Flora Fauna & Merryweather

If you want something bad enough, earn it. Anything worth doing will actually take time and discipline. I wanted to become a derby girl after watching Whip It. I wanted a $300 pair of Reidell skates to accomplish this dream. Instead I bought a $35 pair of Chicagos and told myself to go to the rink once a week until I could skate like mutha futha Van Halen. Needless to say, only one week at the rink and almost two years later, I did not earn those Reidells.

The first major I ever declared in college was photography, but I dropped it after I let the intimidation of my more-talented peers get to me. But I didn't give up photography altogether; Christmas of 2010 I bought myself a camera. I wanted a DSLR, but knew I needed to put in the effort for that price tag. So I bought a cheaper point & shoot with manual features so I could manual myself to the top of my game. One year and thousands of photos later, I earned myself my beloved Nikon, Annie.

I also had to earn Fauna, who made her spring debut a few days ago. The taste of summer draws nigh.

p.s. Yes, Simon is wearing a bibdana.

Starlite

Why yes, that is Van Halen on roller skates.

Seve took me to the roller rink this weekend so that I could live out my new dream of being a bona fide roller skater. Once we got there, I found myself totally nervous to skate and frankly, not very good at it. I was one of five people over the age of seven actually on skates; everyone else had roller blades and totally rocked on them, including my husband. I brought in my own personal skates, the wheels of which I had slaughtered by skating outdoors (they were meant for the rink only) and the owner wouldn't let me use them ("Crazy kids! Those wheels are ruined! Might as well rub sandpaper on my rink!) Luckily they had wheels there for me to buy and he gave me some that I can supposedly use outdoors and indoors . . . we'll see how that goes. He and his sweet little wife (wearing a lovely beret with a big ol' flower on it) put them on for me and I was ready to go. They were a sweet, funny old couple who've owned the Starlite Skating Rink for 34 years and told us their tales of speed skating and how $400 will get you a 'decent' pair of skates.

In other news, I'm officially an Isaacs! For any friends who haven't changed their name yet, I'd recommend MsNowMrs.com . . . good site for gathering all your paperwork together (for a fee). Though you could easily just get these docs yourself, this site saves time, especially with my 8-5 that only allows an hour for me to run errands.

original image via.