Teen Fashion Blog: Coachella Inspired Outfit

Posted in Uncategorized by cardigansandnecklaces

Coachella 2016 is coming up in April and I’ve recently had a small dream of going and experiencing what it’s all about. Coachella is basically an art and music festival on steroids. I say that it’s a festival where all the hippies go to party and have fun. Now I’m a pretty uptight person but I like to be able to let loose and have fun as much as I can yet it can be hard. I think an environment like Coachella would allow me to let loose and have fun like the rest of some of the hippies there. I was looking at the lineup and some big names are going to end up performing at the festival. Some of the acts that will be seen include Sia, Years & Years, Zedd, Ice Cube, Disclosure, Ellie Goulding, Of Monsters and Men, Alssia Cara, Calvin Harris, and many other musicians!

Something else that I love about Coachella is the fashion! The style that you will find at Coachella is a lot of boho. This style is very relaxed and all about being carefree, kind of like the festival. When I think boho I think loose clothing, fringe, lace, and flower crowns! Me being my girly little self absolutely adores flower crowns. I had done a boho inspired look back in the summer and I decided that it would be perfect for a Coachella outfit. I’m wearing a blue jumper that is fairly loose. I paired it up with a nice headband that ran across my forehead the way a flower crown would. I also wore some fairly large earrings because the jumper’s top was low cut and I didn’t wear any jewelry around my neck. To match the large silver circles in the earrings, I wore a belt that had a large buckle. To finish off the look I wore some silver sandals to top the boho look off. I may not be able to attend the real Coachella but maybe I’ll be invited to a Coachella inspired party!

23Jul2014

Teen Fashion: Quinceañera Fit for a Queen

Posted in OOTD: Outfit of the Day by cardigansandnecklaces

Last year in the beginning of my 9th grade school year, one of my friends came to me with the idea about how she was going to have a quinceañera. I thought it was an awesome idea and that it would be great for her to have one. Moments later she then asked me to be one of her damas. Damas are pretty much the bridesmaids of the quinceañera. I was super stoked to be one. She talked about it all year and threw out some ideas. She started having some gatherings at her house so that her and all the damas could plan on the dance and the dresses we had to wear. We originally were supposed to find dates but none of us could find a date or keep a date in time for the party, so she cancelled having dates. The only person who found a date in time was the birthday girl herself which was great and needed anyways.

Two weeks before the party we started meeting up every day to learn the dance. It is tradition that at a quinceañera the damas and the birthday girl do a dance with their dates, in this case we had to do it without dates. Coming up with a good dance was sort of difficult because we all had our own opinions and some of us could and couldn’t pick up certain moves. Also it was hard to teach everybody the dance because not everybody would be at each rehearsal so we would have to go back and teach the people who weren’t there the day before. I will admit that it was pretty fun learning the dance. During our breaks we would play games like hide and go seek, we even made a Harlem Shake video just for fun.

Since I was a dama, that meant I had a very specific dress code to go under. All the damas have to look the same, so that meant wearing the same dress. We all wore a white dress that was one sleeved and had a gold piece that served as the one sleeve and had gold and silver embellishments on it. It was a fairly simple dress so it wasn’t very hard to style. We also had to wear gold, white, or silver shoes with the dresses. We were only supposed to wear minimal jewelry, which was simple silver or gold earrings. We had to have our hair up in some sort of bun, I decided to go with a messy bun to style it a bit differently. Makeup was very simple, but we had to wear a bold red lip stick color. All the damas looked great because we all made sure to stay within the dress code and we ended up looking amazing together and matched the birthday girl’s dress very well.

It came to the time of the party and all the damas were pretty nervous about the dance. I mean it’s not often you stand in front of a bunch of people and bust out your moves for their entertainment, at least not often for me. Before we got to the party we made sure to take some pictures of all the damas and the birthday girl. The first set of pictures were taken by mom because she insisted on it, I think she wanted the practice. The next round of pictures were taken by the birthday girl’s mom, we drove to some water fountains and took some nice pictures there. The next stop was the party and I was sort of freaking out and making sure I remembered the dance because I was the one who had to lead everyone into the dance, it was sort of scary for me. We got there and came in to the building in an orderly fashion. The DJ announced that birthday girl had just walked into the building and everyone started clapping. The birthday girl and the damas were seated in their own table at the front of the room, kind of like the king and queens.

Just moments after sitting down we were rushed onto the floor so that we could do our dance. We had some troubles at first because the DJ started too early and he couldn’t hear us when we were telling him to rewind the song, this caused me to freak out a bit more. The track then started and I walked out and started dancing and the girls came after one by one. The dance went so smoothly and well by what I could see. Everyone seemed to remember each part and there was no trouble! That was a huge load off my shoulders. The rest of the night consisted of me rapping to “Can’t hold us”, dancing the Gangnam Style, the Cupid Shuffle, and the Electric Slide. Also they played some hispanic music to which I dance with my parents (remembering how we used to dance back in Puerto Rico). I also made sure to teach a few moves to my friends while I was at it.

In all I would have to say that I did have a lot of fun. I had fun being able to hang out with my friends and just have fun and let loose. We all were dancing and smiling, I would say we all had fun. I’m mostly happy that I was able to be there for my friend on her birthday because you only turn 15 once. I would have to say that my first quinceañera was a success and I hope to be attending more in the future!

22Jun2014

AFI Top 100 Movies #1: Citizen Kane or Citizen Lame?

