Party time

Outfit: Tiered Fronds dress from Anthropologie, Shoes and Cardigan from Target, Necklace from Modcloth

I know I wear a lot of dresses that I'd be fine wearing to a party, but man does this feel like a party dress to me.  Unfortunately, it wasn't really a party day, unless you count presenting at lab meeting and running around the lab all afternoon as a party (woooo! pipetting!).  But sometimes you need a pretty dress to make the day feel a little less long (until your shoes start hurting your feet, which to be fair were totally awesome up until the last hour of the day and I'd totally rec them, my feet just slide around a bit since they're a little too big aaand it's hard to find 9 1/2s).  In addition to the awesome-ness of wearing a dress that already mixes brown with black (although you can't see it as well in these pictures as I'd like, wearing this also made me feel like I was celebrating my general shape.  Just because Dress your best week(s) are over, I haven't stopped thinking about which parts of my body I'd like to celebrate, and I've gotta say that once I started thinking of body parts I take pride and pleasure in, it was easy to come up with more than 5.  I know that so often when I start itemizing my body,* it's easy to do so in a negative way- who know that the opposite could be true?  While there are things that I'd be okay changing about my body (teeth with no cavities, a body that's still physically capable of going up on pointe), there are so many things that I genuinely feel positive about, even though I have often (and I'm sure will often in the future) get frustrated about (hair, skin).  To see how other people felt about this subject, check out this wrap-up post on the Academichics.  One of my favorite posts from this challenge can be found here from Kate of the Interrobangs Anonymous (people, it involves a lab coat, which is awesome).


*The idea of itemizing my body reminds me of some poem we read in school in addition to that one scene in Twelfth Night- does this ring a bell with anyone else or am I just making this up?

Love letter

 

Outfit: Sugar work skirt from Anthropologie/ Shirt, sunnies, and shoes from Urban Outfitters/ Necklace and bracelet from Modcloth/ Scarf from packaging from Clyde's Rebirth/

I threatened my friend earlier with the possibility of me being able to devote a love letter of a blog to her, and that's pretty doable- I feel like I could easily start up a whole new blog of love letters to the people in my life that I love, the people who inspire me on the interent (like the woman who's blog I'm dependent on for making interesting food and stylish ladies like Kendi and Monkeyface and a ridiculous amounts of other people), and the things in my life that I appreciate.  Right now though, a lot of my love might be taken up by this outfit (the cats woke me up in the middle of the night, so they're out).  After I threw it on, I thought I'd go up and take pictures, but was 90% sure that I'd end up changing out my skirt and shoes (because if we're being honest, the skirt is a little tight on me since I was so blinded by yellow skirt lust that I kept it even though it's a smaller size than what I need).  But after flouncing around in it, it won my heart, and I found I couldn't take it off.  Plus the shoes helped me to nominally tie in the scarf, which I've been sitting on since it came wrapped around my Clyde's Rebirth jewelry (which is a totally genius idea for packaging).  Again, I was totally charmed since normally I find it next to impossible to get things to stay put on my head when they go all the way around it (also it was the perfect answer to the question of whether I really needed to wash my hair this morning- it's cool, I washed it tonight after dance class).  Also one of the guys in my lab complimented me on my hair thing today, which means that it totally worked as a distraction from the actual hair (win!).

Heatherina

 Outfit: Shirt: Modcloth, Skirt: Anthropologie, Necklace: Gift, Cardigan: Target, Flats: Gap

These aren't quite the photos that I had hoped to match up with this body part- the sun here burns quite brightly, even around 8 (which, embarassingly enough, is early for me to be ready to get out the door, and I anticipate being in lab for another hour or so, which is long enough for the sun to be gone by the time I leave).  Also, most of my action shots involve some pretty awesomely silly arm positioning or terrible facial expressions, which sort of ruins the image I had in my head while I was attempting said action shots.  In my head today's Dress your best was going to look a little something like this:

Image from: ballerina project tumblr

But it's been awhile since I've spotted my pointe shoes, and my body has changed quite a lot since I danced seriously.  What hasn't changed much are my feet- they can still point with the best of them, and they identify me in ballet class as someone with serious classical training.  I remember someone telling me my feet were pretty after a class (I was young), and I looked them over and said, no they're not in an offended manner (I was also embarrassingly bad at accepting compliments).  They're very picky about the shoes they wear, have a tendency to get cut into easily, and are now a terribly awkward size to find in stores (why don't more people sell 9 1/2s?), but I think I appreciate them more now- when I was younger I took them and all they did for me for granted.  These feet?  They can dance.  The rest of me is still catching up, but they haven't let me down.

