Naturally Orange

Dress: TJMaxx. Shoes: Payless (here). Clutch: gifted.

I wore this to an art exhibition that one of my friends was a part of.  The gallery is housed in a beautiful refurbished church, which made for a nice backdrop for photos.  I've had this little black dress in my closet for two years and have never had a good occasion to wear it; I wish I had more fancy events to attend.  The clutch was a birthday gift from a wonderful friend and I absolutely love it.  I liked it paired with this dress because I felt like the kind of natural vibe from the tan beads gave just the right bit of casual flair to keep the ensemble from being too dressy.

On a side note, the lovely shade of orange that I am is indeed au natural.  I had just been at the beach for two days, so this is the product of my skin and the sun, plus sunscreen.  No spray tan or tanning booths for this girl.  I must have an oompa loompa somewhere in my family tree.

Today is also my 16th first day of school.  Here's hoping for another great year.

Pretend Instagram

So this isn't an outfit post.  This would be the kind of thing I would share on Instagram if I had iPhone in order to have an Instagram.  But alas, I am sans smartphone, but I still love these pictures.  So pretend this is Instagram, minus all the filters.  

My cat Moxie loves shoes just about as much as I do, but we love them in different ways.  I love to buy and wear them; she loves to lay next to them and rub her face all over them.

I'm in the middle of packing to head back to school this Saturday, so things are a bit scattered all over the place.  Today, I happened to catch Moxie enjoying some shoes I'd left out.  These are my favorite thrifted loafers, last seen here and in one of my favorite looks here.

Now, don't worry, I'm not going to go all crazy cat lady and start posting cat pictures every day.  Regular outfit posts are scheduled to start next week with the beginning of the new school year.  School: boo.  Getting dressed: yay!

Blue on Blue

Dress: H&M. Top: Old Navy via Plato's Closet. Shoes, watch: Target (here and here). Sunglasses: Old Navy. Necklace: Forever 21.

It's Everybody, Everywear time again, and this months theme is monochromatic.  I've gotta admit it's currently 3pm and I'm still in my pajamas (don't judge me!), so luckily, I had this outfit saved in my backlog.  

I wore this back in May, right around the time when the weather was being bipolar.  I originally planned to wear a denim jacket with the dress, but lo and behold, it was blazing hot that day.  The dress is sleeveless and I'm not a huge fan of showing my arms (gotta get on those push ups!), so I decided to throw on this oxford in place of the jacket.  Unfortunately, it was still way too insanely hot.  I'm pretty sure right after the pictures were taken, I gave in and took off the shirt.  But only for a few minutes.

I am so ready for fall.

Pop of Orange

Top: H&M via thrift. Skirt: thrifted. Necklace: Charlotte Russe. Shoes, purse: Target.

Here's another outfit from my Central Europe trip.  One of the really cool things about our trip is that for the first 3 weeks, we were traveling from city to city, so we had a charter bus to take us from place to place as well as on day trips.  The public transportation in Europe is awesome, but it was nice having our own private bus rather than schlepping our luggage on subways and trains.

I wore this outfit on our last long travel day, going from Prague to Berlin.  These pictures were taken when we stopped for lunch in Dresden.  This basic black knit maxi skirt was one of my favorite pieces that I had on the trip.  It was so comfortable for the long bus rides, especially paired with this casual top (another of my trip favorites, also seen here).  I added the necklace and coordinating nail polish for a neat pop of color.

Central Europe Trip Recap

Ok, so maybe the title is a little misleading because I'm not actually going to recap my entire 6 week trip because that would be impossible for me to write and impossible for you to read.  So I'm going to summarize by saying that my trip was absolutely amazing.  I got to live in 6 big cities in 5 beautiful, culturally rich countries.  I learned so much about the history and culture of the countries.  I got to meet new people and grow closer to friends I already knew.  I got to eat some absolutely delicious food and see some stunning scenery. The whole trip was just pretty much unbelievable.  

Here are just a few choice pictures from my trip:

In a dress from TJMaxx and Target sandals before a night out in Vienna.

In a Target tee and Charlotte Russe necklace overlooking Prague (my favorite of the cities we visited!) from the Petřín Lookout Tower. 

A life-size Lego giraffe in Berlin.

Feeding geese in Munich's Olympiapark in a thrifted shirt and upcycled skirt.

