autum, i'm waiting...

It was 78 degrees yesterday.

Seventy. Eight.

Look, I know Kansas can play a little fast and loose with its so-called 'seasonal weather', but this is just...not right. WHERE ARE YOU, FALL?

I just got back from France, where I spent the last five weeks. (We can talk about that in a whole other post, promise.) Although it was surprisingly disgustingly hot in Paris the first week or two that I was there, it cooled off pretty quickly. I definitely got used to wearing sweaters and jackets and hell, I was enjoying it immensely. So yes, I was a little bitter when I stepped out of the Kansas City airport and immediately started sweating.

Unfortunately, I have no control over the weather besides my continuous recycling efforts, so I'm just going to have to wait out this lingering summer heat. To hold me over, I've taken to staring longingly at my computer screen filled with pictures of chunky knits and scarves the size of the kraken.

We'll get there soon. We will.

Until I can start living my sartorial dream without fear of self-induced heat stroke, here are some of the things I've been drooling over...

oversized sweaters

oversized jackets

oversized scarves

[let's be honest, oversized everything]

flannel

layers

Like, so many layers that you just end up looking like a pile of fabric scraps? Now you're singing my song!

I'm lazy so all of these photos can be sourced back to my warm & cozy pinterest board.


Next up, we'll take a look at how my current wardrobe measures up to this inspiration.


PS: Happy October!

my no-makeup month

I kind of hate wearing makeup. Skin makeup, more specifically. I like lipstick occasionally (not on campus, which is where I am most days) and although I like the smokey eye effect, I really cannot do more than mascara and liner. I tried, once. I somehow managed to look like a raccoon with a black eye. Which is odd, since raccoons already have that look naturally. (If you ask me, that takes some serious skill in its own right.) But yes, that is how bad my eye shadow job was. 

The makeup I hate wearing is foundation/concealer/powder/all the other ten trillion products made for skin. I do resign myself to wearing foundation occasionally for job interviews or for work or if I just want to look polished. I hardly ever feel like I'm required to wear makeup, except for the previously mentioned job interviews.

I decided that I am going to take on April (and the last seven days of March) makeup-free. It's not even about making a statement; it's just because I don't want to so I'm not going to. Also, my skin gets really red. So red and spotty that it looks like I have a rash, which obviously isn't good. I don't want to run to the dermatologist quite yet, as my skin usually leaves there looking worse (please don't give me anymore salicylic acid, christ). Plus, there are a few "home remedies" I want to try first. Though I use that phrase loosely, because don't think I'm about to go eat one raw onion per day (though I do love onions) or start oil pulling (I can't sit there for twenty minutes doing that, I've got shit to do). I mean things like...drink more water (a novel concept, I know). I have some rice mask sheets I got for Christmas so I'll use those. And, you know, the whole no-makeup thing. May not help, but it certainly won't hurt.

I was trying to get a sans-makeup photo with decent lighting. I think I took like 50 pictures. It wasn't until I was looking through them that I realized how red my skin actually is. I blame this on: 1. it being way past my bedtime right now, and 2. my bathroom, oddly enough, has pretty flattering lighting, so I don't see all the imperfections the way I do when staring at dozens of horrid photos of myself.

Unfortunately, I'm only putting one here. The rest are getting deleted immediately.

Glamour shot!

On a positive note, I love my crazy hair. Frizz for life!

Much love.

i'll never let you sweep me off my feet

How good are you at not judging people? I'm talking about the more generalized judging that is unnecessary and usually negative.

I won't lie, walking through campus every day, I get to see all the interesting and unique styles people have (ignoring the leggings-and-sweater girls. No shade. I wear the hell out of that outfit too). One thing I struggle with, though, is sizing a person up by what shoes they are wearing. I know that sounds so...stupid. You're right. It is. But if you didn't catch on from this post here, I have a thing about shoes.

I once read that an interviewer would not judge a potential employee by what clothing they wore to the interview but by the shoes they wore. They said that it gave a better idea of a person's attention to detail and blah blah none of you care. My point is, if clothes are a sentence, shoes are the punctuation at the end. Might not seem important, but it provides the tone of the entire thing as a whole.

