clinic and is now completely sober and a wonderful wife and mother. She took a terrible situation where her life could go very bad, very fast and climbed out of the hole she was in and is now stronger for it. I am proud to look up to Alexis and I am so ready to see how she'll continue the rest of her life, knowing that she still has the rest of her life.

I confess here and now that I have seen all nine episodes of the show, am buying the book (The Bling Ring written by Nancy Jo Sales), and am impatiently awaiting the movie of the same name. I have listened to Miley Cyrus' new single (We Can't Stop) far too many times too count, she has become a fashion icon to me, and I aspire to be as confidant and strong as she is. 

Strength doesn't end with Miley, there are so many women in today's society hotspots making choices that they believe in and holdfast, even when they are mocked and have others trying to knock them down. From Demi Lovato (speaking of Demi, have you heard her new album?! It's great!!) to Taylor Swift,  the girls who used to be shot down for being "silly" or "just another disney princess" have proved to the world that the titles they have been given are so much less than what they are. 

In the british magazine "Company"'s June issue which featured Demi on the cover included several great feminist and empowering pieces, but in the midst of them sat an incredibly triggering article about staying skinny (scans of the article can be found here, BUT I AM ISSUING A HUGE WARNING, DO NOT READ IT IF YOU THINK YOU WILL GET TRIGGERED, IF YOU ARE TRIGGERED PLEASE REACH OUT FOR HELP, YOU ARE NOT ALONE! also Rosianna made a great video about the company magazine thing!!!!!). This seems like a large slap in the face to the actress who has been very public about her own eating disorder and her stay in a treatment facility.

Miley Cyrus has been criticized by so many people for so many different reasons some of these being: her clothes, her hair, racy pictures of her when she was young, pictures of her smoking, and her choice of guys. The other day I was talking about Miley to my sister when my brother chimed into the conversation saying "she was hot before she cut her hair. now she is a lesbian", this completely took me as ridiculous. Miley had been with Liam for over three years and the couple had been engaged for nearly a year. Cutting her hair short had been a dream of her's for years although several people have said that Liam would dump her because of it, or that she looked ugly. Neither of these things are true, in fact her hair only proves that she looks great and can pull off anything.

Even Angelina Jolie has gotten media and fan backlash after revealing her decision for having a preventive double mastectomy. Commenters on her article for The New York Times have been supportive and deconstructive. Some people have said that she did the right thing, that they are in awe of her courage; while others have called her a hypocrite for mutilating her body under the pretext of cancer prevention and have said "this op-ed piece carries the message that the only way to prevent breast cancer is to chop off your beautiful breasts".  I stopped myself from defending her in the comments, only because I was too furious and would let my anger talk for me, and being rude back to someone is never the answer.

All of this to say "HEY, I LIKE STUFF!" high school me would be so annoyed and ashamed of me now, but knowing much more now than I did then, I'm proud to look up to these wonderful women and even more just like them. I will now publicly defend them and listen to them and watch their programs and movies. All the women mentioned in this post are so strong, and I would love to be like them all, and while I technically can't be them, I can aspire to be just as powerful and loving and amazing as all of them. And so I charge on, with the world against me, but hopefully the better for it.

xoxo Lauryn

nail polish colour: Wet n Wild heatwave

A Little Piece of Texas

View from the plane

My mom and I just landed in Texas!

I am currently on vacation in Texas. I love Texas, and everything that comes with it. I get to see my family, drink sweet tea, enjoy the nice hot weather, and visit new places.  One of my favorite things about Texas is what my family likes to call the Texas chat. No matter where you are and who it is you are likely to get sucked in talking to a stranger for about 20 minutes about anything under the sun. the only part that this is menacing is when you are ready to go and you cant leave because someone in your party has been sucked into the "Texas Chat". But it can be great you get to meet new people, learn new things and spread your own knowledge, as well as disobey that great old rule of "Do Not Talk To Strangers!".

I have to study this book

There are so many great fun things that you can do in Texas, and the variations are great. There is fabulous food, exciting adventures (or terrifying if you're me), great shopping, and nice places to relax. Last night we ate at my favorite restaurant here in Texas ( Texas Boarders, their sweet tea is amazing and my favorite) they also have some to die for queso. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Today we went to Brazos State Park, it has alligators, and venomous snakes, THAT ROAM FREE.  These things were not expressed to me before our journey embarked, and let me just say that when they were figured out upon arrival there was some sever anxiety. I am an adult. And yes, yes I cried. I was oh so excited when it was time to leave and go back home. Do not get me wrong my non-terrified family loved it, and it was a gorgeous place. However, it was very hard to enjoy the scenery when you are looking for alligators and snakes that obviously mean impending death is near.     

The Brazos State Park

After the tears trying to enjoy Brazos

The menu cover of my favorite Texas Cuisine 

A couple days ago we all went to the San Jacinto Monument and the USS Texas. The monument is the tallest monument in the world and was a lot of fun to go up to the top and look around in. However, I enjoyed the USS Texas much more. It is a huge battle ship that served in both world wars and is 100 years old. We got to go all over the ship and see what life was like. It was really interesting, not to mention HOT on the lower decks. Finding my inner child and playing with the guns on the ship was a blast as well.  

