Tuesday, November 27, 2012

A Touchy Subject

I was about to hang out with a boy when my roommate was trying to make bets that he would try to make a move on me. I told her that nothing was going to happen even though I wasn't going to be surprised if he tried to make one. But I was dealt something refreshing. We watched a whole movie all the way through with a little conversation here and there. When I got back home, I was happy to report to my roommate, "He didn't even touch me! He hugged me when I left!" Not long after, the same thing happened with another boy. I came back and said, "He didn't even touch me!" But with a little confusion.

I told one of my close friends and she said, "Good!" She thought it was respectful and mature of them. I agreed that I did like that respect and it was a little different for me. But I couldn't help but wonder why they hadn't tried to make a little move or even get close to me?

It was just a couple weeks later when that same friend texted me, "So...I totally understand your whole 'he wouldn't even touch me' comment now..." I talked to her about it and she told me that she had hung out with a guy and all he did was give her a hug. She had this awkward feeling and wondered why he didn't try or if she did something wrong. Was he attracted? He said he was?

It has become a fine line and a "touchy" subject at this age of ours. Is there really a "too little" that goes opposite to "too much" for one of your first times hanging out with the opposite sex?

We battle with these feelings as girls. We like that they are not trying to be all over us, but at the same time, we wouldn't mind a little something. Sit a little closer, hold a hand, a goodnight kiss? What is "too little" and what is "too much?"

Share your thoughts!
You can email me at glitterandthegirlygirl@gmail.com, tweet me @rachelnmsparkle, or comment on here!

Sparkle & Shine,
Rachel


Saturday, November 24, 2012

Tiffany & Co.


A “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” poster hangs over my bed in Emporia and another one graces the wall over my night stand in Kansas City. Anna and I also have an Audrey Hepburn poster framed in our living room. I have never seen the movie all the way through. I tried once my freshman year of college one night when I had the room to myself, but just couldn't get into it. I have been meaning to try to watch it again because it is a classic and for some reason I have a thing for it and Audrey Hepburn as she keeps taking more and more wall space in my life.

My sister got a Tiffany’s necklace a couple years ago that I’ve always thought was cute and I wanted to get something like it myself. When I started to work at Fazoli’s over the summer, I soon discovered that customers would leave a little tip here and there for us that we could take. I decided I would save all of mine and get something special for myself. It didn’t take long for me to decide that it would be a Tiffany’s necklace. While other people would spend their tips that day on food and snacks, I would stash whatever I had in my pockets for the night and then empty them into a fishbowl I placed over my TV as motivation. Soon it was starting to pile up over time.

I had to stop working at Fazoli’s during the semester due to school. My sister got me an amazingly special necklace for being her Maid of Honor in her wedding that says my name on a heart charm and then Sparkle & Shine on a circle charm. I decided I didn’t want to get a necklace from Tiffany’s because I wouldn’t want to have to always alternate and pick and choose which necklace to wear. I already wear bracelets and watches, but what I didn’t really have much of or wear are rings. That’s when I decided to change what I wanted to a ring.

I counted the money I had saved from tips and I had enough to cover half of it. My goal was to have enough by my birthday so I could have it as a gift to myself. I only had about a month to save, so I started to work more hours at work and tried to cut back on spending money. There were times I thought I might not be able to get it my birthday weekend and might have to wait until Thanksgiving break until I had enough money.

Things worked out though and I was able to get it the day before my birthday! My sister took me before we went out to dinner at my favorite place. I was all dressed up in my black dress from the wedding and pink heels with rhinestones. They even had my size there at the store. It was so pretty with all the lights, all the sparkle. I felt a little like Audrey Hepburn. The two women that helped me gave me a little bag tied with ribbon along with a ribbon tied box. I was able to wear my ring out of the store.

Now, there is a lot of meaning that goes into this. This isn’t just me buying a birthday gift for myself. This ring means a lot to me in many ways. One of them is the fact that I was able to set my mind to a goal and achieve it. A goal that involved saving money. I am now in my second year of having to pay my own bills and groceries as I live on my own in college. My first year, I was not successful in budgeting and I ended up over spending money. It was definitely one of the biggest failures for me yet and I don’t know if I had ever been that disappointed in myself. I am still learning and still catching up, but I am definitely more aware of cutting back. This occasion let me know that I can save up and I can work hard to get something that I want. I made it a point to save on my own. I didn’t want help or to use birthday money. I wanted to use my own money for it.