Now, I want to be clear: I don't judge a person's character by their shoes (again, excluding this post), just their fashion sense.

You'd think that a college campus isn't the best place for judging footwear, seeing as most people are walking a fair bit and thus are less likely to walk around in 4-inch heels. This is true. But that's where two other events/situations come into play: 1. career fairs, and 2. my work.

i change shapes just to hide in this place but i'm still an animal

This is my second year working in retail part-time while going to school. In 2014 I worked at The Limited, then I transferred schools and moved to a different city in January 2015. In October I got a job at White House Black Market, which is, in all honesty, very similar to The Limited. It's just more expensive. I do like it for the most part, but it's really changed my outlook on clothes. Constantly being around brand new sparkling fresh clothing that I don't own is...weird. My sense of style hasn't changed, but I have gotten more varied when figuring out how to style something that I normally would pass right by, but...it's much more than that.

I've been typing and retyping this paragraph, trying to accurately describe the sensation that I get from new clothes and going shopping since I started working in retail, but I can't seem to figure out how to explain it.

Anyways, I thought I'd put together some outfits using at least one main piece from WHBM. This is how I would wear these clothes if: 1. I was allowed to style them this way, and 2. I had enough money to buy them. (I do get a decent discount, but I still have to be very selective with what I buy. If they want their employees to constantly be decked out head to toe in their clothes, they'd have to, like, quadruple our pay.)

Without further ado...

button-front pencil skirt 98.00 | leather ankle-strap heels 125.00 | fringe clutch 98.00 | others

florals? for spring? groundbreaking.

How many fashion blogs have used this quote during spring? Seriously, I should start keeping count.

So it's more than halfway through March and it's caught me off guard just a bit. February in Kansas is so blah, and suddenly it's the third week of March and it's warm enough to wear shorts some days and sandals most days. I love the transition seasons, which is unfortunate because more often than not they pass by in a blink here. We routinely see snow in April and then in May it'll be 80+ degrees out; in the fall, we can experience days where it's 100 degrees even in September, and suddenly in October it's time for coats. It's frustrating to live in Kansas if you do not like or cannot deal with extreme weather; on the plus side, it's never boring.

i do believe it's true that there are roads left in both of our shoes

I have a story that makes me sound like a bitter old woman, but I don't care

See these shoes?

The dirtier, the better.

The shoes epitomizing all things Instagram-posting, Starbucks-going, leggings and baggy sweaters-wearing hipster girls?

one of those weeks..

The last week has not been great for me. I got sick in May, and by the end of June I was feeling much better. I thought that I was back to 100%, but the last two weeks have kind of slapped me back and been like, Ha yeah, not quite. I've had to drop a few classes, and because I had no flexibility left in my classes on my course to graduation, I ended up having to push my graduation date back a whole year. For two classes. Sucks. Trying to look at the silver lining, though, is that 1) I'm not going to kill myself from stress now, 2) I might actually get to study abroad next fall!! I'm so excited. It's all I've wanted to do since I came to college. But much more about that later.

Another thing that happened yesterday that made my bad week not quite as bad is that I got a call from a clothing store in town about coming in for an interview. I had applied there like over two months ago. I had applied at a lot of places, but sometimes people take forever to call back. Whatever. I ended up taking a job at a sandwich shop and I hate it. For many reasons. So I was really excited that I got this call. I have an interview on Tuesday. Fingers crossed it goes well, and I can quit the hellhole that is my current place of work.

So trying to take my mind off of my current woes, I've started dreaming up some cute outfits to wear to my maybe-soon-to-be new job. And then I realized, hey. Polyvore. So I put them together so I could actually look at them with my eyes instead of with just my thoughts.

Obviously I can totally afford all of these clothes :)

*Also, when I worked at the Limited last year, they had some fairly rigid rules on what you can and can't wear. If you aren't wearing head-to-toe Limited brand (excluding shoes and accessories), then you can only wear solid black and white pieces. No gray. No black and white stripes. Each article of clothing has to be a solid color, and it has to be black or white. Also, if you are not wearing "dress" pants of some sort (like if you are wearing jeans), then you have to be wearing a blazer too.

