thrifted cardigan – inherited gram’s ancient flannel – levi’s black jeans
dolce vita black suede booties
This cardigan confuses me a little. I can never tell if I’m wearing it right, because of the placement of the arms… is it meant to be longer sleeves, with the collar kind of flat, like I’m wearing it here? Or is the collar meant to be folded or bunched with shorter sleeves? Perhaps it’s just meant for me to have the choice, but I kind of wish I knew what the intention was. Not that it matters, I wear it anyways.
This may be the beginning of a vampy lips phase for me. We’ll see. It’s funny the phases one goes through in life. When I was a kid, I’d play in my Mom’s makeup, and I would only wear her wildest, brightest colors. I was only allowed to wear them out of the house for dance recitals. But my lips were fire engine red for the recitals! But when it came time to buy my first lipstick, I chose a really conservative color, just a shade or two closer to berry than my natural lip color, and I’ve ever so slowly been branching out from there. I was a little self-conscious (because, obviously I over think everything) about wearing such a dark color in the day time, but the old flannel and casual sweater made it feel much more day appropriate to me. I am just waiting for an event to pop up so that I can wear it more like this. If nothing appropriate comes up soonish, I might just opt to look extra fancy for dinner with friends.
What are the colors you’re favoring these days? Would you have been scared of them in the past?
jake and i were on our way to dinner, and we knew that afterwards it would be too dark to take outfit pictures. i couldn’t think of where to take the pictures, though, so on an impulse, we turned into a residential neighborhood we’d never ventured into before. peeking down the blocks, i saw the hint of a park at the end of a road, so we headed there, which brought us to this rather charming little willow cloaked bridge, whose existence we’d been unaware of a mere 5 minutes prior!
i’ll leave you with my most recent favorite picture of jake:
gift hat – thrift tank – talbots hand me down skirt – old navy sandals
this skirt was my grandma’s. i have inherited a chunk of her wardrobe (you may have noticed if you’ve been reading my outfit descriptors), and let me tell you, the lady had good taste. i now possess a much higher percentage of talbots than i did before. although the actual amount of space i have for my wardrobe has been pushed to its limits. and now i’m rethinking what i own versus what i wear. what needs work or mending versus what i’m likely to actually do. these are tough topics of thought for someone as materialistically sentimental as i am. but i really dislike the pile that has no home on my bedroom floor.
on a completely different topic, do you need a summer book?
we were liars by e. lockhart
Cadence Sinclair Easton comes from an old-money family, headed by a patriarch who owns a private island off of Cape Cod. Each summer, the extended family gathers at the various houses on the island, and Cadence, her cousins Johnny and Mirren, and friend Gat (the four “Liars”), have been inseparable since age eight. During their fifteenth summer however, Cadence suffers a mysterious accident. She spends the next two years—and the course of the book—in a haze of amnesia, debilitating migraines, and painkillers, trying to piece together just what happened. from school library journal
that’s the synopsis i like best. if you are looking for a quick, engrossing read for the beach, may i recommend this? it is twisty and turny and pull-at-your-heartstrings-y. i read it twice in one day. when i finished, i had to go back to the beginning to revisit many of the scenes again. this is also one of those books where it is probably best if you go in knowing less rather than more. so thusly ends my extremely brief review.
confession: this hat is my cousins. but every time she wears it around me, i borrow it.
thrifted blouse, jeans – borrowed hat – target shoes
another confession: i am way behind on blogging.
i took a break from my hexagon blanket and finished most of a hat, worked on my ridiculous bubblegum pink socks:
but then i missed my hexagons, so now i’m back to working on that!
i’m currently at about 165 hexagons, out of a projected 230 total. but now at least it would be big enough to cover baby. it was a little disheartening when it felt like i’d put in a ton of work, and it was the size of a glorified hankerchief. which is what led to the break. and somehow, feeling so enthusiastic about this project again has me daydreaming about more things to cast on for!
like this stash busting version of boxy:
i’m not entirely sure how manos del uruguay serena, which is alpaca & cotton blend (510 yds), would work with the 100% wool of the sage-y green (900 yds) and the grey (246 yds). i’ll have to do a swatch. and lots of math to figure out the correct proportions of the stripes to correspond with the varying yardages… but not yet! more crochet hexagons for now!
can you tell that jake and i are both total suckers for light flares? we always go out of our way to line some up if the sun/angles are willing to accomodate us. but i mean… can you blame us? sun flares are sooo pretty!
target white tee, blazer- thrifted jeans – old navy sandals
you don’t get much more basic of an outfit than jeans and a white t-shirt. it almost feels like cheating, it’s so easy. but i still just love it.
