Dress: Club Monaco, thrifted; Jacket: Aeropostale, thrifted;
Bracelet: Loft; Shoes: Born Crown.
Final exams are over, which can only mean one thing: suitcase living. For the next couple weeks, Jeremiah and I will be visiting family for the holidays, so I'll be relying on a bag of simple basics to get me through parties, get-togethers and maybe even a trip to the beach (!). The weather's been fantastically warm here and I'm hoping it'll just stay that way through the rest of the year -- I've never been a huge fan of snow.
After a semester of not shopping and keeping a budget on priorities (like books and groceries and sometimes candy to power through finals), these shoes were a little early Christmas gift to myself.
Boots, tights: Target; Belt: Loft; Coat: Club Monaco, thrifted;
Necklace: Enbeadia, Selective Potential giveaway;
Jade bracelet: Finder's Keepers store, vintage.
Sometimes I question my own sanity when I do these photoshoots. There have been too many times where I've dangled my tripod precariously over bodies of water, or have come close to trespassing property lines to get certain shots.
Saturday's photos took it to another level, though. I knew I wanted to go to my normal photo spot, and thought that because most of the snow around town was already melting, that I could capture some of the contrasts of snow/bare ground in my photos. I was wrong, though: because there was very little foot traffic through the park throughout the week, it was still blanketed in snow and ice.
There were more than a few new obstacles: the crisp 15 degree weather, the closed-off road to the park (I had to hike a little), the fact that the walking path through the woods was completely frozen over (and required walking through the actual woods to prevent injuries -- I only fell once). But it was worth it to see the frozen world, and I had fun pushing myself to keep taking photos of everything. My favorite part was the frozen lake, and the fact that I could take a jewelry photo on it.
I wasn't the only person undeterred by the closed road and weather. Several runners were doing their daily runs on some of the paths, and I was in awe. They ran on the frozen trails energetically and forcefully, and without any fear of falling.
This outfit cost me less than a tank of gas, because it's 83% thrifted (the tights were the bought-new items). The shoes and the leather skirt were the most expensive items at $5 each. The coat (which still had its tags when purchased) was $3, and I wear it all the time. I believe in the magical powers of dry cleaning and sale days at thrift stores.
One of the most difficult things for me in this Remix Challenge was being able to combine my vintage pieces with some of the more modern items. I usually don't do that too much -- it's either all modern or all vintage/costume-y. I liked being able to frankenstein the two styles during this challenge to create my own spin.
This is Outfit 29, which means it's final countdown time. Stay tuned for the finale ... tomorrow!
It's hard to believe that merely a week ago I was sporting short sleeves. I'm looking at JoAnn of last week and I'm totally jealous of her complete disregard (or need) of layering. Yesterday was a gross, wet day, the kind of day that needs maroon tights and comfort clothes to get through it.
It's getting so cold, I'm hoping that I can keep up my momentum of taking my photos by myself. I started doing so since June (Jeremiah helps out occasionally, and I usually mark which sets he takes), but now that it's getting realllly cold in the mornings by the lake, I'll have to motivate myself to keep doing so.
What are your weekend plans? I'm looking forward to hot cocoa and Brunswick stew at our family tailgate tomorrow during tomorrow's football game!
Our first Valentine's date as a married couple was simple, but fun. We aren't super-fancy-schmancy people, and ended up going to Chili's and enjoyed good conversation about the English monarchy, Duke basketball and old Hollywood. Since it was a pretty laidback date I just reverted to a favorite dress. The poncho is actually the shawl I used for my senior prom. Jeremiah was my date to our last high school dance, so it brings back nice memories of eating giant steaks at Stoney River and dancing to "Gasolina" or whatever other music was happening that year.
The snow came yesterday and as much as I despise cold weather (precipitation in general annoys me), it was really beautiful, especially in the lake area in our neighborhood. Sprinkle couldn't resist sneaking out for some fun:
Jeremiah and I stayed up for some midnight exploring of our blanketed neighborhood, but it lasted 10 minutes because I was in my pajamas.
Hope you have a wonderful Sunday! Do you have any plans for Valentine's Day?
I really enjoyed reading your feedback (both on the OOTD and the Super Bowl) on my last post. Sometimes I rant and I don't know what kind of response I will get, but it seems like a few of you felt the same way. Thank you for sharing your opinions.
