Sincerely, Me.

Good evening, beautiful souls. 

I decided that today I'll tell you a wee bit about myself. 

My name is Whitney (such a common name... I wish it was something like Victory or Serenity...).

I like to consider myself as the glass-half full" type of person.

My favorite accessory is a smile.

I read 24/7... it's my escape. Ever since I was little I have lived in books- mainly fantasy.

I am a farm-kid, hardcore. I live and breathe horses.

I play the guitar, piano (barely), and the throat. 

I am dramatic! My friends say I was destined for Hollywood (this makes me happy).

Some say I'm spontaneous, psycospasticawesome, and flavorful. I say I'm weird.

I have the best friends in the whole-wide-world and I love them to death.

My ultimate passion is Jesus Christ, He is my Savior and my best-friend. I live to worship and glorify Him.

My Utopia would be a mash-up of Narnia, Ellesmera, Hogwarts, Neverland, the Shire, and America 1950. 

I have a phobia of toads.

My record-player in my room is forever one of my dearest possessions.

My music taste is so bipolar that I confuse even Pandora.  

I love drawing.

I sing... all the time... I think it annoys some people, but I do it so much I don't even realize I'm singing.

I can't spell. (Thanks God for spell-check)

I love to laugh. Some say I laugh too much, but I don't think that's feasible. 

I adore coffee and tea. I might consume more coffee and tea then water.

I'm athletically retarded.

My room is for dancing, actually, pretty much any room I'm in is for dancing. 

I'm bad at dancing, ergo, that last post is embarrassing. 

I love photography.

If someone asked me to describe my daily life in three words they would be "That was awkward".

I have a red chair from 1970 that I'm infatuated with.

I wear lots of sweaters.

I have not a sister, but I have many brothers. 

I want to travel.

My bucket list is a secret.

I spend too much time in my own world. 

I am a speech geek.

Someone should take me to Africa, right now.

My taste buds all seem to be imported from Italy.

I wish I had an accent. Sometimes I walk around talking like a Brit, just cause it's more fun.

and finally:

My socks don't match.

Tia: My Kindred-Spaz.

I had a photo shoot with one of my best-friends today. She's a gorgeous girl: inside and out. I think we had more fun messing around than anything else.


I titled this post "kindred spaz" because that is what we are. We are very similar... and it is not a wise thing for us to be by ourselves. I, frankly, think that we are hilarious and belong on our own TV show. We would make prime-time without a doubt! Enjoy:

GORGEOUS.

SPAZZZ

You just really needs to stop being so pretty.

It's disgusting. 

I had such a fun time. You make my life.

Love, Whitney.

The Beauty in Death

I know what you are expecting! What morbid thing is she about to write about??? The Beauty in Death??? What? But alas, I am not writing about death of humans or how you can see the light and the happiness in the darkest situations. I am talking about the glorious natural beauty of a tree that has no life- It's life was taken from it. This tree is a stump. I was walking along this sunny afternoon and noticed this stump and I thought it was really interesting. There is beauty in everything if you open your eyes.

The detail...

The light dives in and out of the bark. To me the bark is like a mini world with mountains and valleys. 

Yes, I DO get ready in 15 minutes.

How to be ready for the day in 15 minutes 

I am the type of girl who adores sleep. Sleep is my love, and I would die without it (literally). Me, being the typically, unwise human being that I am, always stay up to late at night then regret it every morning. This problem is always causing me to be running late! ALWAYS.  My schedule in the morning usually goes something like this: *Hear alarm (normally some LOUD song)*, *groan*, *hit sleep button*,*resume sleeping*,*hear alarm*, *groan louder*, *hit sleep*, *resume sleeping*, *dread alarm*,*here alarm*, *groan loudly*, *hit sleep*-well you get the idea. My alarm goes off at 6 a.m., but I normally don't get out of bed until 6:45...yaaa... and I have to be ready by 7:00 a.m. Yes, I am a girl- no, I am not Wonder-woman.  So how do I do it you ask??? Well by a number of well thought out secrets which I am going to reveal to you. Please enjoy!!

Of the Hair and the Body:

• The first time saving secret: shower at night. People! As simple as this is, it works wonders! This cuts time because you don't have to shower (10 minutes) and blow dry your hair (10 minutes). See! you have 20- if not more- minutes extra already!

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• If you have to, style your hair before you sleep! I don't because my hair is naturally straight so it takes about 4 minutes to do, but if you are one of those people who straighten their naturally curly (gorgeous) hair every morning, just do it at night! It may be a little kinky in the morning, but that won't take long to fix. You can even re-wet and blow dry your bangs in the morning so your hair looks even more fresh. I also like to use no heat curling methods, such as the headband curling technique, or rollers.. OR more ideally just embrace MESSY hair. 

• The third sleep adding technique:  Sleep in your outfit... JOKING, JOKING! Don't do that! But DO choose your out-fit the night before. We as women are so in-decisive and picky. We never know what to wear and we end up putting on and taking off half of our closet! So I suggest picking out your out-fit the night before. Lay it out on a chair where you can just throw it on and not think twice about what you're picking up! This is also a genius plan for me because I am so NOT motivated in the morning, if I don't have a cute out-fit put together the night before I end up waking up (late) and just throwing on a sweat-shirt, when I pick it out the night before then I already have it ready and I don't give myself the option of choosing a sweatshirt. I also seem to be most creative at night when I should be sleeping- it's like my brain launches into hyper-drive and I start thinking of all these ideas which cause me to stay up even later. 

