in which i wear the flags of our fathers

Today, in the U.S. of A., we celebrate our presidents. (I celebrate by going to work, as usual, but I'm not bitter...) So thank you, George, John, Thomas, James, James, John, Andrew, Martin, William, John, James, Zachary, Millard, Franklin, James, Abe, Andrew, Ulysses, Rutherford, James, Chester, Grover, Benjamin, Grover (again), William, Theodore, William, Woodrow, Warren, Calvin, Herbert, Franklin, Harry, Dwight, John, Lyndon, Richard, Gerald, James, Ronald, George, Bill, George, and Barack! (I was very tempted to leave a few of you of the list, but for the sake of naming everyone I decided to include you... you know who you are.) The making of this list made me realize how completely hopeless I am at U.S. History. I am rather ashamed to admit that I have never heard of half these people, but whatever, remembering names and fact/figures was never my forte. (When my friend Steph and I visited my friend Catherine in D.C. we were trying to make a reverse list of all of the presidents while we walked around the National Mall, and I must admit that my contributions were slim after a couple of decades.) Basically the only way that any sort of historical facts stick in my head is if I watch a biopic that makes the person seem interesting. Whoops. Anyway, Happy President's Day! This outfit is sort of an accidental homage to the flag--I didn't plan it, but we've got stripes and shades of red, white and blue, so I'm calling it patriotism.

(shirt/skirt/belt/scarf: thrifted; necklace/slip: urban outfitters; shoes: lulu*s)

I had a pretty good weekend, which went by too fast, as usual. On Saturday I did myself proud by finally taking myself on an "Artist's date"--first to see "The Artist" (which I thought was appropriate), and then to Goodwill, where I went a little spring-crazy with pastels and floral prints. I enjoyed the movie, and it was a treat to sit in the dark theater by myself in the middle of the afternoon. I'm glad I saw it at the cinema instead of waiting for it to come out on DVD--the effect definitely wouldn't have been the same without the old-movie-house feel. The rest of my weekend was spent being lazy and trying to squeeze in some time with my fellow.

And now, welcome to the week!

in which i am a green monster

When I dreamed this outfit up in my mind the greens of the blazer and shorts were a lot more compatible. Oh, well. I purposefully paired these shoes with the blazer because they both have orange accents (I like sneaky matching like that). I think this sweater is so soft and lovely--I can't believe someone gave it away (the pack rat in me is appalled by some of the things I find in thrift stores)!

(blazer/sweater/shorts/belt: thrifted; shoes: poetic licence)

K and I still haven't gotten around to carving our funny pumpkin, so hopefully we have some time this weekend and find ourselves in the spirit. I am pretty excited for Project Runway tonight, and maybe a little bit of champagne :) We also need to watch some scary movies--I am a bit of a wimp when it comes to the whole horror genre (I like scaring myself less and less as I get older--does that mean I'm getting boring?), so I usually hold out until the actual night of Halloween to load up on terror (when the fear is tempered somewhat by an overdose of chocolate and candy corn). Monsters and bugs aren't a big deal, but mean ghosts and murderers scramble my nerves.

Do you like scary movies?

in which i go long with prints

I used to buy long skirts for the express purpose of hemming them into minis, but lately I've been loving the longer lengths. I get fewer funny looks when I wear them now (people have come to expect sartorial eccentricity from me, I suppose), and they make me feel a bit more mature. I feel almost indecent in my super-short skirts these days... my, how things change!

(sweater/skirt/belt: thrifted; bag: stolen from mom; boots: seychelles)

In other totally random news, I started taking a daily multivitamin for the first time yesterday (being a pasta-loving vegetarian means I don't always get as many vitamins as I need, and although I've been a longtime champion of the balanced diet and ingesting nutrients the old-fashioned way, it doesn't always happen for me), and man is that stuff effective! It advertised a boost to my metabolism, but the past couple of days I've taken it without eating first and felt incredibly nauseous. This morning I viciously attacked a nectarine with my teeth in an attempt to combat the swell of sickness. Not sure how I feel about that. It's just a regular old one-a-day for women, but I'll definitely be following the instruction to take "with food" from now on.

