resolutions

I feel like coming up with New Years resolutions usually sets me up for failure (see this ambitious yet disastrous list from 2011) but I'm going to try my best to stick with a couple this year:

1 - Limit clothes spending to vintage and bell sleeves. My rationalization is that vintage is rare (especially when I find something I love in my size) and I might regret it if I let something special get away from me. Bell sleeves are my all-time favorite fashion trend (I even run a blog that's specifically dedicated to sleeves. I have a problem.) and I used to have such a hard time finding them. Now that they're in style again I want to snatch them up while I have a chance. So those are two spending categories that I'm allowing myself to feel guilt-free about, while I attempt to save up the rest of my money.

2 - Start running in the morning and eat relatively healthy. I'm trying something new this time around and I'm going to let myself keep eating things like pizza once in a while. I feel like every time I start dieting I go too far, cutting out everything except cucumbers and spinach, and then I just make myself sick. This time I just want to be more conscientious about what goes in my mouth -- lay off mindless snacking, eat when I'm hungry, and make healthy (but still delicious!) choices.

3 - I recently bought this book for my first read of 2017. I haven't even started it yet, but a couple times that I've started getting myself worked up over something stupid I've just said the book title in my head, almost as a mantra or something, and the little panicking troll in my head shut up for a while, lol.

That's about it! I think those should be manageable. It'll be kind of depressing if "read one book, still buy clothes but limit them to two categories, and still eat bad food but try to be ever so slightly better about it" isn't do-able, but I'm definitely going to try...

happy new year!

I hope everyone had fun ringing in 2014! I'm more excited about starting fresh & resolutions & such than I think I've ever been before. My mini personal goals for the new year are to go back to school to finish my degree, thrift more of my wardrobe, and to start cooking at home more often (Chinese food & pizza are major weaknesses for me!)

My big huge super resolution is more of a life mission. I've decided that I want to do everything in my power to spread kindness. In my day to day life, online, in my business, at school, everywhere. I want to find new ways to appreciate the kindness I receive and reciprocate it. I want to find ways to intertwine the things I do on my blog with my favorite charities (more on that later this week!) I want to come up with ideas for fostering a higher level of civility on the internet and spreading those ideas as best I can. I want to create artwork that inspires kindness and thoughtfulness. I want to shine a spotlight on sweet souls doing kind deeds and lovely bloggers who brighten the web with their good-hearted warmth.

In this era I think we're surrounded by negativity more than any generation has been before, but the world would be such a happier, more lovely place to live in if we all lived by one simple rule -- be nice to each other. I know it would be impossible for me to actually make any sort of dent in the collective rudeness of our species, but starting this year I'm going to try so hard.

dress, shoes, and hat - vintage

mid-year resolution

Today is the day that I finally get caught up on my emails. Or at least start to. It might take more than one day...

For the last few years, staying on top of my emails has been my #1 new years resolution (ambitious, I know) and every year I've failed miserably. I have a tendency to flag emails that I need to reply to, and then I completely forget to reply. Sometimes for weeks, sometimes for months. I'm kind of like an absent-minded professor except without the professor part. Honestly I am quite the unorganized mess. I'm one of those people who runs out to Old Navy to buy pajamas because all of mine are dirty and I forgot to do my laundry (I say "one of those people" because I'm hoping desperately that it's not just me...)

Anyway, today is the day that I am tackling my inbox. I have unanswered emails going as far back as February. YIKES. I shouldn't even be allowed to have an email account. I'm pretty sure everyone waiting for a reply must hate me by now but I'm going to write back nonetheless. I got caught up on everything else on my to do list (um, except for laundry... oops) so my schedule is cleared for emailing. LOTS of emailing.

When I'm all caught up (assuming that's even possible) I'm going to sort my inbox and start making folders. And then I'm going to set aside a certain time to reply to messages every single day. As soon as I start putting it off for one day, it'll turn into weeks and months again.  I know there are a lot of online tools for organizing your inbox, but I think for me it just comes down to willpower and making myself reply to every message within 24 hours of receiving it. As soon as I start putting things off, I never get around to doing them.

All this to say -- if you've been waiting to hear back from me:  a) I'm really sorry, and b) you should be getting a reply before Monday. If you don't hear back it probably means I never got your message to begin with because I'm literally replying to EVERYTHING :)

ch-ch-changes

Tomorrow is New Year's Eve, and it's that time of year for thinking about change and life and what we'll do differently after the clock strikes twelve on January 1st. I have lots of changes in mind for my life but today I want to talk about a few I have in mind for this blog.

