An Ordinary Girl's World: Fashion, Love, Life

Dearest Devotees,

I started poetry when I was 8 and though it wasn't what I'd call great art, it was definitely an amazing medium for expressing myself. Ever since I was in preschool I have loved literature. I know this because, one of my earliest memories is of my dad teaching me to recognise words and to read and memorize short sentences and paragraphs from a small book of classical poetry and tales ( I know, its pretty crazy). He would do this before he travelled and quiz me on it when he returned. I also remember my mom reading to me and encouraging my intense love of books at the ages of 4 and 5. I just loved being able to escape into another world so much so that whenever I read I became complete oblivious of my surroundings and entered a state of flow (or hyperfocus).This early admiration for the written word led to desire to write and express myself like the authors and writers I admired. I also had a healthy appreciation for music and after trying out several forms of dance and music groups like tap, ballet, hip hop, orchestra and chorus, I decided to try my hand at songwriting. My first song was really silly but it had a catchy tune and my siblings thought it was pretty cool so I kept trying and have been writing songs ever since.

Anyway, that was just a brief intro to my history with songwriting. Lately I've been meeting a lot of musicians and fellow songwriters so this got me thinking about how you can know if you are a songwriter. Here's what I came up with:

Music is constantly going on in your mind, whether its your own song or someone else's song that you really like.

When you walk down the street you are either listening to music,humming or singing (hopefully softly :P) to yourself.

You've been known to study music theory in your spare time.

You carry paper and a writing utensil around with you always in case you have a "lyric moment".

Friends sometimes catch you dancing to the music in your head. This is because it is so loud that you can forget that it's not technically playing anywhere.

Singing in the shower is near superhuman habit to break for you. After all, its where you get some of your best ideas.

You sometimes walk according to your beat of the moment.

You either know how to or are trying to learn to play, at least one but usually several instruments.

You can read and write music.

Your everyday words tend to have a poetic quality to them.

Music is VERY important to you.

You associate your emotions with music automatically.

You have been known to come up with songs in the weirdest places (toilets, at formal dinners, during important ceremonies).

You feel like you could use a song to describe almost anything in your life.

Your ipod, mp3 player, or computer may be full to the brim with music.

You have songbooks...of your own music.

You may be working on a demo or already be writing professionally.

You can not imagine a world without music.

You have a recorder to record tunes that you spontaneously create on your way to class. This recorder is likely to quickly fill up memory-wise.

You analyse lyrics and melodies of songs for fun.

You take personal offence when a song does well in the pop world and lacks what you would see as substance and quality.

When you're playing around with your instrument of choice, or even humming it could lead to your next masterpiece.

If you are not a singer, you already know what singer would best suit your songs.

When you get into a talk about great songwriters, composers, lyricists and musicians, you could go on and on and on...

Some of these characteristics are characteristics of a composer (someone who writes music- melodies, harmonies and instrumentals) and others are characteristic of a lyricist(someone who comes up with the words). When I refer to a songwriter I mean someone who comes up with both. Anyway, if you liked this post, I intend to do a couple more about music in the next couple of weeks so keep an eye out for that. And if you have anything in particular that you want to know about music, you could email me at aury4eva@gmail.com, and I will try my best to help.

Photos from: We Heart It

Love you all and Stay inspired,

P.S. So let me know what you think. Are you a songwriter or musician? What do you think identifies a songwriter? Feel free to let me know in the comments below.

Name: Kimora Lee Simmons born Kimora Lee Perkins

Career: Former Model, Current Fashion Designer, CEO of Phat Fashions

Bio: Kimora was born in St. Louis Missouri on May 4, 1975. At the age of 13, her uniquely beautiful look and gazelle-like figure led to her discovery by Marie-Christine Kollock of Paris Agency Glamour,who had her flown to Paris where she was signed by Chanel soon after her 13th birthday. She worked under Karl Lagerfield ,the famed Chanel designer, and became known in the fashion world after he closed his couture show with her dressed as a child bride.Since then she has been on several runways all over the world, and has even appeared in a couple of music videos and TV shows such as America's Next Top Model and her own show Life in the Fab Lane.In 1998, she married Russel Simmons the then CEO of Phat Fashions, a clothing company, and began working as a fashion designer in the capacity of Creative Director of Baby Phat, a female centric hip hop clothing line. She worked her way to the top and eventually became the CEO of Phat Fashions. She has three kids, Aoki Lee, Ming Lee (whom she had with Russel before the divorce) and a baby boy called Kenzo Lee whom she had with Djimon Honsou, her new husband.

She appreciates the glamour in her life, while remaining aware of the things that are really important.

She creates her own words and uses them regularly like the word Fabulousity.

She is a fashion designer with vision, artistic talent and a head for business.

