it was a rock'n'roll band.

it's sunday afternoon. i just spent the night watching "morning glory" (which set my heart on fire, i can't wait to work for a news team), found myself running around my neighborhood at a rather quiet hour, spent the morning at first baptist church woodstock because church at christmas time is truly wonderful, and now here i am, sitting in a booth at  copper coin coffee, drinking a honey latte and working on my magazine. this quiet peace must mean that the semester is over at last, which also means that my blog can finally stop being lost in the shuffle!


ella greer: a semester in words and pictures,

move in day!

i made the poster!

wallpaper compliments of the inkwell

my home away from home on the weekends

i fell head over heels with the nail fad

i love my big! i can't wait for next rush. 

" i want to think again of dangerous and noble things."

mondays are always hopping on my swag. 

sometimes i feel like drake is the only one who understands me. 
and then listen to this because i have a mad crush on shakira. 

State of the Union.

Whoa! Long time, no see. Sorry about that, I kind of forgot that I had a blog for a hot minute (okay, okay, more like two months.)


I've been obsessing over the movie, "New Year's Eve," because cheesy movies like that are the cry of my heart. Because of this, and since I haven't posted anything I've written on here since the dawn of time, I wanted to share my new year revelation from a year ago. 

I think I am supposed to write my resolutions on the 31^st of December, before the peach drops in Underground Atlanta, but since when have I done anything the normal way? I thought so.

I spent New Year’s Eve with my next door neighbor, a 78 year old woman who lives alone. She hires her grandson to watch after her, but he isn’t good for anything, just a 30 year old kid who thinks he’s entitled to everything even though he doesn’t do anything. He wanted to go out to a party for the night, so JoAnn (the neighbor) asked if I would be okay with staying with her (she has a bad knee, a new knee, arthritis, and a bad back so she’s afraid of falling). I didn’t mind so I grabbed “The Awakening” and walked over.

I realized how much I look up to women like her. JoAnn suffered from a childhood illness and was paralyzed for most of her life. She played basketball in high school, graduated from a business college and worked for Lockheed Martin as the lead “typer” and shorthand writer. Her children are odd, her husband lives in North Georgia, and her siblings are dead, but she’s still a sweet old lady with a dog and a house that she bought and paid for herself. She reads her Bible and tries to help out her grandson even though she knows he’s not a good kid. For her circumstances, she is still an incredibly strong woman who has not allowed life to make her bitter.

And then there is Kayla Jones. I met her my sophomore year when she was a senior and I knew that she was the girl who I have always wanted to be. She wears cool, hipster clothes and always seems to have a good hair day. She left for Chicago after she graduated high school, in hopes to transfer to the university the next year. I thought it was so neat, that she could leave and have an adventure like that. She moved home by winter though, saying that Chicago wasn’t what she imagined it to be. She didn’t go to community school like she planned; therefore she didn’t meet people and really just worked and went home. I remember how excited she was to see the city and she even bought maps of walking paths she could take so she wouldn’t have to worry about using the car or a bus. She told me after she moved back that walking around wasn’t fun when you had to do it all the time and that she had to carry around pepper spray because it was true what the people in the South say, the people from the North aren’t very nice.

So she came back home and enrolled at KSU. I haven’t heard from her all summer, which was weird, but then when we met up a few weeks ago (at the Fun concert, at her birthday party, and at dinner at Canyons) she told me that she spent the summer on yet another adventure. She packed up everything she had and went to Mackinac Island, Michigan. She went to follow her boyfriend, Greg, and to work at a bicycle shop. Greg dumped her three days into the trip however, and she was stranded in a resort island eighteen hours away from home.

She stuck it out, found an apartment on the other side with two other girls, and went looking for a job door-to-door. She soon spent the summer as a Starbuck’s barista, making gourmet coffee for disgruntled tourists who were frustrated at the cost of everything. But she had fun. She met a group of kids her age and she spent the days working and biking around the island, looking through clothing boutiques and antique stores.

To me, that seems quite fantastic, glamorous almost. I so badly want to go on an exploration like that (minus the boy, that is probably why she didn’t have as much fun) to pack up and go to a place I have never been before. To rent an apartment and get a job for the summer, to bike around (not use a car) read and write, listen to music, meet people, and just enjoy life is truly the cry of my heart. It sounds like the plot of a book that I would read and quickly fall in love with. A book that I would memorize and swoon over, underline passages, circle vocabulary, and make lists about all of the things it has inspired to me do and to think.

It all seems so wonderful.

my new year’s resolution is, to have adventures and common sense.

So the State of the Union: Resolution style.

Have a 4.0 at the end of the semester

Not worry about money (I have a job, a savings account, and tuition is already paid; I truly have nothing to worry about)

To put more thought into my outfits

To expand my music tastes

To plan an adventure for the summer, but know that I should be living out an adventure in Savannah as well

Study my Bible

Be calm

Find more inspiring people

i just thought it was funny. 

