Gingers At The Beach

As a red head I'm blessed/cursed with seriously pale skin. I really don't mind it that much, as long as I have SPF of at least 50 (Preferably 100+ by Neutrogena). I love the pool and the beach, but gingers burn to a crisp, then freckle (no tanning for this girl) but that's ok because gingers look ridiculous tan anyway.

So here's the Ginger Girl's guide for what to bring to a day at the beach with healthy skin afterward. 

1. A big floppy sun hat. This is a must my dears, if your skin is not exposed to the sun then there's no way for it to get burnt! I have one I bought from The Gap a few years ago and I simply adore it! It came with some sort of nasty straw tie which I promptly removed and replaced with a black grosgrain ribbon that is tied in a large bow. I always feel like an old movie star with my floppy brim that droops over my eyes, it's just so mysterious! 

(Side Note: Please excuse the expressions on Pepperdine Princess and my face, me were making fun of our photographer. This was at the male 1/2 of That Couple's Kentucky Derby themed 18th Birthday party)

(Additional side note, don't you just love the dress? Minus the wrinkles of course. It was my first J. Crew purchase!)

2. Sunblock. Self explanatory, however, all to easily forgotten. If you're feeling like gaining a freckle or two then by all means go for something like SPF 50, but be sure it has broad spectrum UV ray protection. Don't forget to re apply at least every hour! A good spray on sunblock is easy and fast, less fuss and much easier to use than the traditional lotion. And remember people, no matter how shady it is outside, UV rays like to sneak through the clouds and you can never be to careful!  

3. Sunnies. Everyone needs a good pair of shades and there is a time and a place for them, but the beach is neither the time nor the place. Salt water and sand will do nothing good a good pair of sunnies. My advice: save your Ray Bans for a day out shopping, go to Target and get the cheep pair, they'll serve you well and keep your good pair safe and intact. 

Now lets be honest, can you really tell the difference between the top and bottom pairs besides the branding? They look almost the same. A day at the beach is totally not worth ruining your best shades. Be kind to the shades and get a cheep pair. Yes I would love to have an expensive pair of shades too, but they could be ruined in an instant.

Top, Target $11vs. Ray Ban for $150

Top, Target glasses $15 vs. Ray Ban for $200

4. One word for you, Tugs. Billed as "The Original Sunglasses Complement" Tugs most certainly are! I'm DYING for a pair! The seersucker tugs are RIDICULOUSLY cute! Personally, I'd go for the pink with baby blue embroidery! I can just see myself at the pool or beach in my Ralph Lauren bikini and Vera Bradley towel. Oh lordy, please let me babysit soon so I can buy them ! Then I can die happy. 

5. Speaking of, Vera Bradley makes quite an excellent towel line. My personal favorite being the Summer Cottage towel. Yes please. So colorful and happy! And in my 2 favorite colors of blue and pink!

6. Rubber flip flops. This one is important people, don't wear your best shoes to the beach or pool, the beach is sandy and will end up EVERYWHERE, especially in shoes. You need shoes that will be easy to wash off and not be ruined easily by water or sand. 

7. A good book. Pale people unite! Under the shade, wrapped in an umbrella, wearing a hat, and plenty of sunblock. A great book is the key to a great beach trip. Chances are you'll not spend all your time in the water, a great book will keep you entertained and happy while not getting burnt by the sun. My personal pick for a beach read, The Princess Bride by S. Morgenstern, rewritten by William Goldman. When I was a kid The Princess Bride was my favorite movie (except for the Star Wars series of course). It never lost it's magic. Recently I've actually read the book (confession, I didn't know it was a real book until Januaryish) and enjoyed it thoroughly. It is written in an extremely witty fashion that seems modern even though it was written 1973. Go get it! I mean it, run, don't walk, RUN to the local book store or library and GET IT!

Opt To Adopt!

Today I'd like to take on a more serious topic, the adoption of pets. 

It might not seem that serious, but did you know that of the 6-8 million pets that enter shelters each year, 3-4 million of them are killed? 

My local animal shelter is a kill friendly animal shelter. That DOES NOT mean that they like putting animals down, however often they do not have the resources necessary to take care of the animal, or the animal is deemed "unadoptable" due to behavior problems or age. 

Here at the Princess Palace (mom's house) we are incredibly animal friendly, just ask our neighbor's cat Pumpkin who wanders in to the house sometimes. After Hurricane Ike we learned via twitter that thousands of animals had been abandoned when their owners fled the storm and were now flooding the shelter and in need of homes. While Teacher Mom is firmly against adding another pet to the family, direct quote "I want you to go to college, the cat to die, and end alone with my books", she would consent to fostering animals. Fostering is a program where you take an animal, or animals, home with you, but it's temporary, you actively attempt to find it a good home. 

So we've had our fair share of animals at the Princess Palace, our newest resident is Phoebe, a 5 month old calico cat. And despite my best efforts to convince Teacher Mom to keep her, Phoebe needs a forever home and someone to love her. If you live in the Houston area adopt her at the Portifino center Pet's Mart on Saturday between 11 and 4!