Another thing that makes it important to me is the symbolism of independence and empowerment. I wore a ring for a long time from someone in which I depended on for way too much. I was depending on somebody to buy me things, take me out all the time, and make me happy. Something that my Mom has told me more than once is to not depend on someone else to make me happy. That is what I was doing for a long time. It was as if it had gotten deep into me and it has taken quite some time and experience to undo that and learn how to make myself happy. Now I am so much better at being on my own, being independent, strong and empowered.

When I first thought about the idea of getting myself a ring from Tiffany’s, it almost seemed like a radical one. How many girls do something like that? This made me reflect on the views and ideas of society and how it works. Are we supposed to wait until we find a great guy that is willing to buy us one? It kind of seems crazy to me. Sometimes I do feel a little odd when I tell people that I bought myself a ring because it doesn't seem like a normal thing to do. Maybe I am a little weird to do that according to society standards, but I am okay with that because I wanted to prove to myself that I could save up and work hard for it and that I can be independent and make myself happy. I don’t really have time to wait around for a guy to buy me one either. Let’s just try something simple like going on a date and I’ll be happy with that. And I can’t help that I like the ring and I think it’s pretty!

Sparkle & Shine,
Rachel 



Monday, November 12, 2012

Review: Skyfall OPI Collection

It was months before it was supposed to come out when Jessica & I started scoping out the newest OPI collection that is inspired by the new James Bond movie, Skyfall. We immediately fell in love with a certain combo of two colors called The World Is Not Enough and The Living Daylights. We knew right away that The Living Daylights would be just like Rainbow Connection from last year's Muppets collection. It was going to sell out fast. So Jessica was on the look out and she was able to snag us both these amazing colors that really lived up to our expectations. We even found out that The World Is Not Enough is pretty enough just by itself too. The Living Daylights is unique and different because the glitter is all the same size and it is the bigger glitter than what you normally see in nail polish. It also has an awesome fall color variety of golds, silver, light pink, and turquoise. I highly recommend and would encourage you to try to find The Living Daylights as soon as you can because it will probably be sold out and be a limited time thing like Rainbow Connect last year in which I missed out on!

Here are photos. The one to the left is the color combination I just talked about and then the right, I used It's My Year under The Living Daylights and was happy with out it looks. Great for my birthday week :)
Sparkle & Shine,
Rachel


Revision


Revising is not my favorite thing to do when it comes to writing. I usually like to get it mostly done the way I want and then don't make very many changes after. If I do make changes to a poem, it is simple changes like cutting a word here or there, switching lines around, or changing a line or two. Now that I am taking poetry class and my project for my creative writing seminar is poetry, I have had to learn to revise. 

I have never been so obsessed with perfecting a poem as much as I have been with a poem I wrote called, "City Lights." I shared it with you guys when I first wrote it back in August. It's probably been through at least 5 other drafts as I have work shopped it in both of my classes getting feedback from my fellow students in my classes and two professors. I even had the chance to submit a poem for a visiting poet to look over and I got to sit down with him one day and talk it over and take the critiques he had written down too. It was a neat opportunity! His name is William (Bill) Sheldon. You can look him up on Google! A Kansas poet and author.

So I wanted to share the latest draft. I looked back at what I had posted on here and it is amazing how much it has changed! Oh, the beauty of writing, words, and revision. 

This is the original first draft.
City Lights
It's a whirlwind night
Surrounded by 
City lights
Strings of them
Wrapped in limbs of trees
Twinkle
A beautiful monument
Makes it a romantic
Place where I'm glad to be
In this unfamiliar city
The hum of cars pass
By on the brick roads
Of the round about
Conversations float in the air
From people walking around
And I'm enjoying the company
Of a boy from LA
That just bought me ice cream
From a shop across the way
We indulge
We chat
As we sit on the ledge
We pass flirting
Now on the edge
Of a crush
When I so easily blush
He spits out the chocolate chips
Because he only likes the mint
We talk school
We talk religion
He plays it cool
Makes it a mission
To pick on me
To get closer to me
Like any boy that plays games
It was today I learned his name
As I stand before him
I slip my arms around his neck
Our pauses
Longer
Knowing what's next
It's right
It's now
We don't make a sound
We both ease in
To a perfect first kiss
For a perfect moment
On a whirlwind night
Surrounded by city lights