So I have no idea the dress code for other stores, but I'm thinking in terms of somewhere close-ish to what the Limited had (hopefully more fun and flexible though).

absence

I haven't been on here in awhile.

Actually I feel like 50% of the posts I've written over the last year or two have been some variation of "Why I haven't been blogging lately".

The main reason is because I don't like taking photos of myself. And I feel like there's only so much I can write about fashion without actually...showing some of my own ideas as well. I mean, I don't know about you, but almost all the fashion blogs I read include photos of the blogger wearing, in their own way, all the fashion they like to talk about. And since my blog is completely lacking that element...I start to get uninterested in writing about stuff. Or more specifically, I start to think people get uninterested in reading this blog.

The "second wardrobe"

"Do what you can
with what you have
where you are."
(Theodore Roosevelt)

I've been really into reading blogs about minimalist fashion and capsule wardrobes. (The first one I came across and really enjoyed was this one.) I've started to notice that people tend to treat their entire wardrobe, every article of clothing that they have, as if it were two separate wardrobes.

One that goes on the blog.
One that goes to the gym and/or the bed.

I find this fascinating, because I don't think I've ever done that. Stacy and Clinton from What Not to Wear would be horrified to learn that I wear the same clothes to class, to the grocery store, to work out in, to sleep in, to go shopping in (they do get washed in between, so... yeah)...

I do have a few items that stay strictly in certain wardrobe "zones": obviously I don't wear my jeans to work out, and I have a few t-shirts that are only worn for sleeping.

It's definitely good to have clothes that can work in multiple ways and in multiple parts of your life, but when ALL your clothes can...well, it gets very boring.

Although I still love reading fashion blogs and even writing on this one, the act of getting dressed in the morning has become just something I have to do. It's not exciting.

And I want to change that; I want to look forward to picking out my outfits every day. Unfortunately, it seems like it's not something I can do right now. Partly because I don't have a lot of money (thanks, school) and therefore cannot buy any new clothes; and I can't reach back to some of my older clothes that I still love because they don't fit. I got sick this spring and one of the medicines I take from that is a steroid. Look, I don't know if you have ever had experience with these devil pills, but they make it really hard to not gain weight. They just make you want to eat. It's not a physical urge; you don't feel hungrier than before. It's a mental urge, just constantly feeling like eating, but not actually needing to but then still doing it anyway.

Anyways, all this has led me to a fashion standstill, one that consists mainly of leggings, sometimes jeans, graphic tees, and flip flops. Seriously, not the ugliest outfits you might see, but definitely some of the most boring you will see. Total snooze-fest.

So here is where I'm asking for help.

Has anyone experienced this before? Been stuck with a mundane wardrobe due to random circumstances that aren't changeable at that moment? How did you get yourself out of that rut while spending minimal to no money?

I think, if I had some extra money and I was not up in (hopefully temporary) weight, this would be a fantastic opportunity for me to really examine my lifestyle and how I want my clothes to work with it, not to mention being able to play around with my style and start to figure out what style, etc that I love not just in magazines or on Pinterest or on other blogs but on my body.

Sadly, this is not the case right now. Which just gives me an even bigger challenge. And that's okay. I think fashion wouldn't be as interesting and entertaining to me if it were easy. Having lots of money, buying whatever I want, looking good while wearing anything...they're dreams we have that could result in an end product that might not be so...enjoyable. It sounds backwards, and maybe I'm wrong, but to me, anything I accomplish is much more satisfying if I had to put at least some thought and work into it. I think, for me, fashion is not an exception to this.

But still, I could use your help/advice/wisdom/experience if you'd like to give it.

Blast from the past, part I: When the 90s go bad

Last week my mom brought over a big cardboard Xerox box filled to the brim with old photos that she asked me to scan to my computer. Now, so far, all these photos were taken AT LEAST ten years ago, although many of them are 20-25 years old. Like, I wasn't even born yet it some of them. But the great thing about going through 5000 old family photos is getting to see the fashion from that time period. And not the fashion that old magazines or old tv shows present; fashion that YOU YOURSELF wore. In real life. In public. Around other people. With eyes. 

The horror.

The wonderful, hilarious, ridiculous horror.

