The "New Blog Layout" Playlist

Yes....in case you haven't noticed (I don't quite see how) Fist Fights and Fairy Lights is now The Wayfarer Chronicles. The reason for the name and layout change was simple: I just felt the need to change things up a bit to fit my personality more. So I hope that you like the changes around here!
Some tunes I was listening to while I changed things around...my professors recommended that we listen to more instrumental music, so that's what I've been indulging in for the past week or so. Hope you like as much as I do!

1. "A Cage Went In Search of A Bird" Aesthesys

2. "The Way Home" Sleep Dealer

3. "Rue's Farewell" The Hunger Games Film Score

4. "The Gravel Road" James Newton Howard

5. "Nothing Has to Happen" Hungry Ghosts

6. "I Feel Life is Sorrowful and Unbearable, Though I Can't Flee Away, For I am Not A Bird" Aesthesys

7. "My Sorrow" Sleep Dealer

8. "I Don't Think About You Anymore, But I Don't Think About You Anyless" Hungry Ghosts

9. "Falling Rain" Sleep Dealer

(Picture found on Tumblr)

Benchmarks I

 Some are forgotten or taken advantage of.

 Some are so fashionable, they're always in season.

 They take care of you, even when no one else will.

 At times, they're where dreams reveal themselves.

And they always have time to watch a sunset, or just stare at the ocean. Even when you don't. 

I love college.

So far, my popular literature class is my favorite. It's like AP Literature, the hard as shit class that I had in my senior year of high school, but much more relaxed, much more interesting, and I actually enjoy the teacher. Not to knock my high school Lit teacher, I liked her as a person, but she had too much of an insane desire for control and picked too many favorites to be a good teacher. The only people who enjoyed her class were the ones who got A's on every single assignment, simply because she liked them. I was a B to C student in her class, which is considered to be good for not being one of her favorites. There were a few students who got D's on their assignments no matter how much work they put into them, and it was these students who in turn started skipping essays near the end of the year. Because, after all, they figured, if they weren't going to get a good grade anyway, why even try?
Personally I disagree with that mindset. Even if you don't think you're going to do well, you should always try. Even a bad grade is better than a big, fat ZERO.
Buuuuttt.....back to my suitcase!!!

This is a wicker picnic suitcase. It came with it's own dinnerware, which is what all of the faux leather straps are for. You can see I've got it all packed with my textbooks, notebooks, folders, and even a book for some light reading. I also added some pens and my mp3 player, Hello Kitty thermos and mirror and my "Life isn't that hard" bandaids, all of which have rude messages on them, like "Emotional wound," "kitty scratch," etc. I also tossed in my 50's clutch purse, which contains my wallet and a little mint tin full of headache medicine, just in case. 

The book buckled in happens to be Charlotte Bronte's Villette, which intrigued me from the moment that I saw it had received many poor reviews in its time. It's merely a rental, picked up from the library, but I really love it so far. There were a few beginning scenes that I haven't seen the point of yet, but I'm only one hundred pages in, I'm sure it'll be revealed soon. 

Here's another picture for you, for the road:

When life gives you lemons, garnish your iced tea.

Two posts in one day! I know it, I'm getting insistent. So far, I've turned three situations that were EUUUGh completely on their heads. No, no, make that four. I forgot the one that wasn't fashion related. I needed to create an account online, for my community college that I go to, but it kept telling me my information was incorrect when I was entering it all in perfectly. Turns out, I was using the wrong browser. GRCC doesn't take Google Chrome. So I was forced to add a stupid Internet Explorer icon on my desktop, but it was all worth it, because now I can submit and have access to assignments online, not to mention get the instructions for how to write a reading journal, the first of which is due tomorrow. I just hope that my brother hasn't gotten rid of his printer, or else I'm screwed.
Now for my more interesting scenarios. The first one was a dress that I overpaid for on Ebay, and to add to that, it arrived damaged with a no returns policy. And the buttons turned out to be cheap and plastic, topped with rhinestones. I'm really not a fan of rhinestones on clothing. I don't hate them as much as I hate sequins, but I don't like them either. As if this wasn't enough, the contrast of black and white that looked cute in the picture turned out to look maid-like on me. Here's what I did:
1. I sewed up the large hole where the seam had split. By hand, because I still haven't learned how to use my sewing machine (online sewing lessons are on my To-Do list once I get my next paycheck).
2. I bought Rit dye and dyed the white trim purple.
3. I snipped off the horrid buttons (I might make them into earrings though, they would look cute and vintage-y).
The end result:

It still needs a little bit of work. I'm probably going to snip off the lace trim going vertically on the chest (it's uneven and coming loose anyway), and change the belt into a bow or something, because I don't really like the buckle. Still, it's a dress that I like now, and I wore it out to get my mail today. 

