i dream of dresses.

hello darlings. i apologize for the lack of posts in the past couple days, i've been busy with...what is it that i do again? oh right, not much. besides shopping and eating kneader's french toast and watching so you think you can dance. i do have pictures coming, promise!

in the meantime though, i will show you a picture of the reason i suck at posting lately...


...my ugly friends. who aren't actually that ugly in real life. here's a better picture:



and by better, i mean "we have wayyy too much fun with my massive computer's built-in camera." and by wayyy too much fun, i mean "we really should not be left alone with this. ever. mwa ha ha ha."

xoxo julia

what does a teenager do in the summer? well. first she goes to the airport to pick up her best friend. then she gets frustrated because her friend is not really in terminal one like she said, and she is actually in terminal two. then when they get home, they wander around looking for things to do. like go to sliding rock with their friends! which is a supercool natural waterslide type deal, ps. then when the water is too high for them to actually slide down (thank you, melting snow. and rain. i love you muchly.) they go to the grocery store in their swimsuits and buy stuff to make alfredo. and then, most excitingly, they eat alfredo and watch people play portal. yesss.

here's a random awkward picture of my friends. the ones who are not playing portal, anyway.



xoxo julia

teheh.


that is all.

xoxo julia

let me start by saying something that does not make my top five: drivers ed. not only is it terrifying to drive on roads i've never seen before, let alone driven on, it's just plain embarrassing when the instructor tells you to practice more (ten hours more. at least.) otherwise i probably won't pass my test.
yay.
on to the happiness!

1. the switch.


this was one of those movies that mom gets from netflix on a whim and we decide to watch it, sitting tentatively on the edge of our seats waiting for it to get bad and have to turn it off. not so with this one! it turned out to be one of the cutest movies i have ever seen. the premise?:two bffs, kassie and wally. massie wants to get pregnant but has no man, so gets a sperm donor. one thing leads to another, and wally drunkenly switches the donor's...ingredient...for his own. he conveniently doesn't remember a thing in the morning. five years later, the two reunite to find that kassie's sweet, adorable, super-smart son, sebastian, is a mini version of wally. the verdict: laughs? check. sweet little kid moments? check. dysfunctional best-friends-in-denial-for-thirteen-years romance? you betcha.

2. john krasinski.


my friends and i went to see "something borrowed" on wednesday night. it, unfortunately, does not make my top five list (it had a lot of not very good role models a bummer of an ending. thank goodness it's based on a trilogy, am i right? maybe the sequel will be better. if there's a sequel.) but john krasinski certainly does! he was by far my favorite character in the movie. he's so funny! and cute. i love his dry sarcasm. and he's cute. and adorable with wifey emily blunt. and he's handsome.

3. norah jones.


i've gotten bored with my music (surprise surprise) and started exploring norah jones. she has such a gorgeous voice and i love her mellow jazz sound. it's very chill-out-y music, which goodness knows i need these days. favorite tracks: gotta say i still love "don't know why" and "come away with me" the most. sticking with my classics.

4. sunglasses.


i am so in love with my new sunglasses. i got them for half off at claire's. yep. they have cute little bows on the sides and completely overwhelm my face and protect my poor little eyeballs from getting sunburned. yes, that's possible. no, it is not fun.

5. aloe vera.


while my eyeballs might not be sunburned, the rest of me is. well, not the rest of me. just the random spots that i missed with my spf 50 baby sunscreen. aka, a random stripe on my arm, two inches on my thighs, and a super cute bright red indicator of where my swimsuit strap was. loooove it.

xox julia

yes, i know my big day is not happening for another ten years. but a girl can dream, right?

hi. sorry for the super low quality of these images (and the ones to come for the rest of the week....). my dad took the camera to scout camp and i'm stuck here with only my phone camera to capture my oh-so-awesome everyday life.

anyway. i drew this first one while we were in cedar city last week for my brother's soccer tournament. i was sitting in a camp chair at the side of a soccer field, attempting to read jane eyre and dying of boredom. so i drew a cute girl in a comfy armchair reading an actually interesting book. and a birdie!


and i drew this one during my chick flick marathon yesterday while watching the glee season finale (again) and dreaming of winter. call me crazy, but i love the cold. it means i get to wear coats and hats and boots and gloves and sweaters and tights. and black. ooh yes, i love me some good black.


