purple noon

Yesterday I got to see one of my favorite movies, Purple Noon, at the Film Forum. If you aren't familiar with the film, it's a 1960 French adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel The Talented Mr. Ripley (I like it way better than the 90's version, despite my undying love for Jude Law) and it stars two of my favorite actors, Maurice Ronet and Alain Delon. It's such a good movie, and there's so much that could be said about so many components (the score, the lush cinematography, symbolism) but when I really, really love a film I end up at a total loss when I try to describe why. Suffice to say, everything about it culminates in a movie that fits my personal tastes to a T. If you have hulu plus it's available to stream as part of the Criterion collection!

Naturally I wouldn't be me if I didn't attempt some kind of theme dressing, right? And theme dressing doesn't get much better than having Alain Delon's face on your chest, haha! ;D

shirt - maison bardot | skirt - asos | clutch - asos

happiness is frank sinatra

Today was Frank Sinatra's 100th birthday! I was a total dork and celebrated with a birthday party. I made his spaghetti sauce recipe for dinner, played a Sinatra playlist all day, and ended the party with a screening of It Happened in Brooklyn. I even made commemorative buttons for my guests, haha! And of course, I had to wear my favorite Frank Sinatra t-shirt!

shirt - old | skirt - topshop | shoes - bait footwear

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas

I haven't been in a very festive mood this year for some reason, but my Christmas decorations are up and they're helping a little bit. It's hard not to feel at least a *little* holiday cheer when you have like seven mini Christmas trees in your room ;P I didn't add much to my decoration stash this year, but I did buy some sparkly lilac snowflakes at Hobby Lobby and they're soo pretty. I just used clear push-pins to hang them all over my walls. It's going to be hard to part with them when January rolls around!

thirty before thirty progress

I'm happy to report that I'm making some pretty good progress on my thirty before thirty list, and I've only been 29 for about two weeks!

The biggest thing, and the reason I look like I'm bursting with happiness in this photo, is that I booked a trip to France and Italy for next August! And I'm going alone! I am so excited I keep grinning ear-to-ear. I'm doing a group tour that starts out in Paris and then ends in Rome. So this will take care of numbers 4 (Travel to Europe) and 5 (Travel somewhere alone) on my list. I seriously can't believe I'm actually doing it. I've been dreaming about this my whole life.

I'm doing well with number 1 (learn French) which is really going to come in handy now! I've been trying to use the Duolingo app every night and I've only missed a couple days so far. For number 6 (complete a 30 before 30 watchlist) I've completed the list of movies I want to watch over the next year (you can view the list here) but so far I've only watched one of them. It was Eyes Without a Face, one that I'd been wanting to see for a while and I'm SO GLAD I finally watched it. It's one of my favorite new-to-me movies this year.

I'm also making progress with number 7 (start driving) I actually drove myself to the movies last week! I'm still a little nervous about actually being on the road (I'm mostly scared of other drivers more than anything else) but I feel like I'm very skilled at handling the car now. And once I get even more comfortable I'll be able to really get to work on numbers 28 (go to the movies more often) and 15 (volunteer)

I've made a little headway on number 13 (reading books on the middle ages) I have a book called 1215 that's all about the year that the Magna Carta was signed, and I'm dead set on finishing it while it's still 2015, the 800th anniversary year. I'm about 1/4 of the way through. I also started this book on The Black Death, which seems like it'll be very good, too.

The one that I'm still having a lot of trouble with is 22 (spend my time more wisely) This one is probably going to take all 12 months of being 29 because it's more of a lifestyle change than just trying to complete a task, you know? I waste way too much time on the internet or just dawdling when I should be getting work done. Sometimes I legitimately decide to skip projects entirely because it would take away from my movie-watching time. It's slightly pathetic. I'm working on it though!

That's about it so far. I'm seriously so excited about Paris and Rome, though, I think this must be what it feels like to be in love. I'm giddy and floating and I cannot stop smiling. Somebody pinch me, this can't be real!

shirt - asos