Author: hellosamanthadear

❤️ Fourth of July Look 💙

A DIY project I did the other day – all it took was sewing on the extra “S” patch I had lying around on a spare shirt! It really adds something!

I love this 4th of July inspired outfit I wore: 😎

With no work to do on the holiday, I felt adventurous and decided to try the Firework Frappuccino at Starbucks! It was amazing; it had a fruity zing to it with vanilla sweet cream cold foam, coconut milk, raspberry-flavored pearls and strawberry puree! 🍓🥥

Lastly, I grilled myself a veggie burger with beans and homemade Watergate salad:

 📚 Current Read ☕️

So!! I wanted to challenge myself this summer, and to read something different than I normally would. I’ve owned Dante Alighieri’s famous book, The Divine Comedy, for years but never got very far in it due to its complexity, so I had a hard time understanding.

The reason why I chose this book to revisit is because I discovered that Yale offers (free!) open courses, which are essentially a collection of lectures given in past semesters that have been uploaded online. One of the courses was Dante In Translation, and boom! That’s what I chose so I could follow along and have help understanding the book.

As I follow along the book’s journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, it’s been a very unique read that makes me think a lot on a philosophical level, and thankfully, I understand it much better by listening to the professor explain each chapter. And with a little over a week to go, I’ll have finished it! I listen to a lecture a day, which is for one hour.

I’ve definitely been enjoying summer so far…and I hope you are, too! ☀️

If you told my 8-year-old self back in time that I would own a Goosebumps purse at age 37, I wouldn’t have believed something that cool was possible. But here we are in present day, and I officially own a Goosebumps Night of the Living Dummy purse!!!

I found it at a really great price on eBay, brand new! The quality, details and colors are totally amazing (oh, and Eugene very much approved of my purchase!) 😉

❤️ Styling it with my skull shirt, red floral skirt and argyle socks made for a happy-go-lucky approach to the final result of the outfit to pair with the purse. I’ve been wanting to play around with pattern mixing, and my argyle socks made for the perfect accessory to start with! ❤️

Here’s to finding modern gems that make your inner child do cartwheels! 🤸💕

Who says spiders can’t be a fashion statement?! 🕷️❤️

I thought it would be cool to own a spider shirt, just because it adds a creepy touch. To offset that, Hello Kitty cat ears, a Sailor Moon purse and a matching black and red skirt complete the creepy-cute look!

In my second outfit, I’m wearing a star top that kind of makes me think of mid-’90s Billy Corgan wearing this shirt in the Bullet With Butterfly Wings music video (and if anything even remotely reminds me of The Smashing Pumpkins, that’s a very good thing!):

To rewrite the Bullet With Butterfly Wings lyrics: 🎶 Despite all my non-existent rage, I am still just a cat in a cage!!!!! 🎶

You know, the cat ears and all, rather than a rat. And I just don’t feel any rage because I’m normally always in a good mood, so that depletes the fury of the lyrics, I suppose.

Guess my lyrical rewrite just doesn’t have the same punch as the original? No need to mess with perfection, after all!

I’ll leave the amazing songwriting to Billy Corgan and stick with what I do best – wearing quirky stuff. 😁

Who knew as I drove around town, blissfully unaware, that major auto repairs were festering like an active volcano beneath my little feet?

This whole story is basically a huge stereotype brought to life! 😄 I bring my car into the shop because it was overheating if I turned on the AC…and what do ya know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Suddenly there are like 8 zillion other issues brought to my attention – including a major one besides the overheating – an OIL LEAK.

Unbeknownst to me, a Hollywood-mansion-pool-size oil leak was seeping on some stuff under the car. Never noticed any oil dots on the asphalt when I parked, though – however! They did show me the actual leak itself, and I got to stand underneath my floating car and see the leak in all its glistening glory (which was actually cool!) Basically, it looked like my car peed its pants.

Also didn’t realize when I turned on the AC, hot air was blowing from the passenger side (it blew fairly cold air from my side, though.) I had a total Cher-from-Clueless moment when I told the mechanics, “Oh!! But like, no one is ever in my passenger seat, so I didn’t know the air was blowing hot?” That triggered some laughter on their part, as I think I gave away more about my personal life than I’d intended (translating to: I’m literally the only person ever in my car, hahaaaa!)

Once I found out the price of all this, my eyeballs nearly flew out of my head at lightning speed. WORD OF ADVICE: GET A TUNE-UP AT RECOMMENDED INTERVALS (IF YOU ARE ABLE TO), PEEPS! Find out if you, too, have an active volcano festering under your feet when you drive, far below the abyss of the brake pedals. As a social media marketing manager for several auto shops, I have no excuse to have not gotten a tune-up long ago! I write content about this stuff for work alllll the time, and yet I didn’t take my own advice! That way little problems can be caught early.

Anyway, moving on! Here’s a fun outfit as of recently…because fashion always makes life more fun, even during the rollercoaster times! 😁😁😁

And that’s your auto lesson for the day! See ya next time folks! Vroooooom! 🚗💨

Ahhhh, this pixelated heart gives me all the feelings!! It has that computerized look, and paired with a vintage-looking red velvet bow, it’s a fun mashup of old meets new.

Aaaaaand, cat ears. Like you didn’t already know? 💗

I received a coupon from Princeton University Press in the mail recently, and having just finished re-reading Stover At Yale for a second time, it was the perfect opportunity for a new read! I chose a topic that I really know next to nothing about.