Posted in Teen Lifestyle by cardigansandnecklaces

My mom is a huge stickler about teaching my sister and I how to become more cultured. Last summer she had us learn all the different art periods and the top 100 paintings and artists. Having to learn this was a major bore and I threw a fit every time she called us into her room to learn more. She also had us read a huge book on mythology which I actually enjoyed because I loved learning about the different Greek gods and the stories associated with them all. This year my mom has decided to have us learn all the classical music periods. I have really enjoyed listening to all of the different styles of music but could pass up the music lectures any day! My mom also decided that she is going to have us watch the 100 greatest american films of all time. She wants my family to finish all 100 of them before I go off to college but at the rate we’re going at we’ll probably be done by the end of the summer. Ok, I’m exaggerating a bit.

The 100 greatest films of all time are movies that have been chosen by an American Film Institute’s panel which includes more than 1,500 leaders of the film industry. When I first heard about my mom telling me that she wanted to watch all 100 movies I was super excited because I don’t have to go through any boring lectures and I get to lay back and enjoy movies that have been picked by many actors and directors. My mom had me watch the movie that was rated number one on the list, Citizen Kane. I kid you not when I tell you that it was difficult for me not to daze off. It felt like the movie lasted forever and as if it was going nowhere! It took place in the 1940’s so the effects were pretty cheesy and I can’t stand cheesy effects. Plus the movie was in black and white and I like being able to see my movies with color. It adds more life to the movie and even personality. I do understand that this was a gigantic achievement for the film industry when it came out but I’m 14 and let’s face it, all the movies from my time are in color and with way cooler effects.

I didn’t like the movie but I do remember that afterwards my dad, sister, and I started making fun of it. In the beginning of the movie we get Citizen Kane’s last word which was “Rosebud”. We laughed because it was a really odd choice of words to say when you die and of course we couldn’t stop from thinking of a certain biological need (if you catch my drift). I also remember that after the movie ended my dad and I were so bored that we took a champagne bottle cork and his flip flops and started playing a ping pong like game that we called flip flop pong! Every time we hit the cork we got a point and the points where scored in “rosebuds”. I know, it is stupid but we needed some sort of exercise to wake up. 🙂

Of course as a little fashionista, I had to pay attention to the clothes that the girls were wearing which was pretty much the only fun I got out of the whole movie. There was not a lot of fashion as the movie concentrates mainly on the main character, Mr. Kane. However, because Kane was pretty rich, he was able to buy his wives a lot of things. Some of the things they got were nice looking clothes and accessories for the era and I can always appreciate nice vintage pieces. In the first picture, his first wife Emily is wearing a dress where the sleeves come down to her shoulders with lace and flower details. The other two pictures are his second wife, Susan Kane. In the first picture Susan was wearing some sort of shawl with a fur detail and a hat with waves in the front. The second picture shows her in a sheer shawl with crystal embellishments. This last outfit was my favorite outfit that came out of this movie because of how elegant it is.

And here I am as Mrs. Kane!

Me as Mrs. Kane

7Apr2014

Me, Myself, and I: Chorus Girl

Posted in Teen Lifestyle by cardigansandnecklaces

The first Sunday of every month I am going to start posting a post that tells you guys a little more about me. I think that it’s important that all of my readers know something about me, it helps you guys get an idea of the type of person I am. I am going to be talking about hobbies, things I like, goals for my future, interesting stories about things I have experienced in my life so far, and anything else that will help you guys create a better picture of who I truly am. I have already mentioned a lot of things in my about section, but with these posts I will go more into depth about certain things and mention some more stuff you have not read before.

I love to sing and I love music, the feeling I get when I sing feels unreal. I sing so much around my house that I’m pretty sure that it’s starting to bother my family. Music is a big part of my life, I just love listening to the rhythm and trying to match it with my voice. I use music and singing as my stress reliever, because I think about the lyrics instead of what I’m worrying about. I love singing and music so much that I even joined chorus back in 5th grade. I got in and loved it ever since. Even though I didn’t join chorus in 6th and 7th grade, I got back into chorus in 8th grade. In chorus, we treat each other like family. Some of the people have arguments between themselves, but they always make up in the end. Recently I tried out for show choir, and I am happy to say that I got in! I’m super excited because ever since I watched the show Glee, all I ever wanted was to join a singing group like that. I love the concept of dancing along to music that I hear on the radio. I am so excited to start show choir because I have met a few of the upperclassmen in there and they are some pretty cool people! I plan to stay in chorus and show choir every year I am in high school. It feels good to have a class where I don’t have to stress about home work or upcoming tests.

Me, myself, and I chorus fanatic Something I don’t like about chorus is the attire. We have to wear this all black dress that is really simple with black flats. Not a very fun dress and not something I would wear by choice. My dad always make comments on how creepy I look because of the dress. One of the pictures above shows the full dress that I have to wear to every concert. The other picture shows a small part of the chorus on stage getting ready to sing one of the Festival pieces. In chorus right now we are working on Broadway pieces that will be preformed at our spring concert. We will be recreating the Tony Awards at our school with the Rhoades Awards! Mrs. Rhoades is our chorus teacher and she is really preppy and nice, she is a huge Broadway and Disney princess fanatic. The group I am in right now will be performing a Thoroughly Modern Milly song medley. Our opening and ending will be Anything Goes, which is all chorus groups dancing and singing. Maybe one of these days I will be able to post a YouTube video of one of our performances so you guys can get a better picture of what our chorus groups are like.