pretty things on the internet

i really only have two things to share today, so i almost didn't even do this post. but these two things are SO perfect and SO beautiful and SO interesting and SO awe-inspiring, that they are definitely worth both a post, and your time. :)

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first, remember the lauren moffatt fall 2012 presentation back in february (remember how i got the idea for my haircut from one of the models?!)? well, it was pretty then, but now.. i'm obsessing. because, you know, it's almost fall. and i can wear these things. i maybe just maybe am dreaming and scheming about how much money i can save in order to own sooooomething from this collection. here are some of my favorites:

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seriously groaning at how pretty everything is. if i had to choose one collection of clothing to wear forever and ever, it'd be this.

second, this adorable article: the blogger and the radio star. tavi has been an inspiration of mine since she was 12, which is both ridiculous and awesome. i try to keep up with all of the talks and interviews that she gives, even though i avoid reading rookie because honestly, i'm too old. but she rules, and so does ira glass. even if you only care about one of them - this article is so cute. i've read it like three times this week, and never could let myself close the tab. i only do that with things i really like. ;)

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have a good weekend! <3

feeling like a grown up

today i signed up for my own car insurance (!!!!). i don't know if i'm too old to be doing this for the first time (probably), but i'm not embarrassed. i think i handled it like a champ. to be honest, it was nooooowhere near as dramatic as i was expecting it to be, but i'm used to spending hours at a time dealing with health insurance issues, so i guess expecting the worst is my m.o. these days.

this is what i wore to the insurance office. ;)

one nice thing was that the agent i was speaking to and i were basically the same age, and she didn't make fun of me for my cluelessness. i stick to the rule that there are no dumb questions when it comes to dealing with things that i just. don't. understand (like health insurance and, i thought, car insurance). unfortunately, sometimes the people who i'm asking do not agree with that stance. luckily, she did, and was awesome, and i feel really good about the whole thing. my dad made a comment about how everything seems to go better than i think it will, and in this situation, it totally did. i've been putting this off for WEEKS (if you follow me on twitter, you know this already)! this is pretty silly, but i'm all about celebrating the small victories.. especially since i know for the rest of the afternoon, i'm going to be battling my health insurance situation and it's going to s u c k, haha.

barrette: pacsun (high school)
scarf: american eagle (similar)
chambray shirt: american eagle (high school, but similar)
belt: thrifted in high school (and found by austin in my grandma's basement [similar])
shorts: american eagle (high school - they're actually a size too big so i had to extra roll them up and belt them, but i love it [similar])
shoes: minnetonka

if you couldn't tell, i'm sort of obsessed with how many of these things i've had since high school. sort of.

<3

dressed up for dairy queen

last weekend, my mom got married. it was really sweet and low-key. i decided not to share any pictures of that (mostly because i don't have any, haha), but i did want to share a goofy little moment beforehand.

my sister and i were mom's non-traditional version of bridesmaids, and that meant that mama basically got to dress us. which then meant that i had some ridiculous pent-up dress up frustrations. who doesn't want to plan their own fancy outfit for a wedding?! (disclaimer: i totally loved what my mom picked, i'm just a brat and had dreams of wearing one of the vintage party dresses from the button factory inventory.) because of those frustrations, i think i went a little overboard in dressing austin for the wedding.

the only picture taken of us (i think), via kendall's cell phone

thankfully, he was a really good sport and looked super handsome and got a million compliments. even now i can't stop thinking about how cute he was! eep.

anyway, we were super hungry before we met up with my sister to head to the church, so we decided to stop and get something to eat. austin thought it would be hilarious to eat fast food in our fancy get-ups and really.. it was.

i guess because it was a friday night in the summertime, dairy queen was packed with families. we got lots of stares and i covered myself in napkins to make sure that none of my chili cheese hot dog spilled on my dress (i'm nothing if not classy). it was cute. i'm glad to have this extra memory from my mom's wedding day. :)

and, just in case you were wondering:
austin's shirt and tie: american eagle
austin's chinos: pacsun
my dress: modcloth

<3

becca

becca was in town last week, and i was lucky enough to for real see her like four times. it ruled. it didn't fully pull me out of my never-ending funk over stressful grown-up stuff (could i BE more vague? whoops), but man oh man who knows what kinda mood i would've been in if she hadn't been in town.

every time we see each other we create these silly alternate lives where we live together in chicago and can take each other's outfit photos. ;) considering all i do is take pictures of her while she's talking, i don't know if it'd actually work out.. but it was nice to have her around for mine.

