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Friday, June 29, 2012

Life in black and white


Back in high school, I happened to mention to my friends once that my legs were my favorite feature. For months afterwards, they gave me no end of grief on the matter, in that lovingly mean way that only friends can manage. All the guys would whistle and jokingly say, "Wow look at those sexy legs!" whenever I would show up at a party, and all the girls just laughed because I thought my legs were my best feature, not, say, my eyes or my smile (which were apparently the more normal responses). I've moved past that now - while I appreciate my legs for all they do for me (walking, running, working, looking decent in shorts), I have other features that I like much better (like my eyes). I'd love to know - what do you think your best feature is?

For all my love of bright colors, sometimes I feel the coolest in black and white. It's such a timeless combination. Plus, this hat makes any outfit about ten times cooler.




White blouse: free from my aunt
Black and white shorts: Loft
Black blazer: Fred Meyer
White wedges: Sam Edelman (Kendall wedges) from Piperlime
Black hat: gift from my aunt
Black necklace: Urban Outfitters
Black bracelet: free from my mom
White bracelet: H&M

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Summertime


Outfit photos have been a rather hurried affair this week. Every day so far Josh has worked his regular eight hours, plus six or seven hours in the evening. So while we get to eat lunch and dinner together, we've hardly seen each other besides that, and that never leaves time for walking to a pretty location for photos and taking our time getting them just right. Instead, we run outside, snap about forty of them in five minutes, and I have to be satisfied with whatever we get. At least we only have a few more weeks of this crazy work schedule of his, and I can't complain about the overtime pay!

Since Portland nearly reached 80 degrees yesterday, I wore the summeriest things I could find - a lightweight dress, a shirt knotted at the waist, gold sandals, and my straw bag. I kind of felt like I was dressed for a day at the beach.



Blue and white dress: thrifted
White blouse: free from my aunt
Gold sandals: Asos
Straw purse: thrifted
White flower necklace: purchased in Oahu
Yellow bracelet: In Pink

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

More blue and green


This was a casual outfit for my day off work yesterday. I spent most of it lounging around the apartment, reading Anne of Green Gables and watching Community. I wish I had worn a longer necklace to break up the monotony of the white shirt, instead of my blue and green glass bead necklace that was covered up by my hair.

Speaking of my hair, I've been loving it lately. The last time I had hair this long was in 2005 when I was going through my ugly feminist phase. I decided to stop wearing makeup, stop plucking my eyebrows, and gained 40 pounds. So in general, I did not look great, and eventually chopped off my hair because it wasn't doing me any favors. (And yes, I eventually started plucking my eyebrows again.) Now that I have a nice haircut, a color I love, and have made peace with the general mad enthusiasm of my hair, I really appreciate the way it looks. Yesterday I did nothing but wash it, rub in some coconut milk serum, and let it air dry, and this was what happened. I loved it.



White shirt: H&M
Mint green cardigan: Old Navy
Jeans: Levi's from Urban Outfitters
Blue and green wedges: Nine West from Nordstrom Rack
Blue hat: H&M
Blue and green necklace: purchased in Florence, Italy
Embroidered bracelet: thrifted from Village Merchants

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Déjà vu


I feel like I've worn this outfit before. I looked through my archives and didn't find it, but maybe it's in a post I forgot to label. This shirt and these pants are such a natural fit that it feels like I must have worn them together before. I added the leopard print hat for a touch of quirkiness, and also because I start to get uncomfortable when my outfits match too much.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: these pants were some of the best $60 I've ever spent. They're a beautiful color, a beautiful fit, and way more comfortable than any of my jeans. They're definitely a pair of pants that I will wear until they fall apart.

[Side note: Today I'm doing a guest post over at Danica's blog goodheart! She's doing a week of guest posts celebrating her first anniversary of living in Portland, and I did a post about the beautiful Rose Garden - check it out here!]



Floral shirt: Georgia tee from StyleMint
Red corduroy pants: Anthropologie
Faux leather jacket: Forever 21, from Jen Loves Kev's closet sale
Black purse: thrifted from Salvation Army
Leopard print hat: Albertus Swanepoel for Target
Spider necklace: Bauble Bar
Brown belt: thrifted
Bracelet: In Pink

Monday, June 25, 2012

Gray and green


Sometimes my family thinks I'm funny for reasons I don't understand. Like yesterday when my aunt saw this outfit, she laughed and said, "Only you would wear a gray top with a bright green patterned skirt." And I could not figure out why that was so odd - I mean, I thought a gray top was a tame, nearly dull choice. But apparently to some people, it's an out-of-the-box choice, probably because it doesn't match the skirt - people in my family like for things to match.

I wasn't a huge fan of this outfit, but it was okay considering I was in a hurry when assembling it. I do think I should have swapped the beige boots for black shoes, though. So to make this post more interesting, here's an awesome photo of a bee that I took in my parents' garden this past weekend...






Gray sweater: free from my aunt
Green skirt: Anthropologie
Beige wedge boots: Urban Outfitters
Sunglasses: Oscar de la Renta from TJ Maxx
Black necklace: Urban Outfitters
Gray bracelet: self-made

***

I'm linking this post up to Monday Mingle.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Summer brights


It was love at first sight when I saw the lattice-work on the top of this blouse at Anthropologie the other day. It's one of the softest shirts I've ever owned, as well as one of the most interesting styles. Plus, it helps that it's patterned and bright. Try as I might, I just can't bring myself to buy sensible, solid-color clothes very often. Maybe I'd start doing that if I ever worked in an office - but since I don't, I can wear whatever the heck I want!