She not only knows her brand but lives her brand.

She proves that you can balance motherhood and being a fashion mogul.

She knows what she wants and goes for it. She has drive.

She has a well defined personal style.

She isn't afraid to take the risks required to succeed.

She has a pretty cool sense of humour.

She has a show that lets me know about what life as a CEO of a fashion company is really like.

She is strong.

To find out more about Kimora you can visit her site.

Love you all and Stay inspired,

Photos from: Starpulse.com and Ok magazine

P.S. So let me know what you think. Who do you think is important in the fashion industry? What labels do you like? What do you think about Kimora? Feel free to let me know in the comments below.

Steps on the road to an organised room:

Make a list of things you need to do to get your room organised.

Have an idea of why you want to do it, i.e. I'm overwhelmed by the mess, I cant get anything done, it's holding me back, I'm holding onto something, etc. I personally need a more streamlined lifestyle so I can travel easier. Keep this in mind or even write it down and keep it in sight as you embark on this task.

If you can, enlist a friend to help. It makes things so much easier and funner, and you can encourage each other as you work through the mess. If your friend also needs help, volunteer to help each other.

Get rid of all the trash and stuff that you do not need: Choose a particular spot and work round. Start by having a box or bag for all the stuff you definitely want to keep, one you might want to keep, stuff you want to giveaway or recycle and a bag for all the trash. Things that you initially find hard to get rid of can be kept in the might box for closer inspection later( talk about later on how after everything is done they will have to face that box and sort it into 4 places: refer to the organisation piece on sentimental clutter note if there is no space for it get rid of it. ) At this point you are not trying to put things into specific places yet. This is mostly just to get all the stuff that is not where its meant to be to where it needs to be.

Divide your stuff into categories: Create different categories in which your things can go. The best and most efficient way I've found is to divide your things based on function. Even if all you have is one room model it after a home. Keep all your kitchen stuff in one place and all your linens somewhere else. Have everything down to the smallest detail on a nice piece of paper. Write it in this way: 3rd drawer on chest of drawer on the right will have all my medication and first aid things. This paper will be your guide and treasure map.

Begin to arrange the room based on this guide. I usually suggest starting with the closet because that is the main storage unit in most rooms.

The closet

Laundry stuff, linens, and medium sized storage boxes for appropriate things should go in there.

Shoes can go on the bottom and clothes should be hung with all the hangers facing the same direction. As much as possible, when using single hangers keep the amount of clothes hanging on it down to one so that it will be easier to find what you're looking for when you need it.

If you have enough space in your closet and especially if you are pushed for space (i.e if you're major personal space is your college dorm room), keep your laundry in a basket/ laundry bag in the closet, preferably under your detergent and other cleaning items and housekeeping items.

I've found it really helpful to hang my belts, scarves and really long necklaces, so that they are easy to reach and kept in sight.

Keep bathroom items together in a shower basket in an easy to reach place

Hats and bags: Keep them together as much as possible. I keep mine in this pretty purple storage bin that is relatively light, has tons of holes that I can see into the bin through, and fits in with general color scheme of my room.

If you have a chest of drawers or something you could use in a similar manner for the storage of any clothes you couldn't fit into your wardrobe, use it in a specific and clearly outlined way. A lot of people suggest that you should only arrange keep two layers of clothes per drawer, but I have found that this is completely unreasonable for me given my current college dorm room accommodations. Therefore, I suggest that you break down your clothes into certain storage categories and assigning them to definite drawers and sides in the drawers. For example, my current system is as follows:

Jewelry trees and boards:I have this jewelry tree that I absolutely love for hanging my shorter necklaces, bracelets and anklets, and storing my everyday cocktail rings. A friend of mine also introduced me to the idea of storing my earrings by poking them through a board made of foam of cardboard and arranging them in layers. Alternatively, you could keep in a wire frame for this purpose.

I own a lot of hair accessories and keep them all together in one of the drawer divider bins that I've placed on my chest of drawers. The other one contains my larger jewelry like my cuffs and small box sets of jewelry. I have about 3 or so actual jewelry boxes that have my jewelry arranged according to level of formality of the occasion it would be worn to.

I have all my regular use books lined up on the shelf on my desk, with their backs facing me for ease of access.

School supplies are all in this really cute set of tiny storage drawers I got from Barnes and Nobles at the beginning of the year.

My calendar hangs by my desk and all the wires that would usually run across my room are kept out of sight with the excess in a tiny brown basket under my bed.

My laptop and printer have a pretty constant place on my desk while the drawers that come with my desk have art supplies, tech stuff and papers arranged into each of them.

Everything Else

Suitcases and boxes used for travel and storage units that take up excess space are all kept under my bed through the use of bed risers.