 Overlooking the Neuschwanstein Castle in southern Germany in a Target tee and a Chinatown scarf.

One of my favorite meals of the trip: cheesy spaetzle.  

For now, that's all the trip photos I'm going to share here.  If you would like to look at more of the photos that I took while abroad, you can visit my flickr page here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Well Hey, Remember Me?

Wow, long time, no post, huh.  Well, in case anyone was worried, I was not kidnapped in Europe or anything crazy like that.  While I would like to have a totally valid reason for not posting in forever, I really don't.  However, I do have a couple excuses; one is kind of valid, and the other is frankly just kind of sad.  I'm about to throw a wordy post at you here, so please bear with me.

Last I posted, I was about halfway through my Central Europe trip, which was amazing, by the way.  (I promise I'll share some random photos and tidbits coming up soon).  Posting to the blog from Europe became more and more difficult as the trip went on for a few reasons: the first was the internet.  The more we moved around, the worse the internet in our hostels became.  At our final hostel in Berlin, it took forever just to load any internet page, so uploading pictures was not happening.  Secondly, without my trusty, ever-patient photographer with me, I was forced to ask a couple people I was traveling with to take my pictures, and it didn't take long for the novelty of it to wear off for them, and soon, I felt like a burden asking, or when I did, they would tell me they didn't feel like it.  (Sure made me thankful for my photographer, Amber, who is always ready and willing to snap pics of me!)  Lastly, despite packing enough to remix a unique outfit for every day I was abroad, I started to gravitate toward the same few comfy or easy combinations, so I wasn't really blog-worthy every day.

Ok, so I'm using problems during the Europe trip as my first, semi-valid excuse.  My second, kinda sad excuse is that the first half of my summer was so exciting that the second half is making up for it by being really, really uneventful.  Some days, I don't even get dressed.  Yeah, it's that kind of summer.  Most days, I go from pajamas, to running clothes, then back into clean pajamas for just lounging around the house.  Though I must admit, I am really enjoying the down time.

The past two weekends, I've been off visiting friends from school in their respective towns.  Two weekends ago, I went to the mountains to visit my roommate.  We did some intense hiking, which was a lot of fun.  Here's a picture from one of said hikes:

I'm wearing a typical summer 2012 outfit consisting of a Walmart tee and Adidas running shorts.

Anyway, I'm going to attempt to wrap this up a little now.  I've still got a few outfits from Europe and some others to share in the coming days, but since I don't have too much more blog fodder, I'm going to be posting 2 or 3 times a week until I get back to school and start actually getting dressed again.  Also, while I've been sitting around the house, I've been working on an extra little venture that will go hand and hand with the blog, and I'm super excited about it.  I'll post all about it when I get it fully up and running!

If you are still reading this post, and especially if you are back here still reading this blog after my prolonged absence, I would like to sincerely thank you; that really means a lot to me.  It sure feels great to be back!

Upcycled: High-Low Skirt

One of my favorite things about thrifting and upcycling is the ability to try out trends without breaking the bank.  I've really been loving the high-low silhouette that's been all over the place this season, so I set out to create a more budget-friendly version.  I started with a skirt that I thrifted to $1.50.  Here's the before:

I felt like the length was a little odd as is; too long to be a flattering midi, but too short to work as a maxi, so it was definitely the perfect candidate for a change in hem.  The after:

Skirt, shirt, purse: thrifted. Shoes: Dansko Sandi via REI (great cute and comfortable walking sandals that I love). Sunglasses: Michael's (yes, as in the craft store).

There are so many pluses to a high-low skirt upcycle.  If you are unsure about this trend, it's a great way to give it a try without breaking the bank.  If it turns out you don't really like it, or you wear it for a while and get tired of it, it would be so simple to just take the skirt up to a single length.  Creating your own high-low skirt also puts you in complete control of the length and proportions.  You can go for a subtle look by varying the length just a little, or do a more extreme high-low look; this trend looks great either way.  I've also noticed that many of the high-low shirts in stores are very short in the front, so doing it yourself is a great way to get a modest look if that's what you are going for.  Plus, it's super easy to do!


This skirt, much like my previous upcycle, has quickly become one of my favorite new wardrobe pieces.  The movement when I walk is so amazing.  It kind of feels like I have a little cape flowing out behind me.  It's so fun and comfortable!


What are your thoughts on the high-low trend?  Would you upcycle your own high-low skirt?  Let me know!