The latest draft.
City Lights
It’s a whirlwind night surrounded
by city lights,
strings of them wrapped in limbs of trees
twinkle.
A beautiful monument makes it romantic
in this unfamiliar city.
Cars pass by on brick roads
of the roundabout.
Conversations float in the air
from people walking by.
And I‘m with a 
a boy from UCLA
that just bought me ice cream
from a little shop
across the way.
It was today I learned his name,
Turner.
We take a seat on a ledge
and pass the flirting,
now on the edge
of a crush.
He spits out the chocolate chips
because he only likes the mint.
We talk school
and we talk religion.
The first Mormon I’ve come across.
He plays it cool and makes it a mission
to pick on me,
to get a little closer.
I slip my arms around his neck,
our pauses become longer.
It’s right.
Its’ now.
We don’t make a sound.
We both ease in
to that first little kiss
We smile,
and kiss
again and again.
My hands explore his hair,
bleached from the sun.
His hands pull me closer
and I become undone.
People pass
and time keeps going
without neither of us noticing.


Sparkle & Shine
Rachel 


Thursday, November 1, 2012

Practice What You Preach & Follow

I've noticed that I have been more aware of what I do and how I want to lead by example. In Ambassadors, being part of the exec board, we try to stress leading by example. We took an oath in the Blue Key Honor Society to lead by example and being founder of BUILD Beauty, I definitely have found myself trying to do that. Now it has even crept into my fashion since becoming a writer for a fashion blog for Emporia State's newspaper. (You can see it on esubulletin.com!) My last post for it had helped me to wear a scarf I had gotten over summer and have been waiting to break out!

In my persuasive speech I gave this morning in class, I had encouraged my class to vote in the election. I officially mailed in my first ballot soon after class. I was so happy and felt grown up voting for the first time. I wasn't old enough the last election and I was glad I went through the advanced voting process so I could participate still while being away for college. 

This made me think about how I try to lead by example and practice what I preach. If I am going to tell the class to vote, I should vote too. If I am going to tell girls to wear scarves in my fashion blog, I should probably wear scarves too. If I am trying to get girls to believe in themselves, I should believe in myself too. There really can be a magical and powerful thing to practice what you preach. You should try to think of areas where you can be a leader or an example and what you can do to practice that. 

                                                                    
                                                                           &&&

If you have read past posts, you may know I am into poetry. I am working on a poetry project in my Seminar of Creative Writing class and I am also taking a poetry writing class as well. So this semester I have been really delving into it, exploring and broadening my poetry. Definitely trying new and different things. I feel like there are a lot of times things will come to me or while I am in  moments and situations I try to think of how they would fit into a poem. For some reason, the word, "follow" has been lurking in my brain for awhile lately. So I finally did something about it in class today when I was bored. The first lines that were coming to mind were, "follow your heart" and "follow your faith." So I went with it and let it take me through this poem. I ended up playing with words, patterns, and humor. It even got me thinking how it could comment on society in a way. I thought it was cool that I hadn't had this intention in mind. That it just happened to work out that way. That's a beautiful thing about poetry and writing. So here it is. I guess I should call it follow? It would probably be the thing to do.

Follow

Follow your faith
Follow your heart
Follow your dreams
Follow me on Twitter

Strengthen your faith
Guard your heart
Believe your dreams
But, follow me on Twitter

Practice your faith
Exercise your heart
Chase your dreams
But, follow me on Twitter

Never lose your faith
Never close your heart
Never quit your dreams
But, really follow me on Twitter

For real, though.
You can follow me @rachelnmsparkle

                                                                             &&&

Sparkle & Shine,
Rachel 

P.S. Don't forget to vote!
P.P.S. You should check out One Republic's "Feel Again" music video. I am a tad bit obsessed with it and wish I was at the place in the video. I also find the singer attractive. The song makes me want to dance and sing. :)