A Bucatini Shortage

Life during COVID times is weird. My mom keeps telling me I need to write about what it’s like to live in a Pandemic in my journal, and I keep telling her that it would be boring to both write and read later because I don’t do anything. I wake up, I eat breakfast, I walk my dog, sometimes I work out, I eat lunch, I scroll on the internet, eat dinner, watch TV, and then go to bed. And repeat. There’s not much to it. Sure, I could talk about the nuances of time and how the toilet paper shortage warped my perception of reality, but, to be honest, it’s all already been said. And not in a negative way, I just think that, collectively, we’re going through this time and we won’t know how it changed us or changed our outlook on things until it’s over. If it ever ends.

It’ll end.

In the meantime, so I can keep myself from getting too philosophical, I’ve decided to share a few links I’ve discovered recently. I feel like it’s always been too easy to stumble down an internet black hole, but, lately, it’s even easier.

I recently read this article on the Bucatini shortage in America. It’s poetically written and well worth reading in its entirety. Pasts, like toilet paper, was and is a hot commodity in these COVID times. My grandfather and I stocked up on it back in our hoarding days back in March. The first March of COVID.

If you haven’t already seen Malcolm & Marie on Netflix you need to watch it. Zendaya can do no wrong in my eyes. This film is beautiful. It’s mysterious. It’s sad. It’s enlightening. It’s in black & white. It made me feel like I was eavesdropping on an actual couple. Every single scene could be a photograph in a museum. It was filmed during quarantine with around 20 people in 14 days. Amazing, truly. Also, the soundtrack. Pure gold.

I keep seeing this Shacket around Instagram. It’s from Amazon and under $30. I’ve been on a no shopping diet recently, but honestly, might have to bite the bullet for this one. It’s perfect. Style it with a white ribbed tank, straight leg light wash denim, and gold hoops. Easy. Cute. Trendy. Love it.

Ok the no shopping diet doesn’t mean that I haven’t been looking. The last thing I need is another pair of sweatpants. But hello, these are perfect. Imagine the light blue with literally any color top; black, white, tan, BLUE. Blue? Yes. I’ve been extremely into monochromatic outfits lately. They look so put together and effortless at the same time. Into it. Very.

I entered the Golden Coil design challenge, and I’m so eager to see if I’m picked as one of the top designs to be voted on. The winner gets a cash prize along with 5 printed planners with their design. I’ll do a giveaway if I win so one of you can have it!

That’s all for now! 

Thanks for reading,
Chloe

book review: daisy jones & the six

Here we are with another book review. It’s a good one. A really, really good one. But before I get started, I want to share a fun story. During my second semester of senior year in college I interned at an advertising agency in Denver. There were six interns in the program and we formed our own little “mini agency” of sorts. We had our roles, I was the copywriter, but there was also an account manager, an art director, analytics director, new business/pr, and a UX/UI gal. We made a solid team. On the first day of the internship, we were assigned desks and I happened to be placed next to the analytics intern who also went to the same college. We had never met, but we instantly hit it off. Throughout the day, we ended up sharing our schedules for the semester and realized that we had the same Monday night class: event planning. The first day of our internship fell on the first Monday of classes so we had class together later that night.

We both had other friends in the class so we didn’t sit next to each other, but during the class the teacher assigned random groups of 2-3 people that we’d be partnered with for the entire semester. If you’re thinking that we were partnered together, then hey! you’re right! Good guess! Ever since that first Monday of meeting each other, we spent a majority of our days together, we were instant friends, and we always joke (slash seriously say) that we were meant to be friends. Something in the universe knew that we needed each other in our lives. So, Natalie, if you’re reading this, I’m thankful for you ;)

By now, if you’re not Natalie, you’re probably wondering why I’m sharing this story. Well, you’re in luck because I’m about to tell you. Natalie and I decided that since we’re living in different states now (sad, very sad) we should start our own little mini book club made up of only us. We decided that we’d read a book a month and then have FT fates to discuss them. I was in charge of picking the first book which was A LOT of pressure, but, after an hour and a half in the book store, it turned out to be ok and we both finished the book within a week and a half. A good read. A great read, really.

