Reflections

What a year 2011 has been.  Looking back at everything that has happened in my life this year, I've realized that starting this blog was such a big milestone for me.  It's been (and continues to be) such a rewarding challenge; it's given me a hobby and mental break from the stress of school, it's brought me closer to my amazing friend and photographer Amber, and has allowed me to really develop and document my personal style.  It's been such a fun adventure, and I'm really looking forward to what 2012 has in store.  

In honor of the both the new year and the old, I've picked some of my favorites from my first three months (feels like longer than that, in a good way!) of blogging.

Favorite Casual Outfit

Borrowed from the Boys

Every aspect of this outfit just kind of fell into place really effortlessly, which I loved.  I never realized just how chic I could feel while wearing an oversized men's shirt. 

Favorite Dressy Outfit  

Feeling 40's

I just love the vintage-y, 'pin-up chic' feel of the outfit.  And that trench is glorious.  Definitely one of my favorite items in my wardrobe.

Favorite Single Photo

Halloween Part Two: Rosie the Riveter

Amber takes some amazing close ups of accessories and details in my outfits that are almost always my favorites from each post, but this one wins out.  The combination of the costume itself, the blindingly perfect light, the crispness of the photo, and the photoshop fun makes me absolutely obsessed with this picture.

Overall Favorite Post/Outfit/Shoot/Whole Shebang

Breezy

This was the very first outfit we shot for the blog and the first post.  Let me tell you, just about every picture from that shoot turned out well.  It set very high standards for every other shoot we do.  I can't even explain the state of joy I was in after I hit "Publish" for the very first time.  I had been carrying the idea of starting a blog for a good, long while before I finally jumped in, and it was so very exciting finally seeing my idea come to life.  (This one is Amber's favorite, too!  She says a close second was New Shoes and No Sleep.)

Here's wishing everyone a very Happy New Year!  I hope that the year to come is everything you could possibly want and more.

Where Has the Time Gone?

Oh my goodness, where have the past 10 days gone?  I feel like I have so much catching up to do!  To start, I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season!!  Hopefully you were able to spend time with loved ones, and perhaps you may have even gotten some sweet gifts (I got an amazing pair of boots that I can't wait to wear all the time!).  

I feel the need to explain my recent absence.  A little while back, I expected to be spending my winter break from school at home in my pajamas.  However, since things never really go as planned, a day or so after arriving home, I got a call from my employer.  I worked at a grocery store during high school, and the store is generous enough to allow college students to come back to work during breaks; however, I had planned to not call to get my job back and take the break to relax and such.  But, here was my manager, calling me up because he really needed help during the holiday rush.  I thought about still not going back to work, but then my mom reminded me of my thrifting addiction and how I could really use some more money before I go broke, and I caved.  So for the past 2 weeks, I haven't had much to post considering I've been wearing the same work uniform every day.

The good news is, I have my last week of break off from work, so might actually have the time and energy to put on real clothes and go places.  What a concept!  I still have some DIY projects that I'm dying to get to before going back to school, so more posts to come.  

I hope you will except my forgiveness in the wake of my neglect.  Also, please enjoy this picture of me torturing demonstrating my love for one of my cats, Moxie, via gifting her with a new festive collar.

She's really not as angry as she looks, I promise.

Prom Bomb Potential?

Hello, lovely readers.  Today, I have a bit of a different post: a question.  A dilemma of sorts.  Yesterday, during a trip to the thrift store, I stumbled upon an interesting dress.

  

Here it is in all its 1980's prom bomb glory.  

Sorry for the terrible quality of the picture.  I don't usually take pictures with my phone because of that, but it's all I had with me, and this dress had to be documented. (One day, I will own you, iPhone, and we will take decent looking pictures together.)

What really caught my eye with this dress was the peplum skirt.  I have been absolutely in love with peplums since I first laid eyes on one years ago, but have yet to find the perfect one to join my closet.  But this one, here, is amazing.  However, let's address those shoulders.  Yikes.  Never have I seen a garment so sleek from the waist down and so utterly poofy from the waist up (the bodice isn't so great either). 

I didn't even consider buying it at first, but after sleeping on it, I had a thought: what if I take this prom bomb to the tailors, let them chop it at the waist, and have a beautiful high-waisted peplum skirt made?  I'm seriously considering it.

What are your thoughts?  Should I go for it?  Have you ever seen potential in a seemingly ugly garment.  I'd love to hear from you in the comments!

*UPDATE* Well, I decided to get the dress, but I guess someone else saw the potential, too, because it was no longer there.  It just goes to show how quickly good things get snagged at the thrift store.  So the quest for the perfect peplum continues.

Exam Week, Packing, and Vintage Purse Love

Well hello, there.  Look, I'm alive!  I survived the dreaded exam week, and it actually wasn't that bad.  Being an architecture major, the majority of stress is during final review, which is always a ways before exam week.  So really, I didn't have a very stressful week at all.  But now I have to come up with an excuse for going almost a week without a post.

To be honest, it's really just because I didn't really ever get fully dressed at all (and I don't mean that I forgot to put on pants.  That would be embarrassing).  When the only thing I had to do for the day was go to take an early morning exam, I pretty much just rolled out of bed, slipped on some comfy jeans and a t-shirt (not the chic kind, unfortunately), threw my hair in a pony tail and went on my merry way.  Then as soon as the exam was over, I came home and went back to bed.  Oh the life of a college student. 

Now that my semester is over, I get a whole new challenge in packing for winter break.  I'm having to resist bringing my whole wardrobe home with me, despite the fact that there is no way I could even wear everything in my closet in the 3 weeks I'm going to be away from school.  But I'm bad about saying "you never know," like "you never know, I might, out of nowhere, be invite to a different holiday party every night" or "you never know, I might be hanging out with friends every single day that I'm home."  Though, the truth is, I'm probably going to sit around in my PJs for the majority of break.  

