Déjà vu

Dress: Connected Apparel; 

Watch: c/o The Trendy Boutique; Shoes: Born Crown. 

I took a long break from blogging, but I'm back now regularly. Jeremiah and I headed out of town before Christmas to go on a cruise with his family to Cozumel and Progreso, Mexico. His family liked the idea of our Thanksgiving cruise so much, they invited us on their winter break one. Jeremiah and I never go on vacation so frequently, so we felt pretty lucky and very, very spoiled to spend December on the high seas so soon.

These photos were from around the ship we were on. I'll be sharing some photos from this trip, and catching up on my regular posts from around Georgia here soon. Can't wait to see what 2012 brings in!

Mr. Blue Sky

 Dress: Connected Apparel; Sweater: Loft; Shoes: Zigi Soho.

These photos by Jeremiah.

It's been an incredible week. I got my first acceptance to graduate school yesterday. I'm almost too overwhelmed to talk about it, knowing that my life is going to change and take a different shape come August. I'll spill more details as these plans become more clear in the coming weeks, but for now, I am just full of hope and giddy-excitedness.

Add to that getting profiled by Collette and watching an Oscar movie marathon this Saturday, and at this rate I'll be twitching from happiness overload by week's end.

Here is what I was wearing yesterday -- it seemed appropriate that I matched my blue-sky surroundings.

Blue lagoon

 Dress: Connected Apparel; Boots; Target; Tights: Simply Vera;

Sweater: Banana Republic, thrifted (recently returned from sister);

Earrings: Finder's Keepers, Lawrenceville, Ga.

I've been taking advantage of the few sunny days we've had here by dressing up some of my lighter cotton dresses (I've missed these old friends). I really cannot wait until March when Georgia returns to mostly mild summer-like weather.  I hate talking about the weather all the time on here but it really dominates my sartorial creativity sometimes.

This sweater was a thrift store find last year, but I'm just now getting around to styling it. I really like how it picked up some of the pattern of this tie-dye aquamarine dress.

How was your weekend? I'm having a hard time adjusting to Monday after having a great weekend. Mine was spent hanging out with old friends and watching the Super Bowl (re: analyzing commercials).

Put me in, Coach

Dress: Connected Apparel;

Hat: Scala Pronto;

Belt: vintage, Highland & Ponce 

(Calivintage giveaway);

Shoes: gift, from Philippines;

Bag: Fossil, thrifted.

I was never a team sports kind of girl growing up. I was incredibly shy and more of the academic, bookworm type. My two-year stint in rec cheerleading ended in eighth grade when I realized that high school cheering involved acrobatics that I knew my limbs would never be able to perform, and that, because of my size at the time, I would always be cajoled into being at the top of the pyramid, which was always a terrifying prospect. I got dropped once and refused to let my teammates hold my legs up again. It's hard to trust your weight (and life) in the teeny arms of 13-year-olds.

Mostly though, I spent my adolescent free time on the sidelines. My younger brother and sister did many team sports through soccer and baseball, so I was the older sibling who tagged along whenever she had nothing better to do on a weeknight. I'd usually bring a book or a notebook and sketch or write Harriet-the-Spy-esque observations down ("Gosh, these coaches are soooo loud. Who cares if Bobby hits the ball off the tee? Big freakin' whoop.") I thought my jots were so deep at the time. One time I spied on a player's mom in the same stands and looked over her shoulder at her own notebook. She was writing a poem about how disconnected she felt to the team mom experience and how absurd it all was sometimes. I felt a kinship to her, even if I never said so at the time.

But those afternoons were always great, because sometimes I could convince my mom and dad to buy me sunflower seeds or Sour Punch candy straws from the concession stand. And when I got bored of writing and reading, I had to find other ways to amuse myself at the park, which generally consisted of writing my name in the dust on empty fields or hanging upside down on the monkey bars. I sometimes played in the small woods nearby until it was time to leave the glow of the stadium lights.

So I guess when I saw this empty field, I just couldn't resist taking my outfit photos there. I grew up in this sport, even if I didn't play it.

Take it easy

Dress: Connected Apparel;

Shoes: from Philippines, gift;

Headband: borrowed from Nikki;

Sweater: Forever 21, borrowed from Nikki;

Bag: Fossil, thrifted.

How I've worn the dress before: here.

Photos by Jeremiah.

Many thanks goes to Linda from Little Tin Soldier for featuring me in her weekly shoutout. If you haven't checked out Linda's blog yet, you definitely should -- she not only takes adorable outfit photos, but she also does beautiful illustrations of them, too. She's quickly become one of my everyday reads.

Okay, onto this outfit. These photos are from a very easy Monday that involved running errands and going to the bookstore. I spent an inordinate amount of time reading photography books while I was there. It's funny, I spent three years working at my college newspaper, but never had the desire to pick up a camera. Now that I'm out of college and not writing full-time, all I want to do is take photos wherever I go.

It turns out we are finally moving our furniture to Athens on Wednesday, so hooray for that. My sister Nikki (she finally started her own blog here) came over Sunday afternoon and we had a giant clothing swap. It was more like I cleaned out my closet and she got a good bit of things that I don't wear anymore. She let me borrow this sweater, which I think will end up being a good staple in my closet for fall. I love the design of swirls at the top of it, and I like how it mutes out the tie-dye of the dress.

Hope you all are having a fabulous Tuesday. Tonight is our last team trivia meetup because of the move (sniff,sniff). We'll live a little further away, but Jeremiah and I will try to go once a month. I'll miss my friends too much to stay away from Taco Mac too much longer.

P.S. Be sure to check out my Designer Apparel earrings giveaway here.