When I started blogging here in 2010, it was meant as an outlet for posts that wouldn't fit into my classic film blog, Silents and Talkies. Eventually I decided to start uploading outfit posts as a way to improve my terrible self-confidence (I went from covering my face in photoshop in my first outfit photo --I'm not kidding-- to actually smiling at the camera now. Mission accomplished!) Last year I tried really hard to stick to a schedule, afraid that my inborn laziness would creep into blogging and I'd unintentionally abandon it. I used to blog twice a day. Every. Single. Day. 9am every morning and 6pm every evening. I was determined to stick to it.

But over the last six months or so, I've become much more laid back about my regimented schedule and started posting maybe 4-6 times a week. I like it this way, and that's one thing that isn't going to change in 2013. I've found that this blog has become such a major part of my life now, I'm going to post whether it's 6pm or not. I'm still going to get that "ooh I should blog about this!" urge, and when I get dressed in the morning, dagnabit, I'm going to take a photo of myself posing awkwardly in my bedroom.

Because I'm blogging a bit less nowadays, though, I think it's time to change something else -- my sponsorship program. Even though my readership has grown significantly since the last time I adjusted my prices (thank you!) I am essentially cutting them in half. I'm phasing out all sizes except for the extra large size and extending the run time of that size to 60 days while keeping the price the same. If you're a current sponsor, I've already e-mailed you with information about how this change might affect you. If you're a prospective sponsor, you can see my rates and traffic and purchase an extra large ad here.

But the main change that I have in mind for Scathingly Brilliant is that I want to blog about my artwork and projects more often. I've always been wary about this before because it seems like my flapper doodle posts get substantially less feedback than basically anything else I could possibly post here. I'm sure my mind blows it way out of proportion but I always feel like nobody wants to see when I post new drawings or etsy shop updates, or that I'm annoying everyone. But it's a major part of who I am and honestly I'm much more proud of my artwork than I am of the fact that I managed to dress myself in the morning lol ;) So, whether or not it's a popular thing to post, I'm definitely going to be sharing more art in 2013. Hopefully it will help encourage me to draw more often, too, since I've been picking up my pen and paper less and less with each passing year.

Finally, I want to share more of the things I love -- like I did when I started this blog in 2010. If you perused my recent posts you'd know that I like clothing and pastel colors but you'd never guess that I'm a huge astronomy and dinosaur geek, I love classic movies, I am an avid reader and a champion at arcade basketball. I have SO many interests but I feel like I share a very narrow sliver of them here. That's definitely going to change.

Oh, and more pictures of my cats. Definitely more pictures of my cats.

piano recital

Learning to play the piano was one of my 2011 new years resolutions that I never got around to, and I figured I still have two months left to get it done! But before I could tickle the ivories I had to learn how to read the notes first, so I downloaded this amazing app that teaches you how to read music! Seriously within an hour I had already memorized which notes went with which keys. It's amazing. So Monday night I decided to test my newfound skills with It Had to Be You on my iphone keyboard app. I practiced all night, until I ended up memorizing the song. Then I proceeded to practice on our piano pretty much all day Tuesday... I'm pretty sure my parents never want to hear this song ever again, lol ;)

I'm so excited about this! I've wanted to learn forever, and until now the only thing I could play was the beginning of Silent Night. Since I didn't know how to read music, I'd sing in my head as I played "GAG E, GAG E, DDB, CCG, AACBA, GAG E" and match the letters up to little stickers I put on the keys of our piano! ha!

Anyway, I was a total dork and recorded myself playing It Had to Be You so I could show you here... keep in mind I'm a complete beginner, so if my hands aren't in the right spot or I don't hold a note long enough or whatever please don't chide me! ;)

ps. Do you see Chloe watching me in the background? ha! love her!!

a new beginning

{ image via flickr }

It's finally 2011! YAY! I've been looking forward to the new year for months now. Overall I had a scathingly awful 2010 and I'm elated that it's finally behind me. It was a year of massive career disappointments--one in particular early in the year that haunted me for over 10 months, a long and emotional quarter-life crisis (they happen, ok) and lots of other little things that conspired against me & my family to make it a pretty lousy year. Only 2 others have been worse so far -- 2003, the year that I left high school and 2007, when me & my cat both got really, really sick.

But that's all behind me now and 2011 is going to ROCK! Believe it or not, I've never really made a list of resolutions before, so I guess that accounts for why I've never stuck to any. This year, though, I've made such a list and oh golly gee damn I am sticking to it.

1. Exercise. I have no desire to lose weight, really, just to tone what's already there. I'm thinking yoga might do the trick for me, so I'm already prepared with a beginners DVD.

2. Learn French. Despite having 4 years of high school French under my belt, I'm afraid I can barely count to 20 and the extent of my knowledge pretty much ends there, with the exception of the random phrases "a cup of tea," "the record player is broken," and "hot dogs." I have the Rosetta Stone software for French now, and I'm planning on using it until I'm fluent.