We all use money, but I have zero idea of how monetary policy works, what the Federal Reserve actually does, what central banking is, let alone private banking!! I’m always up for a brain challenge, so I’ve just started reading this informative book by Leah Downey. So far, I’m impressed by how easily I’m able to follow along, and the author explains things thoroughly while leaving me wanting to learn more with each passing chapter.

I hope to be a more informed citizen by the end of the book! 📖

When I ordered this purse on sale from Hot Topic, I had in mind the EXACT skirt I wanted to wear it with!! I’m sure you can guess, too: my butterfly skirt. 🦋

I’ve wanted a butterfly purse for a long time, but I just never found one that I really wanted. This one was an instant love!

I love how it coordinated with my outfit, both in theme and color:

Since my outfit had neutral tones, I wanted my hair clips to extra pop, so the pink and lime green was the perfect touch! 💗💚

Next, I was sporting the pink and purple look here to stand out among the dark tones of my outfit. I added a chain necklace to my belt for an extra PUNCH!!

Lastly, I wanted to show the hardcover edition of Stover at Yale by Owen Johnson I found for a steal of a deal on Thriftbooks online! I know I just recently did a review on it a few posts back, but I had a strong desire to re-read the book since I fell in love with it. 💓

This quickly became one of my favorite books (my other favorite book being Band of Brothers by Stephen E. Ambrose). Retrospectively, it’s kind of funny to notice that my two favorite books both have the theme of brotherhood and camaraderie!

I’m so honored to own this edition! I’m excitedly re-reading it and loving every moment of it.

Here’s to finding books (and outfits) that we fall in love with. 🦋

You know by now how much I love boots with skirts – oh, and florals and bows!! The contrast is awesome, in my personal opinion! So these two looks encompass that fun mix. 😁🎀🖤

Remember recently how I mentioned I want to wear more cat ears this year? I’m crushing that goal! 😺✔️ I’ve been wearing cat ear hair clips pretty much every day and it’s made my outfits feel more fun and whimsical wearing them! I love the look. And it gives me an extra mood boost, to boot!

Shoutout to my vintage doll, Charlotte, who wanted to make a cameo in this post!

Here’s to finding accessories that make you shine not only from the outside, but from the inside, too! ✨

Springy days call for some green!! With Easter on my mind coming up, I pulled out my bunny purse to complete the look.

Oh, and pink cat ears. Because bunnies (I’m sure) don’t mind sharing the spotlight!

On a last note, I tried the Original Blended Mocha at The Coffee Bean this week when I met up to have coffee with my friend, and man oh man was it good!!! It was the perfect way to spend a beautiful spring day. 💕🌱

See ya soon!!

This tree in my backyard is full of fresh new leaves for the spring season, and it makes for quite the picturesque place to sit and read under! 📖🌿

I just finished up a book called Stover At Yale by Owen Johnson. I learned of this book from my previous read, Skulls and Keys, because it was referenced many times in the book. Stover At Yale was published in 1912! (I kept thinking: oh my gosh, it came out the year the Titanic sank). A work of fiction, F. Scott Fitzgerald described this book as “the textbook of his generation.” It follows the main character, Dink Stover, who is fresh off the train arriving in New Haven, Connecticut to attend Yale. Coming from a prestigious prep school in Andover, Massachusetts, Stover is excited and nervous for his college years to come.

Initially, Stover is determined to do everything right – play football, eventually make the rowing team, and hopefully be top choice for a secret society by the time he reaches the end of his junior year. But as his college years unfold, he begins to question everything – is striving for perfection and conformity really the way to broaden his mind, or is it the very thing holding him back from becoming an individual?

I truly enjoyed watching Dink Stover bloom into his own person, and the most heartfelt part is that the very individualistic traits he fears will drive his college friends away, end up being the very traits that draw them all to him with glowing admiration. Another thing I absolutely LOVED about this book is the camaraderie amongst him and his college buddies! The silly antics and banter within the pages prove that the comical whims of teenage boys becoming young men are timeless.

The ending was truly a gem; much to Stover’s surprise, he ends up being the last man tapped for Skull and Bones on Tap Day – something he thought wasn’t in the cards for him. But alas, the smack on the shoulder and the loud command of “Go to your room!” changes everything in a glorious instant, and draws the book to a satisfying close knowing Stover became a Bonesman after all.

I loved the book! It felt like Dink Stover wasn’t just a character in a book, but a jovial spirit of a bygone era. I would actually re-read this in the future, I enjoyed it that much! ❤️

Fashion-wise, I was inspired to create a springy look based around my “preppy” sweater I DIY-ed!

See you next time!! 💛🧡

When I recently spotted the totally cool and colorful Tracy over at The Tote Trove wearing a stunning black top with ribbons down the front, I remembered that I owned a very similar top. I hadn’t put together an outfit around it yet, so I figured it was the perfect time to do so!

Pairing it with my new iridescent seashell purse I got off of Poshmark, I thought it turned out to be a very fun look with my orange cat ear clips and frilly white socks! I’m enamored with the beautiful shades of colors in the purse. 😍

Is it just me, or do cat ears just make any outfit instantly quirky?!

I’m thinking I’ll wear cat ear clips a little more in the future (I have them in different colors), because they’re just too darn fun! 😻