Clouds {Guest Post by Rachel}

I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells.  Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope.  Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life's realities.  ~Theodore Geisel


I'm more than entranced by clouds.

As a little girl, I could pass endless hours gazing up at the sky, painting the strangest pictures in my seven-year-old head.

How could I see such marvelous shapes...

...such effortless patterns...

...so much beauty in the simplest of things?

A puff of airy water, floating above our heads...pale against the blue summer sky.

Toes in the grass, painted hot pink to match my tiny flipflops, curled with my kitty and little sister...

...these were the ways I spent my childhood afternoons.

Creating stories for the characters the clouds created...

...dragons storming castles to save beautiful princesses from evil knights, for the dragons were always the heroes in my dreams of youth...

...rainbow roads that led to Oz and Narnia, places where I had never been but knew existed in the sweetest corners of my heart...

...ice cream cones as big as a tree, and trees as small as my hand.

Such sweet illusion.

Such childlike innocence.

I want to stare at clouds again.

You are worried about seeing him spend his early years in doing nothing.  What!  Is it nothing to be happy?  Nothing to skip, play, and run around all day long?  Never in his life will he be so busy again.  ~Jean-Jacques Rousseau

About the author: I, Rachel, am a 20 -year-old dreamy newlywed, and the author of DramaticElegance. My blood runs red with passion and delight...composed with hints of freshly brewed coffee, melted chocolate, and the ink from a thousand pens. My eyes glitter with stars and imagination...my nose is flooded with the aroma of country breezes and white jasmine. My lips are laden with poetry and prose, glory and honor to the King of the universe. I am the love child of music and candlelight. I am the daughter of Aslan, and my song is love. I am a princess of the Kingdom of Heaven. I am a thundering whisper. I am a roaring lamb. 

I am only me.

(You can also find me on my twitter, you can email me, and you can also check out my August giveaway)

secondhand (an instructional guest post by olivia)

Hello, lovely readers of Emily's blog. This is Olivia from of horsefeathers, and today I have a quick post on thrift shopping.

Oh yes. Thrifting is fun, cheap, and often yields spectacular results. Shall we?

PART ONE » PLACES

Before we get into the dos-and-don'ts, we need an actual place to go thrifting, yes? Fear not. I promise that somewhere near you is a good place for thrifting.

My top three?

1- Goodwill.

2- Yard sales and flea markets.

3- Salvation Army.

I can guarantee that somewhere around you there is one of those places. But one you get there, there's a whole other realm of shopping you need to be introduced to. It's very different from the mall.

PART TWO » QUALITY

Always check secondhand clothes (and bags and shoes and jewelry, for that matter) very carefully for holes, frays, or defects. A lot of the time, you can't return your purchases, so be cautious. Nothing is worse than getting a great deal on a pretty cashmere sweater then coming home to have someone point out there's a big moth hole in the back.

PART THREE » COST

Bargaining is a skill you need to learn, especially for yard sales and flea markets. 

It even worked for me a few days ago at Goodwill. I had like five nice shirts, and twenty-two dollars. The total was $24.97. So, putting on my best innocent-and-young face (which was a little difficult since I was looking down on the cashier lady, being about a foot and a half taller than she was) I took out my money and told her that's all I had.

I got all five shirts for $22.

If you just think something is overpriced, you can pull the same trick, even if you DO have more. Say you like a certain pair of boots. They cost $16, but you think you could get them for $10. Pull out Mr Alexander Hamilton and plead for your life... ahem, your boots.

This will work especially well if you look a bit disheveled. Mess up your hair a bit. It makes you look a little poorer. Maybe the seller will feel sorry for you.

PART FOUR » PUNKING IT UP

Getting into the thrifting world? Already an established citizen?

I have a challenge for you.

Pick out the dowdiest, ugliest, most old-lady-ish thing you can find — a cat sweater should do the trick.

Now work your magic! Make it wearable.

Here's some hints:

A fresh face does wonders. Being young (and by that I mean under 30) lands you points for ugly clothes.

High heels make everything better.

So do short shorts, little dresses (worn underneath), and black.

This girl did an excellent job of turning a weird sweater into something amazing. She bought the sweater ("jumper", since she's British) from a thrift store ("charity shop"; again, I wish I was British). In fact, check out her whole profile. Lots of her stuff is thrifted.

Good luck, lovelies, and happy thrifting!

xoxo

Olivia

My own (most recent) thrifted outfit. None of this stuff is new.

Dress from my basement (1990s), sweater from my grandmother, shoes and bag from a thrift shop.

Whole post here.