If I Owned A Boutique... Part 1: Introduction

I have been pondering for a while now about possibly being a boutique owner. I've thought about the kinds of things I would sell, the music I would play, what kind of building I would want my boutique to be in, everything. The only thing I am still unsure about is how to go about owning my own business. I have been reading blogs such as A Beautiful Mess, and others like hers who own there own creative business, and it has inspired me immensely. I'm going to save up for these two e-courses to get me started on thinking seriously about this:

1. DREAMjob by A Beautiful Mess

2. Indie Compass by Indie Business


Hopefully that will help me be more aware of the steps I need to take before becoming my own boss. I am a psychology major, and I haven't taken any business courses, but I may when I go on to university. Wish me luck! I will be writing more and more about this topic in the future.

Quote of the Day
"Do one thing everyday that scares you." - Eleanor Roosevelt

Picture of navy shoes via Sunshine and Pearls

My January 2010 Shopping List

I know this is a totally random post, but I need to write my ideas down ASAP, and a notebook sometimes doesn't cut it.

My January shopping list will include:

1. Mason jars
2. Carabiner
3. Vera Bradley notebook
4. Fabric - $2.99 per yard
5. Everything in the "monthly" list
6. Cereal canister
7. Red paint chips - free
8. feta cheese
9. blue corn chips
10. cat dental chews for Lily
11. Apple juice
12. grated cinnamon
13. nutmeg
14. cinnamon sticks
15. Brie
16. Apple butter

My monthly shopping list will include (if needed):

1. grapes
2. grape/cherry tomatoes
3. cucumber
4. ginger
5. spinach
6. lettuce
7. oatmeal
8. tomato soup - $1.98
9. turkey
10. pretzels
11. popcorn
12. frozen corn
13. peaches
14. apples

I will randomly write back to this post, so please disregard if you are uninterested.

So I've Decided That I'm...

Going to start vlogging now. For those of you who do not know what 'vlogging' is, it's basically like blogging, only you record yourself via webcam or any other portable video device. I bought my Webcam C110 from Wal-Mart today, and it is successfully installed so I am excited to start my very first vlog post today!
I'm probably going to start of with an introductory video, but I haven't a single clue how I'm going to go about this... I know what you're thinking, "How hard can it be to introduce yourself?!" Well, I just don't want to go on a rambling rampage of things that will probably scare off the viewers. So if you don't mind, I will be writing a few key-points and questions of what I'm going to say on video. Those of you who are just beginning to vlog can use this as well if they want. Ha.

1. My name... Duh, it's Audrey. I'm not going to give out my full name though.
2. Where I live? Nah, I'll just say I'm from the South. Maybe that I was born in Alabama.
3. What I like to do: Draw cartoons, write, read, listen to music, hang out with friends... Normal things. Oh, except for obsessing over insane asylums every single damn day and going onto Ebay wishing I had every single asylum postcard.
4. Describe my history: Ah... I might improvise on that. I might tell the viewer's that I was born with this serious disease called Hirschsprung's Disease and how the major thing that ended it all was a seizure. As I am religious though, I believe this was a miracle. It happened the same time I was being baptized. I might tell them that high-school was alright for me, as incredibly boring as that would be.. I didn't have any bullies, people liked me fine, I didn't get into fights (okay, there were a few exceptions, but nothing really dramatic happened).
5. My major accomplishments: Beating Hirschsprung's and heart surgery, winning various HOSA (Health Occupations Students of America) competitions, being in two school plays (one where I was the leading role), graduating high school... Wow, I'm a little boring.
6. I'm teaching myself how to play the piano? All I know is part of Moonlight Sonata from Beethoven, the first part of Chopin's Prelude in E-Minor Op. 28, No. 4, and my rendition of the guitar solo in Comfortably Numb. I'm still proud of myself though nevertheless. 7. I went to Athens, Ohio last summer (OH YEAH. I need to post those pictures). To see...guess what? An old insane asylum. The Athens State Hospital, ladies and gentlemen. I also went to Tuscaloosa, Alabama to see Bryce Hospital and Bolivar, Tennessee to see the Bolivar/Western State Hospital. Those are pictures I need to post as well..
8. My favorite movies: Anything that makes me think (with the exception of Austin Powers and Dumb & Dumber). I like movies such as A Beautiful Mind, The Others, Pearl Harbor, Titanic, Schindler's List, Girl Interrupted, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, 1000's more. I love horror movies except for most violent ones. I'm more of a ghost, paranormal, psychological thriller type horror-movie-fan. I hate Hostel and Saw movies, they make me sick. My empathetic-self cannot handle those types of movies. I also do not like to see the insulin/electric shock therapy scenes in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, A Beautiful Mind, or Frances, but I make exceptions as they are more interesting to me than playing a torture game.
9. I'm very random? I know my bog says 'A Lotta Girl, A Lotta Style', but my blog is not a "fashion" blog. I love fashion though, don't get me wrong. I'm so random and disorganized, I hardly ever blog. I'm sorry for that. I'm also pretty nerdy. I love nerdy jokes. I'm terrible at math, but I can pick up a math joke so quickly that it's not even funny. How weird is that? Anyway... I'm secretly crazy. Except for those who notice my strange little ways and just stare at me. The only people who know about my insanity are my parents, my best friends, my boyfriend, and his family. It's more of an eccentric/quirky insanity more than it is a mental illness (also with a few exceptions.) << Is that grammatically correct?
"I'm so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I'm saying." Oscar Wilde Pictures via Pinterest