And SPEAKING of mail...and of Ebay....remember a few posts back when I talked about my Ebay addiction and how financially drained I am? To recap, spent 1,000 dollars in a month, ended up (thank God) with 180 dollars left over. The last dress that I purchased on Ebay just came today, and I think that it's my favorite purchase so far. 

It fits perfectly, it's comfy, and it's perfect for my dress-loving personality and for winter. 

It's a sweater dress!

I tried it on as soon as I got home, hence the same tights and shoes as the last picture. I'm definitely going to have to wear some tights with it (probably double layered or heavier or both!), and I don't know yet if I'm going to wear it to school. I have to do a test run of the school's heating system yet, by stealthily bringing a cardigan with me to class. If I end up not needing it, then odds are a sweater or sweater dress would make me overheat. Either way, this is a great dress to go to the mall in. And it's not tight or short!!! 

The last one is a DIY idea I got today for a piece of my jewelry which I'd wanted for a long time, only to have it break the day I bought it. You see, for a while, a few of the goth/emo girls at my school had come to school with octopus lockets, and I absolutely DROOLED over them, but I'm painfully and incurably shy, so I never plucked up the courage to ask these lovely ladies where they'd gotten them. One day, Leah, one of my friends, comes to school wearing the same one, and I get it out of her that these lockets can be purchased inexpensively at Walmart or Meijer (I don't remember which one she said). I found them, at Walmart, on sale for 50 cents each. I was ecstatic, bought one, and as soon as I opened it at home, it broke. 

That was a few months ago. No, more than a few months ago, because I was still dating my asshole of an ex-boyfriend. I don't believe I discovered how much of an asshole he really was until I found out what he was doing behind my back the entire time we were together. But that's an angry rant for another time. 

So, around February or before, the locket breaks. You'd think it wouldn't have taken me so long to figure out a solution. But today I realized that I could just superglue the octopus part to a ring base, and use Modge Podge (that might be spelled wrong, I haven't looked at the bottle in a while) on the back of it, with some of my heart fabric,  to make this little creation....

This plus I'm currently working on a ring for a friend and fellow crafter! I'm really excited about it, and I'll post pictures once it's finished!

I should probably work on my novel (all three of them)

Today, I'm off from college. I have taken advantage of this day to sleep in until 1 and watch movies about Nazis. I find that the reason I don't watch a lot of movies is the fact that I don't know when actors that I love are in them. For instance, nobody ever told me that Matt Damon starred in The Bourne series. Right now I'm watching Valkyrie, which no one ever told me Tom Cruise starred in.
I should probably find something better to do, like continue my writing. I have a habit of starting writing projects and not finishing them. The most current one is about a post-apocalyptic world from all views. It's told via numerous short stories, and it's going to be fairly expansive if I ever finish it. It also might be a bit to all over the place for anyone to actually publish, so I'm just writing it for the love of writing it. That's really why I write everything.
 

Artwork and such.

Today was my first day of college. It was fine, I'm really excited about my Art History and Popular Literature classes. I also have a class called CLS-100, which is an introduction to college life and social norms, and it appears as though it is going to be boring but easy. Upon searching through my linen-turned-storage closet for the notebooks I hoarded back when they were 17 cents each, I found my sketchbook that I tucked away a few weeks ago when I was frantically cleaning my room.
Here are some of my drawings:

 I was originally going to redo this as a painting, but never really got around to it.

 Purple and black plaid dress with peplum. I have not actually made this yet.

Romper inspired by Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven." I haven't made this either.

The garden dress

Mmm...so okay, to help myself along with my new outlook, I'm going to revamp an old maternity dress of my mother's. She made this herself, although she's never been very good at sewing. When I was little, until about the time I turned 12 or so, my family had absolutely no money. Most of the pictures of me as a little girl have me in little outfits that she sewed herself. After going through my entire personal stock of photos (and a couple postcards from the Third Reich) I found this:

It's almost as blurry in person, haha. This is a picture of me in one of the dresses that my mom made for me. 

Now! For pictures of the dress that I am going to revamp.....wait for it...

Wait for it....

 This is the giant, shapeless monster. It has no zippers or buttons, and absolutely no form or shape whatsoever.

This is a closeup of the pattern. You've got to admit, that's a lot of tomatoes. 

Don't worry, my mother knows and is very encouraging of my latest project. 

I was thinking that I would separate the bodice from the skirt and just tailor it to fit my shape, and add in a zipper. The skirt I was going to recut and make it shorter and more aline. 