I'd also like to give an honorable mention to my hair for looking awesome in a low three bun cluster today- I can easily see this becoming a regular summer hairstyle, since I have a little patience for doing something with my hair only to have it ruined by putting a bike helmet onto it.

Dressing my best part 1

In the days before I started my own blog, there were a couple community challenges that I really admired and had wished I had a blog so that I could participate in them- one of these was Kendi Everyday's 30 for 30 remixing challenge (which I've participated in previously), and the other was the Academichics Dress Your Best week:

My first favorite part (that I don't really know how to dress, but wanted to highlight):

Eyebrows!

Admittedly, I'm starting off the week with something that has always been easy for me to love-  I grew up entertaining the family by wiggling em at dinner (seriously, I would do the "can-can" on request), and once my mom sweet-talked the hairdresser into giving them a shape at the tender age of 12, I've never really looked back.  So for today eyebrows, I'm getting my bangs out of your way and giving you some sunglasses to peek out from behind.

Outfit: Shirt, Dress, Shoes, Sunnies: Urban Outfitter, Belt: BR, Headband: Modcloth

I tried to take pictures of me wiggling my eyebrows, but it turns out that A) eyebrows look weird in isolation, B) it is difficult for me to hold that pose long enough for the camera to take a picture outside in bright sunlight without looking like I'm in pain and C) I'm much better at raising my left eyebrow than the right.  On a completely unrelated note, looking at these pictures now kinda makes me feel like I look like I just escaped from a pirate ship.  Thoughts?

Being brave

Outfit: Dress as skirt: Gap, Shirt: Shop Ruche, Necklace: Jess LC, Bracelet: Modcloth, Shoes: Lulu's, Belt: BR

I think that starting to be brave and bold in what I was wearing (and posting it on the internet) has helped to open this up in me.  This outfit, with it's loose undefined top and drop waist on the dress is not a sillouette that feels easy to me, and wearing it out of the house is hard for me, but rewarding.  All that practice in taking chances with this small daily choice is paying off.    After years of missing dance and doing nothing about it (and rationalizing that it was too expensive an indulgence on a grad student salary), I decided to throw myself back into ballet classes.  The boy told me how proud he is of me, and that I'm brave for being willing to put myself out there in this way and go after something even though I feel like I'm flailing.  I felt sick before the first class, not knowing what to expect, but knowing that I don't in any way resemble a dancer (except for my good feet).  My body doesn't move in all the same ways that it used to, even a few short years ago, but mostly, coming to class feels like coming home.

This necklace tells me exactly what I need to hear sometimes. Be brave.  I had admired these Jess LC necklaces since I first saw them, but for the longest time wasn't sure what it was that I wanted to wear around my neck- it's good to be thankful, and yes, also to be present and dream big things- these are things I need to remind myself of often.  But I realized that being brave has been what I've been most intentionally striving for over the past couple years.  Brave enough to take chances (like introducing yourself to that cute boy at a party), to not shut down in the face of the loss of a loved one, to throw yourself into something even though it'll make you uncomfortable.  Brave enough to live and love fully.

A little bit of this, a little bit of that.

Outfit: Skirt: Anthropologie, Tank, shoes: Target, Cardigan: Delias, Necklace: Urban Outfitters, Scarf (head): Modcloth


Or actually, it's a little bit of this and a little bit of that.  Either that, or I just knew that I'd be finding a random pipe that matched my outfit.  My skirt might need some ironing (okay, a lot of ironing), since I may have gotten it in the mail and wore the skirt out straight away, but gosh I really love the way these shoes worked this.  I really need to remind myself to not just rotate my few favorite pairs of sandals and put my closet to it's best use!

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.