Of the Face:

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So my make-up takes me about 5 minutes, sometimes when I'm running late I don't even do my make-up at home, but throw all the products into my purse and do them in the bathroom before class. My products that make my "daily-face-painting" so easy are the basics: eye-liner (which is the one thing I don't go without), mascara, powder, eye-shadow, and lip stick. Those are my staples, and to save time I have them all in one spot- I keep all the pencilish items in a Mason jar and the pallets, etc in a container next to it. They are all accessible in a breeze. Just try and organize everything and have a routine of how you do things. For example, I always do things from the most important to most trivial, that way if I have to leave early I have the most important things done. Try to keep your make-up simple if you want things to go quickly. I'll try and get a make-up tutorial up soon!

Happy mornings to all. 

Love, Whitney 

The FishTail Braid.

The FishTail Braid

How to.

So the braid, it's an essential in any female's life. The braid is one of my bad-hair-day-staples. Every girl needs to know how to braid, for the need to braid someone's (or your own) hair will arise at some point in your life- guaranteed! I find that the normal braid gets dull and average, so on those days of melancholy-ness I like to do the fishtail braid. Here's a simple tutorial that will show you how to fishtail.

The first thing you need is hair, longer hair is generally easier, but medium length hair will work too! I suggest having hair that hasn't been recently washed, because extremely clean hair makes it harder for the braid to stay in place and you will find yourself having lots of loose ends and fly-aways that slip out. I also like my hair to have a little curl or wave rather than straight hair for the same reason. 

Start by applying a moose or some form of styling gel.  If I don't use any gel the braid slips out within an hour. I have found that Garnier Fructis fiber gum putty works really well to keep the braid in place.  

Gather your hair to the side (usually the side opposite your natural part) and divide into two, equal sections. 

Take a piece of hair from the underneath of one section and cross it over to the topside of the other section. Then take a piece of hair from the bottom of the opposite section and cross it over to the top of the other section. (If that makes sense) You are weaving the hair together in a way and this way you are removing then replacing the same amount of hair from each section every time. 

Continue this process until you have gotten to the bottom of the braid then you fasten it with an elastic. 
You can tie a ribbon to the bottom to add a little flair or leave it just the way it is. 

And ta-da! You're done! It's simpler than the basic braid because you only have 2 sections of hair to work with. I also used really thick pieces of hair in this, but you can use thinner pieces to make the fishtail more obvious.

Thanks! Comment if you have any questions. 

The Problem with Hipsters.

What is a hipster? According to the internet dictionaries a "hipster" is someone who is counter-cultural, tries to avoid anything mainstream (besides Apple), listens to different bands that no one has ever heard of, often times shops at second hand stores and dresses more grunge or indie, and is trying to appear to the world as a complete individual. They came around the 20s and 30s and still live today. But, what happens when being a hipster is mainstream?

Joe Jonas

Taylor Swift 

        Here is my problem I've been facing: do hipsters even really exist anymore? If by definition a hipster is someone who is anti-mainstream, then my grandma is a better hipster then all Y'all..er...you all (sorry I'm not really southern). It seems that recently, the mainstream media and culture has been hit with the idea of uniqueness and "hipsterness". People are doing everything they can to express their own personalities through their style and mannerisms. Hipster is trending. Take for example the rising nerd glasses fad: It started as an almost strange thing to do, and the truly brave recycled their dad's old glasses from the 80's. These 'kids' (I say kids lightly cause, psshhh, I suppose you could have been 40) were the originals, they wore them before the glasses hit mainstream, I would say they were actual hipsters, but then alas- the celebrities caught the bug and now what used to be a sign of nerd-dom and smarts was actually coolness and style- BOOM Claire's boutique was making thousands off the non-prescription big eyed glasses that teenagers were flocking to the stores to buy. Converse were once a thing of the hipsters, but they followed the same path as the glasses, along with TOMS (which are still fabulous) and Vans. Popular teem magazines started donning styles as "hipster" along with high line clothing brands. Now the term is one of a teenagers favorite words- "You're so hipster", "I'm just a total hipster" etc.

Urban Outfitters

Don't get me wrong though, there is nothing wrong with dressing just like one of these people- I- as a matter of a fact- own a pair of TOMS, Converse, and even "nerd glasses". I love the bohemian styles and embrace whole-heartedly being unique and looking more "natural" (is that the right word I'm looking for?)  I have
even been described as hipster. It's actually pretty neat and rather flattering, I just don't think that the term "hipster" is appropriate for this case scenario, seeing as how I bought my Converse in Payless, my over-sized sweater in Pac-Sun, my glasses at my eye doctor, and my skinny jeans at Aeropostale.

http://meandmarisa.wordpress.com/tag/sacha-boots/

 But, to answer my original question "Do hipsters even exist?" I believe the answer is indeed, yes, but it's not what we think it is. No longer is it the tea drinking, bohemian dressing, nerd glasses wearing, Apple freak that we all associate with the word hipster, but something entirely different that none of us see, because they are not actually mainstream. Someone who's outfit we couldn't find all hanging together in one piece at Walmart, but someone who has enough amazingness to actually be themselves.