Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts

Lately I've...


...been looking forward to a sneak peek at BHLDN's new store (how totally cool is that their first store is opening in Houston?).  The invitation was one of the cutest things I've ever seen and included paper dolls of some of their gorgeous items.  It's tonight, but I'm still trying to figure out whether I can go or not since I last minute realized it conflicts with singing practice, and we're performing on Friday (considering how much sadface I gave the bf this morning when I realized this, I'm leaning towards trying to find a way to make it work).


...been dividing my time between lab and the Art Show.  Helping to coordinate the Art Show and prepping my stuff has eaten up a large chunk of time, so while I'm glad to have volunteered my time, I'm excited for it to be over with soon.  The other two girls who I've been working with (and who have done even more for it than me) have been amazing, and I'm hoping that a lot of stuff sells (a little selfishly, since a portion of the proceeds go to an art program at Texas Children's, but also there's a ton of really talented people at my school).



...finally replaced my cell phone digitizer, since the phone's warranty is voided by the fact that it has cracks (it was cracked over 8 mo ago), but it's hard to use a phone that the touchscreen is only working 2% of the time.  I did it myself, since the 3rd party repair place wanted to charge 2x what they do iphone screens for, my warranty's already voided, and  I really like this phone.  It was a little weird to spend a couple weeks with a mostly-not-working phone, and made me think- I also ended up spending a week without my credit card earlier this month- another weird experience of doing without the things that I've been used to since I was in high school.  I actually only have one credit card, so when my account got shut down with no warning (while I was traveling, so I didn't have much with me), it made me feel really vulnerable.  I am pretty financially dependent on that little piece of plastic (by which I mean I feel uncomfortable carrying around the amount of cash I would need to do even the everyday things like buy groceries for the two of us for the week), but it's startlingly to actually find that out.




...gotten to visit my family in the suburbs of Chicago.  I went up for a local reception for my brother and sister-in-law to celebrate their new marriage, which was a great way to include family and friends.  While there I took advantage of spending as much time outside as possible in the slightly cooler/less humid climate, Midwestern grilled corn on the cob (one of my favorite foods), good beer and good company on the patio, and made this skirt from my sewing to-do list (as a gift for a friend).  I'm extraordinarily blessed by my family and close friends (a couple of whom were able to come to the reception, which was fantastic),  and while distance makes things more challenging, I cherish the opportunities that I get to spend time with them.  I also got some free time to play around with my camera :)


Pictured above: Some of the best friends a girl could have.




Lately I've...

... been kind of lazy in the kitchen since getting back from Cancun last week- BUT I found myself seriously longing for some oatmeal cookies on Sunday (and went to my old standby of Smitten Kitchen, recipe here), and I found myself missing the crepe station that was part of breakfast at the resort (and found this crepe recipe after seeing it on Food Coma).  Other ways that we've brought our favorite parts of the trip back with us include: the fancy bottle of tequila the boy bought at the airport in celebration of us finally getting on a plane back to the states 24 hours later than we were supposed to be, mimosas on Saturday (and Sunday...had to finish up the bottle), and a hammock chair from a flea market (as soon we figure out how to hang it up).  How have you brought back the good of vacation with you?



And here's a few pictures from our weekend awayt- it was nice to spend lots of time poolside and down on the beach (even though I don't look terribly tan and got that question a lot at work).   In place of a rehearsal dinner, we went on a sunset catamaran cruise (which was awesome).





My brother and his new wife!  So cute!
Since this post is picture heavy, I've included more pictures after the jump

Fake dresses are the best dresses




Outfit: Dress: Anthropologie, Cardigan: Express, Leggings: Target, Necklace: Modcloth, Sandals: Lulu's

When I was in middle school, my mom passed down to me a golden birdcage that came to her by way of her mom.  This is not that birdcage.  I wore that necklace every darn day until (since I'm not meant to have nice things) I made the mistake of wearing it to one of the big football games at the high school and it came off my neck.  Devastated, I looked for it as hard as I could, but alas and alack- it was nowhere to be found.  Fortunately my mom didn't give me a hard time about it, even though it was hardly the first (or last) time I had lost track of important things (like my retainer. multiple times. in the cafeteria in elementary school. and searching through the trash is awesome.)  I resolved then and there to one day replicate this necklace when I could afford to have jewelry custom-made.  So when I saw this necklace for sale on Modcloth a couple years ago, I knew that it was meant for me-although I couldn't actually bring myself to wear it without feeling super self-conscious about it for most of that time (I'm much more comfortable with being outlandish and dressing the way that I want to these days).  I'm still waiting for the day when I'll be able to imitate the real deal, but in the meantime I'm glad to have this placeholder.

