"Accessorizing" with Kara

I'm in the mood to post about fashion today.
*HUZZAH* 
As the salad would say, LETTUCE commence!
*Insert Laughter Here*

For those of you who know me, see me regularly, or closely monitor my patterns of behavior, you've probably noticed that I'm not really an "accessories" kind of person.

I can only wear two types of accessories:
1. Earrings
2. Scarves


I wear six earrings every day. Just because I have that many ear piercings. I love wearing hoop earrings, especially big ones, but those are usually the only type of earring besides the little crystal ones.
Most days of the week, or most days at all, you'll see me wearing hoops.
I think that hoop earrings are so classy. I stick to the plain silver ones, they match with anything and they pretty much look good with any hairstyle, even some sort of up-do kind of thing.

Another type of accessory that I wear frequently is SCARVES.
I LOVE SCARVES.
SCARVES SCARVES SCARVES.

It's an obsession. I'm not even joking.
I have a hanger in my closet with all my scarves on it, and there's absolutely no space on it.
It's filled. Stacked. Up to the freaking brim.
I think by now I probably have at least 15.

I got two new scarves for Christmas, one from my sister and one from my little 2-year old cousin (it's this Secret Santa thing we do with our family every year, each person gets one person's name and gets him or her another gift, and my ADORABLE cousin had me and got me this super cute tan scarf with a red, blue, and green floral pattern. LOVE HIM)

I think that scarves are so versatile. You can wear them with anything; dress them up with a cute dress, or wear one with a sweatshirt and yoga pants. It works with all kinds of outfits. That's why I have so many. I've never tried it, but I'm assuming that I could find a scarf that I could wear with every single outfit in my closet. 


They're also SUPER COMFORTABLE. I don't feel like I'm "dressing up" when I wear a scarf, I feel like I'm just wearing normal clothes. And there's such a variety to choose from when you're buying scarves, there's not just one you can pick.
I have scarves in so many different patterns; floral patterns, paisley patterns, stripes, solids. I even have a turquoise scarf with rainbow stars on it (that's my lucky one for auditions :) )


So go buy scarves. Because I told you so.
Just kidding :) I hope that everyone feels that they can be free to express their individuality and wear the clothes and listen to the music that they enjoy.
I love that about America. You can be the red apple or the green apple, you get to choose :)

Time for some ONCE UPON A TIME, y'all! See ya! 

Get these off your lawn, please.

My dear holiday-crazed neighbors,
Thank you so much for brightening up our dull little cul-de-sac with your innovative holiday lawn decorations. It's such a thrill when I pull into my driveway at night and am greeted by this:

Or this:

They're my favorite. 
The fact that they GLOW at night just makes it that much better.

It's not like our dinner guests comment on how repulsive they are when they can see them from our dining room window.
Nah, no way. 
They add excitement and flair to the rest of the boring old houses in our cul-de-sac. We all just stick with the regular lights, and we all wish that we were as inspirational and exciting as you are.

It's even BETTER that my house is right in between the two houses that put these up every year. We have a snowman on our right and a Santa on our left.
Perfection.
We may just even have to invest in one of these:

Or festoon our house with some of these:

 


Just to keep up with you guys.

Love,
The Classy Home-Decorator



P.S. Too bad the people in the snowman house moved. Now we just have a Santa to look at. Boo hoo.

No Day But Today

 "What do you say to taking chances? What do you say to jumping off the edge?"
~ Taking Chances - Celine Dion

"Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go."
~ T. S. Eliot

 "Don't be afraid to jump then fall..."
~ Jump Then Fall - Taylor Swift

"To be alive at all involves some risk."
~ Harold MacMillan

"There's only us, there's only this, forget regret, or life is yours to miss."
~ RENT

***MRS. CARDONA:  I hope this works as a post! I don't know if there's enough actual writing or not. Let me know if I need to redo this one!
P.S. I was trying to maybe practice for the visual argument, if that helps at all :)

HAR HAR HAR

HOORAY FOR PARODIES. This made me chuckle.

Check it.

P.S. Look at the guy who's holding up the pictures. His faces are PRICELESS.

Singing Songs and Dreaming Dreams

It's not surprising that this post is about theatre again... You could say I'm obsessed. Sort of in a positive fashion. Maybe it's negative, who knows.

ANYWAY,

I just got home from our first all-day Saturday rehearsal of Les Miserables, in which I'm honored to have been cast as Fantine. Fantine was my dream role before this; I'd been singing "I Dreamed a Dream" since I was in seventh grade, wishing I could sing it on stage sometime. Now that dream has come true for me, and I'm extremely humbled and grateful. Singing "I Dreamed a Dream" today was actually an emotional experience.