Shall we begin?

Thug life.
(Spring 1990)

Summer whiteout

"I know white clothing is supposed to enhance that summer glow, but writers don't tan."
(Diablo Cody)

The only time I ever wear an all-one-color outfit is if that color is BLACK. I like black clothes. A lot. But in the summer time, when it's 104 degrees out with 70% humidity (thanks Kansas), wearing all black just looks (and feels) a little...heavy. So why not try switching it up and going all WHITE? I mean, white is just as inoffensive as black, and despite what people say, I think wearing all white works with any skin tone, regardless of its paleness (or lack thereof).

But wearing all white can start to drift into bridal territory, so to curb that I'm-getting-married-today vibe, go full color with the accessories, and keep the hair slightly messy and undone (or whatever is the opposite of how you would style your hair on your wedding day).

Here's some ideas to copy inspiration for going all white this summer:

1.  A simple sleeveless t-shirt dress...

T by Alexander Wang

2.  Pleats 'n whatnot...

darkvictory.co.kr

3.  A sweater for cooler days (does that even happen in the summer? somebody come kidnap me out of this state)...

photo

One issue that comes up a lot when trying to wear an all-one-color look is that if there are separate pieces, especially by different brands, then the colors might not "match"; this can make, in the case of all white, one of the pieces look a beautiful bright white while the other sits there like a dingy mess (even if it isn't actually a dingy mess).

I think the best (or at least, the easiest) way to remedy this is by mixing up the textures and materials of each piece. For example,

4.  Wearing a cotton button-up on top and a lace pencil skirt on the bottom...

photo

So are you into this look? Or is it just a bit too...well, white...for you?

All maxed out

The maxi skirt certainly isn't a new or unusual trend; like skinny jeans, when the style popped up I was not a fan, but after years of it continuing to be a style du jour, it began to grow on me until I finally caved and bought my own maxi dress. No regrets.

It may seem counter-intuitive, breaking out the longest skirt you own right when temperatures start to rise and everyone is stripping off their winter layers, but there's something indescribable about the feeling of the easy-breeziness of (most) maxi skirts while not having to worry about flashing your undergarments (or worse) (which I consider the one and only negative of mini skirts).

No matter where you are or what occasion you're wearing it for, there's a maxi skirt out there for everyone.
 

1.  Go casual with jersey knit and a t-shirt style top...
 

shopbop.com

Hello, goodbye: back to blogging, closet cleanout

Well it's certainly been quite a long time since I've posted on here.

One reason is because the last eight-ish months have been...eventful, to say the least.

But I think the main reason is because I struggle - struggle with doing one thing consistently and indefinitely. Even things that I truly enjoy. It's not just fashion and blogging; it happens with crochet, guitar, writing, yoga, diets, and planning for the future. (No big deal on that last one, right?)

But I am back and I am delighted.

Whenever I read others' blogs, if they take some kind of hiatus (or something about the blogging suddenly changes), I'm always curious as to what is happening in their life that caused the shift. So when they explain it, even if it's just an overview, I think it's a really great way to connect with people reading the blog on a more personal level (as in Hey! I'm a whole person, not just a fashion blogger! I have other parts of life that are important to me and I want you to get to know this side of me as well!). So that's what I'm going to do.

The very eventful last 8 months year has consisted of:

Pinterest, magazines, and glue sticks

Wow, I haven't posted on here in so long (since February?) but that does not mean I have been skipping out on some fashion sessions. I blame Pinterest. Also, before Pinterest was...well, there, I had a sort of hard-copy lookbook I maintained. I started it about five years ago, but it's just been sitting around gathering dust the last few years. So last night I dragged out the book and did a little editing and updating. It really is amazing seeing how my tastes have changed over the last half-decade. I'd like to think they've gotten a bit more...refined. That is to say, less 19 years-old-ish.

I don't consider the two (Pinterest and my lookbook) as being the same. There are great things floating around Pinterest, and especially during Fashion Week(s) when a lot of new stuff appears, but during the off-seasons, I start seeing a lot of recycling of the same photos. This is why I like magazines. Styles might be similar every now and then, but at least they use completely different pictures for each new edition (barring ads, which are actually terrific for inspiration. Assuming they're not completely...wack).

