Happy Halloween!

I don't actually celebrate Halloween, but Feather Magazine does. It's always interesting to see the holiday from the eyes of people who really love it. I remember how excited I was for it as a kid, especially because my mom used to make our costumes. I'm not very crafty, but she used to let me think I was helping.

It was fun when I was a kid, but I outgrew it. I had more fun passing out candy and taking my sisters around the neighborhood than dressing up. I don't have any religious reasons for not celebrating it, just personal ones. I feel the same as R.L. Stine wrote about his views in a New York Times editorial last year.

I'm not one to judge other people. I love that other people like it and sometimes I wish I was one of them. But I'm really the type that stays at home watching The Nightmare Before Christmas with a cup of cocoa.

The Tattoo Dream

I actually started looking into the symbolism of feathers because I wanted a feather tattoo. I found the name for my magazine because of that research, but I'm too much of a wimp to get a tattoo. Every time I see one, I'm reminded of my cowardice and I remember how much I still really want one.

This one caught my eye because it looks more natural than others I've seen. Plus, I like this spot on the body for one because it's not really visible.

I'll Be Back in Full Effect Next Week...

...and there will be some awesome changes in the next month or so. Get ready!

By the way, I love this song and video.

 

Money Monday: The Art of Couponing

It's been so long since I wrote one of these posts. And since I really took my finances into account. I told you guys I need this to hold myself more accountable.

In the old days, there were just the coupons you clipped, now there are a million ways to get them digitally, too. Trying to figure it out has been both exciting and overwhelming.

First, I want to mention that if you're looking for coupons for shopping, fitness, etc., then sites like Groupon and LivingSocial are the way to go. I got a pair of shoes from ShoeDazzle for $20 with a Groupon discount. Since every shoe on that site is $40, it turned out to be a 50% discount. And I was able to use the coupon for a year, which helped because I didn't find a pair I really liked until a month or two later. If you're a shopping addict like me, sites like this can help you indulge your addiction without breaking the bank. I actually haven't been shopping since spring, so I'm really proud of myself.

Now that that's out of the way, let's talk about groceries. Clothes are important, but I wouldn't suggest eating a cardigan. Where's the nutritional value in that? I looked around the Internet and found four sites that were immediately bookmarked:

The Krazy Coupon Lady: Anyone who finds a coupon for $1 Kettle chips is a winner in my book. A lot of her information stipulates that it's for the 90210 area code, so some may not translate to your area. It doesn't hurt to find out, though. Thanks to my friend Yara for suggesting this one!

Southern Savers: There are certain stores that are pretty much exclusively located in the south, like Publix. It's nice to have a site that caters to southern chains. They also post a lot of stuff about magazine subscription discounts. I've cut down severely on my monthly magazine budget, so I hope they have a deal soon for a publication that I used to buy regularly.

Smart Source: This is an easy way to go through and check the coupons you like. When you're done, you can print them all out. Instead of the blog format in the others, this one is more straightforward with just the details of the coupon and box to check if you want to print it. I can get through it a lot quicker that way.

Target: I don't know how well known it is that Target puts their coupons on a subdomain. It's a similar set up to Smart Source, but  even easier to find what you're looking for. It also helps relieve some doubts about whether or not items will be a in store. If you get a coupon for a certain brand of chicken online, you can't really be sure if it's at the store you're going to. This gets rid of a little of that inconvenience, but all Target stores aren't exactly created equal.

One thing I'm definitely going to watch is the coupons that want you to buy multiple things. That's how the people on Extreme Couponing end up with a garage full of food that they'll only finish in the event of a nuclear holocaust. I eat frozen food on occasion, so that will be an exception sometimes. A couple of dollars off of three Lean Cuisines is a problem I'd like to have.

Feather Magazine is Here!

The magazine finally launched today after months of hard work and dedication. I'm so thankful for such an amazing staff and to have so many supportive readers! I also feel extremely blessed to have so many great family members and friends who haven't doubted my abilities for a second.

I hope to start blogging regularly again next week, but for now focus on our amazing website!

Night Surfing, Anyone?

I'm sorry for being absent. I've been sick and I got really behind on preparation for the launch. I'm still not 100% better, but the show must go on.

I was just thinking about this night surfing video and decided to share it. I think this is a beautiful short and it takes my breath away every time.

I'll probably still be pretty much a ghost until after our launch next week, but I'm sure you can all live without me. 