Another important point is that instead of buying a fancy pure bread puppy consider adopting an animal from your local shelter, they need homes and unless you act they could be killed just because no one wanted them. 

Just something to think about. 

Stay Class, 

~E

The Smell Of Success!

Personally, I'm a smell girl. Boys or girls. If you don't smell good then please distance yourself from me. Boys, I morally can not date you if you don't smell good/if you smell bad. I'm a perfume girl, I adore getting new perfume. When someone tells me I smell good, that's on of the highest complements.

I wear Marc Jacobs "Daisy" like it's going out of style (but not too much, that's just tacky). But for school or a regular day, it's Victoria's Secret Pink Fresh and Clean or Pretty and Pure. I always feel fresh and confidant with a good squirt of perfume.

Another exciting perk of my impending trip to Europe is an outing to a perfume factory in Grasse. I'm so excited to get to know further how my perfume is made! AND our group is going to get to have a "Perfume Making Workshop" where we will get to create our own signature scent. Huzzah!

Summer To Do

Another random fact about me, I'm sort of forgetful. But it's random things that seem to slip my mind, things like calling my mother when I'm supposed to. 

(When I first got my licence earlier this year I had to call and check in after I got EVERYWHERE, needless to say, I got in trouble a lot for not checking in...)

Any way, I like to do lists a lot, they help me not forget to do anything! Sometimes I keep them for just a day, others, for long term things. As you can probably guess, I made one for summer. It gives me a helpful hint to say, "Hey There Eleanor, get off Netflix and do something!" (Netflix being my addiction... Yes, I love my documentaries that much)

Here is my Summer To-Do:

1. Learn the basics of the guitar. I have an acoustic guitar, given to me by my auction-obsessed uncle. Steve impulse buys at my cousin's prep school silent auctions because he's competitive like that, and my cousins both play on at least two hockey teams so they don't have time to play guitar. It was given to me because "you look natural with it". I've always wanted to learn, no time like summer!

2. Blog once a day (with the exception of my trip to Europe)

3. Work really hard. I got my first job a few weeks ago, and I'm incredibly excited to get started! I'll be working at the local Red Mango Frozen Yogurt! Unfortunately, my Europe trip is smack dab in the middle of summer so The Boss decided she wants me to start AFTER I get back. Ugh, oh well. I really want to like the job, I have no other way to make money at this point besides the odd babysitting job, and I have to pay to fill the gas tank.

4. Shave off a minute on my mile run. This is a Rugby thing. The average Rugby player runs over 3 miles in one game. Better mile time means that I could have better chances at scoring better positions on higher level teams. AKA eventual goal of being a Longhorn, then eventually an Eagle.

5. Do 75 crunches in 2 minutes. Another Rugby thing. I want to be able to be the best player I can be. That involves some serious working out and of course, my dream of having abs would be achieavable if I crunched like crazy.

Rugby Girls!

 The other day was our annual end of the year rugby banquet. I wore my Urban Outfitters dress that I wore on my sweet 16 with my hair cured and down. As the club is primarily composed of boys, they boys speeches and awards dominated the girls. So, naturally, we all went a little crazy. I mean, what's a girl to do facing severe boredom for hours? Luckily I sat next to Double D and Moose and we goofed around like no tomorrow. Silly pictures were taken, glow sticks were cracked, and some were even put in glasses. We had so much fun! I kept putting glow sticks into Double D's glass which ticked her off, but I managed to put a glow stick in Double D's lemon aid glass for 30 minutes plus without her noticing! When I told her how long it had been in there we all just cracked up for awhile. I love my team! I'm so sad that the seniors are leaving, Double D included. But I know that next November we'll get a new batch ready to learn and win even more than we did this year! Thank goodness Moose is my age, we have two more years together! Huzzah for random trips up to her house to let of steam! (she lives over an hour away)

Moose, Double D, and I totally bored

Just for Funzies...

Hey there! I thought for fun I could tell you all 10 random, obscure facts about myself. Remember, this is a no judgement zone...

1. I love tooth paste but hate tooth gel. I have no idea why, it's just a texture thing. The gel is all slimy and gross, but the paste is smooth and it just feels better in my mouth.

2. My iTunes library has over 2000 songs on it, and if played I can name over 90% of them. Just one of the many benefits of being an audio learner. Basically I love music with a passion. My current favorite band is The Script, but that will change in the next week or so. Big Sister is a constant stream of music, unfortunately she doesn't let me touch her laptop so I have to wait for the music to come to me, not discover freely as I would like.

4. I love monograms. I wish everything of mine had one on it. I also have a huge thing for monogram jewelry. Lockets, rings with things inscribed in them, bangles with the initials big. My current love is DKM's cut out monogram bangle but for me at least I would probably want it in my signature silver.