Go through the box of might keep stuff: choose only the stuff you really need, will use, like and have space to keep. If the item doesn't meet any of these criteria please give it away or throw it away. You will feel so much better for it.

Congratulations! You have cleaned house! (Clean House show reference anyone? No? okay).

Love you all and Stay inspired,

P.S. So let me know what you think. How do you organize your room? What are your favorite tips? Feel free to let me know in the comments below.

Dearest Devotees,

Photo from : We Heart it

Photo from: jakobjaded

If I learnt anything from my acting class last semester, I learnt this: to portray your character, you must become your character. My acting professor consistently urged us to get outside of our heads and the proverbial box and to free ourselves from our preconceptions and misconceptions. Only by so doing would we be able to follow our impulses, which are the truest reflections of our creativity. Creativity in its nature is impulsive. If you try to force it, it will not come. You must be able to let go of so many things at a certain point in time in order to let your creativity roam free. I don't particularly care for the phrase daydreaming and wandering minds because it suggests no end in sight and no product as a result. True creative thinking always has a product, because whatever you come up with, whatever you create is a product of your thinking. The product could be a question, a solution to a problem, or a newly discovered truth.

Be impulsive. Impulsivity is what happens when we do what we're inspired to without letting 'rational constraints' hold us back. Create music out of pots and pans. Store your books in a crate and quils in a glass jar. Make a painting with coloured sand. Do a fine work of art in crayon. Add a acoustic/country beat to a metal rock song. Do it and see. You could be surprised and stumble on a brilliant new method. Or you could just sit back and enjoy your creative freedom. At the very least, in the end you would have learnt a little more about yourself, your talent and your art.

My Translation:

I'm producing a beat for an acoustically-folksy rock song for my translation: Here is a snippet. I'll try to post the rest by the end of this week on my next Artist Corner post.

I found so many amazing little gems this week. It's Exciting!!!

This post about how to get rid of sentimental clutter is really helpful.

I feel like this post by A on how to create a core wardrobe is so relevant. It could be the solution to numerous poorly timed wardrobe malfunctions.

I just love blogs that bring fiction into the blogosphere. If you like them too you should check out ellie, Cass and Cady and caitlin and megan

I dream of having Andrea's style and thrifting skills.

This is an amazing talk for anyone not just people with ADHD.

I never realised there were so many sewing and DIY tutorials and vlogs out there. Himehood is one of my favorites so far.

How to have an Alice in Wonderland tea party- It must be the theatre lover in me.

I would love my life to mimic the flow of this poem on Creative Everyday.

If you are a writer (as I assume many of you may be), and are looking for somewhere to get feedback on your work, you could check out this site.

This post on Zen Habits reveals a new way to approach simpler living.

Did you love Daphne of Scooby Doo's style when you were growing up?

And for those who share my interest in the day of a Costume Designer, see this post.

***

"...And the winners for the 2010 Blogiversary giveaway are":

1. The surprise gift winner is Zmaga.

2. The CSN giveaway winner is Debbie.

Congratulations to you both! To get your prizes please email me your contact info. My email address is aury4eva@gmail.com.

Love you all and Stay inspired,

P.S. So let me know what you think. What inspired you this week? Feel free to let me know in the comments below.

Photo from: Daily Lolita ; Beat copyright of Frances a.k.a Aury.

One night, after realizing and being appalled at the vicious cycle of stress I found myself in, I sat down, wrote this letter to my body, and made a decision that set me on this new path to a life of purpose. I've always had goals and aims and pretty ambitious ones too, but for quite a while I'd felt stuck. I realized then that the reason I wasn't moving forward in my goals was because I lacked an organized system to support them. I like think of it in this way: My goals and dreams are castles built in the sky; without a sturdy support and foundation to back them up they will fall apart. It's sort of like my joy actually; without the foundation that is my faith in God, it would fall to the floor, and I would be swallowed by despair.

With all that is on my plate I need to organize. I really feel that I've come as far as possible without structure. Now it feels like every time I try to juggle everything, something falls by the wayside. I try to pick up the fallen item and something else falls. After high school, I wanted nothing to do with structure because I felt like it was a crutch being used to hinder my creativity but now I feel like it's the support I need to give me back the freedom needed to create. I'm aware it's a huge undertaking, trying to organize and instill structure to something as big as one's life, but in the long run I imagine it would surely be for the best. As I conquer each step I will let you know how I did it and what I've learnt from the process. I really hope I'll be able to help anyone who's looking for more structure in their lives as well.

Love you all and Stay inspired,

P.S. So let me know what you think. Have you ever felt this way? What did you do? Feel free to let me know in the comments below.

Photo from: We Heart it

Photo from: We Heart it