i really like her, and i'm forever the happiest that american eagle introduced us so long ago. :') <3

a thing that i don't understand really

so, as i was editing all of the pictures for the last couple of days' blog posts, i noticed that i've worn literally every item in my outfit, except for the tights and boots, at least once already in an outfit post. and this isn't even the first time that that has happened! at first i was kind of embarrassed but then i thought about how totally different each outfit has been, and also how completely weird it is that i would be embarrassed about that. seriously.

i think reading so many fashion blogs has made me think that an item of clothing is for one wear on the blog and then never heard from again, which is so goofy and unrealistic. i own clothes that i haven't posted on this blog (i'm trying to get better about outfit posts.. i have an inkling of a feeling that more will come when i can layer), but i wouldn't be ashamed or embarrassed if these were all of my clothes, because it's way fun to "remix" them. i kind of hate using that word, which is another thing that i feel like was made up by bloggers, because isn't "remixing" just.. wearing?

i wear my clothes. i wear my mint green jeans like once or twice a week and i haven't worn them the same way twice yet. to me, that's the fun part about clothes. not owning a trillion million articles and making one outfit each. so even though now i'll make a conscious effort to not continue showing off my wooden beaded necklace, my floral shorts, my virginia werewoolf tshirt, my dolly parton tshirt, my heart cardigan, and my floral socks, i'm pretty proud that my first few outfit posts were an inadvertant remix challenge of sorts (i always loved when kendi everyday did those).

anyway, that was a silly rant accompanied by photos of one of the silliest/happiest moments of last week. let me know how you feel, if your heart desires.

<3

inspired by

when i put on this outfit, i was surprised by my use of the tights. okay - i wear tights pretty religiously in the fall/winter, so it wasn't that WEARING them was a shock, it was how i was wearing them. i bought these two years ago when i went to visit becca in chicago, and have literally never worn them because i could never figure out how. they were either too blue or too lacy or not blue enough or not lacy enough or whatever. but today it was like the most obvious thing in the world to put them on. in fact, i got dressed in like 5 minutes.

then i realized why. one of my coworkers, lindsey (she has her own fashion blog. i basically love her), mixes patterns, especially lacy floral tights, every day PERFECTLY. she's such a huge inspiration. i feel like this entire outfit was an homage to her. it is definitely a little more ~out there~ than i usually get with my clothes, but i really liked it and didn't feel weird or uncomfortable or like the three floral patterns, one heart print, and kitty band tee overpowered me at all.

do you ever catch yourself putting on an outfit that is so obviously inspired by someone in your day-to-day? i really tend to only play copy cat when it comes to outfits that other fashion bloggers or even sometimes celebrities wear, so i was surprised to see this inspiration of a girl i see in real life come out of me with such a force. :) i'm hoping lindsey's pattern mixing abilities continue to rub off on me, as the weather starts cooling down here.

necklace: cm via local honey in nashville, tn
sweater: kirra via pacsun (oldddd)
tshirt: austin's band's tshirt c/o bentley & austin
shorts: pacsun
tights: forever 21
socks: ae
boots: tj maxx (for literally $9.. luckiest girl)
tote: rob ryan for alphabet bags

<3

dear internet, meet my child

you guys, this is kerri. she's becca's little sister and i've basically all but adopted her as my own. look at her!! definitely my favorite teenager to ever exist. tonight i had dinner with her and her big sister and spent most of the time begging her to let me do an outfit post of her on my blog. ;)

i didn't get any details in terms of where she got her clothes or whatever, but we did have an in-depth discussion regarding the one direction boys and which ones may or may not be gay. it was perfect.

kerri's a dancer (i've gotten to see her twice), and i loved this necklace that becca gave her - the charm is teeny tiny pointe shoes!

we giggled a lot. :)

<3

ps, i'm planning on posting my outfit in a separate post one day, but i died over this picture and had to share it RIGHT NOW. i have no clue what our drama was, but uh. enjoy.

a little button factory update

i don't know if i've made this clear, but working with the button factory stuff makes me SO. HAPPY. happier than i can put into words. i'm just so glad that bekuh and i found each other, and decided to make this happen.

a couple of weeks ago, we combined our inventory, and were SO excited over how much we had collected. i hung the dresses that we're keeping for our (crossing our fingers) one-day-real-life-store, and i see them every day and swoon and dream over the whole thing. while combining inventory, we realized how many pretty shoes we had! so bekuh uploaded them today for you ladies to snatch up. :)

this pair is my FAVORITE (unfortunately they're a whole size too big, wah):