Merely this and nothing more

Merely this and nothing more by supernovas-child featuring black tops

The "Just covered part of my brother's early morning shift because he was bitten by a bat in his sleep" playlist.

Yeah, like the title suggests, I was just dragged out of bed at about 8 (doesn't seem bad, but in teenage hours, that's like 4 in the morning) because Sam had a bat in his room and it bit him. My frantic mother (who has quite a phobia of bats) dragged him to the emergency room to get several rabies shots. My boss, Mike, who himself was covering someone else's shift, was nice enough to give me a ride in, and then he bought me donuts. I made the unwise decision to save these for after I was done with sauce, for after two batches of sauce and numerous interruptions later, my brother came in to relieve me of duty. I only got one tiny donut hole. :(

1. "You're the Storm" The Cardigans

2. "Shake Me Down" Cage the Elephant

3. "How Much More" The Go-Gos

4. "Silence and the End of All Things" Chameleon Circuit

5. "The Perfect Plan" And the Chorus

6. "Because We're Dead" Slow Club

7. "I'm Not Going to Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You" Black Kids

8. "Blink" Chameleon Circuit

9. "Sha La La La La" Heavy Young Heathens

It's a mix of everything, I know, but it's what I like.
Also, there's something else I'd like to bring up:
In my community, two days ago, there was a car accident involving three boys from my high school, all of which were 16. One of them, Wyatt, was killed. Another one, John, survived with a busted shoulder, but a third boy, Sean is currently fighting for his life. He has a head injury, damage to his spine, a broken femur, a broken fibula, and two blown out knees. I don't really know John or Sean, but I did know Wyatt, mainly from classes. My brother used to be close friends with his older brother, and his father is a playwright who is one of the nicest people I know, and very beloved in our town. He is the last person who would ever deserve tragedy.
I'm not really the praying type, but these families need all the solace they can get. So please, keep them in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you.

Fixing my own problems. Again.

So today, I get home from a friend's house, and what do I see sitting on the table, waiting for me? A bank statement. Nothing scary about that, right? It's just a piece of paper. Well, I opened it up, to find that in the last month, I have spent almost 1,000 dollars.
Now, you might wonder, where does one starving college student get money like this? Well, I got 600 from my graduation party and around 400 from working.
Because of the money I had in my account already, I still have 180 dollars left. So the damage isn't as bad as it could have been. I could have gone completely into the red and be up to my ears in overdraft fees. This was a close call, and it's up to me that it doesn't happen again.

1. The first step to preventing another happening like this one is to determine the cause. About one hundred of that money was spent on college related expenses, textbooks and the like. That is perfectly excusable. And the rest of it? Well....
It's no secret that I suffer from depression. And shopping makes me happy. I'm always ecstatic to go through piles of clothes and find something new that I can add to my wardrobe. Unfortunately, once I got my debit card, it became very very very very easy to spend all the money I want to, whenever anything upset me or I felt alone. Spending money online was easier than my regular practice of DIYing, because the gratification comes much quicker. All I have to do is type in my Paypal password, and I get the feeling that I've won.

2. Next, I need to own up to my mistakes. I'm 18, I'm an adult, and it's time for me to be responsible for my own actions. Spending exorbitant amounts of money is unacceptable, especially for someone as young and who makes as little as I do. I want to go to school out of state in a few years, and the only way for me to afford that is to have enough money saved up so that I'll need as little money loaned to me as possible.

3. Third step? Repairing the damage. Obviously, this comes slowly, because I only make two hundred, at the best, per paycheck. To help the process along, I've started to sell the unneeded fringes of my wardrobe on Ebay. They were just draped on hangers, collecting dust in my closet anyways. It's better that someone else gets the chance to buy and wear them. I also thought about selling Avon, but I'm way too antisocial for that.

4. And finally, the last step. Prevention. I need to stop myself from ever doing this again. While it's impossible that my depression will just up and leave for good, I can still alter the way that I handle it, to make my coping methods much less self destructive. To help myself with this, I put all of the clothing items that I need to repair or do modifications to on the shelves of my nightstand, and I tacked up pieces of paper that I wrote inspirational things on, to help motivate me not to spend, even when I'm really upset.
Here are a few of them:

 "Norfolk" is a reference to a book that my best friend and I absolutely love. It's called Never Let Me Go, and it was made into a movie a few years ago, but Norfolk isn't really as big a part in the film, which was really disappointing. For those who don't know, in the story, Norfolk is the place where everything lost can be found.

As you can see, I'm going to do my damnedest to make sure that this doesn't happen again! I refuse to let my depressed self take control of my bank account, it's bad enough it's trying to take control of my head.