"i am done with my graceless heart, so tonight i'm going to cut it out and let it restart." my girl florence never fails me. 

a post of only pictures will be coming, promise. 

love loud.

yep, i'm a fox.


so, my october was spent writing a research paper about the novel Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. it was a ten page paper about monster/victim relationships, the oppression of society, and the duality of man. by the way, the novel is only 150 pages long, that leaves very little room for bullshark (if you know what i mean). but alas! it's finished and turned in, and rather than bore you with all ten pages (although it's incredibly interesting if i do say so myself) i'll just give you a quote i used, which has quickly been committed to memory for those "mr. hyde" moments of mine.



"I must learn to love the fool in me--the one who feels too much, talks too much, takes too many chances, wins sometimes and loses often, lacks self-control, loves and hates, hurts and gets hurt, promises and breaks promises, laughs and cries. It alone protects me against that utterly self-controlled, masterful tyrant whom I also harbor and who would rob me of human aliveness, humility, and dignity but for my fool." -- Theodore I. Rubin, MD

and then you should grab a cup of coffee and listen to this song, because it's kind of wonderful. 

into the woods.

as you're reading this, i'll be hammocking in the woods somewhere with my fifty sisters. this thought is exciting beyond comprehension. and i feel like not only have i had a beautiful week, i'm about to have the most wonderful weekend, which is perfectly fine with me.

my essays will come back in full force (fingers crossed) but until then i'll just post about my fancy new job (unpaid but incredible) and my adventures in this enchanting city i like to call home.

i also want to post this video, and you have to promise to watch it until the very end for what happens will speak volumes about me, because it's kind of an everyday occurence.

and then i want you to watch this video and have a lovely weekend.

beautiful things out of the dust.

"sometimes we're not as beautiful as we think." 


when i wrote that line last march for an english paper, i was thinking about those moments like the homecoming dress i thought i looked really cute in, or when i thought i was being funny but was really just acting a fool. but this weekend i discovered the flip side of that phrase. 


some may say that river street is one of the main attractions that savannah has to offer. unless you're referring to watching the ships pull into harbor, i'm not one of those people. in my opinion, the gem of savannah is the paris brocante.  i'm utterly in love with it. 


the paris brocante is a boutique that sits on the corner of broughton. it's a market in the sense that it sells laundry detergent, lavender bouquets, soaps, feather dusters, and woven baskets. i can spend hours sifting through the antique jewelry, buckets of marbles, and sun hats. there are couches, vintage photos, candles that smell like the library, and the most beautiful wrapping paper i have ever laid eyes on. 


sometimes, when the life of the college kid gets to be too much, i go there in search for a french seltzer (with a shot of rose and lemon) and treasures. 


it wasn't until my family came down early this year, or when a high school friend showed up did i realize just how beautiful this place was, and sometimes, when i'm writing in my journal while drinking a seltzer, i'm more beautiful than i think. 

and this is a song that makes me want to skip and make pinatas out of tissue paper. actually, here are two songs. 

everyday i'm hustlin.

well, it's not fall anymore.

but in other news, consider this a "listless thursday" a few thursdays overdue and a day late. lehhgo.

quotes from my history professor:

"those white men are being oppressive....again."
"1848, women get on their level."
"everything goes to shit when women learn how to read."

and the list of the week?

"how to raise 100 dollars without really trying"

have a bake sale
rob a bank
call grandad
pay it myself (ha)
sell my bike
trade in my textbooks
offerto do laundry at $5 a basket
ask someone for a dollar (repeat 100 times)
bring back the elevator pass
get really stellar at poker
hustle everyday

ps. i'm raising 100 dollars for "light the night" cancer walk that will take place in downtown savannah sometime in october. if anyone would like more information, you can click here. (go ahead, click it.)

with so many papers this week, i had to find a productive distraction rather than watching modern family marathons or facebooking all hours of the night. so, i memorized these songs (next is the after party at buckingham palace) (guess it really is just me myself and all my millions) instead. time well spent in my opinion.

radiant faces.

the blogs that i read are lying to me, they tell me that it's fall. 

san diego, hoboken, new york city, savannah, milan. wake up you sleepers, it's fall. 

but it won't last, next week, when the weather is back to 90 and humid, we'll shake our fists at the ocean and curse the very things of summer that we once crooned about last april. 

call me an optimistic pessimist. a bitter hopeful. a jaded believer. but i want it. 

i want fall. i want scarves, boots, jeans, socks, and my russian navy nail polish. i'm jonesing to read vogue on the crunchy leaves in the international garden and to spend my rainy days sharing a plate of pita and hummus with a friend at the gallery espresso. 

i've even created my new playlists. fact: the avett brothers pandora is magical and will make you want to dance around the kitchen in your new wool socks from aerie (wait, you don't have a pair?)

that one golden fall afternoon. 

so consider this post a teaser, because we'll be back to fedoras, lemonade, weezer, and keds before you know it. and watch this video, because i'm in it. 

breakfast for dinner.

okay, okay. i know what you're thinking, two music posts in a row? i'm not slacking, promise. 
but i am enjoying myself immensely, and it just goes to show what a difference a little time (in this case, a week) makes. 


one day this week, a few friends and i were talking about christian contemporary music. i was jumping out of my skin, i finally found college friends that liked talking about God on a daily basis. the feeling is incredible. the song "more" by matthew west was mentioned and i looked it up instantly (thank you, steve jobs, you're the best) . 