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someone please buy them and post a million outfit pictures and make me an even happier (albeit jealous) girl?!

on top of THAT, we're gearing up for our first fall update! fall dresses are actually my favorite, which is probably obvious now that you all know me so well. here are some super top secret sneak peeks (and can we talk about bekuh's photography for a second? omg):

and that's only three of them! eep. also, i know you're mostly wondering where we find our pretty models.. first caroline, and now lauren? we're just lucky when it comes to having gorgeous friends.

last, but definitely not least, we're offering free shipping(!!!!) in the shop until october 1st with the code "BACKTOSCHOOL"

<3

taking a breather

livin' the life

things are pretty rough right now, and i'm spending most of my time wading through a lot of stress and emotions (and even some paperwork! haha). lately, anything that i write turns into a big block of complaints (which is why all of last week was a bunch of wish lists), and i don't want to memorialize anything like that for anyone. all you gotta know is i'm alive, i'm wearing taylor swift's perfume and painting my nails lilac, my boyfriend knows exactly how to calm me down, and my best friend is finally in town for the week. i'm sure everything else will fall into it's right place when it's supposed to. right???

<3

liebster award

from avery's birthday party, via becca's instagram

this little "award" has been going around a lot lately, and i vaguely remember a comment about it when we didn't have power for a week but i couldn't find it once my life returned to normal. this week, karen of teeny hippie nominated me, and i never do little about me posts, so i thought it'd be fun. :)

when you're nominated, you post 11 facts about yourself, answer the 11 questions that the blogger who nominated you asked, and nominate another blogger with less than 200 followers.

i probably won't nominate anyone, because i'm lame.. and i think everyone should do a little post like this anyway. ;)

11 facts about me:
1. i hate capitalization, and when i announced i was starting a blog, one of my college professors said "i'm excited, even though i know you won't capitalize anything." ;) lowercase letters are just so much cuter!
2. i'm currently knee-deep in a strange obsession with true blood. i sort of started watching it as a joke, because every time austin was out of the house, i would watch RIDICULOUS tv that i knew he'd hate. we watched the first episode of true blood together, because a girl that i graduated high school with has a part in season 5! apparently it's a big one! and now i'm hooked. this show is SO unlike me, and i kind of love it.
3. i read into EVERYTHING. literally everything. way too much. i also never forget things. it's weird and i hate it.
4. in that vein, i'm painfully shy and care so. much. about what people think of me. working in retail for so long has actually really helped my shyness, but i still get uncomfortable in nearly every social setting that involves more than one other person and me.
5. i freak out about money at the most random times, like when austin asks if i want to go get coffee or my sister wants to go out to eat. i've never actually had money problems, it's just like my number one biggest fear i guess?
6. i've never run out of gas.
7. i don't remember birthdays, EVER. but i can usually remember faces and names really well.
8. ice cream is my favorite thing in the world, and rice and beans is my favorite meal.
9. i change my mind about wanting kids literally every day. sometimes twice in the same day. sometimes mid-sentence.
10. yellow is my favorite color, i think.
11. clothes shrinking in the wash is the bane of my existence.

and karen's questions:

1. What is your favorite song? this is soooo cheesy, but it's "hey little apple blossom" by the white stripes :) that song is basically my life.
2. If you could go back and change one thing in your life, what would you change? every single answer that i thought of to this has implications in terms of what else would change because of it. it's really hard! right after my junior year of college, i dated this guy who i didn't really like. i guess i wouldn't have done that. he eventually went on to bond with someone who was really important to me over how awful i was to the two of them. i don't even know. i knew him for like 3 months total, it's weird.. and i consistently regret it.
3. If you could have dinner with any person, dead or alive, who would it be and why? my pop (my grandpa on my dad's side). i just miss him, and i wish he could meet austin. :)
4. Are you doing what you believe in, or are you settling for what you are doing? i'm making steps towards doing what i believe in (the button factory!) by working in retail management. i'm alright with it, haha.
5. If you didn't know how old you were, how old would you guess you were? SEVENTEEN FOREVER.
6. What is something that makes you very happy? when people make me mix cds, going shopping, key lime pie, surprises, valentine's day, etc
7. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go? disneyworld/harry potter world please
8. If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why? austin just said "teleporting because if you wanted to take a vacation, you could go anywhere" and oh man.. i could just GO to harry potter world right this second if i could just teleport!! ah. good answer, austin.
9. What is your pet peeve? people not using their turn signals :(
10. Favorite movie(s)? wayne's world, the royal tenenbaums, heathers, willy wonka and the chocolate factory, lars and the real girl, eternal sunshine of the spotless mind (fun fact: i would watch wayne's world and the royal tenenbaums for WEEKS on repeat when i lived alone in my dorm room)
11. What would you do if you won a million dollars? pay student loans, buy a house and a puppy, go on a serious shopping spree, open the button factory, and put the rest (there'd still be some i think?) in savings.