I picked Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid because I had a very long conversation with a woman in the airport about it a few weeks back. She convinced me that it was a good one, and I trusted her, luckily.
It’s a book about a band from the late 70s. It’s all about sex, drugs, and rock and roll. But, despite that, it’s not cliche. It’s written in the style of an interview which I didn’t realize until I started reading it (obviously) but I fell in love with this style. It’s almost like reading the juiciest Rolling Stone article out there.

While this book is fictional, I constantly had to remind myself that these people and this story isn’t real. It’s that realistic which is kind of disappointing because I want to hear the songs that they describe. I don’t want to give too many details away but if you liked Once Upon A Time in Hollywood and if you like music and if you like the 70s vibe, you’ll dig this book. It’s dramatic, but not overly so if that makes sense. Also, the ending was pretty cute which makes a difference in my humble opinion. If the ending sucks I just leave the book with a sour taste in my mouth, and I hate it.

My favorite quote in the book goes like this, “And that terrified the hell out of me. I didn’t want to push him in. I would never push him in but…. it scared me that the only thing between this moment of calm and the biggest tragedy of my life was me choosing not to do it. This really tripped me out that everyone’s life was that precarious. That there wasn’t some all-knowing mechanism in place that stopped things that shouldn’t happen from happening. That’s something had always scared me. And that’s how it felt being around Daisy Jones.”

My Rating: 4.5/5 stars
.5 off of a 5 because while I' loved it a lot, it’s not THE BEST BOOK I’ve ever read. They can’t all be 5’s, unfortunately.

Natalie’s Rating: 5/5 stars
I’d rate it a 5/5 bc it gives an inside perspective to what rock n roll bands were made of back n the day. And it’s also a love story between two people that you don’t want to be together but you also want them to be together.

If you’ve read the book, let me know your thoughts in the comments or DM me on Instagram! Let’s chat about it.

Thanks for reading!
chloe

Where the Crawdads Sing

When I was in elementary school, my mom had a rule for my brother and me that truly shaped my life, my interests, how I consume media. 

For every thirty minutes of TV time, we had to spend an hour outside. A ratio, when I was younger, that I absolutely despised. Of course I loved being outside. But I grew up in the deep south of Alabama. Which means mosquitos, devilish heat, and constantly dripping in sweat. It was fine, but spending more than an hour outside on certain days was brutal. 

So how did I stay entertained if I couldn’t watch TV like a “normal” kid? 

Remember, this is back before the days of YouTube and only right when Webkinz and Club Penguin were taking over youth culture. 

So essentially, there was nothing to do except read a good ‘ole book. And when I say I read, I mean I read a lot. Every day, every night before bed. I was the student in class that looked forward to the time in the school day where we had designated reading time. The trips to the library were like if I was Charlie visiting Wonka’s chocolate factory. 

I stopped reading when I got to college because by the time I finished my assigned readings of textbooks and unrelated articles assigned to keep us busy, I didn’t want to read for enjoyment. Not to mention, I was living with my best friends so there was never downtime to just chill and read. 

But now that I’m done with college, I’ve been reading like I was a kid again. I recently read a book that I can’t stop telling people about. It’s one of those “can’t put ‘em down, bury your nose, read until your eyes get too heavy” kind of books. Simply put, it was the best book I’ve read in a really long time. 

The essence of the story is simple, a girl against the world, quite literally. I feel like I can’t describe it in too much detail without ruining the ending, but I promise you’ll love it. The topics include those of loneliness, love, family, mystery, confusion regarding the purpose and meaning of life. 