Happy second day of summer! This was what I wore to celebrate the start of the season yesterday and the 80-degree weather we had! Because to me, nothing says "summer" like clothes so bright they hurt your eyes.



Blouse: Anthropologie
Hot pink skirt: Zara
Blue and green wedges: Nine West from Nordstrom Rack
Green earrings: B. Lee Designs, gift from my aunt
Blue bracelet: Charlotte Russe
Green bracelet: thrifted from Village Merchants

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Vacation wardrobe

Yes, that is my dog at the top of the photo :)

Since Josh and just I returned from our vacation last week, I thought now would be an appropriate time to share what I packed and all the outfits I made out of those clothes. I love reading packing posts on other peoples' blogs, and was actually quite excited to put together my own!

I knew I needed to pack lightweight clothes, since we would be in the desert for six days. I did bring some slightly warmer items - a pair of jeans, a sweater, a cardigan, and a chambray button-up - in case it got cold at night (which it definitely did at the Grand Canyon - down to freezing), and the cardigan especially came in handy for covering up my arms and shoulders when I didn't feel like putting sunblock on them.

Here's my official packing list:

Jeans
Pink shorts
Black and white shorts
Patterned tank top
Black tank top
Floral tank top
Pink blouse
Purple sweater
Gray cardigan
Chambray button-up
Striped dress
Green floral dress
Pink belt
Sun hat
A few pieces of jewelry (2 bracelets, 2 necklaces, 2 pairs of earrings)
Tennis shoes
Brown sandals
Black espadrilles
Blue and green wedges

In retrospect, considering how much hiking we did (a lot), I should have swapped the nicer black and white shorts for a more athletic pair. I could have left both the espadrilles and the wedges at home, since I only wore them once each. (I tend to be really energetic and hike or walk a lot on my vacations, so instead of trying to look fancy, next time I should probably just bring all sensible shoes instead of dressy ones!) And I definitely could have done with more shirts - I sweat a lot (TMI, I know), and it was absurdly hot down there. Other than that, though, I think I did a decent job packing.

Here are my outfits in the order that I wore them. Sometimes I changed multiple times a day due to the heat - that's why there are eight outfits for only six days of travel. (And I didn't include the super boring outfits, like the ones I wore on the flights.)

Worn for: driving from Las Vegas to the south rim of the Grand Canyon, and going on an evening hike along the rim

Worn for: a three-mile hike into the canyon (apart from the tennis shoes, I liked this outfit - but the tennis shoes were, of course, a necessity)

Worn for: an afternoon stroll along the rim at Grand Canyon Village

Worn for: a sunset visit to the Watchtower at Desert View (twenty-five miles east of Grand Canyon Village)

Worn for: driving from the south rim to the north rim, and short hikes along the north rim (I borrowed Josh's hat that day, because my sunhat kept blowing off my head and I didn't want it to blow right into the canyon!)

Worn for: driving through Zion National Park to Las Vegas

Worn for: an evening stroll to the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas

Worn for: a trip up the replica Eiffel Tower in Las Vegas, and some gambling :)

Monday, June 18, 2012

Free spirit


We're back to regularly scheduled programming around here! This is my first outfit post since returning from vacation. Don't worry, most of my posts this week are outfits - I only have one packing post (and even that one has all my vacation outfits in it) and one post of vacation photos scheduled.

I felt very bohemian in this outfit, with the headband, wavy hair, and flowy dress. The blazer kind of toned down the free-spiritedness, but I didn't wear it much anyway because it was quite muggy outside.





Floral dress: from an antique show
Camel colored blazer: Forever 21
Brown heels: Macy's
Brown headband: Forever 21
Brown belt: thrifted
Gold bracelet: gift from my mom, from Yosemite

I'm linking up this post to Monday Mingle and Watch out for the Woestmans.

Friday, June 15, 2012

The Grand Canyon


Well, Josh and I have returned home from our Grand Canyon/Las Vegas vacation! We had an amazing trip, but I'm so happy to be home. I've been going through some of my photos, and while I'm sure I will bombard you guys with posts full of vacation photos next week, for now here are just a few of my favorites from our first day at the canyon. (If you click on any of the photos, it will pop up with a slideshow where you can look at larger versions.)




You can take a mule ride down into the canyon!





Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Striped shirt and red legs


Yes, I actually wore this outfit recently. I couldn't believe I had to wear a long-sleeved shirt and tights at the end of spring. This was only the third time I've worn these red tights. (The other two are here and here.) I have no trouble wearing bright shirts, pants and skirts, but I still can't figure out what to do with bright tights. Also, it doesn't help that they feel very Christmas-y, which makes it difficult to find anything appropriate to wear them with outside of winter.



Striped shirt: H&M
Faux leather skirt: H&M
Red tights: American Apparel
Black flats: Kathy flats from ShoeMint
Black necklace: Urban Outfitters
White bracelet: H&M
Gold watch: free from a family member

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Juneuary


It was chilly in Portland last week, so one day I pulled out one of my winter sweaters to wear (and probably should have worn tights, too). This is why I don't have much of a distinct summer wardrobe and winter wardrobe - it gets cold enough in June that I need sweaters, and sometimes we have random hot days in February or March where I end up wearing shorts. So I usually can't tuck away my sweaters into my hope chest until the middle of July, and even then I sometimes pull them out again.




White sweater: thrifted from Goodwill
Blue striped skirt: Forever 21
Black boots: Lulu's
Purse: Ralph Lauren, thrifted
Black belt: thrifted from Goodwill
Ring: In Pink
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