Friday Favorites

Happy Friday the 13th! As you can probably tell, school has officially taken over my life. I'm actually really enjoying my classes and am keeping up with all of my reading assignments (I used to never read, so this is exciting!), which has obviously taken time away from being able to do things like write blog posts. However, every Friday after morning Italian class I get the entire rest of the day off to chill out and take a breather so now I've finally found time to compile my weekly favorites!

First off, I've challenged my friend to post a new photo every day on Instagram this month (Instaptember!) because he's been absolutely obsessed with filters and taking artsy photos wherever we go. I feel obligated to go check them and give him a like for completing each day of this challenge, but I've actually been going on Instagram more to check two of my all-time favorite accounts that I've coincidentally discovered this week. Jermzlee posts daily photos of his adorable pug Norm, and I just can't get enough of his curly q tail and whimsical photos! There's Norm picking up chicks, being a beach bum, and even taking #petselfiez. I've also been loving Pomverte's Instagram. She posts the most beautiful photos of floral and food arrangements, I wish my room could evoke the same sort of feminine romanticism that flows across her account!

In honor of NYFW I've also been checking blogs and Pinterest to see what designers have put down the runway this season. I'd never really paid attention to designer collections before this year, but I've seen so many snippets of some amazing styles for the fall that have now got me gawking over the beautiful clothes, especially in ready to wear collections. My favorite by far has got to be the Honor Spring 2014 Ready to Wear Collection, which is almost preppy boho (if that's even a thing). I just love the prints and colors and the contrast between pale pinks and bright corals with the sophisticated grays and crisp whites. Ahh, love!

I guess now's about the time to introduce my random favorites, since I usually end with makeup but I've got a blog post in the works introducing my everyday items that I have been using this past week (and for a few weeks now, since I don't really change it up that much anyway). I read an engaging article called 12 Surprising Things about Parenting in India, which mentioned some really interesting things about family life in a foreign country with such rich culture and different conditions. Though I'm not thinking of parenting any time in the near future, I really like the idea of having your children be able to experience so much culture and vivacity of life outside of where you as a parent are originally from. I lived in Japan as a toddler but I now wish we could have stayed a bit longer so I could remember more of what we did in regular life instead of exclusively during my summer trips back to visit my family. Now I can't wait to travel and explore the world, and see what beautiful cultures and paces of life exist outside of my little university bubble. On a completely different note, my second random favorite is a playlist (slash tracklist?) by Brother Ali that I've been listening to on repeat called Left in the Deck. I love how it starts out with piano notes and his rhymes flow so smoothly, it's been my go-to playlist whenever I'm getting ready in the morning or waiting for my nightly club meetings to begin. My favorite track is Dial Tone -- the lyrics reference so much of what I've been looking at in media studies this semester and I won't get all analytical on you all now but I respect his lyricism and sincerity. I think school has gone too much to my head, so I'm ready to take a nap and take it easy for the rest of the weekend. TGIF!