Money Monday: My Budget

After my post last week about the beginning of Money Monday, my friend Yara told me she and her boyfriend use a Google Docs template. I didn't even know they made templates! I tried out a couple and found the best fit for me was Personal Monthly Budget by Vertex42. You just enter your information and it does all the work for you. I hate math, so me and this template became fast friends.

The blacked-out parts are my income. I just didn't feel comfortable broadcasting how much I make. It's odd enough for me tell people my expenses. I did get my first part-time paycheck the other day and my lifestyle is really taking a hit, especially because I'm determined not to touch the little I have in savings.

Details:
I don't have that many expenses, which is nice. My rent is pretty cheap at $480 (including Internet/Cable), but my car payment is high at 360.06. My insurance is $149 because I'm young and I got a ticket for "running a red light" (it was yellow!) a year ago on my way to catch a flight to New York from JAX. I used to pay about $65 a month on a cell phone, but my parents put me on their plan for Christmas last year. The $9 is for my Netflix account. I will change it to an exact number after my first billing cycle with their new rates.

I'm trying not to spend more than $60 a month on gas, which means limiting my out-of-town travel. My grocery budget is $150. I'm not sure how much I usually should be spending on groceries because I don't buy them often (I usually eat out), so I'm going to be a couponing fiend and try to only grocery shop at Wal-Mart (I know they're evil, but the budget demands low prices or starvation). That presents a gas problem since it's about a 20-minute drive from my house.

Next week, I'm thinking coupons. Any good coupon websites I should check out?

Song Crush: Maybe I'm Crazy

I'm a huge lover of music covers. My favorites are rock covers of soul songs and vice versa. This Alice Russell cover of Crazy by Gnarls Barkley does really fit either of those categories, but it takes a more soulful approach to the song.

There's an actual performance video she did in a church, but it's so overdone that it ruins the song a bit for me. It should really just be about the emotion.

 

Fishtail Braid: A Love Story

A fishtail braid seemed perfect for work today.

Money Monday

I've been thinking a lot about my money lately. Two reasons:

• I just went from working full-time all summer to working part-time (3 days/wk) again.
• I want to go to graduate school next fall if I don't have a steady position by then, so I need to start figuring out how to save now because I really want to focus more on interning than working.

I bank with Wells Fargo (I was with Wachovia and they switched, so I had no choice) and they have this awesome Money Map feature that tells you how your money is being spent. I got some shocking results. I spent $452.64 on retail in July. In July and August, I spent a total of $360.27 on restaurants. The past couple of months, I've spent more, $708.22 total, than I've made. I don't even want to talk about how little I have in savings.

Why am I telling you this? Two other reasons:

• I want to discuss finances every week because I'm stepping my game up and I'll be learning a lot more about it. Welcome to Money Monday, guys!
• I hope the possible embarrassment of other people knowing that I suck with money will help me do better.

My next paycheck will be my first with only three days. After that I'll know how much money I'm earning every month and I can make a budget.

Long term, I need to start thinking about life insurance and one day I might have a mortgage. Practice makes perfect, so it's time to start practicing. 

Any tips on how to make the most of my money?

Ghandi Fundamentals

Been too busy to post. I leave you with Ghandi's Top 10 Fundamentals. I found it on Tumblr and I have no time to check its accuracy. Regardless, these are good tips for how to live.

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

I'm in Miami for the weekend. One of my best friends turns 21 on Monday, so we're celebrating her birthday by staying at a really nice hotel near South Beach and letting the days and nights take us where they will. I hope you all have a great weekend!

By the way, Feather Magazine announced our editors' blog launch on Monday with exclusive coverage of New York Fashion Week, original content written by the editors and behind-the-scenes views of the magazine. Follow us on Twitter to stay on top of everything!

Feather Magazine Launch Date

We promised you the release of our launch date when we got 500 followers on Twitter. We just hit that mark yesterday, so I'm making good on the promise.

Feather Magazine will launch...

OCTOBER 12 

Before anyone gets sad because it seems so far away, we're filling September full of awesome surprises to thank everyone for their support. I can't say what the surprises are yet, but you will not want to miss them! Follow this blog or our Facebook to make sure you don't miss anything!

If you'd like to follow our editors, see the links on the right under "Daily Reads." Their blogs are seriously awesome.

Friday Faves

I started the week throwing a very small birthday dinner party for a close friend who was passing through town on her way back to New Orleans. Then, I spent Monday with another close friend at Harry Potter World. When I had free time during this week, I was designing the Feather Magazine website on half of my computer monitor and watching Camelot on the other half. Leave it to me to get addicted to a series that only has 10 episodes. 