Here's my Pinterest, if you are interested. And here's a photo (or two photos) I pinned recently. Because so far I've written a lot of text and I suppose it needs to be broken up with an image or two.

I want a poncho please.
[source]

My fall/winter style summarized in four words:
A walking fabric shop.
[source]

So I call it my lookbook because that is the word that I glued on the notebook five years ago and it does not appear as though I will be able to remove them anytime soon so I digress. The Lookbook it is. Anyways, it is laughable what I do: as I read through new magazines, I fold down the corners of pages which contain something that catches my eye. After I'm done reading, I can later go back through quickly, find the pages I marked, and cut out whatever I liked. Then I glue the pictures to 3-hole-punched graph paper and finally nestle said papers into my book. It's like second grade art class. Except I don't have to use safety scissors. (It's time-consuming. I should probably be doing things more socially acceptably productive.)

I do, in fact, have a point to the previous three paragraphs. As I mentioned, I started updating the books, and I just thought I'd share some of my favorites. These are ones that I have not yet seen on Pinterest, so hopefully they are a breath of fresh air (or at least non-recirculated air) for you as well.

I hope you enjoy these. I'm predicting that it will take me a hella long time to scan these. (And yes, 'hella long' is a standard scientific measurement of time.) So without further ado...

Bits and pieces

Just a few things here and there that have caught my attention over the last week.

I love love LOVE Sherlock. So far season 3 has not disappointed, and The Sign of Three (episode 2) is hands down my favorite Sherlock episode ever. Here are 23 tidbits from that episode that you might have missed.

I am a middle child. Middle children unite!

I can't with this one. I've never been a huge fan of Justin Bieber's music, but his antics over the last year have permanently sealed my distaste of him.

Sometimes accessories are more fun than the actual clothes.

Even Disney is getting in on the photoshop craze.

A few years ago I had a somewhat serious conversation with my mom about the books I read. As in, she thought I read too many books from the young adult section and maybe I should branch out into the big person genres. (Okay, sometimes I read adult fiction.) But mostly I like YA books, and I think there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. You like fantasy? Read fantasy! (That's my main course 98% of the time). You like nonfiction? Hit up the library! It. Does. Not. Matter. What's important is that you're realizing the importance of enjoying a good book. All that said, here are 25 YA novels that even adults might find worthy.

I'm an absolute horrid procrastinator, so I will read any and every article about how to possibly remedy this. This one in particular I really related to, and it's definitely worth the read. (And don't forget to read part II).

I rarely listen to the radio so I have a hard time discovering new music. Sometime last year is when I found Ben Howard (I'm not sure how well-known he is), and I love his album Every Kingdom. Keep Your Head Up is my favorite of his.

I'm thinking of getting another tattoo so I've been obsessively looking at different tattoo ideas. This list of 50 nature-inspired tattoos is great. Not all of them are my cup of tea, but I can't deny that they're all gorgeous in their own right. Number 7 is my favorite, I've actually had my eye on that one for a long time. (And if you're more into geometry than nature, check out this list.)


PS - It's a little overdue, but happy new year!

Ponderings

So I've known how to crochet for a long time (my grandmother taught me when I was just 9 or 10) but this season I've gotten really into it. I'm considering starting an Etsy shop. I just think it would be so much fun, and besides, my own closet will only hold so many scarves.

The tricky part would be the pricing. I haven't kept track of how much time it's taken me to make my different scarves and hats, and that's really important. I don't want to be averaging out $2 per hour!

But I do love to crochet, it's fun to just put on a tv show or movie and go to town. And once it starts to get warmer, I think I'll make less winter scarves and hats and more afghans.

Anyways, I just needed someplace to think out loud, so I apologize if this post was boring for you. To make up for it, here are some pictures of my crochet creations from this season.

Have a very wonderful New Years! As I tell my roommates, don't do anything I wouldn't do! (I'd do everything :P )

"Find what you love and let it kill you."