Just a little trespassing

Outfit:  Dress: Modcloth, Shirt: Express, Leggings, Target, Shoes: Lulus, Necklace: Jess LC, Bracelet: self made (inspired by the mixed chains of this bracelet and this necklace)

Hey guys, haven't died over here (okay if we're friends on Twitter you already knew that)- just dealing with some changes in scheduling (by which I mean I had social engagements every night for awhile) and recovering from a fall on my bike (scraped up my knee, so I was cranky from pain and limited knee flexibility for a week straight).  I still have scabs all ova, but I was able to crop them out here, and I started taking pictures again towards the end of last week.  I even found myself in a random field, where I may or may not have been trespassing (well I happened to be driving past a random field and thought that no one would see me since it was in a business park and it was after 7.  And then two trucks turned in past me.  Fortunately no cops were called)

I find myself feeling like this past weekend marked the beginning of summer for me (for no real reason) and that I'm really looking forward to this summer.  Even though I'm a student, the summer coming doesn't really change up my daily schedule-so I'm going to have to figure out how to change things up on my own, and I feel like I have many things to look forward to:

Long bike rides with the bf and biking to places as often as I can
Trivia nights on Tuesday with delicious gyros and kebabs from the restaurant next door.
Fresh produce for baking and cooking (and making more of an effort to fit those in)
A trip to Mexico
Wearing those gold sandals all. the. time.
More random jewelry making and sewing projects
Making the time to fit in things I enjoy that are good for me (yoga), and I'm seriously contemplating signing up for a ballet class even though I'm woefully out of shape and haven't danced since college

What are you looking forward to this summer?

MOAR arches!

Outfit: Shirt: Urban Outfitters, Skirt:Vintage via TwitchVintage, Shoes: Lulu's, Necklace: Modcloth, Bracelet: Etsy via Friendly Gesture, Belt: Ancient BR
 

This is my serious face. Also the face that I make after I think I might have terrified a college student.  Unlike yesterday, this time when someone walked past me they walked very quickly with a look of terror, and then it looked like he had pressed his face up against the glass of the door he just entered (probably thinking wtf).  I was really tempted to throw the door open and say "haven't you ever seen someone taking pictures of themselves in their awesome new skirt before?" But then I realized that I would never be able to get it all out from laughing too hard, and the poor kid had probably been through enough already.

P.S. I just got this skirt in the mail from TwitchVintage's ebay store (she sells vintage and is totally adorable) and basically couldn't resist wearing the skirt as soon as I had opened the package. Win.

I've worn heels three days in a row, I think I might be turning an adult over here

Sarah- This photo is for you. I finally wore this dress with nothing over or under it and took a photo. These photos may have been awkwardly taken outside my apt building while waiting for a ride to a going- away dinner, since I've been missing my daily outfit posts, but have just been swamped this week.  Grad students know what I'm going through if I mention that next Monday is my committee meeting (amiright?) and since my last one didn't go as well as I would have liked, I've been trying to get as much done as possible before this one (and naturally it feels like I've been spending all my time on the absolute wrong thing).

Outfit: Dress: Modcloth, Cardigan: Anthropologie, Shoes: Lulu's, Necklace: Jess LC, Bracelet: Hawaii Airport, Clutch: Mommed

Since my brain is short on insight, I'll leave you these thoughts:
1. I love this cardigan and have wanted to wear it pretty much every day this week (although I have refrained from it cuz it's dry clean only).

2. Ditto with the necklace, except it's jewelry so I Can wear it everyday (yesss).

3. I miss the internet

4. And sleep

5. And the bf a little bit (I'm sorry I haven't been around this week!)

Let's face it, the best part about this outfit is the shoes

Outfit: Skirt, shoes: Lulu's, Shirt: Old Navy, Necklace: Modcloth, Bracelets: Gift

It's true- I did in fact basically decide I didn't care what I was wearing as long as it included these shoes (they're crazy comfortable).  In my defense, I've been lusting after these shoes for months now and finally made the purchase after they came back in stock after eying them in person at the TxSCC (on one of the girls from Lulu's who gave her stamp of approval).  The pleats and button-up were put together after eying this picture on Pinterest.  Unfortunately while the pleated part of the skirt was really fun at the start it wound up being massively static-y and driving me crazy.  Any words of wisdom for me?  I'm afraid I won't get as much use out of the skirt as it deserves.  On an unrelated note, if you have any advice for me on sewing machines, that would be extremely useful.  I'm seriously thinking about buying one and I'd like to get one that will be a useful investment, while still being not a huge investment in terms of the price.  Help!