the francaise way

In honor of my parents' triumphant (albeit delayed) return from La Ville-Lumière (Paris!), I thought it would be à propos to dress in the French spirit.

It would be pretty impossible not to have heard about the Eyjafjallajökull (I just wanted to type it out...) volcanic eruption & subsequent ash-catastrophe, but if you haven't, a word of advice: come out from under your little rock, the weather is fine! My lucky parents got to spend an extra five days in France because of that Icelandic incident, and I just have to say that there is nowhere I would rather be "trapped." Usually when I got trapped in foreign countries *cough* Rome *cough* it was because someone stole my passport and all of my money and credit cards, which isn't really the way to go, in case you were wondering.

You can't see it, but this little UO necklace says " JE T'AIME QU'HIER MOINS QUE DEMAIN," which (according to Babelfish) loosely translates to "I like you yesterday less than tomorrow." That makes little sense. Having taken some French in HS and college, I know that "Je t'aime" means "I love you," which is why I bought the necklace in the first place (not bothering to translate the rest of the text). So it's either a forward-looking and optimistic statement about living in the future rather than the past, or it is addressing a person whom I supposedly liked yesterday more than I will tomorrow. Which would maybe explain the heart with the arrow through it. But that's dumb. Besides, whatever happened to living in the present?

(shirt/necklace/hat: UO; skirt: vintage; belt: thrifted; socks/sweet shoes: Kohl's)

I got these sweet little shoes for $20 (!!) at Kohl's, that magical place.

Speaking of nostalgia, I am still in love with the Wang braid. Did that trend end? Did I miss it? Oh well! Here's to being gloriously attached to the past!

PS: These legs may look innocent enough (more French orphan boy than I may have been going for), but they have been running pretty regularly along the rural roads that surround our new "urban" apartment. (By urban I mean that I don't have to drive for miles to buy some emergency milk. [By milk, I mean liquor.]) Anyway, I'm pretty proud of the fact that I've been sticking with this running thing, even though I sort of hate it and this morning I thought I was going to die because I'm so out of shape. I've officially passed the "woo-hoo I'm excited to be getting exercise--isn't the air fresh--look at that lovely sunrise!" stage and hit the "holy crap that wasn't as far away yesterday as it is today" stage. But I've been in shape before and I will get there again, dog gum it, if it's the last thing I do!

Have fabulous weekends, my fashionable friends! And oh, hey Friday, thanks for finally coming around again--je t'aime aujourd'hui plus que demain!

EDIT: Thanks so much to Erin of Tog & Trappings for clearing up my confusion re: the French necklace! Apparently, it roughly translates to "I love you more every day," which makes so much more sense! You guys are the best :) I'm constantly learning new things from you!