-Charles Bukowski-

Winter wish list

So, my birthday happens to be two days before Christmas. This is really fun for me (double presents, you say?) but not my mother who, as my sisters and I have gotten older, has increasingly not known what to buy us. So every year I make her a wish list, a little present guideline. This makes shopping easier on her and she doesn't worry about getting something I don't like. (And I feel very grateful that she is able to buy me presents every year. You've got to remember to appreciate the little AND big things.)

So here is the wish list I made up. (Honestly, it's hard for me to make wish lists, because I'm always trying to restrain myself. I feel like if I give in and just go for it, my list is going to be a million miles long.)

Olay ProX face brush

I've heard good things about these types of face brushes. (And this picture certainly makes it look exciting.) I'm not sure if it comes with face wash or not, but I'll still just use my own. The great thing is, this brand only costs $22!

DVDs: The World's End / The Hobbit extended edition

I absolutely LOVE Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Hot Fuzz is one of my all-time favorite movies, and The World's End has the same cast as Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead. If you haven't seen either of those, particularly Hot Fuzz, I highly highly recommend it.

JRR Tolkien is one of my favorite authors, and I think Peter Jackson does a marvelous job of translating his books to the big screen.

Skin Game by Jim Butcher

The Dresden Files is a terrific book series by Jim Butcher. It's about a Wizard/PI living in Chicago. It gets pretty crazy and awesome. Skin Game is number 15 (!!) in the series. The first one is called Storm Front. Check it out.

money for yarn

I am absolutely obsessed with crocheting right now (I've made 7 hats and 6 scarves since September) and there's this great little yarn shop in Wichita where they spin their own yarn. It's really high quality. It's also really expensive. But the people who work there are super nice. So if you like crocheting or knitting and ever find yourself in Wichita, the place is called Twist Yarn Shop. It's in the Delano district.

MoroccanOil intense curl cream, conditioner, shower gel, oil

Best hair care line ever. All of their products smell the same. It's a really distinct smell. At first when I tried it I was kind of like, wow, I'm not sure if I like this. Now I just want to infuse that smell into my skin, so yeah. It's amazing. Their products are sold in most salons and online.

Sock Dreams bamboo cable tights

This is a great little online shop I found, they sell pretty much every kind of socks and tights imaginable. Pretty reasonably priced (the tights pictured above are $16) and the best part is the shipping is super speedy. You'll probably get the stuff just two days after you order.

Injinji socks

I have a pair of Vibram FiveFingers, which I absolutely love, but these are the only socks that you can wear with them (that I've found so far). The bad part is each pair of socks is around $12. You can wear the shoes without socks (it sounds gross but it's mostly not), which I do sometimes in the summer, but then I end up having to wash them all the time so they don't smell. So it's just easier to wear socks with them.

I also really want to get a pair of boots. I recently bought a pair (Raggae-01 by Qupid) that I'm in love with, and I want to find something that is similar but knee-high.

Raggae-01 by Qupid, Amazon $43

knee-high moto boots

2 Lips Too Too Jasper, DSW $70

Carlos by Carlos Santana Hanna, DSW $70

G by Guess Hertlez, Macy's $80

Report Neves metal boot, Macy's $40

Madden Girl Cactuss, Zappos $81

Madden Girl Legacie, Zappos $63

So do you all make wish lists? What do you ask for?

Happy holidaytime

Mélange of prints

Guys, I don't know what's happening to me. I'm going from solids in white/gray/black/navy to actually searching for prints and colors (case in point: I've bought three neon items so far this summer). Not only am I uncharacteristically interested in prints, I'm wanting to (gasp) mix them! I have a fever, and the only prescription is more prints.

I've noticed a lot of the photos I've been gravitating towards have involved a mix of stripes and floral.

I feel bad because often I save inspiration photos on my computer then completely forget where I found them

bsoup.blogspot.com

manrepeller.com

I forget the source :(

bsoup.blogspot.com

bsoup.blogspot.com

I believe I already posted this photo,
but I never thought I'd love an outfit that had two different floral prints
plus the color purple and the color pink
source

does ombré count as a print...?

thesartorialist.com

so I know these two prints aren't on just one person...
but they should be
thesartorialist.com

"Anything that gets your blood racing is probably worth doing."

-Hunter S. Thompson-