So...about this outfit.You've already met the new coat in my last post, which I think I'm going to work into some other combinations this week. It's so comfortable and fun to wear. I believe I got the dress for $10 at Nordstrom Rack. The pattern looks like it has ocean waves. I've worn this dress for so many different occasions -- college parties, walking around NYC -- that the cost per wear is probably down to about 20 cents. The shoes and the necklace pairing happened in a spontaneous way. I got the necklace as part of my birthday gift from Jeremiah's family, and wasn't sure how to wear it until now -- the colors go perfectly with the dress.
If you've been following my blog, you may have noticed that I do team trivia every Tuesday. It's a lot of fun and a great way to catch up with some of my high school friends. In honor of that, I thought I would do something different on the blog called 'Trivia Tuesday,' in which I post five-ish things about myself that you may not know. I guess it's a way for you to get to know me outside of my sartorial decisions, and if you'd like to play along as well, you can post something random about yourself in the comments.I don't know how this idea will evolve as time goes on, but for now, let's have fun with it, shall we?
Okay, here goes:
1) Concerts I've gone to: Ben Folds, Remy Zero, Maroon 5, Goo Goo Dolls and M.I.A. I don't go to concerts very often, so most of them are from when I was in high school (in case you were wondering and judging me for my musical tastes being stuck in 2003). The M.I.A. concert, which is the most recent one I've been to, was probably my favorite because it was really spontaneous. I had just come into NYC for a summer and my friend S. invited me to go. Not knowing who M.I.A. was (this was before the "Pineapple Express" and "Slumdog Millionaire" soundtracks made her a household name), I was thinking it would be a singer-songwriter gig in a little coffee shop. Wrong. So wrong. It was in some drained out pool in a Brooklyn park and thousands of people were there. And then afterward we went to the Sunburnt Cow and ate some awesome steak dish and toasted to S. quitting her much-hated job and me starting a summer of work and self-discovery. It was such a fun night, and I was really glad I left myself open to experience something random and new (a good habit to remember).
2) Nikki and I used to share a room with bunk beds. We held orange soda tea parties with our dolls.
3) When I was 10, I was so obsessed with "Harriet the Spy" that for an entire summer, I carried around a grey fanny pack with a magnifying glass and a notepad. I climbed trees and spied on my neighbors. They never did anything super interesting, but I think this was why I majored in journalism and psychology.
4) If I ever have a daughter, I'm naming her Layla Amelie, after the Eric Clapton song and Audrey Tautou movie.
5) I still have the clay turtle I made in kindergarten. He is painted gold and his name is Turtle. This jerk of a girl tried to break him by punching my backpack, but I tricked her and actually had him in a box that I held in my hands as I walked to my car at the end of the day. After that early scrape, Turtle has held a revered place in my heart.
Hope you enjoyed this installation of Trivia Tuesday!
This was my Super Bowl outfit -- I wanted to be as comfortable as possible while sitting on a couch, so I wore my recent thrifting finds.The coat is my favorite part of the ensemble. It reminds me of a Navy peacoat, so I played that up with my nautical accessories. I can't wait to restyle it.
The best laid schemes of mice and men often get screwed up -- I had every intention of getting these photos posted last night, but my computer was going slow. The best way to combat an irksome computer? Taking a little cat nap on my bed. The nap turned into full-on sleep and I ended up forgetting the photos and missing the last 10 minutes of the Super Bowl. Oh, well.
I am not a big fan of pro football. I can get excited about college football and basketball, but I just never got into pro sports. I am one of those people who gets excited over commercials. I took an advertising class one year and my professor kept talking about how wonderful it is to study advertising in the spring semester because you are required to watch Super Bowl and Oscars commercials for class. Tough assignment for sure, haha.
I wasn't really into most of the commercials from this year, because it seemed like a lot of them were about men complaining about the women that are ruining their given rights to be 'manly men.' I understand the Super Bowl is supposed to cater to mostly male interests because of its supposed testosterone-driven audience, but millions of women watch as well and many are passionate fans of the game. I found a couple of these ads offensive, alienating and most of all, embarrassing to the companies using them. Some of you might disagree and think I'm missing the humor in a few of them, and that's totally fine and I respect your opinion if you do. But I think these commercials didn't make either gender look so great and the advertisers missed an opportunity. Jezebel has a good gallery here of some of those ads.
End rant.
I did, however, really like Google's 'Parisian Love' commercial. Simple, to the point and sweet.
Did you watch the Super Bowl, and if so, did you have any favorite moments from the game or the commercials?