Cotton candy

 

Dress: Connected Apparel;

Shawl: Burlington Coat Factory;

Carpet saddle bag: thrifted;

Flats: Target.

How I've worn the dress before: here.

I wish I had a remote control for my life that would speed things up during the week at my retail job and then sloooow things down on my days off. Having to hear about problems like purse interior linings all the time can make anyone feel a little less sane by the end of a week. Although, I'd imagine I'd get into trouble with a time device like that -- I'd make a misstep and have it devolve into volcanoes erupting on the other side of the world or something like that. Still, it's really nice to imagine skipping to the best parts. I do that with books sometimes --- I usually start with the last page and then start at the beginning. I think Harry in "When Harry Met Sally" described it as having a dark side. I like to think of it as being deductive -- knowing how it all ends first and then trying to figure out how it got to be that way was always the best part for me.

Anyways, this has nothing really to do with this dress, which I wore to dinner with Jeremiah after work today. The frothiness of it is just wonderful enough to combat the daily black wear and almost fun enough to make me forget that I want a time remote control in my life. Almost.

Have a frothy pink-cotton-candy kind of day,

Get your bags together, go bring your good friends too

Listening to: "Peace Train," Cat Stevens.

Dress: Connected Apparel;

Shoes: Aerosoles;

Bag: Vintage, thrifted;

Necklace: thrifted.

How I've worn the dress: here.

The funny thing about the park yesterday was there were multiple people snapping pictures of others in their groups. It was like we were all trying to capture our own version of the park's beauty. It made me feel less narcissistic when Jeremiah and I started snapping away.

About this outfit. I felt like such a lady in this outfit. I've had this bag for years and actually got it during the same thrifting trip as my little leather saddle bag. Who knew I would still love something I picked out at 15? The necklace is a find from the Salvation Army -- I like the little tiles, and the design of it seemed slightly Egyptian to me, so I got it. The dress and the shoes matched really well, and I like how the modernness of the shoes balances out the rest of the outfit.

Actually, I felt like this would be something my paternal grandmother would have worn when she was younger. I didn't know her growing up because she died when I was five, so all I know of her are pictures and snippets of stories passed down. She used to be a bit of a clotheshorse and apparently wore open-toed heels all the time, even while making dinner. Something about this attribute is very comforting to me, because it makes me feel like there was someone in my family who shared some of the same traits that I have. I wonder what she would think of this whole blogging thing. She also apparently chewed ice and ate her meals very, very slowly, which are things that I've always done. It's really strange how very weird traits can skip generations and manifest themselves. It makes me feel connected to someone I love but never got to know into adulthood.

I'm really excited about tomorrow because Jeremiah and I are headed to Athens for the weekend to see our friends and to watch the Twilight Criterium. The Criterium is an annual bike race/street festival, and it gets so crazy that it's one of the busiest weekends of the year (well, besides football season). I've really been looking forward to this weekend for many reasons --- one of the bad things about this limbo year was having to move to the suburbs away from all of our friends, and I'm hoping this weekend will provide some clarity, peace and fun. I have a scheduled post for tomorrow and I'll be back on Sunday, hopefully with lots of pictures with which to bombard you.

Hope you lovelies have a great day! What are your plans for the weekend?

The Case of the Mystery Park, or Dress #40

Dress: Connected Apparel, Secondhand Rose (since closed);

Sweater: Faded Glory;

Belt: Ann Taylor Loft (it came with this dress);

Bracelet: Finder's Keepers (Detail view here);

Wedges: Zigi Soho.

Ha, doesn't my title sound like a Nancy Drew book? I only need Bess and George and I'd be set to start my own detective agency.

Man, oh man, today's pictures come with a little bit of drama. Since we're going into the last week of The Dress Project starting today (yay!), I wanted to step it up a little bit by going to different interesting locations in my area. I researched a couple of different places that have a little history going on -- like the oldest building in the county, stuff from the Civil War era, and so on. So J and I decided that for today, we were going to visit a park -- a quiet, uncrowded area nestled in the suburbs that has a bunch of old farmhouses that have been preserved from the early 1900s. So we set upon our merry way with our Google map directions and off we went ... and the last stretch of our directions led us straight into a modern, townhouse neighborhood. Wha?

Maybe it's at the end of the road, we thought. Nope. Just mailboxes, more modern neighborhood and office buildings. We may be the last people on Earth that don't use a GPS, because we usually don't have direction problems like this, but after this whole silly episode I'd think about getting one. After about 20 minutes we gave up for the day and just went to our usual spot for pictures. The mystery park is still listed on the county Web site as a real, functioning park, and the only reason we can think of for getting the wrong address is that part of the park was sold for real estate property, and Google Maps hasn't updated. Or just got it wrong. Either way, I still want to find this idyllic-sounding historical place. I will find you this week, Mystery Park!

So, about this outfit. I promised myself this year for my style resolutions that I would play with different color combinations, like black and brown, black and orange, pink and red. I don't usually combine pink and red together (except here, but it's in a print), mostly because I always thought they competed against each other, but I figured if they're found in nature together, it's okay. I ended up liking this look a lot, especially with the matching belt. I got this dress several years ago at a secondhand boutique, and have since had it shortened because it was a little past my knees. It features a subtle print and shoulder bow ties (which I'm thinking about snipping because I think they're a little too twee, but I haven't committed to it yet). I wore this dress during one of the days on our honeymoon in Hawaii, so it's got a lot of fun memories attached. 

 

What bold color combinations have you tried? What color combinations do you think will never work together? And have you, like me, had dysfunctional moments with your photo locations?

 

40 down, five to go.