View from the top of the monument

San Jacinto Monument

My Auntie and I being silly at San Jacinto

The USS Texas

Finding my inner child on the guns

Being Sailors!

In side the USS Texas on some of the beds.

My Texas Family and I (minus my uncle)

Tomorrow we are going to the beach. I am stoked for that! We will be going to the Gulf of Mexico, I have never been so it will be a first for me and I cant wait. I love the beach and I cant wait to experience it in a new atmosphere. To all traveler this summer I hope you have a great and fabulous vacation. Stay safe and live large! 


P.S. To the HOT guy that sat next to me on the plane to Texas. I love you and we should get married. 

xoxo Tessa    

Summer Time Drink

Picture from my instagram (laurydoodle)

Watermelon is currently my best friend, it tastes so good on it's own and also in the smoothies I've been making. As I write this I'm downing a good sized mason (actually kerr) jar of watermelon + strawberries + black iced tea (also a bunch of ice!). I've had so many of these this past week or so, I just want to live off of them.

The first few I had I left the pulp in, it was fine until I got to the end and all the pulp was there, so this time I strained it, and while it was a bit difficult but much more annoying I like it so much better! The end is now only sad because there is none left, and not because I don't want to drink it.

For awhile I never experimented with juices, it was just berries all the time, sometimes with mango, but that was it. I saw someone just drink watermelon on instagram, and I just could not wait to try it.

I decided to add in the iced black tea because it was either that or water or milk, and neither of the other options sounded good. If we had had apple juice I would not have hesitated at throwing some in.I'm very glad that I didn't pause with the tea. One of my personal beliefs is that tea will cure anything, you just have to find the right one.

xoxo Lauryn

Nails: Seduce Me from Chineglaze

The Art of War: A Knitter's Tale

Over the past week I've completed two knitting projects, with a total knit time of about 15 hours. Which is a totally normal time and week, if I had not done the projects all in one go.

The first project was a dishcloth that my mom now has and is currently using, this took me 5 hours. I watched a good amount of the West Wing while making it, even if I missed out on a very good portion of sleep to do it. That same Monday, Tessa was asked to make a diaper cover and bow tie set, thinking she had time she agreed and started on it. Although quickly finding out that her window of time to make them shrunk down to only a few days, I enlisted my help, and boy was it war!

I started the day before it was supposed to be done, and I finished the next day at nearly 5 o'clock, an hour after it was supposed to be done. I'm not sure where I hit the point in which I no longer cared about how it looked, as long as it looked done, but I hit it hard. I had messed up on a big portion of it and did the wrong stitch, instead of seed stitching I ribbed. I remember looking at this is a blank face trying to decide if I cared or not, it was hardly a battle.

I managed to finish it, and I'm honestly not sure how, I was very sleep deprived and the whole time is just a passing blur. My fingers hurt so much, what with the tiny ends of the needles poking into them so much, and my hands knew the movements so well I was sure that I would just keep knitting if I fell asleep. Which turns out to be untrue, for I did fall asleep and no knitting got done for several hours.

Lesson learned: DON'T TRY TO KNIT A PRETTY BIG THING THE DAY BEFORE. NO. DON'T DO IT. DO. NOT. DO. IT. DON'T TRY TO ATTEMPT IT. JUST DON'T. YOU ARE BEING RIDICULOUS. NOW.
Lesson for people who want other people to knit them things: I don't care how good of knitters they are, or how fast, GIVE THEM AT LEAST A WEEK TO KNIT THE THING. MORE IF IT'S A BIGER PROJECT OR MORE COMPLECATED. TALK TO THEM ABOUT IT AND SEE HOW LONG IT WILL TAKE THEM. DON'T JUST ASSUME IT WON'T TAKE LONG. OR YOU HAD BETTER BE PREPARED TO PICK UP YOUR OWN SET OF NEEDLES AND GET TO WORK.

xoxo (gossip) Lauryn

Aqua Chances

In life taking a chance and changing something that has been one way for an extended period of time can be very difficult and frightening. Chances can be taken in many different forms. They do not have to be a huge change to take a lot of courage.

           

On Thursday night I made a change in my appearance. I dip dyed the lower part of my hair aqua. I have red hair so it is quite noticeable and very apparent that I made a big change with my hair. Lauryn also made a big change, she dip dyed her hair hot pink. When we did this we didn’t do it to make anyone happy, impress anyone or because we wanted to fit in. We did it solely based on the fact that we thought that it would look really good. We wanted to be different and have a fun hairstyle. We took a chance. We had no guarantees about how it would look or if we would like it and we really had no way to change it once it was done.