3. Move. I took off from work for all of January (yes, I'm self employed..) to clean out my house so we can finally get it on the market. Waiting around for my parents to sell the house would take years, so I'm doing it myself. I'm scrubbing the walls, getting rid of clutter and mending things that need mending. My goal is to have a for-sale sign up by February 1st.

4. Control impulse buying. I really have a problem with spending my money on things I don't need (clothes and dvds are my weaknesses!) and I need to stop. Until I can handle the problem on my own, I've given my mom control over my debit cards so she needs to approve my purchases. Once I start realizing that I can't spend my money just because I have it, hopefully I'll drop the habit.

5. Take better care of myself. I already eat healthy, but I don't do keep-up well. I forget to take medicines, I forget to change my pillowcase each night (being an allergic mess & sleeping with a cat in your bed, this is a must!), and I let my roots grow in until I have two-toned hair. Better maintenance will probably help me be in a better mood, too!

6. Watch more Dirk Bogarde movies. He's my favorite actor, and I even have a website devoted to him, but I rarely find time to actually sit down and watch his films. There's still about 15-20 I haven't even seen yet and dozens that I want to re-watch. Yeah, you're all thinking "great, just what we wanted.. Kate talking about Dirk Bogarde even MORE.."

7. Convince Millie that films don't need happy endings to be good. (Really, they don't!!) Although I know that this probably won't happen until I admit that Tyrone Power is a handsome, good actor, so the chances of this occurring are slim to none.. ;-D

8. Read more. I LOVE to read but by the time I curl up in bed with a book at the end of the night, I'm usually too tired to actually absorb what I'm looking at. My goal this year is to take little reading breaks during the day, when I'm actually awake enough to enjoy it!

9. Stop letting small things bother me so much. When I get a nasty email from a customer, or when someone leaves a comment on my blog that upsets me, I can't stop thinking about it forever. Especially at night I'll just lay in bed with the words running through my mind over and over. Little things really weigh on my mind, and that needs to stop this year. 2010 probably wouldn't have been half as bad if I'd stopped thinking about all the bad things right when they happened, instead of letting them linger in my consciousness all year long.

10. Start my life. I've been floundering for years trying to figure out what I'm doing. Since 2004 I was doing outdoor art festivals selling my pun paintings, then in 2009 I started Flapper Doodle. Neither is really the ideal career for me -- mainly because both involved customer service, a job that I loathe -- but also because these jobs don't make me feel like I'm an artist, but an entrepreneur. And at heart, I'm not a businesswoman in the slightest. I've started looking into schools that do store window design degrees.. might sound odd at first, but I think it fits me (I'm such a Rhoda) The only people I'd have to deal with are my co-workers and my boss -- not customers. I'd get to do something creative, and hands on, without having to do business-y work. It's a job that I could do anywhere in the world, because every country has store windows that need dressing! I think it might just be my perfect job.

11. Spend more time blogging, but take it less seriously. Towards the end of the year I started blogging more often, taking more outfit photos and posting monthly playlists. It was partly because I want to blog and share my interests but also because I've come to think of my blog as a personal diary that I'll have for years to come. For the first time since I started blogging two years ago, I've finally realized that I need to do it for me, not just for readers.

I also want to blog more often on my classic film site, Silents and Talkies. I've been wrestling with it for about a year now, trying to decide if it was worth keeping, why I even blogged there, etc. I've never felt those posts were as good as what other film bloggers turn out. I don't think of myself as a writer in even the most narrow sense of the word, and since that's mainly what I do on Silents & Talkies, I feel intimidated whenever I have to hit the publish button.

But I'm applying my new blog-for-me outlook to that blog as well. If I watch a movie and want to write about what I thought, I should do it. Even if I can't perfectly express with words how I feel about a film, I should do it anyway to have a record of having seen it and know how it affected me at the time. Some people treat classic film blogging as a competition -- there's even a movie blog award thing each year! -- but I'm just going to see it as an online diary of my thoughts on film. Competition of any sort actually makes me feel kind of sick (when I used to compete in art shows I would get literally sick during judging) and -just for me personally - I think that subtracting that from the equation makes everything more fun!

So basically: write more, scrutinize my writing less, don't feel intimidated by better writers, and blog because I want to, not because I hope other people will read it.

2011 will be my year. I just know it. I'm going to make life happen, and stop waiting for it to come to me. I'm improving my outlook, and giving myself a new beginning.

**

One of my blogging idols and dear friends, Diana from Our City Lights is in the hospital today having emergency surgery. Please keep her in your thoughts!