sweater swednesday

in the interest of full disclosure, i should let you know that it was actually way too hot for me to be wearing this sweater on this day. WAY too hot. but i was so excited! i've been layering like crazy for the past couple of days, and this sweater has just been WAITING to be worn, and i jumped the gun today.

but it was too hot.

but i made it work, kind of. either way i was super excited to be wearing it! even if my bangs got sweat-greasy. you know that kind of greasy bangs. :(

sweater: vintage
necklace: cm via local honey
tank top: c/o bentley via austin (you know, my band tee source for life)
jeans: bullhead
shoes: converse

you would think my excitement over this season finally being here would dissipate at least a little, but i think i'm only getting crazier about it? i keep hearing that this is going to be a "BAD winter" and you know what that means: lots and lots and lots of snow. i couldn't be more excited. more clothes in every outfit! snow! this sweater! being outside for more than five seconds!

life rules. :) <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

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

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