thoughts, Tristan, and toddlers

Hey :)

It's been a crazy week! 

This is my thought process:

Yesterday was fun!

I got 5 hours of community service hours through decorating (not a bad way to earn hours), and then picked up Tristan to hang out all day. 

There's no limit to the things you can do in a Super Target with lots of time to kill.

My sister and I stayed at Tristan's house for his great uncle's birthday party...

we didn't know his name until we sang Happy Birthday.

Also, apparently it's awesomely normal to sing Happy Birthday both in English and in Spanish when you belong to a family of Puerto Ricans.

It was cool.

:)

Earlier this week, I went to the Myraun's house to watch the kids for a bit.

They're so flippin' cute.

I'm pretty sure that the only time Hannah puts her feet on the table is when I'm there.

I don't technically encourage it, but it is pretty funny.

We ate pizza.

Phase 1...

... and Phase 2.

This is how Joey likes to blow on/lick his pizza.

Like I said:

 so flippin' cute.

I get to go back to their house today! :)

The weekend should be fantastic.

(Friday just so happens to be my birthday.)

However, since today is Wednesday (and not Friday), I'd better do my laundry.

Actually, Wednesday has nothing to do with it.

Mostly it's the issue of not having any clothes clean. 

xoxo,

Danielle

Baking with the Myrauns :)

Yesterday I went to Aunt Becky's house!

Oh, how I love it there. :)

No matter how crazy the kids get, I remain convinced that their family is near perfection.

This time around, my aunt and I baked cookies while the children napped.

It was fun!

I learned that zesting a lemon is not as easy as scraping the skin off of a lemon with a cheese grater.

Also, you don't need to pile powdered sugar onto every individual cookie, no matter how much you want to.

It will irritate the person you're baking with.

Said person may or may not have the sudden urge to hurl cookie dough at your face.

The only thing stopping them is the fact that they would have to clean up the mess.

(Sorry for the blurriness. Although iPhones have the best phone cameras around, they're not Nikons.)

These look like shrimp cookies.

In reality, they're pink lemonade cookies, and they are quite good.

However, they were not as good as we thought they would be.

That could be allotted to the fact that someone took an amazing picture of the finished product and somehow made the food look more yummy than it is.

I still think they look a little like shrimp.

Opinions aside, the recipe was a good one and deserves to be linked.

I believe I'm back on track with blogging, but we'll see.

My Summer has been filled, ironically, with school-related items.

Of course, there are the relaxed days that scream "summer", but not everyone can live stress-free lives.

Who would micro-manage?

;)

I hope your weekend was fantastic.

xoxo,

Danielle

Packing

Hi :)

I hope your weekend was lovely!

Mine was filled with plans for the trip to Maryland.

I have been packing non-stop since the middle of Sunday.

You'd think it would be easy to pack for a 10-day trip up North, but there is so much to do!

Fortunately I'm almost done.

It's a good thing, too, because we leave tomorrow morning.

Since a trip straight to Maryland would take about ten hours, we'll stay in North Carolina for a little bit before continuing our journey.

A few things that have kept me sane...

Frank Sinatra

Coldplay

Dean Martin

this blog <3

tea, of course

realizing that I love the majority of my closet

knowing that my Jane Austen novels will keep me from going bonkers if I ever find myself with nothing to do

the thought of taking pictures of MD and sharing them with all of you wonderful people

Also, my aunt and I have been planning a tea for my 17th birthday party.

It's going to be delightful!

Until I can take and upload pictures of our travels (I hope to do so daily), I leave you with this thought.

"Adventure awaits."

We shall see.

xoxo,

Danielle

Friday faves

Happy Friday :)

I don't have a lot of time, but here are my faves!

(1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

1. For some strange reason, I very much like balloons. I told my friend a while ago that I want lots of them at my birthday party so that I can let them go, kind of like a ceremony. It doesn't make sense, but it would be cool to take pictures of it. 

2. This is too sweet! I knew I liked swans.

3. The smell of the ocean is the best. (aside from the smell of blueberries, that is.)

4. "I don't care if Sunday's blue. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday too. Thursday I don't care about you. It's Friday, I'm in love!" I love this song. I don't hear it on the radio that often, but it's better that way. It's never overplayed.

5. Italy and Paris are currently competing for the title of The Place I Want to Go Most. They're both gorgeous, but Italy is probably even more relaxed than Paris. Shopping in Paris would take a lot of energy, after all. However, I would gladly expend it.