Please Help!

I have been severely disgusted by our society's view on feminine beauty and the ways of acquiring such an image for quite some time now. Since the beginning of this disgust, I have hoped that in the years to come some epiphany of some sort would smack those who further this idea into reality-check oblivion so that the image beauty would become less distasteful and unhealthy.
With your help, hopefully we can get the message across to congress on how this idea is causing women and girls all over the country to suffer about their body image. It's called 'The Self Esteem Act,' and by signing this petition, you will have helped the fight against the media and society vs. women.

Please read the information about the petition, and if you're a stickler to your sources as I am, disregard the NEDA.org, as it is a website for the New England Dressing Association and not the National Eating Disorder Association.

I saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 for the second time tonight...

I LOVE that movie! I'm so sad to see that is the end of the movies. However, Harry will still live on forever. I can't wait until Pottermore opens because I have never read the books (except for The Prince of Azkaban), and I will use that website to aid me in my readings.

I was also very happy that it was more in-depth of Severus' "secret" <3 GOD I LOVE "THEM" TOGETHER!! <333

Well, I am a little too tired tonight, and I'm going to bed soon! Goodnight :)

Quote of the Day:
"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." - Thomas A. Edison

Fashionista Friday!

Well, today's Friday, and I know I have already posted, but I'm trying to make a segment for everyday so I can organize my inspirations and what-not.
Fridays are going to be based on things of fashion nature that inspire me. So here we go!



I love turquoise, and I love things that make you look like you're not about to strain your back or give you a leg cramp. The earrings are beautiful! Earrings are a big thing for me, especially dangly-earrings. The purse is absolutely adorable, and I wish I could tell you where you could buy these things, but I found this little number on pinterest.com. This whole outfit is too cute!



I love tiny stripes like this dress has, and it especially looks cute in green! I'm not big on it being strapless, as I am self-conscious about my upper arms, but I would still wear it. Nevertheless, it's adorable.



I love her hair, I always thought long bangs were very cute. I also love her dress (I love baby-doll dresses).



Again, big on the tiny stripes! They are orange too, which are perfect because I could wear them over white lacy tights to a University of Tennessee game! I've been seeing shorts like these around a lot, so I think I'm going to snatch a pair before the summer is up. With a pair of lacy white tights in the process, haha :)



I love all of them! I have a promise ring from my boyfriend Troy, so I always try to reserve the only ring finger I have to that ring. Haha, a little random fact. Anyway, I'm all for rings, especially smaller ones. Big ones are pretty too, but they tend to get on my nerves while I'm in class or whatever.

Wow, it's been a while...