Unrelated sidenote- I have worn this dress/chemise and another one from Anthropologie about a gazillion times in the past few weeks- compared to the price of their real dresses, these fake dresses seem almost reasonable (especially if you can catch them on sale).

Sassy skirt


Outfit: Dress: Modcloth, Skirt: Target, Shoes: Chelsea Crew via Lulu's, Bracelet, gift from mom, Necklace: Express, Clutch: Mommed

As you can see, I got a little crazy with the pattern mixing by throwing a skirt underneath this dress.  I know that these aren't the most summery or springy of colors, but I ended up really like the cobination together, and fell totally in love with having the little ruffle sticking out from underneath my dress.  Made it more lab appropriate, plus I felt totally sassy all day.  Although not so sassy that I'm not trying to figure out ways to camouflage my (still...augh!) healing knee.  Fortunately, this clutch is awesome (see below).  At first I wasn't totally sure how I felt about using the things of my mom's that I saved, but now wearing something of hers or something that she gave me feels like just another way to carry her in my heart.

Awkward and awesome

The post title is pretty shamelessly ripped from a regular feature done by Sydney of The Daybook, where in addition to her outfit posts, she fairly regularly shows her adorable photographer/husband.  My awkward and awesome experience was having Bf take outfit photos for me during some downtime the other afternoon (I figured it would be easier to awkwardly take photos where people who already knew about the blog, ie my family, could see as opposed to go to a park where strangers could awkwardly stare at me).  After I went out into my brother's backyard to see if I could make anything out of the light available to me, Bf came out and offered to help- I looked at him and said something along the lines of, but I'm the one who's really interested in photography, and he said something along the lines of, well yes, but I'm interested in you.  And then he took lots of photos, and I was lots of awkward poses and facial expression and laughter. And love.


I really love that you can see the shadow of him taking the photo.

Outfit: Dress: Anthropologie, Shoes: Target, Bracelet: Gift, Necklace: Chai was Grandmother's, chain was Mom's, Bag: Kate Spade via Gilt

This was one of his favorites:



I'm trying so hard to not laugh...


..but then I gave into it.




The two pieces of jewelry I'm wearing probably deserve their own post.  Both were given to me by my mom, and I wear them as a way to remember her and her love for me.  I consider the necklace one of the most special things that I own, a connection to both the grandmother that I never got to know and really that entire side of my family.  I even went through a phase in high school where I wore it everyday before I panicked that I would ruin it or lose it through overuse.

(Practically) internet famous

Hey ya'll- check it: I was lucky enough (and totally flattered) to be photographed by streetstyle blogger Mai of Fashionist during the last day of the TxSCC, and it got posted today! (Hi people coming here from fashioni.st, awesome to see ya'll)  It was definitely my favorite outfit of the weekend, and it's neat to see her other photos from TxSCC and SXSW (and I promise to post it soon as I catch up on my blogging, since the lovely Suze was awesome enough to take outfit photos for me).

These photos are actually from last weekend (see, so behind here) when I was up in Chicago to do family stuff, which is why I was able to get in my last few winter's outfits and pull out the tights and my new-to me corduroy dress.  Thank goodness I had them, since I have become such a wuss after moving down South, and had failed to pack any sort of heavy jacket or gloves.


Outfit: Dress: Anthropologie via EffortlessAnthropologie Trade Market, Tank: Limited, Tights: We Love Colors, Oxfords: Wanted, Necklace: Modcloth, Bracelets: Gift and Hawaii airport


Jacket: Old Navy Outlet, Scarf: Urban Outfitters, Dad: greater Chicago-area :)

That's right. I pulled out my trusty tripod and set it up to take tourist pictures of my dad and I after we hung out at the Art Institute and walked around Millennium park.  And then I got to show him what I do everyday.  I wouldn't allow him to actually take the photos, since he's notorious in our family for taking unflattering photos at inappropriate times, but he got a kick out of hearing about it and seeing me in action.  We actually wound up talking a lot about this whole blogging process, since my mention that I was traveling to Austin had opened up a line of discussion about it (and he passed along the url to a couple family members...feel free to say hi if ya'll are actually reading this!)  It was really nice being very open with one of the most important people in my life about something I'm doing that is growing to be more important in my life (that isn't shared with everyone in my life).






And this was the lovely view that I was blocking up after I decided to take photos in the middle of Chicago.  I love this city.