xoxo julia

i've come down with a bug. the kind that makes your nose all stuffy and takes away any motivation to do anything except sit on the couch and watch movies. chick flicks, to be precise. and glee. but that practically counts.

my day has been rather unproductive (except for drivers ed in the morning. 6am in the morning. my instructor said that he wanted to do a lot of "straight road driving" with me today. translation: you suck at this.) sp i decided to make a list of my top chick flicks for you.

in no particular order:

1. the devil wears prada.

actually, this one goes in order. top favorite movie of all time. i adore the clothes and emily blunt and the clothes and meryl streep and the music and the clothes and anne hathaway and the clothes and, did i mention that the clothes in this movie are fabulous? i think i'm more in love with the clothes than with the men. if you didn't pick up on that little fact already.

2. p.s. i love you.

so sad, so sweet. better than the notebook in the crying-your-eyes-out-but-loving-it-so-freaking-much-at-the-same-time category. awesomely addictive soundtrack. irish men? yes please. romantic irish men who leave post-mortem love letters to their wives? even better.

3. (500) days of summer.

i don't know if this one particularly counts, especially since one of my best guy friends introduced me to it. and since it's all about a breakup. but i love it! i love the artsy-ness of it and also zooey deschanel. and the to-die-for soundtrack makes me feel like a hipster. the smiths + hall & oates + regina spektor = perfection.

4. bride wars.

gah. give me a wedding and anne hathaway and i'm game. i just love all the hijinks these best friends pull on each other, only to forgive each other in the end in true best friend fashion. i went and saw this in the theater with my best friend and when we left she said, "i can totally see us doing that." the sad part is it's totally true. sadder still is i would end up with the blue hair and the orange spray tan.

5. 27 dresses.

another wedding movie, yes. (i LOVE weddings. did i mention that? well. i do.) i love how katherine heigl and james marsden fight the entire movie, only to fall in love just as everyone predicted. plus there are really awesome hideous bridesmaids dresses that i would totally never use to torture my friends on my wedding day.

6. leap year.

another irish man movie. guess i can't get enough of that accent. i love this one even though it is completely 100% predictable. it's just so stinkin cute! especially when declan says sweet things. with that accent. and it doesn't help that they play "dream a little dream of me" while they're falling in love. squee!

and finally...

7. confessions of a shopaholic.

this is the movie i watch when i feel like i need retail therapy but don't have any money. which is 99% of the time. i shop vicariously through rebecca bloomwood. which means i get gucci bags and dior heels and, of course, a green dolce & gabanna scarf. oh, and luke brandon.

xoxo julia

our new pottery barn furniture was delivered this morning! awesome, yeah? except for the fact that i was the only one home and the delivery people wouldn't bring the stuff inside because i'm not eighteen. so i ran over to the neighbor's house at barely 10am and asked her to come over and sign for me! how awful. she was happy enough to help, but i felt bad so i baked some spontaneous thank-you cupcakes.


it was my second time baking cupcakes ever, and my first time without the help of master chef sarah leslie smith. but they looked pretty normal so i wasn't all too worried.


except for the fact that we had no powdered sugar for frosting...so i found a recipe for a meringue-ish frosting that was kinda shiny. but it was pretty and tasted yummy so what the heck.



anyway. i actually made cupcakes and they didn't collapse or implode or explode or poison anyone (yet). be proud. i certainly am.

xoxo julia

what's this, you ask? well. this is a picture of my daddy's graduation from harvard. i absolutely love this picture of all the random people in their red robes. but it gets better. my mom took this picture by standing on a chair and snapping it without looking. and guess who she caught on camera!


yep. the guy in the middle looking at the camera is my daddy.

anyhoo. happy father's day! i love my daddy with all my heart, especially when we sing in the car and even when he tells me to go to bed.

xoxo julia

here's another weekly feature i'm starting: friday's top five. a summary of my favorite things from the previous week, be it blog discoveries or fashion obsessions or the random things that occupy my mind. here goes:

1. bikes.

i'm totally obsessed with bikes right now!! i really really really want to get one. i have this fantasy of trotting around town on my bike (with a basket, of course) while wearing sunglasses and smiling at everyone. too bad i live on top of a giant hill that would have to be ridden back up in order to get home. still. i really want a bike.