So, in short, read it. It’s called Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. A work of art. 

improving a little

I don’t blog enough. There. I said it. It’s the sad real truth. I love writing even though I’m not that great at it, but there’s that 10,000 hours rule that says if you do something for over 10,000 hours then there’s a high chance that you’ll become good at it. And I want to become good at writing. So in order to do that, I have to write.

And here we are. Here I am…. writing.

I’m challenging myself to write at least one post everyday for the rest of time. It’s something I really want to do, and I’m pretty good at following through with things if I want to do them enough. Some of these posts might be sappy some sad some weird some boring some short some extremely long. I’m not sure, but I want to write more so I’m going to. 

For today’s post I want to share a little detail of my day. 

I had my photography class this morning and we did the first round of critiques for the first draft of our first project. A lot of firsts if you didn’t pick that up. That being said, I didn’t really know what to expect from the feedback or from other people’s projects. I was pretty confident going into the critique but I left feeling pretty defeated. My project was essentially eaten alive in the most respectful way possible. I’ll share the photos below, but what I got out of this critique today is that it’s important to be beaten up. Maybe not physically (definitely not physically), but it’s important to feel destructible, to feel like you're at the bottom, to feel eaten alive. These feelings should push you to move upwards. It’s also important to know that your bottom, your worst possible situation might not be someone else’s. In fact, your worst case scenario might be someone else’s best efforts yet. You have no where else to go but up and that’s amazing. Sure, I felt defeated after class, but I thought about people’s comments and now I’m inspired to create something better, something people will have nothing but great things to say about. And even if other people don’t like it, because they most likely won’t, I’ll have improved my work just a little. 

That little improvement is what we should all strive for in every aspect of our lives. 

So let’s all improve a little together.

Thanks for reading.
xox
Chloe 

fall 2018 trendspotting

Let’s talk trend spotting. This whole summer I’ve been working in a retail store surrounded by high end fashion. It’s so inspiring getting to help people find styles and trends that they really love. But, let me tell you a secret, it’s even more fun getting to find these things for myself (selfish? maybe a little. fun? heck yeah). So anyways, two trends that I’ve noticed that are going to be huge this fall are wide leg pants and anything in the color mustard. I was shopping for these two items myself but I decided to share some of my favorite finds with you guys to balance out my selfish comment above.

crochet shirt
back pack
waffle shirt 
shoes 
bra
cami
tote bag (aka dream bag) 

black
navy
denim
mustard
green

And that's all I've got for ya now. But, I'd love to know, what trends are you loving lately? Keep me cool, share your thoughts in the comments. 

thanks for reading!
xox
chloe

My Gals

I can’t put my finger on the reason why, but lately my friends and I have been very sentimental. I think as our junior year of college is winding down and we’re gearing up for senior year, we realize how fast our time together has flown by. 

We all met through college, none of us knew each other before and I think that’s one of the reasons why we truly treasure our friendships with each other. My friend group is small, strong, and very familial. We treat each other like sisters. We love each other endlessly, we bicker often, and we ALWAYS have each other’s backs. 

I was talking with one of my best friends the other day about how much we love our friend group. We were saying how, since we all live together, we’ve come to be more than friends. We’re family. And I know that sounds extremely cheesy, but there’s something special about living in a house with five of your best friends. You learn more about yourself than you ever thought possible, and therefore learn about each other, so much so that we might know each other better than we know ourselves. 

It’s a weird dynamic. I love my friends more than I think possible. We each have our strengths, our weaknesses, and our priorities, but somehow we mesh flawlessly (even on the days we all seem to be fighting). There are the ones of us who chat about anything, always. There are the ones of us that are the silent glue that keep the peace between us. There are the ones of us that can always light up the room when others are down. We’re just, well, us. 

I know I have another year with these gals, but honestly, I want more. The first three years of college have flown by, and I can’t even imagine how fast this next year is going to go. 

Here’s the best friends. Here’s to college memories. Here’s to the future.