Today, we did "At the End of the Day" and "I Dreamed a Dream." If you don't know the show, "At the End of the Day" is the song where Fantine gets fired from the factory she works at, pretty much dashing all her hopes of feeding her daughter, Cosette. And "I Dreamed a Dream" is when Fantine is kind of lamenting on how much her life sucks. Which it does.

Before today, I just sort of wrote off "At the End of the Day" as the song where everyone hates Fantine. All the girls are gunning for her to get fired, and the foreman is super mean. I never actually realized what was going on in the scene; the reason why all the women in the factory hate Fantine is that, most likely, she's the only one that's not sleeping with the foreman in order to get her daily pay. And the foreman wants her to do this, so he pretty much sexually harasses her (even though she says no.)

Charlie, our director, talked to us about this before we blocked the scene; people brought to light that these people are doing whatever they can to survive. Whatever. They. Can. It showed me that Fantine, other than being a depressing element of the show, kind of represents the persistence of morals and values in society. Even though she eventually gives in and resorts to prostitution later in the show.

Well, there's my thoughts as of late. EMOTIONS ALL UP IN HERE.
Thanks for listening to me ramble :)

Cracking Open some Memories

I've been reminded of by this posting prompt how nasty and old and full of crap my desk is. My desk, the one I've had in my room since I was six, I haven't cleaned out for years. SO, now that we have to write about the "dumpsters" in our own lives, I picked my desk.

I'm going to rummage around in this big pile of dandy objects and find four or five interesting ones to write about for this RIGHT NOW. Leggo.

1. Japanese Cherry Blossom Room Spray

I don't really know what this says about me, just that I like my room to smell nice, but I remember that I got it for Christmas in my stocking a couple of years ago, so whenever I spray it, it always reminds me of my family's Christmas morning tradition. We always sleep in, all four members of my immediate family are notorious night owls, and open presents when we wake up. We're all in our pajamas sitting around the tree, and it's the best feeling ever to be together. Then we all go eat breakfast, when my sister Sarah makes these delicious apple bundles she learned how to make in FCS in eighth grade. It's the same every year, and I love it :) The spray also smells awesome. I definitely just sprayed it right now.

2. A Birthday Card from my best friend

The second drawer down in my desk is dubbed "The Save Drawer," where I save all my cards/important documents that I never want to lose. With ten years of stuff in there, it's almost full! I  opened it and the first thing I found was birthday cards from last year, MY SWEET SIXTEEN, and I found the one that my best friend Estefania gave me. Estefania's such an important person in my life; I love her so much and I know I can talk to her about anything and everything. We're crazy when we're together, like when we scream at each other from different ends of the hall during passing time. Reading her birthday card just reminded me that we've been friends for two years now, we met freshman year in math class, which is amazing.

3. A Pack of Rubber Bands

Ugh... braces rubber bands. I'm assuming that the majority of people who have braces have to wear them? I know I did and I'm not very educated when it comes to orthodontics. I'm SO GLAD I have my braces off and all my dental procedures finished. The rubber bands just remind me of all the crazy mouth-related problems I've had in my adolescence so far, I had to have teeth pulled, braces, gum surgery, and an addition to a small tooth, and I'm so glad they're done. It was worth it though, I'm happy with my smile now :)

4. A Big Pile of Old Sheet Music

This big pile of old sheet music is from eighth grade I think, back when I was in Chambers at East Middle School and taking voice lessons from Mrs. Baker. This was also when I was in the 7th/8th grade girls ACDA Honor Choir. Ah, nostalgia. The songs in here range from theatre songs, I'm not going to look through all the folded up ones but I think "I Dreamed a Dream" is in there somewhere (which is definitely significant now), choral pieces, and Italian arias. This all just reminds me of how far I've come in my vocal training, and the possibilities of where I have to go. It's exciting and nerve-wracking all at the same time, and I can't wait to see what's in store for me.

5. My Diary from Kindergarten

SECRET TIME! My deepest, darkest secrets that I wouldn't want ANYONE TO KNOW EVER are in this diary from when I was a young whippersnapper. Like how I wished I was a princess (I was such a cliche), or how I liked to play with my friend Bridget, or how some kid in my class named Alex was mean, or how I was "in love" with this kid named Joey and we kissed on the lips. Just kidding, they're actually not deep dark secrets, they just show how odd of a kid I was :) I also had really bad handwriting; I wrote my "y's" backwards for years. It's just weird to think that I don't remember any of this stuff that happened, and that I'm so much older now and think so differently.

THAT'S IT, Y'ALL. I actually really enjoyed going through my old stuff, it totally reminded me of my past and showed me how fast time actually goes. Even though all of us teenagers want to get older and be independent, we should cherish the time that we have with our parents and in high school and enjoy every second. 

Later, gators.