listening to the song for the first time in years, the summer and even last week made sense. cody deese, the speaker for fbcw's high school summer camp, asked me one night, "why are you settling for less." 


which is a funny story, i suppose. when i finally let go of one person (who didn't even want me to begin with), i gained a friendship with seven others. i just had to trust that God loved me more. 


and here i am, off to have the "breakfast for dinner" party to celebrate the fact that savannah is saved from irene. (sorry about that, outer banks, north carolina). 

i met up with the king.

hello there!


today marks the end of my first week of class, which has been wonderful. i'm lucky this year, all of my classes are incredibly interesting with professors who are characters for sure. 


so, do you ever hear a song that captures your soul? that is so beautiful you're certain that your heart will surely break? no? okay, that may just be me. it's cool. 

well, this is one of those songs. i heard it from a new friend and i was captivated. i have cruised for miles upon miles on my bike while listening to this song on repeat. because, you know, it's kind of the story of my life. 


i usually like to keep new music a secret for awhile, you know, because it's special. but not this time, so consider yourself lucky. 


the band of sisters is called "first aid kit" and the song is "i met up with the king."


listen to it. now. 

watch the throne.

this blog is going through growing pains.

which really means that i'm not quite sure what i want to post. only essays i wrote for english class sounds constricting and incredibly boring, but i'm not willing to go the internet roundup route (which is totally cool, cup of jo), but the only interesting things i find on the internet are through someone else's blog.

with that being said, today is an experiment. an interview. and who would be an incredible idea for a guinea pig-esque interview on my blog? my younger brother, simms, of course.

simms met me in the kitchen a little past four, he was fresh off the bus, and home from his first day of school. i asked him if i could interview him for my blog, he poured a glass of water and said sure. with a flip of his hair, we sat down at the kitchen bar and got down to business.

e: i should ask you about your secret to getting your golden tan or a recap of what you did this summer, but i want to talk about your current projects, how was the first day of school?

s: it sucked.

e: what was on your list for back to school shopping?

s: axe body spray and classy mechanical pencils.

e: if you were to label yourself, what middle school cliche would you find yourself relating to the most?

s: what?

e: allow me to clarify, who do you sit with at lunch?

s: oh. i'm like a liger in real life. just call me the nerdlete [nerd/athlete].

e: what school event are you most looking forward to? The football games, the homecoming dance, olympics week?

s: the weekend.

e: how would you describe your style?

s: sportswear. nike basketball shorts, a tee shirt, and my sperrys.

e: it sounds like you dress according to what your interests are, what game is your favorite?

s: i like to play the yellow car game. when i see a yellow car, i punch someone.

e: you're too young to shave, but do you have any other beauty rituals to prepare yourself for the next day?

s: i listen to john mayer before i go to sleep.

simms was then called to go outside and play tennis with his older brother. he shouted a "see ya" as he grabbed his racquet and ran out the door. 

i should probably post a john mayer song so i could stay true to the post, but i found this song recently, a collaboration of kanye and jay-z, and i decided to add it instead. it mixes my favorites, the classics and jay-z. yeah, i got my swagger back. "they didn't recognize me because i pulled up in my other benz."

literally crazy.

"literally crazy for you" is a song for the summer, it's even performed by the band "long walks on the beach." yeah. so replace "rolling in the deep" (which is most definitely not a summer song) and listen to this several thousand times instead. 

happy bastille day.

it's not really. but holidays are always welcome. 


remember this post? well, here i am to tell you a story all about how i, a rather dramatic, witty, clever, american girl who sings along with beyonce in the car, became a french girl sincere sensation overnight. okay, that's a lie, it took an entire summer (hence the dramatic), and it might not have actually happened at all, but if you squint your eyes, tilt your head, and listen to quelqu'un m'a dit by carla bruni, you may be able to humor me in the slightest. 


so here it is, folks. 


ella greer, a french girl in words and pictures. 


i followed this blog about a blogger in paris for the year. 


i read this vogue article by gully wells (with hopes to have the book sitting on my coffee table someday)

and then i read an allure article about how french women choose their fragrance and bought this perfume pencil. 

silk road caravan

i found this version of the nautical stripe

both from j.crew

i listened to classical music and read hemingway

i bought lavender bouquets and old world maps

both from the paris market, a magical emporium in savannah

i (er, my mother) bought a fantastic sun hat.

i haunted a booth in a coffee shop to prepare projects, watch woody allen movies, and write.

french(!) vanilla latte, extra vanilla, at copper coin coffee

i went out of doors, seeking adventures

i discovered art. 

my lady gaga poster, my pride&joy. 

i finally bought a big girl bag. 

i fell madly in love. 

marcella.

and there you have it. 

i became a french girl by only visiting three states. who knows, maybe next summer the mountains of peru will call for my heart. and if any magazine editors are reading this, i'm foot loose and fancy free, so feel free to hire me for all of your travel pieces. 

and you should listen to this song, because even though it isn't french, i think french women like beyonce too. and i secretly fantasize about singing it at open mic night at copper coin coffee, because i'm a poser.