5. I'm a vegetarian. Well, if you want to get technical, I'm a pescatarian, meaning I eat fish. Basically if it walks with legs, I won't eat it. It's just cruel. If animals ruled the world I wouldn't want them to eat me. I just don't agree with it. After almost 5 months the idea of a steak sort of makes me queasy. My dad thinks I'm crazy and keeps trying to get me to stop, making steak jokes, but I'm firm in my resolve. I'm coming up on 6 months (July 26) and I really don't see any end to it.

6. I'm learning to play guitar. Learning being a flexible word, aka, I'm teaching myself from YouTube videos and fingering charts I find online. But I really want to learn! Figuring out the basics is on my "Summer To Do List".


7. This next one might come as a bit of a surprise, but I play girls rugby for the local rugby club. If any of you know the rules of rugby, I currently play loose head lock, number 4. But I'm dying to move back in the scrum to 8 man (or woman). If you don't know anything about rugby, lock is in the middle line of the scrum, 8 man is at the back. It's super aggressive out there! I've been playing for 2 years now and can't wait for November for the season to start. My team is a huge family, and we've won a lot, even capturing the state title 2 years in a row!

Yep, that's me with my pink shoes!

8.  My favorite makeup brand is Urban Decay. That might be sort of obvious looking at some past entries, but I adore everything they make. The majority of the products are cruelty free and vegan, which as a vegetarian I adore. And all their products are great, I love everything I own from them!

9. Call me a geek, but my favorite movie series is Star Wars. I've loved it since I was a kid, my dad and I would watch them all the time. My personal order of favorites is 6, 4, 3, 2, 5, 1. As a child 6 was always my favorite, I referred to it as "The Ewok One" and everyone in my family knew exactly what I meant. 

10. I have plans for 3 tattoos already and I love the tattoo culture. (pintrest tattoo board) My current 3 are the outline of the death star on my right front hip bone area, a Japanese style peony on my right side, extending up onto my rib cage, and the words "If You Jump I Would Jump Too, We Would Fall Together" on my left foot arch. The death star is to remind me of my childhood and that it's ok to be a geek. The peony is to remind me of the inner beauty of everyone and everything. And the words are lyrics to one of my very favorite songs by We The Kings called Skyway Avenue.

Stay Classy,
~E

Happy Summer!

Good Morning all,

And may I wish a happy summer to both you and yours?

GAH! I just love summer so much! No school, a chance to see friends every day, go new places, try new things. It's all so exciting! My summer is incredibly busy, but I'm way excited about it!

My first new thing I tried was going to an outdoor music festival. Let me tell you, what an experience! My older sister/best friend and I headed downtown to Houston Texas' own Free Press Summer Fest, hosting names like Erykah Badu, Willie Nellson, Snoop Dogg, The Flaming Lips, The Avett Brothers, and Primus. Big names tight? As amazing as those names sound, 47 acts were there from huge names to a few just starting out. Big Sis and I saw our fair share of Big and small acts... Allow me to give you our itinerary...

Saturday:
We began with Best Coast, then moved stages to see Morris Day and the Time (cutest old men I've ever seen), and then went back to the other stage to mosh our hearts out for Two Door Cinema Club. A grand time was had by all. Big Sis decided not to put on any sunblock so she could "tan" and ended up with a wicked burn. In between all that there were all sorts of shenanigans, including a virgin mojito Popsicle, and a ride on a moustache. Saturday could not have been better!

Sunday:
Having learned the proper way to do things we started a little later so as to have energy for moshing later. We arrived at the park about 45 minutes later, sunblocked and ready to go. We immediately headed for stage 1 where Robert Ellis would be playing, and upon hearing the opening notes, turned right back around, the verdict being, way to country. We headed for a smaller stage by the entrance to the park and listened to a group from Austin called Schmillion which we enjoyed much more. I even caught a free CD! After Schmillion we headed to see Young The Giant, 45 minutes early. The sun was beating down and the kids in front of us were lighting up joint after joint so that made for a nasty scent. Can I just take a second to say how gross I think pot is? I mean YUCK! Unfortunately The combination of standing for an hour in 102 degree heat, pot and cigarette smoke, and moshing caused me a near black out. So big sis and I retreated to a shady tree and ate a quick snack. And then I felt much better. So all was well. After that we had a Popsicle each, I had one with fresh berries and cheesecake. CHEESECAKE in a Popsicle! LIKE WOAH! It was the best thing ever! After that we found the Newsies and proceeded to chill with them for the rest of the day... I was super fun, The Couple, Boxer Girl, Booker, A-Bro, and Harry. Big Sister and I had a ball with them! We saw Willie Nelson and The Avett Brothers together.

This is Schmillion, The guy playing bass is actually the drummer, they switched places.

The Avett Brothers, so much energy! 

Yes that is me with Booker and Boxer Girl on our shoulders and the female 1/2 of the couple in front. I'm strong.

What a great 2 days! I can't wait for summer to get even better!

Stay Classy!
~E