I suppose that's all I have time for.

This is a terribly late post, you see. 

I am happy to say that I was quite busy today. :)

May your weekend be filled with greatness.

xoxo,

Danielle

'tis Thursday

Bonjour :)

Honestly I don't have anything important to say right now, but I thought I'd blog anyway.

A few things I'm interested in:

(source)

This, my friends, is blueberries and cream cheese on french toast.

I have got to make this ASAP.

How did I live this long without knowing it existed?

Just the picture is making me more hungry than usual.

Ryan Gosling.

I need not say more.

Guys, this is going in my house.

Or some variety of it, anyway.

I will also do this with the rain boots I will buy and, eventually, grow out of.

I love this photo!

You have no idea how badly I want to go on a road trip.

(no, the upcoming trip to Maryland doesn't count. Being packed into a car with eight million suitcases and your whole family is not a road trip; it may or may not become a form of mild to severe torture.)

Mustache wrapping paper. 

I mentally freaked out when I saw this.

I don't find mustaches particularly attractive on people, but by themselves... I suppose they're quite charming.

It's similar to the way I like llamas.

I don't know why I like them, but I do.

Very much.

I am not a poet

The Office

Pineapple

I like this tattoo very much. 

It's a paper crown.

I've wanted to make one for a while, but I haven't had the motivation.

Mine won't be half as fancy as this one, but it will make me feel better on bad days. :)

This is real, people. 

It is, as the French call it, Lac Rose (officially: Lake Retba). 

The water is turned pink by a totally harmless bacteria, and the high salt content of the lake allows you to float effortlessly. :)

Loafers :)

Well, I guess that's all. 

I hope your Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were fabulous.

Until tomorrow, then.

xoxo,

Danielle

Collages for a mundane Monday.

Mundne: (adjective)
1. lacking interest or excitement; dull.

That pretty much describes my day.
Aside from dropping my sisters off at Camp Orlando, I've done almost nothing.
I did, however, make two collages!
The first one was all impulse.
It had nothing to do with summer, so I decided to make one that did, as well.

I very much like the first picture. It explains why I always feel so out of it. It may look like I'm doing nothing, but I've really been practicing being awesome all day. (it takes lots of effort, but it's worth it.)

(somehow I managed to only reuse one of the pictures from my other summer collage. I was quite impressed with myself.)
 :)


The former collage is currently my desktop background, but I have a feeling that it will change soon.


The weekend was, on a scale of 1 to 10, a 7.5.
Saturday I took the ACT at Ocoee High School, and then wandered around like one without a brain for the rest of the day. I'm pretty sure that the test is much more difficult than it needs to be.

On Sunday I went out to dinner with my family and got poured on at the outlets later.
You should have seen the storm!
Every time lightning flashed, the sky glowed purple.
I love the rain, even when I'm running through it in sky high heels.
Somehow it makes everything more fun.

Anyway, that was my weekend in a nutshell.
It really wasn't bad.



Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go make tofu for dinner. :)

I hope your weekend was fantastic!

xoxo,
Danielle

Friday Faves!

Hello, my lovelies.

:)

It's Friday once again.

Lately every day has felt like Friday, really.

There's less school, but just enough stress to make it... well, not Sunday. 

Anyway, here are my faves.

(1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7)
5 found on Pinterest.

Descriptions might be short today, seeing as my brain has seemed to have ceased functioning properly.

1) Well this is certainly a fantastic way to describe my utterly boring amazing life. ;)

2) How could this not be in my favorites? This one image represents the entire show quite accurately. (business and shenanigans mixed together to successfully cause bouts of unstoppable laughter.)

3) Banana nut pancakes :) Have I mentioned how much I love breakfast food? Because I do. Quite a lot. If you make me pancakes, waffles, french toast, pop tarts, oatmeal, or even cereal... well, we'll probably be best friends forever.

4) I thoroughly enjoy being around people that not only tolerate my weirdness, but include themselves in it. If you're around me enough, I can guarantee that you will experience such weirdness. I must say, it's relatively contagious.

5) This made me giggle so. much. I really want to draw faces on my fingers! I could make a whole family...

6) Carpe diem! You'd think that after so many years of Latin that I would get tired of seeing this everywhere, but recently I've decided that it is the vintage version of YOLO (a saying which I have always found quite annoying). However, I doubt 'carpe diem' will be popping up on t-shirts any time soon. 

