Your string of lights is still bright to me

  Today was such a great day, I spent it meandering through a few shops with my mom (where I came up on an amazing military jacket !), taking a pit stop at Trader Joe's to stock up on some essentials, and visiting one of the local libraries. I forgot how much I loveee the library; an endless maze of shelves brimming with colorful bindings-each one containing a different story just waiting to be brought to life with the flipping through of its worn and waiting pages. I love the smell of books too, especially ones that have gone through many years of use and wear&tear. The beauty of a book is that you can get lost within its substance and be taken to another time or place, and each time you read it it may hold a different meaning than it did the last time you soaked in its words. For that brief (or perhaps long depending on the length of the book and your level of I-NEED-TO-GET-TO-THE-NEXT-CHAPTER-AND-SEE-WHAT-HAPPENS-ness) period of time you're immersed within the pages of a book, its story and content is yours and yours alone to make of it what you want, and to take from it what you please. There really is nothing like curling up in bed after a long day with a great book and the anticipation of whats to come next; its almost spell binding really.

  I ended up walking out the doors with three new books that I plan on reading over the next few weeks during my free time. I checked out The Pact by Jodi Picoult, one of my all time favorite authors (if you haven't read Picture Perfect- I highly recommend getting on that asap), The Girl She Used To Be by David Cristofano, and The Crazy School by Cornelia Read; all of which sounded amazing from the summaries on the book flaps. If you've read any of these let me know what you thought of them, I'm so excited to have some new reading material-it's much overdue!

  Last night I spent watching the True Blood Season Finale-its cliff hanger ending I'm still trying to process-and the MTV VMAs. Lady Gaga of course didn't fail to up the ante with her ensembles this year (I do love her, but that meat dress?!) and though Taylor Swift was amazing and looked beautiful, my favorite performance of the night BY FAR was Florence + The Machine's Dog Days Are Over. She is just absolutely incredible! Her outfit, the dancers, every bit of it was just so beyondd I swear it gave me goosebumps.

She may be craycray, but boy can that GaGa sing !

Stunners Katy Perry and Ashley Greene rocking their lace top+white mini dress ensembles.

Taylor Swift looked so grown up and elegant, and I absolutely loved her new song.

Call me crazy, but I loved Rihanna's Madonna-esque look;

and in my opinion it was a lot less extreme than most of her outfits and looks she's gone with in the past.

And last but not least, Florence + The Machine's captivating performance.

Blew.My.Mind.

Let me know what your favorite and most shocking moments of the VMAs were,

I'd love to hear!

XXSea

photos via peoplestylewatch.com and Mtv.com