           

 Even though changing my hair color might not seem like a big deal to some for me it is. It is something that everyone will see and people who don’t know me will see and give them bases to judge me. Making a change in your life that can be impactful is always difficult. However, no matter how difficult the change no one should be afraid to do it. If you feel like a change is necessary in your life, think about what you are doing and make sure it is what you want to be doing. Then take the leap of faith. Life is too short to be unhappy so don’t be afraid to make changes big or small to increase the serendipity of happiness.

           

Lauryn's Starting Hair

Lauryn's Step 2

Lauryn's Finished Product

My Starting Hair

My Finished Product

We Love Our Hair

Tea and Poetry

My delicious tea
Photo taken by: Lauryn Crum

I have never been to a poetry competition until Friday night. I went to support my friend Roy, and not expecting to really have that much fun. I tried to go in with an open mind but did not really expect much. My friends and I got dressed up and drove to this fabulous place called Teazers. It is this little funky tea shop that I kind of feel in love with. The atmosphere was fantastic as well as their product. 

 First off, the vibe of Teazers is great, it is very relaxed, very zen.  The staff is very helpful and willing to give advice if you need some help choosing. I took a very scientific approach on choosing my tea. Just kidding I choose the tea that had the prettiest name, however, that worked wonders and I had the lightest, most refreshing and tasty tea I have had in a long time. Lauryn thought that my method was hilarious but I enjoyed it nonetheless. The staff was readily available to answer questions about teas, whether or not it should be sweetened and with what is should be sweetened with. 

 The teas are not just strait bags that you would find at like Starbucks, they hand blend their teas and use tea balls. I thought that was really impressive. A lot of their teas are blends of different types of teas and they take the time to make sure that it is just right before serving it to you by tasting it (this is done so it is sanitary do not worry).  The way that they did this made it seem like a more homey type feel and I definitely see myself going back again. I would highly suggest that if you are in the Fresno area that you go and check Teazers out!

Roy Preforming
Photo taken by: Lauryn Crum

On every third Friday of every month they host a poetry competition. As I said before I had never been before and was not expecting much but I was surprised in how much I enjoyed it. Our friend Roy was in the competition ( his first time preforming in front of people) so we went to support him. He was phenomenal! I thought that he did so so so well. He ended up getting 2nd place. That is so awesome for it being his first time. I am so proud of him! All of the poets were great though and I enjoyed myself immensely.

This upcoming month of May will be their anniversary of the competitions and they will be pulling out all the stops and I can not wait to go and hear all of the words so artistically put together. Also I can not wait to cheer on my friend Roy. It will be great I just know it. 

xoxo Tessa

Changes

            In life, we are all faced with hard life changing decisions. These decisions can cause you to really stop and look back at your life so far and realize many things. They could be good things, though they could be bad things as well. When faced with a tough decision you should go with what you think will be the best for you.

            This concept is a very difficult one for me to grasp and I have personally really been struggling with it. I have spent the last 18 years of my life trying to be the most perfect person that I could be. I played every sport under the sun, I broke records, I got good grades, I volunteered, I was in student government, and even though I did all of those things I was never perfect. I was striving for perfection, an impossible task. Looking for some type of recognition that would make me good enough. So, I did things to make others happy. I lived a very full life trying to please those around me.  

            It was not until I went to college that I really was opened to the way that I had been living. Because all of these brand new people had no expectations of the perfect goodie two shoes that I have been trying to be for my whole life. I soon lived up to no expectations and took a sharp downward turn. However, after living in temptation for about a year I have finally realized many eye-opening things about myself.

            I am not perfect. I will never be perfect. (As much as you might hate it, you will never be perfect either. That does not mean you cannot try because trust me I have tried it but it is by no means worth it.) By living in a brand new environment with people, that I did not know, it really gave me a chance to figure out who I was and what that meant. I may be young and not know everything about myself but I do now know what direction in which I want to live my life.

            I will go back to doing many of the same things I did while I was “the perfect girl” the difference being that I will now be doing these things for myself not because I feel like I have to prove myself to others. I want to be the best person that I can be and live a full happy life that is meaningful. I am done with living in a superficial shell and done living with no expectations.

            It took me months to fully realize the extent of my actions and then took me quite a while to process how I would like to take action and change the way I have been living. I by no means want to give you the impression that it is easy, because it is not. It is hard and there is tears that come, heartbreak, failed relationships with people, and uncertainty. However, even through every bit of that I feel 100% sure that I am making the best choice for me.

            I have lived my whole life trying to please others. Nevertheless, it does not matter what everyone else think of me. For me all that matters is what God thinks of me and that I know I am living in the path he has set up for me. I understand that people have different beliefs and I respect that, this is my opinion that I hold true. You don’t have to do it for the reasons I do but if you do want to make a change in your life you should be doing it for you and not the expectations of others.

            I challenge everyone who is unhappy in their lives to push forward and make a change. My mom once told me “Honey, life is too short to be unhappy!” Since then I have really taken those words to heart. I am living to be the happiest, best version of me. Do not be afraid to disappoint people because you will never be able to make everyone happy. The people who really truly care about you will stick by your side no matter what. I wish you the best of luck in all your endeavors.

                                                            xoxo Tessa