Here are a few other things I love this week:

This Beyonce performance of "Bohemian Rhapsody,"
"The Beautiful Ones" and "Sex on Fire."

This snapshot of my first Butterbeer at Harry Potter World. It's
the best drink ever.

We reached 500 followers on Twitter! As promised, I will release our
launch date on a post later today.

This is my guilty pleasure.

This photo from Le Blog de Betty.

via pinterest

A week in Paris is basically five minutes, but it was an awesome five minutes. Well, it was awesome if I forget that we were almost kidnapped like that girl in Taken. It's a long story that I'll save for another post.

I went during my last semester of college for a class I loved that allowed me the opportunity to study Parisian magazines, as well as our course of study.

I've been missing it a lot lately since I've been blogging from Feather Magazine's Tumblr and using Pinterest. All I see on both websites are endless photos of Paris. I never shared any from my trip on here, so I decided to post a few.

I went for a class called Blacks in Paris and one of the public figures we
studied was Josephine Baker. The hotel where she used to live now has
an entire floor dedicated to her.

Everybody told me French restaurants give small portions, but they
give hearty portions and the food is amazing.

The Arc de Triomphe may look small here, but it's massive. And we
climbed to the top of it in a really tight spiral staircase.

The view from the top of the Arc de Triomphe. You can see the
entire city.

If you look very closely you can see a structure in the center of the
picture, all the way in the back. It's the church that's in the next
photograph.

This is the most beautiful church I've ever been to
called Sacré-Cœur Basilica. And the view from the
amphitheater in front of it is amazing. There
were so many people I couldn't get a good photo
of that view, though.

The best time to go to the Eiffel Tower
is at night because the light show is
spectacular. It actually sparkles!

Versailles was even more extravagant than everyone says. I found
a lot  of sadness hidden in the beautiful things and
paintings there. FYI: It's about 45 minutes outside of Paris
on the RER, so it's not really in Paris.

How long until I can go back?

Friday Five

In an effort to post more frequently, I'm going to post five of my favorite things right now every week.

My gold graduation shoes from Lulu's.

After four long and grueling years, I'm finally graduating from college tomorrow. I'm not one for a lot of people coming to my events, so it worked out well that only my immediate family will be able to come. Even with a smaller crowd, I can't go out without a little style. More importantly, a little personal style.

I used to have a pair of sequined gold ballet shoes from Old Navy in high school, but I accidentally left them in a hotel room in Tennessee, along with my favorite denim jacket (I've never found one I loved as much), so I chose to give myself a blast from the past that reflects who I am now.

Everyone always called them Dorothy shoes. As a fun fact, in the two major motion picture adaptations of the Wizard of Oz, she never wears gold shoes. In the 1939 eponymous film version, Judy Garland wore red shoes because they wanted to show the wonders of Technicolor and in The Wiz Diana Ross wears silver shoes like Dorothy did in the original text.

Lucy Lui's hair in Season 3, Episode 3 of Ally McBeal
(I've been working my way through the series)

Adele's entire 21 album, especially this song.

This outfit on Kendi from Kendi Everyday.

Portia di Rossi's wedding dress because I just
noticed her tulle is pink.

No Name Slob

Jacket: LC Lauren Conrad for Kohl's; Dress & Shoes: Gifted

I took a quick picture before I went to dinner with some friends tonight. I wore this bubble dress to a joint recognition-lecture ceremony with a crochet bolero last week, but I remixed it for this with a tip from Lauren Conrad--adding a motorcycle jacket to give edge to a sweet look. Ironically, the motorcycle jacket is from her line for Kohl's. It's pretty lightweight, which is perfect for a summer in the South. I wore my hair like Lori Loughlin from her Full House days to add a little extra edge.

By the way, do you love the shoes? I had a pair of Mary Janes that broke and, because she knows my love for that particular design, bought them for me as a birthday gift. They get nothing but compliments.

The better part of my morning was spent writing and the afternoon was spent hanging out with my friend Stephanie as she wasted time while her car was being serviced. After she spent a ridiculous amount of money on three items of clothing from Ross, we went to PetSmart and I got a fish! I wasn't sure what to name him at first, but I settled on Fish. I love Breakfast at Tiffany's, so I took the idea from the name of her cat--Cat. The title to this post is also an ode to the film.

He came in a little cup and I carried him around with
me on errands until I got home.

I made a nice little home for him between my Lauren
Conrad books and Paris travel guides. And, yes,
his fish bowl is shaped like a Brandy glass.