7) This, my friends, is The Paris Opera House. Isn't it marvelous? Someday I will go there and temporarily satisfy my wanderlust. I'll dress up and everything. :)

Oh! I got my class schedule yesterday. 

Mom and I had a very long meeting with the principal, and we worked everything out. 

Ta-da!

(Yes, I will have plenty of trouble with Advanced Math... and possibly Anatomy.)

So, there it is. 

I swear, my summer is nonexistent. 

Everything revolves around school!

But hey, maybe it will flip and the school year will be an absolute breeze. :)

Well, I suppose I'd better get to watching Pride and Prejudice.

(I have such a hard life.)

;)

By the way...

I made pasta today.

Nobody was poisoned upon consumption.

I hope your weekend is as successful as my pasta.

xoxo,

Danielle

I bought a llama.

Yes, you read that right.

I bought a llama.

His name is Albert.

{I would have made the llama a female, but then I'd have to name her Tina, and Tina is (in Napolean Dynamite's words) a "fat lard".}

Also, I got a hat and my Anthropologie catalogue, so I'm set. 

:)

I've been searching for rain boots lately. 

If you live in Florida, you know that we frequently have Summer showers that can last all afternoon.

(Although afternoon might as well be morning for me, since I usually wake up around eleven AM these days...)

But anyway.

Rain boots.

I want a pair that are either polka dotted, striped, or green.

However, blue could work.

It's surprisingly difficult to find a pair that fit my requirements.

So I stopped at the Myraun's house today!

Those kids are so cute...

I could say that a million times, and it still wouldn't do their cuteness justice.

Well I suppose that's it for today. Actually, it pretty much sums up the equivalent of every other day of my summer lifestyle.

(wake up late, buy weird things, visit cool relatives, repeat.)

It's not so bad.

Oh, also:

I'm addicted to cinnamon Altoids.

It's really odd.

I hope your weekend was great! :)

xoxo,

Danielle

'tis Thursday, my friends.

Bonjour!

Just an update today.

1) It has been raining every day for the past three days. This is what it produced:

I honestly cannot wait for Autumn/Winter. Summer's great, but right now I'm kind of at that in-between stage that involves no homework, but also no beach or swimming of any kind. I'm just not there yet.

Rainy days actually help. :)

2) I have been listening to Ingrid Michaelson nonstop. My favorite song is The Way I Am. Don't ask me why, but I listen to it over 10 times a day. 

3) I'm pretty sure I had an allergic reaction to an ant bite. (random, but update-esque.)

4) Pinterest distracts me from just about everything, including food. (even the food pinned on Pinterest). The basic line of thought is this:

Oh, food!

Wait, Pinterest...

Hey look, a recipe!

Now I'm hungry again.

Ooo, cute shoes.

I wonder what that smells like.

Gosh, I wish I were born 50 years ago.

CAT!

Paris.

Aww, they're so cute together!

Food...

...Pinterest.

Right: pin now, eat later.

(in case you were wondering) ;)

5) I bought twine today. Well technically, it's called hemp cord. It's weird, I know.

As you can see, nothing exciting has really happened this week.

Although no news is good news, if you know what I mean.

Oh! However, I would ask that you please pray for the Campbell family, as they recently lost their 87 day old son. It's very sad and they need all of the prayer that can be given.

Until tomorrow, my dears.

xoxo,

Danielle

Long weekends and Audrey Hepburn

Happy Tuesday!

I feel like I should say that on good days.

Especially on Sundays (Happy Sunday) because they're my favorite day of the week.

Anyway :)

My weekend was fantastic!

On Saturday I went to Angel's grad party.

It was absolutely lovely!

Here's a photo that I stole from Facebook ;)

(Dorina, Angel, and I)

The company was far from lacking, and the food was delicious!

Needless to say, I had a wonderful time.

Sunday was good (as Sundays often are), although some would consider it rather uneventful (myself included).

Mostly I read.

There's a Frank Peretti book I have to finish by the end of June for school, and I am not looking forward to it.

It's about 3 inches thick.

And the font is tiny. 

>.<

Besides that, I finished The Hunger Games trilogy and began a new series.

(the new series is good, but The Hunger Games is difficult to beat.)

On Monday I finally saw The Avengers!

It was Marvel-ous!

(Get it? Marvel? Like the comics? Okay, that was a bit lame.)

By the way, did you know that Stan Lee (the creator of a bunch of superheroes) was featured at the end of the film?

He makes a habit of appearing in superhero movies.