Anyway, back to the outfit: I thrifted both this lovely cashmere sweater and this pretty printed midi skirt at Goodwill last week--I have been scoring big time there lately, and it's created a monster in me. I have a major thrifting itch that never goes away! I want to shop all the time! I did buy this skirt with the intention to shorten it, but again, wanted to give it a spin before I cut it up. What do you think? Should I leave it long? I kind of like it, it just feels less versatile this way.

Another week is flying by...

in which i have awesome people in my life

I declared this week "Chambray Week" because my friend Steph is awesome and sent me a lovely little denim dress that she bought on etsy. But I didn't really like the way I styled it and the photos were not great, so I kind of want a do-over. I also took photos this weekend which were equally bad, but I wanted to make sure to have a full week of outfits to post while I'm away! We'll see. I might just have to do a little photo shoot this evening. The photos from this morning were the only ones that turned out well, so here you go. Steph also sent me this beautiful dream of a blouse in the denim dress package, so I had to make sure that both were worn right away (I love new-to-me clothes)!

(blouse: gift from steph; shorts/belt: thrifted; shoes: seychelles; feather headpiece: gift from k)

I found these chambray shorts at Goodwill a few weeks ago and when I asked K what he thought of them he said they looked like something his grandmother would wear. So I bought them, naturally. Speaking of K, he is a gem! I picked him up on Friday after a particularly frustrating afternoon at work, and he was waiting with this little feather fastener in hand. It's so pretty and a nice replacement for my headband from UO, which is falling to pieces. We continued on to meet my family at the White Rock in Woodbury (home sweet home!) for an early Father's Day celebration (my little brother was leaving for Denver on Saturday night so we wouldn't be able to celebrate all together on the actual day). After plenty of pizza and sangria, we headed back to the house to play Irish tunes. It was a wonderful evening in honor of the best dad ever!

On the way home, we discovered that K's car had been vandalized. I just want to touch on this because it enrages me a little bit. It is no secret that I basically don't care if my car just looks like a rusty pipe--as long as it runs, I'm not too concerned with cosmetics. K, on the other hand, devotes a lot of time and energy to making sure his car is shiny and rust-free, and while I don't necessarily understand and often wish that he wouldn't park all the way in the back of the parking lot so that someone won't open their door into his, I do respect it. So for someone to cause $3000+ worth of damage to his car just for kicks makes me want to kick them in the eyeball a little bit. It's not like they even stole anything! At least if they had stolen something it might have made more sense, but clearly they just thought they were being little rebels or something, which makes me very disappointed in the human race. Anyway, rant over about that.

After doing quite a bit of pre-trip shopping on Saturday, K and I took a little day trip to Portsmouth, NH on Sunday. More about that later :)

in which i found a jewel of a jumper

K comes home today, hooray!

(jumper/scarf: thrifted; chambray: walmart; socks: uo; shoes: payless)

This jumper is an example of something that an undiscerning eye would certainly overlook. When I found it at Goodwill it was nearly floor-length and looked enormous, but actually fits quite perfectly. It's not terrrribly flattering (culprit: the mass of extra fabric around the waist), but I still think it's pretty awesome. A couple of nights ago I spent quite some time painstakingly hemming (much more difficult with so many small pleats) and ta-da! Cute little on-trend jumper. It had to go with my chambray shirt, obviously.

Not more much to say today. Did I mention K's coming home tonight??

in which i need to cut my bangs

Ugh, Monday. This outfit is what happens when I have to get ready in twenty minutes while still half-asleep. I'm not terribly impressed with it, but what do you expect from me on Monday?

(autumn overlook dress: modcloth; cardigan: h&m; socks: uo; belt/shoes: thrifted)

Not only is the outfit only so-so, but the photos I got this morning were laughable. Firstly because the wind was whipping around me like a maniac, secondly because the little skirt I threw on under my dress as a makeshift slip kept creeping below my hemline. Bah. I did score these lovely tstrap heels from Goodwill on Saturday for $3, so that was cool. Here are some photos from my weekend, when times were better:

(ps: Clare, this is a creemee)

Also, today is my beautiful mother's birthday! Happy birthday, mom!