I'm sorry it's been so long since I have posted anything. I just haven't really been motivated to write much, I suppose. A few things have happened to me over the months I have had blogspotter's block!

I am now a beauty consultant for Mary Kay! I'm just now getting started, and I am still a little confused about the ropes, but hopefully in no-time I will be setting up parties and ordering regularly. I'm excited about this because I have been wanting to do something like Mary Kay for a really long time!

I am now a sophomore in college, yay! I haven't signed up for my classes yet, but I'm still majoring in psychology. This semester I'll finally get to take abnormal psychology, which I have been excited about since I even became interested in mental disorders.

I cut my hair (yes, I did it) a couple of months back to a pixie-cut just to see how I would look. I didn't like it very much, but now that it has grown out a little I like it a lot better. I want to grow it out really long now, which will take another year-and-a-half to do (sigh...)

My Tumblr blog has been in full-swing for a while now, and you can go to it here: www.penguindelight.tumblr.com
I have a special section for things that inspire me fashion-wise!

My dad and I had to move from "The Farm" to another house in town. I'm not going to go into detail why we had to move, but it was a very sad experience. I had been in that house since I was almost a year old. I still miss it very much, and I hope one day to maybe get it back.

And for the best part that has happened to me: I finally went to Athens, Ohio to see the Athens State Hospital! My boyfriend Troy took me for my birthday, isn't he the greatest?
Athens was absolutely magical. I felt like I was at home, even though Troy and I had never been to Ohio before. It made me so happy, and it all seemed to be a really good dream that I actually didn't wake up from! I can't believe the anticipation is over now, though. I've been wanting to go to Athens for more than a year now, and I can't believe I've finally gone. It was all just too good to be true. I will have to post the picture I took soon after I transfer them from my camera to the computer. The Athens State Hospital (now the Kennedy Museum of Art) is a gorgeous building that has been taken care of fairly well by Ohio University. I was happy with that they have done to the place. We went into the art museum, and I was also satisfied to see that they had a plaque dedicated to the past of the building. It was originally a mental institution built under the Kirkbride Plan, and back in the day it was called the Athens Lunatic Asylum. I will be completely honest with you, I hardly looked at the art (although the jewelery and some paintings caught my eye). I was too busy looking around the building trying to imagine the bustle and mental air that was carried around the place when it was still a hospital. I wondered what each room was used for, and I was very tempted to pass the velvet rope that separated the unused part of the asylum to the renovated. I didn't though. After we walked around inside, we found the well-known cemetery on the campus and went a little ways down "The Ridges" nature trail. I almost cried just thinking of the reasons why those people were put into the asylum and all of the mental anguish they must have went through. The town of Athens was absolutely beautiful, and there was so much to do! I plan to go back again one day.



I noticed a comment from Arcadian that asked whether I have experienced anything paranormal. Yes, I have actually!

When I was eleven, my cousin Jessica and my aunt Cindy (both from my mother's side) came to visit us over the summer, and they both slept in my room with me. Well, I had this little porcelain rose jewelery-box that played, "My Favorite Things", when you opened it. During the early morning before Jessica and Cindy were going to go back home (maybe around 3:00-3:30 am), the little jewelery-box started playing the tune out of nowhere. We turned on the lights, and the box was open too! It wasn't any of us because we were all really groggy from being woken up from the music playing. My mom decided that it was my grandmother (her and Cindy's mother) who opened the jewelery-box to tell us that she was watching over us, and that she was happy that we were all together.

Then, when I was about eight or nine, my best friend at the time Crystal was over to spend the night. We were watching a Bugs and Daffy cartoon, and through the middle of it, it suddenly stopped and started rewinding. It was very strange.
All of this makes sense because we lived near a couple of cemeteries. My mom always felt a presence in the kitchen (as did I), and I always felt a presence in my former bedroom (before my dad and I switched rooms, and before we moved).

By the way, I am still going to be doing the Wednesday of Randomness segment!

Quote of the Day:
I have the chance of being constantly active and happy or introspectively passive and sad. Or, I can go mad by ricocheting in between. - Sylvia Plath


*picture credit: Athens State Hospital by gb_packards on Flickr.