However, do not fret, I have a list of DIY projects that I'm planning to attempt while home that will be good fodder for the blog on the days where I'm not quite as presentable as usual.  So hopefully no more lulls like this past week's snoozefest.  

Alright, now if you were brave enough to stick around through all that rambling (lots of text, no pictures, hope I didn't bore anyone to sleep), I have a treat: pictures!

I thrifted this purse last week and I've been dying to share it here.  It is vintage Ralph Lauren Polo and I got it for $3.50.  There's a cool little story behind it, too, if you can stand to read any more.  I took my lovely blog-tographer Amber thrifting with me to help me find a dress for my Jane costume and to hopefully get her as crazy addicted to thrifting as I am.  At one point, I glanced over at the rack of purses from afar and this one immediately caught my eye.  I told Amber that I saw one I liked and challenged her to go pick it out.  Since she takes my outfit pictures everyday, she's got a pretty good feel for my style, but I was still surprised when she managed to grab it on the first try.  Anyway, as soon as I got a closer look at it I decided that there was no way I was leaving the store without it.  It was love at first sight with this one.

Wow I probably could have spilt this into 3 separate posts, so I'm going to stop rambling now.  I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!

Jane of the (Urban) Jungle

Back in October, I expressed my love for costumes (times two), and over the weekend, I got to dress up in yet another for a movie character themed party.  I chose to be Jane Porter from my favorite Disney movie, Tarzan.

 Photo credits: 1, 2

Dress, belt: thrifted. Collared shirt: Walmart. Tights: Target. Boots: from my mom. Neck scarf: diy. Gloves: Dollar Store. 

When I first decided on this costume for the party, I was concerned about finding a dress that would pass for Jane's.  However, after about 10 minutes in the thrift store, I had this sunny little number in hand.  The thrift gods were really smiling on me that day.  Now I've just got the task of seeing if I can actually incorporate the dress into my everyday wardrobe.

Overall, the costume went over pretty well at the party.  Most people had to ask me who I was, but after I told them, they agreed I had done a good job.  Maybe they were lying to me and had no idea who Jane is, but I loved the costume, and that's all that counts, right? 

Birthday Suit

 
Dress: TJMaxx. Cardigan: Macy's. Tights, shoes: Target.

The title of this post is somewhat deceiving because I am not wearing my actual birthday suit, but today is my birthday, and this is what I wore.

Actually, that isn't entirely true.  I wore this yesterday, but I also pretty much celebrated my birthday yesterday for two reasons.  Reason one:  Today was "reading day" at my school, which is the day between the end of classes and the start of exams.  Because there was no class today, there was no one to see a cute outfit had I decided to wear one, so I wore it to class yesterday.  Reason two: I have a math exam at 8am tomorrow morning, so yesterday was a much better day/night to have friends over to celebrate.  Today I sat around in a slouchy sweater and treated myself to some thrifting, and now I'm taking a break from studying for my exam.  I know, I know, I go hard for my birthday.

I also like to use my birthday (or in this case, my almost birthday) as an excuse to get super dressy.  I think it's prefectly reasonable to have a satorial celebration of one's exit from the womb.  And I really wanted to wear these shoes.

Borrowed from the Boys

Shirt, purse: thrifted. Blazer: TJMaxx. Jeans: Old Navy. Shoes: Eva & Zoe via Off Broadway Shoes. Watch: my grandpa's.

I found this shirt with the rest of the woman's blouses in the thrift store and it wasn't until I was trying it on and went to button it that I realized that it was a men's shirt.  At that point, I had already made up my mind that I really liked it, so it made no difference to me which side of the shirt the buttons were on.  It's Nautica and really high quality, so getting a $50+ dollar shirt for $3.50 was pretty great, too.

I decided to play up the oversized men's button-up look with some other more masculine items like my favorite oxfords.  This is about as close to the androgyny trend as I'm ever gonna get, but I actually felt surprisingly chic in this outfit.

Have you ever bought a men's shirt for yourself?  Have you tried out the androgyny trend?  Let me know in the comments!

Feeling 40's

Trench: vintage, via my mom. Dress (worn as top): Walmart. Skirt: thrifted. Shoes: Payless.

The final in my architectural studio is a formal presentation, which gives me a highly anticipated reason to get even dresser that I usually do for class, hence this little number. This outfit feels very 1940's retro to me, which I love.  I think it's the combination of the polka dots and the skirt length.  I usually like to wear skirts either at my knee or maxi length, so this skirt is a change for me, but I think the high waist of the skirt keeps my legs from looking too stumpy.

I also just have to talk about this trench coat.  This has seriously got to be one of the nicest items in my closet.  My mom gave it to me this past summer; it had just been sitting up in our attic.  She said she didn't wear it very much, so it looks brand new, but I love all the interesting details like the mandarin collar and the pleating up top that you don't really see on modern trenches.  It's things like this that make me happy that my mom has just the slightest hoarding habit.  

Very Berry

Dress: Charlotte Russe. Jacket: Old Navy. Tights: Kmart. Boots: thrifted, brand new. Sunglasses: H&M.

I'm back!  My Architectural Studio final was this past week, and I had time for absolutely nothing that wasn't architecture, hence my absence.  However, now that the final is out of the way, I have more time for everything else, thank goodness!  I must say, it feels really nice to do things that I don't usually get to, like sleeping for extended periods of time.

The pictures of this outfit are actually kind of deceiving because these tights are definitely not as bright as they look.  They are actually less hot pink and more rich raspberry.  Also, this is another dress that is great for spinning in.  I can't help it that I'm actually a five year old at heart.