being around this many beautiful flowers made me want to gather up a bunch and bring them home with me! but i have two plants at home i am desperately trying to keep alive. by which i mean i occasionally remember to water them. what do you mean you don’t have high hopes for their survival? i’m shocked! this nursery has a small fruit stand attached to it, and that’s what we were there for.
i feel like everytime we take outfit pictures, my hand veins are going super crazy. sheesh, calm down guys.
target black cardigan – rummaged/thrifed tank, j crew pants – my gram’s closet vintage coach purse
can i say how glad i am that the fashion rule that navy and black aren’t supposed to both be worn together is defunct? i love dark neutrals. they are my wheelhouse, they are my jam!
did any of you americans do anything fun for the fourth of july? any of you canadians get up to any hijinks for canada day? the rest of you northern hemishpere peeps enjoying midsummer? i don’t know how many southern hemisphere readers i have, but are you bundling up in cardigans and drinking hot cups of tea?
ah, oops! i didn’t get pictures of friday’s outfit, nor sunday or monday’s. but here’s saturday! i had a little internal debate about these jeans. they aren’t technically work appropriate, and with such a limited number of pieces for this remix, it did feel a bit wasteful to choose such casual jeans. but it was saturday, and all i wanted was my comfy casual jeans. i laugh in the face of logic! only time will tell if it will return the favor. i don’t foresee it being terribly dramatic either way, frankly.
rummaged tank top & jeans – gift from gram sun hat – old navy sandals
don’t worry about those lost outfits, i re-capture them for you!
carlyn scarf, dress – gram belt – target blazer, shoes
alright, outfit 4 of fifteen. i’m feeling pretty good about it! let’s see what i’ve accumulated so far
2 shirts- white t-shirt, striped long sleeve
2 layers- black cardigan, camel blazer
2 bottoms- floral skirt, navy skinnies
2 dresses- green dress, black dress
2 shoes- black sandals, striped slip-ons
10 total, 5 remaining.
thanks to jillie for the pictures!
go check out rebecca’s fourth outfit, not just to see how she’s doing in the remix (spoiler: really well) but she also gave me all the feels by talking about our internet relationship!
it’s something i think about not infrequently. people i have met via the internet, and the way that they have affected my life. it’s an amazing place, this internet of ours. ravelry totally changed my life, in terms of introducing me to people, like rebecca, julie, kessa, ness. and reading blogs inspired me to up my game in so many ways: knitting, outfits, my home. it’s given me major life envy for some people, but it’s been a huge reminder in how we are all just people, too. even the biggest, shiniest, prettiest bloggers have their own challenges, and when they post about that, i’m always reminded that we are all just people, trying to make the best lives for ourselves out of what we have to work with.
on the other side of my internet experience, there’s the platoon of power squadron. and reading people’s reactions to what we’ve spent the better part of a year making is so so gratifying to me. i can’t tell you how touching it is, how much it means to me that other people are inspired by it, or it’s become a part of their family experience, or they’ve found it personally useful in other ways.
okay, i’m all emotional over here… happy friday, y’all! kiss a baby’s cheek or hug your loved ones or tweet at someone who inspires you or something! carpe diem!
i usually announce on the blog when a new episode of PoPS has gone live, and guess what? episode 8 is live! check it out!
also, i posted an outfit selfie on instagram last week, and rebecca and i decided it’s been way too long since our last remix! soooooo: it’s remix time! whoo!
even though i had the weekend to prepare, i ended up doing some PoPS stuff, biking to the library to get a book, cleaning a little, cooking a bit, and generally doing pretty much whatever i felt like. i thought about the remix a litttle bit, but i didn’t really make decisions or lay out selections or any of that. so i’m approaching this a little differently. i’m going to just wear different outfits until i’ve collected 15 items! and then i’ll remix those! ta-da!
for points of reference, though, selections broken down along these lines have worked really well for me in the past:
-4 shirts (long & short sleeved, usually at least one blouse)
-3 layering options (cardigan, sweater, blazer)
-3 bottoms (pants, shorts, skirts)
-3 pairs of shoes
-1 dress
target cardigan, t-shirt – talbot’s skirt from my gram – old navy sandals
4 items downs, 11 to go! 1 outfit down, 14 to go!
second hand scarf, cardigan, belt, vintage coach purse, bean boots – j. crew striped shirt – gap navy skinnies
a good transition outfit. layers that are light but warm, easy to take off and put on in the fluctuating temperatures. this scarf was my absolute go-to this winter. it’s neutral, huge without being heavy, and warm.