that's all.
thanks again, karen! :)

less than one month to pumpkin spice lattes

you know how in gilmore girls, lorelei is OBSESSED with snow? and winter? and she goes around screaming about how such and such is "winter's gift" to her?

that's how i am with fall. don't get me wrong, i can go crazy for some snow. but fall just GETS me. i can be outside for more than ten minutes without complaining, i can wear pretty much whatever i want and not be uncomfortable one way or the other, i get to eat nonstop candy and basically blame it on halloween, pumpkiny things are EVERYWHERE, and cute things like corn mazes and haunted houses open up all over the place.

last week, austin and i bought pumpkin and apple scented car fresheners for our cars. SO exciting. in 2009, austin asked me on our first date in the fall (and yes, i did call a fellow gilmore girls obsessed friend and scream "this is fall's gift to me!"), so we get to celebrate our anniversary right in the thick of all of the fun fall-themed activities. one year we went to howl-o-scream, one year we went to our favorite corn maze, and who knows what we'll do this year (i can't lie, i'm hoping for both..)? and that's not all i have to look forward to. renegade chicago is in early september, which means a weekend with two of my favorite girls, and then it's basically 3 months of straight holiday celebrating. it's hard not to love this time of year.

i remembered last week that pumpkin spice lattes come back on september 9th every year, which, even though it's usually still warm outside here in southern virginia, means IT'S FALL to me. ;) i've already started layering, and i can't wait to go layering crazy in the next few months. this is some inspiration i've been hoarding recently:

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this was probably a pretty dramatic outpouring of excitement, but eep! i can't wait for summer to be over. i just don't have the attachment to it like i do the other 3 seasons of the year. :) <3

back to school shopping part 2

my first back to school shopping wish list mostly focused on etsy, but i know that my whole wardrobe can't be vintage/handmade (maybe one day, but not with my job being what it is).

this time i just made little outfit vignettes.

first, a few ideas for what i can wear with my polka dot jeans:

clockwise from polka dot jeans:
peter pan blouse/ bunny sweater (won't it be SO CUTE over the peter pan blouse?! ah)/ crochet neck sweatshirt/ white scalloped blouse/ black floral button-up

blue dress/ polka dot sweater/ colorblock flats/ leopard print belt

suede oxfords/ daisy tank/ button-up tunic/ red skirt/ yellow peter pan collar top/ heart print cardigan

<3

back to school shopping part 1

this season is one of my all-time favorites in retail. fall clothing is the best, in my opinion, and i always look forward to seeing the august releases. i'm starting to realize that it may all be in my subconscious, though.. because august was when my parents always took me back to school shopping! it was the one time of year that i got pretty much whatever i liked, because i "needed" it for school. so, even though i'm past school (even college), i still get the urge to back to school shop around this time of year. working in retail doesn't help really, since i spend most of my days helping high school kids do their back to school shopping.

this is what's on my handmade/vintage back to school shopping wish list:

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i'm really into butterflies lately, i don't even know. also, fall means boots! and tights! which means i'll probably start wearing skirts and dresses again.

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i seriously wear my other wooden bead necklace 3-5 times a week, so let's be honest.. it couldn't hurt to have another.

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this dress is ridiculous and i love it.

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this lays SO pretty. i really want it.

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this dress kind of looks like a uniform, right?

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i literally just bought a new tote bag, and then saw this.

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i don't read comic books, but i really love the style. and this dress.

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this collection of barrettes sold before i had made up my mind on them, unfortunately. i'm on the lookout for another selection of ridiculous barrettes, though!

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obviously bunnies.

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thief and bandit is actually moving, and the shop will be closed until the end of the month, but i pretty much love everything they make (i got becca the cutest dress for her birthday this year), so i had to include them.

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pretty color, pretty silhouette, etc etc.

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kinda hooked on this store since receiving my gift from katherine, and it's a button! eep.

<3