Bows and (train) whistles

Plaid shirt: Arizona Jeans Co., thrifted; Jeans, sweater: Loft; 

Bag: vintage, thrifted; Shoes: Minnetonka; Bow tie: vintage, Minx. 

I have not been back to this photo spot since last spring, and I'll admit I was a bit afraid -- I don't seem to have the same bravery when I used to walk near the tracks. The path is near a busy road, so I felt safe for the most part, but it is littered with car scraps and random trash. I almost hightailed it back to my car until I realized the figure in the bushes was not a body but part of an old truck tire. Perhaps all my horror movie-watching from last week is coming back to haunt me (pun completely intended).

This weekend was full of busyness-- our university had its homecoming weekend, so time was spent tailgating, reuniting with good friends, watching football and meeting mascots for the first time. I haven't had as much fun on this campus in such a long time, so Saturday was definitely awesome.

As I walked back from hanging out with friends from downtown, I went into my favorite vintage store and bought myself this bow tie as a little treat for (almost) being done with my first semester of graduate school. I love the little red flower pattern on it, and I think it will fit well into my red/white clothing preferences.

How was your weekend?

A moment's glimpse

This photo is from a botched outfit shoot. I had roughly 15 minutes of free time before work, and decided to make a go of it to take photos at the park. Between my limited time and an unusual amount of people at the park (a biology class was doing a project), I thought I had managed to pull off a nice shoot -- until I came home and realized I shot in the wrong size format. Meaning all my photos couldn't be resized larger without looking pixelated and wonky. Sigh.

This is the only photo that came out. I feel lucky whenever I can get out to the park in the mornings, just because it doesn't happen as often as it used to. Because it's so secluded, I feel like I am privy to this beautiful little location and that documenting all of its incremental changes somehow feels worthwhile.  I'm posting this now to remind me that it's okay that I am still learning from my mistakes. 

The mermaid brigade

“I must be a mermaid, Rango. I have no fear of depths and a great fear of shallow living.” 

― Anaïs Nin

Just a photo from my recent visit to Watkinsville's fall festival a few weekends ago. My friends and I meandered around booths, took photos, and ate cupcakes for breakfast. When I saw these handmade mermaid dolls, I wanted to take all of them home with me.

In the misty morning fog

 Dress: Liz Claiborne; Jacket: Club Monaco, thrifted; Blouse: Chaps; Tights: Vera Wang; 

Shoes: Ipanema, thrifted; Belt: from camp a long time ago. 

I had a hard time going through these photos because half of them turned out dark and serious, almost like a film noir, and the other half appeared bright and cheerful. Unsure of how to balance this duality in tone, I just chose my favorites. Have fun guessing which photo fell under which theme (hint: apparently pensiveness is correlated with buttoned coats and slightly-popped collars for me).

Because I am convinced that the next three weeks are the absolute prettiest time of year to do landscape photography in this area, I've challenged myself to go shoot every single day this month, even if it's only for a few minutes a day. I used to spend every morning at the park during my more disciplined days; with graduate school, it's become more difficult to claim more of my free time back. I'm looking forward to getting back to making this hobby more of a priority ...

Grey lady

 Dress: Banana Republic; Sweater: Old Navy (gifts from ML); 

Boots: Loft; Tights: Vera Wang; Bracelet: from Destin, gift.

The last few days have been a complete whirlwind -- in the last week I've had a conference, a couple papers, a major project that involved coldcalling strangers (yikes!),  a Halloween costume party, a football team to cheer on, a visit to the Carter Center to see Madeliene Albright's  brooches, and lots of taffy to stuff my belly. Okay, so it hasn't been all work around here, but it has been busy. 

For those days when I don't really know what to wear, I usually turn to a neutral dress like this one. I'm not usually a fan of dark dresses (especially LBDs) because I often desire more detail in my clothing, but I do really love the abstract print on this particular dress and it makes it feel modern. I'm glad Marilou was kind enough to send it as a gift to me a few months ago.

How was everyone's Halloween? I usually go as Wonder Woman, but this weekend I wasn't feeling the cape, so I went as generic mask lady. Or Batman, as you might recall from this photoshoot.