2. elsie & jeremy's wedding.


before you tell me again, yes, i know i am a total creep. this is the previously blogged elsie larson from a beautiful mess. her wedding to jeremy larson was positively gorgeous and i can't stop thinking about it! it's so fun and colorful and laid back and oh-so-sweet! you can see more pictures here or scattered throughout elsie's blog, along with sweet notes from her bridesmaids and the everyday glory that is elsie larson.

3. mint green nail polish.


i've been dying over mint green nail polish for months, and i finally broke down and purchased this perfect summer shade for a bank-breaking $2.50! big spender, i know. so worth it.

4. printed scarves.


i bought this scarf at forever 21 on my monday shopping trip with rachie and have been obsessing over it ever since! it was a result of me being impulsive and i'm loving it. so far i've worn it with a white sundress as well as a chambray shirt with brown jeans. pictures to come maybe? anyway. another reason it's perfect? i have three colors of lipstick that go with this scarf: red, orange, and fuchsia. i die.

5. josh ritter.


i discovered josh ritter on my itunes while attempting to recover the music that was lost when we got a new computer. and, i love him! i love his soft acoustic sound and his sweet voice. favorite tracks? "the temptation of adam" and "girl in the war." i highly recommend.

xoxo julia

one of my unwritten goals for the summer has been to read more. considering my previous track record of reading (aka, the last book i read was because it was assigned for english class. fail.), i'd say i'm doing pretty well! i plowed through uglies by scott westerfeld the last week of school, and i just finished the sequel, pretties, today. yes, i know these are old, and yes, i am rereading them. the verdict: just as good the second time around. not quite as intense as maximum ride or hunger games (but then, what is?) but still an entertaining read. i find westerfeld's futuristic society--can i call it a dystopia? that's a great word--fascinating, what with the brainwashing and the pretty-making operation. i can't say i'd be able to pull a tally youngblood and leave new pretty town with its parties and free clothes and no worries behind, though. could it be such a bad idea to brainwash us to like each other?

anyway, it's too bad i don't have the third book in the series, specials, otherwise i'd be engrossed in more of tally youngblood's crazy adventures with a hoverboard and the crims instead of jane eyre. literature snobs, please don't shoot me, but i've found that i enjoy sci-fi adventure books with a hint of romance much more than i do the wordy 19th century classics.

that said, i have it on my to-do list to actually read some of the classics. grapes of wrath and tale of two cities, for instance. but, knowing me, i'll probably scrounge the library for more scott westerfeld or start james patterson's witch & wizard series instead. or maybe reread harry potter for the millionth time. hogwarts has always welcomed me with open arms.

xoxo julia

here's your first weekly dose of julia doodles! those of you who see me at school will know that i am never without a notebook of sorts and that i draw all. the. time. so here's a peek into my brain! happy doodle wednesday.

lately i've been wishing that i had thick, curly, dark hair. and could pull of blunt bangs. like this:



(ps~ this is the darling elsie larson of a beautiful mess and red velvet. who i am totally obsessed with at the moment. in a totally non-creepy way, of course.)



or like the cutie zooey deschanel:




xoxo julia

here's the start of my weekly blogging features! every sunday i'll post a single picture, whether it be from my life or inspo from other blogs. here goes:


yes, this is my room. and yes, it is clean. rejoice.

xoxo julia

i'm working on making good with my goal of being crafty this summer and sharing the results with you! i started with what turned out to be one of the easiest projects ever: pinwheels!


i found this wonderful silver wrapping paper with lunchbag brown on the back and made about a million pinwheels with it. i love the contrast of the silver with the simple brown. and of course, i had to doodle song lyrics on some of them.



that's all for now, folks!

xoxo julia

summer is upon us! and i officially need something to keep me occupied. so, i made a list of all the things i want to do, or at least try, before school starts again:

• 1..run a 5k.
• 2..learn how to cook.
• 3..sew something...a skirt maybe. or a stuffed animal.
• 4..take pictures. 
• 5..play outside.
• 6..and...blog!

when i went out to walk the dog this morning, i found that all my drawings had been washed away by the sprinklers. it was tragic, really. guess i might have to go back out and redo them.

xoxo julia

hello lovelies. this is my latest attempt at being a blogger! my last one didn't quite take off, but now that i have a summer on my hands, hopefully i can be better about posting. and finding exciting things to post about. maybe i'll turn crafty! who knows. maybe i'll just post pictures i find on the internet. that sounds more likely. anyhow, wish me luck!
keep on dreaming.

xoxo julia