Today I went to BN and finally got the book I've wanted for months.

Audrey 100 is a must for those of you in love with old films and actors.

If you're as obsessed with Audrey Hepburn as I am, I highly recommend that you get the book.

And that, my dears, is what I plan on occupying myself with today. 

(that, and four Jane Austen novels, conveniently compiled into one book.)

Also, tea.

Yes, I'll be drinking lots of that today. 

I hope your long weekend was exceptionally pleasant.

:)

xoxo,

Danielle

Tuesdays :)

Ciao!

(it's like 'aloha'. it can be used as both 'hello' and 'goodbye'.)

So lately I've been very into making collages.

If we're friends on Facebook, you've probably noticed.

Here's one I did a few weeks ago:

And one I did last night:

Mostly I just download pictures from Tumblr and Pinterest. 

My very organized boards help with that. :)

Other than that, there's not really anything new in my life.

(although I did work yesterday.)

Therefore, I will post again soon!

I hope your weekend was lovely.

xoxo,

Danielle

Little soccer games

I cannot believe I didn't post these before!

Last weekend I went to Aunt Becky's house.

On Saturday morning, Hannah and Olivia's soccer game commenced!

They're so adorable.

I asked if anybody wins, and my aunt said that they don't keep track.

(obviously, 'they' didn't include the parents) ;)

They're so stinkin' cute. :)

Happy weekend!

xoxo,

Danielle

Sick Days/ Friday Faves/ Science Center

Friday Faves!!

(I'm on schedule this week) :)

(1, 2, 3, 4, 5) :

1) This is very true. However, the philosophy is often questioned by many. For instance, today I wore a skirt and my dad asked why in the world I would wear something nice on an ordinary day. True, I wasn't wearing it in order to be 'polite', but there's no great reason why I shouldn't wear something on a Friday that I would wear on a Sunday. Or... maybe it's a teenage girl thing. Either way, I love being well dressed, and that's a perfectly good reason to be exactly that.

2) This print is so adorable! I love the French-ness of it. I would actually buy this print and frame it. I'm not sure where I would put it, but I'm certain it would go perfectly somewhere in my room.

3) I want a Vespa in mint. I doubt any other person I know is as obsessed with European modes of transportation as I am. (although I could probably bike more)

4) In about six years, this will be me. (hopefully I'm half as gorgeous as the majority of the woman in this picture). I will have successfully become an event planner, meaning that I will attend glamorous soirees that require evening gowns and a dashing date. (who, by the way, happens to be my Prince.)

{Oh, I haven't told you about my Prince? Well that's probably because I haven't met him yet. 

It's nearly impossible in high school.

There's a list of qualities that he has.

(these qualities have accumulated over the years.)

If I find time in my weekend, perhaps I'll describe him to you. :)}

5) This depicts my ideal day off. It also reminds me that I need to buy new books and teacups (which I will hand wash with care). I love that Florida summers are rainy in the afternoons. They make the objects in this picture essential, and they're really all you need on rainy days except perhaps cute rain boots. (Also, old books are just really charming.)

I will be the first to admit that I ought to blog much more than I do.

Unfortunately, sickness came at a most inconvenient time and I was unable to blog from Sunday to Wednesday. 

As Miranda from The Devil Wears Prada would say, I was 'an incubus of viral plague'.

(Basically I had a stomach bug, followed by a few days of horrible vertigo.)

Other than that, though...

my week was fairly good.

On Thursday, I went to the Orlando Science Center! 

Although it wasn't quite as exciting as it used to be,

(and we're talking elementary school)

it was still pretty cool.

I took pictures.

Obviously, I was a fan of the dinosaur exhibit. (always have been)

I probably looked like an idiot spinning this around to get the 'eye of the storm' effect.

I went into the anatomy exhibit.

I took a picture.

I walked right back out.

I am not destined to become a nurse.

Also, I am dreading Anatomy class.

My favorite part of the whole thing!! I'd use it as a giant, glamorous nightlight.

It's a perfect little world. :)

This reminded me too much of Alice in Wonderland to not take a picture. Seriously, this was too cool.

Yes, they had baby crocodiles!

We watched a documentary on dolphins in a really rare dome-like theater. It was pretty cool.

And this was the stage in the very empty theater at the back of the building. I'm not sure if I was even supposed to be there.

So there you have it! 

My whole week in one post. 

Hopefully I'll be able to post more often. 

I really do love blogging.

Until next time, my dears. 

xoxo,

Danielle